Let’s play City Dice or Machi Koro if you will

Machi Koro…the city dice game.

I am sure by now if you are a board gamer you have seen or at least heard of this game.  Heck if you have been to Target or Barnes and Noble kid’s section in the last year you have seen it.  Now there is a reason for this, it’s because it’s FRIGGIN AWESOME!  It’s simple to learn with the perfect amount of random, strategy, and fun to please just about anyone. 

The game is for 2-4 players and like most games; it plays very differently when there are two and when there are four of you.  This is a huge plus in my book. 

In this game you are a mayor of a city and like all mayors, you want your town to be the absolute best!  How do you do that?  Easy, you buy all the cool stuff!  The down side is you don’t have enough money to buy the cool stuff…so you build a few things and hope they pay off.  Fair warning, the luck is in the Die… sometimes it’s just not in your favor.  Changing strategy when you only roll ones does happen.

Let’s take a closer look…

You have the money…1’s, 5’s, and 10’s…rather standard.  Nothing super special here!

Buildings… 

Now you start with 15 buildings ( I failed when taking the pictures and one building pile is under the wheat fields… what can I say, it was early… yeah that’s it, early!) Now as you can see on the buildings, they have a number or numbers on top, this is the number that will correspond with the dice roll.  Next is the type of card, then a blurb about how the card works and what you need to do to make them pay off.  Last and second most important thing is how much it costs to buy…that’s the number in the coin.  I told you it’s a really easy concept to grasp.  You have 4 different colors…the blue cards happen no matter who rolls the number, the red cards are when an opponent rolls the number and the green and purple are only when you roll the number…red and purple are like attack cards; usually stealing stuff from everyone else.

The red theft happens before the roller collect their own coins, if they get any. So if you were broke before your roll. Don’t worry they won’t take your earnings. If you only have one coin and they want two.. too bad they only get the 1. These are fun!

( Oooh, look!  You rolled nine.. Gimme those coins you!!! )

With the purple cards you can only own one of each card, and during set up you put in play only as many as there are players ( per the rules, but since you can only own one per…meh. )

You start the game with one wheat field, one bakery, one die and 3 coins.

You also start with unbuilt amusements.  These are what you need to build to win.

As you can see they are a shadowy green color and have the construction symbol on them.  Now they also give you benefits once they are built.  How do you build them?  Well, during your turn you use your one action to buy one of them.  Remember, the cost is in the coin so you need to have enough to build it. Machi oddly enough doesn’t allow for loans ( in the base game. ) 

 

Once you have purchased a building you flip the card and then the ability is free to use when you need it.

Last are the dice!!!

At first you only roll one die and once you build your train station you are able to use the second if you choose.  I have played full games with only one die.  Fun!!!

Now here’s how we play!

First you set up the board

( again notice how I haven’t realized that the ranch is under the wheat fields, REMEMBER not to do this. Ranch is a good card )

Then, you roll to see who goes first.  Once that is finished the first player rolls the die.

 Oh look its a 1!  Each person has wheat fields.  They are a 1 therefore each player gets 1 coin for each wheat field.

First player then gets to buy or build. We are choosing to buy the forest ( I love me some FOREST! ) it costs 3 coins.

Now it’s the next players turn…

Dice roll PLEASEEEE….

Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Did you see that.  Hehe.  Luckily player one has the forest: a 5.  First player gets 1 coin! ( Note: the coin is from the bank, not other players.  If it was a red or purple card it would be from other players.)

Second player then buys the Cafe!

See EASY!

How will you build your CITY?

I would like to mention that Machi Koro has two expansions… The Harbor expansion is a serious MUST HAVE. The way that they do the building set up gives a new level of random that adds a lot to game play.  You must add it if you don’t have it.

Thank you all for reading and as always, suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Have a game you want me to show? Let me know.

-WarBird signing off.