Quadropolis: Building cities and using your architects wisely
I finally got my hands on a copy of Quadropolis (thanks to my Friendly Local Game Store Game Depot), and I can’t wait to get it on table. I first played Quadropolis over a month ago at a game night at the Game Boy Geek’s, and I seriously have been counting down toward the game’s April 29 release date.
Then my friend gave me a heads-up that Game Depot had early copies, so I drove down to Tempe to pick one up for myself. Quadropolis reminds me of city-building games such as Suburbia and Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but much more streamlined and less fiddly, in my opinion.
Quadropolis is a 2-4 player game that plays about 60 minutes. The Classic game plays for four rounds, with four actions each. The game also comes with an Expert level, which is a nice touch and doesn’t require you to purchase an extra expansion game later. I normally don’t play shorter games (as you know, some of my top 9 board games are heavy euro games, and I did sit through a nearly 11-hour campaign of Virgin Queen), but I really enjoyed playing this game. It made the gears of my brain hurt a little bit, in the best possible way!
The artwork is cheery and colorful, and easy to understand. The components are great — the tiles are made of thick cardboard material, and it comes with little plastic blue meeple inhabitants and red cylinder energy units. And the best part is that the box insert neatly fits all the components. It’s clearly labeled what goes where, and it makes for easy setup and cleanup. The game also scales well; certain tiles aren’t in play for 2- or 3- player games.
The object of the game is to build the best city and get the most victory points. You get points by how you build your city. There are 6 types of buildings:
- Tower Blocks (yellow)
- Shops (purple)
- Public Services (turquoise)
- Parks (green)
- Factories (red)
- Harbors (blue)
Tower Blocks are scored based on the number of floors it has. Shops are scored based on the number of people on it. Public Services are scored based on how many districts the buildings are built in. Parks are scored based on adjacency to Tower Blocks. Factories are scored based on adjacency to Shops and Harbors. Lastly, Harbors are scored based on how many continuous lines or columns they create.
Each player begins with a player mat, scoring sheet, and 4 architects of their color, a #1, #2, #3 and #4 architect. For each round, a set of tiles are placed on the “construction site” mat, which is a 5 by 5 grid. In turn order, a player picks one of their architects and places it along a side on the construction site. If the player picked the #2 architect, he will take the second building in that row.
When a building is removed from the construction site, the urbanist (the black pawn) is immediately moved to the newly emptied square. The next player cannot place his architect to point at the urbanist. A player also cannot place his architect on top of another player’s architect.
The player may now place his newly acquired building on his player mat, but only in a row or column that matches the number of the architect he just played. If he used his #2 architect, he must place the building anywhere in row 2 or column 2. The only exception to this rule is when building Tower Blocks. You can place the Tower Block on the row or column matching the architect you just used, or the floor you want to build. For example, if you used your #3 architect, you can also place it on a Tower Block if it will be the third floor of that building.
Once you place your building on your mat, it can’t be moved. Some buildings give you resources, which are shown on the top left of the tile. You get those immediately when you place your building. The resources are used to power buildings. Buildings that require resources are shown at the bottom right of the tile. You are free to move around resources at any time. One tile in each round also has the first player marker painted on it. The person who gains this building becomes the first player in the next round; if nobody gets it, the first player stays the game.
If you do not have enough resources to activate a building at the end of the game, you place them face-down and they don’t count toward final scoring. Additionally, each inhabitant and energy unit that’s not used will be a negative 1 point at the end. However, for every Park you have in your city, you can avoid a penalty by placing one energy unit on it.
Game play continues for four rounds, with each round having its own set of building tiles that are randomly set out. The person with the most victory points after the four rounds wins the game. Quadropolis also comes with an “expert” variant, which gives it a whole other dynamic. Overall, the game is easy to explain, the artwork and iconography are easy to read, and the game doesn’t last for too long, which is awesome for new gamers. But the strategy is thinky enough to satisfy heavier gamers as well.