vaibhavhospital

City of Six Moons

2024-08-26T19:30:37-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 48.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	1
Suggested Age	16 and up
Additional Info	421304/city-of-six-moons http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421304/city-of-six-moons/forums/63

City of Six Moons is an alien civilization game in both senses: a solitaire game in which the player guides the destiny of an alien civilization, and a game from an alien civilization.

Inside the box you will find the components needed to play the game, and a rulebook written entirely in symbols and icons. You will need to decipher the game's rules yourself. You will never know whether you've gotten it right or not. No mechanisms are listed on this page. The designer will never answer any rules questions.

Note: Hollandspiele generally sells direct, not through distributors. But they don't ship to Europe; the only known source to buy Hollandspiele games in Europe is from Second Chance Games in UK. For Canada, see this thread. Australia and other countries don't have local resellers, so you have to order from abroad.

Table Battles: Doomed

2024-07-09T23:26:44-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 54.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	45 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Expansion For	Table Battles (Second Edition)
Additional Info	413927/table-battles-doomed http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/413927/table-battles-doomed/forums/63

In this radical reimagining of Amabel Holland’s popular Table Battles series, players fight a series of short, snappy battles that are forgone conclusions. One side brings to bear overwhelming advantages while the other struggles to stave off certain doom as long as possible. Eventually, they will weaken. Inevitably, they will break. There is, mechanically speaking, no way for the doomed side to prevail – no victory condition at all, and no way for the other side not to achieve theirs. But it’s not about that.

It's about how hard you fight when you know you’re going to lose. During each battle, the doomed side will score points – a running tally that carries over from one scenario to the next. If by the end of the third battle they’ve hit a certain threshold, they win the game. But that threshold increases when you choose which of the game’s six battles to fight next – easier battles raise your threshold more than hard ones. The doomed player also has access to Advantage cards – once-per-battle powers that let them break the rules in some way. But each of these you take on also increases your threshold.

From the encircled Romans at Cannae to the trapped paladins at Roncevaux Pass, the outmatched French fleet at Trafalgar and the desperate highlanders at Culloden, this expansion spans desperate, hopeless battles from across human history and points toward an exhilarating new direction for Hollandspiele’s bestseller.

—description from the publisher

Doubt Is Our Product

2024-02-16T06:17:54-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 114.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	90 mins
Additional Info	401361/doubt-our-product http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/401361/doubt-our-product/forums/63

In the second half of the twentieth century, faced with the incontrovertible truth that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer, the tobacco industry embarked on a campaign of deliberate disinformation while knowingly selling a deadly and highly addictive product. Deeply entrenched in American culture, and with deeper pockets, they leveraged their lobbyists and marketing to avoid regulation and dodge responsibility for a hundred million deaths. A disparate collection of scientists, grassroots activists, politicians, lawyers, and public health officials faced an uphill battle to change the culture, place limits on tobacco advertising, and combat a health crisis of unprecedented scope.

This game from designer Amabel Holland (Nicaea, Endurance) models the asymmetry of this conflict by giving each side a different game. The Company, representing the industry, plays an economic deckbuilder, setting themselves up for big turns, chains of actions, and big profits. The Movement that opposes them is playing a political tableau builder – slowly coming together and organizing to advocate for legislation and regulation. These two halves, each with its own mechanisms and components, intersect the most fully in the disinformation war. Illustrating Brandolini’s Law – “the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it” – the Company player easily muddies the water, while the Movement must work hard to clear it away.

—description from the publisher

But Then She Came Back

2024-02-16T06:16:41-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 49.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	1
Playtime	45 mins
Additional Info	404720/then-she-came-back http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/404720/then-she-came-back/forums/63

"It hurt so much when she died — but then she came back, and it hurt so much more."

In the solitaire horror game But Then She Came Back, a loved one has returned from the dead. But she's not as she was – parts of her are missing. Changed. Twisted. You need to protect her, while feeding the ravenous ugly thing inside of her – finding her fresh victims. If you come up short, you'll need to sacrifice your friends and family, cutting yourself off from your support network. And if she is still hungry, you'll cut off pieces of yourself – an arm, a leg, your eyes, and finally, when you have nothing left to give, your heart.

