Jun 2007 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Jun 2007 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?

A Game Of Draughts Vol 1 No. 1, published by D.E. Oldbury. 1946. Booklet. Good. £2

Softback, 21x14cm, 28 pages. First issue of a bi-monthly draughts magazine. The contents of this issue are: The Flora Temple, Cross; Samuel Cohen - World Champion - and his best games, The Problem of 'The Move', Draughts Problem to solve.

A Simpler Way To Better Bridge, published by Halstead Press. 1968. Book.

Good, but dustcover slightly faded. £2.50. Ex-library copy

Hardback with dustcover, 22x14cm, 141 pages. This Contract Bridge book is intended to take the novice or casual player and go through the fundamentals in an easy to follow step by step way, describing an easy to learn bidding system, and improving hand assessment as well as many other important Bridge skills.

Advice, published by Inquot. 1976. Box. 2 Box corners taped. £6

Strategy game with 26 wooden pieces played on a square 9x9 grid. Each side represents a citizen, backed by lawyers, priests and psychiatrists. The objective is to get your citizen to the opposite corner or to capture your opponent's citizen. There are three types of move: a step forward, a hop over an adjacent piece to an empty space or a chain of hops. Capture occurs during hops, but only some types of piece can take others in a scissor-paper-stone type of cycle. Also included are rules to 6 other related games playable with the same set.

Affenfelsenspiel, published by Fagus. 1984. Large Tube. Good. £15

Special notes: Overall: Good - the German rules are a bit battered (translation supplied) and the tube has some small scratches and scrapes.

Each player controls three monkeys who race across a rock strewn path in order to get to the Baobab tree first. A dice is rolled which indicates the way in which one of your monkeys can be moved: upright, on all fours, onto / off a rock, or swinging from rock to rock. Occasionally a panther appears and monkeys on or next to rock are safe while others have to retreat backwards. Thus there several choices of how to use your alloted movement. The first player to get two of their monkeys home wins. Wonderful and extremely chunky wooden components, and a vinyl board.

Ares Magazine, published by SPI. Magazine. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Fantasy and Science Fiction games magazine.

Issue 3, 1980. Good. £0.40. The Barbarian Kings central section has been removed. Articles include: Barbarian Kings (this issue's game), Fiction - The Whispering Mirror, Fiction - Final Notes, War In Space, Directory of SF & Fantasy Game Publishers & Manufacturers, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 4, 1980. Good. £0.50. Includes the Arena of Death central rules section, but no counters or map for it. Articles include: Arena of Death (this issue's game), Fiction - Hillsong, Fiction - Eye of the Goblin, Science for Science Fiction, Facts for Fantasy, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 7, 1981. Good. £0.40. The Rescue From The Hive central section has been removed. Articles include: Rescue From The Hive (this issue's game), Fiction - Rescue From The Hive, Dragonquest: The House of Kurin, Science for Science Fiction, Facts for Fantasy, Dragonquest Notes, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 9, 1981. Excellent - Game included and unpunched. £3. Articles include: DeltaVee (this issue's game, a tactical space combat system), Dragonslayer Interview, The Sword & The Stars Design Notes, Lasers In Space, Fiction - The Embracing, Facts for Fantasy, Science for Science Fiction, Reviews of Films, TV, Books and Games, Dragonquest notes.

Issue 10, 1981. 2 copies available:
1) Good. £0.40. Game which originally came with it is no longer included.
2) Good. £4. Game is included.
Articles include: Fiction - The Return Of The Stainless Steel Rat (this issue's game too, but was a completely separate insert), Dragonquest - The Camp of Alla-Akabar, Enhanced DeltaVee, Dragonquest Notes, There's Only One Universe Design Notes, Facts for Fantasy, Science for Science Fiction, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Armada, published by Jeux Descartes. 1986. Box. In shrink. £15

Country: French, Duration: 2 hrs, Desc. by Andy.

3rd edition. Very nicely produced game with great components: 300 plastic markers, 150 tokens, 8 metal ships, 3 special dice and cards. The board shows an archipelago which is home to several pirate bands. The large central island is unexplored but known to be home to ferocious natives. The players as pirate leaders attempt to become the pirate lord of the archipelago and use action points to move and load ships, explore, attack opponents etc. The cards allow players to enhance their actions or surprise opponents.

Aton, published by Queen Games. 2006. Box. 2 copies available:

1) In shrink. £10 2) Excellent. £9

Akhnaton the new pharaoh wants the new god Aton to be worshipped, and the old god Amon to be forgotten. One player takes the role of the priests of Aton and the other the priests of Amon, and the players vie for control of the four major temples. Each players has an identical deck of cards which are drawn from and used to gain influence in the temples. At various points scoring occurs. A well received two player game.

Attika, published by Hans Im Gluck. 2003. Box. Excellent. £14.50

Country: German, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

An unusual tile laying game in which players all have the same city segments, but each player will get them in a different order, so that players have to adapt their play accordingly. The city segments have an ordering indicated by each player's large city play mat, and when played in the correct order from the mat to the board placement is free, otherwise resource cards must be spent to play a tile. In addition bonus actions are awarded if a whole city section is placed together on the board. The game can be won either by playing out your entire city or by connecting two temples with your city tiles. Plays especially well with two players.

Augsburg 1520, published by Alea. 2006. Box. Excellent. £16

Notes: 2 cards damaged - replaced by manufacturer, but still needed correction by pen. Play not affected.

Jakob Fugger was so rich he loaned money to royalty, often receiving trade rights, and official positions of value to him instead of cash in payment. In this game the players take the roles of equally rich merchants who make loans to nobles in order to obtain further wealth and increase their social status. The game uses clever auctions for these benefits to drive the game. Often bidding can be very tactical, as the outcome may well affect you differently depending on which other player wins an auction. At the end of the game the player with most prestige wins.

Babylon 5: 2258 Core Set, published by Component Game Systems. 1997. Box. Good. £8

Babylon 5 game in which up to four factions (Earth Alliance, Narn, Centauri and Minbari) vie for prominence. The playing area is constructed out of large hexes showing large areas of space which will be explored and conquered. Victory can be won by military or economic means, and diplomatic efforts on the Babylon 5 station are important too. The game uses colourful counters, and cards with various effects. Each faction also has a board detailing its special abilities etc. Starter packs were also produced to allow extra players to play using additional factions.

Backpacks And Blisters, published by Ragnar. 1993. Box. In shrink. £16

Game about walking in the Lake District, with the trademark cloth board favoured by this company. Plan your route, take the bus, get the best views, buy cups of tea, eat chocolate, wait for the ferry but, whatever you do, do not get left with the Heavy Rucksack. Some neat ideas and you won't find many games on this theme!

More Backpacks And Blisters, published by Ragnar. 1994. Box. In shrink. £16

Game based on walking in the Lake District. In which other game (apart from Backpacks and Blisters) can you drink tea, get lumbered with a Heavy Rucksack, catch buses, miss ferries, buy chocolate, and see the best views in the National Park? With the distinctive trademark of this company, a board printed on cloth. This version is based in the Southern Lakes in winter, and every change of weather is sure to be for the worse!

Barking Mad, published by Paul Lamond. 1998. Box. Good. £5

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

Special notes: Box slightly indented due to stacking, 2 cards creased but usable.

Dog racing game, with a hare, six dogs, and a lamp-post (which sidetracks the dogs during the race). Dogs move by a combination of cards and dice, with plenty of choice. Points are scored for correctly, or nearly correctly predicting the finishing order of dogs. The game is played in two stages - firstly players get the chance to draw cards to play in the race, make bets, and place the dogs in their traps and then the race is run. During the race it is quite possible to seriously delay a dog, and the hare which the dogs initially follow can be overtaken and eaten!

Batik, published by Gigamic. 1997. Box. In shrink. £19

Special notes: The box shows very slight signs of damage on one side - barely noticeable.

Very nicely produced game which will look great on a coffee table, and is short enough to be played over a coffee too! The playing area is a vertical slot between two perspex sheets supported by wooden blocks. Each player has the same set of assorted wooden triangles, parallelograms and other shapes, and players take it in turn to drop a piece between the perspex sheets. The loser is the player whose piece sticks out of the top after dropping it. Fun and very attractive.

Big Brother The Game, published by Hasbro. 2000. Box. Good. £5.50

TV related item, based on the immensely popular reality TV programme Big Brother. Players try to be the last one left in the Big Brother house which is depicted on the board. Players roll and move around the board collecting cards. Frequently confrontations will occur as indicated by the cards, and players get to vote who goes out next using their collected votes and attributes the players have gained during the game. Visiting different rooms give the players different powers. Last player left in wins.

Board & Table Games I & II, published by Dover Publications Inc.. 1979. Book. Excellent. £10

Softback, 21x14cm, ~350 pages. This book's full title is Board & Table Games From Many Civilizations I & II, and is a revised edition of both previous volumes into one book. The book covers a great many games from all over the world, and has pictures of antique examples of many of them. However, unlike many of R.C.Bell's books, the focus in this book is on clearly presenting the rules to the games rather than discussing the antiques. The games covered are categorised as follows in both volumes: Race Games, War Games, Games of Position, Mancala Games, Dice Games, Domino Games, Making Your Own Board & Pieces. An amazing resource detailing lots of games you won't know about already.

Borderline, published by Lukepark Games. ca.1988. Box. Good. £5.50

Strategy game in which players try to get one of their pieces to the other side of the board, or alternatively capture all of their opponent's pieces. The board consists of a 6x9 grid, and the players start with 12 pieces each. The pieces have 4 numbers on them indicating the number of spaces they can move in each of four directions. Opposing pieces can be taken either by landing on them or jumping over them.

Buck Rogers The 25th Century, published by TSR. 1990. Packet. Excellent. £2.50.

Note: This set probably came in a box originally, but is now provided in a packet.

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

Science fiction role playing game. 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. £4

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.

