PLAYlist 54: Cities Skylines

Blog
All

PLAYlist 54: Cities Skylines

Jun 12, 2020 By Brad Walton

Let’s cut to the chase: you need a new quarantine board game. It’s been a month (or more) for some of us stuck at home and everyone is getting antsy. We want to build, to experience the thrill of infrastructure, and most of all we want to work together on something. This is a good time to pick up Cities: Skylines, the board game.

Designed by Rustan Håkansson and produced by Kosmos, Cities: Skylines is a 1-4 player cooperative city building game based off the popular computer game/app of the same name. While not as pretty as the digital version (in fact, the board game has pretty amateur artistry for an established property), the game offers a lot in replay value. There are six game boards that can be used in any combination together, 85 individual building/zone pieces in odd Tetris-y shapes to place on the boards, ten unique roles players can take in the city that give you bonuses, and eight different city metrics that you are trying to keep balanced in order to score the most points. Despite having so many moving pieces, the gameplay is very intuitive and takes about ten minutes to explain to new players. Cities also has simpler scenarios in its rulebook for those who want to learn certain aspects of the game at a slower pace.

A game starts by placing all your tokens on the zero value for each city metric (power, water, garbage, happiness, employment, pollution, traffic, and crime) and 12 dollars in your treasury. Then, choose which game boards you will use and place them face down with edges touching. Place the construction cards in their 3 tier stacks and deal four tier 1 cards to each player. Turn all hand cards face up so they are visible to everyone. The youngest player begins.

The whole game revolves around resource management. You have to spend money to open land to develop. The cards in your hand are the buildings/zones available for you to build, and each give you benefits and have costs. A water tower, for instance, will cost you $3 and give you three water resources. A residential zone might increase employment and give you money if it is next to a park, but will also increase crime and traffic. A turn consists of either playing one of your cards, discarding a card at a cost of $2, or ending a milestone (I’ll explain this more later). After playing a card, find that type of piece and choose the shape you want to fit onto the board. After you play or discard, draw back up to 4 cards from any of the three tiers, and play passes to the next person. The higher the tier of construction card, the higher the costs and benefits.

Cooperation between players is key to successful city building. Often the cards in your hand will benefit from cards that someone else has to play first, but that will require a third person cutting down on pollution first. There are upper and lower limits to each of the city metrics that cannot be passed, and there are several things that can end the game in a loss. If the population gets too unhappy, you lose. If you ever have $0, you lose. If you are unable to play on your turn, you lose. If you lose, then everyone loses together.

So how do you win? By making your city inhabitants happy! The Administration Board has a happiness track, and there is also a skyscraper with numbered notches on it. The first is to track your city’s happiness as it goes up and down while you play. The second is to record the total happiness after you hit milestones. All milestones except the last one have the same conditions. You have to have at least one building or zone in each city district- which are the areas separated by roads on the game boards- and the money to flip over another game board. Total up all the happiness from your administration board, plus happiness for all the utilities above zero and minus happiness for any negatives. Add this number on the skyscraper happiness tracker. The last milestone happens after you have all the board games purchased, and requires you to have at least two buildings in each district. At this point the game ends and you’ve won! The total happiness on your skyscraper tracker determines how successful your city is, though. So, you can win but still end up with a Dying City if you have negative total happiness, or a Heavenly City if you’ve just absolutely nailed it.

Overall, Cities: Skylines is an easy game to play while challenging to make a very desirable city. It is a great experience for kids to learn cooperative skills and resource management. The odd shaped zones really add to the fun as you try to pick the best piece to fit in each district. If you’re looking for something to keep the family working together and occupied for a while while stuck at home, this is a good game to pick up.

Here’s a playlist of city songs to get you in the building mood. You’ll feel like a hot child in the summer in the city you built on rock and roll as you jam out.

***

Previous PLAYlist columns: Family Game Roundup for Gamers in Quarantine, Disney Villainous, Crown of Emara, Mini Rails, Tribes: Dawn of Humanity, Gates of Delirium, Terror Below, The Estates, Nobjects, Memoir ‘44 & New Flight Plan, Bubble Tea, Undo, Gizmos, Imhotep, Hex Roller, The Table is Lava, Happy Salmon, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Climbers, NEOM, Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, Reykholt, Pandemic, Everdell, Kingdomino, Citrus, History of the World, Altiplano, Pioneer Days, Crystal Clans, Jurassic Park: Danger!, Photosynthesis, Ice Cool, Food Truck Champion, Ars Alchimia & Lemuria, A Game of Thrones Catan, Troyes, Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition, Flip Ships, NMBR 9, Unearth, Escape from 100 Million B.C., Orleans (plus Trade & Intrigue), Whistle Stop, Caverna: Cave vs Cave, Twilight Struggle, Honshu, Bärenpark, Notre Dame & In the Year of the Dragon, Yokohama, Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure, Villages of Valeria, New York Slice, Watson & Holmes, Hanamikoji.

Comments

Submit your comment

mujtaba
June 28th 2020
5:14pm

Welcome Gamers If you are here finding the AFK Arena Mod Apk Unlimited Money/Gems In AFK Arena Mod Apk Unlimited Money/Gems you’ll race in some of the hottest, most high-performance dream machines ever created, from cars to bikes, as you take them on a global tour of speed. From the blazing Nevada Desert to the tight turns of Tokyo, you’ll find a world of challenge, excitement and arcade fun on your road to the top!

mujtaba
June 30th 2020
7:33pm

Welcome guys If you are here finding the Archero Mod Apk v1.4.7 Latest Download In Archero Mod Apk v1.4.7 [Latest] Download Welcome Guys to the new post of Modapkdroid.com. Today we are sharing Archero Mod Apk v1.4.7 [Latest] Download File with You using which you can play unlimited videos and also can activate the premium Mode.

