Nouvelle-France

Main aim

A strategy game where you need to skillfully place construction blocks to build three historic sites from the Nouvelle France era, outwit your opponents, and thereby gain points. Add to that three further ways of either bettering your score or hindering your opponents.

Concept and Goal of the Game

Each turn, carefully place a construction block to help build either the military redoubt, the church, or the seigneurial mill. At the end of each turn, players gain points based on the placement of these blocks. Three times during the game, it will snow and this is when players receive extra points based on the number of cubes of their colour present in the level being tallied up. The snowdrifts are then added to each building, fitting around and hiding the level that has just been tallied, therefore limiting the remaining space available to gain points. The player who has the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Playing the Game

Each turn, a player draws a card illustrating a type of construction block, taking the one indicated from the stock pile. They need to add the block to one of the buildings in line with the rules of play: a wall must not be more than 3 cubes high; blocks must be within limits shown on the foundation tiles; blocks must not be inserted underneath another one already in play etc. Once the block has been placed, one point is awarded for each newly added cube of the player’s colour, with further points being added for all the cubes already in play of the same color that this new block touches. Therefore, players should try to have as many of the cubes already in play of their colour touching those of corresponding colour in the newly placed block to maximize their score per turn. Also, strategically played ally cards and colourless blocks allow players to increase their scores.