Home Board Game Reviews Copenhagen – Queen Games – Review

Copenhagen – Queen Games – Review

Mark Gillham

August 25, 2019

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The artwork will draw you to Copenhagen but the game play will have you loving every minute of the experience!

Mark Gillham

MeepleGamers

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Publisher: Queen Games

Designer: Asger Harding Granerud

Designer: Daniel Skjold Pedersen

Artist: Markus Erdt

Game Type: Puzzle

Game Type: Pattern Building

Game Type: Polyominoes

Initial Year of Release: 2019

Age Range: 8+

Expected Playtime: 20-40 Minutes

Number of Players: 2-4

Theme and What is it?

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In a sect of the Danish city of Copenhagen known as Nyhavn, they are known for having beautiful facades that line the harbor. Players are designing a new façade for their house on the banks of the harbor. They will take turns selecting cards or purchasing polyominoes to add to their façade using the cards selected. Granerud and Pederson excelled at bring the splendor of this region to this game!

Copenhagen is a race to who can reach 12 points the fastest by building their façade using the polyominoes at your disposal. The player that reaches 12 points or has the highest score when the deck empties wins!

Gameplay Mechanics

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Each player will take a player board house and place the corresponding marker on the scoring track. The deck of cards will be shuffled and placed on the harbor. The first player will start with a hand of 2 cards, 3 cards for the next 2 players, and 4 cards for the last player. Seven cards will then be laid out in the harbor, these will be available for drafting and will be replaced from the deck once they are drafted.

Players will take one of two actions on their turn. First, draft cards from the harbor. Second is build a piece of the façade on to their building.

Each color has a different polyominoes layout to help you complete the façade of your building. You can also gain some additional abilities by playing on your coat of arms that allow you to change the color of cards, take both actions, take additional cards, or even making the building pieces cheaper.

Players score points by completing rows horizontally or vertically. Horizontal rows are worth one point to complete while vertical rows will gain you 2 points. Completing all rows will double the score the player gains.

Game ends immediately once one player reaches 12 points. If the card that signals the game end is revealed, whoever has the highest score when that is revealed wins.

Initial Impressions

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I loved this game! The puzzle of finding how to put the pieces onto the player’s house to maximize their score keeps the player focused on their next move.

The piece limitations and availability keep the selection tight and make it so players are not able to keep placing the same pieces the whole game.

The player abilities provide an additional layer of depth to the game play. It was a game that you can sit down with and have fun quickly regardless whether a player has played it or not.

Game Build Quality

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The boards and pieces punched very easily and were well cut. The façade sections were sturdy and built to survive and withstand multiple games.

The printing on the pieces and the colors used were very easy to differentiate. The cards were well printed and on excellent card stock! The layout and pieces to this game were easy to differentiate what goes where.

One piece that I enjoy about Queen Games specifically as a publisher is their rule books. The rule books are top notch with examples and pictures to help dictate different aspects of the game.

The other part is that they provide rule books in multiple languages. There are 4 different language rule books that come with this game. I can’t overstate how much I enjoy the inclusion that they promote by including these books with the game.

Artistic Direction

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Markus Erdt did a wonderful job capturing the feel of Nyhavn in Copenhagen! This region is known for the colorful housing facades going through the harbor. The pastel coloring displayed through the pieces and cards are vibrant, really bringing out this aspect of the region. It did justice for this postcard scenery brought to life in this game.

The imagery used with the harbor being a boat to draft the cards from is well drawn. Using different aspects from the region to bring out the theme was beautifully adapted with the depiction of The Little Mermaid statue by Edvard Eriksen, the meeples for score keeping and the card that sets the end game.

Fun Factor

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Copenhagen is a very enjoyable game that does not overstay it’s welcome on the table. A relatively fast pace puzzle with a game built around it, players will have fun building their façade on the house. It even adds an additional piece to see the beauty of the different colored pieces coming together in the end.

Age Range & Weight

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This a good fit between gateway and light for game weight. The strategy isn’t heavy when it comes to playing the game.

However, there is just enough strategy to add some depth to the game preventing it from being robotic.

Age range on the side of the box says 8+ however I feel that you could teach 5-6 year old children how to play this game and they would be able to catch on. Good fit for all ages!

Conclusions

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A wonderful puzzle game that mixes in some strategy! Light enough to get all ages of the family involved but with enough depth to keep more hardcore gamers involved with the game.

The artwork will draw you to Copenhagen but the gameplay will have you loving every minute of the experience! Pedersen and Granerud landed the mermaid on this one!