BARGAIN HUNTER is a trick-taking game where TRUMP COLOR (if any) is determined during each TRICK. Players try to collect ITEMS and get the best BARGAIN they can on those ITEMS. All other “odds and ends” collected in the process are not necessarily BARGAINS as they may simply remain JUNK over the course of the game. All BARGAINS are worth positive points while JUNK is worth negative points. Each ROUND, however, players have the opportunity to turn potential JUNK back into BARGAINS. Whoever collects the most BARGAINS with the least JUNK, wins.

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!”
Even better, everyone loves getting a bargain on this junk. But a true bargain is when you get more than your money’s worth. More often than not, though, items we think will be valuable simply are trash. You must decide which items will keep their value and not become worthless. But remember, the more popular a bargain, the much harder it is to find.

Fun card game that can be played in about an hour

Very well known designer in Uwe Rosenberg (At the Gates of Loyang, Agricola and Bohnanza)

Beep! Beep! is a fast paced game of driving through a forest and swerving to miss the wildlife.

The game consists of a small rubber squeaky car and 112 cards each with an animal in a particular color on it. Players simultaneously try to match either the animal OR the color to those they have already avoided. When three of the same color or animal appear at the same time, hit the squeaky car to your horn and get them out of the way. The player who avoids the most animals wins.

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS GAME.

* A quick game that takes only 2 minutes to play!
* Priced to make it an easy up-sell as a game that fills in those gaps of time between games on game night.
* Small, compact and shipped in a display box for increased exposure on your retail counter top.
* Fun for all ages where the winner is just as likely to be an 8 year old as a 40 year old.

A swarm of bugs is in the neighborhood and you want to be the first player to clear your yard of any bugs (play all the cards in your hand). When a player plays all his cards, the remaining cards in the hands of other players count against them. Of course, there is always bug repellant and netting to help keep the bugs out. If that does not work - call in the Exterminator! After six hands, the player with the fewest points wins.

Designer Keith Meyers has a fantastic talent for coming up with games that are both fun and engaging. This new design is sure to enlighten many a game table with its wonderful artwork and fast paced mechanics.

Crows are smart, but they have a weakness for shiny objects. You have a shiny object, but so do your friends. There are too many shiny objects demanding the crows’ attention!

Players take turns placing tiles and then positioning their shiny objects to attract the most crows. Crows flock to the shiny objects based on simple rules. It is going to take some wits to attract the most crows!

When the deck of tiles has been exhausted, the player who has scored the most points wins.

Crows is a game for 2-4 players ages 8 and older and takes approximately 30-40 minutes to play.

The game begins with a single town tile in play. Players place tiles from their hands to create the board. Networks with new towns are created. With these towns come new goods that need to be delivered. Each tile a player places also generates steam for moving their train. When the time is right, players move their trains to pick up and deliver goods from town to town. But of course it is not that easy since hills require extra steam to cross and speeding around a curve may cause your train to derail!

A different track layout and goods distribution each time challenge players to build efficient networks and carefully manage their steam in this fast paced train game. Days of Steam is for 2-4 players ages 12 and up and takes 30-45 minutes to play.

Days of Steam designer Aaron Lauster has done a wonderful job on taking the ideas of a traditional train game and made something that will appeal to the most hard core gamer and the new comer to board gaming. This fantastic title has elements of the complex, strategic train game and creates a fun environment of tile laying and goods delivery that is played usually within an hour.

The first expansion for Days of Steam is here at last. Aaron Lauster has brought some new mechanics to this wonderful title by adding new buildings, more track, and cool Locomotives!

A few days of steam have passed and a new age of industry has dawned. Factories sprout up producing goods that need delivered. Advances in technology result in faster and safer locomotives and the market responds with numerous coaling stations to feed the need for speed.

