California Wasn’t for Me
Renovation. Not the first thing you think about when California is mentioned? Me neither. That theme still makes for an interesting board game called California, but it’s not one that I wanted to keep in my collection.
You have 12 days in California to create the best-looking mansion and collect the most gifts from visitors you attract to it, to win the game.
Take a coin from the bank or a tile from the storefront. Tiles are either carpeting in various colors or furnishings to upgrade your dwelling. Carpet a room for either one or two coins as shown on your board.
Once carpeted, a space can additionally hold one of the special items of the same (background) color. You also have an attic which can be used for storage.
Taking a tile costs the number of coins left in the bank. Thus, when you take a coin from the bank, you’ve made the tiles less expensive for everyone else.
When you furnish a room space, the guest of that color pays a visit. You take the corresponding guest and place him or her near your home. When an opponent furnishes a room using that color, the guest will leave. If you can make the guest return, he or she will bring a valuable gift along.
If you can carpet and furnish your mansion to match one or more of the bonus tiles – carpet patterns or certain combinations of furnishings – you’ll score additional points.
A round ends when the bank is empty or one of the double rows of tiles is gone. There are 3 rounds, thus the 12 days.
As I said earlier, California is interesting, but it didn’t really grab me. I played it several times and had fun doing so, but eventually decided to trade it away.
Collecting specific sets of tiles in California is a big part of winning the game much like collecting certain color combinations of jewels in Bazaar, which you can read about in the next post.
Check the price of California on Amazon.
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