Build-Up, published by Elliott. ca.1987. Box. Good but box edges show wear. £15

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

Rare promotional business game, made for a housing construction company. Eamon noted that it was designed and printed by Games Workshop, though nothing on the box or contents indicates this. Players race to be the first to build a 10 storey building in the centre of the board. Game play involves moving around a track, and when enough money and resources have been acquired the player moves onto a more central track to obtain what is needed in the next phase of the building process. A third (inner) ring is then moved to in order to complete the construction of the building itself. Players must manage their money well, and should calamities occur part constructed buildings can be mortgaged.

Bunkered!, published by Wellingtons Ltd. 1987. Box. Good, but 1 corner taped. £1.25

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

A 3-D golf themed puzzle. This consists of 8 cubes (3.5cm a side) each side showing a section of a golf course. The objective is to assemble the cubes so that they show the same golf course twice over the various faces. Comes with a solution sheet.

Cairo, published by Schmidt Spiele. 2002. Box. In shrink. £13

Unusual game in which players vie for majorities in various building sites beside the river Nile. As the players' ships move up and down the river their owners get to flick building cubes from the ship hopefully into the building sites. Each player has a selection of cubes - most small, but one large and one dice, each which score differently. If a player gets sufficient small cubes into one area then a pyramid can be constructed which will add to the influence they have at that site. When the game ends first and second places are scored in each site to determine the winner. Rather neat and unusual combination of mechanics which I very much enjoy.

Canasta For All, published by The Sunday Times. ca.1952. Book. 2 copies available:

1) Good, but cover shows wear. £2.50 2) Good. £4

Softback, 18x12cm, 74 pages. This book gives the rules to Canasta as well as giving an introduction to the game for beginners, definitions of terms, and a large section on the Art of Canasta - intended to explain what makes Canasta such a good game, and to improve your play.

Cannes, published by Splotter Spellen. 2002. Box. In shrink. £12

Country: Dutch, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Andy.

The theme is producing films and this is done with people, computer chips and beer, converting these to computers, actors, special effects and scripts and then into various types of film. The way the resources and conversion are done however is unusual - a network of connections on a board of hex tiles is built up as the game goes on and this shows what each player has access to.

Car Capers, published by Spear's Games. ca.1980. Box. Box shows wear. £1.50

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

Twelve cars have been divided up into 6 parts each and players must reassemble them into complete cars. The player with the most complete cars at the end of the game wins. Play is by rolling dice and selecting which car parts to take using the dice rolls. Parts must be obtained in the correct order, and it is also possible to steal parts from other players.

Careers, published by Parker. Box. 2 copies available:

1) 1971. Good. £4 2) 1965. Good, but 1 box edge taped. £5

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

Excellent family game where you choose your winning conditions. You have 60 points to spend, and £1,000 = 1 point, so you could go for 20 Fame points, £20,000 and 20 Happiness points - that would be an even spread. But if you wanted to you could, say, go for no money 50 fame and 10 Happiness. If you did, then you would go for jobs like Hollywood acting or sport, and big business would not interest you. First game to use experience cards so that you can alter dice rolls in your favour.

Chess For Fun & Chess For Blood, published by Hollis & Carter. 1952. Book.

Good, but dustcover shows some wear. £7

Hardback with dustcover, 22x14cm, 202 pages. This book splits its contents into two halves: Chess For Fun (Chess Amenities; Chess Master, Artist & Scientist; Checkmating Combinations; End Game Play; Strategic Principles; Practical Applications; The Chess Problem). and Chess For Blood (Master Chess; Emmanuel Lasker vs Edward Lasker, Tournament Ethics, International Chess Code).

China - Border Disputes Poster Map, published by Spiele Aus Timbuktu. 2006. Poster. Good. £6

Poster map for use with the game China, but which can also be used with the previous incarnation, Web of Power / Kardinal & Konig easily enough. The map adds a couple of new features to the game: ports which are scored as an extra area at the end of the game, and border towns which require two cards in order to be played into, but count as being in two provinces.

Coloretto, published by Abacus Spiele. 2003. Box. In shrink. £6

Neat card game in which players collect cards. The cards come in seven different colours and the value of a set of cards goes up in a triangular sequence (ie. 1 card -> 1VP, 2->3, 3->6, 4->10 etc), however only the biggest three sets count positive, with other colours counting against your score. The way cards are collected is fast but interesting: a player can either claim a pile of cards or draw a card unseen and add it to a pile. This is repeated several times and then the players' collections are scored. It sounds too simple to be good, but works surprisingly well. Highly recommended.

Colossal Arena, published by Fantasy Flight. 2004. Box. New. £9

Special notes: This version has German text on the cards, but supplied laminated English crib sheets make it entirely playable.

Card game with 150 very attractive cards featuring various monsters. This is a reprint of Titan: The Arena, but with 4 extra creatures for added variety. The players are gamblers, betting on and also influencing which of the creatures will survive the longest as the day's battles progress. Each round one of the creatures will fall, until only 3 remain standing, and bets on these creatures pay out. Combat is decided by playing cards on the creatures, and also by using special abilities for each of the creatures if you are its main backer. Recommended.

Contigo, published by 3M. 1974. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £7 2) Good, but edges show wear. £6

Unusual cross between Mancala and Draughts. The 6x6 space board is surrounded by Mancala-like pits around which glass beads are moved, and the number of beads in the row or column of a playing piece determines its movement capabilities. There are two different games described. In the first players attempt to align four of their pieces in a row on the central board, and in the second game players attempt to capture their opponents' key men. Bookcase box.

Cooks Tours, published by Invicta. 1972. Box. Box shows wear. £1.75

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

Special notes: One coin is missing, but the bank does not require a precise number of coins, so this does not affect play.

Family game about travelling across Europe on a Thomas Cook Tour. Players travel to the famous cities and collect souvenir coins as they go. Originally published by Selchow & Richter in America. Includes trivia questions.

Corruption, published by Descartes Editeur. 1999. Box. 2 copies available:

1) In shrink. £5 2) Excellent. £4.50

Card game. 112 cards in an entertaining, interactive game of bribery. Players use their cards to obtain lucrative construction contracts by furnishing bribes, but focusing too much on one contract will earn too little profit, while spreading your bribes too thin will likely get you nothing at all. As well as standard bribes, reduced (but secure) payments can be made into Swiss bank accounts. There are special cards which can significantly affect the outcome, such as journalists to expose others' bribes, judges to investigate dubious goings on and hit men, but these are all one use, whereas the bribery cards can be reused from round to round.

Count Down, published by Mind Movers. 1974. Box. Good. £5

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

Essentially a numerical version of master mind given a space theme. Very nicely made single unit, with 7 rows of dials each with 5 number dials (0-9) and two scoring dials (showing the number of black and white 'pegs). In addition there is a master number dial, with a flap to keep this hidden during play. The dials are rotated in order to make guesses and score these guesses. The 'theme' is that the guessing player must find the Blast Off combination, and the box shows four rockets and four missiles intercepting each other.

Culbertson On Canasta, published by Faber & Faber. 1950. Book. Good, but cover shows some wear. £3

Spiralbound, 21x14cm, 90 pages. This authoritative book on Canasta first presents the rules in an easy to learn way for the beginner before the bulk of the book goes on to examine many of the subtleties of play, thus allowing both beginners and advanced players to improve their game. The book also includes Canasta variants such as two handed play.

Delta, published by I.Q.Company Ltd. 1987. Box. Box poor, contents good. £4

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

A novel abstract game in which the players have triangular shaped pieces which move around the board trying to eliminate the opponent's pieces and capture their home spaces. The movement and capture mechanism is novel - either flipping over on an edge or moving along the line of the longest side. Well worth a look for abstract games players.

Der Elefant Im Porzellanladen, published by Amigo. 2006. Box. In shrink. £6.50

Card game. Players draw cards from a display, paying money for various valuable pieces of porcelain, but in order to get money elephant cards must be taken. In German the title is equivalent to 'A bull in a china shop', so naturally taking an elephant card gets you money but also eliminates some of your valuable china! During the game there are four scoring rounds, of different types, but each player can choose which of the remaining scoring types to use each round in order to best make use of their holdings. Neat mechanisms and plays well. Recommended as a light game for 3-4 players.

Der Herr Der Ringe - Die Gefahrten - Spiel Zum Film, published by Kosmos. 2001. Box. Excellent. £9.50

Special notes: The cards have all been pasted up with English translations.

The players take the parts of the hobbits who make the journey from Hobbiton to Amun Hen in 4 stages. In each stage monsters have to be faced and events overcome, and there are bonuses for the hobbits who finish the stage first. Play involves assigning dice between movement and battle. Fast movement means you are more likely to get the end of stage bonus, but also means more battles. Losing a battle forces you backwards on the movement track. The cards show scenes from the excellent first film of the trilogy.

Die Magische 7, published by Piatnik. 1990. Box. Excellent. £5.50

Trick taking game for 2 or 4 players. The twist is that the cards come in +ve and -ve values and a trick always consists of just two cards. To win a trick the 2nd player must make the sum of the cards add up to 7, otherwise the first player wins the trick. There are also some special cards and 4 player rules.

Dinosaurs Of The Lost World, published by Avalon Hill. 1987. Box. Good - unpunched. £25

Unusual game for Avalon Hill to produce, as it is more of a gamer / family game crossover. The players initially choose how to equip their expedition and then explore the Lost Valley. Dinosaurs roam the area and when encountered, if not seen off with guns etc, chase the expedition back to camp using a special chase track. Various spaces let you take part in an adventure on a special comic style adventure sheet. The game is full of neat and unusual mechanics. A very enjoyable light adventure game. Recommended.

Drueke's Solitaire, published by W.M. Drueke & Sons. Box. Good. £2

A very nice wooden solitaire board with pegs which are kept in a compartment in the back of the board. As well as the standard well known centre-hole solitaire problem this set also sets 6 other challenges which it says can be done.

