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2014
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Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary contains material from the Ticket to Ride base game and the USA 1910 expansion:


30 Classic Destination Tickets
35 Destination Tickets from USA 1910
4 Destination Tickets from Mystery Train
1 Longest Route/Globetrotter Bonus card


In Ticket to Ride, players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.

Part of Ticket to Ride series.

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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Alan R. Moon
Publishers: Days of Wonder
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Ludovic Maublanc
Publishers: Repos Production
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Dave Williams (II)
Publishers: Alderac Entertainment Group
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Alan R. Moon
Publishers: Days of Wonder
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Andreas Seyfarth
Publishers: alea
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Stefan Dorra
Publishers: Gigamic
2014
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Star Realms is a spaceship combat deck-building game by Magic Hall of Famers Darwin Kastle (The Battle for Hill 218) and Rob Dougherty (Ascension Co-designer).

Star Realms is a fast paced deck-building card game of outer space combat. It combines the fun of a deck-building game with the interactivity of Trading Card Game style combat. As you play, you make use of Trade to acquire new Ships and Bases from the cards being turned face up in the Trade Row from the Trade Deck. You use the Ships and Bases you acquire to either generate more Trade or to generate Combat to attack your opponent and their bases. When you reduce your opponent’s score (called Authority) to zero, you win!

Multiple decks of Star Realms and/or Star Realms: Colony Wars, one for every two people, allows up to six players to play a variety of scenarios. Also, in the newest version, there are new ways to play that allow up to 6 players with modes like Boss, Hunter, and Free for All. You can also add Star Realms Colony Wars to the deck to make it 4 players. This is the first game of the Star Realms series.



Factions

Each of the cards in the 80 card Trade Deck is a Ship or a Base belonging to one of four factions: The Trade Federation, The Blobs, The Star Empire or The Machine Cult.



Trade Federation

In the far future, the more traditional governing bodies of the human race have been replaced with corporate leadership. The earth and its surrounding colonies are ruled by a group of corporations called the Trade Federation. The Federation’s policies are focused around trade and growth, but especially in profit and prosperity for those at the top of the corporate ladder. While they prefer to deal with other star realms using trade and diplomacy, they have a large defense branch dedicated to protecting the Federation’s trade and other interests.



The Blobs

These mysterious creatures are the first alien life forms encountered by the human race. Most of the initial encounters consisted of human colonies being completely obliterated. On the few occasions that a Blob ship has been recovered somewhat intact, the only biological remains found inside have consisted of a gelatinous mass, thus leading to the moniker, “The Blobs”. While for several years all encounters between humanity and the Blobs have been extremely violent, there is currently some limited trade between various Blob factions and some of the more daring human traders.The Blobs are best at generating massive amounts of Combat and at removing undesirable cards from the Trade Row.



Star Empire

The Star Empire consists primarily of former colonies of the Trade Federation. These colonies were on the outer edges of the Federation. Not only did they feel used by the corporations, but they felt the Federation failed to give them adequate protection from the Blobs. As a result, one ambitious colonial governor was able to unite several colonies into an independent empire under his control, one with a strong military, both for warding off the Blobs and for discouraging the Federation from trying to reclaim their lost colonies. The Star Empire is a combat oriented faction that draws lots of cards and makes the opponent discard cards.



Machine Cult

A cluster of industrial mining worlds were completely cut off from the Trade Federation by the Blobs. With the threat of annihilation by the Blobs always looming and no contact with the rest of human space, these worlds were forced to take drastic measures. Soon a cult of technology arose, focused on using advanced technology, robotics and computerization to create strong defenses and a powerful military that belied their relatively small population. Since their leaders believed their salvation lay in technology, technology soon became their god and their religion. The Machine Cult gains most of its power from being able to remove undesirable cards from your deck and from having a large number of Bases designed to defend your Authority from attack.



