La Città Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Preparation
- Initial board setup for beginners for 5 players
- Setup for experienced players
Playing the Game
End of a Game Year
- Special rule for the 6th game year
End of the Game
- Scoring
Example: Development of a City
Strategy Tips
Initial Setups for Beginners

Components

1 board
141 building tokens
22 terrain tiles
130 citizen figures (dark gray)
20 citizen figures (4 per player color)
32 gold coins
65 food tokens (30 large and 35 small)
74 cards
- 27 voice of the people cards
- 15 action cards
- 32 politics cards
- 5 summary cards
1 starting player token

Preparation

Before the first game, carefully remove all tiles and tokens from their frames.

Place the board in the middle of the table.

Note: the board has several large triangular land areas, separated by the hexagonal paths on which the players will start and expand their cities. The large land areas have different terrain characteristics, randomly determined at the start of each game, except for the areas at the edges of the board. Each terrain type offers neighboring buildings different resources. The area in front of each player is his play area.
Sort the hexagonal building tokens.

Some building tokens are the same on both sides and some have different buildings on each side. Stack the tokens by type next to the board in easy reach of all players. Where tokens have differing sides, create two stacks, one for each side. The arches on the tokens indicate that the building provides services in health, education, or culture.
- Farm house / quarry (40). Create twin stacks, one with the farm house face up and the other with the quarry face up.
- Market place (16). Create a single stack.
- Palace / hospital (20). Create twin stacks, one with the palace face up and one with the hospital face up.
- Statue / cathedral (15). Create twin stacks, one with the statue face up and one with the cathedral face up.
- School / university (15). Create twin stacks, one with the school face up and the other with the university face up.
- Fountain / public bath (15). Create twin stacks, one with the fountain face up and the other with the public bath face up.
Place all the terrain tiles in a single face-up stack.

There are three different types of terrain tiles with the following characteristics:
- Farm land (14). Farm lands provide food, which citizens need to live. Each farm land terrain tile has 1, 2, or 3 food symbols (wheat).
  
  Note: a farm land terrain tile with 1 food symbol can provide one unit of food, a farm land terrain tile with 2 food symbols can provide 2 units of food, and a farm land terrain tile with 3 food symbols can provide 3 units of food. A player can only harvest the food and feed his people if he has built a castle or farm house next to the farm land.
- Mountain range (3). The mountain ranges provide marble to be used in building. When a player builds a quarry next to a mountain range, he can earn gold.
- Lake (5). Water is necessary to the health of a city's population. When a player builds a fountain or public bath next to a lake, the population limit of 8 citizen figures for the city is eliminated.
Each player chooses a color, takes 4 castles in that color, and places them in his play area.

Note: the castle is always the building that a player uses to start a city. When a player starts a new city, he places 3 citizen figures on the castle.
Place the small gray citizen figures next to the board as the general citizen supply.

All players use the same gray citizen figures in their cities. The color of the castle determines which player owns the city. When a citizen changes cities, it changes alliances.
Each player takes the 4 small citizen figures in his color. The use of these figures is explained later.
Sort the cards into three stacks:
- 15 action cards
- 32 politics cards
- 27 voice of the people cards — health, education, culture
Each player takes the 3 action cards in his color (frame on the back) and places them face up on the table in his play area.

The 3 player action cards are the same for each player except for the color of the frame on their backs. Place unused player action cards back in the box.
Prepare the 32 politics cards.

Shuffle the politics cards thoroughly and place 7 face up in the spaces provided at the edge of the board. Place the remaining politics cards face down in a stack next to the face up cards in the space provided (see figure). Used cards are discarded in the space next to the face down stack.
Prepare the 27 voice of the people cards.

Shuffle the voice of the people cards thoroughly and place them face down on the board next to the four brown circles. There are 3 extra cards so that players cannot count cards for the last year.
Place the food tokens and the gold coins next to the board.
- Gold coins. Each player takes 1 gold coin at the beginning of the game. Players may earn gold coins during the game with the help of quarries and the use of action cards.
- Food tokens. A player's food tokens represent the amount of food his cities can produce in a year. They are not a food supply. Players take food tokens when they build castles and farm houses next to farm land.
  - small token = 1 food unit
  - large token = 5 food units
  A player's food tokens are not a food supply or means of payment. They only represent the number of citizens the player can support in his cities.
Each player takes a summary card. Place the starting player token next to the board.

