Vendor: Fragor Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 69.95

Foragers is a strategy game in which players take on the role of ancient foragers competing to be the most respected member of the tribe. In the game, foragers pick fruit from trees, fish in lakes, and hunt aurochs in the fields. After collecting these foods, the foragers return to a fire pit, where they "share" their food with the tribe and earn victory points. In addition, the foragers sometimes happen upon tools, which allow them to forage, fish, or hunt more efficiently. Of course, foragers are not completely altruistic and so they occasionally fight with each other to earn respect. The player who can best optimize their food and tool gathering, while also avoiding or winning skirmishes is the one who eventually earns the tribe leader title.

The game is played over a predetermined number of rounds, depending upon the number of players. In each round, all players simultaneously choose an action card, from a hand of 3 action cards (drawn from a deck of 10) to use for that round. Each action card lists 5 different actions, but a player may only use 4 of those actions each round. Then, in clockwise order, each player performs 1 of the actions on their card until all players have performed 4 actions. Such actions include things like: walking, foraging, eating, discovering, resting, sharing, and picking up a tool.

When players pick up food, they place it on their tableau, which tracks the food's freshness. At the end of each round, a "spoilage card" is flipped and all players "age" their food (i.e., move them along a food track). As the food gets older, it does not provide as much energy if eaten. Also, to score victory points, players must "share" their food before it spoils. In this sense, the players are racing not only against each other, but against nature.

Vendor: Renegade Game Studios
Type: Board Games
Price: 49.95

Snow Tails is set in the snowy world of the Arctic Circle, where brave sledders compete in a test of skill and endurance. Action is fast and furious and not all sleds may make it to the finish. Huskies only have one setting and that is full speed! Hang on to your furs, the reins, your sled and anything else you can get hold of.

The game contains modular track pieces which can be fitted together to form different courses. Players have their own Dog Decks which they draw from and play onto their sled mat. Movement is rarely in a straight line as the sled may drift left or right. Losing control or speeding into a corner results in Dent cards being acquired which will limit a player's hand size.

The game features a fun and original movement mechanism.

Game Summary
Race courses are built randomly. Players each have a dog sled with 2 dogs (initially valued 3 each) and a brake (also 3). Each player has the same deck of cards (5 sets of cards 1-5, shuffled) from which they draw a hand of 5 cards.

On your turn, may play 1-3 cards of the same value to these 3 locations (dog1, dog2, brakes). Forward speed (and distance moved) = dog1 + dog2 - brake + bonus (=position in race) if (dog1 = dog2). Lateral movement distance = dog1 - dog2 (move to the side with the stronger dog). Certain parts of the track have speed limits; you take damage if you exceed them, or if you run into obstacles (ice patches, side of track, etc.). Damage = cards that take up space in your hand (so 5th damage --> out of the race!).

The first player to cross the finish line wins!

Vendor: Mayfair Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 37.95

The second game from Fragor Games, featuring a flock of sheep and their attempts to be in the right place at the right time. Much gambolling, some tupping, lots of shearing.

Publisher Blurb:

"'The Best Game Ewe Ever Herd!'

Ah, do ewe long for the life of a sheep? Bright summer days filled with games of tag and attempts to flock closer to Roger, the Heartthrob Ram? But, Watch Out! The shearer wants to drag you away from all the fun and games!

In Shear Panic, ewe maneuver your ewes to score points, playing tag, standing close to Roger, or trying to avoid the shearing scissors! Will your brave sheep score the most points, or will it be "Off with the wool" for ewe?"

The game includes eleven small figurines (which are somewhat fragile): Two each of four different colors, one black, one 'Roger', and one 'Shearer'. Also included are four player mats in different colors; a timing/scoring mat; 48 mutton buttons in four colors; four scoring markers; one flock marker; and two special six-sided dice.

There are two separate play areas: The one where the flock of sheep figurines are clustered; and the combination timing/scoring mat. (The timing mat is two-sided for 3 or 4 players.) Actions by the players each turn cause the timing marker to move faster or slower through each of the four fields, and the scoring is different in each field.

