Get a Piece of the Action with MY KIND OF TOWN
My Kind of Town by Your Moves Games is a deceptively simple card game for 2 players. Handsomely produced, with sturdy and glossy cards, and a limited but attractive range of stylized “roaring ‘20s” graphics, the game is a good value, requiring only one $10 deck to play.
Each player takes the role of a mob boss competing for control of pieces of Chicago, each worth various Victory Points. The game is played is 2 phases. During the first phase, players draw Influence cards from a common deck and place them in a stack beside the piece of Chicago that they are vying for. Influence comes in 3 types – Dames, Gun, or Money – only one of which can be used at a time. The trick is having more of your chosen Influence than your opponent. Meanwhile, your opponent is building up his own Influence, often of a different type. In the second phase, players take turns declaring which piece of Chicago they are attempting to seize and which Influence type they are using – not always an easy or open choice. Each player’s Influence is tallied up and the player with the most Influence of the chosen type gains the Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points wins.
Simple? Well, yes and no. There are a couple of complications that make all the difference. For starters, the common Influence deck that both players draw from is played with the top 2 cards face-up. This not only means that your opponent knows what card you are playing, but you know what card he will be playing. There are no secrets is My Kind of Town. Furthermore, a player may force her opponent to play an unwanted Influence card or even play an Influence on her opponent’s stack.
I was a little underwhelmed when I first read the rules, but in playtest I found the game to be quite challenging, tense, and fun. It took us 2 or 3 games to get the rules straight, but then we played at least half a dozen games in a row exploring a few of the different strategies possible.
This is a fast-paced little game: our first games took about 20 minutes apiece, but once we got a better grip on the game, play took about 10-15 minutes. Just the thing to play while waiting for everybody to show up for game night, or while someone rolls up a new character.
My Kind of Town is a fast, inexpensive game with simple rules and complex strategies. There’s even a free online version. Give it a try.
