YORKTON - Button Shy (www.buttonshy.com) is back with another new game about to be released to the world at large – Casinopolis.
This one is a little different in that it plays up to four players as a co-operative effort, and yet the entire game is still only 18-cards – which is rather the standard fare from Button Shy.
The game plays perfectly fine as a solo game, but you can have some friends involved – and here that is not a bad idea because you might find two, three, or four minds are indeed better than one.
Casinopolis by designers Steven Aramini, Danny Devine, and Paul Kluka with artist Filip Popovic is a standalone entry in the Sprawlopolis line of games, of which there are several, although this is the first to be played by The Meeple Guild, so a comparison to earlier releases in the line is impossible.
With Casinopolis you are placing 15 cards on an expanding map to create large groups of casinos, line up jackpot icons along roads, and balance scoring from three unique goals – which are on the other three cards of this thin-decked offering.
Casinopolis has 18 double-sided cards. One side shows the blocks that players use to expand their map, while the other side shows unique scoring conditions. Three of these are randomly dealt at the start of the game to establish what will be part of the scoring at game end. With 18 possible ‘goals’ there is some replayability here for sure.
Players take turns adding a single card to the map. Cards must be added in a horizontal alignment, which frankly is logical enough but highly frustrating. They can be placed next to or overlapping a previously-placed card.
Each card features four blocks split among the three different casino colours. Adjacent blocks that share a colour form larger casinos.
Once all 15 cards have been played, the game ends and points are scored. A core scoring aspect has players gain one point per block from the largest casino of each type that is adjacent to the ‘strip’ (longest road), then lose one point for each road. The loss of points on roads is harsh. It really chops into your score and while it makes sense as it stops random cards with a myriad of roads going nowhere – which would make no sense – but it is a rule you will not like – at least we did not in our two-player exploration of Casinopolis.
The goal cards are then scored, and then the quirky little extra where the ‘jackpots’ are scored: for each run of three or more matching lucky symbols that are adjacent on a shared road, score one point per icon. This is where extra eyes will help. There are points to be gained here. But with the other score options this one can easily be forgotten. Having a player focused on this would help – table talk is encouraged here.
Finally, the total is compared to the target number: the sum of the three numbers listed on each goal card – which can be as high as 60 so it is not easy. Score higher than the target number to win the game.
Among the Button Shy games played this one is far from a favourite, but as a co-op game that does work fine with only 18-cards it has to be of interest as an easy transport game that plays up to four over a cup of coffee.
