Jun 2006 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Jun 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?

1829, published by Hartland Trefoil. 1974. Box. Good. £28

The first of the 18XX series, and way ahead of its time. Train game in which companies are managed, track built, trains operated and stock traded. The game works by alternating stock dealing rounds and operating rounds. Stock dealing rounds allow players to buy shares. Operating rounds allow the company presidents to build track, run trains & generate revenue for shareholders. A real landmark game. This is one of the longer 18XX games.

3 Or More, published by Spear's Games. 1981. Box. Box shows wear. £4

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

Tile laying game using long thin tiles each with 3 coloured circles on it. These are placed adjacent to those already on the table in rows of up to eleven. The objective is to score points by making lines of circles of the same colour - the longer the line the higher the score and diagonal lines count double. When all the tiles have been played the highest scorer wins. Could be considered a sort of colour dominoes, but with three colours per domino rather than just two.

5 In A Row, published by Spear's Games. 1075. Box. Box shows wear. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Players take turns placing pegs into a board trying to make a row of 5 of their pegs on a 14x14 board.

A Book Of Sandhurst Wargames, published by Hutchinson. 1982. Packet. Excellent - unpunched. £10

An excellent book, the writer being one of the instructors at the Officer Training School in Sandhurst, Surrey, England. It includes four original games, and the historical details of the period they represent. The four games are Aquitaine, a battle featuring the Black Prince in the Hundred Years’ War: Craonne, a more sophisticated Napoleonic game in the 1814 campaign against the Russians: Fjord, an air/naval game highlighting the problems encountered by the Arctic convoys of WWII: and Men Against Fire, a WWII game showing teamwork where the players must achieve personal as well as group aims. Includes maps, cards and counters for these games.

AD&D 1st Ed Dungeon Master's Screen, published by TSR. 1981. Packet. Excellent. £2

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

This Dungeon Master's screen come in two parts, and each part has three fold out sections. The screen has pictures on the side the players will see and tons of charts on the DM's side. Extremely useful for quick reference and hard wearing.

AD&D Adventure Record Folder, published by TSR. 1991. Booklet. Excellent. £1

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

This booklet contains a thick card character sheet for you to record everything you might need to about your character, and then many adventure record sheets so you can record the adventures you have been on - who the other characters were, who you met, what you found, what you learnt etc.

AD&D Fighting Wheel No. 1, published by TSR. 1981. Sleeve. Excellent. £2 < This has sold – no more available - sorry >

Amazing item for the AD&D completist. This is a plastic wheel with two dials which can be turned. The wheel is for Fighters, Paladins, Rangers and Bards, and allows you to work out what you need to roll for your character to hit taking into account the character's level, the AC of your opponent, the type of armour your opponent is wearing and the type of weapon you are using. Essentially it is a means to make using all the optional combat modifiers viable. Not sure if anyone would ever use it in an actual campaign, but an amazing and collectable item nonetheless.

AD&D Forgotten Realms: Empires Of The Sands, published by TSR. 1988. Booklet. Excellent. £5

Roleplaying supplement for the AD&D Forgotten Realms. This accessory details the lands of Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan. This is intended as a GM resource to allow adventures to be run in these areas with a rich background for the towns, cities, political and military forces of the area. There is a colour large poster sized map and plenty to inspire a GM to run adventures here. This is not itself a scenario though.

AD&D Player Character Record Sheets, published by TSR. 1981. Booklet. Excellent. £1.50

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

A booklet of player character record sheets. There are 5 different types of double sided character sheets provided, each type being for a different group of character classes. There are several supplied of each type. Of course you can photocopy more copies as desired too.

AD&D: Lankhmar City Of Adventure, published by TSR. 1988. Book. Good. £4.50

Roleplaying supplement for AD&D which details the city of Lankhmar from Fritz Leiber's Grey Mouser & Fafhrd stories. The book is 96 pages long and there is also a map and booklet of city geomorphs included. The book is intended as a resource which can be used to set a campaign based in and around the city of Lankhmar. The various areas of the city are detailed, as are the factions and guilds, the gods, and typical monsters.

AD&D: Players Option: Skills & Powers, published by TSR. 1995. Book. Excellent. £5

Roleplaying supplement for AD&D 2nd edition which introduces a selection of new and variant rules which you may wish to use in your campaign. Here are a selection of the ideas: character generation using points; subdividing the 6 basic attributes; special abilities and bonuses / penalties for new races and subraces; a new take on the character classes - bonus abilities can be gained by spending character generation points; character kits; nonweapon proficiencies; weapon proficiency and mastery; new schools for magic; psionics.

AD&D: T1 The Village Of Hommlet, published by TSR. 1981. Booklet. Excellent. £3

Adventure module for AD&D for low level characters. This is the precursor adventure to the famous Temple of Elemental Evil adventure. The adventurers will investigate strange goings on in Hommlet including bandit and monster attacks, and this leads to the discovery of an outpost of the Temple of Elemental Evil, which will need to be cleared out. This being written by Gygax, you can expect a well written old style hack and slash adventure.

AD&D: Warriors Of Heaven, published by TSR. 1999. Book. Excellent. £4

AD&D 2nd edition supplement. This 96 page book details the celestials, and allows players to run celestial PCs in a campaign set on the Upper Planes. Rules for celestial PCs and NPCs including character creations, spells, granted abilities, races, etc are given. There are also details of important celestial locations and beings, and a section on how to run an Upper Planes campaign.

