Games We Play

Atlantic Storm: This is a light card game, with a WWII naval theme. The cards mostly represent various WWII ships, either Allied or Axis, though there are a handful of special cards as well. Each ship has certain characteristics. There are three strength ratings, one for air, one for surface and one for subsurface. There is a range of years in which the ship can be used and, an ocean in which it can be used (Atlantic or Arctic or both). There is also a deck of convoy cards. Each turn, one player draws two convoy cards and chooses one. The other is discarded. The convoy will be either in the Atlantic ocean or Arctic ocean and it will be in a certain year (40, 41, 42, 43). These two characteristics determine what ships can be played. The player who chose the convoy then determines what type of battle it will be: air, surface, subsurface or, combined. He then plays a ship card, either Allied or Axis, and possibly one or more bonus cards. Other players around the table also play one ship card and bonus cards (or, if they don’t think they have good plays, they can discard instead). When every player has played cards, the total strengths of all the Allied cards are added up and the same with the Axis cards (and occasionally ships have a strength that consists of one or two die rolls). If the Allied strength is higher than the Axis strength, the convoy gets through and all the players who played Allied cards get to share the spoils. The spoils consist of the convoy card itself plus any Axis ships that were played. Convoy cards are worth from 4 to 8 points and ship cards are worth from 1 to 5 points. The player who played the highest Allied strength gets to decide how the spoils are divided (he has to divide the cards as evenly as possible but, he can give the highest point values to himself). If the Axis wins, the convoy is sunk and the Axis players divide up the Allied ships. The game continues until the convoy deck has been exhausted. The player with the highest point total wins.

Australia: (2 to 5 players)

Awful Green Things from Outer Space: (2 players)

Axis & Allies: (2 to 5 players)

Babel: (2 players)

Bang!: (4 to 7 players) Bang! is a card game for up to 7 players. One player is the Sheriff, the others have a secret role, either Deputies, Outlaws, or the Renegade. Each player also has a character card which grants a special ability. The Sheriff and Deputies work as a team, and they win by killing the Outlaws and the Renegade. The Outlaws win by killing the Sheriff. The Renegade wins by being the last man standing. On his turn, each player draws two cards and then plays as many cards from his hand as he wants and is able to play. The cards contain such things as guns, which give a player a longer attack range, barrels to hide behind, Indian attacks, and beer which heals damage from previous gun fights. Bang! cards are used to shoot other players. Each player usually starts with four “hit points” and, each time he is hit with a Bang!, he loses one hit point. When all of his hit points are gone, he is out of the game. Expansions: High Noon, Dodge City.

Battle Cry: (2 players)

Bean Trader:(3 to 5 players) In Bean Trader, you play on a map of about 10 cities. In each city is a “beanometer,” which lets you buy two or three different types of beans, the price varies with how many of those beans are currently in the city; the more beans the cheaper they are. You start with a hand of seven standard cards (one toll card, one supply card and, five cards that let you buy orders) and one of each of the eight bean types available in the game (your cart holds a maximum of eight beans). You are dealt three order cards to start. You immediately turn in the one with the highest value to get your starting cash (and lose the beans it requires as a sort of balancing mechanism). You have to keep your cards in order. You put your order cards at the end of your hand. To move, you have to play cards from your hand, one for each city you want to move, plus one. So, to move to an adjacent city, you have to play two cards. If one of the cards you play is your toll card, you have to pay $20. If one of the cards is your supply card, a harvest card is drawn which resupplies three cities with new beans. When eight harvest cards are drawn, the game ends after one final round. If one of the cards is an order card, you must be able to fill it this turn or, it is lost. When you get to your destination, you may buy whatever beans are available at that city, fill orders or, trade with other players. You can fill orders regardless of where they are in your hand. You may only trade beans with other players, not order cards or cash. If you make a deal with someone in another city, they get a cheap move to your city (whether they want it or not). This is a big factor in trades; people will sometimes make less desirable trades because they want to move or pass up more desirable trades if they don’t want to move. At the end of your turn, the cards you played (other than order cards) go back into your hand and, you get to drawn one order card for free. At any time, you can turn in one of your cards to buy another order card for $5. Order cards are pretty valuable but, turning in your cards means you will cycle through your toll, supply and order cards faster. At the end of the game, you sell any beans you have left in your cart for the base price. Winner is the player with the most cash.

Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond: (2 to 6 players)

Big City: (2 to 5 players)

Blokus: (1-4 players)

Blokus Duo: (2 players)

Bohnanza: (3 to 5 players, 3 to 7 with expansion)

Boomtown: (2 to 5 players)

The Bottle Imp: (2 to 4 players)

Brawl: (2 players)

Buck Rogers: (2 to 6 players)

Buried Treasure: (2 to 4 players)

Burn Rate: (3 or 4 players)

Button Men: (2 players)

Buy Low, Sell High: (2 to 4 players)

El Caballero: (2 to 4 players)

Call My Bluff: (2 to 6 players) One of numerous variations of Liar’s Dice.

Cannibal Pygmies (in the Jungle of Doom): (2 to 6 players) Similar games: Grave Robbers from Outer Space

Can’t Stop: (2 to 4 players)

Carcassonne: (2 to 5 players, 2 to 6 with expansion) Expansions: The River, The Expansion, Traders & Builders, King & Scout, The Count, Fairy & Dragon, The Cathars

Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers: (2 to 5 players)

Carolus Magnus: (2 to 4 players)

Cartagena: (2 to 5 players)

Cash’n Guns: (4 to 6 players)

Castle: (2 to 5 players)

Caylus: (2 to 5 players)

China: (3 to 5 players): Similar Games: Web of Power

Chinatown: (3 to 5 players)

Chrononauts: (1 to 6 players) A timeline consisting of 32 cards is laid out. Each card represents some important historical event. Players each have an ID card (listing a certain sequence of historic events) and a mission card (listing three artifacts). Players play cards to alter the timeline (for instance, flipping the “1865 - Lincoln Assassinated” card over to “1865' - Lincoln Wounded”) or collect historic artifacts. The first person to match the timeline on his ID or collect the three artifacts on his mission card wins. Similar games: Fluxx

Circus Flohcati: (3 to 5 players)

Citadels: (2 to 7 players)

La Città: (2 to 5 players)

Clash of the Gladiators: (2 to 5 players)

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects: (3 to 5 players)

Clue: The Card Game: (3 to 5 players)

Coloretto: (3 to 5 players)

Condottiere: (2 to 6 players)

Corporate Shuffle: (4 to 6 players) This is essentially the same game as The Great Dalmuti, except with a Dilbert theme and designed for fewer players. The deck consists of cards numbered 1 through 10; there are one 1, two 2s, three 3s and, so on, up to ten 10s. There are also a few special cards: a zero, two wild cards, an 11 and, a twirling wedgie. The entire deck is dealt out. The player who has the lead plays one or more matching cards. The next player then has to play the same quantity of cards but with a lower number (so, if the first player leads with three 10s, the second player could play three 9s or three 8s, etc.). If someone can not play, they pass. The last person to be able to play wins the trick and the lead. The first person to play all of his cards wins the round and becomes the “Big Boss” for the next round. The second person to play all of his cards becomes the “Little Boss”. The second to last person becomes the “Senior Intern” and the last person becomes the “Junior Intern”. Other players, if playing with more than four, become “Workers”. The Big Boss scores 3 for the round, the Little Boss 2 and, the Workers 1 each. The Interns score nothing. At this point, players are supposed to change seats so that the Big Boss gets the best seat and the Junior Intern gets the worst. It is the job of the Junior Intern to deal out the cards and to collect them after each trick. At the start of each hand, the Junior Intern must give the Big Boss his two best cards, while the Big Boss gives two cards of his choosing to the Junior Intern. Likewise, the Senior Intern must give the Little Boss his best card, while the Little Boss gives one card of his choosing to the Senior Intern. The game can be played for a set number of rounds or until a certain score is reached. Similar games: The Great Dalmuti, Frank’s Zoo

Corruption: (3 to 7 players)

Cosmic Encounter: (3 to 6 players, alternate rules allow for 2, 7 or 8 players)

Crokinole: (2 or 4 players)

The Creature that Ate Sheboygan: (2 players)

David & Goliath: (3 to 6 players)

Daytona 500: (2 to 4 players) This is essentially the same game as Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix but, with a different track and a few minor rules differences. There are no “switch” cards. There are no choke points on the track; instead, each turn has an inner normal lane and an outer passing lane. Cars may move through the passing lane but, must be able to get back to the inner lane at the end of the move. Daytona 500 also has a Drafting rule: a car that starts immediately behind the car being moved also gets to move forward one space.

