Game: Sim City: The Card Game

Thread: Help! Stater Deck Card List

LostDice — 2008-07-01T01:39:36+00:00

I acquired 7 stater decks worth of cards but I believe all the cards have been mixed together. Can anyone tell me what the card list is on the original starter sets. The boxes for the cards are all labeled Sim City The Card Game with 801 in lower right corner.

Thread: Re: We Built This City (In The Living Room)

jhuntin1 — 2008-06-06T14:16:58+00:00

If you can find them somewhere, there are also Chicago, New York City, and Washington D.C. decks as well. Those are actually great deals since they are well balanced decks and if you know anything about the city it makes teaching and playing it a blast.

I never thought about the Carcassonne connection, but it is very true. This was a predecessor to today's tile-laying games.

On the subject of promos, I dug mine out and I guess I only have 7 different ones. The funny thing about them is, that except for MECCA Convention Center (the GenCon promo), they are all either game stores or distributors.

Thread: Re: We Built This City (In The Living Room)

Bokrug — 2008-06-05T21:47:58+00:00

I can understand that your average CCG player wouldn't care for this kind of a game. It's a non-combative game. There's no fantasy theme, or pretty artwork. Players don't build decks to defeat other players' decks.

It's really more of a gamer's game, more suited to board game players than role players or Magic players... And it was a strong attempt at a tile-laying type of game, five years before Carcassonne came out!

I only have a few of the promo cards, and will probably not be able to find many more. I did just order the Atlanta set online, though!

Thread: Re: We Built This City (In The Living Room)

jhuntin1 — 2008-06-05T15:52:25+00:00

I always thought the main problem with SC:TCG was that its theme turned off most potential gamers. I will admit to being a roadgeek and SimCity player as well as a gamer, so I picked this one up when it came out, but for the average fantasy/sci-fi gamer it looked about as exciting as watching paint dry. Combine that with the odd sized booster packs to make room for the long cards and the flimsiness of the cards, it did not surprise me how poorly it did. I have about a dozen of the promo cards (thank you, GenCon 96), but none of them make or break the game.

I bought a few boxes of this for about $20 total at GenCon a few years ago, and I use it in my middle school social studies classes. It is a great activity for looking at what makes a city and how the transportation and utility systems have to be connected to make a city work.

With the right group of people, it is a fun game, and like you said deserves more attention now than it got then.

Thread: We Built This City (In The Living Room)

Bokrug — 2008-06-04T20:00:55+00:00

I don't really understand why Sim City is rated as low as it is on the Geek. I admit, it's a little fiddly, and the cards are none too pretty, but the gameplay is rewarding and not terribly complicated. I'd say it's one of the best 'dead' CCGs out there, if partly for the reason that all players draw from the same deck. This means that only one person needs to own the game (instead of requiring each player to build & bring their own deck), and the game's owner doesn't need to build a separate deck for each player. You can qualify it more as a non-CCG for this reason, which is great since it's pretty unlikely that you'll run across many people who own this game!

I think one of the big reasons that more people didn't get into this game is how hard it is to collect. It is nearly impossible to collect a complete set, due to all of the extremely hard-to-find promo cards, which actually outnumber the rest of the cards in the main set! Some of them are powerful, but most are not. Since everyone draws from the same play deck, however, all players have the same chance of getting any of the powerful cards in it, and I really don't think any rare or promo cards are so overpowered that they throw the game out of balance.

The voting mechanic is rather clever, votes being based not on one per player, but on the number of council members each player has in play. To me, it feels like the players are land developers a la Donald Trump, and they have various politicians in their pockets... Voting doesn't necessarily come up very often, though, since it is mostly used as a way of determining whether or not a card in play can be upgraded, which seems to be a fairly rare event.

