Another game that I was able to play last night was Blue Moon City
.In Blue Moon City, you are attempting to reconstruct the city of Blue Moon and by doing so you earn crystals - these crystals are then used to make sacrifices on the obelisk to win the game. Each turn, you will be able to move your pawn up to two spaces to one of the city tiles. Next, you can make contributions to reconstructing that city tile (you play cards that match the color of the tile and that add up to the number shown on the contribution you are trying to make). While contributing, it will often be important to use the "power" on some of your cards - this may allow you to change the color of a card, play a wild card, or even move the dragons to your city tile (this earns you scales, which are later traded for crystals). Finally, you are able to discard 0-2 cards from your hand and then draw 2 more than you discarded.
Blue Moon City plays pretty well. The different elements of the game are very well balanced and there is definite strategy involved in which tiles to contribute to, when to complete them, and when to move the dragons. The powers on the card allow you to determine how best to use your hand and prevent the game from being a simple "match the colors" game. In addition, you get bonuses for all of the adjacent city tiles that have already been completed when your current tile is completed. This means that you must determine when you should complete the tile and when it is best to leave it alone hoping that others get completed first.
Though the mechanics of Blue Moon City work fairly well, the biggest problem in the game is that it doesn't really have anything that struck me as special. The game works, and is somewhat fun to play, but there's nothing about the game itself that jumps out at me as unique. I don't think of Blue Moon City as anything other than a fairly generic game - because of this, I don't mind playing it, but I'm never really thinking "man, I really want to play Blue Moon City."
Overall, Blue Moon City gets a 7.0/10. The game plays well, and is fairly fun, but (as shown by the somewhat brief review), there was nothing that really struck me about it as really positive or really negative. Feel free to try this game out, but I don't recommend going out of your way to try to find a copy. Also, if you think of something really unique about the game that I have missed, please add some comments - I'd love to know what other people thought about it.
In addition to Blue Moon City, you might also consider checking out Forbidden Island, Heroscape, and Lords of Waterdeep.
I like this game very much. I feel there is a lot to prioritize in the game. Do you want to spend for the largest share? Is it worth it to flip a tile given what your opponent will gain? Are scales worth pursuing at this time? Games can be won by the bonuses on adjacent flipped tiles. I find the best number to play with is three. Experienced players usually win by one offering and often by fewer than three crystals. I will say that sometimes one player gets left in the dust, which may be a criticism. Good review, thanks
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