City Builder: Ancient World is a tile-laying game for 1-4 players, which can be played competitively, cooperatively or solo. Players are magistrates sent to a newly conquered province to build cities and help spread Roman influence in the area. By employing clever planning, they must grow their cities to meet the demands of incoming settlers, as well as build imposing Monuments to please their emperor.
Competitive Objective:
To win, players must build impressive Monuments and fill their city with incoming settlers. Monuments have unique scoring bonus that will only apply to the city they are built in, while claiming settlers unlocks the point value they are covering.
At the end of the game, players will add up their scores and the player with the most victory points is declared the winner. This player is awarded governorship of the province with their city being named its new capital.
Cooperative Objective:
The emperor wants to increase the efficiency and profit of each of his provinces. As a group of magistrates you must work together to ensure your province doesn’t displease him, which would result with you losing your position—and your possibly your head.
Follow the emperor’s Edict, complete his preferred Monuments, and plan carefully to make sure you all stay off the chopping block!
—description from the publisher
- city-building with diagonal roads
- ancient world
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- individual area development — Each player builds their own Tai Lang-like area with various mechanics on top
- push and pull tracks between players — Push/pull tracks between players affect scoring as the game progresses
- tile laying with diagonal roads — Tiles have diagonal roads and are laid to create a city
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
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References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
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References (from this video)
- impressed by tiling approach
- strong concept
- tile placement and conditional end-game scoring
- tiling game with ancient world theme
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tiling and conditional end-game scoring — tiles are placed to form a city with end-game victory conditions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
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References (from this video)
- tile laying and tableau construction
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the core decision loop felt elegant to me
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