Gaming 101: Machi Koro

Machi Koro
Players: 2-4
Recommended ages: 10+
Playing time: 30 minutes
Designed by Masao Suganuma
Artwork by Noboru Hotta
U.S. Publishers: IDW Games & Pandasaurus Games
Year published: 2012

As Machi Koro is easy to pick up, plays fast, and is a lot of fun, it has the honor of being the first game to be discussed and reviewed in this blog. I feel that it's an excellent transitional game for people wanting to explore out of their comfort zone of the usual mass-produced games that are sold at big-box stores and found under the tree during Christmas. The title itself translates to "Dice Town", with machi meaning 'town', and koro, taken from saikoro, meaning 'dice'.

My friend's brother owns Machi Koro, but because our group was usually six people, we never played it (my friends never want to partner up, something I'll mention many times in future posts). By luck, I happened to find this game at a Toys 'R' Us that was permanently closing the next day. It was discounted by 60%, plus an additional 20% at the register so I couldn't pass it up. The game was already unsealed, and when I looked inside, I thought that it was missing pieces. A quick look at an unboxing video on YouTube showed that everything was intact, and a few minutes later, Machi Koro was mine. 


Machi Koro is a fast-paced family game in which you and up to three other players have each been elected mayor of the titular city and compete to be the first to build your city's four landmarks (Train Station, Shopping Mall, Amusement Park, and Radio Tower). You'll need income to build those landmarks, and to do so, you're given two starting establishments (a Wheat Field and a Bakery), and a small capital of three 1 coins. On each turn, players will roll one die (building the Train Station allows them the option to roll a second one), collect income if applicable, and then construct one establishment if they are able to or wish to do so. As the game progresses, players can buy higher-priced establishments that will net them more income, and thus bring them closer to victory! 

The game's components are simple and streamlined: a rule book, a pair of dice, 108 cards, and 78 coins, which are divided into three denominations (1, 5, and 10). The wells for the cards are deep enough to add the expansion cards (which are mentioned later), both dice get their own well, and there's a spot in the center of the box for the bag of coins to fit snugly in. 

The cards are whimsically illustrated and consist of your starting landmarks and the starting, regular, and major establishments. The cards also have a construction cost, an effect, a type & name, and, for the establishments, the dice roll needed to activate said effect. The starting landmarks also have effects once they are built, such as choosing to re-roll your dice once every turn.

The establishments are also color coded and can earn the players income in different ways: 

-The Primary Industries (Blue) earn you income from the bank during anyone's turn. 
-The Secondary Industries (Green) will earn income on your turn only. 
-The Restaurants (Red) allow you to take income from the player who rolled the dice.
-The Major Establishments (Purple) has you trading establishments or taking income from the other players on your turn only. 

As Machi Koro is a game of random chance, it is also a game with resource management, card drafting, and light strategy added in. A player could be victorious by focusing on one color group for the entire game, whereas another could win by constructing at least one of every establishment and thus earn income on every dice roll. 

Machi Koro has two expansions that can be added to the base game: the Harbor Expansion (2012) offers new rules and allows for a fifth player to join in on the fun, while Millionaire's Row (2014) adds a variety of new luxury and high-tech businesses.



The standalone Machi Koro: Bright Lights, Big City (2016) is for two to five players, and improves upon both the original game and its expansions. All four games can usually be found on Amazon and at your local game store. 


I liked the ease and flow of the game, and that set up only takes a few minutes. Some games end in less than 30 minutes, and thus players will want to play a second (and possibly a third) round. The simple mechanics make it a great family game, and should little ones want to join in and "play", they'll love the colorful cards and collecting the coins. 

Let the games begin!

Welcome to A Valid Strategy!

Webster's Dictionary defines both "valid" and "strategy" as...just kidding, I'm not going to start out with that. Let's go to the next paragraph, shall we?

For over 20 years, my friends and I have had several game nights, whether they were Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons (which I strongly dislike), video games, or board games. The game nights themselves varied from weekly to annually over time, until last summer when it became a weekly routine. As some of us purchased additional games, mainly myself, to keep things interesting, one of them suggested that I start a blog about board games.

But where to begin? Would I actually do this? And why would I, when there are so many blogs and vlogs out there to begin with? If I did start one, how would I do it? Why would I do it? How could I make mine different from others? After watching several YouTube videos showing how to play certain games, as well as a few episodes of TableTop, I thought to myself, 'These are games that gamers play. What about games for non-gamers?'

And that's the format for this blog. Designed as a tutorial with titles to make it sound like a collection of college courses, A Valid Strategy will introduce non- and casual gamers to board games that they most likely have not heard of, and that they may enjoy. Sure, some of these games may be basic to the serious gamer, but I'm going to try to bring some of you out of your comfort zone of Monopoly, Clue, and Scrabble. In addition, I'll be going over common player mechanics such as card drafting, deck building, and worker placement, and how they're used in said games. As this blog is designed as a beginner's course, I will not be reviewing the complex, deep strategy games that usually take 3-4 hours to play, and possibly several sessions to finish. The majority of the games featured here will be very basic, and will take anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours to play.

As for the title? It was taken from a friend of mine who loves the complex, in-depth games who would often comment with "That's a valid strategy." My friends and I joke that if the game doesn't take 30 minutes to set up, has a manual that's not over 60 pages, and takes less than three hours to play, then it's beneath him. While the other preschoolers were playing Candy Land, he was playing Risk. My other friends like the complex games, so, to reiterate, although we and they have played Gloomhaven, Keyflower, Scythe, Power Grid, and Caverna: The Cave Farmers, you won't see them "taught" here... unless my friends write "advanced" tutorials for them.

Since this is both my first time blogging, and I have a limited resource of games, my other goal is to get at least one game out a month. As time goes by on this project, I may extend it to two or even three games. 

I hope the games featured here will pique your interest, and maybe even open a newfound admiration for board games, as it has for me. In addition to my own friends, I've been going to a second weekly game night at my local game store, and have met a lot of cool people. Happy reading, and keep gaming!