Drive/Crazy Chicken

(led by Nicole) 2003 set collection and hand management card games collecting automobiles (original game used chickens) and expanding from 2-player to as many as 4-player

Hanamikoji

 2x (led by Tim) 2013 two players ‘I cut, you choose’ influence game where players compete to earn the favor of seven illustrious Geishas by collecting each Geisha’s preferred performance item.

Fjords

(led by Tony) 2022 revised edition of the out of print Franz Benno-Delonge 2005 2-player tile-laying game that takes place in two phases. The first phase invites the players to explore the fjords around them by laying hexagonal landscape tiles, creating a map that serves as the gameboard. In the second phase, players begin from the longhouses they placed during phase one and will walk the landscape, claiming as much of the plains and cliffs as possible.

Ka-Ching/Combit/Trader

(led by K-ban) 2001 2-player drafting card game. Either buy a card or sell 2 cards of the same color and multiply their values. Was the influence for many card games that followed – 7 Wonders Duel and Truffle Shuffle come to mind. 

Beacon Patrol

(led by Sean) 2022 cooperative tile laying exploration game in which players navigate the coast of the North Sea to secure its beacon buoys, lighthouses and waterways.

Terraforming Mars

(led by Amy) 2016 game set in the 25th Century, as mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for getting victory points that are awarded not only for your contribution to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and doing other commendable things.

Spirit Island

(led by Niko) 2017 complex and thematic cooperative game about defending your island home from colonizing Invaders. Players are different spirits of the land, each with its own unique elemental powers. Every turn, players simultaneously choose which of their power cards to play, paying energy to do so. 

Powerline

(led by Armando) 2022 Dirk Henn (Alhambra, Show Manager, Metro, Shogun/Wallenstein) design that could have been a roll & write with laminated boards and dry-erase pens, but instead Queen Games decided to go ‘green’ and use hundreds of cardboard arrow pieces on player boards. Six different colored dice are rolled for all to use – either sequentially from left to right or right to left. The d6 numbers are used to complete power lines and earn scoring bonuses. The game limits how many dice one can use as well as penalties for skipping dice in a sequence. Similar in concept to roll & writes Qwixx and Qwinto

Moon

(led by Tim) 2023 new release from the author of Villagers and Streets. It depicts a rush to construct lunar bases that are attractive places to live and work for the people of Earth. The most prestigious base will become the new lunar capital! The game employs the familiar “pick & pass” or “hand drafting” mechanism for players to select new structure cards to add to their base. Each hand of cards represents a convoy of experts and equipment travelling between the players’ outposts, giving the player the choice of one new construction each turn. In a new twist on the genre, each hand always contains one of a number of “Expedition” cards that grant a special free action every turn before passing on to the next player.Wooden lunar rover tokens are a neutral resource that add a worker placement element to the game. They are also used to break ties and so must be used with care. Over the three distinct eras of the game, players compete for the majority in 5 aspects of their bases: housing, transportation, science, industry, and food production. At the end of each era, the leader in each of these areas as determined by flag icons on their constructed buildings, collects bonus victory points.

Each game also features a number of randomly selected “Reputation” cards which provide one-time or ongoing bonuses for the player who meets the requirement and claims the card.