OUR REVIEW
City development for prestige
URBAN SPRAWL
Industry or residential buildings?
What is the meaning of “Urban Sprawl”? The origin of this expression is surmised for 1937, when the US citizen Earl Draper pointed out the - in his opinion - unaesthetic and non-economic changes in urban development of American cities in a conference presentation. (Stefan Siedentop, 2005, Leibnitz Institut für ökologische Raumentwicklung). To come to the point quickly, the game „Urban Sprawl“ features the topic of urban development, but does not concern itself overmuch with aesthetics and economics.
Aim of the game is to build as many and as valuable buildings as possible in order to garner victory points in order to win the game with most of them.
Description of the game
The game board shows, among other things, 36 square spots which are designated as „City Grid“ and surrounded by streets. One of the “buildings” either fits such an area exactly in the guise of a “block” or takes up exactly a quarter of a block in the guise of a “lot” or can comprise two or three lots. Regardless of the size of a building there are four different kinds of buildings / zones in four different colors: Red = Public or Civic Building “CIVic”, yellow = commercial building “COMercial”, Blue = Industry “INDustrial” und purple = accomodations “RESidential”. Parks, marked in green, are neutral buildings that do not belong to any of the four zones. The value of any individual building corresponds to the value of a “block” and depends on the red “Prestige” value and the yellow “Money” value which are marked at the edge of the building area. The total value equals the sum of those two numbers.
Ownership for each constructed building is marked with a pawn in the player’s color. In order to construct a building a player needs building permits and a contract card. The building permits must be collected by using planning cards. There are cards with 1 to 4 building permits. Each “Build Permit” card states the number of permits and furthermore also in which are you can build and which size of building you can build. The number of permits is equal to the size of the building, from 1 to 4 lots.
The building is constructed in one of the four zone/area colors by using the contract card. Those contract cards show in their upper middle part how many building permits are necessary for construction and how big the building is that is build with this card. The contract cards are available from three different contract decks: Town, City and Metropolis (see Picture: Contract Deck)
Game Set-up:
The game board is very big! Next to the board you stack the building tiles and the money, sorted by value. All 12 Buildings “1” are placed on their designated areas on the board. From the town deck you remove the Airport card, and then you shuffle the town cards and place 15 of them onto the town area of the board. Six more town cards are shuffled with the Airport card and placed on top of those 15 cards. The remaining 15 cards are also shuffled and stacked on top of those previously placed 22 cards. Finally you turn up the top card from the Town cards stack and put it on top. This shuffling/stacking procedure is repeated for the City Deck with Sports Team Event card and the Metropolis Deck with the Olympic Games Event, with the one exception that you do not turn up the top card, as those decks are not active at the start of the game. From the Planning Cards you remove the Urban Renewal Cards and stacked openly on the area for the Planning Discard Pile, and you also remove the 14 event cards. The remaining Planning Cards are shuffled and you draw 14 of them and shuffle them with the previously removed 14 event cards. Those 28 cards are stacked on their designated area and you shuffle the remaining Planning Cards and put them on top. The starting player receives one card from the stack and the others in turn always one more card than the previous player.
How to build one’s first buildings?
At the start of the game the starting player chooses one of the 12 starting buildings and places one of his wooden cubes there, thus assuming control of the building. This has a price: The value of the building that must be paid corresponds to the sum of red Prestige value and yellow Money value. Then the next player in turn chooses a building. This is continued until all 12 starting buildings are controlled by players (See Picture Starting Set up). Each player has been given money: 39$ in case of two players, 27$ when three are playing and 21$ in a four-player game. All other buildings can only be built with Planning and Contract cards.
Game play
Beginning with the starting player you play in clockwise direction. While it is your turn you are the active player. The active player first makes investments, then uses Action Points and finally executes the end-of-turn actions.
At the start of his turn a player can make one or several investments: He discards one or more “Build Permit” cards of his choice and receives the amount of money stated at the bottom of the card(s). After investment a player can spend six Action Points. Those Action Points are used to execute actions in any order, chosen from:
Take a „Build-Permit“ from the display
Own an Urban Renewal card
Build a Contract Card
Take a Contract card under the FAVOR rule
All Planning cards and all Contract cards that are in open display on the board show their Action Point price at the right-hand side of the display when they are taken.
FAVOR
In the course of the game each player has the opportunity to designate one Contract card for a FAVOR. Such a Contract / FAVOR card costs the normal amount of AP, but the building is not constructed but deposited on the Player Aid sheet. When built, the cost is 0 AP.
The Planning-Deck
In the Planning Deck there are 14 Event cards, 4 Urban Renewal cards which are deposited on the storage space at the start of the game and are only entering the game when this stack is shuffled, and 36 Build Permit cards. The Planning cards are displayed face-up in front of a player until used. When used the cards are discarded to the discard pile. Players can collect as many cards as they want.