Using paper money or poker chips instead of a pad & pencil should eliminate bookkeeping, although it may also make it more difficult for players to know how close an opponent is to winning! Also, I found that the suggestion on BGG to use tokens to mark coverage for police, fire, power, and telephone is a great idea. You could either print out the counters found here, or just use glass beads if you have a large enough supply. Say, blue=police, red=fire, yellow=power, and green=phones?

I do believe there is a basic guideline in the rule book for what cards to put into a deck, but it can still get a little complicated. The main thing to remember is to put in enough Power Plants and Phase I cards (and enough Sim-producing Residential cards). Then, you can play with the theme of your city as much as you like. Want huge tracts of farm land? Oil country? A college town? An airport? Focusing on one or two Complex types can help your Sim town represent just about any place dear to your heart. Mayfair also produced four specific city decks: Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Washington D.C., with all of the major landmarks (but no long cards, dagnabbit!).

Given that you can buy this game for a song these days, why not give it a shot? I'd recommend buying boosters for the long cards, and perhaps one starter (or one of the city decks I just mentioned) for the rule book. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised.

Thread: Re: Sim City CCG in my Classroom

ced1106 — 2008-02-22T21:41:28+00:00

Pictures! Session reports! Want!

Really, Sim City is one of most panned CCGs out there, which is a pity, since I like the theme a lot. I'd like to know how you made this into an exciting game.

(Yes, the kids can take the pics and write the reports!)

aka. Washu! ^O^

Thread: Re: Sim City CCG in my Classroom

Laserwulf — 2008-02-22T20:55:57+00:00

That sounds awesome! Almost makes me want to be a fifth-grader again.

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Aarontu — 2007-12-23T17:34:27+00:00

The two cards required to start the City phase (the player who builds the plant becomes Mayor)

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Aarontu — 2007-12-23T17:33:11+00:00

Card back image

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Aarontu — 2007-12-23T16:53:07+00:00

The beginning of phase III (City phase)

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Norrmeister — 2007-12-05T16:01:14+00:00

Two long phase 4 cards.

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Norrmeister — 2007-12-05T15:58:00+00:00

The rulebook.

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Norrmeister — 2007-12-05T15:57:07+00:00

Phase 2 cards.

Thread: Variants To Ease Up SimCity....

Raiderjakk — 2007-11-05T01:54:44+00:00

Just picked up a box and a couple decks of this on auction from EBay recently. It was a good game to play out of the box with kids (9 and 6) with some age and attention span related modifications.

1. Phase II building was complete when we had 2 x #players for the number of business (purple) cards on the board, regardless of whether they provided sims or not.
2. Phase IV began when the entire playing area was filled with cards.
3. Simplified upgrades by upgrading phase of card only, regardless of whether or not it cut down on the number of rail/track/power connections or not.
4. Our city grid was approximately 5 x 10 for 50 cards.

Things that helped that were not variant related...
1. We had some money from Empire Builder we used to keep track of things. Much better than using a pad and paper.
2. Have plenty of purples and orange zones. Schools worked well, too. Put in a number of power plants (2 per player seems to work) so you're not sitting there drawing cards all night.
3. Read the FAQs to get a handle on scoring.

All in all, it's a fun game to play when you have a bunch of people around. Solitaire is not as engaging, although I'm sure there is some way to spice things up a bit.

Thread: Re: Sim City CCG in my Classroom

jhuntin1 — 2007-11-02T19:51:35+00:00

Where do you keep this set up in your classroom while the project is on-going? The biggest problem I have run into is space to keep the game out if they can not finish it in their class-period time. I use it with my 8th-graders as an exercise in the challenges faced by American cities during the height of the Industrial Revolution.

Thread: Re: Sim City CCG in my Classroom

klide — 2007-11-02T15:53:57+00:00

Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed it.

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bane221 — 2007-11-02T15:21:10+00:00

This is a snapshot of the Sim City CCG being used in my classroom.

Thread: Sim City CCG in my Classroom

bane221 — 2007-11-02T14:40:03+00:00

The explanation needed for that title is excessive. I do, however, want to share how I use my huge Sim City CCG collection in my classroom every year.

