Sep 2006 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Sep 2006 Catalog

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

101 Best Family Card Games, published by Parragon. 1998. Book. Excellent. £2

Card game book with illustrations. The games are categorised as follows: For The Family With Very Young Children; The War Family; The Authors Family; The Stops Family; The Casino Family; The Rummy Family; Trump Games; The Whist Family; The Hearts Family; Solitaire Games.

3000 Metres Steeplechase, published by Lambourne. 1994. Packet. Good. £6.50

Expansion to 'The Long Distance Double' from the same company, but playable standalone. The basic game system is the same as the parent game, but changes have been made to reflect the different nature of steeplechase events - having to accelerate into the hurdles and water jumps every 80m or so. Statistic cards for 48 athletes are included in the game. If you have Long Distance Double you can use the track and playing pieces from it to show race positions. Without it you can play by using a track record sheet to do the same job in a less visual way.

A Mighty Fortress, published by SPI. 1977. Box. Good. £29

Special notes: The plastic case shows its age, with the edges discoloured and starting to crack.

Well known wargame for precisely six players. The game simulates the religious fervour of the 16th century when the Lutheran Reformation fought head-to-head with the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Played on a map of Europe, and featuring all the great Empires and Dynasties of the period. As well as moving around counters on the board you will also need some diplomacy. Rules also cover sieges, missionaries, taxes, excommunication, and Henry VIII. Each faction has its own goals and starts with different forces.

Abilene, published by Hexagames. 1983. Box. Good but box slightly discoloured. £10. Desc. by Andy.

Cattle ranching game, invented by Roland Siegers but using a pseudonym on this occasion. Players move their cattle towards market, where they can be sold, but also send out their cowboys to rustle cattle from their opponents' herds. Selling rustled cattle is more profitable, but getting caught by opposing cowboys while on their land is not something you want to do very often. There is also a bluffing mechanism which enhances the prices of some cattle when sold. On the 1985 German Spiel des Jahres nomination list. Best with 3 players.

Ad Acta, published by Bewitched. 2002. Box. 2 copies available:

1) New. £19. 2^nd Printing.

2) Good - dust cover has been taped. £19. 1^st edition: number 105 / 500.

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!

AD&D Cardmaster Adventure Design Deck, published by TSR. 1993. Box. Mint. £5.50

Unusual crossover game for AD&D 2nd Edition. Rather than providing an adventure scenario a set of cards are provided which can be used to create random adventures on the fly, with or without a GM. There are 108 location cards, 54 treasures and 54 monster cards. The box states it is for character levels 3-6. Probably best used outside a campaign as a one off standalone adventure.

AD&D DragonLance: Player's Guide, published by TSR. 1993. Book. Mint. £2.25

AD&D Roleplaying supplement for the DragonLance world. This book provides lots of information about the DragonLance campaign setting, including: races of the world, major cities and regions, deities, monsters, and a history of Krynn. 128 pages, softback.

AD&D Ravenloft - Dr Mordenheim's Laboratory, published by TSR / Ral Partha. 1994. Box. Mint. £5.50

A boxed set of miniatures making up Dr Mordenheim's laboratory. This includes: A work table, a large rack and machine for making Frankenstein like monsters!, one of said monsters, Dr Mordenheim, a minion (think Igor) and a screaming woman.

AD&D Trivia Game, published by TSR. 1991. Box. Good. £6

A game for keen players of AD&D. The players or teams are asked questions of varying difficulty, relating to events which might occur within AD&D. If you have a AD&D Rules Lawyer friend then this would make a great present for them! Alternatively take it along to your roleplay club and be assured of a fun hour or so.

AD&D: Castles, published by TSR. 1990. Box. Excellent - unpunched. £7

Boxed 2nd Edition AD&D Set. This is an unusual item as it includes loads of 'Adventure Fold-Up' pieces which can be used to construct parts of castles: 40+ towers, buildings and walls, 60+ accessories (doors, rooftops etc), 40+ Tools of war (ballistae etc), 80+ floorplan aids. As well as all this it also contains poster maps of 3 fortresses and booklets detailing them and giving rules to use with the AD&D Battlesystem.

AD&D: Forgotten Realms: Exile, published by TSR. 1990. Book. Book edges show wear. £0.40

This is a fantasy fiction book based in the AD&D Forgotten Realms setting. It is Book 2 of the Dark Elf trilogy and is about the adventures of the drow Drizzt Do'Urden and his magical cat.

Advance To Marble Arch, published by Parker. 1985. Box. Good. £7

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 takes a turn to get a new one. A fun light business game, and I can supply my house rules which improve the game end conditions and reduce the random element a bit.

Alpha Omega, published by Avalon Hill. 1980. Box. Good but box corners taped. £8

Special notes: First A.H. edition

Tactical space ship combat game originally made by Battleline. The game portrays the conflicts between Humans, Drove and Rhyish races, and provides a selection of scenarios to play using this system. Ship counters represent a single ship and a hex 186000 miles. Each game move represents 6 seconds of real time.

Alphabet Race, published by Ravensburger. 1986. Box. Good. £1.50

Childrens' game (age 7+) in which a card is revealed showing various things which fit a theme, eg. a selection of toys, and the current player must say a word which fits the theme and which starts with their current letter. If they manage to do this quickly then they advance their letter marker to the next letter. First player to get past W wins. 20 very thick theme cards are provided and are attractively illustrated. 4 variants are also included.

Ambush, published by Victory. 1983. Box. Good. £18. Desc. by Andy.

Ground-breaking solitaire wargame. Features 8 replayable missions set in WWII France. You ‘roll up’ the characters who will be in your platoon which adds variety to the missions. The game uses a programmed paragraph system. You control a U.S. squad, and have numerous tactical options and an unpredictable enemy and can equip your men as you see fit. Very well regarded game.

Ambush: Move Out Expansion, published by Victory. 1984. Box. Excellent - contents unpunched. £13

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

Four additional missions for use with Ambush! the solitaire paragraph driven wargame set in WW2 France.

Anno 1452, published by Piatnik. 1999. Box. Excellent. £10

Game set in the Holy Roman Empire in 1452. Players earn victory points in various ways. Players have a limited number of actions each turn to place pieces into territories on the map. There are several types of resources to manage and there are also several ways to challenge other players' positions. One element which stands out is that the weakest player each turn is made king and is given some powerful benefits, which gives them an excellent opportunity to get back into the game. Once this is done another player will then become king.

Atlas & Zeus, published by Descartes Editeur. 2004. Box. In shrink. £8.50

A vicious two player game in which Atlas' descendants vie for dominance in a war in which Atlantis sinks under the waves. Players play cards to move their people around the islands and attack enemy warriors, and even entirely destroy other islands. Play is fast, furious and very bloody - you can be sure there will be no stalemates in this game, as an island sinks each round no matter what the players do. The game is card driven with some interesting mechanics. Good fun.

Axis And Allies Pacific, published by Hasbro Avalon Hill. 2000. Box. Excellent. £27. Desc. by Andy.

Game of grand strategy in the Pacific theatre of war, WWII. 345 plastic pieces representing battleships, carriers, fighters and artillery are used. Players need to make prudent economic plans as well as good naval tactics if the war is to be won. The game starts as Japan prepares for the Pearl Harbour strike. The game is a little more complex than Axis and Allies.

Backwords, published by Random House. 1988. Box. Good. £2.50

Very good game in the Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Guesstures type of line. Instead of trivia, the game is designed around people's ability to understand words as they are read out backwards by the question-master that round. Not nearly as easy as it sounds. Components in very good condition, and includes 800 cards with somewhere near 2000 words to play with.

Baker Street, published by Ravensburger. 2003. Box. Excellent. £10. Desc. by Andy.

Card game given a Sherlock Holmes theme. Players try to collect evidence cards with letters on, and the first to have 7 consecutive letters wins the game. Game play involves playing numbered cards of your colours against face down piles of evidence cards. After each placement and drawing a new card the current player must estimate the total of the cards in both players' hands, and this must be higher than the estimate given by the previous player on their turn. Alternatively a player can forego playing a card and challenge their opponent's estimate. Doing so correctly gives the chance to evaluate a pile of cards, the winner of which gets to take an evidence card of their choice from that pile. Unusual mix of mechanics.

Bali, published by Kosmos. 2001. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £11 2) In shrink. £12

Most unusual card game in which the players fight for dominance over four islands. The Dalang visits the islands and on arrival rewards the players who control the prince and the priest on that island with victory points. Each player has four hands of cards, one associated with each island, but only the hand for the island the Dalang is currently at is in use. Cards are played to challenge other players to become the priest or prince, move cards between hands on different islands, and trade cards with the deck. There is plenty of scope for clever card play, and the game doesn't feel like anything else.

Battle For Italy, published by Avalon Hill. 1983. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box good, contents unpunched. £7.50. 2) Good. £7

The battle of Arcola, one of the first real tests of Napoleon's ability, took place during the Italian Campaign of 1796. This battle was the most hotly contested battle of the campaign. This is a division / brigade level wargame, and also acts as an introduction to the large game Struggle of Nations. Complexity level 4/10 on Avalon Hill's scale.

