September 2004 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

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?

3 Up, published by Airfix. 1971. Box. Box shows wear, contents still sealed. £4

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.

3 X 16, published by Ravensburger. 1972. Box. Good. £9

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-4. Country: German, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Based on an old game called Little Numbers or Three Sixteens and issued by the Ravensburg Game Company in 1894. Essentially a multi-player patience variant, but none the worse for that. Each player has 3 sets of numbers 1-16, and these are drawn one at a time at random by one player (and the others must use the same number) and either placed at the end of one of 5 auxilliary rows or added to the main rows which must be started with a 1 then a 2 and so on up to 16. Numbers on the end of auxilliary rows can always be transferred to main rows if they are the next in sequence. Whoever manages to get the most numbers into their main rows is the winner. Quite a bit of skill involved.

Admirals, published by Parker. ca.1975. Box. Several copies available:

1) Box corners battered. £4; 2) Box corners split. £4; 3) Good. £5

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

Another game in the same 'family' as Stratego or L'Attaque. This is based on naval warfare and all 64 of the pieces are wooden which is a nice touch.

Affenbande, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. 1990. Box. Good. £10

Entertaining, short game. Players use their monkeys to collect fruit, using a clever system of secret 'bids'. Success is rewarded with the fruit but you lose some monkeys, making your next turn more difficult. The winner is the monkey tribe with the greatest variety of fruit at the end of the game.

Am Fuss Des Kilimandscharo, published by Hans Im Gluck. 1995. Box. Good. £13

Light game in which players use their cards to form combinations of methods of transport, in their quest to reach Base Camp first. Each player has 3 cards laid in front of them indicating their current modes of transport. Players can either play onto their own piles to improve their position or onto opponents' piles to mess them up. In addition various events occur as the players get further up the mountain.

Arabana-Ikibiti, published by Bambus. 1999. Box. Good. £12

Excellent 2 player game later reprinted as Kahuna. Players use cards to lay their own bridges between islands, and combinations of cards to remove opponent's bridges and replace them with your own. However, the clever

part of the game is that when a player obtains a definite majority of bridges to an island all opponent's bridges on that island get removed, which can create new opportunities on adjacent islands too. Highly recommended if you play 2 player games.

Ares Magazine, published by SPI.

Designer Unknown. Country: American, Desc. by Andy. Fantasy and Science Fiction games magazine. Originally each issue came with a game. Some issues still have it, others don’t – see below. Main articles mentioned below too.

Issue 3: 1980 Good. £0.75; Barbarian Kings which originally came with it is no longer included. Fiction - The Whispering Mirror, Fiction - Final Notes, War In Space, Directory of SF & Fantasy Game Publishers & Manufacturers, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 4: 1980 Good. £1; Includes the Arena of Death game’s central rules section, but no counters or map for it. Fiction - Hillsong, Fiction - Eye of the Goblin, Science for Science Fiction, Facts for Fantasy, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 7: 1981 Good. £0.75; Rescue From The Hive (this issue's game) is not included, Fiction - Rescue From The Hive, Dragonquest: The House of Kurin, Science for Science Fiction, Facts for Fantasy, Dragonquest Notes, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Issue 8: 1981 Excellent. £4; Ragnarok (this issue's game, depicting the struggle of the Norse gods with the traitorous god Loki and followers) IS included, Ragnarok background, Padora's Link, S.F. Game Sampler, Facts for Fantasy, Science for Science Fiction, Dragonquest Notes, Reviews of Films, TV, Books and Games.

Issue 9: 1981 Excellent. £4; DeltaVee (this issue's game, a tactical space combat system) IS included and is unpunched. Dragonslayer Interview, The Sword & The Stars Design Notes, Lasers In Space, Fiction - The Embracing, Facts for Fantasy, Science for Science Fiction, Reviews of Films,TV, Books and Games, Dragonquest notes.

Issue 10: 1981 Good. £0.75; Fiction - The Return Of The Stainless Steel Rat (this issue's game too, but was a completely seperate insert and is no longer included), Dragonquest - The Camp of Alla-Akabar, Enhanced DeltaVee, Dragonquest Notes, There's Only One Universe Design Notes, Facts for Fantasy, Science for Science Fiction, Reviews of games, films, books and TV programmes, Games rating chart.

Armchair Cricket, published by Gibsons. 1995. Box. Good. £9

Card game. 110 cards in five 'suits'. An excellent game for two and, with the advanced rules, very tactical to play. The basic idea is that the bowler plays 6 cards, one at a time (for an over) and the batsman responds, a higher card of the same suit scores some runs, an equal or higher card in a different suit is a defensive play, but lower card in another suit and a wicket is taken. When a batsman scores an odd number of runs the other batsman must be faced and will have a different set of cards in hand.

Auction, published by Avalon Hill. 1989. Box. Good. £12

Players buy antiques at auction in the hope of collecting sets. However, cash flow will be a problem, and so antiques which are no longer wanted can be sold, though not necessarily for as much as might be hoped. At the end of the game only complete sets count for anything. Originally released by 3M as High Bid, and later re-released by AH as The Collector.

Auf Heller Und Pfennig, published by Hans Im Gluck. 1994. Box. Excellent. £14

Excellent game in which players fill the board with tiles representing the populace of a medieval marketplace. Some are customers with varying degrees of wealth to spend and some are thieves. However, the players also have their stalls to set up. When the board is full each stall scores for every customer and thief in its row and column. Thus placement is difficult as you would like to set up a great position for your stall, but if you do you can be very sure that another player will get there first. There are some other clever aspects to the game too, making it one I can highly recommend.

Automania, published by Livingstone. 1991. Box. Several copies available:

1) Mint £8 2) Excellent £7

One of the two limited edition games (1,000 of each) by this privately owned company. Players must sell cars and maximise their markets in foreign countries. A lot of card play provides the interaction. Box and components made by Ravensburger so you know the quality is high.

B-17: Queen Of The Skies, published by Avalon Hill. 1983. Box. Good. £12

Special notes: Game board is slightly discoloured but entirely useable.

Great solitaire wargame. Control a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, trying to survive German fighter attacks and drop its load of bombs on its target, then return home safely. The game is driven by simple charts and d6 die rolls to determine everything from the bomber's target and formation position to weather, flak, and German fighter opposition as the B-17 makes its way over land and sea to its target. There are 25 missions to try to survive.

Backpacks And Blisters, published by Ragnar. 1993. Box. Mint. £17

Super game about walking in the Lake District. With the trademark cloth board favoured by this company. Plan your route, take the bus, get the best views, buy cups of tea, eat chocolate, wait for the ferry but, whatever you do, do not get left with the Heavy Rucksack. Recommended.

More Backpacks And Blisters, published by Ragnar. 1994. Box. Mint. £17

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

Bananas, published by Goldsieber Spiele. 1996. Box. Excellent. £9

Light game in which one player takes the role of George the Gorilla while the other players are all chimps acting together. Both sides attempt to be the first to collect 9 bananas. The chimps harvest bananas but then also need to collect them, and George may be able to get them after they have been harvested but before they are collected. Also George can chase the chimps up trees where they will need to be rescued by other chimps.

Battle For Armageddon, published by Games Workshop. 1992. Box. Box edges show wear. £20

Wargame set on the planet Armageddon in the distant future. A massive invasion force of Orks has descended on the planet and intends to take over from the humans. The human Space Marines must thwart the Orks’ plans. This game contains a full colour map board, 143 double sided large illustrated cardboard counters, a deck of strategy cards for each player, special cards, and dice. There is also a special issue of White Dwarf included as well.

Battlefield: Europe, published by GDW. 1990. Box. Good. £8

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.

Black Monday, published by Hexagames. 1988. Box. Good. £7

Card game, originally published in a book by Sid Sackson called Card Games Around The World. Includes 104 cards and play-money. Share dealing game in which the cards have a dual use - both as groups of shares and also as stock price cards. Thus the cards in one's hand must be used wisely to allow purchases to be made cheaply, prices modified and sales made to produce substantial gain.

