July 16, 2008 10:06 - HeroScape: Rise of the Valkyrie - this is war games simplified but still challenging.
HeroScape: Rise of the Valkyrie $59.99
War is being Waged in Valhalla!
Valhalla was a happy and peaceful place until the discovery of the wellsprings. The water from the springs brought powers and visions to those that drank from it. The visions included images of heroes and warriors from other worlds and times locked in deadly combat. With their new powers, the Valkyrie devised ways to beckon these creatures and use them against their enemies. The lush lands of Valhalla have now become a war-torn and desolate ruin.
Heroes and warriors from all worlds and times are now ready to wage war in Valhalla, and you have come to lead them. Will you be part of the Jandar Army who longs for peace? Or will you be vengeful and lead the Utgar Army to gain control for yourself and your minions?
Build your battlefield, gather your armies and wage war against your enemies. Will you be cunning and powerful enough to crush your enemies and claim victory?
July 10, 2008 11:41 - EXAGO - A family strategy game where each player tries to be the first to get 4 hexagonal tiles in a row.
EXAGO
With simple and straightforward rules, Exago is a fascinating family game. Each player starts out with 6 colored tiles (in 2 player games, each player gets 12 tiles). To win, you just need to be the first to place four of your hexagonal tiles on the grid in a straight line. Easy enough. But the challenge and strategy of good offensive and defensive tile placement becomes extremely obvious after just the first game. Each move requires planning for anticipated future moves such as in chess and other strategy games. Simply put, Exago is an fun and addictive game that everybody will want to play again and again!
Contents of Exago:
1 Gameboard
48 Hexagonal Tiles
Instruction Leaflet
June 26, 2008 12:08 - INDIANA JONES DVD ADVENTURE GAME become Indiana Jones on a quest for treasure deep in the heart of the Amazon!
INDIANA JONES DVD ADVENTURE GAME
In the Indiana Jones DVD Adventure Game, players become Indiana Jones on a quest for treasure deep in the heart of the Amazon! You have come across an ancient temple and must explore it in search of lost relics. Try to collect as many relics and as much fortune as possible by fighting battles with villains to win gold coins, escaping traps to win Fortune & Glory cards, and trading in collected relics (the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones, and the Holy Grail) at the end of the game. Beware! The temple is an enchanted and spiritual place. Keep your eye on the DVD to receive hints that a strange event may have occurred and you might also receive some guidance on how to handle the event. Once all of the relics have been collected, the race is on to flee from the temple as it begins to crumble around you and the other adventurers. You've got to get out before you're buried alive! Besides escaping with his life, the first adventurer to return to the Hall of Ancestors also wins a bonus which might give him enough edge to win the game!
May 5, 2008 13:58 - BEAN TRADER - It's NOT Bohnanza -- but a good game in it's own right!
Bean trader is based in the ficticious North European region of Hanse, which comprises of 10 cities.
Bean trader is for 3-5 players and takes 60-90 minutes to play. It is a complete, highly interactive board game based on the classic card game: Bohnanza, and is played on a map of 10 cities.
You and your fellow players take the roles of the famous Bohn Hanse, a trade union of cities and merchants in the middle ages. As you drive your wagon from town to town filling orders on your way to Edinburgh, you will be able to trade with other players who are in the same town allowing you to acquire needed beans and get rid of unwanted ones. It sounds simple enough but the roads through Bremen or Groningen lead to high tolls and you still need a red bean to complete the order and collect your thalers! With luck, your business will soon start to run itself and at the end the player with the most bean thalers wins!
Bean Trader looks great. The board and all components are well illustrated, with very much the same look as Bohnanza. There are 8 types of beans in the game, and my only real quibble with the artwork is that the name of the bean, and the color of the bean chips are often at odds with each other: the Green bean is on a Green background, but the soy bean is on a purple background. The solution to this would seem to be to ignore the names of the beans and just refer to them by their colors. (This is a very small quibble -- trust me, it won't matter once you start playing.)
Bean Trader adds new levels and mechanics, and never pretends to be exactly like Bohnanza
April 17, 2008 14:48 - DIPLOMACY - 50TH ANNIVERSARY - For gamers that enjoy player interaction, simple mechanics that allow for a myriad of strategies, and non-stop edge-of-your-seat intensity. Avoid Diplomacy if you don't like highly competitive and at times tense games
DIPLOMACY
At the turn of the 20th century, prior to World War I, the seven Great European Powers engage in an intricate struggle for supremacy. Military forces invade and withdraw, shifting borders and altering empires with subtle maneuvers and daring gambits.