Alles Futsch, published by F X Schmid. 1998. Box. Excellent. £7.50

Card game. Players trade collectable goods like paintings and sculptures. The interaction is intriguing as you do not simply bid and add items to your sets, but once items have been bought, if you already have enough of that type of item you can perform a forced sell to another player with that type of item and get a good price, and potentially reduce the value of their collection as well, thus quite a bit of tactical bidding can be involved.

Ave Caesar, published by Ravensburger. 1989. Box. Good. £40

Great fun light race game in which the players have to manoeuver their chariots around the course as efficiently as possible while also trying to get in the way of other chariots, ideally forcing them to go around the outsides of bends, and possibly run out of movement cards before they reach the finish. After either the first or second lap a pit stop must be made in order to hail Caesar - failing to do this will get you speared come the end of the race. Very popular game and good fun. Recommended.

Axis And Allies, published by Milton Bradley. 1986. Box. Box shows wear. £25

Special notes: The box is somewhat battered around the edges, but is still whole. One German dominance marker replaced by a colour copy on card.

Second edition of this game that went on to become the best selling game in Milton Bradley’s Gamesmaster Series. A great strategic multi-player game of WWII which encompasses the entire globe. The game uses loads of plastic miniatures to represent the various forces (infantry, tanks, ships, carriers, fighter planes, bombers, subs etc). The five world powers involved in the conflict (U.S., U.K., Russia, Germany and Japan) have to work with their allies to ensure best use of production facilities and the various forces. Countries can even try to develop a super-technology (eg. nuke) to turn the tide of the war. Low complexity and great components make this a classic.

Baffled, published by Spear's Games. 1991. Box. Good. £4.50

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

Memory game. Twelve symbols are hidden underneath 12 pyramids. These are shown to everyone at the start of the game and then covered. Players all start with several lives - those with poor memories can be given extra lives to give them more of a chance. Players move around the board and the spaces direct them to either locate a symbol (or lose a life), find 3 of a set of 4 symbols (lose a life if you fail, but gain one if you succeed), or challenge another player to locate a symbol. Last player with lives left wins. Certainly a real memory testing game. Nice bits.

Battle For Normandy, published by Attactix. 1982. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 3 hrs, Desc. by Andy.

Very playable simulation of the D-Day landings and the first week of fighting. The rules are only 5 pages long, so quite approachable. Comes with 16" x 23.5" full-colour, mounted map board in two pieces and approximately 100 die-cut counters.

Battle Of Britain, published by TSR. 1990. Box. Excellent. £16. Desc. by Andy.

Only Britain stands against the German juggernaut. The fate of the war rests on air superiority. Will the sheer strength of the Luftwaffe be able to bring down the RAF with its radar towers and elaborate communications systems? The game includes 21 aircraft figures on stands as well as counters and lots of cards and battle dice. Approachable rules, the basic set being 6 pages long, with an advanced set of rules covering a further 5 pages.

Beest, published by Splotter Spellen. 2001. Box. Excellent. £10

Country: Dutch, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

An unusual idea - a sort of cross between the 'folk' game Werewolf and a tile laying game. One player (or possibly the 'automated' player if played with less than the full complement) is The Beest and must try to infect all the other players with his DNA. Meanwhile the other players try to collect DNA samples from all the non Beest players. Whoever achieves their goal first wins. Game play involves laying tunnel tiles which let you meet with a single other player to exchange DNA samples. Unusual idea.

Bells Of War, published by Silly Space. ca.1995. Box. Good. £11

No. players: 2. Country: Canadian, Desc. by Andy.

Ambitious attempt to repeat the success of Axis and Allies. Stacks of counters and money, as you simulate WWII on a grand strategy scale. Major additions compared to Axis and Allies include more unit types, rail movement, petrol production, neutral armies and military leaders. The rules come in 3 levels, the most basic being similar to Axis & Allies, and the most complex a great deal more complicated and will take a lot longer to play too.

Bermuda Triangle, published by Milton Bradley. 1975. Box. Good. £13

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 75 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Business game with a twist! Players run a freight ship operation in the seas north of Bermuda, and try to get their ships from one port to another delivering needed goods for profit. Prices for the various goods change throughout the game, so ideally a delivery should be made when the price is highest. There is scope for blocking opposing ships, but in addition there is a large rotating cloud which moves around the board and has magnets on its underside, and should these swing above a ship as the cloud moves the ship will most likely be moved or even sucked up and away and destroyed! Good fun and a wonderful mechanism.

Boggle, published by Parker. 2000. Box. Excellent. £7.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Duration: 3 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Word game in which 16 letter dice are rolled and set into a 4x4 grid. Players then have 3 minutes to spot words within the grid, starting anywhere and moving from letter to letter horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Words found are worth more the longer they are. Only words not found by other players will score though. Can be played solo trying to beat your previous top score.

Bridgette, published by Mayfair. 1995. Box. Good. £10

Card game, a unique two-handed version of Bridge. A superb game system, using normal playing cards (with extras), but with a twist so that two people can play (instead of four). The references on the box and in the rules, from Bridge experts world-wide, are very impressive, including one of the all-time greats, Alfred Sheinwold, who considered that “The colons (the special cards that allow just two players to play) are the finest contribution to card play this century”. Recommended to anyone who enjoys whist based games.

Bulge, published by SPI. 1979. Box. Box good, counters unpunched. £9

Battle of the Bulge game at the divisional level. In this version of the Battle for the Ardennes 16 Dec 1944 - 2 Jan 1945 the Germans try to blast through the American lines and get as many units as possible off the W and NW edges of the map. Supply rules are a critical part of the system, as is the control of bridges. The rules are short, being only 5 pages long.

