Tiny Towns Review

One cool thing about the board gaming hobby is getting to experience so many different types of games! That being said, sometimes you get yourself a game and it doesn’t turn out quite how you expected. So instead of letting it take up space on your shelf, you can sell it to someone who will hopefully enjoy it more than you! And that’s exactly how Tiny Towns came into my collection. I wasn’t having luck finding it at my FLGS, but I saw someone selling it on a social media group. I reached out, and the rest is history. I cannot remember the name of the person who sold this to me, but I want to say thank you, whoever you are, for bringing this game into my life! It may not have been the right fit for you, but it fits in perfectly with me!

In Tiny Towns you take on the role of the Mayor, tasked with constructing a thriving and prosperous town. Collect resources, construct buildings, and maximize as much space as you can in your tiny town. Plan carefully to ensure that you have the right resources for the different types of buildings, and keep an eye on where you leave them in town! Use your adjacent resources to build the right combinations of buildings to earn the most Victory Points by the end of the game.

Tiny Towns is a game of abstract strategy, city building, grid coverage, and pattern building in which players are attempting to construct buildings on their grid that will earn the most VP by the end of the game. To setup for a game, each player receives their 4×4 player board/grid on which they will be building their tiny towns. Place the Cottage card and 1 random card from each remaining building type face-up in the center of the table – in total there will be 7 cards. These are the buildings available for this game. Place the Resources cubes and the Buildings in a general supply off to the side. Each player is given a Monument token and is dealt 2 random Monument cards. Players will select one to use this game, and return the other to the box. The Monument cards are kept secret from other players. Select a player to be the first Master Builder (active player), and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 4-player game.

The game is played over a series of rounds, which are broken into 3 steps. To begin, the Master Builder will name a Resource: Wood, Wheat, Brick, Glass, or Stone. For the next step, all players will take a corresponding Resource cube and must place it on an empty space in their grid. Once a Resource cube has been placed, it cannot be moved/removed unless it is being used to construct a Building. The final step is for players to construct any buildings that they can or choose to construct. The 7 Building cards selected during setup dictate the requirements to for constructing each type of building. If you have collected and placed Resources cubes in such a way that matches the pattern of a Building card, you may choose to construct that Building. To do so, remove the corresponding Resource cubes (returned to the general supply), and take the appropriate Building token for your grid. The Building may be placed on any of the squares on which one of its necessary Resource cubes had been placed. Once placed, Buildings may not be moved from their space. The Resource placement/Building construction steps of the round occur simultaneously, and when all players are done for the round, the role of Master Builder passes to the player on the left, and a new round begins.

The game continues in this fashion until all players have completed their towns. A town is considered complete when all spaces of your grid are filled. You are not able to place any more Resource cubes, and you cannot construct any more Buildings with the Resources you do have left. You are now out of the game, and the remaining players continue playing rounds until all players have completed their towns. The game moves to the scoring phase. Players remove all Resource cubes from their grid, and each resulting empty space is worth -1 VP. Looking at the Building cards in play, players will then score VP for the different types of Buildings in their town, if the requirements have been met. Points are totaled, and the player with the highest score wins!

One thing that I love about Tiny Towns is the simplicity of the gameplay. Place Resources cubes to build patterns, and transform those patterns into Buildings for end-game points. That is really where the simplicity ends, and strategy takes over. You really need to be thinking multiple turns ahead, because once a Resource cube is placed on your board, it cannot be moved (unless you are constructing a building with it). A 4×4 grid isn’t big by any means, and once you start adding Resources, your placement options become more limited with each turn. Some Buildings only require a few Resources, while others need more, AND the Resources for Buildings need to be placed in specific patterns, not just grouped together willy-nilly. You may have a game plan in your head, but if an opponent calls out a Resource you don’t need, where can you put it so it won’t throw off your entire strategy? Or how can you adapt your strategy to account for Resources chosen by opponents? Buildings also cannot be moved once constructed, so that’s another element to consider. At least Resources can be removed once you’ve completed a specific pattern, but a Building is there til the end of the game. Deciding where to construct Buildings is key. A quick word of warning – with the amount of strategy offered by Tiny Towns, players prone to AP may be a bit overwhelmed. With so many options from which to choose, players might get stuck on a turn deciding exactly where to place a Resource or Building. Just be prepared for maybe a little downtime between turns as players agonize over every placement!

I’ve come to expect top-notch components from AEG, and Tiny Towns does not disappoint. The cards are nice and oversized, the text and Resource patterns clear. The Resource cubes and Buildings themselves are nice chunky wood, and fun to play with. The game comes with a score pad, which I find super helpful since there are so many different ways to score points. My biggest qualm is with the player boards themselves – the ones in my copy at least. They are a tiny bit warped and don’t sit completely flat on the table. It’s not bent enough to the point that it affects the gameplay, but it just bothers me personally. Haha. I’ve stuck them under a stack of other board games to try to flatten them out, and it’s slowly getting better. Again, that’s not necessarily a production issue, just one that I’ve dealt with in my plays. Overall though, great components from AEG!

All in all, Tiny Towns is a big hit for me. It is a bit heavier than I expected, in terms of strategy, but not so heavy that it grinds the game night to a halt. The theme, components, mechanics, and gameplay all mesh together to form a perfect little game of abstract strategy that I find myself enjoying more and more with each play. If you’re in the market for something cute, yet deceptively strategic, I would highly recommend Tiny Towns. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a grand 5 / 6. I can’t wait to grab the expansions and see how the add to the gameplay!