Image Courtesy of stoogeThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type - Card Game
Play Time: 20-45 Minutes
Number of Players: 2-4
Mechanics - Set Collection, Dice Rolling
Difficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)
Components - Good
Release - 2012
Designer - <PERSON> -( Diamonsters, Machi Koro: HarbourExpansion)
Overview
From a little cardboard town on an island in the Pacific comes the next big thing in small gaming since Love Letter...Machi Koro. I just love saying it...Machi Koro...rolls off the tongue.
Machi Koro is a little town with big plans. You as the mayor need to plan and develop it for your citizens. It will need transport, agriculture, services, public works and perhaps a few amusements to keep your people happy.
The aim is simple enough...to build the best city possible and do it before those other neighbouring cities beat you to the plaudits.
So what are you waiting for? Get to it Mr and Mrs Mayor...your people are crying out for development, expansion and happy lives!
The Components
Machi Koro is a card game and so the game is largely a series of cards. To help highlight the different types I have split them into their various categories.
Starting Establishments – Each player begins with a Wheat Field and a Bakery. These establishments have no cost because they begin the game in play.
Like all cards in the game the card-design is deliberate and effective. The activation number is found at the top of the card, the card's title and associated icon (important for triggering some effects) sit above the central artwork and a card's cost and benefit are found at the bottom of the card.
The cards are also coloured according to their type. 581
Primary industries are blue, secondary industries are green, restaurants are red and Major Establishments are purple. These colours are important to the function or timing of cards as will be spelled out in due course.
It's all very simple but it works well.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Landmarks - The game comes with 4 landmarks and these are identical on both sides of the card except that one side is a muted grey colour with a construction-like symbol and the other is a brighter yellowy-brown. The cost and power of each Landmark is printed on both sides to help the players plan ahead.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Major Establishments - A series of purple cards represent the Major Establishments that help define the size and esteem of a town or small city. TV Stations, Stadiums and Business Centres are some of the purple cards found in the game. Because of their powerful abilities these locations are limited to one per player and they feature a tower icon to represent this.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Establishments - The game includes a total of 15 establishments in the base game, but if we take away the two starting ones and the 3 purple ones, we find another 10 unique establishments are included. These range from cafes to mines to fruit and vege markets.
In all the game serves up a total of 16 different establishments (if we include the Mega Gaming Store Promo that is included in many copies of the game) and the 4 Landmarks to help keep the game varied and interesting.
Image Courtesy of EnderGame
Dice– The game comes with two plastic dice, sometimes green and blue and sometimes both being red...depending on which edition you buy.
These are pretty standard fair but I do like the rounded corners.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Coins - The coins are functional and do the job. They come in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 with each featuring a different colour and size to identify them quickly.
All that I would say here is that the coins could have used a matte/linen finish to increase the quality a little.
Image Courtesy of lhapka
Tray Insert - The insert is worth mentioning for the simple fact that it works, but more importantly, they have provided nice deep card wells to ensure that cards from future expansions will fit easily into the base game box. Amen to helping us gamers maximise our shelf space.
Image Courtesy of snarfel
Rules - One blessing to games with a light, simple nature is that it is pretty hard to screw up the rulebook. Here the rules are well laid out and it is easy to find the info you need in those early learning games. 84