Card Game

One-hundred years ago, The Infinity Engine was shattered and its reality-bending shards have destroyed most of the world. Now, it falls upon you to gather your forces, defeat your adversaries, and rebuild the Infinity Engine! Will you survive?

Shards of Infinity combines an unprecedented level of strategy and customization into one small box. Rather than competing for points, players must outlast their opponents and reduce their health to zero, which can be done in a number of ways. Each player starts the game with a basic deck of cards, and they can acquire new cards from a central display of six cards (as in Ascension) and add these new cards to their deck or use them immediately, depending on what they are.

Every character starts with fifty health and zero mastery. On each turn, you can spend one gem (a.k.a., money) to gain a mastery point. The more mastery you have, the more powerful your cards become. This lets even the weak cards in your starting deck become more powerful as the game progresses. If you reach a total of thirty mastery, you can activate your Infinity Shard, which instantly defeats your opponent.

As you acquire new cards, you can employ allies and champions to craft your strategy. Mercenary cards can be added to your deck as in other deck-building games or they can be played immediately from the center row for their ability; this adds even more drama to each player's turn as a key mercenary flip can alter the very outcome of the game!

Will you neutralize your opponents before they can fully master the Infinity Shard? With careful planning and aggressive gameplay, only one player can emerge the winner!

Gem Rummy is similar to standard Gin Rummy except each card has a background color & gem symbol; Kings have two background colors; (Jokers are included but are not used in hands). Adding colors to each card allows for more interesting combinations (like having all eight gems in hand). Another difference is that (2) 6-sided dice are used at the beginning of each hand to establish the "Knock number", and also the "Diamond number" for a special meld called "Queen's Diamonds".

The object is to get your hand down to a few points of Deadwood by getting Melds.

There are 3 phases to each hand: 1) DEAL & ROLL; 2) CARD PLAY; 3) SHOWDOWN & SCORING.
Cards in Melds and Lay-offs will not score for your opponent, but have no inherent point values themselves. Cards not in Melds or Lay-offs are called Deadwood and might add points to your opponent’s score.

There are 4 different Melds available: Sets, Runs, Stashes, and Queen’s Diamonds (the latter two are new).

SET: At least 3 cards of the same rank (i.e., 5, 5, 5).
RUN: At least 3 consecutive cards in the same suit (i.e., 6, 7, 8, all clubs).
STASH: At least 4 cards of the same gem color (i.e., 4 Emeralds).
QUEEN’S DIAMONDS: Any Queen + one designated Diamond card that is determined by the initial roll number on the dice. Both dice are rolled to find one number (i.e., 3 and 4 = 7, indicating 7 of Diamonds is the card). An “11” or “12” indicates JACK of DIAMONDS.

Also, "Gem Parts" is a bonus players can earn by having all 8 gems at the end of a hand.

A new minimum score rule keeps the game moving along nicely.

—description from the designer

Shamans try to restore harmony in a world threatened by Shadows. You'll need to pick a side.

The game combines with ingenuity: hidden roles, competitive play and an original card playing mechanic.
Each played card allows you to stabilise the spirit world, perform a Ritual, acquire an Artefact ; and together they will bring you closer to the final showdown between Shadows and Shamans.
When time comes, the victor will be the one who managed to read through his rivals and stuck to the right side in this never-ending confrontation.

—description from the publisher (translated)

The Japanese tea ceremony is a tradition centred on spirituality and servitude. Preparing and presenting a beautiful matcha (tea) for your guest is the ultimate expression of culture, ceremony and respect.

In Matcha, players attempt to collect the utensils (chadogu) they need to perform a tea ceremony by matching tea ceremony (otemae) cards on the table by either their number (1-4) or suit (tea, water, bowl, & scoop.) Cards are played secretly, and sometimes it will be to your advantage not to match at all.

With just 18 otemae cards and an assortment of chadogu tokens, Matcha provides plenty of strategy for players who must decide when and where to play their cards to the table.

Game #4 in 'The Mike Line' of games from Grail Games.

A cooperative game where the players attempt to clean out an infestation of hostile aliens from a derelict spaceship. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, players take on the roles of Space Marines pitted against hordes of Genestealers.

Players choose from six different combat teams, each consisting of two Space Marines with different abilities. Each player receives three Action cards for each of his combat teams. After all of the Space Marines have fallen into formation, prepare for the first wave of Genestealers.

Game play is quick and easy to learn. Each game is played over a series of rounds, broken up into phases. During the Choose Actions Phase, each player must secretly determine which of the following Action cards they wish to play on their Space Marines: Support, Attack, or Move + Activate. You can't pick the same Action card next round, so choose wisely.

Action resolution keeps all players involved while the overwhelming odds inspire them to work together to survive. The Action Resolution Phase consists of each player revealing and carrying out their chosen Action. The lowest number card goes first, which means Attacks are resolved after Supports. Support tokens enable Space Marines to re-roll, so make sure to cover your fellow Blood Angels.

The Genestealer Attack Phase happens after all the Actions have been resolved, so hopefully you thinned out the swarms since you have to roll higher than the number of Genestealers in the swarm to successfully defend. Finally, an Event card is drawn to spawn more alien adversaries. Once all the Genestealers have emerged from the darkness, its time to move forward, drawing a new location card. And then it's back into the fight!