Democrazy: (4 to 10 players) A card game in which each player starts with a random stash of colored chips, a “Yes” card, a “No” card, a special card, and a handful of rule cards. On his turn, each player draws a rule card from the deck, then chooses a rule card from his hand to play. All players then vote Yes or No on the proposed rule. Rules generally change the value of the chips (e.g., the rule might be “all red chips are worth 2 points,” or “a player with all four colors of chips gets a 5 point bonus”). The special cards are a “definite Yes”, a “definite No”, and a “Scam.” The definite cards trump the results of the vote, while the Scam reverses the results. However, if more than one special card is played on the same vote, all special cards are cancelled. The winner is the player with the most points after going through the deck.

Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix: (2 to 6 players) This is a card-based racing game. There is a deck of cards with numbers on them, a board with two different race tracks (one on each side) and six plastic cars and money in 10k, 50k and 100k denominations. The cards have anywhere from one to six numbers on them in the colors of the cars. For example, a card might have a black six, a red four and a yellow two. When this card is played, the black car will move six, the red car will move four and the yellow car will move two. Some of the cards have white numbers on them (there are no white cards). These white numbers are wild and, can be used to move any car that isn’t explicitly moved by the card (for example, if the card had a red five and white three, the red car would move five and any other car could be moved three). There are also three “switch” cards that switch which color controls which car. The entire deck is dealt out and the players are given $200k. The players then bid on the cars in random order (there is a special set of cards for determining the order of the bid). You bid on all six cars even if there are less than six players; players can have more than one car, as long as each player gets at least one car. Once you get a car, you get the singleton “10” card that goes with that car, allowing your car to move 10 spaces once during the race. You then go around the table and, each player plays one card and follows the instructions on that card. This is repeated until all the cards are played. This is usually enough for most of the cars to make it all the way around the track to the finish line (but not always). First car to cross the line gets $200k, second gets $50k and so on, down to sixth which gets $10k. Cars which do not finish get nothing. Similar games: Daytona 500.

Dia de los Muertos: (3 or 4 players) This is a trick taking partnership card game. In this game, there are three suits (red, blue and green) and black, which is the lack of a suit. The cards have various ranks, like most card games. The twist to this game is, unlike other trick taking card games, you must NOT follow suit. So, if someone leads with a red card, no one else can play red. You can always play black however. If you can not play a card, you must discard. Highest ranking card, regardless of suit, takes the trick. The only cards that score however, are the red, blue and green cards of rank 4 (representing children, adults and animals) and the black cards of rank 2 (representing food). When you win a trick, you keep only the scoring cards. The rest of the cards are placed to the side, face up, so everyone can see what has been played (no card counting necessary). Any scoring cards you win, you keep until the end of the game. When you win a trick, you must “exchange gifts” with the player to your left (who will always be an opponent, of course). To exchange gifts, your opponent takes one of your cards at random and then chooses one card to give back to you. Some of the cards have special abilities. If you play a black 1, you swap a card with your partner. If you play a 3, that will nullify one 10 played by either of your opponents. There are a couple of others. The game is played in three rounds. In the first round, 4 extra green rank 4 cards are added to the deck (and then removed at the end of the round if they haven’t been won in a trick). In the second round, 4 extra rank 4 red cards and, in the last round, 4 extra rank 4 blue cards. At the end of the game, each partnership counts up how many matching pairs of rank 4/rank 2 cards they have won. The partnership with the most matching pairs wins. If there is a tie, then single cards act as a tie breaker.

Diamant: (3 to 8 players)

Doge: (3 or 4 players)

Domaine: (2 to 4 players) Similar Games: Löwenherz, Goldbräu

Draco & Co: (3 to 6 players)

Dragon Delta: (2 to 6 players)

Dragon Land: (2 to 4 players)

Dragonmaster: (3 or 4 players) This is a trick-taking card game similar to the traditional card game, Hearts. The deck consists of 4 suits of 8 ranks each. One player is the Dragonmaster for the first five hands. Each hand, the Dragonmaster selects from among five choices, a certain set of cards or tricks to be avoided. Players who take those cards or tricks must pay points to the Dragonmaster. If the Dragonmaster takes the cards, he doesn’t have to pay any points but, he doesn’t receive any, either. Plastic “crystals” are provided for score keeping. After five hands have been played, the second player gets to be Dragonmaster for the next five hands. After all four (or three) players have had a chance to be Dragonmaster, the person with the highest score wins. Advanced and Expert versions of the game provide for “power plays,” which are like “shooting the moon” in Hearts.

Dragon’s Gold: (3 to 6 players) In this game, each player has a hand of four cards that don’t change throughout the game: a knight, a warrior, a thief and a wizard; each of these has a strength rating. There is a deck of dragon cards, each dragon has a strength rating and a certain number of treasures and, a deck of magic items. Four dragon cards are turned up and, small wooden disks of various colors are placed on the cards, to represent the dragon’s treasure. On each turn, a player plays one of his cards on any one of the face up dragons. When the total strength of cards played on a dragon exceeds that dragon’s strength, the dragon is slain and, all those players who had played cards on that particular dragon then must negotiate to divide the treasure amongst themselves. They have one minute to negotiate and if they can’t come to an agreement, they get nothing. If a player uses a thief card on a dragon, once the dragon is slain, the owner of the thief card may steal a treasure from another player. If a player uses a wizard on a dragon, then he gets first dibs on any magic items (represented by red disks). Getting a red disk allows the player to draw a card from the magic item deck.

Drakon: (2 to 6 players)

Dschunke: (2 to 4 players)

Dune: (2 to 6 players)

Dungeon Quest

Dungeon Twister: (2 players, 3-4 with expansion) Expansions: Fire and Water, Paladins & Dragons, 3-4 Player Expansion, Powers of Darkness

Durch die Wüste This game is known as “Through the Desert” in English.

Dvonn: (2 players)

Easy Come, Easy Go: (2 to 4 players) This is a neat little game by Reiner Knizia that seems to be a take on Yahtzee. You roll dice, trying to make certain combinations (less than 3, straight, 3 of a kind all odd, etc.) and when you do you get the award for that combo. The twist is that there’s only one award per combo, so only one player can hold a particular award at once. If, at the start of your turn, you have three awards, you win.

Edel, Stein & Reich: (3 to 5 players)

Edison & Co: (3 or 4 players)

1856: (3 to 6 players)

1870: (3 to 6 players)

Einfach Genial: (1 to 4 players) (Called “Ingenious” in English.)