Best Seller, published by Gamescene. ca.1985. Box. Good. £6

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

Promotional game, made for the milk delivery firm, Unigate Dairies. Business game of buying and selling groceries. A four stage game. 1) purchasing products, 2) marketing expenditure, 3) selling products, 4) marketing income. An unusual mechanism gives the players a variety of choices of what to buy and sell and at what prices. The marketing phases involve moving around various tracks on the board, with options on where to move next, and choosing how to make the best of the opportunities presented. Unusual item.

Bloody Legacy, published by Surprised Stare Games. 2004. Box. New. £6.25

Fun but silly card game in which players try to kill off all their rivals in order to inherit late Great Uncle Hesketh's riches. To do this players play cards showing all means of foul traps and 'accidents' on their opponents, who do their best to dodge, reflect back, or just plain survive them. The artwork is gory but in a comic book type of way.

Blooming Gardens, published by Ragnar. 2002. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £8.50 2) Excellent. £7.50

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. Light game, with an unusual theme.

Blue Line Hockey, published by 3M. 1969. Box. Excellent. £17

Two-player ice hockey game, non-statistical. A good head-to-head game of strategy. In the plastic wrap-around box much favoured by 3M sport games. The game simulates most aspects of ice hockey including player movement, passing, stealing, shots-on-goal, and penalties using a combination of dice, cards, and a lookup table.

Booby-Trap, published by Parker. 1965. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box Worn. £2.50 2) Good. £3.50

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

Dexterity game. Unusually for a manufacturer like this, it comes with a wooden frame, into which are wedged the plastic pieces. They are held in place by a bar on a spring. The object is to remove pieces one by one, without setting off the spring. Good fun and nicely made.

Bzz Out, published by Gamewright. 2000. Box. Excellent. £3.50

Family card game for ages 4+. Players try to collect honey pots by winning card playing rounds. Each round a card is dealt to each player, and the players in turn decide whether to keep their card or swap with the next player. The last player can swap with whoever they want. Highest card wins a honey pot, but the Bzz Out cards allow a player to refuse to swap and always win a honey pot. Some bluffing is possible. Attractively presented children's game.

Campaign Issue 84, published by Don Lowry. 1978. Magazine. Good. £1

Wargame magazine, but with articles of more general interest too. The magazine was previously known as Panzerfaust. This issue's articles include: Weserubung: The German Invasion of Norway 1940, Russian Campaign, Designer's Notes on Elric, Grand Army Additions, Dauntless Review, Cosmic Encounter Review, Book Reviews, Short Reviews, Letters.

Chancer, The Game, published by BMI. ca.1985. Box. Good except for sticker mark. £2

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

Based on a popular British TV series in the 80s called Chancer, which featured a suave and unpleasant con-man in the 1950s, cheating and blackmailing his way through bad debt, and dodgy deals on his way to a fortune. Play one of the characters, gain cash and shares and take Chancer cards to cheat the other players. The mechanics resemble those in Monopoly.

Chaos, published by Airfix. 1970. Box. Box corners taped. £6

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

Players try to move their six playing pieces from one side of the board to the other side. However, all the pieces look the same, only having an identifying colour underneath. Each turn a player moves a piece forward, sideways or diagonally, perhaps also jumping over a single piece one or more times. When a piece reaches the far side, it is turned over to reveal its true owner. If the moving player's then it stays there, having achieved its goal, if not it stays, but its owner will have to move it next turn. Players may also challenge if they think someone is moving a piece which isn't theirs.

Chemplay, published by Essochem Europe Inc. 1974. Box. Good. £12.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4-7. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Business game based on the petro-chemical industry developed by Esso, apparently for use in internal seminars and staff training programmes. The game has some similarities to Monopoly, with a track around which players move with the opportunity to buy properties, and develop them in order to make more money. However, there are also quite a few extra features, a major one being that there are two types of players: merchant banker players and chemical company players, who obtain money in different ways and can interact. Also, the chemical company players can buy various chemical plants and get income that way as well as by buying property. The board is printed on a clear plastic roll, and the game uses a neat double sided dial for expenses etc.

Chess Board Puzzle, published by Unknown. ca.1950. Box. 1 end of box missing. £0.50

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

Puzzle comprising of 15 pieces in different shapes, but each piece featuring a number of squares to a chess board. The object is to form them into a regular chess board.

Ciao Ciao, published by Drei Magier Spiele. 1997. Box. Good. £7

Nicely produced small box game in which the box itself + a cardboard ladder make up the playing surface. The inside of the game board depicts a dangerous jungle, and players try to get their playing pieces across the ladder to safety. Players take it in turn to roll a dice in a special holder, and peek in. They can then move their playing piece as much as they wish, but others can call their bluff, and if they moved a different amount to that rolled the playing piece moved falls from the bridge to its death. If a challenge is made incorrectly then the challenger loses a man instead. Points are scored for men who make it across. Players must bluff sometimes as one face of the dice is an X which can always be challenged.

Competitive Edge - Issue 11, published by One Small Step. ca.1995. Magazine. Excellent. £4.50

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

Formerly known as Game Fix, this followed a similar style, with a complete game in each issue and variations for many other games. Game this issue is Cybernaut, about hackers in a fight for control of the Net by Joe Miranda. Other articles include: Ancients, Magic The Gathering

Conquest Of The Empire, published by Eagle Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £33

Epic game of conquest set during the Roman empire. The players take the roles of Roman generals and attempt to conquer as much of the world as possible and become the next Emperor. This is a remake of the 1984 MB Gamemasters game of the same name. The game uses over 260 plastic miniatures on a very large attractive board. The game also comes with an alternate set of rules which use the same components for a game with the mechanics based on Martin Wallace's Struggle of Empires. As with all Eagle games you can be sure the components are fantastic.

Coup, published by Steve Jackson. 1991. Box. Good. £8.50

Simple and light wargame in which one player's mobs, corrupt policemen and rag-tag irregulars try to overthrow the leader who has money, weapons and control of the important locations. The game concentrates on the importance of the key locations rather than eliminating opposing forces. The game also includes a longer advanced scenario.

Cover Up, published by Parker Bros. ca.1970. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £5. Some brown tape has been used at some point to seal the box, and some extends onto the lid.
2) Good. £5. Box lid is in very good condition, but the base has been used to record the scores of a game.

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

The board shows a 16x16 grid of spaces, many blank, but some numbered and some blacked out. Players each have a selection of square and rectangular transparent coloured plastic shapes which they take it in turns to place on the board, connected to other pieces already there. However no piece may cover a blacked out space and each space covered scores 1 point unless it is numbered in which case that is its score. A few of each player's pieces are marked with a D, and these score double, so need to be used carefully.

Crazy Race, published by F X Schmid. 1994. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £8.50 2) Excellent. £9.50

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.

Cthulhu Dark Ages, published by Chaosium Inc. 2004. Book. Good. £7

Standalone role playing game based on the systems used in Call of Cthulhu and Basic Roleplaying. This book describes the Dark Ages as a setting for roleplay involving the Cthulthu mythos - the main idea being that what made the Dark Ages 'dark' was the prevalence of all sorts of sinister evil of the type found in H.P. Lovecrafts' books. This 176 page book covers: The Game System, A Tour of the Dark Age World, The Cthulhu Mythos, Spells etc, Beasts and Monsters, The Tomb (a 40 page scenario).

D&D: Champions Of Mystara, published by TSR. 1993. Box. Shrinkwrapped but dented. £5.50

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Supplement. The full title is Champions of Mystara - Heroes Of The Princess Ark. This boxed set is a compilation from the Dragon magazine series of the same name. The Princess Ark is a flying ship which explores the world of Mystara. It includes: 3 guidebooks (total 224 pages), 8 ship recognition cards, 2 25mm scale deck plans for the Princess Ark, 2 mapsheets. As well as many adventure ideas the set covers rules for constructing and operating flying ships and describes the lands to the west of the Known World, and provides a guide to GMs making their own world.

Dark World, published by Waddingtons. 1992. Box. Good, but box edges show wear, some tape. £10

Special notes: Complete, but no spare skulls or fixing plugs provided

Massive introductory fantasy game, with loads of plastic miniatures, weapons and items. Players must get their character through a labyrinth of nasties and into the Castle where they must defeat Korak. Eamon considers this and the two followup games his best published games.

Der Fliegende Hollander, published by Parker. 1992. Box. Good. £13.50

Interesting game, with wooden pieces, cards, and horseshoe tiles with racks to keep them on. Players set out to make money as merchant traders, but must avoid meeting the Flying Dutchman, who will curse their voyage if they should cross paths. The player who gains the highest value of shares (representing wealth) by the end will win. The Dutchman is controlled by the players throughout the game, but care is needed to use your influence wisely or you will be caught near the end with no influence left just when you need it most. Plenty of decisions to make. Plays especially well with 5-6 players. Recommended.

Deus Vult, published by Rose & Poison. 2005. Box. In shrink. £17. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Giacomo Sottocasa, Sergio Giovannini. No. players: 2. Country: Italian, Duration: 45 mins. Board game in which one player takes the Moors and the other the Crusaders. The Crusaders try to take the gates of Jerusalem, while the Moors try to push the Crusaders back where they came from. Game play involves using cards to your best advantage, and can allow surprise moves.

