In SteamRollers, players use dice to build the best railway network, upgrade their engine, and beat their opponents to the most lucrative cargo deliveries. Make smart use of the dice to become the world's most famous railroad tycoon!

Each round, a certain number of dice are rolled and people draft one die with which to perform an action. They can draw a railroad track on their personal board, use the die to upgrade their engine, deliver a cube from a common supply board using their personal network (if their engine is strong enough) for victory points, or take a special card which allows the player to break the rules in small (or big) ways.

Once half the cities on the supply board are emptied, the game is over at the end of the round. Players total their delivery points and add extra points for their network, engine and cards. The player with the most points wins.

It is the 25th century. You are a member of an intergalactic expedition shipwrecked on a mysterious planet named Artemia. While waiting for the rescue ship, you begin to explore the planet but an alien entity picks up your scent and begins to hunt you. You are NOT ALONE! Will you survive the dangers of Artemia?

NOT ALONE is an asymmetrical card game, in which one player (the Creature) plays against the stranded explorers (the Hunted).

If you play as one of the Hunted, you will explore Artemia using Place cards. By playing these and Survival cards, you try to avoid, confuse or distract the Creature until help arrives.

If you play as the Creature, you will stalk and pursue the shipwrecked survivors. By playing your Hunt cards and using the mysterious powers of Artemia, you try to wear down the Hunted and assimilate them to the planet forever.

NOT ALONE is a immersive, thematic card game, where you use guessing, bluffing, hand management, and just a pinch of deck-building to achieve your goal, which is survival for the Hunted... or total assimilation for the Creature!

This is the ultimate race between the five elements. The earth dragons, the water tortoises, the metal tigers, the fire birds and the wood dragons cross the way of the Great Celestial Dragon to gain immortality.

The goal of the game is to get your five pieces as far as possible through the five paths when the game ends. This happens when at least one of the players has reached the end of the five paths.

The year is 1979, and the U.S. government has just deregulated the airline industry, opening it to competition in terms of fares, routes, and the airline companies themselves. You represent a new airline that's trying to set up business in the U.S., but you have an entire country open to you, so where will you set up shop and how can you profit more than the other newcomers to ensure that you survive?

In Blue Skies, the game board presents players with thirty airports in thirty cities. Each airport has four gates, with you using 2-4 gates depending on the number of players. To set up, draw airport demand cards from the deck to seed airports with passengers. Whenever you place passengers on the board, draw from a bag that initially contains 100 red cubes and 25 green cubes; for each airport, continue drawing until you draw a red cube, then redistribute passengers at the open gates of that airport as evenly as possible.

(Note that at most the first five airports drawn will have an open gate, and even those will start with only one open gate run by a local airline. All of the other passengers are just bunched up at the gate waiting for you to serve them!)

Each player starts with three demand cards in hand, and they take turns choosing two gates with a purchase price of at most 6. Players adjust their income from 0, with their income being set to equal the number of passengers now waiting at their gates, then the game begins.

On a turn, each player in turn buys new gates at airports of their choice, spending at most 6 points and adding any unspent points to their score. You can buy out a local airline, set up gates in new cities, or purchase multiple gates in the same airport to try to dominate that area.

Each player in turn then plays a demand card from their hand, drawing passengers form the bag to place one or more passengers at that location. Then demand cards equal to the number of players are drawn, and more passengers are ahead to those airports. The game board lists the number of cards for each airport, so you somewhat know the odds of where passengers might arrive.

Players adjust their income to account for the opening of new gates, the redistribution of existing passengers, and the arrival of new passengers, then they add their income to their score. If a player now has at least 100 points or has placed their twentieth and final gate, the game ends immediately; otherwise, you add a local airline gate to each airport with passengers but no open gates, pass the first player marker, then start a new round.

At game's end, score the seven regions of the United States based on the player's dominance of those regions. Each airport has a scoring value, e.g., ORD is worth 4, and each gate you have in Chicago is worth 4 for determining dominance in both the Midwest region and the Central region. (ORD is one of four airports in two regions, with the others being JFK, LAX, and DFW.) If you have the most dominance in the Central region, you score 13 points, whereas second place is worth only 6 points. Whoever has the most points wins.

Set during the tumultuous 'yellow journalism' years at the end of the 19th century, Penny Press has players taking on the role of newspaper magnates such as Pulitzer and Hearst as they strive to become the dominant paper in old New York City.