Initial board setup for beginners for 5 players

We recommend players use the initial board setup for their first game. The initial board setups for 2, 3, and 4 players are shown at the end of these rules (see Initial Setups for Beginners).

I. Place the terrain tiles on the board as shown in the setup figure.

II. Each player takes two of his castle tokens and places them on the board as shown in the initial setup figure. After that, each player takes six citizens and places three on each of his castles on the board.

III. Take food tokens.

Note: castles produce food when placed next to farm land. When a castle is next to farm land, it produces as many units of food as there are food symbols on the farm land. There are farm lands with 1, 2, and 3 food symbols. Each symbol allows a neighboring castle (or farm house) to produce one food unit. If a castle is next to two farm lands, the castle produces food from both farm lands.

Each player counts the food symbols on the farm lands next to his castles, takes a corresponding number of food tokens from the supply, and places them on the table in his play area.

IV. Choose a starting player using any method you prefer — perhaps the player who most recently visited Italy. He takes the starting player token and begins the first year.

The different colored paths have special meaning when playing with fewer than four players. For details on this, see Initial Setups for Beginners.

Setup for experienced players

I. One player shuffles the terrain tiles face down and then places the tiles face down on all the empty triangular spaces on the board. After all have been placed face down, he turns them all face up.

II. Choose a starting player. The starting player begins the game with the initial placing of castles. He takes one of his castles, places it on the hexagon of his choice (on one of the paths on the board), and places 3 citizen figures on it. If it is next to farm land, he takes food tokens equal in number to the number of food symbols on the farm land areas.

III. Then the player to his right takes a turn, and then the player to his right, and so on (in counter-clockwise order around the table). Each player places a castle, puts 3 citizens on it, and takes food tokens, if appropriate.

Note: players place their castles so there are at least 3 empty hexagons between the castle, along a path, and all other castles (whether the castle belongs to the player or to an opponent).

IV. When all players have placed their first castle on the board, the last player places a second castle on the board, puts 3 citizens on it, and takes any appropriate food tokens. He is followed by the player to his left, then the player to his left, and so on around the table (in clockwise order).

V. The initial placing of castles is complete when all players have placed two castles. The player to the left of the player who placed the last castle becomes the new starting player and starts the first year.

Playing the Game

The goal

The winner is the player with the most victory points (citizen figures and cities with 3 colors of arches) at the end of the game.

Each year is played in 8 phases:

The sequence of the phases in a game year

change the starting player
lay out the voice of the people cards
quarry earnings (in gold coins)
population growth
five political rounds: players take turns in clockwise order playing 1 political or action card and executing the action on the card
tally the voice of the people
citizen relocation
feeding the citizens

1. Change the starting player

The starting player for the first year is chosen in the setup. After the first year, the starting player gives the starting player token to the player on his left, who becomes the new starting player.

2. Lay out the voice of the people cards

The starting player draws four new voice of the people cards from the stack. He draws the 4 topmost cards, places 1 face up on the dark circle, and the other 3 face down on the other circles.

Note: the four cards are the voice of the people for this year. There are nine cards each of the three services: health, education, and culture. The cards indicate which of the three services the people desire: health (buildings with blue arches), culture (buildings with white arches) or education (buildings with black arches).

3. Quarry earnings (in gold coins)

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player takes their earnings for the quarries they have built next to mountain ranges. For each quarry a player has that is next to a mountain range, he takes 1 gold coin. If a quarry is next to 2 mountain ranges, the player takes 2 gold coins for that quarry.

4. Population growth

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player adds 1 citizen figure to each of his cities. He places the new citizen figure for each city on the castle in that city.

If a city already has 5 citizen figures, a player may not add a citizen figure to the city unless it has a market place. Only cities with market places may have more than 5 citizen figures.
If a city already has 8 citizen figures (and, therefore, a market place), a player may not add a citizen figure to the city unless it has a fountain or a public bath. Only cities with a fountain or a public bath (and a market place) may have more than 8 citizen figures. There are no further limits to adding citizen figures.

Note: when counting citizen figures in a city, count all citizen figures in the castle and all connected buildings.

