Bluffing

Football Strategy boils the sport down to play calling skill. The game's structure is simple: The defensive player selects one of 10 formation cards (ranging from an 8-man line "goal line stand" to a pass prevent defense with five safeties); the offensive player calls a play (a choice of 20, plus punting). Cross-indexing the choices on a matrix shows what happened. Except for "long gains", the outcome of each play against each defense is always the same. Dice are rolled only to determine the distance of long gains and the results of kickoffs and field goal attempts.

Each play consumes a prescribed number of seconds, from 15 to 45. The players mark off the time and play four quarters, following the standard football rules.

For variety, three types of offense ("pro style", "aerial game" and "ball control") are available, each with a different, though not radically different, results matrix.

Simple though it is, the game is engrossing (see the "More Information" screen), and play generally follows realistic patterns, though the handling of punts and on-side kicks (both more effective than in real life) is questionable. Also, because the design changed little after its debut in 1959, the plays and defenses don't reflect the state of the art in contemporary professional football. This is the era of Otto Graham, not Eli Manning.

For those who are so inclined, Football Strategy lends itself to mathematical analysis. Many years ago, an entrant into the tournament at Origins went to the trouble of using game theory to generate charts showing the optimal mix of plays in different situations. He reached the finals but, in a victory for human intuition over number crunching, lost the championship game by a touchdown and a field goal.

Prince John is coming to Nottingham! Players, in the role of merchants, see this as an opportunity to make quick profits by selling goods in the bustling city during the Prince's visit. However, players must first get their goods through the city gate, which is under the watch of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Should you play it safe with legal goods and make a profit, or risk it all by sneaking in illicit goods? Be mindful, though, as the Sheriff always has his eyes out for liars and tricksters and if he catches one, he very well may confiscate those goods for himself!

In Sheriff of Nottingham, players will not only be able to experience Nottingham as a merchant of the city, but each turn one player will step into the shoes of the Sheriff himself. Players declare goods they wish to bring into the city, goods that are secretly stored in their burlap sack. The Sheriff must then determine who gets into the city with their goods, who gets inspected, and who may have their goods confiscated!

Do you have what it takes to be seen as an honest merchant? Will you make a deal with the Sheriff to let you in? Or will you persuade the Sheriff to target another player while you quietly slip by the gate? Declare your goods, negotiate deals, and be on the lookout for the Sheriff of Nottingham!

Sheriff of Nottingham is the first game in the Dice Tower Essentials Line from Arcane Wonders.

Game description from the publisher

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Android: Netrunner is an asymmetrical Living Card Game for two players. Set in the cyberpunk future of Android and Infiltration, the game pits a megacorporation and its massive resources against the subversive talents of lone runners.

Corporations seek to score agendas by advancing them. Doing so takes time and credits. To buy the time and earn the credits they need, they must secure their servers and data forts with "ice". These security programs come in different varieties, from simple barriers, to code gates and aggressive sentries. They serve as the corporation's virtual eyes, ears, and machine guns on the sprawling information superhighways of the network.

In turn, runners need to spend their time and credits acquiring a sufficient wealth of resources, purchasing the necessary hardware, and developing suitably powerful ice-breaker programs to hack past corporate security measures. Their jobs are always a little desperate, driven by tight timelines, and shrouded in mystery. When a runner jacks-in and starts a run at a corporate server, he risks having his best programs trashed or being caught by a trace program and left vulnerable to corporate countermeasures. It's not uncommon for an unprepared runner to fail to bypass a nasty sentry and suffer massive brain damage as a result. Even if a runner gets through a data fort's defenses, there's no telling what it holds. Sometimes, the runner finds something of value. Sometimes, the best he can do is work to trash whatever the corporation was developing.

The first player to seven points wins the game, but not likely before he suffers some brain damage or bad publicity.

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.

The first expansion for Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, Pegasus adds two new supplemental game boards featuring the Battlestar Pegasus and the planet New Caprica, seven new characters, two plastic Basestars, as well as new Destination, Crisis, Loyalty, Quorum, Super Crisis, and Skill cards.

The new Pegasus board can be used by itself or together with the New Caprica board to create the game you desire – the Pegasus alone for the additional firepower she provides, or add the New Caprica board to simulate the rebellion on the new human colony, bringing the game to an epic level.

New rules introduce the ability to play as a new character type – the Cylon Leader, with a new Treachery Skill card type.

From the Box:
"On behalf of the officers and crew of the Pegasus, it's a pleasure to see you all. Welcome back to the Colonial Fleet." - Admiral Helena Cain

The arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus heralds a new era in the lives of the Galactica crew and the Colonial government, bringing badly needed manpower and firepower to humanity's ongoing fight against the Cylons. However, under the command of Admiral Cain there is no place for compassion or mercy. Now brutal necessity and hard choices erode humanity's moral compass. The Cylons, in turn, are changing as well. The more they are exposed to humans, the more their individual agendas begin to guide their actions. In a time of suspicion and desperate need, the line between right and wrong grows less and less distinct.

The Pegasus Expansion for Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game brings players the next chapter in the popular Syfy series. In addition to more Destination, Crisis, Super Crisis, Loyalty, and Skill Cards, this expansion introduces many new card types such as Treachery Skill Cards, representing the underhanded methods used to sabotage humanity's struggles. New characters in the expansion allow players to play as Cylon Leaders, who can win or lose based on their own mysterious motivations. New gameboards allow characters to explore both the Pegasus and New Caprica. Finally, with the New Caprica Objective Card and board, humanity will be subjected to Cylon rule, and must defend themselves from their oppressive overlords until Galactica can return to attempt a daring rescue.

"We fight 'em until we can't." - Kara Thrace

Expands:

Battlestar Galactica