Tile Placement

Catacombs Cubes

Set in the world of Catacombs, in Catacombs Cubes players draft various "Tetris-like" wooden shapes from the quarry to race to build structures from blueprints. These completed buildings are added to the growing town of Stormtryne. The player who successfully builds the most structures wins. The game features a novel "cube-building mechanism".

The game features:

Solo Mode included
Enough components to support four players with the base game
Features characters and places from the world of Catacombs
Plenty of theme (not an abstract title)
Different game modes (competitive vs passive)
Two resources drafting mechanics included in the box (dice vs tiles)

—description from the designer

Obsession

You are the head of a respected but troubled family estate in mid-19th century Victorian England. After several lean decades, family fortunes are looking up! Your goal is to improve your estate so as to be in better standing with the truly influential families in Derbyshire.

Obsession is a game of 16 to 20 turns in which players build a deck of Victorian gentry (British social upper class), renovate their estate by acquiring building tiles from a centralized builders' market, and manipulate an extensive service staff of butlers, housekeepers, underbutlers, maids, valets, and footmen utilizing a novel worker placement mechanic. Successfully hosting prestigious social activities such as Fox Hunts, Music Recitals, Billiards, Political Debates, and Grand Balls increases a player's wealth, reputation, and connections among the elite.

Each turn, players choose a building tile representing a room or outdoor space in and around their 19th century British country house. The tile chosen dictates the event that can be hosted and the guests to be invited. Players must carefully plan, however, to have the proper staff available to service the event and support guests as needed. The reward for success is new investment opportunities, permitting further renovation of the estate (acquisition of more valuable/powerful building tiles), an increase in reputation in the county, an expanding circle of influential acquaintances, and a larger and highly-trained domestic staff.

Throughout the game, a competitive courtship for the hand of the most eligible young gentleman and lady in the county presents specific renovation and reputation objectives. The player who best meets these objectives while accumulating victory points will win the hand of the wealthy love interest and the game.

—description from the publisher

Expancity

Expancity is a city-building game in which players both collaborate and compete to build a thriving metropolis block by block!

Lay down residential and commercial tiles, then claim them with your stackable building blocks to break ground on towers that will rise high above the playing field. Score extra points by building near common city buildings like banks, schools, and parks. You can also get a leg up on the opposition by working on secretly-held contract cards that offer players unique and challenging tasks to complete for bonus points. Cities expand both horizontally and vertically as the game progresses, and no two cities will ever be alike!

On the Origin of Species

"I am very anxious to see the Galapagos Islands, -- I think both the Geology & Zoology cannot fail to be very interesting." -- Charles Darwin, Letter to his sister, Catherine in August 1835.

Assist Charles Darwin during the Beagle journey across the Galapagos Islands, discovering new species and researching them in order to improve your knowledge.

During their turn, the active player must choose between two actions:

Research: Put 2 research pieces on 2 different species tiles on the board, gaining the knowledge of air, land or water habitat.
Discover: use the acquired habitat knowledge to place new species tiles on the board, obtaining victory points and evolution, characters and objects cards. Additionally advance the Beagle on its track.

The game finishes when the Beagle reaches the last space of its trip, leaving the archipelago through New Zealand. The players score the evolution points according to the final goal card, adding them to the points obtained during the game. The player with more points in the scoring track wins.

—description from the publisher

Alma Mater

Alma Mater has players serving as a headmaster of one of the independent universities in the 15th century. Players seek to strengthen their school's reputation and standing. To achieve these goals, players need to recruit the best staff and students, exchange knowledge with other schools, and become experts in the school's four disciplines!

—description from the publisher