Review of the board game "Machi Koro". You built an incredibly wonderful, wonderful city on the sand - review of the board game Machi Koro

What is the game about?

For quite some time now, a good board game has been released in Russian - Machi Koro. This strange name The game has a reason, because it comes from Japan.

The Russian edition of Machi Koro includes the base version of the game and its expansion, so there are plenty of cards in the blue box. They depict factories, shops, catering outlets and attractions.

What to do

Each participant starts the game with one bakery and a wheat field and rolls the dice on their turn, receiving income and expanding their holdings. The buildings have unique properties, which can be combined. Some, for example, increase profits, others allow you to take rent from rivals.

The winner is the one who accumulates enough funds and builds four attractions.

Who wants to buy the board game Machi Koro?

Machi Koro is quite simple card game, which leans heavily on probability theory while still being fun and fast tabletop entertainment with beautiful design and an interesting combination of well-known game mechanics. It is perfect for playing small company, as well as for family gatherings.

Preparation

Inside the game box we find two stacks of cards, two dice and a handful of tokens. The main gaming area will be the card market, all of which represent buildings that players can build in their own small town.

Start

The goal of the game is to be the first to build four landmarks in your city. But for this we will have to thoroughly develop the infrastructure.

Game phases

It's very easy to do. Players take turns, and each turn consists of income and construction phases.

Income

The income phase uses the well-known colonizer mechanics: the participant rolls a die (and later two) and everyone watches with bated breath what comes up, because the value rolled on the die activates already built buildings with the corresponding number.

Cards with a green background bring profit only on the player’s turn, while cards with a blue background bring profit on any player’s turn.

Red cards take money away from the active player to please the owner, while purple cards allow the owner to take cash from others.

Construction

During the construction phase, the player can take one of three actions:

• Build a new enterprise from the market by paying its cost in coins to the bank.
• Build one of your landmarks in the same way.
• Pass.

Moreover, each participant’s city can have only one unique building. How takes longer game, the more properties begin to trigger each turn. And even more expensive buildings can be afforded. Of course, the more expensive they are, the more powerful their effect.

Sometimes you shouldn't get too carried away with building enterprises, because to win the game you just need to build four attractions. Theoretically, this can be done without purchasing a single enterprise at all.

About game mechanics

The Russian edition of the game immediately includes an addition that introduces new cards to the game and slightly extends it.

The board game Machi Koro attracts with its simplicity. All text is written on the cards, it is quite logical and understandable. From point of view gameplay here, too, everything is very simple: roll the dice, use cards, save money and buy new ones. All cards are available to players immediately and some do not require the presence of others. This opens up a lot of different combinations and ways for players to achieve victory.

The influence of the die in the game is quite large, and sometimes it can completely decide the outcome of the game. Overall, your opinion of this game will likely depend on how you initially decide to feel about it.

Photo of the board game Machi Koro

The board game "Machi Koro" is an easy-to-learn city-planning filler, where each of the participants, from two to five, plays the role of the mayor of a small town. The task of each mayor is to lead his city to prosperity before his competitors do with their cities, and for this it is necessary to build a certain number of attractions, the number of which depends on the chosen version of the game.

Initially, the base game was designed for four people, but the Russian-language version from World of Hobbies includes an expansion that allows up to five players to take part in the party.

The game box contains the rules, two sealed decks of cards, two six-sided dice, and cardboard molds containing coins of various denominations.

The quality of the components is excellent. This applies to both materials and printing. But the cutting leaves much to be desired - and you have to carefully separate the coins from the molds so as not to inadvertently damage them.

Brief overview of the rules

The rules of Machi Koro are simple, and if someone in the group is familiar with the game, they can get the rest of the players up to speed in five minutes. In short, each card in the game means some kind of enterprise that has certain properties, the cost of construction and the conditions under which it makes a profit.

In addition, each player has several landmark cards that they must bring into play before everyone else in order to win. Each of the attractions not only brings its mayor closer to victory, but also gives him additional advantages. For example, it allows him to re-roll the dice or throw two at once, which is initially impossible to do.

