City Building

From the website:

The Story:

In "Cities" you are the architect of a city of the world. You try to build a city that is most attractive for tourists. You position attractions close together. You build parks as big as possible and place terraces close to the water. You guide tourists to their favourite spots, because only through them you can earn your points.

The Dilemma:

But... you never know exactly which tile will be drawn next. Will you wait another round for the perfect tile? Will you adjust your planning? Or have you got a brilliant idea and can you position the tile in a way that it brings points for more than tourist?
Every player builds his own city and makes his own choices. "All" you have to do is make better choices than your opponents!

The players are building a research station at the bottom of the sea, trying to find Atlantis, recover sunken treasures, and extract raw materials. The board shows the sea floor as a grid with shades indicating the levels of depth.

Each round consists of three phases :

-expanding the station : extra research stations will be added, these give advantages depending on their type, cost to build depends on the underwater landscape on which they are placed. More stations in use of the same type give better advantages. They must be occupied by a scientist before any advantage can be enjoyed.

-deploying scientists : players must pay to bring them into the game. They can be moved around to start using the research stations. Once deployed they remain at this station. When using a station built by another player there is a cost.

-exploration : Up to 3 submarines can be launched when certain requirements are met. These explore outside the base searching for scientific and financial treasures as well as trying to find remains of Atlantis. The amount of built research stations and deployment of scientists greatly aid in the performance of the submarines.
All players have special goals, consisting of sea discoveries that provide more points when recovered.

The game ends when certain tiles or all of the Atlantis tiles are found, when nobody buys/builds anything to expand the base and when not a single sea discovery was recovered.

Points are scored for recovered Atlantis chips and sea discoveries. Discoveries corresponding to the player's special goals score more points. The total of the discoveries is multiplied by the points gained from the stations. Extra points are given for left over money.

In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded the city of Buenos Aires along the river Rio de la Plata. After 5 years the settlers were forced to leave the city, exhausted by the difficulties and by the continuous attacks of the indigenous Querandies. The city was destroyed by the natives some weeks after.

Almost fifty years later Juan de Garay leads a new expedition and founds a new city. As before, resources are low and the natives are angry!
But not only that: now the Corsairs paid by the English Crown threaten the new Spanish settlement!

Rio de la Plata is a strategy game where players represent the chiefs of the families of Spanish settlers of Buenos Aires. They must work together to defend and develop the city, but also look to gain sufficient prestige for themselves to take the most important political offices. At the end only one will be the new Governor! Will it be you?

First game needs about 3-4 hours.
Normal game needs about 150 minutes (4 players).

Essen 2010 Release.

Homesteaders is an auction and resource management game in which players bid on the opportunity to build certain types of buildings, then spend resource cubes to build one of several buildings of that type. The buildings confer abilities, income, and points; some automatically and some requiring a worker.

The game lasts ten rounds, with each round consisting of an auction phase followed by a building phase. After the last round, players take one final income phase and have one last chance to buy and sell goods and use their building abilities before scores are tallied.

Players score for their buildings, bonuses conferred by buildings, and points earned throughout the game from selling resource cubes. The player who builds the best combination of buildings and best manages the nine different resources in the game will score the most points and win – as long as they don't take on too much debt!

Once upon a time ...
1289. To strengthen the borders of the Kingdom of France, King Philip the Fair decided to have a new castle built. For the time being, Caylus is but a humble village, but soon, workers and craftsmen will be flocking by the cartload, attracted by the great prospects. Around the building site, a city is slowly rising up.

The players embody master builders. By building the King's castle and developing the city around it, they earn prestige points and gain the King's favor. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige wins the game. The expansion Caylus Expansion: The Jeweller was included in the 2nd Edition.

Each turn, players pay to place their workers in various buildings in the village. These buildings allow players to gather resources or money, or to build or upgrade buildings with those resources. Players can also use their resources to help build the castle itself, earning points and favors from the king, which provide larger bonuses. Building a building provides some immediate points, and potentially income throughout the game, since players receive bonuses when others use their buildings. The buildings chosen by the players have a heavy impact on the course of the game, since they determine the actions that will be available to all the players.

As new buildings are built, they stretch along a road stretching away from the castle, and not all buildings can be used every turn. Players have some control over which buildings are active by paying to influence the movement of the Provost marker. The final position of the marker is the newest building that can be used that turn. The Provost marker also helps determine the movement of the Bailiff marker, which determines the end of the game. Generally, if players are building many buildings and the Provost is generous in allowing them to be used, the game ends more quickly.