Tile Placement

The Lords of Vegas 6-player base set is a new printing of the classic board game, expanded to support 2-6 players and including modernized graphic designs, plus all of the components from the Up! expansion.

In Lords of Vegas you start out with empty lots, build small casinos, and expand them as your bankroll grows. Your rivals can build next door, and they just might take you over with a clever paint job or a lucky roll of the dice. Buy, sell, trade, and gamble your way to the top as you build your empire along the storied Strip. Channel your inner casino mogul and build your piece of Paradise!

This new edition from the creators of the game features redesigned money, cards, tray, and more. All the rules and components are functionally the same as the classic edition, just with a fresh coat of paint in some cases. The new Lords of Vegas includes updated components and the 5 & 6-player expansion Up!, which lets players build their casinos in three dimensions, adding new stories as their towers compete for control of the sky. Here are some improvements in the new edition.

-Plays with 2-6 players.
-Contains 72 dice!
-Risers and the raise rule are included, at any player count.
-Streamlined property cards work seamlessly with Vegas, as well as the expansion boards for Americana.
-More reference cards with turn orders, replacing the less useful House and Player cards.
-Turn order has been streamlined based on years of player feedback.

Butterfly Garden, first released as Indigo, is a tile-laying game along the lines of Metro, Tsuro, and Linie 1 in which players build paths bit by bit, with no player owning the individual paths and everyone trying to exploit the paths already present. Unlike those earlier games, however, your goal is to move butterflies from their starting locations on the board to your designated flowerbeds, with the player who scores the most points winning the game.

To set up the game board, place the central fountain tile, then place five pink butterfly figures and one purple butterfly figure to it. Place six fountain tiles on their designated locations on the outer edge of the game board, then place a blue butterfly figure on each fountain tile. Each player places player tokens on flowerbeds between these butterfly tiles on the edge of the game board. Depending on the player count, each player places their player tokens on the designated flowerbeds.

On a turn, a player places a path tile on any space on the game board, with the only restriction being that a player cannot create a route directly from one flowerbed to another. Players always have two path tiles on hand. Each path tile has three route segments on it, connecting one pair of edges. If a player places a path tile next to a butterfly, that butterfly flies as far as possible along the path so that all players can see where to place path tiles to next move that butterfly (thus, players avoid the mental gymnastics required in Metro and Linie 1 in which nothing moves until a route is complete). When connecting to the central fountain tile, the pink butterflies move off first, with the purple butterfly moving only with the sixth connection.

If a player places a path tile so that one butterfly would fly into another, both butterflies fly away and are removed from the game!

When a butterfly is moved to a flowerbed owned by only one player, that player keeps the butterfly. If two players own the flowerbed, then both players collect a butterfly of that color, taking the extra butterfly needed from the reserve. Once all the butterflies have been claimed, the game ends, with players earning 3 points for a purple butterfly, 2 for a pink butterfly, and 1 for a blue butterfly. The player with the most points wins.

Diatoms is a puzzly tile-placement and pattern-making game where players create their own microscopic mosaic, based on an obscure Victorian art form.

Hidden in the water all around us are tiny lifeforms known as “diatoms.” These microscopic algae cells come in a variety of exquisite geometric shapes and patterns. Their outer layer is made with silica, giving them a glass-like quality. Here at the Society for the Microscopic Arts, we collect these diatoms and delicately arrange them on slides into beautiful, tiny mosaics. As part of your induction into the Society, you will each create your own entry for today’s Exhibition of Microscopic Mosaics.

In Diatoms, you compete with your fellow players to collect and place diatom shapes into a mosaic form. You take turns placing tiles representing algae colonies. From that placement you earn diatoms of different colors and shapes. You then strategically place these diatoms on your personal board, taking care to consider how your arrangement will be scored at the end of the game. In the base scoring, you'll want to achieve matching colors, shape variety, and symmetry along your mosaic's central lines. Each time you play, you may also have a "guest" judge card that brings a unique scoring criteria to the game.

Diatoms also includes a solo variant where you collect diatom tiles as in the main game while trying to create a mosaic that fulfills specific requirements from mosaic commission prompts.

—description from publisher

Lead an ancient China kingdom dreaming of imperial power, establish new states, build pagodas, strive for influence – and battle to unite the country under your glorious dynasty! HUANG is set in the Warring States period (475-221 BC), a time of endless wars between seven rival states: Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Wei, and Zhao.

HUANG is a 2 to 4 player game set in ancient China, during the time of the Warring States. You take control of one of the Warring States, battling to unite the country under your dynasty. Each player has five different leaders: Governor, Soldier, Farmer, Trader, and Artisan.

Clever placement of these leaders and their corresponding tiles on the board is key, allowing you to build pagodas to score points, trigger or avoid wars, and instigate peasant revolts that bring down your enemies. Play is fast and addictive, lasting around 90 minutes, with a very short teaching time reflecting the elegance of the ruleset.

Monopoly Scrabble combines elements of both Monopoly and Scrabble, with players using letter tiles to build words, then moving around the game board based on their score. Build a word on a premium space, and you immediately claim a property. Custom Community Chest and Chance cards keep things moving at a fast pace.

When the final letter tile has been played, whoever has the highest total of cash and property value wins.