exploration

Africa, 1855....

The Scottish missionary, Dr Livingston, has been researching African tribes and the flora and fauna of the area. As part of the Livingston Exploration, strategically set up tents in various regions while collecting gems found along the Zambezi River bank. Gain the most victory points and the favor of Queen Victoria to win!

From the publisher: In this game you follow in the footsteps of David Livingstone to the roaring Victoria Falls. On your way you may want to try your luck in the Diamond mining or you may prefer to seek a more calculable risk.

The publisher promises an exciting and tactical family game, with a completely new dice mechanism.

"There is much to be discovered in Europe! Many roads lead to success in this exciting travel game - you just have to find the right one. Exchange your cards cleverly and find your way through Europe quickly to win. Ten cards must show continuous travel either by land, sea or air."

This is the third installment in the 10 Days in series.

Gameplay
All players pick tiles up one at a time, examining them and placing them onto any empty spot on their tile holders. Then, in turn, each player draws one tile and may replace one of their lined-up tiles with it. (Tiles may not be rearranged.) Tiles are drawn from one of three face-up discard piles or a face-down pile. The drawn card or replaced card is then discarded into one of the face-up piles. The first person to have all ten tiles satisfy the travel connection requirements wins.

Connection requirements:
By Foot If a country is next to or connected to another country on the map, their tiles may be placed side-by-side
By Air Any two countries of the same color may be connected by an airplane of that color (its tile in between them)
By Ship If a sea or ocean borders two countries, a ship can connect them

Contents:

67 cardboard tiles - 48 country tiles, 19 transportation (airplane or ship)
4 trip planners (wooden tile holders, 2 per set)
1 game board showing a map of Europe, each country depicted in one of 5 colors

Incan Gold is a quick, fun and tense game in which you and other adventurers explore an old Incan temple in search of gold and treasure. In each of the five rounds, you secretly choose if you want to continue exploring the temple in search of more treasure or retreat to the safety of your camp with your share of the treasure that has been discovered so far.

Each time that an explorer braves new territory, more treasure or a danger appears. When a second card of the same type of danger is turned over, all exposed treasure is buried, leaving the remaining adventurers with nothing. Do you flee the dangerous temple with your portion of the treasure that has been uncovered so far or do you venture into the exciting temple in search of more hidden valuables?

After five rounds of exploration, whoever has the most treasure is the ultimate explorer and winner!

From the publisher: "You and your fellow adventurers travel to Peru to find a ruined Incan temple and its treasures: turquoise, obsidian and gold. There are also rumors of valuable Incan artifacts. Will you chance dangers like giant spiders, mummies and fire during your search, or will you escape back to camp and safety, carrying out your loot?"

Re-implemented by:

Risco Total (Released as an unauthorized game. An agreement has since been made between the authors and the publisher)

A boardgame based on a computer game (instead of the other way around) and designed by Klaus Teuber, Anno 1503 views the era of colonization strictly from the home country perspective. Two to four players send ships to explore islands scattered about a 5 x 12 square ocean (the more players, the more islands). The settlement of the new lands is, however, strictly abstract.

Each player's turn begins with the roll of one 6-sided die. A "6" is a random event (pirates, fire or good fortune - bad twice as often as lucky, and most likely to damage players who are doing well). On other results, each player gains a commodity from one of his five workshops. The player who rolled may then buy commodities from the bank, sell them to his colonists for gold (no trading among players), or use them in various combinations to recruit new colonists, promote existing ones, or build ships. After that, ships can sail for the unknown lands.

Each island bears on its hidden side an outpost, a treasure or a trade agreement. After being discovered, these items are brought back to the home country (and the ship is removed from play, requiring the player to build a new one in order to keep searching). Outposts increase the productivity of workshops. Treasure yields either gold or free colonist promotions. Trade agreements reduce the gold needed to buy commodities from the bank.

Besides being useful in these ways, outposts, gold and agreements are among the game's victory conditions. A player wins by being to first to attain three out of five objectives, namely, four outposts, 30 gold, three trade agreements, three colonists promoted to the top rank of "merchant" and the construction of four public buildings. The buildings (8 types, each bringing some advantage) cost nothing but don't become available until a player has recruited at least four colonists. After that, each new colonist adds a building (unless they've been preempted by other players; there aren't enough for everyone).

Overall, the game falls squarely into the "simultaneous solitaire" category. Except in the race for islands, the players scarcely interact at all. They do, however, have a great many choices to make in the course of play.