Ginkgopolis is <PERSON> fifth (I believe) game, following Royal Palace(2008), Carson City(2009), Troyes(2010), and Tournay(2011), along with a smattering of expansions for some of the above. This is the first of <PERSON>’s game I have played, and is currently ranked 325 in BGG (April 8th, 2013). Both Troyes and Carson city rank higher (39th and 167th respectively).
I admit that I have not played Ginkgopolis exhaustively – as I only have 3 plays under my belt at the time of writing (one each at 5 players, 3 players, and 2 players). Despite this, I found myself enamored with the game, both its flaws and its successes, and spent considerable time thinking about it.
Reactions to Ginkgopolis seem a bit of a mixed bag. The primary criticisms of the game being lack of theme integration with the mechanics and the high level of apparent randomness and uncertainty in the game. I decided to write this review to explore these two criticisms and examine the overall gameplay dynamics at work. I will conclude with my thoughts on how Ginkgopolis “fits” into the overall gaming scene and why I think it will be a compelling but underappreciated game.
Rule Time!
I am not one for doing exhaustive mechanics/rules overview, but for those not familiar with the game, here are the key bullet points on the rules and gameplay:
(1) Players are (abstractly) building “up” and building “out” the city of Ginkgopolis to earn VPs (called “Success Points”, but I’ll call them VP’s in this article).
(2) The gameplay revolves around card drafting (e.g. 7-Wonders style) from a hand of cards; to do one of 3 actions each round: (1) placing tiles to build out (urbanizing), (2) placing tiles to build up (construction) or (3) activating tiles/cards directly (exploiting). 92
The cards you select determines the location or existing tile where your new one will go, in the case of urbanizing or constructing respectively, or determines what existing tile is activated (exploiting).
(3) “Building up” feeds the tableau building aspect of the game. When you build on a tile, you get to place that tiles card in front of you to derive a game-long benefit or end-game bonus scoring.
(4) Tile placement and tableau building drives an engine-building system, netting players VP’s, resources, and tiles during the game for performing certain types actions.
(5) Placing new tiles also drives a shared deck-building mechanic, where new cards are added (and subsequently removed) from the deck of cards as tiles are added to the city (and subsequently built on).
(6) In addition to endgame bonuses from your tableau, VP’s are also earned based on players’ relative control over the city’s districts (i.e. area control).
(7) The game ends when a player has placed all their resources or the stack of tiles is exhausted for the second time (the first time it is exhausted, players can turn tiles back into the stack for VP’s).
Clear as mud?
The promise...
I will say this about the game’s mechanics; they are intricate. Yet when you boil it down, Ginkgopolis is not a complex game (there really aren’t many rules) – but the major mechanical elements (drafting, tile placement, deck building) all interconnect in such a way that it can be hard to describe and teach the game in a linear manner. The learning is certainty front loaded, and it often takes a few rounds for new players to get a sense of how all the pieces fit together. Once you “grok” the game, it comes together in a very elegant and fluid way.
However, Ginkgopolis has the paradox of being both elegant and fiddly at the same time. The interaction between the mechanical elements of the game is very tight and is where the originality (and innovation) of the game resides. It IS elegant how you build cards to your tableau, covering the associated building tile, and then add a new card to deck based on the new tile you placed. It’s quite cool to see these different systems so well intertwined.
Yet the actual play experience is considerably more fiddly. 349