| Complexity | Medium |
|---|---|
| Duration | Medium |
| Players | 2-5 |
| Producer | Rio Grande Games (Kosmos) |
| Size | Medium |
La Città | Boardgame |
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Build the most attractive cities around, or lose your people to them!
Anyone who is familar with Settlers will get a feeling of déja vu with this game. Despite this however it has a very interesting game engine, and it seems that the person with the biggest city isn't necessarily the person who will win.
Like settlers the terrain on the board which you need to build stuff is randomised. You expand your
cities around the terrain etc. Unlike settlers you don't formally collect commodities. Your food
supply determines your population limit, lakes allow you to exceed city population limits (in conjunction
with the right buildings) and you can mine mountains to generate gold, which can come in very handy.
The main random element is the selection of politics cards which you can elect to play in your turn. Alternatively you can play one of your fixed action cards to build small buildings or generate gold for example.
The key to the game is that every game turn four voice of the people cards are selected. These indicate what everyone's
citizens are craving - Health, Education and Culture. Only one of the cards is face up - you have to spend an action
and gold potentially to look at the others. At the end of the turn, it is the dominant type that determines
how defections are handled.
Defections are the "offensive" aspect of the game. If your city is less than 3 hexes of another and your city has more points of the right type from buildings (e.g. Hospitals generate health and education) then a citizen will defect from your opponents city to yours. Any buildings without a citizen after this process are removed.
Finally, if your population limit is exceeded then you suffer serious penalties the following turn.
Production quality is excellent as usual with German games, but the small number of blue tokens are virtually impossible to tell apart from black. Marking a few boundaries on the map and starting positions would also make everything easier and a special rule for the final turn preventing food production increases ought to be on the summary cards, but these are minor quibbles.
| Depth of Play | Very Good | Not as random as some games |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Play | Very Good | A bit daunting at first, but ultimately straightforward |
| Production Quality | Very Good | Some tokens could be easier to distinguish |
| Rule Book | Very Good | A bit large and cumbersome, but well laid out |
| Setup | Good | Quite slow to setup, needs plenty of space |
| Value for Money | Very Good | Relatively expensive, but plenty of bits for your dosh |
| Overall | Very Good |