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Board Games
Visitors to SPORE will also get the chance to try out the following board games.
1. Settlers of Catan
In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. Multi-award-winning and one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to non-gamers and gamers alike.
2. Citadels
Players seek to build a collection of districts worth from one to eight points. Once someone has built eight districts, the game is over after that round ends and the player with the highest total value wins. However to facilitate the process (and make the game interesting), players sequentially choose a character from a rapidly dwindling pool of eight each turn. The characters give players special abilities for the turn.
3. Saboteur
Players take on the role of dwarves. As miners, they are in a mine, hunting for gold. Suddenly, a pick axe swings down and shatters the mine lamp. The saboteur has struck. But which of the players are saboteurs? Will you find the gold, or will the fiendish actions of the saboteurs lead them to it first? After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner.
With the help of Dwarf Cards, the players are assigned their role: either miner or saboteur. The roles are kept secret- they are only revealed at the end of the game.
The Start Card and the three Goal Cards are placed onto the table, each seven card widths apart from each other. The Goal Cards are placed face-down. The gold is on one of the Goal Cards, but nobody knows which.
Players have cards in hand. On a player’s turn, he must do one of three things: place a Path Card into the mine, play an Action Card in front of a player, or pass.
The Path Cards form paths leading to the Goal Cards. Path Cards must be played next to a already-played Path Card. All paths on the Path Card must match those on the already-played cards, and Path Cards may not be played sideways.
The miners are trying to build an uninterrupted path from the Start Card to a Goal Card, while the saboteurs are trying to prevent this. They shouldn’t try and be too obvious about it, however, lest they be immediately discovered.
Action Cards can be placed in front of any player, including oneself. Action Cards let the players help or hinder one another, as well as obtain information about the Goal Cards.
Once a player places a Path Card that reaches the gold, the round is over. The miners have won and receive cards with gold pieces as their reward.
The round is also over if the gold could not be reached. In that case, the saboteurs have won and receive the gold pieces.
Once the Gold Cards have been distributed, the next round begins. The game is over at the end of the third round, with the player with the most gold pieces being the winner.
4. Cash & Guns
In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can’t get an agreement on the split! It’s time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!
Ca$h ‘n Gun$ will make you relive the best scenes of your favorite gangster movies. Fun, bluffing, and tough negotiations are guaranteed, but will you dare to play? It’s simply killing!
5. Bohnanza
Bohnanza is the first in the Bohnanza family of games and has been published in several different editions.
As card games go, this one is quite revolutionary. Perhaps its oddest feature is that you cannot rearrange your hand, as you need to play the cards in the order that you draw them. The cards are colorful depictions of beans in various descriptive poses, and the object is to make coins by planting fields (sets) of these beans and then harvesting them. To help players match their cards up, the game features extensive trading and deal making.
6. Bang!
“The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!” (From back of box)
This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.
7. No Merci
No Thanks! is a card game designed to be as simple as it is engaging.
The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options:
- play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card
- pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card
However, the choices aren’t so easy as players compete to have the lowest score at the end of the game. The deck of cards is numbered from 3 to 35, with each card counting for a number of points equal to its face value. Runs of two or more cards only count as the lowest value in the run - but nine cards are removed from the deck before starting, so be careful looking for connectors. Each chip is worth +1 point, but they can be even more valuable by allowing you to avoid drawing that unwanted card.
8. Jungle Speed
In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand — which can be hard to maintain during the many fits of maniacal laughter! The wooden Totem sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.
Each player is dealt a hand of cards. In order to win you must be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. Each turn, all of the players reveal one of their cards. If two cards are identical, those players must make a grab for the Totem. The faster player then gives their cards to their unfortunate adversary.
To add to the difficulty, certain cards are almost identical, which can trick a hapless player into grabbing the Totem by mistake — a grave error. Other cards force all players to make a grab at once, change the method of play, or otherwise add to the difficulty.
9. Hey That’s My Fish
A short game in which players control a number of penguins. The penguins move over hex-shaped ice tiles with 1, 2 or 3 fish on them. The player takes the hex from where the penguin started his movement from the table, thereby creating a gap which other players can’t cross. If a penguin can’t move, he’s taken from play. The player with the most fish in the end wins.
