Published by Blatz, 1996
Designed by Hanno & Wilfried Kuhn
2-5 players
English rules translation by Chris Mellor.
Typed and distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins.
Version 1.2
Sort out the five base cards (the ones with bushes and trees) and place them face up in a row so that there is enough room to build upwards.
Place the three Finito cards face up to the side, to the left of and next to the base cards. No 1 is placed at the bottom, No 2 in the middle and No 3 on top.
Prepare the tower cards. With two players, remove five cards of each architectural style, with three remove three, with four remove one and with five remove none.
Shuffle the remaining tower cards well and deal three to each player.
With the remaining cards, make three equal piles (dealing onto each) and place each one face down on a finito card. Make sure that the numbers on the finito cards are still visible. With 3 to 5 players, one or two cards will be surplus and are removed from the game.
Turn over the top card of each of the three piles.
Each player takes a set of power chips in one colour and keeps them face up in front of him.
Place the flag cards to the side, face up. These are only used at the end of the game for scoring.
The Oldest Player begins.
By the clever placing of cards, you build up a tower by one storey, or slow down the highest developments. During the building phase you bet on which tower will be the highest at the end of the game. Whoever wins the highest number of power points has won.
Play proceeds clockwise. Each turn, when it is your turn, you perform the following three actions:
1. You place one of your tower cards onto one of the towers already on the board and in the same architectural style. Depending on how much you wish to increase the tower, you may play an additional one storey, two storeys or three storeys - by overlapping the cards to the markers - see illustration on Page 6 of the German rules.
2. If you wish, you can now make a tower bet, though this is optional. To bet, you use your power points. These are placed under the base card of the tower which you think will be the highest at the end of the game. However, you may only bet on a tower that is currently indicated on one of the three face up draw piles and you may only ever bet one power point chip - that is of 1, 2 or 3 value. Also, the bet must be at least as large as the number of storeys you have placed that turn - ie a 2 or 3 chip if you have added two storeys.
NB The betting chips are placed in order under the towers so the order can be determined later. If you make an additional bet on a tower where you already have a chip in place, place the new bet next to the existing bet to retain your position.
3. You draw a card, so that you again have three cards in your hand. You must take it from the deck which corresponds to the number of storeys you have just played - ie if you added one storey, you must take the cards from the No 1 draw pile. Finally, to end your turn, turn over the face down card on the draw pile.
As soon as the last tower card of a deck has been drawn the game ends. On the top of the highest tower, place the flag marker with the value 8/4. The second highest gains the 6/3 flag, and so on down to fourth place. Note that no flag is placed on the shortest tower. If there are two or more equally high towers, then the tower that is closest to the draw piles gains the higher valued flag. ie The tower closest to the left has priority.
Score points tower by tower, starting from the tower with the lowest value flag. Whoever has the most power points bet on that tower gains the higher of the two point values on the flag. The second placed player gains the second value on the flag. If two or more players tied for a position, the player whose power points are highest (ie were placed first) wins the tie. All other players are powerless and receive nothing (ie those that didn't come first or second). Score the other towers in exactly the same way.
Finally, calculate your total number of points. The player with the highest total is the winner.
Instead of being able to bet only on a tower which is depicted on the draw decks, you may instead play the variant that allows bets on a tower onto which you have played a card.