23rd June 2022 It's a Thursday evening and we're in Aldershot for some gaming goodness! Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games We got everything you want, honey, we know the names We are the people that can find whatever you may need If you got the money, honey, we got your disease OK, Welcome To... isn't a game about Guns N' Roses or in fact jungles. It's full name is 'Welcome to... your perfect home' and it's about suburban planning - and that's just as equally as glamorous! What's in a game?
The player sheets come in a pad of 100 pages and thus are used up over games, although they will probably last a long time. Now, this is only a personal gripe of mine but I'd rather have a handful of dry erase sheets instead. There's something unsettling about having your game slowly but inevitably eroded. Would dry erase sheets cost so much more? The cards are the average quality you'd expect from a modern game. Finally, I will add that the game does not come with any pencils or pens which feels a bit like an omission to me The game has a subtle 50's Americana aesthetic to it's art direction, since there isn't a great variety of art used throughout the game, it's not immediately apparent (Other than on the cover!). Artwork on the construction cards are essentially a variation on a theme. Having said that, the art that is used is attractive enough and looks good to me. The game uses iconography for its 6 effects and also to convey information on the city plan cards. None of it is hard to learn and won't pose an obstacle. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Welcome To... players are attempting to create the best neighbourhood with their urban planning skills by creating houses and housing estates. Welcome To.. does not use a traditional turn order, since players do not influence each other, all players' actions are resolved simultaneously. In each turn, the following actions are performed.
Endgame There 3 criteria by which the game can end.
There are a large number of scoring methods in Welcome To... and may come from: generally, the first un-crossed off value is the score for that particular tracker.
Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Welcome To... is a fairly easy to learn game that has a brisk playtime that does not outstay it's welcome (SIC), having said that though, it can end very quickly if the wrong numbers come up at the wrong time! The game provides players some meaningful, interesting decisions to make, this is because there are '2' axis of decision making at work here - house numbers and effects. If the game only utilised house numbers, then it would be too straightforward but by pairing them with effects, it provides intriguing propositions. Players will frequently find themselves in situations where they will want to use a certain effect but don't want the associated house number or possibly, having to think about choosing an effect that won't benefit them in order to a house number they want. Players will need to adapt and make use of what they're given to work with, find ways to exploit the effects they've had to use and make them work. In the case of house numbers, quite often this will mean taking house numbers that are not immediately useful and putting them into one of the streets. This can present various problems for players. Leaving too small a numerical gap between houses can be risky because only specific numbers can go there. E.g., having a 7, then a gap, then a 9 means only a 8 will fit in the gap later on. Conversely, leaving too big a gap will mean wasting numbers. Having a 7, then a gap and then a 12 means that most of the numbers in the 8-11 range will be locked out and cannot be used elsewhere in that street anymore. This is the classic dilemma players face in a lot of roll and write style games: Having to try and plan ahead, hoping what you need will come up at some point later on the game. It's essentially a bit of gamble. In this regard, it's something Welcome Too.. does very well and is a solid entry in the roll and write (Or flip and write if you really want to be pedantic.) genre. It means that if this style of game is not your thing, you probably won't like Welcome To.. but if roll and write games are you thing, Welcome To... is definitely worth a try.
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