Long Cow is the moo-mentous card game of competitive cattle construction! Build cows by collecting heads, tails, and middles from the deck. The longer the cow, the more points you score. Bolster your barn with holy cows, robot cows, and even a cross-bred Franken-cow — but make hay before your herd is hit by a tornado, or worse, an alien abduction! Round up the biggest bovines and party like the cows came home!
Rewild: South America is a unique, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game for nature enthusiasts with a heart for wildlife that can be enjoyed in 45-60 minutes.
The thematic focus of Rewild is on the fauna and flora of the South American ecoregions Caatinga, Gran Chaco, Cerrado, Pantanal, Amazon rainforest and Atlantic rainforest. These 6 ecoregions and all their inhabitants exhibit diverse interrelationships and dependencies. One of the core concerns of game author Bruno Liguori Sia, who lives in Brazil himself, was to depict and convey this complex network in a game.
In terms of game mechanics, Rewild has a straightforward foundation. On their turn, each player plays a card and chooses one of two depicted actions. After carrying out this action, the player can attract animals and plants on display to their ecosystem. As soon as a player has 8 (or 9) face-up animal cards in front of them, the end of the game is triggered.
However, you shouldn't be fooled by this essentially simple basis, as every game of Rewild features countless decisions and plays differently every time due to the enormous variety of cards. Questions that players are faced with include:
How do I generate enough resources (water, minerals, seeds) to expand my ecosystem? Where do I place which biomes so that their effects optimally promote the expansion of my ecosystem? Do I focus on one biome or several? Would it make sense to upgrade my existing biomes?
When do I get all my action cards back into my hand to have more options and resources available again? Do I do this once, twice or even three times and what are my opponents planning? Will I still have enough time to play all my cards in time for them to count towards the effects of my animal cards?
Which animal and plant cards do I bring into my ecosystem to create an optimally linked ecosystem that generates as many victory points as possible? Are there any cards with immediate effects that would be interesting for a retrigger? Do I keep an animal species until the end, or do I immediately generate points by making it the target of a predator?
The player who best answers and masters all these questions in a game of Rewild receives the most victory points and wins the game.
Welcome back to the Rococo era! Louis XV reigns in France and is hosting a grand festival in the gardens of Versailles. Everyone is clamoring for you to provide tantalizing and delicious pastries for the event. This isn't just about your pâtisserie – it's about creating a presence at the most prestigious festival of the era that provides the chance to gain everlasting fame, prestige, and opportunities to gain favor with important nobles.
In La Pâtisserie Rococo, players represent the pastry shops (les pâtisseries) and pastry chefs (les pâtissiers) that are preparing pastries for sale and for show at the Versailles Garden Festival. Using the unique deck-building mechanism from Rococo, players hire staff to create recipes, acquire quality ingredients, and bake delicious desserts. Then comes the challenging decision of whether to sell these delectable creations for profit or present them for possible awards. The player who creates the most acclaimed desserts will gain fame and the respect of the king and his nobles.
The Warring States period was a pivotal era in Chinese history, marked by constant warfare, significant bureaucratic and military reforms, and the consolidation of power among rival states. The game is set around 260 BCE, a time when the seven warring kingdoms were locked in fierce conflict, both against each other as well as against nomadic groups like the Xiongnu, who posed a threat from the north. Although sections of the Great Wall of China had been constructed as early as the 8th century BCE, the later years of the Warring States period saw a surge in defensive building projects. Before Qin ultimately unified the kingdoms, extensive fortifications, watchtowers, and new sections of the wall were erected to bolster defenses.
In Tianxia, players take the role of leaders of noble families who want to earn prestige, as well as favors from the powerful rulers that govern the seven Warring Kingdoms.
The game lasts four rounds in which you install Governors in the regions and bolster the power of rival ruling houses, thus gaining their favor. You also sell goods to merchant ships that sail the Chinese shores to gain wealth and other benefits. Nevertheless, you must not forget about the nomadic warriors who pose a constant threat on the northern borders of the seven kingdoms. Thus, you must train soldiers and build walls and towers to weaken the invaders and protect your interests, earning prestige in the process.
Each round, the nomads advance toward the borders of the seven kingdoms and gather even larger numbers. When they reach the border, a battle takes place that affects all players.
At the end of the game, the player who was the best governor, politician, merchant, and protector wins.
Queen Crab is coming to visit Burgundy, and you want to decorate your village for her royal beach party. Find the right decorations and collect points. The animals of the royal guild will help you when you have finished decorating their shops - but can you find the animals before the others?
In The Sandcastles of Burgundy, you collect points by finding the right decorations, so can you remember under which sand castle the animals of the royal guild are hiding? Roll your two dice at the same time, then you can use them to either look for decorations in sand castles, putting them in your warehouse if you find one, or transport previously collected decorations to your village with your cart. If you have collected two decorations of one color, you can look for the matching animal of the royal guild.
As soon as a player reaches Queen Crab's beach party, the dice round ends. Whoever has collected the most points wins!