Cities Skylines - The board game

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Cities Skylines - The board game
Cities Skylines Logo.png
Game data
author Rustan Håkansson
graphic Fiore GmbH
publishing company Cosmos games ,
IELLO
Publishing year 2019
Art Board game
Teammates 1 to 4
Duration about 70 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Cities Skylines - Das Brettspiel is a cooperative board game by game designer Rustan Håkansson , which was published by Kosmos Spiele and IELLO in 2019 . The game builds on the successful computer game Cities Skylines and uses graphic and playful elements from it accordingly. It is a resource management and city building game .

Theme and equipment

The game Cities Skylines - The board game was thematically based on the computer game Cities Skylines and plays accordingly in a virtual world in which the players have to build a successful city from different types of buildings together. These are placed in the form of polyominos on a city map and, depending on the type, bring the players advantages and disadvantages. The aim is for the city to survive and for the residents to be as satisfied as possible.

The game material consists of a set of instructions

  • six map tiles,
  • 85 placement tiles for buildings, including
    • 24 residential areas
    • 12 commercial areas and 12 industrial areas each,
    • 9 supply buildings,
    • 18 service buildings,
    • 10 unique buildings
  • an administration board
  • eight management markers
  • a skyline to show the overall satisfaction with two corresponding markers,
  • 30 money tokens, four of them with a value of 5 and 26 with a value of 1,
  • 75 construction cards with 25 cards each from levels I to III,
  • 10 cards each for unique buildings, personal roles, city guidelines and news,
  • a starting player marker,
  • four overview cards for the course of a game move and one overview card for the end of a milestone.

Style of play

Game preparation

Before the game begins, the map tiles used for the current scenario are laid out face down according to the template. The templates from the game instructions are used in the standard games, but other structures can also be selected as an alternative. The administration board is placed next to the game board, the administration markers are placed on the value 0 of the different bars for supply (electricity, water, garbage), satisfaction, labor market performance, environmental pollution, traffic volume and crime. The starting amount is placed on the field for the city treasury, the amount of which depends on the experience of the players (as starting 12 money). The skyline to display the overall satisfaction is placed next to the administration board, the two markers are each placed on 0.

The building tiles are sorted and placed around the playing field, the building cards according to the three types I, II and III are shuffled separately. The cards for unique buildings, city guidelines and news can be mixed into the corresponding stacks II and II at the request of the other players. Depending on the number of players, the players receive three (with four players) to 7 (in the solo game) cards from deck I, which are laid out face up in front of the player. The remaining cards from deck I and decks II and II are placed face down next to the playing field. Finally, each player receives two cards with personal roles, of which he chooses one and puts the other back. The starting player (according to the rules of the game the youngest player) receives the starting player marker.

Game flow

Cities Skylines - The board game is played over a number of rounds that have not been set beforehand, starting with the starting player. The game is cooperative; This means that the players can play together and advise about the moves, but the active player carries out the action himself.

Alternatives per turn
  • play a building card
  • exchange a construction card
  • end a milestone

At the beginning of the first round, the starting player selects one of the map tiles that is to be developed. The development costs are indicated on the back of the respective boards and must be paid from the city treasury. The uncovered part of the map shows a part of the urban area to be built on, which is divided into city quarters over the edge of the map, waters and streets. In later rounds, the city quarters can also extend over several parts of the map.

