Worker Placement

As one of the leading scientific researchers in the galaxy, you're in high demand. You've spent the last two years on Alarria, a small terrestrial planet several light-years from Earth. You've been studying the diverse indigenous fauna, and your field research has already yielded some incredible results. However, your days as a simple scientific researcher are about to end.

An asteroid roughly the size of a small country has been picked up on radar hurtling towards Alarria — a planet killer. Your research work has been put on hold as the greatest minds on the planet have been recruited to develop plans. Time is running out as each second brings the asteroid closer to Alarria. Where will you focus your efforts? Which plan has the best chance to succeed? There's no time to waste. If something isn't done soon, the planet itself might cease to exist. Three distinct plans have been set into motion, each with a razor thin chance of succeeding:

A powerful laser is tracking the asteroid's approach and will fire as soon as it comes within range in hopes of reducing it to a mere pebble.
An energy shield might be just enough to deflect the approaching asteroid, altering its course and saving Alarria.
In a final desperate attempt to preserve some of the unique species of the planet, an evacuation plan has been ordered. The nearby forest moon, Fortuna, has been tested and can support life, and thankfully it's out of the blast zone. You just need to move as many of the species as possible before impact.

How to Save a World is a worker-placement game with hand-building and resource management. Each turn, you assign workers to perform critical tasks or spend action cards to help advance your goals. At the end of each round, the projects will be assessed and the asteroid will move ever closer. Can you make the right decisions to avert disaster in this competitive science-fiction game?

—description from publisher

Hello, and welcome to Galactic Cruise. Here, we offer our guests something special: the comfort of a luxury cruise with the innovation of space travel. As the first company to offer extended-stay space vacations, we are excited to have you working for us! As a supervisor of this company, you’ll be expected to not only build these ships and satisfy our guests, but also to help the company thrive by enhancing our company network, inventing new technologies, and growing our workforce. We are a united company, and you’ll often find that what another supervisor does will make your job easier. Let me be clear, though, this is a competition. Our current CEO will be stepping down in three years, and the supervisor who comes out on top will take his place.

On your turn, you will either place a worker to take two actions in the ever-expanding network, launch a ship and send one of your workers to space as a pilot, or recall all your earthbound workers to collect funding bonuses. Actions include acquiring blueprints, constructing ships, attracting guests, and building developments–connections between locations that increase action selection throughout the game. You will also be affecting resource markets that ebb and flow with the actions of all the players.

Throughout the game, you will also be competing with your fellow supervisors to complete company goals, which will earn you progress cubes throughout the game. Progress cubes are also placed when you launch ships, and when a certain number of cubes are placed onto the company’s progress track, the game ends, and the player with the most Victory Points becomes the new CEO of Galactic Cruise.

Do you still think you have what it takes to work for us? You do? Great. Let’s get started.

—description from the publisher

Travel the spectacular 800 mile long Arizona Trail as you take in the sights and sounds of the mountains, canyons, plateaus and deserts seeking out the amazing variety of wildlife such as the Roadrunner and Javelina, while avoiding the Gila Monster. From Saguaro National Park, the Sonoran desert, through the largest Ponderosa pine forest on Earth and into the Grand Canyon, you will interact with the incredible diversity of Terrain, Flora and Fauna found in State 48... aka Arizona.

Players will call upon the legendary Jackalope and Lost Dutchman to aid in their travel. Turn order is determined for each round of travel and actions through a unique movement and observation mechanism. Players will need to acquire an interesting blend of key Natural and Personal resources to obtain advantages and create their own mural of Arizona wonders through efficient placement of polyomino depictions.

After 8 weeks/rounds of travel, the player who builds a reserve of the most Arizona Grit and Superstition Gold is declared ... TRAILBLAZER

-description from publisher

In Everdell Duo, you either compete against your single opponent or play co-operatively with another player to earn the most points. You accomplish this by placing workers to gather resources, then use those resources to play cards face up in front of you, creating your own woodland city.

Cards may be played from your hand or from the face-up area on the board called the meadow. However, only cards touching the sun or moon token may be played from the meadow, and players move these tokens each time they perform a turn. Therefore, planning for and timing which cards you play is critical.

Each game you try to achieve various events, the requirements of which differ from game to game, making certain cards and combinations more important to pursue.

The game lasts for four seasons, then players add their scores to determine the winner. If you're playing co-operatively, check the requirements for the chapter you are playing to see whether you have won.

—description from the publisher

It's Restaurant Week in Bistro Bay! Restaurants are competing in food challenges, while also planning an epic meal to impress a celebrity critic. As one of 1-5 players in Critter Kitchen, you'll send your chefs into the city to gather ingredients to create amazing meals and demonstrate that your restaurant is the best in town.

Each round, new random ingredients are placed in locations throughout the city. Players simultaneously and secretly plan which locations to send their three chefs to, hoping to collect the best ingredients. Some chefs are fast, but can gather only one item, while others can carry three items but arrive late. Rumors are also available at locations and provide guidance on what the critic desires.

Challenges revealed in rounds 1-6 offer the players opportunities to earn stars for crafting dishes with specific ingredient requirements. After round 7, the players must create an epic meal to impress the celebrity critic and cater to their appetites. A multitude of different critics, rumors, and restaurateurs mean every game is fresh!

—description from the publisher