Abstract Strategy

Patchwork Express features the same basic gameplay as Patchwork, but with a smaller playing area and with larger and less complex pieces.

In the game, each player tries to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt on a personal 7x7 game board. To start play, lay out all of the light-colored patches at random in a circle and place a starting marker in a particular location. Each player takes some buttons — the currency/points in the game — and someone is chosen as the start player.

On a turn, a player either purchases one of the three patches standing clockwise of the starting marker or passes. To purchase a patch, you pay the cost in buttons shown on the patch, move the starting marker to that patch's location in the circle, add the patch to your game board, then advance your time token on the time track a number of spaces equal to the time shown on the patch. You're free to place the patch anywhere on your board that doesn't overlap other patches, but you probably want to fit things together as tightly as possible. If your time token is behind or on top of the other player's time token, then you take another turn; otherwise the opponent now goes. Instead of purchasing a patch, you can choose to pass; to do this, you move your time token to the space immediately in front of the opponent's time token, then take one button from the bank for each space you moved.

In addition to a button cost and time cost, each patch also features 0-3 buttons, and when you move your time token past a button on the time track, you earn "button income": sum the number of buttons depicted on your personal game board, then take this many buttons from the bank.

What's more, the time track depicts six 1x1 patches on it, and during set-up you place six actual 1x1 patches on these spaces. Whoever first passes a patch on the time track claims this patch and immediately places it on their game board.

At some point during the game, dark-colored patches are added to what's available for players to take, and these pieces are smaller than the light-colored ones, making it more likely that they'll fill in holes on a player's board.

Blue Lagoon is an area control and set collection game in which players manage a group of settlers spreading out over the islands of a newly discovered archipelago.

The game is played over two phases (the exploration phase followed by the settlement phase). Over the course of both phases, you will expand your presence on the board by adding one new token each turn (either a settler or a village token). The goal is to collect the resources scattered over the map by placing your tokens on top of them. In the first phase, you can place a new token anywhere you like, as long as it is touching either the lagoon OR one of your previously played tokens. In the second phase, the board is cleared, except for the villages, and now you can only expand from the villages you played in the first phase! At the end of both phases, players score points for the sets of resources they collected. Most points wins.

Game description from the publisher:

Seize your friends' pawns in this delightful game of capture with two unique ways to play! "Brainy" Got'Em! offers the strategic challenge of outsmarting and cornering your opponents with deliberately placed walls, while the tricky yet fun-for-all-ages "Bright" Got'Em! has the same goal of trapping your opponents, plus colorful surprises that will keep you on your toes!

From the Box:
Corner Your Friends!

Trap their pawns in one of two delightful games of escape and capture. In Bright Got 'Em you outsmart and corner your opponents through savvy card play, sly movement, and clever placement of blocking walls. In the still-casual, but even-trickier Brainy Got 'Em! you toss aside card actions in favor of a purely strategic challenge.

Both games share the same goal, the same exciting intrigue, and the same social fun.
Place walls to trap your opponents' pawns before they trap yours!

Surround yourself with friends and family. Get ready to enjoy mroe fun than any four walls could ever contain! It's time you Got 'Em!
Play Summary:
The goal: trap your opponents' pawns before they trap yours. Last pawn free wins!

Bright Got 'Em! (use colored side of the board)
In Bright Got 'Em!, each player starts with 3 cards and pawn. Place your pawn on the same-colored start square (one of the four squares at the corners of the board's center square). The player who's birthday is closest, goes first.

On your turn you will play a card, following each rule in the order they appear. Most cards have 2 instructions. The first tells you where you can place a wall and the second how many square you can move your pawn.

Wall Placement Rules:
Walls can only be placed along one edge of a square, between two squares.
When a player's pawn is trapped by walls in a single square, that player is eliminated from the game. The edge of the board counts as a wall.
There are a few cards that allow you to remove a wall or pass through a wall. However, you have to play these cards before your pawn is trapped!
Once your pawn is trapped in a single square, you're out and your pawn is removed from the board.
When you trap another player's pawn, thus eliminating him from the game, you may remove any 1 wall from the board.

Moving Your Pawn
Most cards allow you to move your pawn up to a specific number of squares.
You can't move through walls, unless you play a card that allows it.
You can't move through a square occupied by another pawn.
You may only move orthogonally, never diagonally.
You can stay where you are.
You don't have to move the exact number of squares listed on the card. You can move fewer squares if you want.
You can move zig zag, first in one direction, then in another, just not diagonally up to the number of squares specified on the card you played.

After placing a wall and moving (or not), discard the card you played and draw another. (You should always have 3 cards in your hand.) Play passes to the player on your left.

The last player to have a pawn on the board wins!

Brainy Got 'Em! (use white side of board)
You don't need any cards for this version. The goal is the same: trap your opponents' pawns while illuding capture yourself.

On your turn, place a wall anywhere on the board, then move your pawn.
The number of squares you can move your pawn is equal to 1 plus the number of walls on your square. You may place a wall on the square your pawn occupies to increase your pawn's movement on the same turn.

All other rules are the same as Bright Got 'Em!

Contents: 1 double-sided game board (Bright Got 'Em! on one side, Brainy Got 'Em! on the other), 84 wall pieces, 55 Got 'Em! cards, 4 pawns, game rules.

Zendo is a game of inductive logic in which one player, the Master, creates a rule that the rest of the players, as Students, try to figure out by building and studying configurations of the game pieces. The first student to correctly guess the rule wins.

Inspired by Eleusis, Zendo uses Looney Pyramids but was released as a standalone game in July 2003. In 2017, a version of Zendo was released that had only one size of pyramid but added blocks and wedges. It also includes an optional system of cards for generating the Master's rule, useful for novice players who are not yet comfortable making their own rules.

Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they've placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player's score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.