Push Your Luck

Trailblazers are the gutsy folks who pave and brave the trails of the great outdoors.  Whether by hiking boots, cycling wheels, or river paddle, these tenacious travelers seek to feed their insatiable appetite for adventure.  With a scenic wilderness ever ahead and a freshly charted path upon the heels, one mustn’t forget to eventually find their way back to camp.  For there are always new environments to explore, further expeditions to undertake, and more trails to blaze.

In Trailblazers, players compete to earn the most points by building biking, hiking, and kayaking loops from their campsites of the matching trail type. Each round, players are dealt eight trail cards where they’ll draft two cards, arrange those cards in their personal area, and pass their hand to the next player three times. Cards must either be placed adjacent to or overlapping other cards. While players can push their luck by aiming to construct long and elaborate trails, only closed loops that start and end at a matching campsite will score points. Players also compete to fulfill “First To” and “End Game” goal cards. After four rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points from closed loops and goal cards wins.

The standard edition of Trailblazers features a second deck of trail & player cards so you can play with up to 8 players. The box also contains two expansions (the Animals expansion and Adventurers expansion) that add another challenging layer of strategy and objectives to the experience. Finally, there are three unique solo modes that utilize the goal cards, Animals expansion, or Adventurers expansion.

Spain, 1936: General Franco and his troops advance through the territories of Spain, giving way to a long period of civil war and repression. After the Spanish Civil War, a group of loyalists to the Republic continued the armed struggle, forming resistance groups better known as "Maquis". Hidden in the mountains, these men and women risked their lives to defend the ideals of democracy and freedom.

Fighting against them were the Army of Franco, the Civil Guard, and the Armed Police, but the Maquis perfected their guerilla warfare in France during the second World War and were determined to take back their homeland. In the head of each Maquis resonated the echo of the desire of many compatriots: Resist!

Resist! is a fast-playing, card-driven solitaire game in which you take on the role of the Spanish Maquis, fighting against the Francoist regime. Over a series of rounds, you undertake increasingly difficult missions, and completing missions earns you the points needed to win. Failing to defeat missions and enemies may cause you to lose. At the end of each round, you must choose whether to end the resistance or risk it and take on another mission.

At the beginning of the game, you assemble a team of twelve Maquis, which are represented by a deck of cards. At the heart of the game is the tension between keeping your Maquis concealed from Franco or revealing them to unlock their full potential. Unfortunately, revealed Maquis are removed from your deck, and you likely won't be able to use them for the rest of the game. While Resist! does have some minor deck-building elements, it is primarily a "deck-destruction" game in which you have to manage your deck, balancing the decision of defeating the immediate threat with trying to move on to the next mission.

In Circus Flohcati, players collect acts from the flea circus to score points, with the game containing ten types (colors) of acts, with acts being valued from 0-7 points.

On a turn, you can choose one of the face-up cards on the table and add that to your hand or flip the top card from the deck and add it to the cards on display. If you flip an action card, you must take that action — often stealing a card from an opponent — then your turn ends. If you flip a card of the same color as any face-up card, then you instead discard the newly revealed card and your turn ends with you getting nothing. Otherwise, you again face the same options: Collect a face-up card or reveal a new card.

If on your turn you have three cards of the same value in hand, you can play this trio on the table for a guaranteed 10 points. The game ends either when someone reveals that they have all ten acts in hand or when the deck has been exhausted. You score only for the highest-valued act of each color, so either avoid taking duplicate colors or ditch them in trios. If you have all ten acts in hand, score a 10-point "gala show" bonus. Whoever has the highest score wins.

Editions of Circus Flohcati bear a player count of either 2-5 or 3-5, but they don't differ in the rules or nature of the components.

Roll Your Meeples, Build the City.

It's the 1920's and your career as a general contractor is about to take off. You have just started your business in a rapidly expanding city.

In Rolling Heights, players roll workers in the form of meeples. Standing meeples work hard that day and provide special actions and building materials, while face-down meeples provide nothing. You can always push your luck for better rolls, but you might lose valuable materials you need to construct new buildings. Completing buildings gains you prestige, as well as new workers to help you construct even larger buildings, including skyscrapers.

Will you construct the next famous landmark?

—description from the publisher

Nut Hunt is a fast-paced squirrel placement game where 1-5 players battle for control of the forest.

But watch out!

The wily fox roams the board scattering squirrels.

Clever players will use the fox to their advantage, positioning their critters to scatter onto favorable territories, or strategically hassling the fox to foil their opponents' plans.

Turns in Nut Hunt are fast paced and intuitive with one mandatory action: Move the Fox (causing squirrel scattering, and nut foraging), followed by your choice of one optional action: Recruit a Squirrel, Hassle the Fox, or Scout an Objective.

When three squirrels get together they form a nest, and the game ends when a player places their fourth nest.

Points are scored based on completed objectives. Whoever has the most points win.