Card City XL

Obviously, Viard does not know what “buddy game” means. Card City XL ends in 20–30 minutes, yet even in the basic game, after the first five minutes, I felt my brain starting to smoke. It is one of those small, short games that looks clean on the surface but immediately gains real density on the table.

We begin by building a shared deck from the available card set, depending on the game mode and the number of players. From there, we draft cards representing residential zones through a modified Rochester-style mechanism, constantly keeping in mind what will fit best in our own neighborhood.

Placement is the critical part: the way we lay down cards makes neighborhoods grow, but it can also bring pollution, crime, and the related problems with it. The game lasts ten rounds, so choices move quickly from our hands onto the table, and then it is time to cash out.

I would not call it bad at all—quite the opposite. Its great strength is the replayability provided by its many scenarios and game modes. It simply is not a game you open once and assume you have squeezed dry: it needs plays and experiments before a group finds the scenario that suits it best.