Isle of Skye

Today's game review is of the 2015 release, Isle of Skye.  For 2-5 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview
You are a chieftain, charged with leading your clan to glory.  To do so, you will build your kingdom by laying landscape tiles to expand your territory.  Each landscape tile will have type(s) of terrain (pasture, mountain, water) and a combination of other features (road, whiskey barrel, sheep, cattle, farm, ship, lighthouse, broch, or victory parchments).  Each turn, you'll acquire these tiles and position them in your kingdom for maximum impact. Choose and place carefully- each game has different victory conditions, denoted by four scoring tiles (chosen randomly from sixteen available)- which will guide your decisions.

game in progress; image from here

Simplified Gameplay
The youngest player is the first player for round one.  Each round has the following phases:

1. Income
• Each player takes from the bank 5 gold (for their castle) + gold for whiskey barrels on connecting roads + [in later rounds] gold based on the number of players ahead of you on the victory track
2. Draw Tiles and Set Prices
• Each player randomly selects 3 tiles from the bag, laying them in front of their screen (see illustration above).  Assign a discard marker to one and monetary values to the other two (at least one gold for each).
3. Discard a Tile
• Each player discards the tile chosen with the discard marker.  Now each player has 2 tiles in front of them.
4. Buy a Tile
• Starting with the first player, each player in clockwise order can buy exactly one tile from another player.  The price of the tile is the value assigned by that opponent in step 2; give that amount of gold to that player and take the tile (the player returns the money he assigned to that tile to his pool as well).  You don't have to buy one if you don't want to.
• If nobody buys your tile(s), you get them, but you must give the money you assigned to them to the bank- you effectively bought them for that amount.
• Based on these rules, you'll end up with 0-3 tiles to place in the next phase.
5. Build
• Each player places their acquired tile(s) according to the game rules (terrain edges must match, though roads don't need to; you must place a tile adjacent to one already in your kingdom)
6. End of Round and Scoring
• All players receive points based on the scoring tiles of the current round (the game board shows which of the four tiles is used for scoring in a given round- each round is different). 

The next player (clockwise order) then becomes the first player, the round marker is advanced, and the next round begins.  The game lasts five rounds (for 5 players) or six rounds (for 2-4 players).  After the final round, additional points are scored if you have any scrolls on your tiles or remaining gold.  Highest point total wins!  Check out the full rules here if interested.

a kingdom in progress; image from here

Review
This is a great game.  It's like Carcassonne, but (in my opinion) more fun, with lots of choice and variety.  Assigning monetary value to your tiles is key to the game, and takes some thought- pricing them too high or low has risks.  The varied victory tiles mean no game is ever the same, and you have to pay attention to the round, too, as that dictates which victory tiles are scored.  I see why this game won awards (Kennerspiel des Jahres- the 'thinking game' of the year).  The only downside is the amount of things going on- it can overwhelm some players.

Rating: A