Dungeonquest, published by Games Workshop. 1987. Box. Good. £18

Designed by Dan Glimne & Jakob Bonds. No. players: 1-4. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Original figures missing - but good replacements provided

Players explore the ruins of Dragonfire Castle trying to reach the treasure chamber in the center of the dungeon and escape alive with as much treasure as possible. Time pressure forces the players to take risks because anyone left in the dungeon when the game ends dies! The dungeon is created with tiles to produce a maze-like dungeon and ensures no two games are ever the same. Recommended.

Endless Quest Books, published by TSR. No. players: 1. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Softback, 18x11cm, ~150 pages. Game books, but unlike Fighting Fantasy no dice are used to resolve combats etc, instead you simply read the text and are presented with different options which involve turning to different paragraphs to see what happened. Therefore you won't have to start again if you just rolled badly a few times!

3: Pillars Of Pentegarn, 1980. Good. £3. Designed by Rose Estes. You are Jaimie, a young villager who loves the enchanted forest others fear - expect adventure as you explore its depths.

5: Revolt Of The Dwarves, 1983. Good. £2. Designed by Rose Estes. Special notes: A few pages have a red ink stain - it doesn't stop the book being legible. You are Galen, whose family is captured by dwarven warriors revolting against human rule. Can you put a stop to the Revolt of the Dwarves ?

6: Revenge Of The Rainbow Dwarves, 1983. Good. £3. Designed by Rose Estes. You are Jaimie, an apprentice wizard, magically separated from your master - you need to find him and then defeat three evil wizards.

7: Hero Of Washington Square, 1983. Good. £3. Designed by Rose Estes. You are pursued by a gang of cutthroat spies who will stop at nothing to gain the secret of nuclear weaponry. The mysterious green diamonds you have been entrusted with seem to hold the missing key they are after - what will you do?

11: Spell Of The Winter Wizard, 1983. Good. £3. Designed by Morris Simon. Only you can save the kingdom. Warzen, the evil wizard has cast a spell of ice and snow over the land. You must rescue the captive wizard Alcazar and stop Warzen. However, he has an army of orcs and powerful magics to stop you!

12: Light On Quests Mountain, 1983. Good. £3. Designed by Mary L. Kirchoff, James M. Ward. On an earth made hostile by nuclear war, you and your tribe live a primitive, danger-filled existence. Now you must prove your readiness for adulthood by undertaking a perilous quest - discover the source of mysterious light atop Quests Mountain.

17: Captive Planet, 1983. Good. £3. Designed by Morris Simon. Star Frontiers Adventure book. You have been chosen because of your computer wizardry to accompany Unit Five on their mission to the planet of New Pale. However the evil Sathar are the force behind the problems there, making your mission much harder.

Eternity, published by Christopher Monckton Ltd. 1999. Box. Good. £6.50

An exceptionally difficult 209 piece puzzle. This is essentially a sort of tangram set, but with 209 pieces. They are each made up of 12 half equilateral triangular units in a large variety of shapes. Originally 1 Million Pounds were on offer to the first person to complete the puzzle. Very nice item for puzzle fans.

Evolutions, published by Spear's Games. 1996. Box. Good, but 1 corner taped. £3

Trivia game playable individually or in teams. There are 300 double sided cards each side of which describes a particular object, concept or person. The objective is for the current player to work out what is being described and name it. If that player fails to do so then other players get a chance to answer. The first player to move their playing piece around the board wins the game.

Fair Play, published by EG Spiele. Box. In shrink. £11

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

Special notes: The base is very slightly indented inside the shrinkwrap.

Race game, with very nice metal car playing pieces. The board is built up from 48 tiles and so is different each game. Card play determines movement, but in an unusual way as the players offer cards to opponents, which can be accepted or refused, thus requiring an element of bluff. The road tiles also provide various hazards and such as roadworks and service stations and petrol stations which can be stopped at to get rid of various bad cards which the car might have acquired.

Figaro, published by Da Vinci Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £11

Card game. Figaro is the court idiot who can't seem to do anything right, and the cards represent the various mess-ups he makes. Players take turns playing a card on another player or playing a special event card, and when a player has cards of a certain value played on him then the king gets mad and penalises that player. Cards can be played which can get you out of a corner, as well as getting another player into trouble.

First Impressions, published by Waddingtons. 1989. Box. Good. £7

An game ideal for play after a civilised dinner with friends . Players assess each other’s traits and, using over 400 cartoon illustrated cards, attribute these cards to the others. Unusual mask-like devices used for voting - a dial behind the eyes is rotated to indicate the player who you think the card most applies to. By the end of the game each player has a profile indicated by the cards they have collected, so perhaps you might be: Nero + Benedictine + Racing Driver? Good game of the 'get to know your friends better' type.

Foresight, published by Eng’s I.Q. Co.. 1987. Box. Good. £2

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

Game based on the principles of Nim, in which you take away counters from a line and the loser is the last one left to take a counter. Dice are used purely to set the game up, ensuring it will be different every time you play. This is more complex than Nim, as there are several lines in play simultaneously.

Freibeuter, published by Hans Im Gluck. 1998. Box. In shrink. £15

Tile laying game with a theme of piracy on the high seas. Each player has a fleet of 25 wooden boats which are played onto the board using cards which indicate the row and column. When the ships played encircle treasure ships between the spaces the booty is distributed among the players with surrounding ships, but in a way which means you often have to think about where and when it is best to play. Plenty of tactical decisions, but with the cards limiting what you can actually do. Lots of wooden pieces.

Furchterliche Feinde, published by 2F Spiele. 2006. Box. In shrink. £22

Special notes: German version, but I have a translation, and the components are language free,

Unusual dungeon exploring game. The board shows a complex of rooms and corridors and the players send in their adventurers to gain gold. Their is an unusual system which ensures that only as areas are discovered are they populated with monsters, and all the time the monsters get tougher. Care must be taken over which monsters to fight as if they are too tough they can't be beaten until your adventurer gains experience, but too weak and they will run away (taking their treasure with them). It is also possible to tag along with other more powerful adventurers and gain experience as a hanger on. Players must manage their pool of power chips carefully, but ultimately it is gold gained that wins the game.

Gheos, published by Z-Man Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £14

Interesting tile laying game in which the players form a land divided up by rivers. Each separate multi-tile area is competed for by the players, and each tile indicates the resources and / or bonus points available there. Thus these countries are controlled by the players, but unlike games in the Carcassonne family, it is possible to replace existing tiles with new ones (at a cost) which will better suit the player, and thus the makeup and control of these various nations can change substantially throughout the game. Full of interesting tactical options. Recommended.

Ghost Hunter, published by The Book People. 1998. Book. Excellent - unpunched. £7.50

Hardback, 31x26cm, 4 pages. Most unusual item. When you open the book and turn the first page a large 3D haunted house unfolds, with 3D movement tracks and even stairs. The book includes playing pieces, ghost tokens and a spinner. Players make their way around the haunted house with the objective of spotting as many ghosts as possible. There are two ways to win - either move slowly and see sufficient ghosts, or move quickly and get to the Count first.

Go West, published by Phalanx. 2005. Box. Excellent. £13

The players represent enterprising merchants who profit from the steady stream of movement west by immigrants to the US around 1800. Players must manoeuver their merchants to control the markets of the various regions, while also ensuring the wagons move to where their merchants are. In order to score you have to forfeit your normal turn and pay for the privilege too, but double turn chits can be handed in to set up a good scoring position and then score it. As usual with this designer the mechanisms are unusual and clever.

Gone Fishing, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £11

Tactical game which also involves bluff and memory elements. One player controls two anglers who move around the edge of a pond trying to catch fish, while the other player controls the fish and miscellaneous items of junk in the pond. Only the fish player can see what is what in the pond, and gets to move them around a bit between the angler's attempts to hook a fish. The angler player is restricted as to how he can move his anglers and how far across the pond his rod can reach, but in a clever and interesting way. When the hand is finished players swap roles and play again to see who wins.

Hare And Tortoise / Hase Und Igel, several editions available:

1) Hare And Tortoise, published by Gibsons. 1987. Box. No. players: 2-6. Country: British. Good. £13. One side of the box is a little faded. Third edition.

2) Hare And Tortoise, published by Waddingtons. 1981. Box. Good. £10. No. players: 2-4. Country: British. Second edition.

3) Hase Und Igel, published by Ravensburger. 1978. Box. Good. £13. No. players: 2-6. Country: German, Duration: 1 hr. Designed by David Parlett. Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Brilliant race game. Carrots are spent to move forward using triangular numbers, so 1 space costs 1, 3 spaces 6 and 5 spaces 15 etc. Carrots can be regained by moving backwards, and 3 lettuces must be chewed on special spaces and you may only finish with a handful of carrots remaining. Players can go as slow as they want, or as fast as they want, or somewhere in between - and it is possible to win by any of these methods, which is what makes the game so clever. Highly recommended.

Hellas, published by Kosmos. 2002. Box. In shrink. £10

Light war game using German style mechanics in which two factions fight over the Greek islands in ancient times. Players get to either increase their ships and men and cards, or make a voyage of exploration or make an attack. The cards give rule breaking favours from the gods and are very useful. Attack can be overland or over sea, and the number of pieces (15mm plastic miniatures) is very limited so continuously building up is not an option. I can also provide my own clarifications to the rules. Part of Kosmos' well regarded small square box two player game range.

High Society, published by Uberplay. 2003. Box. In shrink. £11

A very clever bidding game by this master designer. Players all have the same set of money cards to start with but bid with them in a way which means that no change is ever available and so it is often not possible to bid exactly what you would like to. In addition sometimes a good card is bid for and sometimes a bad card (in different ways) and also the player at the end with least money automatically loses, and the player remaining who has bought the most valuable luxury cards wins. Highly recommended.

