Tile Placement

Game description from the publisher:

Build a pirate empire in the uncharted Plunder Islands of the Cairribbi— er, Carebbe— er, near the Gulf of Mexico! Seize your destiny of buccaneerrific awesomeness, and gather hordes of pirates, hoards of doubloons, ever greater infamy, and (of course) ever more treasure!

Dark Seas is a dicey island-building game. Each player plots out his own plundering route, filling its ports with docks, hideouts, and shady sea-faring characters. Players sail their ships around their islands, building their reputation by recruiting pirates, gathering doubloons, and acquiring treasure and infamy. Whoever amasses the greatest reputation wins!

Game description from the publisher:

Earn precious diamonds by outwitting your opponents and matching up your dominoes over key areas of the game board. Accumulate extra earnings by playing dominoes that match your pawn's placement on the scoring track. Double Double Dominoes is a new spin on a classic game; it's where dominoes and a classic style board game come together to provide hours of family entertainment.

Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, Samurai is set in medieval Japan. Players compete to gain the favor of three factions: samurai, peasants, and priests, which are represented by helmet, rice paddy, and Buddha tokens scattered about the board, which features the islands of Japan. The competition is waged through the use of hexagonal tiles, each of which help curry favor of one of the three factions — or all three at once! Players can make lightning-quick strikes with horseback ronin and ships or approach their conquests more methodically. As each token (helmets, rice paddies, and Buddhas) is surrounded, it is awarded to the player who has gained the most favor with the corresponding group.

Gameplay continues until all the symbols of one type have been removed from the board or four tokens have been removed from play due to a tie for influence.

At the end of the game, players compare captured symbols of each type, competing for majorities in each of the three types. Ties are not uncommon and are broken based on the number of other, "non-majority" symbols each player has collected.

Players must form words on an 8x8 (or in the newer editions 10x10) grid. The words may be formed horizontally or vertically on the grid, as in Scrabble, but as the title suggests the letters may also be stacked, so that words can be changed by having letters substituted by stacking (up to a limit of 5 high). Scoring is also different to Scrabble; there are no letter values; instead, when a new word is formed, the number of tiles used in that word is counted and used as the score. A word that is flat (no stacked tiles) scores double, but the words that score the most are those that have lots of stacking.

Some editions come with number tiles to solve (included) Sudoku puzzles.

Also known as Scrabble Upwords.

Upwords Deluxe has an 11 x 11 rotating grid, 121 tiles and 28 challenge tiles, and electronic timer.

It is the early 1800s, a time of immense construction and urbanization. You are a world-renowned master city planner who has been asked to redesign two different cities. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with a partner with whom to discuss and execute your grandiose plans. Will your planning and collaborative skills be enough to design the most impressive city in the world?

Between Two Cities is a partnership-driven tile-drafting game in which each tile represents part of a city: factory, shop, park, landmarks, etc. You work with the player on your left to design the heart of one city, and with the player on your right to design the heart of another city. On each turn you select two tiles from hand, reveal them, then work with your partners separately to place one of those tiles into each of your two cities before passing the remaining hand of tiles around the table.

At the end of the game, each city is scored for its livability. Your final score is the lower of the livability scores of the two cities you helped design. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion between two cities. The player with the highest final score wins the game.

The game features play for 3-7 players in 20-25 minutes, a 2-player variant for head-to-head competition as well as a solo variant (Automa).