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Kutna Hora: The City of Silver
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Description
Join other ambitious guild leaders in mining and developing the famous City of Silver during its period of rapid economic growth and expansion in the 14th century — from the first discovery of silver near the Cistercian monastery to the construction of Kutná Hora, which quickly became one of the most important cities in central Europe.
Kutná Hora: The City of Silver is a historical city-building Eurogame for 2-4 players that features a real-life supply and demand experience in which every action you take has an impact on the game's dynamic economic systems.
In each round, players take turns selecting actions from a hand of double-sided cards to engage strategic plans like mining, purchasing plots of land on which to build, gaining permits, raising buildings for their affiliated guilds, gaining profit from their production, and of course working towards the construction of Saint Barbara's Cathedral.
The asymmetrical nature of each player's available guilds makes for highly interactive rounds in which each decision impacts the economy and other players in interesting ways as they expand their mines and build infrastructure across a shared board.
Mine ore and smelt it into a fortune of silver for expanding this beautiful historic city, but take care to balance your personal goal advancement with the need to further the city's growth. Everything is connected, and sometimes the path to personal victory relies on the prosperity of the many.
Kutna Hora is a Eurogame which boasts a dynamic economy. Players will take turns mining, building and organising the construction of St. Barbara’s cathedral. By the end they’ll have created the bustling Prague town of Kutna Hora.
Silver Setup
As with most Eurogame’s, Kutna Hora has a lengthy setup. First players choose the board which applies to their player count, then they setup the mine, dish out guild factions and organise town budlings in the market. On top of that, players also need to setup up their own player boards, grab their 6 action cards and receive their starting coins. Once all this has been done, the final thing to do is prepare the cathedral pieces and stack the economy cards into cardboard stands.
With the setup complete, how do you play and win this beast of a game?
Understanding Actions
During each round, players will be able to do 5 actions. On their first turn they can do 2 actions, the same again on their second and on their final turn they can do 1. Actions are dictated by whichever card the player chooses. The action cards have multiple uses, which means they can do 2 actions, but players must select which one they are using the card for. This makes each turn strategic, as if you use the wrong cards, you may stop yourself being able to do an action later. With only 5 or 6 rounds in the game, players don’t have many actions to spend. So, what are the actions?
Mine Action: Players can select a mine tile and place it in the mine. To do so, they must pay the cost of wood shown on the mining tile they are next to. Mines can increase your coal output and change the pricing of items. Stars on mines can win you points at the end of the game as well.
Rights Action: If you want to build, you first collect the rights of the building. To do this, players pay the cost of the rights depending on where it sits in the building market.
Plot Action: Before you can build, you have to plot. Players select a plot on the town map. This plot has to be next to an existing building. A plot costs the amount shown on the building next door. If players earn enough reputation, plotting costs 1 coin.
Building Action: Once you have acquired the rights and a plot, you can finally build. Players pay the cost of wood to build. Once placed, they receive the bonuses of the building. Players can only build public or allocated guild buildings.
Income Action: To get money to build and mine, players must take the income action. Looking at their player boards, players work out how much of each commodity they have. After, they check the economic standings and take coins from the bank. Later, they can receive income and pay 10 coins to place a Patrician.
St. Barbara Action: By placing public buildings, players can receive pelican tokens. These are used to help construct St. Barbara. By taking this action, players can receive one-time bonuses.
Joker Action: This action lets you do any of the above, but it comes at a loss to your reputation. If you earn enough reputation, the Joker action can be taken with no negative effect. Reputation is earned by placing public buildings or constructing St. Barbara.
Players will continue using action cards each round to build up their economies and earn victory points for end of game scoring. Yet, building a stable economy isn’t easy when the price is always changing.
A Dynamic Economy
As you go through the game your actions will change the market. This element of the game is hard to guess which may irk those that like to plan ahead. For me, this was a great addition. I enjoyed the unpredictability of the economy as you could profit from another player’s actions. It also felt true to life as it isn’t easy knowing when prices may increase or plummet. The economy is controlled by the movement of cards within the cardboard stands. Cards are either moved to the back of the deck or the cardboard sliders are moved along. Both affect the price of items in different ways.
If a player builds too many of one building, they will find that the price of that item will reduce. It may reduce to the point where they can no longer build that type until the price improves. This is a huge game changer and mixes things up. Alternatively, if a resource becomes in demand, a building of that type is removed from the game and the slider shifts. This mechanic sets Kutna Hora apart from other Euro’s but the unpredictability of it won’t be to everyone’s taste.
