In Celtic legend, faefolk align themselves with courts of influence over the ancient lands. The Seelie are allies of spring and growth, while the Unseelie are those of cold and trickery. In Pacts, you shall rule one of these two courts, facing your eternal opponent in a duel of wits. Before starting, each of you will gain the assistance of mythological creatures such as dragons, banshees, and selkies to give you the edge. Each round, cards are dealt, where one player will split the possible actions between two piles, while the other will select who gets which set. You will each place, move, and remove influence across six regions and see who rules these sacred places, seeking majority control. The player who scores the best after three and six rounds will be declared the new ruler of this great isle. This is a two-player dueler finished with a touch of legendary extravagance, a focused plaything of tactics and strategy worthy of the fae queen herself. —description from the publisher

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The adventure continues with the HeroQuest Jungles of Delthrak Quest Pack! In the dense jungle surrounding the mountains at World’s Edge, an ancient dwarven civilization finds new roots. A sacred artifact prized by the dwarven refugees of Kellar’s Keep has been stolen, and a blight has infected the jungle to its roots. As a powerful Berserker or Explorer hero, traverse the jungles and discover what vile secret looms beneath its canopy – before all is lost! Follow your path to unique endings through a choose-your-own adventure mechanic. Includes a Quest Book featuring 16 quests, 36 illustrated game cards, 29 detailed miniatures, and 39 double-sided cardboard pieces.

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The first large expansion for A Feast for Odin, The Norwegians, includes a viking-sized number of additions to the game, adding new strategies and puzzle-tiles. Renewed action board: The largest of the new additions, made of three double-sided pieces that can be flipped to show different actions based on the number of players, opening up new action paths and increasing the chances of players getting in each others' way. It contains new opportunities like butchering, elk-hunting, fishing, and thievery, along with changes for some old actions. It's now easier, for example, to play an animal strategy, because you can now get two of the same animals in one action. There is also a new fifth column with (better) actions that require only one viking. For example, you can now forge a grey special tile with a sword value of 8 or less by using an ore and only one viking! Another totally new 1-viking action is to do a "small emigration" using a whaling boat, which covers one space at the banquet table instead of two but is worth 7VP and costs no silver to do so. And as a bonus, you can send two vikings to this column instead of one to play an occupation card in addition to the action. The catch is, once you use an action from the fifth column, you can't place any more vikings for the rest of this round. New puzzle-tiles: 2x5 rectangle (horse/pregnant horse/leather/vadmal) and 5 spaces in a "U" shape (herbs/pig/antlers/tools). The red versions of these tiles feature two new animals, horses (worth 6VP) and pigs (worth 1VP and breed every round as opposed to every other round) respectively, adding yet more paths for an animal strategy. There are also five new grey special tiles such as a pan, a hauberk and an anvil, most of which can be forged with ore. Also included is a third goods box to hold all the new tiles. Four new exploration boards: Islands on the frontside (Isle of Man, Isle of Skye, Islay, Outer Hebrides) with Irish coastal viking-settlements on the backside (Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick), where people from Norway came to stay through the winter, to trade at, and to settle nearby. Also included are renewed versions of the four exploration boards from the base game, with updated iconography and some with adjusted VPs. New buildings: Also totally new is the idea of a random start-building. Everybody gets one of the six double-sided "artisan shed" boards, and whenever a player could build a shed during the game, they may instead build the front or backside of their artisan shed. Just like the stonehouse and longhouse, the artisan sheds offer new spaces to place orange and red tiles to earn bonus goods, silver and VP, and many of them require specific tiles to be placed in specific spaces. So everybody has another different start-opportunity - like the occupation cards. VP tokens: Another new option is that, whenever a player would play an occupation card into the game, the player may instead discard the card for a VP token, which are worth 4, 3 or 2VP at the end of the game. A nice little competitive element, as there are a limited number of the 4VP and 3VP tokens. Other stuff: The expansion also includes another mountain strip, more two-silver coins and more beans/mead and oil/runestone tiles. The expansion includes another almanac about the new game-elements and their viking-history. But again it was written by Gernot Köpke as a "historical-science"-journalist and learned local newspaper editor and the main elements will be published on BGG at Expansions-Almanac / Almanach für Erweiterungen. —adapted from the description from the designer