Playing Star Realms

​When you play Star Realms, you will be able to acquire and use Ships and Bases of any and all of the four factions. Many cards have powerful Ally abilities that reward you for using Ships and Bases of the same faction together, however.

As you acquire cards using Trade, you put them into your discard pile, to be later shuffled into your personal deck. When you draw Ships, you do what they say and they get placed into your discard pile at the end of your turn. When you draw a Base, you play it face up in front of you and may use its abilities once every turn. In addition to Combat being the way you reduce your opponent’s Authority to zero and win the game, it’s also useful for destroying your opponent’s Bases. Some Bases are designated as Outposts. Your opponent’s Outposts must be destroyed before you can use Combat to attack your opponent’s Authority directly.

Star Realms is easy to learn, especially if you’re familiar with deck-building games, but it’s a game that takes time to master. Each time you play, the game is filled with various strategic decision points. Should I take the best card for me or the best card for my opponent? Should I focus on taking cards of a particular faction or on taking the best card available? Should I be focusing on acquiring more Trade or more Combat? Should I attack my opponent’s Base or their Authority? These are just some of the many choices you’ll be faced with. New players needn’t agonize over these choices just to play, but as they become more advanced players, they will find this depth of strategy leads to great replayability.

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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Robert Dougherty
Publishers: Wise Wizard Games
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Roberto Di Meglio
Publishers: Ares Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Robert Dougherty
Publishers: Wise Wizard Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Mike Elliott
Publishers: WizKids
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Brad Andres
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Justin Kemppainen
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
2014
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Game of the Year - 2014
"Crossroads" is a game series from Plaid Hat Games that tests a group of survivors' ability to work together and stay alive while facing crises and challenges from both outside and inside. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, the first title in this series, puts 2-5 players in a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world in which most of humanity is either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters. Each player leads a faction of survivors, with dozens of different characters in the game.

Dead of Winter is a meta-cooperative psychological survival game. This means players are working together toward one common victory condition, but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective, which could relate to a psychological tick that's fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or (worst of all) vengeance against the colony! Games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing. Work toward the group's goal, but don't get walked all over by a loudmouth who's looking out only for their own interests!

Dead of Winter is an experience that can be accomplished only through the medium of tabletop games, a story-centric game about surviving through a harsh winter in an apocalyptic world. The survivors are all dealing with their own psychological imperatives, but must still find a way to work together to fight off outside threats, resolve crises, find food and supplies, and keep the colony's morale up.

Dead of Winter has players making frequent, difficult, heavily-thematic, wildly-varying decisions that often have them deciding between what's best for the colony and what's best for themselves. The rulebook also includes a fully co-operative variant in which all players work toward the group objective with no personal goals.

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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Jonathan Gilmour
Publishers: Plaid Hat Games
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Jonathan Gilmour
Publishers: Plaid Hat Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publishers: Portal Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Bruno Cathala
Publishers: Days of Wonder
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Cody Miller
Publishers: Far Off Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Vital Lacerda
Publishers: Stronghold Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Robert Dougherty
Publishers: Wise Wizard Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Marc André
Publishers: Space Cowboys
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Mike Elliott
Publishers: WizKids
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Justin Kemppainen
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Matúš Kotry
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
2014
Image
Star Realms is a spaceship combat deck-building game by Magic Hall of Famers Darwin Kastle (The Battle for Hill 218) and Rob Dougherty (Ascension Co-designer).

Star Realms is a fast paced deck-building card game of outer space combat. It combines the fun of a deck-building game with the interactivity of Trading Card Game style combat. As you play, you make use of Trade to acquire new Ships and Bases from the cards being turned face up in the Trade Row from the Trade Deck. You use the Ships and Bases you acquire to either generate more Trade or to generate Combat to attack your opponent and their bases. When you reduce your opponent’s score (called Authority) to zero, you win!

