Fantasy

Romance of the Nine Empires

This description's a bit tricky, so let's take it in stages...

Countermay: The Tapestry of Worlds, the crossroads of civilizations beyond imagining. After a thousand years of war, Countermay is dying. Battles, curses, extraterrestrial parasites, demonic influence, and other hazards have ruined much of the planet. The food is running out, and the threat of starvation looms. The only way to save Countermay is to seize undisputed control. Until then, armies march, fed with the ever-dwindling food as they churn farmland into mud with their boots. Can you save Countermay from its invitable doom?

Romance of the Nine Empires is a fictitious interactive collectible card game (CCG) set in the fantasy world of Countermay. In the game, players assume command of one of nine vastly different warring factions — including steampunk aliens, a dark god-king's crusade of conversion, displaced WWII-era American GIs, and a risen empire of the undead — to expand, glorify, or defend their empires. Through its fictitious fifteen-year history, players have shaped the world of Countermay through their individual and collective achievements, and the results are reflected in the story and the current state of the empires.

Romance of the Nine Empires is based on the Legend of the Five Rings CCG and was created for use in the movie The Gamers: Hands of Fate, mimicking the way that L5R tournament results affect the actual story in future expansions of that CCG but allowing the movie creators more freedom to design the game to match the characters in the movie. L5R publisher AEG agreed to be the in-movie publisher of the fictional Romance of the Nine Empires, but as a result of Kickstarter funding for The Gamers: Hands of Fate, it decided to create a real-life version of R9E.

This game represents the 15th Anniversary World Championship Edition of Romance of the Nine Empires, and (to slip into the movie storyline for a second) it holds the decks used by the top-placing players for each faction that made it to the quarterfinals at the 2012 World Championships at Gen Con Indy.

Dominion Big Box (English)

Dominion, the popular strategy card game now comes to you in this massive combination pack jammed full of the best boxed sets, additional cards and extras.

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. There 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.

Contains the core Dominion card game and the expansions Alchemy and Prosperity. Additionally it contains promo card sets which may vary and a full color play mat. These are only available with this set.

Part of the Dominion series.

Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan

A Strategy Game of Hidden Movement

The night is quiet, but somewhere in the darkness shadows are moving. A ninja and a double-crossing samurai sneak into the Lion Clan castle, intent on completing their dastardly tasks. Though alert, the Lion guards are as yet unaware that anything is amiss...

This tense standalone game pits Lion Clan samurai guards against a Scorpion Clan ninja and his traitor ally. As the ninja or the traitor, you will use hidden movement to sneak into the castle, eliminate guards, find your mission objective, and escape. As the guards, you will use your wits and superior numbers to thwart the sinister Scorpion.

In this exciting new game set in the world of Legend of the Five Rings, you must use your limited resources, powers of deduction, and a touch of guile to outthink and outmanoeuvre your opponent. Daring, planning, and a little luck will determine whether you triumph or meet your end on 3 feet of steel.

[Publisher blurb]

Terra Mystica

In the land of Terra Mystica dwell 14 different peoples in seven landscapes, and each group is bound to its own home environment, so to develop and grow, they must terraform neighboring landscapes into their home environments in competition with the other groups.

Terra Mystica is a game with very little luck that rewards strategic planning. Each player governs one of the 14 groups. With subtlety and craft, the player must attempt to rule as great an area as possible and to develop that group's skills. There are also four religious cults in which you can progress. To do all that, each group has special skills and abilities.

Taking turns, the players execute their actions on the resources they have at their disposal. Different buildings allow players to develop different resources. Dwellings allow for more workers. Trading houses allow players to make money. Strongholds unlock a group's special ability, and temples allow you to develop religion and your terraforming and seafaring skills. Buildings can be upgraded: Dwellings can be developed into trading houses; trading houses can be developed into strongholds or temples; one temple can be upgraded to become a sanctuary. Each group must also develop its terraforming skill and its skill with boats to use the rivers. The groups in question, along with their home landscape, are:

Desert (Fakirs, Nomads)
Plains (Halflings, Cultists)
Swamp (Alchemists, Darklings)
Lake (Mermaids, Swarmlings)
Forest (Witches, Auren)
Mountain (Dwarves, Engineers)
Wasteland (Giants, Chaos Magicians)

Proximity to other groups is a double-edged sword in Terra Mystica. Being close to other groups gives you extra power, but it also means that expanding is more difficult...

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.