From the Publisher:

Behind the stunning artistry of Duel of Ages lies an epic, deeply intriguing strategy game that will capture your attention for years to come. Build the uniquely modular game map (using the PAKIT board game system) to your own advantage, thwarting the enemy's attempt to do the same.

Accept a random roster of heroic characters, each with radically different abilities. Discover a way to turn this diverse group into an effective team. To survive, your team must acquire strange and deadly equipment by confronting the illusionary guardians of the labyrinths. But through every minute of play, the enemy will be uncomfortably close, hounding your team as you hound theirs...

Contents:

• 4 PAKIT Platters
• 10 PAKIT Keys
• 52 Equipment Cards
• 40 Guardian Cards
• 28 Character Cards
• 40 Game Markers
• 2 Chart Cards
• 1 Rulebook
• 4 Dice

Expansions:

• Duel of Ages Set 2 - Intensity
• Duel of Ages Set 3 - Vast Horizons
• Duel of Ages Set 4 - Royal Tournament
• Duel of Ages Set 5 - Mercenary Camp
• Duel of Ages Set 6 - Field of Honor
• Duel of Ages Set 7 - Ruins of Cany XII
• Duel of Ages: Masters Addendum
• Duel of Ages - Prestige Pack
• Duel of Ages - Scrye Add-On Pack

Who will lift the most valuable treasure chests?

Generations of seafarers have spent their time searching for the fabled treasure, but none have managed to find it. But now Flint's old chart has turned up, on which the hiding places are marked. Multiple pirate ships simultaneously reach the island group in which the treasure chests are hidden. But the restless ghost of Flint is guarding the treasure. Who will be successful and recover the most valuable treasure chest?

Battle Masters is a fantasy miniatures battle game by Milton Bradley, presumably liscensed from Games Workshop. The sizeable game box comes stuffed with tons of plastic miniatures, a deck of combat cards and some dice. Players move and fight their armies based upon what card is turned over from the deck. Combat is held on a large vinyl mat 4.5 ft square.

Based on an older general card game called Coup d'etat, this is a decent trick taking game. Each player is given a supply of neat little plastic gems, which represent points. Each player will get to be the dealer for five different hands, with the goal for each hand slightly different. After all cards have been dealt out, the dealer decides which hand best suits his current cards, and the other players are penalized points (in the form of crystals) for taking certain tricks or cards. For instance, if First or Last is called, then a player is penalized for taking the first or last tricks. All players will get a chance to be dealer for five hands, but other players can steal this opportunity by taking all of the cards/tricks during certain hands. At the end, the biggest pile of gems wins the game

Dungeoneer - Perilous Adventures in an Ever-Changing Labyrinth.

In Dungeoneer, you take up the mantle of a great Hero set out to prove your valor in the Tomb of the Lich Lord. To triumph over your rivals, you will need to explore the labyrinth of corridors, defeat the heinous monsters, overcome nefarious traps and be the first to complete all your Quests. But beware, the gods are fickle and to test their Heroes even further, they often bestow upon them Banes as well as Boons.

Game Description:

This simple card game is very reminiscent of Wiz-War (and the Atari video game Gauntlet). Players are dealt one of 4 Heros, each with varying movement, fighting and magic abilities. The Dwarf for example is very tough, but has no magic value at all. Each Hero also has a value for hit points, the amount of Treasure he can have (carry) at any time and also the number of "Boons" (special abilities) he may have. Players are dealt 3 quest cards initially in front of them (public knowledge) and have 5 Adventure cards in hand.

Each turn a player may:

• 1 Discard unwanted cards and draw back to 5 cards.
• 2 Play Encounters and/or Bane cards (always on opponents never on yourself).
• 3 Build the Dungeon.
• 4 Move (collect Peril and Glory tokens).

Players will collect Peril tokens as they move which then makes them targets for others to play Encounter/Bane cards against them (Encounter/Bane cards have a fee to play - which is paid for by the person who the card is played ON with Peril tokens). This simple mechanic balances the game by spreading the attacks around as you can't attack someone that can't pay the Peril price.

Players attempt various quests (some are simple die rolls in a certain room, some are tough combat and some a series of things to do), with each completed quest having you Hero "go up a level" which increases his abilities.

Treasures & Boons help you, Banes, Traps & Encounters hurt you (which are played on you by other players).

The dungeon map is different each time as it is made up of cards played one at time onto the table by each player.

This game was introduced at DunDraCon 2003, in San Ramon, Ca. There are several planned expansions (which may/may not be collectable depending on to whom you talked), and two special cards available by mail if you purchased at the convention.

Expansions:

• Den of the Wererats
• Dragons of the Forsaken Desert
• Haunted Woods of Malthorin
• Realm of the Ice Witch
• Vault of the Fiends

Epic Levels

• Call of the Lichlord

Legendary Levels

• Wrath of the Serpent Goddess

You and the three other greatest heroes of planet earth must save the BattleStat1 spacestation from the evil Omega Virus. Using a computer, you explore the station collecting access cards (red, yellow, blue) and weapons (negatron, decoder, disruptor) - all of which you must find in order to locate and destroy the Omega Virus. The BattleStat pleas for help and the Virus taunts as you try to locate which room the virus is hiding.