5. Five political rounds

Overview

There are 5 consecutive political rounds. In each round, the players take turns playing cards, one at a time, in clockwise order, starting with the starting player. On a player's turn, he plays one card and executes the action shown on it. A political round is over when all players have played one card. The next political round follows immediately.

Note: players may expand their cities in the political rounds. The expansion of a city is about food, gold, and the services a city offers its citizens. The services offered by a city are measured by the arches present on many of the building tokens. The arches come in 3 colors: white for culture, black for education, and blue for health. The more arches that a city has of a given color, the more it will appeal to people looking for those kinds of services in a city: culture, education, or health.

In each political round, the player may play one of the two different kinds of cards:

Action cards. Each player has 3 action cards of his own that he may play in the 5 political rounds. To play an action card, he announces the action, executes the action, and places the card face down on the table.

Note: at the end of each year, the players take back any action cards they have played by placing them face up in their play areas. Thus, a player has his 3 action cards available for each set of political rounds.
Politics cards. Instead of playing an action card, a player may take one of the face up politics cards and play it immediately.

When playing a politics card, a player takes one of the 7 face up politics cards, places it face up on the table, executes the action shown on the card, and then turns the card face down. At the end of the 5 political rounds, players place all politics cards played in the politics card discard pile.

A player is not required to play a minimum number of action cards in a set of political rounds. So, for example, a player may play no action cards and 5 politics cards if he chooses.

Action cards

When a player wants to play one of his action cards, he selects which of the possible actions he wants to execute, announces that to the other players, and then places the card face down to show it has been used.

Possible actions on the action cards:

Take 2 gold coins.

Start a new city. The player takes one of his castle tokens and places it on an empty hexagonal space on the board.

Note: players place their castles so there are at least 3 empty hexagons between the castle, along a path, and all other cities (whether the city belongs to the player or to an opponent).

The player moves one spare citizen figure from one of his castles to the new castle. He then puts two citizen figures on the new castle from the general citizen supply. If the new castle is next to one or more farm lands, he takes the appropriate number of food tokens from the supply to represent this added food production.

Note: a player may only start 1 new city each game year.

Build a small building. Small, in this case, means a building that has no more than one arch. The possible small buildings are:
- Farm house (no arch). A farm house (like a castle) produces food when built next to farm land terrain. Thus, a farm house is best built next to farm land as that gives a player the greatest value for the building.
- Quarry (no arch). A quarry produces 1 gold coin each game year when built next to a mountain range. If a quarry is next to two mountain ranges, it produces 2 gold coins.
- School (black arch). A school gives a city one service point in education.
- Statue (white arch). A statue gives a city one service point in culture.
- Market place (no arch). A market place enables a city to grow beyond 5 citizen figures (to a maximum of 8 without a fountain or public bath). Each city may have just one market place.
- Fountain (blue arch). A fountain gives a city one service point in health. A fountain may only be built on a space that is next to lake terrain. To use the ability of a fountain to allow a city to grow beyond 8 citizen figures, the city must also have a market place.

How to build a building

Building a new building is very simple: the player plays the card that allows the building to be built, takes the building token from the supply, and places it on an empty hexagon next to the castle or any other building in the city.

The player then takes a spare citizen figure from the castle in this city and moves it to the new building. To be spare, the citizen figure must not be the last citizen figure in the castle.
When there are no more building tokens of the type wanted, the building cannot be built. If the building being built is one of those with a different building on its back side and there are still tokens in the building's twin stack, the player may use one of these by flipping it over.

Important building rules

Available citizens: A player may only build a new building in a city if he has a spare citizen figure in the city's castle to place on the building. That is, a player can only add a building to a city when he has at least two citizen figures in his castle.

Exception: when building a market place, the player takes a citizen figure from the general supply and places it on the market place. He does not move a citizen figure from elsewhere in the city as with other new buildings.
Building place: A new building must be placed on an empty space next to a building already in the city. Limitation: A player may not build a building that connects one city to another, even if both cities are his. There must always be at least one empty space, along a path, separating two cities.
Fountains and public baths must be built next to lake terrain! To emphasize this, the tokens are marked with blue waves.
A player may not voluntarily demolish a building in one of his cities for any reason. However, a player may be forced to demolish a building if he does not have the population to support it.

Tips for building

The costs

Small buildings do not cost anything! A player need only play an action card to build a small building. When a player wants to build using a politics card, he must pay gold based on the value of the building (the more valuable the building, the more gold it costs). When the card, "master builder" is played, the player must pay to build even small buildings.

