Expo '17: The Haul - Part #4

Flip City: Wilderness by Chih-Fan Chen is the next item on the list from my Expo '17 haul.

Inspecting the box and reading over the blurb, this game appears to be being billed as both an expansion to the original game (which I also own a copy of) and, also as a stand-alone game. Although, from what I recall of the solitaire variant of the original game (which is the version of the game I play most); it wouldn't be practical to just combine the two sets.

This is because that variant very much relied on having only a small number of cards in the game in order to maintain the level of challenge for the player; which personally I found was significantly reduced just by adding the in-box "Office Expansion" included with the original Flip City game. An expansion that consisted of only one additional pile of cards.

The problem (if problem is the right word) was that the solitaire variant included with the original game had the player remove a card in one of the remaining piles from the game at the end of each of their turns as a form of timer. If at the end of a players turn they could not remove a card from the game (because all of the piles have been depleted), and the player had not yet met one of the victory conditions; then they had lost the game.

It was simple, and it worked; but it's far from flexible, leaving little to no wriggle room for expansion.. Yet here we are!

It'll certainly be interesting to see just how (and if) the designer has addressed this issue; and how these two sets come together. Personally, I suspect it'll be resolved by only playing with a set number of card types, possibly being selected by their respective purchase and upgrade costs. We'll see though.