Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8612715/casinopolis

Designer: Steven Aramini, Danny Devine, Paul Kluka
Publisher: Button Shy
Artist: Filip Popovic

As my third installment in my “-opolis” series reviews, I won’t go into much detail other than what’s different and what my thoughts are, so let’s get into it!

While the standard gameplay is still relevant here, there is actually quite a bit of differentiation from the other “-opolis” game I’ve played. First, rather than the usual four block colors, this one only has three. Also, there are roads as usual, but the roads have slot icons on them (we will come back to these momentarily). Also, your longest road throughout the game (so it can change) is called The Strip, which is important for scoring. Blocks that don’t have roads or icons are considered Resorts and can also come into play during scoring.

Besides that, the major differences are in the scoring itself. One change adds in points for jackpots, which are three or more of the same slot icon adjacent to one another along the same road. Another major change is in relation to the scoring goals/conditions. Rather than scoring X points if/when something is achieved, these score varying points depending on when they were drawn. At the start of the game, three scoring conditions get drawn as normal but the order matters – the first drawn card is considered the “one-chip” card, the second “two-chip”, and the third “three-chip”. When scoring points for these goals at game end, the first card scores one point for each success, the second two, and the third three. I like this because now all goals are not equal and focusing on the higher points may be worthwhile. But wait, there’s more! One thing I forgot to mention is that you can only score your largest casino color groups that are connected to The Strip. No other larger group counts towards the endgame scoring.

The changes to this game are stellar. The strategy is so much deeper without the game getting any more complex. There is so much more to consider each turn and even more unique ways to score points. The Resorts are also interesting and can create a fascinating problem to solve with some scoring conditions, and the three block colors instead of two means you have one fewer chance to score points, but it also may be easier to get larger groups of the same color. The need for the largest group to be on The Strip for scoring is also tricky and clever.

I was also able to give the Place Your Bets expansion a try which is a six-card expansion that adds even more goals to work towards. At the start of the game, you still draw three cards for your scoring conditions, but now you can choose their order. Then, one expansion card is tucked under the lowest valued scoring condition and another under the highest valued. Then two additional cards get shuffled in the deck and the other two cards get set aside and won’t be used in this game. The two main twists this expansion adds are the betting cards and the megastructure cards. The megastructures must connect to The Strip and can never be covered by other cards. At the end, each megastructure counts as a single block. The other major difference comes from those “lowest” and “highest” cards placed under the first and third bets, called City Requirements. These are basically rules that must be met by the end of the game to win. What’s interesting (and what fits with the other changes in the game) is that each requirement has a variable, X, that depends on which scoring card (one, two, or three chip) it’s associated with. Overall, the expansion adds additional challenge, strategy, and variety, all of which I appreciate.

I apologize for the length of this; it turned out a little longer than I was expecting. There is just so much to explain here since so many things are different and improvements, in my opinion, on the other, already wonderful “-opolis” games. This is by far my favorite, and if you like the others and want a little more of a challenge and a lot more fun, I’d highly recommend checking this one out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.