Dominion: Alchemy – 40% Off!
From BGG:
“There are strange things going on in your basement laboratories. They keep calling up for more barrels of quicksilver, or bits of your hair. Well it’s all in the name of progress. They’re looking for a way to turn lead into gold, or at least into something better than lead. That lead had just been too good of a bargain to pass up; you didn’t think, where will I put all this lead, what am I going to do with this lead anyway. Well that will all be sorted out. They’re also looking for a universal solvent. If they manage that one, you will take whatever they use to hold it in and build a castle out of it. A castle that can’t be dissolved! Now that’s progress.
Dominion: Alchemy is an expansion, and can’t be played by itself; to play with it, you need Dominion, or a standalone expansion to Dominion (Dominion: Intrigue). Those provide the Basic cards you need to play (Treasure, Victory, and Curse cards), as well as the full rules for setup and gameplay. Dominion: Alchemy can also be combined with any other Dominion expansions you have.”
Dominion Dark Ages – 35% Off!
From BGG:
“Times have been hard. To save on money, you’ve moved out of your old castle and into a luxurious ravine. You didn’t like that castle anyway; it was always getting looted and never at a reasonable hour. And if it wasn’t barbarians it was the plague, or sometimes both would come at once, and there wouldn’t be enough chairs. The ravine is great; you get lots of sun, and you can just drop garbage wherever you want. In your free time you’ve taken up begging. Begging is brilliant conceptually, but tricky in practice since no one has any money. You beg twigs from the villagers, and they beg them back, but no one really seems to come out ahead. That’s just how life is sometimes. You’re quietly conquering people, minding your own business, when suddenly there’s a plague, or barbarians, or everyone’s illiterate, and it’s all you can do to cling to some wreckage as the storm passes through. Still, you are sure that, as always, you will triumph over this adversity, or at least do slightly better than everyone else.
Dominion: Dark Ages is the seventh addition to the game of Dominion. It contains 500 cards but is not a standalone game. It adds 35 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, plus new bad cards you give to other players (Ruins), new cards to replace starting Estates (Shelters), and cards you can get only via specific other cards. The central themes are the trash and upgrading. There are cards that do something when trashed, cards that care about the trash, cards that upgrade themselves, and ways to upgrade other cards.”
Gear and Piston – 55% Off!
From BGG:
“It is 1888, and everywhere you turn, people are talking about the horseless carriage. They are also talking about Jenatzy and Cugnot, Benz and Diesel, Atkinson and Butler – visionaries now remembered for their passion to create, to progress, and to succeed. But this game is not about them, these giants of engineering.
No, in Gear & Piston, you play one of the unsung heroes of history, an engineer of meagre means but great ambition, trying to build a prototype for picky investors seeking to profit from the future of transport. Will you make a name for yourself as an automotive pioneer, change the history of motorized transportation, and win the race that is Gear and Piston? With a lot of skill and a little luck, maybe. If nothing else, try not to blow yourself up in the process.
In the game, each player builds an automobile prototype by taking actions in different locations. You may patent brand-new parts in the Patent Office, look for rejected, volatile pieces of machinery in the chaos of the Junk Yard, try to gain an edge through the Back Alley, and finally build your prototype in the Workshop. All this just to please the two investors who are doing the rounds of the different engineering outfits, and who will be evaluating your rickety mess of an automobile. Good timing, keeping an eye on your competitors, and even a dash of luck are all you need to succeed in this business. So grab a wrench, some elbow grease, and your wits, and put some gears and pistons together!”
Monty Python Fluxx – 41% Off!
From BGG:
“Monty Python themed version of Fluxx. The random and chaotic nature of the Fluxx engine makes it a perfect vehicle for the crazy world of Monty Python!
At the start of the game, each player holds three cards and on a turn a player draws one card, then plays one card. By playing cards, you can put new rules into play that change numerous aspects of the game: how many cards to draw or play, how many cards you can hold in hand or keep on the table in front of you, and (most importantly) how to win the game.
