Paradox Interactive announced last year that they would be doing a range of board game adaptations for their four major game series. The first was Crusader Kings II and now we have Cities: Skylines. If you haven’t played Cities: Skylines before it’s very much in the vein of Sim City and other city planning type games. You play as the mayor of the city and depending on which scenario you’ve chosen you’ll be building your city from the ground up. You’ll decide where to place the residential, commercial and industrial areas. Where to place essential buildings and systems for water and electricity and even setting up the education, police and healthcare system. Keep your citizens happy and build a harmonious oasis in a chaotic world.

As you can imagine the Cities: Skylines – The Board Game will need to play a little differently from the video game version. It’ll be a co-operative game where you and your friends work together to complete milestones and get the highest total happiness score.

Cities: Skylines – The Board Game

Gameplay starts with four land boards being visible (the number varies with the scenario). The goal is to finish a number of milestones and to make the inhabitants of your city happy. At the start of each milestone, one additional board is bought, flipped over from its nature side to its developed side. Players have personal cards that show what they can build, and ideally, they discuss and plan with the other players how to best develop the city. The cards show what effects the building will have on the city, for example increasing the need for garbage collection, decreasing crime etc.

Cardboard tiles represent residential, commercial, industrial, and other buildings. They come in various base shapes that are placed on the developed boards on the grid. When the players have developed the city to the next milestone, they choose which new board to buy to expand the city, score their current happiness, and start a new milestone.

All players will contribute to one city treasury which can be used collectively to construct buildings or buy a new board. Needless to say like any other board game once you go bankrupt you lost the game. So spend that money wisely!

Cities: Skylines – The Board Game will be out in October 2019.