Elfenland: (2 to 6 players) Expansions: Elfengold: This expansion adds gold counters, a gold chit for each city, gold cards, wizard cards and some extra transportation chits. You start the game with 5 cards, 20 gold and two transportation chits. The game is played for six rounds. At the start of each round (except the first), you get two more transporation chits, two gold and three cards. Chits are drawn at random. With cards, you have your choice of three face up cards or drawing from the top of the face down deck. Each player takes one card, going around the table three times. If you draw a gold card, it goes in a special pile. Instead of taking a card, you make take the entire gold pile; you get three gold for each card in the pile. Then some transporation chits are auctioned off (2 times the number of players). Players bid on the chits one at a time. Then, each player in turn places his chits on the board and, after all chits have been placed, player then take turn playing cards to move (just like the original). After moving, you take your pegs like normal. Then you add up the gold chits for the cities you visited. You have the option of taking that value in gold or, taking two cards. After everyone has moved, the next round starts. Wizard cards have two uses. They can be used to get over an obstacle or, for a cost of three gold a wizard card can teleport you to anywhere on the board. There are two new transportation chits. The 2x tile allows two transportation chits to be placed on the same route. Players can use either when moving. The exchange tile allows you to switch two transportation chits already on the board (they must both end up in legal positions).

Elixir: (3 to 8 players)

Emerald: (2 to 5 players)

Euphrat & Tigris: This game is known as “Tigris & Euphrates” in English.

Evergreen: (2 to 6 players) This is essentially a card game, with cards in six suits with values from 1 to 13. For each suit there is a matching disk (which looks like a 45 rpm record). Cards are dealt out at the beginning of the game (the number of cards varies with the number of players); these are the only cards players will have to use throughout the game. During the course of the game, players will always have three cards face up in front of them. The player with the highest total showing in any given suit will control the disk for that suit. Each player, on his turn, can play from 1 to 3 cards, either on top of the cards in front of himself or, on top of the cards in front of another player, with the idea of gaining control of disks. Three times during the game, at the end of one of his turns, each player has the option of holding a concert, which will score him the point value of all the disks he controls (disks start out at 5 points, go up in value each time they change hands, to a maximum of 12 and, then back down to 5). At the very end of the game, each player holds one final concert, scoring whatever disks he controls at that time. Each player can declare one of his four concerts to be a “Gala”, which will score double points (this has to be declared at the time the concert is held). The game ends when all of the players are out of cards and, since no cards are drawn during the game, it goes pretty quickly.

Evo: (3 to 5) This is a bidding game, with the theme being the evolution of dinosaurs on an isolated island (or maybe a small continent). The island is divided up into many small sections, each one being one of four types of terrain. At any one time, only one particular type of terrain has the ideal climate for dinos to survive. The climate continually shifts and dinos must migrate to survive. At the end of each turn, each player gets one point for each dino he has surviving. These points are used to determine final victory but, they are also used for bidding. Players then bid on adaptations that will help them survive. These adaptations are things like tolerance for hot climates (represented by a parasol), tolerance for cold climates (fur), movement (leg), fighting ability (horn), fertility (egg), and initiative (tail segments). Each player starts with one dino. Each turn, players add dinos according to the number of eggs they have (each player starts with one). Since, at any given time, only one fourth of the board is in the ideal climate range, the board gets crowded fairly quickly and dinos must compete for space (only one dino is allowed in each board space). Each turn, a comet is moved one space closer to Earth. When it reaches Earth, all dinos are killed and the game is over. The player with the most points, wins. Similar games: Urland, Vinci.

EXXtra: (3 to 6 players)

Falling: (4 to 8 players)

Feudal: (2 to 6 players)

Fibonacci: (2 players)

Filthy Rich: (2 to 5 players)

Finstere Flure: (2 to 7 players) (Called “Fearsome Floors” in English.)

For Sale: (3 to 6 players)

Fossil: (2 to 6 players)

Frag: (2 to 6 players) Expansions: Deadlands, Deathmatch, Fire Zone, Frag PvP.

Frank’s Zoo: (4 to 7 players) This game bears a strong resemblance to the Great Dalmuti and Corporate Shuffle. One player leads with any number of cards of a certain animal. The next player can either play the same number of a higher ranking animal or, one more of the same animal (for example, if the lead is two fish, the next player can either play two whales or three fish). One significant difference between this game and Great Dalumti is, certain high ranking animals can be out-ranked by certain low ranking animals (for example, elephants can be out-ranked by lowly mice). Another difference is, while you get points for playing all of your cards first, you also get points for having collected certain cards. Similar games: Corporate Shuffle, The Great Dalmuti

Fluxx: (2 to 6 players)

Formula Dé: (2 to 10 players) Expansions: Circuits 3 & 4, Circuits 5 & 6, Circuits 7 & 8, Circuits 9 & 10, Circuits 11 & 12, Circuits 13 & 14, Circuits 15 & 16, Circuits 17 & 18, Circuits 19 & 20, Circuits 21 & 22, Circuits 23-26, Circuits 27-30, Circuits 31 & 32, Circuit 33, Circuits 34 & 35.

Fortress America: (2 to 4 players) Expansions: Expansion Pack #1.

4000 AD: (2 to 4 players) This game is reminiscent of Diplomacy. The board is divided into a 3x4 grid. Each grid has four stars, two in the upper half and two in the lower half (upper and lower meaning a representation of the third dimension). So, there are 24 sectors, each with two stars. Some stars have a population symbol, some stars have a resources symbol, some stars have both and some have neither; for each pair of resources you control, you build one new ship per turn. Around the edges are four warp paths, one for each player. Players move one at a time, not simultaneously as in Diplomacy. Each player starts with a home star in one of the four corners, 15 ships and 2 warp trays. To move your ships, you place them in a warp tray, use a peg to mark the sector from which they started and then put them on the first square of the warp path. Each turn, you move them one more square down the warp path. Each square on the warp path represents one sector that your ships have moved. This way your opponents can see how far you have moved but, not which direction. And, once you reach the third warp square, for example, you can put your ships down on any star that is exactly three sectors away from your starting point. If you land on a star and, no one else is there, you control it. If someone else is there, you have a battle. Battle is simple: largest fleet wins. You win the game by eliminating all the other players. You eliminate another player by capturing his home world. Or, if players decide to end the game before that time, whoever controls the most stars wins.

Fury of Dracula: (2 to 4 players)

Gangland!: (3 to 8 players)

Gateway to the Stars: (1, 2, 4 to 7 players)

GemBlo: (2 to 6 players)

Gipf: (2 players)

Give Me the Brain: (3 to 8 players)

Goa: (2 to 4 players)

Goldbräu: (3 to 4 players) Similar games: Domaine, Löwenherz

Goldland: (2 to 5 players)

G.O.O.T.M.U.: (2 to 6 players)

El Grande: (2 to 5 players) Expansions: El Grande Expansions. Similar Games: San Marco, Wongar.

Grave Robbers from Outer Space: (2 to 6 players) Expansions: Skippy’s Revenge. Similar games: Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom, Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island.

Gravitation: (2 players)

The Great Dalmuti: (4 to 8 players) Similar games: Corporate Shuffle, Frank’s Zoo.