Adjacent terrain

Many buildings have value or increased value when they are built next to specific terrain. So, for example, building a farm house next to two farm lands with 2 and 3 food symbols is much more valuable than building it next to a farm land with 1 food symbol and a lake.

Defection

As long as adjacent cities are separated by greater than two empty hexagons, along the path, the people in those cities are content and will not defect. However, when cities are separated by less than three empty spaces, they become neighbors and the people living in the cities will compare services (health, education, or culture) in the two and may choose to defect to the other city.

Politics cards

Instead of playing an action card in a political round, a player may take one of the face up politics cards and play it, but he must play it immediately.

Note: some politics cards require gold payments to be played. A player taking such a card must have the gold to play the card and must pay it immediately. A player may not take a politics card and save it for later when he has the gold or desire to play it.

When a player takes a politics card, he must play it immediately. To play the card, the player places it face up and executes the instructions on the card. Then he places the card face down.
The players place the action and political cards they play face down to track the number of political rounds they have played. When a player has 5 face down cards, he has played 5 political rounds.
There will always be 7 face up political cards for a player to choose from: when a player takes a face up politics card, he draws the topmost card from the politics stack and places it face up in the empty space.

When the politics card stack is exhausted, shuffle the politics cards in the discard pile and turn them face down to create a new politics card stack.

If a player is unable or unwilling to use any of the face up politics cards and has used all his action cards in this set of political rounds, he draws the topmost card from the face down politics stack and places it face down in his play area as his turn in that political round.

There are two kinds of politics cards:

politics cards for building buildings, and
politics cards with other actions.

Politics cards for building buildings

Players use politics cards to build the more valuable buildings. Such buildings are built using the same rules as for the small buildings, but offer more service points and also cost more gold coins.

Note: The higher-valued buildings are only built using certain politics cards. They are not built as small buildings are with action cards. As with the small buildings, when building tokens of one type are exhausted, no more buildings of that type may be built (unless, of course, one becomes available when a player must demolish a building).

Palace: A palace costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 2 service points of culture.
Cathedral: A cathedral costs 3 gold coins to build and provides 3 service points of culture.
University: A university costs 3 gold coins to build and provides 3 service points of education.
Hospital: A hospital costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 1 service point of health and 1 service point of education.

Note: although the hospital provides a service point of health, it does not need to be placed next to a lake. With two services (arches), building a hospital makes it easier to have all three services in a city.

A hospital does not substitute for the requirement to have a fountain or public bath to grow a city beyond 8 citizen figures.
Public bath: A public bath costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 2 service points of health. A public bath must be built next to lake terrain.

Politics cards with other actions

Master builder

When this card is played, the player pays the indicated amount of gold to build one building of his choice:

For 1 gold, any small building (farm house, quarry, school, statue, market place, and fountain).
For 2 gold, any medium building (palace, hospital, and public bath).
For 4 gold, any large building (cathedral and university).

Bread and games

A player can use this card to increase the value of one of his cities in one of the services. He places one of his colored citizen figures on one arch on a building in this city. This adds 1 service point of the kind represented by that arch.

For 0 gold, place one of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.
For 2 gold, place two of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.
For 5 gold, place three of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.

Each colored citizen figure counts as 1 service point of the kind represented by the arch.

When a player places one of his colored citizen figures on a small building, he increases its service value from 1 to 2. For example, if he places one of his colored citizen figures on a school, he increases its education service value from 1 to 2. Similarly, if a player places a colored citizen figure on a Palace, he increases its cultural service value from 2 to 3.

As a hospital has 2 different colored arches, a player must be careful to place his colored citizen figure on the arch he wants to add value to. He cannot choose later.

If a player places 2 or more colored citizen figures on a building, he adds 1 service point for each figure. If a player plays another "bread and games" card, he may add colored citizen figures to this building or to another building in the same city or to a building in one of his other cities.

Note: The colored citizen figures are not citizens. They need not be fed and do not count as population. Each player has just 4 colored citizen markers and is limited to these 4 each year for use with "bread and games" and "rich harvest". The impact lasts for just the current year. After the year is over and scored, the player must return his colored citizen figures to his supply.

