Route/Network Building

In Thurn & Taxis, players build post office routes across Bavaria and the regions around, collecting bonus points in various ways. The board shows a map of all the cities, with roads leading from each one to some of its neighbors. There are various colored regions around the board, most with two or three cities, and a large region with all the Bavarian cities in the center.

Players build postal routes from city to city to city so that each city is adjacent to the next city on the route and there is a road connecting these two cities. Each route must consist of at least three cities. Players may only build one route at a time. Routes are represented by melded city cards arranged in the order of the route.

Players start with a supply of 20 post offices in their color, a carriage house card and a player aid card. The board is populated with bonus tiles, carriage cards and city cards. On a turn a player will draw a card from a display of six, face up, city cards (or the top of the face down deck) and meld one card, either starting a new route or adding to the current one. If after adding to the route, the length of the route is at least three cities, the player may declare it finished and score it. The player may, depending on the length of the route and which cities are in the route, place post offices in the cities, collect bonus tiles, and acquire a higher value carriage. Optionally, the player may receive support from one postal official in the form of: drawing a second card, melding a second card, refreshing the six city card display, or acquiring a higher value carriage than the route length when finishing a route. Once a route is scored the city cards of that route are discarded, and the player begins a new route on his next turn.

When a player exhausts his supply of post offices or acquires a value 7 carriage the end of the game is triggered. Play continues until the player who is last in turn order finishes his turn, and the game ends. Players score points for their highest valued carriage and bonus tiles, and lose points for unplaced post offices. The player with the most points wins.

The fact that you *must* add at least one city to your route each turn or lose the whole route gives the game an enjoyable planning element.

Expedition: Famous Explorers is an updated version of two award-winning Wolfgang Kramer games – Wildlife Adventure and Expedition – with a new theme: discovery and exploration. Players lead three expeditions to various locations by placing arrows on a map. When an expedition arrives at a location that matches either a location card held by that player or a public location, that player scores that card by placing it in front of him.

Expedition: Famous Explorers retains all the core rules of earlier versions of the game, but adds optional advanced rules that allow players to score additional points based upon purchasable Explorer and Event cards. Another game mechanism introduces Secret Locations.

The goal of the game is to build the most successful Underground lines and in doing so gain the most points. You can gain points by connecting your lines to various destinations on the board, and by having the passenger use your lines to travel from station to station.

The player who has best balanced the demands by the time that the deck of destinations is exhausted will be declared the winner.

Game description from the publisher:

During its original mission, the Enterprise, Captain Kirk, and his intrepid crew visited many strange new worlds and discovered many new life-forms and civilizations. Now you and your friends can boldly go and explore this galaxy, too, with the Star Trek: Catan - Federation Space Map Set, which includes two maps depicting the Known Galaxy.

Based on the "Explored Galaxy" map seen in Kirk's quarters itself, these maps allow you to settle the famous worlds of Federation Space using pieces from your Star Trek: Catan base game.

Game description from the publisher:

In the wake of one of Tempest's namesake storms, a new area near the city-state has opened up for development. Your faction looks to you to carve out your power in this new area.

Place canals to connect your buildings to resources and to the harbor. Ensure the peasantry looks to you for employment. Improve the prestige of your work by placing scenic gardens. And wouldn't the Senate Annex look most aesthetically pleasing right there, where it completely blocks the view of your opponent's building?

Canalis is a game of building a new district in the City-State of Tempest, arranging the canals and placing buildings in such a manner as to benefit you the most. Players use a mixture of card drafting and tile laying to build the district, and each player's secret missions keep the outcome in doubt until the last card is played.