New Game Round-up: Dwarves in Switzerland, A Ginkgo Tree in a Fantasy World & Acrobats in Citadels

In Shafausa, each player represents a Helvetian tribe that has come to propose a new monetary system based on an exchange of resources. Each round players can make purchases (buildings, mines, warehouses) and exchange currency – and through these transactions influence the stock market for the prosperity of their region. Each player holds three Power cards with special actions, but can use only one during the game as the other two are then removed from play. The game lasts a number of rounds, with each round having seven phases:

-----• Extraction: Mines and certain buildings produce resources, with some buildings affecting how many resources something produces.
-----• Order of Play: Players bid for turn order; as players drop from the bidding, they place their marker in line relative to those who have previously dropped out, so whoever stays in the longest can get the position he wants.
-----• Buying and Constructing: In turn order, players buy at most one available building and construct two warehouses; alternatively, a player can pay to remove a building in order to make space for new buildings next round.
-----• Management: Players can build mines, add miners to their workforce, construct purchased buildings, buy and sell resources, and construct new towns.
-----• Administration: Players pay for buildings in reserve and check their resource limits; resource costs are adjusted based on past sales.
-----• Speculation: In turn order, players pay to adjust the prices of various resources, with each price marker being adjustable only once.
-----• End of Game Check: If one of a player's towns or warehouses has been filled, the game ends. Players then score points for their towns, mines, buildings, and so on, and the player with the most points wins.

In addition to this "Geek" version of the rules, Shafausa includes a "Colonial" version in which players draft start-up tiles (instead of starting with pre-determined characters who come with specific buildings, funds, etc.) and a "Family" version that removes the "Speculation" phase, simplifies turn order, and otherwise makes the game less involved.

In Ginkgopolis, players are building a city tile by tile around the last tree in the world - a ginkgo tree, as you might expect.

The city tiles come in three colors: yellow, which provides victory points; red, which provides resources; and blue, which provides new new city tiles. Some tiles start in play, and they're surrounded by letter markers that show where new tiles can be placed.

On a turn, each player chooses a card from his hand simultaneously. Players reveal these cards, adding new tiles to the border of the city in the appropriate location or placing tiles on top of existing tiles. Each card that you play goes to your left-hand neighbor, so keep in mind how your play might set up theirs!

When you add a new tile to the city, you take a "power" card of the same color, and these cards provide you additional abilities during the game, allowing you to scale up your building and point-scoring efforts.