New Game Round-up: 2015 Releases from Schmidt Spiele — Qwirkle on Cards, Kniffel on Boards, Vienna on Tiles & Princesses on Robots

In Qwirkle Cards, players take turns laying down cards from their hand onto the table and possibly moving things around to create new sets.

In more detail, players start with a hand of nine cards from the 108-card deck; each card shows a colored symbol, with each of the six symbols appearing three times in each of the six colors. Whoever has the most cards in hand of one symbol or one color (but without duplicates) starts the game by laying these cards face up on the table as a set. Players then take turns in clockwise order.

On a turn, a player must add at least one card to the table; if she can't, she draws nine new cards, shuffles her old hand into the deck, then plays. When she plays, she can play as many cards as she likes as long as they share a color or symbol. She can create a new set if she plays at least three cards or she can add her cards to existing sets (as long as she doesn't duplicate a color or symbol) or she can do both. On her turn, she can move cards from one set to another, possibly using these cards with cards that she plays in order to create a new set.

The point of this gameplay is to create qwirkles, that is, a set of six cards that contains either each symbol in a single color or each color in a single symbol. When a player creates a qwirkle, she claims this set from the table. After a player's turn, she refills her hand to nine cards.

The game continues until the deck runs out of cards. Each player then takes one final turn, including the one who took the final card, then whoever has claimed the most qwirkles wins!

Princess Sissi has made a big mess in her dressing room. Now she is called to the great ball and the players have to help her find her accessories quickly.

The playing field in Schnell, Prinzessin Sissi! consists of an open 6x6 grid of tiles, with the tiles depicting six different accessories and one flowerpot. The princess is placed on any tile to start.

On a turn, any player rolls four dice: One of them shows which accessory the princess is looking for, the other three show numbers from 1 to 3 or an arrow. All players now look for a path from the princess to one of the matching accessory tiles, using the following rules: Each of the movement dice must be used to move the princess in a straight orthogonal line; an arrow lets you move the princess to the edge of the grid. At the end of the three moves, you must reach the accessory tile. The first player to find a solution calls out and demonstrates it, receiving one diamond if correct. If the path leads past one or more tiles with a treasure icon, there is a bonus diamond. If the path doesn't work out or leads past the flower pot, the player loses a diamond.

The first player to collect five diamonds wins!

Having just arrived in 19th century Vienna, one is struck by the many possibilities offered by this great city and you need to ask yourself how best to get ahead. Should you try to win some fast money, or take a long-term approach by trying to win over influential patrons in the city?

You'll be faced with many important questions in Vienna, many of which involve where best to place your dice so that you can get hold of as many victory points as possible? Naturally these tactical decisions will be influenced by the plans of others and by the favor of the dice. In the end, whoever best plans wisely and use her resources will win!

As with other Kniffel games, players in Kniffel Master roll dice to try to build specific combinations of numbers. One difference, though, is that Kniffel Master is a race game and not a points game; complete those combinations the fastest, and you'll be the one who wins.

Each player receives a personal game board and four tokens. On your turn, you roll five dice up to three times, saving the results that you like after each roll. After you stop rolling the dice, you record the results on your board, choosing one of the options below:

• Roll a small or large straight, a total less than 11 or larger than 24, or a kniffel (five-of-a-kind), and you can immediately gain a star, placing it in the slot next to that combination on your board.

• Roll 1-2 pairs, a full house, three-of-a-kind or other combinations, and you can move a token up a "coin" track on your board, with the number of spaces moved depending on the value of your roll; reach the end of the coin track, and you gain a star, in addition to shortening the track for your next journey on it.

• Roll two or more dice of the same value, and you can move a token on that number track on your board; reach the end of a number track and you gain a star, but put that track out of play for the remainder of the game. You gain an additional star when you finish your fourth, fifth and sixth number rows.

The first player to complete a particular task or a number row receives two coins and moves that marker on the coin track to record that gain; the second player to complete the same task or number row receives on coin.

The game ends the round that someone collects her fifteenth star. After all players have completed the same number of turns, whoever has the most stars wins!