In Winner’s Circle you are right in the middle of a classic day of racing. Which horse is the favorite? Does the long-shot have a real chance? How high are the betting ratios? Which bet promises the highest profit? Once the field is announced you must place your bets. You then take turns rolling the special die and moving the horse of your choice. Will you advance the horse you are backing or impede those horses backed by the other players? While having multiple players back the same horse improves its odds of winning it also lowers the payouts, and there are still no guarantees of victory. At the end of the running the best bets payoff, and after 3 races the player with the most winnings is triumphant.

This fast-paced, decision-making game for two to four players becomes more suspenseful with each roll of the dice. One bad roll can wipe out an entire turn’s progress, but passing the dice to an opponent may mean giving up the game. Players size each other up, calculate the odds, and roll: in the end, the dice decide. This game by Sid Jackson features transparent dice and an iconic board in sturdy red plastic. Launch date: April 2007.

Bucket Brigade challenges players to race firemen toward the top of a burning building. Time is of the essence, but the fireman who runs too fast will spill most of his water before he reaches the roof. Under the guise of a simple race game, Bucket Brigade offers players the chance to out-think and out-bluff opponents, regardless of their age. It plays in 30 minutes or less. In Bucket Brigade, “players must cooperate even as they compete,” Vice President Lawrence Whalen Jr. of Face 2 Face Games told TDmonthly. Launch date: March 2007.

In this tile-laying board game, players assume the role of a species — reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals or man — striving for dominance on planet Earth. Play takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes. “Our games have simple, elegant mechanisms with a surprising depth of play that appeals to all ages,” vice president Lawrence Whalen Jr. of Face2Face Games told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 1, 2006.

How best to make a fortune during the great Gold Rush? Boomtown lets each player decide, giving them the option of being a prospecter, highwayman, tavern owner, or politician, and letting them find out for themselves how the hardscrabble life in a goldmining town made fortunes for some and broke others. For three to five players, Boomtown comes with 60 cards, ten city tokens, 100 poker chips, two dice, and five mayor pawns.

Warriors, an Alan R. Moon and Richard Borg design, delivers players to a magical land populated by wizards, trolls, elves and goblins and gives them an army to command against the undead. With 110 cards and 5 dice, this game allows players to become totally immersed in the fantasy.

In this classic game of deduction, the players must try to solve the case of the missing gems through strategic questioning and reasoning. Each game lasts 30-45 minutes, and each new contest brings different clues to be used in solving the mystery again.

You are in charge of an ice cream stand. Sounds like a dream job, right? Well, you´ve got four days to drum up as much business as possible or risk losing everything. That´s the concept behind Ice Cream, the card game that lets players find out whether they´ve put a cherry on top or melted down the side of the cone. For 3-5 players, each game lasts approximately 20 minutes.

Set in the middle ages, this game pits 3-5 players as rival dukes fighting for control of the Rheinland, the heart of Europe. The game comes with a board, 55 money tokens, 26 landmarks, 55 cards, 125 wooden knightx, 35 dukes, and 7 bishops. This is the first in a series of games from designer Reiner Knizia.

Face2Face has produced a number of award-winners, and this one promises to exceed the rest in popularity. READ MOM REVIEW
--Created by acclaimed designer Sid Sackson.
--BuyWord won Games Magazine´s Game of the Year for 2005.
--The game ranks #7 on the About.com Best Board Games and Card Games of 2004.
By mixing math and word skills, BuyWord appeals to a broad spectrum of the market.