Car Chase, published by Milton Bradley Games. 1985. Box. Good, but box cover is sun-bleached. £4.50

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

Small box motor racing game. Each player has a rather nice little car playing piece and the players create the track as they play, and the last piece will be a roundabout, which the cars head around and then race for the finish line (which was also the start line). Each turn a player can either draw a new tile and add it to the end of the racing track or roll the dice and move, but a move is wasted if there isn't enough track in front of you to use your full move. There are several special tiles with their own special rules to add some variety as well. Blocking is possible too, as a maximum of two cars can be on the same space and nothing can then get past.

Carat, published by Queen Games. 1998. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £10 2) Good. £9

Skilful tile laying game, with unusually shaped tiles representing different multi-coloured diamonds. Players must place their tiles around numbered discs, and when a disc is completely surrounded it is taken out of play. Play continues until all discs are surrounded. They are then returned to their start position and players score according to how many tiles they surrounded or helped to surround. Scoring is further amended by how many different players were involved in a complete surround of a disc.

Castle Risk, published by Parker Bros. 1986. Box. Box shows wear, 1 corner taped. £8

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

Special notes: 1 castle piece missing, but supplied with an entirely useable homemade replacement

Risk type game played on a board of Europe. Each player represents a major Empire and starts with one castle. The objective is to capture other players' castles. Doing so knocks them out of the game even if they have forces elsewhere. Combat is dice based, with an advantage for the attacker, except when attacking a castle. Reinforcements are gained each turn according to the values of areas occupied and bonuses for entire empires, and a variety of cards add to the possibilities: additional reinforcements, an admiral for sea attacks, general for an attack bonus, marshal for defensive bonus etc.

Cats Mansion, published by Spears. 1984. Box. Good. £13

Country: British, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

One of the nicest looking games of the 80’s. The 5 cat pieces are quite delightful - all different, moulded and painted. Each player is secretly designated a cat and an object and must engineer the movement of all the pieces so that the two end up together somewhere in the mansion. Clever movement system and quite interactive with lots of bluffing. First made as Cats in Germany.

Celebrity Monstars, published by Paul Lamond Games. 1989. Box.

1 box corners damaged and taped up. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: There are several patches on the cover where labels have been removed.

Players attempt to construct their own Frankenstein from the body parts of a variety of (generally British) celebrities. The body parts are very much caricatures, and the celebrities include royalty, pop stars, TV stars etc. The body parts are put together on a slab each player has, and the winner is the first to get a complete body and have Igor turn on the electricity. Play is by drawing and playing cards and also by dice roll.

Channel X, published by Pepys. 1964. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box shows wear. £12 2) Good. £14

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

Card game, 52 cards plus 12 smaller cards and a quantity of play-money. One of the rarest Pepys Games, made in the infancy of commercial television, the new competition to the BBC. Players attempt to fill their schedules with a mix of programmes and advertisements.

China, published by Abacus. 2000. Box. In shrink. £16

Re-released version of Web of Power / Kardinal Und Konig. The theme has changed, with players now being factions in the Chinese empire building palaces and sending their emissaries to the regional courts. This edition also has a two sided board one for 3-4 players and the other for 4-5 players. An excellent strategy game which manages to fit a great deal of game play into 45 minutes. Highly recommended.

Colour Quads, published by Parker. ca.1970. Box. Good. £5

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

The board shows a grid of 5x5 large coloured circles with slots to place cards vertically on the board. Players take it in turn to play a matching card into a slot and score a point for each square they manage to complete. Tactical decisions are available since you can set yourself up to complete a square, hoping your opponent doesn't also have the right card to complete it.

Composition, published by Megaprint. ca.1980. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: There is some writing on the (blank) base, and 1 tile was missing, but a good replacement has been made.

An unusual geometric pattern puzzle. It is not a jigsaw, but rather a set of 108 double sided tiles showing 12 different patterns: crosses, curves, lines etc, which can be put together to form an enormous number of different attractive patterns in a 6x6 grid. A booklet shows 80 different 6x6 target patterns, which you can work out how to make up. There are thousands more possibilities though, and no reason to limit yourself to just 6x6 either. Unusual item.

Cosmic Encounter, published by Eon. 1978. Box. Box shows wear, 1 corner taped. £44

Designed by Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge & Bill Norton. No. players: 2-?. Country: American, Duration: 1-2 hrs, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Base set+Exp 1+2+3+flares only from Exp 4. So 50 alien powers+flares+6 boards and counter sets. Photocopied rules. 3 tokens substituted.

Original edition of this wonderful game. Each player takes the role of an alien race which starts off with 5 bases on its own planets, but each wants to be the first with 5 bases on other races' planets. This is done by making attack attempts and inviting attacking and defensive allies, and playing cards to resolve the attack. However, what makes this game great is that each race has one or more rule breaking alien power, and the way these interact is really great. Every gamer should own a copy of one of the editions of this game in my opinion - highly recommended. Number of players depends on which expansions included.

Cosmic Encounter, published by Games Workshop. 1986. Box. Good. £36

Country: British, Duration: 1-2 hrs, Desc. by Eamon.

The only British edition of this wonderful game. 32 of the best aliens from the original American edition and some of the American expansions. See also the description of the Eon version above.

D&D: Marvelous Magic, published by TSR. 1985. Book. Good. £5

An excellent book of weird and wonderful magic items, ranging from the utterly trivial to the extremely powerful. They can be used in your D&D or AD&D campaign or transferred to other fantasy RPGs. Over 500 magic items are detailed. A great resource which I can recommend.

