Apr 2006 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Apr 2006 Catalog

While I don’t publish my latest catalog on the internet, this older catalog is available for you to look through to get an idea of the sort of thing I generally have. Please be aware that many of the games in this catalog will have already sold, and if they haven’t then the prices are not necessarily still valid – the prices are only valid in the month the catalog comes out! However, if you do see something of interest email me and I’ll let you know if I still have it. Also getting the monthly catalog by email is free and without obligation, so why not just ask to be added to my subscription list, or ask me to send you the latest catalog by email?

25 Words Or Less, published by Winning Moves. 1997. Box. Good - one corner slightly dented. £10

Winner of an American Game of the Year Award, this is a team word guessing game where you have 25 words or less to get your team to say five words on your card, and with a time limit of a minute as well! To make it harder still, one player from each team looks at the card first and they bid for the right to play the card - the player bidding the lower number of permitted words getting the chance to take the turn. Fast and furious party game.

90 Minutes, published by Sporting Connections. 1986. Box. Box corners taped. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-5. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Soccer game, with a nicely designed box in which the game is actually played. The pitch has been marked with small squares which are used for movement. The game is driven by cards and dice are used to resolve various actions. Four decks provided for actions, special situations, referee's decisions and determining exact direction of passes etc. Bryan Robson is pictured on the lid recommending the game, and the pitch-in-a-box is surrounded by adverts from real companies making it an attractive item.

A Game of Thrones, published by Fantasy Flight. 2003. Box. In shrink. £30

A very well regarded game in which the players take the roles of Great Houses from George R.R. Martin's 'A Game of Thrones'. War and chaos rages, and the players vie for control of the Iron Throne, and can use both intrigue and military might, and must make best uses of their resources. Armies and key characters must be used effectively, and a unique mechanism is used to resolve battles. The game includes order and power tokens, cards for the various Houses and the land of Westeros, wooden knights and ships, the large attractively produced board and more.

AD&D 1st Ed Dungeon Masters Guide, published by TSR. 1979. Book. Good. £4

This edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition D.M.G. has the cover showing a giant red demon holding a minimally clad female adventurer in one hand, while her companions prepare to fight it. To play you will need this book + the Player's Handbook + some polyhedral dice and either an adventure module or one of the many monster manual type books available to assist in designing your own adventure.

AD&D 1st Ed Player's Handbook, published by TSR. 1980. Book. Good. £4

This edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Player's Handbook has the cover showing a large orange demon shaped statue with a couple of thieves prying out the giant jewelled eyes. To play you will need this book + the Dungeon Master's Guide + some polyhedral dice and either an adventure module or one of the many monster manual type books available to assist in designing your own adventure.

AD&D Monstrous Compendium, published by TSR. ca.1988. Ringbinder File. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

A superb collection of creatures for use in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. This comes in a large ringbinder folder, so that individual monster descriptions can be removed while you are using them and then returned later. It also allows extra monsters to be added to the correct alphabetical section. This collection includes at least Volumes 1, 2, 3, Greyhawk Adventures, Kara Tur, and Spelljammer monstrous compendium pages, making the binder very full. Also included are various sheets which came with the add on sets and extra full colour dividers. Contains about 200 double sided sheets of illustrated creature descriptions.

AD&D: Five Shall Be One, published by TSR. 1991. Module. Excellent. £3.75

Adventure module set in the AD&D Greyhawk World, designation WGS1. The adventure is intended for 4-8 characters of level 7-10. The party searches for the legendary Blades of Corusk, and journey from Rookroost to the Lair of the Shadow Dragon, and later into the subterranean City of the Orc.

AD&D: Forgotten Realms: Storm Riders, published by TSR. 1990. Module. Good. £3.50

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Ed Forgotten Realms module set in the Tibet-like kingdom of Ra-Khati, between the lands of Faerun and Kara-Tur. Designed for 4-8 characters of level 5-7. The characters have escaped into this mountain kingdom after sighting a vast army on the move, and end up working for the monk king to help avoid war. First part of the Empires Adventures Trilogy.

AD&D: Forgotten Realms: Black Courser, published by TSR. 1990. Module. Good. £3.50

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Ed Forgotten Realms module set in the Tibet-like kingdom of Ra-Khati, between the lands of Faerun and Kara-Tur. Designed for 4-8 characters of level 6-9. The characters work to help the peaceful kingdom of Ra-Khati against the evil Raja Devayam who insists upon being paid tribute. The party discover his real intent and have to try to stop his dreadful plans. Second part of the Empires Adventures Trilogy.

AD&D: Forgotten Realms: Old Empires, published by TSR. 1990. Module. Excellent. £4

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition supplement for the Forgotten Realms world. The 96 page booklet and maps cover the lands of Mulhorand, Unther and Chessent to the south and east of the Alamber Sea. Neighbouring powers include Thay, Semphar & Mughom, and Aleaxtis the Sahuagin kingdom. This supplement is intended to allow you to run adventures in these powerful and relatively isolated lands, where ancient kingdoms and even pharaohs hold sway, and different gods are worshipped.

Adlerauge, published by Berliner Spielkarten. 1999. Box. Mint. £2.50

Card game, translated to Eagle Eye in English. Players need concentration as they try to quickly check a row of pictures on the cards for colour matches in order to determine if they can be played or not. There are four variants of the game to try. The cards are laid down in a row and the first player to lay all their cards into a row wins.

Arena, published by Spears. 1984. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Strategy game in which the players have to move their pieces from the edge of a circular board in towards the middle without being captured. The first player to get 4 pieces into the middle wins. Pieces can be moved to adjacent spaces or make jumping captures as in draughts. The inner sections of the board are harder to get to as there are some spaces which cannot be used and crucial bridge spaces which will need to be used to advance.

Back Spin, published by Binary Arts. 1994. Box. Excellent. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: American, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

More a puzzle than a game - in the same category as Rubik's cube and those metal puzzles you have to take apart and put together with a cunning trick. This consists of a large plastic disk, each side of which has 6 sections which hold 3 balls each. The two sides of the disk can be spun separately, and the sections lined up with those on the other side and a ball transferred from one side to the other. The objective is to get all the coloured balls into sets as quickly as possible. Nice item for any puzzlers amongst you.

Battleboard, published by Ideal. 1972. Box. Good, but box shows a little wear. £12

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Great fun game in which each player has a 5x5 set of spaces hidden from his opponent by a screen. Players take turns to move one of their pieces and then get to try to destroy one of their opponent's pieces. This is done by applying a set of hand bellows to one of the empty holes on your own side and giving it a good puff. If your opponent has a piece on the equivalent space on their side of the board then it will shoot out of its hole up into the air! It is then considered dead. Players try to be the first to get two of their pieces up to the barrier.

Big Shot, published by Ravensburger. 2001. Box. In shrink. £15

Clever game from this prolific designer. The board shows various areas which are worth varying amounts to the players with the most blocks in each at the end of the game. Some areas instead of having a regular value double the value of any adjacent areas owned by the same player. The cleverest idea is that each turn a mixed selection of building blocks are auctioned off and the highest bidder can place them wherever he feels fit. Thus you will want to ensure a batch with several of your colour is put somewhere useful to you, but you also want to place other players' pieces where they will help them as little as possible. Recommended.

Blue And Gray II Quad, published by SPI. 1975. Box. Good. £17

4 American Civil War battles in one set. There is a set of standard rules (4 pages) and then each battle has its own specific set of rules as well. The battles are represented at the operational level. One hex represents 400 meters and a strength point about 300 men. The four battles are: Chattanooga (by Frederick Georgian), Battle of the Wilderness (by Linda Mosca), Fredericksburg (by Joe Angiollilo), Hooker and Lee (by Richard Berg).

Bluff, published by F X Schmid. 1993. Box. Excellent. £16

A nice version of Liar's Dice. An excellent dice game which requires considerable skill and judgement to play well. The idea is that each player starts with 5 dice which are rolled secretly and kept hidden under a cup. Players then make increasing bids on what will be on the dice under all the cups (eg. eight 4's). If a player does not want to up the bid then the previous bid can be called, and the dice are shown. Getting it wrong will lose you dice. Bluff won the German Spiel des Jahres in 1993. Recommended.

Buck Rogers The 25th Century, published by TSR. 1990. Packet. Excellent. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Science fiction role playing game. This set probably came in a box originally, but is now provided in a packet. The set includes: The Technology Book, The World Book, Characters & Combat Book, GM reference screen, 2 maps,

14 colour spaceship pictures with datasheets, 1 unpunched sheet of counters, 7 character sheets with colour pictures, and 4 planet datasheets with colour pictures.

Buck Rogers The 25th Century, published by TSR. 1988. Box. Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Boxed science fiction role playing game based in the solar system, but with Mars now the main planet rather than Earth. The set includes: The Technology Book, The World Book, Characters & Combat Book, GM reference screen, 2 maps, 14 colour spaceship pictures with datasheets, 1 unpunched sheet of counters, 7 character sheets with colour pictures, and 4 planet datasheets with colour pictures, and an assortment of polyhedral dice.

Business Strategy, published by Avalon Hill. 1973. Box. Good. £18

Well regarded business game, about making and selling your product. Four levels of play. A re-design of the same company’s Management game. Players compete for resources from which their goods are to be made and then must compete again to sell them. Each month a business climate card is drawn to modify the availability of resources and the ease with which goods can be sold. I can also provide Derek Carver's House Rules to improve the game further.

Candidate, published by Shaw Games. 1979. Box. Good. £16

Election game, based on the American electoral system. Played for a predetermined number of turns with a shorter 40 minute game being quite possible. Each turn the players can choose two of three possible cards types to draw.

Campaign cards give you votes in the state where you currently are. Fundraising cards give you money which can be spent secretly. Dirty tricks cards allow you to hurt your opponents, but these can sometimes backfire.

Caprice, published by Gold Sieber. 1999. Box. In shrink. £13

Strategy game with wooden pieces and a wooden board. The large wooden pieces are used to form towers on the board, with players being able to introduce a new piece each turn, and then move a piece already on the board. Players start with secret cards showing target shape combinations which they will score points for if they manage to achieve them at the end of the game, thus you may be able to work out what your opponents are aiming for and hinder them.