Golden times

A player uses this card to add citizens to one of his cities:

For 0 gold, place one citizen in one of your cities.
For 2 gold, place two citizens in one of your cities.
For 5 gold, place three citizens in one of your cities.

Note: with more citizens, a player may add more buildings to a city, but he must also have enough food to feed them or they will leave. A player may not add citizens to 2 cities when he plays this card.

Rich harvest

A player uses this card to double the food production of one of his farm houses for one game year.

The player places one of his colored citizen figures on the farm house (not castle) of his choice: usually, the one that produces the most food. For example, a player who uses this card to add a colored citizen figure to a farm house that produces 4 food in a year, will get an additional harvest of 4 food in the "feeding the people" phase. A player may not play 2 "rich harvest" cards on the same farm house in a game year.

Note: each player has just 4 colored citizen markers and is limited to these 4 each year for use with "bread and games" and "rich harvest". The impact lasts for just the current year. After the year is over and scored, the player must return his colored citizen figures to his supply.

Polling the people

A player uses this card to learn more about the desires of the people for the current game year.

The player looks (without showing or telling other players) at two of the face-down "voice of the people" cards. After looking, he replaces the cards where they were face down.

For 2 gold, a player may look at all 3 face down "voice of the people" cards. The player must decide before looking at any cards, whether to pay to look at all 3 or not.

Note: by using this card, a player knows 3 or 4 of the 4 "voice of the people" cards and can use this knowledge to add buildings with the desired services to his cities.

End of a player's turn in a political round

When a player, on his turn, has played a political or action card, his turn ends. The player to his left now takes his turn, and so on around the table.

End of a political round

When all players have played a card, the round ends and another begins. When all players have played 5 cards, the phase ends.

6. Tally the voice of the people

Turn over the 3 face down "voice of the people" cards. The 4 cards together express the wishes of the people for this game year. This can be for any of the three services: education, culture, or health.

If there are more cards of one of the services than either of the other two, that service is the voice of the people for this year.
If two services tie with 2 cards each, either of the two may be used by players as the voice of the people for this year.

In the next phase, some citizens may choose to relocate to neighboring cities if those cities offer better services matching the service chosen as the voice of the people.

7. Citizen relocation

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player checks all his cities, one at a time in the order he chooses, for relocating citizens.

There is no citizen relocation between the cities of a player.
Citizens will not relocate if the distance between two cities, along the path, is greater than 2 hexagons. Cities greater than 2 hexagons apart are not neighbors.
When the distance between two cities, along the path, is 1 or 2 hexagons, relocation is possible between cities of opposing players.

When a player finds one of his cities that has one or more neighbors, he checks to see if his city has more service points than each neighboring city in the service chosen as the "voice of the people" this year.

If the player's city has more service points, he gets one citizen figure from the opposing city, which he places on the castle of his city.
If a player's city has more service points than several neighboring cities, the city gets 1 citizen figure from each.

Note: if the player's city has no room for the new citizen figure because it has reached a limit, the citizen figure is immediately placed in the common supply.
When a city loses a citizen figure, the owner of the city decides which citizen figure to give up. If the city has extra citizen figures on the castle, the decision is easy and the player gives up one of these. If the city has no extra citizen figures on the castle, the player chooses which building to take the citizen figure from.

Two services tie for voice of the people

When two services tie with 2 cards each for the "voice of the people", both services may attract relocating citizens.

On a player's turn, he decides for each of his cities, separately, which of the two services applies. This service (education, culture, or health) applies in all neighboring cities to this city for this player's turn.

For example: a player with 3 cities in a year when culture and health are chosen, can choose culture for 2 of his cities and health for the third.

On each player's turn, he decides for each of his cities which of the 2 services will be used.

Example: The voice of the people is culture and health. On her turn, Anna chooses health for her city next to Bob's as her city is stronger in health than Bob's. Bob gives her a citizen from his city and she places it on her castle. Then, on Bob's turn, he chooses culture for his city next to Anna's, as his city is stronger in culture than hers. Anna gives him a citizen from her city and he places it on his castle. Thus, in this case, the result is null.

Note: It is possible for a player to have a city that attracts a citizen figure from one neighbor and loses a citizen figure to another neighbor.

Demolishing unsupported buildings

After all players have taken their turns at relocating citizens, players look for buildings without a citizen figure. All such buildings are removed (unless there are spare citizen figures on the city's castle) and returned to the supply stacks.

