Tiny Towns

AEG  |  BGG  |  Buy

Designer: Peter McPherson
Publisher: AEG
1-6 players 30-45 minutes ages 12+
MSRP $40

You are the mayor of a tiny town in the forest, where the smaller creatures of the woods have created a civilization hidden away from predators. This new land is small and the resources are scarce–you take what you can get, and never say ‘no’ to building materials. Cleverly plan and construct a thriving town, and don’t let it fill up with wasted resources!

Each player receives a player board, which represents their tiny town. The board is a 4×4 grid, on which resources will be placed, and buildings constructed. In addition, players also receive two Monument cards, and a single wooden monument piece.

Five different colored cubes represent the resources: Wood, Wheat, Brick, Glass, and Stone. The colors are nicely contrasted in brown, yellow, red, teal and gray.

Each game of Tiny Towns features the Cottage (your creatures need a place to live!). In addition, 6 other buildings may be built. These public buildings are selected randomly from game to game. For each type of building, one card out of four is chosen to be featured in each game. Each building will present slightly different challenges, and offer different scoring possibilities.

The building cards show a pattern of colored resources which must be matched to place a building. In addition, how each building will score at game’s end is spelled out in text at the bottom.

Every one of the seven public buildings are represented by wooden building pieces. These are a different color and shape, making them easy to differentiate from one another.

 In addition, players also receive two Monument cards, and a single wooden monument piece. You’ll choose one of these two private building cards to keep, discarding the other. Only you may build this unique structure during the game.

Tiny Towns is a game in which players use pattern recognition to build buildings and score points. Each building scores victory points in a unique way, and requires a different grouping of resources.

On a turn, one player will be the Master Builder. This player selects one of the five resources, which all players must add to their boards. Once placed, a cube cannot be moved. Then the next player in turn order becomes Master Builder, and all players must add the resource they select to their personal boards.

At any time a player has the required cubes to match either a public or private building, he or she may build.. First all the cubes used are returned to the supply, then the building is placed on one of the spaces which yielded the cubes.

For example: The Cottage requires a pattern of cubes with a teal cube at its center, flanked by a red cube on the left, and yellow cube on the right, but turned 90 degrees. Once this little triangle of three pieces is complete, remove the cubes, and place a cottage in one of the three spaces. Now your critters have a place to call home!

But a place to live is worthless without a source of food.  One of four food buildings (Farm, Granary, Greenhouse, or Orchard) will supply your cottages. Cottages which are fed will score 3 points apiece. Otherwise, they score zero.

Say the Farm is in your game. It’ll feed four Cottages. If you built a fifth Cottage, you’ll need to have a second Farm to feed all five. Other food buildings will feed cottages based on how close they are to the Cottages. And each food building requires a different pattern of cubes in order to be built.

Other types of buildings play off of their location in your town to score points, or what other buildings you’ve erected nearby. The Tavern simply gives points based on how many you’ve built. One Tavern will get you 2 points, but five Taverns yield 20. The Feast Hall will yield 2 points each. But if you build more of them than your right hand neighbor does, they increase to 3 apiece..

And Commercial buildings (Bank, Factory, Trading Post, Warehouse) allow flexibility. Essentially, these allow a player to embargo a type of resource. If any player names that color of cube, the buildings owner gets to choose an alternate resource.

Remember that buildings may never be moved. And a cube may only be committed to building a single building. Planning your Tiny Town is very important. Each decision on where to place a cube is important, as resources block spaces until they can be converted into a single building, freeing up space again. Leaving a single stranded cube can put a serious crimp in your game.

Eventually, the time will come when you can no longer place a cube or construct a new building. Your game is over. But other players may continue choosing cubes until they also can’t build or place another cube.

Then all players remove all unused cubes from their town, and score positive points based on their buildings and monument. But each empty space will cost one point off your final score–you wasted resources! The player with the most points wins.

Tiny Towns offers ease of play married to strategic depth. The few rules in the game offer a low barrier to entry. Within minutes almost anyone can be building and enjoying the game. What will surprise most gamers is the amount of strategic depth Tiny Towns offers. At first, building your town seems simple, almost child’s play. But the challenge of how to maximise your scoring, given the resources you are handed, is one that gamers will find intriguing.

The Monument Cards provide for a wide variety of decisions and strategies. Games like Tiny Towns could fall into the trap of “Everyone does the same thing”. After all, each player takes the same resource on a turn and has the same set of basic buildings they may construct. But the monument cards offer players an individual goal which allows everyone to strike out on their own path from the start. Some incentivise you to build more of a certain type of building. Others require a different pattern to score well. Monument cards give each player’s game a distinct feel.

Tiny Towns might be compared to Bingo. But it’s a game of Bingo where on your turn you decide which resource gets called. By doing so, you not only improve your position, but also have a deep impact on everyone else’s game. By paying attention to other player’s games, you might stitch them up, and seal a victory for yourself.

Tiny Towns offers players tremendous value on many levels. The artwork is sweet and fun to look at. The wooden building pieces are pleasing to place and admire. And the number of cards offers tremendous replayability, guaranteeing that virtually no two games of Tiny Towns will ever be the same experience. Not counting the Monument cards, there are over 4,000 different initial setups for Tiny Towns. That’s enough to bring puzzle game fans back to the table time after time.

 And repeated plays offer the chance to explore two rules variants. The Cavern variant allows you to twice a game set aside cubes which others have chosen that don’t fit your game.The Town Hall variant offers a deck of cards which reveal one random resource that players must use. After every two random resources, each player adds a resource of their choosing to their own town. The town Hall deck also offers a way to play Tiny Towns solitaire.

Tiny Towns appeals to those who like city building games such as 7 Wonders or Alhambra. It scratches the itch of those who enjoy puzzle-like games such as Sagrada or Take It Easy!  And it offers a bridge between the interests of casual and more serious gamers, where both can meet and play. As such, Tiny Towns also spans the gap between The Spiel of Approval and Major Fun Awards, making it a worthy resident of both camps.

In Tiny Towns you build a small town for small critters in a small amount of time. But don’t be fooled: inside this little game AEG has packed great value and variety for a small price.

Written by: Doug Richardson