Mayor of Chicago — Can You Win Your First Campaign? | Solo Playthrough

Description provided by One Last Hand on YouTube:

Welcome back to One Last Hand. This is Mayor of Chicago — a solo playthrough of a clever little city-building and election puzzle where we are trying to outmanoeuvre our rival mayoral candidate by building the right grid, hiring the right assistants, and turning money, popularity, booze, power, corruption, and votes into a winning campaign. This one ended up being a proper thinky solo puzzle. We talk through the structure of the game at the start, then play the full run out: choosing an opponent, building the city row by row, triggering events, hiring assistants, managing discards, and trying to squeeze enough votes out of the board to beat the target score. On One Last Hand, the focus is usually full playthroughs of campaign and narrative board games played through to the end — but from time to time I also like digging into smaller solo games like this when they look interesting. Watch more on the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@OneLastHand YouTube Members get early access to playthroughs and exclusive content as soon as it’s recorded. Join here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJ004EhAQNR35cdaj1kVQw/join One of the most interesting things in this playthrough is how Mayor of Chicago balances its scoring puzzle. A lot of the tension comes from deciding whether to expand the grid, hire an assistant, or discard for income — especially when discarded cards help you in the short term but cost votes later. If you were curious how the grid scoring works, how assistant placement pays out, how popularity reduces hiring costs, or how the event row pressures your build, this run gives a good look at all of that in action. There is also a lot of live decision-making around money management, power thresholds, corruption pressure, booze as a flexible resource, and the final scoring squeeze. If you spot an error please add a timestamp in the comments to help me and other players. BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/413252/mayor-of-chicago Enjoyed this? Here’s more from One Last Hand – all played to completion: • ISS Vanguard → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFlo-gN0t8WEuSoveis2-Rz7U • The Dark Quarter → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFloZsPyQyFA8QbYwlM78p0Qk • Mythwind → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFlozOIMpS9fNF0arBtl3Q3Ws • Kinfire Chronicles → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFlq-o8K13dwCyP-ieQ48fmsa • Kingdom Legacy Series 1 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFlpHNODZ7_Yq0dD7x1xYQGar • Dragon Eclipse → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRsH-oyKFloXz3oj7QfTQOunBUmHfERv You can support the channel by becoming a YouTube Member. There are three membership tiers: Member (£0.99) Includes loyalty badges, custom emoji, members-only videos, members-only chat rooms, and members-only polls. Member+ (£3.99) Includes early access to new videos, plus all perks from previous levels. Supporter (£8.99) Includes connecting on social media, plus all perks from previous levels. Chapters: 00:00 Intro + choosing a rival candidate 01:54 How the grid, events, and scoring work 09:39 Starting the campaign 13:54 First hire + first event trigger 17:54 Building power and income 24:14 Hitting the event row 28:42 Big popularity swing 33:30 Mid-game scoring pressure 37:06 Huge assistant combo 40:44 Final scoring 42:58 End thoughts #MayorOfChicago #SoloBoardGaming #BoardGamePlaythrough #OneLastHand