Demolished buildings must come from the edges of cities. A player may not demolish a building within the city and, thus, separate the city into two or more parts. A castle must be the last building demolished in a city.

If a city has only a castle and the last citizen figure has been removed from the castle, the castle is demolished and the castle token returned to the "owning" player.
When a player demolishes a farm house or a castle, he must return a number of food tokens equal to the amount of food that building could produce in a year.

Before demolishing buildings, a player may move citizen figures within a city to other buildings. This allows him to "save" more valuable buildings and to make sure the demolished buildings are at the edges of the city. Players may never move buildings within or among cities.

8. Feeding the citizens

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player counts his food units and the citizen figures in all his cities.

If the player has at least as many food units as citizen figures, all are fed and his turn in this phase ends.

Note: a player shares all his food among all his cities. Thus, the city where food is produced is not important in terms of where the citizens who use it live.
If a player has more citizen figures than food units, he must remove the excess citizen figures from his cities and return them to the common supply. They have wandered off searching for food and do not relocate to other cities.

Note: after the players have removed their excess citizen figures, they may have to demolish unsupported buildings. This is done as explained above in "Demolishing unsupported buildings". The colored citizen figures are not counted as citizen figures. Please note that colored citizen figures may indicate the presence of a rich harvest and make the appropriate food unit adjustments.

Penalty for having unfed citizens

Normally, a player plays 1 action or politics card in each of the 5 political rounds.

If a player has lost citizen figures because he could not feed them, he will only play 4 action or political cards in the next game year.
On his first turn in the political rounds in the next game year, the player turns one of his action cards face down, but takes no action. This is his penalty for not feeding all his people in the previous year. Thus, he will have, at most, only 2 action cards to play in this game year.

End of a Game Year

The game year has now ended. Place the 4 face up "voice of the people" cards face up on the voice of the people discard pile. Players may want to place the groups of 4 at right angles to each other to help them count game years.

The players place the politics cards they played face up on the politics discard pile.

Players take their 3 action cards and place them face up in their play areas. They are available to be used in the next game year.

Players who used their colored citizen figures during the game year, return them to their play areas. They are available to be used in the next game year.

The next game year begins.

Special rule for the 6th game year

In the last (6th) game year, players may not use the "rich harvest" politics card to help feed their citizens.

End of the Game

The game ends after 6 game years.

Note: at the end of the game, there are 3 face down, unused "voice of the people" cards. Players can use the voice of the people cards to help them count game years by placing groups from successive years at right angles to each other. Of course, when there are only three left, the game is in its sixth and last year.

Scoring

Each citizen figure is worth 1 victory point.
Each city that has at least one arch of each of the 3 services (culture, education, and health) is worth 3 victory points.

Note: As a hospital has arches for both education and health, it can be especially important to a city.
Each player who lost one or more citizen figures in the last round because he could not feed them, loses 5 victory points.

The winner is the player with the most victory points. If two or more players tie with the most victory points, the player among them who has the most gold is the winner.

Example: Development of a City

Starting a city. What a beautiful place for a castle! It sits between two farm lands, which will enable it to produce 4 food units each year! That is enough to feed 4 citizens! In addition, there is a lake (for water) and a mountain range (for a quarry and the gold it earns) nearby.

First game year. In phase 4, a new citizen figure is added to the castle, giving the city 4 citizen figures. Of the 4, one must stay in the castle, but the other 3 may move out to occupy new buildings as they are built.

First political round. You play an action card to build a farm house next to the castle and two farm lands. You move a citizen figure from your castle to the farm house. This gives you an additional 4 food units per year. Now you can feed 8 citizens!

Second political round. You play a second action card to build a quarry next to the farm house and a mountain range. You move a citizen figure from your castle to the quarry. In subsequent years, the quarry will earn you 1 gold coin each year.

Third political round. You play your third action card (your last) to build a market place next to your castle. You place a citizen figure from the common supply (not your castle) on the market place. Now your city can accommodate up to 8 citizen figures instead of only 5.

Fourth political round. You take the face up politics card "public bath", play it, and pay 1 gold to build a public bath next to your castle, market place, and a lake. Now your city can accommodate an unlimited number of citizen figures, as it has a market place and a public bath.