At the end of the game, players will be scored on their final income, so you need your goods pricey. To do this, you must build, mine and gain the support of Patricians. All of these mechanisms will help you increase your income but also give you victory points. But who are the Patricians?
The Role Of Patricians
If you didn’t think Kutna Hora had enough going on, you’re in luck as there is one more scoring mechanic to throw into the mix. At the end of the game players will earn points for their buildings, the mines they explored, income and reputation. Along the way, they can earn bonus points by adding a Patrician to the town council.
Patricians are added to the pool when a public building is constructed. Players can then put them on the council during their income action. If they do this, they can score this Patrician during the final rounds. This can lead to a lot of bonus points. However, the only downside is, everyone scores the Patrician bonus. Who said democracy was always a good thing? Yet, the more Patricians you have the more points you can receive. Points can be awarded for mines in a row, pelican tokens, public building adjacency or houses removed.
Sadly, this mechanic wasn’t my favourite. With so much going on in the game, this addition felt tacked on. Also, as every player scores, it can be hard to place a Patrician without helping someone else out. In a 4-player game this becomes particularly tricky. You have to monopolise one area to make sure your Patrician points pay off. This felt underdeveloped, and I do wonder if the company has plans to build upon this in an expansion.
A Town Complete
With a run time of 30 minutes per player, this game is quite snappy despite its complexity. As the game concludes, players tot up all their points. They are awarded points on the following things:
Buildings: Each building will give you points based on their adjacency bonuses. Every building has symbols on it. The more you match, by placing next to others, the more points you will receive.
Mines: Each row is scored at the end of the game. The player who built the most mines with stars will win points. The runner up will also receive points.
Income: Your final income is divided by 10 and then converted into points.
Reputation: If you’ve paid your taxes, built public buildings or helped construct St. Barbara’s cathedral you may have lots of reputation. The more you have the more points you will earn.
Extras: Any unused plots, pelican tokens or rights will earn you 1 point each.
After all that has been calculated, the winner is announced!
Player Count Matters
Kutna Hora shines most when playing at the 4-player count. This is because you feel the push and pull as you fight over land, buildings and mine space. If you take your eye off one area of the game, you will lose the chance to make points. The economy also changes often, making it a much more intense experience as you constantly rethink your plans.
In a 2-player game, event cards are added per round to try and replicate the 4-player experience. Sadly, it doesn’t quite work. These cards simply raise taxes or slightly alter the economy. For the most part, despite a smaller map, the other player rarely gets in your way.
Components And RE-Wood
This review wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t touch upon the theme or components. As I had the deluxe edition it came with packs of metal coins which felt amazing. Also, for a game all about making money, these coins added a huge thematic bonus which made the experience more enjoyable. On top of this, the game’s pieces are made from RE-wood. This material is a mixture of wood waste and recycled binding material. Meaning not only is the game more environmentally friendly but the pieces are detailed and feel great.
All of the components have a nice metallic sheen on them which tie the theme together. It’s great seeing the silver catch the light as you play. Yet, despite this, the components theming could have been stronger. The art on the cards, mining tiles and buildings are all in different styles. This made the overall experience feel less cohesive.
Also, despite the beautiful silver finishes, the look of the game is very dark and lacks overall presence like other Eurogame titles. This game has a strong line up of components and I do enjoy setting it up, but I do feel like there were some missed opportunities to add more and make the theming slightly stronger.
Final Thoughts
Kutna Hora, is a solid Eurogame. There is enough going on to keep you interested and turns are quick, so it doesn’t drag. I found myself wanting to replay it so I could implement new strategies. However, there are a few niggles. Some mechanics and design elements are incohesive and take away from the general experience. Additionally, the gameplays rhythm becomes samey after multiple sessions, regardless of player count.
This game could definitely benefit from more additions to help refine the mechanics. Let’s hope there will be an expansion coming soon, so I can spend more time in this silver infused town.
You are helping to create the city of Kutna Hora, in the Central Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, and it’s Cathedral of St. Barbara, by mining the newly discovered silver mines, and using your wealth to build private and public buildings.
