Earthquake

The pieces

Every tile is a 2x2 patch of land with four cells: fields (green), clay (red), ocean (blue) and wheat (yellow). Most tiles show all four terrains; the ones to fight over carry two cells of the same terrain, side by side or on the diagonal.

Each player has a 4x4 board of 16 slots. The game uses 15 tiles per player, so a 2-player game draws from 30 tiles and a 6-player game from all 90.

1. Draft

• The tiles lie face up in a line, with a pawn in front of the first one.
• On your turn, take one of the three tiles after the pawn. The pawn moves into the gap you left.
• Tiles you skipped stay in the line. The line wraps around, so they come back later.
• Rotate the tile any way you like, then place it on any empty slot of your board. Once placed, it stays.
• Everyone can see every board. Talk, trade advice, or bluff.
• The draft ends when the line is empty. Every board holds 15 tiles and one empty slot.

2. Shift

• The earthquake lasts 5 minutes. You see only your own board.
• The only move is a slide: push a tile that touches the empty slot into it. No rotating, no lifting.
• Register your score whenever you like, up to 5 times. Your board at the start of the shift counts as a free first registration.
• The scoreboard shows everyone's best registered score and who leads. It goes dark for the final minute.
• Your final score is your best registered score. An unregistered board doesn't count.

3. Score

• For each terrain, count your largest connected area. Cells connect edge to edge, across tile borders. Corners don't count.
• Your score is your two best terrains added together. Areas of 7, 4, 7 and 3 score 14.
• Highest score wins. On a tie, add the two terrains that didn't count; if it's still a tie, the win is shared.