Fifth political round. In your fifth political round, you can build no more buildings as you have no available citizen figures. Also, you have played all three action cards and have no gold to play a building politics card. As all 7 face up politics cards require you to spend gold, you take the topmost face down politics card and place it face down as your action (as you have no action you can legally take).

What happens next? The rest of this year is uneventful as you have plenty of food and no neighbors. In phase 3 of the next game year, you earn 1 gold coin for your quarry and in phase 4, you add one citizen figure to your castle.

Strategy Tips

Placing a castle next to two rich farm land tiles gives you plenty of food to feed your people. Starting a castle next to a single poor farm land tile can doom your city to failure.

With an optimal castle placement, you can leave room to build an adjacent farm house (as in the above example) to give you twice the food from your rich farm lands.

Try to build your quarries in the first two rounds. This will maximize your gold earnings. Building quarries in later rounds gives too little gold for the effort.

Try to start your cities near lakes. Cities without access to water may not grow beyond 8 citizen figures and, thus, 8 buildings.

The 3 bonus points you receive for having all 3 services in a city can be the difference between winning and losing. Try to get this bonus in each of your cities.

A city may attract a citizen figure on its player's turn, but have no room for it and then lose a citizen figure on another player's turn; thus, the city has a net loss of a citizen figure.

Initial Setups for Beginners

The setup diagrams referenced below show the exact terrain layout and castle placement for each player count; the text below gives the rule changes and worked examples that go with them.

The game for 2 players

Rule changes: With two players, the players may only build on the light green hexagons. The brownish and yellow-green hexagons are not in the game.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

The game for 3 players

Rule changes: With three players, the players may only build on the light green and brownish hexagons. The yellow-green hexagons are not in the game.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

For example, a quarry built on space 1 provides 1 gold coin, on space 2 a quarry provides nothing, and quarries on the 3 spaces provide 2 gold coins each.

The game for 4 players

Rule changes: With four players, the players use the entire board, just as in the game with five players.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

For example, a farm house built on space 1 provides 4 food tokens, and a farm house built on space 2 provides only 2 food tokens.

La Città Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Preparation
- Initial board setup for beginners for 5 players
- Setup for experienced players
Playing the Game
End of a Game Year
- Special rule for the 6th game year
End of the Game
- Scoring
Example: Development of a City
Strategy Tips
Initial Setups for Beginners

Components

1 board
141 building tokens
22 terrain tiles
130 citizen figures (dark gray)
20 citizen figures (4 per player color)
32 gold coins
65 food tokens (30 large and 35 small)
74 cards
- 27 voice of the people cards
- 15 action cards
- 32 politics cards
- 5 summary cards
1 starting player token

Preparation

Before the first game, carefully remove all tiles and tokens from their frames.

Place the board in the middle of the table.

Note: the board has several large triangular land areas, separated by the hexagonal paths on which the players will start and expand their cities. The large land areas have different terrain characteristics, randomly determined at the start of each game, except for the areas at the edges of the board. Each terrain type offers neighboring buildings different resources. The area in front of each player is his play area.
Sort the hexagonal building tokens.

Some building tokens are the same on both sides and some have different buildings on each side. Stack the tokens by type next to the board in easy reach of all players. Where tokens have differing sides, create two stacks, one for each side. The arches on the tokens indicate that the building provides services in health, education, or culture.
- Farm house / quarry (40). Create twin stacks, one with the farm house face up and the other with the quarry face up.
- Market place (16). Create a single stack.
- Palace / hospital (20). Create twin stacks, one with the palace face up and one with the hospital face up.
- Statue / cathedral (15). Create twin stacks, one with the statue face up and one with the cathedral face up.
- School / university (15). Create twin stacks, one with the school face up and the other with the university face up.
- Fountain / public bath (15). Create twin stacks, one with the fountain face up and the other with the public bath face up.
Place all the terrain tiles in a single face-up stack.

There are three different types of terrain tiles with the following characteristics:
- Farm land (14). Farm lands provide food, which citizens need to live. Each farm land terrain tile has 1, 2, or 3 food symbols (wheat).
  