Players move up on the circulation track throughout the game by publishing newspapers, and they are awarded bonuses at the end of the game for best covering the five news 'beats' or leading news categories of the day: War, Crime & Calamity, New York City, Politics, and the Human Condition.

To publish newspapers, players assign some or all of their five reporters to the popular stories of the day. When they're ready, players 'roll the presses' to claim those stories where their reporters have a majority and assemble them on their 'front page' player mat. The score of each press run is determined by the current values in each of the five news beats. Stories also have 'star' values, and the player with the most stars in each news beat gets that beat's endgame bonus.

The end of the game is triggered when one player publishes his fourth (in a two- or three-player game) or third (in a four- or five-player game) newspaper. The player who moved farthest along the circulation track is the winner of Penny Press.

Dingo and his friends have gotten lost on Walkabout! Visit their dreams to lead them home!

Dingo's Dreams is a delightful and clever family game for 2-4 players. Each player competes to be the first to successfully guide his animal through the dream world.

Each player starts with a grid of 25 tiles, set up at random in a 5x5 dreamscape. Each player also starts with one extra tile, with a picture of their animal on it. The opposite side of all dreamscape tiles also has a picture of the animal. Each turn, a random card is drawn, telling players which tile they should flip. When a player flips a tile, it means their animal is traveling through a part of the dreamscape. Each player's goal is to guide their animal through the dreamscape by positioning him in a specified pattern (which is different each game). After a card is drawn, a player takes their extra animal and slides him into the dreamscape, shifting one row or column of tiles until a new, different tile emerges from the opposite side. The player will use this tile to shift another column or row on the next turn, and so on, until one player's dreamscape tiles match the goal. The player then shouts their animal's name-- "Dingo!", for example, to win the round.

Advanced rules add Hazard Tokens which increase the challenge substantially: to complete the required dream pattern, the player may not have his animal in any of the Hazard spaces marked on the dream card.

In this game, the players are petitioners at the royal court, trying to gain the King's favor. To do so, they must first gain the help of the servants and petty officials at the court, who can then help them gain access to the nobility, who, in turn, can help to reach the king.

The game is played in turns. On their turn, a player will gather their dice, roll them, set aside at least one, and roll the remaining dice again, until all dice have been set aside. After that, they select a character who will help. Each character requires a certain combination of dice (such as two pairs or dice that show at least 30 points). The character will give the player some benefits on later rolls, such as an additional die or the ability to modify the results of a roll.

The game ends when a player gains the support of the Queen (and temporary favor of the King, winning ties in the final roll-off). Now, all players try to gain a dice result of as many equal dice as possible (7x 2s, 8x 6s, etc). The player who gets the longest, highest result gains the favor of the King and wins.

Contents: 12 Dice, 60 character cards, 5 player aids, 1 marker, rules.

The journeys of Marco Polo continue in Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan, an epic follow-up to The Voyages of Marco Polo. After traveling to Beijing, your travels now take you back to the West in the service of the Khan, sending you to the farthest reaches of his empire in search of wealth and fame.

Marco Polo II is a standalone game based on The Voyages of Marco Polo, and you don't need the original game to play this one. This new journey will present unique challenges, with new and different actions, new scoring rules, and a new good: rare and valuable Chinese jade.

Retread old paths with renewed purpose, or find new ones as you explore farther west, continuing to build the immortal legacy of Marco Polo!

—description from the publisher

1950/1960: The race into space is in full swing! We're making great progress on the techniques for supplying astronauts and space-ready machines, for optimizing launch conditions, and of course for designing the much-needed rockets. All this to explore the sheer vastness of space.

But in Lift Off, not only are two superpowers competing for the most glorious milestones of space travel, no, we players are also very involved. In this game, we each play a private space agency that wants to develop in their own areas. We must hire specialists, improve our rockets, and expand our capabilities because soon we have to decide which missions we want to carry out and what we want to bring into space. Only those who plan ahead and properly manage the resources available will win this race to the stars...

•••

1950/1960: Das Rennen ins All ist im vollen Gange! Die Techniken zur Versorgung der Raumfahrer und Maschinen, optimierte Startbedingungen, sowie die Konstruktionen der Flugkörper machen große Fortschritte. Dies alles um die schier unendliche Weite des Alls zu erkunden.

