Card Game

Caligula

It is the year 41 AD. The emperor Caligula has finally gone too far. An occasional political assassination you can understand, but his personal habits are too much to bear! It’s time that somebody step in and deal with the madman before it’s too late. And if you should happen to profit at the same time you rescue the Republic, well, who could complain about that?

Caligula puts you and your friends in the togas of the true powers in Imperial Rome: the guys holding the knives! Send your legates throughout the empire to further your own plans and seize valuable opportunities. Keep a wary eye on your rivals and make them pay dear for their gains. Marshal your resources with care, and when the moment is right, strike! Secure your favorite on the throne, and all the wealth and glory of Rome will be yours for the taking!

Caligula is the first game by Italian designer Pierluca Zizzi, and the sixth title from the up-and-coming young publisher Post Scriptum. ElfinWerks is pleased to be able to bring this exciting game of plots and politics to America. Do you have the savvy to navigate the treacherous politics of the Eternal City? Or will your rivals leave you banished from the halls of power? Take up your knives for the Republic (And for yourself!) in Caligula!

Dragonheart

Description from BoardgameNews.com:

Dragons, knights, trolls, princesses, dwarves, and other fantasy characters make up the world of Drachenherz. Dragons are searching for treasure, of course, but they're being pursued by dragon hunters, and those are the two sides that face off in this game. On a turn, a player plays one or more cards with the same motif, then refills his hand to five cards. The cards are always played onto the part of the gameboard that has the same motif. By laying out cards, one collects point cards that are already present. This is how a dragon collects treasure cards – but the third dragon hunter defeats the dragon, while a second knight protects the princess. Other combinations await the players, and whoever collects the most points wins.

Drachenherz is part of the Kosmos two-player series.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)
Board Game Arena (real-time)
BrettspielWelt (real-time)

Golden Gate

Open up that Golden Gate! Its up to your wits, and a little bit of luck, to make the right plays and pile up the points.

Set down cards in number order. A yellow card means you take a chip out of the Golden Gate. Here’s where you show off your skills…can you place them at the right times to get the best chips? Or will the opportunity pass you by? And don’t get stuck with red cards, or you’ll lose chips.

It’s a fast, friendly showdown for the gold with the fine craftsmanship and colorful designs you’ve come to expect from Blue Orange Games.

Last Will

In his last will, your rich uncle stated that all of his millions will go to the nephew who can enjoy money the most. How to find out which nephew should be rich? You will each be given a large amount of money and whoever can spend it first will be the rightful heir. Visit the most exclusive theatres or eat in the most expensive restaurants. Buy old properties for the price of new ones and sell them as ruins. Host a huge party in your mansion or on your private boat. Spend like your life would depend on it. Spend to become rich! If you're the first to run through the money on hand, you'll receive the rest of his inheritance – oh, and win the game.

In Last Will, each player starts with a certain amount of money, an individual player board, two errand boys and two cards in some combination of properties and helpers. At the start of each round, lay out cards from the appropriate decks on the offering boards; the four regular decks are properties, companions, events, helpers and expenses, with special cards forming a deck of their own. The particular mix of cards varies by round and by the number of players.

Each player then chooses a plan for the round, with each plan indicating the number of cards the player draws (drawn immediately from the four regular decks in any combination), how many errand boys he can use later (one or two), the number of actions available to him that round, and his spot in the playing order that round. In the playing order for that round, players then take turns choosing an action with their errand boy(s), with those actions being:

Take a card on display and add it to your hand.
Draw a card from any regular deck – This can be chosen only once by each player.
Visit the opera and spend $2.
Adjust the value modifiers in the property market.
Take a player board extension, thereby giving you room to play more cards.

Players then take actions in the playing order for that round, with each player having as many actions as indicated on his plan. Actions let you play one-time events (which have a cost, possibly variable); helpers and recurring expenses (which are placed on your individual player board); and properties (which cost money and may depreciate over time). You can often play companions with events or recurring expenses – of course you should bring a date to the opera or a horse on your yacht! – to increase their cost. You can also use actions to activate cards on your player board, possibly with one or more companions and always with the goal of spending money. Helpers and special cards can provide you with unique powers to further boost your profligacy.

At the end of each round, you must discard down to two cards in hand, and properties that can depreciate do so; this is good as a player cannot go bankrupt if he owns properties, and the only way to get rid of properties is to sell them, which regretably puts money back in your hands unless the depreciation was intense or you manipulate the market.

If a player has no money and no properties, he declares bankruptcy and the game ends at the conclusion of that round; otherwise the game ends after seven rounds. The player who has the least money (or even who is most in debt) wins.

Infiltration

It is the future, and beneath the flickering glow of the sprawling New Angeles skyline, immense corporations seek every advantage in the burgeoning field of synthetic humanoid technology. On the brink of a revolutionary innovation, CyberSolutions Inc. is poised to become the next global powerhouse, threatening the profits of well-established conglomerates Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki – but unfortunately for CyberSolutions, security at their New Angeles branch has just been compromised.

Set in the dystopian future of Android, Infiltration is a tense card game of futuristic larceny in which two to six players take the roles of thieves, competing to steal valuable secrets from a highly secured corporate facility.

The most vital information lies deep within the complex, but each step inward takes you farther from escape. Worse yet, corporate mercenaries are closing in! How long will you push your luck as you avoid security patrols, surpass rival thieves, and try to download the most data before the building is locked down?

Game description above from the publisher

The layout of the complex is different every game, choosing 6 of the possible 18 first floor cards, 6 of the 18 second floor cards, and 1 of the 3 secret room cards. These rooms are revealed to the players over the course of the game, usually by one of the players entering the room. The rooms contain traps, NPCs, valuable data and items, and even secret exits.

Each turn, players secretly choose actions they will take, then in turn reveal and resolve their actions. Advancing into the complex or retreating towards the exit, downloading valuable data, interfacing with the current room, or using an item are the actions available to players. After the players have had their turn, any active NPCs have a turn, then the proximity dial is increased. Once the dial reaches 99, or all players have left the complex, the game ends. The players who have escaped the complex add up the value of the data they have extracted; the highest value wins!