Welcome to New Las Vegas First Impressions

Welcome to New Las Vegas is like Welcome To…

…but in Las Vegas.

Rediscover the joy of Welcome To… with a new theme and new mechanisms in Welcome To New Las Vegas!

Welcome to New Las Vegas Game Play

As you can tell from the pics, I played the digital version of this game online. Lucky for you as my handwriting is awful!

This game plays the same as Welcome To… if you want to know how to play Welcome To… you can watch my video.

The basics are you have 3 pairs of cards each containing one number and one action. You pick a pair, write the number in a building and perform the action on the other card. More on these actions in a bit.

The streets of Casinos are left to right and must go from left to right in ascending order. For this version of the game, they are also in Avenues going up and down.

When all the Casinos in one avenue are filled, you can circle the bottom half of the hotel in that avenue. Then all players cross off the top half.

Debt

Something new for this version is cash. Players (secretly?) choose if they are going to borrow money or not before the game by marking the relevant box on their sheet… This is never mentioned again until the end of the game.

Actions

Here is a very brief look at how the actions work.

Construction Crane: Cross off a crane and circle a debt. If a number is then placed in that Casino you can cross that debt off.

Improvement Calculator: Cross off the top box on your scoring chart. This will increase the points awarded for that particular thing.

Show: Circle the star on the casino opened with this action then cross off a scoring box in one of the two show columns. If this is the first opened for that show, circle the 2 debts next to that column.

Inauguration Scissors: Cross off a box on the inauguration track.

Limousine: Draw two lines from a Limousine to the corners of a block around the streets.

Golf: Not an action, but when you open a Casino on the top row you also open its connected Golf Course. Skipped Casinos close off the Gold Course permanently.

The game ends when a player finishes their Inauguration track, fulfils the 3 projects or opens all Casinos on their 4 streets.

Scoring

Projects: These are cards put aside during setup with a task to complete. The first player to complete the tasks gets points and the second player will get fewer points.

Inauguration: The player with the most crossed off earns a bonus and the second and third players earn the lesser values. The players with the fewest crossed off circle the debt.

Shows: Earn the lowest visible numbers on the score sheet.

Streets: Score for your longest run of odd or even-numbered casinos compared to your opponents.

Hotels: Score if the bottom half is crossed off for that player times their value on the score sheet.

Golf Courses: The number of opened holes of each par times by their value.

Limousines: Points for VIP and Luxury Casinos driven by times their value on the score sheet. Circle any Mafias bundles of cash you pass. Lose points for missing lines that could have connected the journey back up.

Loans: Players reveal if they took a loan during setup and if more than half of players did they circle 4 bundles of cash, otherwise it’s just 2. If no one wanted a loan, none are circled. If you have enough cash to cover debts you’re good, otherwise, you lose 20 points.

Most points wins.

Theme

Would probably like this if they didn’t already do it better 2 years earlier.

Artwork

Nice little details in the art but it’s all standard stuff. No idea if the cards are any better than they were before.

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

So there is a lot here. BUT, it’s all open information so a player can be talked though the options.

However, I would say it’s not easily done, especially in this game but luckily there is a game just as fun but easier.

There is a mess of a crib sheet…

Welcome to New Las Vegas Summary

There is plenty of competition in the Roll & Write area with my favourite coincidentally being Welcome To…

Beyond “It’s like the first one but not as good” I really don’t know what else to say…

I prefer the neighbourhood theme to casinos and I prefer the swimming pools etc to golf courses etc, although the golf course mechanism is the best one in this game.

Debt is new and really dull.

But, all in all, it’s like the first one but not as good.

Jesta ThaRogue