Manhattan

A game by Andreas Seyfarth published by Hans im Gluck.

There's a building boom going on in Manhattan, but it's not just there. All over the world, skyscrapers are springing up towards the sky. The players must build as many as possible, in Manhattan, in Cairo, in Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, Sydney and Hong Kong.

The only question is, do they prefer to build their own blocks, or is it easier to take them over from their opponents? Each player must decide for themselves, but who is going to quietly stand by and watch while someone else takes over that skyscraper that you just spent so much time and effort building?

Contents

Preparation

Each player chooses one colour. The 24 building elements in that colour make up their stock but they can be left in the box for the moment.

Each player then places their score marker at the base of the scoring table.

Next choose a starting player. They take the yellow marker to remind everyone who starts the round.

Finally shuffle the cards and deal four face down to each player. The remaining cards are left in a pile face down by the board.

Play of the Game

Starting with the player with the yellow marker, each player takes 6 building elements in their colour from the box, and puts them down in front of them. The remaining elements stay in the box for the present. Only when all these six elements have been used may the players take more.

Now the first player chooses one of their cards, lays it down face up, and places a building element onto the relevant block in any of the six cities. (see under "Use of Cards", and "How to build"). Then they draw one new card from the deck.

The other players, in clockwise order, each carry out the same three actions, play a card, place an element, draw a new card.

Once all players have used all six building elements, then the first round is over. They now receive scores for their buildings, (see under "Scoring"). They place their score markers onto the appropriate space on the scoring table.

Once all scores have been noted, the player with the yellow marker passes it to the player to their left who starts the next round.

Buildings built in earlier rounds stay on the board, allowing cities to develop further until game end. There is no limit on how tall a tower may be.

Each player draws six more building elements in their colour and the second and subsequent rounds are played as per the first. At the end of the fourth round all building elements have been used up, and once the scores for the last round have been worked out, the game is over.

The player with the highest score after the fourth round wins the game.

Use of Cards

When playing a card the player should lay it down next to the board with the two squares against the board. The small red square shows which of the nine building plots in each city may be built on. The player has a free choice as to which city they build in, so every card allows building on one of six possible building plots.

The building plot shown by a card is different, depending on the direction in which the card is laid. This is not a problem, but it is important that each player plays all their cards in the same orientation throughout the game.

All cards played after the first are laid on top of the first card played so as to maintain this consistency of orientation. They should be played so that only the uppermost card is visible.

A card may be used to build in any of the six cities.

Once all cards have been used they should be collected, reshuffled and replaced face down by the board.

How to Build

Towers belong to the last player to build on them, ie the colour of the uppermost storey designates the owner.

Players may put any size of building element onto empty spaces or onto their own towers.

For towers owned by opponents the following rule must be obeyed, After the new element has been added to the tower, there must be at least as many storeys of the complete tower in the new owner's colour as in the previous owner's. Some examples of this rule are shown at the bottom of page two of the rules.

Scoring

Once all the players have used all six of their initial draw of building elements; the first round is over, and it is time to work out the scores for the round. There are three ways of scoring points.

The Highest Tower

If there is just one tower that is higher than any other, then the owner of that tower receives 3 points. If two or more towers are equal highest then no one gets the points.

Majorities

For every city, any player who owns more towers in that city than any other player gets 2 points. If no player has a majority in the city then no one gets any points.

Single Towers

Players receive one point for every tower they own. They get this point even if the tower has already scored points through beiung the highest overall or part of a majority.

The players each add together all their points and put their marker stone onto the relevant space on the scoring table. In the second third and fourth rounds they add their score for the round to their previous score.

Example

At the bottom of page 3 there is an example of a possible situation at the end of Round 1. This is scored as follows.

Highest Tower
The highest tower is the Blue tower in Frankfurt, the Blue player receives 3 points.

Majorities
Black has a majority in both Frankfurt and Hong Kong, he has two towers in each, the other two players only one. The single Blue tower in Sydney and the single Red one in Sao Paulo also score points for majorities in these two citys for very little outlay. In Cairo and Manhattan, no player has a majority, so no one gets any points for those two cities. Totals here are 4 points for Black, 2 each for Blue and Red.

Single Towers
Black has five towers, Blue three, Red four and Green four.

The total points for the round are therefore, Black, 9 points, Blue 8 points, Red 6 points and Green 4 points. The coloured score markers are moved to the relevant spaces on the scoring track.

End of Game

At the end of four rounds all the building elements have been used. There follows a final reckoning and the player with the highest total score at the end is the winner.

2 and 3 player Games

With 3 players the players take four rather than six elements at the start of each round and play over six rounds. The player with the highest score after six rounds is the winner.

With 2 players each player takes two colours. They take four elements of each of their colours before each round. Players alternately play one building element of their choice. They may play their colours in whatever order they like. Each colour scores individually as if there were four players and the winner is the player with the highest combined score for their two colours.

For patient rule checking, innumerable test games and plentiful good advice, the author and publisher would like to thank: Christian Bonnet, Beate Bachl, Barbara and Dieter Hornung, Michael Meier Bachl, Markus Michalka, Karl Heinz Schmiel, Karen Seyfarth and Hannes Wildner.

Copyright 1994 Hans im Gluck Verlag Munich

This translation John Webley.

Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins

The Godzilla Variant

Well, Manhattan is already a good game. But, after having played a bit too much poker, Eric Moore and I were discussing the game and I said "Well, Ben can't wait to steal a godzilla from an Alan Moon game and play Manhattan with it."

A few minutes later, these rules were born.

Setup and Play

Take any convenient counter (of course, a Godzilla from one of Alan's games is preferred) and set it in the center of any city. For purposes of Godzilla, the cities form a 2x3 rectange that wraps around at both edges. Play of the game is completely normal, except, after you play a card and build a piece, Godzilla moves. If you played a card that let you build in the center, Godzilla doesn't move. If you played a card that let you build in any other space, Godzilla moves in that direction (diagonally if you built in a corner, horizantally or vertically if you built on an edge). Any building that Godzilla steps on is destroyed.

Credits

This sick idea was jointly conceived by Brian Bankler and Eric Moore.

Thanks to Ben Peal for the inspiration.

(The reason that we didn't give the center movement is that we felt giving it a wild move was too powerful, as the center is already a good card to get (IOHO).)

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell