Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 20 min per person
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 5 min

Glass Road is a card game that requires you to manage your hand and resources to build buildings that score you VPs. The player with the most VPs after four rounds wins.

Glass Road Rules Description:

Each player in Glass Road starts with a landscape board, fifteen specialist cards and their starting resources. These starting boards, cards and resources are identical for each player.

You track your resources on two resource wheels. As you get resources to produce glass and bricks you automatically do so. These resources are used in many of the buildings and are worth one VP each and the end of the game.

The fifteen specialists let you gain resources, place landscape tiles on your board and build buildings there too. Some require a resource to perform their action and others are free. Each specialist has two actions on their card.

The game lasts of four rounds and each round you choose five of the fifteen specialists you want to use. Each round you play three of your five chosen specialist cards. You secretly select the one you want to play first and then the first player reveals their first card. If you have that card in your hand you must play it. If it is face-down in front of you, you may play it. When you play a card that others play (whether from their hand or in front of them) you may use one of the specialist’s two actions. If you are the only player to play a specialist you may use both of its actions. Each round you may only play two specialists out of turn.

Some of the specialists allow you to build a building. You must have the resources to build it and space on your landscape board. Some of the buildings upgrade other ones already on your board. There are three types of buildings. One type lets you change one resource into another. The second type grants you an immediate one time bonus (usually a resource). And the last type scores you bonus VPs based on your resources or board layout.

Once four building rounds are over you add your total VPs and the player with the most wins.

The rules are slightly different for the solo and two-player games.

Quick Review of Glass Road:

Glass Road is a fun role selection, resource management game. You must choose your specialists and use your resources wisely to win.

The components for this game are all top-notch. The art is nice and the rules are well-written with a lot of examples and tips. The resource wheels are nice but may take a bit to understand.

I really enjoy the way you play specialist cards and the way they interact. If you can choose three cards you want to play on your turn and two that your opponents play, you can use all five of your cards. What cards you choose and the order in which you play them really matters. And it is important which action you choose when you only get to use one.

The resource wheel is also interesting and you need to pay attention to it. Since you automatically use your resources to create brick and glass you need the fore sight to plan which resources you move and when. If you don’t you might not be able to pay to use a specialist you have chosen.

Glass Road scales really well. The solo version is a lot fun and challenging. The two player game changes things a bit but holds the same tension and feel as the three and four player game. And the 20 minutes per player is realistic.

Be aware this game will take a couple plays to really get. Since there are multiple paths to victory you to experience it to really learn how to play it well. Knowing the buildings helps a bit but since they come out in a random order it is not a big advantage.

Be sure you remove the Roofing Company building from the game. It has been banned. In combination with a few other buildings it can create an infinite resource engine.

Glass Road is a really fun game that plays quick and has a lot of meaningful decisions. If this sounds like the type of game you’d like, I think you will. You should pick it up. If you are unsure try it out. But I think most gamers that like Eurogames will enjoy this game.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 5 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6