Point to Point Movement

America in the 19th century: You are a rancher and repeatedly herd your cattle from Texas to Kansas City, where you send them off by train. This earns you money and victory points. Needless to say, each time you arrive in Kansas City, you want to have your most valuable cattle in tow. However, the "Great Western Trail" not only requires that you keep your herd in good shape, but also that you wisely use the various buildings along the trail. Also, it might be a good idea to hire capable staff: cowboys to improve your herd, craftsmen to build your very own buildings, or engineers for the important railroad line.

If you cleverly manage your herd and navigate the opportunities and pitfalls of Great Western Trail, you surely will gain the most victory points and win the game.

The second edition of Great Western Trail includes solitaire rules, making for a player count of 1-4.

Second Edition:
Remember the old days in the West? Well, the times they are a-changing’! From new solo opponent to incredible landscapes, you won't know where to start. And there is a new herd of cows for you to sell!

Great Western Trail is the critically acclaimed game of cattle ranching by Alexander Pfister. Players attempt to wrangle their herd across the Midwest prairie and deliver it to Kansas City. But beware! Other cowboys are sharing the trail with you. We invite you to saddle up!

The Changes in the Second edition:

Brand New Artwork by Chris Quilliams
Solo Mode: A New Challenger in the West
Dual-Layered Player Boards
Addition of a new breed of cows: The Simmental breed
Two new reversible buildings (#11 & 12)
Twelve Exchange Tokens, First introduced in the Rails of North Expansion, for more interaction with other players
Four new Master Tiles added for more strategy, replayability, and challenges

—description from the publisher

Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe features the same nail-biting co-operative experience of Pandemic in which players win or lose together, but in a smaller form that you can take anywhere and play in a shorter amount of time. As members of an elite team, you use your character's unique abilities to treat cases, stop outbreaks, and research the cures. Discover all three cures in time to win! Add extra challenges with new mutation cards!

—description from the publisher

Illumination is a game of Mad Medieval Monks and Illuminated Manuscripts.

You and your opponent are monks competing to become the new head of the Scriptorium. You do so by illuminating manuscripts with elaborate religious artwork. But not all is as peaceful as it once was! Possessed with eccentric enthusiasm, one of you has turned from the reverent to the irreverent by scrawling demons instead of angels and by painting fierce dragons instead of noble knights. Who will become the new master of the Scriptorium? Will it be the monk who reverently illuminates the page with monks, dogs, knights and angels; or the irreverent monk who whimsically draws the forces of rabbit, squirrel, dragon and demon? Play Illumination to find out!

OBJECT

Each turn, players create illuminations in three Books by placing one full row or column of tiles of their choice from their Player mat. With careful placement, players collect Coins that allow them to perform special actions or purchase Scriptorium cards. By placing tiles next to others of matching color, players collect Ritual tokens to score points at the Ritual stations in the Monastery when they are occupied by the Abbot.

As tiles are placed in Books, conflicts are set in motion: Angels wrestle with Demons, Knights skirmish with Dragons, Monks contend with Rabbits, and Dogs struggle with Squirrels. These conflicts are resolved only when they are bounded on all sides. Then, the player with more tiles on their side wins the
Bounded Battle, flips the losing side’s tiles facedown, and places their Marker on the matching Battle card.

When the game ends, players score points for the Rituals recorded on the Monastery mat and 1 point for each of their faceup Illumination tiles in each Book. Players also score points for placing more Markers on Battle cards and for defeated factions that match their Crusade card. The player with more points wins!

-description from publisher

Maharaja is a new edition of the classic game by the authors Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. In this new version of the game which supports 1 to 4 players and is enriched with new graphics and components, you build statues of your God of reference to please the Maharaja during their visit and score victory points at the end of the game depending on the majority you reach.
During the game, players take the role of priests who travel to different cities in India, building statues and shrines dedicated to their favorite Gods to expand their worship. To do so, they are assisted by several characters with different abilities. Every year, the Maharaja, the great king of India, will change his residence and players will receive rewards according to their Gods' worship value. At the beginning of each year, players plan their actions in a secret phase to be played simultaneously.

At the end of the seventh year or when a player builds their seventh statue, the game ends, then the player with most prestige wins.

Aside from the new graphics and components and from players now building statues instead of palaces, this new edition of Maharaja includes new characters to use during the turn that change turn order, additional ways to earn victory points, an additional bonus each time you score a city after the Maharaja's visit depending on the assistant you chose, and additional modular rules that can be added during the game and in the final scoring.

—description from the publisher

Includes solo mode by Dávid Turczi & Simone Luciani

The bonfires are sources of light, energy and warmth created by the guardians of light in order to brighten the cities on the otherwise dark planet. The residents of the cities however, took the bonfires for granted and exploited them for their personal gain. Disappointed the guardians of light retreated and let the bonfires extinguish. The citizens could no longer live in the now dark cities and were forced to leave.

You are a group of gnomes living close to the cities and you also need and the light of the bonfires. Missing it now, you try yourself to visit the cities and learn how to ignite the bonfires once again: You must visit the guardians of light on their holy islands and ask for tasks to prove your good will. For each completed task, they will re-ignite one extinguished bonfire. Whoever manages to earn the greatest trust from the guardians and manages to brighten their city the most will win the game.

The engine for Bonfire are the three-coloured tiles you will be puzzling onto your player board. When you manage to place the same colours adjacent to one another, you will receive more action tiles of that specific kind. This will allow you to specialize in certain types of actions and pursue different strategies.
You can use the tiles to perform the following actions:
- Move your ship to an island
- Receive a task from an island by spending two resources
- Invite a guardian of light into your city
- Trigger a procession of guardians through your city and gain resources.
- Add a landscape tile to your city (this is where the processions take place)
- Recruit a gnome gaining a special ability or victory points
- Find support by the last bonfire, gaining portals, resources or action tiles

You will play in turn order until a fixed number of tasks has been solved, after which each player has 5 more turns. During final scoring, you will receive points for your completed tasks (the bonfires) and any improvements made there (portals, landscapes or guardians).

—description from publisher