Babylon Tower Builders Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• A: The Tactical Game
  • Overview
  • Preparation
  • Play
    • Bridges
    • Nobles
    • Special Move
  • First Round
  • Knocked Down Pieces
  • Game End
  • Scoring
  • Winning
  • Variant – The Expert Game
• B: The Fast Game
  • Overview
  • Preparation
  • Play
  • Knocked Down Pieces
  • End of Round
  • Scoring
  • Winning
  • Variants
    • With a Stop Watch
    • The Expert Game
• Appendix
  • Definition of a Connected Building

A: The Tactical Game

Overview

Players take turns building a common structure. The object is to position their nobles (as majority per level) to score the most points at game end.

Preparation

• Each player selects a color taking all the nobles of that color.
• Each player also receives the following building parts according to the number of players. The remaining pieces are all put away, as these are not used in the game.

Number of players	Towers per player	Bridges per player
3	27	6
4	21	5
5	16	4

Play

• Select one player as the starting player for the first turn.
• The remaining players take their turns in clockwise order.
• Players continue taking turns until the game ends.
• All the players construct one building together.
• Each player must place 4 or 5 pieces (building parts or nobles in any combination) during his or her turn.
• If a player cannot place at least 4 pieces, then he or she may not place anything and the game ends. Note: If there is a possible move to place 4 or 5 pieces, then the player must do that.
• At the end of every turn the building must be connected (see appendix for the definition of a connected building).
• All building parts must be placed "correctly" according to their design, this means at right angles. Specifically, the arch of the bridge may not be placed directly on top of another piece.
• Once a piece (building part or noble) has been placed, it may not be taken back or relocated.

Bridges

• Towers (and ends of bridges) which are placed on top of a bridge must be placed either exactly in the center or at one end.
• Two bridges also may not be placed directly and congruently above each other (see image).

Image: Not allowed: two bridges placed directly and congruently above each other. Allowed.

Nobles

• Nobles may only be placed on towers and in an upright position.
• On every tower there may be only 1 large noble or up to 2 small nobles (or 3 with 5 players) in different colors. Note: There may never be 2 nobles of the same color on a tower.

Special Move

• If a player has only placed bridges and towers on his or her turn (i.e. no nobles), then at the end of the turn he or she may switch the positions of any 2 nobles played previously.
• These nobles must be of the same size (i.e. either 2 small or 2 large ones).
• This also should not result in having 2 nobles of the same color on a tower.

First Round

Additional restrictions apply for the first round:

• Players may not place nobles.
• The starting player may not build higher than 2 levels.
• Further every player must extend the base area of the building on his or her turn (this is automatically fulfilled for the starting player). The base area is the area that the building covers when viewed directly from above.

Example: After starting player's first turn – 5 pieces, not higher than 2 levels, no nobles.

Knocked Down Pieces

If any pieces from the building are knocked or fall down, these must be put back into position (as they were) before the game continues.

Game End

The game ends when all nobles have been placed or when a player cannot place at least 4 pieces on his or her turn.

Note: If a player cannot place at least 4 pieces on his or her turn, then he or she also may not make a special move.

Scoring

Points are awarded for every level:

• The player with the most nobles on a level scores points equal to the height of that level.
• In case of a tie no one scores points for that level though.
• The level need not be conjoined (i.e. you count all the nobles at the same height regardless of where they are).
• Players also score 1 minus point per left over bridge (i.e. which they have not placed).

Note: The size of the nobles does not matter for scoring.

A scoring table is available at the end of the rulebook to copy and use for adding up points.

Practical Tip 1: Count the points starting at the highest level. Then remove all the pieces of that level and continue downwards.

Practical Tip 2: Use the scale on the side of the box bottom to measure the height of a level. Place the box bottom upright next to the building with the scale facing towards it.

Example: Channing is playing green. He has a noble on the third level. No other player has a noble there, so he gets 3 points for that. Furthermore he has two nobles on the fifth level. There is only 1 yellow and 1 red noble on this level. Channing then has the majority on that level and gets 5 points. On the seventh level Channing has 1 large and 2 small nobles. Red has 3 small nobles and Yellow also has a small noble there. So no one has the majority on this level and no one gets points for it. Channing has no other nobles but he does have a bridge left over. His total is then 3 + 5 - 1 = 7 points.

Green player's total score: 0 + 5 + 3 - 1 = 7.

Winning

The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie the player who scored on the highest level wins.

