Medieval

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.

In the Year of the Dragon

Stefan Feld's 3rd game by Alea is Im Jahr des Drachen (In the Year of the Dragon).

Players take on the role of Chinese rulers around the year 1000. The game plays out in twelve rounds, with each round representing one month in a year that seems to go from bad to worse. Disease, drought, and attacks from the Mongols may claim lives, but make sure you have enough money to offer a tribute to the Emperor.

The game play is easier than it may appear. Every player has a set of "person" cards. Each round, you choose one action (most of which call on your workers' abilities) help you prepare for the months ahead. Then you play one person card, recruiting that person and placing him into one of your palaces. Each person brings different skills and abilities to help you ride out the year. (Farmers help you gain rice to survive a drought month, Tax Collectors raise money, etc.) At the end of each round, that month's event is triggered, which may cost you some of your workers, some money, or give you points.

Careful planning is the key to surviving "the year of the dragon," but survival alone may not win you the game.

Carcassonne: The Discovery

The Discovery is a new stand-alone Carcassonne game.

The inhabitants of Carcassonne have discovered a new region far away from their homeland - one that consists of meadows, mountains and seas. The followers, of which each player only has four (with a fifth for the scoring track) get placed as robbers (in the mountains), seafarers (on the seas) or explorers (on the meadows). On a player's turn, he must place a tile and may then place a follower on it.

As in the original game, tiles may only be placed so that identical landscape types match up. A follower may only be placed when no other follower has been placed there yet. When the follower is removed, however, then the size of the region in which the follower is located brings points - regardless of whether the region has been closed off or not, although closed off regions score considerably more points. There's also an additional rule that lets mountainous regions increase in value, even if they've already been completed.

This is a distinctly simpler version of Carcassonne than the original. This was the goal during the development of the game. It should have simpler rules, but offer greater strategic depth. What is interesting about the game is that regions aren't scored automatically any more (when they are closed off), this is a decision left to the player (the removing of the follower). Since the regions can only get more valuable, this ensures many agonizing decisions.

(From Gamewire and Spielbox)

This game is part of the Carcassonne series.

Ming Dynasty

In the middle of the 14th Century the Chinese people succeeded in freeing themselves from the rule of the Mongols. With the accession to the throne of emperor Tai-Tsu they developed a rising country: China.
Each player takes the role of an imperial prince and tries to gain influence with his family members during the growth of the Chinese people during the Ming dynasty. Place your fellow supporters securely into the 6 Chinese provinces, which are each divided into 3 prefectures. In order where your own family members get majorities into the administration you will be recompensed during the election rounds with gifts from the emperor.
Only the player with the most balanced collection of influence chips will be able to continue as next emperor of the Ming dynasty.

Key Harvest

Key Harvest is the fifth game in the key series of games published by R&D Games.

The object of the game is to score the most points. Players score points by placing tiles on their own country board. One point is scored for each field tile in the player's largest group of connected field tiles and two points for each tile in their second largest connected group.

Points are also scored for the worker tiles a player places on their country board. The number of points scored for each worker is equal to the number on the worker tile. Worker tiles do not count as connecting tiles when calculating the largest group of tiles. When played, a worker enables a player to take a special action. Each player has their own team of six workers, known as farmhands. There are also six townsfolk who can be acquired by any player.

There are usually six field tiles available at any time from the registry. On their turn a player may bid for up to two tiles using crop counters. The field tile being bid for and the bid in crop counters are placed in the player's store. On their turn the other players may match the store owner's bid in both the number and type of crop counters. If they choose to do so, then they place the field tile on their country board and pay the crop counters to the store owner. If no other player has matched the store owner's bid, then on their next turn the store owner may place the field tile(s) from their store onto their country board and pay their bid in crop counters to the general stock.

When deciding how much to bid for a field tile, players will need to consider how important the field tile is to them and whether other players are likely to bid for the tile. It is usually beneficial for a player to place field tiles into their store as that player will either obtain the field tile or receive additional crop counters.

When played, a worker tile must be adjacent to at least the number of field tiles as the number on the worker tile. A worker tile cannot be adjacent to another worker tile. If a player obtains a field tile for a space where they have already placed a worker tile, they must remove the worker tile. However, if the worker tile can be replaced immediately (next to the required number of field tiles), then the player can benefit from the worker's ability again. Getting these extra benefits is one of the keys to doing well in the game.

Players have two actions per turn. There are four possible actions. Each action can only be performed once per turn. As described above, the actions include placing field tiles from the stores onto their country board - action (c), placing field tiles from the registry into their store - action (d), and placing a worker tile onto their country board - action (b). Action (c) cannot be performed after action (d). A player may also harvest crops by turning over some unharvested field tiles on their country board - action (a).

Field tiles taken from the registry are replaced immediately with field tiles from the bag. The bag also contains a number of event tiles. The event tiles, when drawn, affect all of the players, not just the player who drew the event tile. When the tenth event tile is drawn, the game ends after two further rounds have been played.

One point is also awarded to the players who have the most of each of the types of crop counters at the end of the game. No points are awarded for ties. Points are tallied using the scoring track on the town board. The player with the most points is the winner.

Nr. 4 in the QWG Master Print Edition series, as Demetra