Game Profile: Age of Industry

A pure economic game where one must seek the most efficient way to make a profit.

Mechanics Card Drafting, Hand Management, Network Building
Theme Industrial Revolution
Publication Mayfair Games, 2010
Ages 13+
Time 120
Players 2 – 5
Description
Age of Industry is a business game designed by Martin Wallace and is set during the 19th
century, when many countries around the world were experiencing their own
particular industrial revolution.  Your
aim is to make money, which you do by creating new industries.  There are six industry types in Age
of Industry
;
cotton mills, factories, coal mines, iron works, parts and
ships.  You also have a number of railway
counters.  When you build an industry you
must take the counter with the lowest technology level from your display.  As you build industries higher level
technology counters become available.

To earn money you must
first build industry counters and then contrive to have them flipped, which
will earn you profit.  Building an
industry counter requires the play of a card, the expenditure of money, and
possibly coal and/or iron.  The card you
play will either determine the type of industry you can build or which location
you can build in.  When counters flip depends
on the type of industry.  Cotton Mills
and Manufacturing counters are flipped when they sell their goods via ports
and/or market counters.  Parts are
flipped when something is sold via them. 
Coal mines and iron works are flipped when all the cubes on them are
removed. And, ships are flipped when the two connected spaces are used up.

As well as building
industries, you can build railways. 
Railways are required for the movement of coal and iron, and allow goods
to be sold to ports and markets. 
Building your own railways increases the number of potential locations
you can build in.  Railways will also
earn you money but only at the end of the game.

The game ends when the
deck of cards is exhausted.  You then
earn money for railways, pay off any loans, and score points for the money you
have left and the buildings you have on the board.  The player with the most points wins.  The board is double sided giving you two
options of play.  One side is a map of
Germany and the other side is New England.


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Come and visit us at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality puzzles from Ravensburger, White Mountain, and Cobble Hill.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area

Game Profile: Automobile

 Any color you like… as long as it’s Black!
 
 
Mechanics Commodity Speculation
Theme Economic, Auto Industry
Publication Mayfair Games, 2009
Ages 13+
Time 120 – 150
Players 3 – 5
Description
Automobile is a Martin Wallace game with a beautiful board
and high quality components.  Automobile
carries you back to the birth of America’s car industry, when inventors,
craftsmen, and entrepreneurs created a wild array of marvels and misfortunes.
Players select one of
six pioneers from the industry, such as Henry Ford or Walter Chrysler to help
them along in each of the four rounds. 
Players must build factories in order to produce the three general
market classes of autos; mass market, middle-class, and premium-class.  Accumulating Research & Development cubes
will be necessary in order to build new factories that in turn will produce
newer makes of cars.  As new factories
are built, older ones will need to be closed because, as in real life they
become costly to maintain.  Adding a
parts factory will reduce your auto production costs.  Additionally, there is a supply and demand
factor.  Players must balance the number
of auto’s they produce with the changing demand within each market
segment.  Produce too many and you’ll
incur loss cubes that cost you money.
Now that you’ve produced
fleets of cars, the question is can you sell them all?  There are several methods available to make
the sales, but the number of sales per method is limited.  Some limits are obvious while other limits
are not so clear until after the autos are built.  Executive decisions allow players to get advertisement
markers and discount markers. 
Advertising increases your car sales. 
Discounting increases your sales, but reduces the income from those
sales.
As in any good economic board game the player with the most assets at the end wins.  Money management is critical at every step in
the process.  Strike the best balance,
shift the right gears to best your rivals, and you’ll be rich. Now, roll up
your sleeves and start making cars!


From the publisher, Mayfair Games, here is “Glover’s” game overview.




We have an open copy of Automobile available in our Store Demo Library for you come in and try out.


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Continue to tune in for the latest in board games.
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Come and visit us at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality puzzles from Ravensburger, White Mountain, and Cobble Hill.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Goes “Off The Charts”: Set Cubed

Monday was a glorious day for a game of Set Cubed up on Dog Mountain.