Field 1 is Team Tag. Players score higher for keeping their sheep closer together. Field 2 is Roger’s Field, where players score more the closer they are to Roger (the ram). Field 3 is Black Sheep Tag, and players score higher the closer they are to the black sheep. Field 4 is the Shear Panic Field, and the row of sheep closest to the shearer figure are eliminated each turn, while the remainder are scored individually. The timing marker indicates which Field the sheep are currently “in”.

Players have a total of twelve actions they may take during the course of the game, and as each one is used, a “mutton button” is placed over it, eliminating it from future use. Also, the more powerful the action, the farther (faster) the timing marker will move. If the timing marker lands on a red spot, the active player executes a free “lamb slam” by rolling the Panic Die and moving a sheep of the color rolled one space in any direction. If the Panic Die rolls white, the entire flock does a “ewe turn” ninety degrees in a direction of the active player’s choice.

Since all the player mats are visible to everyone, players need to keep an eye on what moves are still available to their opponents.

The game is intended for three or four players, but rules for a two-player variant are included.

Starting player is the person who most recently was sheared (had their hair cut).

Vendor: Rio Grande Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 34.95

From the publisher: "Torches are blazing, mists are wafting ... in the Holy Circle the High Priestess celebrates her ritual with her novices. They sing with all their heart, cuddle the artifacts, and rearrange them in ever new patterns.

"But what if you do not know the religious rules? The best thing is to watch what the others are doing and imitate them. But cautious: Maybe your neighbor just violated a taboo and made the High Priestess angry …

"Each player takes the role of the High Priestess once and determines the rules of her own religion. The other players are novices trying to sense these rules and thus gather as much karma as possible."

The "priestess" player secretly chooses four cards that determine which actions are rewarded and which taboo. The other players simply move a pawn on the board and are awarded points by the priestess based on how their actions (including seemingly irrelevant ones like body movement or tone of voice) correspond with the rules. At the end of a round the priestess receives the same score as the highest-scoring adept, encouraging her to make the rules difficult but not impossible to guess.

Vendor: Fragor Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 109.95

No brakes. No speed limits. Just husky racing at its most extreme.

Gordon and Fraser Lamont say that Snow Tails was their favorite design of the past decade, so in celebration they've decided to revisit husky racing with Mush! Mush! - Snow Tails 2, a fast-playing follow up to Snow Tails that allows you to dive in for a single race or compete over a three-route championship – the choice is yours!

Mush! Mush! includes a massive oversized board with multiple tracks on both sides, new bonus movement, four polyresin buildings, proper scale model trees with bases, no brakes (as advertised above!) and less math, and gameplay that fits up to eight at the table – you and seven losers. Now hop on the sled and get moving!

Components:
large doubled sided board
8 wooden sleds
200 cards
30 track markers
20 saplings
8 dice
4 resin buildings

Vendor: Game Salute
Type: Board Games
Price: 129.95

Poseidon has lost his treasured trident, and your friends have disappeared while trying to find it. It turns out they have been captured by evil Hans the Kraken. Suckers! The Kraken plans to make a nice stew out of them. Can you prise open his tentacles, release your friends, and defeat him? Hope so. Oh, it's probably not a good time to mention the shark...

Poseidon's Kingdom is Fragor Games' 2011 limited edition Essen release. It features a wave which crashes dice onto the board, the engaging game play of the highly-praised anthill system (from Antics!) and, most importantly, the fantastic creature models which made Fragor's name in 2005.

The game was strictly limited to 1,000 copies. Due to production margin 967 were actually produced.

2 - 4 players basically do the following on their turn (leaving the background story out here):

First you decide, whether to improve your abilities by taking an "action tile" or put some of your personal dice onto the big 3D-wave, which is rolled over, when full, distributing up to 15 dice in a couple of seconds randomly all over the board.

Second you move one of your two creatures on the main board trying to land on a spot where you can pick up dice of any colour you need. If so, you can either store them on special spaces of your action tiles for later use OR use them by putting together a special combination of 2, 3 or 4 dice required to get victory point tokens and put the dice back to the pools where they came from.

Third, the shark moves as many spaces as the space the creature landed on indicates. If the shark meets one or more creatures on its way, they are eaten and players get "skeletons" to block one of their action spaces ...

After a special scoring round in the end the player who collected the most victory points, wins.