Sort out the Development Plaques plus their small centre squares and pile them according to colour and shape.
Each player is given one each of the two Player Aid cards and one each of the red-backed cards depicting Housing, Industry and Commerce. Also one Lobby Disc, 15 markers in their colour plus the appropriate dial and also 30 DM.
The 24 Building Zone Plaques are separated into two piles that are then shuffled. One pile has numbers 1-12 and the other 13-24. They are placed face down to the left and right of the board respectively.
From each pack the top three are taken and these six are shuffled together and then turned. On the first three zones turned are placed the green Park plaques, on the fourth is plced a mauve Housing plaque, on the fifth an orange Commerce plaque and on the sixth a grey industrial plaque. The remaining unused Park plaques play no further part in the game.
A Game Leader is chosen and is given the Burgermeister token.
He draws a Building Zone plaque from either of the two piles and reveals it. Should the drawn card be an odd number he draws another. He never draws more than two.
These are put one at a time before the Planning Committee (all the players). By use of their cards depicting Housing, Commerce or Industry, they decide which type they wish to have developed in that particular zone (NOTE: During the later stages of the game you cannot vote for a particular development if there are no further plaques of that type and shape available). Nobody may abstain. During the course of the game each player once has the option of placing his Lobby Disc on his card prior to their being revealed. This doubles his vote. The procedure for voting is that the Burgermeister states whether or not he will be using a Lobby Disc and then each in clockwise rotation states the same. The cards are then revealed. (Note: the 1, 2, or 3 cylinders also depicted on the voting cards have no significance during this stage of play). The Burgermeister has the power of breaking a tie. As a result of the vote the appropriate coloured Development plaque is placed on the space on the board and if there is a second Building Plaque to be voted on the procedure is repeated. Should any players' markers be on the undeveloped space they are transferred to the Deveopment Plaque.
Each player decides by use of the Dial on which area he wishes to place markers. The area in question can be developed or undeveloped. If a player does not wish to buy any markers during a turn he simply dials an area on which there is already Park. He may buy up to 3 markers in a 3-4 player game but only up to 2 in a 5-6 player. He uses the Voting cards - this time making use of the part of the card showing the number of markers - indicate how many he wishes to buy. These are simultaneously revealed and each player immediately pays for the number of markers he hass indicated he wishes to purchase whether or not he is subsequently successful in placing them on the area in question. The amount of payment for the number of markers and whether or not the area in question is already developed in indicated on the KOSTEN card. Starting with the Burgermeister each player places one marker on the board and this continues until either all have placed or are unable to do so.
Any area that has been developed and has four markers on it is complete and immediately makes a one-time payout. The amount of the payment depends upon whether the development is regarded as being 'Efficient'. This efficiency is determined by the four adjacent plaques that share a common side. Housing is efficient if there is no Industry adjacent. Industry needs at least one Commerce to be efficient and Commerce needs at least 2 adjacent Housing plaques to be an efficient development. Parks have no meaning for this. Payment is made as follows:
Each marker is valued at 1DM multiplied by the number of adjacent developed areas irrespective of the type of these developments. But if the area on which the marker(s) stands can be regarded as 'Efficient' this score is doubled. In addition, players receive Bonuses. If all four markers on a site belong to just one player he receives a 10DM or 5DM bonus according to whether the area is Efficiently or Inefficiently developed. Should two players' markers be present on a site the bonus is 2 and 1. If there are more than two players represented there is no Bonus.
Each area is valued only once (although it is still significant in its capacity as an adjacent area). Once payment has been made the small square plaque is placed over the number of the area, the markers are returned to their owners and no further markers can be placed there.
At the end of each round the Burgermeister token is passed one place to the left and the game ends when all areas have been developed, the current round being completed and any developed areas that do not have four markers on them by the end of this final round have no value. The player with the most cash is the winner.