ANTIQUITY Jeroen Doumen & Joris Wiersinga  Splotter Spellen    This large and unforgiving game by the Netherlands-based Splotter team is a planning and development masterpiece. Starting with just a common landscape and the most basic of resources, each player must develop a strategy to harvest goods, manufacture products, and construct buildings toward one of five different goals.  Planning is essential as use of the land creates pollution and cities can be overrun by excess, making the available opportunities shrink throughout the game. Building the economic system alone isn’t enough, though, as specific goals must be obtained and the first to meet their chosen goal wins the game. The game shares its lineage with the equally-massive Roads and Boats from a few years back, but brings a number of uniquely new ideas to a game that works well with two, three, or four players.
	AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS   Michael Rieneck   Ravensburger / Rio Grande games   The splendor and character of an around the world race at the turn of the century are captured nicely in this family-friendly game.  Everyone starts in London and uses ships and trains in an effort to make it around the world and back to London in the shortest number of days.  The “score track” is a day counter, so everyone knows just how well they compare with others’ times.  Getting from city to city involves playing cards, avoiding the inspector who will hold you up, and making clever use of the balloon, elephant, and other creative opportunities.  The game feels very much like a race with the clever time twist adding a nice new dimension.
	CARCASSONNE:  THE CITY   Klaus Jürgen Wrede   Hans im Glück / Rio Grande games   Just when you thought it was impossible to improve on Carcassonne comes the most strategic version of them all. Tiles no longer has to match (except for the roads), making it easy to prevent players in getting too large areas. But the most striking feature is the wall surrounding the city. built at certain intervals during the game it not only works as a natural boundary for the city and a end game mechanism, it is also possible to place Guards on the wall for extra scoring opportunities.
	DIAMANT Bruno Faidutti & Alan Moon Schmidt Spiele Up to 8 players compete in this push-your-luck game from Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti. The five abandoned mines offer untold riches but also hidden dangers. Should you delve deeper, hoping to share in a newly discovered horde or get out before you lose it all?
	KEYTHEDRAL Richard Breese Pro Ludo / Cafe Games A magnificent Cathedral is to be built and the greatest glory will go to the player who contributes most to its construction. Each player sends workers to the fields, quarries and forests in order to gather the necessary supplies but since each supports but a single worker competition for these resources is fierce.
	LOUIS XIV Ruediger Dorn Alea / Rio Grande Games Area control game played over 4 rounds in each of which you try to gain favors from 12 powerful personalities at the court of the Sun King by playing Intrigue cards. The favors are used to earn Mission cards with special powers that will not only increase your chances at the court, but also count towards victory. Another route to victory is to gain allies among the French aristocracy by collecting coat-of-arms.
	REEF ENCOUNTER Richard Breese R&D Games   The beautiful waters and reefs of this game create a soothing backdrop for seriously strategic and often cut-throat contest! Each player builds reefs of different corals, choking off competing reefs when possible and fighting for territorial dominance. Players score by removing a collected set of coral tiles from the board, but the value of those tiles can change throughout the game and controlling this aspect adds a clever and exciting consideration. With at most four opportunities for each player to score, the game is tense and each decision is critical. Reef Encounter comes from the fertile mind of Richard Breese, who also gave us Keythedral and the other Key-series games. This new game represents his most complete and satisfying game to date.
	STRUGGLE OF EMPIRES Martin Wallace Warfrog The 18th century European Powers compete for dominance at home and abroad.  Several wars will be fought but sometimes the best way to "fight" an enemy is to ally with him.
	SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT Bruno Cathala & Serge Laget Days of Wonder Cooperative game with a twist: One of the knights around King Arthur's round table may be a traitor. Can the players find him before Britain is swathed in darkness? And can they find Excalibur and the Holy Grail? Highly spirited card driven mechanism and incredibly beautiful components.
	TICKET TO RIDE: EUROPE   Alan Moon   Days of Wonder   How do you take a 2004 IGA nominee and make it even better? Send it to Europe! Using the basic clever ideas from the original Ticket to Ride, this new version adds much more than a new map. Players must develop their railroad networks through tunnels, can build stations to connect through other player’s lines, and contend with many short segments that still take a full turn to complete. While families can certainly enjoy this game, strategy gamers also appreciate the simple yet subtly strategic aspects in the complete design. No one knows trains better than Alan Moon, and he proves it once again in this excellent design.
