Kutná Hora: The City of Silver is a city-building Eurogame for 2-4 players. In this dynamic and interactive game, players construct buildings and mines to increase their production and income, subsequently reinvesting their earnings to expand further. The game is played over either 5 or 6 rounds, depending on the number of players, ending in victory for the player with the highest victory points.

Gameplay

Let’s start with the mechanics. The game revolves around three main actions: building mines, constructing buildings, and contributing to the construction of the Saint Barbara cathedral. Each player has an identical set of 6 cards, each displaying two actions. Only one of the two actions can be taken when a card is played and the other one is forfeited. This mechanism restricts options and doesn’t let players take all of their desired actions. Therefore, planning ahead and playing the right cards is always crucial in this game.

Kutná Hora offers a high level of interaction. In each round, players take turns playing cards, starting with two cards in each of the first two turns, and one card in the final turn. By the time it’s your turn, someone else has most likely taken actions that impact your strategy, such as altering market prices or claiming certain blueprints for buildings. This emphasizes flexible and adaptive planning and the ability to pivot when the game state changes in a negative way.

During setup, each player is assigned three guilds, which dictate the types of buildings they can construct. In three-player games, each player has one exclusive guild and shares one guild with each of the other two players. This setup increases interaction while giving players exclusive control over one resource and its respective building type. Additionally, the randomized selection of available guilds during setup ensures a fresh gameplay experience in every play and improves the game’s replayability.

The player board and its associated bonuses add depth to the gameplay. Whenever a player constructs a building of a guild, they remove the leftmost house token for that guild from their boards and earn a bonus. These bonuses get better with the construction of additional buildings within the same guild. However, focusing solely on one guild also increases supply, lowers the price of the respective goods, and consequently impacts the player’s income. Striking the right balance between production, bonuses, and income is key to mastering this game.

Taxes introduce another layer of complexity. The amount of taxes players need to pay each round varies depending on the types of buildings they construct and their contributions to the construction of the Saint Barbara cathedral. Higher taxes limit investment in buildings, altering the game’s dynamics. We had some plays with low taxes all the way through, and others with really high taxes, which certainly impacted our strategies.

Scoring points in the latter half of the game through patricians is also interesting. Each time a public building is placed on the board, a patrician is added to a pool, awaiting placement on the council. Players can utilize their Income actions and spend money to place patricians from the pool onto the council. This council rewards victory points to all players based on four distinct criteria during the patrician scoring phase. This dynamic means that constructing certain public buildings or hiring patricians could potentially benefit your opponents.

The implementation of the shared market system in Kutná Hora is brilliant. The game includes two cardboard stands, each housing a deck of cards. These decks are used to keep track of supply and demand. The stands also feature indicators displaying the current price of each commodity. Depending on players’ actions, the cards in these stands shift position, influencing the prices of various goods.

Component Quality and Artwork

The game’s component quality and artwork are both excellent. With dual-layer player boards, beautiful art on the main board and tiles, and detailed player pieces, Kutná Hora provides a visually stunning experience. More importantly, the player pieces and some of the other game components are produced with RE-WOOD. This new material is made of wood waste and recycled binding material, offering a premium feel and detailed components. Also, a set of extra tokens in a punchboard as replacements is a thoughtful addition to the box. However, it’s important to mention that the main board and tiles are reflective, which might make it hard for players sitting in certain positions to see everything well.

Final Thoughts

Kutná Hora is full of interesting decisions. Nearly every aspect of the game presents players with choices that significantly impact gameplay. With its high variability, remarkable artwork, quality components, and manageable playtime, Kutná Hora is a game that easily earned its place in our collection. If you enjoy medium to heavy Euros and prefer games with high player interaction, Kutná Hora is a must-have.

Disclosure: We received a review copy of this game. Also, there may be an affiliate link in the links included at the end of this article.