Constructing the Flatiron Building one pillar at a time

🏢 Flatiron is like a scaled-down euro. 🤏 It’s only for solo or 2-players and is small in multiple aspects, be it the table space needed, the amount of mechanics and rules, or the overall playtime. Players slip into the shoes of architects 📐, constructing the iconic Flatiron building in New York. It’s an efficiency puzzle, and you want to perform better than your rival to be deemed the better architect when the construction is finished. 

Gameplay is of course centered around the titular building, with the game board showing the 4 streets surrounding the construction site, plus the City Hall on another board. During the game you build pillars which can support additional floors, which can then again hold new pillars, creating a fun 3D representation of the building. 😊

It’s all very streamlined: 🧐 On your turn you have to move your single worker to an unoccupied slot. Workers block spots, so only 3 from 5 spots are available at any time.

🏗️ Going to a street allows you to either activate the corresponding column on your player board, or to enhance a column by acquiring a new card and tucking it under your player board with either the top or bottom side showing. 

🏬 Going to City Hall lets you claim game-end scoring cards, which take up space in your columns.

The main actions of the game are printed on your board. These let you buy, sell or build columns, or place a new floor if all 3 columns of the current level are in place. 

Basically that’s the game in a nutshell. 😉 It’s all about managing your money, as cards and columns require a lot of it. Floors have to have columns in 3 different colors, so you have to plan accordingly. Other than the engine building through the tucking of cards, there are also some bonuses you get from placing columns, or when you reach specific values at the scoring track.

Overall we found the design interesting, but we didn’t really love it. The graphics and the 3D table presence are awesome, but honestly we are not sure we’ll get it to the table again realistically. We ended up activating the same columns over and over - also the constant need for money/income made some choices obvious in the early game.