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You’ve been handed the keys to an untouched neighborhood, and now it’s your job to turn it into the city council’s dream come true. You’ll need to plan everything—from modern homes to lush parks and calming water features—all while keeping the city hall’s strict demands in mind. Sounds simple, right? Well, let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to bring these grand plans to life in Cities.
👥 2-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 30-40 minutes
📝 Designers: Steve Finn & Phil Walker-Harding
🎨 Artwork: Jorge Tabanera Redondo
🏢 Publisher: 999 Games (Dutch version, review copy provided) Originally published by Devir.
Gameplay Overview
Cities plays out over 8 rounds, where each player gets to craft their own neighborhood in a 3×3 tile grid. Every round, you’ll place one of your four workers in one of the four rows on the main board. These rows offer up goodies like tiles, buildings, features, or scoring cards to help you shape your neighborhood.
In the city tile row, you’ll pick up new tiles featuring housing plots, parks, or water features. These tiles help you expand your neighborhood, and you’ll need to balance housing with a bit of natural beauty. The housing plots come in four colors, which will match the building pieces you’ll collect in future rounds. In the building row, you’ll grab buildings to place on your colored plots. These buildings can stack up to four stories high, giving your city a nice, vertical flair as you go.
Next up is the features row, where you can add a little something extra to your parks and water spaces. There’s also the option to place gray tiles, which act as wild spaces for any color building. Statues can be added to your plots as well, giving you extra points at the end of the game. The final row gives you scoring cards that will count at the end. Most items are open for everyone to see, but the fourth space in each row has a hidden element—whether it’s a city tile, feature tile, or scoring card. In the building row, this hidden spot lets you draw two random buildings from the bag, and also claim the start player token for the next round.
Before the game begins, a city achievement board is chosen. This board gives players goals set by the city council, rewarding points to the first three players who complete them. These achievements are marked by scoring rings, and getting there before your opponents can give you an edge when it’s time to tally up the points.
After the eighth round, the game ends and it’s time to see who’s built the council’s favorite neighborhood. Points come from city achievements, statues, scoring cards, and enhancements to your parks and water features. The player with the highest score takes home the title of best city planner.
Game Info
Cities is a collaboration between two well-known designers in the board game world: Steve Finn and Phil Walker-Harding. Both have a reputation for creating fun, accessible family games. Finn’s Biblios and Walker-Harding’s Sushi Go! are great examples of their work. But this is their first time teaming up, and they’ve really knocked it out of the park! Published in Dutch by 999 Games, Cities is perfect for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, and its 30-40 minute playtime makes it a great choice for family game night.
Components, Production, and Artwork
Let’s talk components. Simply put, they’re solid. The cards, tiles, and tokens are built to last, while the chunky wooden star as the starting player marker adds a fun touch. You get custom meeples in bright colors, and the tiny plastic buildings you’ll be stacking? They’re the real showstoppers. Not only are they satisfying to build, but drawing them randomly from a cloth bag adds a fun tactile element to the game. As your city grows taller, it creates a pleasant visual appeal on the table.
And the artwork by Jorge Tabanera Redondo? It’s charming and clean, perfectly complementing the city-building theme. The only oddity is the scoring cards, which are styled like smartphone screens—they look a bit out of place, but hey, maybe that’s just a quirky nod to modern urban life!
Gameplay: Simple Yet Strategic
At first glance, Cities may seem simple, but there’s more going on beneath the surface. It’s easy to learn, making it great for families or casual gamers, but it also has a strategic puzzle that appeals to players who like to think ahead. You’ll have to balance short-term decisions with long-term planning as you and your opponents compete for the same resources. Each round, you face a new dilemma: which row should you draft from? Do you grab the tile you need now or risk it to claim that perfect building later? This is where the game really shines—finding the balance between immediate needs and long-term goals.
The worker placement system is simple but surprisingly strategic. Some elements are hidden each round, so you never know exactly what will be available, which keeps things interesting. Choosing the right row at the right time can make all the difference.
Player Interaction: Watching, Not Blocking
If you’re into high interaction games, Cities may feel a bit lighter. The player interaction mostly comes from competing for resources and spots, but it’s more about observation than direct interference. You’ll need to keep an eye on what your opponents are doing and time your moves just right. Snagging a key tile or building before someone else can really mess with their plans. In games with three or four players, all the tiles and scoring cards are used, so everyone is competing for the same limited resources.
In a two-player game, the dynamics shift slightly. Each player places two workers per row per round, and there are two options: a shorter game where you build a 3×3 neighborhood over four rounds, or a longer game with a 3×5 grid over seven rounds. Some tiles and cards don’t make it into play, so you’ll need to adjust your strategy on the fly.
Replayability: Fresh Every Time
One of the best things about Cities is its replayability. No two games feel the same, thanks to the random setup of scoring cards, city tiles, and achievement boards. Every game gives you new opportunities and strategies to explore. Maybe this time you’ll focus on parks and water features, while next time you go all in on towering buildings.
The game includes four double-sided city achievement boards, each inspired by real-world cities like New York City and Lisbon. Each board comes with unique thematic goals—like water features for the Amsterdam and Antwerp boards, which reflect their famous harbors. These boards are part of a promo released by 999 Games and are given to customers who purchase the game through their website. If you’re lucky, you might even get your hands on promo boards from other countries, adding even more variety to your collection.
Final Thoughts
Cities nails the balance between quick playtime and engaging decisions. It’s a fun, fast-paced game that still packs in enough strategy to keep everyone on their toes. The real challenge is in planning your city’s layout and making the most of your scoring cards and achievements, which don’t always line up as neatly as you’d like. But that’s part of the fun! If you love city-building games with a hint of strategy and a manageable amount of player interaction, Cities is well worth checking out.
📝 We received a copy of the game from the publisher, 999 Games.
