Not that long ago, Lackofcolor and I bought a new board game that we've not heard of before. We do this from time to time to see if we can discover fun board games. So far, all the board games we bought are a lot of fun and have been more than once played. And sometimes, you'll be lucky enough to find gems. The newest addition to our collection of board games is one of them. Welcome, "Paris"!
The game travels back to the renaissance of France and focuses on the capital, Paris. You have the chance to become a tycoon in one of the six districts of Paris, where you have to buy property to collect points at the end of the game. You can score points throughout the game by buying properties and additional tiles. At the end of the game, all points will be counted and added up to decide who the biggest investor in Paris will be.
While the game itself is a lot of fun to play, one thing that surprised me was the quality of all the pieces. You will notice this when you pick up a tile. You will feel the difference with other board games. This board game wasn't cheap, but it wasn't over the top expensive. When buying it, I remember that the box was unexpectedly heavy. My mind whispered to me "quality" as we walked out of the store.
The game involves strategic thinking and planning, and maybe memory. It's the type of game that I can enjoy playing. I love strategy and thinking ahead. I believe I picked that up when I started playing chess as a kid.
You also have these little houses for storing your keys, money, resources, and prestige tiles. Only you can see what you have. So you have to pay a lot of attention to your opponent as you won't be able to look behind their house. As you move your "investor" on the track with bonus tiles, you can see what every player is taking. If your memory is good, you'll remember what every player could potentially play out. If you don't, you might end up with a surprise!
The playboard will fill itself with beautiful art tiles that illustrate the renaissance of Paris as you move through the game. As you start buying properties, you'll gain and spend resources. Once a player spends resources, these will be available to other players to purchase from the pool. You better be stacking that paper before someone else buys more expensive properties!
Buildings
The tier of buildings available per district is tied to the value of their victory points. For every victory point, you have to spend one gold. If you move up a building, you only have to pay the difference between these victory points in gold. You're not allowed to purchase a cheaper building unless you add another key to the district.
Keys
Players will have a fixed amount of keys to play with. Because of the game mechanic, it is wise to think about where to place your keys. Keys in districts can only be used to purchase a building within this district. However, it is possible to place a key on the Arc de Triomphe. If you place a key on the Arc de Triomphe, you can purchase any building in any district if it is available. The downside with this is that you won't be able to store your key in the district's bank. This means you won't be earning any gold this round.
Monuments
Once enough resources and prestige tiles are collected by a player, this player can get started with the "real" stuff. Monuments have the highest victory points and are the most expensive buildings to purchase. There can be only one of the same monument on the playing field which means you need to be faster than your opponent.
The game itself reminds me of a combination of "Hotel" and "Monopoly" but without the dice. It's a fun game, takes a bit of time to set up, and even though I've only played the 2-player mode, I can only imagine it would be a lot more fun with 3 or 4 players.
Cheers,
Ruben
edit; all photographs are mine :)