Variant – The Expert Game

The expert game modifies the special move in the following manner. A player may only switch nobles that are standing on towers with the same orientation. The orientation of a tower is indicated by the openings on the side and the slit on top. Every tower has four possible orientations. At the end of a special move (even without switching) the player may rotate a tower by 90° (even one with nobles on it).

Note: This variant is recommended for players, who might consider the special move as "too advantageous".

B: The Fast Game

Overview

Every round players construct a building with each of their two neighbors and try to place their nobles as quickly and as high as possible. The player who wins three rounds wins the game.

Preparation

• Each player selects a color taking all the nobles of that color.
• Each player also receives the following building parts according to the number of players. The remaining pieces are all put away, as these are not used in the game.

Number of players	Towers per player	Bridges per player
3	27	6
4	21	5
5	15	4

• Players should sit in a circle so that everyone has a left and a right neighbor within reach.

Play

• The game is played in rounds.
• At the start of a round distribute the building parts as described above in the preparation section (players keep the same color and seating order though). Players must hold their towers, bridges and nobles separate from each other (i.e. they cannot make "preliminary constructions").
• One player gives the signal to start. Then all players simultaneously construct one or more buildings together with each of their neighbors (or separately). So each player has two construction areas shared with his or her neighbors, one on the left and one on the right (players may only place their pieces in these areas). Everyone tries to build as high as possible and place their nobles on these buildings. Buildings may be constructed cooperatively (but need not).
• Hint: Cooperate with your neighbors to build only one building in each of your construction areas if possible.
• All building parts must be placed "correctly" according to their design, this means at right angles. Specifically, the arch of the bridge may not be placed directly on top of another piece.
• Once a piece (building part or noble) has been placed, it may not be taken back or relocated (exception: a small noble may be removed from a tower if there is a large noble there). You may move nobles slightly to the side to make room for other nobles on the same tower though.

Knocked Down Pieces

• If a player knocks building parts down, then he or she must put these to the side on a pile. These may not be used anymore for this round and each one counts as a minus point on the final score of that player in this round. Nobles that have fallen down may be reused.
• If a player has knocked down nobles of another player, then he or she is out of this round. He or she must immediately stop building and may not touch any more parts for this round.

End of Round

As soon as a player has placed all of his or her nobles, then he or she may call "stop". All players must then stop building. The round is also over if no one can build any further. Once a round has stopped no one may hold or touch any of the buildings.

Scoring

• Players score a number of points per noble equal to the number of levels under that noble, if it fulfills all of the following conditions:

  1. The noble is standing on a tower.
  2. The noble is the only one of its color on that tower.
  3. There is no large noble on that tower (other than itself).
  4. There is a noble of another color on the connected building* on which the noble is standing.

  *see definition of connected building in the appendix (pg.13)

• Players do not get any points for any other nobles.

• Every player adds up their points separately for each of their two constructions areas (neighbors).

Example: Channing has 3 small nobles on levels 2, 3, and 4 and one large noble on level 5. The noble on level 4 is standing together with a large noble of his neighbor, so he gets 0 points for that one. His total is therefore 2 + 3 + 5 = 10.

Practical Tip: Use the scale on the side of the box bottom to measure the height of a level. Place the box bottom upright next to the building with the scale facing towards it.

• Players take the smaller one of their two totals. This is their final score for the round.

Example: Channing has scored 10 points with his left neighbor and 6 points with his right neighbor. His final score is thus 6.

Green player's total score for this building: 5 + 0 + 3 + 2 = 10.

• The player with the highest score wins the round. In case of a tie the player with the smaller number of unplaced pieces wins. If this also results in a tie then there are multiple winners.
• A player who knocked down nobles of another player in this round does not score (i.e. he or she cannot win the round in any case).
• Winners of a round each put one of their large nobles to the side. They may not use this piece for the rest of the game. It still counts as an unplaced piece in the case of a tie.

Winning

The first player to win three rounds wins the game.

Variants

With a Stop Watch

Instead of ending a round as described above players may use a stop watch. At the start of the game the players agree to a time (e.g. 5 minutes). All players then have that amount of time to build in a round.

The Expert Game

If all towers of a building have the same orientation, then every player doubles the points for one of their nobles there. The orientation of a tower is indicated by the openings on the side and the slit on top. Every tower has four possible orientations.

Appendix

Definition of a Connected Building

A building is considered to be connected if all the parts are attached to the rest. In other words, there is no subsection that is independent of the rest.

Image: A not connected building, as you can push it apart into independent subsections. A connected building.