Chandigarh

• Designer: Toni Lopez
• Publisher: Ludonova
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 40-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Asmodee NA, distributor

In 1951, the Indian government commissioned the renowned architect Le Corbusier to design a new capital for the state of Punjab. Thus, Chandigarh was born. In the game Chandigarh, players in the role of urban planners are in charge of building this modern city from scratch. They will construct buildings, try to take advantage of buildings constructed by others, use the abilities of the different municipal employees, and try to position themselves in the key locations of the city, all with the aim of achieving the patterns of the plans they have chosen. Whoever scores the most prestige points wins.

In more detail, the city of Chandigarh is represented by a 4×4 grid of sector tiles, with each sector having multiple plots. These sectors intersect at junctions, with the edges of these tiles creating streets between the sectors. There are two sides to these boards, one side for a 4p game, and the other for a 2-3p game.  A scoring tile is placed on one end of each full street as well as one in the upper right corner.  Advanced players can set up the game, and then move a few of the tiles around to create unique city shapes to play with.

Players each start with a project card that shows an arrangement of buildings, along with two different colored buildings from the four colors available – after setup, there will be a market of 4 Project cards near the table.  Each player’s architect starts on the central junction in the city.  One specialist of each color is chosen, and their tiles are placed near the board.  Each specialist has six different versions, some that score you bonus points and others that give you special powers during play. The specialist tokens are randomly placed; one in the central plaza in each corner tile of the city.  The board also starts with a few buildings seeded on it.

On a turn, you can move your architect up to the total numbers of footprints on your active project cards, stopping at each junction (if you wish) to place a building from your reserve on an empty plot next to a street that’s adjacent to the junction you occupy. If you occupy the final plot of a sector, place one of your supervisors on this tile. If there is a specialist on this tile, it is moved to any vacant tile so that you have room to place your supervisor. 

If you construct a building of a specialist’s color in the sector where they are located, you gain the power of that specialist for the remainder of the game and move them to a different sector.  Take a token from this specialist to denote that you have their help for the rest of the game.  

Alternatively, you can choose a new project card from the display, placing it on the left or right side of your row of active project cards and taking buildings from the reserve based on the card you just placed and the card adjacent to it. You are limited to six buildings in your supply; if you have more than 6, you must discard any excess into the box; they are not returned to the supply.  If you now have four cards in a row, you immediately score the card at the opposite end of the row from the card you just placed. Score the points listed on this card each time the pattern on it occurs in the city.

The game ends at the end of a round when the supply of at least one Building color is exhausted. There is a bit of endgame scoring:

• Each player can score any one of their remaining Project cards
• Each player scores for their Specialists that award endgame bonuses
• Score each street marker – points going to the player who is supervising the most sectors adjacent to the marked street (the marker in the corner awards points to the most supervised sectors around the perimeter of the city)

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player earlier in turn order.

My thoughts on the game

Ludonova is one of those companies that seems to have a game every year that makes me pause and read up on it.  While they all haven’t been for me after playing them, games like Cupcake Empire, Babylonia and the Siege of Runedar all have attracted my attention and drawn me to their booth at Spiel.  They also show a broad range of themes – and Chandigarh is no exception to that.  I have usually been partial to city planning games, so this one definitely appealed to me from the theme alone.

Here, you have a nice puzzle to solve with multiple things going on at once.  You can try to focus on the scoring cards – placing buildings (or benefiting from the placement of your opponents) as you try to max out the scoring on your cards.  You could also play the area majority game and try to win the end-game bonuses for the streets.  I have seen a player get five well placed supervisors and end up winning all or part of six of the bonuses!

While you’re doing all this, you still have to get the right buildings in your supply – and as these also come from the cards, you’ll have to try to find just the right one, or make compromises and take cards that you might not ever want to score.  Your line only has three spaces in it though, so it’ll be hard to ignore cards forever!

There are multiple different options for the four specialists, and the special actions of these will definitely have a strong effect on the arc of your game.  I would definitely make sure that everyone understands the benefits of the four specialists before the game starts, and I usually end up trying to gain the favor of at least two or three of them over the course of the game – they are also worth a few points, and this provides another reason to try to get their favor.

I have found that I really like the puzzle presented in this game, though I can see where others might end up with a bit of an AP issue as there are definitely multiple things to consider on a turn.  Though I personally don’t pay too much attention to the other player’s cards (which may also reflect on both my relative fast turns and my overall poor record at the game) – it also possible to hate draft cards, to try to make building placements that do not help your opponents score or even to simply end your turn on an intersection to block another player from building where they want….  I tend to have enough on my plate just worrying about my own things and I just keep my head down and play my own game; but there is definitely the possibility of adding even more things into consideration on a turn.

With non-AP players, the game is brisk, and we have been playing in 30-40 minutes; and this feels right for the amount of game here. The end game can sneak up on you, and it is definitely possible for someone to rush the endgame and snatch some scoring opportunities away from their opponents.  Once the game is over, you’ll only get to score one of your remaining three cards in your line, so keeping an eye out on possible game ending moves is key so that you can make sure that you score all your high value cards before the end.  Games that involve specialists that hand out free buildings can definitely end quicker than expected.

I’ve enjoyed building and rebuilding the city of Chandigarh in this game, and thus far, I’ve not ever moved past the 4×4 square pattern of the basic setup.  I think that making an unbalanced board would add possibly even more interesting decisions, and it would definitely keep the game from feeling the same – though the changing Specialist actions already help to give a different feel to each particular play of Chandigarh.  

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral. John P
• Not for me…