City-building board games

You're making a city from a variety of building tiles, trying to leverage a bunch of scoring rules for maximum points. There are lots of ways to win, but other games do that better than Between Two Cities. It earns its spot via its name: you literally build two at once, working with the players either side of you. The kicker is that you only score your worst city. You get your tiles via a draft, choosing what you want and passing them round the table.

This creates a bizarre stew of strategy and negotiation where you might want one partner to leave something for the other to take.

A simple and slightly abstract game under pretty city paintings, this is a sure-fire family winner. Where most city games focus on where you place buildings, in Quadropolis the action is in how you pick them. They're selected from a grid, with players choosing the row or column they want to pick from. But there's also a pawn to move which blocks choices beyond it. Every move is thus a carefully engineered balance between passive point-scoring and aggressive blocking.

It's super-satisfying to pull off a pick that manages both at once. If that sounds too light and tactical there's also an "expert" mode for fans of heavier games. Another game that makes a feature of how you acquire building tiles, Keyflower gets you to bid on them. Auction games always thrum with the tension of waiting to be outbid, but Keyflower ups the ante.

The currency for this auction are the worker pieces used to activate the tile for points. This creates a swirling landscape of strategy in which every placement upends the odds. You place gained tiles in your growing village, connecting roads and buildings together into a living settlement. In a lovely touch, the map matters as you use the roads to haul goods from the tiles that produce them to the buildings which consume them.

Your first play of Charterstone makes it feel like the world's dullest worker placement game. You place your pawns, collect the resulting resources, and build a few more spots on which to place them. This is a pretty straightforward worker placement game, but it is a good one. The player action is really interesting, you interact with the placement spots but there are also other layers of this making you interact with other players. Le Havre is a sold game and easy choice for the list of the best city building board games.

Your turn consists of two parts: 1 distribute newly supplied goods onto the offer spaces; then 2 take an action. Choose either to take all goods of one type from an offer space or to use one of the available buildings. Building actions allow players to upgrade goods, sell them or use them to build their own buildings and ships. Buildings are both an investment opportunity and a revenue stream, as players must pay entry fees, Monopoly style.

Ships, on the other hand, are primarily used as key tools. For 1 — 5 players, games last 30 — minutes. Puerto Rico makes the list of the best city building board games frankly because it is just one of the most amazing board games in existence and it just happens to have this as its backdrop and engine.

Using unique mechanisms that have never been done as well as they have in Puerto Rico, you have many decisions to make and paths to victory to take. In Puerto Rico you are a colonial governor on the island of the same name.

The aim of the game is to amass victory points by shipping goods to Europe or by constructing buildings. You get your own player board with spaces for city buildings, plantations, and resources. Shared between everyone are three ships, a trading house, and a supply of resources and doubloons. For 2 — 5 players, games run 90 — minutes. Taking the top spot on the list of the best city build board games comes the ingenious game that blends quick drafting with epic city building.

It is a wonder pun intended that so much gameplay can fit into such quick action in a deeply satisfying way. This is one of the best drafting games out there. Over three eras, players pass around cards and take one from a stack turn after turn to take actions that help either build up your empire and resources or help construct your specialized wonder of the world.

For 3 — 7 players, games last about 45 minutes. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site.

Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. This board game does not need the players to be pro or expert at the game. It is pretty easy to learn, and they play it well even if they have intermediate skills. This game is recommended for 4 players. Players play this game and build their cities in a prestigious manner in Quadropolis.

This is an excellent game for kids who like building towns and erecting tall buildings. Players build prestigious cities in the Quadropolis.

This game is a board game version of SimCity. Players build the cities the way they like to. It is a fascinating game for 4 players. The game has a great board, and players enjoy the game. In this Suburbia board game, players compete with each other for goals and build towns. As the city grows, players modify their income and reputation. Suburbia board game weighs only 2. Due to being so light in weight, the game is portable.

It is easier to carry this game where you want to or play wherever you like to. In this board game the players build towns, and as the reputation of their town increases, their population increases. This game ensures the players have a great time. This game is set in the early s, and it is the Era of early urbanization and construction. Players are the master city planners who are asked to redesign two different cities. Players play in the form of a group because projects of this scale require a collective effort.

To know more about this product head on to the features section. Players both work in pairs and collect the tiles from redesigning two different cities or work solo for the same purpose.

The playing time of this board game is 20 minutes. This builds the excitement as the players try their best to win the game by scoring more scores. The board dimensions of this game are 10 x 2 x 10 inches. Players learn to cooperate while playing this game as they build the cities together and compete against other players. This game is recommended for 6 players. Each player starts with a team of workers who upgrade tiles and generate resources.

Its unique theme and brilliant quality are considered one of the best city building board games. Read its features to get more information about this product. Players in this board game are assigned workers who work in villages and generate resources for the player. The player whose workers score the most victory point wins the game. The package includes 64 hexagonal tiles for different variations.

Players choose these tiles for auction. Each tile offers victory points for various combinations of skills, workers, and resources.

Recommended age of players for this board game is 13 years and up, but people of all age groups can play this game. It is an exciting game that is very easy to learn and play. It is recommended for year-olds and older people. It does not have any complicated rules, so people love playing it.

Le Havre, the gateway to Europe, lies here. Typically this means a city, though games like Chinatown have shown that this definition is broad. Buildings may be shared amongst players to create a single tableau or may be individual, with each player creating their own optimized city. Similar to economic games, the focus is on creating a synergistic arrangement which allows a player to benefit from multiple bonuses or payouts.

While the use of tiles to represent buildings is quite common for example, Suburbia , other games have used cards Machi Koro. There are too many opinions about Santa Monica to limit the review to just one. Find out why! Email address. Our epic holiday board game gift guide has nearly 30 recommendations for every kind of board gamer! There are wallet-sized games and wallet-friendly games.