Author Topic: Quadropolis  (Read 2031 times)

Offline Decar

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Quadropolis
« on: May 20, 2017, 01:00:04 PM »
Some of you might have seen that Danisthirty was kind enough to show me how to play Quadropolis last weekend.  Today I got to play it with my wife for the first time.  I thought I'd write another mini-review after I shared my initial thoughts last week. I once again received a kicking from Mrs Decar.

Rules:
The major mechanic is tile drafting; building-plans are randomly spread across a 5x5 grid, then players use their architect tiles to reach a distance (1,2,3,4) from the boards edge.  Once a tile is taken a counter ('The Urbanist') is used to mark that location.  The piece that was taken is added to the player's board on a grid location matching the architect they used.  The Urbanist prevents the next player from taking a tile from that row/column, which tightens the board.  The classic game is broken into 4-rounds of drafting.



Certain tiles give resources (meeple and energy), and others require resources to be build.  The tiles score based on the layout of your city and each type of tile is scored in different ways.  For example:  Apartments are scored based on their height.  While Factories score based on being adjacent to Shops and Ports.  There's a carefully crafted interwoven balance between all of these tiles.

It's all incredibly straightforward and fast paced; I think the whole game took about 35-minutes.

Components:
The tiles are nice and thick.
The meeple and energy crates are pleasing to the eye too.  The First Player and Urbanist meeple are pleasing too.
I like the artwork on the tile - It's very clear and I've not had any problem telling them apart or reading/understanding the iconography.
The player city mats are on the thin side, but I think this was to prevent them sliding around, I don't think it's a major problem.
The box insert is wonderful and designed to sit on top of the punch-boards.

Player Interaction:
There's not a huge amount of direct interaction, but the game's duration makes this ok.  The are often tiles that both players need and The Urbanist can sometimes be used to block a tile the other player needed.

Theme:
The artwork all makes sense, the theme is ultimately abstract and a mechanism for collecting-sets and scoring arbitrary points.  Having said that, when your plan comes together and you see your points stack up, you do get a sense of satisfaction.  Probably much more than the real town planners who think it's a good idea to change the road layout and add speed bumps in front of busy roundabouts.

Our Game:
Mrs Decar went for Public Service tiles, that ended up scoring her 22 points alone!
She also achieved a pleasing 4-story Apartment block.

A total of 56 points for my wife!

I decided to go for Parks and Services.
I had intended to get a big Port going, but the tiles did not come where I needed them.
My factories ended up in the wrong places:

Only 45 points to me.

Mrs Decar wins the Mayoral robes!

Last Thoughts
I like the subtleties of Quadropolis. When it comes to point-salad games I usually notice the massive multiplier or exponential cost/benefit loop.  Quadropolis doesn't have these, and I'm not convinced any single strategy is stronger than another.  Even if it were the tiles are randomized just enough to make it difficult.  The skill seems to come from being adaptable and using your centre quad optimally.  I love games where I can make choices and calculate the optimal move; just like the Carcassonne-end-game.

As I mentioned last week, because the insert is so well designed, the game actually puts itself a way while you're playing!


Image courtesy of BGG

Final Final Thoughts
Big Thanks to Dan for getting this one to our table - Mrs Decar liked it too.  I also learned a very very useful tip for teaching games, especially to people who might not be so patient (as me and Dan playing Mint Works):

I introduced Mrs Decar to Quadropolis during the week, and explained the rules over 15-20minutes.  It meant we could sit down tonight and just play the game, which lasted about 35-minutes.  Rather than blocking the best part of an hour to do both.  It also meant I could recap any rules during the week in preparation before quickly going over the basics before we played.

I'll be using this strategy in the future.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3340.0

Offline dirk2112

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Re: Quadropolis
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2017, 05:17:18 PM »
Decar,

Just an FYI, BGG has the Christmas and USA promo tiles available now.  If you really like the game, you might want to pick those up while you can. 


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