Imperial, published by Eggert Spiele. 2006. Box. In shrink. £35

Europe is in the age of Imperialism. The players act as theoretical internationally operating investors who try to gain influence in all the key countries. The six main nations build factories, troops, and fleets and expand their influence over initially neutral regions. Taxes are collected from such regions which is fed back to their 'investors'. Players will need to keep alliances, but also know when force is the best route to success. Very well received game from Spiel 2006.

Incan Gold, published by Sunriver Games. ca.2006. Box. In shrink. £13.50

Country: American, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

American printing of Diamant. Neat game in which everyone ventures into dangerous Incan ruins together, and as they find treasure they split it between them. However, at each stage of the journey players get the chance to leave. If you choose to leave you keep all the treasure you have collected this trip and may get some extra depending on how many people leave at the same time as you. However, if you stay in too long a second hazard card of a particular type may come up in which case anyone left in the ruins loses everything collected that trip! The player with the most treasure after 5 trips wins. Fast and fun - highly recommended.

Inspeaquence, published by Really Useful. 1995. Box. Good. £8

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

Party game with stacks of subject cards. The players divide into two teams, and each turn one team plays. One player from the team is designated the guesser, and all the other players stand in a line and look at the word on the card. They then describe the item, but by each player only says one word and then the next person says a word and so on, returning to the first player when they have all said a word. Not as easy as it sounds! The guesser naturally has to work out the word before the time runs out. A neat twist on a traditional parlour game.

Italia, published by Phalanx Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £32

A new take on the classic game Britannia. Set in ancient Italy the game assigns several different 'nations' to each player, and as turns go on each nation rises and falls, but the players try to ensure their position (considering all of their nations) is as strong as possible. The player who best does this over the whole game will win. There are two different scenarios. The first for 3 players starts in ancient times finishing in 80BC. The second is for 4 players and starts in around 390AD when the Western Roman Empire fell, up until medieval Italian times. The game is fully in English.

Jagd Der Vampire, published by Ravensberger. 1991. Box. Good. £11

Country: German, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Original German rules missing (translation supplied). This set also includes a promotional photo and the negative, so was probably a promo copy.

Race game with a daft theme - the vampires have given up drinking blood and now prefer ketchup. They race through the evil forest to the castle where the Great Tomato has been hidden in one of the towers. First to get there and find it will rule the vampires! The bits are wonderful: large board, large heavy vampire tokens, big towers for the castle, big plastic bridges etc. The game itself involves moving along a track, landing on different coloured spaces to draw special cards. Moves have to be paid for with miniature ketchup bottles. Also vampires can duel, and cast spells, and special rules cover dangers within the castle. Nice item.

Jitters, published by Milton Bradley Games. 1987. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Word game played with letter dice. On your turn a noisy timer (which adds to the tension) counts down while you roll the dice and make words on a score card. Once this is done you can either bank the points and end your turn or attempt another score card and reroll the dice. If you end up with the timer going off rather than banking your score then you score nothing at all. The tension level certainly increases as the timer ticks down! Recommended.

Jurassic Park III Island Survival Game, published by MB Games. 2001. Box. Good. £9

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

Based on the blockbuster film. The board shows an island with various different regions and divided into spaces - there are cards to draw while in each region. The game comes with an impressive selection of plastic dinosaurs which start out in their own regions. The players must cross the island to the safety of an awaiting rescue team. One player runs the dinosaurs and tries to ensure noone manages to escape.

Kanto, published by Milton Bradley Games. 1975. Box. Good. £5

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

Tactical game played on a 5x8 board. Each player has wooden tiles numbered 1-19 and a special tile called the Kanto. These are initially face down at random on the board. Players turn over pieces and attempt to capture opposing pieces and ultimately their opponent's Kanto. A number piece captures its own number and any lesser number, and the Kanto can capture any piece except the 1, which is the only piece which can capture the Kanto.

Kings Progress, published by JKLM Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £22

Players collect courtier cards in various different colours and play them in order to gain influence over that courtier. In addition the King visits a stately home each round and the players try to get there before the king in order to gain prestige. Each courtier also grants the controlling player a special action. A well designed game with interesting interlocking mechanics, and plenty of decision making.

Know The Game: Contract Bridge, published by Educational Productions. ca.1964. Book.

Good. £0.75. Designer Unknown. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Softback, 13x20cm, 36 pages. A consise introductory book to Contract Bridge which teachs the rules and gives bidding and playing advice which will get a beginner going and able to play well enough 'in modest company'.

Lang Lebe Der Konig!, published by F X Schmid. 1997. Box. Good. £12.50

Nicely produced medieval themed game of power politics. The board shows a pseudo medieval map of England, and players occupy areas and use cards to gain influence and votes with the objective being to gain the 20 votes necessary to become king. Game play involves some diplomacy as well as card and dice play.

Let's Do Lunch, published by Hasbro. 2000. Box. Good. £6

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

Special notes: This set was originally from Hasbro Spain, but has had English stickers applied by Hasbro and English rules inserted, making it quite unusual.

The game looks from the box to be a trivial children's game, but actually it is a tactical game played with dice on a 7x7 grid, and rated age 12+! Players take it in turn to roll 3 dice with the numbers 1-3 on each, and place a man anywhere on a column with the correct total. If this encloses one or more opposing men between yours then they are captured. Rolling 1-2-3 loses your turn and three of a kind gets another go. The objective is to place all your pieces. The (pretty irrelevant) theme is about two competing tribes of cannibals, though the plastic cannibal figures are quite cute.

Lifetime, published by Amigo. 1996. Box. Excellent: cards shrinkwrapped. £4

Card game, 104 attractive double-sized cards. During the game players must play cards with two digits which correspond to years when a given celebrity was alive.

Lost Luggage, published by Ravensburger. 1988. Box. Good. £3

Memory game in which each player tries to find a set of luggage numbered 1-10. First a 1 must be found, then a 2 and so on up to 10. There are more of the lower numbered suitcases and less of the higher numbers. The luggage tiles are shuffled up and put face down in 10 groups of 4, each group representing an airport. Players fly their rather nice large plastic planes to an airport of their choice where noone else is and may check for their next piece of luggage there. A nice twist allows you to search at another player's airport, but they get an extra mini-turn as compensation.

Lowendynastie, published by Adlung Spiele. 1998. Box. 2 copies only:

1) Mint. £3 2) Excellent. £2.50

Card game, with the unusual theme of players trying to rise from being a lion cub, to becoming King of the Beasts. Based on an Aesop's Fable. A trick-taking game in which the main twists are that players can play more than once to a trick and also more than one trick can be active at a time. Includes English, French and German rules.

Maestro, published by Hans Im Gluck. 1989. Box. Good. £13

On the nomination list for the German Spiel des Jahres 1989. A family friendly tile placement game with a theme of collecting together musicians suitable for a variety of different bands. Players run a talent agency and keep up to ten musicians on their books. The more musicians kept the more options you will have, but it is important not to be left with them at the end of the game. The musicians are added to the bands on the board only when a maestro is available to start the band. A gentle game with decisions to make but not too stressful.

Maestro Leonardo, published by DaVinci Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £27

The players are inventors in renaissance Florence, and each tries to create amazing inventions in order to impress the rich patrons of the city. To do this the players will need to obtain the right raw materials, attract more apprentices to work in the laboratories, or perhaps build mechanical men to do these jobs. The favour of the town council is also useful from time to time. Once work on a project is completed the invention card is claimed and money obtained from a rich patron. By the end of the game more and more impressive (and valuable) creations will be made. Excellent development and resource management game - highly recommended. This is the German edition - components are language free.

Mamma Mia!, published by Abacus. 1998. Box. In shrink. £6

Card game, over 100 cards featuring pizza toppings and orders. Players aim to complete their eight pizza orders. Players take turns to place some ingredient cards on to a communal pile of ingredients and then may opt to place one of their order cards on top. This continues until the whole deck is in this pile. The pile is then turned over and each time an order card comes up the ingredients revealed are looked at to see if the order can be completed, and then the relevant ingredients are removed. Light game in which some memory skill helps, though players get the chance to make up missing ingredients from their hand as well.

Sole Mio!, published by Abacus. 2004. Box. In shrink. £6

This is a followup to Mamma Mia!, and can either be used as an expansion to that game or on its own. The mix of orders is slightly odder, making the memory element a bit harder, but there is now the opportunity for other players to help fulfil your orders.

Middle Earth The Wizards - The Dragons Boosters, published by ICE. 1996. Box. Unopened. £1.25

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

Booster packs for ICE's excellent Middle Earth - The Wizards CCG. This was in my opinion one of the very best CCGs. I have a small stack of these boosters available, but you will need to already own starter decks / a starter set to play. I.C.E. lost their Tolkien license in 1999, so the game has been out of print since then so getting more cards for this game is getting ever harder. This expansion introduced the powerful Dragons and their special hoards of treasure, as well as a host of related equipment, characters and hazards. Possibly the best METW expansion.

Middle Earth The Wizards - Unlimited Boosters, published by ICE. 1996. Box. Unopened. £1.25

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

Mimikus, published by Arbeitsstelle Neues Spielen. ca.1995. Tube. Good. £10

A very unusual game which uses a set of 37 special 'face' dice. These dice all have faces showing the expressions: beaming, smiling, normal, amazed, sour and angry. One large dice in the centre is used to indicate which sort of dice can be moved each turn, and rather than being rolled it is turned over. The board is a felt mat, showing three rings of spaces for the dice and a central space for the indicator dice. The objective is to get your six dice to be turned so that one of each type of face is shown and then move them to adjacent spaces on the outer circle.

Monopoly The Card Game, published by Winning Moves. 2000. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Original rules missing - printout supplied.

Monopoly themed card game. Players try to collect sets of cards showing the Monopoly properties plus hotels and houses which increase the value of sets. Other cards provide quick points. Players can choose to draw from either the draw deck or from other players' discard piles in a sort of forced trade. Money is provided, and is used to keep track of the score.

