exploration

Lewis & Clark

On November 30, 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from Napoleon. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson decided to send two explorers – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – to discover this huge terra incognita.

Lewis & Clark is a board game in which the players manage an expedition intended to cross the North American continent. Their goal is to be the first to reach the Pacific. Each one has his own Corps of Discovery that will be completed by the Native Americans and the trappers met during the journey. He has to cleverly manage his characters and also the resources he finds along the way. Beware, sometimes frugality is better than abundance.

Lewis & Clark features dual use cards. To be activated, one card must be combined with another one, which becomes unavailable for a while. Thus, players are faced with a constant dilemma: play a card or sacrifice it. During the game, each player acquires character cards that enlarge his hand, building a crew that gives him more options but it needs to be optimized as he will recycle his cards more slowly. This new "handbuilding" mechanism fits strongly the historical background.

Since the aim of the game is to be the first on the Pacific coast, the timing and the opportunistic use of the other players' positions are crucial.

Lost Valley: The Yukon Goldrush 1896

"Gold, Gold, Gold – A Ton of Gold" – this was the Seattle headline heard 'round the world announcing the discovery of great stores of gold in the Klondike. This was the beginning of an exodus of would-be prospectors dreaming of a better life, a chance to escape the toil caused by the financial recessions and bank failures of the 1890s. Gold rush hysteria was pulsing through the veins of the country and tens of thousands were willing to risk it all for the chance to have it all.

Lost Valley is a game about the Klondike stampede that rushed North and about the grueling journey that these would-be prospectors undertook, traversing Steep Mountain passes with heavy loads through severe weather and with ever-dwindling resources.

During the course of the game, players must explore an ever-expanding lost valley in hopes of discovering a gold vein in a mountain, a virgin forest to provide timber, or a fishing spot along the river to provide food. The map will be different each time you play, so you never know what lurks around the corner. As you set out from the outfitters with everything you own strapped to your back, you must balance carefully the resources that you need. Of course you will need tools, dynamite and timber to extract mountain gold, but you'll need to make sure you have room for food, rifles and fishing poles to help you survive in the wilderness.

In addition to expanding the player count to 2-6 (from 3-4) and shortening the playing time, the second edition of Lost Valley rebalances the gold nugget distribution; provides a third path to victory; and (thanks to the included expansion modules) allows players to build canals, learn new abilities, and stake claims on fish traps, gold mines and mills.

Join the Stampede

Two by Two

The floodwaters are rising and the animals need to board the ark!

In this deceptively simple game, players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs in order to rescue stranded animals.

Animals that are rare at the end of the game are worth more points than those that are common.

Two by Two is #6 in the Valley Games Modern Line.

Awards

Games 100 - Runner-up for Best Family Game (2012)

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

ZombieTown

The dead are rising from the graveyard which is conveniently located in the middle of your residential neighborhood. There is no way out of the neighborhood, so you must scrounge as much stuff (weapons, barricades, survivors, etc.) from your neighbors to last until help arrives. The game lasts for 10 days, and by the 10th day the neighborhood is filled with zombies to say the least...

In this game, designed for 3-6 players, each player represents one of the survivors in a neighborhood being overrun by zombies. Players try to hole up and fight off the zombies while collecting victory points. Points are awarded for killing zombies, finding guns or survivors and taking over houses in the neighborhood.

Publisher's Page : http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombietown/

Expanded by

ZombieTown 2: Road Rage
ZombieTown 3: Big Boom Theory

Isla Dorada

In the middle of the 1930s, an expedition of treasure hunters crashes its zeppelin in the middle of an unknown and mysterious island where legends tell that several old and powerful civilizations have left many sumptuous treasures.

Each player is one of these brave explorers who joined the expedition with old maps giving clues on where some of these treasures can be found. However, it is clear that the land is barely known and dangerous, so, all explorers decide to travel together, in one solid group by hiring beasts of burden and exotic items in the native villages while trying to avoid the many dangers of the inhospitable land of Isla Dorada...

Which one of these brave explorers will find the most valuable treasures, avoid the numerous curses and accomplish it's rewarding destiny?

In Isla Dorada, players will have to move an unique pawn portraying the expedition of explorers. Each player will collect cards of different kinds (movements, actions, destinations, curses, destinies, bonus or malus cards) and will have to build the best hands turn after turn (time is limited to a certain number of game turns) to be able to chose the expedition destinations in a succession of bids and negotiations. Doing so, the players will try to put their hands on treasures while avoiding their cursed destinations and trying to block other player's objectives.

The very easy rules can be learned in a few minutes whilst the rich and elegant game play assure an always renewed experience.