New York 1901 - Building Skyscrapers - Ticket to Blokus

New York 1901

Designed by Chenier La Salle

Published by Blue Orange Games

2 - 4 Players

30 - 60 Minutes

Tile Placement, End-Game Goals

(8/10 Stars)

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of New York 1901 by Blue Orange Games in exchange for an honest review of the game. The short version; this game is fantastic! If you are looking for a family friendly light-medium strategy game, look no further. New York 1901 provides some similar mechanics as Ticket to Ride mashed up with Blokus to create something that feels fresh and well built. The production quality of the game is really great, from cards, to the board, the rulebook, the building tiles, score markers, to the amazing artwork. The gameplay is simple and yet provides the players with strategic choices. The game can be cutthroat or can range to pretty calm - in either case, I think you will have a great time and that is How Lou Sees It! (Check out some pictures and detailed video review below! And if you like what you see, be sure to like the video and follow my blog or follow me on YouTube or Twitter (@LandonSquire))

Building Hoyuk

Hoyuk

Designed by Pierre Canuel

Published by MAGE Company

2 to 5 Players

60 to 90 Minutes

Tile Placement and Set Collecting

(7/10 Stars)

Hoyuk is a fantastic tile laying and set collecting game that has great production quality. The artwork is very nice and the game mechanics are solid and provide interesting choices to be made each phase of the round. Players can't remain on their own in this game either, they must join other players' on different blocks to try and optimize their chance at getting more aspect cards - and in return more building options and sets for points. The game includes rules to play a basic game, medium game, and advanced game. You can also shorten games by choosing to play with a lower number of houses that each player starts with. All these options result in variability in game length and difficulty.

On the down side, the game only comes with one storage bag and there is no insert to keep all the tiles separated. You will need to purchase your own bags to keep everything separated out or else you will be faced with a longer setup time to sort everything out. The instruction book is actually really good, but there is a slight learning curve for the iconography of the catastrophe cards. It is also interesting because if you don't have things separated out, it will take you longer to setup the basic game than the advanced game (since the basic game causes you to remove certain things - where as the advanced game you wouldn't need to because you use everything).

All in all, I am giving Hoyuk a 7/10. I think it is a really solid game with great game mechanics, artwork, rulebook, and the quality of the components is top notch. The game really needs some better storage options, but Hoyuk is one that I will continue to enjoy a lot and that is How Lou Sees It!

My interview with the board game designer Pierre Canuel and Mage Company can be read here: http://howlouseesit.blogspot.com/2014/02/hoyuk-coming-to-kickstarter.html

Hoyuk: Anatolia is an expansion to Hoyuk and is on Kickstarter only for another 40 hours or so! Check it out now or if you were too late, check Mage Company's website for future buying possibilities. http://www.magecompany.com/

I was given this copy of Hoyuk as a review copy for free from MAGE Company.