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

In The Ruhr: A Story of Coal Trade, the second game of Thomas Spitzer's historic coal trilogy, you are transported to the Ruhr region in the 18th century, at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Coal, after being discovered in Haspelknecht, is in high demand as cities and factories throughout the region are in need of this coveted resource. The Ruhr river presented a convenient route of transportation from the coal mines. However, the Ruhr was filled with obstacles and large dams, making it incredibly difficult to navigate. Trade coal for valuable upgrades and plan your route to victory along the Ruhr!

In more detail, the players transport and sell coal to cities and factories along the Ruhr river in the 18th and 19th centuries. By selling coal to cities and factories, players acquire unique progress markers. In the beginning, players have access only to low value coal. By selling coal to certain locations, players gain access to high value coal. In addition to selling coal, the players build warehouses, build locks, and export coal to neighboring countries in the pursuit of the most victory points.

This game, an updated version of Ruhrschifffahrt 1769-1890, includes the standalone expansion The Ohio: 1811-1861. In this game, players transport and trade goods along the Ohio River during a time when Ohio was granted statehood and became heavily populated as its industries flourished. The Ohio is played in a manner similar to The Ruhr, but with new and additional elements.

For ages the vile Doom Knights have sought to gather the remaining Thunderstones to fulfill a prophecy of corruption over the lands. Now the first Thunderstone has been discovered in the Dungeons of Grimhold and the Doom Knights have sent their minions to claim the relic. The Villagers of Barrowsdale gather brave souls to face the dungeon and keep the Thunderstone out of the hands of the Doom Knights.

Thunderstone is a fantasy deck-building game much in the style of Dominion. Before the game starts a selection of Village and Hero cards will be randomnly chosen that players may add to their specific decks. Like Dominion, every player starts with a basic deck of weaker cards that they can use to purchase other more powerful cards. In Thunderstone these cards may be different Heroes such as mages, archers, thieves, or warriors or they may be supplies the heroes need like weapons, rations, or light to reach further into the dungeon.

A dungeon deck is also created by combining several different groups of monsters. Certain groups of monsters may be more or less susceptible to different Hero types, so players will have to take this into account when they choose what to buy.

Rather than buying puny Victory Points, players will use their deck to defeat monsters in the dungeon. From the monster deck a row of cards is laid out. Players may on their turn choose to attack a monster in the deck rather than visit town and buy cards. If they do this they play cards from their hand and resolve their abilities in order to boost strength and have enough light to reach a specific monster. Some monsters also have special abilities which may hinder the player. If they have enough strength they defeat the monster and place that card in their deck. This card is worth victory points and often can be used as money to purchase other cards. In addition to this, players are awarded experience points for defeating monsters which can be used to upgrade their heroes into more powerful versions. The game is played until the Thunderstone is revealed from the dungeon and a player is able to claim it. The player with the most victory points in their deck is the winner.

The basic Thunderstone framework was updated in the implementation of Thunderstone: Advance.

Integrates with


Thunderstone Advance: Towers of Ruin
Thunderstone: Dragonspire
Thunderstone: Starter Set

The gameboard of Finca shows the mediterranean island of Mallorca. Players try to crop and deliver the fruits of Mallorca (such as oranges, lemons, almonds, grapes etc.) by means of moving workers on a traditional windmill. Object of the game is to distribute your crop as effectively as possible in order to deliver faster than your opponents.

From the Box: Mallorca, Island of the Wind. A place of golden beaches and a light-blue sea. The almond harvest is at hand, in addition, juicy oranges, lemons, and figs are ready to be picked and taken to the market. Olive trees bewitch the country with their curled branches and sumptuous vineyards invite passers-by to walk among their warm earth. In the midst of this landscape, your centuries-old natural stone farmhouse provides a home and supports your large windmill: your FINCA.
Listen to the wind, which propels your windmill! Then take in the course of the yearly harvest the sweetest and most valuable fruits from the land. Load them on your old donkey cart and travel around the island, selling them everywhere. If you manage this quickly, you will soon be the richest farmer on the island.