Alliances are formed and trust is betrayed as players negotiate and outwit one another -- in a delicate balance of cooperation and competition -- to gain dominance of the continent. Diplomacy challenges players to rely on their own cunning and cleverness, not dice, to determine the outcome of this game of conspiracies and conquest.
April 2, 2008 12:07 - SETTLERS OF CANAAN - A great addition to the Settlers of Catan family of games, Represent One of the Tribes and Build the Temple
SETTLERS OF CANAAN is another great addition to the Settlers of Catan family of games, 
Many players will only be familiar with the original Settlers of Catan and some of its expansions where the board is made up of hexagonal tiles that change with each play of the game. But this one is much closer to the Historical Scenario Catan sets (particularly The Great Pyramid and The Great Wall).
This game is amazing. Every player stays tight in the game till the last second the winner comes out. The winner is struggling as hard as the rest of the losers during the entire game. Everyone trades with everyone else. Unlike Monopoly which the winner takes all, This game shows you how important to trade with each other to win the game.
Settlers of Canaan takes place in the territory of Canaan off the coast of the Great Sea. Each Player represents a tribe of Israel as they seek to settle the land of Canaan. The time period of the game spans the time of Joshua's conquests of Canaan (Joshua), the turbulent years ruled by judges (Judges) through the choosing and crowning of King David (I & II Samuel).
The game uses the same basic mechanics as Settlers of Catan but adds some unique elements, similar to the Historical Scenarios. In the case of this game, players build the wall of Jerusalem by contributing bricks. The player who contributes the most bricks earns victory points and the right to use a special "rule-breaking" power of his/her choosing. This is contested in the same manner as "the longest road" from Settlers. Work quickly! Your opponents are moving to settle the most fertile parts of Canaan! You also need to be wary, a plague could come upon you at anytime and destroy your harvest!
March 19, 2008 12:02 - WORD BLUR - Creative. Addictive. Challenging. Fun. Not only is this a blast to play with friends, this game would be an excellent resource in the classroom!
WORD BLUR
This is a really unique and fun party game. It's a word based game, but don't be fooled. This game is really about creativity, communication, and having a good laugh.
In Word Blur, you need to describe a word to your teammates using only word tiles. What makes it interesting is seeing how other people's minds work. Sometimes you start laying down what you think are the perfect clues, but then your teammates go off in an entirely different direction. Other times you make amazing connections, like when my daughter laid down the clue "moon", I somehow guessed the correct answer: "cheese"!
The game play is a challenging on a couple of fronts. First, you have to think about a way to describe the word to you teammates. But then it's also a frantic race to pick out the right words and develop your clue from the pile before your opponents.
It's interesting how teams can go in entirely different directions to describe a mystery word. A good example is the word "seal". It could be the beach mammal, an elite Navy soldier, something to keep water out, a "crazy singer", etc. It all depends on a player's creativity.
The design is straightforward. There are no pawns or colorful pieces. It's almost entirely black and white. The box is smaller than you'd expect, and densely packed. But don't judge a book by it's cover... or a game by its box. Word Blur delivers where it matters most, as a fun, creative and challenging game. It's easy to learn, so people can start playing without lengthy instructions. There are plenty of cards to keep the game interesting, and enough word tiles to create an almost endless combination of clues.
February 26, 2008 12:43 - The Pillars of the Earth - GAMES Magazine Game of the Year 2008 - A Masterpiece! Great for older kids and definitely great just for adults. Direct Source Games staff highly recommend it!
The Pillars of the Earth
GAMES Magazine Game of the Year 2008
International Gamers Awards Best Strategy Game Nominee 2007
Spiel Des Jahres Recommended 2007
The Pillars of the Earth is based on Ken Follet's best-selling novel. The Pillars of the Earth (the book) was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as the 60th Oprah’s Book Club selection in November 2007, and is #1 on the The New York Times trade paperback list and #8 on its mass market paperback list .
Few games are directly based on books (Dune being the notableexception), so The Pillars of the Earth (Kosmos and Mayfair Games,2007 – Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler) is an interesting game, based on a popular book by Ken Follett.
