Hidden Victory Points

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Gather your friends and family together around the Christmas tree to collect beautiful ornaments, gifts, and stockings.

Cards are arranged in the center of the playing area forming a tree with presents placed below. Players will choose and place either a light or tinsel card onto the tree. Using the point total from all lights or tinsel cards on the tree (of the type just placed) will determine your selection value. That selection value is then used to pick an ornament hanging on the tree or select a present/stocking from beneath the tree. Ornaments and presents/stockings all score points in a variety of ways.

—description from the publisher

Our planet has run out of resources, and we are forced to move. We have discovered a series of planets and sent our rovers to test their environment with the hope of colonization. Our rovers have confirmed 1-6 viable colonization options.

Planet Unknown is a competitive game for 1-6 players in which players attempt to develop the best planet. Each round, each player places one polyomino-shaped, dual-resource tile on their planet. Each resource represents the infrastructure needed to support life on the planet. Every tile placement is important to cover your planet efficiently and also to build up your planet's engine. After placing the tile, players do two actions associated with the two infrastructure types on the tile. Some tile placements trigger "meteors" that make all planets harder to develop and prevent them from scoring points in the meteor's row and column.

Planet Unknown innovates on the popular polyomino trend by allowing simultaneous, yet strategic turn-based play via the Lazy S.U.S.A.N. space station in the center of the table.

—description from the publisher

In one faraway land, there is always winter. Once a year Winter Queen announces a special competition for her court sorcerers. Using enchanted crystals they create magical ornaments and the Queen pays for them with golden coins. The one to collect the most coins till the end of the competition is to become the next Queen’s advisor.

In the abstract family game Winter Queen, you take on the roles of Winter Queen's sorcerers, creating magical ornaments out of enchanted crystals. Each turn, you either place a new crystal onto the board or use already placed crystals to score victory points depending on the spell books you and your opponents have.

What if the animals were the ones who ran the zoo?

…Presumably, this wild government would be built upon the support of fellow creatures and fueled by the fame, attention, and prestige of wide-eyed visitors. Naturally, the most aspirational beasts would lobby for a position in the star exhibit, and the lead star would be elected Zoo Mascot.

In order to join the star exhibit, each species must campaign its way up the hierarchy of enclosures with the majority support of animal voters. And the lead star will be the species that has earned the most laurels from both raving fans and jealous rivals along the way.

How does one gain support and earn laurels? Through crafty politicking, clever negotiations, and ruthless schemes. There can only be one Zoo Mascot, after all.

Where are you going? That is the ultimate question of Zoo Vadis.

Zoo Vadis is an evolution of Reiner Knizia’s classic negotiation game, Quo Vadis? It retains the elegant, political gameplay that fans have come to love while introducing many innovations and improvements by:

Enhancing the 3-player game and tailoring the board to all player counts through neutral, bribable figures—roaming peacocks
Widening the player count with a second game board for 6-7 players
Expanding the possibilities for strategic negotiation with asymmetric animal abilities
Increasing tactical opportunities with new special laurel tokens
Broadening the appeal of the theme and presentation with vibrant zoo art by Kwanchai Moriya and Brigette Indelicato
Enlivening the production with chunky animal figures and functional player screens

Like the original design, the game ends immediately when the Star Exhibit is full. Only the animals who have reached the Star Exhibit qualify for victory, and the winner is the player with the most laurels.

–description from publisher

The human race has exhausted all the energy available on planet Earth. If they are to advance into an intergalactic civilisation they must harness the power of a solar system. They must build a dyson sphere.

Solar Sphere is a dice placement/manipulation game with elements of engine building, resource management, and set collection. Set hundreds of years in the future in a time when competition will move mankind forward, but when collaboration is also sometimes necessary. In Solar Sphere, each player commands a mothership. Their primary task is to build a dyson sphere. But, with crew to hire and aliens attacking the sphere, there are many other ways to earn prestige and become the saviour of mankind.

In this dice placement game, players can manipulate their dice using drones. However, players have a limited supply of drones, which are also used to upgrade dice placement spots or to support in fights against aliens. Players can always recycle used drones to get them back into their supply. Or, spend them for instant benefits.

Players simultaneously start the turn by rolling their dice. Dice act as spacecraft and are sent, in payer order, to locations to gather resources, build the dyson sphere, build or recycle drones, upgrade worker spots, hire crew, and fight off aliens.

Crew come with their own unique benefits that will help players in a variety of areas. Chain crew abilities together to build a good engine, and retire them for extra benefits. Making space for new crew members.

As the game progresses, more aliens will arrive to defend a sun that they also need. Fight them off alone, or join forces with other players and share the rewards. However, if no one takes on the rebellious aliens, then you all lose points.

Solar Sphere combines a combination of mechanisms with a powerful theme to bring players an immersive experience.

—description from the designer