Open Drafting

Around five thousand years ago, a resilient group of farmers and hunters built a thriving community on the Orkney Islands of Northern Scotland. Rather than discarding their empty shells, broken tools, bones, and other waste, they used them to form large mounds of earth over hundreds of years. Later generations dug into these midden piles to create a series of rooms and tunnels to shelter from the harsh winds and cold winter months.

The aim of Skara Brae is to gather various resources in order to feed, clothe, and shelter the growing number of settlers. Players take turns drafting cards and using their workers to furnish, cook, craft, clean, and trade. At the end of each round, players need to provide for their settlers and will likely create more midden that needs to be cleaned up. After four rounds, the player with the most points wins.

—description from designer

Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor is a stand-alone game within the Forest Shuffle family and introduces a brand new habitat and features new species with new abilities and bonuses to explore. As in the earlier original Forest Shuffle, in Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor players compete to build the most valuable environment by placing trees and shrubs, then attracting species to these locations to create an ecologically balanced habitat for flora and fauna.

What's new in Dartmoor is the introduction of TERRAIN cards that are played horizontally and serve as a home or feeding ground for different species than trees or shrubs. Due to the nature of the terrain, species can only be placed above and below a terrain card. Deer and other species stay clear from bogs or peat areas in the moorland. They need their drink, but won't feel safe at dwells or next to rivulets. So players have to be watch out, where to place their species.

Like its predecessor, Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor comes with a unique back side: Each of the 180 cards of the deck can be placed face down, creating a bog, if the action allows it. The caves in Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor now will be drafted at the beginning of the game and offer asymmetrical starting conditions. On top, the number of tree symbols has been reduced from eight to six to enable bonuses more easily.

The game mechanism stays untouched: To start, each player has six cards in hand, with cards depicting either a particular type of tree, shrub or terrain or two moor dwellers (animal, plants), with these latter cards being divided in half, whether vertically or horizontally, with one dweller in each card half. On a turn, either draw two cards — whether face down from the deck or face up from the clearing — and add them to your hand, or play a card from your hand by discarding other cards to pay the cost, then putting that first card into play. In the end, the player with the highest score wins.

Flower Fields is a competitive tile-placement game, where your goal is to create an attractive flower garden.

The game is played over 3 Seasons, each composed of a variable number of rounds. On your turn, you must perform 1 action, either taking Flower tiles from the Field and placing them in your garden, taking Bees from the Field, or placing Bees in your Garden.

When taking Flower tiles, you should pick the next tile after the Sun marker in the circle around the Field, but you can spend Bees from your reserve and place it on that tile to "skip" it. Manage your Bees wisely and pick the best Flower tiles.

Flower tiles must connect to at least another tile in your garden. Create large flowerbeds of the same color and use your Bees to pollinate them and increase their value. Collect Hives and get rid of Spider Webs to gather more Bees at the end of the Season.

A Season ends when the last Flower tile has been taken from the circle around the Field. At the end of the third Season, the game ends.

You score your most valuable area of each color: Red/Yellow/Blue areas are worth points equal to the number of spaces times the number of Bees in that area; white areas are worth 1 point for each space in that area. You also get 5 points for each full row and/or column in your Garden board.

—description from the publisher

The fate of creatures touched by the spark of intelligence hangs in the balance. You must recruit strong animal allies to your city and unlock the potential of your citizens if your settlement is to survive the days to come.

Citizens of the Spark is a variable set-up card game in which players take turns attracting citizens, taking actions, and claiming sparks. The more citizen cards a player has of a specific type, the more powerful that citizen's action becomes. The player with the most sparks in their city when the deck runs out wins!

Play with 7-10 animal citizen types per game, chosen from 30 available creatures and combined into one shared deck. Every citizen type has distinct powers, making each game's action combos uniquely variable.

On your turn, recruit multiple citizens by selecting an available group of cards, placing them in your city tableau, and grouping like citizens together to grow their action strength. Next, select one type of citizen in your tableau to activate, taking the effect of the card and discarding it from your city. But keep watch on rival cities, because when you activate a citizen, all players can follow your move and activate a matching citizen of their own!

1949: Germany, still in ruins from WWII, is split in two, as the Iron Curtain of the Cold War descends. East Germany and West Germany become bitter rivals, each wanting to show its system is superior. Which will reconstruct quicker? Which will make its people happier? Socialism vs Capitalism; collectivism vs individualism - which will triumph?

Wir sind das Volk! ("We are the people!" — the main slogan of the East German demonstrators in 1989) recreates the history of the divided Germany, from the Berlin Airlift to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Flowing from how the 84 individually designed action cards are played, each game is different. There are many possible strategies. Will East Germany build the Wall or stem the exodus of its citizens another way?

East vs West: as a player, you take the role of East or West Germany. Use your action cards wisely. Build up your economy and increase the living standards of your people. Don’t fall behind, or you will face widespread unrest. Also win the contest for international prestige. Precise planning is the key to victory. But be careful! Even the best plans may be derailed by events like the 1973 Oil Crisis or the Monday demos. Mass protests, that may seal your fate, are always on the horizon.