Area Enclosure

You are a mapmaker, which means you make maps… and determine who wins elections.

You belong to a political party: Red Elephants, Blue Donkeys, Yellow Porcupines, or Green Leaves. Your only job? Make sure your party wins the next election. You get to redraw the districts. But so do the other mapmakers.

Everyone starts with the same number of voters, spread across counties. Players each place four district borders per turn. When a district gets closed off, whoever has the most voters inside claims it. At the end of the game, the entire board will be sectioned into districts. The party with the most districts wins. If there’s a tie, the party with the most swing counties wins.

You must scramble to draw the best lines first. Can you crack and pack voters? Can you scheme and strategize? Can you create unfair, lopsided, strangely shaped districts that will guarantee your party’s victory? Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game is fast to learn and fast to play. It’s full of surprises, maneuvers, and outmaneuvers. It’s a hands-on way to try out gerrymandering yourself.

-description from designer

Torres is an abstract game of resource management and tactical pawn movement. Players are attempting to build up castles and position their knights to score the most points each turn. Players have a limited supply of knights and action cards that allow special actions to be taken. Efficient use of pieces and cards, along with a thoughtful awareness of future possibilities, is the heart of this game.

Torres is considered by many to be an informal member of what is referred to as the Mask Trilogy.

As the head of an international archaeological team, it is your job to establish camps across the four corners of the globe and uncover the long-lost golden scarabs of Scarabya.

Scarabya is a tile-laying puzzle game, in which your goal is to score scarabs by positioning your tiles such that they create enclosed zones of 1 to 4 squares. Each scarab in an enclosed zone is worth a number of points equal to the number of squares in its zone. Players all play the same tiles, in order. Each turn, a new tile is drawn and all players simultaneously place their copy of the tile on their individual boards. The game is over after all 12 tiles have been drawn (and either placed or discarded). The player with the most points wins.

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.