Theme: Science

In Crafting the Cosmos, you are interstellar architects, competing to build the galaxy – one star at a time. Manipulate the laws of the universe to your advantage, shifting gravity or the flow of time to activate useful power cards, and even spawn advanced life that can earn you extra victory points at the end of the game. Use your resources wisely as you craft your cosmic creation.

Each round consists of each player taking a turn, which then is followed by shared end phase. A player's turn consists of two phases: energy and craft. Players takes their turns moving energy on the main board and gaining resources. They then spend their resources to craft their galaxy.

During the energy phase, you move energy tokens around the controls on the main board to gain resources for crafting your cosmos. Then during the collect resources phase, you gain the resources from the one active control space with your energy token, then from all four of the passive control spaces.

Once a player has collected all of their resources, they spend them during the craft phase in any order to craft their galaxy. You may take placement actions, scoring actions, energy card actions, and slider actions in any order. You may place the four standard kinds of stars: hydrogen (H), helium (He), carbon (C), and oxygen (O), place proto life, or even nebulae.

Players can spend energy cards to gain power cards to help them craft their cosmos more effectively, and they compete to complete universal goals.

"And yet it moves", he said.

Galileo Galilei is a Euro-style game in which you take on the role of an astronomer who will discover new planets, find unknown star systems, develop their telescope, and make a scientific breakthrough in the difficult ages of obscurantism.

Use your telescope to select one of the five actions available, with you being able to evolve these actions into better ones. Collect cards of different planets and star systems. Collect lenses of the three main colors to make a discovery. Be wary of inquisitors as they might arrive unwelcomed and ruin your fame in no time. Better find a way to profit from their visit instead.

—description from the publisher

In SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a eurogame for 1–4 players, you lead a scientific institution tasked with searching for traces of life beyond planet Earth. The game draws inspiration from current or emerging technologies and efforts in space exploration.

Players will explore nearby planets and their moons by launching probes from Earth while taking advantage of ever-shifting planetary positions. Decide whether to land on their surface to collect valuable samples, or stay in orbit for a broader survey. Additionally, by directing your telescopes to gaze into distant star systems, you may detect traces of alien signals or undiscovered exoplanets, and collect promising data to examine and study back home.

Back on Earth, you can invest in upgrading your equipment so you can analyze incoming data more efficiently, boost your telescope signal capacity, or increase your supply of resources—all to expand the scope of your search that could lead to a discovery of extraterrestrial life forms.

You will also make use of over 200 cards to aid your efforts or focus your research in a particular direction for additional bonuses and rewards. Each card has unique effects and illustrations and depicts real-life technologies, projects, and discoveries (like the ISS, Large Hadron Collider, Perseverance rover, Voyager probe, and many more).

Finding traces of extraterrestrial life is only a matter of time—utilize the resources you have at your disposal strategically and you may well end up being the one to make the biggest scientific contribution towards advancing our understanding of alien life within our galaxy.

SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence pays homage to space and planetary exploration, astronomy, the ongoing search for signs of life in the vastness of space, and efforts to understand the nature of life in the universe.

—description from the publisher

Wild Duo is a game collection that includes 5 games for 2 players. You can play these games with two players or in larger groups (4/6/8/10), in which case the games are rotated between the groups of two. There is definitely enough variety, as each of the games is a unique gaming experience.

The games are perfectly playable for both children and adult players, as the gaming experience depends entirely on your, respectively, your fellow player's skills. That's why some games can be decided after only 5 minutes, while others last 30 minutes.

Each of the games deals with a different animal species or a specific behavior of this animal species and thus takes the players on a journey into one of 5 worlds. Each of the five rule explanations therefore always includes an exciting, thematic text on the corresponding animal species.

—description from the publisher

Despite covering less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reefs are estimated to be home to about 25% of all marine species. Unfortunately, these vibrant underwater cities are dying. Climate change and its effect of rising sea temperatures is devastating the colorful algae that give coral reefs their brilliant hues, resulting in coral bleaching. Furthermore, other threats like pollution—in its various insidious forms—and overfishing are disrupting the delicate balance of reef ecosystems.

And so, scientists from various fields, along with the researchers studying the ecological complexity and significance of the reefs, are collaborating to address the myriad challenges facing these ecosystems. Your assignment is to take command of a scientific vessel and embark on a journey of reef conservation. Hire the best crew, clean the ocean, and restore the reefs to their former glory.

During the game, players take on the role of researchers and saviors of the oceans. You will sail the seas, hire crew, explore the coral reef, clean the ocean sectors of any pollution, and try to accomplish as many missions as possible.

On their turn players may choose to RECHARGE or TRAVEL. If they RECHARGE, they gain the rewards from the VP track. If they TRAVEL, they may deploy Reef Balls, move their Ship, play Mission cards, and perform various actions. The game is played for a variable number of rounds. When a player has crossed the 45 VP threshold, the end of the game is triggered. After an additional round the final scoring takes place and the player with the most victory points is the winner.

—description from the publisher