Jun 2008 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Jun 2008 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?

1861: Railways Of The Russian Empire, published by JKLM. 2006. Box. In shrink. £34

18XX Railway game set in the Russian Empire. In this game there are 16 minor companies which are put up for auction during stock rounds. Minor companies get the opportunity to merge or convert into major companies. There is also a non-player controlled government railway - the Moscow - St Petersberg line. Amusingly players are competing to be 'the first against the wall when the Revolution comes'!

3 Up, published by Airfix. 1971. Box. Box shows wear, contents still sealed. £1.75

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

Players take turns placing their pieces onto the board with the objective of completing a stack of three pieces of their colour. As well as placing a piece, one of your pieces may be moved each turn as long as it is on the top of a stack.

6 Mal 6, published by ASS. ca.1970. Box. Good. £1.50

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

Cards are played in your row on the board and when the board is full columns are reckoned up - the lowest value in the row having to pay penalty chits.

Ace Handicap Golf, published by EMS Home Products Ltd. 1975. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: Box colour is faded along two sides, and the base is indented.

Golf game with two large boards, and fairly simple rules which use a chart to indicate the distance and direction of each shot. However, most unusually a 14 sided dice is used to determine the result of each shot, with the sides having various letters on them which refer to the entries in the charts. The game is recommended by Tony Jacklin, who is pictured on the box.

Ad Acta, published by Bewitched. 2002. Box. New. £14

Unusual game about getting paperwork done in an office. Despite the dull theme, there is a clever and interesting game here. Players each have a selection of jobs which need completing, but the value once completed depends entirely on getting them completed at the right time. Jobs pass from one person's out-tray to the next person's in-tray and so on, and on your turn you can use your action points to do your own work or hassle others into doing theirs - whatever helps your cause. Also special action cards let you get out of a real mess or cause one for someone else!

Advance To Marble Arch, published by Parker. 1985. Box. Good. £4

Property development game. There are 4 regions on the board each with 6 property spaces and a title deed for each. On your turn you get some money to spend in a particular region and this can be split amongst the properties as you wish. Each time you buy a share in a property you place a stackable piece there, and whoever has the most pieces there gets the title deed. Thus you have to decide who to compete with and where. Special cards allow rule breaking moves which can swing things in your favour, but it often takes a turn to get a new one. A fun light business game.

Age Of Discovery, published by Mayfair Games. 2007. Box. In shrink. £17

Interesting card based game with a theme of exploring and colonising the New World. Players use their limited funds to finance trade missions to earn more money which can then be spent to buy ships which can then be used on more trade missions or can be sent out to colonise the New World. Only colonisation brings the players victory points, but correctly getting the balance between earning money and earning victory points requires care. Recommended.

Alice In Wonderland, published by Spears. 1973. Box. 1 Box corner split. £0.75

Children's game (age 6+) using very traditional ‘Alice’ graphics. Includes a short synopsis of the Alice adventures to ‘set the scene’. The game itself is a roll the dice and move the dobber affair but with the twist that each character (player) can be big or small. While big the player moves forwards, and when small moves backwards. A 1 makes you small and a 6 makes you big again. There are also some special spaces which have a variety of effects.

Ancient Wargaming, published by Airfix. 1975. Book. Good. £5

Hardback, 22x14cm, 64 pages. Airfix Magazine Guide Number 9, one of a series of books detailing miniatures rules, stratagems and tips. The book includes many illustrations and photographs. The chapters cover: Troop types, Weapons & equipment; Formation and drill; Tactical Precepts; How Ancients Wargaming began; W.R.G rules; Choosing your army; Raising an army; Tactics on the table; Campaigns, Reconstructions and fantasy gaming.

Aqua Romana, published by Queen Games. Box. In shrink. £18

Tile placement game in which the players build aquaducts from reservoirs across the board with the objective of making their aquaducts as long as possible. However, it is not possible to place tiles anywhere, instead there are construction teams which move around the edge of the board and can only be used in the row or column they are currently in, before they move on. Thus there are plenty of tactical decisions to make as you need to manage the consturction teams as well as the aquaducts themselves. On the 2006 Spiel des Jahres nomination list. I feel it plays especially well with 3.

Architekton, published by Queen Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £9.50

Tile laying game in which players play building tiles and countryside tiles with various landscape features. Tiles need not match those adjacent to them, but whenever a building tile is placed a building of your colour must be added, and when a building is surrounded you are penalised for every non matching adjacent tile. Also players try to keep their buildings in a large single cluster as this scores highly at the end of the game. There are some interesting choices to be made and you can decide to be aggressive or defensive - there is a time for both.

Ark, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £9.50

Card game with the usual excellent Doris Matthaeus graphics. The theme is Noah's ark and players take it in turns to add in animals to the ark. This is done by playing cards which show the animals with symbols to indicate characteristics such as size, carnivore / herbivore, shyness, slowness or misc special abilities. The ark is divided into two halves and care must be taken not to overbalance it. Also no harm must come to any of the animals or provisions, so there are quite a few restrictions on what can be played where eg. only one carnivore per compartment, and it must be the smallest of the animals there. Shy animals won't even go into a compartment next to one with a carnivore in!

Arkham Horror, published by Fantasy Flight Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £29

A rework of the classic Lovecraft based board game. This edition is wonderfully produced with a big board showing sites in and around Arkham, as well as over 350 cards with assorted events, monsters, items etc which the investigators can encounter. The objective is to obtain equipment and knowledge in order to close the gates to realms of terror which are popping up around Arkham. The game is cooperative in that the players can all win or all lose, but each investigator can do their own thing. Eventually if the gates are not stopped, one of several ultimate evils will rise and unless the investigators can pull off a miracle Arkham is doomed!

Arkham Horror Dunwich Horror, published by Fantasy Flight. 2006. Box. In shrink. £25

Expansion for Fantasy Flight's edition of Arkham Horror, which you will need to make use of this set. Dunwich is now included on an additional map, and the Dunwich Horror must also be dealt with. New concepts include gate bursts, madness and injury cards, tasks and missions. Also included are new investigators, new Ancient Ones (if that isn't a contradiction), lots of new items, skills and encounter cards. Over 300+ cards to add to keep the game fresh.

Arne, published by Lauwers Games. 2002. Box. In shrink. £0.75

Family card game in which players can play cards of their colour in front of them to score points, or other cards to perform special actions such as taking a card from another player's hand or cancelling a scoring card a player has laid down. Some cards can even be played out of turn.

Astoria, published by Role Et Strategie Editions. 2006. Box. Excellent. £26

Beautifully produced game which comes in a wooden chest, and inside are 4 glass flasks with stoppers, two cloth boards, and 60 large glass gems. The rules cover two separate games, both of which are driven by cards. The first game is mainly for 4 players playing as partners, and the players add, and move gems onto the board trying to form patterns so they can claim artifact cards which give control over the gems. In the second game players are assigned sides secretly in a war to control the kingdom, and the players vie to tip the war their way without making it too obvious.

Auction Piquet, published by Methuen & Co. 1920. Book. Good. £5

Hardback, 17x11cm, 119 pages. A detailed description and analysis of Auction Piquet, which the author regards as a very fine two player card game. The book is divided as follows: Laws of the Game, Intro, Calculating Chances, Bidding, The Discard, The Declaration, Playing the Cards.

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

1) 2 box corners split. £4.50 2) Good, box shows some wear. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-6. Country: Germany, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

An interesting mix of game types - this is both an abstract game and also a falling marble action game! There are a series of slots down which marbles can roll and either get halted or diverted by clever rotating diverters. The object depends on which game variant you play, but essentially you are trying to get some colours of marble to fall out of the mechanism while hoping others don't. With some experience much of what happens when a marble is entered can be calculated in advance, but it is easy to get it wrong, and the system isn't entirely deterministic.

Balancing Board Game, published by Gazebo Games. ca.1995. Box. Good. £6.50

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

The game consists of a wooden balancing disk which is suspended from a wooden 'gallows'. Players roll coloured dice and must add the indicated wooden weights to the disk without making it topple. Points are scored for successfully doing this, more points for larger weights. Upsetting the balance gets you a score of 0 that round.

Basic Acol, published by Unwin. 1981. Book. Good. £1.75

Softback, 19x13cm, 112 pages. 4th edition. Bridge book describing the Acol bidding system using 44 tables. The idea is that this can be used as a quick reference or reminder for the entire Acol system. While learning Acol from scratch from this book is entirely possible, it is not really what it is intended for - better is to use another book to learn from and then use this as a quick reference.

Battlefield: Europe, published by GDW. 1990. Box. Good. £5

This game provides 15 hypothetical scenarios in which war might have broken out in Europe after the end of the Cold War. The basic rules are just 4 pages long and allow you to play several of the scenarios. There is also a Battle Manual which goes into detail about the political situation behind the scenarios, adds advanced rules and details the armies of the various European countries. Approximately 700 counters included.

Beginners' Guide To Strategy Gaming, published by Fire & Movement. 1986. Magazine.

Cover good, game unpunched. £4. Designed by Rodger MacGowan, Jay C. Selover. No. players: 2.

Country: Amercian, Desc. by Andy.

Softback, 28x22cm, 64 pages. A special magazine produced by Fire & Movement intended to act as an introduction to the board wargame hobby. Also included is a pull out and play game: Battle For Moscow developed by GDW as an introductory game covering the German attempt to capture Moscow in 1941. Other articles include: Welcome to Strategy Gaming, The Basics, An Intro to Gamespeak, Notes on Solitaire Play, Multi-player Grand Strategy Games, Computer Wargaming, Naval Supremacy, Principles of War, A Beginner's Wargame Library, Where Do I Go From Here ?

