deduction

Phantom Society

Welcome to Scotland, a country famous for its whisky, the Highlands, its castles, and, of course...its ghosts!

The Phantom Society is a ghost-hunting game in which you play as sly spirits seeking to ruin a manor hotel or, if you prefer, intrepid ectoplasm hunters who are a bit destructive around the edges but who also never falter in pursuit of their prey. For the ghosts, the goal is to inflict at least £45,000 of damage (in tribute to Special 45 – Old Faydhutee Single Malt) on the manor, whether it is inflicted by the ghosts or the hunters. The ghost hunters want to stop the ghosts before they achieve their objective.

The dual-level game board represents a manor floor composed of 36 rooms, with each room being a tile representing a value from £1,000 to £6,000; each of the four ghosts corresponds to a room type and will hide beneath a tile of this type, starting its devastation of the hotel by removing tiles adjacent to the one it's hidden beneath. The ghost hunters must try to determine where the ghosts are hiding based upon the tiles destroyed. While doing this, though, the ghost hunters will also remove tiles – thus destroying them and adding to the total damage – to see whether a ghost is hidden beneath.

The ghost hunters must think carefully and logically over which tiles to remove while the ghosts have to use cunning and psychology in order to cloud their investigation and remain concealed. Will the manor come through this madness intact?

Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan

A Strategy Game of Hidden Movement

The night is quiet, but somewhere in the darkness shadows are moving. A ninja and a double-crossing samurai sneak into the Lion Clan castle, intent on completing their dastardly tasks. Though alert, the Lion guards are as yet unaware that anything is amiss...

This tense standalone game pits Lion Clan samurai guards against a Scorpion Clan ninja and his traitor ally. As the ninja or the traitor, you will use hidden movement to sneak into the castle, eliminate guards, find your mission objective, and escape. As the guards, you will use your wits and superior numbers to thwart the sinister Scorpion.

In this exciting new game set in the world of Legend of the Five Rings, you must use your limited resources, powers of deduction, and a touch of guile to outthink and outmanoeuvre your opponent. Daring, planning, and a little luck will determine whether you triumph or meet your end on 3 feet of steel.

[Publisher blurb]

Council of Verona

The citizens of Verona have grown tired of the constant quarrel between the houses of Capulet and Montague. As ruler of the region, Prince Escalus has formed a council to help mediate the conflict and bring lasting peace to Verona.

In Council of Verona, players take on the role of influential citizens of Verona and act to use their influence to either add characters to the council or cast them into exile. Through thoughtful hand management of their cards and clever placement of influence tokens, players gain victory points based upon the agendas of the characters at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points wins!

We've all heard the story of Romeo and Juliet – now is your chance to steer the story and determine who will rule Verona once and for all!

Sherlock Deluxe

Sherlock Deluxe

The Card Game Where Memory and Deduction are “Elementary”!

Winner of over 6 awards, including the Parent's Choice Gold award, The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval, Creative Child Magazine's Preferred Choice Award and more, the Sherlock card game now has a new look in the Sherlock Deluxe edition!

The new and elegant book-shaped box attractively houses the popular game, and as a special addition, includes an intricately sculpted Sherlock pawn and 11 extra clue cards!

As Sherlock goes around and searches the clues, every player tries to remember each of the eight objects hidden in a facedown circle of cards. Then, Sherlock travels from one card to another. Each time Sherlock stops at a facedown card, the player has to remember which object is on that card. Sherlock continues to move, as long as the player guesses correctly.

If Sherlock travels to a face-up card, then the player gets to keep that card. The first player to collect six cards wins!

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For 2 to 5 Players
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Ages 5 to Adult
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15 Minute Playing Time

Contents: 60 Clue Cards, 1 Sherlock Pawn and Instructions in English, Spanish & French

Re-implements:

Sherlock

Stratego

From the box:

The gameboard is your battlefield. You have an army of men at your disposal and six bombs. Your mission--protect your flag and capture your opponent's flag.

Secretly place your men, bombs, and flag on the gameboard with these objectives in mind. But remember your opponent is doing the same thing, so you must plan a defense as well as an offense.

Once the armies are in place, advance your men. When you're one space away from an enemy, attack. You and your opponent declare ranks. The lower-ranking man is captured and out of play.

You control your pieces and risk your men in battles where the strength of your enemy is unknown. The suspense builds as your men move deeper into enemy territory. Move with caution and courage. The next piece you attack could be a bomb. And when attacked, it could "blast" your man off the board and out of play.

The first to capture an enemy flag is the winner!

This game is similar to, and almost certainly derived directly from, the H.P. Gibsons (UK) game L'Attaque (1909). It is not exactly the same, but not far from it (numbered pieces, spy (same name) can kill the strongest piece but only when attacking, flag, bombs, etc.) These game in turn almost certainly draw on the classic Chinese children's game Dou Shou Qi.

Re-implemented by:

Stratego (Revised Edition) (aka Stratego Fire & Ice)
The Generals
Stratego: Legends
Stratego: Star Wars
Stratego: The Lord of the Rings
Ultimate Stratego
Electronic Stratego
Stratego: Marvel Heroes
Stratego: Star Wars Saga Edition
Stratego: The Chronicles of Narnia

and numerous others.

Similar to:

Admirals
Lu Zhan Jun Qi
L'Attaque
Batalj
Sharpe's Attack

Different Edition Complications
When first produced in Europe, the most powerful pieces had higher numbers. I.e. the Marshall (most powerful piece) was a 10, the General was a 9, and so on. The higher the rank, the higher the number.
When they introduced Stratego in the USA, the numbering was reversed, so the Marshall was a 1, the General 2, and so on. The 1st rank (most powerful) was 1, the second most powerful was 2, 3rd most powerful was 3....
Then, in 2000s Hasbro re-imagined Stratego in the USA and made a few changes. They reduced the number of pieces per side (from 40 to 30), added additional powers, and changed the numbering to reflect the European system.
This caused extreme consternation with many faithful American Stratego fans who preferred the 'old way'. (Actually the second oldest way, but whatever.) Many of these insist on playing Stratego with the 'Marshall 1 system'.
This wouldn't be a problem, except any and all discussions of Stratego are fraught with misunderstandings by those who are unaware of dual numbering systems! Keep this in mind when reading information about Stratego.