Every year, Sorcerer City gets built and rebuilt in magically new ways, with blocks moving and rotating in crazy directions. You and your fellow players are rival wizard architects in charge of building the same city district over five years, expanding it and rebuilding it to gain the most money, influence, magic, and victory. Unfortunately, Sorcerer City has a bit of a monster problem, so you must work hard to mitigate the effects of marauding creatures who attack your city district. The wizard architect with the most victory points at the end of five years will be crowned the new head wizard of all of Sorcerer City.
Every player starts Sorcerer City with a set of tiles, and in each round you have two minutes to build your city as optimally as you can. In between rounds you buy new tiles to add to your pool and gain other rewards. Beware though, monsters are lurking and will also be added to your deck, no doubt adding some chaos to your plans in the following rounds. After five rounds, add up all the victory points to see who is the master sorcerer builder!
- Large game board
- Fantasy/Magic
- Magic city
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
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)
- Simple tile matching concept
- Too many game phases
- Difficult to teach
- City building with monsters
- Magical city
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tile placement — Matching colors and managing monsters
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The more meta the more better
- I can honest to god say unlike any game I've ever played in my entire life
References (from this video)
- Strong thematic art and presentation
- Concept of real-time city-building with deck/tile mechanics is appealing
- Not played during the session; discussion focused on potential rules and powers
- fantasy city-building in a real-time influenced environment
- City-building with magical/sorcery mechanics
- Spirit Island
- Mysterium
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- 60-second real-time timer — A rapid-paced session with a strict time limit.
- Cooperative/semi-cooperative play — Players cooperate to manage city growth while pursuing individual goals.
- resource tracking and scoring — Gain victory points through resource management and building decisions.
- tile drafting / deck-building — Real-time tile placement to construct a city; players draw and place tiles quickly.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love the artwork on the box; it's comic-book-y.
- The ghost can speak now; they have powers.
- It's got a very mysterium vibe; just paint it all over.
- Chartered looked cool; I sat there and played a four-person demo.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a lifestyle it's a lifestyle we've just committed
- we're all human
- stay positive don't let the travels of this country get you down
- we want everybody to be at the table contributing at that table
- this is a tall order
- we're counting down this is 20 and 21
References (from this video)
- Unique combination of real-time and deck building
- Only game of its kind
- Fun and engaging theme with app support
- Exciting time pressure element
- Always enjoyable to play
- Becomes increasingly challenging with more tiles in later rounds
- Chaotic gameplay
- Building and defending a city from monsters
- Fantasy city under attack
- Real-time action
- Dominion
- Clank
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Real-Time Deck Building — Players build a sorcerer's city in real-time, acquiring tiles to add to their city while dealing with monsters
- tile placement — Players arrange tiles to build their city optimally before time runs out
- time pressure — Game must be completed within time limits that increase each round
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- He just made this game like in five minutes
- It's like a computer made of paper
- I have not played anything like this
- This completely broke my brain
- Two of my favorite mechanics combined into one
- I absolutely fell in love with it as soon as we played it
- It is like the only game of its kind
- I have so much fun every time I play it but I also have no idea what I'm doing
- You are trying to make your family as miserable as possible
- First time a board game made the hears stand on my arm
- It's just chaos
- If I could find this game I would definitely buy it instantly