![\"Qwirkle](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51-eeCqrquL._SL300_.jpg\"\n)
\n <\/a>\n \n \n \n Purchase from Amazon\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n \n\n Designed by Susan McKinley Ross in 2006, the 2011 Spiel des Jahres<\/a> winner Qwirkle<\/i> has become a staple of many families\u2019 board game collections, and for good reason. It\u2019s easy to teach, easy to learn, highly approachable, and its large, brightly colored tiles have a magnificent table presence. It\u2019s the type of game that catches the eye and draws you in.<\/p>\n Qwirkle<\/i> is made up of a collection of tiles featuring six distinct shapes in six distinct colors. During setup, each player draws six tiles from the bag and keeps them hidden from the other players. On their turn, a player will lay out tiles from their hand into a common tableau, following certain pattern-building rules, in order to score points. Then they will draw back up to six tiles before passing play to the next player in line.<\/p>\n The rules for laying down tiles are easy. Firstly, the tiles you lay down must be orthogonally adjacent to any pre-existing tiles. Secondly, the pattern you create can consist of tiles that are all the same shape or all different colors, with no repeats. For instance, you can play out an orange circle, a red circle, and a blue circle. But you cannot play out a second orange circle with these as that would violate the \u201cno repeats” rule.<\/p>\n Then, you score points for each tile in the row or column that you affected. In this instance, you would score three points. If you manage to complete a line of six, then you score six additional points\u2014a \u2018qwirkle\u2019 in the game\u2019s nomenclature. Like Scrabble <\/i>or Azul<\/i><\/a>, it\u2019s possible that laying down tiles may create multiple groups of tiles. In this case, you\u2019d score for each of those groups. Also, similar to Scrabble<\/i>, players may opt to skip their turn to exchange tiles from their hand with different tiles drawn from the bag.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pretty easy game once you get the hang of it, and that\u2019s largely due to there only being a few things to keep track of: the shape and the color. But, what if you added a third element? That would ramp up the difficulty quite a bit. Which is exactly that the next game on the ladder does.<\/p>\n Say hello to IOTA<\/i>.<\/p>\n \n\n IOTA<\/i> (designed by Gene Mackles and published by Gamewright Games<\/a>), is (as the text on the front of the packaging states) a great big game in a teeny-weeny tin. Inside of this tin is a deck of 66 cards; each of which contains three pieces of information: a color, a shape, and a number (red, triangle, 3 for example). In total, there are four different colors, four different numbers, and four different shapes. There is at least one card in the deck for every permutation of these, plus two wild cards.<\/p>\n Like Qwirkle<\/i>, players are playing cards to a shared tableau. And, much like Qwirkle<\/i>, players can play cards into rows where shape, color, or number match with no repeats allowed. Players can also opt to skip their turns in favor of discarding cards to draw some new ones. But, that\u2019s where the similarities to Qwirkle<\/i> end. <\/p>\n Unlike Qwirkle<\/i>, not everything has to match all the time. Got four cards that have no characteristics in common? You\u2019re in luck. In IOTA<\/i>, even cards that are completely different are considered a set. The first card you lay down in a row or column establishes that row or column. The second card laid down establishes the rules for it. For instance, if you lay down the Red Triangle 3 mentioned earlier followed by a Red Triangle 2, then you\u2019ve established that the row or column must contain cards that are red triangles and those cards must have different numbers. You could just have easily laid down a Blue Circle 3 as the second card. That would establish that the row or column must contain the number 3 but have different shapes and colors.<\/p>\n Another way that IOTA<\/i> differs from Qwirkle<\/i> is in the way that scoring is performed. In Qwirkle<\/i>, you\u2019re essentially earning one point per tile that was involved, with the occasional opportunity for a bonus. In IOTA<\/i>, you score points equal to the total of the face values of the rows and columns you\u2019ve added to. So, a row of four cards that have the number 4 on them will be more valuable than a row of four cards numbered 1 to 4.<\/p>\n On the surface, it doesn\u2019t seem like IOTA<\/i> is really that different from Qwirkle<\/i>, but that additional piece of information (the number) coupled with the concept that four things that share nothing in common are also considered a set ramp up the difficulty considerably. That\u2019s why IOTA<\/i> sits above Qwirkle<\/i> on the ladder.<\/p>\n Our next game takes everything you\u2019ve learned and really puts it to the test.<\/p>\n Welcome to The Glade<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n \n \n Purchase from Amazon\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n \n\nQwirkle<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/qwirkle.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIOTA<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/iota-1024x695.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51C5fUWI7QL._SL300_.jpg\"\n)
\n <\/a>\n \n The Glade<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/glade-1024x546.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/unnamed.png\")
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