Dice Run, published by Kidult Games. 2002. Box. Excellent. £12

Race game which uses 30 colourful dice. Unusually, however, the dice are the participants in the race. Initially the dice are all rolled and put in one group. Players in turn play cards which promote some of the dice into a group one 'space' ahead. eg. a '5' card moves all dice showing '5' forward one space. During the game scoring cards also come up and players are rewarded for having dice which match an objective tile as near the front of the race as possible. It is also possible to reroll some of the dice, so if there just aren't many 4's in play then a reroll may be able to fix this. There are also some special cards which allow other actions.

Die Dracheninsel, published by Amigo Spiele. 2003. Box. Excellent. £22

Special notes: The action cards have been pasted up with English translations making the game easier to play

Players try to collect more treasure than anyone else, however, they can only do so by cooperating with the other players. The board is laid out with terrain discs in a hexagonal shape, with the treasure at the centre. Players use cards to traverse the various terrains using a clever and flexible card playing mechanism. Once at the centre, however, one must wait for a second player to arrive as the treasure is too heavy for just one player. These two players will then return to one of their boats, where it can be distributed fairly or unfairly, with further card play resolving disputes. On the nominations list for the German Spiel Des Jahres 2003.

Die Pyramiden Des Jaguar, published by Kosmos. 2002. Box. In shrink. £10.50

Card game in which the players take it in turn to offer their opponent two cards (numbered 1-40), and their opponent takes one and adds it to their pyramid structure and the remaining card is added to the offerer's pyramid. The pyramids are shown on a board and the numerical ordering of the cards in the pyramid is vital. If a player has to place a card onto another card because the ordering provides no gap, then this is permitted but is undesirable. The round ends when a player completes his pyramid and gets a bonus for doing so. A very clever tactical game which is based on the earlier game Pacal.

Dog Eat Dog, published by QED Games. 1999. Box. Excellent. £8.50

Corporate business game set in the 1980s. You are the president of a division of Rinky Dink Inc, and are out for profit without regard to the environment. You will plunder the earth's resources, turn them into products and sell them for $M. Some of these $ then get funnelled into your Swiss Bank Account. The first person to embezzle $150 million before the environment is devastated wins! In your way stand corrupt congressmen, eco-terrorists, unions, the IRS and the other players - CEO's of other divisions of Rinky Dink Inc.

Don't Panic, published by Mattel. 1987. Box. Good. £5

Special notes: There is some brown parcel tape on the box lid, and 1 of the 72 category cards is missing, but it this does not affect play.

Family game in which players have to think of a number of things which fit into a category. There are 144 categories pictured on cards, but the best thing is the timer, which is clockwork, and clicks away annoyingly as your time goes down. When sufficient items have been named and accepted the Stop button is pressed and the number the timer's pointer is over is that player's score - the quicker you are the higher your score. A neat timer which could be used in other games too.

Doom: The Boardgame, published by Fantasy Flight Games. 2004. Box. In shrink. £37.50

The landmark computer game Doom, turned into a board game. One player controls the evil hordes of invaders while the others control elite marines who must destroy the hordes in order to win and save humanity. The game uses room and corridor tiles which are laid out to form a map, and 66 plastic miniatures (from 30mm to 80mm) are used in play. Cards provide additional weapons and equipment etc, and dice are used to resolve combat. The game very much has the look of mid 80's Games Workshop games such as Space Hulk and the like. Fantastic bits, several scenarios to play, and overall very well received game.

Dots, published by Adlung Spiele. 1998. Box. Excellent. £2

The cards have a variety of shapes, cubes, rods, cones and spheres floating in space. Cards are dealt to the table and the players must quickly count the number of spheres shown on all cards and then use their number cards to produce this total. First to do this wins the round.

Downtown, published by Abacus. 1996. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £8.50 2) Excellent. £10.50

City development game in which there are three different types of neighbourhood. Each turn one or two blocks will be developed, based on the players' votes. Once all four properties in a block have been bought and the type of the block has been determined, its base score is the number of completed blocks adjoining it. However, there are serious bonuses and penalties for locating certain types of development next to each other. The voting is key to the game, and it is not permitted to abstain. Once a game it is possible to use a double vote, and the current player gets a casting vote in case of ties.

Druiden Walzer, published by Kosmos. 1999. Box. In shrink. £11

Players try to protect their own trees and steal their opponent's trees. Each player has three trees to protect, each with three lives and a number of hidden strength cards. Playing a new card causes like-numbered cards to move to other trees, altering their strengths. Strengths of trees get compared and the weaker one loses a life. A player with no trees left loses. An odd theme, and unusual mechanics make this one of the more offbeat of the Kosmos 2 player series, though that is not a bad thing if you are looking for something slightly different.

Dschunke, published by Queen Games. 2002. Box. In shrink. £13.50

Special notes: To ease play I can colour print and laminate a set of English cards for an extra £2.50. It is playable without these though. Players try to become the most successful merchant on an asian floating market. This is done by positioning your crates of goods on the various boats to best advantage and then obtaining goods cards and selling them. In addition goods cards are used to bid for special cards which give various advantages or bonuses, and to bid cards for further money.

Dune, published by Parker. 1984. Box. Good but some tape removal marks. £16

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

Based on the spic S.F. movie, this is diferent to the Avalon Hill game of the same name. The character cards feature photos of the stars from the film and show the starting strength and guile of the characters. Players move around the outer desert spaces to gain money or harvest spice or can move around the inner castle spaces to build up strength. Spice can be used to buy equipment cards, spice harvesters, or enhance your guile. Commodity markets can also be invested in and will pay off sometimes. Uses eight and six sided dice.

Dwarves, published by JKLM Games. 2000. Box. Good. £13

Dwarves is a game about mining different kinds of gems from the board, and collecting sets. The backs of the gems show parts of a larger picture and forming these pictures is the key to success. Card play is also important and there are a number of special actions which can be performed which can improve your position considerably. The game has a small publisher feel, and the main feature is a 3D mine into which the gem tiles are laid at the start of the game.

Elchfest, published by Kosmos. 1999. Box. Good. £9

Dexterity game with a cute wooden elk for each player, a wooden base platform on which the elks start and wooden stepping stones which the players flick carrom style. Each player gets two flicks in a row and if a stepping stone is close enough for their elk to step onto it then it may. The objective is to get your elk across to your opponent's base platform before they get their elk to yours. Silly but fun. Part of Kosmos' successful 2 player square box range of games.

Emerald, published by Abacus. 2002. Box. Excellent. £11.50

Tactical movement and card collection fantasy game. The players send out their knights from the castle to the Dragon's Lair. There they must tread carefully in order to collect gems and gold while the mother dragon is busy with its new baby. However, should the dragon become aware of them then they will become baby-dragon food, and thus unable to gather any more treasure. Knight movement depends on the number of knights on a space before the move, but two knights can be moved per turn. Bonuses are awarded to the players who have collected the most of each type of gem at the end of the game.

Endless Games 10mm Hex Overlays, published by TM Games. Packet. Mint. £0.50

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

A set of 4 sheets of A4 OHP transparencies each printed with a 10mm hex grid. Ideal for laying over a map for use in various games. The packet says it is ideal for use with The Strategist and Adventure Gamer.

Explore Europe, published by Ravensburger. 1992. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 40 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Also published as Journey Through Europe. A travel game of strategy and planning. Players all start at different points in Europe and must visit 8 different cities around the board before returning to their starting point. First to get home wins. Although a dice is rolled to determine movement points for the turn, these can either be used one point per road segment, or more points for air travel, the number of movement points depending on the length of the flight, and a whole turn for sea travel. Thus there are plenty of route planning decisions to be made, as well as making sure the cities are visited in the optimum order.

Fading Suns, published by Holistic Design Inc. 1995. Book. Good. £7

Science Fiction role playing game set in the 6th millennium. The suns themselves are fading. Humanity reached the stars long ago, built an empire, which then fell leaving a new Dark Age in which feudal lords rule the known worlds vying with fanatical cults and scheming guilds. The book is 272 pages, and covers: The Universe, Characters, Traits, Occult, Combat, Technology, GMing, Planets and more. There is lots of striking black and white artwork throughout the book.

Fairway, published by HFN Games. ca.1969. Box. 1 Box corner split. £3

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

Golf board game, with a nine-hole course superimposed by a grid. Players choose their clubs, and there are special dice that are used for each club so that yardage is roughly correct.

Family Telly Addicts, published by Waddingtons. 1992. Box. Mint. £2

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

Board game version of the UK TV Trivia programme starring Noel Edmunds. Players answer questions on the following TV related subjects: Soaps & Sagas, Top of the Pops, Guess Who, Comedy, Children's TV, Comedy, News and Sci-Fi. Once a player has their 'star tokens' they race back and answer a Star Challenge question to win the game.

Fantasy Chronicles Issue 6, published by Fantasy Publications Ltd. 1986. Magazine. Good. £0.50

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

Fantasy roleplaying magazine with a regular wargames column as well. This issue includes: Farstar (2 Traveller mini adventures), Play by Mail games, A Yuletide Quarrel (AD&D/Dragon Warriors adventure), Battlefield (Wargames column), Tall Tails (CoC fiction), A Hole In God's Wall (RQ adventure), American Express (Horror Movie mini RPG and scenario).

