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Description
In Santa Monica, you are trying to create the most appealing neighborhood in southern California. Will you choose to create a calm, quiet beach focused on nature, a bustling beach full of tourists, or something in-between to appeal to the locals?
Each turn, you draft a feature card from the display to build up either your beach or your street. These features work together to score you victory points. The player with the most points wins!
—description from the publisher
German:
In Santa Monica versuchst du, den attraktivsten Strandabschnitt in Südkalifornien zu schaffen. Entscheide dich für einen ruhigen, stillen Strand, der sich auf die Natur konzentriert, einen belebten Strand voller Touristen oder etwas dazwischen, das die Einheimischen anspricht?
In jedem Zug ziehst du eine Spielkarte aus der Auslage, um entweder den Strand oder die Straße in deinem Abschnitt zu erweitern. Aber nur, wenn Straße und Strand aufeinander abgestimmt sind, bekommst du genügend Siegpunkte, um das Spiel zu gewinnen!
—Beschreibung des Herausgebers
Year Published
2020
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 6
This page: 6
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 1 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–6 of 6
Video pt3vikXr4j8
Unknown Channel game_review at 0:14 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 12443 · mention_pk 36343
Click to watch at 0:14
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- Pleasant presentation and broad appeal
- Easy entry, short playtime
- Attractive components and theme
Cons
- Complex scoring with many options (point salad)
- Draft can block desirable moves
- Can be unforgiving if key cards are missed
Thematic elements
- Beachfront construction and tourism
- Boardwalk development in Santa Monica, Southern California
- abstract/neutral presentation of a thematic premise
Comparison games
- streets
- suburbia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action_selection — On each turn, choose one of three objective cards to play with.
- card_exchange_and_power_tiles — Draft and replace cards; choose two of four power tiles, often involving coin expenditure.
- drafting — Draft one card from the display each turn, typically from the front four cards.
- meeple_management — Place and move meeples to score points via activities and icons.
- resource_management — Spend beach coins to activate powers on tiles.
- set_collection — Score opportunities based on collecting cards that share icons.
- tile_placement — Place cards onto your personal board with connection rules and placement on either side of the starting building.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Santa Monica is a quite simple drafting game with a pleasant presentation that will make it easy to get to the table
- it's a wily little beast of the game that will have you constantly lamenting your inability to get the cards you want and pondering deeply how to make the best out of a bad situation
- all up this is a nice looking game that has pretty broad appeal doesn't take too much time and is pretty thinky
- however, this is a full-blown point salad game and just about every placement can generate points in some way
- and due to the draft system sometimes there just isn't a good move you just have to live with that
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video MzyZ6spGo9o
Things Get Dicey top_10_list at 0:55 sentiment: positive
video_pk 12130 · mention_pk 35491
Click to watch at 0:55
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Provides immersive experience of visiting Santa Monica
- Never need to leave house
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Travel/Vacation
- Beach/Boardwalk in Santa Monica
- Thematic
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Resource management — Buying souvenirs and engaging in activities
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a definitive list based on inarguable data - Board Game Geek lists 5000 games as having been released in 2020
- I haven't actually played forgotten waters but I did look at a lot of Instagram photos of it - 10 out of 10
- I just moved one piece on the board and I just knew it - about learning Barbary Wars history through The Shores of Tripoli
- Meeples but they're bees, so they call them peeples
- I really like this game called Tell Stones, you've probably never heard of it
- Board games are made out of cardboard, it's actually hard for your digestive system to handle cardboard
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 0T4S6XlM7-s
Adam Porter Channel game_review at 3:19 sentiment: positive
video_pk 11688 · mention_pk 34289
Click to watch at 3:19
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Beautiful, atmospheric art and components
- Easy to teach with clear rules
- Satisfying feedback loop and tableau growth
- Strong central concept with accessible play
Cons
- Theme not strongly tied to mechanics
- Lower interaction and some players may prefer more tension
Thematic elements
- Tourism, beachfront development, and beach life
- Seaside city in Southern California (Santa Monica)
- Atmospheric, breezy, tableau-building ambience
Comparison games
- Sushi Go
- Calico
- Tiny Towns
- Love Letter
- Mystic Veil
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bag-building — Draw meeples from your personal bag to assign actions.
- Board/placement actions — Place feature cards on top/bottom rows to gain bonuses and move characters.
- card drafting — Choose feature cards from display to add to your tableau.
- End-game scoring and placement bonuses — Score from footprints and activity bonuses; plan placements for end-game gain.
- Resource management / Currency — Earn sand dollars to spend on abilities.
- tableau building — Arrange built cards to form your display and score.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- jeremy nagoyan's santa monica artwork is sublime with its muted colors humor and clarity it's transportive you can almost hear the seagulls this is a game with atmosphere
- i don't find point salad attractive but i do get it clarity over personality
- Meeples and monsters once again disappoints this rule book is weak
- the rules reference promo items which i don't have access to
- the rule book is perhaps the most important element in an onboarding process
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video g3JcM_A5-ZA
John Perkis top_5_list at 5:26
video_pk 11438 · mention_pk 33623
Click to watch at 5:26
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Array
- Array
- City-building with a focus on charm, character, and thematic touches that differentiate it from generic suburbia.
- Array
- A coastal Santa Monica town with a distinctly themed seafront and local attraction narrative.
- Array
- Array
- Array
- positive
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- there's something ambitious about pan am
- pan am is gloriously competitive
- the core of pan am is brilliant it's interactive it's strategic
- it's heavy-handed luck hurts even more
- in santa monica you're building the city of santa monica with cards
- the arrangement of your city is everything
- it's a brain burner
- remember our trip i only wish it was a little less punishing
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video pDJmuDW8pTM
Adam Porter top_10_list at 1:33 sentiment: positive
video_pk 2610 · mention_pk 7711
Click to watch at 1:33
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- clear forward planning
- accessible drafting
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- Seven Wonders Duel
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting / dynamic reveal — cards from a bottom row shift into play as top row cards drop, constraining choices.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- positional drafting is one really clever way of reducing the number of available choices
- you've got limited choices which is great because it means you're not going to sit there for ages thinking about all these options
- catch-up mechanism is essential in any game really
- i really enjoy real-time mechanism when it works and when it's simple when i understand what's going on
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video VwVs5egZsM4
Adam's Board Game Wales top_10_list at 0:50 sentiment: positive
video_pk 2289 · mention_pk 6649
Click to watch at 0:50
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- stunning art style and whimsical design
- beautiful box and production
- lovely meeple placements with character
- simple mechanics with elegant execution
- variable scoring through different card combinations
- creates beautiful overall pictures
- great adjacency-based scoring
Cons
- simple mechanics may not appeal to complexity seekers
- limited player interaction during play
Thematic elements
- seafront_development
- california_beach_life
- city_building
- whimsical_characters
Comparison games
- Calico
- Point Salad
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- i'm adam porter and this is my board gaming vlog and it's my annual top 10 board games of the year
- this is not an authoritative list of the best games of the year or anything like that it is just the 10 games that i've enjoyed the most
- the game is ultimately endlessly replayable even though there's only something like nine different final solutions
- i find the game thoroughly entertaining
- this is exactly the sort of game i wish i could design something that simple that streamlined that looks that beautiful
- this game pretty much got us through lockdown
- it's gone immediately right to the top as far as my wife is concerned this is one of her favorite games of all time
- i'm really hoping for a better 2021
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–6 of 6