Blooming Gardens, published by Ragnar. 2002. Box. Several copies available:

1) Mint £12 2) Excellent £11

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

Card game. Six months of beautiful flowers guaranteed, provided you can collect the right cards. Lay fertiliser to score more points and watch out for those dreaded pests. Players collect cards trying to make sure they have a display of flowers each month to score as much as possible, while using special cards and pests to their advantage as much as possible. Definitely quite light.

Bull Run, published by Avalon Hill. 1983. Box. Good. £10

The first battle of Bull Run, 21st July 1861. The first major battle of the American Civil War. Bull Run, a river running between the opposing troops, could be crossed by both sides at different points, meaning that both sides defended and attacked on different flanks. This is a low complexity tactical game. Units are infantry, cavalry and artillery. Each turn represents 30 minutes, and each hex represents 1000 ft. The Union side starts strong, but the Confederates get reinforcements as the battle develops.

Caesar, published by Gamesmiths. 1994. Box. Good. £13

Game of Roman politics, players start as rich Romans, building up their income and estates, bribing an official or two, calling on the Gods for help, winning glorious battles against the Barbarians and finally attempting to win the election and become Caesar. Bookcase box.

Calamity, published by Games Workshop. 1983. Box. Good. £10

A nice game of taking risks by selling insurance. The original idea was by the musical-meister himself, but was reshaped and amended by Derek Carver and Ian Livingstone. No dice, players use cards to move the one playing piece, with the intention of making opponent's settle claims against their insurance policies.

Campanile, published by Blatz. 1995. Box. Good. £9

Card game with 70 very attractive cards showing towers and turrets. Players use their cards to build up towers to great heights, while striving for control of these towers. At the end of the game the higher the tower the more points the controllers will get. The mechanisms are very clever and interlock in such a way that you can rarely do exactly what you want to, but have to make the most of what you can do. Recommended.

Car Wars, Mini Promotional Game, published by Steve Jackson. 1987. Booklet. Good. £0.50

Introduction to the world of Car Wars but a complete game in its own right. Probably made as a promotional item at game-shows.

Check-Math, published by Grant Trading. 1968. Box. Good. £9

Unusual move and capture type game played on a 10x10 grid with all spaces numbered 1-100. The playing pieces are numbered 1-9 + 10/11, and each can only move forward to the next row onto a space which is a multiple of its number. If this means it lands on an enemy piece, that piece is captured. If a piece gets to the far side of the board it becomes a King and can move either forward or backwards. Winner of the 1969 Gold Medal from Salon International Des Inventeurs.

Class Struggle, published by Class Struggle Inc. 1978. Box. Several copies available:

1) Box shows wear £4 2) Good £5

Climb the social ladder (where class matters). Based on a famous book by the designer, and it parodies the quite different social stratas of American and Soviet life. First edition with wooden pieces. The box art is an artist's impression of Ronald Reagan arm-wrestling with Karl Marx!!

Condottiere, published by Euro Games. 1994. Box. Several copies available:

1) Good £13 2) Excellent £14

A former French Game of the Year, this is an exceptionally well-made game about conquest, but not really a war game. In essence, a card game, with each city battle being decided by the play of various cards.

Cover-Up, published by Ideal. 1982. Box. Box shows wear, 2 corners taped. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-2. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

One player has 7 L shape pieces and the other 7 straight pieces. The board is a 7x7 grid with 7 sets of 7 different colour spaces dotted around the board. A colour is chosen, and players take it in turn to play a piece and avoid playing a piece onto a space of that colour. The player who manages to play the most of their pieces wins. It can also be played on your own in which case pick a colour and work out how to place all the pieces on the board without covering up any spaces of that colour.

Crazy Race, published by F X Schmid. 1994. Box. Several copies available:

1) Good £12 2) Excellent £13

Card based race game, where the cards themselves become part of the board. Players are given cards telling them what position to aim for at 3 stages of a race. Movement is by dice, but this is far from the whole story as cards can be played to make each player's lane shorter or longer and special cards can force other players to move faster or slower etc. It adds up to a very amusing but chaotic race. A good starter or finisher.

Das Gold Der Maya, published by Kosmos. 1997. Box. Box slightly dented. £10

Beautifully produced game of collecting artifacts from the Mayan Temple. The components are housed in a cloth bag, except for the glass stones. Works best by far with 4 players. The idea is that the players try to collect a complete circular artifact by buying pieces - however you only get to see one side of a two sided piece - if this side isn't what you want the other side may be or may not be. Because of the way the artifact pieces are made you do have some information about the reverse side. Good auction game.

Demarrage!, published by Jumbo. 1991. Box. Excellent. £25

This is the reprint of the famously rare game Homas Tour. Won the German Spiel Des Jahres 1992. Bicycle racing game in which each player controls a team of 4 cyclists and the objective is to do as well as possible with all your riders. The basic mechanism emphasises the importance of slipstreaming. Essentially the rider at the head of a line rolls 2d6 and moves, but those behind can either follow on using the same movement value, or decide the front man is too weak and roll for themselves. Neat idea. However, to make things more interesting there are also mountains, sprint sections, energy cards for surges when needed, event cards and even the option to grab onto a passing car - but don't get caught doing this! Recommended.

Die Fursten Von Florenz, published by Alea. 2000. Box. Good. £15. Desc. by Andy.

Aka. The Princes of Florence. Each player must develop their estates, erect buildings, lay out landscapes, and bring artists and scholars to their location. All this brings prestige and / or money. Money is needed during the game, but prestige is what you need to win. Each turn various improvements to your estates are auctioned and then players get to choose the actions they wish to do. However, there is always far more you would like to do than you have actions to do, so choosing wisely is vital. Excellent game - highly recommended.

Digging, published by Hexagames. 1990. Box. Good. £5

Card game in which players open mines and try to extract valuable metal while attacking other players' mines with bandits and defending their own mines. The mined metal is only safe once the mine has been safely closed.

Play can either be as individuals or better as a 4 player partnership game, in which case the choice on your turn is play a card, or draw a card or pass a card to your partner. At the end of the game the team with the most valuable metal wins.

Dino, published by Hexagames. 1989. Box. Good. £12

A dinosaur game with very nice components, 5 large plastic dinosaurs, wooden counters, and a meteorite (which looks like something a dinosaur might leave behind him after enjoying a tasty curried sabretooth tiger!). Originally published as Iridium in 1987.

Dodge City, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. 1984. Box. Good. £24

One of the first Hans-Im-Gluck titles that helped to establish the standards of excellency one associates with them now. Players must gain control of buildings in Dodge City, which is done by laying wooden blocks in certain formations within the buildings. These counters are obtained by the use of cards, but the card play is very original and the best part of the game.

Doom Of The Eldar, published by Games Workshop. 1993. Box. Good. £20

A science fiction siege game, with one player's deadly Tyranid horde invading the other player's Eldar spaceship. The attackers come in an initially unknown number of waves, which the defender must desperately try to survive. Once the Eldar are dead or the Tyranid waves finished victory is determined. Unusually for this company, a war game with counters rather than their usual miniatures. The counters are however larger and chunkier than you would get in an Avalon Hill game.

Drachenlachen, published by Hexagames. 1990. Box. Good. £11

The great dragon has caught a band of dwarves stealing his treasure, but decided to give them a chance to get out. Each player, as a dwarf, must climb the stairs out of the cave with a ring and then come back in for a second. A dwarf managing to get out with two rings wins. However, the dragon can cause dwarves to lose their rings, and the dwarves then have to head back to get another ring either from the Dragon or another dwarf.

Drunter & Druber, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. 1991. Box. Good. £11

Germany's 1991 Spiel des Jahres. Baron Munchausen style graphics. Players lay tiles to complete the rebuilding of the town of Schilda using roads, walls and waterways. However, dotted around the town are different types of buildings, and each player secretly wants to preserve one type of building, thus guiding development away from such buildings, but without making it too obvious what they are doing. Also, whenever a little toilet building is to be demolished (and there are many of them) the players must vote on whether that tile can be placed or not. Fun game, but cunning is also required. Recommended.

