Tile Placement

Helios

In Helios, players are high priests in a distant world of the sun god AHAU, and the power of the sun drives everything in the game as players try to build temples, expand cities, and make their civilization flourish.

Development can succeed, though, only if you've secured a supply of the limited raw materials available, and the more that you've built of your temple, the more expensive the remaining parts will be. Glass manastones are the game's currency, and with them you can acquire people, increase the number of points you'll score, and more.

Two by Two

The floodwaters are rising and the animals need to board the ark!

In this deceptively simple game, players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs in order to rescue stranded animals.

Animals that are rare at the end of the game are worth more points than those that are common.

Two by Two is #6 in the Valley Games Modern Line.

Awards

Games 100 - Runner-up for Best Family Game (2012)

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

Blokus Trigon

Blokus Trigon is an abstract strategy game from the makers of Blokus. The board pieces have changed from square to triangular. Game play is similar to Blokus, as players try to get rid of all their pieces. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one of your pieces already on the board at a corner.

There is a solitaire version where one player tries to get rid of all the pieces in a single sitting.

Components:
Hexagonal playing board with 486 triangles on the board
4 sets of 22 pieces in red, blue, green and yellow
1 piece made up of one triangle.
1 piece made up of two triangles.
1 piece made up of three triangles.
3 pieces made up of four triangles.
4 pieces made up of five triangles.
12 pieces made up of six triangles.

Set up:
Layout your hexagonal silver board and give each player a set of 22 squares.

Game Play:
Each player begins at one of the marked spaces on the board. The order of play is blue, yellow, red, green colors.
As the play progresses, each new piece is placed on the board. The new piece placed must touch another piece of the same colour and it can only touch at the corners. The constraint is never touch along the sides.

When a player is blocked and cannot place any more pieces on the board, they must drop out of the game. The other players continue until they are blocked or no one is able to place any more pieces on the board.

Scoring:
When all the players are blocked, each player must count the number of triangles that they were unable to place on the trigon board and calculates their score as follows:

Any triangle that is not placed on the board counts towards a negative point.
15 points are awarded as a bonus, if the player has all 22 pieces placed on the board.
This bonus increases to a 20 points if the 22 pieces were placed on the board with the single triangle being placed last.

The winner is the person with the maximum points!

Note: This game is available by request only and requires having a membership to play.
See game associate for details.

UR

The dream of creating a new civilization in ancient Mesopotamia is within reach. Are you ready to lead your population ?

In the age of its maximum splendor, this vast and fertile geographical area was a scene of destiny for some populations, who resolved to settle in the richest and most strategically advantageous territories. Over the course of centuries these populations succeeded in developing all aspects of their civilization wisely. This was the main factor enabling them to found marvelous cities like Ur and to construct gigantic buildings like Ziggurats.
Just like Mesopotamia’s ancient Kings, each player will have to achieve the highest prestige by precisely dosing the development of Agriculture, Trade, Politics, Culture and finally War, so that thanks to these efforts the long desired construction of five Ziggurats is completed.

But, beware…
If the King becomes guilty of Greed in building them, or pursues improperly the conquest of Lands, this could ultimately lead him to defeat. The intrinsic speed of the game, the simplicity of rules, the very alluring artwork, together with the subtlety of the innumerable strategies which can be pursued, render Ur a gaming experience which you will play and play and keep playing again for a very, very long time!

Online Play

http://www.mabiweb.com/ (turn-based)

Tesserae

Inspired by ancient art, Tesserae combines elements of dominoes and jigsaw puzzles to form a game of shapes and patterns. Since it doesn't rely on a square grid, tiles will fit together in interesting and surprising ways. The basic game provides a good blend of strategy and luck, while advanced rules allow for either pure skill games, or ones where luck is more of a factor. Suitable for solitaire, one to five individual players, and several combinations of teams.

The game of Tesserae pits players against one another, meshing colored tiles into the ever-evolving play field, each trying to exhaust their supply of tiles while preventing their opponents from doing the same. Skillful strategy can pay off, but be careful -- things can change on the luck of a draw! This is a game that will stretch your brain.