Machi Koro Session Report

Machi Koro is a both a luck and strategy based game, placing 2-4 players as mayors of their own city, starting with just a simple bakery and a wheat field. It’s competition based, and the winner is determined by who gets all 4 key establishments, a train station, an amusement park, a radio tower, and a shopping mall first. Players roll the die, or dice later on with the aid of the train station, and gain money depending on what cards are activated by the roll. Typically those that give the player more money require a higher roll. Other cards, or establishments, can be bought once per turn, divided into four categories. Blue typically consists of more nature driven environments, such as a mine, a forest, or the wheat field. These are more consistent sources of income. Green cards act the same as blue cards, but only activate on the roller’s turn, while blue cards are activated by other people’s rolls. It’s a nice subversion, and it can make someone's high roll turn against them.

Red and purple cards though, those are friendship breakers. Red cards, when rolled by another person than the owner, must pay up the specified amount of money on the card. Purple cards are even worse, owners of purple establishments can take other people’s cards. No purple cards were used in this session, as we were getting used to the basic rules. The purple cards were a step up in complexity that we were not ready for yet.

Unfortunately, either we didn’t see it or the instruction manuel didn’t name it but we had to roll for who would go first. I won the roll. Thankfully the manuel did specify that we would go in a clockwise order, so not all was lost. 

It was slow, steady work as we learned how the cards worked and when they activated. We spent a good amount of time discussing when the red cards activated, and it took us a good 5 turns before we realized the blue cards activated when it wasn’t the roller’s turn. I would wager we spent more time discussing how the four different cards worked more than playing the actual game for the first 5 minutes or so. But one we got that dice rolling, there wasn’t anything stopping us. 

It can be assumed that each turn each player obtained at least one copper as it meets the threshold for the wheatfield. Any time someone rolled a two or higher it can be assumed their bakery was activated and got another copper. The players in this game were Me (Erin), Emily, Bessy, and William.

 Bessy rolled a six and bought a bakery. William rolled a six and didn’t buy anything. Emily rolled a two and bought nothing. It was unsure this turn if she got three or two copper, but we decided on two copper. I rolled a one and bought the radio tower. Bessy rolled an eleven and bought a ranch. William rolled a seven and bought nothing. Emily rolled a two, and asked if she got anything for rolling a double, as both die came up as two (at this point, everyone had bought a radio tower and could roll with two die). Emily could not get the double benefit, but was informed that she could in the future if she bought the amusement park. She bought a convenience store, allowing more coins on her turn. I rolled a six and bought a fruit and vegetable store. Bessy rolled a ten and bought a cheese factory, to accompany her ranch, as each ranch doubles the output of the cheese factory. William rolled a ten and bought a mine. With such a high threshold number I became confused, but it was clarified that another person aside from William had to roll a nine or higher in order to activate his mine card. Emily rolled an eight and also bought a mine. I rolled a two and bought a cafe. At this point it became more competitive, as I could take a copper from someone if they rolled a three or higher on their turn. I however did not realize that it only applied just to the roller for a turn or so. Bessy rolled a nine. The nine activated William’s and Emily’s mine, earning them five copper each. William rolled an eleven and bought a cafe to counter mine. Emily rolled a ten and bought nothing. I rolled a six and bought a shopping mall. This would double my output from cafes and grocery type cards. Bessy rolled a four. At this point it became harder to keep track of how much money each person got or took per turn with the amount and types of cards we had. Bessy bought a mine. William rolled a nine and bought another mine. Emily rolled an eight and bought a radio tower for herself. She asked about the shopping mall. I realized I hadn’t activated the shopping mall buff on my cafes, and decided not to count the turns previous and continue on with the added buff. I rolled an eight and bought an amusement park. Bessy rolled a six and bought a shopping mall. William rolled a six and bought a forest, a blue card. Emily rolled a ten and bought the radio tower, winning the game. I followed with three major establishments, Bessy with two, and William with one. 

Further info on the game can be found here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143884/machi-koro