Each day, you'll go out to get the things you need: blood, to feed her; knives, to protect her; and locks, to protect yourself from her. Each day, you'll lose a piece of her as the thing inside her continues to grow and hunger – demanding more and more from you, even as you're able to do less and less. Desperation gives way to despair as the promises you made when she was alive threaten to swallow you up.

The game will end in one of two ways: either you'll die, or you'll let her down. And you don't know which is worse, and which is kinder. And you pretend you don't know which one you'd prefer.

This is a game about horror and heartbreak, grief and exhaustion. It is for mature audiences.

Horse & Musket: Annual #4

2023-08-26T00:30:26-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 40.95

Designer	Paul Aceto Xavier Rubio Campillo Sean Chick Daniel Chick Marc Figueras Amabel Holland Paul Mach
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	1-2
Playtime	0-0 mins
Suggested Age	0 and up
Additional Info	352052/horse-musket-annual-4 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/352052/horse-musket-annual-4/forums/63

Horse and Musket Annual Number 4 is the fourth fan expansion to Horse & Musket. It will add new scenarios for owners of Volumes I-V and Horse & Matchlock.

The scenarios include...

Alford – July 2, 1645 – “I found myself so slighted”

Mohács – August 12, 1687 – 1526 Avenged

Almenar – July 27, 1710 – Stanhope’s Great Charge

Bassignana – September 27, 1745 – Bourbon High Tide in Italy

Rocoux – October 11, 1746 – “Hell opened her mouth to swallow us up.”

Kay – July 23, 1759 – Preamble to Kunersdorf

Trenton – December 26, 1776 – “Victory or death”

Assunpink Creek – January 2, 1777 – “We’ve got the old fox safe now.”

Bennigton – August 16, 1777 – “They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!”

Kings Mountain – October 7, 1780 – “With fire and sword.”

Valmy – September 20, 1792 – “Vive la Nation!”

First Abukir – July 25, 1799 – Jochim Murat Wins His Laurels

Jena – October 14, 1806 – “…if he were alive we wouldn’t be here today.”

Talavera – July, 27-28, 1809 – “My God! What is an army without a chief?”

Smolensk – August 17, 1812 – Napoléon Takes the Gateway to Old Russia

Borodino – September 7, 1812 – “And if there should be another battle tomorrow, where is my army?”

Berezina – November 28, 1812 – Perilous Winter Crossing

Lützen – May 2, 1813 – Napoleon’s Bloody Return to Prussia

Bautzen – May 20-21, 1813 – The Truce of Pläswitz

Lacoste Plantation – December 23, 1814 – “The British shall not sleep upon our territory!”

Kaiju Table Battles

2023-08-25T21:29:32-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 124.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	30-60 mins
Additional Info	389112/kaiju-table-battles http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/389112/kaiju-table-battles/forums/63

Clobber your enemies, knock down buildings, and unleash your fearsome breath weapons in this personal love letter to Showa-era monster fights. At its core, Amabel Holland's Kaiju Table Battles is about teams of giant monsters beating the snot out of each other on a tense 5 x 4 battle grid. Dice you roll and place this turn can be spent on a later turn to unleash attacks, or to use reactions to cancel or mitigate the attacks coming in your direction. Each of your fifty-foot fighters has their own combination of attacks, reactions, movement effects, and special powers, giving them a unique role on the battlefield and in your team.

While you're trying to win a match against your opponent, you're also working with them to achieve a cooperative goal that emphasizes some aspect of the game. For example, you might be trying to knock down three buildings, and the most efficient way to do that of course is to slam an enemy monster into them! Achieve the goal, and you'll get to open an envelope containing a brand new monster and a new rule that applies to all future matches. These envelopes also contain "swaps" – alternate attacks and powers for existing monsters, allowing you to customize your team and try out new strategies. (Each of the nine envelopes is hand-packed by the game's designer or someone important to her.)