Election L-Game, published by De Bono Games. 1979. Box. Excellent. £14

A political game based on the mechanics in de Bono's classicl L-Game. As players move over a special board printed on the packaging, various squares are left uncovered. These squares give or take percentage points from the main political parties. After a set period of time, an election is called and seats won are added to find the winner.

Elixir, published by 3 Wishes. 1987. Box. Good. £13

Each player tries to be the first to discover the formula for all three parts of the Elixir of Life. To do this each wizard needs to gather ingredients and gems from around the board and combine them to produce potions. Initially noone knows which ingredients produce which potions, 3 of which are the parts of the Elixir of Life, and the others highly useful potions which speed you up, or get you more gold etc. There are strangers to encounter around the board and some deduction required to work out what combinations of ingredients must produce what. Good fun game.

Faulty Towers, published by Brighter Kids. 1989. Box. Good. £9

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

A tower building game in which the tower segments are all precision made to be rather wobbly. Tower parts come as bases, towers and turrets. All the pieces are crenellated, but unevenly - they fit together nicely, but wobble! Players take it in turn to roll a dice, and take the appropriate piece and add it to one of their towers. If a tower collapses the pieces are available for the players to use again. At the end of the game only pieces in finished towers score. Really nice bits.

Fireside Football, published by Gibsons. 1996. Box. Good. £7

Card game, simulation of a football season. Originally designed as a postal game, this version comprises 110 illustrated cards. Each player chooses which players to field in each match, and can buy overseas stars to bolster the team's performances. You can replay the whole season inside an hour.

Flight Leader, published by Avalon Hill. 1986. Box. Box good, counters unpunched. £11

Modern air combat. Over 200 aircraft types and many scenarios as a pilot in the USAF. Game has basic rules to help you get the idea of the game, and a pilot's manual for advanced rules and scenarios. Includes 520 die cut counters, large mapboard, 6 aircraft status cards, aircraft player aid cards and a d10.

Flinke Pinke, published by Amigo. 1994. Box. Good. £5

Special notes: Mark from a perished elastic band on the cover

Very nice card game (later made in the States by Milton Bradley, as Quandary). There are coins in 5 colours and number cards which match these coins. Players take it in turn to play a card and take a coin. The cards change the value of the coins of that colour to the number on the last card of that colour played. Quite a tense little game with more to it than there initially appears as is typical with this designer.

Fortress Europa, published by Avalon Hill. 1980. Box. Box shows wear. £13

Simulation of the Allied Campaign in Europe from D-Day to the end of the war. Loosely based on the Russian Campaign system. The Allied player selects an invasion site and makes a landing, tries to break out of the beachhead and drive across France pushing deep into Germany. The German player tries to prevent the Allied invasion or else withdraw in an orderly fashion across France, delaying the Allies, in order to counter attack in the winter.

Funkenschlag, published by 2F Spiele. 2001. Box. Excellent. £20

This is the original printing of Funkenschlag which was substatially revised for the second edition (also known as Power Grid). Limited edition of 500. An economic game with several things going on at once. Firstly players need to manage their money well and use it to build a network of power lines across a fictional continent. The map is laminated and the networks are drawn on with crayons. Secondly the players also have to purchase power plants of various types and buy enough fuel to run them. The variety of power plants and clever way they get auctioned really makes the game unique. The winner is the player who can supply the most cities with power when the game ends. Nice item.

G.I. Anvil of Victory, published by Avalon Hill. 1982. Box. Good. £12

Special notes: The counters are bagged and boxed, and there are a few hand made replacements / extras. I am selling this on the basis that the counters have not been checked (it is too large a job). However if it turns out that there are vital counters missing which cannot be easily replaced then I will give a discount / refund.

The third expansion for the Squad Leader system. It adds American armor and ordnance to the system, as well as revising many other features. The set contains 5 geomorphic map boards (each 8" x 22"), Scenario cards for situations 33-47, 36 page rulebook, terrain overlays for the mapboards, various chart sheets and over 1500 die cut counters.

Galopp Royal, published by Goldsieber. 1995. Box. Good. £13

Game of racing sedan chairs. The players have to bid for teams of porters, and then race them. The team members range from very strong (+5) to hopeless (-2), and also include very useful members who can affect other teams as well. The object is to end up with most money after 6 short races. The bidding involves only partial information so there is scope for bluff. I have some house rules which really do improve the game. It is one of my favourites.

Goldener Drache, published by F X Schmid. 1992. Box. Good. £12

Fantasy board game in which the players race their dragons to the golden volcano. Very nice bits. Movement is very clever, using tiles which are ordered in a rack and are then placed so as to move either you own or other dragons (unless an objection card is played). There is a memory element to the game as well, but I don't find it is overwhelming - and I'm not a fan of memory games.

Greyhounds, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. ca.1984. Box. Good. £17

First edition. Wooden pieces, look more like foxes than greyhounds. A clever race game in which one player acts as bookie and sets the odds for the race after seeing what cards people have chosen to use for the race.

Movement of the dogs is controlled by card play in a very original way. Highly recommended.

Greyhounds, published by Mattel. 1987. Box. Good. £15

Same game as the Hans Im Gluck version above but reprinted by Mattel.

Guerilla, published by Ariel. 1976. Box. Good. £12

Abstract game, which Eamon thought one of the best games ever made by this company. Players place pieces on a triangular lattice to form groups, which can then move - larger groups being able to move farther than smaller ones. There is also a special capturing mechanism called "overkill" which results in a red "massacre" token being placed on the space, which becomes impassable for the rest of the game.

Hickety Pickety, published by Parker Bros. 1968. Box. Box shows wear. £3

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

Childrens' game (ages 4-8). Nice miniature wooden eggs for each player and a metal spinner. Players take turns spinning the spinner which indicates who places an egg in their nest and then spins the spinner next.

Imperial Governor & Strategos, published by Ariel. 1979. Box. Good but box lid slightly indented. £30

Very unusual item. Two games in one box. Imperial Governor is for 3-6 players and is a diplomatic war game set in the Ancient Mediterranean. The game-play is excellent, with the unusual feature that it could be played as a never-ending campaign. The second game, Strategos, is a more traditional war game between Sparta and Athens.

Jolly Roger, published by Salagames. 1992. Box. Good. £6

Card game, 67 cards featuring pirates, treasure, gold, junk, and playing cards in special 'suits'. A simple trick-taking game, with twists of course, but I particularly like the scoring system, where players delve into the treasure deck as many times as tricks they won, but should they draw a Junk card they score zero. They can stop drawing at any time and bank their points so far. A nice idea.

Kensington, published by Whale. 1979. LP Pouch. Good. £2

Good abstract game that won a Game of the Year award in Britain, and was on the German Spiel des Jahres nomination list for 1982. Unusual packaging, rather like an LP record, helped make it stand-out. The board consists of 7 hexes (one central and six surrounding). The hexes are joined by squares and triangles. Pieces are played on the various intersections. Players play one piece at a time and then they are moved one at a time between intersections. To win a player's pieces must fill all 6 corners of a hex, but filling all the corners of a triangle or square lets you move around opposing pieces to your advantage.

Killer Bunnies - Promo Card 'Hare E. Potter', published by Playroom Entertainment. 2004. Ziplock bag.

Mint. £0.10. Designer Unknown. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Promo card for the 'Killer Bunnies' game. The full name of the game is 'Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carpet'.

Kings & Castles, published by Ragnar Brothers. 2000. Box. Mint. £17

Another game from the company that prints its boards on cloth. Each player is a Baron, with the objective of becoming the richest player. Money is raised through taxes, as authorised by the King. The main mechanism is unusual in that players don't have enough of their own soldiers for every turn, so instead each turn they must use some of their own and some randomly drawn from a bag (either their own or other people's) and try to use opponent's soldiers to help their own ends.

Knockout, published by Milton Bradley. 1993. Box. Box lid slightly indented. £9

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

A game in the Jenga family, but with some rather nice twists. Firstly a wall is built up using large plastic pieces, including a special piece near the top. Then players take it in turn to remove a piece and place it on top of the wall. However, rather than using your hands you use a toy electric hammer-drill which comes with the game! As you can imagine this eliminates the 'precision touch', and makes it all rather more fun! Also you don't lose unless the special brick falls, so sometimes you can safely demolish a section of the wall without losing. Good fun game.