Playing Set Cubed was a great way to relax after the hike up to the top.

Set Cubed
From: Set Enterprises

Set Cubed is a game where players connect their dice with those already on the board.  Play up to three dice per turn making as many SET’s as possible.  Rack up the points by using bonus squares.

The views of the Gorge were awesome .


At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. We are here to help you discover the fun in board games.

Earth Day Goes Eco Fluxx

This is what we did today in celebration of Earth Day:

Planted a Tree

and


Eco Fluxx
Looney Labs

A game of Eco Fluxx at Gresham City Park

How did you spend Earth Day?




Fluxx is simply a fun family card game.  Come in and see all the themes it comes in.


At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Come and visit us at our store.  We are here to help you discover the fun in board games.

This Just In: Lords of Waterdeep Promo Card

Exciting news we have promo cards for the board game Lords of Waterdeep!
This promo card is an Attack card.  After inflicting the specified harm on your opponent you then give the card to that player. — ooh that could really hurt.

Inevitable Betrayal Promo Card
Lords of Waterdeep

Wizards of the Coast

Receive free a Inevitable Betrayal promo card with the purchase of the board game Lords of Waterdeep.

Lords of Waterdeep
Wizards of the Coast

Lords of Waterdeep is from the designers of Dungeons and Dragons and is a fast-paced game of constantly changing fortunes, where players take on the role of a Lord of Waterdeep.  Through their agents, they recruit adventurers and send them on quests designed to win favor and spread their influence throughout the city.  Expand your treasury, purchase buildings, assign agents – choose your actions wisely and you can become the supreme Lord of Waterdeep!


Catch this game overview:

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Continue to Tune in for the latest in board games!
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Come and visit us at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, and White Mountain.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

News Flash: Settlers of Catan Featured Game on Geek & Sundry’s 2nd Episode of Table Top

In case you don’t already know from our previous posting, there is a new YouTube series hosted by Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton called Table Top. It is a weekly feature on Felicia Day’s Channel Geek and SundryBelow is the 2nd episode as well as the description.
Wil Wheaton and guests, Jane Espenson (Writer & Producer-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Caprica, BSG, Game of Thrones), James Kyson (Actor – Heros, & Hawaii 5-0), and Neil Grayston (Actor – Eureka) play Settlers of Catan!






Settlers of Catan  has been a popular strategy game within our family for the past 15 years.  Our favorite way to play is to add the Seafarers Expansion, randomize the tiles, randomize the numbers, and make it a 6-player game.  For those who like a more aggressive game we recommend the Cities and Knights Expansion.

We have Setttlers of Catan as well as the Expansions and the 5-6 player Extensions available in store and on the shelf.

At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Come and visit us at our store.  We are here to help you discover the fun in board games.

Game Profile: Lords of Waterdeep

Gold and double-dealing flow freely in the City of Splendors


Mechanics Quests, Worker Placement
Publication Wizards of the Coast , 2012

Ages 12+
Time 60
Players 2 – 5
Description
Lords of Waterdeep is a new
strategy Euro game from the world of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).  This game is not the typical dungeon crawl
that you find in D&D’s other
games (i.e Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Legend of Drizzt).  The basis of Lords of Waterdeep is the
completion of quests through city building and worker placements.

Players score victory
points for completing a series of quests. 
Quests are completed by using four types of adventurers: Clerics, Fighters,
Rogues, and Wizards.  Completion of
quests brings rewards along with victory points.  Adventurers are gained through the use of
buildings put into play within the city of Waterdeep. Agents are the workers in this worker placement game. They can be placed in any of the basic buildings or in any of the advanced buildings that have been constructed by any of the players.  The various can grant adventurers, additional quests, and Intrigue cards. Intrigue
cards are one of three types: 1) Attack cards that hinder or penalize your opponent, 2) Utility cards that do something beneficial like grant resources, and 3) Mandatory Quest cards that can force opponents to complete a minor quest before finishing other quests.   A game of Lords
of Waterdeep
last eight rounds.  The
player with the most victory points wins. 
Each player will receive a Lord Card at the start of the game.  Each Lord card grants end-of game bonus victory points
for meeting certain conditions.