D&D: The Immortal Storm, published by TSR. 1986. Booklet. Excellent. £4

Dungeons & Dragons adventure module for use with the D&D Immortal Rules. A swirling mass of incalculable size encroaches on the immortal realms, and threatens the entire realm of existence. The players as immortals must investigate and try to stop this menace, but pure power won't do the job - subtlety and cleverness will also be needed. 40 page scenario.

Delta Force, published by Peter Pan. 1988. Box. Good. £2.50

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

Strategy game in which each player has 14 numbered triangular pieces which are placed on a board and each side advances their pieces so as to ensure they win as many of the confrontations as possible. Capture is somewhat similar to that used by the Stratego family.

Der Plump Sack Geht Um, published by Berliner Spielkarten. 1999. Box. Mint. £1.50

Card game. Essentially a memory game in which cards are placed face down in a circle and players guess what they are, and they are revealed after each guess. If a player gets several guesses right in a row then a card can be kept. First to collect 6 cards wins.

Devil Take The Hindmost, published by Lambourne. 1991. Packet. Excellent. £10

Cycle racing card game which uses standard playing cards, but also uses a board representing a velodrome (one of those steeply banked cycle racing tracks). The spaces on the board show which card is the most efficient when played on a cycle on that space, and players manage a team of cyclists, and so managing your hand of cards to ensure efficient movement of as many of your bikes as possible is what the game is about. After each lap the backmost rider drops out, and the others reform into a pack ready for another sprint. Best played with individual half-packs rather than one communal pack, as this reduces the luck element. Highly recommended.

Die Magier Von Pangea, published by Queen Games. 2001. Box. Excellent. £14.50

Fantasy themed game in which each player is a wizard controlling minions who wander around a world which often shifts around changing its layout. These minions produce goods which are used to purchase amulets from the agents of foreign wizards. Collecting these amulets and returning them to your wizard's tower gives you the ability to cast more spells and obtaining enough of them combined with a suitable number of goods wins the game. Some unusual mechanics combine to form a game which feels unique.

Die Siedler Von Catan, published by Franckh Kosmos. 1995. Box. Excellent. £17

This is the original game which started the now extremely prolific 'Settlers' family of games. It won the German Game of the Year award in 1995, and has been probably the best selling European style strategy game of recent times. The game itself is excellent, and involves building up from a couple of small settlements on a newly colonised island into a much larger group of settlements and cities. This is done by gaining resources from terrain according to dice rolls, trading these resources with the other players and using them to build more roads, settlements, cities, and other advancements. Very interactive and great fun. Highly recommended.

Die Siedler Von Catan: Historische Szenarien I, published by Kosmos. 1998. Box. In shrink. £12

Expansion set for Settlers of Catan featuring scenarios for playing in the time of Alexander the Great, retracing his epic conquest, and the building the pyramids in the time of the Pharaoh Cheops. The game uses fixed mapboards for these scenarios, and while the artwork matches the German version of the game, it can be played adequately with other versions too.

Die Siedler Von Catan Kartenspiel, published by Kosmos. 1996. Box. Excellent. £8

Special notes: This is the German version, so the cards all have German text. I can supply card translations with pictures (from the English set).

An excellent 2 player card game based on the ideas in the Settlers board game. Each player must develop their settlements by adding a variety of different buildings which give various benefits and have different costs. Also settlements can be developed into cities, and the players vie for trading supremacy and military supremacy as these are worth VPs and give benefits. A dice determines which type of resource each player gets each turn, but unlike the board game only one production die is rolled giving a more even distribution of resources. The building cards are drawn from various stacks, and so remembering which pile certain cards are in can be useful. Highly recommended.

Die Siedler Von Catan: Das Turnier-Set Zum Kartenspiel, published by Kosmos. 1996. Box. Mint. £6.50

Settlers Card Game expansion set. This set includes 60 cards which it is intended should be used to enhance and customise 1 player's card selection in the Settlers Card Game, playing using the 'Tournament rules'. However, there is nothing to stop you adding this to the standard (shared set) game for added variety and interest. This is the German version, so there is German on the cards. I am supplying a translation of the cards along with rules from the various theme sets to give extra ideas on how to make use of this set.

Dinoquest, published by McGowan / Magwood. ca.1980. Box. Excellent. £7

The players take the roles of archaeological teams and attempt to reconstruct dinosaurs from the bits they dig up. Game play involves moving around a track, dealing with various events as they come up and finding dinosaur parts. Sometimes you can raid another team's finds. Each player must use their resources wisely as they have only a limited supply of time and team members. Lots of bits, including 12 eight part puzzles formed from the dinosaur parts, 6 plastic dinosaurs, time chits, team member playing pieces, and even cups to store your dinosaur parts in. Some spaces require you to answer questions about dinosaurs from quiz cards, but you could easily drop this aspect of the game if so desired.

Drachenfels, published by Schmidt Spiele. ca.1995. Box. Goodish!. £9.50

Country: German, Duration: 60 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Missing original German rules, although an English translation is supplied. The box is whole but one side is discoloured, and there is a 5cm slice into the lid.

Fantasy board game with some astoundingly good bits, which include a large plastic castle and 4 sets of dragon cliffs, 4 wooden dragons, 4 wooden princesses, 4 wooden knights with attachable sword and shield and 4 large bendable rainbows! The idea is that each player has a knight and must first get to the King's castle using a rainbow bridge, and once equipped seeks out his princess who has been abducted by a dragon. Game play involves playing cards to move around the board and also playing various magic spells to manipulate the bridges and rainbows or hinder other players. Little known game by these two well known designers.

