City of the Big Shoulders

I am not quite as enthusiastic about City of the Big Shoulders as perhaps I should be and this may be down to my expectations going in to the game after it was presented to me as "a cross between Arkwright and 18xx". While you can see the connection with those games, City of the Big Shoulders is not as good as either of them. It is, however, good. It has strategy; it has planning; it requires some difficult choices to be made; it has interaction between players; it has some screwage capability; and it has good variability and replayability. It’s just not as good as 18xx or Arkwright.

Enjoyable game that gives me what I like about 18XX (buying shares in other players companies) without the boring parts. Instead of min-maxing train routes, you have a resource management puzzle instead. It also adds a well thought out worker placement element that encourages you to build buildings that the other players will want to use.

It doesn't quite live up to my expectations, as I want the stock market to be more punishing, and the Euro puzzle to be more tight and challenging. There are some unpolished aspects, such as the resources being too readily available from the haymarket and companies ending up with piles of leftover cash in all of my plays. Overall, I do enjoy the game if I am in the mood for a pleasant and friendly experience. The theme and shorter playtime does make it more accessible than an 18XX, but I think I would still struggle get this to the table.

EDIT: Upon further plays, it seems like share dumping can make for some interesting board states, as well as giving a bit more of a sharp edge to the interaction. Too much money in the company just means you need to embezzle more! Really cool game that I am enjoying more each time I play.

A pretty fun stock game - but some of the incentive/disincentive in the stock aspects feels off unless you're playing at the full player count, would not recommend at two or three players. The operational portion of this game is quite thin compared to the stock aspect - I would say it's at least a 70/30 stock/operational split in this game, so you should approach the game aware of that. The play time can also stretch into the territory of a medium/medium-long 18xx game, which means some of our playgroup now avoids it. I'm eager to see what the new edition brings - I think with a few changes and refinements (especially to the way stock tanking is over incentivized in certain situations, in a way that won't be very obvious to beginning players) the game could go from good to great. Some people I've played with have complained about the runaway leader issue, I think that is a feature of the genre and not a bug. This game is a grind, and any mistakes early will probably put you in a very bad position to compete later on - which can be a fun and engaging experience when that's what you want out of a game, but I equally understand why not everyone wants to sign up for it on a game night. As it stands right now, while I'll never turn down a game of CotBS, if I'm pulling something off my shelf, there are a number of train games that scratch the same itch while being much easier to teach/refresh other players.

another KS buy, read the rules, watched You Tube, tried a quick play and decided it wasn't for us

Theme makes me feel dead inside.

Kickstarter sept 2019

4.5 plays / 3, 4 players

LIKE: Lots of levers to pull. Crunchy game. I also enjoyed the different layers of the game: worker placement, resource management, and evaluating another player's stock, determining how high it could go.

DISLIKE: The advanced rules seemed unneeded, there is enough game to be had without adding takeovers into the mix. Additionally, takeovers are difficult, because the owning player has time to react. There is also some randomness in the tiles, because some tiles can be more desirable than others, which will cause some useful influx of money. The game is quite cutthroat when dumping stocks is timed just right, or resource cubes are savagely denied. I also feel the game is mostly a snowball, or rich-get-richer style of game, especially early game. I may downgrade my rating because of this, which to me is not as appetizing in a longer game.

OVERALL: Seemed like a good game, I didn't mind the cutthroat, and played in a reasonable time. The game seemed focused more on how well a player could run one or two companies, than stock manipulation, although stock can play subtle roles. (No selling of assets from one company to another, as in other 18xx.)

Upon a third play, it seems we may have played wrong some of the first plays. (Two cubes of the same is NOT wild, but rather you get what is in the haymarket, if anything.)

UPDATE: Another play, and I am not interested in playing this game anymore. Has good ideas, but the resource market is too random and cutthroat early in the game when the economic snowball is critical. Perhaps our rules mistake above made it more enjoyable?

This game single-handedly convinced me to look at the 18xx family. As well as a great game on its own.

If my 18xx adventure fared well, I might even consider a 9 or 10 rating for this.