Cities Board Game Review

At this point, if DEVIR releases a new product into the marketplace, I’m probably going to sign up to play it. This year, I’ve had the chance to play a ton of their games, thanks to their generosity and sending over so many for us. Whether it be games from years past – White Castle and Bitoku come to mind – or games new this year – Rock Hard 1977 and Daitoshi – I have enjoyed almost every minute with every DEVIR game I have played. But those games, mostly, are pretty lengthy and difficult to play / master, with perhaps Rock Hard being the exception. So when they release something fairly light, I wasn’t sure what to think. Somehow, still, Cities impressed me.

In Cities, players will be taking actions on a central board, choosing one of 4 rows each round. One row provides end game victory point cards that will score depending on how your city is laid out and built. Another row will provide you a square tile that can be added to your 3×3 city, with areas for buildings, parks, water features, and more. A third row will provide you features to place in your water areas and park areas, as well as monuments that earn straight victory points and wild tiles that can make a coloured building spot whatever you want it to be. And finally there is a row containing building pieces in 4 colours – red, green, blue, and yellow – which you will use to construct your city.

Since players are required to pick one row per turn (each round), deciding which items to take first and which to leave for later turns is pretty important. More often than not, the last worker you place in a round is likely giving you something less than ideal, perhaps an end game scoring card you don’t like, or building colours you don’t need. That’s the joy of the game, however, as you try to balance the things you really want against the things you kind of want. Choosing a strategy early is important – perhaps you’ll prioritize end game scoring cards and let that dictate what you do, ignoring the city specific achievements you can earn.  This might not be a path to glory, although personally I keep trying it out!

Each game will have three specific city achievements players are trying to obtain, and these are modelled after real life cities like Mexico City and New York City. In New York, for example, players need to create two rows or two columns of building tiles to represent the massive urban population of New York. Another optional objective is creating a park area of at least 7 tiles, which is obviously a nod to Central Park. If my knowledge of the other cities included in the game was better, I’m sure I could tie those achievements to real world reasons as well.

What I enjoy most about this game from DEVIR is the simplicity. There is a lot of strategy here, and it is ideal for veteran board game players, but it’s accessible as well. We were able to teach our 10 year old son this game with relative ease, and while he didn’t do as well as my wife and I, he held his own and understood how things were scored. It is games like this that aren’t as prevalent as I would like. Games that are solid for all audiences, whether new players or longtime fans.

The other reason I like this game so much is the joy of building your own city. Even when your game looks bleak and you are destined for last place, I still found joy and drafting these items from the central board and playing out my turns, building my city, and seeing if there was an avenue back to the top. More often than not, the answer to that question was an emphatic, “No!” but I always enjoyed the journey none-the-less.

My numerous games of Cities over the past week or so has enlightened me to one thing: easy to learn, accessible games are still in high demand, and I despite a history of complicated EURO experiences, I couldn’t think of a better company to produce more games like this than DEVIR.