Eden, published by Kosmos. 2001. Box. In shrink. £12

Players must irrigate areas of land in the desert and try to form contiguous regions by taking over adjacent plots using a clever semi-forced take-over mechanism, which rewards the player who loses land with money. These contiguous regions are then cultivated to provide income and more victory points. The first player with 20 such victory points wins. A clever set of mechanics which results in a tight and interesting game. Recommended.

En Route Travel Games, published by Cheatwell Games. ca.1990. Box. Good. £5

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

A set of games and puzzles designed to keep both adults and children amused during journeys. The set includes 8 A5 double sided thick card game sheets, which are laminated so that they can be written on and then wiped off ready for reuse. The set also includes a magnetic travel chess set. The other games and puzzles are: Battleships, Cats Dogs & Hogs, Crossword game (players try to use randomly selected letters as best they can), Word Fun, Hex (link two sides of a hex grid), A Jumbo Crossword, 14 lateral thinking puzzles, A logic puzzle, Pop Songs quiz, Sprouts, Boxes, Trivia Quiz, Word Game selection. Rather a nice set which should provide hours of amusement in a small box.

Escalado, published by Chad Valley. 1997. Box. Good. £10

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

Special notes: 1 of the table clamps has been replaced with one from an earlier set.

Modern version of this classic race game, where the horses move along the board by way of vibrating the track. Players bet on the result. Good fun if played on the right occasion, with a few drinks. The horses in this game are large but made of plastic.

Fantasy Master: The Convert, published by New Infinites. 1987. Booklet. Excellent. £4

Fantasy role playing adventure suitable for use with any FRPG, inc. AD&D, Runequest etc. 48 page adventure for mid level adventurers. The king's son has returned from an adventure strangely changed, and with belief in a new god. He passes repressive laws and sends the land into chaos. The party must escape the repressive regime and then investigate what it is that has changed the prince, and hopefully restore him to his usual self. Eight different areas are detailed including city, town and dungeon settings.

Flintstones, published by Edu-Cards. 1961. Box. Good. £3

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

Card game, TV related. Very nice example of early TV merchandising. 32 cards, plus two jokers and a rules card. Cards illustrated in colour, featuring most of the principal characters of the show. Box features Fred Flintstone. The game is a Rummy variant.

For Sale, published by Uberplay. ca.2003. Box. In shrink. £9

Card game played in two stages. In the first stage players bid for buildings using money chips in a clever bidding system. In the second stage these buildings are then sold and the player who manages to realise the most money at the end of the game wins. Attractive building cards and a fast playing fun little game.

Fossil, published by Rio Grande Games. 1998. Box. Good. £9

Set collection game based on fossil collecting. Each fossil is made up of 9 cards, and players move stones across the board claiming fossil cards each turn. Moves cost points, but collecting cards earns points, and the more complete a fossil is at the end of the game the more valuable it is.

Framed!, published by Gibsons. 1992. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £6 2) Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Card game based on the movie business. The film sequence cards look like clips from reels of film, and must be placed in sequence to produce a complete film. However each of these cards has 3 clips on it which won't all be sequential, so these cards will have to overlap making the game more interesting. There are also action cards which can hinder other players or protect yourself from hindrance. Part of the Bepuzzled series.

Game Of Life, published by Milton Bradley. 1984. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-8. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

The original British version of this classic game. The game involves moving random amounts along a track, but with some choices to be made on what strategy to go for, but a great deal of luck in the dice and cards. The board has 3-D elements adding to its attractiveness. Players start having just left school and get jobs or take further education, and will get married and have children, buy shares and advance their careers, trying to achieve most before retirement.

GameMaster Magazine, published by GameMaster Publications.

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

A combination of an AD&D scenario and a role playing games magazine. Details listed by issue:

Issue 3: In Search Of New Gods, 1986. Excellent. £4. Designed by Paul Cockburn. 32 page AD&D scenario for characters of level 4-7. The party takes on a task which the kingdom's most famous adventurer has failed to complete - persuade a neighbouring kingdom to turn away from their New Gods. The magazine also includes: Defenders of the Faith (AD&D clerics), Pelinor - Armed Encampment (city section details), Moment of Truth (mini AD&D scenario for levels 4-7), News, Letters, Reviews (5 AD&D modules).

Issue 4: The Awakening, 1986. Excellent. £4. Designed by Simon Forrest. 32 page AD&D scenario for characters of level 7-8. The party has been hired to protect a dwarven community while all the warriors go out on a major offensive against some nearby goblins. However, the duergar take this opportunity to make an attack, and only cunning can defeat them. The magazine also includes: Race Relations (demi human mythologies), Pelinor - The Old Wharf (city section details and plot hooks), Red Swords (Oriental Adventures mini scenario), News, Reviews (6 RPG scenarios).

Issue 5: Rod Of Seraillian, 1987. Excellent. £4. Designed by Simon Forrest. 40 page AD&D scenario for characters of level 6-8. The party must travel to a foreign land and search a lost and supposedly long unused temple for a powerful artifact to save it from falling into evil hands. The magazine also includes: Pelinor - Q&A (a fantasy city series), News, Reviews (Wilderness Survival Guide, Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, D&D Immortal Rules).