Multiple decks of Star Realms and/or Star Realms: Colony Wars, one for every two people, allows up to six players to play a variety of scenarios. Also, in the newest version, there are new ways to play that allow up to 6 players with modes like Boss, Hunter, and Free for All. You can also add Star Realms Colony Wars to the deck to make it 4 players. This is the first game of the Star Realms series.



Factions

Each of the cards in the 80 card Trade Deck is a Ship or a Base belonging to one of four factions: The Trade Federation, The Blobs, The Star Empire or The Machine Cult.



Trade Federation

In the far future, the more traditional governing bodies of the human race have been replaced with corporate leadership. The earth and its surrounding colonies are ruled by a group of corporations called the Trade Federation. The Federation’s policies are focused around trade and growth, but especially in profit and prosperity for those at the top of the corporate ladder. While they prefer to deal with other star realms using trade and diplomacy, they have a large defense branch dedicated to protecting the Federation’s trade and other interests.



The Blobs

These mysterious creatures are the first alien life forms encountered by the human race. Most of the initial encounters consisted of human colonies being completely obliterated. On the few occasions that a Blob ship has been recovered somewhat intact, the only biological remains found inside have consisted of a gelatinous mass, thus leading to the moniker, “The Blobs”. While for several years all encounters between humanity and the Blobs have been extremely violent, there is currently some limited trade between various Blob factions and some of the more daring human traders.The Blobs are best at generating massive amounts of Combat and at removing undesirable cards from the Trade Row.



Star Empire

The Star Empire consists primarily of former colonies of the Trade Federation. These colonies were on the outer edges of the Federation. Not only did they feel used by the corporations, but they felt the Federation failed to give them adequate protection from the Blobs. As a result, one ambitious colonial governor was able to unite several colonies into an independent empire under his control, one with a strong military, both for warding off the Blobs and for discouraging the Federation from trying to reclaim their lost colonies. The Star Empire is a combat oriented faction that draws lots of cards and makes the opponent discard cards.



Machine Cult

A cluster of industrial mining worlds were completely cut off from the Trade Federation by the Blobs. With the threat of annihilation by the Blobs always looming and no contact with the rest of human space, these worlds were forced to take drastic measures. Soon a cult of technology arose, focused on using advanced technology, robotics and computerization to create strong defenses and a powerful military that belied their relatively small population. Since their leaders believed their salvation lay in technology, technology soon became their god and their religion. The Machine Cult gains most of its power from being able to remove undesirable cards from your deck and from having a large number of Bases designed to defend your Authority from attack.



Playing Star Realms

​When you play Star Realms, you will be able to acquire and use Ships and Bases of any and all of the four factions. Many cards have powerful Ally abilities that reward you for using Ships and Bases of the same faction together, however.

As you acquire cards using Trade, you put them into your discard pile, to be later shuffled into your personal deck. When you draw Ships, you do what they say and they get placed into your discard pile at the end of your turn. When you draw a Base, you play it face up in front of you and may use its abilities once every turn. In addition to Combat being the way you reduce your opponent’s Authority to zero and win the game, it’s also useful for destroying your opponent’s Bases. Some Bases are designated as Outposts. Your opponent’s Outposts must be destroyed before you can use Combat to attack your opponent’s Authority directly.

Star Realms is easy to learn, especially if you’re familiar with deck-building games, but it’s a game that takes time to master. Each time you play, the game is filled with various strategic decision points. Should I take the best card for me or the best card for my opponent? Should I focus on taking cards of a particular faction or on taking the best card available? Should I be focusing on acquiring more Trade or more Combat? Should I attack my opponent’s Base or their Authority? These are just some of the many choices you’ll be faced with. New players needn’t agonize over these choices just to play, but as they become more advanced players, they will find this depth of strategy leads to great replayability.