Groo: the Game: (2 to 4 players, up to 6 with the expansion) This is a card game based on the comic strip Groo the Wanderer. There are several types of cards: buildings, militia, Groo effects, events and specials and one card representing Groo himself. Most of the building and militia cards have some minor special effect (like allowing you to add an extra sack of supplies to the dice you rolled). Every player has a hand of five cards. Groo starts in front of the first player. This player rolls a set of seven special dice. One die determines whether and where Groo will move. The other dice have various resources on them: sacks of supplies, labor, money or Groo heads. Each building card or militia card has a cost (e.g., a sack of supplies and a labor). You use the dice to build what you can and, any dice you can’t use you have to pass on to the next player. Once all the dice are spent, or every player has determined that he can’t use the remaining dice, all the dice are passed to the second player and it becomes his turn. Groo heads on the dice are used to power Groo effect cards. Groo effect cards generally have Groo destroy something belonging to the player with the Groo card in front of him. Event cards do things like causing the number of Groo heads rolled to be counted double, or not allowing Groo effect cards to be played, etc. Special cards do things like causing Groo effect cards to backfire on the player who played them, etc. The first player to have seven points worth of buildings in front of him wins. Expansions: Groo: The Card Game Expansion Set.

Guillotine: (2 to 5 players)

Hansa: (2 to 4 players) Not to be confused with Die Hanse! It’s a different game with the same theme.

Die Hanse: (3 to 6 players)

Hare and Tortoise: (2 to 6 players) This is a low-randomness race game. Players move by spending carrots. The more spaces the player moves, the more carrots he has to spend. The cost goes up rapidly with each additional space the player wants to move: to move one space costs one carrot, to move four spaces costs 10 carrots and, to move 10 spaces costs 55 carrots. Players start with too few carrots to reach the finish in any reasonable amount of time so, they have to earn carrots by sitting on a carrot space for one turn or by moving backwards to one of the handful of tortoise spaces on the track. Each player also starts with three lettuce cards, which he must “eat” by stopping on a lettuce space for one turn. Players may also land on rabbit spaces which allow the player to roll a die for a special effect. This effect can be either good or bad but, players in the lead have a greater chance of getting something bad. To add to the strategy choices in this game, only one player can be in a space at a time so, a move by one player could block another from getting desperately needed carrots.

Harry Potter Gnome Toss Card Game: (3 to 6 players)

Heave Ho!: (2 players)

Hellas: (2 players)

HellRail: (2 to 4 players)

Hera and Zeus: (2 players)

High Bid: (2 to 4 players)

High Society: (3 to 5 players)

Honor of the Samurai: (3 to 6 players)

Ice Towers: (??? players). One of a number of games that can be played with Icehouse pyramids.

Illuminati: (2 to 6 players)

Iron Dragon: (2 to 6 players) A crayon rail game set in a fantasy world. Expansions: Iron Dragon Extensions.

It’s Mine: This is a very simple and fast moving card game. Each card in the game is worth points; some cards are worth points by themselves, some cards are worth points only in sets, some cards are worth negative points. The dealer turns cards face up, one at a time. At any time, one of the players can slap his hand down on the table and claim the cards that have so far been dealt. That player then becomes the dealer. Each player can claim up to three sets of cards during the game. Once all the cards have been dealt out, all the players add up the cards in their hands and, the highest score wins.

Jambo: (2 players)

Kahuna: (2 players)

Katzenjammer Blues: (2 to 6 players)

Kids of Catan: (2 to 4 players)

Kill Doctor Lucky: (2 to 8 players)

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot: (2 to 8 players) Expansions: Green Booster, Orange Booster, Red Booster, Stainless Steel Booster, Twilight White Booster, Violet Booster.

Kingdoms: (2 to 4 players)

King Maker: (2 to 7 players)

King of the Beasts: (2 to 5 players)

King Solomon’s Mine: (2 to 5 players)

Klunker: (3 to 5 players)

Knightmare Chess (2 players) This is not a game by itself, but is a set of cards to be used with a chess set. Players play an ordinary game of chess except that on each turn, they may also play one card. The cards may change the rules of the game, give pieces extra powers, allow players to make normally illegal moves, etc. There is also a Knightmare Chess 2.

König Salomons Schatzkammer: known as King Solomon’s Mine in English.

Krieg und Frieden: (2 to 4 players)

Kwa Do: This is a very simple card game, which consists of nothing more than picking up cards from the table to make matched pairs with the cards in your hand. The only skill involved is figuring out which cards match which.

Landlord!: (2 to 6 players)

Last Man Standing: (2 to 8 players)

Leapfrog: (1 to 6 players)

Legend of the Five Rings: (??? players)

Liar’s Dice: (2 to 6 players) Each player secretly rolls five or six dice. The starting player then bids on how many of a certain number are showing on the dice. Each subsequent player must then either up the bid or call. When a player calls, all players reveal their dice. If the last bid was successful, the caller loses a die; if the last bid was not successful, the bidder loses a die. When a player loses his last die, he is out of the game. Play continues until only one player remains. Most variations make one face of each die wild (usually either the one or the six). Some variations allow dice to be shown or re-rolled after a bid. Similar games: Call My Bluff, Perudo.

Loco: (2 to 4 players)

Lord of the Fries: (3 to 8 players) In this game, each player has a hand of ingredient cards. The first player picks (or rolls for) a food item on the menu. Each player, in turn, tries to come up with the ingredients needed for that menu item from his hand. If he can, he plays those cards on the table and, he gets to choose the next menu item. If he cannot, he passes a card to the player on his left, who then attempts to make the menu item. If the menu makes it all the way around the table with no one able to come up with the necessary ingredients, it goes around again but, this time players can leave out one ingredient. This continues until someone can make the menu item. Play continues until someone is completely out of cards. Each player then scores points for the ingredients he played minus the ingredients still in his hand.

Lord of the Rings: (1 to 5 players) Expansions: Friends & Foes, Sauron.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation: (2 players)

Lost Cities: (2 players)

Louis XIV: (2 to 4 players)

Löwenherz: (2 to 4 players) Similar games: Domaine, Goldbräu

Mag-Blast: (2 to 6 players) This is a simple card game, very similar to Naval War but, with a science fiction theme. Each player starts with a flagship with a unique special ability and four starships drawn randomly from a common pool. The four ships are placed one on each side of the flagship. With a few exceptions, each ship can only attack opponents ships in the same zone, e.g., a ship on the right side of your flagship can only attack an opponent’s right side ship. Each player also has a hand of five cards; these are mostly attack cards with a few special cards thrown in. Each attack card has a type (laser, beam or, mag blast) and a point rating (1, 3 or, 5). Each ship can use one or more types of attack. If you have a ship that can use beam attacks and a beam attack card, you can then play that beam attack card on one of your opponent’s ships. Unless your opponent has a defensive card, his ship then takes that many points of damage. If a ship loses all of its points, it is discarded. If a player loses his flagship, he is out of the game. The goal is to eliminate all of the other players. The game moves fairly quickly and can be finished in roughly one-half hour.

Magic Realm: (1 to 16 players)