Games Review - Batch of 3, published by Sladen Publications. 1990. Magazine. Good. £1.50

Vol 2, Issues 5,7,9. This magazine is half role playing games and the other half split between general games and wargames. Highlights in these issues include articles on: Quite a few AD&D supplements, Star Wars roundup, Siege of Jerusalem, Europe Aflame, Star Fleet Battles, Aliens, Kalahen, Railway Rivals, Cyberpunk special, Several MERP supplements, 5th Fleet, Eidelweiss, PanzerBlitz, Deathwing, Libel - The Game, TORG, Empire In Flames, Fire In The East, Shell Shock, Best of Dragon Games, Space Hulk variants

Geist, published by RoseKnows Inc. 2003. Box. Excellent. £27

Unusual game in which the players must catch 5 ghosts and take them to the underworld where they can be safely released. Play involves moving around a chequered and numbered board collecting Zingiberi (Zb) chits - actually rather nice poker chips in 9 denominations. When precisely the right amount of Zb have been collected then landing on the space with that ghost catches it. Before a ghost is taken to the underworld its catcher can use it to play a special ability on the opponents which will hinder them somewhat - the harder to capture ghosts having the nastier effects. Managing your pool of Zb so as to get the exact amount is quite a challenge, and requires quite a bit of planning. The game is very nicely produced too.

Get Out!, published by Brooke Bond. ca.1985. Box. Mint. £3

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

Advertising card game, featuring the PG Tips monkeys. Based on Speed (by Pepys), which was also used as the inspiration for Uno. The cards feature photographs of the chimps from the TV commercials (who have names like Kevin, Samantha and Geoff!).

Grand Prix, published by Ravensburger. 1998. Box. Good. £7

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

Children’s race game ages 6-12, with four wonderful cars (large with moving wheels). The track is made up during the game by laying out tiles. Play involves choosing whether to extend the track or roll a die for movement. The race is to the last tile and then back to the first. There is also scope for blocking other players and special event tiles affect any car landing on them.

Haggle, published by Galleon Games. 1993. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-8. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Negotiation and deal making game in which players buy, sell and barter cars, racehorses, houses, oil paintings, ming vases and shares amongst themselves hoping to get the best deals and end up with the most valuable portfolio at the end of the pre-agreed playing time.

Heritage, published by Industrial Art. ca.1970. Box. Box shows wear. £4.50

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

Set collection game using cards with very attractive full colour pictures of various stately homes, cathedrals etc around England. In addition players must move their car around the board to get to these various places. The game also has lots of information about the sites mentioned on the cards.

Hidden Pavilions, published by David Games. 1984. Plastic folder. Excellent. £7

Race game set in a hedge maze which is laid out with a 7x7 grid of tiles. The tiles show the start (the middle of the maze), the gate out, lots of paths and various dead ends and solid hedge. In addition there are a number of all important pavilions. Players explore the maze and try to find 4 pavilions and then head out of the maze via the gate. Tiles can be turned over and rearranged during the game, giving scope for clever play, while other tiles can be collected and later used to hinder opponents.

High Hand, published by E S Lowe. 1984. Box. Good but corners taped, shows some wear. £9

Interesting card game using cards laid out on a board, and moving your pawn around the board to collect the cards, forming them into as high as possible poker hands. The partnership game is definitely the better form of the game, as it has a clever scoring mechanism and also players start off playing for themselves but may choose a partner they think will win during the game, and they can then help ensure their partner does win. However, this is only worth doing if you are sure you yourself cannot win.

Highway, published by BMI. ca.1990. Box. Good. £5

Children’s board game designed to teach about crossing the road safely. The board incorporates two lanes of traffic on cardboard rings which are rotated during the game. They show various cars and changing traffic signals at the various crossings. The graphics all show bears and are quite cute. The objective is to be the first player to move their bear token from home to the playground, school and the ice cream van and get back home again. When crossing the road the traffic rings are rotated and the traffic moves on and the player must decide if it is safe to cross or not.

Hi-Q Euclid, published by Peter Pan. ca.1980. Box. Good. £4

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

A thirteen piece puzzle, but harder than that would suggest. The thirteen chunky plastic pieces are supplied with a frame into which you must try to put them. The pieces are cleverly designed based on a rounded 6 pointed star, but each having from 0 to 5 of the points removed and rounded off. Nicely tactile just as such a puzzle should be.

IAGO, published by Spear's Games. 1984. Box. Good. £8.50

Intense word game for two players with time pressure a major factor. The board is a neat design which makes it especially easy to remove tiles from it. The letter tiles are double sided, and one player plays words blue side up and the other plays red side up. The objective is to try to keep more letters of your colour on the board than your opponent, but tiles can be stolen and reused and thus flipped over. Once you have more tiles than your opponent on the board then flip the sand timer and relax for a moment! Another display shows how many more times you can let the sand run out than your opponent. If this reaches the end of the scale you lose.

Intrigue, published by Wiggins Teape. ca.1980. Box. Good. £8

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

Special notes: Box shows wear and is slightly indented due to stacking

The game consists of a 'stadium' with 7 concentric rings which can be rotated independently. These rings have slots which accept marbles and when they are lined up a marble can roll towards the centre. The objective is to get all your marbles into the centre before anyone else. The components are all very nicely made and it plays a bit like a sort of more sophisticated Downfall.

James Clavell's Shogun Card Game, published by Shipps Ltd. 1983. Box. Excellent - unused. £7

Unusual set collecting game with an ancient Japanese theme. There is an unusual card distribution mechanism which allows players to refuse cards by using up favours, and there are wild cards and action cards to add to the flavour too. Basic and advanced versions of the game are provided.