Koalition, published by Hexagames. 1992. Box. Good. £9

Special notes: This is the more desirable 1st edition set.

Card game in which a series of elections across Europe take place. There are a number of Europe-wide political parties and a selection of politicians in each represented on the cards. To resolve an election players play two politicians who will stand. If a party has a majority it gets in and points are split between the players who played politiicans of that party, otherwise a coalition must be negotiated and all parties in the coalition score points. There are some other clever twists as well which make this an unusual and absorbing card game.

Kontor, published by Gold Sieber. 1999. Box. Several copies available:

1) Includes Das Exportlager Expansion. Excellent. £15

2) Includes the rare (1500 copies) and very good 3-4 player expansion which came out one Spiel. Excellent. £17

Very nice game set on the harbourside with players competing to manage warehouses. These warehouses are 'built' as the game progresses by laying tiles to form the board. What gets done is decided by card play, with cards having different actions and priorities. There are a great number of variant setups in the rules. I can recommend the base game for 2 players.

Kontor: Das Exportlager, published by Gold Sieber. 2000. Packet. Excellent. £0.50

Small expansion for Kontor.

Le Mans, published by Avalon Hill. 1961. Box. Box corners taped. £13

Special notes: Includes two additional car spec cards (probably from The General).

Early motor racing game. There are 12 different cars each with their own game specs making them play differently. The board shows two different tracks for variety (Le Mans and Monte Carlo). Each turn a car can stay in the same gear or shift up one gear or down gears according to their car's specs. The gear selected and the car's specs determine the number of spaces moved. Corners can be taken in different gears for each car. Exceeding the limits means a chance card must be taken. Collisions and spinoffs are possible, and optional rules allow for slipstreaming and over-revving.

Leap Frog, published by Falcon. 1990. Box. Good. £3

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

Special notes: One cardboard frog has been replaced with a black & white photocopy mounted on card, and the back of the board is discoloured.

Essentially a frog themed version of solitaire, but played on a triangular 21 space board. The pieces are large cardboard frogs with stands, and the spaces are lily pads in a pond.

Legends Of Robin Hood, published by Avalon Hill. 1991. Box. Good. £8

Avalon Hill's second stab at a Robin Hood game. First they bought the OSG game, and re-issued it, and then they released this game years later. A board game, but relying on card play, and a nice system that allows plenty of interaction. The game is driven by card play, and choices range from sticking to the relative safety of the woods and dining on the King's deer or donning a disguise to sneak into Nottingham Castle to cudgel the Sheriff himself.

Lowendynastie, published by Adlung Spiele. 1998. Box. Several copies available:

1) Excellent £3 2) Mint £4

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

Luftwaffe, published by Avalon Hill. 1971. Box. Box lid and base taped. £7

Game of aerial combat over Germany 1943-45. Turn based hex and counter wargame covering the strategic air war over Germany in WWII. Turns are roughly 1.5 months, units are wings. The board covers the Western Front from Belguim to Poland/Hungary.

Machiavelli, published by Avalon Hill. 1980. Box. Good. £25

Special notes: 2nd Edition

Excellent diplomacy-style game of political machinations and back-stabbing. Set in Renaissance Italy. Originally published by Battleline. The game includes colour map of Italy, 600 die cut counters, conference maps, scenario manual, game tables and dice.

Magic Realm, published by Avalon Hill. 1979. Box. Good. £30

Complex fantasy game with a board made up of large hex tiles, providing different lands to game on every time you play. The rule book introduces rules with each scenario so that you learn them gradually (assuming you play them in order).

Mini Poker Chips, published by Unknown. Box. Good. £4

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

A pocketable set of mini poker chips. They come in a plastic case which is 8cm x 5.5cm x 2.75cm. There are 10 chips in each of the denominations 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50. The chips are 2.5cm diameter and made of plastic. Each denomination is a different colour. A very useful item to have around as poker chips are generally much easier to use than the play money provided in most games.

Monster Derby, published by Gamesmiths. 1994. Box. Good. £20

Race game. Players predict what they think will be the first four monsters over the finish line. Then the race starts with players using dice but getting lots of choice. For example, they can choose which one will move (and this varies based on its size or terrain), they can make monsters fight, or they can use a monster's special ability. Bookcase box.

Moonstar, published by Avalon Hill. 1981. Box. Good. £10

Special notes: Slight indentation due to stacking, the red dice don't all match, some are replacements.

Incredible game of skill, a real brain-bender, yet when you open the box all you can see are loads of dice! First issued as Corona in Germany. This version doesn't have the nice wooden pieces of the German version, but it does have expanded rules, including 11 variants. The game itself involves rolling the dice to set up a situation on the board and then all players analysing the setup and spotting the highest way to score using the dice. After 1 minute players bid and the highest bidder shows how he gets his score. Some similar ideas to Ricochet Robots by the same designer, but rather more abstract.

Mü & Mehr, published by Amigo. 1996. Box. Excellent. £11

Card game, really a set of games using unique cards. It was on the German 1996 Spiel des Jahres shortlist. The main game is a very clever trick taking game which is best with 5 players. It involves bidding for a contract for the hand in a rather neat way, and there can be up to two different trumps, either of which can be a number or colour. Finally, rather than the number of tricks taken being what scores, the cards have little triangles on which are the points you are trying to win. One of the very best 5 player card games. The other games are interesting variants of traditional card games, but work just a bit differently using the alternative set of cards. Recommended.

Napoleon, published by Avalon Hill. 1977. Box. Good. £13. Desc. by Eamon.

Game that uses the classic 'wooden block' system. This is highly recommended if you have never seen the system. Each player has a number of wooden blocks as playing pieces. The blocks have 'strength' levels on all four sides and the side 'on top' at any one time is the current strength of that unit. This information is secret, i.e., the blocks only face the player who controls them. When a fight ensues, players reveal their strengths, and any hits lowering strength mean that the block is rotated to a lower level (or eliminated if no lower level is possible). The battle sets Napolean against the British and Prussian armies as Napoleon tries to invade Begium in 1815.

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

Nice looking game, a card game really, but the cards are oblong shaped pictures of the Manhattan skyline. Players use their cards, trying to engineer their colours to form the finished skyline at the end of the game. Clever design. It is especially good and quite tactical with 2 players. It gets increasingly chaotic with 3 or 4 players. Recommended for 2 players.

Noah's Ark Race Game, published by Falcon. ca.1990. Box. Box corners taped. £3

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

Children's game (age 5+ I would guess). Players use dice, but get a choice of where to move on the board. The objective is to track down animals for your ark, and the first to collect 6 gets a bonus. Played over several rounds. There is a simplified version for younger children and a scoring version for older children.

Odds Against, published by Chad Valley. ca.1961. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: Some of the cards have been replaced with photocopies. A standard deck of playing cards could be used instead. Hence the low price.

Betting game in which a series of horse races are run and bet on. The races themselves are fairly trivial, being determined by series of card draws. However what makes the game interesting is that before each race starts some cards are removed from the deck, and these are visible to all players. Which cards have been drawn out determines the odds for that race, and one player is the bookie and the other players punters. If the bookie goes broke after a race then another player takes over the position, and the objective is to be the last player with any money.

Olympia 2000 BC, published by Hans-Im-Gluck. Box. Excellent. £10

Card game, with colourful cards featuring ancient Greek athletes and their potential for various athletic disciplines. The game involves choosing which athlete to enter into each event, with the hope that you will choose to enter a slightly better athlete than your opponents. There are also crippled athletes who won't win but get you a consolation point for taking part. The way in which you replenish your hand of athletes is also quite clever, as is the way the next event to come up is determined.

Orient Express, published by Jumbo. 1986. Box. Box good, contents unpunched. £10

Detective game that not only looks great, but has very good rules and plays well. Players must interview up to 30 characters in each crime, but it is a race against time to unmask the murderer before the train reaches Istanbul. If you like crime solving games then this is highly recommended, as the cases are clever and require thought, making this one of the best of the genre. 10 different crimes included.