Capt'n Clever, published by Zoch zum Spiele. 2003. Box. In shrink. £11

Children's game which has enough interest for adults as well. Each player's captain tries to retrieve a treasure from each of the nine islands. However, his right hand neighbour will show him which island the next treasure he must next find it on, and that is likely to be a tricky one to get to. The captain pieces can move from island to island using any of the boats, but each player can only move one of the boats - which actually act more like bridges than boats, but several boats can be used in a single turn so it is often possible to make good use of opponents' boats as well as your own.

Celebrity Trivia, published by Nostalgia Lane Inc. ca.1985. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

A box of 400 cards each with 6 trivia quiz questions and answers about well-known people. Also includes a die and rules.

Challenge Anneka, published by Paul Lamond. 1990. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

TV related, based on the BBC TV programme featuring Anneka Rice (where she is faced with a daunting challenge and she always comes up smiling). Players draw cards round the board telling them what they need (1,000 bricks, 2,000 yards of turf, etc.), and then they must get these items by making ‘telephone calls’, using an intriguing system - a yellow pages style telephone book with 4 digit dice combinations and the results. Players know what categories

the first two digits indicate, and arrange the roll of 4 dice in order to try to get items which will help them complete their mission. Anneka Rice pictured on the lid and the rules.

Check Lines, published by Tri-ang. ca.1968. Box. Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

A pocket sized strategy game which uses an asymmetric board with 11 peg holes and many straight lines joining them up. Each player has five pieces (horses for one player and lions for the other) which fit into the holes in the board. To win a player must be the first to position these so that they have two straight lines, both of three men.

China Moon, published by Eurogames. 2003. Box. In shrink. £10

Players command a team of frogs on a lily pond attempting to collect the most beautiful flowers, to give them as a betrothal gift. The board shows a track around the pond with various sidepaths, and with lotus flowers of various colours dotted along paths. Each player on their turn moves 3 frogs, either theirs or their opponents', 2 spaces each, ignoring occupied spaces. As well as collecting flowers, some spaces cause exchanges or even cause a flower to be dropped. Once all frogs are at the end of the track flower collections are compared, with values higher the more collected of the same colour.

Combit, published by Winning Moves. 2001. Box. In shrink. £8

Card game in which the players try to collect pairs of cards of the same colour to sell. Cards are bought at the face value (2-6) and sold as a pair of the same colour to the bank for their values multiplied together. However getting hold of the valuable cards isn't so easy as your opponent will also want them and is unlikely to let you have them if at all possible.

Creel, published by Graphic Games. ca.1972. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Fishing game with an attractive board. Players travel round the outer ring of the board, collecting equipment, bait and licences. Cards decide the outcome of most actions.

Cube Farm, published by Cheapass Games. ca.2003. Packet. New. £3

Card game in which the players add cards to a communal layout and place tokens on the cards to claim offices. The idea is that the cards show office units which have been partitioned into 'cubes'. The office also has vital facilities such as the coffee machine, water cooler, printer etc, and players want their people to be as close as possible to these facilities. Play is tactical - you want to set up opportunities for yourself while not giving too much away to your opponents. As usual with this company, you will need to supply your own counters for each player.

Cube Fusion, published by Waddingtons. 1970. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Photocopied rules

A nicely produced addition to the 3 / 4 in a row family of games. There are several interesting ideas in this game - the first is that the pieces each comprise two cubes made of clear plastic and each of these cubes has a bead in the centre, one of each player's colour. These cuboids are then placed onto a 3x3x3, 4x4x4 or 5x5x5 playing arena, with the objective being to make 3 or 4 in a row in any direction - there are several variants. Of course when you place your bead where you want it you will also be placing one of your opponent's beads as well. You can play on top of already played pieces as well as on the board, and if all are played without a winner, players get to move cuboids. Recommended in Sid Sackson's Gamut of Games.

D&D: Immortal Rules, published by TSR. 1986. Box. Good. £5

Dungeons & Dragons set 5, which contains rules for playing immortal characters. The set includes a Player's Guide for Immortal characters and a Dungeon Master's Guide for running a campaign using them. Covers the special abilities, powers and home planes for these characters, rules for creating artifacts, other planar creatures etc. It is suggested that you should already be familiar with Basic, Expert, Companion and Master rules.

D&D: Wrath Of The Immortals, published by TSR. 1992. Box. Excellent. £6

Dungeons & Dragons set which allows players to play Immortal characters in the D&D world of Mystara. Contains a 128 page book detailing the rules for playing immortals including spells, powers and forms, as well as how to run a campaign for immortal characters, information about artifacts, and new monsters as well as information about the planes immortals can explore. The second part of this set is an adventure specifically for Immortal characters: Wrath of the Immortals, which is 96 pages long and covers a bitter war between two Immortal factions over an exceptionally powerful artifact, and includes a timeline for events mentioned in the scenario covering 5000 years! Not just your average orc bash!

Dark Future, published by Games Workshop. 1988. Box. Good. £16

Designed by Richard Halliwell. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Includes 16 additional metal cars (some Matchbox) painted up to fit the theme. There may be a few detachable weapons missing (does not affect play). British version of Car Wars really, again set in a Mad Max style future world. The set includes about 15 large road sections (each about 30 cm long), 4 plastic model cars and 4 motor bikes, to the same scale as Matchbox cars. The cars have a variety of weapons which can be attached. 6 page basic rules are included as well as a 100 page very comprehensive rules book which covers just about everything you could think of eg. mines, critical hits, rams and crashes, creating tracks, designing your own vehicles, scenarios, reference sheets etc.

Dealer's Choice, published by Parker Palitoy. ca.1975. Box. Good. £10

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-5. Country: British, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Family business game in which the players are car dealers. Players buy and sell a selection of cars ranging from top of the range sports cars to old wrecks. Each player has a special 'Blue Book' which can be consulted to give the value of any given car. Options include insurance and event cards keep the play varied. Players try to make the most money by clever wheeling, dealing and bluffing.

Deflect 5, published by Peter Pan. 1996. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Tactical game played on a vertical 'board' placed between the participants. Counters are slid into a grid, (in a similar way to Connect 4), but the rows of the grid itself can be moved sideways as well, and not all spaces allow pieces to drop straight through. The idea is to engineer it so that your pieces come out before those of your opponent. Sort of a cross between Connect 4 and Downfall.

Dennis The Menace, published by Paul Lamond. 1989. Box. Good. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Game based on the character in the comic The Beano. Over 150 cards, illustrated with Dennis or his dad, are used as players move round the board to get rid of their cards.

Der Fliegende Teppich, published by Ravensburger. 1987. Box. Good. £14. Desc. by Andy.

A very nice game with striking graphics. Players must race their flying carpets from one end of the city to the other (and optionally back again). The board can be set up for an easy or difficult race and the card play and use of special movement tiles requires good planning. I have a few house rules I will include if you remind me. The English version is called Flying Carpet.

Desert Island Discs, published by Strawberry Games. 1994. Box. Excellent. £3.50

Quiz game in which the questions are generally related to the Desert Island Discs radio programme. eg. multiple choice questions in which you have to guess which of 3 celebrities chose a particular book, piece of music or luxury. There are also questions of general knowledge on the topics of books, music and media as well.

Die Glucksritter, published by Schmidt. 1998. Box. Excellent. £14

This game's name means 'Soldier of Fortune'. Each player is trying to be the first to construct a complete castle, which will require walls and towers. Each turn the players simultaneously choose two actions out of six possibilities. If a player is the only one to select a particular action, then the action is cheaper for them. The actions include building a wall, building a tower, earning money, getting a special action card, and attacking another player's castle. While there is luck in whether your actions clash with those of other players, the game offers interesting options and is fun to play. Recommended.

Disorderly Conduct The Game, published by Western Publishing. 1993. Box. Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2 teams. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box slightly indented due to stacking, base has a tape removal mark, and 1 corner taped. 1 of 160 cards is missing, but this does not affect play.

Party game intended for young adults. The players split into a team of girls and a team of boys and each team moves their playing piece around the board and acts on the spaces they land on. These often require that a 'dare' card is drawn and so someone will have to perform an embarrassing dare, sometimes involving a player from their own team and sometimes with someone from the other team. Players can refuse a dare, but then they get a stamp - two stamps and that player becomes the other team's 'partyslave'. The box and board feature snapshots of a group of male and female models playing the game, giving a bit of the look of popular U.S. TV sitcoms (like 'Friends').

Doh-Nutters, published by Spear's Games. 1991. Box. Good, but box edges show wear. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Ridiculous game which will have all but the most straight faced players (and spectators) laughing. Each player gets an elephant mask with a prehensile trunk. Each player also has 3 donuts of their colour which are placed on the board and players have to try to get all their donuts onto their trunk simultaneously. This is not easy, but nor is it impossible with a little practice. The rules don't specify how much you may interfere with other players' trunks! You could also use the components in a variety of party games of your own devising, eg. passing a donut from trunk to trunk.

Domino Rally, published by Action GT. ca.1980. Box. Good. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-2. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Finish flag is missing. Not sure if all dominoes present (number not stated, but there are still 200+).

Box full of 'dominoes' intended for setting up in rows and knocking over. As well as about 200 dominoes in two colours there are two domino bridges and a loop the loop device to start things going. The dominoes are 1.8cm x 3.6cm in size and plastic with no markings (so no use for traditional domino games).

Double Trouble, published by Faber & Faber. 1993. Book. Good. £2.50

Excellent book on doubling at Bridge, from informative doubles to penalty doubles. The author has won World Bridge titles.

Drachenland, published by Ravensburger. 2002. Box. In shrink. £16

Clever board game in which the players each have playing pieces (representing adventurers) which they move around paths in Dragon Land. These paths are between various dragon's lairs, and the adventurers raid the dragon's lairs for gems. Each player has one adventurer who specialises in a particular colour gem, and all adventurers may also collect dragon eggs, and special ability tokens (potions) which can be used once only for a special move or similar advantage. Also each adventurer must claim a ring before the game ends otherwise his gems won't count in the scoring. At the end of the game players score for complete sets of 3 different gems + a dragon's egg, with extras acting as a tie-break. Recommended.

Dragon's Gold, published by Descartes Editeur. 2000. Box. Excellent. £8

Defeating a dragon is no problem for a well prepared adventuring party. However, deciding how to divide the treasure is far from simple. Players must cooperate enough to defeat the dragons, but then negotiate for the best share of the treasure making use of magic items and special abilities to get one up on your co-adventurers!