Players use newly designed locomotives that can be upgraded with technology giving each player the ability to customize their train. Goods can be produced by the newly added Factory tiles that will produce a good for delivery based on the Factory colour. There are also Coal Stations that offer coal to passing trains for easy fuel.

This expansion requires the Days of Steam Game in order to play allowing 2-4 players a great game in about 45 minutes.

We are happy to be publishing Elliot Hogg's first game, Habitat. In Habitat, your goal is to attract the most complex and diverse animal life to your portion of the great North Woods. The most vibrant ecosystems are those that have organisms from all levels of life, from the producers up to the dominant predators. Therefore, to win a game of Habitat, a player must create a complete collection of cards ranked 1-8.

Cards are stacked in order of rank, from lowest to highest, to form Food Chains. There may be multiple Food Chains and duplicate ranks, but only one card from each rank is needed to win. In contrast, an unsupported chain of cards carries the risk that creatures become hungry, or even begin to starve! When a player has collected the necessary cards and all animals are fed, that player declares a "Habitat" and wins the game.

* Miguel Coimbra’s stunning artwork makes each card a work of art in itself. You'll want this game simply for its natural beauty.

LIBERTÉ covers the French Revolution from the meeting of the Estates-General in 1789 to the Directory and General Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état in 1799.

In LIBERTÉ, players shape the political landscape of revolutionary France. They compete in provincial elections to gain votes in the government and opposition which in turn award victory points. Successfully leading the army in battle and winning the election in key provinces will also score victory points.

The game is played over four turns with each turn consisting of multiple action rounds. The most common action is to play a card to stack faction blocks in the provinces. Special cards may be played to weaken rivals. Players may also participate in the battle and recruit the best General, among other options.

Players can retain some cards in their personal display. These cards can then be replayed (advanced) to resolve ties. If not used by the end of the turn, they return to the player’s hand, available for the next turn.

After the action rounds, the election is resolved in each province. The three factions competing for the new government are the Moderates (blue), the Royalists (white), and the Radicals (red). The player with the largest stack in a province controls that vote. Ties are very common, however, so players may advance their held cards to gain the advantage.

Typically, the player with the most victory points will win. Two sudden-death victory conditions can immediately end the game making victory points worthless. The Radicals can gain a landslide in the election or the Royalists can take back the country by controlling battleground provinces. Everyone must be watchful for the fervor that can quickly change France’s future!

* A highly sought after Martin Wallace game.
* A gamer’s game with a simple four page rule book.
* Stunning new artwork by Kurt Miller and Mark Poole.

LIBERTÉ is for 3-6 players aged 12 and up and takes approximately 90 minutes to play.

You are a great master builder in the Middle Ages. You employ master craftsmen, foremen, tradesmen and apprentices. You bid on building contracts and with your workforce construct buildings. Upon completing each building you receive money so you can pay wages and possibly take on extra workers.

Unforeseen events such as town fairs, fires and higher wages in other cities can make managing your projects very difficult. Also, not all workers are as committed to their jobs as others and some may just not show up for work simply because they were out late the evening before. All this could result in you having to deal with higher costs, late completions of your building projects or the need to dismiss workers.

In the course of the game beautiful buildings will be created and at the end a medieval city will stand in the middle of the table—complete with city walls, fortified towers, city gates, houses and a town hall.

Your aim is to become the greatest and most famous master builder of the Middle Ages. Of course, your opponents will have the same aim so a lively contest will develop for supremacy in the building trade. The winner will be the player who has the most money at the end of the game.

* A beautiful 3D medieval city is created when playing this game.
* The game is both light weight and strategic making it both a strong gamer’s game as well as an excellent family game.
* The game is designed by two accomplished game designers - Wolfgang Kramer (Torres, Tikal, E Grande) and Hartmut Witt (Koalition).

Octopus’ Garden is the newest release from Valley Games and the first design by Roberta Taylor. Roberta was the first ever winner of the Canadian Game Design of the Year Award in 2010. Her design caught our eye and after we played it, we knew we had a winner.

