Cities

The city council has handed you a whole neighbourhood to transform. Housing, office towers, parks and waterfront leisure spots are all on the table – it is in your hands to make the city a better place.

Cities is a city-building game from Phil Walker-Harding and Steve Finn in which you draft the best projects and arrange them in your own play area. Over eight rounds (four in a two-player game), players send their workers out to collect a scoring card, a city tile, one or two feature tiles and a handful of building pieces. City tiles are made up of park, water and building spaces; building pieces stack on matching colours to form towers up to four storeys high, while parks, fountains and monuments fill the gaps between them.

Every game takes you to a different skyline – Sydney, Venice, New York, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Mexico City and Buenos Aires – each with its own achievement board to race for. Fulfil an achievement and claim it with one of your rings before your rivals do. When the final round ends, add up your scoring cards and achievements to see who has designed the most magnificent neighbourhood.

Quick to teach and packed with chunky wooden buildings, Cities is a gorgeous open-drafting puzzle that plays in under an hour and looks wonderful on the table, brought to life by Jorge Tabanera's vibrant artwork.