Enterprises that generate income in the current turn are determined by throwing one or two dice according to the same principle as it happens in - what value is dropped, such cards are played. But unlike “Colonizers”, where everyone receives income at once, in “Machi Koro” the recipients of benefits are determined using the color of the cards. And red cards, on top of everything, allow you to take money not from the bank, but from your competitors’ pockets.

While some businesses generate profits directly, others allow you to earn income from other cards. For example, a furniture factory itself does not bring in money, but it allows you to make a profit from forests and mines. So, when setting up production, you need to provide it with raw materials, otherwise you can’t hope for income from it.

Impression

The game left a mixed impression. We played several games with four people, and everyone was happy with the results. But, unlike the others, I didn’t particularly like the game, although I can easily play it more than once with company.

Personal preference comes into play here first and foremost. I don't like randomness where there shouldn't be any. In the same or it is quite appropriate. These are adventure games where the emphasis is on plot and atmosphere. And if the gameplay is based on calculation, then randomness should either be kept to a minimum or regulated by the mechanics of the game. Excellent examples of such games are and.

But as I said, everyone else liked the game, so it's better to try it yourself.

Summary

Machi Koro is a good filler, the rules of which are explained in five minutes. Thanks to this, the game is good to play with beginners, but experienced players may not like it high influence random.

• Game page on the publisher's website: http://hobbyworld.ru/machi-koro.
• I thank the Hobby World company for providing the game.
• More reviews - on.

Links to materials for Machi Koro, a small card novelty that I recently talked about. According to the author of the collection, the toy is very good, fast, interesting, Pard even made an addition for it. Next are his reviews.

About the game in general:

The toy, by the way, turned out to be cool. It will also be necessary to make an addition, albeit with poor graphics - all the materials for this are there.

You don’t have to print the backs at all - anyway, the cards lie open on the table the entire game, and the goal cards are glued together in two parts.

Already in the middle of the first game you stop paying attention to the pictures, you only remember the numbers (like in “Koryo”). So any graphics will work, even low-quality ones (the background of the card is still taken from normal cards of the same type).

We use the rule from the add-on “If a player has 0 coins before purchasing, he receives 1 coin from the bank” in the database from the very beginning. Helps a lot.

In general, in the addition, the most valuable card is “4”, a flower garden, which allows you to actively use this number at the beginning of the game (otherwise there is a slight dip in income).

After the first game, I thought that I could play with one dice until the very end, but when they start seriously hitting the cafes (“3”), it is clear that I need to go with 2 dice, and the earlier the others, the better. True, the next similar ambush awaits there - “restaurants”. But while their opponents are purchasing them, they need to have time to purchase compensation in the same numbers. Or you can be the first to start buying them - they (together with the built supermarket) generate a lot of income.

In general, the game is fast, without painful expectations, very well thought out and balanced: at the finish line, the four of us had two or three candidates for victory.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I sketched out the rules on BGG team game- two by two (the meaning is that according to good maps you receive income only if your partner plays the desired number, and bad cards only affect opponents). It might also turn out interesting.

And small homerules:

1. This is not in the official rules, but it seems to me that it is a little fairer if at the end of each circle the first player's marker is passed to the next player in a clockwise direction. We play like this all the time.

2. Regarding full game(base + addition) there is dissatisfaction. When playing with just the base, things are going swimmingly as there are a lot of cheap buildings available to cover all the dice rolls. And if only 10 (even 12) random buildings from the deck are available, then a) some of them are very expensive and cannot be bought, b) some of them cover inaccessible areas of roll results (more than 6) and are simply useless. Remaining useful buildings they don’t help the weather: the game slows down a lot and becomes too chaotic (mostly depending on luck, and not on the development strategy you are going to use).

I propose to use a simple rule: until the players have built any “Station” (You can roll 2 dice), 8 random buildings are constantly laid out in the center of the table, working with results of no more than 6. As soon as the first “Station” is built, a deck with new buildings is shuffled, and 10 random cards are laid out in the center of the table until the end of the game (as described in the rules).

