Raising Chicago, that weird dry euro you probably skipped out on

Raising Chicago is one of those games that blends its mechanics in a strange enough way that I'm reasonably certain that I'd wind up accidentally describing a totally different game if I tried to elevator pitch it, like it is Uwe Rosenberg's El Grande with its area majority, auctions, set collection,  worker placement,  engine-building, and resource management. It sounds like too much, but it gets simplified since you're always focused on being able to afford the next round.

Each of Raising Chicago's rounds sees its players placing their bid tokens on project spaces to grab resources until everyone's spent, when winners get uncovered resources before paying, grabbing the card for their company engine, and placing projects, and losers add their tokens to the next round's pool. Projects come in two flavors, move (which gives one-time bonuses and plops down prestige buildings that confer end-game points to adjacent buildings) and raise (which puts out actual player buildings for the area majority game).  Extra tokens on won projects turn into stories, simultaneously extra victory points and an additional piece for winning area majority, but tokens on projects other players win are carried over for next round.

I wound up picking myself up a copy, and I'll say after playing a full game I like a game that changes its shape as play progresses, and players’ shifting priorities from round to round forces Raising Chicago to feel constantly different, if not necessarily new. Sure, the core gameplay isn't going to go through any wild metamorphosis, but how you have to approach it will, kinda like how even the most familiar river will change depending upon its water level.