Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace' 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution, between the years of 1770-1870.As in its predecessor, you must develop, build, and establish your industries and network, in an effort to exploit low or high market demands.Each round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following actions (found in the original game):1) Build - Pay required resources and place an industry tile.2) Network - Add a rail / canal link, expanding your network.3) Develop - Increase the VP value of an industry.4) Sell - Sell your cotton, manufactured goods and pottery.5) Loan - Take a £30 loan and reduce your income.Brass: Birmingham also features a new sixth action:6) Scout - Discard three cards and take a wild location and wild industry card. (This action replaces Double Action Build in original Brass.)The game is played over two halves: the canal era (years 1770-1830) and the rail era (years 1830-1870). To win the game, score the most VPs. VPs are counted at the end of each half for the canals, rails and established (flipped) industry tiles.Birmingham features dynamic scoring canals/rails. Instead of each flipped industry tile giving a static 1 VP to all connected canals and rails, many industries give 0 or even 2 VPs. This provides players with the opportunity to score much higher value canals in the first era, and creates interesting strategy with industry placement.Iron, coal, and cotton are three industries which appear in both the original Brass as well as in Brass: Birmingham.New "Sell" systemBrewing has become a fundamental part of the culture in Birmingham. You must now sell your product through traders located around the edges of the board. Each of these traders is looking for a specific type of good each game. To sell cotton, pottery, or manufactured goods to these traders, you must also "grease the wheels of industry" by consuming beer. For example, a level 1 cotton mill requires one beer to flip. As an incentive to sell early, the first player to sell to a trader receives free beer.Birmingham features three all-new industry types:Brewery - Produces precious beer barrels required to sell goods.Manufactured goods - Function like cotton, but features eight levels. Each level of manufactured goods provides unique rewards, rather than just escalating in VPs, making it a more versatile (yet potentially more difficult) path vs cotton.Pottery - These behemoths of Birmingham offer huge VPs, but at a huge cost and need to plan.Increased Coal and Iron Market size - The price of coal and iron can now go up to £8 per cube, and it's not uncommon.Brass: Birmingham is a sequel to Brass. It offers a very different story arc and experience from its predecessor.

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Climb the social ladder — or kick it over. The trick-taking game Tax the Rich features a deck depicting characters of various social ranks from the Poor to the President. Each round begins with a simple bidding phase to determine both the trump color and the number of tricks required to score bonus points. The winner of the bid must then acquire the required number of tricks, together with their ally. The game is played as a trick-taking game in which the highest social ranks are the strongest cards. However, if at any time all remaining cards in your hand have a flag symbol, you may trigger a "revolution" by revealing your cards. This flips the social hierarchy upside down so that the lowest-ranked cards become the most powerful. Having called for a revolution, you stand publicly exposed, playing the rest of this round with your cards face up. The game includes thirteen rule cards that add variety by giving certain character cards special abilities related to their profession: Workers "unionize", the Billionaires "power grab", the Police "stop and frisk", Scientists "debunk" etc. You can play with random rule cards or use one of the scenarios suggested in the rules. With an optional variant, players can also collect cards with a feminist icon to trigger a feminist revolution, boosting the value of all female characters. —description from the designer

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Thunder Road: Vendetta is a revved-up restoration of the classic 1986 game of mayhem on the asphalt. Grab your crew, roll your dice, race your cars, shoot your guns, and try not to get wrecked. This new version features exciting new additions, including random hazard tokens, such as wrecks, oil slicks, and more. Damage isn't merely one and done. Now, you'll draw damage tokens with exciting effects that can send your car careening across the board. You'll also have more choices on your turn, assigning one of your dice to your command board to repair damage, nitro boost, or send out your attack copter to fire away.

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Decorate the magnificent ceilings of the palace. Will the vaults look more beautiful by day or by night? Azul Duel invites you to play with light and pit opposites against each other. This competitive strategic game for two players retains the purity and elegance of the original Azul while adding an extra tactical dimension in which you determine the pattern in which tiles will be placed, in addition to drafting tiles to complete that pattern.

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In this first expansion to Wingspan, we increase the scope of the world to include the regal, beautiful, and varied birds of Europe. These birds feature a variety of new abilities, including a number of birds with round end abilities, abilities that increase interaction between players, and birds that benefit from excess cards/food. Along with the new bonus cards, they’re designed to be shuffled into the original decks of cards (and cards from future expansions).The European Expansion also includes an additional tray for storing the growing collection of birds (past, present, and future), as well as 15 purple eggs, extra food tokens, and a colorful new scorepad designed for both multi-player and single-player scoring. It's designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features birds illustrated by Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez.—description from the publisher

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Santorini is an accessible strategy game, simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore, The rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps: 1. Move - move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels. 2. Build - Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play. Winning the game - If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win. Variable player powers - Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game, with 40 thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.

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Two players battle for control over the lush life-sustaining sanctuaries of the desert. By cleverly playing and grouping animal cards, players can show their strength, unlock powers, and use palm tree tokens to alter values. Do you have what it takes to survive in the Desperate Oasis? I don't. Desperate Oasis is a small "lane-battling" card game where you will play Animal Cards on your side (and sometimes your opponent's side) of a row of Oasis Cards in an attempt to win them. Special spatial rules pull similar animals together, allowing for manipulation of card positions. Each animal has a special power that can be triggered to alter the outcome of each duel, some only being revealed at the end of the round. —description from the designer

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