Let’s take a trip down to the Amsterdam canal and see all the beauty and majesty that makes up that location. Along the canal we are bound to see some of the most beautiful Dutch houses you could imagine and today we are going to compete at building the most ideal ones!
Canal Houses is published by Gigamic and Hachette Games and plays 2-5 players in approximately 20 mins. The designed is Zach Hoekstra and the artist is Jason Gamber.
Overview:
Canal Houses is a card-drafting and tableau-building board game in which players construct a row of traditional Amsterdam canal houses by assembling individual buildings from the ground up. Each completed house consists of a store card at its base, one or more window cards forming the middle floors, and a roof card placed on top. The objective is to build houses that satisfy the scoring conditions printed on the store and roof cards while also earning points through other features visible throughout the completed street.
Gameplay:
At the beginning of each round, every player has a hand of cards. Each player chooses one card from their hand and either adds it to their street following the construction rules or discards it into their canal. Construction follows a bottom-to-top sequence. Every house must begin with a store card, which serves as its foundation along our new street. Window cards may then be stacked above the store in any quantity, allowing buildings to vary in height. A roof card can only be placed once the lower sections of the house have been built, completing that building. Players may begin new houses alongside existing ones, gradually creating an entire street of canal houses.
Store cards and roof cards each contain their own scoring requirements. These points are scored using the symbols displayed throughout the completed house, including cats, birds, flowerpots, and flags that appear on the window cards. A store card may require a house to contain or avoid particular symbols, while a roof card may award points only if the completed building meets conditions such as a specific height or a particular arrangement of features.
Additional points are earned from visible flowerpots throughout the completed street. Players also compete for a color connection bonus by creating the largest orthogonally connected group of cards sharing the same color.
The game ends when a player completes their fourth house by placing its roof card. All players then calculate points from completed scoring objectives, flowerpots, and connected color groups. Store cards that meet their requirements may still score even if their houses have not yet received a roof as long as the specific requirements are met. After all scoring has been completed, the player with the highest total score wins the game!
Impressions:
I love a good card game, and Canal Houses is a solid game that does everything you would want in this size. The card-drafting plays well, giving you some choice but not overwhelming you with too many cards to pick and choose from. Building your tableau through the actual neighborhood is smooth and I like to see it continue to grow in front of me and all the other players as you build up everything.
This was simple to teach and play, when we showed to some friends who are not normally into medium to heavy games they were intrigued and interested. It was a quick teach to them and they caught on immediately as we went through it. The game is smooth from turn to turn with little downtime between turns which was nice.
Overall I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick and easy draft and tableau game for their next family or friends game night. We had a great time and can’t wait to play it again!
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