The time has come for you and your fellow architects to decide how to best build the city above the clouds. All of you will design the best city you can, and the council will vote and see who has the most favorable votes towards their creation. Work hard enough and make a useable, functional and beautiful city and you will be the top architect!
Cloud City is designed by Phil Walker-Harding with art by Fabrice Ros. It is published by Blue Orange Games and is meant for 2-4 people to be played in approximately 30 mins.
Overview
Players take turns building pieces of their city, trying to best connect buildings of the same height to score points through walkways. Score the most points as votes from the city council and you will win!
Gameplay
Each player begins with three tiles in their hand along with a starter tile on the board in front of them. Three tiles are placed in the center face up as the draw pile. Special request cards can be used for the upgraded models version of the game, I would recommend one game without them to learn and then add them in for all other games.
Players take turns moving clockwise around the table performing the following actions:
1-Expand the base of your city
2-Choose and place buildings
3-Build a walkway (optional)
4-Draw a cloud tile
1-Expand the base of your city. Here players will take one of the three tiles in their hand and place it connecting to their current city on at at least one side. Ultimately the city will be 3×3 squares, so make sure not to build outside of that.
2-Choose and place buildings. Each tile has two buildings and you must take those from the supply and place them on the squares where they show.
3-Build a walkway. This is an optional action. You may build walkways connecting from any building you placed this turn to another building of the same height on an existing tile. The longer it is the more council votes you will receive in the end! Each building may only have two maximum walkways attached to it, so keep that in mind as you build and plan your city.
4-Draw a cloud tile. To finish your turn, players will draw a new cloud tile from the three visible tiles or draw the top face-down tile in the stack. Once a player has completed their turn, play moves clockwise.
The game ends when all players have completed their 3×3 model city. Now council votes are added up and the winner is the one with the most points! Adding the Special Requests cards I’ve you end game scoring that can be positive or negative points and they will influence your score in the end phase as well.
Impressions
Cloud City brings to the table one of the more difficult mechanics for me to wrap my mind around-these spatial building games aren’t exactly my strong suit. That being said, I really do enjoy playing them and the challenge that they bring to me. My family on the other hand does enjoy a game or two where I struggle a bit, and they really enjoyed this one! The building up and construction was very popular with both young and old at the table and one I expect to be asked to play a few more times in the near future in our house.
This game hits in a good spot where you can get it on the table, played and cleaned up in less than an hour. Having that ease of play and setup makes it a game that is often going to be in rotation for a quick match after dinner or maybe before bed. It also fits in as a good filler between or before bigger games for a game night. Really, it is a fit for a lot of different gaming moments and one that I suspect will be easily fit into many roles.
The pieces are another great part of this. If you like chunky, colorful pieces to build with, this is one for you. It rises vertically off of the table making it a sight from a distance for other people who may be interested in it, and aesthetically it is just fun to build up and connect these pieces as you create this city in front of you.
Overall I would highly recommend this to families looking for a spatial building game with some good puzzle elements or a gaming group that wants something a little different but that plays in a quicker amount of time. With the right amount of skill and luck of placements, you can also be a successful architect!
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