VEGAS BABY!!!!

Here's a game that when I saw it on Tabletop I knew it was going to be a game that I wanted for my own collection. Let me say, I am not at all disapointed with this title.

Lords of Vegas is an adult version of Monopoly with a lot more money being thrown around; you build casinos, place bets at other player's casinos, expand your casinos, try to take over other casinos, and so on.

 

It is a game for 2 to 4 players (plus there is an expansion to add 2 more players - and in my opinion the expansion is only good for that - I will get to that a little later on) and can be played in just over an hour. There is a lot going on during the game but it is a real fun game to play with a group of people.

Everyone starts out with 2 casino cards and they collect the amount of money that is illustrated on the cards from the bank; this is the starting money for that player. The players place their respective colour tokens on the board and these are known as parking lots for future contstruction. Once this is complete, the cards are discarded for the game the rest of the cards are shuffled into a game deck and the final 'Pay the Strip' card is randomly inserted in the bottom part of the deck and shuffled and placed under the game deck.


Each player's turn consists of taking one of five (6 with the expansion) actions; some can be done multiple times, whilst others can only be done once:
1- Build: This can be done as long as you can afford it and trust me money runs out fast in this game. To build you select one of your parking lots and pay the amount required then you select a color building and place it on the empty space. You will notice that on the board there are pictures of dice on the lots, and with certain pips showing, you place one of your coloured dice in the center of the new building and you are now the casino boss (for now).

2- Sprawl: This is a risky move but could pay off in the end; you purchase a completely empty space next to one of your Casinos and pay DOUBLE the amount. Place a building of the same colour as the casino you already own and place the die with the correct number of pips showing. The risky part is that if later in the game another player draws the lot you sprawled to, he takes over without paying anything (places one his or her die inside the building). You can do this action as many times as you wish.

3- Gamble: Yep you got it, simple, you choose a player who owns at least one Casino (is the boss) and gamble up to 5million dollars per building lot in that Casino. However, if the player who owns the Casino only has 2 million dollars, you can only bid that much (if you double your winnings, the bank will pay the difference that the player cannot pay from his own money). You may only gamble once per turn.

4- Remodel: If you are the boss of the Casino, you can change the color of your entire Casino for 5 million dollars per lot. If I am not mistaken you can only do this once per turn.

5- Reorganize: Here is where the fun is... when you and another player have a joint Casino, you can pay 1 million dollars per pip showing on the dice of all players and get everyone to re-roll their dice and you re-roll your dice. Whoever has the highest dice roll (individual die), becomes the new BOSS (be careful, you could lose your advantage or lose possible future earnings). This can be done once per casino.

6- Build-up (expansion): In my opinion this is the most useless part of the expansion and the most expensive to do... if you want, for 15 million dollars, you can add a floor to your casino. All this does is give you more points when a colour card that matches your Casino is drawn. That is all. Worthless in my opinion (for the price).

So how do you get more money and points? Simple, you can win at gambling or get paid by another player for losing at gambling. However, the main way to gain these is every turn: When a player flips a new casino card, there is a colour on it, match this to any casinos on the board and pay every player the amount of pips on ALL of their dice. Now if you are the boss of the casino, you also receive points for the number of buildings in that casino. If a pay the strip card shows up, you do the same as above but for ALL casino's touching the center of the board (the strip) and in the same manner as points and money.

All in all, this is a really good game and I really enjoy it. I find the replay value to be very high since you have no idea what lots you will start with, nor how much money you will start with, the cards are always mixed up and the end game card is randomly inserted in the bottom quarter of the deck.

Excellent game and I truly recommend this one.

5 out of 5 dice.