Infinite City

[Talismanic (Mark)]

A rich new world has opened up. Resources are plentiful, the economy is booming, and the capital city of this new world is expanding like never before! Even though many corporations scramble to stake a claim in the exploding prosperity, only one can claim ownership! Who will take over the Infinite City?

Will you place the capital next to the port, claiming both as your own? Will you use the transit station to move another player’s military base out of the way, or place your embassy to steal his temple? Will you try for a greater area under your control, or move to capture key buildings?

Infinite City is a stand-alone tile game where players become the leaders of corporations building an ever-sprawling city, maneuvering to control the largest districts while holding on to the most valuable buildings.

Review by SunnyD of BGG (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/497129/infinite-city-a-game-of-city-building-and-confli)

Infinite City is a fairly light game for 2-6 players that can be played in around 45 mins. I first played it in a games tournament that featured games launched at Essen last year, and really enjoyed, so was excited to pick up a copy when it arrived earlier this year.

Concept & Mechanics:
Although the rules have been discussed already, here is a brief synopsis. The goal of the game is to score points, by getting as many of your tokens in groups of 3+ consecutive tiles in horizontal / diagonal direction. Bonus points are also awarded for values on tiles, as well as for controlling the most tiles with silver rings on at the end of the game. The game uses a Tile Laying mechanic similar to Carcassonne, however in this game players have 5+ tiles to choose from in their hand. Once they play a tile, they put one of their 15 tokens on it, and follow the action described on the tile. This may lead to putting tokens on other tiles, which in turn will cause those actions to happen. The game ends either when all 5 power stations are out on the board, or one player has run out of their 15 tokens.

Tiles and actions:
Tiles can have various types of actions - ones that are beneficial to the current player - such as play another tile (Construction Site), or Look at the top 5 tiles in the deck and immediately play one (Library), or they can affect other players - all tiles played must be placed next to a Plaza. This overrides all other tile placement rules (Plaza), or Return all tokens on one occupied tile to their owners (Security Guard post). Therefore this allows users to choose either defensive or aggressive actions.

Power Stations & the Capitol:
Power stations are the all conquering tiles. They stop any tile actions or token actions from affecting both that tile itself, and the 4 adjacent tiles. Therefore this tile offer protection to your scoring runs and can effectively anchor areas of the board.

The only tile that overrides a PowerStation is a Capitol. There is only one capitol (logically) this allows you to place one of your tokens on each adjacent tile. If one of these can be worked into the right area of the board, it can effectively change the pattern of scoring on the board. Also the Capitol is the only tile with both the highest allocation of points (4), and silver rings.

Tactics:
The ability to plan in this game is thrown out of the window in a matter of seconds, as a result of actions from other players. If you spend too long focusing on getting all your tiles out in a long line to score maximum points, then it’s likely someone will come along and move a key piece and break up your scoring chain. Vice versa, if you spend too long breaking other people's scoring then it’s likely you won’t have accumulated many points yourself, so a delicate balance needs to be struck.

Summary:
8/10 - A thoroughly enjoyable quick game, which has high interaction stakes, and a constantly shifting score / control basis. It is a natural progression from some of the gateway games, into the more tactical and complex games, without challenging the participants in too serious a manner.

Recommended For:
- Fans of Carcassonne who are looking for something still light but potentially more aggressive in their interactions

- Fans of games that have a 'screw your opponent' factor who are looking for something quick and light using that level of interaction

[Talismanic (Mark)]

Some FAQs (compiled from BGG threads)

(1) REGARDING PLAZA: If a plaza tile is previously surrounded by 4 other tiles and another tile causes one of the tiles surrounding the plaza to be taken away, does the plaza's ability reactivate - i.e. the next player must place a tile adjacent to the plaza? My instinct says yes, but I wanted to be sure.

Ans.- Good instinct. Yes, it does. Likewise, if the plaza suddenly gets moved to a more open position, new tiles need to be placed next to it.

(2) REGARDING TEMPLE: I play from one of my opp. hands. Let's say I play a construction card from their hand, do I then play another card from THEIR hand or mine?

Ans- From your own.

(3) REGARDING EMBASSY and BANK. Can you switch the token to a BLANK tile? This would for instance, give another way to turn over a face down tile. I'm thinking of Bank, but that card specifically states you switch your TOKEN with another TOKEN so, yeah...

Ans- Bank explicitly swaps the positions of two tokens, so there needs to be a token present. Embassy does not require there be a token present, so it is a very common method of claiming and flipping face down tiles.

(4) REGARDING STADIUM- Does the stadium override the token protection of a power plant? I would assume no, since there is only one card that DOES override that protection and it specifically states so on the card.

Ans- It does not.

(5) REGARDING END-GAME: If the game moves to "endgame" (everyone gets 1 last turn) because someone ran out of tokens, and during one of their last turns, another play returns a token to that player's hand, does the "endgame" cease and play continue? Or once it triggers, is "endgame" final?

Ans- Once triggered its final. The game still goes around that final time but even if some tokens come back the game still ends.

(6) TEMPLE & SHOPPING COMPLEX COMBO: Suppose player A plays a Temple to play a tile from player B's hand, and then A plays a Shopping Complex from player B's hand. Will player B draw a new tile to replace the Shopping Complex before or after their hands are traded?

Ans- The hands get switched (as part of the "play the tile", then the victimized player draws a tile.

(7) REGARDING POLICE HQ: The Police HQ tile says that every player places a token on it. Since the player that placed it had to activate it with a token does that mean that player will also need to place another token on it in order to adhere to the tile's text? In other words the action ends with two of current player's tokens on the tile and one from every other player?

Ans- The activating player only places ONE token on it.

8. REGARDING MAUSOLEUM: If a player puts down a Mausoleum, may he/she take a face down tile or must it be face up? Also does someone have to own the tile to take the Mausoleum?

Ans- Choosing a face down tile is perfectly legal, and who may or may not have tokens on the tile does not matter. It can be a tile with no tokens at all, or tokens from everyone, or anything in between.

[Nychuus]

Re: Highest bonus points from a tile

I've noticed that there is a copy of the Arboretum that has 4 points as well. But not silvered.

[Talismanic (Mark)]

IN REGARD TO POWER STATION: The power station tile indicates that adjacent tiles (and accompanying token) can not be moved or otherwise impacted. Would this include a ban on adding tokens to face down tiles from playing housing? I could see it either way, since strictly speaking it's not impacting tiles or tokens already in play.

Ans (From Game Designer): Tokens may be added. Once added, though, they are stuck there.

One point to clarify, though: if a tile says "swap" rather than "place", nothing happens since one of the tiles (and its tokens) is locked and can not be swapped.