Tom Vasel
United States
Homestead
Unspecified
Top 100 Games of all Time
Dice Tower Convention, July 2012!!!!
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When Thurn and Taxis won the Spiel des Jahres in 2006, I have to admit that I was a bit surprised. While I thought that the game was simple enough to have won the award, it wasn't that much "fun", and I wondered a bit about the runner up - Blue Moon City (Fantasy Flight Games, 2006 - Reiner Knizia). The board game is based on the Blue Moon card game (one that I have yet to warm), so I wasn't really interested in it until I heard about its nomination. Then I had to play it to see why Thurn and Taxis was better, and why Knizia once again did not win the highest award in boardgamedom.
Well, if I was one of the voters for the Spiel des Jahres, I would certainly have chosen Blue Moon City. With a passing resemblance to the card game, it is a light, easy to play game that still offers a good deal of choices and some strategy. In fact, Blue Moon City hits that certain niche - a game that's extremely easy to teach and learn, but offers much more than meets the eye. Playing well with two and better with three and four, Blue Moon City may easily be one of the most accessible and fun games of the year.
Players are attempting to rebuild the Blue Moon City, and a grid of building tiles is placed face down on the table, with a courtyard tile placed in the middle. Each player places a token of their color on that space, and a pile of crystal tokens, dragon scales, and three colored dragons are placed next to the city, as well as an obelisk tile with various numbers on it. A deck of cards is shuffled, and eight are dealt to each player. One player is chosen to go first, and then play passes clockwise around the table.
On a player's turn, they first move their piece up to two tiles in orthogonally. Players may then play cards to help reconstruct the building of the space their piece is on. Buildings have one to four contribution squares on them, numbered from two to five. Players may play as many cards from their hand that match the color of the building (cards are numbered "1", "2", or "3") that equal or exceed one or more of the contribution totals. If a dragon is on the tile where building is occurring, the builder receives one dragon scale for each dragon present. A cube that matches that player's color is placed on these contributions, and the player's turn ends.
If, however, a player places the last cube on a tile, then that building is finished. The player who has the most markers on a building (with ties being broken by whoever has their marker on the left-most square - which costs the most) wins a reward that is pictured next to an asterisk on the tile. ALL players who have at least one cube score whatever else is shown on the tile. The building is then flipped over, and all players receive their markers back.
Once a building has been flipped over, it shows a reward on it that is added to the reward given to all players when an adjacent building is completed. Rewards can be dragon scales, crystal pieces, or cards from the deck. Whenever the last dragon scale is taken from the pile, then all players compare their dragon scales. The player with the most dragon scales takes six crystals, and all players with at least three dragon scales take three crystals. They discard their dragon scales; all other players keep theirs.
On a player's turn, if they are in the courtyard, they may make an offering to the obelisk. They do this by paying crystals equal to the lowest valued circle still open on the obelisk, and then placing one of their cubes on that space. Players can usually make only one offering per turn.
The cards in the game are numbered from one to three, and match seven different colors (a specific race). The "1" and "2" cards can also be played for a special ability, rather than their number.
Black (Vulca): The "1" card can be discarded to move the red dragon to any tile in the city. The "2" card can be discarded to move the dragon up to three spaces in the city.
Red (Terrah): Same as black, but moves the green dragon.
Blue (Aqua): Same as black, but moves the blue dragon.
Green (Khind): These cards have no special ability, other than the fact that they count as "wild" and can be used to build any color building.
Brown (Mimix): Any two of these cards can be played together to form a "wild" card with a value of "3".
White (Hoax): The "1" card can be discarded to change up to four cards of the same color into another color when building. The "2" card can do the same but only with one card instead of four.
Gray (Flit): The "1" card can be discarded during movement to move your figure to any space; the "2" card can be discarded to add two spaces to your movement.
Yellow (Pillar): The "1" card allows a player to make an additional offering on their turn for the cost of one more crystal. The "2" card is the same, but the cost is two additional crystals.
The game continues until one player makes a certain number of offerings (four to six, depending on the number of players), at which point they win!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: Blue Moon City is certainly a sight to behold on the table, as it's very gorgeous and engaging to the eyes. Each building starts out in a two color architectural drawing that when flipped looks stunningly beautiful. The cubes are in different and pleasing colors (purple, sky blue, white, and gray), and the plastic dragon pieces, while nothing more than a scoring marker, add a lot to game play. The dragon scale tokens and the crystal tokens, which come in "1" and "3" denominations, are easy to handle and look good on the board, which is made of several sturdy cardboard counters. The cards are also of good quality and have tremendous artwork on them (for those who've played Blue Moon - the pictures are similar and much less provocative). Player pieces are small oddly shaped pawns, and the obelisk itself is a striking cardboard counter. There are certainly fewer components than other Fantasy Flight games, but still enough to make you think you are getting a box full 'o goodness. Everything fits in a nice plastic insert inside a large square box (also with beautiful artwork).
2.) Rules: The rulebook is eight large pages of full color illustrations and text, but that basically is a bit of a sham, as the last two pages explain what the buildings of Blue Moon City do (something I only skimmed over, as it's all thematic). Two more pages explain in detail what the cards do; although I found that player easily understand, since the icons on the card are rather self-explanatory. In fact, although the game offers a decent amount of choice, it can be explained fairly quickly - a factor that is very high in its favor.
3.) Players: I've seen some that claim that the game isn't very good with only two players; but I will disagree, as I really enjoy playing the game that way. Of course, it is better with three or four, as players tend to interact with each other more. Scores are often fairly close, and one of the more enjoyable features of Blue Moon City is that you always feel as if you have a shot in it.
