Ars Mysteriorum (Alan Ernstein)

Players are apprentice alchemists, competing to be named Master. To do this, you have to build up a 'recipe' book and demonstrate that you can complete them. Each recipe requires the right ingredients so, first, you need to buy and trade for them. It's a complex, dense and rewarding game.

For 3-5 players, aged 10+, 90-120 minutes playing time. I have one secondhand copy in good condition (the box is a bit battered): £10.00 (£8.33 outside the EU).
 

Borneo (Paolo Mori)

The seventeenth century spice trade with the East Indies is the theme of this one. It's essentially a card game, with each card having three potential uses. This gives players tricky decisions to make on how best to use them as they struggle for control of the trading companies.

For 3-5 players, aged 10+, 45 minutes playing time. I have a secondhand copy in good condition: there's some wear on the box corners and a couple of scrapes on the side, but it is unplayed. Note that this is the German edition (from Abacusspiele) with English rules: £10.00 (£8.33 outside the EU).
 

Café Race (Fran F G)

This is an entertaining little game that mimics the rush for the office coffee machine. The aim is to spill as little as possible as you race back to your desk. There can be some jostling on the staircase, though!

For 3-6 players, aged 8+, 15 minutes playing time. I have a secondhand copy in good condition (there's a little wear on the box corners and edges): £6.00 (£5.00 outside the EU).
 

Cinco

Played over a hexagonal grid, players use their numbered cards to place their markers – though their opportunities are constrained by the cards they have available (much as in 5ive Straight). First to get five markers in a row wins. It comes with rules in Dutch, English, French and German. You can also play the game online at Board Game Arena.

For 2-4 players, aged 8+, 10 minutes playing time. I have one copy that's still in shrink-wrap, though the lid is bowed in: £10.00 (£8.33 outside the EU).
 

Dark Minions (Al Newman)

A game that gives players a chance to be the bad guys. Their job is to sack cities and to do a better job than any other Overlord. To win, they need to beef up their horde, both in terms of quality and quantity (some necromancy required), and become the most effective pillager.

For 3-5 players, aged 10+, playing time 60 minutes, published by Z-Man. I have acquired a few new copies as a special purchase: £15.00 (£12.50 outseide the EU)
 

Disorder(Frank DiLorenzo)

An entertaining word game with an element of bluff: players add letters to those available on the table. Sooner or later, one of them will challenge the previous player to make a word from these letters. So, do you add another letter or call it?

For 2+ players, aged 10+, 40 minutes playing time. I have one copy (of the second edition) still in shrink-wrap: £12.00 (£10.00 outside the EU).
 

F3: For Fame & Fortune (Terence Lei, Mark Tham, Ng Edwin)

Odd little card game of card-drafting that seems to be aimed at Poker players. Players try to get the best hand by drawing cards and/or using cards on the table.

I have one copy that has been opened, but not played, though the box is looking a bit battered: £4.00 (£3.33 outside the EU)
 

Gold Train (John Bohrer)

A game of exploration, railway building and mining in the Wild West. Players explore the face-down terrain tiles and recruit workers to build rail lines that bring coal and ore from the mines they discover. Outlaw gangs can get in the way, though.

For 2-6 players, aged 12+, 2 hours playing time. I have an untouched copy in its plastic case, though the front page has faded a bit: £25.00 (£20.83 outside the EU).
 

Habitat (Elliot Hogg)

The habitat in question is a temperate forest where players compete to be first to construct a complete food chain from top predator down to plants. As well as cards representing the different niches within the ecosystem, event cards provide additional challenges for players.

For 2-6 players, aged 8+, 30 minutes to play. I have one secondhand copy of the first edition in good condition (there's a little wear and dent on the box, which has also faded from the original green): £5.00 (£4.17 outside the EU)
 

Halloscreem!

Family fun with a frisson in this horror-themed whodunit board game. It's entertaining stuff with an option to make it even more fun: allocate the rooms of your house as the rooms of the castle, turn out the lights and play 'The Scary Music' CD...

For 2-6 players, aged 8+, 45 minutes playing time. I have a secondhand copy in good condition: there's a little wear on the corners of the box: £20.00 (£16.67 outside the EU).
 

