Ransom A quick dealmaking game, a genre I happen to like but which has tended to have games that are either overly long or that don't have much replay value. The basic idea is that you flip over a card that is either a plot of land, bricks, labour or a building contract. If it isn't a contract, the player whose turn it is can buy the item or it goes to auction. If it's a contract it gets auctioned off (conveniently representing ‘lowball bidding'). You can then wheel and deal to actually get the buildings done. Looks good, hoping to play.

Konzern By the maker of X-pasch, I believe. You roll dice and then use them to gain market share in various segments (all abstract) and move the profitability of the segments around and fight for share. There are a variety of uses for each die: Triplets let you take over neutral markets, high dice are good for challenging, even dice let you increase profit, odd dice let you decrease profit (useful in areas you aren't in), low dice are useful because you can add up to a triplet (instead of needing 3,3,3 you could use 3,3,(2+1)). You can also draw cards with dice, and the cards don't seem to be overwhelming, although they are strong. Played a quick 3 player game. Better than X-Pasch (which I didn't like), although similiar.

Mole Hill Quick little two-player game by Knizia representing the eternal struggle of gardener versus hungry rodent. The mole moves around the grid and can never visit the same space twice, the gardner erects fences to try to trap the mole. Mole scores based on how long it stays free and how many flower beds it destroys. Then switch sides and play again...takes about 10 minutes. Played a few rounds, it seems very easy to run away as the mole, but it's deceptive since you don't have to stay away forever, just longer than the other guy...very difficult to get to 22 spaces as the mole. Rules may have one ambiguous point on diagonal movement.

Katzenjammer Blues Another Knizia game, this time a card game that bears similarities to several poker variants where you auction cards and use your current hand to bid. Basically you are trying to buy cards of various ranks (1-5) and using your hand to bid on them. If you win the bid you can turn in 4 of a kind for a number of 'mice' (your payment for singing on the fence) equal to the value of the four of a kind. There are jokers, too. The catch? When the game ends (out of mice or once through the deck) whoever used the most jokers suffers a huge 5 mice penalty (since there are only 24 mice...). Played a two player game, probably better with more (but not horrible with two. Again, a fast game.

Sisimizi Aka the Ant Game. Each player has to place and connect 7 anthills with lines of ants. Anthills go on special spaces. The idea is certainly old (look at twixt, hex, the game of Y, etc). But I think this is very interesting. The fact that there are two types of spaces (normal spaces where ants go and ant-hill spaces) and that you have to control, and even move the spaces you need to connect up is interesting. But what also makes it interesting is you take turns placing *3* tokens on the board and then (after the first turn) *moving* three tokens on the board made this very interesting. You are also allowed to 'cross-over' lines a limited number of times (basically allowing two players to count the same space as part of their lines). Plays 2-4. Very nice little game, IMO. Played with 2 players a few times.