Over the course of several matches, the game itself becomes more complex, challenging, and nuanced. It's not quite a legacy game – no components are destroyed or altered, and there isn't an overarching start-to-finish narrative with plot twists. But as the game's colorful cast of characters grows, what emerges is a kind of story told along the edges – a series of meditations on monsters, identity, community, and queerness.

-description from publisher

Dual Gauge: Netherlands and Eastern U.S.

2023-08-25T21:18:00-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 49.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	3-5
Playtime	60 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Expansion For	Dual Gauge
Additional Info	388669/dual-gauge-netherlands-and-eastern-us http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/388669/dual-gauge-netherlands-and-eastern-us/forums/63

The third expansion map set for Dual Gauge!

These maps introduce Star Dits, which function as normal dits for most purposes – they count as a stop but cannot be tokened – but are worth more money. Depending on the map, players may also have an additional incentive to hit these stops over others. Both maps also see players in a race to grab bonuses, which also serve as another game end trigger.

The Netherlands map seats up to five players and features a new gauge conversion step, allowing you to flip narrow track to its standard side. Of course, what it doesn't do is change your narrow trains. You'll need to plan your train purchases carefully, and beware of opponents who might use this tactic offensively.

That's if you have enough time, of course! The standout feature of this map is a race to complete certain Goals. Achieving one of the map's eight Goals will win you a disc. This can be traded in later, either to place a station or to buy a precious second share of stock in a single round.

The Eastern US map is for three to four, and is a bit subtler. Preprinted track segments provide awkward chokepoints to either work around or embrace. Company turn order isn't fixed, but shifts from round to round depending on company stock value. Increases in that value are gated – tied to your dividends, so you'll need to work for big routes while your rivals try to block you with aggressive token play.

At the western end of the maps, there are the destination cities of Detroit and Chicago, each containing a set of Bonus Discs. When a company ends a run there, their President claims a disc. At the end of game, you'll get a payout based on the number of discs you've claimed.

-description from publisher

Endurance

2023-02-13T12:42:51-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 99.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	1
Playtime	60 mins
Additional Info	377945/endurance http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/377945/endurance/forums/63

Endurance is a solitaire game of Antarctic survival, based on Ernest Shackleton's famous 1914 expedition. Stranded for eighteen months, the crew of the Endurance faced almost impossible challenges. Any one of these could have – by rights, should have – resulted in their deaths. Miraculously, every man survived.

The game does regard this as a miracle – as the least likely result - and evokes it not through reproduction, but through its absence. This is a bleak and grueling game about suffering and perseverance. Faced with circumstances beyond your control, you must make the best choices you can. You'll be hunting for food, buoying the men's spirits with distractions, and managing your ever-dwindling supplies while dealing with a hostile and unpredictable environment.

This game is unique in that there is no victory or loss condition. The game will end either when the men are rescued, or when rescue becomes impossible. How many men survived until then, and what that means, is up to you.

—description from the publisher

II Grass II Crown

2023-02-09T07:16:32-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	60 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Expansion For	The Grass Crown
Additional Info	364795/ii-grass-ii-crown http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/364795/ii-grass-ii-crown/forums/63

Over the course of ten battles, The Grass Crown charted the military evolution of the Roman Republic from the days of the manipular Legion and its Triplex Acies formation to the veteran professionals that fought in a series of bloody civil wars. These battles were carefully chosen by designer Amabel Holland with an eye toward only keeping those that would propel the game's central themes forward. Some otherwise compelling, engaging, and interesting battles didn't make that list, either because they made the same "point" as a battle that did make the cut, or they introduced a level of complexity that detracted from the narrative.

You probably see where we're going with this! II Grass II Crown is an expansion that provides eight new scenarios: Beneventum, Metaurus, Ilipa, Great Plains, Cynoscephalae, Magnesia, Zela, and the Cilician Gates. These are aimed at experienced players who don't mind tackling a few extra special rules. Also included is a new countersheet with additional units. Among them are counters for two new unit types, Scythed Chariots and Cataphracted Cavalry, which provide new and daunting challenges.

