Rebuilding Seattle Review

Tile placement is one of my absolute favourite mechanisms. If you were to look at my collection, it’s probably the mechanism which features more than any other. That said, I have also culled several tile placement games that have felt a bit similar to anything I already have. I bought myself a copy of Rebuilding Seattle at UKGE. It was one of only three games I bought all weekend. I guess the question you’re asking is, did I keep it, or did it join the *culled game collection in the sky?

*There is no culled game collection in the sky. I sell or donate my games if I don’t keep them.

We Built This City…

Rebuilding Seattle is a 1-5 player game where you’re attempting to rebuild the city in the wake of the great fire of 1889. Just to give historical context, the fire caused damage to 25 blocks in Seattle from the 6th-7th June. In the game, you’re focused on regenerating one district of Seattle, trying to grow the neighbourhood with amenities, natural scenery, and landmarks. The player who scores the most points at the end of three rounds is the winner.

Each player is given a starting neighbourhood which they’re looking to expand and develop. Also, each player is given an asymmetric player board for their district. On these are three tracks, related to amenities of entertainment, restaurant, and shopping. Trying to work your way up these tracks is important in the attempt to gain money (shopping), points (restaurants) or both (entertainment). There’s also a fourth track. This is for your district’s population, and how well your amenities can cater for them. If the population is too high, then you can’t cater fully for the people who live there.

Sleepless In Seattle

On a player’s turn, they have the option to build, enact a law, or activate an event. If you’re wanting to build, you can choose to add a suburb tile to your neighbourhood, construct a building, or both. Enacting a law allows a player to carry out one of the three asymmetric laws they have on their player board once per round. Finally, and this is the juicy part of the game, are the events.

There are six events in total, and they first three relate to scoring your amenities. If the amenity that’s being scored caters for the population, you score the number of points or dollars allocated on that amenity’s track. If it doesn’t, you gain less points or money. The other three events are slightly different. The graduation event allows you to reduce your population for every grey tile you have in your neighbourhood. The expansion event allows you to expand your neighbourhood more rapidly, allowing you to pick up a suburb tile for one dollar, then get an extra tile free for every yellow tile you have. Finally, there’s the nature’s impact event. This scores differently each round and can score points, money or reduce the population. Once the final event has been triggered, the round slams shut.

This is where the joy and frustration can come from in Rebuilding Seattle. You might see that some people aren’t going to score well on certain events, leading you to activate them early in a round. The problem is that someone could easily do that to you too, so is it worth the risk? The game hangs on that tension of wondering when people are going to activate events, bringing the round closer to its conclusion. There’s also the puzzle of trying to sync up events so they’re more lucrative. Playing the expansion event first helps increase your score on the nature’s impact event – but if it does that for everyone, is it wise to wait?

The only tiles which aren’t related to events are the green tiles, but they’re equally important as they earn you money at the end of every round. Unused money also equates to a point for every five dollars, so it’s worth bearing that in mind with close games. Each player also has two landmarks they need to try and build in their neighbourhood, and each one scores slightly differently.

You’ll Needle The Help You Can Get

So, has Rebuilding Seattle become an addition to my tile placement collection? 100% yes.

Not only do I love the tension created by the event cards, but I also love that it feels a bit like an engine builder. You’re not trying to complete your grid like in Barenpark. You’re not trying to make patterns for scoring objectives like Calico or Cascadia. You’re trying to build efficiency. You’re trying to build a neighbourhood that’s lucrative and meets the needs of the growing population. There’s a great economic puzzle at the heart of Rebuilding Seattle.

I’ve talked a lot about building and events, but there is the third action too: enacting a law. This can bring in much needed funds. They can be used to reduce the population (we won’t ask what happens to the people). They can be used to gain tiles or construct buildings for a discounted price. The problem with enacting them is that they are an action – what about if someone brings the round to a close before you can benefit from it? What about if you go too early?

The production quality is also excellent. The cards are beautifully decorated, and I really like the design choices of the tiles. It can feel fiddly, and as your neighbourhood expands, you also increase the risk faced in any tile placement game – accidentally knocking everything out of sync.

The other potential issue with Rebuilding Seattle comes with increasing the player count. The event which triggers expansion can see players picking up multiple suburb tiles at once, and trying to find the optimum layout can take time. Like… a long time. Suburb tiles have symbols on them that you’re trying not to cover, leading to a lot of “should I put it here or here… or here?” However, this is an issue with tile placement games in general, not just this one.

Final Thoughts

Rebuilding Seattle is a truly excellent game. The solo mode, where you’re trying to score more than 120 points whilst the AI picks up cards or activates events is also very strong. If you’re a fan of games like Tenpenny Parks and Patchwork, which are also about trying to increase efficiency as the game progresses, this might very well be for you. I would argue that the decisions here are crunchier, and the events play a significant part in making that so. It can certainly take a couple of games to really start to understand the tactics of the game, but remember – Seattle wasn’t rebuilt in a day.