Fette Autos, published by Edition Erlkonig. 2002. Box. In shrink. £10.50

Motor racing card game. There is no track, instead it is just the relative positions of the cars that show how players are doing. Cards are used to indicate whether the current track section is a straight or corner (with speed limit), and players have a display of three cards which they add to and take away from throughout the game. How well these cards match the current track determines how well the cars do. Some interesting ideas and a game which takes a play or two to get used to as it is so unusual.

Fische Fluppen Frikadellen, published by 2F Spiele. 2002. Box. In shrink. £20

Designed by Friedemann Friese. No. players: 2-5 (15). Country: German, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Version C (this matters only if you want to play the multi-table game).

Very nicely produced trading game in which players move around the board using paths and, when convenient, boats. There are various kiosks around the board at which players can buy and sell various goods. The buying and selling prices are determined by a clever supply and demand system which makes it important not to sell something just after another player has dumped lots of that item. During the game three special items have to be bought and the player who first buys their third special item wins. The game can be played with multiple copies on different tables, in which case a player can move off his board and join play at another table and make use of the different prices on that table. The game takes up to 15 in this way.

Flagship Issue 3, published by Astro-Sprint. 1984. Magazine. Good. £0.60

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

Postal gaming magazine. This issue includes articles on: Feudal Lords, The Art of Power Gaming, AMAX Alliance, Zorphwar, Warboid World, Global Supremacy, PBM Game Design, Starting Your Own PBM Game, Diplomacy.

Flagship Issue 76, published by Astro-Sprint. 1998. Magazine. Good. £0.20

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

Postal gaming magazine professionally printed with colour cover. This issue includes articles on:

Middle Earth PBM, News, Europa PBM, Agamemnon II, Letters, La Gloire Du Roi, World War IV, PBM Ratings, Comparison of Tabletop and PBM Roleplaying, European PBM Game listing, LTWars Demo.

Fliegen, published by Lui Meme. 2003. Box. In shrink. £4.50

Small box game of bluffing and outguessing your opponents. Each player has a handful of flies (yes, little plastic flies) which are used to bid for cards over 12 rounds. However, rather than the highest bid winning, players must guess the total number of flies bid by all players, with a tiebreak being the number of flies bid. The cards give victory points to the winner, allow victory points to be deducted from another player, or give special abilities for future rounds such as Fly Spray which lets you eliminate flies from an opposing bid. Also extra flies are earned by all players correctly guessing the total number of flies everyone bid.

Galaxy The Dark Ages, published by GMT. 2000. Box. Good. £11

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 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.

Gang Of Four, published by Days Of Wonder. 2002. Box. In shrink. £10

Card game, 64 cards in 3 suits with some special cards. This is a 'climbing' game, so in the same family as Tichu and Karriere Poker / The Great Dalmuti. The idea is that players try to be the first to get rid of all their cards, which is done by playing a higher combination than has already been played into the current trick but of the same type (pair, flush etc). The special cards add a level of uncertainty and make play more interesting. While not as deep as Tichu, this would make an excellent introduction to this family of card games.

Gnadenlos, published by Kosmos. 2001. Box. Excellent. £14

Game set in the Wild West. Players start with a posse of characters you might find in a western, and all are rated for their skill in gold mining, gunslinging and poker playing. Each turn there is one of these events. Players each send one of their posse to do the job. In general the best of these characters gains from this but is then retired and the worst loses out - if it was a gunfight that means death! New characters can be recruited in a clever auction involving paying with IOU notes, and every now and then the bank calls in on some IOUs which have been used. Woe betide anyone who hasn't got enough gold to keep the bank happy. Great game which fits its theme really well. Highly recommended.

Go For It, published by Parker. 1985. Box. Several copies available:

1) Good. £2 2) Box poor. £0.50 3) Box shows wear, contents unused. £2

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

Players compete to collect status cards in the categories: Going Places, Wheels, Feeling Good and House & Home. Playing pieces are moved around the board which is a track in the form of a calendar, and different spaces allow different actions. At the start of a year you can declare that you are 'Going For It' and if you have sufficient status cards at the end of the year then you win, but be assured that opponents will do their best to stop you.

Goldrush, published by Condor. 1973. Box. Box corners taped and base discoloured. £4

It is a race in the Wild West to stake your claim and get that gold down from the hills. Nice pieces for carrying the gold. Spaces landed on may be suitable for mining, in which case a claim must be made for ownership of that plot before anyone else gets to it. Once claimed a plot can then produce gold for its owner, but this has to be got to the bank before it is safe as other players may get nasty to get their hands on your gold! First with 5 nuggets in the bank wins.

Grab!, published by Winning Moves. 1998. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £4 2) In shrink. £4.50

The deck consists of cards, some good, some bad. The dealer lays them down one at a time and when a player decides he wants them he claims them. However, someone else may also want them and claim them first. Whoever claimed the batch becomes the new dealer and there is a limit to the number of stacks each player may claim. The cards claimed are evaluated and the most valuable batch wins the hand. Fast, fun and nerve wracking.

Grass, published by Euro Games. ca.1986. Box. Good. £6

Card game, over 100 cards uniquely packed in a canvas bag (this version in a box as well). Each player wears ‘two hats’. they try to sell as much marijuana as they can, and also try to bring the heat on other players so that their markets dry up.

Harry Potter Sculpture Puzzle, published by Character Games Ltd. 1995. Box. Good. £5

Special notes: 1 corner of the box is damaged, but repaired. One puzzle layer is slightly torn, but is still entirely usable (it won't be seen when complete)

This is an unusual jigsaw. Rather than regular pieces you get 360 layers of cardboard which you have to put one on top of the other (with a rod in the middle to hold it all together. These form a 3-D bust of Harry Potter! The makers say it is equivalent in difficulty to a 1000 piece jigsaw. It comes with a substantial base which is used to build the puzzle on and also acts as as an attractive display stand.

Hedgehog's Revenge, published by BV Leisure. ca.1985. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £3.50. 1 of 112 event cards is missing, but the game is entirely playable.

2) Good, but 1 corner taped. £4

Designed by Derek Matthews. No. players: 2-12. Country: British, Desc. by Andy. Players have a fleet of 4 cars which must get to set destinations, but they also have 5 Hedgehogs which are used to block routes. In Britain, hedgehogs are always getting run over in country lanes so this is a humorous look at their 'revenge'

against car drivers. Game play involves trying to get your car to its destination as fast as possible but opponent's hedgehogs will do their best to slow you down, and should a car get caught its owner must perform the action on a card.

Hell Rail - Second Perdition, published by Galloglass Games. 1999. Box. Excellent. £10

The theme is Dante's Inferno. The players create a railway to deliver the souls of the damned to the appropriate circles of Hell. The card play is clever, as every card can be a load to be delivered, or be used to build rails, move trains, or even draw more cards. Additionally, upon arriving at each circle, players have the choice to call forth that circle's powers, possibly putting a serious crimp in their opponents' efforts. The train pieces are small but made of pewter.

IQ, published by Skirrid International. 1981. Box. 1 Box corner damaged. £1

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

Solitaire game / puzzle, based on the classic game / puzzle Solitaire but with a different shaped plastic board.

John Silver, published by Eggert Spiele. Box. New. £6.50

Card game with a pirate theme. During the game players will collect cards - there are three types: treasure which players want for themselves, black spots which they want to avoid and apples which will score for the player to the left at the end of the game. Cards are also numbered and are placed into a 3x4 grid, with rows for the type of card and one column for each player. When a row is full the cards are distributed to the players with the highest and lowest cards. In addition when a card showing apples is played a troublesome card can be taken back from the table. There are plenty of tactical decisions to be made.

Jolly Roger, published by Salagames. 1992. Box. Good. £5

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. £1.50

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.

Kings & Things, published by Games Workshop. 1986. Box. Good, but edges show wear. £20

Country: British, Duration: 2.5 hrs, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: 10 original counters missing, but they have been replaced with good quality colour scans mounted on card.

Fantasy war game with a board assembled from tiles, making it different each game. Usual quirky Tom Wham graphics. The 'Things' in the title refer to 70+ creatures in the game which can be recruited and formed into very peculiar armies. Different creatures are best in the different terrains, and the armies are kept hidden most of the time so you will find the armies' strengths vary considerably depending on where they are. Now quite collectable.

Knightmare, published by Milton Bradley. 1991. Box. Good. £6

TV related, based on the children's adventure game-show, where participants have to get through a series of rooms by solving puzzles, riddles, etc.. The show was inspired by the success of role-playing games. This board game follows the theme of the show, with each player having to explore a network of rooms in a race to find treasure. The main game mechanic is answering riddles, nearly 300 of which are included in a booklet. In addition helm tokens are collected and used at various points to increase your options or chances in combat. The game is packaged and presented as a fantasy adventure board game.

Leave One, published by Valco. 1967. Box. Excellent. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: American, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Very nice item from the sixties "a relaxing game for the busy Executive" as it says on the box. The board is a triangle shaped grid of 15 holes, into which you place 15 metal pegs, rather like large Cribbage pegs. The object is to jump pegs in such a way that you end up with one peg left in hole number one. A variation of Solitaire, but beautifully produced.

Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game Starter Decks, published by Decipher. 2001. Boxes. Excellent. £5

Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Price is for the two decks.