Recommendations:

2011 Hungarian Boardgame Prize Winner
2011 Ludoteca Ideale (Italy)
Nominee "Spiel des Jahres 2009"
4th place "Deutscher Spielepreis 2009"
Nominee "Graf Ludo 2009"
Adult Game of the year 2010 (Finland)

You're waking up from the hibernation pods. The hibernation room doesn't look like the one in which you were being sent to sleep. In the nearby pods, other crew members are also slowly emerging from their pods. Your eyes are not yet completely open when alarms start flashing red and a metallic voice shouts from the loudspeakers «Alien presence detected, evacuation in progress, self-destruction in GRRRRZZZRRRRR minutes»...

In Argo, a group of astronauts attempts desperately to survive as they explore a mysterious space station and are besieged by horrible alien monsters. The only hope is to reach the shuttles. However the seats are limited, not everyone will be able to escape. This leads to a frantic every-man-for-itself race, where the others are at best obstacles, and at worst bait to hold the fierce Aliens back while you run...

But be careful: If too many die, the Aliens win! So while this is a competitive game, some level of cooperation will be required, lest everyone lose to the Aliens.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

If you didn't know who designed Draco but were familiar with the works of designer Leo Colovini, you'd likely be able to recognize his style when hearing a description of the game.

Ten dragons start the game on the first square of a movement track, with each space on the track bearing a number from -2 to 8. Four blue and three green scoring spaces are scattered on the track, and four summit spaces are found at the end of the track. Each player is dealt a hand of six cards, with cards coming in ten colors to match those of the dragons; each player also starts with a uniquely-colored card face-up on the table to indicate which dragon the player is riding.

On a turn, a player lays down one card from his hand, then advances the appropriately-colored dragon as many spaces as the number shown on the card. If another player has a card of this color in front of her, the player places the card on that player's stack; if not, the player places the card on his own stack, effectively changing steeds if the color differs from what was on top previously. (Exception: If a dragon not being ridden by anyone is in last place, the player may choose to place the card under his stack instead of on top of it, while moving the dragon normally.)

If a dragon moves onto a blue space, then each dragon on a space valued three or less scores that many points for the player riding that dragon, if any. If a dragon moves onto a green space, then each player scores points equal to the value of the space on which his dragon stands. If a player causes no scoring on his turn or plays his last card in hand, he refills his hand to six cards; if he caused a scoring, then he draws no card and plays with a smaller hand next turn.

When a dragon moves onto one of the four summit spaces, all dragons score points (possibly negative) for their riders. Once three dragons have reached the summit, the game ends after a final scoring, and whoever has scored the most points wins.

Simple movement game themed on Mayan graphics. Players have 7 cards (numbered 1-5 and 2 actions) and leapfrog their stone down the track. There are initial stones laid on the track and you collect them as you pass. According to their color, you throw stones away at the end, most stones left wins. The game has different variants of the initial layout.

Online Play


Yucata (turn-based)

The residents of Huia Street are clearing their closets, looking for unwanted household items for the big community garage sale. A pile is building up on the empty section but there are troublemakers lurking, causing rather unneighborly collapses. And why does little Susie have a blowtorch? Geez, you just want to get rid of your junk!

In Flaming Pyramids, players are building one pyramid together using square tiles, but each player is trying to be the first to get rid of their own tiles.

There are 40 regular tiles with a unique combination of color, number, and material. Except toward the end of the game, players have a hand of five tiles from which to choose, but they are constrained by the building regulations and the luck of the draw. There are also four tiles that can cause fires and one extra-heavy "wild" tile: these can be harder to place without causing extensive damage the later they emerge. If your placed tile causes mayhem (a collapse, fire, or explosion), the damaged tiles go back in your supply.

Flaming Pyramids can be played as a friendly, casual game, an easy starter or filler, or as no-holds-barred multi-round competition.

The first edition (with straw, wood and rocks instead of household items) is available to play for free on the Board Game Arena platform: https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=flamingpyramids

In Via Magica, a new version of Rise of Augustus, you vie with your fellow players to complete "objective" cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with tokens in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag, with all players gaining the benefit equally, but interestingly, the bag contains more of some symbols than others.

So the pivotal skill you'll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives you'll start the game with (you're dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives you'll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven objectives.

Players have hands of four cards numbered 1 through 19. Play 1, 2, 3, or 4 cards to place a stone on the gameboard, which consists of 36 numbered squares in a non-obvious order. (The yucata implementation allows for alternate arrangements.) The goal is to claim four squares in a line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. But multiple stones can be placed on a square, and a square is only safe if a player has two more stones on it than any other player. If four-in-a-row is not achieved within 20 turns, the game ends in favor of the player with the most points.

