{"title":"Great Gifts","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"guilty-houston-2015","title":"Guilty: Houston 2015","description":"\u003cp\u003eSomeone has died in the county women's prison - and not just anyone, but Senator Kowalsky's daughter. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're heading to the prison now with a press conference scheduled for tomorrow at which you have to explain what happened, so you need to find answers over the next few hours. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo start Guilty: Houston 2015, you'll read the introduction, then place the specified cards on the table. Choose a card, then turn it over and read it. What will you find there? Time will keep passing, possibly leading to surprises before you face the journalist pack at game's end to answer their questions as best as you can.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"ASMODEE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56048078586234,"sku":"ZBG-GUILTY2015","price":14.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/GUILTY-HOUSTON-2015-1.png?v=1760976321"},{"product_id":"quacks-of-quedlinburg","title":"The Quacks of Quedlinburg","description":"\u003cp\u003eWolfgang Warsch is becoming a bit of a superstar. He's released multiple games during a short time frame, including The Mind, Ganz Schon Clever and The Quacks of Quedlinburg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this game, you become Quack doctors, brewing wondrous and definitely genuine potions to charm the masses, cure ills, and most importantly get rich. Of course, when times are hard, you may need to fill it up with rat tails, but what they don't know...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe main mechanics at play are focused around bag building, and deciding how far to push your luck. Each round you will draw ingredients from your bag and add them to your cauldron player board, starting at the middle and spiralling outwards. Each ingredient is numbered 1-4, and that's how many spaces the ingredient moves around the cauldron. Your bag starts with lots of white ingredients in and one green and one orange. The trick is that if the total value of the white ingredients totals more than seven, your cauldron explodes, and you bust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe further around the cauldron you get, the more victory points and spending power you receive. You can choose to buy up to two new ingredients of different colours at the end of the round. Not only do they not explode your cauldron, but they also give you access to special powers. These powers are colour-specific but for each colour, there are four different powers, with you choosing one each game or going with the suggested set-ups.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you explode, you cannot choose to use your money and take victory points, but must instead take only one. The powers of the ingredients give you plenty of options for avoiding explosions by mitigating the dreaded white ingredients but this is a luck-based game and sometimes you are just going to draw all your white ingredients in a row.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuacks of Quedlinburg has tons of variety, a great catch-up mechanic and is just plain old fun. Thanks to the ingredient powers, there is plenty of variety. The Herb Witches and The Alchemists expansions add even more. With new powers, new ingredients and the titular characters themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlayer Count: 2-4\u003cbr\u003e\nTime: 45 Minutes\u003cbr\u003e\nAge: 10+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"North Star Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049921982842,"sku":"TCS-QUACK","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/TCS-QUACK_FRONT.jpg?v=1760984110"},{"product_id":"forbidden-island","title":"Forbidden Island","description":"\u003cp\u003eForbidden Island drops you and up to three other players onto a seemingly paradise isle in the search for treasures that supposedly can controls the elements. But beware! The island does not want such relics to fall into your hands - it's constantly sinking in attempt to thwart you. In this co-operative game, you and your team must work together to grab all four treasures before sprinting to Fool's Landing, where you'll fly off into the sunset. The Forbidden Island itself is made up of 24 square location cards, which you'll shuffle and arrange into a diamond, of sorts (meaning you're getting a modular board set-up every time, which is great for replay-ability). There's a Flood Deck of cards and a set number are revealed each turn, determining which part of the island has now become (partially or totally) flooded. There are also Treasure Cards belonging to each of the four sacred objects, and players have to acquire four of a kind (in a kind of hand-management, set-collection fashion) in order to claim the matching treasure. Players will each get a pawn that starts on the island, and on their turn it becomes an action point allowance system, where they can take up to three actions of the following options: move to an adjacent tile, flip partially flooded tiles back to their 'land' side, give a Treasure Card to a fellow player, or capture a treasure at a specific location, itself. At the end of their turn, the active player will gain two Treasure Cards and then wince as they reveal cards from the Flood Deck to see what's flooded... If a Waters Rise! card is revealed from the Flood Deck, a corresponding Water Level marker rises (which means more cards per turn will have to be revealed), and the current discard pile of Flood Cards is shuffled and then placed on top of the remaining Flood Deck. This is all sounding a bit Pandemic, isn't it? And you'd be right to think so - Forbidden Island is also designed by Matt Leacock, and he's mirrored many of the fantastic mechanics from his other hugely popular co-operative game and translated them into a simpler format. The characters have asymmetrical player powers - just like in Pandemic - and there are various ways in which you can lose the game: if one team member is on a totally flooded tile and cannot swim to safety, if the Treasure tiles sink before you've claimed them, if Fool's Landing totally sinks, or if the Water Level reaches the top. Forbidden Island is a brilliant co-operative experience if you and your gaming pals are looking for a team challenge that's on the 'gateway' side of things. There are various levels of difficulty on offer in the set-up, as well as similar titles Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky, before you can move onto the likes of Pandemic in its many guises, or the campaign option that is Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (all by Matt Leacock). Player Count: 2-4 Time: 30 Minutes Age: 10+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Coiled Spring","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050087887226,"sku":"TCS-FORI","price":19.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Forbidden-IslandForbidden-Island-InsideForbidden-Island-Back.jpg?v=1760984746"},{"product_id":"spirit-island-core-game","title":"Spirit Island (Core Game)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpirit Island is a 2017 co-operative game from Greater Than Games. Deep, strategic gameplay unfolds against a startlingly compelling backdrop of island spirits fighting to defend their home from colonial invaders. Can you and your friends use your spirits' powers effectively enough to repel Europe's colonising hordes? Though you will always have to try to drive the invaders away, no two games of Spirit Island will feel the same. One to four players choose from a set of eight spirits, each of which has four unique power cards. Each spirit is very different to the others, interacting with friends and foes in diverse and interesting ways. On top of the eight spirits, players can also choose to face one of three different invader cards, each offering a new and distinct challenge. The board itself adds further variability, with four modular islands boards that each give the game a different flavour. Finally, four optional scenarios give you more variety if you want to change things up even more. Action selection and area control are key mechanics in Spirit Island. Players choose which of their power cards to play, paying the associated energy cost to do so. The cards give players a mix of short- and long-term effects, with stronger powers available as the spirits' influence spreads across the island. The spirits are not free to do whatever they like, however. Your colonial adversary is an ever-present, growing threat. Over the turns of the game they will explore the island, settle and eventually ravage the surrounding territory, including the native islanders that you are trying to protect. If any spirit is destroyed, the island is overcome by blight or the invader deck runs out, your team will lose. If you can destroy or scare off all the colonialists, then you'll win the game. Do you think you have what it takes to keep your island safe? Buy Spirit Island today to find out. 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