pattern building

Ubongo: Duel

Now, Ubongo goes two-player! Each player tries to solve the same puzzle with the same tiles faster than his opponent. The scoring mechanism from the original has also been revised, as there is no time limit to solving the puzzles (which are harder than in the original)

Gameplay: Each player receives 21 puzzle tiles and a stack of puzzle sheets. Both players lay the puzzle tiles down in front of them. Rolling the 20 sided die determines which of the tiles are used in the specific rounds. The players then try to solve every puzzle sheet as quickly as possible by laying the appropriate tiles on it. The faster player to do this yells 'Ubongo!'. He/she moves his pawn one step forward on the scoring track. The first player to win five Ubongo duels wins the game.

Logan Stones

Publisher's description of this new hex-tile game scheduled to debut at Essen 2008:

"Logan Stones is a two player strategic game that encourages memory and tactical thinking. It is played without a board, using 18 tactile pieces that are etched and painted on both sides with different symbols.

The game has simple rules that are based on the visually recognizable symbols of Rock Paper Scissors.

Logan Stones takes the simplicity of ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ and adds to it a fast paced, fun game, that can also be played with strategic precision for a much more thought provoking experience. The aim is to make a line of 4 of the same symbol, but as you and your opponent are in control of the same stones and with them constantly being flipped over to reveal new symbols, it’s not as simple as it sounds."

Blueprints

In Blueprints, players are architects who must use different colored dice to build three different structures from blueprints, with the dice providing different advantages to you. In the game, each round progresses like this:

Discover your blueprint.
Each turn, choose a die and place it in your building.
Reveal your building, tally your points, then discover who wins the awards and prizes.

After three rounds, players tally their awards and prizes to see who wins. Who will be the best architect?

Fantasy Frontier

Fantasy Frontier is a fantasy board game of airships and exploration for 2 to 4 players with a playing time of 45 to 90 minutes. Each player controls a unique airship with a crew of pioneers. Players manage the actions of these pioneers each turn in an effort to scout the land, gather resources, construct townships, and even battle it out in aerial combat. Creating geographic patterns via tile placement, the players will develop a new world each time they play. Players compete to be the first to score the required number of victory points to win the game. Points are scored by building townships, completing geographic patterns, and fighting their rivals in airship battles!

Every turn, players must carefully manage the actions of five workers, which can be assigned the following tasks:

Piloting the Airship - Moving their airship token around the board.
Research & Development - Drawing map cards with geographic patterns and discovering development cards to improve their airships.
Scouting the Land - Drawing terrain tiles to place on the map to expand the community game board.
Gathering Resources - Landing the airship and exiting the workers to collect food, wood, stone and gold, with these resources being used to improve the performance of workers and to build townships.
Construct a Township - Landing the airship and disembarking the workers to build a township, which provides a reoccurring resource stream and is worth victory points.
Aerial Combat - Engaging in airship battles with other players to slow their progress and potentially score victory points.
Repair Ship Damage - Repairing the damage taken in battle.

Fantasy Frontier is a unique gaming experience, blending a peaceful Euro play-style with the optional take-that element of combat, creating a game unlike any other.

Quilt Show

Award-winning quilt makers devote considerable effort to collecting fabrics for their stashes. They shop for specific colors, often ranging into neighboring hues to achieve a nuanced, scrappy look. Quilters love a sale, where they may buy fabric just to have it on hand. If they can't find the colors they want, they sometimes hand dye their own fabric. They use their time and skills converting fabric into blocks, which they combine to make quilts. Often, quilters work on more than one quilt at a time to keep things interesting. They may embellish their quilts with intricate quilting stitches. The best quilters make good color choices, combine blocks skillfully, use their time well, and win generous purchase awards when they enter their quilts in shows.

In Quilt Show, "quilters" collect fabric cards, which can be exchanged for block tiles. The quilters race the clock as they amass block tiles that they can combine into one or more quilts at a time. They can mix block tiles of a single color or a single pattern to make a quilt. Three times during the game, when the clock reveals it is time for a quilt show, quilts are entered and prize money is awarded. At game's end, the quilter with the most prize money wins!