I mosey'ed up to the Game Ranch today. Mostly, we played the oldies. The siren song of the new still appeals, but it's tempered by experience. I played Settlers (using the new 3D version, which is pretty if not as easy to use as the basic game), Princes of Florence, Hey, that's my fish, and Geschenkt! And I introduced them to Cash 'n Guns.
Amidst all of this was one new game, City & Guilds. This is an obscure title from '04. I've seen a copy or two, in the hazy lines of a mirage, but never played. There's a full review on BGG, but let me cover the basics. This is a tile laying game, but it's not free form like Carcassone. You add tiles to irregular 'city blocks.' You play a tile from your hand (of three), resolve it, and draw a tile (from three face up choices).
There are four main suits, the guilds. If you play a business of that guild, you have a choice. place one worker and one point of influnece with the guild, or place two workers. When the block scores, whoever placed the most tiles will score 1st place for that block. But if there's a tie for tiles, most workers wins it, so the spare worker matters. Additionally, unplayed workers at the end of the game cost you points. Whenver a block scores, the most influential guild in that city also scores, and pays to the players who have the most influence in the guild. In addition to the businesses, you have markets for each guild. If you play a market, you don't place any workers (so that tile doesn't help you win the block), but get two points of influence with the guild. Markets also increase the value of the block, when it scores. There are also some minstral houses, which don't give you any guild influence, but provide a generous boost to scoring.
After all the blocks score, you have a final scoring for each guild. Each guild scores it's largest chain ... but you are allowed to cross the street to extend chains across blocks. In addition to 'per tile' points, the number of blocks score (as a triangular number). In fact, how much you score when isn't difficult, but it's tough to gauge after a single play. For a block, you figure out how much the block is worth ... and the 1st player scores half of that. 2nd place scores half again, third place scores half of second. Always rounding up.
The adjacency rules also matter during the game, on the first turn tiles can't be adjacent. On the remaining turns, they must be adjacent to a previous tile (again, crossing the street is allowed).
One other rule is that a player who closes a block may place a tavern as a bonus play. Taverns don't give you anything (workers or guild influence) but they do cut chains and add quite a bit to a block's score.
So you compete for control of blocks and control of guilds. But I found the game didn't catch my attention. Too abstract? I suppose so. It felt dry. You don't need to do anything when it isn't your turn. I spent my first game focused on my position, playing a tile, and then zoning. Perhaps looking at the whole board is required to judge the depth (I did lose handily). I supsect it's better with less players (we had five, the max).
City & Guilds played quickly, once the rules were down, taking under an hour (I think). I'd try again; but I'm not sold.
I suspect the problem is this: not enough decisions. You get to pick one tile from three to play. Great! But unlike Carcassone (et al), rotation doesn't matter. So you have less plays to evaluate. Then you may get to decide how many workers to place (1 or 2), but half of the tiles make that decision for you. But there are only 60 tiles to be played (roughly), so that left me with 12 plays, and then drafting 12 replacement tiles. If I'd made 20 plays in the same time, it would have been better. Fixed Fun and all that.
Update: And, as expected, my order arrived while I was in Austin.