Endeavor The Board Game

By Jessica King

Endeavor has been a huge, worldwide success for New Zealand creators Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray. Their board game, released by Z-Man games, has conquered the world ... not unlike the very game situation they have set up.

In the game, you live in the time of Empire: maps are still blank and need some colour and shape. As a great power, you need to send ships to new countries, negotiate new deals, and conquer when politics fail. There's great wealth and power to be found around the world, but they need to be discovered and exploited ... Do you have the tactics and strength to create -- and control -- your Empire?

Your character operates on behalf of an expanding Global Power whose glorious (and imperialistic!) endeavor is to conquer and hold the sea lanes and continents across the ocean. Utilising your shipping companies and explorers, creating armies and forming political alliances, you must contend with other colonists and take control of land and natural resources, exploiting the wealth to the best of your ability. However, it's important to find a balance between your financial reach and your political power; your cultural influence and your need to press forward. With hundreds of paths to victory, Endeavor is a very balanced strategy game where the decisions you make determine the lie of the land.

A game of world exploration and empire building. You represent a European empire colonizing the Mediterranean and shipping to all parts of the world to increase the empire's glory and status in Industry, Culture, Finance and Politics. When a region opens up (i.e. the shipping lanes are full) a player can colonize, attack or retrieve resources from that region. The game plays easily as each turn a player builds a building giving him a special action or increasing one of his main statistics, and gets a number of people with which to activate buildings for special actions (Ship, Occupy, Attack, Draw or Pay). Increased skill in Politics allow the player to hold cards that help increase his status and glory.

So why has Endeavor been topping the charts? If you don't know by now, it's just time to get out there and play a copy. - 31483

About the Author:

Learn more about Endeavor, New Zealand. Stop by http://seriouslyboard.co.nz where you can find out all about how Endeavor was created and what it can do for your gaming nights.

Ticket to Ride board game

By Jessica King

Train lover? Travel through the capital cities of 1800's Europe in Ticket to Ride Europe -- the board game. Complete missions, lay tracks and make use of ferries and underground tunnels to traverse the continent. In this, the second game in the franchise, there are Train Stations, Ferries, Tunnels and freshly designed and drawn cards and boards.

There are several changes and new elements in Ticket to Ride Europe, including:

Pieces: The map of Europe, which you play on, is wonderfully drawn as are the larger train and mission cards, which makes for easier shuffling. The new Station pieces are coloured plastic arches, which can be placed over the train pieces.

Missions: The longest destination tickets are now handed out to each player at game's start. There are six of those; the ones the players choose to discard are put out of play for the rest of the game.

Ferries: If you want to cross the water, you need to pay the ferryman! Every time you go to pass one of Europe's channels or harbours, you'll have to pay one or more locomotive cards, as marked on the board.

Tunnels: When passing through a tunnel, you risk a cave in. As such, when you play through, turn up three cards from the pile. After you've done that, you'll have to have enough cards in hand to complete the sets. e.g. If you played blue carriages, and there are two blue cards in the overturned cards, you'll need two MORE blue carriages to pass through.

Train Stations: A new element of Ticket to Ride is the train station. You can use a limited number of train stations to use another player's route! You need never get stuck on a track again as you can save time and turns by co-opting another's tracks to complete your mission. However, each Station you don't use is worth four victory points.

Ticket to Ride Europe is a worthy contribution to the franchise and is worthy of the many, many awards it has won. - 31483

About the Author:

Looking to find the best deal on Ticket to Ride Europe, then visit seriouslyboard.co.nz to find the best advice on board games in NZ for you.

How To Play Colosseum

By Jessica King

In Colosseum, you play as a Roman impresario who produces spectacles in an arena to attract the most (and most influential) spectators. You can earn both wealth and prestige for each event you run, utilising the profits to produce bigger and better events. You also need to invest in infrastructure, upgrade your arena, hire better performers, and convince the nobles and the Emperor to attend you shows. Managing your assets and balancing risk against gain, play to become the Grand Impresario.

There are five difference phases per round (except the final round, with only four phases). The leading player changes each round, to help balance things out. Each player is responsible for their own arena and begins with the choice of two different events. For each event you run, you need to use asset cards (which show people, props and animals) as well as ensure your arena is big enough to stage the show. You can buy, trade and sell asset cards at certain phases of the game.

During the first phase of the Colosseum players invest in one of four ways. Making the arena bigger, so that bigger events can be run and more important personages might visit; Constructing the "Emperor's Loge" which means that you can double your chances of bringing a noble into the arena; Getting a season ticket, meaning five more people come to watch; and buying a new event card, (before running the event you will need to expand the arena once or twice). Five different markets (laid out in the middle of the board) have three difference asset tokens. The players each have the opportunity to start an auction for the different assets, but nobody can win more than one auction. Players can, however, choose to sell asset tokens to others, or to trade and buy different asset tokens.

After investment, players roll the dice and move a noble of choice clockwise. If you have the Loge, you can choose to combine or split your two rolls. When a noble stays in your arena for the show, you get more spectator points. If a noble lands on a special square, follow the instructions. Often you receive an Emperor's Medal to be used in later phases. Each spectator equates to a gold coin and the player with the biggest amount of gold coins at the end of all the rounds wins the game. This is not cumulative.

Now the event has run and the spectators have been counted, there is a winner and loser for that round. The loser gets to pick any asset card from the winner, but the winner receives the podium, which gives them three extra spectators at their next-round show. - 31483

About the Author:

Looking to find the best deal on board games in New Zealand? Then visit SeriouslyBoard.co.nz to find Colosseum and many more board games at great prices.