Some of this, especially the first portion, roughly matches the tutorial I have given to instruct new players. Most of my play has been introducing non-gamers.

The board consists of lines drawn to divide it into a grid of small triangles. On each player's turn three types of game pieces are placed on the board:

1) A turn begins with placing a Wall, a wooden piece that matches the length of one side of a triangle. Walls may be placed almost anywhere. Additional game pieces are placed relative to this wall.

2) A wooden Tower must be placed at each end of the wall. Towers come in three color choices. Some Towers may already be in place if the new wall connects with another that already exists.

3) One small wooden House is placed on each side of the wall. Houses come in five color choices.

Three dice are rolled to guide the player in color choices for Towers and Houses. Much of the time color selections are directed by the dice, but often enough the player gets to choose

Keep repeating this sequence for other players and eventually a series of Walls may form a closed loop that encompasses one or more of the triangles. The enclosed area is called a City. At this point ALL players have a scoring opportunity.

Players get to collect points by comparing how well the configuration of various items appearing on the board are a match for the requirements indicated by cards in their hand.

Most cards indicate counting one of these items: Walls, or Towers, or Houses. The card may also indicate only at a subset of the item, such as just those of a single color. A higher count produces a higher score.

Furthermore, most cards in the deck divide into two overall categories that tell where on the board to look for the scoring conditions: a) inside the just-created city and this city only; or b) in areas which are not inside of any city (i.e., the open space).

The player who completed the City also has the option to have it merge with an adjoining city. Shared walls are removed and the scoring count of Walls, Towers, and Houses is based on the merged configuration.

All players may offer one card from their hand for scoring, and replenish. Optionally they may offer two cards, still with only one replenished. Another mechanism to replenish exists, but note that card management is part of the game, too.


Assorted Observations:
It may seem strange, but no player "owns" any of the pieces or territory. The result is that players do not confront each other directly. But how each one places game pieces on the board could affect the others (whose cards might be guiding them to differing goals). There is always calculation about the value of your cards according to the changing conditions.

The flow of the game is completely different each time. It is particularly guided by the timing in which the two card categories, City versus Open Space, appear in players’ hands.

The value of Open Space cards will likely diminish as the game progresses. The player(s) with the lowest score get an opportunity to exchange cards so that no one is permanently at a disadvantage due to card draw.

Injudicious card management may leave a player with few cards later in the game, just when some cards may become more valuable because the count of game pieces is likely higher.

Scoring takes place as little or as often as players choose, based solely on someone completing a city. The moment chosen by someone else may be disadvantageous to you, but all score together for the same board formation.

Watch for your own for best scoring moment, or plan some in advance and play chicken. Should you wait another turn before triggering a score so that more pieces of a favorable house color are placed? Or if your card is for Open Space, will the houses instead become enclosed in a City while you wait?



So, what is it about “Stimulation without Confrontation”? Note once more that no one owns any property on the board. Nor does any player ever attack another (there is no position to attack). So just how is this any fun? In part I had to write this review to understand my own attraction to it. I am mentally engaged the whole time and am always conscious of the other players’ movements. It’s not dull, nor are there any “gotchya” moments. It is somewhere in between those two with pleasant contentment.