Cities is a 2-4 player game by publisher Devir, put out in 2024. The designers of the game are Steve Finn and Phil Walker-Harding, with art by Jorge Tabanera Redondo. And despite only being published last year, it looks like it has a re-implementation coming in 2026 called Cities USA. Which indicates that we could be looking at a series of games.
This is one of the games I already knew how to play, as I already own the physical copy. Through Double Exposure, a board game promotions company, I get a copy of Cities and ran demos for it at one of my local games stores (and by local I mean 2+ hour drive away, but this is what I get for living in the middle of nowhere).
In Cities, players are going to be creating a 3×3 grid of city tiles (each with 4 sections of terrain: either building, park, or water). Players will be drafting these tiles in conjunction with three other aspects: scoring cards, feature tiles, and building pieces. Additionally, the game will start with a specific location and shared objective goals for a city location, including places like New York, Barcelona, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.
Each turn, over the course of 8 rounds – in a 3-4 player game – each player will draft one of each of the four (city tiles, building, scoring cards, and features). The game board is set up with four slots in each section, some that are hidden information or other sections that are ‘better’ than other slots by virtue of the number of building tiles or features. In turn order, players will place one of their 4 workers, taking an action in one of the four zones. Once they have taken an action in a zone, they cannot take another action in that zone until the next round.
A two player game is played in 4 rounds, with each player getting two of each action each round. Players will have 8 workers and will have the option to place up to two of their workers in each of the four zones.
At the end of the set rounds, players will score for city objectives, their own scoring cards, as well as the variability of features in their city, parks, and water. The player with the most points wins the game.
Despite already knowing how to play this one, I did go ahead and play through the tutorial on Board Game Arena, created by Dettonator11. The tutorial was well done and covered many of the important aspects of the game, giving players a solid starting point before joining their first game. The only thing I would have liked to see in addition to the tutorial would have been an example on how to rotate your city tiles as you place them, since many goals include creating large groups or smaller groups of water and park sections. But if you read the text when you draft a city tile in the game, it does tell you that you can rotate your tiles before confirming placement.
I enjoy the spacial puzzle that is Cities. The variability of the different benefits and how the different cards, tiles, features, and building color combinations creates an interesting decision space on regards to which zone to draft from first or second in order to get a ‘priority pick’ or which zone you can safely wait on until your third or fourth worker.
Now, I’ve mostly played in is the two player mode and can honestly say that I prefer it in two player. It ends up working out to the same amount of actions, but often, there is more than one good option in the display, so it’s nice to be able to go back for a second draft in a zone. However, in a three or four player game, players will see more of the available tiles over the 6 rounds, giving the opportunity for the correct tiles, buildings, scoring cards, or attractions to come out.
I give this one a 7/10 stars on Board Game Geek. It’s fun. I like the decisions you get to make, and it’s easy to teach and quick. Only reason it’s not rated higher is that it’s a little on the lighter side for my overall preferences, but also too big to easily fit in my convention bag.
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