The pips showing on the die are the number of resources you’ll get, i.e. There are five colors of dice aligned with the five resources in the game: gold, iron, wool, stone, and food. The actions differ according to the aligned pips for each space. An optional set of tiles can vary the order of where these spaces sit. The Action Wheel has six spaces for the five main actions-Merchant, Architect, Character, Contract, and King-plus the Joker action. When each round of three turns begins, there are dice rolled and assigned around the Action Wheel. Called “Actions in Detail”, I was struck by what I liked about some of the choices the game forces on a player, in part because everyone has not one, but two action pawns to worry about.Įvery turn of Tiletum-12 of them across four rounds of play-requires the choice of a die from an Action Wheel.

When I was reading this section of the Tiletum rulebook, my eyes started to light up. What a player does with each action can really range based on the quality of the player. While points come easily in Tiletum, maximizing turns is another story. That will rightfully make some players call Tiletum a point salad, because almost everything in the game scores something. The lowest score I have seen so far is 122 points, and my opponent had a couple of cocktails before playing. That’s the thing: you’re going to score 125-150 points in Tiletum just by walking into the building. In the category of easy to learn, difficult to master, Tiletum lays out each turn simply, then forces players to determine which way to most efficiently score a river of points.

Bask in the glory of a dry theme in an actual European settingĪnd Tiletum does all of this as well as any mid-weight Euro I’ve played this year.

Has no direct player interaction, but lots of indirect player interaction tied to racing other players to take limited building spaces on the board, snatching dice, and building more valuable Cathedrals before other players.

Allow for scores that push well into the 200s.

Feature a scoring track that doubles as the first player selection feature.

Roll dice, then manage said dice for deterministic, inverse functions.

Limit actions, but supply each player with bonus actions.

Gather resources (surprise: wood is not one of them!!).

As a wealthy merchant, you’ll spend your turns gathering resources to fulfill contracts, placing notable citizens in rooms on your player board, gaining favor with the King, and moving your two characters-a Merchant and an Architect-around the board to build Cathedrals and Houses in major cities of the era.įor those keeping count on their Eurogame score sheet, Tiletum lets players do all the following: Tiletum is set during “the Golden Age of the Renaissance”, so let’s call it the 15th century. Personally, I think Tiletum is more of a Luciani game than a Tascini game, in terms of feel and accessibility. The design is excellent and Tiletum will make gamers who love medium-weight efficiency puzzles very, very happy. Tekhenu is in the same class of games as these other rules-heavy monsters, so when Ola set the stage by mentioning its name, I got a little nervous.īut with each passing minute, Ola’s words became more soothing I also began to see why everyone at Board&Dice is so excited about Tiletum. So, as I was walking through the overview of Tiletum, I was holding my breath: would Tiletum lean into heavy territory, like Luciani’s Barrage or Tascini’s Tabannusi: Builders of Ur and Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula, games so heavy I could feel my brain melting in my skull?

In the case of two of these games- Grand Austria Hotel and Lorenzo il Magnifico-they hit the sweet spot for me: lots of interesting choices, medium weight games that I can play with casual or experienced gamers, efficiency puzzles that have dice, 90-minute playtimes, and combos.

Luciani has co-designed some of the best games I have ever played: Grand Austria Hotel (and the Let’s Waltz! expansion), Golem, and Lorenzo il Magnifico. The latter is the co-designer of some of the most celebrated strategy games of the last 10 years, including the “T” games (heavy strategy endeavors, all of which start with the letter T): T’zolkin: The Mayan Calendar, Teotihuacan: City of Gods, The Voyages of Marco Polo, and Tekhenu.īut Luciani was the reason I was sitting at the demo table.

The designers of Tiletum are Simone Luciani and Daniele Tascini. But I’ve enjoyed most of the other games I’ve played from Board&Dice, and the designers on the cover of this one tell me I really want to know about Tiletum.” We were walking through the set up for their new game, Tiletum.Įven though we were wearing masks, I could tell my response surprised her: I was sitting at Gen Con 2022 with Ola Sklodowska, Head of Marketing from Board&Dice. Justin reviews the new title from Simone Luciani and Daniele Tascini, Tiletum, from Board&Dice!

King under the mountain boardgame