Green City
Designed by: N/A
In Green City the players need to get the inhabitants to their desired destinations, and we do so by building the green routes of the title: taking trams, buses, bicycles… we can even get them there by walking. If anyone is legit behind when the game ends, they must go by car, which is obviously nowhere near as green.
The board shows the hexagonal shaped city, and before the game begins each player’s passengers are placed at their randomly-assigned starting spots on the perimeter. Each passenger – a disc – has an icon showing where they need to go on the board, which has matching icons in unique locations. At the start of the game all routes are the undesirable roads, but this changes during play. On your turn you’ll draw a tile from the board which has two of the ‘green’ travel options on either side, and decide where to place it. In doing so you’re sometimes helping the other plays too… and sometimes hindering them. If any of your passengers can now travel uninterrupted from their starting spot to the matching destination, they may now do so, and will score points. But bear in mind that in Green City each route must be unbroken: there’s no walking to catch and bus and then changing to a tram; each passenger must use a single way to travel from start to finish. And each route has more desirous lengths: walks ideally short, cycles moderate and trams and buses slightly more epic. Matching these is worth more points!
When a passenger reaches a destination, they leave the city and jump onto the matching-coloured track of the route they used, and you can optionally use four different bonus tiles you begin the game with to bump up these windfalls. At certain junctures in the game these tracks will score for each passenger there, so there’s a sense that having at least one passenger travel by walking/cycling/tram/bus as soon as you can would be a good strategic move. However, the more populous these tracks get, the less rewarding they are, so it’s not the only path to success.
After a certain number of rounds the game will end. Any passengers who can travel green will now do so, and any who can’t will be forced to go by road and score minus points.
Sam says
It feels more an abstract game than a thematic one, but the challenge here is interesting, and interactive. Where can you make other player’s placements work for y0u? Can you can turn your 3-link bus-route into a more rewarding 8-link one? And, if you’re of that mindset, where can you hit a late-game harpoon into the evident plans of another player who still has to get a passenger through the melee of developed links across the city? I’m not sure this is the grail game for someone who really wants to feel they’re building a city, but for puzzle, passive-aggressive interaction and delivery-satisfaction, it packs a significant punch into its half-hour-or-so playtime.
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Take That!
Present and correct. As much as players can sometimes assist each other - inadvertently or otherwise - as the board fills up with tiles opportunities for sabotage also open up
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Fidget Factor!
Not a long game, but it's fairly thinky in a spatial sense, so be prepared for the odd wait as players weigh up their options
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Brain Burn!
See above. If you can get everyone to their destinations, you'll probably be in with a shout, but it's definitely possible to win in other ways
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Again Again!
If you like the route-building puzzle and side-order of shenanigans, it's a game where player input and the good/ill fortune of track-scoring are never predictable