Munchkin Fu, published by Steve Jackson. 2003. Box. Excellent. £8

Humorous card game parody of Kung Fu movies . Very light and silly - the players have to try to get their character as powerful as possible, using the daft items available eg. 'Ebony Nunchuks Delivering Typhoon of Blows' and 'Excellent Bamboo Nose-Spreader'. Beware though as monsters and traps abound, such as 'Long Tong the Drool Demon' and the evil 'Generosity Potion'! It is also compatible with Munchkin should you wish to combine the two sets.

Napoleonic Wargaming, published by Airfix / Patrick Stephens Ltd. 1974. Book. Good. £5

Hardback, 22x14cm, 64 pages. Airfix Magazine Guide 4. This book gives an introduction to Napoleonic miniatures wargaming, gives details of Napoleonic army organisation, describes Napoleonic strategy and tactics, and gives advice on organising a wargames campaign. Finally the book also includes a set of rules you can use to play out Napoleonic Miniatures battles.

Nicht Die Bohne, published by Amigo. 1999. Box. In shrink. £5.50

Card game in which players try to collect valuable sets of cards in each of four colours. As well as numbered cards, there are also cards which make the value of the cards in a suit 0 and others that make them negative! Each 'trick' the players play a card in front of themselves, and then take it in turn to select a card played by another player. This results in the last player having no choice, and so careful group-think can ensure that a perceived leader gets pulled back suitably - much to their chagrin. At first read-through it seems too simple to be worth playing, but in practice it works well.

Olix, published by Spiel Spass. 1998. Box. Good. £8.50

Abstract game from this first class designer. Players take turns playing pieces onto a grid and try to form patterns in the shapes if the letters 'O'. 'L', 'I', and 'X'. You have to watch what your opponent is doing and both counter them and build your own patterns at the same time.

Oltre Mare, published by Amigo. 2005. Box. In shrink. £23

Card driven board game in which the players sail their merchant ships around the Mediterranean. The cards are used for many purposes: each shows a type of goods which are collected and when placed in a sold goods pile will score according to the number of adjacent cards of the same type (bigger collections being more valuable). In addition the cards indicate the actions which a player will perform in their turn: the number of cards drawn, money earned, pirates encountered, distance sailed and hold capacity. Game play involves card management and trading goods cards between players. Various bonuses are acquired by sailing to previously unvisited ports. An interesting and unusual game. Large boxed German edition.

Pac-Man, published by Milton Bradley. 1982. Box. Box corners split. £1.50

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

Board game version of the popular early 1980's video arcade game. Players each have their own Pac-Man which gobbles marbles as it is moved around the board. However, the ghosts must be avoided as they will steal your marbles. Great bits. Great for kids.

Palatinus, published by DaVinci Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £13

Special notes: Includes extra hill tile released as a mini expansion at Spiel 06.

The players represent factions who vie for power around Rome. The board is made up of 7 hexagonal segments representing the hills of Rome. Players take it in turn to play soldiers, merchants and farmers onto the land areas. Farmers score for being placed on wheat fields or being adjacent to wheat fields. Merchants score for being adjacent to farmers or merchants and soldiers score by capturing farmers and merchants. Some tiles are placed face down. When all have been played each hill is scored in turn, and the player with the most influence on that hill wins VPs. Most VPs overall wins.

Palazzo, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £15

Auction based game in which the players vie to build the most valuable palaces. Palace segments are numbered to indicate the level they must be placed in a palace, as well as having 1-3 windows (more is better) and three different building materials. Palaces score more the bigger they are as well as for being built of all the same type of stone. Barely started palaces receive penalties. Money comes in three different types, and only one type can be bid with by each player in each auction though in addition sets of cards can be played to add to the value of a bid. You cannot always get exactly the tiles you need, so choosing which opportunities to take and which to pass up is key.

Party, Party!, published by Schmidt. 2002. Box. Excellent. £4.50

Children's Disney themed dice game for ages 5+. Micky Mouse's friends are depicted on tiles which are laid in a circle, and they also show a number from 1-6. Players take it in turn to roll a dice and move Mickey Mouse around the circle according to the dice roll, and may claim the tile landed on if they rolled high enough. Instead of claiming a tile it is permitted to gamble and make another dice roll, and if this ends in claiming a tile then both tiles landed on may be claimed, but if the second tile cannot be claimed then nor can the first.

Phunology, published by Abingdon Cokesbury. 1923. Book. Good, but cover shows some wear. £12

Special notes: 1st and last pages taped to spine.

Hardback, 20x14, 454 pages. Subtitled: The Book Of Good Times, A Collection Of Tried And Proved Plans For Play, Fellowship And Profit. The entertainments and games are divided up as follows: Games and Activities appropriate for each month of the year, Enterainmenmts by category (Socials; Prize Socials; Games A-Z; Assembly Stunts; Misc Stunts; Relays; Icebreakers; City Union Socials; Banquets; Plays, Cantatas, Pageants & Operettas; Songs).

Pirateer, published by Mendocino Game Co.. 1995. Box. Good. £11.50

Signed copy. Each player must use their three ships to capture the treasure and get it back to their home port. Movement in a loaded state is less flexible, allowing others to potentially sink your ship and capture the treasure themselves. The game is dice driven but there is quite a bit of choice in the way the dice rolls are used and as well as normal movement at sea, there are special trade winds that allow fast but limited cross-board movement and straits which get you immediately from one side to the other. The game is normally pretty bloody with quite a few ships sunk before the treasure is successfully taken home.

Poker Face, published by Piatnik. 1993. Box. Excellent. £4

Special notes: Autographed on the front by the author.

Card game, 25 colourful cards are used in this game of bluff (you must keep a 'Poker-Face' as hinted in the title). Players collect cards from each other, hiding their true worth and action cards cause changes in the normal routine of play.

Push, published by Spears. 1975. Box. 1 box corner taped. £3

Each player has 13 plastic balls which are placed in indents in the board. An extra ball is 'pushed' into the grid, the balls already there roll into the next indent and the one at the other end drops out and becomes the next ball to push in. The object is to get a square of 9 balls in your colour. Includes solitaire rules for a variety of puzzle-like variations of the main game.

Rage, published by Amigo. 2000. Box. In shrink. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-8. Country: German, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Trick-taking card game. A variation of the playing card game Knockout Whist, but with lots of wild cards that change game play quite a bit. The game uses cards numbered 0-15 in six suits. The special cards do things such as select a suit for trumps, make a particular trick be played no trumps, count as any suit etc. Well regarded.

Rigatoni Intriganti, published by Glucksritter Spiele. 1997. Box. Excellent. £10.50

Special notes: The cards have had English pasteups stuck on them for ease of play.

This is a combination of a business game and a negotiation game. The players run pasta factories and try to produce and then sell pasta for a profit. However, each player secretly chooses from a selection of victory conditions at the start so people don't know who is really trying to do what. There are lots of opportunities to be nasty to other people as well as negotiate your way into or out of trouble! The bits are unusual - a very nice wooden box containing 3 colours of real pasta as playing pieces as well as the more usual wooden dobbers etc.

Rolit, published by Goliath. ca.1997. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-4. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Nicely produced multi-player strategy game based on Othello / Reversi, but for 2-4 players. Four sided balls (if that's not a contradiction) are placed into holes with the current player's colour upwards, and captured pieces are converted by 'rolling' them in their hole to the new colour.

Rubik's Zigzaw Puzzle, published by Ideal. 1982. Box. Good, but box shows some wear. £4

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

A jigsaw puzzle with a difference. The correctly completed jigsaw is a mosaic of correctly completed rubiks cubes. There are 131 pieces, most of which are frog shaped, and fit together in an interlocking pattern whether or not the picture is then correct. There are also edge pieces which form the frame around the edge to make the whole a neat rectangle. An unusal jigsaw and the back of the box also presents some additional puzzles you may wish to attempt with the set.

Schwarz Markt, published by Amigo. 1997. Box. 2 Good. £7

Card game, involving making deals on the Black Market. Players choose when to exchange basic commodities for luxury goods, and when to push the prices higher. There is only one set of goods needed at a time so if only one player has a crucial item and they know it, they can potentially make a killing, but getting yourself into that position is quite tricky. Unusual light economic game, with a certain amount of bluff - how high should I let the price go before cashing in?

Schwarz Markt, published by Amigo. 1997. Box. Excellent. £8

Section X, published by The Game Master. 2005. Box. Excellent. £17

Each player controls a group of prisoners in a high security prison on an island. The only way to escape is to tunnel under the sea to dry land. Players play tunnel tiles to try to escape their prisoners, and can play doorways to claim sections of tunnel from their prisoners only, and also stop others interfering. As soon as a player gets three or more prisoners free the tunnels are discovered and any prisoners not in safe passages or back in the prison are killed as the tunnels are destroyed. A new round then starts and the first player to escape five of their prisoners wins.

Shark, published by Ravensburger. 1991. Box. Good, but 1 corner taped. £13

An excellent business game. It borrows some ideas from Acquire, but uses them in a different and original way. Players start the game without money or shares, but each turn they get paid to enhance one of the companies as well as being able to decide on the best strategic way to do this 'upgrade'. Players may buy and sell shares at the start and end of their turn, but there is a limit to the total number which maybe purchased each turn. Share prices can go down as well as up, but only due to dangerous takeover situations on the board and someone making just the roll needed to make them happen, which means you do get to decide how much risk you are willing to take. Highly recommended.

Skallywaggs, published by Bent Castle Workshops. Box. Excellent. £10

Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Pirate themed card game with a difference. Players try to recruit a viable crew and the first to set sail wins. Most of the cards show the body parts (legs / body / head) of a pirate, and these can be put together any way you fancy - making some very odd characters. However, there are advantages to making pirates out of matching body parts - they are less easily affected by unpleasant event cards and often give their owner special abilities as well. The event cards let you swipe pirate parts from other players, as well as do other assorted helpful and unhelpful actions.

