Editing revision 23 of AlienCity

|Players | 2 | |Length | 40 mins | |Required Bits | piecepack, Icehouse set | |Designer | ["Michael Schoessow"] | |Version | 2.2 | |Version Date| 2004 | |License | custom license: These game instructions may be distributed and copied for free as long as the author is credited or this header is left in place. | == Description == This two-person boardgame, created by Michael Schoessow, was the winner of the second piecepack game design contest, LudicSynergy. It's a very deep, two-player abstract game, and is among the most highly-regarded piecepack games -- probably at the top of the list, in fact. Here's how a finished game looks (photo by JorgeArroyo): https://www.ludism.org/attachments/ppwiki/jorge-ac1.jpg Scoring is based on the road network built within the "city". In the next photo, the road network in the game above is clearly delineated. https://www.ludism.org/attachments/ppwiki/jorge-ac2.jpg You can read a tentative transcription of an Alien City game at SeattleCosmic:AlienCity20030111. There are also many other games available online. === Alien City in other formats === Seattle Cosmic member [SeattleCosmic:John_20Braley John Braley] has been building a version of Alien City for use in [http://www.activeworlds.com ActiveWorlds] multi-user, online, avatar, virtual reality chat worlds. He has a preliminary HTML version of the Alien City rules posted. He also constructed a purpose-built wooden AlienCity set: https://www.ludism.org/scpix/misc/ac2.jpg Here's another photo of the same custom set (with an actual completed game from SeattleCosmic:SeattleCosmicGameNight20030704) that shows the dimensionality of the board and pieces better: https://www.ludism.org/scpix/20030704/01_aliencity_board.jpg Alien City can now be played online at [http://superdupergames.org Super Duper Games]! If you don't have an IceHouse set, you may wish to play AlienCityWithJustPiecepack -- it's the same game, but replaces the IceHouse set with a second piecepack. == Rules == * [[AlienCity22.pdf]]: Official rules, version 2.2 (PDF) * [[https://www.ludism.org/piecepack/aliencity/Alien_City-Hippo.doc Official rules, version 2.2 (Word doc)]] [[AlienCity_2fTextVersion]] == Reviews & Comments == One of the RecommendedGames. (./) (./) (./) ---- My favourite piecepack game. --RonHaleEvans ---- Alien City is played with a piecepack and Icehouse pyramids together. Maybe because of the extra pieces, this is the richest piecepack game I have played. The theme of Alien City is simply of trying to build a city with the various pieces. You have to link up towers (the pyramids) with domes (the piecepack coins), on a bed of piecepack tiles. The piecepack tiles are laid suit side up, and these suits restrict your building options. Ultimately, Alien City is a variant of [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1017 Fresh Fish], designed for only two players. The mechanic of establishing unbreakable routes on a gradually more constricted board is the same. What makes Alien City superior is that you decide, as the game progresses, where the start and end of the routes will be as you go along. The combination of the piecepack and Icehouse looks great, in fact better than Fresh Fish itself. The theme also worked well with the look of the game and the game mechanics. The regular rules were well written, although verbose in places. Alien City is now my favourite piecepack game. HangingGardens is good too, but I cannot see it getting as much play. More importantly, it is my favourite two-player no-luck game as well. The basic concept is complex, but it is clear once grasped. Its appeal reminds me of [http://boardgamegeek.com/game/42 Tigris and Euphrates], which is about the highest praise I can give. (./) (./) (./) --IainCheyne http://cheyne.net/blog Now that there's an online implementation at [http://www.superdupergames.org] I've been playing this. Aaron nailed me in my first game, but fortunately the experience taught me enough about humiliation to improve in game 2. I do keep forgetting about the bonuses at the end, though, and can't seem to get my brain around the odd way they score. One of the cleverest aspects of this game is the fact that the player making the last move cannot claim a tower - genius rule! |Phillip | 2 | 90 | Aaron | Aaron pulverizes me!! | |Phillip | 70 | 42 | Clark | | |Phillip | 72 | 28 | Subhan64 | | |Phillip | 69 | 45 | Iain | | |Phillip (1644)| 91 | 26 | Zevzimra | | |Phillip (1626) | 60 | 72 | Aaron | My closest game to date. | |Phillip (1641) | 87 | 60 | Busch | | |Phillip (1644) | 80 | 69 | Aaron | Finally, a win against Aaron!! | |Phillip (1668) | 90 | 37 | msaari | | ["Phillip Lerche"] Alien City is a close relative of Fresh Fish (and as a result, Fresh Fish suddenly feels a lot less unique). In both games, a road network forms on the board as a result of players' moves and constricts future moves. The goals are similar, as well - try to connect certain buildings with each other. In Alien City, you're trying to connect towers to domes and towers of different colours within two steps on the road. That score is multiplied by the distance to the nearest tower of same colour. Of course, Iain spoiled my towers by building same-coloured towers next to them, while at the same time building his towers up to 26 spaces away from the nearest towers. No surprise, then, that he crushed me. It's a mind-bending game. I like it a lot. It makes me feel like owning an Icehouse set would be a good move. I'll take one or two challenges on Super Duper Games, if anybody's interested to try the game. (./) (./) (./) --MikkoSaari http://www.melankolia.net/gameblog/ == Example Game == {{{ --- GameType: Name: Alien City Tiles: C3^Sa^S5vAa>/M4>S4>M3<A4^/C2vMa>M5>A3v/Ca<S2^C5vC4^/A5<M2<A2^S3v ... 1. B3x@e6 K1x@e6 {?!} 1... R3x@f5 2. S@c7 2... B3x@e5 3. M@d5 3... M@f6 W1x@f5 4. C@f4 4... M@f7 5. B3x@f1 5... G3x@f8 W1x@f8 6. G3x@e8 6... C@g3 7. C@h3 7... S@e9 8. A@g7 8... A@g10 {? A@f2} 9. R3x@h4 9... A@h9 {?} 10. B3x@g4 K1x@g4 10... C@e3 W1x@f1 11. G3x@c6 11... B3x@b7 12. C@b6 {? M@b8} 12... C@a9 13. S@c8 13... A@b2 14. S@c9 14... R3x@d2 15. A@a2 15... S@g1 16. R3x@f3 K1x@e5 {? A@b1 this turn} 16... G3x@b1 17. M@c5 17... M@a4 18. M@d3 18... R3x@h1 { Scoring: e5 = 4 x 8 = 32 e6 = 5 x 9 + 2 * (10 - 2*1) = 61 g4 = 3 x 15 = 45 Black's total = 138 points f1 = 5 x 8 + (10 - 2*3) = 44 points f5 = 3 x 2 = 6 points f8 = 4 x 6 = 24 points White's total = 74 points } }}} {{https://trevorldavis.com/share/piecepack/alien_city.gif}} [http://ludism.org:3838/ppn-viewer/?system.file=alien-city&annotate=algebraic View game in PPN viewer] == Links == BGG page: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20623 ---- CategoryGame ThemeCivilisationCategory RecommendedGamesCategory MechanicRandomBoardCategory MechanicStackedPyramids

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