Components: Polyominoes

In Rebuilding Chicago, a standalone successor to 2023's Rebuilding Seattle, you're responsible for managing the zoning and expansion of a major neighborhood following the "Great Chicago Fire" of 1871.

Each round, your population grows, then you can either build a new building, expand into a new suburb, activate an event, or build a landmark, after which you earn profit based on your neighborhood's commerce. You'll buy building types from a shared market — looking to find shapes that fit your grid and types that fit your strategy — and construct landmarks on the right tile combinations. Suburb tiles connect to your grid however you like, creating uniquely shaped neighborhoods. Triggering citywide events can change the tide of the game, offering points, money, and expansions for the players ready for it. You can even enact laws to give yourself the advantage!

You earn points for building types, upgrades, landmarks, events, and remaining cash, and at the end of the game, whoever's neighborhood has earned the most points wins.

Rebuilding Chicago also comes with a solo player deck so that you can compete to build the best version of Chicago even with just one player. Enjoy gameplay against a deck designed to simulate the actions of a second player to discover strategies and configurations you can use to improve Chicago.

In Patchwork, two players compete to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt on a personal 9x9 game board. To start play, lay out all of the patches at random in a circle and place a marker directly clockwise of the 2-1 patch. Each player takes five buttons — the currency/points in the game — and someone is chosen as the start player.

On a turn, a player either purchases one of the three patches standing clockwise of the spool or passes. To purchase a patch, you pay the cost in buttons shown on the patch, move the spool to that patch's location in the circle, add the patch to your game board, then advance your time token on the time track a number of spaces equal to the time shown on the patch. You're free to place the patch anywhere on your board that doesn't overlap other patches, but you probably want to fit things together as tightly as possible. If your time token is behind or on top of the other player's time token, then you take another turn; otherwise the opponent now goes. Instead of purchasing a patch, you can choose to pass; to do this, you move your time token to the space immediately in front of the opponent's time token, then take one button from the bank for each space you moved.

In addition to a button cost and time cost, each patch also features 0-3 buttons, and when you move your time token past a button on the time track, you earn "button income": sum the number of buttons depicted on your personal game board, then take this many buttons from the bank.

What's more, the time track depicts five 1x1 patches on it, and during set-up you place five actual 1x1 patches on these spaces. Whoever first passes a patch on the time track claims this patch and immediately places it on his game board.

Additionally, the first player to completely fill in a 7x7 square on his game board earns a bonus tile worth 7 extra points at the end of the game. (Of course, this doesn't happen in every game.)

When a player takes an action that moves his time token to the central square of the time track, he takes one final button income from the bank. Once both players are in the center, the game ends and scoring takes place. Each player scores one point per button in his possession, then loses two points for each empty square on his game board. Scores can be negative. The player with the most points wins.

Flower Fields is a competitive tile-placement game, where your goal is to create an attractive flower garden.

The game is played over 3 Seasons, each composed of a variable number of rounds. On your turn, you must perform 1 action, either taking Flower tiles from the Field and placing them in your garden, taking Bees from the Field, or placing Bees in your Garden.

When taking Flower tiles, you should pick the next tile after the Sun marker in the circle around the Field, but you can spend Bees from your reserve and place it on that tile to "skip" it. Manage your Bees wisely and pick the best Flower tiles.

Flower tiles must connect to at least another tile in your garden. Create large flowerbeds of the same color and use your Bees to pollinate them and increase their value. Collect Hives and get rid of Spider Webs to gather more Bees at the end of the Season.

A Season ends when the last Flower tile has been taken from the circle around the Field. At the end of the third Season, the game ends.

You score your most valuable area of each color: Red/Yellow/Blue areas are worth points equal to the number of spaces times the number of Bees in that area; white areas are worth 1 point for each space in that area. You also get 5 points for each full row and/or column in your Garden board.

—description from the publisher

The generations before you have relied on harvesting the oceans. But as the 19th century ends, change and opportunity reach your fishing village in northern Norway. In Saltfjord, you must decide if you will expand your settlement with new buildings, send your boat to collect fish, engage in trade, or pioneer new technologies to make everyday life easier. How will you shape the destiny of your village?

Saltfjord is set in a Norwegian fishing village, and is loosely based on the dice drafting mechanisms from "Santa Maria", but the game has otherwise been completely redesigned and expanded with new elements.

Over three rounds, players draft dice to activate buildings in their settlement. This provides resources as well as activating actions such as sending out your fishing boat, advancing along the various technology tracks, completing trade orders, or erecting new buildings. Each player's player board shows a grid. When you draft a die, you activate all buildings in the row or column corresponding to that die. By erecting buildings in your settlement, each die can activate more buildings.

The technology tracks unlock special abilities, such as upgrading your fishing boat. And fishing is an important part of daily life in Saltfjord.

To add to the replayability, the game has lots of variable elements in the set-up, such as what special abilities and end scoring tiles are available.

—description from the publisher

Square One is an engine-building strategy game, similar to its predecessor Project L. Its easy-to-learn yet hard-to-master mechanics offer high replayability for the whole family.

In Square One is players match tiles with patterns to pattern cards on the board. Build more patterns and make more combos to earn points. The person who completes all their patterns first, wins the game.

—description from the publisher