Tile Placement

Foretold: Rise of a God

Foretold is a turn-based strategy game for 2-4 players. Play features Cards (Faithful, Fate Cards and Relics) and Tiles (Temple) acquired through a central Marketplace board. Games feature a period of economic build-up, preparation for combat, then Raiding and end-game. Players will align with one of four unique Fate Decks, boosting replay value and interaction. Craftiness, table politics and strategic play determine the winner.
Overview:
Players take on the role of an aspiring deity. They must build up a Temple, gather Faithful followers and collect powerful Relics in an attempt to wipe their opponents off the map – only one deity can reign eternal in this free-for-all of legendary proportions!

Play Time:
2 players (1-hour), 3 players (1.5 hours), 4 players (2-2.5 hours)

Basic Play:

Play follows a 4-step turn: Reveal (start), Marketplace (buy), Raid (combat), Reinforce (end).
The Tile Deck, Faithful Deck and Relic Deck feed into a central board called the Marketplace.
Players use Faithful (human followers) in their Temple to collect gold and defend in combat.
Faithful placed in the Raiding Party can attack opposing Temples during combat.
Relics (4 of which are aligned to each Fate) further increase strategic play and add variety.
Players will purchase Tiles from a randomized stack (the Tile Deck) to customize their Temple, which is then arranged strategically to increase hand-size and defenses.
The four fates are: Chaos, Grace, Prosperity and Wisdom, each tailored to a unique play-style.
Each Fate Deck has a powerful set of 20 different cards, in theme with each of the Fates.

Combat:
A Raiding Party ventures into an opposing Temple, encountering Defenders and Traps along a Tile path to the Heart of the Temple, where the opposing life force dwells. Combat is resolved through dice rolls, with Defense rolling first and combining its total. Faithful played from the Raiding Party must beat defending total or they are forced to retreat. If the Temple is conquered, damage is dealt through Smiting. When an opponent’s life hits zero (20 max), they are defeated. The last remaining player has achieved immortality!

Inhabit the Earth

Inhabit the Earth is a race game played on six continent boards. Players create their own menagerie of up to six creatures, each of which is represented by up to six cards, by using cards to introduce, multiply, evolve, and adapt their creatures. Each of the 162 unique cards identifies a creature's class, a continent and terrain that the creature inhabits, and a special or scoring ability.

Each class of creature is also represented by a counter, and the cards are also used to trigger the movement of the counters along the trails on the boards and by migrating, from one board to another. Breeding, achieved by flipping over a creature's counter, generates new cards. Movement facilitates further breeding and the chance to secure tokens for additional icons and point scoring.

At the end of the game, points are scored through abilities on the creature's cards, the position of the creatures' counters on the boards, and from tokens; the player with the most points wins. Rules for an introductory game for up to three players are included.

Arkadia

Arkadia is a game about building the city and castle of Arkadia.

Players use builders, cards, workers, and neutral workers to build houses in Arkadia. Houses are built with the seal of one of 4 families; this family gave the building order and will get the building player its seal.

These seals can be changed for victory points. But seals are subject to changing values. The growing castle (every time a house is built, players also build on the castle) has the 4 seals on it as well, which decides the value of each seal. The castle is also the game's timer: once the second layer is built, the last round starts. The player with the most gold wins.

Released: Essen 2006.

Steam Works

Inventors and tinkerers abound in the Victorian era, harnessing the power of clockwork, steam, and electricks to build machines capable of anything to give glory to Queen Victoria!

In the steampunk worker placement game Steam Works, you'll put your mechanics to work collecting components and power sources, then you'll literally build devices by assembling those sources and components. What's more, those devices in turn become action spaces for other players to use!

Each player takes on an inventor persona with unique starting components or special abilities accessible only to themselves. But the heart of the game is in assembling modular component tiles into a device for other players to use. Sources may provide one or more of the three power types — clockwork, steam, or Tesla-style electrickal power — to the components connected to them, which in turn provide a wide range of effects for gaining resources, prestige points, or more component tiles. Devices start simple with just two components (one source and one component), but devices with three, four or more components will become possible — as soon as the players assemble a device to let it be possible. Because of the modular mix-and-match nature of the components, the available action spaces vary widely from one game to the next, providing great replayability: each game players will create devices never seen before!

Santorini

Santorini is a non-abstract re-imagining of the 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been endlessly developed, enhanced and refined by mathematician and educator, Dr. Gordon Hamilton.

Santorini is a highly accessible pure strategy game that is simple enough for an elementary school classroom. But with enough gameplay depth and content for even hardcore gamers to explore, Santorini is truly a game for everyone. The rules are deceptively simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move - move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build - Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

Winning the game - If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Variable player powers - What makes Santorini truly special is its seamless integration of variable player powers into a pure-strategy game. Dr Hamilton has designed over 40 thematic god and hero powers, each fundamentally changing the way the game is played.