In Octopus’ Garden, players take the role of Octopuses competing to create the most beautiful gardens. Attract colourful seahorses and clown fish, without losing pearl-producing oysters to the hungry sea stars!

Players chose which plant and animal tiles to purchase from a central market and then decide how best to arrange them in their own garden. Careful planning is required to attract seahorses and clownfish, to protect pearl-producing oysters from the sea stars, and to avoid startling delicate feather worms.

Octopus’ Garden is a tile laying game for 2 to 4 players aged 10 and up, and is played in under 45 minutes.

A prime mechanism of Roman expansion and control in the provinces was the municipium, the premiere Roman provincial town. Being granted the status of a municipium brought a town into the Roman orbit and involved both duties to Rome and a gradual extension of the Roman citizenship to the inhabitants. This game takes place in one of these municipalities in a western province. The time is the middle of the 2nd Century AD, when the Empire had reached its greatest territorial extent and was enjoying its longest period of imperial peace.

Players are each in control of a powerful family and try to strategically place their family members in the various institutions throughout the municipium and gain the support of the citizens: Scholars, Merchants, Soldiers, and Priests. At various times during the game, if a player has the most influence in an institution, the player can exert the power of that institution and gain the support of certain citizens. Meanwhile, the praefect moves around the municipium and players strive to have the most influence in the institutions that he visits, thereby earning his favour. Each of these institutions have unique powers, and players must decide how and when to use them. The player best utilizing their power will become the most influential family in the municipium.

This game has all of the strategy that the hard core game player needs to be satisfied but it has the features of a good family game.

Stronghold is a 2-4 player game telling the story of a siege. Players take opposite sides, one has to defend the stronghold, the other has to break into the castle as soon as possible. As time passes, defenders get victory points every turn for their efforts on the walls.

Each Invader’s phase represents a subsequent stage of the assault preparations. Resources are used to construct siege machines: deadly ballistae, destructive catapults or huge trebuchets. Invader conducts training: drovers, quartermasters and other specialists appear at the ramparts. The shamans summon black magical powers in the fifth phase; by sacrificing goblins, they provide the Invader with additional combat advantages. In the final phase, the Invader deploys his troops and orders units fighting on the walls.

Inside the stronghold there are various buildings where the Defender may spend his hourglasses to prepare the defenses. Blacksmiths forge lethal cauldrons and cannons. In the workshop, the carpenter makes platforms for additional units and reinforces the walls and gates. Troops are trained in the barracks. Scouts move out from their quarters to the ramparts to set traps and sabotage siege engines.

If the Invader manages to breach the defenses on at least one section of the wall, he enters the stronghold. The game ends and the glory points are counted up for both players. If the Invader fails to enter the stronghold, another turn begins.

Urs Hostettler's party game of creating some "thing" is now being printed in English. Originally released as Ein Solches Ding, this game has been a HUGE success in Germany.

Such A Thing is a game where players have to think of a thing that fits a number of given characteristics. Players in turn add cards from their hand one by one, until one player doubts there is "such a thing" that matches all the cards currently played. If the previous player can name a REASONABLE thing, the doubting player is penalized with 3 extra cards. If there isn't such a thing, the previous player is penalized 3 cards.

Characteristics such as "heavier than a boot", "is useless once used" and "breaks when left in the freezer" are just some examples of what players have to work with to create "such a thing". First player to empty his hand wins.

This is a 2 - 7 player game with a playing time of approximately 30 minutes.

The floodwaters are rising and the animals need to board the ark!

Valley Games is pleased to announce the arrival of Two by Two, and the first published for designer Rob Bartel.

Players move their ARKS around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorn, of which there are only two. Animals that are rare at the end of the game are worth more points.

The game is for 2-4 players aged 8 and up and takes around 45 minutes to play. This game offers both the family and the seasoned gamer the opportunity to have a great deal of fun.