Spotlight on Games > Ludographies > Essen 2010
Essen 2010 Game by Game

Tile Placement Games

Basilica
Lukasz M. Pogoda; rebel.pl; 2; 45
Duel of master masons. Tile and pawn placement with majority control. Likely Carcassonne-derived. [more]

Twentieth Century
aka 20.Jahrhundert

Vladimír Suchý Czech Games Edition; 3-5; 75-120
Actually the heart of this game are thirty or so auctions; the tile placement is fairly obvious. Each player represents a country which begins as just a single tile smaller than one finds in Carcassonne, having no special powers per se, and tries to develop it so as to be economically healthy and yet free of garbage and pollution. But acquiring tiles generates garbage and unless you spend a lot of technology a turn you're probably going to gain more garbage and also some pollution. Tile placement is followed by occupation of the cities on the tile. Each occupied city generates one or more of money, technology or pollution reduction. Cities are connected by railroads and if you buy a locomotive you can relocate a citizen a turn to change your emphases. Besides the land tiles there are also technology tiles which are sort of like attachments because they only work when they attach to a working city of the same type. They do not take people of their own. Tiles are semi-programmed so as to get better and better, but costs are guaranteed to always increase as well. Includes 45 land tiles, 30 technology tiles and 5 personal tracking boards. The coolest bits are the gray translucent plastic cubes which, however, represent garbage. [more]

Two by Two
Rob Bartel; Valley Games; 2-4; 45
Floodwaters are rising so players move their boats around trying to find the most matched pairs of animals to put into their boats, except that rare animals will be worth more points than others. Animals start the game as face down tiles and get turned up only when the waters come adjacent to them, water spreading as a consequence of player placement of water tiles. Part of the reason players want to do this is that they get points for it, directly, and the more water tiles each new one touches, the more earned. On the other hand it might be more useful to place a water tile so as to reveal the largest number of animals. It is allowed to place water tiles on animals, which drowns them. [more]

Vicious Fishes
Tom Vasel; nestorgames; 2-6; 30
Tile placement of fish in "Johnson's pond", an 8x8 square grid. There are 54 fish tiles in six colors plus six two-colored fish and four rock tiles. There are also two mission tiles, each of which shows three colors. Racks are provided to store the five fish in each player's hand. Each player's mission, i.e. the colors he supports, is drawn and kept secretly. Fish attack when placed and are directional, most of them attacking out of the side having the mouth, but some like the crab attacking on either side and the octopus in all eight directions. Conflict is resolved by adding together all of the attack numbers bearing on a fish and subtracting its defense value. A won battle puts a fish bone tile in the loser's space and gets a point for the color of the last attacker. Also scoring are fish that are completely surrounded but nevertheless survive. At the end players add together the points of the two of their colors that performed best to discover their final score. [more]

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