Tile Harbor is a quiet game of deduction played with a mahjong hand instead of a fleet.
Two keepers each hide thirteen tiles in a nine by nine lagoon. The thirteen are not scattered at random. They form five genuine mahjong sets, a kong of four, a pung of three, a chow of three in sequence, a pair and a single eye lantern. Then you take turns reading the other lagoon, one square at a time.
What makes this more than a grid of guesses is what happens when you are right. Every tile you uncover joins your hand. When your hand holds a real set, you can spend that set on a way to see further. A chow buys a look along a row. A pung sounds out a whole courtyard. A kong sweeps a wide band of water. Dragons and winds buy stranger things. The better you read the water, the better your hand becomes, and the better your hand, the further you can read.
SIX WAYS TO PLAY
Quick Duel. One round, no strings, against a keeper at Cadet, Navigator or Grandmaster.
Voyage. Five chapters and thirty stages, from Lantern Bay out to Jade Reef. Every stage bends one rule and keeps three stars, ninety in all.
Daily Sounding. A new solo board every midnight, with lane counts down both edges and two squares already read for you. Everybody in the world gets the same water.
Zen Flow. Forty eight tiles in a tray. Match any two free faces that a clear route can join. No clock unless you ask for one.
Endless Tide. Keeper after keeper, each one sharper than the last, one hand carried between rounds.
Pass and Play. Two keepers, one phone, and a cover card that hides the board while it changes hands.