Dream Team, published by Abacus. 1997. Box. Excellent. £4.50

Card game, featuring characters from a world of fantasy. Players combine their creatures into a 'Dream Team' and take it in turn to pit their teams against each other in a game somewhere between ice hockey and a brawl (I have been told there is a difference :-) Special powers and special cards make the matches more interesting and less predictable. This is a reissue of the earlier game Power Play.

El Grande, published by Hans Im Gluck. 1996. Box. Good. £15. Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: I can print out and laminate a set of English action cards to considerably ease play for an extra £4

Brilliant game, which was German Game of the Year 1996. The players vie for control of areas of medieval Spain, in order to score victory points for having the majority of caballeros at the three census points during the game. The game is driven by action cards, of which five are available each round and each player will get to select one. The more powerful actions allow less men to be added to the board, whereas the weaker actions allow more men to be placed. Players also have to play cards to determine player order (and thus the chance to get needed action cards) each round. Various other excellent mechanics make this one of the best German games of all time in my opinion. Highly recommended.

Elevation, published by Appletree Toys. 1983. Box. Box base & lid indented due to stacking. £6

Unusual game in which each player controls an elevator with space for 3 blocks. The elevators are on either side of 9 'storeys' and on each storey upto 5 blocks can be held. There are 7 colours of blocks which start randomly on the 9 storeys. Players move their elevators up and down loading and unloading blocks trying to make storeys hold a single colour. Achieving this scores a point. There are various restrictions to ensure the game doesn't become a stalemate too. Well constructed plastic board with chunky blocks.

Equality, published by Peter Pan. 1978. Box. Good. £4.50

A Scrabble-like game, but instead of making words players have number, and arithmetic symbol tiles and make up simple arithmetical sums (eg. 4 x 5 = 2 0 ) to place on the board and score. There are double tile and 'double equation' spaces on the board, and there is a bonus for using all 10 of your tiles in one go. Includes racks for the tiles.

Fair Means or Foul / Adel Verpflichtet, several copies available:

1) Adel Verpflictet, published by Avalon Hill. 1991. Box. Excellent. £10. Country: American.
2) Fair Means Or Foul, published by Gibsons. 1991. Box. Good. £11. Country: British.
3) Fair Means Or Foul, published by Gibsons. 1991. Box. Good, but edges show wear. £10. Country: British.

Clever game in which the players attempt to obtain large collections of antiques. The antiques are represented by cards and include items such as Marilyn Monroe's lipstick and Sir Walter Raleigh's pipe. Each turn players simultaneously choose whether to attend the auction house to buy more antiques or go to a stately home. In the auction house players can either bid or try to steal money. In the stately home players can either put on an exhibition to gain points, try to steal from an exhibition or be a detective to catch any thieves. To do well you need to be able to work out what other players are likely to do, and act accordingly. Won the Spiel des Jahres 1990 in Germany. Recommended.

Fantasy Adventures Starter Pack, published by Mayfair. 1995. Box. Good. £4.50

Special notes: I am including a 15 card booster pack I happened to have hanging around in with this starter pack.

Card game. Very attractive update of an old Mayfair game called Encounters. The original game only had text on the cards, but this has the text plus really excellent fantasy artwork. Players are both heroes (in their own turn) and monsters (in their opponent's turns). The objective is to have the most points after 4 turns of play. The game is played with two decks per player - one containing heroes and mages, although a standard variant allows these decks to be shared between the players, and using this variant you can play using just one starter pack. While this is a CCG it can be played without having to buy lots of cards, as the starter pack uses a fixed set of cards known to work well together.

Fantasy Business, published by Descartes Editeur. 2002. Box. Excellent. £8

Economic game with a fantasy theme. Players must buy various bits of adventuring gear (eg. weapons, armour, horses, etc) at auction and then after a set number of auctions there is a selling round. After discussions players secretly set their prices for the items they have on offer. Lowest price sells with a bonus, middle prices sell with no bonus and highest prices don't sell at all. There are also some action cards to make things interesting and keep people on their toes.

Fifth Avenue, published by Alea. 2004. Box. Excellent - unplayed. £15

Auction based strategy game based on developing Manhattan in the 1930s. Players build up neighbourhoods so as to be as valuable to themselves as possible. This is done by getting your skyscrapers adjacent to plots with shops. Cards are collected of various colours and these are used in auctions for the various plots, but the colour of cards used determines the plot which that player is bidding for, and in addition the lower the maximum value of any cards used to win the bidding the more buildings can be placed. Finally, everyone wants to get in on the free for all that is Central Park, where there are less restrictions.

Fortune, published by Ariel. 1979. Box. Good. £11

Semi-promotional business game, made to a very high standard because several companies paid to be in it. A good game of manufacturing, wholesale and retail. Companies in the game include Prudential, Bovis, Woolworths, John Menzies, Brooke Bond, Shell and Guinness amongst others. Received a very good review in Games International. Game play involves buying machinery, fuel and computers, and producing goods, which are then sold through various distribution channels. Advertising, insurance and consultancy can also be bought and shares in various companies can be bought. Players move around a track, but get quite a few choices as to what to do.

Garden Lotto, published by Ravensburger. ca.1965. Box. Good. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: German, Desc. by Eamon.

Simple Lotto game, with players competing to fill their cards with attractive plants and garden utilities. Pretty.

Garten-Zwerge e.B., published by Argentum Verlag. 2004. Box. Excellent. £13

Amusingly themed game in which the players are members of a Garden Gnome breeding society! Garden Gnomes come in different ranks, from the worthless and lazy greys up to the highly coveted gold gnome! Each turn players choose what to do with their gnomes: send them to work in the garden for a little money; look for a breeding partner for them, with money being paid by the player who will get the resulting offspring to the other parent's owner; or sending them into the club's competitions to win prize money. The first player to either breed a coveted golden gnome or accumulate 4000 money wins the game.

Giganten, published by Kosmos. 1999. Box. 2 copies available:

1) In shrink. £20 2) Good. £17

Oil discovery, production and selling game. The board is big and there are lots of substantial components. The game has lots of clever mechanisms which combine very well. These include a map board on which to send your oil truck out to find suitable sites to drill, a card choosing mechanism to drive what you can do in your turn, bidding for the right to sell oil and an interesting fluctuating oil price mechanism. A very good business game which I can certainly recommend.

Go For Gold, published by Webster's Yorkshire Bitter. ca.1980. Box. Box corners split, shows wear. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Promotional sports quiz game in which players answer sports trivia questions to progress around the qualification ring, then the bronze ring, and finally the silver ring to get the gold medal and win.

Goal, published by Pepys. ca.1960. Box. Box Poor, Contents Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Card game, 44 cards featuring soccer players. Each player is dressed in a club’s colours, and represents a position on the field. The game is about collecting combinations of cards to ‘build moves’ leading to a scoring shot, and then, possibly, a save. One of the best games ever devised by this company. this is the Second edition Set.

Golferholics, published by A.L.E.M.. 1999. Box. Excellent. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Golf game with a large attractive board showing an 18 hole golf course. Also included are two special dice, one used to determine progress while on the fairway and the other for short range shots. The playing pieces are nicely made flags. Game play is driven by dice and event cards and scores are recorded on very well made pads of score cards.

Grand National Derby, published by Piatnik. 1996. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £11.50 2) Excellent. £12.50

This is the precursor to the very popular Titan: The Arena, but this time the theme is horse racing. The idea is that initially there are 8 horses but one will fall at each fence leaving 3 only at the end. Players make bets on which will

make it to the end but the earlier bets are worth more, and card play determines which horse will fall at each stage. This is a simpler game than Titan: The Arena, but has the same basic mechanics.

Groo: The Game Expansion Set, published by Archangel Entertainment. 1997. Box. Excellent. £4.50

Another 55 cards for use with the base game, extending the possibilities and allowing up to 2 more players to join in the mayhem. No rules needed as the cards just fit into the basic system. Now quite a collectable item. You do need the base game to be able to make use of this.

GURPS Supers - Deathwish, published by Steve Jackson Games. Booklet. Excellent. £2.50

Adventure module for GURPS Supers. Intended for 500 point superheroes. The characters must investigate odd goings on at and around Deathwish rock concerts from coast to coast of the U.S.

Haithabu, published by Hexagames. 1990. Box. Good. £10

An unusual race game in which the players move their pieces along intersecting paths, and over bridges. Each time a piece goes across a bridge the bridge is destroyed, and that player gets more movement points for future turns. These extra movement points can also be spent fixing bridges at the start of your turn. Unusual mechanism resulting in a unique feeling to what is essentially a race from one side of the board to the other.

Halma, published by Glevum Games. Board & Box. Shows wear, some discolouration on box. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2 or 4. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Original rules (if there were any) are missing, but I have supplied a set with basic strategy info as well as extra pawns to play the 19 piece version.

Classic strategy game which was probably invented in the 1880s, and for some years was very popular. The objective is to get your men into the diagonally opposite home area faster than any of your opponents. Pieces are moved either one space at a time or by jumping over other pieces as many times as desired, which is clearly more optimal. This set has attractive period drawings on the board and box.

Heart Of Africa, published by Phalanx. 2004. Box. Excellent, but 1 corner slightly dented. £24

Beautifully produced game in which players expand their mercantile control ever further across Africa. The board shows a very attractive and interesting elongated period style map of Africa divided into regions. Players introduce their traders into these regions, wresting control of valuable resources such as diamonds and gold from those currently there. The game uses several unusual mechanisms such as players having to bid for the privilege of getting a turn at all, but each time you don't get a turn you get more influence with which to bid for a future turn. Also conflict with players and neutral traders uses two different and interesting mechanisms giving the option to choose to retreat, and gain from the encounter if you wish.

Heimlich & Co, published by Ravensburger. 1994. Box. Good. £12.50

Each player controls a secret agent, but doesn't know who controls the others. The board shows shadowy streets at night and the secret agents are moved around the board by allocating the number of movement points rolled amongst any of the secret agents. Landing a secret agent on certain spaces awards points to or penalises that secret agent. Thus the game is as much about making your secret agent do well as concealing the identity of your agent, and working out the identity of your opponents.

