neotopia

Hello. So, today I want to tell you about the game Neotopia from Arcane Wonders. And in this game, you are going to be building a new world through making patterns and completing cards. And you're getting to use tiles that make the clicketity clack sound that I like. And this is a game that has been out for a little bit, but I was unfamiliar with.

And I was shown it at Dice Tower West. And this game is really fun. It ticks so many boxes for me. It is for two to four players. I just wish it had a solo mode. So, in this game, you have this big central board that everyone is going to be building on, and it is in three different regions. And in the center, you are going to have these cards that to start out are going to have one of each colored token on them.

And throughout the game, this is the factory. Throughout the game, the tokens that come out will change. And then we're also going to have tokens in the center of the board that are available for everyone to use. And these are what you are using to make your patterns. So these tokens are the only tokens that there are.

You're not going to have any in your own personal reserve. And you are going to be a player color, but really these are used for the pattern cards. So pattern cards come in a variety. So this one just means that I have two purples and a red. anywhere in any of the regions. Doesn't matter which region it is.

So, some of them are going to be easier, some of them are going to be harder than others to get. And you can rotate them any way you want, but they must be this exact pattern. When you complete a pattern in one of these areas, you'll get to play it out in that spot like that, and you get the points on it.

And there are three different tracks depending on which region you complete it in. Now the thing that is important is this picture cannot be completed twice in a row in this region. So that becomes important if your opponent also wanted to play that same picture. It's a different pattern. They cannot play that until something else is on it in this region.

They can play this in a different region. Totally fine. No problem. It's called the diverse cities rule. So that's the one restriction. Also, in order to complete a pattern card, you must place a tile that completes that pattern. You can't just go to a region and be like, "Oh, hey, I already have something that, you know, it's already done." And just lay down a card.

No, you can add a tile to that that now makes the pattern still going. But you have to add something. So, you are going to be one of the four players, and you will have three actions on your turn. And you can use this side of the card that lets you track your three actions. But really, there's only two choices of actions and you take them in a combination of three.

So, you can draw or take a new pattern card. There will be three face up. Or you can take one from the top deck. That's an action. Or you can place a tile into one of the adjacent areas it is next to. I cannot place a tile from here over here. In order to place a tile, you place it starting on that center bullet.

And then from there, you just misplace the next tile anywhere next to it. And these can come out of this area in any order. These are not in a specific order on here. So that's totally fine. Let's say one of these regions gets emptied out for some reason. Well, these now come into the new area and we see what is going to be filling up that will go to the next empty area.

The number of cards that are in this stack are your timer for the game. So, when it ends, you complete that round and then play one final round and that is the game. Now, as you're moving along these tracks, there's little dots here and there are some dots on the board. Those give you bonus tokens which can give you extra actions such as placing an additional tile, getting to place in one of these kind of outlier spots to complete a pattern, getting to do some things that you wouldn't normally do in addition to your turn.

Why are there three scoring tracks? Great question. So, you will have your little person on each of the scoring tracks that you are moving along. And the way that scoring works at the end of the game is two of the tracks, the ones that are the highest, you will simply score the number of points you have on them.

Your track that is the lowest, you will get triple the amount of points on. So, you want to be really smart about keeping these as equal as possible so that the one that's tripled isn't like you got, you know, 19 here, 22 here, and six here. You want to keep them as even as possible in order to get that number tripled.

And it seems like you're going to have a long time because you have this whole deck to go through. You're doing these pattern cards. You're doing all of these things. This goes really quickly, especially if people on their turn are moving three tiles at a time. That's going to deplete this very quickly and you want to complete those patterns.

People don't necessarily know what your patterns are because you're going to start with three they never saw. And if you're taking from the top of the deck, that also means you may not know what they have, but if you saw patterns they took, you do know. So, you don't want to help them out if at all possible.

So, this is just a really cool game where you are trying to figure out the best way to complete the most patterns that you have in a way that gets you the most points, the most bonuses, and gets the a game to end when you want it to. So, that is Netopia from Arcane Wonders. Thank you for this review copy.

I am enjoying this game. I think it is fantastic, and I hope that more of you get a chance to try it. So, let me know what you think of it. Give me a like and a follow, and I'll keep bringing you more board game content. Thanks. Bye.