Nov
30
California
Theme Week: Chock-o-block Schacht
In a 2004 interview, designer Michael Schacht said, “I am a big fan of games with few rules.... I prefer a rules structure that also permits poor play. After all, one should be able to learn a game and improve with each play. That has the disadvantage, though, that some of my games aren’t completely understandable during the first play.”
Designer: Michael Schacht
Publisher: Uberplay
Year Published: 2006
Price: $32.99
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Number of Players:
2
3
4
5
Age Range:
10-up
Family
Teen
Game Type:
Tile placement
Strategy
If you search long enough, you can find a game on almost any topic. Druids dancing around a tree? Check. Firefighters putting out a forest blaze? Check. Iroquois hunting for beaver pelts in the woods? Check.
Thus it shouldn’t be a surprise to find a game that involves home decoration. Instead we should merely say, “It’s about time.”
The premise of California is that each player has her own freshly built mansion, devoid of any furnishings other than a single piece of flooring. Flooring comes in six types, and each player starts with a different type. Your goal is to install flooring in much of the mansion, then bring in specialty house items such as a swimming pool or pinball machine to attract guests. Ideally guests will bring housewarming presents with them because, as in real life, gifts equal points.
The game lasts twelve rounds, and each round begins the same way. You fill a bank with four gold coins and two retail stores with four randomly drawn tiles each. The tiles are either flooring, a special item like a motorcycle or puppy, or an extra attic. On a turn, you either take a gold coin, which is worth five silver coins, from the bank or else you purchase a tile; the cost of a tile is equal to the number of gold coins currently in the bank. So buying tiles costs a lot at the start of the round, but gets cheaper over time; your opponents might even thank you each time you take money since you’re saving them a buck as well!
If you buy flooring, you must place it in the mansion next to other tiles of the same color, if any. If you buy a special item, you must place it on flooring that matches the color of the special item; pools and fountains go on blue tiles, for example, while pets all go on green. If you can’t place an item immediately, you can store it in the attic; an extra attic lets you store two wares. Purchasing a special item brings an appropriately colored guest to your door. Attract another guest while the first one is still visiting, and the new guest will arrive with a present, presumably to show up the first one as a cheap so-and-so.
A round ends when either the bank or one of the retail stores is empty. After twelve rounds, you count up points, with each piece of flooring and each gift worth one point. In addition, you can score bonus tiles during the game by installing certain combinations of special items. You’re often racing opponents for these bonuses, so money management is critical; spend too much, and you won’t be able to buy the tile you really need before someone else does.
As with most Schacht games, the rules are easy to understand, but you won’t have any idea of how to play in the first game. Should you spend freely or hoard money? How much should you concentrate on one or two colors? Only by playing will these answers become clear, as clear as the fresh air that crosses the Pacific and warms the shores of the Golden State…
No matter where you live, California is available for playtime thanks to online retailers such as Game Surplus, Thought Hammer, Funagain, and Boulder Games.
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