CriticalMeeple

How to play
You are a glass art merchant and, on a board showing Murano and the other small islands around it, you must move from 1 to 8 gondolas, common pool available for all players, along the border to do actions. The actions available are: get money from bank, build buildings or roads, get character cards, use gondoliers, produce glass or sell it to gain money.
The twist is that each field has only action available and you cannot move the last gondolas over the others or beneath them, but you must move the other gondolas to send one in the field desired; of course, a part from the first gondolas moved, you must pay for moving the other ones.
If some actions give you money other ones give you points, you can also get extra points from character cards, that are activated by gondoliers and assigned to individual islands. The merchant with the highest points score wins the game.

Rules and Rulebook
Rules are well explained and written; it’s a very short rulebook, but take care that the last three pages are the Character Card Index; even if the text on the card is quite understandable, it could be necessary to look at the index.

How it works
The roundel moving common pool worker placement mechanism  is somehow fresh: choose your own actions and at the same time have the other players in view. It’s also fluid because each turn consists only of activating one action; one the other side, in the first plays, it is possible to spend time to decide where and when place buildings: only experience will help to make the better decision.
The interaction is indirect, there is no action or card that let you block other players, and, it is good because there are enough frustration factors during the game. The bar of the game raise from family to gamers especially in the production of glass that costs victory points, a move that requires a little bit of calculation.

The judgement
Even if it is a medium light game, still the game experience is pleasant; the roundel mechanism is not easy to master but it is challenging and interesting. Be careful if the game experience of the players is different, newbies can lose with no chance to compete.

How to play
You have six turns to gain points to win the game; during the six turns you can:
1) refill your reserve of stone cubes
2) place one of them onto one of the four available ships which change, for load capacity, each turn, move one ship, as the minimum level of load is reached, to one of the locations available and each player put their own cubes according to the order of load (first in, first out); according to place chosen you’ll get cards (1 location), immediate points (1 location), end of turn points (1 location) or end of game point (2 location).
When all the four ships are unloaded the turn ends.
Rules and Rulebook
Rules are clear, my experience says that after half a round everyone is able to manage the rules of the game. The rulebook is clear, well-illustrated and with proper examples.
How it works
It is short, it is tactical, it’s fluent and all the rules have sense; you can take it after time and you don’t need to read the rulebook anymore; it is language dependent because of text on the cards and on the locations, additionally, with only four actions among which you must choose there is no downtime even in four players. Good rate of repliability, even if expansions will be welcome
The judgement
It is not a family game, not only because there is direct interaction that could be very rough, but most because it’s a game based on timing; taking the wrong time on refilling your reserve or putting the cube on the wrong boat could cost you the final victory. Despite that it’s a beautiful game, maybe not a masterpiece but it can claim a place on your bookshelf.

How to play
To build your city, use your own four architects, numbered from 1 to 4, to take a tile from a 5 × 5 construction site; by example to take the fourth tile in a row, you may use architect 4 from top or 2 from bottom; choose wisely: tile can only be inserted in the city in the fourth, or second, quarter. You get also population or energy as indicated in the tile; they are requested to activate buildings, no activation no final points, and who gets the best score wins; one point less for each unused citizen or energy.
If you play in the expert mode the quarters are five so the architects are numbered from 1 to 5, additionally you don’t have your architects’ team, but there is a common pool: where there is one architect of each number per player; there are also two new types of buildings.
Rules and Rulebook
Few well written rules in a colored fancy rulebook; examples given help to clear any doubt on the game.
How it works
Easy and challenging, you can choose the level according the gaming experience of the players; at classic mode could be considered as family game, but take in mind that, even if it is mainly tactical, a level of planning is necessary to pose properly the tiles in your city and to use energies and citizens. The interaction is at indirect level but it could be tough, in fact you must pose a common pawn, called urbanist, that does not allow the next player to you to takes tile from the same row and column where you take your one.
My review
It’s funny and it lasts the right time for the mind effort required; it has a little bit of innovation in the mechanism of taking tile and expansions are available; a solid 8/10.