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A Feast for Odin is a saga in the form of a board game. You are reliving the cultural achievements, mercantile expeditions, and pillages of those tribes we know as Viking today — a term that was used quite differently towards the end of the first millennium. When the northerners went out for a raid, they used to say they headed out for a viking. Their Scandinavian ancestors, however, were much more than just pirates. They were explorers and founders of states. Leif Eriksson is said to be the first European in America, long before Columbus.In what is known today as Normandy, the intruders were not called Vikings but Normans. One of them is the famous William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066. He managed to do what the king of Norway failed to do only a few years prior: conquer the Throne of England. The reason the people of these times became such strong seafarers was their unfortunate agricultural situation: crop shortfalls caused great distress. In this game, you will raid and explore new territories. You will also engage in the day-to-day activity of collecting goods with which to achieve a financially secure position in society. In the end, the player whose possessions bear the greatest value will be declared the winner. --gameplay description from @StoryBoardGamer's review:A Feast for Odin is a points-driven game, with a plethora of pathways to victory, with a range of risks balanced against rewards. A significant portion of this is your central hall, which has a whopping -86 points of squares and a major part of your game is attempting to cover these up with various tiles. Likewise, long halls and island colonies can also offer large rewards, but they will have penalties of their own. Each year follows a familiar pattern of preparation, worker placement, and then meeting the requirements of your feast. The main phase of each year is a worker placement affair. You start with a selection of Vikings, and a large action board with a whopping 61 different options to choose from. Each of these will be arranged from left to right in one of four columns. Each column requires an additional Viking to activate, but they are proportionally more powerful. At the end of each round, you will need to fill a feast table with food, alternating between plants and vegetable matter. You will also have a chance to lay the valuable green and blue tiles into your main hall. The configuration of these tiles must follow certain requirements, but your main goal is to both cover up a line of coin icons to increase your income, while otherwise encircling certain printed icons to generate those. You will build your engine over time, following an alternating pattern of outward expansion and hunting against development and cultivation. It all comes down to how much you’re willing to take on at any one time, and what risks you’re willing to set yourself up with for their rewards.

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For over 300 million years, trees have traded nutrients with fungi in a vast underground network. Scientists continue to make new discoveries about this hidden world. In Undergrove, you are a towering evergreen with an ancient symbiotic connection to the fungi in your forest. As new mushrooms appear, your options expand for converting nutrients and helping your seedlings. Using cube conversion, tile placement, area control, and a tiny bit of engine building, you’ll need to claim the most advantageous locations and optimize your actions to leave the best legacy in the forest. The player with the greatest number of successful seedlings, wins! ● Build a shared forest containing mushrooms with diverse abilities.● Trade with the mushrooms to get resources based on the partnerships you’ve made.● Place your seedings in the most advantageous positions to score the most points. Inspired by real mycorrhizal trading networks. Shape the destiny of your forest with every decision! -description from publisher

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The Prophecy of Kings expansion is packed with new content for Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition). The galaxy has grown far larger as seven never-before-seen factions enter the game, each boasting its own unique strengths and weaknesses, from the gene-altering powers of the Mahact to the watchful guard of the Argent Flight, to the mysterious and ancient Empyrean. And new factions aren't the only way the galaxy grows bigger! Forty new system and hyperlane tiles add new planets and obstacles to the map, and with two new colors of player components included in the box, you can play Twilight Imperium with up to eight players. But that's only a fraction of what you'll find in this expansion! Adding even more flavor to your chosen species, a wealth of unique leader cards arrive to support every faction in the game, giving you powers to unlock during the game. Lumbering mechs stomp onto the battlefield as powerful new ground forces with unique special abilities for every faction. As you venture into the unknown regions of space, brand-new exploration decks seed new planets and the void of space with new discoveries, including fragments you can combine to create awe-inspiring relics. On top of this, Prophecy of Kings includes new action cards, agenda cards, objectives, technologies, promissory notes, legendary planets, and more.

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