Subdivision Board Game First Impressions

These Subdivision tiles look very familiar…

Suburbia – The Puzzle Game

Each player has been allocated a specific area in which to create the best possible subdivision, filling it with residential, commercial, industrial, civic, and luxury zones, while balancing various improvements to the area, including roads, schools, parks, side-walks, and lakes. By the end of the game, each player will have created a unique, custom neighbourhood with areas that interact with each other, hoping to outscore the competition by having the best subdivision.

This is a Puzzle game with a touch of optimisation… and drafting.

You roll a die and it tells you which space on the board you can place a tile. In your hand you 5 to pick from so you place it on the space or pay to put it anywhere.

You then pass the remaining tile in your hand to the left, roll the die, and place another tile.

When you place a tile, all adjacent tiles activate. If you place them next to several tiles, they all activate.

Tiles

There are only 5 different types of tiles to draft and you’ll play 16 (I think) over the course of the game.

Civic Tiles let you place a Park tile which gives you end-game points for adjacent tiles.

Luxury Tiles let you place Lakes which give you money for adjacent tiles in a Suburbia type way.

Industrial Tiles let you place Roads that help you connect tiles up to the Highway for end-game points.

Commercial Tiles let you place Sidewalks which give end-game scoring too by connecting to different tiles.

Residential Tiles let you place Schools which give end-game points by stacking them on top of each other.

At the beginning of Rounds 2,3 & 4, you have the chance to get a bonus from a bonus tile if you have completed its goal, Suburbia Inc style. This tile changes game to game and you pick 3 of about 23.

Scoring

At the end of the game, you get points for tiles next to Parks. Roads score their thing depending on which different tile they are adjacent to. Schools score per stack of 3, spare money gives you points. Each space on the board is a minus figure so the more you cover up the less you lose…

The centre space is a lovely tree worth +2 points but was worth more to me with houses built on it 😀

Subdivision Summary

The roads are pretty cool. There is a highway on the board and you score points for each tile that can access it via a Road tile or an empty space… this is where I went VERY wrong.

Oh well!

I would play it again, it’s very very quick and now I know how to score I should do better 🙂

I do worry about re-playability in Subdivision with there being so few tiles to pick from but the game does come with Scenarios that add a varied set-up so you never know, it might work out OK.

Jesta ThaRogue