Holiday AG, published by F X Schmid. 1990. Box. Excellent. £14

Clever game of the same general type as Acquire and Big Boss. There are five travel companies in which the players will gain shares, and each company has a line of 20 spaces onto which luggage markers are placed. Cards allow placement of the luggage markers, but the game is about trying to get strings of adjacent markers onto the companies you have shares in, while trying to ensure that those you do not have a stake in do not get long groups of markers, as the longest group of markers for each company at the end of the game determines the values of the shares. Recommended.

Horoscope, published by Ariel. ca.1960. Box. Box lid indented by stacking. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Players try to complete their board of twelve spaces, one for each sign of the zodiac. The cards that go in these spaces both have to match the space they are to go into, and the sum of values on all the cards on your board also have to add up to one of several special numbers to achieve victory. The cards also have a prediction on each one, allowing the players to read the winning horoscope and determine what awaits each of them in the future!

Hot Spots, published by Great Games Company. ca.1986. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

This game is actually two distinct items in one. However, both use a deck of cards and a sloping board onto which the cards are placed so that only the top half will show. The first 'game' is an unusual and very difficult solo puzzle in which the cards have to be arranged in such a way that dots and lines on the cards match up neatly. There are apparently two solutions and the start and ends of each have been given. Alternatively the other side of the cards can be used to play a game in which players try to make lines of spots of the same colours in order to score points - again only one half of each card is in play at any time, and players can move an already played card if they think it will help. Most unusual item.

I.Q. The Logic Puzzle Game, published by Lagoon Games. 1998. Box. Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

A set of 100+ cards each with a logic or lateral thinking puzzle on it, and the answer on the back. Also included is an egg timer to limit the time you have to work on a puzzle. The puzzles are worth different numbers of points and some have bonus questions too. An example: An artist is painting a large canvas 2m x 2m. He wants to cover half the canvas in a deep rich purple, but he also wants to keep a square section which is still 2m high and 2m wide unpainted. How does he do this?

Im Reich Des Weissen Baren, published by Schmidt. 1991. Box. Good. £13

Attractive game with great bits and on the 1991 German Spiel des Jahres nomination list. The game uses a plastic board with 16 ice-floes which are moved around during play, igloos, a polar bear, Eskimos and fish. Each player has 4 Eskimos who must traverse the ice-floes to catch fish, but must avoid the attentions of the bear. Movement options are given by the roll of a special die, but there are plenty of options, and the ice floes are physically pushed around the board, so judging whether an ice floe will fit between others is often a consideration. The game can be played as a light game with children or very tactically with adults. Recommended.

Impuzzable, published by The Missing Link Trading Co. Ltd. 1987. Box. Good. £1.75

A 9 piece puzzle. Should be easy then. Nope. There is no picture but the interlocking lugs are in the shapes of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs, which means there are lots of ways they could be put together, but hardly any that work to form a 3x3 square (with lugs sticking out the sides).

Info Baseball, published by Information Games. ca.1980. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

Card game, 120 cards featuring Red Sox baseball players and their statistics. The game system is a variation of Top Trumps.

Interaction, published by Waddingtons. 1978. Box. Goodish!. £7.50

Special notes: clear plastic lid is badly cracked, but taped up. The outer cardboard casing and contents are good.

A somewhat snooker / pool related game, though a little more abstract. Players have to be first to 'pot' five out of 10 balls. Each player has 2 cue balls, and the game is played on a green beize indented grid on which the balls are placed. Balls are not hit, but instead moved and the consequences are determined according to the rules, which produce results similar to what would happen in snooker. As well as the two player game there are also some puzzles to solve on your own. Comes in the rather fragile plastic case Waddingtons used for a few games - the clear lid gets damaged easily, so it is rarely found in perfect shape.

Jeopardy, published by Milton Bradley. 1964. Box. Box corners split. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-5. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

TV related. Third edition. Based on a popular American game-show (practically unknown outside the States), where players are told an answer and must give the question it relates to, as the answer, if you see what I mean! MB Game No. 4457.

Jungle Bungle Beetle Game, published by DaMert. 1992. Packet. Good. £1.25

Although called a game, this is actually a puzzle. There are 8 rectangular pieces, very colourful and attractive, and they must be laid out in a square, but with all the sides matching. It claims hundreds of possibilities but only one solution.

Kameltreiber AG, published by Schmidt. ca.1989. Box. Good. £10

Race game. Each player is a camel drover, racing camels around a track made up of 16 tiles. The tiles landed on may allow an extra move, or undo this turn's movement. In addition if the rearmost camel is lapped then it is removed from play. Movement involves turning up one of 30 number chits, and a good memory will allow you to move the number of spaces you need to in order to land on the space you want. Attractive graphics.

Kap Hoorn, published by Kosmos. 1999. Box. In shrink. £14

A race game about sailing clippers ‘rounding the Horn’ in a race from New York to San Francisco. This is a tile laying game in which you have a limited number of action points each turn, which can be used to buy tiles, or perform special moves. The basic idea is to play tiles with movement arrows onto the board in such a way as to help the movement of your ship and hinder other ships. There are some clever placement restrictions and alternative ways to win as well. Very good game. Recommended. I also have a couple of rules tweaks to reduce the luck of the tile draw.

Karibik, published by Winning Moves. 2004. Box. Excellent. £13. Desc. by Andy.

Pirate themed board game which uses 3D cardboard ships (rather nicely made) to move around the board and collect pirate treasures and take them to each player's home base. There are 6 ships, but they are not owned, instead players secretly choose how to distribute their bid cards amongst the ships each round and the player who played the highest for each ship gets to move it. The bidding cards also include a -1 which will never win, but reduces the amount of movement the winner for that ship can use. Some money is earned by collecting treasures, but rather more is gained by getting a treasure safely to one of your pirate hideouts. Very attractive game.

Kojit-8, published by Noetic Pastimes Ltd. 1980. Tube. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Strategy game played on a large roll-up vinyl mat which shows a 6 pointed star made up of coloured circles with coloured lines joining them. Players take turn placing, moving or turning over pieces of various colours with numbers on them. The objective is to score points by making certain combinations, such as identical numbers, runs of numbers, etc on spaces of the same colour or spaces in a row. There are several variations to try out as well, such as one where additional types of play or scoring patterns are available when your scoring marker is on certain spaces on the scoring track.

Labyrinth, published by Yang Chen Enterprise Co. Ltd. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: Taiwan, Duration: 5 mins, Desc. by Andy.

A wooden ball maze in which you have two controls to adjust the angle of playing surface which will determine where the ball rolls. You try to navigate the maze without the ball falling into a hole. You score more the further you get. While this was made in Taiwan the company looks to be British and it is certainly made for the European (inc British) market.

Round The Bend Labyrinth, published by Vic-Toy. ca.1977. Box. Box battered, contents good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Duration: 5 mins, Desc. by Andy.

A nicely made ball maze in which you have two controls to adjust the angle of playing surface which will determine where the ball rolls. You try to navigate the maze without the ball falling into a hole. You score more the further you get. This version is plastic, but nicely made and with more sensitive controls than many other versions.

Legend of the Five Rings - The Battle of Beiden Pass, published by Five Rings Publishing Group Inc.

1996. Box. Good. £4.50. Designed by Alderac Entertainment Group. No. players: 2.

Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

A box of goodies for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. It doesn't contain what it is supposed to according to the box, but what it does contain is a selection of posters and articles on this CCG, 2 rulebooks and about 375 cards, roughly half green backed and half black backed.

Lords Of The Sierra Madre, published by Decision. 1995. Box. Box good, contents unpunched. £18

Grand scale economic game set in northern Mexico in 1898 when the dictator welcomes foreign investment and creates a vast capitalist free-for-all. Each player is an entrepreneur vying to build the largest empire of railroads, mines, ranches and other businesses. Players can employ bandits, strikers and perform other sneaky manoeuvers to hinder their opponents, and also use police, federal troops, and even the US Army to their own ends. The rules are 16 pages long, with a further 8 more of notes and tips. The game is driven by card play and counter movement.

Luxor, published by Ravensburger. 2001. Box. In shrink. £14

Very attractively produced Egyptian themed game which is played in the box. A vertical board into which cardboard 'dominoes' with a symbol on each half is the main playing area. When players play dominoes which cause matches with adjacent symbols then scarab tokens can be placed besides the corresponding sarcophagi, and players try to be the ones to claim the mummies from these sarcophagi, with the more valuable mummies coming up later in the game.

M, published by Abacus Spiele. 2000. Box. In shrink. £12

Tile laying game in which the tiles show numbers, colours and shapes, and as they are played onto a communal layout players try to match up the symbols and colours and thus claim scoring tokens. In addition when a row or column is filled players get to claim tiles from the board, and two colours of tile will score positively for each player at the end of the game while any other tiles will score negatively.

Magic The Gathering - Duelists' Scoresheet, published by Wizards Of The Coast. ca.1998. Notepad.

Good. £0.20. Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Scorepad designed for Magic The Gathering tournaments. Each pad has about 50 sheets each with space for recording life points for three duels. If you want more than one pad just ask!

Magnetic Games, published by Multichess. ca.1980. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: Hong Kong, Desc. by Andy.

A novel magnetic travel games set. There are 6 boards on a reel, which can be wound back and forth so that only one shows at once. These boards are for Solitaire, Chess/Draughts, Nine Mens Morris, Halma, Ludo and Backgammon. 20 magnetic playing pieces in two colours are also provided and stick to the magnetic surface beneath the winding board surface. There is also a storage compartment to keep the pieces safe. Very neat design, and ideal to take with you when travelling.

Mancala, published by Pressman. 1997. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Classic abstract game, very popular game in many African countries. The board is made of wood, and folds up as well, making this set quite portable as well as attractive and sturdy. The playing pieces are 'flattened marbles', with a swirl of colour within glass. Nice set.

Mancala, published by University Games. 1995. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Classic abstract game, very popular game in many African countries. The board is hand crafted wood, made in Asia. The pieces are small coloured stones. The rules include general rules as well as the Egyptian, Nigerian and Ethiopian variants. Very nice set.

The Mancala Game, published by Spears. ca.1976. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Classic abstract game, very popular game in many African countries. Made with small wooden balls to act as the 'shells' in the African original.