Beginners' Guide To Wargaming, published by Patrick Stephens. 1987. Book. Excellent. £5

Softback, 20x13cm, 136 pages. This book focuses on wargames with miniatures and there are many black and white photographs to illustrate the topics described. The book is divided as follows: Intro, Land Warfare, Armoured Warfare, Naval Warfare, Aerial Warfare, Fantasy & Other Games. The book also includes ready to use rules for your own battles.

Bolide, published by Gnenos Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £23

Motor racing game which uses a vector movement system - each turn you can slightly adjust your vector from your previous vector, which means you can build up great speed on the straights but must slow down gradually in time for tight bends. The game also includes rules for tyre wear and coming off the main track as well as pitting in multiple lap races. Advanced rules permit slipstreaming, collisions etc. There are 2 race tracks provided for variety.

Brain Games, published by Penguin Books. 1982. Book. Excellent. £2.50

Softback, 18x11cm, 202 pages. Subtitled: The World's Best Games For Two. This book presents the rules and some of the strategy for the following classic and proprietary games: Backgammon, Bezique, Black Box, Chess, Cribbage, Draughts, Fanorona, Footsteps, Gin Rummy, Go, Golomb's Game, Hex, Hexagonal Chess, Labyrinth, Lasca, L Game, Mancala, Master Mind, Napoleon At Waterloo, Nine Men's Morris, Piquet, Progressive Chess, Renju, Reversi, Scrabble, Shogi, Sprouts, Star Chess, Tablut, War In Europe, Word Squares, Xiangqi.

Bridge Is An Easy Game, published by Frederick Muller Ltd. 1952. Book.

Good, but dustcover somewhat damaged. £4. Designed by Iain Macleod. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Hardback with dustcover, 22x14cm, 244 pages. A detailed exposition of the ACOL system by one of the members of the team that developed it. The book covers: Bidding (Conventions; Opening Bid of 1; No trumps; Forcing Bids; Slam Bids; Responding to the bid of 1; Trial Bids; Competitive Bidding; Technique in Rubber & Duplicate; Luck & Odds; Becoming an Expert), Play (Theory & Practice of Opening Leads; Planning the Play; Defensive Play; Safety & Deception; End Game), ACOL In Action (Summary, The Odds, Bidding Sequences).

British Towns, published by Pepys. ca.1960. Box. Good. £2

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

Card game, with 44 cards featuring colour drawings of famous settings in 29 British Towns. The various towns and cities are divided up into 9 sets by region. Rules to a couple of different set collecting games are included, one being a rummy variant and the other a Go Fish style of game. The rules booklet also lists the populations of the depicted towns and cities, and gives a little information about each place.

Buck Rogers Battle For The 25th Century Game, published by TSR. 1988. Box. 2 copies:

1) Good. £14. The box is slightly indented due to stacking

2) Fair. £9. Box is whole, but 1 end panel of the box and base has had a large chunk out of it. The box still closes properly though.

Huge sci-fi multiplayer wargame with hundreds of plastic spaceships, influenced by the style of the MB Gamesmaster Series. Players are factions fighting for control of the Solar System. The large board shows the Solar System's 4 inner planets and 9 large asteroids and various satellites, as well as various territorial displays. Each player has a variety of forces to build using factories and in order to get to other planets efficiently you need to plan ahead to use their conjunctions effectively.

By Jove, published by Aristoplay. ca.1980. Box. Good. £2

Family game very much influenced by Monopoly (track on outside of board around which players travel, pay gold to a player who owns a Hero space, various ways to Go To Hades, etc), but with a number of different ideas thrown in as well, such as god spaces offering protection on your next roll, but objecting to doubles. Very attractive board. The game also includes a book giving a brief account of various classic myths written by Zibby Oneal.

Calypso Complete, published by Rockliff. 1954. Book. Good, but dustcover shows wear. £3

Hardback with dustcover, 19x13cm, 80 pages. Rules and a walkthrough of the card game Calypso along with tactical options and expert advice. Calypso is a cross between Canasta and Bridge, being played in tricks, generally as a four player partnership game, but can also be played as a non partnership game and with just three players. It is played with 4 regular decks of cards and one game lasts about 20 mins. One neat idea in the game is that each player has their own personal trump suit.

Capt'n Clever, published by Zoch zum Spiele. 2003. Box. In shrink. £6

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

Card & Table Games, published by George Routledge & Sons. 1898. Book. Good. £21

Hardback, 21x15cm, 650 pages. Second edition - enlarged. An excellent attempt to collect together rules for card & table games of the time, and with contributions from many experts. The book covers the following: All Fours, Baccarat, Bezique, Blind Hockey, Boston, Brag, Cassino, Catch The Ten, Commerce, Cribbage, Ecarte, Euchre, Faro, Hearts & Heartsette, Lansquenet, Loo, Napoleon, Newmarket, Ombre, Patience (x18), Piquet, Poker, Pope Joan, Quinze, Ranter Go Round, Rouge Et Noire, Slobberhannes. Solo, Speculation, Spinado, Spoil Five, Thirty One, Vingt-Un, Whist, Bridge, Backgammon, Bagatelle, Billiards, Chess (130 pgs), Dominoes, Draughts, Go-Bang, Halma, Morelles, Reversi, Roulette.

Catan Histories: Struggle For Rome, published by Mayfair Games. 2006. Box. Excellent. £25

Settlers of Catan based game, but with lots of new ideas making this very different, and well worth trying for fans of the series. In this game the players each have two Germanic tribes which can roam Europe looking for prime locations to gain resources from and weak looking cities to plunder. Eventually it will be worthwhile for these tribes to settle and build their own kingdoms, which will provide greater victory points though less flexibility. Once settled tribes can only expand outwards from their current cities in a somewhat limiting way. First to 10 VPs inherits the glory of Rome. Nicely produced with lots of plastic miniatures.

Cinema, published by Fun Connection. ca.1995. Box. Good. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4+. Country: German, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Game in which players use their knowledge of films to win the game. Players have partners, and a card showing a scene from a film is turned up and the players all write down anything they can think of connected to that scene. Each association made by both players in a team scores a point. The reverse of the cards show the name of a film, along with the year and main star. Sometime these are used instead to make connections. A sand-timer is used to indicate when the time is up for each round.

Citytech, published by FASA. 1986. Box. Good. £8. Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box good, but very slightly indented, and with a label removal mark on the lid. Counter sheets unpunched.

Standalone game, set in the world of Battletech. This game uses the base rules from Battletech (which are included) and adds to the rules for urban battles, such as how your mechs can make use of buildings. Essentially, this is still a mech vs mech battle game. The set includes: rules inc. stats for lots of mechs, card playing pieces and stands, and a map on which to play.

Cloak & Dagger, published by Ideal. 1984. Box. Box corners taped. £6.50

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

Special notes: Box lid slightly indented due to stacking

Espionage board game which shares some similarities with role-playing games. Players act as master spies and try to be the first to create a network of spies, all belonging to one secret organisation. Each spy works for two organisations at the same time and each has a different strength. The board shows a map of the world with various routes using different modes of transport marked on it. Your main character has three different attributes (strength, speed and agility), and you can choose which will be your forte. In their job the master spies will encounter traps and challenges, and may also get the help of Jack Flack, another master spy. The game uses a special Spymaster Wheel and a d12 to resolve such encounters.

Collect, published by Stanley Gibbons. 1972. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £2. 1 of the 'cancellation' squares was missing and has been replaced with a different but suitable piece - this does not affect play.

2) Good, but 1 corner taped. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Game published by Stanley Gibbons, a world famous dealer in postage stamp collections. The board shows a 6x6 grid of spaces showing various instructions, and the cards show various collectible stamps. Players start with 5 stamps each and can swap stamps with the bank. Dice are rolled and give a choice of actions which can be performed. In addition some of the spaces on the board can be covered up and nullified by the players during the game. The objective is to obtain a winning collection of stamp cards through buying, selling, swapping and even forging your stamps!

Compatibility, published by Reiss Games Inc. 1974. Box. 2 copies available:

1) 1 box corner split. £3 2) Good. £4

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

Couples play as teams, and both have to indicate on a dial how much they agree / disagree or how tense a situation would make them and also guess at the answer their partner would give. The better the partners predict each other the more points they score. Questions come in 6 categories: General Issues, Children, Work, Entertainment, Domestic Issues and Sex.

Cops And Robbers, published by A & C Black Ltd. 1979. Book. Good. £4

Spiralbound book with thick card pages, 31x21cm, 26 pages, and each page having the rules to a different game and a diagram on which to play it. Pop out playing pieces supplied. The book contains the rules and boards for 24 two player games. All are simple in terms of the rules, but not necessarily simple to master. The games are all abstract in nature, many to do with strategic positioning on a board or taking it in turn to remove / place pieces with assorted twists. Most of the games are playable in a very few minutes, with the remainder being perhaps 20 minutes to play. If you like these types of games at all then this book is very worth investigating.

Cul-De-Sac, published by Lazy Days. 1975. Box. Good. £9

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

Clever abstract game, but highly approachable for those not generally fond of that genre (eg. me). Players must reach each other’s starting positions, but as well as moving their pieces players also place walls in places which will block their opponent more than they block themselves. However, a wall may never be placed so as to make a goal unreachable. This allows a quite cunning maze to be built up and clever play will certainly decide the winner. Recommended.

Dancing Dice, published by Da Vinci Games. 2004. Box. In shrink. £18

Dice game in which the players are taking part in a dancing marathon. The dice are rolled and arranged into two sequences of 3 dice, with one reroll allowed. The various 3-dice combinations are ranked and given dance names. When everyone has arranged their dice the dances are compared and players with less impressive dances move down the rating track. Some dance combinations give special advantages too.

