REVIEW: Adapt Strategies Through Complexities in KUTNÁ HORA: CITY OF SILVER

Point salad games normally force players to engage in one or two strategies out of the many ways to gain points in order to maximize potential and win. Having so many avenues to win a game can allow players to get good at one section of the game while leaving other sections behind. On the other hand, Kutná Hora: The City of Silver encourages players to play a very balanced game with a focus on economic optimization and adapting well to the changing playing field by denying other players points and competing head-to-head for various locations.

Kutná Hora has a lot of mechanics that could be overwhelming with those who aren’t familiar with heavier board games, but they all tie together very well and feel good to utilize after the first few turns. Each player has cards which determine what kind and what order to take actions on their turn. Players also have unique factions that dictate their income and buildings they can build, an individual reputation tracker, and even more on their own player board to worry about. The game board is also split into the mines and the city, where players can either mine to discover more materials or build up the city which brings in more resources for themselves, but that abundance makes their goods less valuable. To summarize, there are these and more mechanics that players have to mentally juggle with each decision which can be a bit overwhelming, but worthwhile to learn.

All this connects to the major mechanic that can guide/dictate turns; the resource cardboard computers. There are two cardboard computers that have moving sliders and stacks of cards that determine and frequently alter the value of all of the games’ goods and resources. This mechanic isn’t completely unique, but the ever changing market makes the gameplay very dynamic and requires players to adapt every turn that passes. The price changes of resources are unpredictable, but do move in the same direction all the time. To further explain it, players will know that certain actions have the potential to increase or decrease prices, but they don’t know how much it will change or if it will stay the same. This has been by far the mechanic that has either left players loving the game or despising it. While I may enjoy it and think that it is innovative, others are annoyed that they can’t accurately plan for the future because prices change often.

There are plenty of other things in the game that aren’t covered here, but the overall idea is to build the city of Kutná Hora in the way that benefits you the most while manipulating the market to your favor. Players will use the market and various actions to gain as many points in as many places as possible to win. This is a game that can be played with just two players, but benefits greatly by having three or four players. While this does have a lot of interesting mechanics, sometimes it's more complex than it needs to be, making actions have too many steps or mechanics and other point pools not utilized well enough by anyone. Kutná Hora: The City of Silver tries a little too hard to be highly complex, but is fairly fun with more players if they are willing to take on the many mechanics.