4.) Cards: Any game that has multiple uses for its cards is one that I'm immediately interested in, and Blue Moon City is no exception. How many cards are you willing to waste to make sure that the dragons are on your space? The fact that white cards can switch unwanted colors to the color you need is helpful, and players always seem to have just a few cards short of what they really need. The most winning feature of the game to me is that card management is such an important, varied, strategic element yet feels very intuitive and easy. A player can come in and know nothing about the different races of Blue Moon, never having played the card game, and pick up the board game in an instant. Rather than feel like a duel, it's more of a race, to build buildings as quickly as possible.
5.) Buildings: The way buildings interact is very clever. Each building has its "neighborhood" award that it gives to adjacent buildings when completed, which encourages players to get a building token on every building if possible. It's very satisfying to complete a building that is adjacent to three other complete buildings, as the rewards are very high! There are only three different types of awards, yet all of the buildings still manage to retain a unique feel, especially the royal palace, which can accept contributions in ANY color, as long as they are all the same.
6.) Dragon Scales: One can't ignore dragon scales, as they tend to reward players a decent amount of crystals. At the same time, a player who focuses too much on them will find themselves majoring on the minors and possibly losing the game. The dragons are constantly flitting around the board, and scales are handed out at a high rate; but players must decide if it's worth wasting the extra cards that would allow them to build on other buildings.
7.) Fun Factor: The theme is fairly strong in this game, which is unusual for a Knizia game, and I'm still rather surprised that it didn't win the Spiel des Jahres. It's one of the best games I've played this year, if only because it's easy to play, and offers a lot of simple, fun choices. Knowing when to make an offering is an interesting mechanic, as players want to get the cheapest price they can (prices start at seven, and go up to twelve), but they have to waste a turn or more doing so. And making a double offering is a really neat, surprise move to pull off, but it cost more resources to do so. Lots of enjoyable options!
I have a strong feeling that Blue Moon City is going to be played for many years, on the basis of how easy it is to get involved with the game, and the intrigue of possible strategies. It's what I would classify as a "medium" weight game and can be played with most people in casual settings for a fulfilling, entertaining experience. The tremendous components certainly are a plus, and the way the buildings interact with each other is intuitive, as are the multi-purpose cards. I really wasn't expecting to like Blue Moon City as much as I do - and award or not, I expect to draw a lot of folk into gaming with it.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com
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Jacob Lee
Canada
Victoria
British Columbia
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Yeah! That's how to write a review! Everything I want to know about the game and now I'm interested in learning more. Nice work, Tom. Have they done away with spotlight articles? This should be one.
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Chris Halleran
United States
Monona
Wisconsin
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Also note: your hand size increases and decreases. At the end of your turn, you discard between 0 and 2 cards, and then draw between 2 and 4 cards (you draw 2 cards more than you discarded).
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John Earles
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Nice review, Tom!
Quote: I've seen some that claim that the game isn't very good with only two players; but I will disagree, as I really enjoy playing the game that way.
I will agree whole-heartedly with this!! My wife and I have played this four times and our impression of the game has only gotten better each game. We've played games where we've gone off in separate directions, but it really is better if you stay in touch with your opponent chipping in on their buildings. You also have to be careful not to over-extend your cubes as they serve double-duty in making building contributions and obelisk (  I got caught doing that in an early game. Never again!  )
In our last game we went down to the wire, I was able to jump out to a lead by grabbing the two 8 contributions, she fought back with the two 9's. In our last turns it was head-to-head and as I tried to steal a quick set of crystals to make up 11. I misjudged and she won by ONE turn as I was two squares from the city centre.
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Christopher Dearlove
United Kingdom
Chelmsford
Essex
SoRCon 5 2-4 Feb 2012 http://www.sorcon.co.uk
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jearles wrote: You also have to be careful not to over-extend your cubes
This is really only a two-player issue. But that doesn't invalidate it there.
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Guy Riessen
United States
petaluma
California
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Agree this game is great from 2 to 4, being one of the rare games where it is equally fun at all numbers of players. Like most Knizia games there are multi-layered strategies which will take a few games to grasp. Very nice way to spend a hour
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Kane Klenko
United States
Ridgeway
Wisconsin
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Excellent review. After 10 or so plays this has quite possibly become my favorite game.
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Stuart Perry
United States
Encinitas
California
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Kane: You say that about all of Reiner's games!
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Brian B
United States
Leawood
Kansas
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Nice review Tom, I'm a big fan of this game so far!
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Kane Klenko
United States
Ridgeway
Wisconsin
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Stuart: I haven't said that since Blue Moon came out. Sure, a lot of them become "one of my favorites", but BM City is quite possibly THE favorite. OK, so I'm a Knizia freak.
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Czech Mate
United States
Arvada
Colorado
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Favre4MVP wrote: Stuart: I haven't said that since Blue Moon came out. Sure, a lot of them become "one of my favorites", but BM City is quite possibly THE favorite. OK, so I'm a Knizia freak.
EWWW! Please don't call it "BM" City.
I played this game for the first time yesterday and
while both me and my wife enjoyed it very much, one
thing I noticed was the box is not fitted to the
game pieces. It is basically a bunch of rectangular
bays that hold just about anything. I say "just about"
anything because the one important item the box
really doesn't have a spot for is the Obelisk. It
does not "fit" in any of the bays.
This is one game I'd love to make a fitted
insert for the box, and I am disappointed
the game box did not come that way.
mikey.
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Top 100 Games of all Time