Two starter decks which together allow two players to play the game. They are the Aragorn and the Gandalf starters. Each containing 63 cards. Of course you can then buy more cards to expand your range of options, since this is a CCG. This is one of the best CCG's and the players play out members of the fellowship (along with other characters) and have to progress from location to location surviving the various unpleasant events and enemies their opponent plays on them as they move. The cards show stills from the award winning Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship movie, and so are generally excellent.

MacRobber, published by Queen Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £13

Each player controls the estates of a Scottish highland clan, with warriors to defend the clan (and make raids on neighbours when the opportunity presents itself), pipers to aid in battles, and monks who maintain your clan's spirituality. Players start with two estates and acquire more as the game goes on. Each estate can be used for farming cattle, or supporting a castle or monastery. Game play involves drawing resource cubes from a bag and making the best use of them to improve your clan's fortunes. Raids are resolved by card play - the more warriors you have the larger your hand of cards. Scoring occurs throughout the game and rewards the players with the best holdings of each type.

Man The Lifeboat, published by Serif. 1987. Box. Good. £3.50

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

Family game in which players sail their lifeboat and shallow water liferaft around the nicely produced board showing an inland sea. The objective is to rescue ships in distress in order to save lives. The game is driven by dice, and there are a wide variety provided including 2 special d6s and 2 special d10s. The player who saves the most lives wins.

Memo, published by Invicta. ca.1978. Box. Box shows some wear. £2

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

Each player has their pieces placed at random, face down on their side of the board. Players take turns to look at a piece. Initially, looking for the piece labelled 1, and when that is found 2, and so on. First player to find all their pieces wins. For one player there is a chart rating your performance.

Microdot, published by Parker. ca.1970. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good, but 1 box corner split. £8 2) Good. £9

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

Espionage game in which the players try to steal the diplomatic bag of any one opponent and return it to their own headquarters to win. The outer board is used to gather pieces of equipment needed for the mission. These pieces of equipment (ladder, revolver, dagger, earphones, passport, wire-cutters) all have nicely made plastic pieces. The mission takes place on the inner board. Here the collected equipment is moved around to get past obstacles and also eliminate other people's 'lesser' items of equipment. Sometimes chance cards are drawn and these have the word Microdot written on them, and a tiny number or letter which decodes to give instructions on a chart.

Mind Trap, published by Spear's Games. 1993. Box. Good. £4

Mind Trap contains over 500 fascinating lateral thinking problems for you and your friends to consider. They are even good to have a go at on your own when you have a few minutes spare and want to get your brain working. Recommended to lateral thinking puzzle fans.

Mini Poker Chips, published by Unknown. Box. Good. £3

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.

Monsters Menace America, published by Hasbro Avalon Hill. 2005. Box. Excellent. £17

Fun game with plastic pieces, played on a large scale hex-map of the United States. Players 'wear two hats', first they are a Giant Monster (there are lots to choose from), and secondly they are a branch of the civilian defence force. Obviously, they must wreak havoc with their monster and stop the other monsters with their civilian units. One nice idea is that the monsters can sack nuclear facilities to gain interesting mutations! If you like the theme then well worth playing - silly, but great fun, and this updated edition of the original AH version (Monsters Ravage America) has nicer components too.

Move Out! Batch of 21 Issues, published by Leeds University. Booklets. Good. £4

A batch of 21 issues of this board wargaming and postal games zine. Each issue is roughly 24 pages long and contains some reviews, some game variants and some postal games stuff. While the latter is unlikely to be of any interest the former articles are potentially well worth a read. These issues date from Sept 1987 - July 1989.

Napoleon At War, published by SPI. 1975. Box. Good - partially unpunched. £14

Special notes: The plastic case is showing its age and cracking around the edges.

An SPI Quad game, with four separate games using the same basic system, and with exclusive rules for their exact situation. Games are Battle of Nations (by Edward Curran), Marengo (by David C Isby), Jena-Auerstadt (by Thomas Walczyk), and Wagram (by Irad B Hardy). Each hex represents about 600m, and each point of strength about 750 men. Each game turn represents 1-2 hours.

Napoleon's Last Battles, published by SPI. 1976. Box. Box excellent, contents mostly unpunched. £14

Wargame quad which simulates four late Napoleonic battles: Ligny, Quatre Bras, Wavre, and La Belle Alliance. All these battles use a base set of rules with different maps, setups and counters for each battle. Also included is a set of campaign rules. The system is an operational level game and each hex represents 480m, each strength point around 500 men, and a game turn 1 hour.

Nationwide, published by Omnia. 1976. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box corners battered. £1 2) Box corners taped. £1

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

TV related, based on the 70's nightly news programme. Neat TV camera card counters. A collecting game, with players roaming the board looking for news stories. A special spinner is used to determine movement allowances. To win a player must collect a full set of TV monitor counters and a set number of story counters.

Ohio, published by Jumbo. 1998. Box. Excellent. £8

Card game, 55 cards in 5 colours (one per player). Each player starts with exactly the same hand of cards and must use them tactically in an unusual trick-taking game. The winning card in each trick is the lowest card played, but the value of the trick is the sum of the cards played to it. In addition play keeps going around the table until all players have passed. The cleverest twist though is the special OHIO card each player has one of. This reduces the value of the trick by 10, but counts as just a little lower than the previous card played.

Pass-Out, published by Paul Lamond. 1986. Box. Good. £1.50

Similar to various drinking games you may have played as a student. Players roll and move around a board taking a drink when the board square instructs. Each time a player passes the 'start' square he must take a card which contains a tongue twister. If he manages to read the card correctly three times the card is won. The first player to get 10 such cards wins. Interestingly the original 1960 version stated it was not intended for use with alcoholic beverages. This version states the opposite (!) but states it is not for minors.

Penalty, published by Edition Spielbox. 1993. Pouch. Good. £2.50

A colour folded A3 sheet which acts as gameboard as well as having the rules on the back. You will also need twenty money chips, and three counters. Ice hockey themed game split into three periods. In each period the players have some chips which are used in a series of sealed bid auctions. The winner of each auction advances the puck one area towards the goal. However if a player uses 3 or more chips more than his opponent then he has committed a foul and his opponent gets to advance the puck. More chips are given out at the start of each period. Most goals wins.

Phoenix, published by Eurogames. 2003. Box. In shrink. £11

Strategy game for two with a pleasant mix of luck and skill. At the start of the game six rainbow coloured wooden blocks are laid out at random in a line in the centre of the board. Each player has a line of 10 pawns in the same colours which are also set up randomly. The players take turns playing cards which rearrange the order of the pawns and in a few cases the coloured blocks so that their pawn sequence matches the sequence of the blocks. Three rounds are played in half an hour to even out the luck of the card drawn. Rather nice game.

Piratenbillard, published by Abacus Spiele. 1990. Box. New. £60

An amazing item. The wooden board is 56cm square and consists of a lattice of square holes with a canvas base. Each player has 8 balls which start off on their side of the board. The object is to get your balls across to the far side of the board. This is done using a long rod with a pointy bit on the end. This is put under the board (which is raised up on stilts) and is used to knock one of your balls through the canvas. Hopefully the ball will leap out of its hole into a nearby hole which you were aiming for. It is possible to capture enemy balls by landing in their holes, but wayward shots which leave the board entirely result in that ball being permanently out of the game. Great fun and beautifully produced wooden components.

Piratenspiel, published by Unser Lieblingsspiel. 1989. Box. Good. £8

Trick taking card game in which winning tricks allows you to move your ship on the board, with the objective being to get to the treasure island and claim the treasure. Various spaces have different features meaning that there will be times when you particularly want to win a trick and times when you are not so fussed, thus giving you extra things to think about during the card play. Attractively produced.

Pirates Of The Spanish Main - Promo Pack, published by WizKids. 2004. Packet. In shrink. £0.25

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

This is a promotional mini pack given out at Spiel 2004. It contains two die-cut plastic coated cards which can be made into a 3D ship, HMS Walpole, which can be used in Pirates of The Spanish Main, which you will need to own to make use of this.

Polyhedron, published by Wizards Of The Coast. 2001. Magazine.

Official magazine of the RPGA Network. This magazine covers issues relevent to members of the worldwide RPGA Network as well as having many articles of general interest to role players - especially AD&D players. Produced in full colour.

Issue 147, Excellent. £0.80: Pillars of Ravens Bluff (important characters in the RPGA's campaign city), Dark Druidism (new AD&D character class and associated creatures), The Druidic Language of Ogham, Elminster's Everwinking Eye (A tour of the border kingdom of Owlhold), Monkeymen (a new race).

Issue 148, Excellent. £0.80: Pillars of Ravens Bluff (important characters in the RPGA's campaign city), Terrors of Gothic Earth ( A selection of monsters from folklore to add some horror to your campaign), Nocturno Muerte (adventure for All Flesh Must Be Eaten), Elminster's Everwinking Eye (a tour of the borderdown of Owlhold's less salubrious locales).

Quest For The Faysylwood, published by Faysylwood Press. 1993. Box. Excellent. £8

Card game, 112 cards featuring heroes, treasures, magic items, monsters, and events. Cards feature play information and an illustration. Each player represents a Hero and uses their cards to help themselves

(magic items, companions, etc.) or hinder other Heroes (monsters, bad events, etc). The object is to lay down and successfully move through five terrain cards that will get your Hero a way through to the mystical Faysylwood.

