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About Welcome To...
Welcome To... is a flip-and-write about planning a suburban street. Three pairs of cards are revealed each turn, each pairing a house number with an action, and everyone picks one pair and writes that number onto one of their three streets. Numbers must ascend along each street, so a badly placed 12 can wall off half a row for the rest of the game.
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Is Welcome To... Right for You?
Best for
Welcome To is the tighter, more agonising of the two big flip-and-writes. Every number you write closes options permanently, which produces a lovely mounting pressure across the game. It scales to any group size and plays in about half an hour regardless, making it excellent for larger, mixed tables.
Maybe skip it if…
The ascending-order constraint is unforgiving and a run of bad numbers can leave you unable to place anything useful, which some players find punishing rather than tense. It is also almost entirely non-interactive beyond racing for the plan bonuses.
How to Play Welcome To...
Setup
Give each player a city sheet and a pen. Shuffle the three construction decks and reveal the top card of each.
On Your Turn
- Look at the three visible number-and-action pairings.
- Every player simultaneously chooses one pairing, writes the number into a house on one of their three streets, and applies the action.
- Numbers must be strictly ascending from left to right along each street.
How to Win
The game ends when a player fills their sheet or three construction stacks are exhausted. Score parks, pools, estates and plans; highest wins.
💡 Strategy Tips
Take the city plan bonuses early. They are worth double to whoever completes them first and nothing much afterwards.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Writing numbers in the middle of a street early. Central placements split a street into two narrow ranges and are the main cause of dead sheets.
- Ignoring the city plans until late. They award more to the first player who completes them, so a late completion is worth far less.
- Forgetting to use the actions. The number is only half of each card, and players who choose purely on number leave a lot of value unused.
- Not tracking refusals. Each pass costs you a permit refusal, and three of them ends your game early.
Advanced Strategy
- Place your first numbers at the extremes of each street. Ends preserve range; middles destroy it.
- Estates are worth chasing seriously. A completed run of matching house sizes scores far more than scattered improvements.
- Count how many duplicate numbers you have used. Duplicates trigger the bis rule and can quietly fill a street you meant to keep open.
- When two plans are close, commit to the one nobody else appears to be building. Second place on a plan is worth roughly half.
Variants & House Rules
The alternate city plan sets
The base box includes multiple plan cards, and drawing a different trio changes what you build toward. Rotate them every game.
Welcome To New Las Vegas / Welcome To The Moon
Standalone follow-ups; The Moon adds a campaign structure across linked scenarios and is the bigger departure.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Welcome To is the flip-and-write with the sharpest teeth. The ascending-number rule is simple to explain and produces genuinely difficult decisions from the third turn onward. We reach for it when the group is large and we want everyone thinking hard rather than waiting their turn.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many players does it support?
Effectively unlimited, since everyone plays simultaneously from the same revealed cards. Any number from one upward works.
Is it too random?
The card flips are random but identical for everyone, so the game is about who plans best around the same information.
Which Welcome To should I buy?
The original for a straightforward, excellent game. The Moon if you want a campaign with evolving rules.