Backgammon is a classic abstract strategy game dating back thousands of years. Each player has a set of 15 checkers (or stones) that must be moved from their starting positions, around, and then off the board. Dice are thrown each turn, and each player must decide which of their checkers to move based on the outcome of the roll. Players can capture each other's checkers, forcing the captured checkers to restart their journey around the board. The winner is the first player to get all 15 checkers off the board. A more recent addition to the game is the "doubling cube", which allows players to up the stakes of the game. Although the game relies on dice to determine movement, there is a large degree of strategy in deciding how to make the most effective moves given each dice roll and measuring the risk in terms of possible rolls the opponent may get. Backgammon may be the first game to be mentioned in written history, going back 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia. During the 1920s, archaeologists unearthed five boards from a cemetery in the ancient town of Ur. At another location, pieces and dice were also found along with the board. Boards from ancient Egypt have also been recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamun, including a mechanical dice box, no doubt intended to stop cheaters. The names of the game were many. In Persia, Takhteh Nard which means "Battle on Wood". In Egypt, Tau, which may be the ancestor of Senat. In Rome, Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum ("game of twelve marks"), later, Tabula ("table"), and by the sixth century, Alea ("dice"). In ancient China, T-shu-p-u and later in Japan, Sugoroko. The English name may derive from "Bac gamen" meaning "Back Game", referring to re-entry of taken stones back to the board. It was often enjoyed by the upper classes and is sometimes called "The Aristocratic Game". The Roman Emperor Claudius was known to be such a fan of Tabula that he had a set built into his coach so he could play as he traveled (the world's first travel edition?). The rules in English were standardized in 1743 by Edmond Hoyle. These remained popular until the American innovations of the 1930s.

Abstract strategy game where players move disc-shaped pieces across an 8 by 8 cross-hatched ("checker") board.Pieces only move diagonally, and only one space at a time. If a player can move one of his pieces so that it jumps over an adjacent piece of their opponent and into an empty space, that player captures the opponent's disc. Jumping moves must be taken when possible, thereby creating a strategy game where players offer up jumps in exchange for setting up the board so that they jump even more pieces on their turn. A player wins by removing all of his opponent's pieces from the board or by blocking the opponent so that he has no more moves.This game, also known as Draughts, is part of the Checkers family. The Official Checker Board to be used in tournaments and official matches of associations like international WCDF, ACF, and APCA usually shall be colored of green and off-white (buff). Board squares shall be not less than 2 inches nor more than 2½ inches wide. Tournament pieces are Red and White, but called Black and White in game related literature.

Chess is a two-player, abstract strategy board game that represents medieval warfare on an 8x8 board with alternating light and dark squares. Opposing pieces, traditionally designated White and Black, are initially lined up on either side of the board. Each type of piece has a unique form of movement and capturing occurs when a piece, via its movement, occupies the square of an opposing piece. Players take turns moving one of their pieces in an attempt to capture, attack, defend, or develop their positions. Chess games can end in checkmate (when the king cannot escape from the opponent's pieces), resignation (when one player recognizes that defeat is inevitable and ends the game), or one of several types of draws. Chess is one of the most popular games in the world, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Between two highly skilled players, chess can be a beautiful thing to watch, and a game can provide great entertainment even for novices. The 2020 Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit was enjoyed by both chess players and non-players alike. There is also a large literature of books and periodicals about chess, typically featuring games and commentary by chess masters. Chess is so well known and highly regarded that it is often used as a metaphor in journalism, poetry, fiction, and film. Chess evolved from the ancient Indian game Chaturanga, which became Shatranj when introduced to the Persians. The current form of the game emerged in the second half of the 15th century when the Persians brought Shatranj to Southern Europe. The tradition of organized competitive chess began in the 16th century. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. Chess is also a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee.

In BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia, players will play as either the Founders or the Vox Populi and will build up an army to fight for control of Columbia by taking ground and completing important objectives. At the same time, they'll be using their influence to sway various events that arise. They'll also find themselves having to deal with Booker and Elizabeth, who are running around Columbia creating havoc. The game has players combating one another, stealing objectives from under each other's noses, assassinating leaders, destroying strongholds, bidding against each other for control of unfolding events, and more. The first faction to 10 victory points wins. Because there are only two factions, the game can be played by two players in a head-to-head format, or by four players paired off in two teams.