10. Guillotine
The French Revolution is famous in part for the use of the guillotine to put nobles to death, and this is the macabre subject of this light card game. As executioners pandering to the masses, the players are trying to behead the least popular nobles. Each day the nobles are lined up and players take turns killing the ones at the front of the line until all the nobles are gone. However, players are given cards which will manipulate the line order right before ‘harvesting,’ which is what makes the game interesting. After three days worth of chopping, the highest total carries the day.
11. Jurassic Jumble
The object of Jurassic Jumble is to be the first to construct a dinosaur by collecting all nine bone groups of one dinosaur and to swipe a bone off the table.
Players trade sets of cards, either all of the same dinosaur (value) or the same type of bone (color). All trades are made face down, simultaneously.
A player may use the Paleontologist card as a wild card to complete a dinosaur, but holding the card causes a penalty if someone else completes their dinosaur first.
A Fake Bone card draws a penalty for the player stuck with it at the end of the round.
The first person to collect a complete dinosaur takes a plastic bone from the table and then all the other players scramble to pick up a bone as well. There is one fewer bone in play than the number of players. Players get points for collecting a bone even if they didn’t complete their dinosaur.
12. Zooloretto
Each player uses small, large, wild, and exotic animals and their young to try to attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo. But be careful - the zoo must be carefully planned. Before you know it, you have too many animals and no more room for them. That brings minus points! Luckily, your zoo can expand. A zoo of a family game in which less is sometimes more…
Intermediate
1. Race for the Galaxy
In Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by game cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments.
Each turn each player chooses one action, but the others will share in the actions chosen, each player secretly and simultaneously chooses one of seven different action cards and then reveals it. Only the selected phases occur. For these phases, every player performs the phase’s action, while the selecting player(s) also get a bonus for that phase.
2. Dominion
In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can “buy” as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.
From the back of the box: “You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.”
“But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents wouldn’t be proud, but your grandparents would be delighted.”
Dominion is not a CCG, but the play of the game is similar to the construction and play of a CCG deck. The game comes with 500 cards. You select 10 of the 25 Kingdom card types to include in any given play — leading to immense variety.
3. Red November
Red November is a cooperative game in a gnomish attack submarine where everything is going wrong. The sub is descending and the water pressure increasing, the nuclear reactor is overheating, the nuclear missile launchers are pre-igniting, fires and water leaks are everywhere, there’s a giant Kraken looming nearby and there’s very little oxygen and vodka left. While the storyline feels more and more like a disaster movie, the players must get organized to solve the problems, divide the tasks among themselves to minimize the risks, and sometimes accept to sacrifice themselves for the common cause.
The game is played on the map of the submarine. The conditions in the submarine are represented by three disaster tracks: Asphyxiation, Heat and Pressure. During the game, these conditions get worse, and if anyone of them reaches its maximum value, the submarine is lost. In addition, various emergencies can occur which have to be dealt with swiftly, or they’ll also lead to the loss of the submarine.
Each turn, a player can move to a new location, and perform some action there. Such an action can be repairs (which will improve conditions on the sub and/or fix emergencies), removing obstacles (unblocking hatches, removing flooding or extinguishing fires) or stocking up on equipment (which will help with later actions). Each action is paid for with time. The more time a player spends on an action, the greater the chance of success. After each player’s turn, a number of events will happen; the more time was spent, the more events will occur. Such events will be the worsening of conditions in the submarine, or the triggering of emergencies.
If the Gnomes can keep alive long enough, rescue will arrive and the game is won.
4 Ticket to Ride
With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in 3 minutes, while providing players with intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.
5. St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a card game in which you acquire workers for income, build buildings for fame, and attract aristocrats to your city in order to gain the most fame at the end of the game.
Card game deals with ‘gracious living along the river Neva: the baroque palaces, wide boulevards, and imposing bridges of St. Petersburg. On May 16th, 1703, Czar Peter laid the cornerstone for the first building. Quickly, glorious buildings were added, always being expanded, so that Nobility (as well as victory-bringing Fame Points) may want to move in. But to accomplish this, one needs merchants who can bankroll the necessary Rubles, or the glory is over. The competition isn’t sleeping either, and can sometimes steal a desired card right out from under your nose.