pattern building

DaVinci's Mancala is an intelligent adaption of DaVinci's Challenge to classic mancala. Probably the first mancala with tile placement and pattern building. Subtle strategies guarantee an excellent challenge.

Inspired by ancient art, Tesserae combines elements of dominoes and jigsaw puzzles to form a game of shapes and patterns. Since it doesn't rely on a square grid, tiles will fit together in interesting and surprising ways. The basic game provides a good blend of strategy and luck, while advanced rules allow for either pure skill games, or ones where luck is more of a factor. Suitable for solitaire, one to five individual players, and several combinations of teams.

The game of Tesserae pits players against one another, meshing colored tiles into the ever-evolving play field, each trying to exhaust their supply of tiles while preventing their opponents from doing the same. Skillful strategy can pay off, but be careful -- things can change on the luck of a draw! This is a game that will stretch your brain.

The game consists of 12 different pieces constructed of right angled blocks so each piece is made of 5 "squares". (Think Tetris pieces, but 5 squares instead of 4.)

An old version of the game had only 10 pieces; the completely straight 5 square and the 5 square "plus sign" were not included. Both versions also have a bunch of "filler" pieces of 1 or 2 squares.

The gameboard is constructed with a movable divider so one can take sets of 4 up to the whole set of 12 pieces and form them into a 5 block by X rectangle. (Where X = the number of wood blocks in your set.)

The two or three player strategy game is accomplished on a square board divided into 64 smaller squares. Players take turns to place a piece on the gameboard. The first player who cannot place a piece anymore loses. (Similar to Blokus)

The two player puzzle game mode is accomplished by dividing the board into two sections, each player chooses five blocks and are also given 4 small "filler" blocks of 1 and 2 squares. The first one to fit all their blocks perfectly into their half of the rectangle board, wins.

An abstract strategy game for 2 players with four 3×3 grids arranged into a larger 6×6 grid. This game re-implements the well known "connect 4" with a twist: after placing a marble of his colour, the player has to twist one of the grids by 90°, so changing the board after every turn. The first player to get 5 in a row wins.

The second game from Fragor Games, featuring a flock of sheep and their attempts to be in the right place at the right time. Much gambolling, some tupping, lots of shearing.

Publisher Blurb:

"'The Best Game Ewe Ever Herd!'

Ah, do ewe long for the life of a sheep? Bright summer days filled with games of tag and attempts to flock closer to Roger, the Heartthrob Ram? But, Watch Out! The shearer wants to drag you away from all the fun and games!

In Shear Panic, ewe maneuver your ewes to score points, playing tag, standing close to Roger, or trying to avoid the shearing scissors! Will your brave sheep score the most points, or will it be "Off with the wool" for ewe?"

The game includes eleven small figurines (which are somewhat fragile): Two each of four different colors, one black, one 'Roger', and one 'Shearer'. Also included are four player mats in different colors; a timing/scoring mat; 48 mutton buttons in four colors; four scoring markers; one flock marker; and two special six-sided dice.

There are two separate play areas: The one where the flock of sheep figurines are clustered; and the combination timing/scoring mat. (The timing mat is two-sided for 3 or 4 players.) Actions by the players each turn cause the timing marker to move faster or slower through each of the four fields, and the scoring is different in each field.

Field 1 is Team Tag. Players score higher for keeping their sheep closer together. Field 2 is Roger’s Field, where players score more the closer they are to Roger (the ram). Field 3 is Black Sheep Tag, and players score higher the closer they are to the black sheep. Field 4 is the Shear Panic Field, and the row of sheep closest to the shearer figure are eliminated each turn, while the remainder are scored individually. The timing marker indicates which Field the sheep are currently “in”.

Players have a total of twelve actions they may take during the course of the game, and as each one is used, a “mutton button” is placed over it, eliminating it from future use. Also, the more powerful the action, the farther (faster) the timing marker will move. If the timing marker lands on a red spot, the active player executes a free “lamb slam” by rolling the Panic Die and moving a sheep of the color rolled one space in any direction. If the Panic Die rolls white, the entire flock does a “ewe turn” ninety degrees in a direction of the active player’s choice.

Since all the player mats are visible to everyone, players need to keep an eye on what moves are still available to their opponents.

The game is intended for three or four players, but rules for a two-player variant are included.

Starting player is the person who most recently was sheared (had their hair cut).