My City Game

Because My City has simple rules with many choices and actions that are engaging for a wide range of ages, this game is a great choice for family game night. My City is a “legacy" game played over eight chapters of three episodes each, with the central theme of developing a city starting on a preindustrial timeline and progressing through the age of industry. For those of you who are not acquainted with the meaning of “legacy" in the context of board gaming, it is a game played over several sessions with separate units, chapters or episodes and new instructions given as the game progresses. It is desirable to play with the same players, as the game and its components are permanently changed and added to over the course of gameplay. This type of game is often referred to as a “campaign" in board game circles. More than just a game, My City is a shared experience with a narrative that progresses the timeline and gives new instructions with each episode. Also involved are changing rules, and alteration of individual game boards with placement of stickers and marking of player boards to keep each participant's score. What is unique about My City is that player game boards are double-sided so that when the game campaign ends, the player boards can be flipped over and an alternate game setup used for repeatable play. In this game, players build their cities using multiple shaped tiles in three colors. Each player has the same set of tiles and places these tiles on their own boards with the goal of scoring as many points possible based on objectives that vary from episode to episode. Because stickers are placed on these boards, player's boards will evolve in different ways, depending on where each player decides to place these stickers. The result is that each city will be different and given changing objectives, scoring continues to change for each player in different ways, and the game becomes more challenging as the episodes continue. Each episode takes about 30 minutes to play and depending on the time that is available for gameplay, progression through the game campaign can be flexible. Having experienced this game as my very first legacy play through, I highly recommend My City as a place to start with a campaign-type game. It is fun, challenging and was an overall rewarding experience for my group that left us wanting to play another game of this type! ~ Marsha