Worker Placement

Paladins of the West Kingdom is set at a turbulent time of West Francia's story, circa 900 AD. Despite recent efforts to develop the city, outlying townships are still under threat from outsiders. Saracens scout the borders, while Vikings plunder wealth and livestock. Even the Byzantines from the east have shown their darker side. As noble men and women, players must gather workers from the city to defend against enemies, build fortifications and spread faith throughout the land. Fortunately you are not alone. In his great wisdom, the King has sent his finest knights to help aid in our efforts. So ready the horses and sharpen the swords. The Paladins are approaching.

The aim of Paladins of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game's end. Points are gained by building outposts and fortifications, commissioning monks and confronting outsiders. Each round, players will enlist the help of a specific Paladin and gather workers to carry out tasks. As the game progresses, players will slowly increase their faith, strength and influence. Not only will these affect their final score, but they will also determine the significance of their actions. The game is concluded at the end of the seventh round.

—description from the publisher

The king is throwing an unprecedented year-long event to commemorate the 100th year since Everdell's founding. Come one, come all, to the Bellfaire!

Bellfaire is a new expansion for Everdell that offers several different gameplay modules, including:

Components and rules for 5-6 players
Player powers and resource boards
A Bellfaire board with a new Market location
Garland Awards, which are shared endgame goals
New Special Event cards

—description from the publisher

Marvel: Age of Heroes is an epic strategy game in which each player commands a duo of X-Men who are dispatched to defeat villains and complete objectives.

Your team will collect resources and power-ups before embarking on dangerous missions in one of the three uniquely challenging scenarios included in the game. The most effective team will manage their skills, train their mutants, and outpace the competition in the Institute and Mission Phase. Scenarios, asymmetric abilities, new abilities, and scoring conditions all serve to provide uncanny playability!

Player are heroes are represented by a set of striking full-color acrylic standees. Teams include fan-favorites like Wolverine and Jubilee, Jean Grey and Cyclops, Forge and Storm, and more! Cards and player boards have a gorgeous dreamscape art effect as if a powerful telepath is seeing them through Cerebro.

The deck features dozens of iconic X-Men characters and events that are available through a shared market. Players will be jockeying to collect and influence the heroes that are most useful for their strategies. As the board and scenarios evolve, your characters will, as well. Special evolution cards add new abilities and scoring conditions.

—description from the publisher

You've just found a mine filled with precious energy crystals! Precisely those you use for your daily magic. The problem here is that you've also stumbled onto a horde of monsters! And to make things even worse, three other cities seem to have discovered the existence of your mine as well. As they rush into danger to mine the precious crystals, you have no choice but to join in the fray...

Age of Towers brings the exciting gameplay of your favorite tower defense games onto the tabletop! Playable either solo or with up to four players, Age of Towers sees you and your opponents competing to defend your cities against the oncoming wave of monsters by constructing defenses, placing traps, and funneling those beasts towards your opponents' cities!

In more detail, each turn has three phases: night, dawn, and day. During night, the event card is applied and monsters progress on your path (with each type having a different movement value). Two more monsters (or your boss) appear on your path. During dawn, the towers can attack one monster of a particular type on one of the four adjacent spaces, or the boss. During day, each player can choose one action from the four available, then they can take one more action, whether the same or different.

Each monster type has a movement value (1-3 spaces) and maybe a special ability; all core box monsters have 2 life points. The boss, who is not a monster, is harder to kill as it has 10 life points; when a player successfully kills it, the game ends. Each time a monster or a boss leaves your path to reach your city, you lose a number of city guards equal to their movement value. You begin at 15, and even if you lose your last one, you don't lose the game; you will just earn fewer victory points than other players.

After the game end, each player adds their victory points from three sources: Number of remaining city guards, amount of damage to your boss, and achievements (which are drawn randomly at the beginning of the game).

“Natural disasters will soon be a thing of the past!” proclaimed Professor Sêni Lativ, Project Chief of Meteorological Manipulation at Lightning Technologies. Tests of his new invention, the Weather Machine, showed positive results. Visions of quelling floods, subduing cyclones, and ending droughts made him smile.

In Weather Machine, you are scientists on Prof. Lativ’s team, tampering with local weather: adjusting rainfall for farms, maintaining wind and clear skies for ecological energy sources, and tweaking the temperature for resorts and sporting events. The prototype is quite effective so far; however, a pattern has emerged, revealing a worrying side effect: Each use of the Weather Machine also alters the conditions elsewhere on the planet — a “butterfly effect”.

"We must build a new prototype,” he announces as the agents shoot him sidelong glances; “…but this time we’re going to get it right.” The agents silently give a single, crisp nod of confirmation. “The government is funding this, and we will succeed.” As Prof. Lativ explains the plan, the need to secure suppliers for sufficient bots and chemicals is clear. In addition to the materials, time is of the essence; you must be focused and efficient to have any hope of reining this growing global terror, Earth’s atmosphere before conditions are too harsh for Homo sapiens and other species.

Note: The solo mode is NOT included in the base game's box. It is part of Weather Machine: Upgrade Pack.