This fundamentally changes the game and makes it interesting again. Verified.

3. And one more rule (inspired by “Sail to India”):

At the beginning of the game, players starting with the first one receive 2, 3, 3 and 4 coins respectively.

This is a kind of compensation for those who start later than others. And then you can no longer change the first player, and just play the whole game in a circle.

Japan is an amazing country, home to many inventions and enchanting traditions. The Japanese came up with the CD-Rom, cassette player, hexagonal pencil, lasers with different wavelengths and other useful things that you can’t imagine without. modern life. They also came up with the idea of ​​rolling fresh fish into a tube, cutting it into slices, and elevated this dubious dish to the rank of a delicacy. In a word, the Japanese are magicians. Today on the Pink Sofa is the city planning board game Machi Koro.

An edible iPhone case, a smart robot for cleaning the iPad screen, pears in the shape of sleeping babies and heated socks are a few of the creations of Japanese developers. But the original idea is half the battle; you also need to name your brainchild effectively. And here again the Japanese are ahead of the rest, since no one else knows how to correctly pronounce the text printed on the box. And given that in the scarce European language there is often no alternative option, it is not possible to translate the name from Japanese. This happened with the game I’m going to talk about today.

"Machi Koro" Associations with a board game are the last thing that comes to mind after such a name. However, the box contains two stacks of cards, a handful of cardboard tokens, two dice, and a booklet with parting words from the Japanese developers.

There is only one resource in the game - money (60 coins of three denominations). Everything you do comes down to amassing a solid capital. And two standard blue hexagons will help with this.

Each player will begin his city government with a standard wheat field and a modest house with a bakery. 10 starting cards of two types imply the participation of up to five candidates for the position of mayor in the gameplay. To win, opponents will have to build four types of attractions (20 cards).

87 cards of 12 types of green, blue and red colors will allow you to build many enterprises in the quarter under your control and, as a result, earn a lot of coins that can be invested in construction, from which you will receive money, and so on... Business in all its glory.

In addition to ordinary enterprises, with which you can cover the entire sponsored territory, you can build a large enterprise by choosing one of three types purple cards.

A small digression: the publishing house "World of Hobby" made a truly royal gift to all fans of the game by adding an addition to the box (which is about 73 cards)! Thus, the player has at his disposal a complete set for building a small but very profitable town.

The expansion includes a special starting landmark, Town Hall, as well as two additional landmarks, Port and Airport.

In addition, the number of red cards has increased, sea vessels, a flower garden with a flower shop and a food warehouse have appeared. All this is added to the basic kit and significantly transforms the game for the better.

Oh, yes, the tax office (where would we be without them) and the publishing house. This large enterprises, therefore, as before, only one of the buildings of this type can be built.

Separating the components of the base game from the expansion is quite easy, you just need to look at the lower right corner of the card. The add-on has an icon printed there (in basic version he is absent). The cards also contain special icons, which are not necessary to remember - any building contains detailed description properties (text below). The numbers on top are required result roll a dice (or two dice) to activate the card, the coin at the bottom left is the cost of the building. That's all the wisdom of the game...

Districts, neighborhoods, communities...

So, each candidate for the title of mayor receives a wheat field and a bakery (ready to use), as well as four attractions that still need to be built (cards are arranged with the “bulldozer” icon facing up). What this or that building does can be found out from the text. The starting capital is small - only three coins.

Sort the reserve cards by type and place them in piles in the center of the table. The order can be any, whatever is convenient for you, do so (we break it down by cost). Give two dice to the player with the roundest eyes. He puts one die aside and throws the second.

Actually, any player’s turn consists of two actions: throwing a die (or two dice) and buying a card. After throwing a hexagon, all participants look at the result and apply the effects of the cards (when to apply the effect and where to get the money is indicated in the text).

For example: the bakery brings 1 coin from the bank if the roll result is 2 or 3. The effect only affects the active player.

After receiving income, you can either buy one new map from the center of the table, or turn over one of your four cards. In any case, you must pay the bank the amount indicated in the lower left corner. The effect of landmarks only applies when the card is active (turned upside down).