In summary, this is a
game with many levels of strategy.  Place
your agents in any one of nine basic buildings that are available every game or
in any one of the twenty four unique advanced buildings that can be constructed.  Collect the right mix of
adventurers to complete as many of the sixty quests as possible.  Use the buildings you control and your
intrigue cards to hold back your opponents and advance you own points for
completed quests and your secret agenda from your secret Lord card.  Happy questing.

Here is a game play video from Wizards of the Coast

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Continue to Tune in for the latest in board games.
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Come and visit us at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality puzzles from Ravensburger, White Mountain, and Cobble Hill.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.




News From Game Trade Magazine

Today we received our latest issue of Game Trade Magazine.  It looks like summer will be an interesting time at Off The Charts Games.

Game Trade Magazine 
Issue # 147

Here are a few of the board games that will be available from our distributors in June and July:

Sky Traders
Fantasy Flight Games



Sky Traders is a game of adventure, commerce and intrigue!  Evade ruthless Wind Pirates and manipulate the commodities market.  Trade your way to fame and fortune.







Pirates of Nassau
Gung Ho Games



Pirates of Nassau allows players to be a pirate operating fro the infamous Port of Nassau.  Capture and plunder the merchant ships that ply the nearby trade routes and us your ill-gotten gains to improve your ship and hire a motley crew of buccaneers.

Risk: StarCraft
USAopoly

Risk: StarCraft will see players choose from the terran, protoss, or zeng factions and six unique heroes before going head-to-head in this board game classic.









Battle Beyond Space
Z-Man Games

In Battle Beyond Space players discover a signal from an ancient race.  It is their only known working technology.  Now four different fleets answer the siren’s call, intent on claiming the artifact for themselves. – at all costs.






Our Game Trade Magazine will be out and available for you to peruse.

At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Come and visit us at our store.  We are here to help you discover your game.

Expanding The Game Library: aMAZEing Labyrinth

The aMAZEing Labyrinth
From: Ravensburger



We’ve just added a copy of The aMAZEing Labyrinth game to our Game Library. This is truly a fun little game. Even though the game is designed for the younger set, Lynn and I found it to be both interesting and entertaining.  The object of the game is to collect treasures.  However, your pawn can get moved as the paths are changed.   It can be a real challenge to line up the paths to get to your treasures.




Coming Soon to our Game Library are:

Automobile
From: Mayfair Games
~AND~

Dragon Valley
From: Diamond K Games

At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Come and visit us at our store.  We are here to help you discover your game.

More Game Arrivals

Check out these cool games that just arrived:

Cyclades
From: Matagot (Asmodee)

Dive into the Greece of the Mythical Ages and discover Cyclades, a game of strategy with exceptional game materials.
Players strive to control Metropolises with the aid of Greek Gods and Mythical Creatures.



~And on the Lighter Side~

Hike
From: Mooseache Games
Hike is the perfect card game for your next camping trip.
There are seven suits of cards in the deck (tree, bird, bug, hiker,etc) plus some specialty cards.  Each suited card has three additional suits indicated at the bottom that dictate which suits can be played by the next player.  Use the specialty cards to create twists and turns in the game. The objective is to be the first player to get rid of all their cards. The player who gets rid of all of their cards scores points based on the number of unplayed cards remaining in the other players’ hands.  So, brave the elements, blaze the trail, but watch out for avalanches, getting lost and finding poop.


Come in and see us for fun games.

At Off The Charts Gameswe have a fabulous selection of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, and dice games. We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Come and visit us at our store.  We are here to help you discover your game.