Published by Piatnik, 1995
English Rules Translation by Stuart Dagger
Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins
(2), 3, 4 or 5 players
The players compete for possession of the 49 buildings. The aim is to get the largest group of contiguous buildings and with it the most points. To that end it is important, during the course of the game, to keep an eye on and to hinder the growth of the territories of the other players.
The board shows 7 horizontal avenues crossed by 7 vertical streets. The resulting crossings give 49 spaces/buildings.
Some of the cards have red backs and others blue. The red refer to the horizontal avenues; the blue to the vertical streets.
Each avenue has 4 cards, making 28 red street cards altogether. Similarly, there are 28 blue street cards, 4 for each street.
There are 5 red and 5 blue jokers.
There are two game end cards, each bearing the word "Stop".
There are 12 action cards. These are not used in the basic game. There are variants for the game and the cards are used in one of those. The rules for the variants are given later.
Each player is represented on the board by a colour and the playing pieces of that colour are used to mark ownership of the player's buildings. The number of pieces owned by each player varies with the number of players in the game.
| No of Players | Pieces | Colours |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 25 | red, blue, yellow |
| 4 | 20 | red, blue, yellow, green |
| 5 | 15 | red, blue, yellow, green, black |
There are five of these and they are used to decide who plays which colour.
These are used to buy buildings from the other players. The number that each player starts with is given in the table below.
| Number of Players | Money |
|---|---|
| 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
The game consists of a preliminary round and a main round.
Before the real game begins, the players place some pieces on the board. The number of each colour depends on the number of players and corresponds to the number of money counters that each player has at the beginning.
| Number of Players | Pieces placed for each colour |
|---|---|
| 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
A piece may be placed on any free space subject to one restriction, which is that a piece may not be placed next to a piece of the same colour. "Next to" in this context means "next to in the same row" or "next to in the same column". There is no restriction on two stones of the same colour being diagonally adjacent. There is a diagram on page 6 of the rule book which gives examples of what is and is not permitted. ("Beispiel" means "example" and "nicht erlaubt" means "not allowed".) (This restriction on placement only applies in the preliminary round.)
Once all the stones in the preliminary round have been placed, the colours each player will use in the main part of the game are allocated. This is done by taking the appropriate colour cards, mixing them and placing them next to each other, colour side down, on the table. Each player then draws one of the cards. The colour of the card is the colour they will use for the rest of the game. Each player then takes the rest of the pieces in their colour.
Now the real game begins.
The player with the red pieces begins by taking the top card from the deck. The other players then follow clockwise. This drawing of cards continues round until each player has at least two cards of each colour (red and blue). An individual player ceases to draw cards as soon as their hand meets this condition. So by the end of the process it is possible that one player could have 6 avenue cards and 2 street cards, while another just has two of each. However, each player will have at least 4 cards in their hand. The coloured backs of the cards mean that everyone can see that this rule is being observed.
From here on the play for each player is always the same.
The play of a red and a blue street card determines a crossing and with it a building. With this play of two different coloured cards, the player indicates which building they wish to acquire. (The best way to describe a building is to give the avenue and the number, e.g. "Park Avenue 49" refers to the crossing point of Park Avenue and 49th Street.)
By playing a joker a player may choose an avenue (red joker) or street (blue joker). Example: A player who plays a red Broadway card and a blue joker may choose any of the intersections on Broadway. A player who plays both a red and a blue joker may nominate any space on the board.
Once a player has played the two cards and thereby chosen a building, they may acquire it.
The two cards that you have just played are placed on the discard pile and you draw new cards from the deck until you again have at least two red cards and two blue cards. If the deck is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
The final phase of the game begins when only 4 buildings remain unowned. At this point place the two game end cards on to the discard pile. The game then continues as before until one of these two cards is drawn. When one of the game end cards is drawn, the game ends immediately.
Each player now counts the number of buildings in their largest connected group. Each of these is worth 2 points. Connections are along avenues and streets; "diagonal connections" do not qualify as connections. The player then counts the number of buildings that they own outside this group. Each of these is worth 1 point. Each money counter owned is also worth 1 point. The player with the largest points total wins. (There is an illustrative example on page 11 of the rulebook. It shows the end position of a 3 player game. Player A owns the buildings marked by the white circles. He has a connected group of 8, 5 buildings outside this group and a treasury of 10. This gives him a total of 16+5+10=31 points. The breakdown for each of the other two players is also given.)
At the beginning of the game (items 5 and 6 in the "preparation for play" list) the twelve event cards are mixed in with the street cards and the whole deck is then shuffled and placed face down next to the board.
There are two types of event cards: those which are played as single cards and those which have to be played in combination with a second card of the opposite colour. When a player plays one of the non combination event cards, they do not draw new cards from the deck, even if the play has left them with fewer than two cards of each colour.
Sanierung/reconstruction: (The deck has two of these, one in each colour.) The Sanierung Card is always played as a single card, ie without an accompanying card of the opposite colour. The inner city is reconstructed. The markers in the 5 spaces in the middle of the board are removed and returned to their owners. Beginning with the player who played the Sanierung Card and proceeding clockwise, each player places a marker on one of these five spaces. This process of playing pieces continues until all 5 spaces are filled and so if there are fewer than five players, some will lay more than one piece.
Ruin: (The deck has two of these, one in each colour.) The Ruin Card , like the Sanierung Card, is played as a single card. Houses in the outskirts of the city fall into decay. The 4 corner sites are cleared. Remove the markers and return them to their owners. Beginning with the player who played the Ruin Card and proceeding clockwise, each player places a marker on one of these four spaces. This process of playing pieces continues until all 4 spaces are filled and so if there are three players, the player who played the Ruin Card will lay two pieces anf if there are five players, one will miss out.
Spekulation/Speculation: (The deck has two of these, one in each colour.) The player who plays the card nominates a player who has more than 8 pieces on the board. This nominated player then removes one of their pieces from the board (owning player's choice) and replaces it with a piece belonging to the player who played the card.
Bauloewe/Property Shark(?): (The deck has two of these in each colour.) This is a joker card with extra features. The card is always played with a second card of the opposite colour. As with the ordinary joker card, the accompanying card determines a street or an avenue and the joker enables the player to choose a building on it. The difference this time is that the building chosen must be one owned by an opponent and the player playing the card takes it over without paying compensation. Just remove the marker of your opponent and replace it with your own.
Statik: (The deck has two of these, one in each colour.) The Statik card is always played in combination with a second card of the opposite colour. The second card determines a street or avenue. The player with the most buildings in this street/avenue loses one (owning player's choice) to the person who played the card.
Players choose the colour that they will play before the preliminary round starts. In the preliminary round they then play using their own pieces.
Each player uses two colours. The set up procedure then operates as it would were there four players: twenty pieces of each colour, 12 money counters to each of the two players, and so on. When it is a player's turn, they may choose which of their two colours to use. You are not allowed to displace your own markers. So when you play two cards to give an occupied intersection and then replace the existing marker with your own, the marker displaced must be one belonging to your opponent. At the end of the game count the size of the largest groups in each of your two colours and to the sum of these two numbers add the number of money counters that you have. This is your score. Unlike in the main game, buildings outside the largest groups do not count.
Partners sit opposite each other. Each player has their own colour and their own money. When you displace one of your partner's pieces you must pay compensation in the usual way. Partners may exchange cards. At the end of the game each player computes their own score and these are then added to produce the team scores.