Hand Management

Mermaid Rain is a Japanese game from the makers of Train Raider.

Over five rounds, players try to collect five different types of goods by moving around the sea. The game uses two phases: first is the "surf predicting" phase where players play melds of cards in a Taj Mahal-type mechanic. The melds determine player order, selection of "wave tile", and give other benefits. In the second phase, "surf riding", players place their wave tiles on the board and then use cards to move through the sea on the waves to collect goods.

The game is playable with English rules as the components are either language-independent or easily decipherable.

Game Summary
Setup: specific locations for subset of tiles, some face down; rest are to side, also face down. Deal out 7 cards (3 suits).

Each round, players simultaneously select a card to play (max 5 cards total) -- choose the pass card to pass for rest of round. The resulting poker-style combinations give bonuses (VP, or special powers); the ranking gives you player order for the round.

In order, select a face up sea tile (4 shapes, 2-3 hexes each, with one of 3 suits or wild). Then, in order, place the tile on the board and use some/all cards left in hand to move your mermaid around the board (playing card allows you to move mermaid to matching tile/space). Whenever on an island with token(s), look at face down tokens then add one of the tokens to your collection.

At end of round, sea tiles with the darker color are removed from the board. Any mermaids on them are displaced to one of the unoccupied starting locations (player's choice). Then, deal 7 cards per player (max hand size 9) and repeat.

Game ends after 5 rounds. Each player must discard 5 tokens (1 per symbol), or lose 5 VP per missing symbol. Then rank players' collections of sets of each type, awarding VP accordingly (rarer tiles, larger sets earn more VP). Most VP wins.

Catan: Traveler – Compact Edition is a travel version of Catan that recreates that gameplay experience with a few limitations based on the smaller size of the board.

In the game, players are trying to be the first to have ten victory points, with points coming primarily from cities and settlements built on the game board. On a turn, the active player rolls dice and players receive resources based on the die roll and what they've built on the board. The active player can then trade with opponents and build roads, cities and settlements depending on the resources in hand and available space on the board.

In this travel version of the game, the land spaces aren't individual hexes, but six pieces of material that can be rearranged in different ways to change up the game board. The player pieces and resource cards fit into drawers on the side of the game board, which folds into a trapezoid.

Catan: Traveler – Compact Edition includes a two-player variant using cards that allow one player to force a "trade" with the other. When this happens, the first player takes two cards from the opponent, then gives that player any one card in return.

This is a protected game due to fragile packaging and requires a Membership to play. See Game Associate for details.

This game is based upon Richard Borg's Command and Colors system. The world of BattleLore meshes history and fantasy together - putting players in command of an array of miniature troops on the battlefields of a Medieval Europe Uchronia at the outset of the Hundred Years War.

Drawing on the strengths of Memoir '44, this Days of Wonder game takes the time-tested Command and Colors system to a new level and offers gamers of many backgrounds a chance to fight medieval battles with a dose of epic fantasy.

In this fantastical re-imagining of the Hundred Years War, French and English armies are supplemented with Goblins and Dwarves mercenaries and even some creatures like the Giant Spider and the Earth Elemental! Just as important as the armies you have, though, are the Lore Masters you choose to aid you: Wizards, Clerics, Warriors and Rogues can all aid you with unique powers and spells in ways role-playing gamers will find familiar.

Note: This is a protected game due to fragile packaging and requires having a Membership to play. See Game Associate for details.

Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for "fireworks"—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order. (In Japanese, hanabi is written as 花火; these are the ideograms flower and fire, respectively.)

The card deck consists of five different colors of cards, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5. Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite, as in this game you hold your cards so that they're visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their cards. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of cards.

An extra suit of cards, rainbow colored, is also provided for advanced or variant play.

Hanabi was originally published as part of Hanabi & Ikebana.

From the Designers:
You are twisted. I can’t believe you actually want to put these adorable kittens in a blender! I guess that’s none of my business. Maybe you’re more of a dog person. Sure, kittens are curious by nature, but when they get in a kitchen full of dangerous appliances, it is up to you to save them.

This fast-paced card game has players working to save all of their own kittens before the unthinkable happens. But sometimes the only way to save your precious litter of kittens is to let those curious little cats learn the lesson of why you should never play in a Blender!

According to the box: A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a no kill cat shelter.

Objective:
Save your kittens and send your opponents' kittens to The Blender.

Setup & Play:
Put the game box top on the table, open-side up and place the oversized Blender card inside, face-up: that's The Blender. Place the oversized Box card face up in the base of the box: that's The Box. Leave a little space between The Blender and The Box: that's The Counter. Assign each player a Kitten color (red, green, blue or yellow), shuffle the deck, deal each player 6 cards and it's time to start saving adventurous kittens.

On each turn, players play two cards and then draw back up to 6. Kitten cards may be played into The Blender, The Counter or The Box. All other cards are played face up in front of the player so that all players can see which cards have been played.

Players can play Kitties on the Move to move kittens to or from The Blender, The Counter or The Box; the number on the card specifies the number of kittens that can each be moved 1 space. Playing a Blend card will destroy the kittens currently in The Blender, save the kittens in The Box, and move the kittens on The Counter into The Blender unless countered by another player's Blend "Pulse" card.

Players can move kittens around with other cards as well. Kittens in the Blender moves all of the kittens on The Counter or in The Box to The Blender. With These Cats in the Blender a player can move all cats of a chosen color from The Counter and The Box to The Blender. Kittens in the Box moves all kittens in The Blender or on The Counter to The Box, while Cats on the Counter moves all the kittens in The Blender or The Box to The Counter.

Total chaos reigns when the Dog's in the Kitchen as each player gives her hand to the player in the direction indicated on the card.

The game ends when all 16 of the Blend cards have been played. Saved kittens are worth 2 points each, blended kitties cost 1 point each. Highest score wins.

Contents: 1 oversized Blender card, 1 oversized Box card, 110 playing cards (64 Kittens: 16 in each of 4 colors - red, green, blue and yellow; 18 Kitties on the Move: 6 of each number; 16 Blends: 8 Regular Blend & 8 Blend Black; 4 Dogs in the Kitchen: 2 left & 2 right; 2 Kittens in the Blender; 2 Your Cats in the Blender; 2 Cats on the Counter; 2 Kittens in the Box), rules.