Origins Of World War II, published by Avalon Hill. 1971. Box. Box shows wear. £16

Rare game centring on the years leading up to 1939, as countries jostle for fear or favour in the lead-up to WWII. Originally published as a 'make-your-own game' in Sid Sackson's book A Gamut of Games, when the designer called it Origins of World War I, but Avalon Hill thought their customers would respond better to a slightly more modern period. Also includes 'What if?' scenarios where you can change history.

Outdoor Survival, published by Avalon Hill. 1972. Box. Good. £9

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.

Overlord, published by Condor. 1974. Box. Good. £6

Interesting abstract game, played on a board with a raised area in the centre (the wall). Pieces can jump each other, stand on the wall, and stack to control other pieces, with the object of capturing all the opponent's pieces. Columns of pieces are controlled by whoever has the top piece, and a column of pieces has more limited movement than a single piece which can make special 'hopping' moves, and getting a piece or column to your opponent's back row allows a special and powerful 'flying' move.

PanzerBlitz, published by Avalon Hill. 1970. Box. Good - contents unpunched. £12

Classic ground breaking wargame of tank verses tank warfare in WWII. Gameplay is tactical with geomorphic boards (allowing many scenarios to be played on the same boards), and has simple rules for a wargame. The game lets you recreate various situations from the WWII East Front using Russian and German tank units.

Papillon's Escape, published by Invicta. ca.1975. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: Original rules missing, however I am including a very comprehensive set of rules for the entire family of games of which this is one.

Abstract game with a plastic board and wooden pieces. One player has 9 pieces that represent Papillon (the great escaper from the notorious Devil's Island prison) and the other player has 16 pieces representing the guards. The object is to get your Papillon piece (from your 9 starters) off the board. This is actually the same game as 'Tablut' (except for a slightly different starting position), which is in the same family of games as The Viking Game or King's Table, and thus this is actually one of the oldest games in the world.

Patton's Best, published by Avalon Hill. 1987. Box. Good. £15

Command a tank across Europe after D-Day. Solitaire game inspired by the success of B-17: Queen of the Skies. Win promotion, earn medals, and gain experience for you and your crew. Includes 218 die cut counters, large mapboard, 17 different tanks for you to try out, dice and tables. Scenarios range from a single engagement, through a day of battle to a full campaign.

Pente, published by Parker. 1984. Box. Good. £6

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

Abstract game that looks very attractive in play, the pieces being little glass stones. Players compete to form lines of five stones, or try to capture a certain number of the enemy.

Ploy, published by 3M. 1970. Box. Good. £13

Abstract game with an appearance of something Mr Spock might play against Captain Kirk. The pieces are in a futuristic style and of a nice, chunky, plastic finish. Each piece has 'fins' which indicate in which direction it can move next. Gameplay is somewhat chess like, being a move and capture game, but the fins which indicate the direction of movement for each piece make it play differently. Also includes rules for 4 individual players or partnership games.

Poleconomy, published by Woodrush. 1983. Box. Good. £7

First edition, made by the inventor's own company. This is an unusual example of a game that promotes other real businesses on the board. An investment game, but with political overtones.

Puerto Rico Expansion, published by Rio Grande Games. 2004. Countersheet. Mint. £7

This is the English Language Puerto Rico expansion. It consists of two countersheets and rules for them. I haven't seen inside but gather you get a selection of new buildings to use in your game of Puerto Rico. This is not sold in the shops but only given away at conventions when making a purchase from Rio Grande, so I guess it is particularly hard to get hold of in the UK.

Push The Penguins, published by Crown & Andrews. 1988. Box. Box shows wear. £2

Special notes: Original dice missing, replacement provided, and some of the penguin pieces are creased and difficult to fit in their bases.

Children’s game in which each player has 4 penguins and tries to ensure one of them is the last on the iceberg. The penguins stand in 4 lines and a d3 is rolled each turn to see how far a player's penguin can push left or right. If a penguin is left on its own in a row it must move to a row with penguins in. Nice big chunky cardboard penguin pieces.

Queen Bee, published by Condor. 1974. Box. Box shows wear. £7

Each player controls a group of bees: a queen, some workers and some fighters. Each turn one bee can be moved (queens move slowest). Opponents' bees are captured by landing on them, but movement options are limited because bees block each other and movement is along the edges of a honeycomb grid.

Regatta, published by Avalon Hill. 1979. Box. Good but box shows wear. £17

A very good yachting race game. It never ceases to amaze me that, in this game, you all start equal, have equal turns, yet the difference between first and last at the end can be staggering. Metal yachts, buoys and committee boat. Advanced rules for real yachtsmen uses all the appropriate jargon and detail.

Road To The White House, published by Mayfair. 1992. Box. Good. £8

Mammoth election game. Game played in three stages. First, you must get your party's nomination, secondly, you must choose your 'platform' on which to base your campaign, and third, you must win the election.

Rogue Trooper, published by Games Workshop. 1987. Box. Good. £20

Sci-fi game linked to the world of Judge Dredd. Nice pieces. Players are genetic infantryman searching for, and exacting revenge, on a traitor who destoryed the rest of your comrades in arms in the Quarz Zone Massacre.

Ahead of you lie hostile forces and other dangers, but also companions, equipment and information on the identity and whereabouts of the Traitor. Once he is unmasked, you will need to chase him down and exact your revenge.

The game includes: full colour board, 6 rogue trooper figures, nearly 250 cards, full colour character cards, 66 counters and 6 dice.

Rommel In The Desert, published by Columbia. 1984. Box. Good. £28

Wooden-block game. Seven scenarios from WWII covering the British and German action in North Africa. The wooden block system is a neat way to give units 4 steps of strength rather than 2 as a counter can do, and also allows the identity of the units to be hidden (the blocks face their owner), so creating a fog of war effect. In addition wooden blocks are rather nicer to handle than cardboard counters. In addition this game has now become quite collectable.

Rubik's Magic Strategy Game, published by Matchbox. 1987. Box. Several copies available:

1) Box battered £3 2) Good £4

Abstract game with 16 attractive, double-sided playing pieces that fit into squares on a plastic board. The pieces are tiles and before a tile is added to the board, another tile in play already must be flipped over into an adjacent square. Thus memory is helpful to win.

S.P.I.V.S., published by 3 Wishes. 1986. Box. Good. £11

Space game with each player taking the role of a slightly dodgy trader in aliens in the deep space of Quadrant 13. However the quadrant is full of hazards which must be avoided, such as a black hole, a giant space amoeba, solar flares, asteroid belts etc. Players must take care to manage their fuel well and also the aliens to be traded resent captivity and all affect the capturing ship in one way or another, perhaps affecting movement speed or eating other captured aliens etc.

Schwarz Markt, published by Amigo. 1997. Box. Excellent. £11

Card game, involving making deals on the Black Market. Players choose when to exchange basic commodities for luxury goods, but their decision alters the value of these commodities thereafter. There is only one set of goods needed at a time so if only one person has a crucial item and they know it, they can potentially make a killing. Unusual light economic game, with a certain amount of bluff - how high should I let the price go before cashing in?

Shakespeare, published by Avalon Hill. 1975. Box. Good. £8

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

Special notes: Outer box shows wear, but inner box and components are in excellent shape.

Ambitious attempt to make Shakespeare palatable in a family game. Four levels of play. A nice booklet is enclosed, giving a full synopsis of all 37 plays, and the sources of famous quotations. Bookcase box with third edition rules. Game play is a parcheesi variant, with spaces on the board giving instructions which have been related to various of the Bard's plays. The playing pieces are chessmen. Quite an oddity.

Sky Galleons Of Mars, published by GDW. 1988. Box. Box shows wear. £15

Special notes: Some of the spaceship miniatures have their wings / sails held on with plasticene lumps (they could be glued on).

Science fiction combat game, with plastic miniatures as the playing pieces. Each player controls a number of ships in aerial dog-fights in the skies above Mars. The game sprang from a role-playing game called Space 1889, which was a Victorian based science fiction game, something that took its theme from the worlds of H G Wells. So space-ships closely resembled sailing ships, and it pitted the wooden cloud-fleets of the Martian princes against the steel aerial gunboats of Queen Victoria's Royal Navy. Although taking its inspiration from the role-playing game, this is a stand-alone board game, and a very good one if you like aerial combat. The rules cover movement, altitude, gunnery, ramming, and boarding parties.