Spin To Win, published by Spear's Games. 1977. Box. Box shows wear. £4

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

Top spinning game. The board sits in the box and shows a grid of colourful scoring spaces with higher numbers near the centre and the corners. Over this there is a transparent layer with holes. Players take it in turn to spin a top, trying to get it into a valuable hole. Tops not in holes are removed from the board. Once one player has all three of their tops in holes all tops are scored and the highest scorer wins that round.

Stack, published by BB Games. ca.1985. Box. Good - 1 corner taped. £4

Strategy game in which the players must get their pieces across the 5x8 space board to the other side. The movement range of pieces increases as they stack up whether on their own or their opponent's pieces, and a stack is controlled by the player who owns the top piece. However, jumping over other pieces or stacks is not permitted. A stack can split up, giving considerable flexibility. Quite a few similar mechanics to those in Sid Sackson's Focus. 15 rather nice stackable pieces per player.

Star Trek The Undiscovered Country, published by King International. 1993. Box. Excellent. £3.50

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

1000 Piece Jigsaw puzzle showing the Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country film poster. This is a limited edition poster (10000 were produced). When complete the puzzle measures 67cm x 48.5cm.

Stortebeker, published by Hans Im Gluck. 2000. Box. Excellent. £8.50

Country: German, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Each player is a pirate, out to loot galleys. To do this you need to have the right provisions cards and a bit of luck. You will also need a strong crew to make sure no other pirates come and take the booty from you. The cards you get determine what options are available to you, but the roll of the dice may yet foil your plans. Plenty of interaction as players can compete for valuable galleys. Also published as Corsairs in America.

Strategy & Tactics Magazine, Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Issue 20, 1970. Good £1: The Luftwaffe Land Army, Bastogne, Anzio Beachhead, Games Reviews by Sid Sackson, Books for Wargamers, Wargamer's Notebook.

Issue 48, 1975. Excellent. £1: Sixth Fleet, Global War, 1974 Annual SPI Report, Reviews.

Issue 59, 1976. Good. £1: The Plot To Assassinate Hitler 1938-44, The Russo Japanese War, Reviews, Current Military Affairs (as of 1976!)..

Issue 60, 1977. Good. £1: Road To Richmond 1862, After The Holocaust, Current Military Affairs (as of 1977), Reviews.

Issue 69, 1978. Good. £1: Tannenberg - Opening Battles 1914, The Next War, The Neutron Bomb, 30 Year War Logistics, Current Military Affairs (as of 1978), Reviews, Kharkov Errata.

Issue 75, 1979. Good. £1: Napolean's Art of War (Eylau & Dresden), Special Forces, Artillery at Gettysburg, Modern Tank Ammunition, Current Military Affairs (as of 1979!), Reviews.

Issue 89, 1981. Good. £1: Sicily - The Race for Messina 1943, Lee vs McClellan 1862, Historical Data & Analysis, Reviews.

Issue 99, 1985. Excellent. £1: Thunder at Luetzen 1812, GenCon - Winning Miniatures, Historical Data & Analysis, Berg's Review of Games, Computer Boardgame Design - Algorithms, Computer Wargames, Book Reviews, Moves Section (inc. previews, Trail of the Fox, and classifieds).

Issue 121, 1988. Excellent. £1: The Indian Mutiny 1857, The Battle of Ypenburg, The South After Yorktown, Hotspots - Potential Wars, Historical Data & Analysis, Errata for Manchu & Unconditional Surrender, Book Reviews.

Issue 126, 1989. Excellent. £1: Beirut Under Fire, Warfare in the Modern World, Kia's On Grenada (US Special Operations), Cuba's Expeditionary Force In Angola, Historical Data & Analysis, Errata, Letters.

Issue 132, 1990. Excellent. £1: Iron Cross (Man to Man conflict on the East Front 1941-42), The Gladiators (Roman Times), Variant for Beirut 82, Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the 3rd World, Historical Data & Analysis.

Issue 133, 1990. Good. £1: Summer & Smoke (Baton Rouge, Mississippi River 1862), Iran / Iraq War, Britain and the Diffusion of Seapower 1895-1905, Historical Data & Analysis.

Special Edition 2, 1983. Good. £1: The Soviet Navy, The Road to Antietam, Battle Over Britain Update, Air War, 3D Conflict in the Persian Gulf, Wellington's Victory - Variations, Expanded Rapid Deployment Force.

Sunset Blvd, published by Salagames. 1992. Box. Excellent. £4.50

Each player must discover the location of the four false celebrities dealt to them at the start of the game. The various celebrities are initially laid face down in a row. Players take the role of the press and roll the dice and move amongst the stars to obtain interviews, hopefully with the stars required. The game uses an intriguing movement system which needs to be managed carefully to avoid having to refind celebrities after a poorly planned or unlucky move.

Surviving On The Edge, published by Atlas Games. 1995. Book. Excellent. £4

Softback, 20x14cm, 288 pages. This the Player's Guide for the On The Edge CCG. The book gives an introduction to the game, a detailed rundown of the different factions and groups in the game, Errata and FAQ, various rules for group play, many appendices (rarity lists and trait lists).

Tactical Chess Exchanges, published by B.T. Batsford. 1991. Book. Excellent. £5

Softback, 21x14cm, 121 pages. The author demonstrates how to use pawn and piece exchange to your advantage in many ways. This is done by examining various games in which grandmasters have demonstrated the power of the tactical exchange.

Tactics II, published by Avalon Hill. 1973. Box. Box lid slightly indented. £5

Special notes: 2 counters were missing but replaced with colour printed scans taken from another set, and mounted on thick card

An early wargame, and a good introduction to the genre. Sort of a military chess played on a mapboard, with units having different capabilities, and each turn all units can be moved and then battles resolved. The mapboard shows a fictional continent over which the blue and red forces are battling with various terrain features including roads, rivers, woods, mountains, beaches, sea and cities. The rules include a basic game and a more advanced game.

Take It Easy (6 Player), published by Ravensburger. 2005. Box. In shrink. £19

6 player, roughly bookcase sized 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.

Tempus, published by Pro Ludo. 2006. Box. In shrink. £29

Martin Wallace's long heralded civilization building game which plays in under 2 hours. The game uses a modular board with assorted landscape types on the tiles to ensure a different layout each time. Players advance their technologies, which start from fire and continue up to the present day. Game play involves prioritising good board position against technological advancement. However, there is an automatic catchup mechanism whereby 'old' technology becomes available to all players after a while. Also uses a neat diceless combat system.

The Beginner's Book Of Contract Bridge, published by C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. 1939. Book.

Good, but dustcover shows wear. £3. Designed by Joy Weston. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Hardback with dustcover, 19x13cm, 167 pages. This book aims to teach the absolute beginner how to play Contract Bridge, and does so using a variety of characters rather than just dry prose. The book covers: Mrs Newbegin decides to take up Bridge, Simple Bidding & Quick Trick Values, What Are Trumps, Consulting One's Partner, Simple Bidding Examples, Raising Bids, No Trump Distribution, Showing a Strong Hand, Pre-emptive Bids, The Attack, The Defence, Defending a No Trump Contract, Doubling, Partial Scores, Vulnerability, Importance of Distribution, Two Club Convention, Slam Bidding.

The Complete Home Entertainer, published by Odhams Press Ltd. ca.1920. Book. Good. £10

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

Hardback, 22x14cm, 512 pages. The cover and spine are embossed, and there are over 400 illustrations, but the date is a guess. The book covers: Getting Together (Icebreakers), Action Games, Word Games, Games With Pencil & Paper, Party Stunts And Jokes, Word Puzzles, 1 Minute Teasers, Fun With Intelligence Tests, Potted Personalities, Character Quizzes, Amateur Detective's Casebook, Brain Twisters, Family Craft, Songs For Home & Party, Simple Conjuring, Card Wizardry, Scientific Magic, Fun with Matches String & Coins, Card Games, Board & Table Games, Picnic & Garden Games, Children's Fun Book.

The Dragon Magazine, published by TSR. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Classic fantasy RPG magazine. Special features listed by issue.

I will give 10% off these magazines if you buy 10 or more issues.

Issue 60, 1982. Good. £1.25: Fight of the Boodles (no longer included), Feature on Elves (The Elven point of view, Elven Gods, D&D rulings, Half Elves), More Cantrips, Early Firearms, Wear Wolf (Fiction), Physics in D&D - Quiz, The Jester Character Class, Midgets, Artist Focus: Phil Foglio, Bestiary, Outfitting Your Top Secret Agent, Trojan War Scenarios, Creature Focus: Pooka, Alignment, Spawn of Fashan review.

Issue 68, 1982. Good. £1.25: Featured creatures (fungoids), Two Handed Fighting style, Barbarian Prince variants, Adventuring in an Ice Age, New High Level Spells, The Cloistered Cleric, Water Monster Tables, A Weather System for Greyhawk (including a foldout GM screen), Greyhawk Deities & Demigods, Games reviews, Using Ability Scores, SF & Fantasy Books reviewed.

Issue 76, 1983. Excellent. £1.25: Ecology of the Beholder, The Nine Hells Part II, Saved By The Cavalry (Boot Hill), The Death Master NPC, Game Reviews, and more.

Issue 114, 1986. Good. £1.25: Witches (new class revised and updated), Cemetery encounters, Elven cavaliers, Different types of money, Ecology of the Remorhaz, Character generation, Level training, Espionage in Top Secret RPG, Technology in an AD&D game, and the regular columns.

Issue 115, 1986. Good, but cover taped. £1: Thieves Special Issue (inc. Thieves Guilds, an adventure, new rules, Thieves Tools & more), Weapons for Clerics, Adding variety to snakes, Magical Harps, Deadly Things Underfoot, Ecology of the Harpy, Elven & Dwarven Armies, Creative Door Design, Top Secret RPG advice, + the regular columns.

