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In episode 31 we, which is Carsten and ode, talk to Uli Blennemann from Spielworxx and board game designer Matt Wolfe about their new game Squaring Circleville which will hit Kickstarter in May 2021. We also talk about game development and poop cubes.
— FOR i-tunes USERS: Please refer to this link to our website for the shownotes that contain the photos of the game that do not seem to be accepted by Apple https://meeplecast.de/episode-31-squaring-circleville-with-uli-blennemann-matt-wolfe —
To guide our listeners through what we are talking about in Squaring Circleville, we are gonna show you some photos of the prototype below. Please note that the artwork is nearly finalized, the wooden components are – surprise: not final and subject to change!
Above you see the main area of Squaring Circleville with unfinished sectors and completed ones.
Players, on their turn, can move their supervisor across Circleville and have two actions and, by executing them, place cubes of their colour in the main area. There are red or blue cube spots which represent deconstructing or constructing roads and buildings to be razed – which works by replacing them with a player cube. There are several alternative actions to choose from as well.
As soon as a sector’s last cube space is occupied by a player’s cube, a majority scoring is done and the sector is complete. A sector tile is then put onto it representing the completed version of the sector. Now, buildings or beautifications can be built or done on this.
By winning a sector majority scoring, erecting a building or beautifying a completed sector, players advance on one of the four quadrant tracks. The player who advanced the farthest on each track when Circleville is completely reshaped, will be awarded the maximum number of victory points for it.
Above you see the player board showing five columns, the left being the one offering alternative actions while the four on coloured background represent the four main actions: deconstruct road, construct road, raze structure, build structure. At the end of their turns, players take a disc from the action selection rondel and place it on their player board – improving the action of the disc’s colour!
The right edge of the player board offers three slots for equipment tiles (permanent bonus effects) or achievement tiles.
Above you see the action selection rondel. On your turn, you move your assistant 1-2 spaces in clockwise order. The colour of the spot it lands on and the colour of the tile next to it define the actions you will take. Yellow landed on blue with a green tile next to it. Blue is road construction and green is erecting a building on a free construction site on a completed section. Upon finishing your turn you take the green tile and place it in the green column on your player board – improving the building action.
Everytime you complete a sector you will take the next year bonus tile (small ones) and the achievement tile next to it. While the year bonus tile is yours to use, the latter is placed on one of the long rectangular spaces in the left part of the photo. The alternative action „take achievement tile“ allows you to choose from one of the tiles already placed there.
Katherine is one of four solo bots Matt Wolfe designed. They all work differently and are easy to handle. You can even let them participate when playing with friends to make, say, a 3-pl-game with two human players.
Links:
Spielworxx Website: https://www.spielworxx.de/
Squaring Circleville on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/292900/squaring-circleville
99 Percent Invisible podcast https://99percentinvisible.org/
Tharos on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/292901/tharos