Tile Placement

Reef Encounter is about life on a coral reef! Using polyp tiles, players grow different types of corals, which they can protect from being attacked by other corals through judicious placing of their four shrimp counters. To be successful players must consume polyps from neighboring corals in order to acquire the 'consumed' polyp tiles that are the key to the game. The consumed polyp tiles have a myriad of uses (and have a similar effect to the action points in games like Tikal and Java). Most importantly they can be used to flip over or lock the coral tiles, which determine the respective values of the different types of coral at the end of the game.

Description from the designer, Richard Breese.

Expanded by:

Reef Encounter of the Second Kind

Although referred to as a sequel to El Grande, El Caballero shares few aspects with its namesake, being a fun but intense brain-burner in which players explore and attempt to control the lands and waterways of the New World.

The players are following Columbus by exploring the islands he discovered. Players slowly explore the islands – by picking and placing land tiles that are most favorable to them – and discover wealth in the form of gold and fish. As they learn about the land and sea areas of this new land, they position their caballeros to try to maintain control of the important regions. Castillos give them a measure of protection from others, and ships allow them to establish trade and to fish for food. Success is measured in the size of land and sea areas they control. Their success is measured twice, and in the end these scores are summed and the winner declared.

Mexica plots the development of the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in lake Texcoco. Players attempt to partition it into districts, place buildings, and construct canals.

Districts are formed by completely surrounding areas of the island with water and then placing a District marker. The player who founds a district scores points immediately.

Canals and Lake Texcoco act as a quick method of moving throughout the city. Players erect bridges and move from one bridge to the next, which costs 1 action point regardless of the distance. They must also erect buildings. This costs action points, the exact number being dependent upon the building's size.

In the scoring phases of the game, players score points (El Grande style) based upon their dominance in a District. In the 4 player game, players with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd most buildings score decreasing numbers of points.

Only districts are scored in the first scoring round.

In the second scoring round at the end of the game, all land areas are scored, not just districts.

The player with the most points wins.

Mexica is the third game in the Mask Trilogy.

Similar to Streetcar, Tsuro, Tantrix and Spaghetti Junction, this game has players putting square tiles onto the board to form rail lines. The major difference in this game, however, is that players are not striving to make short, direct routes like those sought in Streetcar. Instead, the object of the game is to make the rail lines as long as possible. Players start with a number of trains ringing the board. Whenever a tile placement connects a train to a station (either on the edge or the center of the board), that train is removed and the player scores one point for each tile that the route crosses, which can cause one tile to score multiple times if the track loops around. However, players score double for city connections, which are the stations in the center of the board.

The game was originally issued as Iron Horse (not to be confused with Iron Horse).

Re-implemented by:

Cable Car

Hacienda has players competing for space on the South American pampas, aiming to bring their livestock to the most markets. You get three actions a turn to buy cards which then let you lay tiles to control land and herds, or you may buy extras, such as waterholes or the haciendas of the title to get bonus points.

The game has two card decks, one showing the different land types on the hex map, the other the different animals (pigs, cows, horses and sheep). Some cards are laid face up and you pay 3 pesos to buy the ones you want, or 2 pesos for an unknown card from the draw deck. You spend the cards to put your markers on land and to place your animal tokens on the board. Animals of a type go together to make a herd naturally, and each time a herd touches a market town on the board, you earn money for the size of herd and land attached. With careful hand and herd management, you can make good cash gains and also block your opponents. You need the money to buy more cards of course. 12 pesos also buys waterholes you can place next to your herds, or haciendas to go on your land or herds. If you run short of money, you can call a harvest and get cash off your land.

But the game is not about money. You score victory points halfway through the game and at the end. The more markets you are serving, the more points you get. The herds and the land get you points. The water and haciendas get you bonus points as well, which can be crucial to your success.

It should be noted, the game board has two sides: a symmetrical dog-bone shape of land types (appears in most of the photos), and a "random" more varied pattern of land types.