Issue 120, 1987. Good. £1.25: Spells For Everyone Pt II, Verbal Repartee for Jesters, Ecology of the Picklebug, Dining Out in the Hells, Nonstandard Magic Items, Urban Blight Made Easy, The Charlatan (Character Class), More Magic Rings, Ecology of the Gas Spore, New Druid Spells, Outer Planes, Dragon Meat (story), Spies In Space (Top Secret and Traveller), and more.

Issue 127, 1987. Excellent. £1.25: Main feature: Fighters (4 Fighters from Mythology, Combat Manoeuvers, Arcane Bows & Bolts, Sword lengths by race, Shields, Battlesytem, 20 new martial arts styles for Oriental Adventures), Reviews, Ecology of the Yeti, and more.

Issue 128, 1987. Good. £1.25: King's Table (=The Viking Game - rules and variations etc), Waterdeep environs, Illusions, Reviews, The Spirit Way (story), Wuasi Elementals, Helicopters in Top Secret, + regular columns.

Issue 129, 1988. Good. £1.25: Demi humans special (New dwarven clerical spells, the drow viewpoint, elven intelligence, halflings, from drow to drider), Runequest spells, Ice elementals, The Old Ways Are Best (story), Gnome cities, Star Frontiers Armour, Forgotten Realms Setting reviewed, + regular columns.

Issue 131, 1988. Excellent. £1.25: Main feature: The Underdark (Cavern & Tunnel creation system, Svirfneblin's point of view, Ecology of the Aboleth, Mountain Dwarf Heroes, Ecology of the Hook Horror, The Chasm Bridge - adventure), Illusions, Mutations Unlimited, Reviews, + regular columns.

Issue 132, 1988. Good. £1: The Orcwars board and counter sheets are missing. Classic fantasy RPG magazine. This issue: Orcwars - standalone board game, The Chainsword, Reviews, Dreams Coming True, Runequest Sorcery, Traps, Probability Tables, Out of Hand (story), Ecology of the Aurumvorax, New Druid Spells, DC Heroes Limitations, Star Frontiers Ship building, + regular articles.

Issue 138, 1988. Good. £1: Special feature: Haloween Special (Call of Cthulhu - New Items, New types of undead, Systematic Insanity, Plague & Your Campaign), Top Secret: Lasers, Between Thunder & Lightning (story), Reviews, + the regular columns.

Issue 139, 1988. Good. £1: Special feature: Wizards (Four Legendary Mages, A Wizard's Guild, Powerful Tomes), A Guide to DC Heroes, Call of Cthulhu - Speaking With The Spirits, Dangerous Golems, The Visitior (story), Improving the Druid, Origins 1988 Awards, Martial Arts in Oriental Adventures, Fast Feet for Star Frontiers, Forgotten Realms Fauna, Ecology of the Spectator, Top Secret: Coups, + regular columns.

Issue 140, 1989. Good. £1: Special feature: Gods & Priests (The Savant - new class, Putting together a Pantheon, Clerical Healing, Turning Undead), Limiting Specialization, Character Generation, Flesh & Blood (story), Handheld weapons, New Forgotten Realms monsters, Reviews, + the regular columns.

Issue 146, 1989. Good. £1: Special feature: Dragons (Dragon Familiars, New Dragons, Ecology of Dragons), 13 Years of The Dragon, The Ever After (story). Oriental Adventures: Arrows, Wish Carefully, + regular columns.

Issue 148, 1989. Good. £1: The deck of many things insert is missing. Special feature: Ways Of The Warrior (Armour, Barbarians, Making Paladins Unique, A corrected Cavalier class), Wizardly Curing, The Deck Of Many Things (story), Reviews, D&D Gazetteers, Top Secret: Mines, + regular columns.

Issue 150, 1989. Good. £1: Special feature: Horror (Realms of the Mind Flayers, The Vampire Updated, Call of Cthulu Investigator Skills), Death in Marvel Super Heroes, The Serpent of Aledorn (story), Top Secret - Dark Secrets, FASA's Star Trek Campaigns, Libraries in Call of Cthulhu, + regular columns.

Issue 151, 1989. Excellent. £1: Special feature: Oriental Adventures (Ecology of the Kappa, Soldiers of the Law, Earning Heirlooms, The Wang Liang, Ecology of the Yuan-ti), Reviews, Top Secret Close Quarters, 1989 Gamers Choice Awards, + regular columns.

Issue 153, 1990. Magazine. Excellent. £1: Special feature: The Gods (What to Deities want?, Above The Gods, Using the Greek Pantheon), Firebearer (story), Ecology of the Manticore, Spelljammer Proficiencies, Issues for Spies, + regular columns.

Issue 154, 1990. Good. £1: Special feature: Making War (Warrior Kings & Empire Builders, Making Paladins, Heraldry, In The Army, Knowing When Not To Fight), Reviews, Raistlin & the Knight of Solamnia (story), Secret Identities in Superhero games, + the regular columns.

Issue 154, 1990. Excellent. £1: Special feature: Making War (Warrior Kings & Empire Builders, Making Paladins, Heraldry, In The Army, Knowing When Not To Fight), Reviews, Raistlin & the Knight of Solamnia (story), Secret Identities in Superhero games, + the regular columns.

Issue 155, 1990. Good. £1: The Realm of Faerie, Wild Elves, Elven Deities, Snow Elves, All the Faerie Folk Listed, Ecology of the Satyr, The Crypt of Istaris (16 page adventure pullout adventure module), Top Secret, Father Dear Father (Fiction), Marvel Superheroes, RPG Reviews, Book Reviews, Macintosh Games, Dragonlance Heroes.

Issue 173, 1991. Good, but cover damaged. £0.75. The cover has a corner ripped off and has been taped. Special feature: Dark Sun (Monstrous PCs, Variable undead, Random Magic), Magic Staves, Neutralising Mages, A Little Knowledge (story), Sociology of the Flind, + regular columns.

Issue 235, 1996. Good. £0.60: The Lure of the Sea - Planescape Skills & Powers, The Shipmage, Monsters of the Deep, Sea Spells, The Troglodyte, Spells of the Scaled!, Physical DMing.

Issue 256, 1999. Good. £0.60: Rogues - Rogue heroes, Hidden agendas, The Lost Giants of Krynn, The Span (fiction), The Weren.

Issue 258, 1999. Good. £0.60: Mage vs Machine, Wizard Societies, Nodwick & Co, Alternity article.

Issue 274, 2000. Excellent. £1: No Bonus CD Rom included. The d20 Core Mechanic, The Mystic (New Class), D&D Movie: Justin Whalin, Legends of Sherwood (Major feature), 12 Secrets To Stay Alive, Plotbending, The Hero With 1d1000 Faces, Power & Glory (story) + all the regular columns.

The INWO Book, published by Steve Jackson Games. 1995. Book. Excellent. £7

Softback, 21x14cm, 152 pages. Book all about INWO (Illuminati The New World Order) the CCG. The book covers: Intro & Game Support, Designer's Schemes, World Domination Handbook (Full rules, Strategy etc), Variants, Optional Rules, Tournaments, Strategy Articles, The Cards - Text and Pictures.

The Motley Fool's Buy Low Sell High, published by Uberplay. ca.2005. Box. In shrink. £18

Very well regarded trading game - a reprint of Palmyra. The players trade in various stocks and shares. The values of shares traded is affected by the amount of trading in that stock producing a clever supply and demand system, and in addition there is interesting card play as the end of a trading year approaches. After three sessions of trading the player with the greatest wealth wins.

The Sicilian Defence: Taimanov System, published by B. T. Batsford. 1989. Book. Excellent. £5

Softback, 22x14cm, 90 pages. Chess book which gives a detailed analysis of the Taimanov variant of the Sicilian Defence family of openings.

The Ultimate Trivia Game, published by Newsweek Magazine. 1984. Box. 1 Box corner split. £1

Promotional game, sold through advertisements in the American magazine Newsweek. Quiz game as you would expect from the title. Questions are divided into several different categories.

Tony & Tino, published by Descartes Editeur. 200. Box. In shrink. £6

Card playing and tile laying game in which the players take the roles of gang leaders in 1930's Chicago, and vie for supremacy on the streets. The board shows a 6x6 grid of spaces and money is put at the end of each row and column. Players play their tiles and cards with the objective of having superior forces on each row or column when it is filled in order to claim the money there. Some of the tiles purely give influence, while others show a character with special rules.

Top Secret, published by Blatz. 1996. Box. Good. £4

Card game, nearly 100 cards in full colour. Players start with identical sets of cards and simultaneously play cards from their hand. The objective is to collect as many secret documents as possible. The cards are: secret documents, assassins, moles and secret agents. They interact in various ways, and to win you will need to outguess your opponents and play the right card at the right time to end up with lots of secret documents.

Totopoly, published by Waddingtons. Several editions available:

1) ca.1949. Box. Box shows wear, 1 corner taped. £10.50. Undated, but I believe it to be the 1949 edition. 1 metal horse has a broken leg, but still stands up. This set comes with a separate board and box of other components.

2) ca.1940. Box & Board. Good. £13.50. Some of the cardboard horses have lost a leg or two through use.
War-time edition. I know this because it originally had metal horses, but during the war metal was at a premium, so they used cardboard horses that slotted onto wooden bases. Actually, the result is very attractive.

3) ca.1940. Box & Board. Excellent for age. £20. War-time edition. I know this because it originally had metal horses, but during the war metal was at a premium, so they used cardboard horses that slotted onto wooden bases. Actually, the result is very attractive.

4) ca.1960. Box. Box fair, but taped. £11.50. Metal horses. Very nice artwork on the lid, and an unusual way of producing the two boards needed for play.

Classic racing game. These editions includes all the cards taken out of the 1980's re-print game when they tried to save money.

Travel The World, published by Early Learning Centre. ca.1995. Box.

Good, but quite large label removal mark. Photocopied rules. £3.

