Blockade Runner
Patrick Stevens; Numbskull Games; 2-6; 90 minutes
During the American Civil War players try to make money by shipping
cargo through the Union blockade and into and out of the South.
At issue are access to commodities, the best prices on the
market and new ships and decisions about how much risk to
take. The more that contraband goods are brought in the
more the blockade increases, something managed in common by
all players.
[more]
Constantinopolis
Giancarlo Fioretti; Fantasy Flight/Edge Entertainment/Heidelberger; 2-5; 90
Players are merchants during the reign of
Justinian. Mechanisms include auctions,
pick-up-and-deliver, simultaneous action
selection and commodity speculation.
There are several historical public offices, each
conferring a different special ability.
Each turn a player may buy one building of each of
the four types: production, commercial, utility and
pubilc. One office permits buying sections of the
city wall. Commercial buildings are needed to close
sales. Utility buildings provide special advantages.
Public buildings confer points. City walls give both
advantages and points. There is a market in which
players buys and sell. There are contracts which are
granted based on one's production level. Players can
also buy trading posts which can be used to hold
extra cards, i.e. those which could not be satisfied
by a shipful of goods on the current turn.
[more]
Expedition Sumatra
Britta Stöckmann & Jens Jahnke; Igramoon; 2-4; 30-45
Hunters visit the Sumatran jungle trying to capture extinct
species. The paths through jungle are gradually revealed as
tiles are flipped and rotated. Possible actions include
flipping (which may reveal an animal and place a matching
cube), driving along the path, loading an animal (an
elephant requires both bays), steal an animal from another
player's truck or move your ship. Tiles whose animals have
been loaded are replaced by new face down tiles; because of
this and because of rotations, the jungle changes
constantly. Each player is trying to fulfil a slightly
different contract of desired animals. A few special tiles
permit things like lookahead into hidden tiles, create
storms that affect paths and ship positions or cause leading
players to lose animals due to Sumatran hostility.
[more]
Ghawar
Johannes Halbig; Mücke Spiele; 2-4; 40
The topic is oil exploration, drilling and shipping from
the world's biggest oil field (in Saudi Arabia).
The board is 13x13 with 36 oil platforms laid out in a
square, an empty space between each pair.
Each one gets an "oil stones" in one of four colors.
At the start players roll dice to place their
five oil wells on unoccupied platforms. From there a turn is
either rolling a die to move the truck, train or both
or to move an oil rig to capture an exposed "oil stone".
An empty truck can buy oil from an adjacent rig.
The train is used to pick up empty platforms.
The goal is to collect at least one of each color to qualify
to win. After that, they score points for each "stone"
they have and for related achievements, not least having
earned the most money.
[more]
Namibia
Brian Robson; Mücke Spiele; 3-4; 90
Players are merchants in the African nation, competing for
gold/silver/copper/diamonds, selling them and converting
the proceeds to prestige.
Each player is assigned 3 of the 4 commodities and a single
mine. Turn order is bid for with the minimum bid being equal
to the round number and all players paying, even if they
drop out early. The top two bidders also lose victory
points. Then players complete mines, start new ones and
prospect by placing two cubes adjacent to the previous mine
(which may block out other types of mines).
As mining cubes run out the older mines are replaced by
black cubes which means they no longer produce.
They also extend railroad tracks, which are otherwise used
by all. There are also trucks which carry ore from the
mines. Rails extend to ports and players decide which
single commodity each port will handle. Eventually ore
reaches these ports where it is sold at an initial price and
at half price if too much of it is sold. On the other hand,
if the demand has not been reached, the price will be
increased the next round (though demand decreases).
Finally players can convert money to prestige
points, but as turns go by it gets more and more expensive.
Uses the same pieces as
Giganten.
[more]
Merkator
Uwe Rosenberg; Lookout Games; 1-4; 120
Players are merchants based in
Hamburg after the Thirty Years War (1648) in this
pick-up-and-deliver vehicle. Fulfil an order and receive a
new and more difficult one; you may also choose to fulfil
the original one again as well, though there is a maximum
limit of orders that can be held. These orders are worth
points, but may be exchanged in order for special cards that
provide extra goods at some cities or more points if a
special condition is satisfied. Certain cities provide a
resource called "time" while others require spending it.
"Time" can also be used to go along with another player on a
trip fulfil orders.
[more]
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