Das Ende Des Triumvirats, published by Lookout Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £19

Special notes: Includes colour printed and laminated summary sheets and special action cards.

The players take on the roles of the three leaders of Rome: Julius Caesar, Cassius & Pompeius, but after a disagreement they split up and try to wrest power for themselves alone. Each starts controlling five provinces with access to legions and income. Victory can be won by being elected Consul twice, by proving your 'compentences' or by force: controlling 9 regions. Each turn some regions generate legions and income, but to make use of these the leader needs to be moved to that region. Clever ideas, good mechanics and interesting game play.

Delta Force, published by Peter Pan. 1988. Box. Good. £0.50

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

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

Der Herr Der Ringe - Die Ruckkehr Des Konigs, published by Kosmos. 2003. Box. Mint - still in shrink. £13

Lord of the Rings Film (Part 3) tie in game. The players together try to defeat Sauron. If Sauron is defeated the players count VPs to decide a winner. A round consists of first army buildup and then movement and fighting. Army buildup involves receiving new army, hero and action cards. Pieces are then moved to engage the enemy - winning a battle gains VPs and allows the battle to continue. The game ends if the player armies can breach the Black Gate or if Frodo and Sam reach mount doom, but only if they beat Gollum to it!

Deutschlandreise, published by Ravensburger. 1977. Box. Box base edges damaged and taped up. £1.50

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

Popular German family game. Players race round Germany to visit 6 different places as dictated by the six cards dealt out at the start. Cards and rules in multi-language style, including English. Essentially a route planning game - movement along roads is by rolling the dice and moving, but it is also possible to travel by plane between major cities. Event cards can also be used to add variety to the game.

Diabolo, published by Klee. 1999. Box. Good. £3.50

Card game, 66 letter cards and 6 victory tiles. Players compete to form words with cards that are common to all players, i.e. it is a race against time as the competition can get pretty fierce. The Victory tiles allow for a longer, more strategic game.

Do Not Pass Go, published by Vintage. 2003. Book. Good. £2

Softback, 19x13cm, 340 pages. Not strictly a book about games, instead this book takes an intriguing and humourous look at the parts of London mentioned on the British Monopoly board - from Old Kent Road to Mayfair. The book is essentially light and humourous reading full of amusing anecdotes, but will also inform you about Monopoly and London as you read.

Dragon Lairds, published by Margaret Weis Productions. 2008. Box. In shrink. £21

A sort of fantasy St Petersburg. Players invest their money in commoners, resources, lairds and havoc cards. These can earn more money or VPs. Havoc cards allow you to mess with other players, but must be paid for in VPs. Each player also starts as the king or queen of a particular dragon tribe, and gets different benefits, including it being cheaper and sometimes more effective to purchase cards of that tribe than those of rival tribes. Ultimately the player who earns more VPs is the winner. Uses Tom Wham's distinctive comic graphic style.

Droids, published by Euro Games. 1991. Box. Good. £16

Entertaining game of robotic warfare. Wonderful plastic robots move around a changing arena, chasing or avoiding their enemies. Players program and pilot their robot around the arena by placing programme tiles on to their orders board. Only good programming and the ability to anticipate the orders of other players will enable you to be the last robot standing. The rules also include different 'missions' to add variety to the game.

Dune, published by Avalon Hill. 1979. Box. Good, but box back shows wear. £45

Classic multi-player game of battle and trading. First edition, with the Sandworm on the cover. Based on Frank Herbert's epic Science Fiction novel and designed by the Eon team that brought us Cosmic Encounter etc. The game is about a struggle to control spice production on the deadly planet Dune. Players control armies and have leaders, which do their best to secure the important locations on the world and dominate spice production. However, one of each player's leaders is a traitor and each side has different special abilities as well.

Entenrallye, published by Walter Muller. 1991. Box. Excellent. £13

Race game illustrated with the designer's own distinctive graphics. Players race Citroen 2CV’s (called ‘Ducks’ in Germany). The race game is quite unique. As you proceed, you enter mini-rallies, must ‘buy’ spare body parts, and can decide to take shortcuts (or not). All this against a game ‘clock’ that ticks by as you play. Wooden cars and pieces, and uses 48 2CV car 'section' cards.

Euphrat Und Tigris - Wettstreit Der Konige, published by Hans Im Gluck. 2005. Box. Good. £10

Card game version of the excellent tile laying game Euphrat & Tigris. Players place leaders of four types into kingdoms and play cards into the kingdoms in order to claim victory points, and build ships which generate more victory points for leaders of the corresponding colours. Players must ensure they get a balance of victory points in all four colours as only their lowest scoring colour counts at the end of the game.

Festival, published by Grimpeur Brand. 2007. Box. In shrink. £11

Card drafting and set collecting card game. Each round the players get to draft a single card and then place it face up or face down in front of them. Playing a card face up means you get a better chance for a good selection next turn, but you also are revealing what you are collecting. When all cards are drafted players score for the best and second best collection in each suit, as well as getting a bonus according to the number of suits they have collected. The graphics are very Japanese in style.

Fire & Axe, published by Asmodee Editions. ca.2007. Box. In shrink. £26

Revised edition of the Ragnar Brothers' Viking Fury. Game that spans the time of the Viking Sagas. The Norsemen raid, trade and settle the known and unknown territories of the northern hemisphere, with the objective of accumulating the most gold. There are lots of different ways to gain victory points but working out which will be more efficient in your situation, and when you should interfere with other players makes it interesting. This edition has a large mounted full colour map board, lots of plastic miniature vikings, town and longboats. No tea towels here!

Flutter, published by Spears. 1986. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-8. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box lid shows wear - 3 corners and 1 edge taped

Players start with £300 and the objective is to double it. There are 6 companies to invest in but only one share certificate per player in the game for each company. The board shows the price of shares and is also used to show how the companies are doing this quarter. On a player's turn, first shares are bought and sold and then the dice are thrown - one to indicate the company and the other (1-6) indicates how well that company is doing this quarter (ie. this is not a share price change). Share prices only change when one of the progress markers hits the top of the board, and then the further up the board a company's progress marker the better its shares will do. An interesting mechanic and a game with both luck and skill involved. 2nd Edition

Frog Juice, published by Gamewright. 1995. Box. New. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 25 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Card game, with players competing to collect concoction and power cards. The concoctions form magic spells, and consist of items like bats, newts, toads and unicorn horns. These ingredients need to be played to complete the recipes. Simple game, with a fun theme and nicely produced cards.

Galaxy The Dark Ages, published by GMT. 2000. Box. Good. £9

Science fiction themed card game. There are eight races, each inhabitants of a different world. They are engaged in a conflict for supremacy, from which only three will survive. There are 5 rounds and at the end of each round one race surrenders. This is the update of Reiner's very popular Titan: The Arena, with some additional special abilities and combat. Essentially the players play valuable space stations on each world and then work to eliminate worlds on which they have no bases.

Game, Set & Match, published by Waddingtons. 1982. Box. Good. £1

Tennis card game. A promotional game made for Robinson’s Barley Water, who used to be the sponsors for Wimbledon. A neat fold-up board with net shows four regions in each court, and players have a hand of cards. The serve is resolved using a dice, and then following shots are played with cards: the cards have a receiving area which must match where the ball is, and a destination which is where the ball is returned to, along with a description of the shot. Thus it is really a simple hand management game. Includes rules for doubles as well.

Gamers Alliance - Batch of 31, published by H.M. Levy. Booklet. Good. £50

31 sixteen page 28x21cm booklets. Covers Fall 1986 - Winter 1997 issues of this quarterly magazine. The magazine covers board games, as well as some war games and some role playing games, and provides reviews of many items each issue as well as the author's insights into the games industry at the time of writing. The magazine also ran a Sid Sackson Says column, in which Sid wrote about games he had recently encountered. The magazine was originally priced at $6.95 per issue (post paid).

Games Of Patience With Illustrations 1st Series, published by L. Upcott Gill. ca.1885. Book. 2 copies:

1) Considerable wear, OK inside. £4. Much of the spine is missing, but the pages are sewn together so the book is whole

2) Spine taped, part of back cover missing. £5

Softback, 18x12cm, 93 pages. A collection of 42 games of patience. Also includes a fascinating list of other books available at the time.

Games Of Patience With Illustrations 2nd Series, published by L. Upcott Gill. 1890. Book.

Outer spine partial worn away. £6. Designed by M. Whitmore Jones. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Good inside

Softback, 18x12cm, 88 pages. A collection of 35 games of patience - a different selection to those in the 1st series.

Genius, published by Games Team Ltd. 1988. Box. Excellent. £4

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

Although this is a general knowledge game based on the Guinness Book Of Records, it has some interesting features, such as a quite thick book containing about 100 full colour pictures all of which are quite stunning in their own way. As well as normal questions from a card sometimes questions are asked about these amazing pictures.

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

1) Good. £7 2) Excellent. £8

This is the precursor to the very popular Titan: The Arena, but this time the theme is horse racing. The idea is that initially there are 8 horses but one will fall at each fence leaving 3 only at the end. Players make bets on which will make it to the end but the earlier bets are worth more, and card play determines which horse will fall at each stage. This is a simpler game than Titan: The Arena, but has the same basic mechanics.

Gumshoe, published by Sleuth. 1986. Box. Good. £15

A very nice deduction game from the makers of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. The setting is a Bogart-style world of Hollywood private detectives. Game play is similar in style to Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, in that the player (or players) plan their moves and then get to read what they find out. There is also lots of background information to browse to get extra information which will be very helpful to solving the mysteries. The set includes: lab reports booklet, main clue book, area and city maps, 9 newspapers, autopsy report booklet, telephone directories, mugshot booklet, and a fingerprint file. An amazing amount of detail!