—description from the publisher

Dinosaur Gauge

2023-02-09T07:09:57-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 89.95

Designer	Amabel Holland Mary Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	3-5
Playtime	60-90 mins
Additional Info	372439/dinosaur-gauge http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/372439/dinosaur-gauge/forums/63

Dinosaur Gauge is a pick-up and devour game in which players invest in four different kinds of dino industries, all with an eye toward maximizing the value of their holdings on the Stomp Market. This extremely accurate and rigorously-researched game opens as the Western Interior Seaway shrinks, and with it the fortunes of once-mighty dino shipping magnates. But this paves the way for expansion by dino rail barons, eager to bring goods made at dino factories to emerging dino cities! But even these tyrannosaurus tycoons might find their legends eclipsed by dino airlines.

Hexagonal tiles are placed on water hexes to shrink the Seaway, and also serve as the timer of the game. Each player gets an equal number of turns in which they place a tile, buy one share of stock, and then take one action – building for a railroad, making a delivery, producing goods, establishing an airport, or recycling. Each industry works and scores a little differently, and with only a handful of turns, you'll need to invest and act carefully, with an eye toward incentivizing your fellow players to do the hard part for you. End the game with the most money, and you win!

The first game design by Hollandspiele founder Mary Holland, collaborating with veteran cube rails designer Amabel Holland (Irish Gauge), Dinosaur Gauge is a gleeful game about managing chaos, emergent alliances, and, most of all, how much Mary loves dinosaurs.

-description from publisher

Dual Gauge: Denmark and England & Wales Maps

2022-07-04T07:07:30-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 49.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	3-5
Playtime	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Expansion For	Dual Gauge
Additional Info	354042/dual-gauge-denmark-and-england-wales-maps http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/354042/dual-gauge-denmark-and-england-wales-maps/forums/63

The long-awaited second map pack for Dual Gauge. Both maps incentivize tokening cities. When the game end is triggered for the subtle Denmark map, a company's final stock value might drop depending on how many stations have been placed - the fewer stations, the steeper the drop! Tokening on the England & Wales map will increase a city's payout. Getting big dividends is the name of the game - helped along by the passenger trains that score dits without counting them against your route, and hindered by the dangerous momentum of railway mania that might rust your trains (including 4Ts and 5Ts!) right out from under you. 3-5 Players (Denmark), 3-4 Players (England & Wales).

-description from publisher's website

Siege of Mantua

2022-06-28T02:47:34-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 102.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	364150/siege-mantua http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/364150/siege-mantua/forums/63

Two armies march to the relief of the fortress and its exhausted garrison. One from the East, and one from the North, converging on the outnumbered enemy. That enemy was the Army of Italy, the first field command of Napoleon Bonaparte. The fifteen days that followed would make him a legend.

Taking as its subject Bonaparte's famous Arcole campaign, Siege of Mantua is a game of operational maneuver and tactical daring. Players move blocks on the mapsheet to threaten and deceive their opponent, with the object of bringing them to a decisive battle. These are fought on a battle display with counters drawn randomly from your unit pool. The quality of your pool improves with every victory; suffering losses will damage morale, degrading unit quality.

You must master both of these spheres if you wish to be victorious. Though outnumbered, the French player has the benefit of moving along interior lines, allowing greater coordination of forces. But those men are stretched thin to deal with two distinct lines of enemy advance. The Austrian player can use this to their advantage, bringing superior forces to bear at weak points in the enemy line. What results is a desperate battle of wits and nerve, and a novel take on the "block game" genre.

-description from publisher

More Dinosaurs, Please

2022-06-10T10:41:31-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 43.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	30-45 mins
Expansion For	Dinosaur Table Battles
Additional Info	342855/more-dinosaurs-please http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342855/more-dinosaurs-please/forums/63

This is an expansion for Dinosaur Table Battles. What happened is that Mary asked for more dinosaurs – she may or may not have said please, and it may or may not have been a request. Regardless, six new dino-combatants are ready to join the fifteen from the base game.

