Santorini: New York Board Game Overview
It’s been a little over three years since we presented one of our favorite abstract-game-turned-hobby-game, Santorini. To refresh your memory, the original game of Santorini was self-published in the early 2000’s by the creator. In 2016, Roxley Games ran an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding campaign to bring an accurately themed version to market. Utilizing the original ruleset, the developers at Roxley added the feature where each player plays the game as a different god with unique powers. That’s when Spin Master stepped in to bring a retail version to a much larger market through big-box and online retailers.
When we first heard of Santorini: New York, our first thought was, “that’s a fantastic idea for a theme”. One of the most famous photos of Manhattan is of a line of construction workers taking a lunch break high atop a building. You could not recreate this non-OSHA approved scene today, but the image is ingrained in most people when thinking of New York. Re-theming Santorini, which is effectively a city-building game, to embrace the largest American city is a stroke of genius.
If you already own Santorini, why should you spring for Santorini: New York? The underlying mechanics of the game are the same – on your turn you will move one of your two workers and build a building in an adjacent area. As mentioned earlier, the previous version utilized God cards which gave that player a special rule-breaking ability for the entire game. This lovely feature is also one of the most criticized features of the game. Players felt that a bad draw at the beginning of the game might handicap them. We didn’t find this to be the case and is just a perceived disadvantage, especially against other specific gods.
In Santorini: New York, your abilities will change with every turn! At the beginning of the game, sets of tarot-sized cards are selected to use, with a recommendation for the first game. These Role Cards still have individual abilities, but the deck will be shuffled and dealt out in hands of five to all players.
This version is played in rounds with each person selecting one of their cards from their hand and revealing it simultaneously with everyone else. Cards are numbered and will determine play order. Whomever played the highest-numbered card will go last but will also receive the Statue of Liberty figure. This special miniature is needed to win the game.
Then, in order from lowest to highest, players take turns moving and building (as in the original), taking note of the specific requirements on the card they played. Some allow you to build twice, others allow for special movement and a couple even give you the ability to alter the position of the other players! Unless the ability says, “If Possible”, if you cannot complete the special ability with your workers, one of them is removed from the game. Lose both workers and you are eliminated! You’ll also lose a worker if you cannot move and build!
After four complete turns, you will have one card left in your hand. The discard pile is shuffled, and all players are dealt four more cards to bring their hand count back up to five. Turns continue until someone can complete one of the three ways to win a game of Santorini: New York. If you are the only player with workers left on the board, you win by default. If playing with the Engineer Role Card, playing that card and meeting its special win condition will earn you victory early. And of course, there is the original way of winning – move one of your workers to the third level of a roofless building and be in possession of the Statue of Liberty mini (meaning you went last that turn)!
This latest version is as well-made as the original with plastic buildings, tarot-sized cards (you’ll want to sleeve these) and a multi-layered board to help keep the buildings from sliding around. Santorini: New York is the best of two games and is priced at the same level as its predecessor. Ask for a copy at your favorite local game store or grab it online from Amazon. We wonder if Spin Master will continue with other location themes for Santorini. We’re closely watching their website along with their Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out more!
What city would you love to see represented in this line of games?
Great overview! We recently attempted game play but couldn’t figure out the move function. It says it’s a move and build play but if for instance you have the Architect who can obviously build but doesn’t have a move feature on the card itself what do you do? ? Can you still make à move of 1 in any of the 8 directions if they’re not blocked?
Same question for the Law Enforcement Officer in purple… It shows you can move a character but what about movement of yourself? And then what about the. Uild feature for that turn?
Does this make sense?
Hello, Kristen. Thanks for the kind words about our article! Sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been traveling a lot for conventions lately so I missed this comment coming in! I’ll do my best to answer your question. I don’t have the game in front of me, and don’t have the cards to reference. But if I recall correctly, the special rules are in addition to or an amendment to the base rule of move and build. I don’t recall any that completely take away the ability to move or build. For example, some of the cards say “End of your turn” then list a special movement or rule. So you move and build THEN do whatever the special rule. Others refer to “Start of your turn” so you take that action THEN do your regular move and build. To the best of my recollection, that’s how those rules are designed. I’m going off memory and not positive since we haven’t played it recently though. For the past several months, boop. has been our 2-player game of preference so if your question had to do with booping cats off the bed, I might be able to answer with more confidence. LOL Hope this helps a little. If you can pull out your copy and comment what the Architect (which I don’t even remember having) and Law Enforcement cards say, that might help jog my memory.