We’re sharing our thoughts on Neoville, a game where you and your friends become architectural visionaries, tasked with building a harmonious city!
Neoville was a game we had to play again right away and I think you’ll want to as well!
What is Neoville?
Neoville is a city building, tile placement game where players are architects trying to build a city that is a combination of human habitation and the natural world.
Overview of How to Play Neoville
Neoville is played in 16 rounds. Over the course of the game, players will build a 4×4 city.
On your turn, you do the following actions in order:
- Add a tile from your hand to your city
- You may take a skyscraper or utility and place it on the new tile
- Draw a tile
Players play tiles from their hands to their city to create Districts. A District is a set of terrain squares connected orthogonally. As you grow your city, you can expand Districts across multiple tiles.
Tiles do not need to have matching terrain tiles to be placed next to each other and players may rotate their tile however they’d like before placing it orthogonally adjacent to previous tiles and not exceeding the 4×4 square all cities must be built within.
After playing a tile, you may choose to add a Skyscraper, Utility, or nothing onto the new tile. Skyscrapers and Utilities allow players to earn points by fulfilling conditions.
Skyscrapers: earn points by creating Districts of a specific size.
Utilities: earn points by based on their placement within your city, District, or proximity to specific terrains.
The game ends once all players have built their 4×4 city.
The player with the highest score wins.
What do we think of Neoville?
What a great game!
Neoville is everything we’ve come to expect from a Phil Walker-Harding design. It has straightforward rules that are quickly grasped so players can get right into the fun, puzzly, challenge of building their world.
When playing, I feel like I’m trying to complete a tricky puzzle that I don’t quite have all the pieces for yet. I love the challenge and tension that comes from taking a high scoring Skyscraper early on in the game, and then working to get the tiles necessary to complete that district. Similarly, there’s a sort of push your luck element towards the end where you’re wondering if you can’t sneak out with a few more points by taking a Skyscraper or Utility late in the game.
The different scoring conditions of the Skyscrapers and Utilities makes for excellent game play. While the Skyscrapers score based on size of district, the Utilities are all location and district shape based. This forces a shift in your thinking that is quite fun. Rather than just focusing on building large districts, you’re also trying to constrain yourself to particular shapes when you draft a Biodome. Placing a windmill in your city means you’ll be locking in your 4×4 grid. This takes away some of your flexibility in placing tiles. Placing an Ecomobile in your city will require you to place specific features in its path. This adds an extra layer to your strategy when drafting tiles a the end of your turn.
There’s a tension filled push and pull to the game as players are constantly, down to the last turn, working to satisfy each unique scoring condition on their board. And you’re not just drafting tiles — you’re also drafting your scoring potential as well! Let too many turns go without taking a Skyscraper or Utility and you’re missing out on valuable points. Take too many and you could regret it if you can’t fulfill them all. It’s honestly excellent.
Simple Scoring
Neoville’s scoring structure is perfectly tied in with the game. There’s no tricky math involved. If you take a 12 point Skyscraper, you know you’ll have to build a District with at least 12 connected terrains. Do this and earn 12 points. Fail and subtract 12 points at the end of the game. Straightforward. Simple. Love it.
As a fan of city building games, I really enjoyed the way this one took shape on the table.
Due to its simplicity, it isn’t quite as thematic as other city building games like Suburbia, however, the art, terrain, and table presence really come together beautifully to make it a full and immersive experience.
I love watching my city take shape as it both spreads to fill its 4×4 grid and as I put skyscrapers and utilities scattered on top, creating vertical interest. Neoville is an excellent example of how a game that allows players to build something provides an experience that is rewarding whether or not you win the game.
I am a big fan of Phil Walker-Harding’s last city building design, Cloud City which was also published by Blue Orange Games. Neoville might be my favorite of the two, though they are both so good its hard to say. One large benefit for Neoville is that it is still provides the 3D elements of the Skyscrapers without the fiddly nature of the skywalk paths. If you weren’t a fan of those paths, but were drawn to the accessible nature of Cloud City, Neoville might be just what you’re looking for.
How does it play with two?
Neoville is easy to scale down for two players. You’ll randomly remove some of the skyscrapers and utilities based on the number you’re playing with, using everything in a 4 player game.
After that the game plays the same. We have enjoyed Neoville at all player counts and find ourselves playing 2 or 3 games back to back when playing just the two of us.
Can kids play?
Neoville is a great option for families with kids around age 8. Kids who have shown an ability to plan their moves a few turns ahead will be ready for this game. Neoville is a great game to use to teach about how you only want to take what you think you’re able to complete. All Skyscrapers and utilities that aren’t fulfilled during the game must be subtracted from your score. This means the game can turn punishing real quick for any player that bit off a little more than they could chew on their turns.
It’s really easy to want to populate your city with Skyscrapers and utilities galore — so this is a great game to help teach players about focusing on timing and moderation.
Summary
Neoville is an instant recommend from us!
I love that I’m able to teach the game in a handful of minutes to all players, regardless of their experience. The straightforward rules lead into what is a strategic puzzle with high replay value. You’ll want to play again and again to try and build an even more harmonious city than before.
Neoville is a great next-step game for families that loved Kingdomino and are looking for a bigger challenge while still having accessible gameplay.
Bring home a copy of Neoville for your family.
Find this and all our top game recommendations on our Amazon Storefront.
A special thank you to Blue Orange Games for providing a copy of Neoville for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.
Game Info:
Title: Neoville
2-4 Players Ages 10+
Designer: Phile Walker-Harding
Artist: Ingenious Studios
Publisher: Blue Orange Games
