Hand Management

Designed by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects is a fun and engaging family game that includes a true, three-dimensional palace that players compete to build. Players strive to become the wealthiest of Cleopatra’s architects by constructing the most magnificent and valuable parts of her palace.

Players, however, will be tempted to deal with shady characters and trade in materials of dubious origins in order to help them build faster. While these corrupt practices might allow an architect to stay a step ahead of the rest, they come with a high price – cursed Corruption Amulets honoring Sobek, the Crocodile-god. When Cleopatra finally strolls into her new palace, at the end of the game, the most corrupt architect (the one with the most amulets) will be seized and offered as a sacrifice to her sacred crocodile! Only then will the wealthiest architect, from among those still alive, be selected and declared the winner of the game.

“The component design in Cleopatra is the most innovative we’ve undertaken to date,” said Days of Wonder CEO, Eric Hautemont. “While it’s still a board game, the dozens of 3D pieces – Column walls, Doorframes, Obelisks, Sphinxes, and Palace Throne – all create the sense that you’re constructing a royal palace.”

“The game play really forces players into continually weighing the risks and rewards between taking enough corruption to enhance your position in the game, but not so much that you are forced out of the game at the end,” said the game’s co-designer, Bruno Cathala. “It’s a classic ‘push your luck’ dilemma that continually raises the tension level higher and higher until the game reaches its climax.”

Description from the publisher.

In Brass the players represent industrialists in northern England during the hay-day of the industrial revolution. Each player needs to build an economic engine that surpasses the other by the time railways are established and the foreign markets have been saturated with English cotton.

The goal of the game is to have the most points at the end of the game. These are obtained in three ways:
1) Building industries and having them successfully utilized
2) Building canal or rail connections to cities that have many successfully utilized industries
3) money at the end of the game (very inefficient).

Game play is divided into two phases - the Canal Phase and the Rail Phase. At the beginning of each phase players are dealt a hand of cards that represent a mix of the cities and the available industries.

On his turn, a player has two actions (except first turn of the game where there is only one action) and must spend a card for each one. Available actions include:
1) building an industry
2) building a connection [either canals or rails based on phase of the game]
3) develop their own industries which removes lower victory point industries from a player's board in favor of higher victory point ones
4) sell cotton
5) take a loan (absolutely necessary a few times a game.

At the end of a player's turn they replace the two cards they played with two more from the deck. Turn order is determined by how much money a player spent on the previous turn - from lowest spent first to highest spent. This turn order mechanic opens some strategic options for players going later in the turn order allowing possibility of back-to-back turns.

After all the cards have been played the first time (deck size adjusted for number of players) the Canal phase ends and a scoring round commences. After scoring, all canals and all of the lowest level industries are removed for the game, new cards are dealt and the Rail Phase begins. Rail phase is identical to Canal Phase except players may now occupy more than one location in a city and a double connection build (though expensive) is possible. At the end of the Rail Phase there is another scoring round and a winner is crowned.

The use of the cards limit where you can build your industries but any card can be used for the develop, sell cotton or building connections actions. This leads to a strategic timing/storing of cards. Resources are common so that if one player builds a rail line (which requires coal) they have to use the coal from the nearest source which may be an opponent's coal mine which gets that coal mine closer to scoring (i.e. being utilized).

[Side Note]
Brass provides a game of timing and positioning yourself to have your opponents propel you victory. The rule book is notorious for being difficult to understand (though has been significantly fixed in the most recent edition). After a few turns the game reveals itself to being far more simple than the rules suggest. A teacher or viewing a how to play video is definitely worth the time.

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.

From the back of the box:

You have 10 DAYS in ASIA - touring by train, airplane, ship, or on foot. Chart your course from start to finish using destination and transportation tiles. With a little luck and clever planning, you just might outmaneuver your fellow travelers. The first traveler to make connections for a ten day journey wins the game.

In this fourth installment of the 10 Days in series, the players are touring Asia, arranging their tiles on the ten days (open spots) of their trays to create a string of consecutive steps that, once completed, creates one consecutive journey. Tiles of neighboring countries may be placed side-by-side on the tray, with trains, ships and airplanes connecting distant countries depending on where they are located. Tiles cannot be rearranged in a tray, but must be replaced one at a time from the few face-up tiles available to all players, or from a random draw.

This installment introduces railroads which allow players to connect any countries that have stops along a selected rail line. These work in addition to the now-familiar airlines (connecting countries of the same color), and ocean liners (although now you have two oceans to contend with).

You have 10 DAYS IN AFRICA™ – touring by plane, car, and on foot. Chart your course from start to finish using destination and transportation tiles. With a little luck and clever planning, you just might outwit your fellow travelers. The first traveler to make correct connections for a ten-day journey wins the game.

Tiles are arranged on a player's tray, then a new tile is drawn. It can be used to replace a tile on one of the "days." Then that tile or the drawn tile are discarded face-up to one of three discard piles. Tiles may not be rearranged, only replaced.

You must complete your journey correctly, connecting by
foot - bordering country tiles set side-by-side,
air - countries of the same color with a same-colored airplane between them, or
automobile - a car can drive between two countries and a third country which borders them.

Whoever is the first to connect all 10 days wins the game.

This is the second installment in the 10 Days in series.