Haselwurz Und Baerenklau, published by Murmel. 2005. Box. New. £18

Ecologically themed board game. As the game progresses players build up the playing area using terrain hexes of 7 different types. A selection of cards showing rare wildlife and the habitat required to find it are available to be claimed. In order to claim them there are requirements for the types of terrain which must be adjacent, and you must move your pixie to such a location. Movement is clever - there are four methods and all four must be used before any may be reused - unless a turn is skipped. Making effective use of these movement methods requires careful planning. Recommended.

Himalaya 5&6 Player Expansion, published by Tilsit Editions. 2006. Box. In shrink. £14

Expansion for the excellent trading game Himalaya. This expansion lets you play Himalaya with 5-6 players, which is a very useful addition as the game involves simultaneous planning and so extends naturally to more players, as do the victory conditions. There are also some variants suggested for those who like less luck in the way new goods and demands come out (these can be used with 3-4 players too).

Hollywood For Sale, published by Ravensburger. 1994. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £3.50 2) Excellent. £3

Auction card game with neat mechanics. Each player is both an auctioneer and a buyer, and there are nice rules to encourage one to sell both good and terrible cards. The cards themselves reflect various artefacts and icons from famous films.

Illya Kuryakin Card Game, published by Milton Bradley Games. 1966. Box. Box has faint brown stains. £2

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

TV Tie in game from the series 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'. The game is an unusual sort of set collection game, in which players try to get one each of the letters in U.N.C.L.E. in front of them, and ideally ones with high numeric values too.

Improve Your Opening Leads, published by Victor Gollancz. 1991. Book. Excellent. £4

Softback, 20x13cm, 124 pages. Bridge book for experienced players. The book covers: Active or Passive ?, Listening To The Bidding, Blind Leads against No Trumps, Help From Partner, Leading Against Part Scores, In The Slam Zone, Lessons From The Champions.

Indoor Games, published by Hodder & Stoughton. 1977. Book. Good. £1.25

Paperback reference book of indoor games, published as part of a range called Teach Yourself which covered many sports and hobbies. The book covers board games, domino games, dice games, matchstick games, paper & pencil games, word games and parlour games. 128 pages.

Inka, published by Queen Games. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £7.50 2) In shrink. £8.50

The board shows a hexagonal treasure chamber with pits between stepping stones. In the centre of the board are treasures which the players try to collect and get out with as quickly as possible. Tiles are placed on the board providing movable stepping stones. The players then take it in turn to use action points to move the stepping stone tiles, move their explorer or sometimes move the treasure tiles or use secret tunnels in order to get to the treasures.

Iron Horse, published by Icarus. 1983. Box. Good. £10

Card game set in the age of steam. Players grow and manage their railroad empires, building trains to carry stock or passengers across America. The game uses two decks of cards, one which is used to build trains, and a second which provides passengers, freight, and destinations as well as opportunities and problems.

Judge Dredd, published by Games Workshop. 1982. Box. 2 copies:

1) Excellent. £13 2) Good. £12

Board game now rarely seen. The players all play different Judges in Mega City One, and try to clean up the ever present crime problem. Players move around the board showing Mega City One and combine their action cards and their Judge's abilities to try to defeat the Perps. Any Perps dealt with will be worth victory points at the end of the game. Injuries can be fixed by a visit to the Robodoc.

Just The Job, published by Spear's Games. 1993. Box. Good. £3.50

Players are given job cards (eg. dentist, prime minister etc), adjective cards (eg. sadistic, trustworthy), and object cards (eg. pitchfork, briefcase), and players match them up into sets by drawing cards and swapping with other players. It is also possible to challenge other players' sets and the first player to make up three sets of cards wins the game.

Khronos, published by Editions Du Matagot. Box. In shrink. £23

The players build various buildings in a land enclosed by forest and mountains, with the objective of building powerful (and high scoring) regions. What makes this game different is that time travel is possible, and so the same area is fought over in three different time periods. Building in the earlier regions affects later regions, with less impressive 'copies' of the building popping up in the future regions. Sometimes this can seriously disrupt other players' regions in the later periods. A game which certainly requires your full attention!

King's Court, published by Western Publishing. 1989. Box. 2 copies:

1) Good. £4 2) Good, but 1 corner taped. £3.50

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

Strategy game with attractive and chunky counters. An involved variation of Draughts, played on an unusual board with two distinct areas of play. The idea is that the main 'combat' between pieces takes place in the central area of 16 squares, and once the game is underway the objective is to eliminate all of your opponent's pieces from the central area, and this wins the game even if they have lots of pieces left in the outer area. Supposedly based on a traditional tournament battle between medieval knights which was run on much the same basis (except with swords, shields and violence!)

Kremlin, published by Fata Morgana. 1986. Box. Good. £15

Special notes: The box is made of corrugated card, and one side is bowed having been crushed at some point.

Original edition of this classic game which takes you back to the Soviet era Russian politbureau, each member trying to get the top job. On the way you get to assassinate opponents, send them to Siberia, even help them sometimes, and all the time you are ageing in a race against the biological clock. At the start each player secretly spreads influence points amongst the various politicians, but this only gets revealed as the need to use or claim those politicians arises.

Linie 1, published by Gold Seiber. 1995. Box. Good. £14

On the Spiel des Jahres 1995 nomination list. In the first part of the game the players lay tiles to construct track which will take them from their start point to several stops and then to a terminus. What route each player is attempting to create is kept secret. In the second part of the game the routes are used to race along, to see whose track was laid the best. Finishing your track early means you can start the race early, thus gaining an advantage.

Longley Links, published by James Longley Group. 1991. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £3 2) Excellent. £4

Promotional golf game, made by an English construction company who noticed that many of their clients liked playing golf. As the company had just built a new golf course at Slinfold Park, they thought it appropriate to make a board game for their clients. It is a very basic concept, roll a die, move round the course, that sort of thing.

Lucky Loop, published by Queen Games. 2003. Box. 2 copies available:

1) In shrink. £7.50 2) Excellent. £7

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

Dice and card game in which players can choose how hard a series of aerobatic tricks they wish to undertake and then make a series of dice rolls to determine how well they achieve these goals. The problem is that the harder tricks score more points, so it is easy to get greedy and go for too ambitious a sequence and come away with nothing. While there is definitely luck, there is also skill in setting yourself the right challenges at the right times.

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

Good. £0.15. Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

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

Magic: The Gathering: Saviors Of Kamigawa, published by Wizards Of The Coast. 2005. Box / Boosters.

New. £1.30. Designed by Richard Garfield. No. players: 2. Country: American, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

CCG. These boosters are from set 3 of the Kamigawa Block. The set includes the fabled Kirin and Ancestor Spirits, and the divide between the warring worlds starts to blur. There are 155 cards in the set, and each booster holds 15 randomised cards. The price above is per booster, but I will give 10% off if you buy 10 or more boosters, and 20% off if you buy a box of 36 boosters. So you know, the fulll RRP is £2.49.

Magic: The Gathering: Time Spiral Tournament Packs, published by Wizards Of The Coast. 2006. Box / Pack.

New. £4. Designed by Richard Garfield. No. players: 2. Country: American, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

CCG. These are 75 card randomised tournament packs ideal for sealed deck play. Time Spiral is the main set in the Time Spiral block. The theme behind the set draws on much of the theming in early Magic sets, so there will be many names and references and even mechanics which will be familiar to old-time players of Magic. There are 422 cards in the set (including special 'timeshifted cards'. The price above is per 75-card pack, but I will give 10% off if you buy 4 or more packs, and 20% off if you buy a box of 12 packs. So you know, the full RRP is £7.49 per pack.

Magic: The Gathering: Unhinged, published by Wizards Of The Coast. 2004. Box / Boosters. New. £1.10

CCG. These boosters are from the humorous expansion Unhinged. The cards are not legal in tournament play, and introduce various new weird and wonderful ideas for casual play. The expansion pokes fun at itself and MtG in general. There are 140 cards in the set, and each booster holds 15 randomised cards. The price above is per booster, but I will give 10% off if you buy 10 or more boosters, and 20% off if you buy a box of 36 boosters. So you know, the full RRP is £2.49 per pack.

Magical Athlete, published by Grimpeur Brand. 2002. Box. In shrink. £26

Fantasy race game in which players start off by drafting a selection of characters who they will then use in a series of races. The drafting gives the players choices of when and how much to spend on choosing their characters. The race uses a simple roll the dice and move mechanism, but each character has a special ability which might modify the number rolled, affect other characters who land on or near their character, or allow another character's power to be vetoed. The game works nicely and is simple but good fun, with enough variety in the character powers to make it interesting.

Make Five, published by Zoch zum Spielen. 1997. Box. In shrink. £10

Unusual but intriguing and neat game for two players. The game consists of a solid wooden board which is tilted at an angle with five slots in it into which round wooden pieces in five colours can be placed. One player, Chaos, takes a wooden disk from a bag unseen and chooses which slot to put it in. The other player, Order, can then take one disk from the board and replace it at the top of any slot (the disks roll down to the bottom filling any gaps). Order is trying to ensure that each row is made up of just one colour of disk, while Chaos tries to ensure that this does not happen. Points are scored for Order, and then the roles are reversed to see who can do best. Requires some interesting decisions. Recommended.

Marracash, published by Kosmos. 1996. Box. Excellent. £15

Players purchase shops in the Old Town of Marrakesh - this is done by auction. Each shop attracts a particular colour of customer, and each customer which comes into the shop spends progressively more, so a well positioned shop can be very lucrative. Players also control the movement of customers and which city gate they come in through. Making a customer go into another player's shop gets you a cut too. Once the stream of customers is depleted the player with the most money wins. Attractive wooden customers. Eamon has some house rules which I can pass on if you remind me.