The effect of a normal building always applies (the card is always positioned face up). The purchased buildings are located in front of the player and remain with him until the very end of the game.

When purchasing, be guided by when the card is valid: on your turn (green), only on your opponent’s turn (red) or on any turn (blue).

Some attraction cards work in conjunction with regular cards.

For example: shopping mall by itself will not do anything, but it increases the amount of money received from stores and restaurants. The station allows you to roll two dice, and the sum of the results of the rolls is taken into account, and not each dice individually.

To win, according to the basic rules, you need to build (turn the picture up) all four attractions.

When using the add-on, six points of interest must be built. Please note: the town hall brings one coin each turn and is active from the very beginning of the game.

Having built Korograd.

I'm not afraid of this word - good game for all ages and skill levels of players. The rules are explained literally in 30 seconds; no special skills or experience are needed for urban planning. However, behind the apparent simplicity lies an interesting tactical puzzle, which can only be solved after playing a dozen games.

The player is constantly faced with a choice: turn over one of his attractions (spending a lot of money) or invest in new buildings and make capital. At the same time, an excessive passion for money can result in a loss, because whoever turns over four cards first wins. But finances and buildings are not taken into account in the final calculation...

After the game, there is a desire to start building again, as various combinations of buildings arise in my head to “overlap” the entire numerical range of hexagon throws. By the way, despite the constant presence of “symbols of chaos”, there is no randomness in the gameplay. With proper planning, you will always receive dividends for any result of the roll. As a last resort, you can steal something from your opponent on his turn...

The presence of an add-on in the box is worthy of special mention - it’s nice when the publisher doesn’t “pump” money out of you, but completely completes the game. A big plus for "World of Hobby"…

The game was provided for review by the store " Hobby Games", whose sellers will advise and help you choose the product you are interested in.

The desktop market has recently seen another replenishment of its ranks. This time, Hobby World has localized a Japanese board game! Why the choice fell on her and why I want to tell you about her, read in this article...

What is inside?

Cards, cards and more cards - that's what you'll see first when you open the box. They will be sealed in two decks, one for a simple game, the other for a longer and more intense game (the second deck is an addition to the main game). You can, for example, print out one deck and play, and leave the second for later.

Well, okay, the game doesn’t just have cards, there are also a couple of dice and a bunch of money. =)

What is the game about?

The photo above shows two sides of 4 cards, below in the unbuilt form, above in the built form. Each player will have such a set (4 cards) and the main task- earn money the fastest and rebuild these 4 buildings. Once someone has achieved this, the game ends with an unconditional victory.

How to play?

In order to accumulate the required amount of money for target buildings, you will first have to establish a flow of profit by building other profitable buildings. Fact - any card in the game brings profit, but by the will of fate this profit is not constant. =)

On his turn, the player must roll 1 (or 2) dice, and can also buy (or build, as it suits you) one card.

The result of the dice roll is compared with the numbers on the players’ cards, and if there is a match, then the condition for the card to be triggered is looked at (on your own turn, on someone else’s turn, on any player’s turn). Everything coincided - we get the money...

Accordingly, after we have sorted out the activation of the cards, we can make one purchase using the funds we own (prices are indicated on the cards at the bottom left).

In principle, these are all the rules of the game, the main text load is on the cards themselves, so I’ll tell you about them separately.

Types of cards.

Blue cards in the game are triggered during any player's turn, which makes them more attractive than others. The most delicious are the mines, which bring 5 coins each. If you grab 2-3 of them, then you won’t have long to wait for the end of the game. =)

Green cards can only be activated on your turn. As a rule, these are tastier cards than blue ones. Even the starting bakery, although it gives 1 coin, is activated by a two or three. It’s not uncommon in the game when someone has collected, for example, a lot of forests and mines, bought a furniture factory and is waiting for an eight to roll, which can immediately ensure the purchase of any of the target buildings.