Doch in Lift Off konkurrieren nicht nur 2 Supermächte um die glorreichsten Meilensteine der Raumfahrt, nein auch wir Spieler mischen kräftig mit. Hier spielen wir jeder eine private Raumfahrtagentur die sich in ganz eigenen Bereichen entwickeln will. Dazu heuern wir Spezialisten an, verbessern unsere Raketen und erweitern unsere Fähigkeiten. Denn bald müssen wir uns entscheiden welche Missionen wir durchführen wollen und was wir ins All bringen wollen… Nur wer hier voraus plant und richtig mit den verfügbaren Mitteln wirtschaftet, wird am Ende Sieger des Rennens zu den Sternen…

Call to Glory, packaged in a mid-sized tin box, is a fast and fun card game in which players try to collect Japanese characters of different values. When a player has two or more cards of the same character in his hand, he can (possibly) lay these cards on the table and score them at the end of the round. If, however, an opponent lays out more cards of the same type, then characters of that type already on the table are discarded. When the game ends, players score for the types of characters they have on the table.

Call to Glory comes with two variants:


"Imperial Tasks" in which players can fulfill specific tasks for extra points.
"The Power of the Ninja" in which the Ninja cards become more powerful.


Unlike Crazy Chicken, Call to Glory is playable with 2 to 4 players. Drive is playable with 4 players, but does not have the two variants.

Connect 4 is a well known vertical game played with "checkers" game pieces, although it is more akin to Tic-Tac-Toe or Go Moku.

The board is placed in the stand to hold it vertically and the players drop game pieces into one of the seven slots, each of which holds up to six game pieces, until one player succeeds in getting four in a row, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The game is non-proprietary. More elegant, wooden versions can be found under the name The Captain's Mistress.

No Thanks! is a card game designed to be as simple as it is engaging.

The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options:

play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card
pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card


However, the choices aren't so easy as players compete to have the lowest score at the end of the game. The deck of cards is numbered from 3 to 35, with each card counting for a number of points equal to its face value. Runs of two or more cards only count as the lowest value in the run - but nine cards are removed from the deck before starting, so be careful looking for connectors. Each chip is worth -1 point, but they can be even more valuable by allowing you to avoid drawing that unwanted card.

The first versions of the game supported up to five players, but the German 2011 edition supports up to seven (simply by increasing the number of chips).

This game was originally published in Germany in 2004 by Amigo as Geschenkt ...ist noch zu teuer!, meaning Even given as a gift, it is still too expensive!. Amigo's 2006 international edition, titled No Merci! (a delightful multi-lingual pun), had rules in several languages, including English. The game has subsequently been released in other countries under an assortment of names. The German 2024 edition includes additional cards to allow for play with variant rules.

In the thick of the Viennese modern age, exquisite cafés are competing for customers. Inspiring artists, important politicians, and tourists from all over the world are populating Vienna and in need of a hotel room. This is your opportunity to turn your little café into a world famous hotel. Hire staff, fulfill the wishes of your guests, and gain the emperor's favor. Only then will your café become the Grand Austria Hotel.

The start player rolls the dice, sorting them by the rolled number and placing them on the corresponding action spaces. On a turn, a player chooses one of the six actions and carries it out. The number of the available dice in the corresponding action spaces determines how much the player gets from the action. They then remove one of the dice and can carry out additional actions. With the different actions, a player can get the necessary drinks and dishes, prepare the rooms, or hire staff.

But no hotel can grow without guests. To choose wisely which guests to attract and to complete their orders brings some important bonus actions. The staff cards also have different advantages, but the game ends after seven rounds and no player can do everything they want, so whoever makes the right decisions and finds the best way to create bonus actions will win.

With 116 different cards and a new set-up in each game, Grand Austria Hotel provides a huge replay value. Each game stands on its own and demands new tactics and strategies.

Hacienda has players competing for space on the South American pampas, aiming to bring their livestock to the most markets. You get three actions a turn to buy cards which then let you lay tiles to control land and herds, or you may buy extras, such as waterholes or the haciendas of the title to get bonus points.

The game has two card decks, one showing the different land types on the hex map, the other the different animals (pigs, cows, horses and sheep). Some cards are laid face up and you pay 3 pesos to buy the ones you want, or 2 pesos for an unknown card from the draw deck. You spend the cards to put your markers on land and to place your animal tokens on the board. Animals of a type go together to make a herd naturally, and each time a herd touches a market town on the board, you earn money for the size of herd and land attached. With careful hand and herd management, you can make good cash gains and also block your opponents. You need the money to buy more cards of course. 12 pesos also buys waterholes you can place next to your herds, or haciendas to go on your land or herds. If you run short of money, you can call a harvest and get cash off your land.