Marvel Super Heroes RPG, published by TSR. 1984. Box. Good. £12

Special notes: Includes 3 additional scenarios: MH-1: The Breeder Bombs, MH-2: Time Trap, MH-3: Murderworld.

Marvel Super Heroes role playing game set. This includes: 48 page campaign book, 16 page battle book, full colour poster map, Day of the Octopus adventure, character cards and tokens.

Mensa Mind Games, published by Index Books. 2004. Box. Excellent. £7.50

The main component of this set is a nicely produced 72 page paperback book of puzzles and games. The majority are problem solving puzzles, but the book also includes some games for 1 or more players. The set also comes with 120 cards which are used by many of the puzzles. There are over 200 puzzles / games, and about 100 of them you can time yourself for a more intense challenge. The chapters cover: Problem Solving, Thinking Creatively, Categories, Spatial Skills, Intuition, Word Power and Predicting Probability.

Meridian, published by Piatnik. 2000. Box. In shrink. £12

Tactical game in which the players vie for commercial supremacy amongst the islands in the Southern Archipelago. The islands are divided into longitudinal zones, and cards are used to place trading bases onto the islands according to some clever and thought provoking rules. Players have to weigh their options carefully in order to ensure the best use of their limited number of garrisons and to ensure majorities on the islands. The theme is fairly thin as is the case with many Leo Colovini designs, but this is one I definitely enjoy - recommended.

Mesopotamia, published by Mayfair Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £23

Interesting resource management game set in the cradle of civilization. Starting in a small area which expands throughout the game using cleverly interlocking tiles the players' tribes move to new areas, collecting and using resources and growing in numbers. However, the goal of the game is to make 4 sacrifices to the central temple. Doing this will cost resources and people (who leave the game as priests), and so deciding on the order to do things is vital. Cards which represent blessings from the gods also give players advantages which they can make use of to speed their development. Recommended.

Military Modelling Guide To Wargaming, published by Argus Books. 1987. Book. Excellent. £5

Softback, 20x15cm, 126 pages. Military Modelling magazine sponsored guide to wargaming with miniatures. There are many black and white pictures of various miniatures battles in progress. The book gives an introduction to the hobby, and model soldiers, as well as how to paint them, and even cast your own, as well as scenery, and other equipment you will need to play. The second half of the book gives simple rules for use in periods from Ancients, through the Dark Ages and Medieval Periods, WWI & WWII, and beyond. Loads of references to other books provided to get you going in the period of your choice.

Mission Red Planet, published by Asmodee Editions. 2006. Box. In shrink. £21

Very attractively produced board game with a science fiction theme in which Victorian technology is used to power space rockets (presumably steam powered) to Mars. Players represent mining corporations which compete to get their astronauts onto Mars in order to claim the mining rights of the various sectors. Each turn players choose a character card whose abilities they will use that turn in order to get astronauts into spaceships, explore Mars, make scientific discoveries, attack other astronauts and even sabotage spaceships! At several points in the game scoring is performed according to who has the most astronauts in each of 10 areas of Mars.

Mississippi, published by Mattel. 1987. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good, but box edges show wear. £8 2) Good but box edges show wear. £8

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

Modern Chess Openings, published by Whitehead & Miller Ltd. 1925. Book. Good. £3

Hardback, 19x12cm, 220 pages. An analysis of a selection of openings which were modern at the time of writing. The book is indexed.

Motor Champ, published by AZA-Spiele. 2000. Box. In shrink. £40

Truly deluxe motor racing game with some of the nicest car pieces you will ever see. The three piece board can be formed into 12 different combinations, ensuring variety or allowing a whole racing season to be played. Movement is dice based but with important choices to make regarding the level of risk you are willing to take, and positioning on the track is also very important. The game includes good rules for pit stops, and each player runs a team of cars so it isn't devastating if one of your cars crashes out of the race.

Mykerinos, published by Rio Grande Games. 2006. Box. In shrink. £16.50

Board game with an archaeological theme. Players send their workers out into sections of a major Egyptian dig site, and hope to beat off their rivals in order to win the influence of various patrons, gain victory points and get the best locations for their exhibits in the museum. The patrons each offer advantages which can be used in future turns, but once space has been taken in the museum there is no more. Clever game in which everything is always urgent, but only so much can be done at a time! Recommended.

Neck And Neck, published by Yaquinto. 1981. Double LP Case. Good. £6

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

Yaquinto's only sports game. Non-statistical horse racing game in an album case. Players place secret wagers on one or more horses and then players roll two dice and decide whether or not to move the indicated horse the amount rolled. Doubles allow a further roll. At the end of the race bets are paid for horses finishing in the top 3 (of 6). The game requires an element of bluff as refusing to move any horses which are not your own will soon make it obvious what you have bet on, and thus you will find noone else moving them for you at all.

New York, published by Piatnik. 1995. Box. Excellent. £13

Lesser known Sid Sackson game, heavily based on a game called 'Property' in his book A Gamut of Games. The game is card driven, and the cards use an ingenious mechanism to provide the players choices of where they may build on a 7x7 grid. The objective is to build as large a clump of properties as possible. However, there are other considerations, as it is possible (but potentially expensive) to knock down opponents' buildings and replace them with your own, so defensive moves to make it more expensive for opponents to get at your more critical properties can be useful too. Recommended.

Oh Pharao!, published by Kosmos. 2004. Box. Excellent. £8

Card game in which players put together sets of number cards to form pyramids. Each layer of a pyramid must contain cards of the same number, and the next level above must have cards one point higher. In addition thief cards can be played to raid other players' pyramids, tax collectors raid their hands and pharaohs protect against either of these. A clever rule for the wild cards ensures they will circulate amongst the players. A pyramid can be scored while small or extended further for more points, but this makes it more of a target, and so it might not survive unscathed until your next turn when it can be scored.

Olympic Yachting, published by Pro Games (UK) Ltd. 1976. Box. Fair. £4

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

Special notes: Box base and lid corners taped, box shows some indentation due to stacking

Yacht racing game tied into the 1976 Olympics in Canada. The box is large and the board huge, showing the area of water near Kingston, Ontario where the yachting events were held. There are 3 courses shown. Movement is dice based, but each number gives a different set of choices of what you may do as well as just move, and right of way rules are also included. Hazard cards and advantage cards are also drawn on certain dice rolls.

Once Upon A Time, published by Atlas. 1995. Box. In shrink. £13

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

Second edition of this excellent card game, much improved over the original by full colour art work by Florence Magnin and Sophie Mounier. Essentially, you play out cards involved in a story you are telling, but others get to interrupt so that they can continue the story and involve items / people / events on their own cards. All the while players try to direct the story towards an ending suitable for the play of their 'Happy Ever After' card. A neat idea, and the rules are well designed to make it work smoothly.

Option, published by Parker. 1982. Box. Good. £3

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

Word game with triangular prisms for the tiles, each having two sides with different letters and colours on (and the third side blank). Players enter words into the grid Scrabble style, but there are more possibilities for longer words as either letter on each prism can be used. There is a bonus for making a word out of one colour of letter, and also when making a word you may change a prism already on the board to its other side as long as this still makes a word.

Origin Of Failing Water, published by Japon Brand. 2005. Box. In shrink. £11

Trick taking game with a very unusual feature. Cards are played out, but then the tricks are resolved in reverse order! In addition points can be scored for winning tricks or for winning no tricks as long as you are the only person who wins no tricks.

Outdoor Survival, published by Avalon Hill. 1972. Box. Good. £6

In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, you were urged to buy this game for your wilderness map to set your adventures in. This probably explains why it remains as one of Avalon Hill's best selling games of all time. It may not be a classic but it has its moments. We particularly like the first scenario where you are lost and you get very little choice of where you move next - mostly luck but great fun (you get around 20 counters per player, and as you get tired, thirsty and hungry, you change the counter from a healthy hiker picture at the start down to a crawling shadow of your former self). The other scenarios add more skill to the game, giving you much more control over your character.

Pharo-Myd, published by Pirouette. 1992. Box. Good. £8

Attractively presented game of movement and capture. The game has an attractive solid wooden triangular board showing a triangular grid and the playing pieces are 16 wooden pyramids with Egyptian hieroglyphs on the sides - one symbol for each player. Players move pyramids by tipping them over to an adjacent space, but if your symbol is face down, you cannot move that piece. Pieces are captured by getting 2 or 3 pyramids suitably aligned, and players are eliminated when they have no legal move available to them. Unusual item, beautifully presented.

Pig Pile, published by R&R Games. 2001. Box. Good. £2

Family card game in which the cards show pigs eating, and a few show a 'hog-wash' or a pig 'hog-tied'. The game plays rather like Uno / Crazy Eights, with players trying to get rid of their cards by playing a legal card onto the discard pile when it is their turn. Special cards add a bit of variety, and failing to play a legal card means you have to pick up cards. The game uses 40 rather nice miniature plastic pigs to score with.

Pilgrimage, published by Whitehall. 1971. Box. Good. £4.50

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

Attractively designed family game, designed to educate about the route Crusaders took from England to Jerusalem. Essentially you roll the dice, move, and draw cards for events along the way. Developed by the New School of Utica for their Humanities Course.

Piramides, published by Juegos Geyper. ca.1980. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £1.25 2) Good - 1 corner taped. £1

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

Strategy game in which players try to get five of their playing pieces in a row. The playing pieces are impressively large (6cm square base) pyramids in gold and dark brown plastic. The pieces are played on the table on an imaginary grid, and must touch at least one already played piece. Once all 24 pieces have been played without a winner then play continues, with a piece having to be moved each turn.