Railroad Tycoon, published by Eagle Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £33. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Martin Wallace, Glenn Drover. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 2 hrs. Railway game based on the excellent Age of Steam system. The components are fantastic as you would expect from Eagle games: 174 plastic miniatures, a huge board and lots of cards. The map shows the eastern United States, and the players take the roles of the owners of new railroad lines and develop their networks, improve their locomotives, invest in growing cities and manage their finances. One major new feature compared to Age of Steam are the cards several of which are laid face up at a time, and these provide the players with additional options and incentives. Highly recommended - as long as you have a big table!

Red Star/White Star, published by SPI. 1972. Box. Good - mostly unpunched. £6.50

Special notes: The plastic case is showing its age, with the edges cracking, and one side is flaking badly.

This wargame covers hypothetical combat in the 1970's, between US + West German forces against Soviet troops. The map depicts a generic part of Southern West Germany. The one strength point represents one US Platoon / one Soviet company. Each hex represents 300m and a game turn around 6 minutes of real time. The rules cover 10 pages.

Robot Wars - The Game, published by BBC / FEVA UK Ltd. 1998. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £14.50. Photocopied rules 2) Good. £15

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

Board game based on the very popular TV series, Robot Wars, in which powerful remote controlled fighting machines battle it out in the arena. The game includes an impressively large arena with side walls, pit and corner patrol zones, 6 solid metal robot miniatures, 6 large robot status displays, damage tokens, cards for weapons and special dice. The game involves choosing how to customise your robot and then fighting in the arena, which is done by spending movement points each turn to move and attack other robots. Wonderfully produced game.

Roller Coaster Hippo, published by Ravensburger. 1990. Box. Good. £5. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Heiner Wohning & Bertram Kaes. No. players: 3-6. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr. Players each have a wooden hippo playing piece which they race around the board which shows a roller coaster track with various spaces. Movement is by use of a special dice. Various spaces are special and involve the player performing an activity in order to move extra spaces. These activities include describing an object so other players guess it, miming an object, modelling an object (clay provided), make the sounds of an object, or perform the action on a card eg. tell a joke.

Rooster Booster, published by Piatnik. 2004. Box. Excellent. £7

Light and quick card game in which players play 'tricks' using cards showing roosters numbered from 1 to 100. The player of the second highest card in each trick gets to enter a rooster using that card onto the Pecking Order, with the possibility of knocking lesser roosters down a rung or two. At the end of the game points are scored for the roosters remaining in the Pecking Order.

Royal Flush, published by Edition Spielbox. 1993. Pouch. Good. £2.50

A colour folded A3 sheet which acts as gameboard as well as having the rules on the back. You will also need a pack of cards and a couple of playing pieces to play. The game is essentially a cross between Liar's Dice and Poker. Players make Poker hands with the cards and then bluff about them, stating a hand which theirs is at least as good as. The next player can either call their bluff or say he has a better hand still.

Runebound, published by Fantasy Flight Games. 2004. Box. Excellent. £29. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Martin Wallace, Darrell Hardy. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 2 hrs. Very well produced fantasy adventure game. Each player takes the role of an adventurer and moves around a large hex gridded map of a fantasy realm, having adventures at special locations. The objective is to build up your character's skills, weaponry and armour and recruit allies who will fight with you in battle, with the eventual aim of defeating the evil Dragon-lord himself, or enough of his lieutenants. The game uses some novel dice showing terrain types which are used to move around the board and can be traded in to recover from exhaustion. Most of the game is driven by adventure cards and players can choose whether to try easy, medium or hard adventures throughout the game.

Safari Round-Up, published by Waddingtons. 1974. Box. Good. £10.50

Each player has three animals of one type (elephants, rhinos or lions) all rather nice painted plastic figures which are placed on the board (an 8x8 grid), and a fence is placed along the side of a space. Once all

the animals are placed animals can be moved like chess rooks to try to escape captivity. An animal is in captivity if it is in a fenced area of 8 spaces or less. Delightful animal pieces, a nicely illustrated board, and interesting game play. Recommended. I can also supply my own house rules and clarifications.

Saga, published by Uberplay. 2004. Box. In shrink. £8. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Wolfgang Kramer, Horst-Rainer Rosner. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 45 mins, Card game in which players vie for control of 6 kingdoms. Each turn the ruler of a kingdom gains some victory points, and in some cases a special power. The rulers also gain VPs at the end of the game, but the balance for each kingdom is different. Kingdoms are won by openly laying down sequences of cards over several turns to form an army. Once strong enough the army takes over the kingdom it was first declared as attacking, although there are card placement limitations which mean care must be taken to ensure the army will be strong enough to attack. The game play is neat, and is all about timing your attacks correctly and managing your hand of cards well, as well as keeping a close eye on your rivals. Recommended.

Samurai, published by Wiggins Teape. ca.1970. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good but 2 corners taped. £8 2) Box indented due to stacking. £7

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

Stylish abstract game with 8 large (7.5cm tall) Samurai playing pieces. The pieces hold plastic swords in different ways, to indicate their changing strength throughout the game. Movement of one side's pieces determine, to a certain extent, the limitations of movement on the other side.

Schwerpunkt Issue 1, published by 3W. 1993. Magazine. Good. £1

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

Magazine dedicated to the support and expansion of 3W games. Articles this issue include:

Operation Barbarossa: The Southern Wing, Salvo!, Salvo II, Blitzkrieg in the South, Deisgner Profile: Rob Markham, Starting a Games Company, Raid on Richmond, The Campaigns of Frederick The Great, Clarifications & Errata.

Scoop, published by Unknown. ca.1950. Box. Box taped. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Card game. Not related to the famous newspaper completion game of the same name. This is a card game very much of the same type as Pit where players vocally trade cards simultaneously trying to achieve a set first. Date is my best guess, so only a guide.

Scoop, published by Waddingtons. 1955. Box. Box shows wear. £7.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-5. Country: British, Duration: 75 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Early edition, a classic British game about completing your newspaper. Noted chiefly for two nice touches - the telephone device used for 'ringing' the Editor (it gives a random response every time you use it) and the advert cards for your front page (all real adverts from that year). This is the 2-5 player edition in a bookcase size box. Game play involves collecting sets of cards but with some nice twists to add interest.

Scruples, published by Milton Bradley. 1986. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: This set has two replaced truth / lie cards - this does not affect play.

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.

Scrye's Magic The Gathering Player's Guide, published by Scrye. 1996. Magazine. Excellent. £0.75

This is an unofficial guide to the cards published for Magic: The Gathering up to the time of publishing. The booklet lists all the cards published by type and gives their casting cost, expansion and the text on them. Very useful reference for Magic players who want to have a handy way to see what the older cards could do. Produced in full colour, 48 pages.

Sea Hunt, published by Merit. 1960. Box. Box Poor, Contents Good. £11.50

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

Very rare TV related game, based on the underwater adventure series that made a star of Lloyd Bridges. Each player is a skin diver attempting to recover treasure from a sunken ship. Essentially a game of luck, but, as I said, very rare and the only game I have ever seen based on this TV series.

Skirrid, published by Skirrid International. 1978. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box shows wear + tape removal marks. £2.50

2) Box edges show wear, 1 corner taped. £2.50

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

Tile laying game in which the players each have a set of transparent polyominoes which are placed one at a time on the board onto a grid with numbers on. The numbers covered are scored as points, with bonus points for placing some tiles. In addition it is possible to sacrifice a piece - playing it without scoring to stop an opponent playing next to that piece, so stopping an opponent claiming a high valued area. Won a British Game of the Year title.

Snit's Revenge, published by TSR. 1978. Box. Good, but box edges show wear. £14

Boxed version of this Tom Wham game. One player takes the role of a single Bolotomus, fighting off an infestation of Snits. The other player commands the Snits. The Snits attempt to ravage the Bolotomus's internal organs while the Bolotomus' immune system tries to fight them off. Originally published in The Dragon Magazine. Includes the Floating in Timeless Space comic strip in the rules.

So Ein Hundeleben, published by Eurogames. 2001. Box. Excellent. £10

The title translates as "It's a Dog's Life", and that is the theme of the game. The game includes 6 very nicely produced miniature dog playing pieces, all different, and realistically painted. Players try to locate four bones and bring them back to their home. Bones can be found in some rubbish bins or will sometimes be given as a reward for delivering a newspaper, or begging at a restaurant. Dogs can also piddle on lampposts to slow down any other dogs passing that space. Players must ensure their dog doesn't get too hungry, so finding food is always important too, otherwise the dog-pound beckons. Rival dogs and the dog catcher can cause problems too. Nicely themed and well produced game.

Speculate, published by Waddingtons. 1972. Box. Good. £7

Invest in the stock market with some information from the cards in your hand. The interesting idea in this game is that you are given a series of targets to try to achieve (specifying a minimum number of shares in each of various companies), and once you achieve this mix of stock you get a bonus payout and a new target. This gives the game some focus which some other share dealing games lack. The inventor was the owner of Games Centre and Games & Puzzles magazine.