	UBONGO   Grzegarz Rejchtman   Kosmos    A real-time game that has players frantically trying to place their tangram-like pieces into a predefined shape. Since finishing first is no guarantee of victory Ubongo can be enjoyed by players of differing skill level.
	YS Cyril Demaegd Ystari Games YS came from a new designer and a new company and the result is a game that sneaked up on many strategy game players. Using a limited set of bidding markers, players bid for influence in up to 12 city areas and the stock market. Control within a quarter of the city and within specific regions earns players valuable gems. The market value of the game changes through the game, so owning majority positions in the most valuable gems at game end is the key to victory. Special cards, also earned through the bidding marker process, help to bias things in ways that can surprise others and help to increase holdings. Since half of the bidding markers are placed so others can’t see their value, YS is a game of both strategy and double-thinking. In addition to terrific game play, YS also features a beautiful production with quality components and colorful original artwork.

	7 AGES: 6,000 YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY Harry Rowland  Australian Design Group    7 Ages is an Empire building game that spans the ages. Each player can raise any one of 100-odd different empires. Each Empire has unique characteristics that the players must seek to leverage to obtain that Empire’s equally unique goals. Players and Empires are limited in the choices they may take each turn, requiring good planning skills and resource allocation decisions. The two-piece map spans the globe and is broken down into areas, some of which give economic plusses, and some defensive military advantages.    Empires may build cities, promote Leaders, Trade with other Empires, build Armies, introduce technological and social innovations and, of course, try and conquer the known world. The cards, besides representing Empires, can also be used to aid in these tasks as well as hindering the other players as they seek to reap Glory with their Empires, so skillful card play is an essential element of the game. Empires come and Empires go, so knowing when to drop a languishing Empire, and therefore be able to introduce a new Empire, can make or break a game for a Player.   7 Ages incorporates aspects of a wargame, a cardgame and a eurogame in its play, but ultimately it is about watching the scope of history ebb and flow over the planet.
	ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER: STARTER KIT #1   Ken Dunn   Multi-Man Publishing   Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is a game about tactical combat in the Second World War. The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 removes the fear factor: a complete game in a box where “some of the usual ASL bells and whistles have been dropped, and simplified rules have been provided in order to make these scenarios easy to play for anyone interested in an exciting WWII tactical level experience.”   The game includes American, Russian and German forces, as well as 6 scenarios.   What makes this game is the game play. It generates a wonderful, tense, face to face playing experience and it’s also very playable solitaire. This game is chock full of incidents that make it fun as well as challenging.
	DOWNTOWN Lee Brimmicombe-Wood GMT Downtown is a richly detailed simulation of the air war over Hanoi from 1965 to 1972.  16 mission scenarios and 3 campaign scenarios with multiple and/or random targets provide excellent replay value.  36 different aircraft variants with a wide selection of ordinance and special capabilities are available to the US player.  The North Vietnamese player has 7 aircraft types along with potent AAA and SAMs to contest US raids.  The weapons and counter-measures available demonstrate how technology evolved over the course of the war.   The North Vietnamese player ponders SAM and AAA deployment to defend multiple targets and how to use his limited aircraft resources.  The US player must consider ordinance, target type, terrain, and the altitude he will use to hit his targets.  Players must learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and master the relationships between weapons systems and counter-measures.  Action is tense and uncertain as the US player tries to hit his targets with minimal loss while the North Vietnamese player tries to foil US efforts.
	DEVIL'S HORSEMEN Richard Berg & Mark Hermann GMT Devil's Horsemen takes the Great Battles of History series to the 13th century, when the Mongols were feared across the world. The four battles put the Mongols against the Persians, the Russians, the Central Europeans and the Mamluks. Each army has its own tactical system, and the battles have a strong emphasis on mounted units and archers. The smallest battles are half-mappers, while the biggest is a swirling two-mapper with two of the biggest armies of the entire series. For those who want to play the big scenarios but are time-challenged, the box also contains instructions for how to play the scenarios with the simpler and considerably faster SGBOH rules set.
