Machi Koro: Harbor
Every now and then a game expansion comes along that takes a decent game and makes it much better. Machi Koro: The Harbour is one such expansion. , from IDW Games and designed by Masao Suganuma, is a light and accessible dice rolling, city building game. You are Mayor of the city, and you have to meet the demands of your residents buy building developments and landmarks to become the biggest, best city in the region.
I always heartily recommend Machi Koro. I enjoy it's simplicity, not for the first time have I had an observer to one of our games say: "It's like Monopoly...but fun!" Well, yes the aim of the game is to make as much money as possible and laugh while your opponents are forced to hand over the pittance they have to your capitalist empire built on lucky rolls and burger joints.
Machi Koro is a fun, light, filler. But it always lacked in the repay-ability department, until now!
The residents of Machi Koro are getting restless and they're bored of you churning out the same cheese factories and convenience stores all the time. In The Harbour expansion, you are up for re-election and your residents are even more demanding than before. The harbour expansion gives you a bunch more, mainly sea themed cards such as a Sushi bar, a Harbour (of course), and boats and... a flower shop, obviously!
Not only do you get extra cards, the expansion grants you the ability to play with up to five people. Some of the cards come with neat new abilities when you activate them that make the game more interesting with more powerful abilities and the chance to have more tactical control over a luck based game. For example, owning the harbour allows you to add two to your roll if you roll 10 or more. Combo that with the Tuna boat which allows you to roll two dice and take the pip value in income for some serious cash. Other cards like the Flower shop and Flower orchard combo together encouraging you to buy both cards. The new City Hall card which all players start with allows the player to take one coin to buy an establishment if they don't have any money to start with, so there is less time spent waiting to get the money you need to buy the basic options.
The big change this expansion brings though, is that it changes the rules, most importantly it changes Machi Koro into a proper card drafting game. Gone are the days of putting out all the cards in the box! Now, at the beginning of the game, some cards are selected at random. This new set-up completely changes the dynamic of the game, the cards you have are different every time, the options for combos will change too, and when piles of cards run down you draw a new set at random.
The Harbour fixes the replay-ability issue the base game has and brings a lot to the table. I would never play this game without the Machi Koro: Harbour expansion.
Player Count: 2-5
Time: 30 Minutes
Age: 10+
