New Game Round-up: Escape Volcanoes, Relive World War II, and Look at Penguins

You have arrived at Neko Harbour and are planning to travel around the Antarctic Peninsula to see different kinds of penguins — and perhaps other creatures as well. Travel in the Antarctic is not easy, however, and for some trips, you even need a license to get in.

Neko Harbour: The Card Game is a strategy card game for 2-4 players. Each game lasts three periods, and each period comes with a mid-game scoring. Each period consists of two phases: the drafting phase and the action phase.

During the drafting phase, players take cards from the display until they have six cards in hand, then discard one card from hand for income.


During the action phase, players take turns playing a card from hand to build a personal shipping lane until all cards have been played. With these cards, players can get resources, move ships, trigger special actions, and (probably) take free actions.

The most intriguing part of the game is that players need to build three shipping lanes with cards and create ideal combinations between the cards as two cards create a hub that provides players with a bonus when ships cross it. Additionally, players should acquire enough licenses for their journey to go smoothly. After three periods, the player who has the most penguin points wins and is clearly the one who saw the most penguins in the Antarctic.

The frequent tremors, the looming clouds over the crater, and the ever-increasing smell of sulfur make it clear that it is time to escape. Direct your tribe through the waters of the Pacific in search of a new home, safe from the impending eruption of the volcano. Explore new sea routes that lead to unvisited islands, collect resources on those islands to offer to other tribes in exchange for their knowledge, and continue sailing in search of a safe place — all this being done to save as many of your tribe members as possible and lead them to new lands where they can prosper. The most successful individual through this difficult mission will be appointed the supreme chief of the Polynesian tribal group.

In Polynesia, players must save their tribe members from the dangers of the volcano by taking them to the islands that will give them the most points. At the same time, players must try to reach the objectives set by the tide cards, which will vary from one game to another. To succeed, players must collect resources in the form of fish and shells that will allow them to explore new sea routes, use the routes of other players, and sail from one island to another.

Polynesia is played in rounds, and each round is divided into two phases. In the action phase, each player has three turns in which they can perform one of three actions: sail, explore, or populate and fish. In the maintenance phase, the volcano activity is checked for activity, and each player can collect resources depending on the islands where they have tribe members.

How do you win a world war, a game in which the stakes are so high that your nation's survival is at stake? You shall harness your industries to craft new technologies superior to that of the enemy. You shall make alliances with the neutral forces. You shall attempt to soar to the edge of the atmosphere and build the biggest bomb the world has ever seen. You shall never surrender! And in Domination, you shall do it all in a mere 90 minutes.


World War II was a diplomatic, military, and industrial "total war". Fought on the land, at sea, and in the air, it required mobilization of every imaginable resource. In Domination, a strategic, card-driven, area-control game playable with two players (or by three or four players in two teams), you shall harness your industries to develop new weapons, seek the support of neutral nations, form and fund massive partisan armies to resist hostile occupation, break the enigmatic enemy codes, and plan and execute military operations that will sweep across continents and oceans. Balance these tasks and make this your finest hour!