New Game Round-up: Hidden Elves, Scheming Archons, Sailing Captains & Mystic Warlords of Ka'a

The land of Cardis has been ruled for many years by King Rhodrig. Cardis is a rich and powerful kingdom controlling all neighboring provinces, which provide valuable resources. All this wealth attracts warlords and raiding parties who more than often launch attacks against the kingdom. So far Cardis has stood against such attacks but with heavy casualties. Thanks to the support of wealthy Archons, the kingdom gets rebuilt so that Science and Arts can flourish once again. At the same time new soldiers are recruited and the army prepares for the inevitable moment when the kingdom will need to be defended once again.

In Archon: Glory & Machination, players are powerful Archons who support Cardis in order to win King's favor. The Archons use their influence on figures of authority, taking as many as they can on their side in a constant struggle amongst themselves to see who can best manipulate their subordinates to do their bidding.

Each game consists of three rounds (years). For each of these rounds, the King issues different demands that players must fulfill. Each round includes 3-4 turns during which players use a card-driven worker placement mechanism to perform various actions that will allow them to gather resources and income, recruit soldiers for the royal guard, rebuild the city, and use the palace buildings to acquire scoring cards (Science, Arts, Royal Guard). After three rounds, the game ends and the player with the most victory points wins.

In Mystic Warlords of Ka'a, players compete against each other as rival sorcerers, casting spells and employing various humorously-named mythical creatures and items in their bid to be the last warlord standing.

Each player begins the game with a deck of cards. The base game comes with eight pre-built decks of forty cards, although customizing decks for replayability and ultimate mischief is encouraged for experienced players.

Every round, each player may play up to two creature cards and one spell card. These cards are played one at a time and are meant to be announced with a flourish. Next comes a "pugilistic scrum" in which the creatures battle one another at the behest of their warlord masters, supported by any spells that have been played. Every victory in combat allows the winner to knock cards off of her opponent's deck. Then all cards in play are wiped and the next round begins.

Once a player's deck has run out, she must reshuffle her cards. If you can force your opponent to reshuffle her deck three times, you are declared the winner.

In La Chasse aux Lutins, many cute elves are hidden in your house. The player needs to find where they are hidden and catch them before anyone else can, and whoever collects more elves on his cards wins.

How do the elves hide in your house? They get a little help from the players. In the basic game, the cards have one, two or three elves on them, and these cards are split evenly among the players. The players then go into different rooms in the house and hide the cards, with the one elf cards being fully visible, the two elf cards being half hidden, and the three elf cards being completely hidden. Players then start from a central location and hunt for cards, staying away from the room in which they hid cards since they already know where to find those elves!

La Chasse aux Lutins includes a variant that uses cards with mischievous elves. These are hidden along with the other elf cards, and if a player finds at least three of these cards, he scores an additional three points that's added to his elf score. If he finds only one or two of these cards, however, he scores no bonus and must throw away one of the elf cards he collected!

Return to a bustling Plymouth Harbor in 1572 as an aspiring Elizabethan captain making preparations for three exciting voyages to the Spanish Main in search of fame and fortune! As captains, players will have to plan their missions and provision their ships accordingly.

Francis Drake is a race to see who can set sail and reach the Spanish Main first. The riches of the Aztec and Inca Empires await these swashbuckling captains. Many tough decisions must be made before each voyage:

• How many crew members, guns and trade goods will be needed?
• What supplies will be needed to reach deep into the Caribbean?
• Will a stronger galleon be needed to attack the treasure fleets?
• Can special charts from the Spanish Admiral and Governor help?
• Will the Queen or rich investors back the voyage?
• What information can the informer give?
• Will Drake himself be available to guide the voyage?
• Who will get the use of the golden hind?

Each new voyage has its own challenges to overcome, but the captured gold, silver and jewels should greatly please the Queen. Get ready for the voyage of a lifetime!