Small Islands

You are an explorer in an archipelago full of natural riches and ancient temples, and you want to bring prestige home to your clan. Small Islands is a quick tile-placement game over a maximum of four rounds. At the start of each round you secretly pick one of three objective cards, and then you take turns drawing and placing landscape tiles from five available (two in hand, three on the table). Eventually you can place a ship tile instead, which sets off a scoring moment: everyone puts houses on the islands and earns prestige according to their objective. It is a puzzle with push-your-luck tension, because the ship tile ends the round for everyone. Plays solo, too.