Manhattan, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. 1994. Box. Good. £16

Excellent game of high-rise city development, in the edition that won the 1994 German Game of the Year. Players compete to build and control towers in 6 regions of Manhattan. Placement is by card play, but there are always a number of choices which need to be weighed carefully. At the end of each scoring round points are scored for control of each tower, most towers in a region and the highest tower on the board. The bits stack wonderfully making the game really attractive during play. Highly recommended. I can also provide a copy of the 'Godzilla' variant - please remind me!

Manipulation, published by Berwick. ca.1965. Box. Fair. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box has been somewhat crushed, warping the box and the board. Still quite playable though.

Dice game. A sort of Shut The Box variant, in which you take turns to have one throw and use it before passing the dice. The dice roll can be split eg, 10=6+4 to cover the numbers 6 and 4 on your side, but also there are special spaces for doubles and other numbers which can be claimed in a communal area. The game ends when one player manages to cover all their spaces numbered 1-12.

Mare Nostrum, published by Euro Games / Descartes Editeur. 2003. Box. Excellent. £18

Players lead their empires based around the Mediterranean Sea from the dawn of civilisation through several centuries. The burgeoning empires will trade, build temples, caravans, legions and fleets, and battle it out for supremacy. The objective is to build monuments which can be considered Wonders of the World. Very much in the mould of the classic game 'Civilization' but the box claims a 2-3 hour playing time.

Metropolis, published by Ravensburger. 1984. Box. Good. £28

Excellent Sid Sackson game, beautifully produced as you would expect from this company. Players, in effect, zone a new town, by first acquiring plots of land and then building variously shaped buildings on the sites. Making deals with other players is an essential part of the game. The game is driven by the choice of which plot the current player wishes to claim, but there are clever rules (often mistranslated or misunderstood) which limit the ability to claim plots. The rules concerning the value of buildings when in the same area as other buildings seem complex but add to the strategy and tactics possible. Highly recommended.

Mille Bornes / Fast And Furious. Several copies available:

1) Fast And Furious, published by Gibsons. 1991. Box. Good. £3. Country: British

2) Mille Bornes, published by Parker. 1971. Box. Good. £3.50. Country: American

3) Mille Bornes, published by Parker. 1962. Box. Good. £3.50. Country: American

Designer Edmond Dujardin. No. players: 2-6. Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Card game, illustrated with distances and hazards on a car journey. Players must try to play distance cards totalling 1,000 miles, or play cards that cause others to be delayed. Works well as a partnership game as well (4 or 6 players).

Mississippi, published by Mattel. 1987. Box. Good, but box edges show wear. £12.50

Unique race game. Players each have a boat which they race down the Mississippi. However, the mechanism is most unusual - the boat pieces (actually hexagons) have a number on each side, and on your turn you can either 'burn' logs by moving forward, or gain logs by moving backwards. However, after the initial move adjacent boats (in front, behind or even those around the bend but still adjacent on the board) will either be moved or cause your boat to move depending on the position of the numbers on the adjacent boats.

Mixtur, published by Cutting Edge. 1997. Box. Excellent. £2.50

Card game in which players must gather the correct ingredients (angel's hair, troll's nose etc) in order to cast spells. The first player to cast all their spells wins the game. The spells have various effects, some amusing and some which will help you win. The cards all have a lot of German on, and so this is most likely to be of interest to players whose German is fluent. Thus I am not providing a translation of the rules since such folk will understand the German rules anyway...

Money!, published by Goldsieber Spiele. 1999. Box. In shrink. £6

Card game. The cards show miniature versions of various banknotes from around the world, and the objective is to collect valuable sets of notes and score best at the end of the game. Each round two groups of four notes are made available and players secretly decide which of their existing notes they will offer. In order from highest to lowest bid players then choose a group of notes to take from those put out on the table or those offered by another player. It works well and plays quickly with a neat scoring system to keep you on your toes. Recommended as a good opener or closer.

More Chances To Win With Mecca, published by Mecca. Box. Excellent. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: Unknown, Desc. by Andy.

A rather nice travel games set with a good set of 6 pip dominoes which are a pleasure to handle, a pack of regular playing cards, folding wooden cribbage board and a set of 5 poker dice. Rules are provided only for one game with the poker dice.

Murder A La Carte - Chinese Takeout, published by Bepuzzled. 1994. Box. Good. £7.50

Special notes: Unused, and would be 'Excellent' except for a label removal mark and a little tape used to seal it.

Murder mystery party game for 6 players. The players roleplay the 6 characters detailed and have to talk to the other players to solve the mystery. This mystery is set in a San Francisco townhouse filled with Emily Bogg's mementos of China. Unexpectedly a long lost daughter Anita Mumm turns up for dinner. Is she an imposter ? Things turn deadly when Mrs Bogg's fortune cookie predicts her death! The set includes invitations, hosting instructions, menu ideas (optional), clue sheets, character briefings, and a tape recording to play.

Murphy, published by Flying Turtle. 1989. Box. Good. £15

Detective themed game in which the players have to work out which possible relations to a dead millionaire are genuine and which are pretenders. This is done by moving around a track on a map of the world and meeting up with the various candidates and finding out information about them. Using deduction it is possible to determine which must be real, and the first player to do so wins the game. Money is also needed to make moves and get the desired information, so sometimes players will have to go for a cheap move rather than one which will get the most information. Good game, but very much better with only 2-3 players.

Nature Trail Game, published by Early Learning Centre. ca.1990. Box. Good, but box corners taped. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Children's nature themed game for ages 4-7. Players try to collect a set of 8 friendly animal tiles, while avoiding danger tiles. When a danger tile is drawn, a person tile must be discarded to eliminate the danger. The tiles are attractively illustrated. The players do not need to be able to read to play this game.

Naval Battle, published by Invicta. 1983. Box. Good. £0.75

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

A travel version of Battleships, with all the pieces made of plastic that adheres to the plastic board. This is in the shape of a wallet so it can be tucked into a pocket. Part of the Travelleers Series.

Neues Land, published by Fanfor Verlag. 1994. Box. Good. £20

A game about the colonisation of the New World. Players recruit conquistadors, traders and missionaries and send them by ship to the New World, hopefully avoiding other players' pirates on the way. Once landed they can then start to build chapels and trade stations and gain influence over the natives, all for the benefit of their home country. The box is crammed full of stuff inc. a board for sea travel, a board for the New World, 42 large and thick card ships with two masts and flags each, and loads of chunky cardboard counters for the personnel, etc.

New England, published by Uberplay. 2003. Box. In shrink. £21

Clever tile placement game in which the players expand out from three initial land holdings each - one each of three types of plantation. Players bid to get the choice of options each turn, but going first will mean that the actions cost more to perform. The actions include tiles to lay on the board to expand your areas, and claiming action cards which can be used to score VPs by upgrading land tiles, placing people, ships or barns onto the board for in game benefits as well as possible extra VPs at the end of the game. The game gives you a stream of interesting choices. It was selected as Game of the Year for Games magazine in 2004. Highly recommended.

New York New York, published by F X Schmid. 1989. Box. Excellent. £10

Nice looking game, a card game really, but the cards are oblong shaped pictures of the Manhattan skyline. Players use their cards, trying to engineer their colours to form the finished skyline at the end of the game. Clever design.

It is especially good and quite tactical with 2 players. It gets increasingly chaotic with 3 or 4 players. Recommended for 2 players.

No Room At The Zoo, published by Artstraws Ltd. ca.1990. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Players each have a selection of animals which they attempt to place onto spaces in the zoo. The zoo is divided into 4 sections, each colour coded, and within these sections there are several interlocking rings each of a colour of a different board section. When an animal is placed onto a space this will block off several other spaces, and the next player must play in the section indicated by the colour the last ring was played on. If there is no free space to play on then all animals in that section must be taken back into your hand. The winner is the first to place all their animals in the zoo, or if you play according to a friend of mine's house rule you can also win by collecting a certain number of animals.

Nuba, published by Amigo. 1995. Box. Excellent. £7

Skillful game by Reiner with an unusual theme. Evidently based on practices in the Sudan, each player’s pieces count as wrestlers, trying to clear a path for other pieces to become musicians! Game play involves playing pieces which are either good wrestlers or good musicians (or somewhere in between) on the board and then trying to get them to the far side. The player who gets the best musician to the far side wins.

Odins Raben, published by Kosmos. 2002. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £10 2) In shrink. £11

Another game in the Kosmos 2 player series. The two players each control one of Odin's ravens, and they race across various landscapes in order to be the first to arrive back to Odin. The landscape is made up of a series of two part cards. The game involves playing cards from either your hand or a special reserve stack - a matching card for the next terrain needs to be played to cross it. In addition, special cards can be played to hinder your opponent and alter the terrain ahead of the ravens. Finally as well as getting victory points for winning the race, cards can be set aside as magic points and the player who has the most magic points gets victory points too. Hand management is the key to success in this game. I have house rules too.

Off Road Fun, published by Clementoni. 1994. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: Italian, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Family race game in which the players lay out a cross country rally course, some of which will be on road and other parts will be off road. After the players study the layout the track tiles are turned face down. A special dice is rolled to determine movement, but the moving player must also state whether the tiles about to be landed on are on road or off road, and only if this is stated correctly can the player move forwards. First to the end of the track wins.

One Too Many, published by Waddingtons. 1970. Box. Fair. £2

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box corners damaged, and base scribbled on extensively. Lid has some writing on.

Stacking game in which each player has 10 large plastic 2-D clowns and players take it in turns to add one to the stack. They attach to each other in all sorts of odd ways so it soon becomes a real tangle. The idea is to be the first to get all your clowns into the tangle. If any fall out on your turn you add them to your pile.

Operation Fitness, published by Ski. 1984. Box. Good. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Promotional game made for Ski Yoghurts (by Waddingtons). Players try to get fit, with various choices to make along the way.

Orient Express, published by Jumbo. 1986. Box. Excellent. £12

Special notes: Case 1 has been used (but is complete), but cases 2-10 are still unpunched.

Detective game that not only looks great, but has very good rules and plays well. Players must interview up to 30 characters in each crime, but it is a race against time to unmask the murderer before the train reaches Istanbul.

If you like crime solving games then this is highly recommended, as the cases are clever and require thought, making this one of the best of the genre. 10 different crimes included.