As the box says, Scene It? Is all about movie magic. It's a very simple trivia game. You move about the board and answer questions about movies, such as what was Alien III's tag line, or what composer was nominated for an Oscar 18 times but never won. The interesting part is that there is also a visual component as well. You can roll a My Play or an All Play category which will play a short movie clip, such as Fried Green Tomatoes, Hannibal, etc. and then ask you questions about the clip, it could be something as simple as how many glasses of water were in the clip to what state did the clip take place, or even who was the actress who played that character's mother. The game is very fast paced and a lot of fun. The graphics on the DVD menus and the changes are very nice to watch. Further, a new "Expansion" DVD is supposed to come out every three months. As you might have guessed, you MUST have a DVD player to play this game.

Designed to be an educational and challenging game in which players compete primarily with Nature and with each other, luck tends to be an element in the game, but can be overcome by careful play. Because the situation is forever changing, there is no single best strategy; however,players must weigh risks against gains with every decision they make and good judgement will pay off.

The game is played on a mapboard showing Africa from Khartoum to Capetown and Lagos to Mombasa. The periphery of this map, showing the territory known ca. 1820, is filled-in; the center is blank. A hexagonal grid is superimposed on the map to regulate movement and to delimit territory explored. In the course of play, each player moves a token (representing his explorer) from explored hexagons to blank hexagons one at a time.; terrain, native tribes and other discoveries within the hexagons are then semi-randomly determined, with allowance made for previous discoveries in adjacent hexagons. The player interacts with the discoveries (e.g. negotiates with new natives for guides) and records them on the mapboard using wax crayons. The mapboard surface is erasable. If the explorer dies before returning to Europe to publish his discoveries, all hexagons which only he has explored will be erased and "subsequent explorers will find that his discoveries were only rumors"; i.e., when other players explore the erased hexagons later they will have to generate new discoveries there.

When explorers do return to civilization, however, they may publish their discoveries, after which they are safe from erasure. Players may also emulate real explorers by withholding some of their discoveries since they will enjoy some advantages when moving through terrain or dealing wih natives known only to them. Points are scored for discoveries as they are published and once scored will not be lost if the explorer dies or is retired by his player. A player may retire his explorer at any time and then start a new explorer in Europe.

Before each trip to Africa, explorers will have to raise money to support their expedition. New explorers with no discoveries to their credit must do this by drawing chance cards for several turns until they feel their finances are adequate. Experienced explorers can accelerate this process by publishing discoveries, which allow them to draw additional chance cards.

Originally published by Discovery Games and re-published by Avalon Hill as a more card-based rather than dice-based system. A form of the original rules are preserved in the AH rulesbook under the rubric "Game II".

The rules to the AH version have a serious glitch in sections 12.61 - 12.63 where the die roll modifiers for guides and proceeding cautiously are reversed.

The GENERAL Index Article List:

• The GENERAL Vol.18,No.6
  • Source of the Nile – “Native Policy in Source of the Nile” (Strategy) Michael Anchors
  • The Question Box - Source of the Nile

Online Play

• amarriner.com (PBEM)

From the website
Thunder's Edge is a science-fiction boardgame of politics, strategy and giant mecha for two to five players. Each player controls one of Earth's factions, each of which is trying to exert power over the planet Thunder's Edge. To win, players must gain the support of important lobby groups within the government, hold key locations on Thunder's Edge by military force, and fight for control of vital off-world locations.

from review by Nickjost:
Play begins by setting up the board. The board is composed of hexes ala' Settlers of Catan. These hexes are delt out to the players who may look at them and then deploy them face down one at a time. The players then recieve an initial alotment of money. They may spend this money to purchase units for the initial planetfall. Any money that isn't spent is doubled. Opening strategies are based on buying enough infantry to hold any cities that you can know of (from the hexes delt) and deploying those infantry to gaurd those cities.

There are also several other components. First, is the tension track. This is essentially a turn marker. Once the tension track is exhausted the game ends. There are also a few off-world locations that provide special bonuses. Military units also make use of the transit and orbit boards. Units in "transit" are moved to "orbit". Units in "orbit" can be deployed to the board. This introduces a minimum one turn delay from when an item is purchased to when it can be deployed.

from User Review:
Tom Clancy, the famous author of military-style thrillers, long been a wargaming fan. Now, he has entered into the wargame market with Politika, produced by a company of his own, Red Storm Entertainment.

The premise of the game is that Yelstin has died and there is now a power struggle amongst various factions within Russia to take control of the vast country. The game is billed as 'The Strategy Game of political intrigue in modern day Russia'.

Play your cards to be the first to connect a correctly-aligned spout to your system of non-leaking pipes, of minimum-length or greater (varies with # of players).

Along the way, you can give leaky pipes to others, and use your limited (2) wrenches to fix your own leaks, or try to draw new pipes to replace the leaky ones.

Some versions allow up to 5 players.

Twixt is a 2-player abstract game invented by Alex Randolph. Some old US sets mention a 4-player variant, with 2 teams as in Bridge, but this probably wasn't Randolph's idea. The game was popular in the 60s and 70s as part of the 3M Bookshelf Series. Avalon Hill then acquired the series and issued the game themselves. Now Hasbro owns AH, but they haven't marketed it yet.

Twixt is a "connection-type" game, very similar to Hex. Other related games are Havannah and The Game of Y. "Connection type" means the object is to form a path connecting something to something else. This requires very different thinking from the standard battle-type game such as chess or checkers. Players who dislike abstract battles may find they have an affinity for making connections.

Online Play

You can play Twixt online at:

• Little Golem (turn-based)
• Gamerz (turn-based)