Sleuth, published by Avalon Hill. 1981. Box. Box shows wear. £18

A classic game of deduction. A gem has been stolen, and the players have to work out which it is. There is a card for each possible gem, and one is removed from the game unseen, while the others are dealt out. Special question cards allow players on their turn to ask an opponent a question to try to work out who has which cards, and thus by a process of elimination ultimately work out which card is not in play. Highly recommended if you like deduction games - this is definitely a classic.

Society Today, published by Dynamic. 1971. Box. Box shows wear. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-8. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

Part of Dynamic's Psychology Today Series, Number V. The game is intended to be a reflection of modern times (in 1970). Box features such icons as a Black Power salute and a lady holding up her bra.

Soldier King, published by GDW. 1982. Box. Good. £10

Excellent multi-player game, which reflects accurately the intrigues of court and military in an 18th century European country, although the game is not set in an actual country (despite this company's usual range of historical simulations). To win you will need to use diplomacy as well as military conquest. Each turn represents a season of campaigning, and a unit 10-20000 troops. The rules are 4 pages long with 2 further pages of optional rules.

Sorry, published by BCM. Several copies available:

1) 1929. Box & Board. Good. £10

2) ca. 1934. Box & Board. Good. £10. This set comes with a double deck of cards, but both decks have a few cards missing, so I am including a complete deck from an earlier set as well!

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

First edition of this classic game, with a board, a deck of cards, and wooden pieces. A superior version of Ludo really, with more choice over the moves available. Comes with small box and seperate board.

Sorry, published by Waddingtons. 1963. Box. Box shows wear. £3

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

A variant of Ludo, but improves on that game. Japanese imagery on the box and board.

Spices Of The World, published by Avalon Hill. 1988. Box. Good but box base indented. £7

Promotional game for McCormick and Company, a specialist American firm in spice retailing. Game features miniature vials of actual spices as the playing pieces. Players compete to deliver spices around the map board, and score the most points.

Stadens Nyckel, published by Casper. 1998. Box. Excellent. £20

Players represent noble families trying to build up their neighbourhoods and get their family members into the important official positions at the right times. The game play is driven by cards, and events also take place giving advantages to the various positions, but the order these will come up in is partly revealed so you have an idea what is coming up. One very nice aspect of the game is that as sections of the city get developed card overlays are placed over the board.

Stand And Die, published by GDW. 1991. Box. Good. £17

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.

Starship Troopers, published by Avalon Hill. 1976. Box. Good. £13

Science fiction wargame based on the novel by Robert Heinlein, in which the Humanoids and the combined forces of the Skinnies and Arachnids do battle. Uses hidden movement to allow creatures to burrow underneath your troops. Includes 7 scenarios.

Stimmt So!, published by Queen. 1998. Box. Excellent. £9

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.

Stirling Moss Rally, published by Whittlecraft. ca.1965. Box. Several copies available:

1) Good £8 2) Contents shrinkwrapped £9

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

Probably made when Stirling Moss was still racing, certainly when he was the most famous driver in the land. Players have to finance a rally car. Board is reminiscent of the German game Enten Rallye, but this seems to be more luck based. Players must choose which items to buy when they get the chance so that hazards can be quickly negotiated. Board graphics and box art by the newspaper cartoonist Brockbank.

Storm Over Arnhem, published by Avalon Hill. 1987. Box. Good. £11

Simulation of the battle for Arnhem Bridge on September 18-21, 1944. Relatively simple wargame which uses the area impulse system. The British start off holding the bridge but are surrounded by German forces, and have to hold out for as long as possible.

Struggle Of Nations, published by Avalon Hill. 1981. Box. Good. £13

Simulation of the 'War of German Liberation' - Napoleon's Campaigns in Saxony, 1813. This is an epic game, and gets 10 on Avalon Hill's complexity scale, so only for experienced wargamers. The armies which number over 400000 men are portrayed at the division and brigade level in 1000 man increments. Hexes represent 2 miles and a turn 2 days. 3 different scenarios included as well as the full 60 turn campaign game.

Sunset Blvd, published by Salagames. 1992. Box. Several copies available:

1) Excellent £6 2) Mint £7 3) Good £5

Card game, representing film stars and their 'doubles'. Each player has a number of missions, to 'photograph' certain stars, and the cards are laid face down at the start to form the board. These cards are gradually revealed to help players reach their designated stars.

Suppenkaspar, published by Mattel. 1987. Box. Good. £12

Could be described as a 'sick' game, but great fun to play. Players gorge, diet, and throw-up in their quest for the perfect body. Great card game, board merely serves to keep a record of your appearance. The game is of the type where one player leads a particular type of card and this restricts what can follow it. However there are special cards and the opportunity to discard cards before a hand starts, making for some interesting play.

Svea Rike, published by Casper. 1996. Box. Excellent - unpunched. £26

Svea Rike recreates the history of Sweden from 1523 (Gustav Vasa) to 1818 (Karl XIII). Each player represents a Swedish noble family attempting to build their status. Status is achieved by accumulating fiefs, money, troops, and historically important achievements represented by cards. The game is driven by event cards to which the players react in a variety of ways. Often there will be wars with neighbouring powers which the noble families will need to assist in, as well as all sorts of domestic troubles to deal with.

Take My Word, published by Condor. 1974. Box. Good. £6

Original word game featuring lettered tiles. Words are made, some letters face up, some face down, but you have an option of bluffing by putting down a made up word. As well as extending your word by taking a new tile players can attempt to guess opponents' words, steal opponents' words to make longer words yourself, or call someone's bluff. The number of tiles in the game is very limited (31), so you can tell what tiles other players can't have hidden, which should help you work out what their word is (or if they are bluffing).

Tally Ho!, published by Rio Grande Games. 2000. Box. Excellent. £11

Light tile laying game in which one player plays the hunters and woodsmen and the other bears and foxes. Also in the woods are trees and game birds. The hunters try to shoot any animals, and can do so from a distance, but must be facing the right way. The woodsmen chop trees, but move slowly. The foxes move fast but only catch game birds, and the bears move slowly but eat woodsmen or hunters. Neat little game with quite a lot of luck but some tactical tile movement too. I also have some house rules which allow the game birds to be run by a third player!

Teufel, Teufel!, published by Salagames. 1992. Box. Good. £9. Desc. by Andy.

Odd game in which players have a wooden block with 7 holes, and they move around the board collecting letter pegs, but also getting devil pegs, which all give you a movement bonus. The devil pegs can be given away to an opponent by landing on the same space as them, but get two devil pegs and you lose some of your letter pegs. The objective is to collect one of each letter without having a devil peg. Definitely an oddity.

The Great Balloon Race, published by Parker. 1991. Box. Good, but 1 box corner and side taped. £13

Very nice race game with 8 very attractive balloon playing pieces. Which balloons you want to win is kept secret from the others and when you get your turn to move you can move any pieces, not necessarily just your own. The board has many different squares that affect future movement so there is a lot of scope for cunning play and stitching up opposing balloons.

The Magnificent Race, published by Parker Palitoy. 1975. Box. Good. £12

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

A real favourite of ours, one of the great fun race games. Players collect tickets on various forms of transport, and enter races for that transport throughout the game. Coloured balls are placed in a spinner and the winning ball will settle in a little indentation. The more balls you have in a race, the greater your chance of winning., but Dick Dastardly always has a black ball in every race so he could win and pinch the points. He could even win the game!

The Republic Of Rome, published by Avalon Hill. 1990. Box. Excellent. £30. Desc. by Eamon.

Very ambitious attempt to create a Roman political game. The Campaign game is long but brilliant when played with players who know the rule book inside-out (no easy task, I have to say). One inventor is an academic historian and the other is a gamer, both being involved ensured an accurate simulation as well as a game. Unusual in that as well as each player trying to become the most powerful family in Rome, the players must also cooperate enough to keep Rome stable against internal and external forces, as if Rome falls all the players lose.