Spellfire Reference Guide Vol. 2, published by TSR. 1996. Book. Excellent. £2

The ultimate reference book for Spellfire card game fans. This is Volume 2 because the game had changed so much since Volume 1. It includes the complete 4th Edition rules, nearly 1,000 full-colour reproductions of the cards, and a complete index of all the Spellfire cards up to the publishing date.

Spelling Bee, published by Waddy Productions. ca.1920. Box. Box shows wear. £2

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy. Special notes: Good condition for its age

Card game. Two decks of cards provided. Each card shows one, two or three letters, or a prefix, suffix or affix. Some cards are exposed and players try to spot words which can be made up from the part words shown, and these are then collected.

Springline, published by Pentangle. 1977. Tube. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £7 2) Good. £6

Strategy game which requires a few games to see how to play as it is very easy to lose very quickly until you have some experience. The board is a vinyl mat and shows a hexagonal grid of hexes. The objective is to either hold three enemy pieces or to force an exchange of 'prisoners' when your opponent is unable to do so. There are only three types of move, and examples are fully illustrated in the rules. Very original.

Spy, published by Kosmos. 2004. Box. Excellent. £9

Card game in which players start with a pile of spy tokens and try to be the first to get them all into play. This is done by collecting cards which each show a symbol (eg. hat, black sunglasses etc) and a continent. Players draw cards and play them to the table revealing some of the cards they have, until they wish to place spies, which is done by discarding a number of cards showing the same symbol / continent and placing spy tokens on the central card showing that feature. However, the more spies already there, the harder it is to deploy more. Essentially a game of deciding how long you can afford to wait before playing a set - the longer you wait the better the reward unless someone beats you to it.

Star Trek TNG: Romulan Challenge, published by MMG. 1994. Box. Good. £2.50

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

12 planets in federation space, near to the Neutral Zone, have been occupied by the Romulan Empire. These planets are the sites of very valuable mining colonies which the Romulans are now exploiting ruthlessly. They must be stopped as quickly as possible. Each player collects mission cards during play, which they accumulate by a mixture of landing on the right spaces, using cards they have picked up along the way, and so on.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Video Game, published by Milton Bradley. 1994. Box. Good. £10

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

Very nice item for Star Trek fans. You interact with a video. During play a Klingon will appear at different times, and where you are on the board at that time affects what happens. Obviously inspired by the success of Atmosfear but a much better game. The story is that a Klingon steals the Enterprise while it is in space dock and with minimal crew. He intends to attack the Klingon Empire with it to start a war. The players as Federation crew members must try to stop this happening.

Star Wars: Rescue On Geonosis, published by Character Games Ltd. 2002. Box. Good. £9

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

Star Wars Episode II themed game. The game is set up to form a 3D, 3 level layout of the Droid Factories on Geonosis. The Empire player secretly deploys his forces of droids and other baddies using a wipeable deployment board. The other player or players take on the Jedi Knights who are trying to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi. As they enter the various areas the secretly deployed forces will activate and try to stop the Jedi. Count Dooku must also be found and stopped before he can escape to plot another fiendish scheme. Combat is resolved with dice, and Jedi can 'sense' nearby enemies who are out of line of sight, and the Jedi player must discover the control centres and use the elevators to best effect to win.

Starship Tycoons, published by Griffin Games. 1986. Box. Good. £6.50

Space trading game in a bookcase box. Essentially you travel the galaxy making deals to gain wealth, with the bizarre objective of raising enough money to buy the Moon (which the Earth Government has put up for sale!). Players can choose to buy extra cargo holds for their ships to enhance their trading, but will need to trade more to recoup the cost. Events occur during the game to add adventure to the trading.

Stonehenge, published by Blatz. 1994. Box. Excellent. £10

Strategy game with wooden pieces. Players place numbered playing pieces on the board, with a view to reaching a higher total in various lines than their opponent. Once a line has been dominated the player may place a large stone round the edge of the board, thus building up a structure with a Stonehenge-like layout. The first player to place all their monoliths is the winner.

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

1) Excellent. £23 2) In shrink. £25

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.

Table Association Football 4-2-4, published by W.H. Boddington Ltd. 1970. Box. Good. £7.50

Special notes: Several of the figures have come off their stands but have been repaired - they are delicate but useable.

Soccer game of the same general type as Subbuteo. The game comes with a felt cloth playing surface, plastic goals, goalies on sticks and 10 other player figures mounted on wedge shaped blocks. This set has two teams, one in Scotland colours and the other in England colours. The game includes basic and advanced rules as well as examples of play.

Tarzan To The Rescue, published by Arrow. ca.1980. Box. 2 Box corners split. £1

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

Simple race game as players compete to find the Golden Temple. Made soon after Arrow became a Milton Bradley company.

Terrible Swift Sword, published by SPI. 1976. Boxes. Good. £45

Monster wargame covering the three days of the Battle of Gettysbury 1863. It is a complex grand tactical regimental-level simulation. There are scenarios covering each of the three days and the Battle for the Little Round Top, as well as the masterpiece: The full campaign, a 125 turn 60 hour monster. The rules cover 31 pages (though that includes optional rules and scenario information too). There are three large mapsheets which are placed together to form the board, and 2000 counters.

Tesco Shopping Game, published by Tesco. 2002. Box. Good. £1.50

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

Children's Game (age 3+). Each player has a large shopping basket tile with 6 spaces and a shopping list tile showing six different items of shopping which need to be found in order to fill their basket and win. The items of shopping tiles are placed face down on the table and shuffled, and players take turns to turn one face up, hoping to find items they need, and remember where they are when found by other players. 'Whoops' tiles cause you to discard an item already in your basket.

Tet Offensive, published by GDW. 1991. Box. 1 Box edge damaged. £10

Simulation of the great offensive effort of the Vietcong in January 1968 directed at the major cities and towns of Vietnam. This proved to be the decisive battle of the war. Morale plays a major role in the game, and demoralising your enemy is a key strategy. Includes variants, such as a 4 player version. Comes in a larger box than is usual for this company and has striking art work.

The American Revolution 1775-1783, published by SPI. 1972. Packet. Good. £6

Area movement based simulation of the American Revolution. The rules cover 9 pages, and map is unmounted 17" x 22". One strength point represents around 500 men. The game uses immovable Colonial militia, and Tory militia which can be recruited. The British player tries to control regions worth sufficient VPs, whereas the Colonial player wins by winning three major battles or various lesser victory conditions. The game includes various what-if scenarios, which can be used in combination to add to the replayability.

The Anti-Bullying Game, published by Lifegames. 1996. Box. Good. £4

Unusual item. This board game is marketed as a therapeutic tool for children who either bully or have been bullied. The age range is 6-14, and there are several sub-games played within the main game which emphasise laughter, eye contact, group interaction, understanding assertiveness, and role playing situations. It is clearly intended that an adult should supervise the game play.

The Battle Of The Bulge, published by Avalon Hill. 1965. Box. Box a bit grubby and 2 corners taped. £7

First edition, in the thicker flat box preferred by the company at that time. The famous WWII encounter in the Ardennes in December 1944, when the American Commander responded “Nuts!” to the German order to surrender. The basic game rules are only 4 pages long, but a supplementary book adds to this for tournament games and extra optional rules. The German player has to get 20 units to the Meuse River by Dec 23rd, or failing that eliminate all American forces. The U.S. player has to ensure neither of these happen.

The Elfquest Boardgame, published by Mayfair. 1988. Box. Good. £7

Country: American, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Eamon.

Based on the comic book characters created by Wendy and Richard Pini. The board is made up of tiles, making it different every game, and in the full game, the tile placement is crucial to your strategy. One player is Guttlekraw the Troll King, and the others are leaders of various elf tribes looking for their Elf Home. Movement costs between tiles depends on the numbers printed on them, so some routes will be prohibitively expensive. There are a number of potential sites for Troll Home, which need to be investigated.

The First World War, published by Phalanx. 2004. Box. Excellent - unpunched. £24

War game which splits World War I into three theatres of war depicted in separate areas of the board: The Western War, The Italian War and the Eastern War. Each of these theatres has several fronts, and on each front the sides vie for control of vital cities. The two sides are each split into two powers allowing play with 2-4 players. The game uses large (1 inch) thick and colourful cardboard counters. The rules are only 8 pages long.

The Game Of Dracula, published by Waddingtons. 1977. Box. 2 Copies available:

1) Good. £12. A hole in the base of the box has been repaired with tape. The mask is present however.

2) Box corners taped, edges show wear. £10. Photocopied rules, the green vampire mask is missing.

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

Simple but fun chase game in which the players try to escape from Dracula's castle. The first player to get bitten by Dracula also becomes a vampire, and wears a special mask. This player then tries to catch another player who will take over the position of Dracula's under-vampire. The Dracula and Green Vampire playing pieces fit over the players' normal playing pieces. The Green Vampire mask is often missing from this rarely seen game.

The Game Of Hong Kong, published by The Atlantis Publishing House. 1977. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 4-6. Country: Hong Kong, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box lid indented, base is plain but stained.

Hong Kong produced game based on Monopoly. The board shows a track which winds around Hong Kong, and which the players move their playing pieces around. Properties are bought and buildings and skyscrapers can be erected on them. Some spaces require either a 'Confucius Says' card or a 'Cable' card to be drawn and acted upon. Landing on other players' properties means paying them for use of the property. You get the idea... The box isn't very durable, but the components come in a very sturdy plastic tray which is put out on the table during play. Nice item for those interested in Monopoly variants.

