City Building

Tournay

Game description from the publisher:

Built by the Romans during the first century in Belgian Gaul, Tournay experienced most of its growth along the Scheldt river. Unfortunately, the river also contributed to its troubles, because in 881, the Normans traversed its watery path, and thereby easily captured the city. That act of aggression stunted Tournay's prosperity. This game invites you to participate in the reconstruction of the city, in order to establish a glorious era that will last for more than seven centuries. Help your district flourish by cleverly coordinating the work of the city's three domains: military, religious, and civil. Certainly the prestige of your buildings will brighten the entire city!

Tournay is a card game from the same designing team as the 2010 release Troyes with artwork once again by Alexandre Roche. In this game, players manage a district of the city and its three classes of citizens. The cards are classified by level (I to III) and color to form nine distinct decks. Players initially have two citizens in each class that they will use each turn to carry out one of five available actions, such as drawing cards, or using the powers of their buildings.

In each player's district, the building cards save them money, make more efficient use of the decks of cards, or recruit new citizens. The character cards optimize the use of buildings if properly positioned. It's up to you to create the most effective card combinations. Finally, constructed prestige buildings will give you valuable prestige points, depending on how your district has developed. But beware: Your opponents will also benefit from every prestige building you build!

Note that an expansion is included in the base game's box, so advanced players can add still more replay value to this dynamic game!

Game Summary
There are 3 sets of cards (yellow, red, white) in 3 groups (I, II, III); also, a set of black event cards. There are always 3 face-up event cards, most of which are bad. Players start with 2 meeples in 3 colors (yellow, red, white), placed on their Plaza card.

On your turn:

First, you may play a card from hand to your display (3x3 grid) by paying the appropriate cost (some combination of coins, meeples, cards, etc). You may play a card on top of another of the same color; if played on top of a different color, discard the older card.
Then take one action:
Draw a card; move 1-3 meeples off the Plaza to draw a level I-III card; you may pay others 2 coins to use their worker(s). If you draw the event card of that deck, place a coin on each event card, then trigger all event cards once per coin.
Activate a building card by moving a meeple from your Plaza to the building card (max 1 Meeple/building); cards do a variety of things like give you coins, recruit an additional meeple, use someone else's card, etc.
Combat an event by paying the cost (usually 1 Meeple, 1 coin, +1/coin on the card; or, 2 meeples) shown; take the card as a reward. Later, when events trigger, you may play this from hand to prevent an event from affecting you.
Reactivate all workers: return all meeples to your Plaza, and remove all markers from building cards.

The game ends at the start of the Start Player's turn if 2+ players have all 9 cards in their display; OR if only 1 player has, but at least n-1 Town Crier cards have been revealed. Everyone then gets to play one final card (paying normal costs). Earn VPs for all cards in display, and for all Event cards you've combated. Most VP wins!

Hadara

Hadara carries you off into the world of cultures and countries of this earth. Over three epochs, you will experience the transformation of your new world from a small settlement to a high culture. You want to populate this world with people who come from different cultures and continents as well as different ages. To bring glory and honor to your world, you should choose the persons and accomplishments skillfully. But you should not ignore agriculture, culture, and military power, otherwise one of your competitors might get bigger and more successful than you. Who will succeed first in creating a new flourishing high culture?

—description from the publisher

•••

Hadara entführt dich in die Welt der Kulturen und Länder dieser Erde.

Über 3 Epochen hinweg erlebst du die Verwandlung deiner neuen Welt von einer kleinen Siedlung zu einer Hochkultur.
Du willst diese Welt mit Personen besiedeln, die dabei aus verschiedenen Kulturkreisen, Kontinenten aber auch Zeitaltern stammen.
Um deiner Welt zu viel Ruhm und Ehre zu verhelfen, solltest du die Personen und Errungenschaften geschickt aussuchen. Dabei solltest du aber die Landwirtschaft, die Kultur und die militärische Macht nicht außer Acht lassen, sonst kann es passieren, dass einer deiner Mitkonkurrenten größer und erfolgreicher wird. Wem gelingt es zuerst, eine neue blühende Hochkultur zu erschaffen?
—description from the publisher (German)

Imagineers

Welcome to your amusement park! It's not much now, but just give it time! Soon the gates will open, and eager guests will rush in to ride the latest rides! It's up to you and your fellow imaginative engineers to build a magically fun place that people will love — competing with them to make a name for yourself as the most famous park designer in the world! From your humble beginnings, you will fill the park with the best attractions, manage your staff, cleverly construct a thrilling roller coaster, and prove that you are the best Imagineer!

Over the course of several rounds in Imagineers, you must skillfully guide your guests around the park, earning money to build new attractions, which leads to happiness, which earns you fame! Careful choices about which rides to build — and when to upgrade your showcase roller coaster — will ultimately decide your success! The Imagineer who amasses the most fame wins!

Walls of York

The city of York is being built. Many buildings have already been completed, but without a protective outer wall to defend against the Viking raids, the city is bound to be pillaged and destroyed. The king has summoned his best architects to design new defensive walls for the city, but only one design will be used. That architect will be hailed as the greatest architect in all the land.

In Walls of York, players must use the plastic wall pieces to construct a defensive barrier around the buildings on their city map. Each turn, a player rolls the building die, that dictates which types of walls are to be used. The players must enclose their city, including the required buildings from the King's decree — but players must beware for the Vikings will come and lay waste at the end of the first age, forcing players to build their walls anew in the second age. The player with the most coins at the end of the second age wins.

The Great City of Rome

To rebuild the Eternal City, the Roman Emperor summoned the most talented builders of antiquity. Each of them is trying to draft the best city — but talent is not enough. Only those who know how to please the Emperor, cleverly exert their influence, and invest at the right time will succeed in City of Rome.

In more detail, the game lasts fourteen rounds, and in each round, players draft one of the building cards in play and add it to their hand. The drafting order depends on how closely you stand to the emperor. At the start of a round, you reveal a new "action strip" that has three bricks and two cogs in some order, then players take turns placing their figure on one of these five spaces; the closer you are to the emperor, the earlier you draft, but the fewer resources (bricks and cogs) you receive. (With only two players in the game, each player places two figures on the action strip and takes two complete turns each round.)

After drafting, you can take one build action and one produce action. To build, you must pay the cost in bricks — paying two coins for each missing brick — then place the card you're building adjacent to another card of yours already in play. You start with two building cards in play, so you'll have at most sixteen cards at game's end. These cards must fit in a 4x4 square, so plan carefully since you'll want to place some buildings next to other ones to earn the most points and to get the most out of a produce action. Some buildings give you a special action or influence tokens when you build them.

To produce, you must have two cogs — paying one coin for each missing cog — then use the production action of each building in your city once.

Every few rounds, an influence card is revealed, and whoever has the most influence tokens at the end of that round collects the card, then discards their tokens.

At the end of fourteen rounds, players score points for their residential buildings, temples, aqueducts, coins, and influence cards and tokens. whoever has the most points wins!