Playing time: 90 minutes
Players: 3 to 4
Year published: 1995
Designer: Klaus Teuber
Description: In Settlers of Catan players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine the current production on the island. Players collect raw materials to build up their civilizations to gain enough victory points to win the game. This game is a Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year) winner, primarily because of its amazing ability to appeal to non-gamers and gamers alike. Die Siedler von Catan was originally published by Kosmos and has gone through multiple editions. It was licensed by Mayfair and undergone at least 3 editions as Settlers of Catan. It has also been re-published in a travel edition by Kosmos and in yet a different edition for Japan/Asia.
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Playing time: 90 minutes
Players: 3 to 6
Year published: 1977
Designer: Bill Eberle
Description: Highly regarded by many people, this game definitely deserves a place in the Gaming Hall of Fame, if only because it was so original for its time. Originally produced by Eon in the seventies, Cosmic Encounter has since been produced West End and Mayfair as well. Each version is different, but a couple features are universal to all versions. Player represent alien races that are seeking to spread themselves onto five foreign worlds. To accomplish this, they make challenges against other players and enlist the aid of interested parties. But all that would be boring without alien powers, which are unique to each race. The alien powers give players ways to bend or outright break some rule in the game...
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Playing time: 60 minutes
Players: 3 to 6
Year published: 1988
Designer: Klaus Teuber
Description: '''Barbarossa''', in German "red beard" was, according to its inventor, inspired by the fantasy trilogy Die Schule der Rätselmeister (School of the Riddle Masters), in which wizards are devoted to the creation of riddles and riddle solving tournaments. In an interview he stated "As you know there are moments when you close a book really sad that it's over. After finishing the last page, you often feel like you've lost a friend -- to be somewhat melodramatic. So I was looking for a way to keep the book alive a little longer. Creating a game seemed the perfect solution. In this game, I was looking for a way to make riddles, to experiment with shapes and to let the players express their own creativity with clay." The game starts with players using modeling clay to make objects which can be guessed by the other players. Players then take turns to move around the board either by rolling a die or spending gems to choose their move. The spaces landed on determine actions. Either the other players receive victory points, or you can ask a letter of an object (What's the fifth letter of that thing?), or you can ask general questions or make a single guess until you get a NO answer. Players also have three curse stones which they can throw down twice in the game and make a guess. You make a guess by writing the word down and passing it to the owner, who answers YES or NO. If you guess right, you stick an arrow in the object, and score points (5pts if you're first, 3pts for second correct guess). In addition, and this matters, the object owner can either lose points, gain points, or lose points depending on the total arrows sticking at the time. So if you make your object too easy, or too hard, you lose points, but if you get it just right, you gain. Plus, at the game end, objects lacking arrows also lose their owners points. Your objects must each represent a single specific word, which you note down in secret. Trying to think of two or three things which people will guess, but not too easily, is really tricky and makes Barbarossa a fun game. Hopefully the new edition has a better rules set, as players might get puzzled by the variety of actions. Winner of the 1988 [[Spiel des Jahres]]. Re-published by Kosmos / Rio Grande 2001. Republished by Mayfair Games in 2005, in an edition for a maximum of 4 players in a smaller-sized box. '''[[On-line Games|Online Play]]''' * [[PlayCatan]] (puzzles)
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Playing time: 30 minutes
Players: 4 to 6
Year published: 2005
Designer: Ludovic Maublanc
Description: In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can’t get an agreement on the split! It’s time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone… The richest surviving gangster wins the game! [gameid=19237] will make you relive the best scenes of your favorite gangster movies. Fun, bluffing and tough negotiations are guaranteed, but will you dare to play? It's simply killing! [gameid=19237] is a game by Ludovic Maublanc for 4 to 6 gangsters illustrated by Gérard Mathieu (SuperGang, Knightmare Chess, Valley of the Mammoths). [gameid=19237] box contains: • 6 foam guns. • 6 sets of 8 bullet cards. One set for each player (5 "Clic Clic Clic" cards, 2 "Bang!" cards and 1 "Bang! Bang! Bang!" card. • 10 super power cards. • 3 telephone switchboard cards, 2 busy and 1 swat sent. • 6 secret role cards : 5 gangsters and 1 infiltrated cop. • 1 double sided phone card : "unused/used". • 1 quick reference card. • 14 wound markers. • 14 shame markers. These markers have two sides: a normal side and one with a flashing light used in the version with the undercover cop. • 40 banknotes: fifteen $5,000, fifteen $10,000 and ten $20,000 banknotes • 6 Characters to put on their stands. 2 stands for each. • Game rules.
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Playing time: 15 minutes
Players: 2 to 6
Year published: 1974
Designer: Richard Borg
Description: Derived from the traditional game ''Perudo''. Each player is given five dice and cup to roll and hide them with. Players make successively higher declarations regarding the results of all the dice remaining in the game, e.g. "there are ten sixes". However, someone can always contest the bid. When that happens, all the dice are revealed and either the bidder or the caller loses dice, depending on who was correct. The last player with dice is the winner. [publisherid=64] published a ''Liar's Dice'' in 1974. [publisherid=20] published ''Liars Dice'' in 1987. It is the first instance of the six-player, betting board, die re-roll version of the game later published as ''Bluff'' / ''Call My Bluff'' by [publisherid=11] in 1993. Both these games were designed by [designerid=25]. ''Bluff'' won 1993 [[Spiel des Jahres]]. Published as ''Perudo'' by [publisherid=254] in 1994 with slightly different rules. There was an [publisherid=11] re-issue in 1997. [publisherid=34], having acquired [publisherid=11], re-published ''Bluff'' in 2001. There was also a version with 2 cups published by Luckicup Co. (1850 Garden Tract Rd., Richmond, California) called ''Luckigames'' which also contained rules for nine other dice games: ''Boss Dice''; ''Pee Wee''; ''[gameid=18812 Ship, Captain, Mate and Crew]''; ''Elimination''; ''[gameid=10502 Poker Dice]''; ''Twenty-One''; ''Engineer's Dice''; ''Razzle Dazzle''. Year uncertain. [publisherid=562] published a 4-player version of ''Liars Dice'' in 2002. The game, ''Pirate's Dice'', portrayed in the 2006 film, ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383574/ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest]'', is essentially the same, but has simplified rules.
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Playing time: 45 minutes
Players: 2 to 10
Year published: 1994
Designer: Wolfgang Kramer
Description: There are 104 cards numbered from 1 to 104. Every card has at least 1 small ox-head on it, which will score against you. The deck is shuffled and players are dealt 10 cards each. 4 more are dealt up on the table to form the start of 4 rows. When each player has chosen a card from their hand, these are revealed and put on the ends of the rows according to simple rules. As the rows get longer, a row with 5 cards in it is full. If your card is to be the 6th, you pick up the 5 cards in the row, and your 6th card goes to the front to restart the row. The cards you pick up do not go into your hand, but sit in front of you to score against you at the end of the round. Play rounds until someone hits -66 and the least lowest score wins. The game plays from 2 to 10 players and the dynamics change the more you have. Whilst luck of the draw has effect, there are some tactics you can apply and timing your choice makes a difference. Winner of the 1994 [[Deutscher Spiele Preis]]. Playable online at [[BrettspielWelt]].
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