Some of the new dinos are classified as Air Dinos and some as Wet Dinos. Air Dinos ignore blocks – unless those blocks are thrown by other Air Dinos! Likewise, the targeting restrictions of Wet Dinos can be negated by enemy Wet Dinos. Air Dinos and Wet Dinos are also weaker against each other – Air Dinos aren't very strong swimmers, and Wet Dinos are afraid of heights. From the massive Quetzalcoatlus to the cunning Gallimimus, these new dinosaurs can dramatically change the flow of a match.

—description from the publisher

Eyelet

2022-05-20T10:30:01-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 49.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	20 mins
Suggested Age	6 and up
Additional Info	356304/eyelet http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/356304/eyelet/forums/63

Eyelet is a roll-and-move game for two players in which shoelaces are threaded through holes in a custom-cut board. Any lace can be moved by either player, but it must be moved the exact number of spaces rolled, then threaded through an empty hole. When you're unable to complete your turn, you lose. And so, the goal is to maneuver the laces to limit your opponent's options — but should they escape, they might just hand your crafty trap back to you.

This is a simple, strange, and sprightly little game that takes only a minute to learn. There's something soothing about the sound of the shoelace sliding against the board as you pull it through. And there's something gently nerve-wracking as the holes get fewer and fewer and the laces start to get shorter and shorter. Each match results in a unique and visually appealing crisscross of blue and pink laces. Every lace has a knot carefully tied at one end by hand — by either designer Amabel Holland, publisher Mary Holland, or one of our friends.

—description from the publisher

Table Battles: Great Battles of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine

2022-05-19T08:20:59-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	30 mins
Suggested Age	14 and up
Additional Info	359078/table-battles-great-battles-prince-charles-alexand http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/359078/table-battles-great-battles-prince-charles-alexand/forums/63

Great Battles of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine is the sixth expansion to Amabel Holland's Table Battles, taking as its subject the not-exactly illustrious career of its namesake. Oh, the six battles in this set are "great" battles, including some of the most famous engagements of the eighteenth century. But they're not famous because of Charles, who is widely regarded as one of the worst commanders in history. They're famous because of guys like Frederick the Great and Maurice de Saxe, who ran circles around our boy Chuck, inflicting one humiliating defeat after another. Of course, the battles didn't have to end the way they did, and perhaps with your skill and a little luck, the outcomes might be very different!

This builds on some of the layers added in the last two expansions, and adds some new wrinkles of its own! Linked formations support one another, and tactical victory conditions allow you to win by attrition when a more decisive outcome is out of your grasp. Cards are demarcated as Infantry or Cavalry formations (with illustrations!), and the new Shift mechanic allows you to move forces of a certain type from one card to another. This not only can shore up places where your lines are weak, but if you concentrate enough force in one area, the resulting Oblique Attack can inflict heavier casualties on the enemy.

Reign of Witches & The Toledo War 2-pack

2022-02-24T03:42:26-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 39.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	10-20 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Additional Info	295254/toledo-war http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295254/toledo-war/forums/63

Reign of Witches and The Toledo War were the 2020 and 2019 Hollandays Sale freebie card games. Due to popular demand, we are breaking with tradition and offering the two of them together as a retail release; a portion of the profits will be donated to the Morris Animal Foundation.

The Toledo War is about Michigan's conflict with Ohio over the Toledo Strip. Cards are played either as an event or for influence in one of three categories: Authority (support from the federal government), Belligerence (chest-thumping and provocative acts of violence to fire up your base), and Claim (legal pretexts). The game ends when the cash-strapped territory of Michigan capitulates, holding an illegal convention in the dead of winter – the "Frostbitten Convention" – so as to qualify for federal aid. In exchange for "losing" the war and Toledo, Michigan gains the resource-rich Upper Peninsula; in a way, both sides can claim victory. Therefore the player with the highest score wins the game.