Die Magier von Pangea: (2 to 4 players) Each player is trying to collect 5 amulets. The game is played on a 5x6 grid with the four corner squares missing. On this grid are placed 15 land tiles, 3 each of 5 different terrains. Spaces without tiles are considered sea spaces which are basically just road blocks. Each player has a home tower, 8 minions and a token. There are 5 colors but, only 4 people can play; one color is always neutral. (I have no idea why this can’t be a fifth player.) The neutral tower and three neutral minions are placed according to the rules (i.e., the tower goes on a specific spot depending on which color is neutral). Then players take turns picking their home square, which they mark by placing a tower on it and then they place three minions on their home square. Each minion is associated with a terrain type. Each color has minions for three terrain types. For example, red might have minions for Forest, Grasslands and Desert while blue has minions for Marsh, Hills and Grasslands. When a minion is in his own terrain type, he can produce. There is, however, a population limit for each tile (from 2 to 4). If there are more minions in the tile than the population limit, then none of the minions in that tile will produce anything. Regardless of terrain type, a minion produces generic “goods” which you use to buy amulets. Each turn consists of several phases. Each player does all his phases and then the turn passes to the next player. First, you take your token (which I’ll explain later) off of the board. You then get to cast one spell for each amulet you have or, if you have no amulets, then you get to cast one spell. Spells consist of placing another of your minions on the board, placing another neutral minion on the board, moving a neutral minion or, moving a tile one space. Moving tiles around is an important part of the game, either to help your minions get home faster or to prevent other players’ minions from getting home. Then, you get to move your minions. Each minion can move one space and, you can move all of your minions, if you choose. After your minions have moved, you may purchase amulets. If one of your minions is in the same space with the minion of another player (or a neutral minion) and his minion is producing, you may buy an amulet from him (assuming you have enough goods to pay for it). The type of amulet depends on the terrain. The amulet then goes on top of the minion to show that the minion is carrying the amulet. You do not get credit for the amulet until your minion returns it to your tower. The cost of the amulet is the number of amulets you have at your tower plus one. You lose that many goods, the player from whom you bought the amulet gains that many goods. You may only purchase one amulet from each terrain type. You do not have to get an amulet back to your tower before you purchase a second one. Last, you place your token on the board. Whichever tile has your token may not be moved. You win the game by having one of the following combinations: All five amulets in your tower. Four amulets in your tower and 10 goods. Three amulets in your tower and 20 goods.

Maharaja: (2 to 5 players)

Mamma Mia!: (2 to 5 players)

Manhattan: (2 to 4 players)

Manila: (3 to 5 players)

Manitou: (2 to 4 players)

MarraCash: (2 to 4 players) a bidding/placement game where you’re buying shops in a bazaar hoping to attract tourists to buy goods. The game has simple mechanics but very deep strategy.

Mastermind: (2 players)

Medici: (3 to 6 players)

Medieval Merchant: (2 to 6 players)

Merchants of Amsterdam: (3 to 5 players)

Mermaid Rain: (3 to 6 players)

Metro: (2 to 6 players) This is a tile laying game played on an 8x8 grid, with the four center squares removed. There are sixty tiles with various track configurations on them. There are terminals along the outer edge of the board and in the four center squares. Players start with street cars set out along the edge of the board. Each player has a hand of one tile. Each turn, a player lays his one tile on the board or, if he chooses, he may draw another tile and play it instead; if the player draws another tile, he is obligated to play it. The tile must be placed adjacent to the outer edge of the board or, next to a tile that was previously played. When a complete route can be traced from a street car to another terminal, that street car is removed and, the player who owned the street car scores one point for each tile the route crosses; if the route crosses the same tile multiple times, he scores one point for each time the tile is crossed. If the route ends at one of the center stations, the score for that route is doubled. The game ends when all tiles have been played.

Mille Bornes: (2 to 6 players)

The Mississippi Queen: (2 to 5 players, 6 if the Black Rose expansion is used) Players race paddle-wheel boats down a randomly generated river, stopping to pick up passengers along the way. Each boat has a speed which can be set from 1 to 6 (the number of hexes which it can move in a turn) and six units of coal. On any turn a player can change his boat’s speed by one (or more, if he chooses to expend coal) and change his boat’s facing by one hex side (or more, again, at the cost of coal). Whenever a player moves completely onto the last river panel, a die is rolled to determine the direction in which the next panel will be placed so, players don’t know until the last second which way the river is going to turn. Along the way, players must stop to pick up two passengers. The first player to reach the dock at the end of the final river panel is the winner. This is another game that moves fairly quickly.

Modern Art: (3 to 5 players)

Money: (3 to 5 players)

Monsters Ravage America: (2 to 4 players) In this game each player controls one monster (except for different terrain penalties for movement, the monsters are pretty much the same) and one branch of the military. Players move their monsters around a map of the USA, trying to ravage cities; each city ravaged adds to the monster’s health; the bigger the city, the more health gained. At the same time, they use the military to try and keep other players’ monsters away from choice targets, and reduce their monsters’ health. After a certain number of cities have been ravaged, the monsters fight it out amongst themselves. The winner of this battle wins the game.

El Moondo: (2 to 4 players) This is a reprint of Zoon, with more available armies and rules for a 4-player version .

Munchkin: (2 to 8 players) This is a “beer and pretzels” card game, the theme being a spoof of Dungeons and Dragons. Players start at first level and gain levels by defeating monsters. The first player to reach level 10 wins. There are two decks of cards, room cards and treasure cards. On his turn, a player draws a room card. If it is a monster, he must decide whether to fight it or run away. To fight, he compares his level plus any bonuses he might have from magic items, etc. to the monster’s level plus any bonuses the monster might have. If the player’s total is higher, he kills the monster, gains one level and gets to draw one or more cards from the treasure deck. If the monster’s total is higher, then a “bad stuff” section on the monster card explains what bad stuff happens to the player, which could be stuff like losing a magic item, losing one or more levels, or dying (in which case the player loses all his cards and starts over again at first level). The player may ask one other player for help. Players may also play cards to help the monster. Expansions: Unnatural Axe, Clerical Errors, Munchkin Blender. Similar games: Munchkin Bites, Munchkin Fu, Star Munchkin.

Mystery Rummy: Al Capone and the Chicago Underworld: (2 to 4 players)

Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper: (2 to 4 players)

Mystery Rummy: Jekyll and Hyde: (2 players)

Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue: (2 to 4 players)

Naval War: (3 to 9 players) Similar games: Mag-Blast, Nuclear War, Plague & Pestilence

New England: (3 to 4 players) New England is played on a square grid. You start with three 1x2 plots of land, one in each of the three available colors: black, brown, green. Each turn, players bid on plots of land and development cards. The starting player picks a number of cards from three to six; this number of cards is dealt out and then tiles are added to make a total of nine. Tiles are simply 1x1 plots of land. You add them adjacent to land you own of the same color (but, they can not touch another player’s plot of the same color). Cards can be pilgrims, barns, ships or, development. A pilgrim takes up one plot of land but, increases your income by one; a pilgrim can be moved as long as you have an undeveloped square to which you can move it. A barn takes up one plot of land but, lets you store a card for later use; a barn can not be moved for the rest of the game. A ship takes up one plot of land along the coast (two edges of the board are water) but, allows you to turn up one extra card during the auction; ships may be moved to any undeveloped coastal space. Development cards show a particular color and a shape (a 2x2 square, a 3 square L, a 1x3 rectangle, etc) and a number of victory points. If you have the required undeveloped land, you can buy the development card, develop the land and get the stated number of victory points. The land has to match in both color and shape (so, when you buy tiles, you have to plan carefully where you put them so you can make use of development cards in the future). For bidding, there are ten tiles, numbered 1 to 10. The start player picks a tile and, then the other players going around the board pick a tile. Highest tile goes first but, the number on the tile is how much you have to pay for each item. You must play tiles or cards as soon as you buy them (unless you have one or more barns which let you store one item each). After everyone has bought, you get $4 in income, plus an extra for each pilgrim. Start player then passes to the left. The game continues until all cards are played. Highest victory point total wins.

Niagara: (2 to 5 players)

Nuclear War: (2 to 6 players) Expansions: Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction. Similar games: Naval War, Plague & Pestilence

Octi: (2 or 4 players) There are actually several editions of this game. The original game is now sold as Octi Extreme and, the game now called Octi is the simplified version that used to be called Octi for Kids. This is an abstract, pure-strategy game. The game is played on a square grid (the size depends on the verison being played). Each player has several octagonal pieces, each piece has eight slots for the insertion of prongs. The prongs determine which direction the pieces can move. On his turn, a player may add a prong to one piece or, he may move a piece one square in the direction of one of its prongs. Pieces may jump enemy pieces and capture them, checkers-style, assuming they have prongs pointed in the appropriate direction. Each player has a limited number of prongs and, if he captures an enemy piece, he may use its prongs for his own pieces. Several squares on the board are marked as home squares, where the player’s pieces start. The object of the game is to occupy one (or all, depending on the version you are playing) of your opponent’s home squares.

