Build a town where no two houses are allowed to look too similar. Town 77 is a compact travel board game from Oink Games that combines tile placement with clever hand management. With just 49 tiles, this deceptively simple puzzle creates a surprisingly tense race to get rid of your remaining pieces.
 
Each tile features one of seven house styles in seven colours or patterns, with every possible combination appearing just once. Build the town by placing tiles into an evolving 7x7 grid, connecting each new house to the existing neighbourhood while ensuring its colour and style does not already appear in the relevant row or column.
 
Your hand management is just as important as your placement. After playing a tile, you can choose to draw another but once you reduce the size of your hand, you cannot increase it again. Keep too few options available and you may become trapped with no legal move. Draw too many, however and you risk being left with a larger hand than your opponents when the game ends.
 
If you cannot legally place a tile, you are eliminated from the round. The game continues until every player is out, with victory going to the player holding the fewest tiles. Play your final tile first and you can win immediately, making the decision to draw another card a deliciously dangerous one.
 
With quick gameplay, portable components plus easy-to-learn rules, Town 77 is an excellent small box travel game for families and friends who enjoys spatial puzzles with a clever twist.