Blog Post 2 Game Lab 1
Introduction
As part of our game lab, our gameplay group played Machi Koro, a competitive building card game in which you are the mayor of a new town and must build impressive landmarks to outshine your competing mayors.
The game is set up with each player receiving two land establishment cards (one wheat field and one bakery) and four landmark cards (one train station, one radio tower, one shopping mall, and one amusement park). The four landmark cards begin as under construction. The objective of the game is to earn enough income through your built establishments to finish the construction of all four landmarks. The first mayor to build all four landmarks wins.
Each card, establishment or landmark, has a roll indicator at the top and an effect at the bottom. The outcome of the die (or dice) roll activates a card effect of the same value. For example, rolling a 1 activates the wheat field card effect, which states that everyone in the player group gets one coin from the bank regardless of who rolled the die. Rolling a 2 or 3 activates the bakery card, stating only the player who rolled the die received a coin from the bank. Each card has its own roll indicator and effect.
Use this earned income as ways to purchase other establishments and landmarks, whose prices are located in the bottom left-hand corner of the card. You may only build one establishment per turn at the end of your turn.
As indicated in the session report below, the game was off to a slow start as we were learning the rules. By the time we started to build understanding, the gameplay became more interesting.
Machi Koro Session Report
Reading out rules
2 types of starting card
2 land establishment
Establishment card: number on top is dice roll to have affect
-bottom corner is construction cost
Landmark: does not need dice roll same as above
2 starting card for each player getting distributed to all players
-one wheat, one bakery
Placed face up in front of play area
-4 landmark cards: train station/ shopping mall/ amusement park/ radio tower
All placed faced down (show it is in construction)
Creating supply market by setting up same cards in each pile
Roll dice
Burn income
Construction
Win by finishing all 4 construction
Gameplay:
Round 1:
Sophia starts first
-rolled 4 did not get same number to activate card
-did not spend money to buy another establishment
Tim
-rolled 4 did not get same number to activate card
-did not spend money to buy another establishment
Edvin
-rolled 6 did not get same number to activate card
-did not spend money to buy another establishment
Alexandra
-rolled 3
-gained 1 coin from activated card
R2:
Sophia
-rolled 4 did not receive
Tim
-rolled 1
-everyone received a coin from bank
Edvin
-rolled 2
-received one coin from bank
Alexandar
-rolled 5
-did not receive any coins
R3:
S
-rolled 4
Tim
-rolled 3
-got 1 coin
Edvin
-rolled 6
Al
-rolled 2
-recieved coin from bank
R4:
S
-rolled 3
-got 1 coin
T
-rolled 5
-bought estblishment
E
-rolled 2 get one coin
-deciding to buy an establishment
-paid 2 to get convenience store
-regretted decision- misread card, but it turned out okay
A
-rolled 3 got coin
-paid 3 coins to get forest
R5:
S
-rolled 3 got one coin
-paid 2 to get convenience store
T
-rolled 6
-paid 2 coins to get cafe
E
-rolled 6
A
-rolled 6
R6:
S
-rolled 3, gain one coin
-paid 2 to get cafe
T
-rolled 2, gain one coin
E
-rolled 6
-forgot to get cafe card
A
-rolled 6
-paid 2 get cafe
R7:
S
-rolled 1, everyone gets one coin from bank
T
-rolled 2, gained a coin
-”wait!”
-deciding to buy bakery for one coin
E
-Rolled 5
-activated card from alexandra so she also get one coin
-deciding to either activate train station or buy from market
-buys one wheat field
A
-rolled 6
-paid 2 coins to get convenience store
R8:
S
-rolled 3
-gave T and A one coin each bc of card effect
T
-rolled 4
-paid 2 for another cafe
E
-rolled 6
-paid 2 for cafe
A
-rolled 1, everyone gets coin
R9:
S
-rolled 2, got one
-paid 4 to build train station
T
-rolled 4
-paid 4 to build train station
E
-rolled 5
-paid 4 for train
A
-rolled 2
-paid 4 for train
R10:
S
-roll 2, gain 1 coin
T
-rolled 2, got 2 coins because of multiple cards
-paid one to get another bakery
E
-rolled 4, gain coins
A
-rolled 6
R11:
S
-roll 6
T
-rolled 1, everyone gets one coin
-paid 2 for convenience store
-checking other cards before deciding- decided on convenience store
E
-rolled 1, everyone got 1 coin
A
-rolled 5, gets 1 coin
-paid 1 to get bakery
R12
S
-rolled 4, got 3 coins
-paid 3 to get forest
T
-rolled 2, gained 3 coins
-paid one to get another wheat field
E
-rolled 6 was hoping for 4
-bought stadium for 6 coins
A
-rolled 3, had to pay other players with ard 1 coin, then she still able to gain 2 coins
R13:
S
-rolled 4, gained 3 coins
-paid 1 to get wheat field
T
-rolled 2, gained 3 coins
-paid 1 for wheat field
E
-rolled 4, gained 3 coins
-paid 2 for convenience store
A
-rolled 5, gained 1 coin
-paid 1 to get wheat field
R14:
S
-rolled 4, gain 3 coins
-paid 10 to build shopping mall
T
-rolled 6
E
-rolled 4, gained 6 coins to match card
A
-rolled 6
R15:
S
-rolled 4, gained 6 coins
T
-rolled 5 A got one coin
E
-rolled 1, everyone got 1 coin
-paid 10 for shopping mall
A
-rolled 1
-paid 1 to get wheat field
R16:
S
-rolled 5, gain one coin, A gained one coin
T
-rolled 2, gained 1 coin
-padi 10 for shopping mall
E
-rolled 6, everyone owes him 2 coins
-has 9 coins
-bought tv station
A
-rolled 1, everyone got 1-2 coins
R17:
S
-rolled 5, gain 1 coin so did A
T
-rolled 3, had to give everyone with cafe card 1-2 coins
E
-rolled 6, gain 2 coins, took 5 coins from sophia
-the rich gets richer
A
-rolled 3, she had to give everyone else money
-she broke
R18:
S
-rolled 3, had to give everyone money
-gained 2 coins
T
-rolled 2, gain coin
E
-rolled 5, S and A gained 1 coin
-debating what to buy
-buy amusement park for 16
A
-rolled 4, gain 3 coins
R19:
S
-rolled 4, gained 6 coins
T
-also rolled 4, gained a lot of coins
-paid 16 for amusement park
E
-rolled 2, gained 2 coin
A
-rolled 1, everyone gets one coin
-paid 10 for shopping
Nobody wins (ran out of time)!
End Session Report
Final Remarks
Machi Koro simmers down to a game similar to Monopoly, though much faster and with a more competitive feel. In Monopoly, one strategy is affecting the probability that an outcome of the dice roll is a favorable one to the player who owns the properties that you land on. I want to make it incredibly difficult for the dice roller to land on a tile that is not owned property, and I will buy all of the colors near each other to increase the money they pay me by purchasing houses and hotels, which increase my property value, and I want to do this for as many colors on the board that I can. In Machi Koro, that bottlenecking isn't really possible because your earned income is only based on the probability of the roll and nothing more. Your decision to invest in more establishments only effects the outcome of the player roll, so you cannot inherently manipulate the probabilities as strategically in this game in the same way. So what strategies would you exploit instead?