The card mix focuses on Holy Grail with other references added from Flying Circus and other Python material. For example, one win condition card might require you have to have the Knights who Say Ni and a Shrubbery card face up in front of you.”
Heroes of Normandie – 33% Off!
From BGG:
“The time is summer 1944. The Sun shines on Normandie hedgerows. Gentle wind, fields of bright flowers, and in the background, the romantic staccato of machine gun fire in the morning. In these typical French countryside landscapes, thousands of men are about to fight. And die. Bravely like heroes, or cowardly like wussies. But only heroes really matter. Those you see in Hollywood Golden Age war movies. Here lies the inspiration for Heroes of Normandie; here is what the game has to offer: explosive and fast-paced battles; the pleasure of butchering your enemies through MG42 walls of lead; and the ability to crush Nazi bastards under tons of shells – basically, blood and guts.
A miniatures game without miniatures, Heroes of Normandie is a fast-paced WW2 strategy wargame inspired by Hollywood war movies. A tactical scale board-game opposing two players and two armies, with the Germans on one side and the Americans on the other. Players use order tokens to determine initiative and to bluff. While a single six-sided die determines combat, action cards are played to spice things up. Secretly plan your attacks and outwit your opponent. Block the opposing strategy and surprise the enemies. Deploy your units and don’t turn back!”
Trajan – 37% Off!
From BGG:
“Set in ancient Rome, Trajan is a development game in which players try to increase their influence and power in various areas of Roman life such as political influence, trading, military dominion and other important parts of Roman culture.
The central mechanism of the game uses a system similar to that in Mancala or pit-and-pebbles games. In Trajan, a player has six possible actions: building, trading, taking tiles from the forum, using the military, influencing the Senate, and placing Trajan tiles on his tableau.
At the start of the game, each player has two differently colored pieces in each of the six sections (bowls) of his tableau. On a turn, the player picks up all the pieces in one bowl and distributes them one-by-one in bowls in a clockwise order. Wherever the final piece is placed, the player takes the action associated with that bowl; in addition, if the colored pieces in that bowl match the colors shown on a Trajan tile next to the bowl (with tiles being placed at the start of the game and through later actions), then the player takes the additional action shown on that tile.
What are you trying to do with these actions? Acquire victory points (VPs) in whatever ways are available to you – and since this is a Feld design, you try to avoid being punished, too. At the Forum you try to anticipate the demands of the public so that you can supply them what they want and not suffer a penalty. In the Senate you acquire influence which translates into votes on VP-related laws, ideally snagging a law that fits your long-term plans. With the military, you take control of regions in Europe, earning more points for those regions far from Rome.”
Tsuro Veterans of The Seas – 39% Off!
From BGG:
“The forces of nature can be as devastating as the wrath of the daikaiju! With Tsuro of the Seas: Veterans of the Seas, an expansion for Tsuro of the Seas, you’ll be able to add more excitement to your game with the Tsunami (Tidal Wave) and Uzushio (Whirlpool) tiles. This tile set also provides you with hope, however, as the Taihou (Cannons) and the Mystic Portal (Magic) may help you to overcome the devastation and be victorious!”
Caverna: The Cave Farmers – 35% Off!
From BGG:
“Following along the same lines as its predecessor (Agricola), Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement game at heart, with a focus on farming. In the game, you are the bearded leader of a small dwarf family that lives in a little cave in the mountains. You begin the game with a farmer and his spouse, and each member of the farming family represents an action that the player can take each turn. Together, you cultivate the forest in front of your cave and dig deeper into the mountain. You furnish the caves as dwellings for your offspring as well as working spaces for small enterprises.
It’s up to you how much ore you want to mine. You will need it to forge weapons that allow you to go on expeditions to gain bonus items and actions. While digging through the mountain, you may come across water sources and find ore and ruby mines that help you increase your wealth. Right in front of your cave, you can increase your wealth even further with agriculture: You can cut down the forest to sow fields and fence in pastures to hold your animals. You can also expand your family while running your ever-growing farm. In the end, the player with the most efficiently developed home board wins.
