Become an architect in Tangram City, a satisfying board game

What is a board game? Tangram City ?

The queen ordered the construction of new cities in her kingdom. You are the architects of each of these new cities. The whole objective is to harmoniously balance urbanization and nature, while filling the space as much as possible. Who will be the best builder?

Accessible from 8 years old, for 1 to 5 players and games of around thirty minutes, it is a puzzle game simultaneously very pleasant to practice.

Edited by Huch, Tangram City is a game by Uwe Rosenberg, illustrated by Makoto Takami, and sold at the price of €22.95 at Philibert.

How do you play it?

The installation is very quick. Each player takes their city board, completely blank at the start of the game (except for a small location already constructed, different for each board), and their set of tiles. All the lots of all the players are identical, and include around twenty tiles with varied shapes (inspired by the pieces of the tangramhence the name of the game).

Each turn, a certain number of cards are turned over, one after the other. They represent one of the tiles belonging to the players. It is then up to them to simultaneously place this tile on their game board, to gradually build their city.

The placement rules are very simple: it is forbidden to leave the board, place one tile on top of another, move a tile once it has been placed, etc. On the other hand, it is possible to rotate the tiles in any direction, and especially to turn them over.

Indeed, one side of the tile represents a garden, the other a house. It’s important to keep a certain balance between the two, because you gain more or less bonus points at the end of the game if you succeed.

When all the cards have been turned over, we start counting for this round: each player scores as many points as there are squares in their largest fully constructed rectangle.

We thus play six rounds in total. In addition to the points earned at the end of each of them, you also gain points at the end of the game, if you manage to completely fill your board, and if you manage to balance the house tiles and the garden tiles. And the highest score wins.

Why play Tangram City ?

Tangram City is part of that category of games that we like to play, when the wind and rain are blowing outside, accompanied by hot chocolate and biscuits. An atmosphere, zen, cozy, chill reigns around the table.

Like the very cool Karubaeveryone plays in their own corner, with the exact same possibilities, trying to do better than the others. If during the first games, you place your pieces a little randomly, you gradually learn to plan your turns. Be careful though, because it is important to quickly build a stable rectangular base, to score points and not fall behind your opponents by waiting for THE piece that takes too long to come.

The material may not be very sexy, but it is of very good quality, with very thick tiles, easy to handle. And all made of cardboard or small wooden pieces, not ugly and cold plastic.

It’s true, Tangram City does not revolutionize the gaming world, and there is little chance that it will one day win a gaming award. And yet, its parts are particularly enjoyable. And it is very pleasant and satisfying to build your city gradually, and to admire your work at the end of the game, even if you haven’t won. Its very simple rules and simultaneous turns allow you to play it with everyone, friends or family, young and old. A great game, in a well-stocked box, and offered at a low price: what more could you ask for?