Tile Placement

Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden holds a special place in the hearts of locals. World renowned for its location, beauty, and historical and scientific significance, each of its 29 hectares are not only stunning, but a calming retreat from the city's streets.

In The Gardens, players draft cards depicting different features of the Gardens, using them to build their own portion of it in front of themselves. Players then score points based on what their visitors see as they walk past the Gardens' various flower beds, ponds, native trees, and statues. The tableau you build will have three rows — waterside, grass, and cityside — and you add one card a turn until the area is filled.

The game is accessible and simple to learn, yet offers strategic choices. Its included modules add variability and depth for experienced players, with landmarks such as the Opera House and Harbour Bridge that players can gain for extra points or special abilities, so join the picnickers, joggers, lorikeets, and bin chickens, and enjoy your day in the beautiful Botanic gardens.

-description from publisher

“Natural disasters will soon be a thing of the past!” proclaimed Professor Sêni Lativ, Project Chief of Meteorological Manipulation at Lightning Technologies. Tests of his new invention, the Weather Machine, showed positive results. Visions of quelling floods, subduing cyclones, and ending droughts made him smile.

In Weather Machine, you are scientists on Prof. Lativ’s team, tampering with local weather: adjusting rainfall for farms, maintaining wind and clear skies for ecological energy sources, and tweaking the temperature for resorts and sporting events. The prototype is quite effective so far; however, a pattern has emerged, revealing a worrying side effect: Each use of the Weather Machine also alters the conditions elsewhere on the planet — a “butterfly effect”.

"We must build a new prototype,” he announces as the agents shoot him sidelong glances; “…but this time we’re going to get it right.” The agents silently give a single, crisp nod of confirmation. “The government is funding this, and we will succeed.” As Prof. Lativ explains the plan, the need to secure suppliers for sufficient bots and chemicals is clear. In addition to the materials, time is of the essence; you must be focused and efficient to have any hope of reining this growing global terror, Earth’s atmosphere before conditions are too harsh for Homo sapiens and other species.

Note: The solo mode is NOT included in the base game's box. It is part of Weather Machine: Upgrade Pack.

You are the leader of a prehistoric tribe, deciding which members of your tribe go hunting and what prey they want to catch. To guide you, the Elders have created challenges that you can complete by painting on the wall of your cave.

Each round in Prehistories, you and your fellow tribe leaders bid simultaneously (and secretly) to decide who hunts where. The more hunters you have, the bigger the game you can catch, but the slower you are. The fastest player — that is, the one with the smallest sum of hunters — goes first, but they have few hunters with which to hunt. To hunt, you assign your hunters to one or more locations to catch the prey waiting there. Prey is represented by polyomino tiles, and the larger the tile, the higher the sum required. If you have just enough hunters to catch your prey, they might be wounded in the process, which means you'll draw fewer hunter cards at the end of the round to refill your hand. (They distrust your leadership when you get them injured!)

In the second phase of a round, you paint your cave with the animal tiles collected during the hunting phase. Your cave is represented by a 7x7 grid that starts with a few tiles already in place. The first tile you place goes in the left-hand column, and all subsequent tiles must touch tiles already placed, with all tiles being oriented so that the animals are viewed with their legs (or fins) down. (Cavemen have simple tastes and want everything to be representational.)

When you fulfill the wishes of the Elders by painting your cave in certain ways — such as completing a horizontal line or connecting opposing corners or surrounding a legendary animal on all sides — you place one or more totem tokens on that challenge. Whoever first discards their eight totem tokens wins.

In a post-apocalyptic world, the tribes of the wind are going to rebuild the world on the polluted ruins from the past.

Players will have to plant forests, build new villages and temples, and decontaminate surrounding areas.

They will be able to play cards from their hand. But be careful! The effect or even the possibility of playing the card may vary depending on... the back of your surrounding opponents' cards.

Players may also send their wind riders to explore the area, plant forests, or build villages and temples using all the gathered resources.

As the game progresses, you strive to complete objectives that will allow you to unlock your guide's special abilities, and to improve your tribe's powers.

When someone builds their 5th village, the end of the game is triggered. The player with the most points, depending on pollution, villages, temples, layout of their forests, and other various objectives, wins!

—description from the publisher

In SETUP, you create a set or sets, scoring points to move around the board. How many points on each turn depends on how good you are at spotting sequences and by playing a set which will create multiple combinations on the board. Even when it's not your turn, unwitting opponents may gift you points by creating sets using tiles in your bonus spaces, so always keep your eyes peeled to claim those extra points.

SETUP is a game of strategic tile placement, making sets of numbers of matching suits. You can't always plan in advance though as the tiles stack, so a sequence you had in mind may disappear when your opponents take their turn.

The strategy is even more intense when you try team play mode, work with a partner to plan your sets together. You'll work hard to maximize points, help your partner create sets, and gift each other bonus points. Careful how many points you score because the game ends when the first player crosses the finish line, but being in first place doesn't decide the win; it's the team that avoids finishing last when the game ends!

—description from the publisher