Vegas Showdown

Have you ever wanted to be a big Las Vegas tycoon like Howard Hughes, Donald Trump, or others? Now's your chance with Vegas Showdown.

Each player starts with a blank mat that lays out their hotel/casino. One end, the casino is yellow. The other, the hotel is blue. In the middle is a blank white area. The rooms of the hotel/casino are represented by different size and color tiles. Yellow casino tiles match up with the yellow and white areas of the mat. Blue hotel tiles match up with the blue and white areas of the mat. There are also green tiles that can go anywhere. The borders of the tiles have breaks in them to represent doors, the you need to match up with doors of adjoining room tiles. Casino tiles must be placed to that a path can be traced back to the front door of the casino. Likewise for hotel tiles.

So, how do you get tiles? Each round consists of several steps. The first is "Flip new tiles". A card is read that triggers some event, for example, Slot builders on strike. This means that you can't gain a slot room this round. The card then specifies the size of the tile that comes out. The tile specifies how much is the opening bid. At any one time there are up to eight different rooms out for bid. Each round that a room isn't bought, it's minimum price is reduced.

The next is collect income. So, you'll get paid a certain amount based on your income and population counters. More on that in a moment.

The third is "Place bids". Each player in turn will place their bids for the building of their choice. You can get zero or one room each turn. If another player outbids you, you can move your bid to a different room tile or opt out of the bidding.

Step four is "Place tiles". Once you have won the bid, you place the tile on your mat per the above rules. The tile also specifies one, two, or three things. The first is income. The tile will say something like "Increase your income by 3", so you move your income marker up three. You only do this when you place the tile. The second is population. You adjust it similarly to income. At the beginning of each round, you get income equal to the lower of these two. The third thing is fame points. At the end, the winner will be the person with the most fame points.

The game ends when either a player has filled their mat or a card calls for a tile size that doesn't exist in the supply. You get additional fame points for things like filling in all the hotel or casino areas or have doors connecting the casino door to the hotel door. Vegas Showdown is a great game for 3-5 players.