Grid Movement

Darjeeling has two main board areas. The first is an array of squares representing one, two or three half-crates of tea in four different varieties (colors). Each player has a marker which moves about in the array, picking up tea at the rate of one square per turn. There are simple rules governing movement in this array and the players compete for the desirable squares.

Eventually, several times per game, each player has enough squares of a single color to fit them together so that the half-crates all make whole crates. Now he can make a tea shipment. This pays off in victory points in three different ways. First, there is a "demand" award of up to 6 VP depending on how long it has been since anyone shipped this variety. Second, if the shipment was of at least four crates, there is a flat bonus of 1 VP per crate.

Third and most pivotally, there are VP that will be awarded at the beginning of the player's next and subsequent turns. Each tea shipment is represented with cubes of the player's color (not the tea variety color) on a sort of barge. The new shipment of tea is always placed, in the other of the two main board areas, at the top of a column of all the recent shipments (the number of total shipments varying with the number of players in the game), so that as more shipments are made, the old shipments drift farther down the column and eventually out of play. At the beginning of your turn, you look to see where your shipments are in this column, and they pay out VP with better multipliers the higher they still are in the column. This constitutes the driving force of the game, as nobody else wants to see your shipment at the top of the column for several turns in a row. Players thus have an incentive to make a shipment even if they haven't yet assembled a large number of crates.

It's a race to 100 points. A runaway leader can easily take over if the rest of the table is not vigilant, so the best games of Darjeeling are those among vigilant players.

The galaxy has been a peaceful place for many years. After the ruthless Terran–Hegemony War (30.027–33.364), much effort has been employed by all major spacefaring species to prevent the terrifying events from repeating themselves. The Galactic Council was formed to enforce precious peace, and it has taken many courageous efforts to prevent the escalation of malicious acts. Nevertheless, tension and discord are growing among the seven major species and in the Council itself. Old alliances are shattering, and hasty diplomatic treaties are made in secrecy. A confrontation of the superpowers seems inevitable – only the outcome of the galactic conflict remains to be seen. Which faction will emerge victorious and lead the galaxy under its rule?

A game of Eclipse places you in control of a vast interstellar civilization, competing for success with its rivals. You will explore new star systems, research technologies, and build spaceships to wage war with. There are many potential paths to victory, so you need to plan your strategy according to the strengths and weaknesses of your species, while paying attention to the other civilizations' endeavors.

The shadows of the great civilizations are about to eclipse the galaxy. Lead your people to victory!

Galaxy Defenders is a sci-fi cooperative, tactical battle game in which 1-5 players fight together against an oncoming alien menace. Each player takes control of one or more agents with unique powers to defend the planet from the alien invasion. Gameplay revolves around a tactical combat system, using custom ten-sided dice. Each player sequentially plays his Agent turn and then one Aliens turn. Players carry out their turns [agent and aliens] in clockwise order until the last player finishes his Aliens turn. Once done, the game passes to the Event phase that will bring the players to the next round. Players may choose up to five agents:

Marine: Coming from U.S. Special Forces, the Marine is an excellent soldier who can manage different combat situations, especially multiple enemies.
Biotech: The Biotech is the most technologically adept agent in service. He can use Nano-Technology to heal wounds or control war drones.
Infiltrator: A deadly and stealthy agent. This lethal specialist prefers hiding in the shadows. She has fast movement and good short-range combat ability.
Sniper: A silent sharpshooter and expert in camouflage and ranged combat. The sniper has average movement and excellent long-range firepower.
Hulk: The Hulk was a successful mercenary and now is one of the best agents; although slow, he enjoys an extraordinary resistance to damage and has high firepower.

There is no "Alien player" in Galaxy Defenders; instead, the aliens are controlled by the game system itself, through an artificial intelligence system based on two types of cards:

Alien cards, which define the behavior of each different alien and detail its skills and combat abilities.
Close Encounter cards, which are used at the beginning of each alien turn to determine which aliens activate.