Odin’s Ravens: (2 players)

Omega Virus: (1 to 4 players)

Paris Paris: (2 to 4 players)

Pass the Pigs: (2 or more players)

The Patrons of Venice: (3 to 5 players)

Pecunia Non Olet: (2 to 6 players, “Money Doesn’t Stink” in English)

Perudo: (2 to 6 players) One of numerous variations of Liar’s Dice.

Piratenbilliard: (2 to 4 players)

Pirate’s Cove: (3 to 5 players)

Pisa: (3 to 5 players)

Pit: (3 to 7 or 8 players, depending on version)

Pizarro & Co: (3 to 6 players)

Plague & Pestilence: (2 to 6 players) Similar games: Naval War, Nuclear War

Poison: (3 to 6 players)

Power Grid: (2 to 6 players, expansions: Italy/France)

Primordial Soup: (3 to 4 players)

Princes of Florence: (3 to 5 players)

Puerto Rico: (3 to 5 players)

Q-Turn: (2 to 4 players)

Queen’s Necklace: (2 to 4 players)

Quests of the Round Table: (2 to 4 players)

Quinto: (2 to 4 players)

Quo Vadis?: (3 to 5 players) This is a simple, deal making game with an ancient Roman theme, in which each player controls several Roman senators and tries to move them through various committee rooms while collecting laurels. The board is a simple maze of rooms, each room having one, three or five seats. There are pathways connecting the rooms and some of these pathways have chits worth 2 to 5 laurels on them. In order to move from room to room, a player must get the majority of votes for the room where he currently is. If some of the seats in the room are controlled by other players, one or more deals will need to be made. Deals usually consist of the paying of laurels or promises of future votes. If a player has enough votes, he can move along one of the pathways to the next room and, collect any laurel chits along the pathway. Any chits removed from the board are replaced by a random draw. Each player tries to get at least one of his senators into the head committee chamber. Once all five seats in that chamber are filled, the game ends. Among the players who have senators in the head committee chamber, the one with the most laurels wins.

Ra: (2 to 5 players)

Railroad Tycoon: (2 to 6 players)

Raj: (2 to 5 players)

Rette sich wer kann: (3 to 6 players)

Rheinländer: (3 to 5 players)

Ricochet Robot: (2+ players) This is basically a puzzle game in which players try to find the least number of moves to get a particular robot to a particular square on the board. There are four robots of different colors (a black or silver robot can also be added). The board is a square grid with walls randomally scattered about. When a particular robot moves, it must continue to move in a straight line until it runs into a wall or another robot, and then it stops. Certain squares on the board have symbols on them, with colors matching those of the robots, that serve as goals. A chit, showing one of the symbols, is drawn at random. Players then study the board and try to find the least number of moves to get the robot of the appropriate color to the chosen symbol. When a player thinks he has found a solution, he announce the number of moves it will take, and then starts a timer. Other players may then try to find a solution with fewer moves before the timer runs out. The player who finds the solution with the fewest moves wins the round. There was a silver robot expansion (having an extra robot on the board makes most set-ups a little easier), and the second edition, Ricochet Robots (note the 's'), added a black robot (same rules as the silver robot) and a new board element, diagonal walls, that allow some robots to pass through and others to turn at 90 degrees.

Risk: (2 to 6 players)

Risk - Lord of the Rings: (2 to 4 players) This is basically the old game of Risk with a few twists. The game is played on a map of Middle Earth and, certain terrain fetures on the map affect movement: rivers can only be crossed at bridges, mountain ranges are impassible and strongholds improve defense rolls. Each player has one or two leaders that don’t fight but, improve rolls in combat and can complete missions to gain bonus troops. Adventure cards will add troops to certain territories or take them away. And, the Fellowship, represented by a ring, moves across the board, following a preset path; when the Fellowship reaches the edge of the board, the game is over. (See also: Triology Edition).

Risk 2210 A.D.: (2 to 5 players)

Robo-Rally: (2 to 8 players)

Rook: (1 to 6 players)

Royal Turf: (2 to 6 players)

Saboteur: (3 to 10 players)

Saint Petersburg: (2 to 4 players)

Samarkand: This is a short game (about 30 minutes). Basically, the players move around a 4x4 board with 3 different types of areas: Cities, Oases and Nomad Camps. In Oases, the players can buy trade cards. In Nomad Camps, they can trade cards in their hands for face up cards in the Camp. In Cities, they can sell sets of trade cards. There are seven different types of goods, with varying numbers of cards in the deck, sets of rare cards being worth more. Everyone starts out with $200 and a hand of cards. The object is to be the first one to earn $500. Player interaction is all indirect but, turns move quickly so there’s very little down time.

Samurai: (2 to 4 players)

Samurai Swords: (2 to 5 players)

San Juan: (2 to 4 players)

San Marco: (3 to 4 players) Similar games: El Grande, Wongar.

Santiago: (3 to 5 players)

Sceptre 1027 AD: (2 to 4 players) This is a chess variant. The game is played on from one to nine 8x8 chess boards with various terrain features printed on them. Each player has a standard set of chessmen. For the most part, these move just like they would in chess, except that terrain may limit their movement. Because of the much larger playing area, pawns have expanded movement powers. The object is to checkmate your opponent’s king. If playing with more than two players, when you checkmate an opponent’s king, you take over whatever pieces he has left.

Schrille Stille: (3 to 6 players)

Scrabble: (2 to 4 players)

The Seafarers of Catan: (3 to 4 players, 3 to 6 with expansion)

6 Nimmt!: (2 to 10 players)

6-Tage Rennen: This is a very low randomness bicycle racing game. The game is played on an oval track (and one of the ugliest game boards ever conceived). Each player receives a set of cards (all card sets are exactly the same). The cards are numbered from 1 to 7 (you get several of each, except only one 7) and the number represents how many spaces you get to move when you play that card. The trick is, the board is 48 spaces long and you have less than 48 points in cards. In order to make it around the board, you have to take advantage of “slipstreaming.” If, after moving the number on your card, you land in a space with one or more bicycles, you get to move the number on your card, times the number of bicycles, again. This forces you to stay with the pack; get too far ahead or behind and, you will quickly run out of cards and not be able to finish the race. Those players who do not finish the race are marked as being a certain number of laps back. The game is played for several rounds, with the winner being the person who is the fewest laps back at the end of the race.

Sequence: (2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 or 12 players in 2 or 3 teams) Each player plays cards in order to play chips on a board, the idea being to get five chips in a row. The deck is actually two decks of standard playing cards, sans jokers. The board is a 10x10 grid, with each individual space marked as a playing card (each card, sans Jacks, appears in two locations on the board) and, the four corner spaces marked as wild. Jacks do not appear on the board, as they have special functions. Each player has a hand of cards (the number of cards depends on the number of players). On his turn, a player plays a card and then places a chip on one of two corresponding spaces on the board (assuming the space is unoccupied). If the player plays a one-eyed Jack, he may remove one of his opponents chips. If he plays a two-eyed Jack, he may place a chip anywhere on the board. The player then draws a replacement card. The first player (or team) to get a row (or two) of five, wins. Similar games: Split.