Reign of Witches is a tableau-building game about America's Quasi-War with France, as viewed through the lens of factional conflict within the Federalist Party. President John Adams, the hapless party leader, attempts to navigate political intrigues, public unrest, and other crises while being undermined by the High Federalists who owe their loyalty to inveterate intriguer Alexander Hamilton. Players buy cards from a market (you will need to provide ten of your own coins or tokens) and play them into their tableau to earn points in one of three spheres: Politics, Public Opinion, and Military. But you have to do more than outscore your opponent: while the Federalists are tearing each other apart, Vice President Thomas Jefferson is building support for his own bid for power. The player who bests their opponent in at least two categories and has a total score higher than Jefferson's wins the game; fall short of that, and Jefferson wins the Presidency in 1800.

Nicaea

2022-02-24T03:36:33-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 102.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	4-6
Playtime	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	18 and up
Additional Info	348065/nicaea http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/348065/nicaea/forums/63

It's the year 325 and it's a pretty chill time to be a Christian.

Not only has it been a hot minute since they were forced to renounce their faith on pain of death, but the emperor Constantine has really leaned into it, hoping it will unite the often fractured Roman Empire. So, the big guy isn’t super-thrilled when bishops immediately get into nit-picky, esoteric arguments that John Quintus Romanus doesn’t give two flips about. He demands that the bishops gather together in the city of Nicaea to come to an accord. He doesn’t really care what these nerds decide, so long as they decide something.

This gathering is given irreverent treatment by Amabel Holland in this game for four, five, or six players. Like Constantine, it treats the theological positions argued at the first ecumenical council as fungible. Whether a position ends up accepted orthodoxy or damnable heresy has nothing to do with theology and everything to do with politics - with personal ambition, petty rivalries, and social dynamics. This is a sort of shared incentives game, in which each player commits to one of two sides in various theological disputes; guess which one the majority will go with and you’ll score points. Score the most points, and you’ll win the game.

Unless the player with the fewest points has accumulated the most political influence. That player is powerful enough to splinter the church, provoking a schism and stealing the win. To prevent this, you’ll need to make sure that someone that powerful isn’t left out in the cold during the final settlement.

At once a slick tableau-building game and a study in emergent alliances, Nicaea gives a rude but affectionate raspberry to what was perhaps the most pivotal event in the history of the early church.

The Grass Crown

2022-02-24T03:33:59-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 124.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	60 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Expansion	II Grass II Crown
Additional Info	347344/grass-crown http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/347344/grass-crown/forums/63

This second game in the Shields & Swords Ancients series recreates ten battles spanning nearly three hundred years of Roman history. As was the case with the first game, With It Or On It (2019), The Grass Crown is a fresh, innovative taken on familiar material. The primary unit of maneuver is a "Wing" which itself consists of ten or so individual counters. Losses can be resolved by flipping the individual unit that was attacked, or by flipping any unit adjacent to it. Unrelenting pressure in the right places can prompt a Rout Check, causing the line to collapse. As the result of a single attack, multiple units can find themselves in your dead pile.

This simple but compelling theme sees many variations thanks to special rules that chart the evolution of Roman warfare, and contrasts them with the rigid Greek Phalanx, the sophisticated army of Hannibal, and the ferocity of the Gauls.

The ten battles are: Heraclea, Asculum, Trebbia, Zama, Pydna, Second Citra, Vercellae, Pharsalus, Thapsus, and Munda.

Dual Gauge

2021-07-06T11:37:07-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 79.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	3-5
Playing Time	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Expansion	Dual Gauge: Honshu & Wisconsin Maps Dual Gauge: Denmark and England & Wales Maps Dual Gauge: Netherlands and Eastern U.S.
Additional Info	320879/dual-gauge http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/320879/dual-gauge/forums/63

Stop me if you've heard this one before: this is a game in which players invest in train companies, build a rail network, and pay out dividends. The player with the most money - cash on hand plus value of their stocks - wins the game, and the publisher didn't even have the decency to put any play money in the box. Yes, friends, it's another choo-choo game, and you're probably wondering what makes it any different than the other choo-choo games on your choo-choo game shelf.

