New Game Round-up: Flicking Plastic, Building Spires, and Outlasting the Competition

Dead Last — originally known as Tontine — is a "social collusion" game of shifting alliances, betrayals, and murder for profit in which players must conspire and vote upon whom to kill each round. Any means of overt or covert communication is allowed — a glance, a nod, pointing under the table, flashing a card, anything – but make sure you don't tip off the target or they could ambush you instead! In the end, one or two players will remain, either claiming all the gold or squaring off in a final showdown before starting the next round of play. The first player to score 24 points of gold wins.

A king with a penchant for spires is asking his favorite builders – the players – to perk up his kingdom's skyline. Players compete to build the tallest spires to receive the king's favor, but his majesty has warned that the towers must not be taller than those on his royal palace.

Spires combines hand management, set collection, and trick-taking into a 25-minute game. Players compete for cards in different markets to try to build out their tableaus.

Every player aims to fill their tableau with spires of each type but must be careful not to add more than three of any one type of card. Once the spire exceeds three cards, all cards of that type become a penalty to their final score.

Competing for cards can be tricky as rival builders can force you to take cards that push you over the three-card limit, but not to worry! You can also win cards that allow you to discard or swap cards.

The builder with the most points, including spires and bonuses (special cards, icon majorities, etc.), wins!