Point Count Chess, published by George Allen & Unwin. 1960. Book. Good. £9

Softback, 21x13cm, 358 pages. According to this book every move in chess is a give and take, losing or reducing control of some spaces while gaining or improving control over others. By being aware of this ebb and flow and evaluating these differences the reader can gain a new understanding of how chess works.

Point Zero, published by Juventus Toys & Games. 1978. Box. Good but corners taped. £10

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

Strategy game produced to promote the work of UNICEF. Each player tries to be the first to bring development to their village. This is represented by each player adding jigsaw style pieces to their section of the board. When all 11 have been added that player wins. These pieces represent various bits of equipment and facilities eg. a health care post, a landrover, safe water supply etc. In order to obtain these players move around a track on the edge of the board and recruit and train workers and obtain points for work done, which can be traded in for the jigsaw pieces. Very attractively produced.

Pole Position, published by Piatnik. 1990. Box. Good. £7

Motor racing game. The board is set up differently each game, with round disks being placed in holes on the board at random to ensure a different experience each time. Players each have a set of number cards and play one at a time face down. They are revealed and resolved highest first. Players each have three cars and may move any one of them on their turn. It costs 1 point per space + 1 point for each car overtaken. A car may only be moved if it will end on an empty space, and some of these spaces will have various effects, such as an extra move forward, a move back, not being able to move that car for a turn etc, but then movement can be planned for. The player whose team of cars scores highest wins.

Queen's Necklace, published by Days Of Wonder. 2003. Box. Excellent. £9.50

Country: American, Duration: 40 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Card game in which players purchase cards using a clever system which means that the more often a card is rejected the cheaper it becomes to buy. These cards depict various jewels as well as cards which allow various special actions to be taken. Three times in the game there will be a grand jewel sale when the players select which jewels they will put on sale this turn, with selling rights going to the players with the best display of each type. Special cards can also influence the sale phase. After three sales the player who made most money wins.

Quirks, published by Games Workshop. 1980. Box. Good. £55

Special notes: Includes Eon's Expansion 1 and Expansion 2.

The weird game of un-natural selection, of evolution gone awry. It uses cards very cleverly so that three cards form a creature or plant no matter how unlikely, and they even give you a name for that creature. Includes children's rules, called Quirklings. Each animal or plant section is useful in some climates and hopeless in others. As the climate changes players mutate their animals/plants if they aren't ideal for the current climate, or attack one of the current dominant species if they think their species is better suited. I also have some house rules I can supply to enhance the game as well. A truly wonderful idea for a game.

Rail Baron, published by Avalon Hill. 1977. Box. Good. £24

Railroad empire building game. Players run trains along USA railroad lines and collect delivery payments. Players compete to purchase the railroads trying to assemble a network that will give access to important map destinations while also doing their best to hinder their opponents.

Rails Of Europe, published by Eagle Games. 2007. Box. In shrink. £17.50

Expansion for Eagle Games' Railroad Tycoon, which you will need to play this. This set provides a 30" x 36" map of Europe, 39 new cards introducing new Railroad Barons, City Charters, Capital Charters, and Tunnel Engineers. The map covers Western Europe from Spain to Constantinople to Moscow.

Reef Encounters Of The Second Kind, published by R&D. Box. In shrink. £30

Expansion for Reef Encounter, which you will need in order to make use of this expansion. (In fact you will need either the R&D edition or a special conversion kit - ask me if this applies to you). This expansion introduces new creatures and adds new tactics and opportunities using special action cards. Limited edition.

Reise Durch Die Schweiz, published by Ravensburger. ca.1960. Box. Box shows wear, corners taped. £4

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

Early Ravensburger game (inventory number 23). Simple family game in which players move around a track either clockwise or counter-clockwise (each player can choose which direction), and when landing on a space that another player has a card for they may either pay that player for a tour or miss a turn. Additional points are awarded for getting back to Zurich as swiftly as possible. Attractive period item.

Robotanks, published by Fat Messiah. 2001. Box. In shrink, but box slightly indented. £8

Each player operates a team of four tanks, each controlled by a stack of command cards that form the tank's repeating program. These cards make tanks move, turn, fire weapons, or use special equipment, allowing all sorts of programs to be set up. Each turn each player gets the chance to reprogram at most one of the tanks, with a bonus if none are reprogrammed. There are a wide variety of weapons and specials to keep it interesting. As well as the cards you get a large mapsheet, 16 cut & fold tanks, and the rules.

Rocketville, published by Hasbro Avalon Hill. 2006. Box. Excellent. £10

Futuristic election themed game in which the players vie for control of areas in Rocketville. Rocketville is split up into districts and having most and second most votes in a district at game end will earn VPs. In addition while contesting each space on the board it is possible to earn or lose VPs as well as gain extra cards to use in the voting or special cards which grant extra VPs at the end of the game if you achieve what they say on them. The central mechanism is simultaneous card play, but where the type of cards which is more valuable at any point being known up front. In order to get more voting cards you have to decide not to participate in the election at one space.

Royal Game Of Ur, published by Merit. ca.1970. Box. Good - box corners taped. £2

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

Very nicely made game, based on Senet, a game of ancient times related to Backgammon. Wooden pieces and nice Egyptian graphics throughout. Rules in seven languages.

Score More, published by Invicta. ca.1970. Box. Good. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Quite light abstract game, which, unusually for this company, is made with wooden pieces. Players try to score as many points as possible by the end of the game. Each turn a special die is rolled to determine which colour piece must be played this turn. Placement rules limit the options available, as no piece can be played so that there is empty space between it and another piece of the same colour in the same line or column. Sometimes you may even be forced to play in the negative scoring area.

Scream Machine, published by Jolly Roger Games. 2003. Box. In shrink. £5

Card game in which players use action points each turn to construct competing theme parks. Each theme park will have various attractions such as thrill rides, water rides, roller coasters and food stalls, each of which comes in 3 types. Players try to attract the most customers to their theme park - each customer is looking for a different type of ride, or may be a cheapskate and just goes to the cheapest theme park. Cleverly, some customers will travel anywhere (ie. will go to the best park amongst all players), while others will only go to one of the two parks nearest them, even if there is a better one further away. The artwork really brings the theme to life.

Scruples, published by Milton Bradley. 1986. Box. Good. £2

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-10. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Party game in which players take it in turn to ask the others questions which test their scruples (they are supplied on cards). One of the other players has to answer them honestly using the answers 'Yes', 'No' or 'Depends'. If the asker had guessed the answer correctly points are scored. It is also possible to challenge an answer if you have good reason to believe they are lying. A good way to get to know your friends and family a bit better.

Scuttle: Britain & Eire, published by Phoenix Games. 1990. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-9. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Players are each given a card showing 10 counties they must visit in order to win the game. The map shows Britain and Eire. Movement is by rolling 2 dice and moving to an adjacent county showing one of these numbers (though you can choose not to move if that is advantageous). On arriving in a county for which another player holds the card (a hand of county cards is dealt out at the start) they may 'scuttle' you (move you somewhere unhelpful), but then the card becomes generally available. Useful travel cards can be collected too, which allow greater freedom of movement. The county cards have interesting information about that county on them. Nicely presented game.

Settlers: The Fishermen Of Catan, published by Mayfair Games. 2007. Packet. New. £2.25

Mini expansion for Settlers of Catan. You can enhance you regular games of Settlers by adding fish production sites around the coast. Settlements and cities at these sites then earn fish tokens of varying values. These tokens can be traded in for various bonuses such as extra cards, road building, moving the robber / pirate etc. There is also an old boot, which when it comes out can be used to hinder the players in the lead. Recommended.

Shogi For Beginners, published by Shogi Association. 1986. Book. Excellent. £7

Softback, 18x13cm, 168 pages. Clearly intended to introduce Japanese Chess (Shogi) to westerners, this book describes the pieces and board, describes their moves, and the rules. It then analyses a sample game and gives a guide to opening patterns, middle game and then end game play. A selection of puzzles for the reader are set and the answers given at the back of the book.

Skyline Of The World, published by The Game Master. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £13 2) In shrink. £15

City building game in which players play stacking building blocks onto the board in order to claim ownership of the various buildings. However, money must be paid for each storey built, and that money is paid to the previous owner of that building. Players need to manage their money as well as their supply of buildings as the building blocks need to be bought from a general supply before they can be placed. Income is generated by ownership of a contiguous sequence of buildings, and so players need to keep each other in check. The game is won by dominating three key spots, building penthouses, and completing your secret building mission (on a card).

Spekulation, published by DB Spiele. 1992. Box. Excellent. £25

Stock market based business game which is deceptively simple to play, but with ingenious rules. The game is card driven (as are many Dirk Henn games), but also uses dice. This is regarded by many as one of the best stock market games out there. The game is housed in this company's book-like packaging, with a little leather thong to close the case.

Spreadbet, published by Haggle Ltd. 1995. Box. Good. £4

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

Trivia game in which players take it in turn to give an answer as a spread or range. eg. The year the last Dodo was seen with a spread of 10 might get a player to answer 1880-1890. Other players then say whether they think the range given is too high or too low, and they can wager as many points as they wish on this. Players pay or gain points according to the bet multiplied by how far out the real answer and the spread range were. Players can use a special card which limits their gains or losses for a particular question.

Squander, published by Avalon Hill. 1965. Box. Good, but 2 box corners taped. £21

Extremely rare Avalon Hill game, a fore-runner of Go For Broke, being a game where you must spend all your money to win the game. Most unusual to see Avalon Hill make a family oriented game with mass appeal. The board shows a track around which the playing pieces are moved, with spaces showing all sorts of ways in which to spend money, such as duff stocks, gifts to charity, roulette bets, jewellery, being blackmailed, paying taxes etc. Definitely quite collectable.