I teach fifth grade. This includes teaching supply/demand, goods/services, and the general infrastructure of a modern city. Early on I divide the class into "companies" for which they name and create signs. Each group also gets a balance sheet where they track debits and credits. They start out with a $1,000,000 loan. On the large table in the back of the room, I lay out natural lands (and just a couple white blocks) to create the basis for a starting town. After some basic explanation (very little) the fun begins.

Each $1 a block is worth translates to $100,000 in our SimCity money. This creates practice operating with large numbers (they easily get into the millions). I use a pair of very small post-it notes to cover the bottoms of the blocks. I then auction off the blocks that the companies then place. They pay their auction price then earn what the value of the placed block is, hoping to turn a profit. The students use their knowledge of buildings, looking at the pictures, and understanding of city structure to choose which blocks to buy and place.

We then track the change in population, pollution, and crime every day. At the end of the entire project we turn this into a large project to present in the hallways of the school. Each group creates a line graph charting the changes in the basic three statistics as well as a chart of the change in their company's balance. They carefully create a map of the city, even naming streets and complexes (i.e. Pinewood University where there is a University Complex). Finally, there is a large righting component where they reflect on what causes spikes in crime and pollution, etc.

The students really respond strongly to this project. They love seeing the blocks possible and figuring out the best choices. We create a newspaper (Pinewood Courier) which include student articles as well as articles I create to show events in the city (tornadoes, strikes, and even bonuses for creating crime reducing blocks, etc.). I do a lot of creative thematic units throughout the year, but this is easily a favorite.

Thread: Re: are starter decks needed? or just boosters?

BrucecO — 2007-10-03T01:59:10+00:00

Depends on what you draw in the box, but guess from what I got in the box I opened you SHOULD be ok. It seems like the rules suggest you build a deck at least 4 people could play with, and I would say a box can give you that. The only thing you will be missing is a "theme" or a certain city. My box seems to want me to build a city like "State College" or "College Park" (since there are a lot of parts of a college) or some part of Michigan (I have casinos and car plants). But if theme is no problem for you, deck building will not be easy, but certainly possible with a 36 pack box.

Hope this helps.

Thread: rules missing graphics

markhu — 2007-08-31T17:49:43+00:00

I'm curious which cards belong in the diagrams referenced by the rules.

http://www.mayfairgames.com/mfg-shop/ccgs/simcity/qps/mfg-ho...

Seems those rules are text-only missing graphics.

Thread: Re: are starter decks needed? or just boosters?

markhu — 2007-08-17T19:05:47+00:00

the details of my situation are pretty simple: I bought a box of boosters off eBay and that's all the cards I got.

Perhaps to clarify: is this enough for 2 people to play?

Sealed Booster Box contents:
36 cards per box
14 cards per pack
Plus 1 "long card"

Thread: Re: are starter decks needed? or just boosters?

ced1106 — 2007-08-13T18:51:01+00:00

Comments about the playability of the game itself aside (: you should have some sort of playable deck with enough boosters. Any details of your situation you can provide?

aka. Washu! ^O^

Thread: are starter decks needed? or just boosters?

markhu — 2007-08-13T18:35:00+00:00

Can you assemble a playable deck from booster? Or do you need the starter set?

Thread: Re: User Review

pocketeditioncig — 2007-05-19T10:49:32+00:00

agree, but i really enjoyed this game, my only complaint was the card stock, which quickly died when my cat decided toenjoy

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Rokkr — 2006-12-22T04:29:48+00:00

Sim City Hot Dog Stand

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Boomer — 2006-11-11T02:55:45+00:00

Washington DC Set

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Boomer — 2006-11-11T02:55:35+00:00

Washington DC Set- Front

Thread: User Review

2amp — 2004-10-11T20:37:02+00:00

Setting: Sim City the computer game has seen many incarnations since I played it on my C=64. This was Mayfair's attempt to move the game to a CCG format.