Serenissima: (2 to 4 players)

The Settlers of Catan: (3 to 4 players)

The Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights

The Settlers of the Stone Age: (3 to 4 players)

Shadows over Camelot: (3 to 7 players)

Show Manager: (2 to 6 players)

Die Sieben Siegel: (3 to 5 players)

Die Sieben Weisen: (3 to 5 players)

Silberzwerg: (3 to 4) players

Silent Death: (2 or more players)

Spinball: (2 players)

Split: (2, 3, 4 or 6 players) Each player plays cards in order to play chips on a board, the idea being to build an unbroken chain of chips from one side of the board to the opposite side. The unusual feature of this game is the cards, which each feature half of a standard playing card. Ten cards are dealt out face up on the table. Each player in turn tries to match rank & suit of one of the cards in his hand with one of the cards on the table. If the player can only match rank, but with a suit of the wrong color (e.g., 7 of spades vs 7 of hearts), this is a “weak” match and allows the player to play one chip on the board. If the player can match rank, but with the wrong suit of the right color (e.g., 7 of spades vs 7 of clubs), this is a “strong” match and allows the player to play two chips. If the player can match both rank & suit, this is a “perfect” match and, allows the player to play two chips and remove an opponent’s chip. The board consists of a 10x10 square grid with each space marked with one or two suit symbols. Players must play their chips on spaces with suit symbols matching the cards they played or matched (e.g., if the player played the 7 of spades to match the 7 of hearts already on the board, he must play his chip on either a spade space or a heart space). There are three colors of chips so, the game can be played with 2 or 3 players or 4 or 6 players in teams. There is apparently another version of this game that does not use a board but, I am not sure how it plays. Similar games: Sequence

The Starfarers of Catan: (3 or 4 players, up to 6 with the expansion) Similar games: The Settlers of Catan

Starforce: ‘Alpha Centauri’: (2 or 3 players)

StarGate: (2 players)

Star Munchkin: (2 to 6 players) This is basically the same game as Munchkin, except with a science fiction setting. Expansions: The Clown Wars, Munchkin Blender. Similar games: Munchkin, Munchkin Bites, Munchkin Fu.

Star Wars Epic Duels

Sternen Himmel: Each player gets a set of nine plastic stars: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 2 double stars and a black hole. There are twelve constellation boards (cardboard disks about six inches in diameter) with from 4 to 10 stars on each. Between one and four of the stars are “large” stars while the rest are “small.” The stars are connected with lines (like constellation drawings on a skywatcher’s star map). Play starts with one constellation turned up for each player. Players take turns placing their plastic stars on the stars in the constellations. You can play to any face-up constellation as you wish. If you place your plastic star on a “large” star, you play it face down, otherwise you have to play it face up. When a constellation is full, it is scored. High point value wins. However, any points next to a double star are doubled, both your own and your opponent’s. Any stars next to a black hole are swallowed by the black hole. If two black holes are adjacent to each other, they destroy each other and nothing else is affected. Each constellation has two victory point scores marked on it. The person who has the highest point value gets the first place score, the player with the second highest point value gets the second place score. If anyone else remains, they get one point for each piece they have on the constellation; the trick is, these points are deducted from the first place player’s score (first place for this particular constellation, not first place for the whole game). After scoring, the constellation is discarded and a new one drawn to replace it, then players get their plastic stars back. Play continues until all twelve constellations are scored. The game goes rather quickly (15-30 minutes).

Streetcar: (2 to 5 players, although enough pieces are included for a sixth player) This game is played on a 12x12 grid, which is an abstract representation of New Orleans. Twelve of the grid squares have photographs of tourist locations; these are the streetcar stops. Around the edge of the board are twelve terminals, numbered 1 through 6 twice (a start and end point for each player). At the start of the game, the board is empty and each player is given a card that specifies two or three stops the player must visit with his streetcar. Players are also given five track tiles (3 straight and 2 curved) as a starting hand. In turn, each player plays two track tiles to the board and then draws replacements. Players try to lay the track so that they can go from one of their two terminals, past all of the stops they need to visit and, end at their other terminal. The first track tile laid next to a stop gets a stop sign placed on it. Any player who needs to visit that stop, must stop on the tile with the stop sign. Once a player is satisfied with his route, he can begin his inaugural run. Once he has started his inaugural run, he may not lay any more track (unless it turns out that he made a mistake and it is impossible for him to complete his run). To make his run, the player places his streetcar at one of his two terminals. On each turn, he can move his streetcar up to one space more than the last player who moved (if no one has yet moved, he can move one space). So, if the first person to move, moves one space, the second person can move two, the third person three, and so on. However, if a person who could move five, for example, chooses to move only one, then the next person who moves can only move two. The first person to go from one terminal to the other, stopping at each of his stops along the way, is the winner.

Supremacy: (2 to 6, 7 or 8 if the Middle Powers expansion is used)

Survive: (2 to 4 players)

Tamsk: (2 players)

Taj Mahal: (3 to 5 players)

Ta Yü: (2 to 4 players)

Terrace: (2 to 4 players)

Through the Desert (2 to 5 players) Players take turns placing pastel colored camels in a desert divided into a hexagonal grid. Each player controls five “chains” of camels and, by placing camels to extend these chains, tries to gain points by surrounding territory and connecting to spaces marked as oases. There are five colors of camels and, each player has one chain of each color. On his turn, a player places two camels of any color to extend one or two of his chains. If his chain surrounds an area with no other camels in it, he will score one point for each hex surrounded at the end of the game, plus he gets points for any oases enclosed in the area. If he places a camel adjacent to an oasis, he will score points for that oasis. At the end of the game, there are bonus points for the player who has the longest chain in each color.

Tichu: (3 to 6 players)

Tikal: (2 to 4 players)

Ticket to Ride: (2 to 5 players)

Ticket to Ride Europe: (2 to 5 players)

Ticket to Ride - Märklin Edition: (2 to 5 players)

Tile Chess: (2 to 6 players) This is a board game without a board. Each player has a set of 16 tiles, representing a standard set of chess pieces. In turn, each player places one of his tiles down on the table. Each tile, after the first, must be adjacent to a tile already played. Once all of the tiles are down, players take turns moving their pieces in a manner similar to standard chess. There are some important differences: a piece may move through other pieces of the same color and, after any move, all pieces must remain connected to each other. A move that does not maintain this connection is said to “break the board.” There is no castling and no pawn promotion. A piece may be pinned because it can not move without breaking the board. The goal is the same as in basic chess, to checkmate your opponent’s king.

Tigris & Euphrates: (2 to 4 players)

Titan: (2 to 6 players)

Titan: the Arena: (2 to 5 players)

Too Many Cooks: (2 to 5 players)

Torres: (2 to 4 players) In this game, players place stackable tower blocks on an 8x8 grid to build castles. Players also have six knights that they can move around the board and from castle to castle. Every so many turns, there is a scoring round. Each knight in a castle scores points equal to the level of the castle he is on, times the area covered by that castle. So, a knight on the third level of a castle that covers five squares would score 15 points. Each turn, a player has five action points he can spend. With these points, he could choose to add a knight to the board (players have six knights but, only one starts on the board), move a knight, place a tower block, buy an action card or, if he can think of absolutely nothing else to do, he can score a point. Tower blocks may be used to increase the size of a castle but, no castle can be higher than the number of squares it covers. Also, no block can be placed so that it merges two castles. Action cards allow you to do things you would not normally be able to do, such as moving a knight diagonally or stealing a block from one castle to add to another.

Top Secret Spies: (2 to 7 players) (Called “Heimlich & Co.” in German.)