Rules & Setup:
The rules are very well explained in a concise and clear manner, with an abundance of pictures of not only how to set up the main game and player boards, but excellent examples of each action you are able to take on your ‘turns’. The rulebook also has information on the city itself, and how it came to be and develop. There are explanations of cards and symbols throughout the rulebook, and there are 4 player aid cards which really do help players with each game turn, and what each symbol represents. In each round all players take 3 turns, playing 2 cards for each of their first 2 turns, and 1 of their remaining 2 cards on their 3rd and last turn of the round. Every player has a hand of exactly the same 6 cards, which are double ended, i.e. they have a different action at each end, and you choose one action to take from each card you play, and then lay that card in front of you and it is then not useable again until the next round. Some actions appear on more than once card, and some actions only appear on a single card, so you need to choose the actions and which cards to play wisely, or you may be left not being able to perform certain actions during later turns in the round. Most actions require you using certain resources, but these resources are never actually used themselves, and in-fact are not even represented in the game by pieces, instead you work out the cost of the resource at the time of needing it by checking its’ current market value, and multiply that by the amount of them you need and simply pay that amount to the bank. If you can’t pay the cost, you can’t do that action. During the game, you will be playing Ore buildings / opening new mines which will increase your Ore / mining resource tracks, along with other building types, which will in turn increase one of the 3 guilds you have pre chosen during set up. Increasing these tracks and playing the take income card is the only way to generate money for yourself during the game, so you will need to do this regularly so you can purchase buildings, buy plots to build the buildings on, and then pay the cost to actually build the building itself. Each time you build a private building you will place a house token on it to show it is one your own (these may score you points at the end of the game), and building public buildings will also give you rewards but you do not own these, as they are of course ‘public buildings and you are doing it for the greater good. You can also contribute to the building of the Cathedral / Church of St. Barbara, and this again will gain you rewards / favour in your quest to become the game winner. However, the game itself can also aid in the building of this and if it does, then it will increase the amount of taxes due at the end of each round which you will either have to cover with money, or lose reputation points.
Theme and Mechanics:
The theme of building up a City which is still thriving today is definitely one that I certainly haven’t noticed before, and certainly helped to draw me in to the game initially. The mechanics meant that it seemed almost every turn taken by a player had a distinct effect on the game, and the direction each future players turn took, for good, or bad.
Gameplay:
For me (and the group) gameplay went smoothly, and once we had all played a couple of turns we all got how the game worked, in particular the moving market prices, which are shown on two 3 dimensional market boards (an excellent and innovative game component which I have not seen in any other game), which have moveable strips and changing cards, plus acknowledging that mining was going to be an important action to take. There was a little bit of downtime on occasions, but this was the first game for all of us, so working out what was available to do, and if we had the money to do it was the main thing to slow down the turns we took, but this didn’t impact us too badly, and will certainly be less of an issue on future plays (which we all said we would definitely be up for). There are 5 game rounds in a 4 player game, and 6 in a 2 or 3 player game, with additional buildings coming in after a specific round based on player count, and additional scoring coming in the round after these new building arrive. At the end you add up your accumulated points, which are gained from buildings, mines, reputation, an end of game income calculation which gives you 1 point for each 10 coins you produce, and some other conditions based on things that may have happened during the game. The player with the most points is the winner, and if tied the person with the most money left wins.
Artwork and Components:
The artwork is very good, both in the rulebook, and on the tiles and boards, and the components are made from a substance called ‘re-wood’ which is reconstituted wood and recycled materials I believe and so is also eco-friendly and better for the environment. For me, it looks good on the table, and the dual layered played boards are fantastic.
The Good:
There has been a lot of ‘hotness’ surrounding this game, and it is another winner from CGE for me. Excellent components, clear rules, smooth gameplay, and player actions influencing the way the City took shape were all winners for me.
The Other:
If I had one gripe, it is the lack of a solo mode. Kutna Hora is absolutely a game that I would love to play solo, against an AI opponent similar to that of Lost Ruins of Arnak perhaps, and is certainly something the designers should be looking at, perhaps as an expansion, and maybe even with a 5th player board, and some additional / different building tiles and guilds.
Final Thoughts:
Is this game worth adding to your collection, without question. If I hadn’t been sent it as a review copy, and I’d played it elsewhere I would have gone out and bought it myself. My fellow gaming friends all said they would play this again, and I hope that isn’t too far off. Kutna Hora may be the City of Silver, but for me it’s a GOLD star all the way.
Zatu Score
You might like
- Components
- Multi-use cards
- dynamic economy
- quick turn
Might not like
- Patrician mechanic
- Theming wasn't cohesive
- Needs more variety