Nine Tiles Panic

About this board game

Nine Tiles Panic is a competitive town-building puzzle game for 2–5 players that takes about 20 minutes to play. Each player uses a personal set of nine double-sided town tiles, arranging them into a town as quickly as possible.

At the start of each round, three scoring cards are revealed. These cards define the objectives for the round, and players race to assemble their towns in whatever pattern they think will score best. The challenge is to balance several possible goals while deciding how to use the available tile sides.

Scoring cards can reward different features of a finished town, including:

• Having the most aliens on a single road
• Showing the most dogs
• Creating the longest road

Players can try to score points for one, two, or all three scoring cards as they wish. As soon as the first player decides their town is complete, they flip the sand timer. Every other player then has 90 seconds to finish assembling their town.

Once time is up, players determine who scores for each scoring card. Ties are broken in favor of the player who finished first, making the decision to stop an important part of the race. Points are based on the number of players in the game, and scores are tracked on a chart over multiple rounds.

With its double-sided tiles, shifting scoring goals, and simultaneous construction, Nine Tiles Panic creates a tense contest in which every arrangement is a new opportunity to pursue points.