Industry / Manufacturing

The Chamberlain is searching the realm for a new "Craftmaster to the King" and sets a contest for all of the smiths and crafters in the land. The first one to forge four items from a list of the King's favorite weapons and trinkets will be honored as First Among Crafters and Smiths. But watch out, because the other crafters and smiths will try to outdo you at every opportunity. Are you ready to forge your destiny?

In King's Forge, players are craftsmen and craftswomen seeking to become the favorite of the King. A variety of dice represent the raw materials (metal, wood, gems, and enchantment) and those same dice can be used to gather new dice and purchase roll-modifiers, or saved and rolled in an attempt to meet the requirements to craft the items on the King's list. An early lead is not a sure path to victory and other players will out-maneuver and out-build you whenever possible. Careful dice management, advance planning, fierce competition, and nail-biting luck will carry you to winner's circle.

Gutenberg is a board game for 1-4 people in which players will play as the pioneers of printing in the 15th century. By carrying out orders, they will build their wealth and fame. By improving their printing workshops and gaining the support of patrons, they will develop their production capacity. The game will be won by a printer who boasts the greatest recognition and wealth.

By bidding for specific actions, players will develop their workshop, acquire new fonts, inks and decorations. The unique system of rotating gears allows you to combine bonuses and earn a large number of points.

The game is won by the player with the most points after six rounds.

Furnace is an engine-building Eurogame in which players take on the roles of 19th-century capitalists building their industrial corporations and aspiring to make as much money as they can by purchasing companies, extracting resources, and processing them in the best combinations possible.

Each player starts the game with a random start-up card, the resources depicted at the top of that card, and four colored discs valued 1-4.

The game is played over four rounds, and each round consists of two phases: Auction and Production. During the auction, 6-8 company cards are laid out with their basic sides face up. Players take turns placing one of their discs on one of these cards, but you cannot place a disc on a card if a disc of the same value or color is already present. Thus, you'll place discs on four cards.

Once all the discs are placed, the cards are resolved from left to right. Whoever placed the highest-valued disc will claim this card, but first anyone with a lower-valued disc on this card will gain compensation, either the resources depicted multiplied by the value of their disc or a processing ability (exchange X for Y) up to as many times as the value of their disc.

Once all the cards have been claimed or discarded, players enter the production phase, using their cards in the order of their choice. Each company card has one action — either production or processing — on its basic side and two actions on its upgraded side. During the production phase, you can use each of your cards once to gain resources, process those resources into other resources or money, and upgrade your cards.

At the end of four rounds, whoever has the most money wins.

Furnace also includes capitalist cards that contain unique effects, and if you want, you can choose to deal one out to each player at the start of the game. For an additional challenge, you can require players to create a "production chain", with each newly acquired company card being placed somewhere in that chain and locked in position for the remainder of the game.

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

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

•••

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

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

In Tinners' Trail, set in 19th century Cornwall, you represent a mining conglomerate at the height of the tin and copper mining industry. You must buy plots of land across Cornwall in auctions and survey them for tin and copper, always managing your "work points" and money effectively.

Once you have a mine in place, it's time to extract the ore and (ideally) make a profit, but the deeper your mine goes, the more expensive the process gets. To reduce the cost of mining, you can place developments, such as ports, train stations, and adits (drainage tunnels), but there's only so many improvements to go around. Once you have made your money — trying to time the market to sell when prices are high — you can invest it in industries outside of Cornwall, which gains you victory points. The earlier you invest, the better the return. Can you outplay the competition and make the most money, or will you be left without two shillings to rub together?

This edition of Tinners' Trail differs from the original 2008 version in several ways. The player count, for example, is now 1-5 instead of 3-4, and the resources on the board are now set up via tiles instead of die rolls to maintain variability while reducing the randomness. Dual-use cards are now an important part of the game, giving you information before an auction or an extra boost after an auction.

With lead development and expansion designs by David Digby