Ostindien Company, published by Piatnik. 1996. Box. Excellent. £9

Each player is a merchant hoping to extract the most profit from five trips from the East Indies to Europe. Nice playing pieces (particularly the ships), special dice and cards. Note - this is not the game with a similar name by Dan Glimne.

Philately, published by Dixon. 1973. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Very attractive game about stamp collecting. Masses of reproduction stamps add to the appeal of the game. Good interaction as most purchasing is done in an auction. Game play involves dice roll and movement around a complex track. Players will then buy, sell, swap, and inherit stamps or gain cash. The objective is to be the first player with a collection of 40 stamps.

Pigs Trotters / Schweins Galopp. 2 versions available:

1) Pigs Trotters by Ravensburger. 1992. Box. Excellent. £6.
2) Schweins Galopp, published by Ravensburger. 1992. Box. Good. £6

Card driven game in which players attempt to collect the most food tokens. Five chunky coloured plastic pigs move around a track as cards of their colour are played. A pig always moves to the next free space in front of it, and if this moves it into the lead then the player who played the card gets a food token. However, the card players choose to play last must be carefully considered, as if this does not take that pig into the lead then that player loses all the food tokens claimed this round! Most food after three rounds wins. Also known as Pigs Trotters. Awarded a special prize as best children’s game of the year in Germany 1992.

Pisa Gratto, published by SYU Creation Ltd. 1996. Box. Good. £5

Dexterity game related to Jenga. However, rather than plain wooden blocks being used to build the tower, the tower has a round cross section, and each level consists of a near-rectangle and two side blocks which when put together form a complete circular section. In addition the base the tower stands on is not level, making it more interesting. A dice is used to indicate whether a side piece or a central piece should be removed on each player's turn.

Planet Chance, published by Philograph Publications Ltd. 1989. Box. Good. £6

Unusual educational game for children in the Primary School age range. The game is driven by a cassette which gives instructions. The children playing first follow the instructions and draw their own map with the various areas needed for the game in the second part. The game part involves obtaining the right equipment cards to be able to perform various tasks, and ultimately bring down a forcefield and free Planet Chance. Designed for use by parents or teachers to entertain and help develop logical thought.

Point Of Law, published by 3M. 1972. Box. Good. £7

A courtroom case is read out to all the players who then decide what the judge and jury's verdict should be. Careful thought and picking up on clues in the case is important. Making the right deduction and thus making the right verdict is rewarded with points. There are 100 cases included in the game.

Quatre Bras, published by SPI. 1979. Box. Box shows wear. £6

Special notes: Box cover somewhat discoloured, but contents fine.

Bookcase box. Operational level simulation of combat between Napoleon's forces under Ney and Dutch forces at Quatre Bras. This was originally published as part of the Napoleon's Last Battles Quad, and so the rules come in two parts – firstly the Napoleon's Last Battles base rules and then the Quatre Bras specific rules. Also included is a booklet giving lots of background to the game and practical tips on playing it.

Quick Wit, published by The Games Gang Ltd. 1987. Box. Good. £6

Quiz type game, but different to most of these because of the nature of the questions. Many of them are cards with odd pictures on and you have to try to identify what the picture represents. Some of the others are mathematical or logic puzzles, others based on obscure vocabulary, and mixed in are a few of the more normal trivia questions. Also included is an egg timer, dice and dobbers.

Railway Rivals Maps

Dampfross 2 - Mapboard N. Italy + Austria, published by Schmidt. 1985. Board only. Good. £3.50
Mounted re-usable boards for Railway Rival / Dampfross. Austria and Northern Italy.

Dampfross 2 - Mapboard S. Italy + Switzerland, published by Schmidt. 1985. Board only. Good. £3.75
Mounted re-usable boards for Railway Rival / Dampfross. Switzerland and Southern Italy.

Railway Rivals - London & Western, published by Rostherne. 1985. Map. Good. £2
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable. Claims to be map SV, but that is a typo as that map is South Sweden!

Railway Rivals - Map B (London & Liverpool) A2, published by Rostherne. 1982. Map. Good. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map B (London & Liverpool) A3, published by Rostherne. 1982. Map. Excellent. £0.50
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A3 size, non laminated, so single use only.

Railway Rivals - Map CH (China), published by Rostherne. 1985. Map. Good. £2
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map E (Atlantic & Lake Erie - USA), published by Rostherne. 1985. Map. Good. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map FR (France), published by Rostherne. 1987. Map. Good. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map I (Ireland), published by Rostherne. 1985. Map. Excellent. £1
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, colour, but not laminated paper, so may not be possible to reuse.

Railway Rivals - Map IN (India), published by Rostherne. 1987. Map. Good. £2
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map J (Lancaster-Lincoln), published by Rostherne. 1982. Map. Excellent. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. Nearly A2 size, non laminated, so single use only. Does include slip detailing suggested starts and postal variants for use with this map.

Railway Rivals - Map M (London & Midlands), published by Rostherne. 1984. Map. Good. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map ND (North Germany), published by Rostherne. 1995. Map. Good. £1.75
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Map SV (South Sweden), published by Rostherne. 1985. Map. Good. £2
Map for use with Railway Rivals. A2 size, laminated paper, so reusable.

Railway Rivals - Western USA / London & Liverpool, published by GDW. Map. Excellent. £3.75
Double sided large very nicely produced map for Railway Rivals. The map is mounted on thick card and is in full colour - very nice indeed. The maps are: Western USA and London to Liverpool.

Railway Rivals Packet 1, published by Rostherne - Sort Of. ca.1984. Packet. Excellent. £6

A classic railway game, in which players mark on the laminated board track they have built. Every so many rounds some races are run and whoever has the best network for that route should be in for a payout. Recommended.

This is not an official set, but a mounted laminated double sided board, train playing pieces, the dice needed to play and a set of rules. It does not include 'wipeoffable' pens, but these can be bought at any stationery shop. I am selling this because I have lots of the components originally from Rostherne. You can choose which mounted map is included.

Railway Rivals Packet 2, published by Rostherne - Sort Of. ca.1984. Packet. Excellent. £4

This is not an official set, but a laminated paper map, train playing pieces, the dice needed to play and a set of rules. It does not include 'wipeoffable' pens / crayons, but these can be bought at any stationery shop. I am selling this because I have lots of the components originally from Rostherne. You can choose which map is included.

Rasant, published by Amigo. 1993. Box. In shrink. £8

Card game, 55 colourful cards which are used in a unique car race. As cards are played, the order of the cars changes and points are scored throughout the game. Timing the play of your better cards is vital, as sometimes it is possible to score a lot more than at other times. Uses 13 wooden cars. I can provide some house rules to help reduce the luck of the draw.

Razzia!, published by Amigo. 2004. Box. In shrink. £10

A reissue of Reiner's very popular, and excellent, game 'Ra', but in card game format. This time the theme is the Mafia, and players use money tokens to bid for cards which represent bodyguards, thieves, various businesses, valuable trinkets, cars and chauffeurs. The game is played over three phases and each phase ends after seven raids by the police. The game gets tense towards the end of each phase as players try to second guess when the round will end so they can make good purchases before then. Recommended.

Red Letter, published by Games Gang. 1989. Box. Excellent. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Eamon.

Beautifully made word game. 128 double sided tiles. Play is rather Scrabble-like, but bonuses are scored for using the same coloured tiles, or flipping the tiles over, or using proper nouns, or for taking advantage of special bonus category cards.

Reibach & Co, published by FX Schmid. 1996. Box. Excellent. £9

Card game which uses 90 commodity cards and 10 scoring cards and 10 special cards. Players try to collect most of 10 types of commodity, as at three points in the game payouts are made to the players with most and second most of each type. In their turn a player can do three things, which include drawing a new card from those on display, playing a card to the table in front of them (where it counts towards scoring), or placing a special card which can double the number of other cards played of that type, but means that no more may be played. In many ways a cut down to the basics version of Airlines by the same designer. Published as Get The Goods in America.

Rifts Index & Adventures Vol 2, published by Palladium. 1997. Book. Excellent. £2.50

Supplement for the Rifts science fantasy role playing game. The first half of this book is an index of Rifts items printed by Palladium. The second half of the book contains a selection of short adventure ideas as well as 4 longer scenarios.

Roulette, published by Berwick. ca.1978. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: The croupier's rake has been repaired with tape, but is entirely functional

A nicely made roulette set. The roulette wheel is plastic and 9 inches across. The set also includes a betting mat, croupier's rake and 4 colours of betting chips (20 each) as well as the rules.

Casino Roulette, published by Bell's. ca.1980. Box. Good. £7.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

An attractive and substantial roulette set. The roulette wheel is plastic, but 12 inches across and nicely made with a metal spindle so spins very smoothly. The set also includes a betting mat, croupier's rake and 4 colours of betting chips.

Royalty, published by US Games Systems. 1996. Box. Excellent. £6

Card game, 106 cards featuring a mixture of colours and letters. You can play with one deck of 53 cards or both decks. Lots of interaction as you can steal each other’s words, but interestingly you must rearrange the letters you are stealing and add to them to make a brand new word, completely unrelated to the one you stole. Variations include Coalitions (for partnership play) and Monarchy (for solitaire play). Nominated in the Games magazine Top 100 for 1995.

Saboteur, published by Amigo. 2004. Box. Excellent. £6

Card game in which some of the players are dwarves who want to find a treasure in the mines, while others are saboteurs who try to stop the treasure being found - the players identities are secret. Passage cards are played onto the table to extend the passage system, and there are three potential sites of the treasure. Players can also play cards which will stop another player extending the passages until they have fixed their problem, and of course other cards let you fix these problems. The card mix is well thought out making it possible but difficult to get to the treasure, so the end result of each round is generally very close.

San Juan, published by Rio Grande Games. 2004. Box. In shrink. £14

Excellent card game based on the exceptionally popular and award winning board game Puerto Rico. Players build a city which will consist of a selection of production buildings (which allow goods such as sugar and tobacco to be produced and later sold) and special buildings. There are lots of different special buildings which give their owner a variety of benefits, generally improving the way a certain phase of the game works for their owner. In turn each player chooses a particular action which they get the full benefit of while others get a more limited option - these actions include building, production, trading, and prospecting. Highly recommended.

