It is the 1960’s. You are the owner of a soda pop company expanding your brand and making it the USA’s best soda. Armed with your marketing and advertising resources, you target specific cities to maximize your reputation. Your company’s reach will rise with the correct timing and Influence, and you will be the Top Pop.

Set-Up

• Shuffle the constructed City Deck based on the number of players and place it face down in the middle of the table.
• Give each player the Soda Company Board of their color.
• Put all 15 Bottle Caps of each player’s color in the middle of the table.
• Any caps of colors that no player is using are returned to the game box. Give players their starting resources:
• 1 cap of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
• 2 caps of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
• 1 cap of their color, a hand of 4 cards, and they select 1 card to place in front of them.
• 3 caps of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
• 2 caps of their color, a hand of 4 cards, and they select 1 card to place in front of them
• The player who most recently owned a soda company goes first, then play continues to the left

Gameplay

Win City Cards

Take all the City Cards in front of all players that you currently have the tallest stack of caps on, and put those cards face down in your score area. These are caps you placed on a previous turn, so you will not win any City Cards on your first turn

FOR EACH CARD YOU WON:

• • All the caps in the tallest stack are given to the player that the card is in front of. Unless you win a card in front of yourself, then the caps in the tallest stack go to the middle.
  • Everyone else who has a stack of caps on the City Card gets them back.
  • If you win your 6th card, you trigger the final round

Place a City Card

Choose one of the City Cards in your hand and either:

• Place the card in front of another player. Take a cap of their color from the middle. This is the only way to get two caps this turn, which can be very important.

OR

• Place that card in front of yourself.

If another player eventually wins this card, you will gain several caps, but you have to wait longer for them. If you place a night card (with a moon on the back), you must place it face down. You still look at it, and if you put it in front of another player, they may look at it (and you still get the bonus cap of their color), but no one else can see what it is unless they win it

Collect Caps

Get 1 cap from the middle, of any color you want

Place Stacks

Using the bottle caps in your supply, place stacks of bottle caps on any number of City Cards you want (no more than 1 of your stack of bottle caps per card, though) . These represent marketing resources you are committing to building your reputation in that city.

Draw a Card

If there are any cards in the deck, take the top card of the deck and place it in your hand. If the deck is empty, skip this step.

End of Game

When a player wins their 6th card at the beginning of their turn, they have triggered the end of the game. This will be their final turn. Then each other player will have one more turn, and then the game ends.

On your final turn, do not place a City Card from your hand. Otherwise, take all the same actions as usual. Any City cards left in your hand will not be used in this game; you can put them back on top of the deck. After the last player’s final turn, any City Cards still in front of players is won by whichever player has the tallest stack on them. Any City Cards with no stacks or any City Cards in players’ hands are discarded. No one wins them

Scoring

• The cards in your score pile will be scored to determine the winner.
• If you have more cards of a city than anyone else, you get 2 points per card of that city.
• If you are tied for most cards of a city, you instead get 1-point per card of that city.
• Then get diversity points for how many different cities you have in your score pile:

1 city= 0 points , 2 cities = 2 points , 3 cities = 4 points, 4 cities = 6 points, 5 cities = 8 points, 6 cities = 10 points, 7 cities = 12 points

• The player with the most points wins. If players are tied, the player with more caps wins

First Impression

Top Pop was a game I was excited to play, as I was curious at exactly how you’d make a game about soft drinks (soda or pop for our North American readers). As it interested me & I like these off the wall themes; where they take something that seems so mundane in everyday lift & make a game from it.

Sometimes with these simple & out-there themes, it can limit the gameplay or the options you can take the game & if Top Pop wasn’t made by Talon Strikes Studios, I’d have been more worried than excited. Yet with hits like Night Market, Shadow Network & so much more, I was more excited than worried.

So, let’s pop that top & see if we will be the Top Pop or whether it will be flat?

Gameplay

To get in the mood for this game, I invited my friends over, brought more soda than I think I have brought in the last 5 years & sat down to become a Pop Magnate

Top Pop is weird, as it seems quite simple at first. Place bottle caps put the must caps & win cities. Simple right? Yet, this is anything but simple, as like so many trick-taking games it is a fine-tuned balancing act of ensuring you have the right cards in play, the right color caps & keeping your run timed perfectly.

I had invited a new group of friends over, as they are still new to the world of board games & only just discovered Kickstarter. We quickly went through the rules, finished several bottles of soft drink & were full of sugar. We played a slow open hand game, by the third round they had it all down so we played a real game.

It was so fun watching them discover little things, like the balance of colored caps, and smart or more efficient ways to try and outsmart each other.  As much as I enjoyed the game, seeing the new players play a game & seeing them really get an understanding process was amazing.

And that is just a true testament to the gameplay, as it is simple to learn but has a level of depth that allows players to really sink their minds into outplaying one another.

Art

The Art for Top Pop was done by James Churchill, a man for who I have had the pleasure of reviewing several games he has done the art for including Talon Strikes own Night Market.

James has a knack for making a simple card transport you around the world, or in this case, around the US. It isn’t easy to make a small card instantly recognizable as a well-known American city without even needing to read the text. Or give a Soda bottle so much personality, that it seems like a brand you know but is completely made up.

I really enjoy the gameplay of Top Pop, but it is the art for me that really takes this from a fun game to a great game that commands the table & I can’t wait to play with the actual soda caps, as they look amazing!

Final Thoughts

Top Pop is a smooth, engaging & thought-provoking game that suits beginners, small box fans or as a refreshing palette cleanser between heavier games. It is a quick, fun & delightful thinking person’s game that you will have a lot of fun with.

And the “The player who most recently owned a soda company goes first” is a clever touch. But more weirdly a rule we had to follow, as Shane worked for Coke & actually owns a number of shares in the company.

Top Pop is currently closing in on its goal and on the way to becoming another hit for Talon Strikes Studios, so if you would like to get your hands on a copy head over to their Kickstarter here