Abstract Strategy

ALDR: The High Sage

Long before sages battled in the arena, Aldr, the first High Sage, mastered the elements and passed his teachings on to his students. However, even the most powerful cannot train every day. Aldr himself created this game of strategy to reinforce sharpen their minds and reinforce is hard-won lessons.

ALDR: The High Sage is a card game unlike any other. Tactically place drafted cards to build the four elemental patterns before your opponents can. Place your sages strategically to restrict the options of other players, and move Aldr himself to further thwart your opponents. Be the first to place your four sages and claim victory in this unique card game of area control.

Although ALDR: The High Sage is a standalone game, rules are included to use ALDR as an expansion to Element!

—description from the designer

Calico

Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats.
In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!

Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.

—description from the publisher

Iwari

Evermore have they walked the world of Iwari. Evermore have they embodied its spirit and shaped its lands. They are stewards of the earth. Five Titans that make the cosmos breath. On Iwari, there are no teeming masses, no continent-wide civilizations. Humanity is in its infancy, living in scattered tribes in forest, tundra, and desert.

Now we have left our ancestral homelands to explore the vast uncharted regions, encountering other fellow tribes and exchanging knowledge, culture and wisdom. In our journey, we all live in harmony with the Titans, and though distant to us, they decide our fate. And yet only we don't know if they created us, or we created them.

Iwari is an abstract-like Eurogame in which players represent different tribes looking for their identity by traveling around far lands and expanding their settlements into five different regions on the board. In the game, players use cards for two different actions:

1) Place tents and expand their settlements into five different regions on the board in a majority game that scores on each territory.
2) Construct nature totems to bond with the Titans by placing them on regions and score points based on the totem majorities in adjacent territories.

During the game, players can complete missions that grant small perks and score points by having the majority of tents in each territory after the end of the first card cycle. At game end, the majority of tents will be scored again, along with the majorities of nature totems in two adjacent regions and settlements that players have created (i.e., four or more tents in an uninterrupted sequence along one of the roads on the board).

Iwari reimagines the award-winning game Web of Power by Michael Schacht by adding new layers of strategy, tribe player boards, different maps with their own set of rules, modules that can be added to the game, and unique co-operative and solo modes.

Babylonia

The Neo-Babylonian empire, especially under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.), was a period of rebirth for southern Mesopotamia. Irrigation systems improved and expanded, increasing agricultural production. Urban life flourished with the creation of new cities, monuments and temples, and the consequent increase in trade.

In Babylonia, you try to make your clan prosper under the peace and imperial power of that era. You have to place your nobles, priests, and craftsmen tokens on the map to make your relations with the cities as profitable as possible. Properly placing these counters next to the court also allows you to gain the special power of some rulers. Finally, the good use of your peasants in the fertile areas gives more value to your crops. The player who gets the most points through all these actions wins.

—description from the publisher

LOTS: A Competitive Tower Building Game

The city is growing every day, with new buildings popping up on every vacant lot. You’ve been hired as a contractor to help develop a skyscraper that will reshape the city’s skyline. If you work hard and plan smart, you can earn the title of Master Builder and be immortalized as part of the city’s rich history.

LOTS is a 3 dimensional puzzle game for 1 to 4 players where contractors are competitively working to build the same tower on a vacant Lot. Players will have to use spatial recognition, color coordination, and just a hint of dexterity to score the most points before the games end.

—description from the designer