Sauerbaum, published by Herder Spiele. 1987. Box. Good. £14

Intriguing game with the object of saving a tree from dying from acid rain pollution. All players must work together to achieve this, because if the acid raindrops reach the roots, all players lose. Thus they have to act co-operatively, but at the same time, they also try to win individually. There is no point though in getting into a winning position if the roots wither, so sometimes you just have to help your fellow players whether you like it or not. Can also be played with smarties in which case you eat them as you eliminate them from the tree - yum yum! Recommended.

Save Your Planet, published by Abel Games Ltd. 2000. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-5. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Each player is an important diplomat representing an entire continent, and must attempt to save the world from potential disasters (alien invasion, asteroid collision, nuclear war, giant volcanic eruption or global warming). This is done by flying around the world and collecting solution cards, which each help against some of these, but not all. Various lesser problems will need to be resolved along the way, and when you have sufficient solution cards for the most pressing disaster you can return to the United Nations with your solutions and win the game. Includes plastic aeroplane pieces and a special dice.

Scorpion, published by Spears. 1983. Box. 1 corner battered and has been taped up. £6

Special notes: Photocopied rules, inside of box base and lid show speckling.

An elegantly produced game of the parcheesi family, but with sufficient twists to make it unique and to add considerable strategy to the game. The board is a large 3-D moulded plastic track in an S shape, with yellow spaces on the way out and black spaces on the way back. Each player has 4 scorpion tokens which are moved according to dice rolls, but each of the two dice must be rolled either on the yellow felt mat or the black felt mat to indicate the colour of space on which a scorpion must be for it to be moved by that dice. Also landing on or adjacent to (on the other track) another scorpion lets you sting that scorpion and gain an advantage yourself or disadvantage the other scorpion. Well worth investigating for players of Backgammon.

Shake Words, published by Peter Pan. ca.1950. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Classic word game, where you roll the 14 wooden letter-dice to form crossword-style layouts of words. Best played with a timer (not provided).

Shanghai, published by Ravensburger. 1997. Box. Good. £14

Special notes: This set includes laminated event cards in English.

Players start with cards which can each be redeemed in one of 13 locations around Shanghai, but will be worth different amounts at different times during the game. Each turn there are four possible destinations possible and players bid to decide which will be chosen, and then cards can be redeemed by all players at that destination. Players try to gain points as fast as possible in order to exceed the current VP target, but redeeming cards too cheaply too soon may leave you unable to get enough later on. The game is played in the box with a rotating dial indicating the next possible destinations. Many similarities to the same author's excellent game Maloney's Inheritance.

Shit!, published by Adlung Spiele. 1996. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £2.50 2) Excellent. £2

Card game, 50 colourful cards in suits and 6 Shit! cards. Cards are played into a circle and the suit order is circular! Each round players play a card simultaneously, and this can either be a card which will get you more cards (the only way to get more cards in fact) or a number card, which depending on the cards on the table and the cards other players have played will score you points. There is a slight similarity to '6 Nimmt'. Eamon asked why they called it such a name, and was told that they thought they were using an English word equivalent to "Damn" or "Bother".

Shopping, published by John Ladell. 1973. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

Special notes: Box base is indented due to stacking

Wander around the streets of Anton, buying items on your shopping list, getting people into your shops, and avoiding the parking problems. A light game which includes a nice looking board with old-time small American shops.

Shuttles, published by Shoptaugh. 1984. Box. Box shows wear. £7

Special notes: Original rules missing, but I have written a summary of them, which allows the game to be played.

Strategy maze game, in which the board consists of nine sliding plastic sections each with nine holes, and also some maze walls on them. At either end there are also the home bases, where the five player pegs of each colour start. The objective is to get all of your pieces to the far end of the board. Players take turns either moving one of their pieces, sliding a section of the board or jumping an opposing piece.

Snakes In The Grass, published by Peter Pan. 1969. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Fun action game. Plastic balls are placed in a shallow tray and players must try to pick them up by using their snake, a plastic, segmented, wobbly thing which seems to have a mind of its own!

Soccer Replay, published by Lambourne. 1992. Packet. Good. £12

Special notes: This set is boxed and includes the 1986/87 teams + Champions supplement (18 top teams from 70s and 80s) + Best of Europe supplement + Short & Long Game variants.

Excellent statistical replay game. The game system allows soccer matches to be replayed realistically and quickly (15 mins per match), with stats for each of the players for the teams provided, and different home and away attack and defence ratings. A neat system is used to determine the time interval between potential goal chances. Action cards are used to resolve these decisive moves, and a referee's chart resolves possible fouls and sending off.

Sorcerer's Cave, published by Gibsons. 1982. Box. Good. £23

Very nice concept in this fantasy game that you need to play on the floor. This is because the board is made up of a large number of dungeon cards, which can meander in any direction (and they really do spread out). When you find stairs, you start a new dungeon 'under' the other one, and so on as you go deeper. You will need a large playing area! The solitaire game is very challenging to win.

Sovereign Of The Seas, published by Excalibre. ca.1978. Box. Box shows wear. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 2 hrs, Desc. by Andy.

Players sail merchant ships in the 17th/18th century picking up and delivering cargo for profit. Tariffs must be paid when stopping in each port, and it is possible to purchase ports in order to get the tariffs when others land on them. The board shows the whole world, and 32 different ports, with 9 different cargoes available from them. Play is determined by cards to determine your next contract and dice used for movement, but you choose which appropriate port to pick up from and which shipping lanes to use, and whether to buy ports. Event cards can also be used to add uncertainty too. First player to amass 150000 gold pieces wins.

Space Crusade Jigsaw, published by Milton Bradley. 1991. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

300 piece jigsaw puzzle, with a Space Crusade theme. The picture shows a number of giant robotic fighting machines backed up by many smaller unpleasant looking humanoid fighters all blasting away at their enemies which are blue and white robots with giant black war machines assisting them.

Speed Circuit, 2 versions available:

1) Published by 3M. 1973. Box. Excellent. £30. The wrap around board shows 3 race-tracks.

2) Published by Avalon Hill. 1977. Box. Good. £20. Original metal cars replaced with a slightly nicer set. Also includes the Belgian and South African circuits.

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Duration: 2 hrs. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Well regarded motor racing game with miniature metal racing cars and three courses to race on. Each player has a customised car with different start speed, top speed, wear characteristics etc. Cars accelerate or brake as desired each turn, within the car's capabilities, and only when these or cornering speeds are exceeded are wear points taken. The game includes many features in much more modern motor racing games, with some nice ideas of its own.

Stock Ticker, published by Copp Clark Games. ca.1970. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: Canadian, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Stock trading game in which players buy and sell stock and roll dice to change the prices. 3 special dice are used, one to determine which stock is affected, one to determine whether the price rises or falls or if dividends are paid, and one to determine the extent. Only stocks which have gone up from the starting price pay out dividends, and when a stock rises sufficiently it can split, and stocks falling to 0 become worthless. The game bears a copyright date of 1937, but this edition was clearly much later than that. Rules are in English and French.

Survival Of The Witless, published by Avalanche Press. 1996. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-8. Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: 2 out of 60 identical markers missing (but a maximum of 40 needed, so this does not affect play).

Satirical game in which the players are all academics and write articles and try to impress the senior members of their university department, with the objective being to publish a book and have the faculty board so impressed that they offer you a permanent position - a sure way to a life of bourgeois living and never having to do any work! The players are given a gender, class, race and sexual orientation, and these affect their standing with each faculty board member. The game is then driven by card play, with over 200 cards and plenty of humorous takes on academic life therein.

Take It Easy, published by F X Schmid. 1994. Box. Good. £8

Special notes: 1 tile is missing (green set) but has been replaced by a colour copy mounted on card. Thus this set plays fine as long as the green set is not used by the caller. Ideal as an extra set so you can play with more people.

The 4 player, small box version of this excellent tile laying game. Each player has their own board showing a hexagonal grid with spaces for 19 hex tiles to be placed. Each player also has their own identical set of 27 tiles which each have three coloured and numbered lines on them. The objective is to make lines all of one colour all the way across your board in as many of the rows and columns as you can. Tiles are drawn from a face down set at random and players choose where to place this piece on each of their boards - plenty of hard decisions as the game goes on. It works as a sort of thinking man's Bingo! One of my favourite games - highly recommended.

Take Two, published by FX Schmid. 1996. Box. In shrink. £8

Very nice word game. Each player forms their own crossword style layout, but the tiles they have to use increase every time one player manages to use all their letters. Thus everyone plays simultaneously and frantically. An excellent word game which goes down well even with non word game players. Recommended.

The Arduin Adventure, published by Grimoire Games. 1980. Box. Box shows wear. £3.75

This boxed set provides an introduction to fantasy role playing. It uses a system which appears very similar to Dungeons and Dragons, and the main rules book includes all you need to create characters and devise an adventure. It also includes a sample adventure near the end of the book. Dice and cut out magic item cards are also provided.

The Brotherhood, published by GDW. 1983. Box. Good. £12

Gangster game that requires considerable planning. Players write down their moves each turn, deciding which rackets to enter, which part of the town to infiltrate, where to spend bribes, and so on. Players must decide whether to concentrate their efforts on a few places or whether to spread them around, and whether or not to go for the most lucrative, but no doubt most highly contested rackets. Once any politicking is done thugs fight it out, using a dice based combat system. Unusual theme for this company and this designer to use.

The End, published by Scapegoat Games. 1995. Book. Excellent. £5

Roleplaying world and rules set in a world after Judgement Day in which 'The Meek' were rejected by both Heaven and Hell, and forced to live back on Earth. A fascinating introductory story introduces this world and makes you want to read on.

The Games Quarterly Catalog, published by Matthews-Simmons Marketing. Book.

Designer Unknown. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

This is a catalog listing all the games currently available to U.S. Retailers through U.S. Distributors at the time of going to press. Potentially very useful for games collectors.

Summer 1995. Good. £1

Summer 1996. Good. £1

Fall 1996. Good £1

Winter 1996. Good. £1

Summer 1997. Good. £1

Fall 1997. Good. £1

The Key To The Kingdom, published by Waddingtons. 1990. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £5. Box slightly indented due to stacking, but contents unused. 2) Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Fantasy game with a board that changes shape (there are 6 different boards that change as the game progresses), plastic miniatures as playing pieces and one of the few mainstream games to use 8-sided dice. Players must enter the Kingdom and discover the Key, hidden in one of the special locations, each of which involves a mini-adventure to get to it (such as the whirlpool, the stepping stones, or the sleeping giant). Food and equipment is needed to survive. Failed adventurers end up in the dungeon. Ultimately the other adventurers could prove just as troublesome as the perils of the Kingdom itself.