Junta, published by West End. 1985. Box. Excellent. £22

Excellent political game. Players vie for jobs in a Third World government. One player is elected President and he appoints other players jobs. This can involve offers of high wages, bribes or threats, but at the end of the day he hopes to pocket as much money as he can in his Swiss bank account. Coups regularly take place as players distrust each other. The winner is not the one with the most power or money, but the one who has stashed more money in Switzerland than any other player.

Kai Piranja, published by Abacus Spiele. 2004. Box. In shrink. £9

Light but fun filler. The cards show three different types of fish which each come in large and small varieties as well as showing hungry and normal ones. Players take it in turn to form a row of fishes, and any which don't match either in type or size must be passed on to another player. At any point a row can be kept, but if a hungry fish is drawn it eats many of the other fish in the row, forming a pile in the centre, though these piles can be won by getting three of that type of fish into your row. The player with the most fish at the end wins. Essentially a game of pressing your luck, but with attractive cards and fast play.

Karriere Poker, published by Hexagames. 1988. Box. Excellent. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4-8. Country: German, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Popular card game. Players win tricks (but with the twist that cards can be played in combinations besides being played singly - called a 'Climbing' game). Each 'trick' can be only one type of combination (eg. a pair), but players can keep playing higher sets until everyone passes. The objective is to get rid of all your cards. At the end of each round, all players will receive a title, from boss down to the dishwasher. Players change seats between each round in keeping with their 'status'. At the start of each hand players must swap some cards, such that the better positions get more favourable cards while the lower positions get the dross.

Konig Der Elfen, published by Amigo. Box. Excellent. £6.50

Card game version of Spiel Des Jahres game Elfenland, and shares the same graphics and ideas. However this time in order to travel around Elfenland the players play cards to represent the paths between realms, and play cards to travel over these paths, and there is no board.

Konig Laurin, published by Piatnik. 2002. Box. In shrink. £13.50

Unusual combination of tile laying, card placement and auctioning. The players try to gain most influence over King Laurin by presenting him with gifts as he wanders through the garden. Treasure cards are used to pay for always useful magic cards and also to bid for the right to direct the King around the garden (hopefully to where you have located your dwarves). Movement cards are played and have several different symbols indicating the number and distance dwarves can be moved as well as where the king would move if that player's card were chosen for the king's movement. Tactical game which requires careful thought.

Land Unter, published by Amigo. Box. In shrink. £6.50

German version of Turn The Tide, and also a reissue of Zum Kuckuck which was on the Spiel Des Jahres recommendation list for 2001. Card game, with 108 cards. Every round each player chooses a number card to play, and the highest two get scoring cards. At the end of the round having the highest valued scoring card will lose points. However a new scoring card replaces an old one, so 'winning' a high value scoring card at the start of a hand isn't necessarily very bad. After a hand is played out the initial hands are reformed and passed to the left for replay! Whoever does best after everyone has played each hand is the winner.

La-Trel. 2 editions available:

1) Published by ASS. 1994. Box. Good. £6.50. Country: German

2) Published by Millenium 2 Games. 1994. Box. Good. £6.50. Country: British

High quality abstract game with 2 teams of 18 multi-shaped plastic pieces. A chess-like feel to it with special moves for each type of piece. Includes three levels of play. German edition. It was very well received by magazines such as Games & Puzzles when it came out. Unlike chess, capture is by jumping over a piece, rather than landing on it, so defence is by occupying the spaces behind other pieces.

Legend Of Zagor, published by Parker. 1993. Box. Excellent. £25

Huge adventure board game, with a 3D plastic board, 22 plastic miniatures, masses of counters and tiles, and a computer built in so that voiced instructions interact with the players. The theme is also tied into the Fighting Fantasy game books, Zagor being an evil sorceror from them. The players take different characters who explore the dungeon and defeat monsters to improve themselves ready for the big end of game fight with a dragon and then Zagor himself. On the way traps and treasure will be encountered, and the characters can return to a store to buy more equipment. The computer runs combats and also throws in random events now and then.

Liberte, published by Warfrog. 2001. Box. Mint - still in shrink. £20

Liberté is an election game set at the time of the French Revolution. In it the three main factions (Girondins, Jacobins and Royalists) try to gain control of the Government. The players strive to be the most effective backer of the winning side. Play is card driven, and wooden blocks are placed on the board with clever stacking rules. The game can end in several ways so you have to watch out in case there is an unexpected ending which may well foil your plans. An interesting twist on the majorities in regions mechanic, and well regarded.

London's Burning, published by Cast Games. ca.1995. Box. Still shrinkwrapped. £3

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

TV related, based on the London Weekend Television drama series set in Blackwall Fire Station. Each player is a member of Blue Watch, the main characters in the series, and race against time to rescue Nurse Nightingale from the inferno at St Mary's General Hospital.

Madeline And The Gypsies, published by Ravensburger. 1999. Box. Good. £6. Desc. by Andy.

Children's game (age 4+). Includes 32 very thick cards showing Madeline, Pepito, Gypsy Mama and Gypsy Clown. The first game is for 3-6 players, and players try to guess who is holding a particular type of card each round - since cards are only discarded if you guess correctly and put to bottom of your deck of 5 if you are wrong, after a while memory will give you an advantage. The idea is to get rid of your cards. The second game is for 2-4 players and is a tile matching game. Players each start with three tiles which only they have seen, and players take it turns to try to match one of their opponent's tiles with one of theirs, and are penalised by getting another tile if they are wrong - least tiles at the end wins. Attractive illustrations.

