Thunderworks Games Tenpenny Parks, Red

Product Information

We are using a custom rating scale. Each game will be evaluated by both of us on 1 to 10 scale in five areas. When combined, this creates a possible score out of 100. During the Actions Step players take turns placing their workers onto the main game board. By doing so players may remove trees, expand their property, gain money and build concessions and attractions. Tenpenny Parks is much simpler than your typical euro game, and plays in roughly an hour. Also unlike many euro games, the rules are crystal clear and concise. In fact, this might be the simplest euro-style game I’ve played – more on that later. Tenpenny Parks breaks its five rounds into five steps: income, actions, bonuses, advertising, and cleanup.

There is a slight question mark over the replayabilty of Tenpenny Parks, I could see it becoming a bit repetitive if it wasn’t mixed in with plays of other games, but as it doesn’t take too long, it will always be welcome at my table.After that players may advertise during the Advertising Step. Each build attraction comes with an Advertising option that lets you convert money into VP. While a slight disparity is to be expected, there seemed to be a massive difference between our success and I felt the randomness removes a sense of enjoyment from the game, so much so that players may switch off, especially as the direction they are given simply cannot be achieved. Construct rides through the stone age, the American old west, the age of fantasy, the cosmos of space, and the depths of the sea!

Remember that Season card you flipped over? Sat in its bottom-right corner is a weather forecast. This is a pattern combination of Sunshine and Water. Ignoring the first Trail Tile (and the Trailhead and Trail End), place one token per tile, left to right. Match and repeat the weather pattern according to the Season card. You should now have single tokens across five of the six Trail Tiles. (Or six of seven, if playing with higher player counts, as stated earlier.)Her Comments: Mechanically this game does not break a lot of new ground. It feels familiar, but it does all work together.

Tenpenny Parks is played over five rounds, with the goal of earning the most victory points. Each round takes place over five phases. Players will be placing workers around the board for actions. Play begins with everyone taking their first income of 3 dollars. As for actions, players have three workers to place between five types: builder, banker, arborist, contractor, and realtor. The builder spaces appear on a rotating carousel within the board and each corresponds to an attraction for sale. Each builder space on the carousel is marked by a unique price adjuster that increases or decreases the cost of respective attractions. When workers are placed here, the player pays for the corresponding attraction and places the unique attraction piece into their park board. When placing tiles, players cannot build on top of trees, and tiles may only touch diagonally. Importantly, the builder spots are the only spots that follow the traditional worker placement rule of allowing only one worker; the rest can hold any number. You have two Hikers, remember. Once your first hiker reaches the Trail End, you get to flip your Campfire token alight again. (So once again, if you want, you can visit an occupied tile). When it comes to moving your Hikers, you can move one on one turn, and the other on a later turn. Or, you could move one again and again – the choice is yours. Once both of your Hikers reach the Trail End, you’re done for the Season.So double-knot your laces and fill up your canteen with water (or something stronger, we won’t judge). Leave the map at home. Let’s go for a wonderful, meandering hike along the trails within these areas of natural beauty. Join me as we learn how to play Parks! How Do You Win? At the end of each month, rewards are given to the player with the park that best exemplifies raw emotions (Thrill, Awe, and Joy). After five months, the player with the most VP tokens wins!

Tenpenny Parks? I’ll be able to play this with my wife while waiting for a casserole to finish in the oven and the kids are destroying my basement. I love Tetris. I love theme parks. In wanting to share my love of gaming with the world, I can safely—VERY safely—introduce Tenpenny Parks to gamers new to the hobby, or to people who have no desire to turn gaming into their next hobby, or family members who struggle with heavy rules. Boards are double-sided, representing differing difficulty levels of your amusement park, and are filled with bonuses that can be earned by covering those spaces with your tiles. The artwork, design and theme of a game can play a massive part in its success. Yes, there are those classics that perhaps could have done more with those three things however now, more than ever; we have new releases that are pure works of art. PARKS is one such example. A labour of love PARKS, by Keymaster Games, is a beautiful, relaxing board game experience. In it you control two hikers, trekking across the National Parks of the US. What ‘memories’ will you make along the way? What photos will you snap? Tenpenny Parks is definitely a light game. The rulebook is relatively short and you can get playing from the rulebook in about 10-15 minutes. This is definitely a plus as I think this could become a family favourite in many households and I think that players of a lot of different ages can enjoy the game. The game flow elegantly and smooth.

Setup

There is a lot to like about Tenpenny Parks. I love how streamlined the gameplay is, it offers up the same worker placement anxiety as something like Viticulture. You will weigh up and prioritise which of the few spaces you want, knowing the likelihood is, what you don’t choose could and probably will be taken away from you. If that sounds like it won’t frustrate you, Tenpenny Parks is an easy game to recommend.