The title Dual Gauge refers to the fact that there are two kinds of track - standard gauge and narrow. Standard is more expensive and more efficient, while narrow gauge is cheaper and rather inefficient. These rectangular track tiles are laid across adjacent hexsides, and all companies are able to utilize a shared track network provided they are connected to it. Different types of track will of course call for different types of trains. Stock purchases put funds in the company coffers, and the company uses this money to pay for track. Trains, on the other hand, are paid for in stock value itself. Those trains can also be "rusted" by the purchase of newer models. Companies can also "token" station spaces on the map, increasing their routes while potentially blocking access for rivals. These, too, are paid for in stock value, by decreasing that value by an entire row in the game's capricious two-dimensional stock market.

This is not only a game, but a game system played on multiple maps. Each map has unique twists, and a set of companies with unique asymmetric abilities. What happened is, Mary told Tom that Tom needed to design a new train game once a year, and Tom thought that sounded like an awful lot of work, and being generally lazy, tried to find a loophole. "Aha! If I design a new train game system, I just need to do a new map or two and that will fulfill Mary's requirement." Tom was already quite deep into the work when Mary explained that this did not in fact satisfy that quota, and so in addition to a new train game every year, Tom also needed to come up with new Dual Gauge maps. "Curses! Foiled again!"

That works out okay for you, though, because that means a continual supply of new and exciting challenges for you and your friends. This base set gets the party started with two maps. Portugal is intended as an introduction to the system, but asks players to contend with difficult mountainous terrain. The challenging Detroit map, set in part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, finds players taking on debt to keep underfunded railroads afloat, all with an eye toward reaching Chicago and its double-route bonus.

Also, there is a cat on the Priority Deal marker.

—description from the publisher

Iberian Gauge

2021-07-06T11:36:30-04:00

Vendor: Capstone Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 43.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Capstone Games
Players	3-5
Playtime	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	228372/iberian-gauge http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/228372/iberian-gauge/forums/63

Description from the publisher:

The morning stretches over the tops of the tall, rugged mountains that dominate the Iberian Peninsula. Hammers ring, iron on iron, fighting stubbornly for every inch of new track against the unforgiving and unyielding terrain. The age of the railroad is coming to Iberia, but it won’t be easy…

In Iberian Gauge, you will invest in railroad companies during Stock Rounds. In the Operating Rounds, each share of stock allows the shareholder to build track for that company, in the order those shares were purchased. But building in such hostile terrain is expensive! Leasing track from other companies reduces cost and keeps your railroads expanding. Failure to expand will sink your stock values, leading to ruin!

Dual Gauge: Honshu & Wisconsin Maps

2021-06-20T23:49:06-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	3-5
Playing Time	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Expansion For	Dual Gauge
Additional Info	339587/dual-gauge-honshu-wisconsin-maps http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/339587/dual-gauge-honshu-wisconsin-maps/forums/63

This is the first expansion for Amabel Holland's Dual Gauge.

Honshu is a small, cutthroat map for three to four players. Money is tight and the terrain unforgiving. Along the way, you and your opponents will help industrialize Japan's largest island, upgrading low-paying dits into profitable cities. (In fact, failing to do so will result in end-game penalties!) Of course, cities can be tokened, allowing you to create chokepoints on the fly. A nasty, nasty map.

The second map shifts the scene to exotic and fantastical Wisconsin. This is a sprawling "big money" map for three to five players. The major gimmick here is that there are nine 5Ts, and these trains are "diesels" – running as far as you like along a stretch of compatible track. Plan carefully in the early game, and you can end up with a triple-digit run in the last couple Operating Rounds. But an inconvenient change in gauge or station can stop your diesel before it leaves the station.

When the base game came "back in print" in 2021, we added Company Charter cards. Those cards are also included in this expansion for our early adopters.

