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Each player builds their own metropolis in Quadropolis (first announced as City Mania), but they're competing with one another for the shops, parks, public services and other structures to be placed in them.
The game lasts four rounds, and in each round players first lay out tiles for the appropriate round at random on a 5x5 grid. Each player has four architects numbered 1-4 and on a turn, a player places an architect next to a row or column in the grid, claims the tile that's as far in as the number of the architect placed (e.g., the fourth tile in for architect #4), places that tile in the appropriately numbered row or column on the player's 4x4 city board, then claims any resources associated with the tile (inhabitants or energy).
When a player takes a tile, a figure is placed in this now-empty space and the next player cannot place an architect in the same row or column where this tile was located. In addition, you can't place one architect on top of another, so each placement cuts off play options for you and everyone else later in the round. After all players have placed all four architects, the round ends, all remaining tiles are removed, and the tiles for the next round laid out.
After four rounds, the game ends. Players can move the inhabitants and energy among their tiles at any point during the game to see how to maximize their score. At game end, they then score for each of the six types of buildings depending on how well they build their city — as long as they have activated the buildings with inhabitants or energy as required:
Residential buildings score depending on their height
Shops score depending on how many customers they have
Public services score depending on the number of districts in your city that have them
Parks score depending on the number of residential buildings next to them
Harbors score based on the longest row or column of activated harbors in the city
Factories score based on the number of adjacent shops and harbors
Some buildings are worth victory points (VPs) on their own, and once players sum these values with what they've scored for each type of building in their city, whoever has the highest score wins.
- city-building appeal
- underrated gem with solid mechanics
- strong entry point for new players
- older title may be harder to find
- some players may prefer newer themes
- urban planning and tile-placement
- city-building in a modern urban grid
- light, approachable Euro with modular city tiles
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- drafting — select tiles to add to your city via drafting mechanics
- scoring-based city building — score based on tile placement and adjacency
- tile placement — place tiles to shape your city grid and scoring regions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is the underrated gem.
- Let's do a giveaway.
- I love city building games.
References (from this video)
- Tall-building options and stacking mechanics
- Urban planning and zoning
- City-building on a grid
- Competitive city-building
- Suburbia
- My City
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- scoring by building types — score points based on building diversity and placement
- tile placement — build a city by placing tiles on a grid
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- yeah i'm also working on this crazy fast 4x space game called last light that's gonna be coming out
- you can actually build residential buildings and double triple stack tiles to make them taller
- it's a spin-off of the katan series
- final score is 14 out of 20
- you are correct it is rising sun
References (from this video)
- eye-catching components (acrylic meeples)
- strongly thematic city-building feel
- can be fiddly at higher player counts
- architects drafting districts and building a city
- Urban planning and city-building on a 5x5 grid
- abstract, spatial planning
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- engine-building — Your tableau grows with buildings and bonuses as you acquire tiles.
- pattern-building — Choose pieces to optimize city layout and score points.
- tile-laying / grid-intersection — Placers intersect grid lines to acquire tiles that build your tableau.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "This game, it's timeless."
- "Five Tribes is a cutthroat head-to-head game for us."
- "Dominion is the classic."
- "Terraforming Mars is ugly, but yet a fantastic game."
- "I love the little panda."
- "The acrylic meeples and pieces"
References (from this video)
- Clever tile economy
- Engaging decisions each turn
- Setup can be fiddly, script helps mitigate
- urban planning
- city-building in a modern setting
- puzzle-like
- Carcassonne
- Cascadia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- pattern-building — Place tiles to activate scoring lines.
- tile drafting — Choose tiles to place in your city grid.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- tabletop simulator is a bit of software
- it's a taste of the future when we all have androids in our homes rolling our dice for us
- the beauty of encouraging every player to be selfish is that it creates suspicion
- it's like Kim Kardashian it plays 2 to 4 players in one
- this mod for clank is a thing of beauty
- Isle of Skye is the mashed-potato of board games it looks bland it sounds bland but it's secretly amazing
- the script speeds up the admin of the game just click n turn and it will draw roll and place the infection dice for you
References (from this video)
- elegant design and cohesive theme
- art and color flow are inviting and visually striking
- storage and box insert are excellent (fantastic insert)
- the game can be stressful as players vie for optimal placements
- scoring and tile interaction can bite players who mismanage districts
- Urban planning with an elegant, puzzle-like presentation
- Modular city-building on a grid where players draft and place buildings to optimize city districts
- elegant, tactile, visually engaging
- Between Two Cities
- Droplets
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- grid-based placement — Placed tiles influence scoring across districts and adjacency rules.
- late-turn payoff with scoring emphasis — Players see payoff dynamics during play, with the final scoring tying to district composition.
- tile drafting — Players draft building tiles from a central pool to place into their city grid.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I felt Quadropolis did a better job of that in terms of the art and again I described it as an elegant design something that was that just worked and it just looked good.
- This box barely fits everything once you have it all piled in; Quadropolis' insert is fantastic.
- Sim City on pause: Quadropolis delays scoring and lets you set up before payoff.
- There's not a single choice you make in the entire game you just roll dice sometimes you get a card that says ba tells you what it is and sometimes you get a card that does nothing and that's the A-Team.
References (from this video)
- puzzle-like tile placement
- unique tile selection mechanism
- thematic city-building feel
- urban planning and tile-based city development
- city construction
- puzzle-driven city-building with spatial constraints
- War of the Ring
- Clank
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- set collection — building types interact and adjacency affects scoring
- set collection / adjacency optimization — building types interact and adjacency affects scoring
- tile drafting / selection — players pick tiles from a central pool via a numbered order mechanic
- tile placement — players place tiles to form a city grid with placement rules
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Flavor text is absolutely on point because these cards that you're collecting are just kind of colors.
- I melted my brain. It was just like way too heavy for me.
- Star Wars in a box. This is Star Wars in a box.
- I absolutely love the original Clank.
- This is a cooperative programming game where you need to do one of them… it’s so much fun.
- I love the networks.
- I really like tiling games in general. I like citybuilding games and Quadropolis adds that really extra interesting unique uh tile selection mechanism.
- Feast for Odin is a game where you are Norwegians. It is just so darn good.