our review

days of scyscrapers

New York 1901

Woolworth or Singer Building?

New York 1901 is a tile placement game that was presented 2015 during Spieletage at Essen. As already indicated by cover and title, 2-4 players build skyscrapers in New York at the turn of the century and try to score most points.

The game features a board that shows the area of the town. It depicts the famous streets and 65 real estate slots, which are divided into five boroughs. Each borough is color-marked and comprises 13 lots. For each of those 65 real estate lots there is a card denoting the size of the lot, either two or three square cases. The edge of the game board features a scoring track from 1 to 100, some values are color-marked, 6 on white, 18 on yellow and 25 is depicted on an orange background.

Which skyscrapers are available for a player for building is indicated by the 18 skyscraper tiles which you receive at the start of the game. Those tiles come in different sizes, varying from two to six squares. Each tile indicates the points that are  awarded when the tile is build, two to eight. The tiles also vary in their technology level: Bronze – Silver – Gold, and then there are four tiles for Legendary Skyscrapers, of which each player can build one.

Preparation

Each player receives 18 Skyscraper tiles, 4 workers, 1 scoring marker, one ownership marker to mark the Legendary Skyscraper, 3 action cards, 1 randomly chosen Character card and his starting card for a 2-sqare lot. The character card indicates in which borough a player sets up his starting building. The real estate cards are shuffled and stacked face down on the case for “Future Market”, four Lot cards are displayed as “Open Market”. The four Legendary Skyscrapers are displayed openly, too. Five Bonus cards “Streets of New York” are shuffled and three are randomly selected and laid out open-faced, out of the cards “Bonus Task” only one is randomly selected and displayed.

Game play

The game is captivating due to its simple rule: When it is your turn you have to choose one of two options: 1) Acquire Land and/or Build or 2) Demolish and Rebuild.

Option 1) a: Choose Lot card from the Open Market, take it up and place one of your workers on the board on a real estate lot of the corresponding size and color.

b: optional – place a skyscraper tile from your stock on land that you own and score the corresponding points.

Option 2) Demolish, that is, remove one or more – when adjacent – buildings and build a new building of a higher technology level on the space that was freed by demolition. You score the corresponding points. In his turn a player can play and use one or several of his action cards.

Note: Each player receives three action cards at the start of the game:

Construction Boom: Enables you to build a second skyscraper in a turn, on land that you own.

Market Shift: Enables you to replace the four cards on the Open Market by the top four cards from the Future Market.

Land Grab: Enables you take an additional lot from the Open Market, but not a lot of thee squares.

Building Rules and Technology Levels

A skyscraper can be built over several lots of different colors. At least one side of the building must be bordering a street or a park. Once a skyscraper has been built, it cannot be relocated and a skyscraper need not take up all available squares in a real estate lot.

Skyscrapers are built according to technology levels. At the start of the game all players command Bronze Technology which enables them to build skyscraper of Bronze Technology level. To acquire a higher technology level you must advance on the scoring track. New skyscrapers of higher technology can only replace skyscrapers build with lower technology. Skyscrapers using Silver technology can only be build then you have scored six points, for the building of skyscrapers with Gold technology or of a Legendary Skyscraper you need 18 points.

Demolishing and Rebuilding

The new skyscraper must be built using a higher technology levels than all the skyscrapers that have been demolished for it. You can never demolish a skyscraper built with Gold technology or a Legendary Skyscraper. In case it happens that Demolishing and Rebuilding skyscrapers leave one or several real estate lots completely empty you must place one worker on each of the lots.

Legendary Skyscrapers

When a player builds one of the four Legendary Skyscrapers, he marks it with his Ownership marker. The four Legendary Skyscrapers are available to all players, but each player can only build one of them.

Bonus Task Cards

In a game of New York 1901 only one out of five Bonus Task cards is in play: Gold Tycoon, Master Architect, Gold Prestige, Bronze Baron and Best in a Technology Level. Most cards only score victory points at the end of the game, when their condition is met. Only the bonus for the Gold Prestige card is awarded during the game: When a player builds a skyscraper of Gold technology level or a Legendary Skyscraper, he receives one bonus point for each skyscraper of lower technology level – silver, bronze or starting building – of his opponents.

Bonus cards „Streets of New York“

In addition to the real estate lot cards there are five bonus cards „Streets of New York”. Those cards represent the five most important streets in the Finance District of Manhattan. The cards determine which streets will give a player who has most skyscrapers at that street, a bonus of five points.

How tactical is the game or is chance-driven?

You need to take into account three facts when building skyscrapers:

1. The four real estate cards on display. 2. The Bonus Task Card and 3. The three bonus cards “Streets of New York”. Those cards together determine when it is of advantage to change technology or in which boroughs it is best to build and/or which buildings it would be best to demolish to advance quickly in technology levels. The selection of four real estate lot cards already reduces the chance element, so that each player has nearly the same chance to acquire a real estate lot suitable for his tactic.

Evaluation

The components are very clear and correspond nicely to the topic. The graphic design of cards and tiles is as it should be and registers as suitable and agreeable. The flow of the game is smooth and offers challenge and fun. But you have to take into account the actions of your fellow players to avoid being left behind. As regards to the three action cards, the ability to use one of them is rewarded with not enough points. Despite using tactical elements, the game is entertaining and absolutely suitable for a family game. As it depends on players when the game ends, this feature, too, provides thrill in the last phases of the game and sometimes also some excitement.

Erwin Koczan

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 60+

Designer: Chenier la Salle

Artist: Vincent Dutrait

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Blue Orange 2015

Web: www.hutter-trade.com

Genre: Tile placement, building

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en es fr it nl pt ru

In-game text: no

Comments:

Attractive design, in harmony with the topic

Easy rules for easy access

Very good family game

Compares to:

Other building games with replacing built structures

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Erwin Koczan:

A game that is simple and interesting, offering an attractive topic and nice components, thrilling to the end and with some tactics in the changing of technology levels.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise)2 0

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0