The Pillars of the Earth is a light strategy game about gathering resources and employing craftsmen to turn those resources into parts of a cathedral. Great game about construction and tough choices. I enjoy the escalating game play, and the games I’veplayed have stayed close and tense throughout the entire game. Pillars of the Earth may look like a hodge podge of typical game components and mechanics, but it really is a special breakout, and I can see it becoming quite popular due to easy game play (enhanced by the theme) and tremendous interaction. )Components: Mayfair games simply get better and better, and Pillars of the Earth is a testament to this. First of all, the boardis simply gorgeous, with an overhead view of a village building a cathedral, yet still functional enough for game play. The game also comes with six blocks that can be put together to make a nice miniature wooden cathedral. This cathedral has no function other than to show what round the game is in, but it still makes an excellent centerpiece for the game and adds to thetheme. The rest of the pieces , small cards and wooden bits (littleguys that remind one of “meeples”, four different colored cubes,scoring discs for each player) are standard fare for this type of game, but look nice and add to the game’s overall presence.
The game revolves around each player utilizing craftsmen that they control to build the cathedral and score victory points. At the beginning of the game, each player starts with three craftsmen: the Mortar Mixer, who can convert three sand cubes into a victory point three times a round; the Woodworker, who can convert two wood cubes into a victory point four times a round, and the Stonecutter, who can convert two stone cubes into a victory point four times a round. As the game progresses, players have the opportunity to purchase or acquire other craftsmen, who have better cube to point ratios. For example, getting rid of the Stonecutter bans the player from selling stone cubes at the market for the remainder of the game. The craftsmen are important, because they will most likely determinethe direction a player goes when playing the game, which resource they will likely hoard, and competition for them can be fierce, especially in later rounds. The idea of the game is to provide your craftsmen the resources or goods they need in order to make the cathedral. As the game goes on (over six rounds) the craftsmen get more specialized and the goods become more valuable. It's easy to learn, but like all great strategy games, the straight forward goals and rules lead to much "deeper" gameplay.
For those seeking an enjoyable game with a nice theme, tremendous components, and varied and tactical game play, Pillars of the Earth is an excellent choice.
February 19, 2008 12:41 - Through the Ages - Your civilization's culture is yours to shape -- and you can do it differently every time you play the game.
Through the Ages
Through the Ages is an exciting game of strategy and resource management. Players guide their civilizations up from Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and into Modern Times. What will your civilization be like? Will it be warlike? Technologically advanced? Religious? Artistic? Choose from Leaders such as Hammurabi, Napoleon, and Gandhi. Build Pyramids, the Great Wall, or the Eiffel Tower. Your civilization's culture is yours to shape -- and you can do it differently every time you play the game.
Through the Ages is playable in three different difficulty levels. Play the short Tutorial Game to learn the game mechanics. Play the Advanced game when you are ready to face the consequences of politics and corruption. And when you want even greater challenge, play the Full Version of Through the Ages and take your civilization from spear throwing to space flight.
This edition has no rule changes from the original edition.
February 12, 2008 13:53 - KHRONOS - Best Advanced Strategy Game. KHRONOS presents players with decision-after-decision, and requires very careful and clever play in order to succeed.
KHRONOS
In Khronos, each player plays a powerful lord and his faithful sidekick in a quest for dominance throughout time itself. You play simultaneously during three different epochs in a race to cover yourself with glory and wealth. Beware of your adversaries. They have numerous ways to counter your plans. What was true tomorrow might no longer make a difference yesterday. The game mechanisms in Khronos rewrite the laws of time itself.
Played on a large board in three different “ages”, what occurs in one age can ripple forward and have dramatic effects on the future. Visualizing the results of one’s actions can be tough, but mastering this process makes for a fascinating game filled with skill and cunning.
The large, tri-fold board depicts three identical maps, shaded slightly different to represent three ages in time: might, religion and reason. Mountains, plains, forest, rivers and hamlets are pre-printed on the board, over which is superimposed a grid pattern upon which various buildings will be constructed and dominions formed. Forests and mountains only have an effect when playing with less than five players, generally requiring players to pay additional construction cards when erecting buildings. Rivers pose a greater difficulty, as only larger civic buildings can be constructed on river spaces. Buildings come in three varieties – military, religious and civil – and each type has three different sizes. The artwork on the thick cardboard counters is quite good.
The limited number of actions a player has on his turn translated into a rather fast-moving 2-hour game.
Khronos is an intriguing and clever game, one requiring skillful and creative play.