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

Children's game. The set includes rules for four different games, the idea being to use the set as a way to introduce children of age 5-8 to the geography of the world and differences between countries. The main game involves movement around a map of the world, travelling overland, by sea and by air to a series of destinations before returning to your home country. The other games make use of the destination cards and 'postcards' which correspond to the countries named on the destination cards, ie. matching them up in a variety of ways.

Trippples, published by Aladdin. Box. 2 copies available:

1) 1973. Box shows wear. £3 2) 1974. Box. Good. £1.50

Strategy game in which the players must get their pieces to traverse the board to the far corner. However, the board is different each game and is made up of tiles each showing three arrows pointing in one of the 8 compass points. The neat idea is that you can only move in one of the directions under your opponent's piece, and vice versa. The playing pieces are transparent so you can see the arrows underneath easily. First edition by this company.

Trivial Pursuit - Best Of Genus - Electronic Quiz Machine, published by Horn Abbot International. 1998.

Good. £4. Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

This is a hand held electronic gadget with a LCD screen. The gadget has been programmed with a vast number of questions from the Genus edition of Trivial Pursuit. There are 4 quiz games which can be

played: Triv Knockout Multiple Choice / Traditional, Team Play, Just Questions & Answers. The questions are in the traditional Triv categories, but there is no need for a board or playing pieces - just the gadget!

Twilight Struggle, published by GMT Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £36. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Ananda Gupta, Jason Matthews. No. players: 2. Country: American, Duration: 3 hrs. An interesting mixture of American style wargame and a Eurogame. The game is set during the Cold War starting in 1945 and going all the way through to 1989. One player takes the role of the USA and the other the USSR. The game is card driven, with each card having an event (mostly favourable to one side or the other, but sometimes neutral), and a deployment power. Players take it in turn to play cards, and if a friendly card choose either event or deployment points, but if it is an unfriendly card the event must be played in order to use the deployment points. Players vie for control (majority of influence) in countries and continents, with players controlling the timing of scoring rounds. Captures the theme wonderfully.

Twisty Turtle, published by Spears. 1982. Box. Good. £4

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

Well designed race game as players compete to get their turtle shell into the opposite corner. The plastic shell pieces are so designed that when they sit on a square and you can see the feet and head of a turtle underneath, then that tells you the direction you must move next turn, but if you cannot see feet and the head, then you get more choice. A spinner decides movement and it gives you two numbers most times (you choose which one you want to use) or it indicates that a neutral shell should be moved as a blocker and obstacle.

Volley & Thunder, published by Dickens & Greenwood. 1981. Box. Good. £11

Special notes: The board shows some discolouration as does the front cover of the rules booklet. Both still entirely useable though.

Abstract war game, providing a detailed view of Napoleonic tactics. Tiny shaped cardboard counters are used on large squares, so that correct formations can be taken up during the battle. Not a historical simulation, more Chess-like with no dice. The objective is to either eliminate all opposing forces, or occupy the enemy city for 2 turns or block supplies to your opponent's city for 5 turns. Combat is resolved using a chart, and charging, terrain, and fortifications are all taken into consideration. The three base units in use are infantry, cavalry and artillery.

Walhalla, published by Amigo. 2006. Box. Excellent. £17

The players represent tribes of Vikings settling new lands by ship. There are several fjords into which ships can be sailed, and the players take it in turn to send a ship with one or two of their Vikings and one opposing Viking to sea. When landing empty spaces can be taken over easily, but if they have already been claimed one Viking will end up in Valhalla! However, this isn't an entirely bad thing as it brings the favour of the gods, which will help the following turn. When all ships have sailed the land areas are scored in various ways, and the number of each player's Vikings in Valhalla determines the strength of their reinforcement for the next turn. Special action cards add to the variety. Some unusual mechanics and neat ideas.

Watch Your Step, published by Spears. 1984. Box. Good. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: One stair piece missing - a home made replacement supplied. 2 other pieces creased but entirely usable. None of this affects play.

The board shows 6 stairways. The players spin a spinner and place a stair shaped playing piece on to the board, but it must fit with the other pieces already there and also support the feet of 2 people shown on the board. If this is not possible then as a penalty that player must take all the stair pieces on that stairway. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of their stair pieces.

Wiz War, published by Chessex. 1997. Box. Box shows wear. £13

Classic Edition. Classic fantasy board game set in a maze in which each player controls a wizard who needs to obtain two opponent's treasure chests and get them back to his own base. The game uses masses of cards to represent movement ability, assorted useful items and spells which can be cast to help yourself, hinder others or damage / incapacitate enemy wizards. A great beer and pretzels game - play fast and loose and have a lot of fun!

World Traveller, published by Intelligames. 1980. Box. Good. £4

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

Players race their playing pieces across the board which shows a map of the world divided up into squares. Landing on some spaces results in being asked a question from one of the cards, and answering correctly will earn extra movement points. There are easy and difficult questions so the game can be played by adults and children together. There are also some adventure spaces which will send the player to a random location as determined by the adventure card drawn. The first player to get to the far side of the board wins the game.

Zankapfel, published by VSK. 1994. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good, 1 corner split. £8 2) In shrink. £9

Players buy and sell apples for profit. The board shows a price grid around which a marker is moved and this lets players buy and sell four different types of apple, as well as changing the prices of these apple types. Players bid secretly when selling or buying apples and the game uses a card system to resolve conflict in these 'Apple Wars'. Has a giant apple playing piece as the turn marker.

Book Title	Publisher	Author	Year	Type	Size (cm)	Pages	Condition	Price
First Theories Of Hexagonal Chess	Hexagonal Chess Publications	W. Glinski	1974	Soft	21x15	112	Good, but shows a little wear	£5
Modern Bidding Systems In Bridge	Penguin Books	G.C.H. Fox	1973	Hard	23x14	424	Good	£3.50
Indoor Games	Viking Kestrel	Andrew Pennycook	1985	Hard	22x14	215	Good	£3.50
The Card Player's Companion	Treasure Press	Gyles Brandreth	1990	Hard	24x19	192	Excellent	£8
Attacking The Queenside	B.T. Batsford	Boris Shashin	1990	Soft	21x13	109	Excellent	£4
The Acol System Today	Edward Arnold	Terence Reese & Albert Dormer	1961	Hard	22x14	163	Good, but cover slightly discoloured	£2.50
The Greatest Games Of All Time	John Wiley & Sons	Matthew J Costello	1991	Soft	25x18	178	Excellent	£7
The War Game	Adam & Charles Black	Charles Grant	1971	Hard	25x19	191	Good	£15
Attacking The King	B.T. Batsford	Yakov Neishtadt	1991	Soft	21x13	170	Excellent	£5
The Oxford Guide To Card Games	OUP	David Parlett	1990	Hard	24x16	361	Excellent	£15
Playing Cards And Their Story	David & Charles	George Beal	1975	Hard	24x19	120	Good	£4
Advanced Fighting Fantasy: Blacksand!	Puffin	Marc Gascoigne, Pete Tamlyn	1990	Soft	20x13	362	Excellent	£2
History Of Chess	Abbey Library	B.H.Wood, Jerry Gizycki	1977	Hard	27x21	375	Good	£9
Sorcery 1: The Shamutanti Hills	Penguin	Steve Jackson	1983	Soft	20x13	456 paras	Excellent I have the sequels	£4
Sorcery: The Sorcery Spell Book	Penguin	Steve Jackson	1983	Soft	20x13	107	available – just ask. Excellent	£6
Kryomek	Fantasy Forge Publications	J.Grant, J.Robertson, R. Pinto, R. Grant	1991	Soft	30x21	136	Good	£6
The Chess Player 5 - 1973b	Chess Player Ltd	Unknown	1973	Soft	23x17	286	Good	£1
Pastimes For Children	Butterick Publishing Co.	Unknown	1890	Soft	28x21	96	The cover is worn and somewhat discoloured, and two pages have been taped.	£8
Collectible Toys & Games Of The 20s And 30s From Sears Roebuck & Co.	Dover Publications Inc.	James Spero	1988	Soft	30x23	124	Good	£7.50
101 Instant Games	Macdonald Ltd	Eve Harlow	1977	Soft	25x23	64	Good	£4
The New Games Book	Sidgwick & Jackson	Andrew Fluegelman	1978	Soft	23x21	192	Good	£5
Chess Informant 31 1981	Centar Za Unapredivanje	Aleksandar Matanovic	1981	Soft	24x17	336	Good	£3
Toys Of The Sixties - A Pictorial Guide	Cap'n Penny Productions	Bill Bruegman	1992	Soft	28x22	206	Excellent	£15
UK Militaria Directory & Sourcebook	Windrow & Greene's	Alan Greene, Windrow	1992	Soft	30x21	94	Excellent	£2.50
Party Lines	Oldbourne	Robert Harbin	1963	Hard	25x20	154	Good, dustcover slightly discoloured	£8

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MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Book Title

Publisher

Author

Year

Type

Size (cm)

Pages

Condition

Price

First Theories Of Hexagonal Chess

Hexagonal Chess Publications

W. Glinski

1974

Soft

21x15

112

Good, but shows a little wear

£5

Modern Bidding Systems In Bridge

Penguin Books

G.C.H. Fox

1973

Hard

23x14

424

Good

£3.50

Indoor Games

Viking Kestrel

Andrew Pennycook

1985

Hard

22x14

215

Good

£3.50

The Card Player's Companion

Treasure Press

Gyles Brandreth

1990

Hard

24x19

192

Attacking The Queenside

B.T. Batsford

Boris Shashin

1990

Soft

21x13

109

Excellent

£4

The Acol System Today

Edward Arnold

Terence Reese & Albert Dormer

1961

Hard

22x14

163

Good, but cover slightly discoloured

£2.50

The Greatest Games Of All Time

John Wiley & Sons

Matthew J Costello

1991

Soft

25x18

178

Excellent

£7

The War Game

Adam & Charles Black

Charles Grant

1971

Hard

25x19

191

Good

£15

Excellent
I have the sequels

available – just ask.
Excellent