Ring Side Report-Board Game Review Machi Koro

[biotech66]

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!



Product- Machi Koro
Producer- IDW Games and Foxgames
Price- $30 here http://www.amazon.com/IDW-Games-665IDW-Machi-Board/dp/B00JGHCBZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422494958&sr=8-1&keywords=machi+koro
Set-up/Play/Clean-up- 20-30 minutes (2-4 players)
Type-Euro
Depth-Light
TL; DR- A good lighter, quicker version of Settlers of Catan. 88%


Basics-Who's the best mayor of Machi Koro? In this game each player has just been elected the mayor of the city and starts with two cards that represent the building in the town along with four public works. The building come with numbers ranging from one to 12 while the public works give you new abilities to the ability to roll two dice or reroll. On a players turn, he or she rolls one six-sided die and every player consults the cards they have. Some cards give you money on anyone's turn, some only on your turn, and some steal from the player who rolled the dice. After rolling the dice, the player can buy a card or build a public work. Then, play continues with the next player doing the same. The game ends when one player builds all four of their public works and is the best mayor!


Mechanics- This game is like a less complicated version of Settler of Catan. That doesn't make it bad, but it somewhat simpler. There are some choices, but don't look for Rococo level's of depth or strategy here. It's fun and you can make some plans. However, even the best strategy can be ruined by rolling like crap for half an hour straight. Also, there is no real way to deal with a runaway leader. That person either rolls something or the other players have to luck out and steal from him/her with specific buildings. It's fun, but has some balance issues. 3.75/5


Theme- The theme in this game is kind of off. It's cute and easy to play, but why are there up to four mayors of the same town? I felt more like a land developer than a mayor. I did have fun, and I did feel like I was building something, but I didn't feel like the leader of a town. In addition, I also don't understand why some buildings hurt other players. Why does my cafe steal from the other players? It does feel light and cute, but I don't get some of the feelings the designers hoped I would have. 3.75/5


Instructions- You can open this game up, read the rules, and be playing in less than five minutes. The game isn't super complicated, and the rules don't over compensate things either. I like what I'm seeing here! 5/5


Execution- The game is some dice, some money tokens, and some cards. It's not much, and others have done similar things. But, this game is one of the best executions of these basic components. The dice get their own separate areas of the box while the cards have nice dividers to keep things from getting messy. Also, the art is nice and cutesy. And the best part is all this is on some nice high quality cardboard and plastic box inserts, so the box doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart! 5/5


Summary- I love Settlers of Catan, but sometimes it's hard to get a game in. This one feels like Catan, but is much quicker and lighter. You can't expect a ton of strategy though, and the theme of being a mayor feels a bit off. However, if you just want that quick Catan-like game experience or need an under half an hour quality game, this is a great option to have. 90%

 

[Deset Gled]

I got this game recently and played it a few times. I would say it's probably a little closer to Dominion than Catan; it's a modified deck builder game that share's Catan's random element.

It is a very fun game, but I'm worried about the replay factor. After playing a couple of times, there seem to be relatively few optimal/viable strategies.

 

[Nytmare]

There's an expansion that alleviates some of that, though I think that the suggested method of using it needs to be tweaked a bit. They offer two suggestions, one shuffles all of the building tiles together and creates a trade row, the other expands the normal trade stacks to include all of the new tiles.

I prefer the randomized trade row method, but it seems way too easy to end up in a game where all of the buy options are cards that are way too expensive and only important to the late game. I'd suggest a random trade row with some kind of mechanic in place to remove buildings, and/or possibly change the ... I think it was the City Hall ability(?) from "If you start your turn with 0 coins, get 1 coin" to "if you roll the di(c)e and don't generate any money for yourself, get 1 coin."

 

[biotech66]

There's an expansion that alleviates some of that, though I think that the suggested method of using it needs to be tweaked a bit. They offer two suggestions, one shuffles all of the building tiles together and creates a trade row, the other expands the normal trade stacks to include all of the new tiles.

I prefer the randomized trade row method, but it seems way too easy to end up in a game where all of the buy options are cards that are way too expensive and only important to the late game. I'd suggest a random trade row with some kind of mechanic in place to remove buildings, and/or possibly change the ... I think it was the City Hall ability(?) from "If you start your turn with 0 coins, get 1 coin" to "if you roll the di(c)e and don't generate any money for yourself, get 1 coin."

The expansion is on my list of games to get. I do like this one, but it misses a bit of strategy. We'll see if the expansion fixes that for me.

 

[biotech66]

I really like how cheap and quick the game plays. It's about 30 bucks and if you take a family of four out, you're paying that much at McD's. Honestly, my only problem with this game is the runaway victor problem, and you can't solve this problem in this game.