Tower of Babel: (3 to 5 players)

Traders of Genoa: This is another deal making game. The board is a map of a village, divided into an 8x8 grid. There are several buildings on the board, each one taking up two or three grid squares. Each building has a particular function. There are several types of cards, including small and larger orders, messages and privilege cards. In turn, each player rolls two 8-sided dice (one red and one blue). These are used to determine a location on the grid. A stack of 5 disks is placed on this grid location. The player can then move up to five spaces by unstacking the disks and placing each disk on a grid square adjacent to the previous disk. Each time a player enters a building, he may take the action that particular building allows or, make a deal with one of the other players to let them take the action instead. Actions in the various buildings may be things like delivering an order or a message for money, drawing new cards, collecting goods from a warehouse to fill a future order or, taking ownership of a particular building. Players may trade cards, money or goods in the making of deals. However, each player can only take one action during a particular player’s turn. The game runs for a certain number of turns. At the end of the game, the player with the most money is the winner.

Traumfabrik: (2 to 5 players, “Dream Factory” in English, also called Fabrik der Träume)

Trans America: (2 to 6 players)

Tsuro: (2 to 8 players)

Twilight Imperium: (3 to 6S players)

Ubongo: (2 to 4 players)

Ultimate Stratego: (2 or 4 players)

Unexploded Cow: (3 to 6 players)

Union Pacific: (2 to 6 players) Similar games: Acquire

Urland: (3 to 5 players) The game board is a map with 12 islands arranged in three groups and 5 seas. Players start with 3 creatures (“Ichthos”) in each of the 5 seas. The play sequence is rather unusual. The first player deals himself 3 tiles at random from a stack of 13. (There is one tile for each island plus a “Panic” tile.) From his three choices, the player picks one of tiles and keeps it in front of himself, face down. This tile represents the island that will be scored at the end of this round. He then passes the remaining two tiles to the second player. For the rest of the round, the first player does absolutely nothing else. The second player can look at the two tiles he’s been passed but, he can do absolutely nothing else. The third, fourth and fifth players then take their turns. They each get two actions, where they can move ichthos around or, cause ichthos to breed, etc. After they are done, the first player reveals the tile he chose and that island is scored. The player with the least ichthos on that island gets kicked off, while the player with the most gets 3 points and, anyone else on the island gets two points. Or, I should say, they are moved that many spaces on the scoring track. When moving pieces on the scoring track, you don’t count occupied spaces. Now, the second player draws a tile to add to the two he was given earlier, picks one, keeps it face down in front of him and passes the remaining two to the third player. The whole sequence repeats, shifted one player. When certain points on the scoring track are reached, there is an auction for genes. The players bid ichthos. The player who bids the most, then must buy one of the genes and remove the number of ichthos he bid from the board. The player who bid the second most may buy one of the remaining genes but, is not obligated to do so. This continues until three genes are sold or all players have declined to buy. When someone reaches 30 points on the scoring track, there is some final scoring and then the game ends. Similar games: Evo

Ursuppe: (3 to 4 players) This game is known as “Primordial Soup” in English.

Vampire Hunter: (2 to 4 players) Vampire Hunter is a Milton Bradley game which uses a tower projecting blue or red light to change the game board. It’s pretty much a kid’s game but has a great deal of atmosphere.

Vegas Showdown: (3 to 5 players)

Venture: (2 to 6 players)

Verflixxt!: (2 to 6 players)(“That’s Life!” in English)

Verräter: (3 to 4 players)

Vino: (3 to 5 players)

Vom Kap bis Kairo: (2 to 4 players)

Web of Power: (3 to 5 players) Similar games: China

(Are You a) Werewolf: (8 or more players) One player acts as a moderator, while other players secretly take on the role of villagers or werewolves. The game is played in alternating turns of day and night. Each night, the werewolves kill one villager, and each day, the villagers vote to lynch someone they believe to be a werewolf. The goal of the villagers is to find and lynch the werewolves before the werewolves kill all the villagers. Most variations have one or more villagers with special abilities, the most common being the seer, who during the night turn, secretly points to one other player and is told by the moderator whether that player is a villager or a werewolf.

Wettstreit der Baumeister: (3-4 players)

Where’s Bob’s Hat?: (3 to 5 players) This is a simple, trick-taking card game. There are three suits, with cards numbered from 1-20 in each suit. Trump is determined at random and, can be any one of the three suits or no trump. One difference between this game and most trick-taking games is, not all of the cards are dealt out every round. On the first round, each player gets five cards, on the second six, on the third seven and, so on until all the cards are dealt out on the last round. After cards are dealt, each player decides whether he will try to win the most cards in one or more suits or, the least cards all together. There is an additional card, “Bob’s Hat”, which can either be a bonus or penalty of 10 points, the dealer chooses which at the start of the hand. Each player plays one card, players must follow suit if they can. Highest card in suit wins the trick, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump takes the trick. The player who took the trick then has the lead. Once all cards are played, scores are totalled for the round and a new round begins. If a player declared he would take the most in a particular suit, and he succeeded, he gets five points, plus one point for each card in that suit that he took. If he did not succeed, he loses 5 points. If he declared he would take the least cards, and succeeded, he gets a number of points equal to the number of cards dealt to each player that round. If he failed, he is penalized the same. And whichever player took the last 14 or 15 card, gets Bob’s Hat and the associated bonus or penalty. Highest total at the end of the game wins.

Why Did the Chicken...?: (4 to 8 players)

Wings of War: (2 to 4 players)

Wits and Wagers: (3 to 21 players)

Wizard: (3 to 6 players)

Wiz War: (2 to 4 players, up to 6 with the first expansion) Each player takes on the role of a wizard with two treasure chests and a handful of cards representing spells, magic items, etc., in a simple maze. The goal is to either steal two treasures from the other wizards, or eliminate the other wizards, while simultaneously trying to prevent them from doing the same to you. Expansions: Wiz-War Expansion #1, Wiz-War Expansion #2.

Wongar: (3 to 5 players) Players place wooden beads (“Tjurungas”) of three different shapes on a board divided into ten areas, trying to get the most of each shape in each area. In each area, there is an identical deck of cards. One card in each area is turned face up. These cards depict various actions, such as placing Tjurungas of a particular shape, taking a ritual card, or performing a “Ceremony” (scoring an area). Also in each deck are scorpion cards, which advance the time marker. When the time marker reaches the end of its track, the game is over. When a player calls a Ceremony in a particular area, all players with Tjurungas in that area may play ritual cards. Ritual cards allow the players to move their Tjurungas either to or from the Ceremony or, to remove their opponent’s Tjurungas. Once players are done playing ritual cards, the area is scored. The player who has the most of each shape of Tjurunga scores for that area. The farther along the track the time marker is, the more points the Ceremony is worth. Similar games: El Grande, San Marco

Wooden Ships & Iron Men: (2 players)

Wyatt Earp: (2 to 4 players)

Yahtzee: (2 to 10 players)

Ys: (3 to 4 players) Similar games: Aladdin’s Dragons

Das Zepter von Zavandor: (2 to 6 players)

Zèrtz: (2 players)

Zombies!!!: (2 to 6 players)

Zoon: (2 players) Similar to Stratego but, played with cards. The game is played on an imaginary 6x6 grid. Each player has an army of 15 cards: 11 troops of varying strengths, an emblem and three trumps. The object of the game is to capture your opponent’s emblem. To start, each player places his troops and emblem, face down, in the two rows of closest to him. Each card has printed on it the legal moves for that piece and, four combat strength ratings, one in each corner. When a player moves one of his troops in to the same space as one of his opponent’s troops, both players spin their cards face down, and then pick a corner on their opponent’s card. The strength ratings in the corners picked are compared and, the highest strength wins and remains in the space. The other card is removed from the game. The trumps represent special weapons or abilities; some of these are one use only and others can be reused until lost. Each army has its own unique troops and trumps.

Contact: Eric Haas