pattern building

"Gartenbau is a 2-4 player game in which players place and lay tiles in a tableau to meet the growing requirements of drafted flower tiles. A dual track rondel combined with three layers of tile laying are at the core of this beautiful game.

Take on the role of a gardener, seeking to wield your green thumb to grow a well-balanced, mature garden before the growing season ends.

You will sow seeds and grow a variety of plants to fill out your garden. In addition, if you meet the complex growing condition of your Flowers, you'll earn Prestige Points for your horticultural achievements.

The player who earns the most prestige at the end of the game is crowned The Master Gardener.

Gartenbau is set in the late 19th century and all of the artwork used in this game is vintage from that era. This game is dedicated to all of the unknown artists who created wonderful works for various seed and flower catalogs during that period, leaving their mark on a beautiful era for garden art."

In The Great British Baking Show Game, players take the role of bakers on the show and race each other to recreate the configuration of baking cards shown on the recipe cards. Players need to choose whether to move quickly at all costs, or whether to take more time to select the best flavors for their bake and avoid the dreaded "soggy" cards.

To capture the sportsmanship demonstrated when bakers step in to assist others, players can use "Help!" cards to select wild cards from the center of the table. A "Bin" token allows players to throw out elements of their bake once per round.

In Neotopia, a competitive fast paced tile placement pattern building game, you are part of a team of Visionaries who are building a futuristic pilot city focused on the fields of Energy, Technology, Community and Sustainable food.

You will be building elements on the three regions of the city in order to complete feature cards that you have in hand. A good combination of tile placement and card management can result in very impactful turns, where several cards are completed and the city expands. Interaction between players is important, because all players are building on the same board and can take advantage of what other players have built on their previous turns.

You will try to build the most harmonious city possible, because that will be vital for your score: in the end of the game you will score normally the regions where you have your two highest scores but you will triple the score of your lowest scoring region. So be aware! Even if it’s tempting to build on regions that are more developed and where you have already scored a lot points, if you don’t start working on the development of the other regions you will not be able to win the game. Balance is the key point on Neotopia, just like the type of future that the players are trying to build.

—description from the designer

Welcome to Forever Home, the puzzly pattern-building game about second chances for shelter dogs.

Using a combination of tile placement, set collection, and drafting, you and your friends take on the role of shelter workers. Take it in turns to bring dogs into your shelter, complete training cards, and match pups up with new families. You'll be competing for valuable shelter commendations, as well as gaining reputation for training and rehoming the dogs in your care. At the end of the game, the shelter worker with the most reputation wins!

Featuring quick and simple turns; a unique solo mode; and a second advanced side to the player board, Forever Home is a replayable, easy-to-love abstract game.

—description from the publisher

Autumn is coming to an end in the Savernake Forest… Help the animals gather and store food for the winter! Savernake forest is a game where 2-4 players build their own section of the forest with paths where animals and food will appear. To get the highest score, players must ensure that on each path the animals can collect their favorite food.

Foxes, hedgehogs, beavers, owls, rabbits, woodpeckers, wild cats... Up to 23 different types of animals live together in the Savernake Forest. At the end of autumn, they all prepare to spend the cold winter with enough provisions and here you are to give them a hand… Or a paw! To play Savernake Forest you have two decks of square cards, one showing the animals and the other with forest paths full of succulent food. Each player is randomly given an animal card, showing how many foods they can store and their preferences. For example, the fox loves eggs, but not berries or nuts. To get the best score, you must try to get each animal to collect its favorite foods.

During setup, three road cards and one animal card are laid out for all players to see. Each player, on his turn, will choose one of them and add it to his forest, always respecting three rules: there can never be two animals on the same path; cards must be adjacent and no cards can be placed outside of a 4x4 grid. The game ends when all participants have completed their forest, with a total of 16 cards.

Throughout the game, players will have the help of some animals, depending on the card they choose from the central market. The rooster will help you get up early, so you can be the first to choose a card in the next turn. The armadillo teaches you how to dig better shelters to store more food, so you can take a burrow token and add it to one of your animal cards to increase that animal's storage capacity by 1. The goat teaches you to hydrate yourself better, offering a water drop token that can be associated with a food and increase its value by 1. Finally, the rabbit helps you attract new animals to your forest.

For players looking for more advanced challenges, the rulebook includes a two-player variant with some modifications that increase the difficulty. Quite a boost if you already master the basic rules!

With a dreamy art, Savernake Forest offers a perfect balance between fun and strategy that makes it perfect for any type of playgroup. Family and friends will have a great time helping the animals of the forest, while trying to make the most of their paths to reach the highest score. Stroll through Savernake in the fall and be swept away by the enchantment of its wildlife!

—description from the publisher