By playing the game through players will gain the knowledge of how to improve for the next playthrough, with this process taking a few games. Regardless, players are always at the mercy of a depleted treasury. Starting without the news cards does make the experience easier, though the role cards often make things easier by reducing costs. Still, a bit like the video game players are dropped in the deep end. Scenarios 1 – 4 are effectively a tutorial system slowly adding in additional content, though not all of that content makes the game harder. There is a table on the back of the rulebook that can be compared to, ranging from a dying city to a heavenly one – to see how well the players did. If players manage to hit all of the milestones though then, after reducing happiness for the city capacity trackers, the city’s overall happiness is revealed. When this happens the city isn’t finished and the game is instantly over. This can occur during the milestone section or when a player is unable to perform any of the actions. If at any point the city is bankrupted, when money must be spent but the treasury cannot afford it, the game is lost. Finally, the team must pay for a new map tile, that’s adjacent to one already in use – flipping it face up. The bottom trackers of pollution, traffic and crime don’t impact anything during these milestones – though can stop construction cards being played. The team must then pay for each step the population is above or below the zero mark – seeing them paying unemployment benefits or paying to bring in workers for jobs. Importantly, if the tracker ever hits -5 or the overall happiness on the Skyline tracker reaches -10 then the game is lost. Then, the current happiness is transferred over to the Skyline display. For the top tracks on the admin board, trash capacity and such, for each step below zero on the tracker then the happiness tracker is reduced by 1. The final action is only available if each district has at least one building tile, with players then able to end the current milestone.Įnding a milestone is when all of the decisions will either result in banking some city happiness or they’ll come back to haunt players. They then replace it by drawing a card from one of the three construction decks. For 2 money tokens a player can discard one of their construction cards to a face up always available draw pil. If a player doesn’t want to, or cannot, play one of their construction cards they have two options. Where level 1 cards are the cheapest, level 3 cards are the most rewarding. Once this is done the player draws a new card from any of the construction level decks. That industrial building could provide jobs, decreasing the labour force, or perhaps if built in the same district as two commercial tiles would boost revenue, giving the city’s treasury some much needed extra money. For example, the cost of an industrial building could be increased traffic and pollution – which are tracked on the admin board. Built in roaded districts, tiles must fit within a single district and cannot overlap or move previously placed tiles.Įach card lists the costs and the rewards for building it, though costs aren’t always money. This will see one of the many polyomino pieces, which come in various types (colours) or with utility/service symbols, placed onto the board. The first is the most common, playing a construction card. On a player’s turn they must perform 1 of 3 actions. More importantly, players are always able to discuss. Rather than holding a hand of construction cards, players place their cards face up in front of themselves for all to see. Unlike a lot of cooperative games, Cities Skylines is an all information on show style game. Otherwise, aside from setting the trackers on the administration board to neutral, setup is mostly about putting the components within reach and dealing out some construction cards to each player.
Some of the cards and components, such as unique buildings and roles, are only included in specific scenarios – to step players into the game. These determine the map boards that are in play, as well as the pattern they make face down in the middle of the table. Starting out players will choose which of the scenarios they wish to play, be it the introduction, those that introduce additional content or an all in scenario.
However, will the game bring gamers happiness? Let’s find out! Making a happy city is the aim of the game. Designed by Rustan Håkansson, the game sees 1 – 4 players using cards to build homes, utilities, services and more – all whilst trying to not bankrupt the city. Published by Kosmos, the board game is a cooperative experience, with tiles placed to create the growing city. Cities Skylines The Board Game is unsurprisingly a title based upon the city building video game of the same name.