Tile Placement

In Black Forest, you start out with a small domain in need of new buildings and livestock. You’ll travel from village to village to enlist the aid of the best specialists. Exploiting the abilities of these specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and fields), and build a variety of buildings, which come in four types. Choose the right buildings, place landscapes, fire up your glass production, and expand your domain.

Uwe Rosenberg’s resource wheels are making once again making their presence, made famous in Glass Road (2013). Two resource wheels on your tableau help you keep track of your resources and production. Black Forest continues the story - as the name suggests — in the Black Forest. Among others, the main difference between the two games is the use of worker placement in BLack Forest instead of simultaneous action selection.

A wide selection of buildings and their different effects offer many different paths to victory.

—description from publisher

Trolls are not big and stupid, as many would have you believe. Not long ago they lived among us and they used their cunning magic to look like us humans.
They lived with their cattle in the mountains. Their caves were beautiful and luxurious with a lot of silver, gold, gems, and a table full of delicious food. In Sweden, there is an expression for this “Rich as a troll”.
Trolls were not evil if you didn’t treat them badly, they could even be helpful to those who treated them well. But they often played tricks on humans. Their magic power (trollkraft) could distort the vision of humans so the troll looked like a human, an animal, a log, and a stone and even become invisible. But they also had some weaknesses. They couldn’t stand the sounds of church bells or steel, not to mention the sight of sun.

Trolls & Princesses is a “worker movement” game. You play as one of four troll clans and to get the mountains king’s favour, you try to impress him. The players get favour (in the form of victory points) when they do what trolls usually do: swap changelings, “hire” humans, tear down church bells, kidnap princesses, build their cave, and use troll magic. To succeed, the players must collect resources and move around their trolls to do different actions. The player with the most victory points at the end can crown himself the ultimate troll clan leader.

—description from publisher

How about creating your own botanical garden? As an aristocrat in the late 19th century, you have bought land, hired a gardener and set out to find the best plants there are.
As you know, the visitors are very picky about the plants they want to see, so your job is not only to acquire the plants, but also to sort them according to the visitors' preferences.
In Botanicus, you compete for the best action-spots in a unique selection mechanism, and then make the most of the options available to you. You have to collect new plants, take care of them, water them and keep an eye on the gardener. Last but not least, you have to collect some money along the way to pay for all this.
In the end, what counts is how many visitors you satisfy and how beautiful your garden is. Will you be able to outdo the gardens of your competitors?

—description from the publisher (translated)

Wie wäre es eigentlich, einen eigenen botanischen Garten anzulegen? Als Artistokrat:in des späten
19. Jahrhunderts hast du Land gekauft, heuerst einen Gärtner an und machst dich auf, die schönsten Pflanzen überhaupt zu finden. Allerdings haben die Besucher ganz spezielle Vorstellungen, welche Pflanzen sie in deinem Garten bewundern wollen. Es reicht also nicht, sie irgendwie einzupflanzen – nein, du musst die Pflanzen dummerweise auch noch so aufstellen, dass die passenden Besucher das sehen, was sie wollen.
In Botancius konkurrierst du über einen neuen Aktions-Mechanismus mit deinen Mitspieler:innen um den besten Ertrag für deinen Garten. Du willst also die richtigen Pflanzen ergattern und diese zum richtigen Zeitpunkt gießen, dich um deinen Gärtner kümmern, und natürlich darfst du auch deine Finanzen nicht vernachlässigen!
Am Ende kommt es darauf an, wie viele der Schaulustigen zufrieden mit ihrem Besuch sind und wie schön euer Garten ist. Schaffst du es, die Gärten deiner Konkurrent*innen zu überschatten?

—description from the publisher

In Foundations of Metropolis, players will compete over three rounds to be the greatest architect in the city by purchasing deeds to empty lots and constructing new buildings on them.

More complex buildings require more lots, but will bring you even greater prestige. The player with the most prestige will be appointed Grand Architect!

Gameplay is the same in this standalone game as in Foundations of Rome, but with polyomino pieces and a brand new theme.

—description from the publisher

As a master sushi chef, you've studied your craft for years. It took diligent training to perfect specialty maki like your All-Day Breakfast, Octopus's Garden, and Squid Salad Sandwich, but now you face your toughest challenge yet: Friday night dinner rush!

In Maki Master, you compete with your fellow chefs to complete the most valuable orders. You can concentrate on short and simple orders to get bonuses quickly or take your time to make complicated masterpieces for big rewards!

Each turn, add a new ingredient to the shrinking kitchen space and try to arrange them for the orders you're working on. Complete a scrumptious recipe for points or take an action card like Chop!, Stack!, or Switch! to help with future turns. Don't forget to collect spicy wasabi to complete orders with style! At the end of the night, the chef who has earned the most points by completing their recipes wins!

Maki Master adds new mechanisms, streamlined rules, and fresh art by Claire Lin to the Wasabi! design from 2008.