It is the dawn of the Industrial Age in the Netherlands. For centuries, the country has relied upon a series of dikes and wind-powered pumps to keep it safe from the constant threat of flooding from the North Sea, but this system is no longer enough. In Pandemic: Rising Tide, it is your goal to avert tragedy by constructing four modern hydraulic structures in strategic locations that will help you defend the country from being reclaimed by the ocean. Storms are brewing and the seas are restless. It will take all your guile to control the flow of water long enough to usher in the future of the Netherlands. It's time to get to work. Containing the water that threatens to consume the countryside is your greatest challenge. Water levels in a region are represented by cubes, and as the water containment systems currently in place begin to fail, more water cubes are added to the board. With water levels constantly on the rise, failure to maintain the containment system could quickly lead to water spilling across the board. To successfully build the four hydraulic structures needed to win a game of Pandemic: Rising Tide, you must first learn to predict and manipulate the flow of water. Failing to maintain safe water levels throughout the country can bring you perilously close to failing your mission. Fortunately, water can be corralled by a strategically placed dike or slowed by pumping water out of a region. Correctly identifying and intervening in at-risk areas can get you one step closer to victory.

A fun food party game where players determine who has the best taste! Each round one player acts as Chef and creates a dish on the board using the ingredient and creation cards. All players then secretly give it a score. Reveal and compare; anyone with matching scores are rewarded with a slice of pizza for thinking alike! A highly social game that uses creative flair, imagination, a little luck-pushing. Either go with your gut or go with the flow... it's all A MATTER OF TASTE!

King Robert Baratheon is dead, and the lands of Westeros brace for battle. In the second edition of A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, three to six players take on the roles of the great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, as they vie for control of the Iron Throne through the use of diplomacy and warfare. Based on the best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones is an epic board game in which it will take more than military might to win. Will you take power through force, use honeyed words to coerce your way onto the throne, or rally the townsfolk to your side? Through strategic planning, masterful diplomacy, and clever card play, spread your influence over Westeros! To begin the game, each player receives an army of Footman, Knight, Siege Engine, and Ship units, as well as a set of Order tokens and other necessary components. Each player also receives a deck of unique House Cards, which are used as leaders in battles against rival Houses. Each round in the game is made up of three phases: the Westeros Phase, the Planning Phase, and the Action Phase. The Westeros Phase represents special events and day-to-day activities in Westeros. There are three different Westeros Decks, and each denotes a different global action, potentially affecting all players. The Planning Phase is perhaps the most important. Here you secretly assign orders to all of your units by placing one order token face down on each area you control that contains at least one unit (Knight, Footman, Ship, or Siege Engine). This portion of the game emphasizes diplomacy and deduction. Can you trust the alliance that you made? Will you betray your ally and march upon him? Players may make promises to each other (for aid or peace, for example), but these promises are never binding. The result is tense and compelling negotiations, often ending in backstabbing worthy of Westeros! During the Action Phase, the orders are resolved and battle is entered! When armies meet in combat, they secretly choose one of their House cards to add strength to the battle. Finally, the Houses can consolidate their power in the areas they control and use that power in future turns to influence their position in the court of the Iron Throne and to stand against the wildling Hordes. In addition to featuring updated graphics and a clarified ruleset, this second edition of A Game of Thrones includes elements from the A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords expansions, including ports, garrisons, Wildling cards, and Siege engines, while introducing welcome new innovations like player screens and Tides of Battle cards. Tides of Battle cards are an optional mechanism that brings an element of unpredictability to combat, representing erratic shifts in the momentum of war due to factors such as weather, morale, and tactical opportunity. During each combat, both players draw one Tides of Battle card from a communal deck, and its value modifies the strength of his chosen House card. What's more, such a card may also contain icons that can affect the outcome of the battle...all of which delivers a new level of intensity to your military engagements.

