In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today’s game is Lisboa

TL;DR

Score: 8/10

Positives:

• Very nice artwork and iconography

• Player boards are very high quality

• The theme fits nicely into the game

Negatives:

• Game is too heavy for my personal taste

• Sometimes it feels like complexity was added for complexity’s sake

The review

I’m not the biggest fan of Heavy weight boardgames and I haven’t been explosed to that many of them. Take this one with a huge grain of salt.

In 1755 there was a HUGE earthquake in Lisbon that caused a wave of tsunami and fires that lasted more than 3 days. It completely destroyed Lisbon. This game is about the reconstruction of Lisbon after these tragic events. Being a portuguese that lives in the outskirts of Lisbon I imediately backed the game. Ironically, the warehouse where Lisboa copies were store burned down.

Unlike previous reviews, I’m not going to give a rules overview, because it’s just too much. If you’re at all interested in the game, I feel it’s mandatory that you watch Paul’s How to play video. You and everyone you’re playing with. Yes, its mandatory.

Image credit to Rafaël Theunis on bgg, source here

You might be fooled into believing this game is simple because the premise seems simple. You play a card in your board, replacing an existing card if necessary, do the associated action and draw a card. So simple. Wrong!!!

I had a really hard time grocking this game. Doing an action is “simple” but formulating a strategy that maximizes points is, in my personal opinion, very intimidating. You can remove rubble from the city, open a shop, sell goods, trade with the nobles, mess with the treasure value, influence the clergy, gain influence, buy ships, recruit state oficials, sponsor an event, open public buildings… There’s so much stuff to do!

Say you want to open a shop. You probably want a place it in a spot with not much rubble, because spaces with rubble cost more money. When you place a shop you remove rubble cubles, which have different colors. You get bonus from clearing a full set. Each spot also has a one time-bonus. If there are public buildings in the same row or column of your store, and match your store’s colors you get wigs (victory points). Then, you remove a wooden house from your player board which may unlock a new special ability.

Just from the simple action of building a shop you can see there’s a lot of decisions involved. You don’t just open a shop, you need to prepare the way to building a shop. The shop’s spot is critically important. Clear the rubble, maybe get some public buildings before, match the color, choose the right one-time bonus that you actually need, unlock the special ability that you actually need. You can see how each action has this BIG ripple effect. Everything interacts with a lot of moving parts. It can be overwhelming. It WILL be overwhelming.

I do appreciate how everything neatly works together. Aside from the cleric portion of the game, I think everything makes a lot of mechanical sense. The rulebook makes a good job on not only explaining the rule/mechanic but also it’s historical context and the reason it exists. I think this game is fantastic, I will go as far as saying that this game is an absolute masterpiece. For those that really enjoy very complex, very intricate, very tight and decision heavy euro games… This one is probably going to be high on your list.

For my personal tastes I find it overwhelming. We all had to watch Paul’s video before each play, everytime. While I really enjoyed the experience of playing it, I never actually did great and I always end up exausted. Both from playing and from answering questions all the time.

Context Information

• Number of plays: 4

• Suggested player count: 3 players, with 4 you have a lot of downtime

• Average playtime: 2.5 hours

• Win-rate: 0%

• Mandatory Paul’s rules video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8oObfAR8SY

Honorable mentions

• Vinhos: Deluxe Edition - Only played it once but I found it to be much, much more approachable. At least I found it easier to formulate a plan.

• Terra Mystica - A bit too dry for my taste but I enjoy the purple resource management. Never tried Gaia’s project

• Barrage - I only played it 2 times (don’t own it) but I think this game has a lot of potential. The flowing water part is quite interesting.

• Anachrony - I don’t usually enjoy time travel, I don’t think a boardgame can capture that feeling but this game is still fun.