City Building

Toward the end of the 6th century A.D., King Ethelbert of Kent established the old Roman city of Canterbury as his new capital. In Canterbury, 2 to 4 players represent Saxon Lords who are charged with building the city into a prosperous capital. The Saxon Lords must use the city's meager starting resources to build up the 25 districts of Canterbury and provide key services to its citizens.

The key services are (in order from most basic to most prestigious) water, food, religion, defense, commerce, and culture. As new structures are built in the city, the city grows more prosperous. While each Saxon Lord jealously guards his or her own prosperity and achievements, they all benefit as a whole from the growing prosperity of the city itself. When the city reaches the peak of its prosperity, the game ends and the player with the most individual prosperity wins.

Game description from the publisher:

In the wake of one of Tempest's namesake storms, a new area near the city-state has opened up for development. Your faction looks to you to carve out your power in this new area.

Place canals to connect your buildings to resources and to the harbor. Ensure the peasantry looks to you for employment. Improve the prestige of your work by placing scenic gardens. And wouldn't the Senate Annex look most aesthetically pleasing right there, where it completely blocks the view of your opponent's building?

Canalis is a game of building a new district in the City-State of Tempest, arranging the canals and placing buildings in such a manner as to benefit you the most. Players use a mixture of card drafting and tile laying to build the district, and each player's secret missions keep the outcome in doubt until the last card is played.

Game description from the publisher:

In Urbanization, the players follow the development of a rural area, from the beginning of the industrial revolution to modern times. They guide their villages through hard times and try to attract citizens by building houses. Later, factories are erected and the villages grow into prospering cities.

The player who develops his city most efficiently will be victorious in the end.

Game play in Urbanization includes no random elements, and the game comes packaged with an expansion, "the inventions".

Developer Stefan Brück at alea describes Saint Malo as "a light, dice-rolling strategy game in which the players draw their own city buildings, walls, and people on wipe-off boards".

In more detail, in Saint Malo players roll five dice to gain various resources; combinations of dice create enhancements like characters or buildings, which can provide additional victory points, money, or special actions, such as altering the outcome of a die roll. Players draw symbols for their holdings on erasable boards showing a grids of their cities to create individual towns. Players could build storehouses on particular squares, for example, then place a merchant nearby to gain money each turn. Another important character is the soldier; players must acquire these to defend themselves from pirate attacks that can decimate their towns.

Saint Malo rates a 2 out of 10 on Alea's difficulty scale.

Aquileia, the second most important city of the Roman Empire, had been originally founded as an outpost against the Barbarian invaders. From its military origin comes the peculiar quadrilateral structure divided by the main streets. Later, the city developed to become an important political and cultural center and a prosperous trading city, especially for precious goods, thanks to its convenient and efficient river port. Important monuments such as the Gladiator Arena, the horse-racing Stadium, and the famous theater were built, as well as craftsmen's workshops, patrician villas which completed the architectural network of the city.

In Aquileia, players want to become the most powerful figure in the city by trading and building. Each player, representing a wealthy Aquileian patrician, owns a certain number of henchmen (pawns) which he uses for these main activities: sports playing, culture, trading, and building. Each activity can bring expenses, earnings and sometimes victory points (VPs).

Each round begins with a placement phase in which players take turns placing their henchmen on action spaces and their tiebreaker disc on the tiebreaker track. Placing the tiebreaker is mandatory; placing henchmen is not (but you probably want to place them). Once everyone has passed or placed all of their tokens, players resolve the action spaces in numerical order:

The Mercatus allows players to buy weapons, arms and slave cards, collect money through a die roll, claim four blue dice for use with the Arena and Stadium, and trade one currency for another. (This is the only way to make change, and some actions require specific currencies; if you must pay bronze and have only silver and gold, then you cannot take that action!)
At the Arena, players compare fighting strength, with that number determined by the starting strength on the action space claimed, the roll of three dice and the playing of slave and weapon cards. The winner gets three bronze coins and either double his strength in VPs or a slave card. The second and third best players receive lesser rewards.
The Stadium is similar to the Arena, with the horse cards coming into play and the winner receiving gold or silver coins and his choice of two laurel cards; laurel cards deliver 3-10 VPs or are a multiplier for endgame scoring.
The Theatrum brings a bid for a dual-colored laurel card, with players needing to ante and raise in particular currencies.
In the Forum, players build villas and private banks, sometimes scoring points for doing so when they pay the specific costs with the proper coins.
Finally, the Portus gives players a chance to activate their buildings, thereby earning them VPs or money.

After six rounds, the game ends and players score VPs for their hidden point cards and the product of their villas' values times laurel cards of a matching color. (For example, a total of 8 points of blue villas and three blue villa cards equals 24 points.) The player with the most victory points wins.