Read more Read less
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Robert Dougherty
Publishers: Wise Wizard Games
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Nicolas Poncin
Publishers: Blue Cocker Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Cody Miller
Publishers: Far Off Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Richard Launius
Publishers: 8th Summit
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Tim Fowers
Publishers: Fowers Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Robert Dougherty
Publishers: Wise Wizard Games
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401

Hey, we're back! In this show, we talk about Council of Verona, Firefly Blue Sun, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit, Viticulture + Tuscany, the Bruges expansion, Quilt Show, and Balderdash. Eric ruins someone's convention, we talk about legal recourse against Kickstarter, and are joined by a host of contributors. Finally, we end the show with our thoughts on playing people's game prototypes.

Hey, we're back! In this show, we talk about Council of Verona, Firefly Blue Sun, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit, Viticulture + Tuscany, the Bruges expansion, Quilt Show, and Balderdash. Eric ruins someone's convention, we talk about legal recourse against Kickstarter, and are joined by a host of contributors. Finally, we end the show with our thoughts on playing people's game prototypes.

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400

Well, we wanted to do something special for episode 400, so we invited in FOUR co-hosts! Sam Healey, Zee Garcia, Geoff Englestein, and Stephen Buonocore join us as we talk about some recently played games, and what's in store for us in the future. But wait, there's more! We are joined by several surprise guests, including designers, podcasters, and a voice from way back in the Dice Tower!

Well, we wanted to do something special for episode 400, so we invited in FOUR co-hosts! Sam Healey, Zee Garcia, Geoff Englestein, and Stephen Buonocore join us as we talk about some recently played games, and what's in store for us in the future. But wait, there's more! We are joined by several surprise guests, including designers, podcasters, and a voice from way back in the Dice Tower!

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399

Mark Streed and Zee Garcia join us this week, as we record a show live at the GAMA 2015 Trade Show. We go through a pile of games we enjoyed, including Forbidden Stars and Spit it Out!, and talk about each of the companies we talked to with their upcoming projects.

Mark Streed and Zee Garcia join us this week, as we record a show live at the GAMA 2015 Trade Show. We go through a pile of games we enjoyed, including Forbidden Stars and Spit it Out!, and talk about each of the companies we talked to with their upcoming projects.

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398

In this show, we talk about Can't Stop: Rolling Down the Highway, Welcome to the Dungeon, Batman Love Letter, Harbour, 99 Chances, and Captains of Industry. Geoff talks about scoring tracks, Brian about Around the World in 80 Days, and several other contributors join us! We have a couple of tales, talk about games gone by, and end the show with what we want to see in a board game cafe.

In this show, we talk about Can't Stop: Rolling Down the Highway, Welcome to the Dungeon, Batman Love Letter, Harbour, 99 Chances, and Captains of Industry. Geoff talks about scoring tracks, Brian about Around the World in 80 Days, and several other contributors join us! We have a couple of tales, talk about games gone by, and end the show with what we want to see in a board game cafe.

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397

In this show, we talk about Pictomania, Dragon's Gold, The Worst Game Ever, Pandemic: State of Emergency, XCom: the Board Game, and the Witcher. We also hear from Geoff on poker, answer a pile of questions, and tell you our favorite "bang for the buck" games.

In this show, we talk about Pictomania, Dragon's Gold, The Worst Game Ever, Pandemic: State of Emergency, XCom: the Board Game, and the Witcher. We also hear from Geoff on poker, answer a pile of questions, and tell you our favorite "bang for the buck" games.

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396

Tom is absent from this show as Eric takes over, joined by the hosts of Flip the Table. In this show, they talk about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, X-Files board game, PBL Robots, Costa Ruana, Troll Hunt, and more! Special guests show up, including the folks from Not Just Another Gaming Podcast, a Tale of Horror is given, and the show ends with a game show!

Tom is absent from this show as Eric takes over, joined by the hosts of Flip the Table. In this show, they talk about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, X-Files board game, PBL Robots, Costa Ruana, Troll Hunt, and more! Special guests show up, including the folks from Not Just Another Gaming Podcast, a Tale of Horror is given, and the show ends with a game show!

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