Building of Contracts/Buildings
When a player spends APs in order to build a Contract, certain costs are involved:
Cost One: the amount of APs that is stated next to the card. Cost Two: you need as many Build Permits of the respective zone as stated on the Contract card; Cost Three: The amount of money equal to the value of the building or the block where the building is about to be built. The Contract card is removed from the game and the Build Permit Card is deposited onto the Planning Discard Pile. You must adhere to building rules when setting up a building: Restrictions as regards to areas/zones demand that a new building cannot be built adjacent to a building of another color unless another building of this color is already set up adjacently or in the neighborhood. A building is considered to be adjacent / in the neighborhood when it is separated from other buildings only be a street, be it horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Money and Prestige Markers
There are six additional money markers (7-12) and three Prestige markers (4-6). They enter the game due to several card effects. Those markers must always be placed onto a grey square and must, if it would be necessary to move them, always be placed on another grey square.
Neighborhood Bonus+
Immediately when a building has been set up, the player receives a prestige point for each adjacent building of the same color.
Event
Event cards are present in all four card decks. An event happens when the card is revealed. Events from the Planning deck are discarded openly on the discard area and come into play several times. Events from the Contract Decks are once-only events and are removed from the game after their implementation. If a card shows a brown box an election is initiated. When the card features a yellow or red number a handout of money or prestige can happen.
Election
Whenever a Planning card is drawn players check first if the card is marked with a brown Ballot box. When that is the case the orange marker is moved one step and an election happens.
Politicians
There are five politicians in the game. Politicians give advantages to their owners and earn them prestige points at the end of the game.
Vocation
When a player builds a Contract with a Vocation symbol he receives a marker with this symbol and all players, who have this symbol on display, receive the amount of money or prestige stated on the Contract card.
Building Effects
Constructing a building can result in several different effects. Those effects are stated on the Contract card.
Payout
Whenever a Planning card is turned up, players check if the card shows a money symbol at the bottom. When that is the case there is a payout after an election: The value and the symbol show where the payout happens. The Payout table tells you which amount is paid as regards to ranking. Ranking depends on the number of buildings that have been constructed in the row.
End of a turn
When the active player has spent all APs at this disposal or cannot use some or does not want to use more of them his turn ends. He now executes the following actions:
Shift all Planning cards on display one position down towards the 1 AP square.
Fill the remaining spots by drawing cards from the deck. If the card drawn is an event card, implement the event. If the card is marked with a box symbol an election happens, in case of a money symbol there is a payout.
Finally, you turn up the top card from the planning deck and - if applicable - execute events and payouts.
The same procedure is followed for the Contract cards. Please note that at the beginning only the Town Deck is active; when the City Deck is active the top Town card is placed on the 5AP area only. When the Metropolis Deck becomes active, the top City Card is placed on the 4 AP area only. Should the card be an event card, the event is executed. If the card shows a prestige symbol, a payout happens.
Finally, you turn up the top card of the Contract Deck is turned up and events or payouts are implemented as for the other decks.
The Active-Player Card is handed to the next player in clockwise direction and he starts his turn.
Urban Renewal
Renewal allows a player - in combination with an Urban Renewal card or the Contractor to demolish existing buildings and set up another building instead.
As soon as the Olympic Games Event is drawn the game ends instantly. All prestige rows enact one final payout. Owners of politicians receive prestige points once more. If you then have the most prestige points you win.
Evaluation of the Game
The rules are clearly structured and nicely explained with examples. The meaning of the cards is self-explaining due to the symbols. The real challenge of the game is the optimum use of the Action Points. Events are well balanced and usually target either the value of a building or the number of buildings in a block. The event “Urban Renewal” has an effect only very rarely. Politicians change owners rather frequently so that there is no imbalance incurring. The shifting of money and prestige markers ensures a certain tension and challenge in the game. The same goes for the Vocation markers, as they initiate interaction and keep the game interesting. What about a strategy for the game? A player can decide on a certain tactic for his card selection: Collect Permit Cards or build Contracts. Valuable permits earn you money from investments. Contracts must be built immediately. For that the right timing seems to be essential! All the same, both kinds of cards are important.
All in all I believe that the game meets even very high requirements and seems geared to provide good fun for meticulous strategic thinkers.
Erwin Kocsan
Players: 2-4
Age: 12+
Time: 180+
Designer: Chan Jensen
Artist: Chad Jensen, Rodger MacGowan, Chechu Nieto
Price: ca. 50 Euro
Publisher: GMT Games 2011
Web: www.gmtgames.com
Genre: Development game
Users: For experts
Special: 2 players
Version: en
Rules: en
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Self explaining symbols on the cards
Action Points Allocation is central element of the game
This puts the emphasis on planning and thinking
Compares to:
Milton Keyes and other building games on given areas
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 5
Erwin Kocsan:
A well-balanced game, the optimization of action point allocation makes it an ideal game for ponderers
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 3
Strategy (blue): 2
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 2
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0