Two New Games

["mschoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

I have just posted two new games to the "Rules in Progress" Folder. 

Both of these games came about as a result of an effort of mine to 
come up with a game similar to Alien City (a successful ealier game 
of mine with which some group members will be familiar)that does not 
require additional components outside of the piecepack (Alien City 
requires Ice House pyramids in addition to a piecepack). As often 
happens in cases like this, I was not succesful in my original goal, 
but I did come up with a couple of new piecepack games that I feel 
pretty good about. The games definitely bear a resemblance to Alien 
City, particularly in the case of Shops & Customers, but both of 
them are different enough to be considered distinct games with 
distinct strategies required for winning.

"Shops & Customers" can be played with a piecepack plus some pennies 
and nickels. The tiles are randomly laid out at the beginning of the 
game to form a city section comprised of twenty four city blocks. 
During the game players purchase four types of shops: jewlery 
stores, bistros, French bakeries, and coffee shops, with an eye 
toward choosing good locations with many nearby customers and few 
close competing shops of the same type. One advantage this game has 
over Alien City is that it can be played with more than two players.

"Stations" is a more abstract game, and is strictly for two players. 
All the required bits are contained within a piecepack. As with 
Shops & Customers, the board is composed of tiles and is laid out 
before the game starts. In this game, players may perform three 
different actions: place a coin, place your pawn, or slide a tile. 
The tile sliding introduces a new variable that makes this game 
quite different, even though it seems (to me at least) to still have 
a bit of the same feel as Alien City. At the end of the game, the 
player whose coins are closest, on average, to his pawn, wins the 
game. 

Both of these games play fairly quickly, especially Stations, but 
both present interesting challenges. My brother Steve and I have 
play-tested them, but obviously more input and testing is always 
greatly appreciated. I would be most appreciative to hear any 
comments, especially ones that uncover flaws in the rules.

Mike Schoessow