Stamp, published by Amigo. 1997. Box. 2 copies availabke:

1) In shrink. £4 2) Excellent. £3.50

Set collecting game with a stamp collecting theme. Players buy and sell stamp cards at auction, and the game includes a very effective metal bell to be used in a Dutch auction, ie. one in which the price is reduced until someone bids. The stamps all have symbols, countries and colours and matching these up to form valuable sets is the key to making a good profit and so winning the game. Little known, but rather good game.

Stand And Die, published by GDW. 1991. Box. Good. £11.50

Huge war game, with 2 large mounted boards and about 650 counters. The Battle of Borodino, 1941, the vital stage in Germany's invasion of Moscow. The German forces are powerful, but small in number, whereas the Russians are weak but more numerous. 48 page rulebook includes Basic and Advanced rules, several scenarios and photocopied counter sheets should any go missing. The game also includes a lidded counter storage tray.

Star Warriors, published by West End. 1987. Box. Good. £15. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Douglas Kaufman & Peter Corless. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Duration: 2 hrs. Film related, the game of ship-to-ship space combat in the world created by the Star Wars films. Fly Tie-Fighters, X-Wings, etc.. Introductory scenarios to learn the basics quickly and then a wealth of more information in the Advanced game, along with lots of different scenarios to try ranging from dogfights to an attack on the Death Star itself. Can also be used together with the Star Wars RPG.

Stimmt So!, published by Queen. 1998. Box. Excellent. £7.50

Business game, with players investing in stock. Very neat game system in which there are 4 types of currency and 4 stocks available, one for each currency at any time. The aim is to get majorities in different companies when a scoring round comes. Also no change is given when purchasing, and paying exactly is rewarded highly. I have some house rules which improve it further too (just ask). This is the previous incarnation of the 2003 Spiel des Jahres winner Alhambra. Best with 3-5 players. Recommended.

Struggle Of Empires, published by Warfrog. 2004. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £16 2) In shrink. £19

Players take the roles of the major 18th century European powers, and struggle for dominance in both Europe and the colonies (North and South America, India, and the East Indies). For each of three wars the players bid to ally themselves with some other players while opposing others - attacking allies is not permitted so getting the alliances right is important. Players can then spend their actions bringing new forces into play, moving them and attacking with them, as well as gaining special tiles which give a variety of benefits. Money can be obtained by taxing your populace but this causes unrest which has to be monitored carefully.

Sword & Sorcery: Chaositech, published by Malhavoc Press. 2004. Book. Excellent. £3.75

Roleplaying supplement which uses WotC's generic d20 rules system (v 3.5), making it usable in many campaigns. Chaositech is a combination of magic and technology but always with a high level of chaos. The book covers introducing Chaositech into your campaign; Cults, Priests and Spells of Chaos; Chaositech Weapons and Armour; Chaositech Bio-enhancements; Chaositech Mutations; Masters of Chaositech and more.

Tackle Chess This Way, published by Paul Stanley. 1972. Book. Excellent. £1.50

Softback, 19x12cm, 200 pages. This book is intended to take a new chess player and teach them the basics as well as the rudiments of sound strategy and tactics, covering starting a game, the middle game and the end game as well as how to avoid making blunders.

Tall Stories, published by Living & Learning Games. 1992. Box. Good, but box lid slightly indented. £5

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

Children's story telling game, made locally in Cambridge. The game is played on a board covered in different colour hexagons. There are 48 different hex tiles in play, and each turn you get to add one or more to the board, adjacent to tiles already there. The picture on the tile played must be incorporated into the story in a sensible way, though you may add as much or as little narrative as you wish before playing the tile. Play continues until a story is brought to an end with one of 4 special tiles indicating a happy, sad, surprise or humourous ending.

The Boardgame Book, published by Marshall Cavendish. 1983. Book. Good, dust cover taped. £18

One of the great books about board games. Every page is a joy as the book illustrates the item, shows the board and pieces, and features many other related illustrations. Over 60 games are fully described, many more if you include variations. And not all are classic games. Of course, Mancala, Chinese Chequers and other classics are covered, but so are commercially made games from the last hundred years. The book is in hardback with a separate paper sheet of playing pieces for the games. The boards are shown in the book and can be used to play on. Very nice item for games collectors and historians as well as players.

The Book Of Card Games, published by William Clowes & Sons. ca.1900. Book. Good. £13

Special notes: Shows some wear and a little discolouration, but sound.

Hardback, 20x14cm, 311 pages. Collection of card games rules from this expert, who produced many other card game books as well. The book uses a small typeface, and includes some diagrams. The book covers: All fours, Baccarat, Bezique, Blind Hockey, Boston, Brag, Cassino, Catch The Ten, Commerce, Cribbage, Ecarte, Euchre, Faro, Hearts & Heartsette, Lansquenet, Loo, Napoleon, Newmarket, Ombre, Patiences (x18), Piquet, Poker, Pope Joan, Quinze, Ranter Go Round, Rouge Et Noir, Slobberhannes, Solo, Speculation, Spinado, Spoil Five, Thirty One, Vingt Un, Whist (50 pages).

The Bridge Player's Dictionary, published by Mr Bridge. 1991. Book. Excellent. £3

Softback, 21x15cm, 127 pages. A dictionary of terms and phrases in use in the world of Bridge. Some of the listed phrases are used in many card games, so this could be useful to more than just Bridge players. As you would expect the phrases are listed alphabetically.

The Celtic Knotwork Puzzle, published by Historical Collections Plc. 1992. Box. Good. £1.50

This puzzle consists of 9 large square tiles each showing a portion of a large Celtic knotwork pattern. However, the knotwork is very symmetrical, and so it is not matching the shapes that is hard, but matching the colours of 'thread' from one tile to the next which makes it difficult. There is also no indication as to which sides of the pieces are the edges. The back of the box shows the solution.

The Great Cat Game Book, published by Michael Joseph. 1985. Book. Excellent - unpunched. £10

Softback, 28x21cm, 56 pages. A collection of parlour games, word games, street games, cat board games and constructable items (a halloween cat, a finger puppet, a cat on a pole) and more. Everything is cat related and illustrated in colour with period cat drawings. There are many precut items which you can push out in order to play the games or make the models etc. Very nicely produced item.

The Hanging Gardens, published by Rio Grande Games. 2008. Box. In shrink. £22

Clever placement game in which players use cards which show assorted garden sections which they must place onto their own garden layout. However, occupied areas on the new card must be aligned so they cover other sections of cards already played rather than new areas. Forming a new group of one type of garden section is rewarded by gaining a scoring tile. The scoring tiles are worth more when collected in sets. Novel idea with a puzzle-like aspect which I enjoy a lot. Recommended. I can provide a couple of house rules which I think improve the game further.

The Hieroglyphs Game, published by Ashmolean Museum. 1989. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £1 2) Good, but box base slightly indented. £0.50

Very pretty game made for the famous museum in Oxford. Board illustrated with genuine coloured hieroglyphics and players move a nice scarab beetle piece around the board, collecting ‘letters’ to spell the words on their reference sheet.

The New Book Of Patience Games, published by W. Foulsham & Co. Ltd. 1982. Book. Good. £2

Softback, 19x12cm, 64 pages. A collection of 31 original one-pack patience games. There is a table provided which indicates the table space required, skill level, frequency of going out and whether the game is playable one handed for all the games.

The Sparrow Book Of Video Games, published by Sparrow Books. 1982. Book.

Good, but there is a label removal mark. £1.50

Softback, 18x11cm, 112 pages. Hints and tips for playing all the favourite early 1980s video arcade games such as Asteroids, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Dokey Kong, Pac Man etc. There are some illustrations.

The Standard Book Of Bidding, published by Walter Edwards. 1946. Book.

Good, but some of dustcover missing. £3.25

Hardback with dustcover, 19x13cm, 282 pages. Contract Bridge book intended to improve the bidding of reasonably experienced players. The book covers: Opening Bids, Responses, Rebids by Opener, Rebids by Responder, Slam Bidding, Overcalls, Take-Out Doubles, Penalty Doubles, Advanced Bidding Situations. Duplicate Bridge Scoring, Modern Expert Variations.

The Whist Table, published by John Hogg. ca.1895. Book. Good. £12

Hardback, 19x13cm, 482 pages. Embossed gold writing and illustrated cover. This book contains of a large number of essays and articles on Whist from many different authors. There is also a 23 page section at the back detailing other books by the same publisher which were available at the time, including illustrations from some of them.

Third Reich, published by Avalon Hill. 1974. Box. Box good, counters unpunched. £12

Complex multi-player game set in WWII and with players representing the main powers in that war. Game system is built around the expenditure of resource points. Every action you take costs points, so you must think carefully before, for example, declaring war or developing weapons. Classic 'grand strategy' wargame covering the European part of WWII, and can be played to cover the whole period of the war. Involves politics and military campaigning, and allows players to try out strategies other than those that really happened. 6 different subgames are included.

Through The Ages, published by Eagle Games. 2007. Box. In shrink. £39

Special notes: Includes 'fix packs' to correct mistakes in the production run.

Players take their civilisations from ancient times through to the modern day. The game is driven by cards which offer all sorts of abilities to enhance your empire, and could represent leaders (military, scientific etc), military units, wonders of the age, special actions, events etc. The game offers three versions of the rules: The Tutorial Game, The Advanced Game and the Full Game. Received much praise when it initially appeared at Spiel, and won an International Gamers Award.