Table Battles: The Grand Alliance

2021-02-03T12:58:04-05:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playing Time	30-45 mins
Expansion For	Table Battles
Additional Info	326091/table-battles-grand-alliance http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/326091/table-battles-grand-alliance/forums/63

The fifth expansion to Tom Russell's popular Table Battles series recreates six battles - two from the Nine Years War and four from the War of the Spanish Succession - the age of Eugene and Marlborough, Villars and Luxembourg. Unique to this set is the introduction of a "link" - a relationship between two formations that mitigates casualties. Some scenarios also allow players to shift unit sticks from one part of the battlefield to another. The six battles are Fleurus, Marsaglia, Chiari, Blenheim, Ramillies, and Denain.

—description from the publisher

With It Or On It

2019-09-11T11:59:27-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 74.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	60 mins
Suggested Age	10 and up
Additional Info	273519/it-or-it http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/273519/it-or-it/forums/63

With It Or On It is the first game in the Shields & Swords Ancients series. Like its medieval era cousin Shields & Swords, this series takes a broad brush approach to simulating battles, this time of the ancient period, with an emphasis on speed and playability. While the basic philosophy and the core system of using Command Markers to activate Wings remains the same, each game in this Ancients line is designed from the ground-up to incorporate elements specific to its period and style of warfare.

This first game looks at six battles fought during the Greco-Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. Hoplite units that are attacking may use the Combat Class of the best hoplite in the line, giving them an advantage over heavy and light infantry formations. As a result of combat, units become exhausted, but these results may be distributed elsewhere in the line - a break occurs when there are no fresh units that can satisfy the result. Break the enemy line at the right time in the right place, and it will crumble in a disastrous rout. Maintaining pressure on the enemy while managing the morale of your own men is crucial to deciding the battle, and with it, the fate of empires.

Table Battles: Age of Alexander

2018-06-11T01:24:17-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	15-20 mins
Expansion For	Table Battles

By any measure, Alexander III of Macedon was an exemplary military commander. If we believe his propagandists, he was always vastly outnumbered, yet he and his elite army were never defeated, always winning a decisive victory. "It is a sobering thought," says Table Battles designer Tom Russell, "that by the time he was my age, Alexander had conquered the Persian empire, made his incursion into India, founded city after glorious city, and had been dead for four years."

Table Battles: The Age of Alexander recreates that famous Macedonian's major battles, as well as two battles of the Diadochi. In almost all of these battles, the Macedonian Player has no room for error - the routing of a single Formation is often enough to lose the game. The opposing side has more leeway and more sticks, but generally comes up short in the quality department. Careful, nuanced play from both sides is require to stay competitive and to win the day. Most of these are larger engagements, with lots of cards and reactions for each side.

The seven battles in this set are:

Chaeronea (2 August 338 BCE)
Granicus (May 334 BCE)
Issus (5 November 333 BCE)
Gaugamela (1 October 331BCE)
The Hydaspes (May 326BCE)
Gabiene (316BCE)
Ipsus (301BCE)

Table Battles: Wars of the Roses

2018-05-31T11:34:32-04:00

Vendor: Hollandspiele
Type: Board Games
Price: 42.95

Designer	Amabel Holland
Publisher	Hollandspiele
Players	2
Playtime	30 mins
Expansion For	Table Battles

The first expansion to the popular Table Battles is set during the Wars of the Roses. Players generally have fewer morale cubes this time around, meaning that there's less of a margin for error, and a well-timed blow can be much more decisive. There are also some formations with unusual special abilities, such as Edward IV's ability to act as a "wild die" for a friendly formation. As with the base game, good play involves being aware of your own strengths while exploiting the weaknesses of your opponent.

The eight battles in this set are:

First St. Albans (22 May 1455)
Blore Heath (22 September 1459)
Mortimer's Cross (3 February 1461)
Towton (29 March 1461)
Edgecote Moor (26 July 1469)
Barnet (14 April 1471)
Tewkesbury (4 May 1471)
Stoke Field (16 June 1487)