Mancala

This was once the Mad Hatter's favorite tea party tradition, a game of Madcala, that was until the Cheshire Cat took over as host.

In this edition of Madcala, the characters from Wonderland's War will be taking part in his tournament of Champions!

Madcala is a 1v1, asymmetric game that pits players against each other in a battle of wits and luck! Out thinking and out maneuvering your opponent will prove easier said than done!If you can reduce your opponent's health to zero, you win!

On your turn, you will pick a plate of beads pick them all up and leave one behind on each plate you pass, whatever plate you end on will give you an action to perform. You can also call on the aid of your "plus ones" to the event. They have powerful abilities that give each player a different approach and strategy.

Come Sail Away! is a board game for 1-4 players in which you compete to board passengers upon your luxury liner, bringing them to their favorite cabins and facilities. Players can enjoy a deliciously thoughtful and brightly illustrated game that is simple to learn, yet always challenging.

The aim of Come Sail Away is to guide passengers into your cruise ship as smoothly as possible, earning points in the process. In addition to earning points for filling each room on the ship, you can earn bonus points for filling certain rooms faster than other players. Further, by guiding passengers with luggage to their cabins, players can advance on the luggage track, allowing you to place additional small cabins, gain additional passengers, and earn bonus points. As the game progresses, it is also important to think ahead and make sure your ship has room for passengers, or else you will have a crowd of disgruntled passengers at hand!

---from the publisher

The gameboard of Finca shows the mediterranean island of Mallorca. Players try to crop and deliver the fruits of Mallorca (such as oranges, lemons, almonds, grapes etc.) by means of moving workers on a traditional windmill. Object of the game is to distribute your crop as effectively as possible in order to deliver faster than your opponents.

From the Box: Mallorca, Island of the Wind. A place of golden beaches and a light-blue sea. The almond harvest is at hand, in addition, juicy oranges, lemons, and figs are ready to be picked and taken to the market. Olive trees bewitch the country with their curled branches and sumptuous vineyards invite passers-by to walk among their warm earth. In the midst of this landscape, your centuries-old natural stone farmhouse provides a home and supports your large windmill: your FINCA.
Listen to the wind, which propels your windmill! Then take in the course of the yearly harvest the sweetest and most valuable fruits from the land. Load them on your old donkey cart and travel around the island, selling them everywhere. If you manage this quickly, you will soon be the richest farmer on the island.

Note: The Pandasaurus Games edition from 2024 plays up to 5 players while earlier editions play up to 4.

Recommendations:

2011 Hungarian Boardgame Prize Winner
2011 Ludoteca Ideale (Italy)
Nominee "Spiel des Jahres 2009"
4th place "Deutscher Spielepreis 2009"
Nominee "Graf Ludo 2009"
Adult Game of the year 2010 (Finland)

Amritsar, India is home to The Golden Temple or Sri Harmandir Sahib. This spectacular building is world-renowned as a sacred place for the Sikh community and one of the most famous pilgrimage destinations on Earth.
After being demolished several times, Maharaja Ranjit Singh rebuilt it using marble, copper and 750 kilos of pure gold, hence its name.
In Amritsar, the players will represent the different personalities of the time who helped the Maharaja of the Sikh Empire with the reconstruction of the Golden Temple.
Using a clever mechanic based on the sowing system of the classic mancala games, players will use the different workers and their very own elephant to carry out the necessary tasks. On your turn, you will be able to perform 1-3 actions depending on how well you have coordinated the workers and your elephant. These actions will consist of collecting resources in the quarry or the market, advancing on the different paths of knowledge, improving your personal board, turning to your mahout (elephant rider) for help and above all making donations to the temple with the aim of obtaining as many prestige points as possible. At the end of the game, the player with the most prestige will be declared the winner of the game.

—description from the publisher

Set in ancient Rome, Trajan is a development game in which players try to increase their influence and power in various areas of Roman life such as political influence, trading, military dominion and other important parts of Roman culture.

The central mechanism of the game uses a system similar to that in Mancala or pit-and-pebbles games. In Trajan, a player has six possible actions: building, trading, taking tiles from the forum, using the military, influencing the Senate, and placing Trajan tiles on his tableau.

At the start of the game, each player has two differently colored pieces in each of the six sections (bowls) of his tableau. On a turn, the player picks up all the pieces in one bowl and distributes them one-by-one in bowls in a clockwise order. Wherever the final piece is placed, the player takes the action associated with that bowl; in addition, if the colored pieces in that bowl match the colors shown on a Trajan tile next to the bowl (with tiles being placed at the start of the game and through later actions), then the player takes the additional action shown on that tile.

What are you trying to do with these actions? Acquire victory points (VPs) in whatever ways are available to you – and since this is a Feld design, you try to avoid being punished, too. At the Forum you try to anticipate the demands of the public so that you can supply them what they want and not suffer a penalty. In the Senate you acquire influence which translates into votes on VP-related laws, ideally snagging a law that fits your long-term plans. With the military, you take control of regions in Europe, earning more points for those regions far from Rome.

All game components are language neutral, and the playing time is 30 minutes per player.