In Alchemists, two to four budding alchemists compete to discover the secrets of their mystical art. Points can be earned in various ways, but most points are earned by publishing theories – correct theories, that is — and therein lies the problem. The game is played in six rounds. At the beginning of the round, players choose their play order. Those who choose to play later get more rewards.Players declare all their actions by placing cubes on the various action spaces, then each action space is evaluated in order. Players gain knowledge by mixing ingredients and testing the results using a smartphone app (iOS, Android, and also Windows) that randomizes the rules of alchemy for each new game. And if the alchemists are longing for something even more special, they can always buy magical artifacts to get an extra push. There are 9 of them (different for each game) and they are not only very powerful, but also very expensive. But money means nothing, when there's academic pride at stake! And the possession of these artifacts will definitely earn you some reputation too. Players can also earn money by selling potions of questionable quality to adventurers, but money is just a means to an end. The alchemists don't want riches, after all. They want respect, and respect usually comes from publishing theories. During play, players' reputations will go up and down. After six rounds and a final exhibition, reputation will be converted into points. Points will also be scored for artifacts and grants. Then the secrets of alchemy are revealed and players score points or lose points based on whether their theories were correct. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Granada, 1278. At the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, one of the most exciting and interesting project of the Spanish Middle Ages begins: the construction of the ALHAMBRA. The best master builders in the whole of Europe and Arabia want to demonstrate their skill. Employ the most suitable teams of builders and make sure that you always have enough of the right currency. Because no matter whether they are stonemasons from the north or horticulturalists from the south, they all want a proper wage and insist on their “native” currency. With their help towers can be constructed, gardens laid out, pavilions and arcades erected and seraglios and chambers built.

  The Queen of Hearts has summoned Alice to rebuild Wonderland, which has been devastated by an invasion of Nothing, which is devouring the dreams of all in the land — but the Queen has mistakenly summoned whole armies of Alices! Dozens of Alices abound, and now they're taking sides and forming teams to see who can put the land back together best. In Alicematic Heroes, you take charge of one of these teams, and you'll have a handful of Alices to use in your efforts. Alices come in five colors, with each player having a set of player boards in these five colors. On a turn, you first summon an Alice to your kingdom, playing that card from your hand onto the player board of the same color, but only if you can pay the cost in dream power; each Alice has a cost, and you must have at least this many dream cards (yellow) or be able to make up the difference by paying dream tokens. If you can, you immediately use the power — or Megalomania — of that Alice; if you can't, choose another card or lay an Alice face down as a commoner. Playing a commoner doesn't cost anything, lets you draw another card, and builds up the power of one of your five colors, but you don't get a Megalomania bonus for it. After you played an Alice or Commoner, you can then invade a territory in the playing area, which is composed of modular hex tiles. To conquer the territory, you need enough Military power (red cards) or Military (red) tokens, and if the territory is not on a hex where you occupy a city, you must have enough Mobility power(green cards) or Mobility tokens to reach that space. If you conquer it, you receive a bonus based on the territory's color: military, mobility or dream tokens; Alice cards; or victory points. If you conquer a city, you score points and now have a foothold on that hex. If you lack enough military and/or mobility, you can still place the territory under attack and finish it off on a later turn, but another player can potentially conquer it in the meantime. Mystic forests cannot be conquered until they're surrounded by player-controlled territories, and only the player(s) with the most controlled surrounding territories can then capture the forest, which has a toughness and point value equal to the number of surrounding territories. The game ends after fourteen rounds, then players score points for having the most or secondmost territories controlled in each hex and for having the most Alices in any of the five colors. Players can also score points for Alice Megalomania effects, and whoever has the most points wins!

