• Andy Desa‘s tile-placement game Panchayat will be the second release from Indian publisher Kheo Games following its 2021 debut with the roll-and-write game Go Goa, which was co-designed by Desa. Here’s an overview of this 1-4 player game:
Each round of Panchayat consists of choosing two building tiles, placing the building tiles on your village board, and scoring points. When you select tiles to place on your village board, you also get the ability to hide some of the unused tiles. Points are earned by placing building tiles near or in natural landscapes, near other buildings, or at the end of the game.
You can also earn points from three types of bonus tiles: placement bonus, adjacency bonus, and endgame bonus. While you balance all of this, you also need to consider placing building tiles in their groups of commercial, industrial, utility, and residential sections.
The game lasts eight rounds, and the player with the most points wins.
• Another tile-laying game for 1-4 players coming in 2023 is FLOE from PARKS designer Henry Audubon and publisher PIKA Games, which is an imprint of Fantasia Games. This description suggests that a lot more is going on than just tile-laying:
— Explore the ever-changing iceberg islands and discover long-lost secrets?
— Sail the windy waves in search of sunken treasure and daring adventure?
— Fight fearsome monsters on your journey into the frozen heart of the ice?
— Or kick back and enjoy some kelp noodle soup?
The choice is yours! In FLOE, there are many ways to be a hero. In more detail, on each turn you take actions by drawing tiles from a shared bag — or by returning previously drawn tiles to the bag. These actions allow you to activate your hero, sail your boat, add new regions to the map, and draw cards into your hand.
FLOE features a unique region-to-region movement system that allows heroes and sailboats to navigate the realm with ease; only the natural shapes of the ice and seas are used to determine movement, so you never need to count squares on a grid.
You can build an engine by leveling up your character, upgrading your signature weapon, constructing new buildings, and acquiring powerful magic items. The first player to place all their floe sigils by completing heroic challenges wins.
• How about another tile-laying game in which the description gives you a sense of what’s going on, but leaves you wanting to see more images? Goblin Vaults is a 1-5 player design from Keith Matejka, Eric Schlautman, and Thunderworks Games that bears a February 28, 2023 release date. Here’s an overview:
Goblin Vaults is a strategy card game for 1-5 players featuring bidding, card placement, and scoring patterns. In the game, you wager cards to win loot from the central cell block, then stash that loot wisely in your vault, earning gears based on the position of cards within that vault. You can also gain gears from scoring objectives that change each game.
With cunning and clever scheming, make your bid to be feared amongst your peers! You’ll need wits and luck to play your cards right as you fill your vault and influence the warden in your favor. After nine rounds, whoever has the most gears wins!
