OUR REVIEW

SKYSCRAPERS FROM DICE

SKYLINE

COLORFUL BUILDINGS OF DIFFERENT HEIGHT

Dice game are usually not my kind a game, but if one is part of a gaming community - this is what I call my family here to stick to the „beautiful“ new German – with players of different age group then one has to try out this genre, too, in order to find out what every single player likes.

Furthermore, is cannot be a bad thing to freshen up one’s knowledge of English a bit by reading game rules. One never stops learning, after all, and one can also have the Laptop run a translation program on the side.

The game is packed into a box that nicely fits the amount of components, but does not really entice one by its graphics. But art is in the eye of the beholder and so you may like it or you might not like it. I would have chosen some more appealing images.

The status board is placed in the middle of the table. Dear Reader, please forgive me if I do not translate all terms or try to replace them with proper German ones, this would cause more bewilderment than benefit. This status board shows a round track on top, until number 9. You place the black marker on number 1 of this track.

Below this track an overview of the buildings that you can play is displayed, and the board also lists the four possible moves. The left side shows the Construction Yard (Bauhof) and on the right sight the Abandoned District. I have found lots of suggestions for a translation, for me the most logic and fitting one would be „verlassener Bezirk“, but let’s stay with English here-

In the Construction Yard dice are separated into three categories: Dice that can only be used as a basis for a building (Ground Floor Dice), then the dice representing the different upper levels Upper Floor Dice) and, the third category, Penthouses (Penthouse Dice). You place one die from each of those categories into the Abandoned District.

You can build three different kinds of buildings- Purple (Low-Rise) which can have a height of 1 or 2 dice, Blue (Mid-Rise) with a maximum height of 2 to 4 dice and Yellow (High-Rise) buildings, that can reach a height of 3 to 6 dice. When the buildings are finished you put dice back into the Construction Yard and are given a cardboard building for them which shows the height of the building and its victory point value.

At the beginning the starting player is given a Ground Floor Die with a yellow base, the second player receives a die with a blue base and the third player in clockwise direction a purple die. The fourth player misses out on starting dice. If you play a game for two, the surplus die is put into the Construction Yard. Those dice are also the first parts of the new city.

At the start of his turn you either take three dice of your choice from the Construction Yard or all dice from the Abandoned District. There can be more than three dice in the Abandoned District, but never less. When they are taken you replenish the Abandoned District according to the set-up of the game.

Then you roll the dice and you have several choices of how to use one or more of those dice: You can place a die into the Abandoned District, this brings the number there up to four, or you use one or several of your dice in your city (skyline) or you place one or several dice into the construction yard – this comes at the cost of a finished building or all dice in a building under construction; you have to tear it down and and return the dice.

Should you then have dice left over you can roll again or put the remaining dice into the Construction Cards to end your turn. Otherwise, your turn ends if you have no dice left. It is important to mention that you need not roll all dice again; you can leave one or the other on the table which might be useful in case of Penthouse dies, because those are not easy to roll.

When you use a Ground Floor Dice for building a new building is started; there is now limit as to how many buildings you can start. In case of choosing an Upper Floor die you either complete a purple building or expand a blue or yellow building; Penthouse Dice complete blue and yellow buildings.

When a building is finished, a purple one with two dice, a blue one with 2-4 dice and a yellow one with 3-6 dice you put the dice back into the Construction Yard and you get the corresponding building tile with victory points. You cannot remove dice in a building from the skyline and a building can only be built in one color.

The game ends when the 9th round has been completed or when a player has constructed a yellow building of 6 dice (maximum height). In this case the round is finished so that each player did have the same number of turns. Each purple building with only one die is changed into a building tile of value 1 and the victory points on the tiles are added for each player. Those tiles have values of 1 / 4 / 9 / 16 / 25 / 36 depending on height.

For a solitaire game you try to get as many points as possible to earn yourself a title like City Planner or Project Manager and the designer of the game also provided scenarios that you can complete.

Maybe somebody has asked the question of David Short, do we know him? Up to Spiel 2012 he was not on the radar, at least not in Europe. But he has published two more games besides Skyline, Bomb Squad and Ground Floor. He is American and his proposition is to develop games that are easy to access and provide fun for all the family.

I have previously mentioned that the graphic design of the game is a matter of taste, and definitely not to my taste, but the dice are properly made and – as there are 60 of them – also comprise the majority of components in the game.

The rules don’t leave anything up for questioning, but – in my opinion – is not precise enough in several points. You must really work through the complete example of a game at the back of the rules to be aware of all niceties and that does not make for a quick access to the game.

The only drawback in the game is the round marker. We are experienced games, but even we kept forgetting to advance the marker at the end of a round. That the marker is black is an additional draw-back, a “loud” color would have been better.

Skyline works with all numbers of players that the box cites. Solitaire, in case you a lonely, but a game of four takes a tad too long for an entertaining dice game. I think it is most appealing for three or four players. The rounds go smoothly and the game end is achieved quickly.

What’s interesting about Skyline is that you have the impression that you can use some tactic in the game and are tempted to try a different approach in the next game; but at the end of the day Skyline is a dice game and remains a dice game and dice do damage any tactics, good as they may be.

To sum it up, Skyline is a good first effort, which was fun and which we have played quite a few times already. It is ideally suited for a starter or a knock-off game at the end of an evening, also for expert gamers.

Kurt Schellenbauer

Players: 1-4

Age: 10+

Time: 15+

Designer: David Short

Artist: Gavan Brown

Price: 24 €

Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games 2013

Web: www.tastryminstrelgames.com

Genre: Dice game

Users: For families

Users: With friends

Special: 1 player

Special: 2 players

Version: en

Rules: en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Simple rules

Short duration

Easy access

Simple tactics

Compares to:

Yahtzee or Kniffel, Ground Floor for the topic

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 4

Kurt Schellenbauer:

A quick dice game that allows you a bit of tactics, but most of the games in the end are decided by the luck of the roll!

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0