City Building

In The Builders: Middle Ages, the cards represent buildings or workers. Players score points (and gain money) by completing the construction of buildings, while placing a worker on a construction site costs money. Each building has four characteristics (carpentry, masonry, architecture, tilery) rated between 0 and 5, and the workers have the same characteristics valued in the same range. To complete a construction, the player must add enough workers to cover the four characteristics of the building.

Each player starts the game with 10 ecu and an apprentice. Five workers and five buildings are placed face-up on the table, with the others set aside in separate decks. On a turn, you can take three free actions, then pay 5 ecu for each additional action. The possible actions are:

Open a site - Take one of the five buildings, place it front of you, then draw a replacement from the deck.
Recruit a worker - Take one of the five workers, place it front of you, then draw a replacement from the deck.
Assign a worker to a building - Pay the cost of the worker (as he won't work for free!), then place him on a building; when the building's needs are met, you earn the points and coins indicated, then flip the building over. The workers return to your pool of available labor.
Get money - Forgo one, two or three actions to earn 1, 3 or 6 ecu.

Some completed buildings join your labor pool as they can be used to complete other buildings. As soon as a player reaches 17 points, players finish the round so that everyone has the same number of turns, then you tally points, with each completed card having a point value and each 10 ecu being worth 1 point. Whoever has the most points wins.

Your casino empire is expanding, but new players want a piece of your action. There's only one direction to go to stay ahead of your competition — up! Lords of Vegas: UP! allows for up to six players to compete in Lords of Vegas.

What's more, you'll now be able to increase the size of your casinos not just by building out, but also by building up. These new, taller hotels are more prestigious, and as a result earn you more victory points.

In Rise!, players race to be the first to construct three towers on the growing game board, moving workers to and fro to keep the towers rising and the opponent befuddled.

To set up, place 12 hexagonal tiles in a dogbone shape as specified in the rulebook, then place one token for each player on their starting locations. On a turn, a player takes two actions (possibly the same action twice) from this list of options:

Place a land tile adjacent to any existing tile.
Place a worker adjacent to any of your workers already on the game board.
Move one of your workers to an adjacent empty space.
Jump an opponent's worker and land on an empty space, removing that worker from play.
Remove two of your workers from the board to remove an opponent's worker from any space.
Remove two of your workers from the board to place one of your workers in any empty space.
Remove one of your tower layers from the board.

If at any time during play you have a circle of six of your workers surrounding an empty space, place the first layer of one of your towers in that space. Your ring of workers must remain in place for two additional turns for the remaining two layers to be added to the tower; if your ring is disrupted, you can complete it later to continue the tower-building. If you completely surround an opponent's tower, you can remove the top level of that tower from the board.

In addition to building three complete towers, a player can also win by eliminating all of the opponent's workers from the game board.

Waterdeep, the City of Splendors – the most resplendent jewel in the Forgotten Realms, and a den of political intrigue and shady back-alley dealings. In this game, the players are powerful lords vying for control of this great city. Its treasures and resources are ripe for the taking, and that which cannot be gained through trickery and negotiation must be taken by force!

In Lords of Waterdeep, a strategy board game for 2-5 players, you take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city. Through your agents, you recruit adventurers to go on quests on your behalf, earning rewards and increasing your influence over the city. Expand the city by purchasing new buildings that open up new actions on the board, and hinder – or help – the other lords by playing Intrigue cards to enact your carefully laid plans.

During the course of play, you may gain points or resources through completing quests, constructing buildings, playing intrigue cards or having other players utilize the buildings you have constructed. At the end of 8 rounds of play, the player who has accrued the most points wins the game.

In The Princes of Florence, players attract artists and scholars to their palace while trying to become the most prestigious family in Florence.

Over seven rounds, players attempt to score points in various ways, with most points being earned by playing profession cards to generate "work points", which can be exchanged for money or victory points. The game includes a variety of professions, such astronomers, organists, and architects; each profession is attracted to a particular combination of building, landscape feature, and social freedom, and players acquire these items via auctions. The more that a player can match these preferences, the more work points they earn — but the minimum requirement of work points increases each round, and you must meet that threshold in order to convert the work points.