Introduction
In the heart of the city, steel beams race skyward. While other cities seem to sprawl endlessly outwards, the city planners are looking up – up – UP! Real estate prices are skyrocketing, and it’s time for a new new class of skyscraper, the Supertall, to reshape the skyline.
In Supertall, 2-3 players are competing developers, presenting their plans for new skyscrapers. Using the 18 Plan cards that show the amenities the city has issued permits for, players must carefully choose which plans to add to their growing skyscrapers, which plans to pass to their rivals, and which plans to leverage in order to shuffle the designs around. Once all the plans have been reviewed, developers will collect profits based on the mix of Residential, Business, Entertainment, and Garden Space in their buildings. But City Hall will heavily tax one of those types based on lobbying, eliminating the profits, so make sure you have a backup plan. With hard work and good planning, you can rise to the top.
About Supertall
Supertall was Kickstarted in July 2018 and released in October 2018 from Buttonshy Games
Player count: 2 to 3, 4 with expansion
Player Ages: 8+
Setup Time: Less than 1 minute
Play Time: About 20 minutes
Game Mechanics: Tableau Management, Multi-Use Cards
Degree of Randomness: Moderate randomness through card draws, mitigated by multiple ways to react, and ability to influence future card draws
Degree of Conflict: Moderate direct conflict, since your best move fill often be to slow down or hinder an opponent.
Replayability: Varying card draws and their use make each game highly tactical.
What’s Included
18 city plan cards in 4 types (Residential, Business, Entertainment, Garden) numbered between 0 and 5
1 Plastic Wallet
1 rule sheet
Expansion: Municipal Buildings
6 additional city plan cards, 4 with a new type (Government)
1 rule sheet
Mini Expansion: Wrecktar Returns
1 expansion card: Wrecktar
How To Play
Each player starts with one plan as a base for one of their 2 or 3 buildings. On your turn, draw a card from one of 3 face down piles. Choose to play it on a building, use its rezoning ability, or send it to City Hall. You can play it on any player’s building, as long as its value is equal or greater than the plan below it. You can use its rezone ability—each value has a unique ability—to move cards around, returning it to one of the draw piles for later. You can send it to City Hall, and buildings topped with that type of property won’t score at the end, but be careful because someone else can send a different plan there later. At the end of the game, buildings score based on the type of plan at the top. Each type scores in a different way, and can gain or lose points depending on adjacent buildings. The player with the tallest building gets a bonus, and the player with the most points wins!
More About Supertall
I wrote about Supertall a little bit in my series about designing for Buttonshy. It initially started as one of my Nanodaptions for Sprawlopolis, but morphed into something a little bigger during testing. Thematically, it shares a lot with Spralwopolis, even though the gameplay is wildly different.
Oakleaf Games 