	GROUP OF SOVIET FORCES: GERMANY Ty Bomba Strategy & Tactics Magazine (Decision Games) Group of Soviet Forces: Germany revisits the Third World War that never was with a Soviet surprise attack in Germany in the late 70s. Designer Ty Bomba has a very different take on the past near future than the games of the 70s, however. No zones of control and a lot more map space than units make this a wide open swirling fight in depth, with both sides fighting to defend their supply lines. The Soviets have numerical superiority and can choose the direction of the battle, but are easily locked in place by the smaller Nato forces. The result is an intensive game between asymmetric forces that reward player skill highly.
	MEMOIR '44 Richard Borg Days of Wonder  'Memoir'44' is a two-player game designed by Richard Borg and is similar in style to his earlier 'Battle Cry'. 'Memoir '44'' covers battles in and around the D-Day invasion in 17 scenarios. Production quality is sumptious: double sided maps (beach on one side, bocage the other), hexagonal terrain tiles and a bucket-full of plastic tanks, soldiers, etc. Like 'Battle Cry' cards activate units in certain areas for movement/combat. Combat hits are decided by rolling special dice, depending on range and terrain. New to 'Memoir'44' are more tactics cards which add spice to the game with different effects on units. A realistic simulation it isn't but the feel of advancing through limited approaches against a tough defense comes through.
	SEVEN DAYS OF 1809 Kevin Zucker Operational Studies Group  'Seven Days of 1809' is a two-player game in the grand-tactical series started by 'Six Days of Glory' and covers the campaign between Napoleon and Archduke Charles in the spring of 1809. Series designer is Kevin Zucker who specialises in Napoleonic games. Protecting supply lines and keeping units in range of their command heirarchy is crucial, to keep units doing what you want them to do. On the map all one sees are flags, which might be a unit, corps or army, so reconnaisance with cavalry is also crucial. Combat is bloody, so only attack in mass against a weaker foe. All in all this game is a superb rendering of Napoleonic warfare.
	SWORD OF ROME Wray Ferrell GMT  'Sword of Rome' is another progeny of 'We the People' in that it uses cards both to drive movement and provide for events. Units are abstract forces and connected areas make up the map. From new designer Wray Ferrell the game covers the struggle for control of Italy in 362-372 BC. For two to four players, each power (Romans, Greeks, Gauls and Etrsucans/Samnites) have their own card decks and their own advantages and disadvantages. Battle is very risky since each side rolls three dice, highest total (with modifiers) winning. Ultimate victory is by control of a certain number of victory locations and games can swing wildly in a turn to try and meet instant-win conditions. A solid multi-player game with a good era feel.
	ROADS TO LENINGRAD Vance von Borries GMT Roads to Leningrad (RTL) gives you two separate battles fought in the 1941 campaign by Army Group North as it advanced on Leningrad. You may refight the Battle of Soltsy [13-17 July 1941] or the Battle of Staraya Russa [13-23 August 1941].   The game system uses two key mechanics to create the friction and chaos of combat. First, players activate formations by drawing chits. So, you cannot say exactly when your troops will spring into action. Second, there is combat coordination. As the attacker and the defender you have to roll to see if your combat forces perform. As the attacker, you can find yourself with a negative die roll combat results table modifier, no air support and reduced or no artillery support. The defender risks losing air support and reduced or no artillery support. What it means is that you cannot be certain of the outcome of any combat.   There’s more to the game than the sequence of play; there are lots of nice design touches all over the place.  This is no cartoon reproduction of history with the might German forces being masters of all.  RTL is a great example of what the hobby can achieve when it gets things right. This is a great looking, playable package.
	Wings of War Andrea Angiolino & Piergiorgio Paglia Nexus Wings of War is an enjoyable, low complexity card game of World War I air combat for 2-4 players. Each plane has a ‘Maneuver’ rating that relates to a card deck containing the actions that the plane is capable of performing.  Players ‘fly’ their planes on the game surface (an average kitchen or dining room table works well) and engage the enemy. Each turn, the players secretly select 3 Maneuver cards for each aircraft and play them simultaneously, one at a time.  After each joint play of a Maneuver card, any plane that has an enemy plane in its firing arc and range may fire at it.  Damage is handled by a random card draw.  Victory generally goes to the side that has greater success at shooting down the enemy or forcing him out of the playing area.  Rules cover gun jams, and the advantage of getting on the enemy’s tail and keeping him in your sights.  Game play is fast and exciting.  A typical 2-plane dogfight takes 15 minutes.