You can also play the solo variant of this game to familiarize yourself with the 48 different furnishing tiles for your cave.
Caverna: The Cave Farmers, which has a playing time of roughly 30 minutes per player, is a complete redesign of Agricola that substitutes the card decks from the former game with a set of buildings while adding the ability to purchase weapons and send your farmers on quests to gain further resources. Designer Uwe Rosenberg says that the game includes parts of Agricola, but also has new ideas, especially the cave part of your game board, where you can build mines and search for rubies. The game also includes two new animals: dogs and donkeys.”
Jaipur – 38% Off!
From BGG:
“Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan. You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city.
But that’s not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja’s court.
You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.
A card game for two seasoned traders!
When it’s your turn, you can either take or sell cards.
If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking 1 card from the market or swapping 2 to 5 cards between the market and your cards.
If you sell cards, you get to sell only one type of good per turn, and you get as many chips from that good as you sold cards. The chips’ values decrease as the game progresses, so you’d better hurry ! But, on the other hand, you get increasingly high rewards for selling 3, 4, or 5 cards of the same good at a time, so you’d better wait!
You can’t sell camels, but they’re paramount for trading and they’re also worth a little something at the end of the round, enough sometimes to secure the win, so you have to use them smartly.
Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck.”
Pixel Tactics 3 – 36% Off!
From BGG:
“Pixel Tactics 3 can be played as a standalone game or used to expand previous Pixel Tactics games. It also comes with new play modes such as Epic Constructed (60-card decks), Cube Draft, and more that you can access by combining all three Pixel Tactics games (plus any mini-expansions)! Pixel Tactics 3 contains 25 new heroes including:
- Gerard Matranga / Mercenary – Ignore wave restrictions on attacking!
- Alice Zero / Failsafe – Who allows you to switch leaders mid-game!
- Arret Draamivaar / Dispatcher – Recruit up to 14 heroes at once!
- Cherri Seneca / Dreamseer – Drawing cards is a free action for you!
- Udstad / Golem – Forces your opponents to flee in terror!
Pixel Tactics 3 is a head-to-head game of tactical combat for two players. Each player has an identical deck of 25 cards, from which they draft a leader. The leader’s abilities alter vastly the strategy and playability of every other card in the deck, making the game playable in 25 different ways.
In the game, players take turns placing cards and attacking. Each card can activate in various ways, taking on offensive capabilities in the front rows of the unit, or support powers in the back rows. Cards can also be played as orders – powerful single-time effects that can turn the tide of battle.
Play continues until either player’s leader is defeated. A typical game is best of three or five rounds.”
Grog Island – 52% Off!
From BGG:
“Even for the mightiest pirates there comes a time when they must retire from their lives of invading and plunder — but what’s coming afterward? Well, on the five peninsulas of Grog Island, they can invest their loot in rock-solid businesses, such as peg-leg shops, carpentries for figureheads, workshops for voodoo dolls, or the infamous “Grog Hole” pub.
The core of Grog Island is its unique auction mechanism, which uses five colored dice. The players use these dice and the pips on them to create and raise bids. While the winner of an auction can claim buildings on certain peninsulas, the players who have passed are also rewarded: Not only do they receive goods like grog bottles or treasure maps but they also visit merchant ships where they can trade these goods for money, parrots or treasure chests. The auction mechanism of Grog Island makes for tactical and interesting gameplay as in certain moments, passing can be almost as rewarding as winning an auction. Finding the right balance between bidding and backing out is the key to winning.
The game ends as soon as one player has claimed a certain number of buildings, then all players score the secret goal cards they received both at the start of and during the game. These cards may give points for majorities on peninsulas as well as for claiming certain types of buildings or collecting certain goods. The player with the most points wins.”
Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition – 40% Off!
From BGG:
“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.”