But the game is not about money. You score victory points halfway through the game and at the end. The more markets you are serving, the more points you get. The herds and the land get you points. The water and haciendas get you bonus points as well, which can be crucial to your success.

It should be noted, the game board has two sides: a symmetrical dog-bone shape of land types (appears in most of the photos), and a "random" more varied pattern of land types.

Online Play


http://www.spielbyweb.com/ (turn-based)
Yucata (turn-based)

With each card played, you gain more information about the loot — or sanctions — that may be yours for the taking in different American cities. Basing upon this information, you send out the members of your gang to those cities: some are pros, some are wannabes.

Whoever has the most gang members in a city cashes the loot or undergoes the sanction. When going to Chicago, you have no choice but to split your takings with the boss himself: Al Capone. The further the game progresses, the higher the stakes are getting, especially in Chicago.

The Boss is essentially a card game (with a small game board for keeping scores) of deduction, bluffing, and a lot of backstabbing.

Each player controls 6 Atta ants (leaf eater ants) with the goal to place all ants on the variable board. Hindered by other players' ants and the deadly spiders, ants roam the board for food (little glass tokens), which they need to collect and return to the ant nest in the center of the board. For each food token returned a new ant is placed in the nest. Each round a new tile is added to the game board, which may add more food tokens and more spiders.

Expansions:

Atta Ants: Expansion
Atta Ants: Expansion 2


Online Play


Yucata (turn-based)

Vikings is a fast economic game. Despite the nominal "Viking" theme, no actual exploration or pillaging is involved.

The resources in the game consist of coins and several types of ship tiles, island tiles and meeples. In each of 6 rounds, a random set of 12 tiles and 12 meeples becomes available. Players take turns buying and placing pairs of meeples and tiles. There is no direct player interaction, only indirect contention for resources during the buying phase.

The most unusual aspect of the game is the pricing wheel, which pairs meeples with tiles and sets their prices.

At the Gates of Loyang is a trading game in which you are able to produce goods by planting them and later selling them to customers. You can use the abilities of some helpers to increase your income or production.

Fields, customers, helpers, and miscellaneous objects are represented by cards. Each player receives two of these cards per round distributed by a bidding/drawing mechanism in which you end up with one of the cards you draw and one of the cards of a public offer filled by all players. Additionally, to these cards you always receive one field for free each round.

Placing one good on a field fills the complete field with goods of this type. Each round, one unit per field is harvested. After planting, harvesting, and distributing cards, each player can use as many actions as he wants, only limited by the number of his cards or the number of goods he owns. At the end of his turn, he can invest the earned money on a scoring track, where early money is worth more than late money. The game ends after a certain number of rounds, and the player who is first on the scoring track wins.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

In Balloon Pop!, each player has a scoresheet with six columns on it. On a turn, you roll three dice, with each die face showing a balloon color and a shape, then record the results by circling numbers from the bottom of the column, going up. The highest number you circle in a column equals the points that you score.

Not happy with your results? Then roll again with any number of dice — but you have to roll an additional die as well, which means you'll circle more results on your scoresheet. You can reroll a second time as well to add a fifth die to your results. This (possibly) gives you better control over the results, while helping you ascend the columns more quickly to higher potential scores.

However, at the top of each column is a different colored number that's much lower than the numbers immediately below it. Hit this number, and your balloon's popped because it went too high. What's more, this popping triggers a scoring break that occurs at the end of the round, with everyone scoring based on their current heights in the columns. You want to go high, but don't trigger the break or else your points will plummet right before scoring.

After three breaks, players total their scores to see who wins.

Will Thor survive the challenge of the trickster, Loki? Will the Valkyries overtake Odin?

In the oldest poem of Norse Mythology, the "Völuspá" tells the story of the endless struggle of powerful gods, dangerous creatures, and forgotten races. Which beings will dominate?

In Völuspá the game, the story will unfold differently each time, as a new force rises in dominance! Players take turns playing tiles with twelve different characters and creatures of Norse Mythology, using the power of these tiles to block, capture or intimidate in order to control other tiles and score points. The player who scores the most points by dominating other tiles wins the game.

Völuspá – a reimagining and retheming of the previously released game Kachina – is an easy-to-learn, tile-laying game that features great depth of play for 2 to 5 players. Völuspá includes the 25 tile expansion module "Saga of Edda", which offers even more strategic opportunities and replayability.

Golden Geek Abstract Game Nominee 2013