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.

Board Games Are Conquering The Net Along With The Classic Mahjong

By Roy Tzayag

Mah Jong games are one of the most intriguing trends on the online world today, and you as an Internet consumer must at least experience them once. The origin of those games go way back to early China, but the result is the thing that interests us, and the result is super, Mahjong is a fun game played by all ages and demographic types.

When you play a mahjong game you earn lots of advantages, those games are relaxing, challenging and some say they can even to improve your brain abilities. When searching on the web, the choices for mahjong games are almost endless. With the expansive market for such games many game developers are coming up with new mahjong games each and every day.

Those days you can locate many Mahjong games, from classic mahjong to safari mahjong, whatever you can think of, you will definitely find those games at any Mahjong portal, just be sure to find a one that has a nice layout and not too many ads, since many portals take advantage of the crowd's fascination to the game and draw them into sites that has no convenience at all and a non user friendly platform.

Mahjong games are especially ideal for families what want to bond together, as they all sit in front of the computer screen and locate the matching tiles, many families reported to increase their fun level by playing mahjong games regularly. You may also help your kids and encourage them playing those games to develop your young ones thinking and abilities with this educational and most important safe game for all ages.

So what is left for you as a devoted online user, is finding your favorite mahjong game and experience the magic that fascinated ancient Chinese people many years ago, you may be surprised as this game still fascinates and keeps being relevant without too many changes to the core play.

To conclude, Feel free browsing mahjong sites and as you may find many hours of pure fun and brain challenge for you and your family. - 31483

About the Author:

Roy Tzayag is a devoted mah jong player and a classic Tetris follower, feel free checking out his recommended sites.

The Chinese Mahjong Game And The Rise Of The Board Games

By Roy Tzayag

Mahjong games are rapidly becoming an intriguing niche on the Net today, and you as an Internet consumer must at least experience them once. The origin of those games go way back to early China, but the result is the thing that interests us, and the result is super, Mahjong is a challenging game played by all ages and demographic types.

Playing mahjong games have lots of advantages, they are relaxing, challenging and some say they can even to improve your thinking abilities. When searching on the web, the choices for mahjong games are almost endless. With the expansive market for such games many game developers are coming up with new mahjong games each and every day.

Today you can trace lots of Mahjong games, from solitaire mahjong to animals mahjong, whatever you can think of, you will definitely locate those games at any Mahjong site, try finding one that has a nice layout and not too many ads, since many portals take advantage of the crowd's fascination to the game and draw them into sites that has no convenience at all and a non user friendly control.

Mahjong games are especially ideal for families what want to bond together, as they all sit in front of the computer screen and locate the matching tiles, many families reported to increase their fun level by playing mahjong games regularly. You may also help your kids and encourage them playing those games to develop your young ones thinking and abilities with this educational and most important safe game for all ages.

So what is left for you as a devoted online user, is finding your favorite mahjong game and experience the magic that fascinated ancient Chinese people many years ago, you may be surprised as this game still fascinates and keeps being relevant without too many changes to the core play.

To summarize, Feel free browsing mahjong portals and as you may find many hours of pure fun and brain challenge for you and your loved ones. - 31483

About the Author:

Roy Tzayag is a devoted mah jong player and a classic Tetris follower, feel free checking out his recommended sites.

Chess Playing Without A Second Player

By Annelee Karlsson

Chess is one of the oldest board games around, and it is definitely the most popular and competitive one.The game of chess is made up of two sets of 16 pieces, including one king, one queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and eight pawns.For those of us who love chess, it seems that we can never quite get enough of it and will take it in any way we can.

Chess is entirely the most extended and competitive one.If you like to play chess, and you can't find any person to play with you should look for chess game on the net. There are various sites on the internet that offer free chess games to download.Chess games for children involve simple chess methods, puzzles and quizzes, which not only introduce children to basics, but also teach them .Chess is a brilliant game to encourage your kids to learn, for it develops thinking, planning and strategic capabilities in them. Dominating chess strategy and tactics is a matter of constant practice and analysis.When learning to play chess, one of the most important things that one needs to know is names of chess pieces.

While many of us want to learn how to play chess, we are not sure about a chess board set up.The initial moves of a chess game, which can eventually determine the course of the game, is generally known as a chess opening.Chess strategy deal with evaluation of chess positions, fixing up goals and long term tactics before play. Practice is the key when you get better you will feel that all the hours you have put into mastering the game of chess seem to be paying off.

If there are two things that go together perfectly, it is chess and celebrities.When you picture a game of chess, you see an image in a quiet setting with two people sitting opposite one another, with serious faces. In the modern detective novel, the chess players are more likely to be portrayed as the villains.

Are you getting bored with your chess games? Infuse some added competition and excitement by timing your moves with a chess clock.There are chess books designed for advanced players that will go through very specific formats for trying out new strategies with reference . At http://chess.livingfactonline.com you can learn a lot of more details about chess. - 31483

About the Author:

Learn more about Chess. Stop by Annelee Karlsson's site where you can find out all about Chess and what it can do for you.

The History of those Wonderful Old Games

By William Gentry

What do you think about when someone mentions "Old Games"? Do you think about your childhood and those games that you used to play with your family and friends, games such as "hide or seek" or tag? Other people might recall some special types of sports games or tournaments that were played in years gone by. In this particular article we will be focusing on the classic card and board games, and providing a bit of background history of these games...

Board games are those games that are played on some sort of a game board (naturally enough). The first known board game was the Egyptian game of Senet, which existed around 3500 B.C. As the years passed, European cultures started to embrace the concept of the board game as well. In this modern era of marketing and advertising, there are a number of various board games that families and friends can play. The latest version of these classic board games is "online play", in which you can play the same game, but via the internet, with someone on the other end of the world.

Let's examine the world of strategy board games. Strategy games are those games that require a considerable amount of strategy in order to win. Examples of strategy board games are chess and checkers. Luck board games are those games that just require a good "roll of the dice", and almost no strategy. Games such as Chutes and Ladders and Sorry fall into this category. Many games, such as Monopoly and Risk, require a bit of luck and strategy. Keep in mind, if you don't have a good strategy, any sort of luck you may have will go completely out the window.

Classic board games have been around for a long, long time... They have stood the test of time, and although they were popular generations ago, they are still popular today. Two examples of these games are Battleship and Risk. Minor adjustments to these games have been made over the years (such as the introduction of online play), but the games till have the same basic strategy and game play that they started out with years ago. Other examples of these types of games are Monopoly, Clue, Life, and Sorry.

People have been playing "old games" with cards for centuries. While the exact origin of a deck of cards is not known, it is very likely that they were invented by the Chinese around the time that they started shuffling paper money around. This would be between the 7th and 10th centuries A.D.

Around the 15th century we see the format of the English playing cards appear on the scene. We have documentation that in an Act of Parliament, domestic card makers were complaining about the importation of foreign cards into the market, thereby cutting their profits.

Playing cards were originally created and painted by hand, which was a very time and labor intensive process. As a result, they were very expensive to purchase and own, and this limited the number of people who could play card games as a result. Popular old card games include: hearts, bridge, poker, and rummy. - 31483

About the Author:

Learn more about Classic Old Games. Stop by William Gentry's site where you can find out all about some wonderful old games and how can they enrich your life.