Santorini

You control two builders on a five-by-five island and race to climb onto a third floor first. The pieces are stackable white blocks and blue domes, and the board grows into a small Greek town. A turn is two steps. Move one builder one space, climbing at most one level, then build one level beside it. A dome caps any third floor and seals it for good, your way of blocking an opponent about to win. Once the basics are clear, add god cards: Apollo swaps places with an enemy builder, Atlas domes any level, and thirty-odd others bend the rules their own way. The base rules take two minutes and children pick it up at once, yet with the gods it becomes a proper duel with real bluff. We recommend it to couples and anyone wanting a chess-like game over in fifteen minutes.