Sampler Showcase Games
June 14, 2008

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Age of Empires III
GM: Kaarin Engelmann
Designer:
Glenn Drover
Publisher: Tropical Games/Pro Ludo
Number of Players: 2-6
Demo Play Time: 2.5 hours

Take on the role of a colonial power seeking fame, glory, and riches in the new world. As you proceed through three centuries, you will launch expeditions of discovery, colonize regions, expand your merchant fleet, and develop your economy. As the competition heats up, you will recruit specialists (Merchant, Soldier, Captain, and Missionary) to help you gain an edge over your opponents, declare wars, and build capital buildings that give your nation unique advantages. Can you re-write history? Play the Age of Discovery and find out!

Tropical Games BoardgameGeek

 Monday
7:30 PM

 GM:
Kaarin Engelmann

Agricola
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher: Z-Man/Lookout Games
Number of Players: 1-5
Demo Play Time: 2.5 hours

In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?  Agricola is a turn-based game. There are countless strategies, some depending on your card hand. Sometimes it's best to stick to your original strategy.  Sometimes it is smarter to react to what your opponents do.

Z-Man Games BoardgameGeek

 Monday
5 PM

 GM:
Virginia Colin

Brass
Designer:
Martin Wallace
Publisher: Warfrog
Number of Players: 3-4
Demo Play Time: 2 hours

The Industrial Revolution in Lancashire. The game starts at the beginning of the Canal Age and ends after the development  of railways. Players take the roles of entrepreneurs attempting to make the most money from the various industries of the time. Cotton dominates the game but players ignore the other industries such as coal mining and engineering at their peril. Your goal in Brass is to build cotton mills, coal mines, iron works, canals, railways, ports and shipyards and to have them be USED so that they score points. Your choices will be limited by the cards you draw, but not as much as by the plans you make.

 Warfrog

Monday
3 PM
GM:
Tom McCorry

Container
Designer: Thomas Ewert/Franz-Benno Delonge
Publisher: Valley Games
Number of Players: 3-5
Demo Play Time: 2 hours

A game about big ships and big production. Each player plays both a producer and shipper of goods. Players will decide which products they want to produce, and which of the OTHER player's goods they want to ship out to a remote island. During these phases, players set the prices for their goods and try to maximize their cash! Once the goods have reached the island, players play the part of the purchaser for their tiny island. Players bid for the goods arriving each day by ship, and the highest bidder collects these goods for conversion into points at the end of the game. The real challenge is turning your home production into goods for your island.

 Valley Games

 Monday
1 PM
GM:
John Weber

Cuba
Designer:
Michael Reineck/Stephen Stadler
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Number of Players: 2-5

Demo Play Time: 2.5 hours

Cuba prior to the revolution: Under turbulent circumstances, the villages of the island strive for independent wealth and influence.Who can buy and sell his products and goods on the domestic market profitably or take in the most on the trading ships? Who can send the right delegate to parliament in order to influence the government legislative process, or erect distilleries, hotels and banks at the right moment to the benefit of his village? Whoever has accumulated the most victory points at the end of the game, wins. Players earn victory points by shipping merchandise from the harbor, but also by erecting and using buildings, and by abiding by the law."

Days of Wonder BoardgameGeek

 Tuesday
12 PM

 GM:
Michelle Hymowitz

In the Year of the Dragon
Designer: Stefan Feld
Publisher: Rio Grande
Number of Players: 3-5

Demo Play Time: 2 hours
 
Each player takes on the role of a Chinese prince, seeking to maximize the prosperity and prestige of his province in the ancient China of approximately 1,000 A.D. To assist in these endeavors, the princes must call upon the diverse talents of their courtiers, from scholars and monks to warriors and craftsmen. These loyal subjects will lend their expertise to the struggle to shield their rulers from the often disastrous consequences of the myriad untoward events that plague the populace from month to month. The better players manage their provinces and withstand the seemingly unending onslaught of hazardous events, the more honor and victory points they gain.

 Rio Grande Games

 Tuesday
11 PM

GM:
Keith Levy

Kingsburg
Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio/ Luca Iennaco
Publisher: Elfinwerks/Edge Entertainment
Number of Players: 3-5
Demo Play Time: 2 hours

Players are Lords sent from the King to administrate frontier territories. The game takes place over five years. In every year, there are 3 production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council. The player with the lowest influence dice sum will be the first one to choose where to spend his/her influence. At the end of five years the player that better developed his assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council is the winner.

 Tuesday
10 AM
GM:
John Weber

Race for the Galaxy
Designer:
Thomas Lehmann
Publisher: Rio Grande Games

Number of Players: 2-4

Demo Play Time: 1.5 hours

Explore, settle, develop, trade, consume, or produce? Which of Earth's former colonies will be most successful at settling the galaxy now that Jump Drive exists? Who will discover the secrets of the mysteriously vanished Alien Overlords? Your goal is to build the most prosperous and powerful space empire using cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Each round consists of one or more of five possible phases. In each round, each player secretly and simultaneously chooses one of seven different action cards and then reveals it. Only the selected phases occur. In the end, the player with the most points is the winner!

Rio Grande Games BoardgameGeek

 Monday
10 PM

 GM:
Jim Vroom

Stone Age
Designer: 
Michael Tummelhofer 
Publisher: Rio Grande/Hans Im
Gluck
Number of Players: 3-4
Demo Play Time: 1.5 hours

Players struggle to survive the Stone Age by working as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers. As you gather resources, and raise animals, you work to build the tools needed to build your civilization. Players use 40 stone age men in 3 phases. The first phase players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of his staffed areas in whatever sequence he chooses, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations or lose resources or points.

Czech Boardgames 

 Tuesday
4 PM

GM:
Michelle Hymowitz 

Through the Ages
Designer: 
Vlaada  Chvitl
Publisher: Czech Boardgames
Number of Players: 2-4
Demo Play Time: 3 hours

Also referred to as "Civ-lite", the goal is to develop your own civilization, not to destroy the other ones. The military strength is just one aspect of your nation, as well as population, production or science. It is up to you which one you will concentrate more or less, but you have not to underestimate any of them to build an efficiently working nation. The measure of success at the end is the amount of culture your nation produced during the entire game. Produce culture through religion, literature or drama, building wonders, or even war.

 Czech Boardgames

 Monday
10 AM

GM:
Tom McCorry
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