1994 German Game of the Year

building skyscrapers around the world
along with Linie 1, my first REALLY imported games

last update: November 20, 2004

Manhattan was one of my first truly German games... with English rules stuck in the box and a price tag to match. ($45!!!) You can find your own copy at a much cheaper price, thanks to Mayfair's English reprint. ($21 at Boulder Games... sheesh.)

Manhattan can be a bit cerebral, but it's a lot of fun and shines with it's full complement of four players. What follows is some strategy advice and a very popular variant that introduces a bit of B movie horror to this vertical tile-laying game.

Strategy

1. Spread yourself around.
Having lots of buildings tends to make it harder for others to seriously dent your score. You can rack up a good lead just in neighborhood bonuses, and lots of buildings is the way to get these. However, don't try to compete for every neighborhood - you won't have enough pieces AND you'll manage to tick off all of your opponents. (See #3)

2. Do the math.
When you play, you often give yourself points, while taking away points from other players. Each play, you can figure out how many points this move will make you, and how many points this will cause your opponent to lose. (Note: do the math QUICKLY... this strategy can cause the game to slow to a glacial pace.)

3. Build friendly.
Try not to get in a battle with all the other players at once. You can be reduced to ashes quickly if the rest of the players concentrate on doing so. Pick one or two players to pick on. A possibility: try to avoid picking on the player to your right - he has the most potential to do you harm.

4. Bigger is not necessarily better.
While the three point bonus for the tallest skyscraper is tempting, the energy and pieces needed to win this struggle are often greater than the value of the bonus. Try not to let one player take it without a fight, but don't get in a 3- or 4-way contest to build it.

5. Waste not, want not.
Keep a good variety of pieces available for the final round. If you are fighting for the tallest skyscraper, make sure you have larger pieces. If there are a number of weakly held neighborhoods, keep one story pieces to scatter around on top of your opponent's buildings. Whatever you do, don't run yourself short of tall pieces in the first couple of rounds - it will come back to haunt you.

The same holds true for your cards. Save a card or two that can be used to take over a building until late in the round/game. The surprised look on your opponent's face alone is worth playing it!

6. A strategy that might work once or twice.
Use only three story buildings during the first round. A lot of players use 1s & 2s in the first round. By using 3s they can't top you. This strategy works best in a 2 player game. (I'd be interested to see this one in action.)

7. My gain is your loss.
Remember every time you "top" another building you are both adding to your score and subtracting from your opponent's score. Building these on top of other people is very rewarding. This is especially important during the last round, where every point counts.

8. The first shall be last...
Where you are in the turn order plays a major part in which building pieces you choose. If you go first in a round, keep your building choices smaller and conversely if you go last you might want to pick a few larger buildings.

9. A complete strategy plan care of Kschoose.
Try to get the tallest building while sacrificing the total number of properties you own in the first couple of rounds. If you have the tallest building, you can get a nice point total started. But, people won't perceive you as a threat, because you aren't leading.

Later, while they attack each other, build up your building/neighborhood total. As the point totals start to get close, the 3 point bonus for controlling the tallest building can carry you to victory.

10. Come back, Shane!
Don't let any player take too big a lead. Try to keep the score close. If you're the person in last place, POLITELY remind others that picking on you doesn't slow down the leader. (This can quickly turn into whining... so watch it!)

Thanks to ShatRat, Lyle Rhodebeck, eyeofnight, ppol, David Vander Ark, kschoose, and Randy Simcox for their posts about Manhattan strategy which form the basis for this page.

Variants

The Godzilla Variant

Well, Manhattan is already a good game. But, after having played a bit too much poker, Eric Moore and I were discussing the game and I said "Well, Ben can't wait to steal a godzilla from an Alan Moon game and play Manhattan with it." A few minutes later, these rules were born.

Take any convienent counter (of course, a Godzilla from one of Alan's games is preferred) and set it in the center of any city. For purposes of Godzilla, the cities form a 2x3 rectange that wraps around at both edges. Play of the game is completely normal, except, after you play a card and build a piece, Godzilla moves. If you played a card that let you build in the center, Godzilla doesn't move. If you played a card that let you build in any other space, Godzilla moves in that direction (diagonally if you built in a corner, horizantally or vertically if you built on an edge). Any building that Godzilla steps on is destroyed.

This sick idea was jointly conceived by Brian Bankler and Eric Moore. Thanks to Ben Peal for the inspiration. They also inspired Richard Irving to add yet another twist.

Big vs. Little Monster

Big monster destroys an entire building when he enters a space with a building. Little Monster only eats the tops floor piece (and if he stays where he is by playing a center card, he eats another piece.) I prefer big.

Web of Power Variant

Thanks to Tom (mregamr on BSW) for suggesting this most excellent way to deal with your hand getting gummed up with the same kind of cards.

Two identical cards can be played as a wild. This would (almost) eliminate the problem of having too many of the same card. Not sure if you would want to let the player replenish to 3 or 4.

New Cards Variant

A more radical overhaul of Manhattan comes from Bill Martinson... which actuallys sounds like a pretty good idea to me, if I ever had the time to make up a set of cards!

I never really liked the fact that in the first few turns of the game, the kind of card you play and the neighborhood you choose are not very significant. The start player could practically select his first card at random (notwithstanding the fact that he might hold duplicates).

So we made a replacement deck of 54 cards that have the neighborhood names on them, one card for every position/neighborhood combination. (One Soho top left, one Soho top middle, one Soho top right, and so on.) You can still use any card to play in any neighborhood, but if you play in the neighborhood that matches the card you immediately earn one bonus point.

The result is that the strategy cells in your brain come on-line a little earlier in the game, and you sometimes have a difficult choice to make: optimal placement or another bonus point? Also, it's even more fun to save just the right card for just the right moment, so you can thwart an opponent and ping the extra point at the same time.

Departures

BoardgameGeek entry for Big City

The Game Cabinet from Stuart Dagger

Ideal Game Library from Bruno Faidutti

The Game Report from Peter Sarrett