From the award-winning, best-selling creators of Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito, A Little Wordy is a fresh and ridiculously clever take on the genre of tile-based word-unscrambling games. Here’s how it works: You’re each given a pile of letters. Rearrange your letters until you come up with a word. Be sneaky and choose a word that your opponent won’t easily guess. Write it down, keep it a secret. Rescramble your tiles, pass them to your opponent. The goal is to examine your opponent’s tiles and try to figure out their word. You do this with Clue Cards. These tell you things such as: what’s the first letter, how long’s the word, or what does it rhyme with? You win by using as FEW of these clue cards as possible to figure out what word your opponent wrote down. It’s thoughtful, strategic, highly-replayable, and built specifically for two players. It’s not a game about having the mightiest vocabulary - it’s a game about making clever choices. The longest, most complicated word isn’t always the best choice. Sometimes, picking a smaller, common word is better because your brainiac opponent will overthink things and blaze right past it. Trying to figure out your opponent’s secret word can be both hilarious and (delightfully) maddening. A Little Wordy levels the playing field against veteran word wizards.

Included inside the Core Rulebook, you’ll find:     Rules to Play Archetypes ranging from Socialites to Soldiers    Explore the expansive metropolis Bay City in both its Underground, and Atrium world.    Storytelling focused rules, that help create immense danger inside of combat and intrigue outside combat.    The means in which to transfer your characters digital consciousness into a new sleeve should they come to a tragic end. With the prize of immortality at your fingers, the question is, what price will you pay? What stories will you tell? Your neon drenched adventures await. FEATURES     Solve unfolding mysteries in a gritty sci-fi noir setting — even the gamemaster may not know who the culprit is starting out!    Rules to Play Archetypes ranging from Socialites to Soldiers!    Dive straight into action with a dynamic zone-based combat system boasting exotic high-tech weaponry and streamlined options for more action-oriented gameplay!    Experience immortality with the opportunity to transfer your character’s consciousness, memories, and experiences into entirely new bodies.    Employs the Hazard System – a brand new game system deigned specifically for this RPG

In Andor: The Family Fantasy Game, a.k.a. Andor Junior, each player chooses one of four heroes — magician, warrior, archer, or dwarf — before beginning their quest to rescue the wolf cubs lost in the dwarven mine. However, before beginning the search for the wolf cubs, the heroes must first complete the tasks given to them by Mart, the old bridge guard. Only after you have solved all of the bridge guard's tasks will he let you cross the bridge to the dwarven mines where you believe the wolf cubs are hiding. But watch out! While you are on your way, the sly dragon is getting closer to the castle Rietburg. Should it arrive at the castle before the heroes have completed their tasks and saved the wolf cubs, then all is lost, and you lose the game. If you find all the wolf cubs before the dragon reaches Reitburg, you win! Gameplay is similar to Legends of Andor, with each game offering new challenges, which you must master together before the dragon reaches Rietburg.

Welcome to New Angeles, home of the Beanstalk. From our branch offices in this monument of human achievement, NBN proudly broadcasts all your favorite media programming. We offer fully comprehensive streaming in music and threedee, news and sitcoms, classic movies and sensies. We cover it all. Ours is a brave new age, and as humanity hurtles into space and the future with an astonishing series of new advances every day, NBN and our affiliates are keeping pace, bringing you all the vid that's fit to view. Android: Netrunner is an asymmetrical Living Card Game for two players. Set in the cyberpunk future of Android and Infiltration, the game pits a megacorporation and its massive resources against the subversive talents of lone runners. Corporations seek to score agendas by advancing them. Doing so takes time and credits. To buy the time and earn the credits they need, they must secure their servers and data forts with "ice". These security programs come in different varieties, from simple barriers, to code gates and aggressive sentries. They serve as the corporation's virtual eyes, ears, and machine guns on the sprawling information superhighways of the network. In turn, runners need to spend their time and credits acquiring a sufficient wealth of resources, purchasing the necessary hardware, and developing suitably powerful ice-breaker programs to hack past corporate security measures. Their jobs are always a little desperate, driven by tight timelines, and shrouded in mystery. When a runner jacks-in and starts a run at a corporate server, he risks having his best programs trashed or being caught by a trace program and left vulnerable to corporate countermeasures. It's not uncommon for an unprepared runner to fail to bypass a nasty sentry and suffer massive brain damage as a result. Even if a runner gets through a data fort's defenses, there's no telling what it holds. Sometimes, the runner finds something of value. Sometimes, the best he can do is work to trash whatever the corporation was developing. The first player to seven points wins the game, but not likely before he suffers some brain damage or bad publicity.