Red is the color of aggression. But here even aggression looks somehow kinder in the form of cafes and restaurants. If your opponent rolled, for example, a three, and you have a cafe, then he owes you money for a snack in your establishment. You can, of course, create a whole chain of coffee shops and open one of the target buildings so that the visitor pays double the amount... Then going to a cafe turns into a nightmare. =) (Doesn’t remind you of anything?)

A player can only have a single special purple card and is activated by the six on his own turn. As a bonus, you can “warm up” a partner, or even several, with his money.

In the photo above you can see how your built enterprises look during the game.

Cards from the extra deck.
The addition brings a lot of different cards to the game and increases the game time. You can play by standard rules, as described above, that is, lay out all types of enterprises. But you will need twice more space. Therefore, the creators of the game recommend another version of the rules when playing with the addition: lay out 10 random types of enterprises and, when some of them run out, lay out new ones.
Let's take a closer look at the cards from the add-on.


Three more buildings that the player must build to win are added to the four from the base game. Moreover, one is already open, the second is very expensive (but if you build it, it will be very cool), and the third allows you to make dice rolls greater than 12!

New food intake points for catching opponents in the game. Now you can fish on 1, 7 and 8.

So we have a new seafood icon. Now, if you have a built port (it’s very easy to build), you can make money on seafood. There is also a new addition to the ranks of agricultural products in the form of a flower garden.

Purple cards are, as always, the coolest (which is why you can't keep more than one of them).

Now it makes sense to accumulate as many restaurants and cafes as possible. On someone else's turn, restaurants are open, and on your turn, you can try to activate the Food Warehouse.
The flower shop works exclusively in conjunction with flower gardens, which is somehow weak compared to other enterprises.

Impression.

Here we have a brilliant salad of mechanics from famous games. In the spirit of the gameplay, "Machi Koro" reminded everyone who played "Monopoly" and "Colonizers". As in Monopoly, there is a snowball of buildings and the excitement of not falling into the clutches of an opponent from an unsuccessful roll of the dice. The conditions of victory and the method of activating cards are in the direction of the “Colonizers”. But despite this, the game has a special and independent taste.

A game without additions with new players along with an explanation lasts no more than 40 minutes, with more experienced players correspondingly even less, which allows you to play 2-3 games in an evening, unless of course something else is planned. With the addition, a game session can last up to an hour (or maybe longer for some).

When you sit down to play Machi Koro, you must accept the fact that the element of luck in the form of rolling dice can overcome any player's strategy. So, for example, my first game was marked by regular rolls of 11 and 12, which for me personally disrupted the flow of funds from “more likely” enterprises. Therefore, you cannot lose hope for a good throw here (even though in most games it is strategy that wins).

A few tips/observations after a dozen games without the addition:
- I won one of the first games using just one dice. This is also a kind of strategy when all players go to enterprises with values ​​greater than 6, and you do not allow them to profit from you by rolling just one die and accordingly boosting enterprises with numbers up to 6.
- Under no circumstances should you ignore the purchase of red cards. If you don’t buy it, others will buy it, this has already been verified.
- If your opponents have a lot of cafes and restaurants, you need to develop a strategy to earn as much as possible in one move. Moreover, you must try to spend everything without a trace, so as not to give your earned coins to others. Even if I have one coin during the game, I buy a card with it.
- You can develop in the game in different ways: either a little everywhere, then there will be a stable but small income, or in one direction (for example, farming). The second option is riskier and for a couple of moves you may end up without any money, but if the dice have already turned towards you with the right side, you will be swimming in gold. =) I always choose the second method, then the excitement wakes up and emotions overflow.
- A deliberately losing strategy is to collect cards of the same color (even blue). There is a category of people who like to collect beautiful sets. Warn them that this is the road to defeat (or ask why they even play if they don’t want to win).

Who do I recommend the game to?
"Machi Koro" is suitable for anyone who wants to have a good time and doesn't really want to strain their brains (although you still have to think). This means that such a box will take root at home for family gatherings, in a cafe/anti-cafe/club for young companies, and in general wherever cheerful and cheerful people. =) An excellent addition to the collection for a family lover like me. =)