Bringing the Circus to Hamburg: A View of the Solo Mode
Improve the features of a bustling city by managing disasters and constructing many kinds of buildings in Hamburg.
It was a few years ago that a couple of deluxe editions arrived, and I quickly forgot all about them after unboxing and sorting everything. At long last, Hamburg made its way to my table! I was interested in the mechanics and the way the solo mode seemed like it wouldn’t be too difficult to run. With lots of fancy components, I was ready to build up this city!
Game Overview
Game Name: Hamburg
Publication Year: 2022
Designer: Stefan Feld
Artists: Christian Fiore & Fiore GmbH
Publisher: Queen Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Actions are all about improving the city, with an emphasis on the mountain of possible buildings to construct. Walls offer additional improvements, all while disasters might strike at any moment. Managing expansions and keeping potential problems in check are what this city is all about!
First Play
March 29, 2025
Complexity
3
Latest Play
March 29, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
1
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
99
Game Area
48" x 34"
Low Score
99
A Cheerful Board
I was struck by the sheer amount of wasted space on the gigantic main board. By keeping almost everything in the included insert, I cut down setup time by quite a lot.
Luckily, the player board was much more pleasant! I liked the sliding areas for tracking disasters, as well as the spaces for walls and statues. Workers also had their own homes!
My opinion was slightly clouded ahead of time, as I’m not a fan of this edition’s cost for the included components.
Newer versions have come out since this was released, and as I’ll show later on, this was missing something important.
Dice-Based Actions
My favorite part of gameplay? The dice! These determine the power of some actions, and randomize how often disasters pop up over the course of gameplay. Neat!
I actually liked the disaster management a lot: Each track matched a die and could manage 2 rolls before something bad happened. So I had time to react and plan ahead…
Or, I skipped over disaster management actions and pushed my luck a little bit. Those dice rolls were exciting!
The action selection was also pretty neat, and matching cards to dice presented some clever sorts of choices.
Tons of Cards
So many cards! I enjoyed this level of variety, especially since it was only possible to construct a handful of buildings during a play. And they were all categorized nicely.
There was a promise of zoo cards, yet with my luck, not a single animal card showed up. I looked through the decks, and they were certainly there! Just not today. Ha ha!
But as much as I loved the variety and card artwork, I didn’t realize how agonizing the iconography would be.
Apparently, cards with text descriptions were available as a paid add-on at some point. Yet why would that be an option?
A Very Empty City
Although some areas of the board are used for expansions, I was still struck by how very empty it all was. With the insert holding most of the components, this was very sparse.
It felt like a very large board for no particular reason. I even brought the dice closer to me to roll and resolve.
I probably needed about half of this board, which felt like a bit of a waste. Take a look at the areas with no gameplay purpose, though… That’s a lot of unused space out there.
As I played, I enjoyed the decisions, but had some major issues with the randomness and work of the solo mode.
In Consideration of Perceived Value
Part of how I rate a game is around its affordability from my own experience, which is why I always say my ratings are rather flawed and totally subjective. Yet it’s an important concept and one that came up a lot as I set up and played this game. First of all, for a deluxe edition, the box is thinner than the industry standard, and it had torn edges. On a new box.
That may have been shipping damage, but this publisher isn’t known for being responsive to customer service requests. I was also struck by how it all felt like a big game from a spatial perspective… But those empty areas are glaringly obvious. Why is everything so big here?! I felt like I paid extra for bigger components, purely for the sake of taking up more space.
I don’t remember when the text-based cards were made available, but after spending over $100 USD on this deluxe edition, putting in another $20 USD for cards with the ability text felt wrong. And I realized I didn’t have the metal coins because those required another $40 USD. Just a strange intersection of high costs for the sake of being expensive.
Don’t get me wrong: I do think there’s a great design inside the game! The production decisions were what made me hesitate, along with the solo mode… This feels like the definition of something that was added on because it worked in theory, but doesn’t actually offer a satisfying challenge. Rather a shame, as I saw some intriguing and unique strategies!
Off to the Circus!
Dice rolls provide a random assortment of bonuses for game end based on the categories of buildings. Early on, there were a lot of 4-value rolls that pointed to one thing…
The circus! Maybe I was lucky with my initial card draws, but it was pretty clear how I would benefit from scoring.
However, this should offer a pretty good idea of the icons. These became clear as I played… But did you see the huge stacks of cards? There are tons of other icons to understand.
Worse yet, the solo opponent gained buildings and I had to remember how to activate those bonuses each round. Yikes.
Disaster Planning
There were definitely some great strategies to think about with the various actions. I had fun building a section of wall, which earned me a fancy little statue and victory points!
Managing these different disasters was also really neat because there were times when I didn’t mind what sort of outcome happened. I was prepared to weather the storm!
Ultimately, though, the solo opponent reacted in an entirely random way based on the dice and needed a lot of upkeep.
I also spent half my time flipping through the addendum to try to understand all of the cards… Not my idea of fun.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 99-45 (Win)
I didn’t think I did anything amazing during this play, but I won by a significant margin purely due to the dice rolls. The solo opponent took turns and performed actions, but in a way that wasn’t logical. Rarely was I blocked from my own strategy and without any real competition, it was easy to win without understanding whether I had a good strategy or not… My strategy being, of course, “THE CIRCUS!” Ha ha! This had potential, but it was a bit too frustrating for me.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
3
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
6
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are lots of interesting choices to make with the actions taken during a round, as not everything can be done.
- Matching card types to dice for some actions is quite clever, leading to additional considerations and decisions.
- Disasters take time to build up, allowing for them to be dealt with or planned for to mitigate the worst outcomes.
- Lots and lots of variety exists with the buildings, allowing for plenty of combinations or action synergies.
- Following the sequence of play is relatively straightforward, with most of the time spent on resolving actions.
- End game scoring bonuses help guide some building choices, although there are plenty of unique abilities to focus on.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The lack of text on the included cards requires extensive searching through an addendum to understand the icons.
- A lot of work is needed to manage the solo opponent, including activating building bonuses and tracking abilities.
- Dice rolls provide an easy solo mode in theory, but the end result is a very random and often illogical solo opponent.
- Far too much space is needed to play with lots of empty areas on the main board and cards that can sprawl out.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about Hamburg? Are there any other games in this series you enjoy playing solo? At its core, there is a very interesting gameplay engine with lots of strategy and choices! For me, though, managing a random solo opponent and struggling to understand intricate iconography every round was too much. Onto the next game in this city collection!
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