Magdar, published by Fantasy Flight Games. 2003. Box. In shrink. £10.50

Fantasy themed game which clearly takes its ideas from Tolkien's works. The dwarves have delved too deep in their mines, and have woken Magdar, a terrible magma demon. The playing area is set out using boulder tiles placed in four rows. The players move dwarves from boulder to boulder and can mine gems and mithril. The longer spent in one place mining a gem the more valuable it becomes, however each turn Magdar moves and destroys a bit more of the mine, so any dwarves dawdling too long are likely to be destroyed along with their part finished gems. At the end of the game only gems which have a matching piece of mithril score.

Maginor, published by Fantasy Flight. 2001. Box. Excellent. £9

The Wizard's Council needs a new High Wizard and the players vie for that privilege. This is done by going to various Oracles and securing votes. Each oracle will choose its favoured candidate in turn, but noone knows exactly when each oracle will make its choice, only the order they will choose in. Thus players have to decide when and where to spend their time gaining votes. Smaller oracles will need less persuasion, but their choice carries less weight. Also each oracle provides a one off special power to its favoured candidate. The game pieces look rather odd, sort of cogs into which vote tokens slot.

Mah Jong, published by Michael Stanfield. Box. Good. £7

Mah Jong set with very nice wooden tiles. Includes dice and set of rules + history of the game as compiled by R.C.Bell. This is a 144 tile Mah Jong set.

Maka Bana, published by Tilsit. 2003. Box. Good. £14

Board game with a tropical island development theme. Players try to build their beach huts (think Bermuda not Skegness) onto various sites around a paradise island, and ideally building their huts adjacent to each other if possible. Each potential site is uniquely identified by the beach it is on, the type of terrain and a pattern. Each turn every player secretly chooses three attribute cards which indicate the site they wish to build on, but then must reveal one of these, thus giving a clue about it. Each player can then make one site off limit for that turn, which hopefully will hinder other players. It is also possible to take over other people's huts by openly playing an additional card. There are advanced cutthroat and chaotic rules.

Maloney's Inheritance, published by Ravensburger. 1988. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box good, contents unpunched. £13 2) Good. £12

Old Maloney the gangster has died and the players as his underlings want to take over his position. To do this Maloney set up a challenge. Players vie to collect as much as possible from various cities where Maloney has interests, but there is only one car available. Players bid to be able to tell the driver where to go, but may well decide to let others get their way if it isn't too bad for you and the bidding is getting high. A player's cards show how much can be collected in each place. There is an interesting bidding system which forces you to think quickly, and I have a house rule which I think improves it further too - please do ask me for it. Good game and works especially well with 6 which is always useful. Recommended.

Marrakesh, published by Xanadu. 1984. Box. Good but corners taped. £16

Special notes: This is the regular version (not the wooden box edition).

Intriguing game which marries trick-taking card games with elements of Backgammon. Includes a Winning Strategy article by Oswald Jacoby. Each player sets up six pieces on their board based on the roll of six dice. Each player is dealt a hand of six cards from a special deck, and then try to win two-card tricks, and use the card values to 'bear off' the pieces backgammon style. Points are awarded for bearing off pieces in various combinations, such as 2 on each of three turns, or the legendary Marrakesh itself, when all six pieces are borne off on the same turn. Defensive points are earned for keeping the opponent from removing many pieces from their board. Rare game and certainly collectable.

Maya, published by Abacus Spiele. 2003. Box. In shrink. £14

Card and board game in which players vie to contribute most toward building 4 Mayan pyramids in order to win the favour of the gods. Firstly cards are played at the quarries to claim building blocks and gain special actions and then the building blocks are built into pyramids. There are a number of clever rules to give additional tactical decisions and bonuses for majorities in either quarries or pyramids as well as special rules you need to keep an eye on in the pyramids lest your blocks collapse and become useless.

Metro, published by Queen Games. 2000. Box. In shrink. £17

Railway game in which players lay tiles showing tracks. The objective is to score points by having your railway lines score as highly as possible. A railway line scores well if it is long, and its score is doubled if it reaches one of the city centre stops at the centre of the board. Tracks can be laid to help your own lines or hinder other people's. Previously published as Iron Horse by DB Spiele, but this edition has nicer components and was on the nominations list for German Spiel des Jahres 2000.

Mikado, published by Origineering. 1976. Box. Good. £8

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

Abstract game, a Westernised version of Shogi (Japanese chess), with some twists (I think, but I am not a Shogi expert). Nicely presented.

Mind Mover-3, published by Mindmovers. 1974. Box. Good. £4.50

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

Deduction word game very similar to Word Mastermind. One player thinks of a word and places hidden letter tiles for that word. The other player chooses a word and it is marked for letters which are correct but wrong place and correct and right place. Subsequent guesses allow the guessing player to home in on the correct word. The board is sturdy moulded plastic, and the tiles the same size as Scrabble tiles, so much less fiddly than Word Mastermind. Also the box design is very 1970s, making this a nice nostalgia item.

Mus, published by Premium/Fournier. 1999. Box. Mint. £7

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

Card game, 40 Spanish looking cards (the game is a classic that originated in the Basque region), and stones that are used for points scoring. The game is played as a partnership. The game involves drawing cards and betting on who has the best hand, but in a very different way to poker which this may otherwise sound similar to. The game is rarely played for money and the partnership element also adds interest.

Napoleon At Waterloo + Advanced Game Expansion, published by SPI. 1971. Packet. Good. £9

Designed by James F. Dunnigan. No. players: 2. Country: American, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Originally b