About Ginkgopolis

Ginkgopolis is a pretty well regarded and unique title from Pearl games that we have been interested in for a while. Now, afraid that it would completely go out of print we decided it’s high time to grab us a copy! And I believe it was a good idea! 😁

I say unique, as we don’t really have any game with this combination of mechanics. Basically you draft cards to shape a futuristic eco-city together with your opponents, trying to score the most points at the end with your area majorities - plus some tableau-building sprinkled on top. 😉

After setup, there is a 3x3 city made up of 9 buildings tiles, and there are letter tokens in every direction outwards. The deck of cards you use correspond to these buildings and letters. 🧐 On their turn everyone picks a card from their hand, then pass the rest to their neighbour. Everyone reveals their card and does the appropriate action in turn order.

👉 If you reveal a building or letter card alone, you will produce something: either resource pieces in your own color, new building tiles or victory points. There are actually 3 building types that correspond to these things.
👉 If you reveal a building tile together with your card, you will extend the city, either outward on a letter tile or placing the building on top of another. This is where the tableau building comes in: covering up a building allows you to place its card before you. Later, if you do the card’s depicted action you get some bonuses. Then the newly built building’s card gets added to the deck.

Of course, to construct buildings, you need to have enough player pieces, as well as the building tiles themselves. The taller the building, the more pieces go on top of it. Players compete for the majority in each group of same-colored buildings in order to earn points. There are many subtleties to this game, such as building on an opponent's piece or always having to place a building with a higher number. Ownership and layout of the city will constantly change.

The game flow is quite simple, but it’s sometimes hard to know what the best course action is, especially as you start playing. Ginkgopolis is very much enjoyable though - fast playing and engaging! 🙂