Square One is an engine-building strategy game, similar to its predecessor Project L. Its easy-to-learn yet hard-to-master mechanics offer high replayability for the whole family.
In Square One is players match tiles with patterns to pattern cards on the board. Build more patterns and make more combos to earn points. The person who completes all their patterns first, wins the game.
—description from the publisher
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.
On land, on sea, in clouds, and even in space, battles are breaking out between toys. Your troops need your tactical talent to lead them to victory. Your mission? Be the first to reach the enemy headquarters or control more territories than your opponent.
On your turn in Toy Battle, you either draw two toy troops or place a troop on the board and apply its effect. When you place a troop, you can place it on an empty base, a base that you control, a base that the enemy controls with a lower-valued troop than the one you're placing, or the enemy's headquarters; however, in all cases you must place on a location that has a continuous path to your own headquarters through bases that you occupy, that is, that have your troop on top. If you occupy bases that form a continuous path around a region, you claim the medals within this region. (You don't lose these medals if the enemy later occupies one of these bases.)
The game ends as soon as you occupy your opponent's headquarters or win the required number of medals based on the current game board. If a player cannot draw or place a troop, the game ends, and whoever has the most medals wins.
—description from the publisher
NOTE: Pantheon Edition includes all material from the Golden Fleece expansion, as well as every promo card and many new cards. A lot of cards are revamped, reworked and rebalanced.
Santorini is an accessible strategy game, simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore, The rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:
1. Move - Move one of your builders onto an unoccupied neighboring space that is a similar level, up one level, or down any number of levels.
2. Build - 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 one of your builders moves from a lower level to the third level, you win. Or, if your opponent cannot move, you win.
Variable player powers - Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game, with many thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.
Sir Ocelot and Professor Penguin are exploring a newly discovered cave system and competing for precious gemstones found inside. To locate and collect gemstones, players use tools — compasses, lamps, and pickaxes — and their trusty companion's good instincts. Gemstones, geodes, celestites — the deeper the rivals go into the cave, the more valuable the treasures to be found!
To set up Sir Ocelot's Cave, place the amethyst tokens for each of the three cave levels into their appropriate bag, then randomly place the level 1, 2, and 3 cave tokens on the empty spaces in the appropriate levels. Each player starts with a companion and a set of fifteen double-sided tool tokens that have different tools on opposite sides.
Each turn, place one of your tokens — either tool or companion — on the game board. After placing a tool or your companion, check to see whether any cave token is "seen" on three different sides by all three tool types. If so, you claim that token by removing it from the board. If you collect a geode or a complete set of celestites, you draw a random amethyst tile from the bag matching the appropriate level. Each amethyst has a fixed value or scores based on the cave tokens you collect or the cave tokens left behind.
Once both players have taken sixteen turns and placed all of their tokens, the game ends, and whoever has the more valuable collection of gemstones wins.