My order mixup from Game Surplus arrived today so I packed up Hamburgum and Ys and I’ll take them to UPS tomorrow. Part of me doesn’t want to part with them but with six new games staring me in the face I really can’t complain about send back two more.
I pulled out La Citta tonight and set up the board to walk through some sample turns to get a feel for the rules. I really enjoy learning how to play a new game. There’s just some inner portion of my psyche that gets a kick out of seeing how all of the parts play together. I like exploring the mind of the designer through the end result. For some, I’m sure, learning a new game by reading the rules is pure torture but I’m weird that way. I’ve even been known to download the rules to games I don’t own just to see how they work. Like most things, reading rules takes practice and over time it gets easier and easier to absorb what would have otherwise taken hours of concentrated effort.
La Citta is a territory building game. The board is made up of paths that wind through tiles depicting wheat, stone, and water. Players seed the board with castles and play progresses by building buildings next to your castle expanding your territory along the pathways leading to connectivity with high valued areas of stone (which produced gold), water (which keeps your people healthy), and wheat (which keeps your people fed). Little plastic people inhabit your city and represent the growing population of your city. At the end of each round, players must be sure to have built buildings in areas that will produce enough food to feed their ever growing population. When cities encroach one another, some of the population may defect to cities that provide services that the people choose are important for that round. However, if you grow too fast you won’t be able to feed your people (stiff penalties in the following round if you can’t) and if you lose too many people, your buildings fall into disrepair and your cities decay (weakening your position on the board).
I’m really excited about getting this game to the table. I think many in the group will like the ebb and flow of the population growth and the numerous mechanics you need to juggle to pull off what you are trying to accomplish.
So many games…so little time devoted to gaming…