City of Iron : so many resources !

Needs a LOT of real estate!

So i've heard Jon's comments about it (not really good) and Joel also has commented about it (not favourable either) and also Lance's view about it (he likes it) so when Dion managed to get his copy to Singapore, he was eager to bring it out to see how it goes.

Its a medium weight deck building game and from the deck you build, you purchase buildings and compete for 10 different types of resources which will give you income and points during 3 scoring rounds. Deck building is also separated into two types of cards, economy and military which provide different benefits, depending on which direction you decide to go towards.
Its my first play of it so I won't pass a quick judgement because it left me feeling conflicted. On one hand it kinda feels like it has potential  because the deck building aspect is intriguing. However, the sheer number of resources which you can compete for and the number of cards you can purchase to build your deck can be quite daunting to a new player. It will definitely require more plays to get a better sense of how things are going and how the game plays.
Artwork wise its kinda cartoony and not really my cup of tea but its ok and quite functional. It takes up a LOT of room to play because of the potential to expand your city and conquer new territory. The main resource besides money is books (or research). I did not like the high reliance on books though, even more so than money sometimes it seems.
There is quite high interaction because players are competing for the same 10 resources (initially probably only the first 4 can be reached and later on when players expand, they can tackle the other 6) and you can attack each other to steal their holdings.
So all in all, it will take several plays for one to get a good grasp of the game and to decide if its a good game or not. Try before you buy!