Give up any regular token and exchange it for a different regular token type of your choice. You can do this twice.

Her Comments: We used to have Steam Park and I think that game spoiled me with its 3D buildings. The theme comes through but I found myself wishing for a little bit more table presence.

Gameplay

We are using a custom rating scale. Each game will be evaluated by both of us on 1 to 10 scale in five areas. When combined, this creates a possible score out of 100. My Comments: A lot of the variables change from game to game so that the puzzle the game offers will always be different. More than once while playing Tenpenny Parks, someone compared its Tetris-like puzzle to A Feast for Odin, a much heavier game which features polyominoes and worker placement and buying side boards to continue building polyominoes across your tableau.

A gripe I have with the game is replay-ability. There is not much variability in set-up (besides the personal goals) and you use almost all attractions cards in higher player count games. Extension boards are also all very similar I feel they definitely could have done something there. After 5 plays the games are already starting to feel a bit the same. Alongside this artwork, you get a production value that is second to none. The first player token is a metal token with an enamel finish, itself being a beautiful addition to the game. The wooden tokens are well-produced, with the 12 unique wildlife tokens being a particular standout component. Everything about this game in terms of its looks and quality has been developed in such a beautiful way. I would say to most that this game is worth getting just for the artwork alone, but of course, a board game has to play well in addition to looking good. So, does it play well? For guidance, let’s use the BGG “complexity” rating: the majority of my gaming friends like their games in the 3.5 range and above. Great Western Trail is an ideal starting point for these groups (a BGG average complexity rating of 3.71). It has lots of complex decisions, lots of rules, lots of processes, and requires multiple plays to get the overarching strategies honed correctly. At some point, you’ll either run out of Trail, or you’ll opt to move one of your Hikers to the Trail End. When you move here, you’re presented with a few options, and you can perform any one of them. You could decide to Reserve a Park. To do this, you place your Hiker in the top space on the Trail End. If you’re the first player to place in this option this season, you also claim the First Hiker Token for next Season. Later players can also Reserve Park cards too, but not with an extra benefit. Tenpenny Parks is a worker placement game. You will be placing four workers per round, over five rounds. These workers will either be placed to buy an attraction, a concession, or additional land. Alternatively they can be used to get some dollars from the bank or fell some trees to make room on your board.Again, Tenpenny Parks is the simplest euro style game I’ve played. For the record, I love simplicity in principle, especially when applied with precision, but simplicity can easily suffocate game design, which I will argue happens here. Tenpenny’s worker placement remains the obvious example. Worker placement without a limit of one worker per location is just vanilla action selection with extra steps. Thus, Tenpenny Parks is more an action selection game with a small zest of worker placement for one particular action. It’s got the flavor without any substance, like hotdog water.

In a game with greater complexity, players can experiment with varying strategies and, ideally, leave the game with thoughts about what they would try differently next time. But in a system as simple as in Tenpenny Parks, players can try everything there is to try in only two games. Tiles can be placed differently, and decisions regarding emotion bonuses can differ, but that’s pretty much the fullest extent. Looking at the busy and intricate box art now, I almost feel lied to. The end of the trail will allow players to either reserve a Park, visit a Park, or buy gear, cards that can offer a one-off bonus, as well as an on-going perk. There are bonuses for those that finish the trail first, netting additional resources once they finish that current trail. Tenpenny Parks continues the great run of Thunderworks Games, however just know that it is not perfect. The second option is buying a Gear card instead. Remember you dealt three out during set-up? Gear cards provide game-long benefits in Parks, or provide immediate rewards. They might be permanent discounts off Visiting Park cards. Or they might be means to fill your Canteens at certain points. There are 36 of them, so plenty of variety! Gear cards cost a range of Sunshine tokens. Are you the first player to place in this option this season? You gain one Sunshine token (so a -1 discount, if you like). Later players can also buy Gear cards, but don’t get the Sunshine token benefit.You have two Hikers, remember. Once your first hiker reaches the Trail End, you get to flip your Campfire token alight again. (So once again, if you want, you can visit an occupied tile). When it comes to moving your Hikers, you can move one on one turn, and the other on a later turn. Or, you could move one again and again – the choice is yours. Once both of your Hikers reach the Trail End, you’re done for the Season. And if I play Tenpenny Parks with core gamers, they will still enjoy themselves. I’ll just expect them to label the game as too light. No problem. I’m going to put it on the table because lighter games like this balance a night with heavier content nicely. Making this activity more interesting: treeples! Yes, trees add not only a nice visual element to Tenpenny Parks, but also a hazard that must be accommodated to get those rides into your park. It’s certainly not a massive mental puzzle, but the different tile shapes add fun planning elements to each of your actions. Next up is advertising, where players use their built attractions to convert money into points. Each attraction has a defined amount marked on their card, and can only be used once per advertising step.

Tenpenny Parks is definitely a light game. The rulebook is relatively short and you can get playing from the rulebook in about 10-15 minutes. This is definitely a plus as I think this could become a family favourite in many households and I think that players of a lot of different ages can enjoy the game. The game flow elegantly and smooth.Play begins with everyone taking their first income of 3 dollars. As for actions, players have three workers to place between five types: builder, banker, arborist, contractor, and realtor. The builder spaces appear on a rotating carousel within the board and each corresponds to an attraction for sale. Each builder space on the carousel is marked by a unique price adjuster that increases or decreases the cost of respective attractions. When workers are placed here, the player pays for the corresponding attraction and places the unique attraction piece into their park board. When placing tiles, players cannot build on top of trees, and tiles may only touch diagonally. Importantly, the builder spots are the only spots that follow the traditional worker placement rule of allowing only one worker; the rest can hold any number.