New Game Round-up: New Life for 12 Realms, Roll Skyscrapers in Skyline & Yes, Finally, Nefarious

Siegfried, Snow White, D'Artagnan, Red Riding Hood, and the other heroes of the twelve realms are being reunited for one last great adventure. The Dark Lords have joined forces to completely conquer and subjugate all the known Lands, and only the combined efforts of all the greatest heroes can halt their nefarious plan.

12 Realms is a fast and lighthearted cooperative game for 1 to 6 players. All players must band together to stop the Dark Lords' overwhelming hordes from pillaging the 12 Realms. Individual invaders can be defeated by using each hero's different talents, but to vanquish the Dark Lords you must claim a powerful artifact.

In their quest to stop the invasion, the heroes can travel together between different lands, or they can try to single-handedly defend a Realm. Each of the 12 Realms is an individual land, with different treasures and events, and populated by unique creatures.

Skyline is a quick push-your-luck dice game involving set collection. Unlike other dice games that provide no relationship from turn to turn and no player interaction, this game allows players to literally build upon their decisions each turn and react to their opponents' actions.

Each turn, players choose to roll dice from either the Construction Yard or the Abandoned District with the goal of erecting urban buildings. Buildings are made up of three types of dice: Ground Floor dice, Mid-Floor dice and Penthouse dice. Some buildings are safer to build but provide little reward, while other buildings have poor probabilities but can have substantial impact on the success of a player's skyline.

After rolling his selected dice, the player must use at least one of these dice to take one of three possible actions: Build, Demo, or Abandon. The Build action is the desired outcome, of course, but can be carried out only if the die result matches what you need to build. For instance, all Ground Floor dice can be built without restriction, but a High-Rise Mid-Floor die result can be built only on top of a High-Rise Ground Floor die. Likewise, a Mid-Rise Penthouse die can be built only on a Mid-Rise Mid-Floor die. If the rolled results do not allow you to build, then the player must demo one of his existing buildings. If a player does not want to demo, then he must Abandon by placing that die in the Abandoned District, which gives his opponents the opportunity to capitalize on his failure.

At the end of the game, points are rewarded for completed buildings according to their height. A Level 3 building – that is, a building comprised of three dice – is worth 9 points, while a Level 4 building is worth 16, and so on.

In the card game Cowtown, you want to move cows into the right herds so that you can score points and empty your hand.

At the start of each round, each player receives a hand of six cards, then four more cards are placed face-up on the table; the deck includes cards in four colors, numbered 1-10 twice, along with two "Cowtown" cards of each color. Cowtown cards are always played on the table immediately in order to give the little dogies a place to settle.

On a turn, you play a card from your hand onto a stack on the table. The card you play must be one higher than the top card on a stack. (Cowtown cards are effectively numbered 0.) If you can play multiple cards in numerical order – a Horn-to-Tail Sequence – you can do so; in addition (or alternatively) you can play multiple cards with the same number – a Stampede – onto different stacks when those stacks have the same lower number. Playing a three-card Horn-to-Tail Sequence or a Stampede is worth 1 "scorecow".

Whenever you play a card of matching color onto a stack, you're safe, but if you play at least one card of a different color – a bullish play – then you must draw and discard the top card of the deck. If that card shows a red bull's eye, then you've been kicked and must draw a card. Lay a 10 on a stack and you close that barn, getting to take another turn or pass one of your cards to another player.

The round ends as soon as one player is out of cards or the deck runs out. The player with the fewest cards earns 4 scorecows, the player with the next fewest 2 scorecows, and everyone other than the player with the most cards earns 1 scorecow. After four rounds, whoever holds the most scorecows wins!