The Stock Market Game, published by Avalon Hill. 1970. Box. Box corners taped. £12

Interesting business game with 4 scenarios, including one that takes you through the 1929 Wall Street Crash. It also shows how you could make money when everyone else is losing theirs. Players buy and sell 5 stocks to make the most money. Players simultaneously place counters to indicate buying or selling while a timer ticks away. A card decides whether the market is bull, bear or mixed, and the stock price changes depending on how

many people are buying and selling it. There are also rules for stock splits, stock conversion, margin buying and short selling.

Third Reich, published by Avalon Hill. 1974. Box. Good. £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.

Titan: The Arena, published by Avalon Hill. 1997. Box. Good. £23

Card game with 110 very attractive cards featuring the various monsters from Avalon Hill's epic game Titan. However, that is just about the only connection to that game. This is an enhanced version of Grand National Derby, and was later developed further into Galaxy: The Dark Ages. The players are gamblers, betting on and also influencing which of the creatures will survive the longest as the day's battles progress. Each round one of the creatures will fall, until only 3 remain standing, and bets on these creatures pay out. Combat is decided by playing cards on the creatures, and also by using special abilites for each of the creatures if you are its main backer. Recommended, and now quite sought after too.

Totem, published by Queen Games. 1995. Box. Good. £10. Desc. by Andy.

Players manage a tribe of indians each and every turn must assign their people amongst 3 huts. Then players use their resources to play enhancing spells on their own huts and unpleasant spells on opponents’ huts. The spells are resolved, food is gathered, babies are born and the population ages. The biggest tribe each turn gets an extra totem pole segment which allows more spells to be cast but also makes that tribe more of a target. It is quite possible for a tribe to become unviable and have to start again from scratch. Clever game with good mechanics. Very nice bits too.

Trampelpfad, published by Hexagames. 1989. Box. Excellent. £18

Very nicely made race game, with 6 fabulous wooden elephants and other wooden components. The elephants must load tree trunks and get them home, but the more they try to carry, the slower they may move. Do you make short, lightweight trips, or risk a heavy burden with less trips? A very nice item, not often seen. Game play is driven by dice, but with lots of choice in how to use your movrment points, and chances to hinder opponents.

Tugs, published by Octogo. 1990. -. Good. £4

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

TV related, based on the animated children's show about the adventures of the Star Tugs in the Big City Port. Each player must collect a waiting ship from the harbour and then navigate a safe course through the water hazards The board is in 4 parts but when assembled it is quite large (594mm x 840mm). Movement is by dice throw, but careful positioning is required to start towing the target ship and to dock it. It is also possible to block your opponents' movement as well.

Tune Din, published by Marino Games. 1988. Box. Good. £5

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

Fun trivia type game, based on music. Has the unusual feature that you can 'play' tunes on a Kazoo for the others to guess the title. Probably a lot of fun at family gatherings.

Twenty Questions, published by Milton Bradley. 1988. Box. Good. £6

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

Variation on the parlour game in which you have 20 questions to discover what the current player is thinking of. However, there are several differences here. The first is that it can be a person, place, thing or year which is to be identified, and rather than having to make up questions, there are 20 clues which are on each card. Each player in turn suggests the number of a clue and the 'reader' reads out that clue. The person who requested that clue may then make a guess. The reader and the player who guesses right share the points - the reader gets a point for each clue read out and the guesser gets one point for each clue which wasn't read out.

Two Furlongs From Home, published by Lambourne. 2000. Packet. Good. £17

A statistical horse-racing management game based on the premise that most of the action in a horse race takes place in the last two furlongs of a race and so that is all that is replayed. Each player (the game controls all the other players if you are playing solitaire) is a racing stud owner or manager and must decide which races, and where, his string of horses should be entered. Includes a large plastic board to represent the race-course.

U-Boat, published by Avalon Hill. 1959. Box. Good, but box corners taped. £15

Early Avalon Hill war game with metal ships. Players are either destroyers (searching) or submarines (hiding). These units manoeuver around each other with limited knowledge of the other's depth and position in an attempt to gain a critical hit. There are only 6 ships / subs and the rules cover 12 pages of A5, so not very complex.

Ultra Timber, published by Really Useful. 1993. Box. Good. £3

Variation on the stacking game Timber but without a dice. This looks more unstable than most stacking games because the pieces are placed in columns, with a piece lying across three columns. It must get very high, very quickly.

Up & Down, published by Adlung. 1996. Box. Excellent. £3

Card game, each player trying to score points by following on, playing onto a stack of cards. A plus card can only be played on a minus card and vice versa. If you don't manage an exact match then you must draw extra cards, one for each point

by which you missed the match.

USAC Autoracing, published by Avalon Hill. 1979. Box. Good. £16

Special notes: Includes 1980 Indy 500 driver cards

Very nice statistical game of the Indianapolis 500 race in America. You can play with up to 30 cars to each race, and you get to decide if you are going to drive normally, ease off or put your foot down each turn for each car.

Replaying the whole Indy 500 takes about 4 hours but it is fun to do it at least once. Generally you will play shorter races, perhaps treating them as qualifiers for the main event. It is quite possible to play with less cars and run less laps as well as divide up ownership of the cars between several players.

Vegas, published by Ravensburger. 1996. Box. Good. £10

Players compete to gain gold pieces, at 14 different tables in the casino. Not a betting game, but a game of getting majorities at the various tables. More recently reworked as Maginor.

Victory & Honor, published by Jolly Roger Games. 2002. Box. Excellent. £11

4 player partnership trick taking game with an American Civil War theme. Each player has a hand of cards which are used to play out 3 sets of 3 tricks. However, unlike most trick taking games three tricks are played at the same time, and once resolved the next three are played out. Also each player has a board onto which the cards are played, and this shows a left flank, right flank and centre. The cards all have a rank as well as a suit, but some have special abilities such as a scout forcing an opponent to play in a particular space on their board or a canon capturing an opponent's card. Trumps are also only decided during each 3-trick, and will change for the next 3-trick. Some unusual ideas making a novel game.

Viking Fury, published by Ragnar Brothers. 2004. Box. Mint. £26

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. The game includes an A1 size cloth map, a deck of 4-colour cards and wooden and plastic playing pieces. Limited print run of 500.

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

1) Mint £5 2) Excellent £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-10. Country: German, 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.

Voltron, published by Parker Bros. 1984. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-5. Country: Canada, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box edges show some wear, and one corner taped. Some of the standup cardboard pieces are creased, but still usable.

Based on a US Children's TV program in which the Voltron Force of good guys in space suits have to find the keys to form Voltron, who is powerful enough to best the Robeast! There are two versions of the game, one for beginners and one more advanced. The game involves some memory work as a board of face down tokens gets explored, and nasty surprises get turned face down after discovery, but useful weapons and the all important keys can be found too. Loads of standup cardboard pieces, including two huge ones which are used on the seperate balltefield board.

Watch Your Garden Grow, published by Intellect. 1971. Box. Good. £18

Rare children's game, very nicely produced. The large square box houses a board for each player (the gardens), masses of plant cards, and a board around which you move to collect the plants, getting a choice of which to plant on the various spaces. Bad weather and pests can however damage your plants, some of which are bought fully grown and others have to be grown from seed or corms. The box recommends the game for 5-10 year olds.

Where There's A Will, published by Ragnar Brothers. 2002. Box. Several copies available:

1) Mint £15 2) Excellent £13

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.

Whipping Bobby Lee, published by Ragnar Brothers. Packet. Mint. £8

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

American Civil War tabletop miniatures rules by the guys who brought us History of the World. A compact set of rules which focuses on making you prioritise on your actions, as you won't be able to do everything you want to. Suitable for one off battles or full campaigns.

Who ?, published by Gibsons. 1989. Box. Good. £7

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

Parlour game in which each player has a character card for a famous person, giving a brief biography and 10 clues. Players move their pieces around the board and get to discover clues about opponents' famous people, sometimes openly and sometimes in secret. Guesses can be made at any point and a right guess earns 5 masks, but a wrong one costs a mask. The little plastic masks are really rather neat. Includes cards for 292 famous people.

