Comments on: Puzzling Through Sprawlopolis and the Art of City Planning

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:18:34 +0000

In reply to Brenoit. Thanks for sharing, Brenoit! I'm going to return to this at some point and approach it a little differently. Maybe going in and expecting to have a good chance of winning just wasn't the right thing... It's more the experience, although I have a lot of expansions and might try those out. Thank you for the tip!

By: Brenoit

Brenoit — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 07:41:18 +0000

I like this game for what it is for me : short, simple ruleset, rather soothing look when laid out in front of me. However, after more than 20 plays of this game, I think I only won once or twice. Basically, I know that if I play it, I’m in for a very bad score (sometimes negative). There are probably too many constraints multiplied by too many possibilities for me to compute.
I see where people would absolutely love the depth and complexity of such a puzzle. Some DID try all scoring conditions one after the other; all can be won (although one of them with some heavy bending of the rules in order to create right conditions for victory).
Expansions add fun, I found, if not better win rates. I prefer Beaches for the final look of a seaside city and the fact it can provide city limits to play around (which somehow help me focus on the other things).

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 16:36:54 +0000

In reply to Phegnax. Awesome! Now I have a much better starting point for the next time I play. Always great to find someone who's so enthusiastic about a game! We can't all love them all, yet it's nice to know that a lot of my struggles may simply have come down to a really bad combination coupled with some beginner issues. Looking forward to reporting back on what happens the next time I play!

By: Phegnax

Phegnax — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 16:08:23 +0000

In reply to Jessica.

If you got Skid Row and Go Green (as implied by the picture) then yeah, you had already lost.
The max point you can get with two industrial zones are 4 Points (industrial and residetal are btoh diagonal on a 2×2) but at the same time, GG punisches you with -6 for the two industrial zones. So you had a lose-lose situation.

What I tried as beginner, draw three goals, choose only two to fulfill. Use the other 15 card to fulfill these two.
What I feel are beginner friendly-cards are 16 and 4.
With 16 most cards already fulfill the condition, so you can mostly ignore the streets, and 4 kind of ties in with the scoring system for your largest group with each zone.

(You can see, I’m a bit enthusiastic with this game)

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 13:43:12 +0000

In reply to Phegnax. Thank you for the recommendations and suggestions! I think this is the post that has generated the most of these comments, which is just what I was hoping for. Hearing how some scoring combinations are difficult makes me think I got unlucky with my draws. Sounds like there's a lot to like here once I grasp the placement of cards a little bit more. I'll definitely keep all of this in mind when I get back to trying it out again. I appreciate you taking the time to share your helpful thoughts!

By: Phegnax

Phegnax — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 07:54:11 +0000

I’m not sure if I should comment here or on BGG, but anways.
First: I glad you gave this game a try. For me it’s super calming (basically, what Herbaceous is for you).
Second: While I try to win, I just play this to create a nice looking city. Maybe that’s why I like this game.
And third:
There are some unwinable combinations, for example 16 and 12. 16 Favours a lot of streets, 12 a single long street. Same with 16 and 14.
Also, as others mentioned before (here and an BGG) Go Green is not a ‘beginner’ friendly card. Antoher ‘bad’ card is 10, for simple math reasons: 1 comercial region per card, means you need at least 10 card in a collumn or row to come out without loss and you have only 15 cards to use in the whole game.