The Haunted Railway Game, published by Hodder & Stoughton. 1989. Packet. Good. £5

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

Paragraph based gamebook which is based on the Enid Blyton book Five Go Off To Camp. There are 318 paragraphs which take you through the story in which the children discover all about the supposed haunted railway in the countryside near where they were camping. The set also includes a map, binocular decoders, a special dice, decoder compass, lunchbox and picnic cards and comes in its own vinyl wallet.

The Hellgame, published by Udo Grebe Gamedesign. 2003. Box. Good. £27. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Anders Fager, Lars Johansson. No. players: 2-6. Country: German, Duration: 3 hrs. Board game of diplomacy and intrigue set in Hell! Each player takes the role of a triumvirate of daemons who seek power. The winner is the first player to claim control of one of the circles of Hell, and have Lucifer ratify the claim. The game uses a board and counters to show the current state of the infernal struggle, while cards with special powers and abilities are played to perform spells and dirty tricks. The cards have suitably sinister artwork. The game is rated for 15+ years of age due to the subject matter.

The Pan Book Of Card Games, published by Pan. 1960. Book. Good. £6

An excellent card game book, first published in 1953. Hubert Phillips was an international Bridge player, game designer and puzzle fanatic. Amongst a feast of games, this includes Booby, probably the best 3-player Bridge variant. Includes the rules to 50 card games and 28 patiences. Chapters include: Contract Bridge, Booby, Solo, Piquet, Cribbage, Black Maria, Poker, Various Rummies, 2 3 and 4 player games, Games for 3-7 players, Party Games, Patiences.

The Penguin Book Of Card Games, published by Penguin. 1990. Book. Excellent. £8.50

Hardback edition. One of the great general card game books, if not the very best, as David is a real expert. 474 pages. The book includes chapters on: Whist (including David's own excellent 3 player game 99), Solo, Five-Card games, Hearts, All Fours, Italian Games, Skat, Jass, Bezique / Pinochle, Piquet, Rummy, Cribbage, Cassino, Poker / Brag, Banking Games, Stops Family, Patience, Odds & Ends. There are so many variants and subgames, this book alone could keep you busy for a lifetime! Highly recommended.

The Problemist - Batch of 5, published by The British Chess Problem Society. 1991. Booklets. Good. £1.50

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

Only likely to be of interest to serious chess players. From a quick look I would guess you need to be pretty expert to be able to tackle the problems posed here. I have Vol 13 Issues 13-17 in this batch.

The Third Citadel Compendium, published by Citadel Miniatures. 1986. Magazine. Good. £0.75

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

This is a magazine and catalogue combined. The articles are: How to Build a Fantasy Inn, Painting Regiments for Warhammer, Bellicose Bestiary (new Warhammer monster stats), The Quest of Kaleb Daark (10 page comic). Also included are about 50 pages of pictures of Citadel's very extensive range of miniatures.

The Wizard Of Oz, published by Pressman. 1999. Box. Good. £4

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

Special notes: The video is NOT included with this set.

This package includes a video of the classic Wizard of Oz film, and also The Yellow Brick Road board game (for children aged 3-6). In the game the players are trying to be the first to collect Ruby Slippers, A Medallion of Courage, a Heart and then to get to the finish line. Game play involves playing cards to move and sometimes spinning a spinner. There are some special spaces which you action when you land on them.

The World Of Wall Street, published by Hasbro. 1969. Box. Good. £5

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

Hasbro and NBC combined to compete with 3M in the adult, bookcase games' market and this was their best seller. In truth, it is not as good as the best of 3M, but then, 3M had Sid Sackson! Players trade stocks and shares in companies with varied expectations of profit. The usual rule applies - risky company, big profits, solid company, low return without risk.

Titicaca, published by Cwali. 2001. Short fat tube. In shrink. £20

Strategy game in which players try to get their tribes positioned favourably in the countryside around various lakes. Neighbouring tribes can combine into countries as long as by combining both sides get access to additional types of countryside. The game is played on a different countryside layout each game as it is made up of large hex tiles which are laid out before each game. Game play involves bidding for the locations around the lakes using scarce resources and then merging tribes cleverly. Some neat and unusual ideas in a game with neither cards nor dice. Nicely made components for a small company too.

Top Dividend, published by Jarvis Porter. ca.1935. Box. Good. £5

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

Card game, 54 cards representing results of football matches. The game is played in rounds with players trying to collect results that allow them to win the weekly football pools. Football pools must have been a relatively new idea then because there is a guide on how to enter the real thing, and a way of using the cards as a medium to help predict real results! Also includes a good quantity of plastic counters.

Torres, published by Rio Grande. 1999. Box. Excellent. £18. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Wolfgang Kramer and M Kiesling. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 75 mins. German Game of the Year Award winner for 2000. Players use chunky plastic pieces to build towers all over the board, and use action points to move their knights into commanding positions, and special action cards to break the normal rules to gain an advantage. Requires considerable thought to make the most effective use of your action points and cards.

Touche, published by Jumbo. 1996. Box. Good. £8.50

Players have a hand of regular playing cards. The board shows card images and some special spaces distributed in a large cross shape. Players take it in turn to play a card and place a marker on one of the corresponding spaces on the game board. The object is to claim spaces which form certain patterns (boxes, lines, crosses, T's). When one of these patterns is formed, the pieces are marked to show the pattern is complete. Players can either play individually or as partners.

Tribond, published by Patch Products Inc. 1998. Box. Good, 1 corner taped. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Family game in which players or teams of players try to spot the common element between three things listed on cards. The cards come in various categories: Entertainment, Sports & Recreation, Academics, Riddles & Wordplay. Identifying the thing in common is rewarded by movement around the board and landing on an opponent's playing piece results in a challenge round.

Unholy Tricks, published by Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1988. Book. Good. £7

The second Bridge book in the Monks of St Titus series. Very amusingly written and yet also has a great deal to teach to the Bridge player. There is no need to own the previous book to appreciate this one. Very well written, and a must for any Bridge player with a sense of humour.

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

1) Mint. £3.75 2) Excellent. £3.25

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.

W.W.F. Wrestling Challenge Game, published by Milton Bradley. 1991. Box. Good. £4

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

TV related, based on the exploits of well-known wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Earthquake, Mach Man, Ultimate Warrior, Million Dollar Man, The Model, Mr Perfect, Jake the Snake and Big Boss Man. A fun game, and some tactics required with the use of your Power Cards - when and where to use them can be crucial.

Wheedle, published by Out Of The Box. 2002. Box. In shrink. £6

Reiner's revamp of the classic free for all trading game Pit. In this game the cards represent stocks in various companies. Players trade openly with each other all at the same time, and can give away cards, trade one for one or one for many. There is also one card open on the table which players can swap with too. The objective is to make your entire hand score points, which means they must either be in a complete set or they must be in a partial set for which you hold the majority of the shares. There is a bonus for the player who ends the round by having all cards in their hand score and at that point the company which has a card on the table is considered bankrupt and scores nothing. Loud, frantic and fun.

X.Net, published by Fanfor. ca.2001. Box. Good. £7

Card game, in which players act as Internet entrepeneurs, supplying different needs to their customers. You must keep your servers and network connections up to date and provide the content currently most in demand. As the game goes on the current demand for different content types will change and so you will need to alter what you provide to keep up.

X-Bugs Set 1: Flyborgs vs US Arthropods, published by Steve Jackson Games. 2001. Box. Excellent. £9

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

Two armies of enemy bugs face each other and fight for dominance. The bugs are represented by tiddlywinks with picture stickers, and are flipped to attack or defend! The players try to capture each other's bases to win. Each bug also has a special ability to add extra fun to the proceedings. Further sets are required for 3/4 player games. Dice are used to determine which type of bug may be moved each turn.

Zatre, published by Peri Spiele. 1989. Box. Excellent. £10

Note: This set also includes the PC version of the game, Zatre Light - for solo play against the computer.

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.

Zug Um Zug, published by Days Of Wonder. 2004. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £20 2) In shrink. £23

Spiel des Jahres Winner 2004. Published in America as Ticket To Ride. Players collect cards using a drafting system, and play them in order to lay out train pieces onto pre-positioned track spaces between cities on a map of America. The tracks between cities require varying numbers of cards / train pieces, and more points are scored for the longer sections. In addition the players have cards which will be worth extra points if certain cities are connected up with that player's trains. Very approachable and playable but with quite a bit to think about too. A well deserved game of the year. Highly recommended.

Zug Um Zug Europa, published by Days Of Wonder. 2005. Box. In shrink. £24

Aka Ticket To Ride: Europe. Update of the Spiel des Jahres Winner 2004. Players collect cards using a drafting system, and play them in order to lay out train pieces onto pre-positioned track spaces between cities on a map of Europe. The tracks between cities require varying numbers of cards / train pieces, and more points are scored for the longer sections. In addition the players have cards which will be worth extra points if certain cities are connected up with that player's trains. As well as the different map this update introduces a number of new elements to add to the options the players have, making it a worthwhile purchase for owners of the original game, as well as those without it. Highly recommended.

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