The combination of a unique AI for each alien species and the uncertainty about alien activation in a turn provides a realistic simulation of the chaos of battle and a sophisticated challenge for the players. Since having more agents brings more alien activations for the aliens, the turn structure allows the level of difficulty to scale dynamically based on the number of agents in play. If agents die during the game, the system "recalibrates" the difficulty to a reasonable and enjoyable level, so you still have a chance to complete the mission.

The battle for Earth will be carried out in a series of twelve missions organized in a completely story-driven campaign. Mission events influence future games in two different ways:

Each mission has multiple endings, and the outcome of any mission will change the flow of the story.
The agents gain experience during the missions. This experience transforms a good soldier into a perfect Galaxy Defender agent with multiple skills, basic and improved tactics, and the ability to use new devices, improved human weapons, and Alien technology.

With the downloadable Galaxy Defenders: Alien Mind variant, you can transform the game into a competitive affair, with one player becoming the alien mastermind and controlling the alien army and the card in play, attempting to thwart each mission undertaken by the Agents. To do this, the alien player completes his own game objectives, obtaining new "alien signals" that can be teleported onto the battlefield. This variant, which allows for play with up to six players, can be used in a single mission or for a whole campaign of Galaxy Defenders. Using Alien Mind may increase the game difficulty and is suggested only for expert players.

Official FAQ: http://www.galaxy-defenders.com/faq.php
Additional Missions: http://www.galaxy-defenders.com/mission.php
Galaxy Ball: http://www.galaxy-defenders.com/gb-cards.php

Ricochet Robots is less of a game and more of a puzzle, which explains why there's such an odd number of solutions possible. There's a four-piece modular board that forms a large room with walls spread around the board. There are also color-coded targets on boards. Placed on top of the surface are four robots. The idea for each turn/puzzle is to get the like-colored robot to a randomly selected target. The trick is that once a robot starts moving, it will continue to move until a wall or another robot stops it. Therefore, players are seeking a sequence of moves for the robots that will enable them to move the required robot to the target in the fewest moves.

Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends is a game played by masters of magic. Two to four summoners encounter each other in the Tash-Kalar arena, either in teams or each on his own, and prove their skill and strategy in a short but intense battle. By clever deployment of their minions, they create magic patterns for summoning powerful beings, and then use those to destroy their opponent’s forces or to prepare patterns for the ultimate legendary beings.

The game includes three different factions, each with a unique deck of beings to summon and one deck of legendary creatures. Players take turns placing their common pieces on the board, and if they succeed in creating patterns depicted on one of the cards in hand, they may play it. When played, the card summons a particular being and allows the player to perform an effect described on the card: a giant destroys neighboring pieces, a knight moves through enemy pieces, a warlord orders previously placed pieces to move and fight, an enchantress converts enemy pieces to player's own color, etc. After that, the player discards the card and the summoned being turns into a motionless piece which may be used in patterns for summoning other beings – or even be awakened and moved into combat by the effects of other cards.

Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends offers two game modes. In the standard mode you score points for fulfilling various quests set by the Arena Masters: controlling certain points or areas of the arena, destroying a number of enemy pieces in a single turn, performing a certain combination of summonings, etc.

In melee mode, your only goal is to entertain the crowd. You do that by destroying your opponents and making them beg (i.e., making them use the catch-up mechanisms) and by summoning legendary beings. After all, people want to see a dragon! Both modes can be played as a two-player duel or as a team game with teammates sharing pieces and legendary cards, but with each controlling his own faction. (The game includes a duplicate of one faction in a different color.) The melee mode can also be played as a fierce free-for-all battle, but don't expect alliances; to achieve a good score, you need to destroy all opponents evenly as you track points scored on each opponent separately, and your lowest score is your final score.

The rules of Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends are simple and easy to understand, but as you start to discover the tactics and are able to anticipate the opponent's moves and patterns, it turns into a real clash of wits.