After the first part of the map is open, the starting player begins his actual turn. The active player can choose from three options; The following actions are possible:

  • play a construction card:
The player chooses one of the building cards in front of him with a building that he wants to build. There are different types of building cards: The service buildings and the supply buildings each have a price that has to be paid from the city treasury and an effect that is carried out on the administration board. The player may place the service buildings and the supply buildings in any city district; However, only one supply building (electricity, water or garbage) may be built in each district. Level I service buildings only have one influence on directly neighboring buildings; in Levels II and III they affect an entire city district.
The residential, commercial and industrial buildings also influence different values ​​on the administration board, but have no construction costs for the city administration. They also each have a beneficial effect that depends on the existence of other factors, such as the presence of specific service buildings or values ​​on the administration board.
Basically, costs and effects for buildings have to be paid for. If there is no money in the city coffers, no buildings can be built that generate costs. If the markers on the administration board are on the edge of the respective red bar, no buildings may be built that would further impair these effects. Rewards, on the other hand, are not limiting; However, it can happen that rewards cannot be given because the corresponding marker is already at its maximum. In the case of satisfaction, the additional points are transferred directly to the marker bar on the skyline.
After the building has been built and all effects have been resolved, the player draws a card from one of the three card piles and ends his turn.
  • exchange a construction card:
The active player may exchange any card from his display for the payment of 2 money from the city treasury. He discards a card on the exchange pile and draws a new card from one of the three face-down card piles or from the exchange pile.
  • end a milestone:
An active player can end a milestone if there is at least one component of their choice in each city district. In this case he takes the starting player marker and evaluates the values ​​on the management board. All negative points on the electricity, water and garbage supply bars are transferred as negative points on the satisfaction scale. The values ​​on the scales are not changed, so they remain negative. Then the current status of the satisfaction scale is transferred to the skyline and added to the previous value. In extreme cases, it can also turn negative. Then the labor market track is evaluated and for each step that the marker is positive or negative away from 0, the city treasury pays 1 money.
Finally, turn over another component of the city map that is adjacent to one that is already open. The development costs have to be paid. Starting with the new starting player, all players are allowed to place any number of building cards on the exchange pile one after the other and draw new cards from the three face-down piles. For each card exchanged, 1 money must be paid from the city treasury. Then the game continues.

The maps for unique buildings, city guidelines and news can optionally be added to the game:

The unique buildings are additional buildings with specific one-time or permanent rewards that can be built and exchanged like other buildings.
The city guidelines are also added to the deck of cards and can be drawn and used. They will not build new buildings; instead, they change individual rules. These cards cannot be exchanged.
The news cards describe effects and must be carried out immediately when they are drawn. They keep their effect until they are replaced by a new news card. The player who draws a news card places it face up next to the administration board and draws another card.

End of game and scoring

The game ends when the last milestone is reached with all map tiles. However, unlike the previous milestones, there must be at least two buildings in each district. In addition to the normal milestone scoring, the bars environmental pollution, traffic load and crime are now also evaluated, and for each point on these scales, the overall satisfaction is reduced by one point. The result is compared with the evaluation in the instructions. If the team reaches a value of 31 or more points, the city is considered successful and the game won; if the team scores up to 30 points, the city has failed and the game is lost. Both the failed and the successful city have further subdivisions for evaluation.

Publication and reception

The game Cities Skylines - The board game was developed by the Swedish game author Rustan Håkansson and was published in German and English by Kosmos Spiele and in French by IELLO for the International Game Days in Essen in 2019 . The development took place in cooperation with Paradox Interactive , who have the rights to the computer game.

The game received positive reviews in several reviews. The reviewer Christian from Brett & Pad writes, for example, that the game is "especially recommended at the level of family games [...] if you are interested in the topic, because the introduction is well controlled via scenarios." However, the level of difficulty fluctuates and he would have "more long-term elements ”desired. According to a review on brettspielblog.ch, the game “does not come close to a computer game with its possibilities, but the game mechanics picks out some elements and implements them really well on the game board.” However, “the high luck factor when drawing cards” is here negatively noted.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cities Skylines - The board game , game instructions, Kosmos games 2019.
  2. ↑ Cities Skylines - The Board Game , versions at BoardGameGeek. Retrieved June 28, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Cities Skylines, review on brettundpad.de, accessed on June 28, 2020.
  4. ↑ Cities Skylines, review on brettspielblog.ch, accessed on June 28, 2020.

Web links