Americana

Coloma: Deluxe Edition

The deluxe edition of Coloma includes content not found in the retail edition.

Besides the base game components and retail edition stretch goals, the Deluxe Edition of Coloma includes 40 Chips, 30 custom Gold Nuggets, 5 custom Score Markers, 1 custom Round Marker, 1 Metal First Player Marker and all of the "Deluxe Only/Kickstarter Exclusive" Stretch Goals that were unlocked which included 6 new characters each with a unique ability not found on characters from the base game!

They are:
Robber - You may spend 1 Wagon action (forgoing its usual movement Ability) to gain 3 Gold Nuggets from the Gold Cart (not the Gold Supply on the board!).

Homesteader - You may spend 1 Tent to build a Town Building card from your hand, paying the Saw cost on the card.

Renegade - Each time you add a Dude to your Graveyard, draw 3 cards.

Range Rider - Each time your Wagon moves over (or stops on) a vacant Horseshoe space on the Frontier Map, draw 1 card.

Maverick - Discard 1 card to gain either 1 Buck or 1 Dude.

Vigilante - Discard 1 used Barrel to place Dudes according to the usual rules.

The custom components in the Deluxe Edition replace the standard components from the Retail Edition.

The Deluxe Edition is for Kickstarter backers only and will not be available in retail (except the retail stores that backed the Kickstarter). However, it will be available in limited supply at conventions, through contests, online at the BGG promo store, and directly from the publisher's website.

About the game:
Coloma is the town where an unexpected event happened that shaped history of the Western Frontier. In the winter of 1848 a man building a sawmill on the South Fork of the American River spotted some bright nuggets in the tailrace waters below. Sure enough, it was gold! Though he tried to keep his discovery a secret, word spread quickly and it triggered the California Gold Rush of ‘49.

Thousands of people arrived from far and wide, making Coloma one of the fastest growing boomtowns in the country. Claims were staked, camps and makeshift homes were built, and hotels and saloons sprung up almost overnight. Everyone wanted their cut of the land’s wealth. For many it was Coloma or Bust!

In the game of Coloma, you are a pioneer who has recently traveled out West to strike it rich and make a name for yourself. You will prospect for gold and use your windfalls to recruit workers, rustle up horses, and establish businesses. You will also get opportunities to explore the surrounding riverways and frontier lands. But alas! You are not alone—every other pioneer seems to have gotten the same idea! Therefore, it will take extra cunning tactics on your part to not go Bust with the rest of them…

Overview of Play
At the beginning of each chapter, you and the other players will simultaneously select an action to perform on the board. Once your selections are revealed, you must check if a majority of players chose the same action. If so, it is a Bust—which disables the Boom bonus that would be included otherwise. Then the players take turns performing actions, such as gaining resources, moving wagons on the map, building bridges and businesses, and placing camps and gunmen. After that, a section of the board is rotated—slightly changing the layout of the actions for the upcoming chapter.

When the rotating section hits high noon, the round ends with a bang: a shootout against an ever-growing number of outlaws! If you and the other players can outnumber the outlaws with your combined gunmen, you will get your fair share of the rewards. But if not, the rewards drop, and some of the gunmen will go to the graveyard... The game ends after the third shootout, and the player with the most points wins!

Coloma is a fast moving game with many paths to victory. It offers unique twists on simultaneous action selection, resource management, and engine-building. The town cards in your tableau allow you to play more efficiently, gain extra actions, and bend the rules to your advantage. With these cards and the bridge tiles (which add points based on what you achieve), you can create the perfect combination for your strategy and play style.

—description from the publisher

Discoveries

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was commissioned in 1803 and ended in 1806, was the first party of men that went through the North American continent, then returned. During these three years, the leaders Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with Sergeant Gass and Sergeant Ordway, wrote page after page about their trip, describing the new plants and animals species they discovered and drawing the maps of unknown areas.

In Discoveries, you play one of the Expedition members: Lewis, Clark, Gass or Ordway. Your goal is to compile as much knowledge as possible in your journal, and in this way advance science thanks to your discoveries.

The Tribe/Discoveries cards you gain during the game score discovery points at the end. To get these cards, you have to perform exploration actions, and to do this you use dice. On your turn, you either:

Play the dice in your action area or on the game board; by doing this, you prepare or perform the exploration, change your dice, or get new possible actions.
Get dice back from the game board or from your opponents' action areas.

Carson City

Carson City is a strategic game played in four rounds, and in each one of them, the players choose a character from the seven available that gives certain advantages.

After selecting characters, your cowboys are placed on action track locations that allow you to construct buildings, houses, or roads; claim ground; earn money; or score victory points. When more than one player is on the same location, get ready, it is time for a duel! Roll the dice and see if you are the last one standing and lay claim to the goods!

During the game, you can take various actions that earn you victory points for your plots, pistols (the hired help), and buildings. At the end of the game, your buildings, houses, mountains, and money contribute to your victory points, and the person with the most points wins. So go round up your posse of gunslingers and get ready for some Wild West action in Carson City!

Cowboys: The Way of the Gun

THE COWBOYS is our game of the Old West. 2 - 10 Cowboys (players) shoot it out in 10 - 60+ minutes. The game features stand-up Cowboy Counters artistically designed with full color artwork by Gary S. Zaboly. There are 26 Historical and Hollywood style scenarios in the game. Six double-sided geomorphic mapboards create the battlegrounds of the Old West.

The game rules allow you to pick up and play the game in minutes. The optional rules add chrome but still keeps the game very playable. The "Old West" personalities are there; Wyatt, Doc, Jesse, Billy, and many other legends of the Wild West. Some of the variables include town folk,horses, etc.

Bank robberies, cattle rustling, stagecoach holdups, jail breaks, lynch mobs, and many other western actions are depicted. It pits opposing sides against each other, bringing to life the daring and dastardly deeds of heroes and villains when the way of the gun ruled the day. Included are the lawmen, gunfighters, gamblers, and ne'er do wells who knew how to handle themselves during a gunfight. Also the town folk will show up to add a much needed gun to the fight.

Every person has dreamed of being the cowboy standing in the middle of street, alone, staring down your enemy, fingers twitching by the side of your gun belt, looking for the flinch in your adversaries face that will unleash blazing steel from your side...now is your chance...but watch your back!

Game includes hard mounted geomorphic map boards, counters, stand-up cowboy counters, plastic bases, dice, box, rules, scenario book, cards, and other game play materials.

Carcassonne: Gold Rush

Carcassonne: Gold Rush is the second title in the "Carcassonne: Around the World" series of tile-laying games, with each game being based on the original Carcassonne design in which players slowly create a world by placing tiles on the playing area and scoring for various features in the landscape they create.

In Carcassonne: Gold Rush, players return to the 19th century in the United States when cowboys drove cattle, trappers traded with Native Americans, the first railway routes appeared, and explorers — that is, the players — sent their henchmen to gold mines to laboriously search for gold nuggets. Depending on where you place your tent, you might be able to snatch a nugget from another explorer — but sometimes you'll be left holding fool's gold while someone else uncovers a rich gold find...