Interstellar Mayhem (Alexander Ommer and Dirk Pullem)

A well produced tactical space battle game with sme great models. It's set in an asteroid field, so players have plenty of rocks (real stones!) to dodge as well as the other players. It plays quickly, too, with the aim being to destroy three ships: players start with a new one every time they're blown up. It comes with rules in English and German.

For 2-6 players, aged 12+, 30 minutes playing time. I have one copy still in shrink-wrap: £30.00 (£25.00 outside the EU).
 

League of Six (Vladimír Suchý)

Challenging game with a clever auction mechanism at its heart. It's played over six rounds with players collecting taxes (!) from the six cities of the title. Key to winning the game is getting the right 'Civic Leaders' for the bonus points they bring.

For 3-5 players, aged 12+, 60 minutes playing time. I have one secondhand copy in good condition (there's slight wear on the corners and the lid and base of the box are bowed in): £6.00 (£5.00 outside the EU).
 

Media Mogul (Richard Huzzey)

This game got some bad press when it appeared, but it does offer an interesting challenge as players compete to expand into different media and across the continents. It plays more quickly than you expect, so there's real pressure to maximise your network before the game ends.

For 3-5 players, aged 8+, 90 minutes playing time. I have one secondhand copy in good condition (the base is a bit grubby and there's some wear on the box corners): £7.50 (£6.25 outside the EU).
 

Meltdown 2020 (Corné van Moorsel)

An intriguing game with the odd theme of nuclear disaster (but only 2 ages of rules!). Players are trying to rescue their people (meeples) distributed across the game's hexagonal spaces before these succumb to radiation poisoning from malfunctioning reactors. They have three vehicles of limited range and capacity, so careful planning is needed, but the reactors are unpredictable!

For 1-5 players, aged 8+, 40 minutes playing time. I have one secondhand copy in excellent condition (there's a little wear on the box corners): £15.00 (£12.50 outside the EU).
 

Roundhouse Kick (Aigar Alaveer)

Entertaining cards and dice game of beating up monsters. Except the monsters will keep fighting back! It includes some lovely heart-shaped pieces as 'life tokens'.

For 1-4 players, aged 8+, takes 30 minutes to play. I have one secondhand copy in excellent condition (there's a little wear on the box): £7.50 (£6.25 outside the EU)
 

Switch: Secrets of the Temple (Dean Tan)

This is billed as an "adventure board game". Or a dungeon bash, as I'd call it. Set in 16th century Japan, the players are heroes seeking to uncover the secrets of a mysterious castle keep. Apart from battling monsters and finding treasures, players can move rooms around and otherwise thwart their competitors.

For 2-6 players, aged 8+, 45 minutes playing time. I have a secondhand copy in very good condition: there's a little wear on the corners of the box, but it's unplayed and the pieces remain unpunched. It includes the 1.2 rules and some extra cards and characters: £20.00 (£16.67 outside the EU).
 

Target Earth (Jacobo Cagigal)

The aliens are coming! The players represent nations on planet Earth fighting back against an invasion from outer space. The game can be played on a co-operative basis, with the players working as a team. Or they can score points according to their own hidden agenda, allowing them to win on their own – assuming the aliens are defeated, of course.

For 1-4 players, aged 12+, 90-120 minutes playing time. I have one copy that's still in shrink-wrap: £25.00 (£20.83 outside the EU).
 

TieBreaker (Ted Alspach)

One of Ted's really clever ideas: a way of resolving a tied game. And it's dead simple: just draw a card and the first player to complete its instructions (fling a card furthest) breaks the tie. Brilliant!

For 2+ players, aged 13+, takes 30 seconds. I have one copy in shrinkwrap: £8.00 (£6.67 outside the EU)
 

Velo City (Kevin G Nunn)

This is an entertaining, lightweight race game of competing bicycle couriers – fuelled by energy drinks. Players have some interesting decisions to make on whether to roll one die and move their own rider or roll several and move a group. See Pevans's review of Velo City (PDF 1 Mb) from 2010.

For 3-7 players, aged 8+, 45 minutes playing time. I have a secondhand copy in very good condition (there's a little wear on the corners of the box): £12.00 (£10.00 outside the EU).