The Lonely Mountain, published by ICE. 1984. Box. In shrink. £27

Tolkien based fantasy board game. This game is set in Smaug the Dragon's lair, some time earlier than events in The Hobbit. Each player controls a group of adventurers who attempt to sneak in through one of the minor entrances and steal as much loot as possible before Smaug wakes up, discovers the intruders and kills them all! There are various ways out, but the longer one takes to get out the more likely Smaug will be able to exact his revenge. Game play involves exploration (possibly splitting up your group), searching for valuables, combat (missile, melee and magic) and deciding when you have enough treasure to head for the exit.

The Midas Touch, published by Spears. 1991. Box. Good. £7.50

Dice game, where players stake cards on making the best dice rolls. Chances can be increased by keeping dice and re-rolling others, but stakes are increased accordingly. However, what makes this interesting is that all the cards start off on their 'plain' side and are valueless. However, if at any time a player has three dice the same in front of them they get The Midas Touch, and any cards they stake or win get turned to the gold side, and these are what score points at the end of the game. One or two other twists add to the game as well giving additional choices. 8 dice provided, 4 of which are gold coloured.

The Nacho Incident, published by Eight Foot Llama. 2005. Box. Excellent. £12.50

Card game in which players smuggle Mexican food supplies over the border to Canada, and then try to set up the best cantina, in four provinces. Players secretly choose which smuggler they will use each round, with the better ones being fastest, and so likely to get better prices, but also being more likely to be caught as well, which is bad news as this will ensure the Mounties hassle your cantina, which can prove costly. The game is won by making the most money, which requires a balance between supplying the most profitable demands and setting up the most profitable cantinas while also avoiding the Mounties.

The Trading Floor, published by Dow Jones & Company Inc. 1985. Box. Box shows wear. £7

Promotional game advertising Dow Jones' financial news services. Unusually for a stock market / commodities themed game this is not about buying and selling stocks & shares, but rather about getting Client Order cards, and advancing around the board trying to get to the centre when you think you are in a strong position financially. It includes nicely made metal bear and bull figures which also move about on the board and block the way.

Through The Desert, published by Fantasy Flight. ca.2002. Box. In shrink. £20

Superb game, and in my opinion one of Herr Knizia's best! Players play pastel coloured camels onto a hex gridded board showing a region of desert, but there is always far more to do than you are able to in one turn. Players try to make chains of their camels connect to oases, collect points for smaller waterholes, isolate sections of desert for themselves and also try to have the largest caravan of each colour. All of these score points, but deciding which methods to go for is hard, and deciding which is most urgent is harder still. Highly recommended.

Thunderroad, published by Milton Bradley. 1987. Box. Good. £10

Special notes: 2 of the helicopters have damaged blades. Does not affect play, but they don't look quite as neat!

Originally going to be tied into the Mad Max movies, but MB changed their mind when they realised the films were '18' rated. Very neat road combat game, with delightful vehicles. One very clever idea is the one that allows boards to be reused, i.e.. you lift up the last board and lay it in front of the first board when a car is ready to move on to it. Any cars on the last board at this time are destroyed. This leads to a very nice panic race to get your car off the rear board.

Tile Bridge, published by Peter Pan. 1983. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Two sets of tiles representing standard playing cards (inc two jokers per set), with the basic rules of Bridge included. 4 tile racks and a thick felt mat are also included. Of course you could use the tiles for any card game, not just bridge.

Time Agent, published by Prism / TimJim Games. 1992. Box. Excellent. £29

Each player plays a race of time travellers who attempt to re-write history to ensure that their race is left on top when the invention of time travel never occured (!) Wonderful idea for a game. Each race is a bit different to the others, but some make more natural friends / enemies than others. The game maps the various time-lines onto a hex grid, and players try to connect / disconnect various events to their own benefit and others' detriment.

Tower Of Babel, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £22

Board game in which the players compete for VPs while building the ancient wonders of the world. While there are eight wonders being built, not all of them will be finished by the time the game ends. Each wonder is built in three parts, with each part requiring a certain number of one of the four types of resource cards which the players draw throughout the game. However players can make offers to assist in the current project, and assistance can win either the token for that project, or get that player's building blocks onto the board. If your assistance is refused you are compensated with VPs. As wonders are completed VPs are given out to the players who built it and at the end of the game the project tokens gain VPs too. Best with 5 players.

Treasure Quest, published by Ravensburger. 1996. Box. Excellent. £7

One player seeks gold and the other rubies. Each player starts off with ten 5x5 cardboard grids showing their opponent's type of treasure, but they all have some spaces cut away. There are two areas in the box where these can be stacked on each other, and players take it in turns to do so, adding a ruby layer on top of a gold layer and vice versa, with the objective being to reveal as many of your type of treasure as possible after each of your plays. Each such treasure scores you a point, and most points at the end of the game wins. The scoring tracks have Egyptian heiroglyphs decorating them. Attractive game with well made in-box playing area.

Trick ‘R Treat, published by Rio Grande. 1998. Box. Excellent - cards in shrink. £5

Card game, also played with 8 special Jack-O-Lantern dice and a timer. A light but intense game for the quick of eye as you have to spot which pumpkin face symbols on the dice match those on cards in your hand and the symbols are all pretty similar.

Twilight, published by Bambus. 1997. Box. New. £4.50

Card game, 28 cards split between sun and moon cults. A partnership trick-taking game with the unusual twists that the backs of the cards show which suit the cards are in and when it is your turn to play a card you can either play yourself or request another player plays for you! The scoring mechanism is clever too. It takes a few hands to get your mind around it, but then you start to see just how clever it is. Recommended.

Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, published by Fantasy Flight. 2004. Box. 2 copies available:

1) In shrink. £47.50. There is a slight knock on one corner, hence the much reduced price compared to the RRP.

2) In shrink. £45. One side is very slightly dented, hence the much reduced price compared to the RRP.

Gigantic science fiction themed epic empire building game. The set includes over 300 plastic miniatures for the various forces (ground forces, cruisers, dreadnoughts, carriers, fighters and more). The players represent ancient galactic civilizations and play involves trade and political struggle as well as conflict. The board is made up from large geomorphic sections. The game also uses cards, of which there are over 400, and the rules have been substantially revised and enhanced over previous editions, so the game involves less downtime.

UFO, published by Avalon Hill. 1978. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box shows wear. £7 2) Good. £8

One player runs a fleet of aliens and must land 5 of their 8 ships on Earth. The other player tries to ensure this doesn't happen. Movement uses orbital paths on 7 concentric rings. Combat uses dice. In addition the Moon also orbits the Earth and obliterates anything which doesn't move out of its way! The advanced game gives the aliens dummy counters and the Earth player defensive space stations.

Vampire - The Masquerade: Mood Music CD, published by Orion Design. 1999. CD Case. New. £8

This isn't a game or RPG supplement, but a music CD. However, it has been written specifically as mood music for a Vampire - The Masquerade role playing session. The music is instrumental only and uses synthesisers, guitars and drums to produce a sinister background mood. It should be suitable background for any gothic horror type of gaming.

Venezia, published by Queen. 2001. Box. In shrink. £16

An area majorities type of game but with an unusual theme and some twists. The players represent clans of pigeons in Venice, and most important of all is their positioning in the Piazza San Marco. Here tourists arrive and feed the pigeons, and the players try to make sure it is their pigeons which get the food. Actions are chosen simultaneously.

Virus, published by Blue Zebra. 1994. Box. Good. £9

Strategy game in which each player starts with 15 cartoon-like virus moulded plastic playing pieces and a selection of coloured rings. The game is played on a board showing a large grid of squares, again showing lots of the cartoon viruses for the starting areas and on some special spaces. The objective is to get one of your pieces onto one of the special spaces in your enemies' home areas. The 4 different types of virus pieces move in the same way, but have different special powers. This includes the ability to 'infect' ie. take an opposing virus and turn it into one of your own pieces. Great bits.

Vultures, published by Henry Games. 1987. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

The players are vultures, fighting over carcasses in the desert. Interaction and movement is by card play (fly, waddle or fight). The board shows the desert with some watering holes and trees (safe spaces). The first to

scavenge 5 carcasses either from the desert or from other vultures and get back to the safety of a tree is the winner.

Why, published by Milton Bradley / Chad Valley. 1961. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Subtitled: Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Game of Why. Each player is a private eye and must try to solve a murder case. This is done by moving around a board and collecting cards, accusing players of holding particular cards and claiming other cards stored face down off the board by recalling what type of card was placed there. To win you need to collect either a set of cards for a victim, motive and weapon, or the whole set of Alfred Hitchcock cards.

Wild West, published by Fantasy Games Unlimited. 1981. Box. Good. £5

Role Playing Game set in the Old West. The set includes rules book, assorted play aids inc a character sheet template, one side for your character and one side for your horse!, and a map of the Old West and Dodge City.

Wizzword, published by Milton Bradley. 1977. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Word game which uses a very neat moving board. Each player starts with 68 letter tiles which they can select from to set a word for their opponent to guess. Both players do this and then muddle up the letters. The board is then rotated and the players try to solve these anagrams. The first to do so and spell out their solution using another set of tiles presses a button and the board spins around stopping their opponent in their tracks. The losing player permanently loses the letters they had used that round meaning they have less letters to use to set a word in the next round. The first player to be unable to set a word from their remaining tiles loses.

Xanth Boardgame, published by Mayfair Games. 1991. Box. Good. £9

Fantasy adventure game based on the world of Xanth as depicted in the many books by Piers Anthony. This is a totally daft fantasy world and the books include more puns than most people can bear! Many of the puns extend to places, characters or events in the game. The game itself uses good mechanics used in many games since - eg. players get the chance to play monsters and unpleasant events on the current player to hinder their movement, but the nastier events can only be keyed to specific places or situations, so may never be playable, whereas weaker hazards are easier to play, but are less hazardous! Players attempt to be the first to complete three quests.

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