Hand Management

Description from BoardgameNews.com:

Dragons, knights, trolls, princesses, dwarves, and other fantasy characters make up the world of Drachenherz. Dragons are searching for treasure, of course, but they're being pursued by dragon hunters, and those are the two sides that face off in this game. On a turn, a player plays one or more cards with the same motif, then refills his hand to five cards. The cards are always played onto the part of the gameboard that has the same motif. By laying out cards, one collects point cards that are already present. This is how a dragon collects treasure cards – but the third dragon hunter defeats the dragon, while a second knight protects the princess. Other combinations await the players, and whoever collects the most points wins.

Drachenherz is part of the Kosmos two-player series.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)
Board Game Arena (real-time)
BrettspielWelt (real-time)

Here's a description of the game from Phalanx Games:

In the late 18th century, the fast growing population of the emerging United States of America showed an increasing interest in the Wild West. Millions of poor immigrants were arriving from Europe, and the population of cities on the East Coast swelled enormously. Endless plains and huge mountain ranges – thinly populated by Native Americans and rich in game, farmland and minerals - started luring large numbers of them. Settlers traveled in wagon trains, and established themselves ever further west until they finally reached California and the Pacific coast.

The players represent shrewd businessmen who benefit from passing wagon trains, continuously moving westward across the North American continent. It is divided into huge vertical tracts of land: New England, the East Coast, the Great Plains, the Midwest, the West and finally, California.

Alexandros is an abstract strategy by Leo Colovini, thematically inspired by the military expansion of Alexander the Great. It includes the "triggered scoring for all" mechanism, which can be considered a trademark of the designer, implemented in many of his games. It forces players to evaluate their actions in relation to what other players can earn.

The goal of the game is to have more points than other players when the trail/border markers are depleted or someone scores 100 points first.

Gameplay is driven by cards, used for all actions. Clockwise, players are first obliged to move the figure representing Alexandros across a triangular grid. They do this by playing cards with symbols matching those on destination spots. This is the core concept of the game - when the figure of Alexandros is moved, it leaves a trail of borders behind it. Soon, these borders begin to form provinces composed of triangular spaces: either with symbols or empty.

After moving Alexandros, players either build their hand of cards by drawing them, take over provinces or trigger scorings if the situation on the board suits them.

Players can occupy provinces by playing cards from their hand and placing tokens representing their leaders on spaces with corresponding symbols. When a scoring is triggered, provinces earn points equal to the number of empty spaces in them. Players can take over empty provinces and/or those occupied by other players. Each player has only four generals and placing them costs valuable cards - the game requires careful hand management and point-to-point movement - to create worthy provinces for scoring.

Awarded title of "Best Family Strategy Game" by Games Magazine in 2005.

In his last will, your rich uncle stated that all of his millions will go to the nephew who can enjoy money the most. How to find out which nephew should be rich? You will each be given a large amount of money and whoever can spend it first will be the rightful heir. Visit the most exclusive theatres or eat in the most expensive restaurants. Buy old properties for the price of new ones and sell them as ruins. Host a huge party in your mansion or on your private boat. Spend like your life would depend on it. Spend to become rich! If you're the first to run through the money on hand, you'll receive the rest of his inheritance – oh, and win the game.

In Last Will, each player starts with a certain amount of money, an individual player board, two errand boys and two cards in some combination of properties and helpers. At the start of each round, lay out cards from the appropriate decks on the offering boards; the four regular decks are properties, companions, events, helpers and expenses, with special cards forming a deck of their own. The particular mix of cards varies by round and by the number of players.

Each player then chooses a plan for the round, with each plan indicating the number of cards the player draws (drawn immediately from the four regular decks in any combination), how many errand boys he can use later (one or two), the number of actions available to him that round, and his spot in the playing order that round. In the playing order for that round, players then take turns choosing an action with their errand boy(s), with those actions being:

Take a card on display and add it to your hand.
Draw a card from any regular deck – This can be chosen only once by each player.
Visit the opera and spend $2.
Adjust the value modifiers in the property market.
Take a player board extension, thereby giving you room to play more cards.

Players then take actions in the playing order for that round, with each player having as many actions as indicated on his plan. Actions let you play one-time events (which have a cost, possibly variable); helpers and recurring expenses (which are placed on your individual player board); and properties (which cost money and may depreciate over time). You can often play companions with events or recurring expenses – of course you should bring a date to the opera or a horse on your yacht! – to increase their cost. You can also use actions to activate cards on your player board, possibly with one or more companions and always with the goal of spending money. Helpers and special cards can provide you with unique powers to further boost your profligacy.

At the end of each round, you must discard down to two cards in hand, and properties that can depreciate do so; this is good as a player cannot go bankrupt if he owns properties, and the only way to get rid of properties is to sell them, which regretably puts money back in your hands unless the depreciation was intense or you manipulate the market.

If a player has no money and no properties, he declares bankruptcy and the game ends at the conclusion of that round; otherwise the game ends after seven rounds. The player who has the least money (or even who is most in debt) wins.

Game description from the publisher:

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) is a board game in which one player takes on the role of the treacherous overlord, and up to four other players take on the roles of courageous heroes. During each game, the heroes embark on quests and venture into dangerous caves, ancient ruins, dark dungeons, and cursed forests to battle monsters, earn riches, and attempt to stop the overlord from carrying out his vile plot.

With danger lurking in every shadow, combat is a necessity. For such times, Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) uses a unique dice-based system. Players build their dice pools according to their character's abilities and weapons, and each die in the pool contributes to an attack in different ways. Surges, special symbols that appear on most dice, also let you trigger special effects to make the most of your attacks. And with the horrors awaiting you beneath the surface, you'll need every advantage you can take...

Featuring double-sided modular board pieces, countless hero and skill combinations, and an immersive story-driven campaign, Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) transports heroes to a vibrant fantasy realm where they must stand together against an ancient evil.

Compared to the first edition of Descent: Journeys in the Dark, this game features:

Simpler rules for determining line of sight
Faster setup of each encounter
Defense dice to mitigate the tendency to "math out" attacks
Shorter quests with plenty of natural stopping points
Cards that list necessary statistics, conditions, and effects
A new mechanism for controlling the overlord powers
Enhanced hero selection and creation process
Experience system to allow for hero growth and development
Out-of-the-box campaign system

Reimplements

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent 1st edition Conversion Kit

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (second edition) - Conversion Kit