Wild Life, published by Spears. Box. Several copies available:

1) 1973 Good. £5 2) 1965 Box shows wear £4

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

Very famous family game in this country, but out of print for some years. Sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund as it educated about animals and their conservation, as well as providing entertainment. Contains money, counters, animal catcher figures, and lots of cards with colour photographs of the animals along with cost to capture and the value once captured. Each player runs a zoo which requires a specific set of animals, which are caught by landing on their spaces on a track around the board. Alternatively landing on a trading space lets you buy animals you need from other players but this time you have to pay the full value. More money is gained either by selling animals or from zoo income.

Wildlife Adventure, published by Ravensburger. 1986. Box. 1 box corner split. £15

Excellent game and one of Kramer's best games. It is played on a map of the world. Players must direct 3 expeditions to reach animals they have cards for. This is done by laying coloured arrows onto the board and gaining special actions at various locations and using up valuable travel vouchers to get you extra moves or special actions when it is most important. This or one of its derivatives should be on every gamer's shelf in my opinion!

Wohnprojekt 88, published by Parker. 1975. Box. Good. £10

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

Unusual item. Effectively a whist variant (with 4 suits of 15 values, and a trump suit of 15), but rather than cards being played thick wooden tiles are used. The suits are types of building, and each hand the players bid on the type of building they will try to build this hand, and only tiles of that type won in the trick taking game (+ the trump suit cards) can be built that turn. Building involves actually placing the tiles onto a full size board. Several hands are played until two areas have been completely filled. Can be played as a partnership game too.

Wooden Ships & Iron Men, published by Avalon Hill. 1977. Box. Good but box corners 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.

Word Power, published by Avalon Hill. 1967. Box. Several copies available:

1) Good £10 2) Box worn £8

2nd edition in a bookcase box. 3 levels of play, from elementary to intellectual. Based around word definitions, but with more game-play than usual in these types of game. Essentially the players have cards with various obscure words on them and these can be played only onto spaces with related or opposite words when on an appropriate space. Players can also challenge your play if they think you don't know what a word means and so have made an incorrect play.

World Game Review Magazine, published by Michael Keller. All in Excellent condition.

Published on an irregular basis, and aimed at those with a sophisticated interest in mainly abstract games and puzzles. However it always included many reviews of games in each issue. Lots of info about the mathematics of games. Main articles listed below.

Issue 4 1985 £3: Dice games, Advanced Cubology, Avalanche Chess, Collective Hangman, Yahtzee Technical Analysis.

Issue 5 1985 £3: Advanced Cubology, Polyhexes, Hexominoes, Ultima, Realm, Risk, Soiltaire Lap, Traffic Lights, Tenpenny

Issue 7 1987 £3: Domino puzzles, Hexominoes, Free Choice Chess, Ultima

Issue 8 1988 £3: Ultima, Lachaino, New problems in Peg Solitaire

Issue 9 1989 £3: Special Issue devoted to 82 years of Polyomino shape puzzles, Pentominoes.

Issue 10 1991 £6: Specially large issue devoted to chess variations with rules and sample games, games reviews, bibliography and index.

Issue 11 1992 £3: Best abstract games to play on boards 3 x 3, 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 squares, Peg Solitaire, Castawords

Issue 13 1998 £3: Giza Solitaire, Black Spy, The Game of Y, many more reviews than usual of commercial board games, Chess variants updated

X From Outer Space, published by Discovery Toys. 1985. Box. Good. £8

Roll-and-move children's game with a twist: you roll one white and two red dice and move your ship using the value of the white die. If you land on a space with a number, then multiply the large blue number on the space by the sum of your red dice. If the result is equal to the little red number in the space, you move forward 5 spaces. If greater than the red number, you move forward 1 and if less you move back 1. Planet Zoomer and Black Hole cards are drawn at different places on the board and move the player's pawn forward or backward along the track. The first person to reach the sun wins.

X-It, published by Millenium 2. 1996. Box. Good. £3

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

Card game, with dice. Match your hand to die rolls to get rid of your cards. The cards show the numbers 1-6 or an X, and each player starts with 6 cards. 3 dice are rolled and a card may be discarded for each of these dice if it matches or is a wild card. You win if you discard your last card, otherwise draw 1 new card ready for your next turn. The skill is deciding when to use the wild cards.

XXL, published by Abacus. 1996. Box. Several copies available:

1) Excellent £6 2) Mint £7

Card game, with large cards each with two numbers from 0 and 10 and a sum of these numbers. The cards come in different colours (suits) and sometimes the colour of the numbers is reversed. 6 different games are described which make use of these unusual cards.

Young Krypton, published by Telitoy. ca.1980. Box. Box shows wear. £6

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

TV related, based on a juvenile version of the Krypton Factor. This means it is full of puzzles to solve and even includes a mini-Tangram set for each player.

Zatre, published by Peri Spiele. 1989. Box. Excellent. £13

Special notes: This set also includes the PC version of the game, Zatre Light - for solo play against the computer. Win 95/3.1x (works on my Win98 PC too)

Tile laying game. The tiles show the numbers 1-6 using dice pips, and each turn a player plays 2 such tiles onto the board in order to score points. Points are scored whenever consecutive tiles add up to 10, 11 or 12, but they may never add up to more than 12. In addition each time a score is made the score is noted on a pad, and keeping the number of times 10, 11 and 12 have been scored level will give greater bonuses. The final twist is that making a scoring move on a doubling square doubles the bonus you get for an extra line on your scorepad. It makes an interesting game in which luck plays a role, but so does skill.

Zaxxon, published by Milton Bradley. 1983. Box. Good. £5

Board game version of the early 1980s video game of the same name. Each player / team flies a mission with their planes to destroy an enemy target and fuel dump and then make a run on the dreaded Zaxxon, a well armed robot fighter. The game allows the teams to attack each other as well once on the final run and there are several obstacles which have to be negotiated too. Nice chunky plastic pieces.

Zero, published by Berliner Spielkarten. 1998. Box. Excellent. £6

Set collecting card game in which players swap cards with a central pool trying to improve their hands. When a player is satisfied with their hand they can choose not to make a swap and knock, after two knocks everyone else gets a last chance to swap a card and the hands are scored. A flush of 5 or more cards or 5+ of a kind counts for 0, and other cards count negatively, but only one of each number in the hand. The ultimate score, Zero, can be made by having 5 of a kind and a flush with a card in common. The hand ends instantly if this is achieved.

Zoff In Buffalo, published by F X Schmid. 1998. Box. Excellent. £13

Players vie for space for their cows in various fields of different sizes. This is done with simultaneous card play. The rules for cow placing priority favour those who already have a larger herd in the field and then those who wish to place fewer cows. Bonus cows are awarded periodically for large herds and at the end of the game whoever has the most cows on all pastures is the winner. The meadows are represented by different size mini-boards, with an attractive but disorganised side and a well regimented but less attractive side, so you can decide which way you prefer it!

Zoo Quest, published by Ariel. ca.1958. Box. Fair - Good (but it is old). £10

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

Special notes: Box shows wear - corners repaired with tape and base a bit warped but whole. The back of the board is discoloured, but the playing side is good, but edges taped.

TV related, based on the 1950's Natural History programme, hosted by a young David Attenborough. Stunning graphics on the board, with wild animals around a map of Africa. Insensitively, players are described as big-game

hunters, although you are not killing the animals you collect, you are retrieving them for your zoo. Players race to take their collection of animals back to Nairobi, and the first to do so will get a bonus, but may not win as other players may have been more frugal with their travel expenses and still have a decent number of animals.

Zum Kuckuck!, published by F X Schmid. 1997. Box. Several copies available:

1) Mint £8 2) Excellent £7

Card game, with 108 cards depicting comic birds, mainly cockatoos and cuckoos. Every round each player chooses a number card to play, and the highest two get nest cards. At the end of the hand having the highest valued nest is a bad

thing as they attract cuckoos - however a new nest replaces an old one, so 'winning' a high value nest at the start of a hand isn't necessarily bad. After a hand is played out the initial hands are reformed and passed to the left for a replay! Whoever does best after everyone has played each hand is the winner.

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