...laying new tracks in penurious exurbia...

by Alexandre Correia

Day 2735. June 27, 2024. Coimbra...

"I've never seen anyone play Suburbia like this," Flávio kept saying whenever my turn was over.

His cash rose throughout the game, often to ridiculous levels. He was floating on it, spoiled for choices when drafting tiles, slowly building up a solid foundation of endgame points on cash alone. He maxed out his income midway into the game. But whenever it was my turn, he looked at me like a rich man glancing at a beggar, wondering where our paths had diverged so dramatically in our lifes.

At the same time had Flávio maxed out his income, I had maxed out on debt. Loan sharks knocked on my door every other turn, taking the meager coins I had saved by placing two lake tiles in a row or one of those Hail Mary long stretches of water.

I played two of those stretches during the game and was still always broke.

The poverty track.
The only thing going for me was my reputation. Despite losing points to loan sharks, I led in the score tracker for 2/3 of the game. But near the end, Flávio used his immense wealth to buy tiles that gave him more points. He zoomed past me on the score tracker in his municipality-funded Model S and never looked back until the game was over.

That's when his eyes opened, dumbfounded. In my thriftiness and self-inflicted poverty, I had managed to complete my secret goal and the two public goals: Miscreant and Spendthrift. In a three- or four-player game, I doubt I could snatch all three, but in a two-player Suburbia, what my opponent loses, I win twice.

Why haven't I deep-dived into Suburbia before? It's a mystery. What a game.

Suburbia's winning skid row.
It wasn't the only game in my inaugural visit to Coimbra's game night at Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto. The people I'd met yesterday were there when I arrived. But as the light dwindled outside to heavy rain clouds about to burst, I noticed more new faces arriving. Had this been in Lagos, it would have been a full house! But according to [user=Kotro]João[/user], it was a slow night, with most people on vacation and students leaving for the summer break.

Next to Suburbia, three exchange students played Super Rhino and Ticket to Ride. Outside, [user=Kotro]João[/user] dueled [user=scadima]Samuel[/user] for an election victory in Tyrus, and behind us, four Earth addicts mucked around with dirt and seeds for the Nth week in a row.

A good place for gaming.
When I arrived, [user=scadima]Samuel[/user] invited me to play Nimalia with Flávio and Guilherme. A card-laying filler driven by Isle of Skye-like variable scoring. It was more fun than the art led me to believe, and the non-official solo variant [user=scadima]Samuel[/user] told me about, approved by the designer, put Nimalia on my thrifted radar when it was over.

The large Trio cards came next. I fell in love with the folkloric, almost tribal-like patterns, but not the Go Fish-type core mechanic. These guys had clearly played a lot of Trio before, making minced meat of my amnesiac brain in less than a heartbeat.

My ten-year-old daughter would love this game if it scaled to two.

Fulfilling cards.
My final game of the night was Village Rails, by designers Matthew and Brett. A team rising quickly on my radar after playing their excellent Voyages earlier this month. When Village Rails first came out, I wondered why it didn't have a solo variant. But as Flávio guided me through the modus operandi, with its bazillion trips on the back of the cards and an equal number of tracks on the front, I understood why.

The permutations in this game are endless.

Thinky tracks.
I focused on quick goals and having enough money to keep my options open when it was time to draft. The tiny, quaint, and quite beautiful landscape slowly grew in front of me as we played. It was charming, puzzly, and very interesting.

Maybe I was too focused on the lack of solo play during the game. André went hard on endgame Sidings while Flavio maneuvered his tracks and trips for a tremendous +40 points in last round, almost winning after trailing the entire game.

Despite the lack of solo, it's a good game. Almost as good as the prospect of getting to know Coimbra's gamers if we do end up moving to this city.

:nostar::nostar::nostar:

One year ago: ...thrifted loops...One year later: N/A

Photos & Images: ZombieBoard[hr]Thank you. Like what you see here? Subscribe, tip, like... be bold, invite me for a coffee, bid for a game, and we'll plant a tree. Together. [microbadge=35061]