Cities USA

Cities USA Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Cities USA

Cities USA is a standalone edition of Cities from Devir, and the video coverage splits on one question: does it improve the original or just repackage it? African Meeple's Gaming, discussing it on a BoardGameGeek top 5 list, puts it at 2.5 on the BGG weight scale and calls it a step into medium weight that takes Cities to another level. Grant Lyon estimates it is 75 to 80 percent the same as Cities, with the remaining 20 percent raising the strategy and making the game more puzzly. Our Family Plays Games is far cooler: both hosts love the original, but each gave Cities USA a three and argued it should have been an expansion instead of a new box. Ian and Stacey of Where There's a Will, There's a Play also prefer the original, yet would keep Cities USA over it for one reason, its solo mode.

Core Mechanics That Define Cities USA

Drafting From Shared Rows

Ian and Stacey describe both Cities and Cities USA as a drafting game in which each player builds out a 3x3 city from a starter tile, and they note the two are essentially the same game. Four kinds of things are drafted: scoring cards, city tiles, features and buildings. Tantrum House shows how the draft works at the table. Players take turns placing a meeple to select an item from each row, and in three and four player games a player can place only one meeple per row. The last item in each row is hidden, and Tantrum House also demonstrates an advanced variant in which no one can place a second meeple in a row until they have one in every row. Ian and Stacey add that drafting from a particular spot grants first player for the next round, and that the board resets four times in a two player game and seven times with three or four players.

Tile Placement and City Goals

Drafted pieces go into each player's city. Tantrum House explains that tiles carry water, park and building construction spots, and that high rise buildings must match their colored spots. Each game uses one of eight American cities for scoring: Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. The chosen city sets community goals, and the first player to complete each goal earns more than players who complete it later. Endgame scoring cards, which Tantrum House describes as all brand new, pile further objectives on top. African Meeple's Gaming counts the mix as tile placement plus set collection, with different objectives tied to each city.

The Cities USA Experience

A Tighter Puzzle

Almost every new rule adds restriction. Roads are the headline. Tantrum House explains that a player's roads can end at the edge of the city but cannot dead end in the middle. Each player gets three bridge tokens, styled after the Golden Gate Bridge, to connect a broken road, and any dead end left unconnected at the end of the game costs three points. Construction spots on tiles are also worth negative points unless covered, which is done with a wild building that can take any building color. Grant Lyon sums up the effect: roads and highways close off areas and create neighborhoods, so each placement becomes a question of how to connect roads and split up neighborhoods.

Solo Play and Scoring Load

Ian and Stacey highlight the solo mode as the edition's clearest practical advantage. It is set up like a four player game, and an automated opponent takes pieces from each row every turn; to win, the solo player must fulfill two of the city criteria. The pair suspect those solo cards would also work in the original, since they draw from the same rows. The downside they raise applies to both games: with eight scoring cards that each score differently, one host calls the end of game scoring unpleasant, and the other finds the amount of scoring to track a little overwhelming.

What Makes Cities USA Stand Out

Skyscrapers and Toppers

Grant Lyon explains that buildings no longer stop at four levels: a fifth level can be added, and it scores more points. Ian and Stacey describe the draft side of this, where a player who has built a building four high can also draft a skyscraper. The physical pieces win praise even from critics. Our Family Plays Games loves the little skyscraper toppers, and African Meeple's Gaming also points to the building toppers alongside the bridges as additions that change how a player plans a strategy.

New Features for Parks and Water

Feature scoring changes as well. Ian and Stacey walk through the rulebook: a park bench must sit in a park at least four green tiles big, yachts score by the size of the water area they sit in, and playground swings and slides are worth one point each, or five each when placed next to each other. Water areas also gain ferries and beacons, and Tantrum House and Our Family Plays Games both mention new food truck spots. African Meeple's Gaming enjoys how these support a pretty city, with water features, parks and buildings of different heights.

Potential Drawbacks

Restrictions That Undercut the Original

Our Family Plays Games delivers the sharpest criticism. The original rewarded placing different features in a lake or park, while Cities USA limits some features to areas of specific sizes. One host built a big lake and scored nothing for it because a feature only allowed a small area, and the pair felt the restriction took the fun out of the game. They also disliked the bridges, which exist to patch roads that do not line up, with a penalty once the three bridges run out. Ian and Stacey agree the dead end roads and bridges add complexity, and one of them says that extra complexity is a mark against it.

Another Box Instead of an Expansion

Because the core game is the same, Our Family Plays Games argues that the American cities, toppers and food trucks should have been an expansion for the original, which already received a small expansion adding more cities. Their advice is conditional: fans who really like Cities may see the new edition differently. Ian and Stacey reach a similar conclusion by another route, suggesting the two boxes could be combined to save shelf space.

If You Enjoy Cities USA

The natural companion is the original Cities. Our Family Plays Games and Ian and Stacey both prefer it, Grant Lyon frames Cities USA as a more puzzly version of the same core, and African Meeple's Gaming sees Cities as the entry point that Cities USA builds on. African Meeple's Gaming also compares its tile placement to Carcassonne, so players who like laying tiles to shape a map should feel at home.