Timberrrrrr!
I was very restrained at the UK Games Expo this year and kept my new game purchases to a minimum, I did however pick up Timber Town, the new two player tile laying game from Alleycat Games. I’m always on the lookout for smaller, short playtime and great looking two player games that might appeal to my wife and Timber Town looked to tick all the boxes. A two player only tile laying game with multiple scoring conditions that plays in about 30 minutes. And did I mention it’s about Beavers!
How does it play?
Timber Town will see you and another player taking it in turns to draft tiles featuring different buildings from a moving river and slotting them onto your player board. Similar to games like Tiny Towns, you will be trying to achieve certain patterns of tiles for end game points.
As a quick overview, on your turn you will take one of several actions, either, you will either take a tile from the river, and place it in the corresponding column on your player board. If the tile has a token icon, you will gain that token which will provide benefits either the turn you have taken it, or on future turns. The other main action you can take is to place a raft onto a tile on the river, reserving it for a future turn as it moves down the river. If neither of these actions appeal to you, you can always pass. There are a number of free actions using the tokens, such as claiming the tile beneath your raft, using a crane to place a tile anywhere in your town, or a dam to take an additional tile following the normal movement rules. You can also scuttle you bonus tokens to create walkways which can be useful for scoring beavers, or placing tiles that don’t quite line up.
There is a suggested set of cards for scoring your first game or two while you get used to how it plays, but after that there is a number of cards for each coloured tile that means you have a huge number of potential scoring conditions for both players to try and achieve. What’s nice about the end game here is that this is not a race to finish, although the first player to finish will get a 5 point bonus. The game ends when both players can’t claim any more tiles, meaning you can risk the hope that the tile you need might still appear!
Is it any good?
The tiles, wooden tokens and the other components are of really high quality, and the art is beautiful particularly for a game of this price. I’ve bought so many other games at this price point which have far worse quality components, in fact I’ve bought much more expensive games that have worse components.
The good things about this game are numerous. Other than the art and the components, the game is easy to teach and learn, and I think it’s something that will appeal to new gamers and also offers depth and strategy with some of the more complex scoring cards which can be used. There is also no direct conflict and this is quite a calm and relaxing experience to play.
The river mechanism is the star of the show here, where at the end of each round tiles move down the river, which combined with you predominantly only being place tiles the corresponding river spaces onto your board.
A minor criticism is that the icons on the tiles could be a little clearer, particularly on the construction tiles to show you which benefit you will gain. Maybe its just my poor vision, but the tiles are quite large and I think some of the colours and icons could have been larger given their overall size. I would also say the rulebook isn’t the clearest, it’s fine for learning the game but there were a couple of situations where we were playing where things were a little ambiguous and the rulebook didn’t provide full clarity and I had to turn to the internet for answers.
Final thoughts
Despite these minor, and I do mean minor criticisms, Timber Town is a wonderful two player game. Whereas so many 2 player only games are often focussed on conflict, here the worst that can happen is that someone can take the tile you were planning on taking and at the end both players should have built up a lovely colourful player board. Although this is simple to teach, with the variety of cards there is a lot of depth and enough strategy to keep seasoned gamers interested. The production quality for the price is absolutely fantastic, and the tiles themselves are unlikely to see wear from many many plays. The river mechanism is fantastic and helps to add to the interesting choices this game creates.
If you’re looking for a quick, cozy, two player tile layer then Timber Town should be near the top of your list of options and for me rivals other excellent titles like Cascadia and Harmonies.
You might like
Quick set up and playtime / easy to learn / lots of replayability / lack of conflict
You might not like
Icons on the tiles could be clearer / rulebook could be a little better / might be too quick and light for some players
Artwork – 4
Complexity – 2
Replayability – 4
Player Interaction – 2
Component Quality – 5