Fourmation is a version of the game with a modular board published by SimplyFun.

________________________________________________________________
And here the more simple successor of Just4Fun , with colors instead of numbers :
Just4Fun Colours (published by Kosmos in 2010).

Players play cards to occupy coloured fields on a map. A player wins by owning 4 directly adjacent fields horizontally, vertically or diagonally. If no player wins after 20 rounds, the player who owns the largest contiguous area (number of horizontally and vertically related fields) is declared the winner.

The game was also released as a 2-player "Mitbringspiel" in a smaller package (smaller board, smaller cards), with play pieces in same size , but in black and white only :
Just4Fun Colours - 2 Players only.

_______________________________________________________
And here the predecessor from 2005, with numbers instead of colors :
Just4Fun.

Breathe deeply… Let the whisper of thought come to your ear… Harmonize your chakras and let go so that the negative energies will disappear. Meditate on your strategy and let your feelings guide you towards victory!

In Chakra, each player has a board that shows the seven chakras they must fill with gems that represent the energy flowing in their body. To score points, a player must harmonize each of their chakras in the best possible way. To do so, they must take the gems and place three of them of the corresponding color in each of the chakras. During a turn, each player (who starts the game with several inspiration tokens) chooses one of the three following actions:


Take up to three gems from one column and place them on top of their individual board — or by spending a token, place them in a more strategic position.
Spend one token to use one of eight available actions; moving gems up or down by the number of chakra spaces indicated on the action is the key to reaching a perfect alignment.
Meditate to reclaim an inspiration token and secretly look at the point value, which is common to all players, that a harmonized chakra (3 same-colored gems) will score.


When a player manages to align five of their chakras, the last turn is played before you perform the final scoring.

—description from the publisher

Welcome to Santiago, the second largest city in Cuba, home of legendary rum and birthplace of the revolution! The chaotic streets hum with the sounds of bustling crowds and busy commerce. Cargo ships constantly arrive and depart from the port. Demand is continuous, if unpredictable, for a supply of local products such as exotic fruits, sugar, rum, tobacco, and cigars.

In Santiago de Cuba, your business card says "broker", but in reality you're a shady wheeler-dealer who arranges deals with the locals and with corruptible officials to move goods and meet the demand of those ever-present cargo ships – and your ability to procure these goods is only as reliable as your "connections".

At the start of the game, nine locals – the Cubans – are randomly arranged on a path around Santiago, with the port being the tenth location on the circuit. Each Cuban has a different ability: e.g., give a player two tobacco, give a player a good of his choice, force opponents to give you something, give money or victory points (VPs), and seize a building or allow a player to use a previously seized building. What are these buildings? At the start of the game, twelve buildings are randomly placed on the game board in four color-coded groups (white, yellow, etc.) of three. As with the Cubans, these buildings give players a special ability when used: convert tobacco to cigars, change VPs to money or vica versa, increase the value of goods delivered to the ship, render a Cuban inactive for the next round, and so on.

Players will deliver goods to seven ships throughout the course of the game. The demand for each ship is determined via a die roll; the active player rolls five dice – one for each type of good – then chooses four of the values rolled to represent demand for goods of the same color as the die.

All players share a car and travel around the island together. On a turn, the active player can move the car to the next location on the path (whether Cuban or port) for free, or pay one peso for each spot moved beyond that. After taking a Cuban action, the player then must move his player piece to a building of the same color as the flower on that Cuban. If he takes an action in a building owned by someone else, that player earns 1 VP. (One Cuban allows a player to use the same building where his piece is currently located.)

If a player moves to port, players take turns delivering all goods of one type to the ship to meet demand, adjusting the demand dice as needed. A player earns 2-4 VP for each good delivered; a player doesn't have to deliver goods. If the ship's demand isn't met after everyone delivers or passes, the VP bounty per good is increased by one and the ship remains in place – unless the value was already at 4 VP, in which case the ship sails. In this case, or when all the demand is met, a new ship comes into port with new demand values.

After seven ships have sailed, the players earn 1 VP for every three goods still on hand, then tally their VPs. The player with the most VPs wins, with ties broken by goods remaining, then money.

Each game poses new tactical challenges for the players, thanks to ever-changing combinations of buildings, Cuban inhabitants and demand for goods.