Ticket To Ride Switzerland, published by Days Of Wonder. 2007. Box. In shrink. £12.50

Expansion set for Ticket To Ride - you will need a base game to play this. The map shows Switzerland and the surrounding countries, and there are plenty of tunnels! There are some new more flexible types of tickets and a new rule for the wild cards. This board was also specifically designed for 2-3 player games, and plays much better than the original with those numbers. Highly recommended.

Tile Rummy, published by Peter Pan. 1983. Box. Good. £2.50

Attractive card-game variation, played with tiles, on a nice felt board. Each player must use their hand of tiles to form Gin Rummy melds on the board, which could be a group of 3 or 4 tiles of the same rank, or a sequence of 3 or more tiles of the same suit in a run. The board has various squares covered in diamonds of one colour or another and these act like Scrabble squares, affecting the value of tiles or melds played on them.

Tor, published by Amigo. 1995. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £2 2) Excellent. £1.50

Card game. A soccer match is played with two identical decks of 13 cards, a ball and a board. The cards are played simultaneously and the player playing the winning card gets the ball closer to the opposing goal. Essentially a game of bluff and outguessing each other. If a player wins three 'tricks' in a row he is sure to score a goal.

Town Square Game, published by Milton Bradley. 1996. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £2 2) Good but 1 edge shows wear. £1.50

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

Themed with Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rules in English and French. Players try to get across to the opposite side of the board from which they started. This is done by card play. Some cards allow you to hinder opponents rather than help yourself. There are also unseen tiles dotted around the board and landing on these causes them to be actioned, again some good and some bad. However, you don't want to land on too many Frollo tiles as if you get 3 you have to start again, thus taking a route which is likely to avoid this possibility may well be safest - but will it be fastest ?

Translucent Playing Cards, published by Trevor Denning. 1976. Book. Excellent. £21

Special notes: No. 182. Signed by the author.

Softback, 30x21cm, 51 pages. Limited edition of 300. This book gathers together information about specialised decks of playing cards generally from the early 19th century which initially appeared as regular playing cards, but if put up against a bright light revealed a hidden picture within. Some such decks were designed to incorporate the pips on the cards into the pictures, while others were used to hide erotic pictures. This book shows the hidden pictures from both types of deck as well as detailing the history of these playing cards.

Trapped, published by Peter Pan. 1989. Box. Good. £6

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

Strategy game with a plastic board and playing pieces. The board is hexagonal and divided into smaller hexagons each with slots along the edges. Each player has three playing pieces which start near the centre of the board. Players take turns to move a piece and / or play a wall into a slot. The objective is to entirely trap all of your opponent's playing pieces.

Treasure Island, published by Burley Games Ltd. 2003. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £16 2) In shrink. £18

Pirate themed game from the designer of Take It Easy. The board shows an island with numbered spaces, some of which hold treasures, and some around the edge are landing points. Players roll dice to give a choice of which spaces may be played on, and can then play a token either on any landing space or any space adjacent to one of their tokens showing one of the numbers rolled. This gives tactical options as you can cut opponents off from sections of the island. When treasure spaces are captured treasure cards are obtained which will score at the end of the game. The board is reversible, one side being best for 2-4 players in 45 mins and the reverse for 2-6 players in 90 mins.

Tycoon, published by Publisher Unknown. 1987. Box. Good. £1

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

Promotional game. Business game in a similar vein to Monopoly. Squares on the board represent many different companies in and around Reading!

Up The Ladder, published by Action GT. ca.1975. Box. Box Poor. £3

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

Race game with a difference. The 'board' is a three foot long plastic step ladder, with hinged rungs. The object is to get your men to the top of the ladder but the snag is that, if you put too many pieces on one rung it will rotate catapulting the pieces down the ladder, and probably taking those below them with them. Nice idea.

Ur 1830 BC, published by Splotter. 2001. Box. New. £14

Although not an authorised 18XX game, this is very much the same type of game, but it does not have a railroad theme, and has enough differences to make it a worthwhile addition to the genre. The game is about diverting water from rivers into irrigation channels and supplying it to sections of land. There are various nations, and the players are land owners across the nations, with the player with the most land in each nation being the King. Nations can improve their lot by building infrastructure and technology progresses making the older technology obsolete. Irrigated land brings income to its owner and its nation.

Valley Of The Four Winds, published by Games Workshop. 1980. Box. Good. £21

Games Workshop's first-ever board game, a fantasy war game set in the World of Farrondil. Inspired by a range of fantasy figures made at the time by Minifigs Ltd. Includes a background story setting the scene. The game sets the good (humans, elves and dwarves) against a legion of undead. The rules cover movement, combat, magic, exploration, and different terrain.

Viva Topo!, published by Rio Grande Games. 2002. Box. In shrink. £26

Originally published by Selecta, a children’s game company, this manages to cross the boundary and is a good light family game with adult appeal too. Each player controls a group of mice which have to evacuate their home and move around the board to get to various safe destinations. The nearer the destination the less cheese gained as a reward. However, a cat also moves around the board and any mice it catches are removed from the game. Thus players must decide how many of their mice to concentrate on, and the speed at which the cat is moving will influence this. Recommended.

Volle Hutte!, published by ASS. 1997. Box. Good. £16

Attractive game, in which the players manage their own bistro, and get the chance to add facilities which will hopefully attract more customers - eg. table football, pool, dining areas, dance floors, etc. Options each turn are to improve your bistro, attract customers, take income from your current customers, or draw an action card which you can use to make customers move around between bistros - hopefully to your advantage.

Volle Lotte!, published by Abacus. 1994. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £2 2) Excellent. £1.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-10. Country: German, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Dice game, with cards also used, and based on the old French game Dix Mille. Players throw dice to score combinations, and can carry on or bank their score. If they go on and then make a non-scoring throw, they risk losing their score so far. The cards add an extra dimension to Dix Mille, giving bonus scores for certain combinations.

Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, published by Games Workshop. 1986. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box shows wear. £14 2) Good. £16

Special notes: The original plastic miniatures are missing, but have been replaced with good substitutes.

Fantasy adventure game based on the well known Fighting Fantasy book of the same name. The players run adventurers who explore a labyrinth and fight creatures and gain treasure in order to increase their power. Characters have three stats: skill, stamina and luck, which affect combat and the character's chances in various other encounters. The objective is to reach the far end of the dungeon having deduced which must be the right keys to open the Warlock's treasure chest. This is done by asking other players about the key cards they hold in a slightly Cluedoesque way.

Where There's A Will, published by Ragnar Brothers. 2002. Box. Excellent. £11

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Card game in which the players all try to claim as much of value as possible of the now sadly departed rich Duke's estate. This is done by putting forward various relatives and associates, from a son through mistresses to the chauffeur or maid. However, cards are also played to alter the comparative values of the various claimants and even change their allegiance or make them ineligible. Light but good fun.

Where's Bob's Hat, published by Rio Grande Games. 2001. Box. In shrink. £4.50

Trick taking game which is best with 3-4 players, and in my opinion really shines with 3 players. The cards are divided into 3 suits showing different hats. Before play players secretly indicate which suits they think they will take the most tricks in or if they wish indicate they will win fewest tricks of all. Also winning a card showing Bob's Hat gets you a bonus card showing Bob's hat, and the player who has it at the end of the hand gets either a bonus or penalty (depending on what was decided at the start). Points are scored for making your bids and lost for failing to make them. Nice twist on an old favourite.

Wooden Ships & Iron Men, published by Avalon Hill. 1977. Box. Good, but 1 corner taped. £15

This classic Avalon Hill wargame covers military engagements in the golden age of sail with many historical scenerios. Players take their ships and form their ship lines and then fight. The rules have short basic rules to get you going and then advanced and optional rules once you wish to move on.

World Class Football, published by Football International. 1983. Box. Good. £12

Statistical soccer game which uses a board to represent the pitch and a movable transparent overlay which is moved up and down the pitch as the game progresses. Cards were available for teams in the English 1st Division and Scottish Premier Divison for 1983/84. These cards rate each player's ability in shooting, dribbling and passing (and various sub categories) as well as providing a team sheet showing the standard starting team and likely subs. Game play involves choosing strategies and also deciding who to pass to at each point. Action cards limit the options, and the statistical cards + die rolls resolve what happens.

World Cup Tournament Football Game, published by Lookout Games. 1993. Box. New. £23

Card game depicting the World Cup Finals. Not a simulation, matches being decided by card play. 240 cards, 102 National Team Tokens and Flags. It is possible to play a full set of World Cup Finals in about 90 mins. Players secretly own teams and play cards in a way which they hope will see their teams get as far as possible through the tournament. However, this is best done subtly as it is quite possible to severely hinder a team if you know others are backing it. Highly recommended. This edition has felt boards and is designed for post 1994 tournaments (ie. with 8 groups of 4 teams). Reworking (in a more convenient bookcase box) of the Australian Design Team game.

World War 2 Wargaming, published by Airfix. 1976. Book. Good. £7.50

Hardback, 22x14cm, 64 pages. Airfix Magazine Guide Number 15, one of a series of books detailing miniatures rules, stratagems and tips. The book includes many illustrations and photographs. The chapters cover: Wargaming models; Ground, time & model scales; Choosing & organising an army; Orders; Movement; Combat.

Zone X, published by Invicta. 1975. Box. Good. £8

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

A deduction game from the makers of Mastermind. Players take turns in being the problem-setter and problem-solver. The setter draws two lines (straight or curving depending on difficulty required) on a secret grid making 4 areas, which are assigned colours. The guesser then gets information by discovering which region various points on the grid belong to, or if they are on a line. The objective is to discover the place where the two lines meet.

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