Rebuilding Seattle Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Rebuilding Seattle, a city building game published by Wizkids Games. Rebuilding Seattle is a game where players are rebuilding the city of Seattle after a fire using polyomino shaped pieces.

I am from the Chicago area, lived many of my adult years in Chicago, have worked in Chicago for over 20 years, so when I think of great fires, there is only one Great Fire. But apparently, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was busy in Seattle too, because in 1889, 18 years after the Great Fire of Chicago, Seattle had one too. In Rebuilding Seattle, you and your opponents are city planners tasked with rebuilding Seattle. You each get a District in which to rebuild a neighborhood and whoever builds the best neighborhood, earning the most victory points (VP), wins the game.

Rebuilding Seattle is a hybrid economic engine building, card drafting, and tile placement board game. The game is played over three rounds with each round consisting of four phases. 1. Increase Population 2. Build (on your turn you must do one of the following) a. Build a building or buy a Suburb b. Activate one event C. Enact 1 law (only 1x per round) 3. Profit (Earn $5 per $ on your economic buildings, plus any bonuses from cards purchased) 4. Clean up

You spend most of the game in phase 2 because during each round you continue in this phase until all 6 events have been activated.

Now I need to rewind to the setup, to help you understand what is meant by each of those phases.

Each player selects a district with a unique and hopefully balanced set of 3 laws (For my Seattle friends, family, and fans the districts are Waterfront, Queen Anne, Georgetown, Industrial District, Pioneer Square, and Capitol Hill). Then each player selects a unique neighborhood card that has a