Nancy
July 1st 2020
3:52pm

very good .

mujtaba
July 4th 2020
12:56pm

POWERFUL LOVE SPELLS TO BRING BACK YOUR EX
Use the powerful love spells to bring back your ex to you and make him want you again. THIS IS LIKE a second chance to your relationship. To help have him back. for more information visit our site https://loveandmarriagespellsthatwork.com/

mujtaba
July 7th 2020
3:12pm

hey everyone the great oportunity for everyone to learn to hack Facebook account for free. learn to hack facebook acount of anyone in just few steps its all free of cost..for more info please visit our site
https://learn-to-hack.com/

Awaisarain
July 8th 2020
12:46pm

How to pick a motherboard for gaming. Comparison between best motherboard for i9 9900k, best motherboard for ryzen 7 3700x, best motherboard for ryzen 7 2700x and many others.

mujtaba
July 8th 2020
1:59pm

hey everyone the great oportunity for everyone to learn to hack Facebook passwordfor free. learn to hack Facebook password of anyone in just few steps its all free of cost..for more info please visit our site
https://learn-to-hack.com/

mujtaba
July 9th 2020
4:51am

hey everyone the great oportunity for everyone to learn to hackWhatsApp accountfor free. learn to hack WhatsApp account of anyone in just few steps its all free of cost..for more info please visit our site

mujtaba khan
July 9th 2020
10:44am

hey everyone the great oportunity for everyone to learn how tohack Facebook passwordfor free. learn how to hack Facebook password of anyone in just few steps its all free of cost..for more info please visit our site
https://learn-to-hack.com/

Awaisarain
July 9th 2020
2:16pm

Top Helpful Health Care Tips and Tricks Nz Supplements

mujtaba khan
July 11th 2020
9:50am

A Website is created for people that are steps to bring love and happiness. So, from here you’ll be able to read Cricket Sports News in Urdu. We provide the most popular and interpretation Twenty20 cricket coverage available such as Cricket Team, ball-by-ball commentary, Stories, Score, newspaper, epaper, statistics, Schedules, unparalleled statistics, Results, News Headlines, views, and quality editorial Match Coverage Videos from home of cricket on BBC Sport online. for more visit our site
https://www.sayfjee.com

Android app development
July 15th 2020
1:32am

Best App Development Companies in India 2019 Searching for the best Indian Program development company.Hire That the best iPhone/iOS or Android Programmer in India

Megankhenson
July 15th 2020
1:47am

Always so interesting to visit your site.What a great info, thank you for sharing. this will help me so much in my learning.

jagvir
July 18th 2020
1:42pm

Boost traffic and promote your brand with content marketing and guest posting tactics Today!

website Our aim is to promote your business & brand. Contact us Today!

mujtaba
July 28th 2020
7:16am

A Websiteis created for people that are steps to bring love and happiness. So, from here you’ll be able to read Cricket Sports News in Urdu. We provide the most popular and interpretation Twenty20 cricket coverage available such as Cricket Team, ball-by-ball commentary, Stories, Score, newspaper, epaper, statistics, Schedules, unparalleled statistics, Results, News Headlines, views, and quality editorial Match Coverage Videos from home of cricket on BBC Sport online. for more visit our site

perfect Insider
July 30th 2020
6:39pm

Assignment Help Service
July 31st 2020
11:30am

Assignment Projects Help Services Our highly qualified and expert assignment writers to deliver sincere custom assignment writing ,voice over services,thesis written to provide 100% original, unique and plagiarism free content for Assignment Help Service visit our site

alexhales
August 12th 2020
6:30am

Thanks for a great tips,This would be a different idea from the routine tips.

Joker stash - Jokerstash you know where to find us - Joker Stash - Joker Stash cards - Joker Stash Dumps - Joker Stash login - Joker Stash Registration.

alexhales
August 12th 2020
8:10am

Thanks for a great tips,This would be a different idea from the routine tips.
Joker stash - Jokerstash you know where to find us - Joker Stash - Joker Stash cards - Joker Stash Dumps - Joker Stash login - Joker Stash Registration.

zain
August 15th 2020
3:50am

The information shared is really helpful to get The most adjustable chairs available Choosing one of the Best Office Chairs
enhances productivity by providing you needed comfort and Excellent build quality

zain
August 15th 2020
8:10am

The information shared is really helpful to get The most adjustable chairs available Choosing one of the Best Gamming Chairs
enhances productivity by providing you needed comfort and Excellent build quality

talha
August 16th 2020
2:41pm

was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Nottingham, UK. Sierra Software GmbH was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Austria.
It is an owner-managed company that specialises in providing Innovative Embedded linux solutions to further meet the needs and
demands of the clients for their specific projects. The tight integration of the hardware and software development team with
the internal production department allows great flexibility, thus enable it to quickly produce and test a new development
as a prototype for pre-production stage.

zain
August 23rd 2020
2:19am

The information shared is really helpful to get The most adjustable chairs available Choosing one of the
enhances productivity by providing you needed comfort and Excellent build quality

Blog