San Francisco (2000)

In the last several years, one of the trends in game design has been the recycling of older mechanisms in new games. This game is a perfect example of this, because it borrows from several different games. The game is set in San Francisco after the great earthquake, and players are charged with rebuilding the city. The board is a fairly straightforward affair with the matrix randomly populated with building tiles. Players compete in various auctions for the right to place possession rods around the tiles and when a clear plurality is established the tile is scored by that player. There are a number of different auctions: sequential money bidding (from High Society), by blind bidding one of the three building types with clashes determined by money bids (from Basari), blind influence point bidding with like bids cancelling (from Raj/Hols der Geier). After a set number of turns which see a building erected, the player with the highest point total wins.