Artwork: Stills taken from real life structures, real people or simulated newspapers. Most reviews take a pretty dim view of the card art. They argue: "Why collect pictures of junkyards (et al) that I ignore on a daily basis?" Still, I think the art works for playing the game if not collecting.

Collectibility: Speaking of collecting, this was a unique game. There are more Promos than there are rares & ultra rares. The premiere edition had the usual release variability (ultra rare, rare, uncommon, common & fixed) that we've all come to expect. Otherwise it's NOT a CCG, right?

Special later issues came boxed & complete in themselves. These releases concentrated on cities like NY, Washington & Chicago.

This was another of the here today / discontinued tomorrow games from the mid-90s boom/bust era of CCG. You can buy Sim City by the gross real cheap on e-bay.

Gameplay: This game breaks the standard mold. It's NOT a Magic clone. You all play from ONE deck (unless you try the 2 player head-to-head mode - which I never did). And there are no cute cartoon monsters to maim, vaporize or otherwise kill to death.

You evolve your city through 4 phases. When in a particular phase, you may only play cards from that phase or less. No building a Riverboat Casino dock while you're still in "village" mode.

Points (dollars) are awarded by playing your cards. You get lots of bonuses like: building a commercial next to a series of commercials, or a church adds $2 to each residential and so on. The winner accumulates so many dollars. We used paper money instead of tokens; it was more enjoyable that way.

The newspapers are events. There are politicians. They are used when voting. A vote is called if you try to replace a card in play with a different type (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Government etc) or a lesser valve.

The Ultra Rare cards are VERY unique. They measure 2.5" by 5". They are designed to play on top of TWO adjacent cards. I'll post a picture to demonstrate.

Card Balance: Very Good: 5 out of 6. The rares are not necessarily super powerful. There's also the possibly you might not be the one to draw it!

Deck Construction: Most starters were fairly playable right out of the box. You will need to buy lots of boosters to get the Ultra rares.

Deck building is CHALLENGING. You need the right mix of cards from each phase. But on the bright side, you can customize your deck to be your town / city. I built a very good Atlantic City deck (lots of casinos & corrupt politicians). Mostly we play with the deck of our town.

Complaint: Mayfair should have provided insight into deck construction. It is a tedious trial & error process. We're talking patience of Job here.

Well, I'm over 500 words already. Best close this out while you're still here. You ARE still reading, aren't you?

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2002-09-11T13:11:54+00:00

Nearing the end of another exciting Nokia Boardgame Club evening, there were six players left. The only game immediately available that supported so many players was the Sim City card game. Sc had bought several hundred of these cards after a fire sale at the local game shop, and was eager to try the game with many people, having previously only played with two people.

Sc, Se, M, K, J and L were the city planners. Sc explained the rules, and did not even bother to explain the pollution and city council rules. The group decided to play until 200 points rather than 250, since the group was becoming rather sleepy.

The game started briskly, and players quickly found the benefit of adding buildings to existing zones. However, the game came to a standstill in the middle, when no power plants (required before the game can proceed to the more interesting phases) were being drawn from the deck. In the interest of speeding the game, Sc proposed to search the deck for a power plant card and manually introduce it into the game if the game proceeded for two more rounds without a power plant. Sure enough, the time came for Sc to toss a power plant onto the board. A vote was taken for Mayor, and M was awarded the position.

In the end, Se won the game, by placing a farm card in a huge farming complex. Sc notes that the scoring progress in this game is almost logarithmic, as adding to zones created (and extended) by other players creates an upward spiral.

The main drawback of this game is the manual counting aspect. In a large and complicated city, placing a card can result in many small scoring bonuses from potentially any other card in the city. Sc has even created some laminated tokens to aid in the counting endeavor, but still finds counting cumbersome. Depsite these problems, L and J left with a positive feeling about the game.

Scores:

Se: 211
L: 154
J: 142
M: 142
Sc: 128
K: 90