  Note: a farm land terrain tile with 1 food symbol can provide one unit of food, a farm land terrain tile with 2 food symbols can provide 2 units of food, and a farm land terrain tile with 3 food symbols can provide 3 units of food. A player can only harvest the food and feed his people if he has built a castle or farm house next to the farm land.
- Mountain range (3). The mountain ranges provide marble to be used in building. When a player builds a quarry next to a mountain range, he can earn gold.
- Lake (5). Water is necessary to the health of a city's population. When a player builds a fountain or public bath next to a lake, the population limit of 8 citizen figures for the city is eliminated.
Each player chooses a color, takes 4 castles in that color, and places them in his play area.

Note: the castle is always the building that a player uses to start a city. When a player starts a new city, he places 3 citizen figures on the castle.
Place the small gray citizen figures next to the board as the general citizen supply.

All players use the same gray citizen figures in their cities. The color of the castle determines which player owns the city. When a citizen changes cities, it changes alliances.
Each player takes the 4 small citizen figures in his color. The use of these figures is explained later.
Sort the cards into three stacks:
- 15 action cards
- 32 politics cards
- 27 voice of the people cards — health, education, culture
Each player takes the 3 action cards in his color (frame on the back) and places them face up on the table in his play area.

The 3 player action cards are the same for each player except for the color of the frame on their backs. Place unused player action cards back in the box.
Prepare the 32 politics cards.

Shuffle the politics cards thoroughly and place 7 face up in the spaces provided at the edge of the board. Place the remaining politics cards face down in a stack next to the face up cards in the space provided (see figure). Used cards are discarded in the space next to the face down stack.
Prepare the 27 voice of the people cards.

Shuffle the voice of the people cards thoroughly and place them face down on the board next to the four brown circles. There are 3 extra cards so that players cannot count cards for the last year.
Place the food tokens and the gold coins next to the board.
- Gold coins. Each player takes 1 gold coin at the beginning of the game. Players may earn gold coins during the game with the help of quarries and the use of action cards.
- Food tokens. A player's food tokens represent the amount of food his cities can produce in a year. They are not a food supply. Players take food tokens when they build castles and farm houses next to farm land.
  - small token = 1 food unit
  - large token = 5 food units
  A player's food tokens are not a food supply or means of payment. They only represent the number of citizens the player can support in his cities.
Each player takes a summary card. Place the starting player token next to the board.

Initial board setup for beginners for 5 players

We recommend players use the initial board setup for their first game. The initial board setups for 2, 3, and 4 players are shown at the end of these rules (see Initial Setups for Beginners).

I. Place the terrain tiles on the board as shown in the setup figure.

III. Take food tokens.

Each player counts the food symbols on the farm lands next to his castles, takes a corresponding number of food tokens from the supply, and places them on the table in his play area.

IV. Choose a starting player using any method you prefer — perhaps the player who most recently visited Italy. He takes the starting player token and begins the first year.

The different colored paths have special meaning when playing with fewer than four players. For details on this, see Initial Setups for Beginners.

Setup for experienced players

Note: players place their castles so there are at least 3 empty hexagons between the castle, along a path, and all other castles (whether the castle belongs to the player or to an opponent).

Playing the Game

The goal

The winner is the player with the most victory points (citizen figures and cities with 3 colors of arches) at the end of the game.

Each year is played in 8 phases:

The sequence of the phases in a game year

change the starting player
lay out the voice of the people cards
quarry earnings (in gold coins)
population growth
five political rounds: players take turns in clockwise order playing 1 political or action card and executing the action on the card
tally the voice of the people
citizen relocation
feeding the citizens

1. Change the starting player

2. Lay out the voice of the people cards

The starting player draws four new voice of the people cards from the stack. He draws the 4 topmost cards, places 1 face up on the dark circle, and the other 3 face down on the other circles.

3. Quarry earnings (in gold coins)

4. Population growth

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player adds 1 citizen figure to each of his cities. He places the new citizen figure for each city on the castle in that city.

If a city already has 5 citizen figures, a player may not add a citizen figure to the city unless it has a market place. Only cities with market places may have more than 5 citizen figures.
If a city already has 8 citizen figures (and, therefore, a market place), a player may not add a citizen figure to the city unless it has a fountain or a public bath. Only cities with a fountain or a public bath (and a market place) may have more than 8 citizen figures. There are no further limits to adding citizen figures.

Note: when counting citizen figures in a city, count all citizen figures in the castle and all connected buildings.

5. Five political rounds

Overview

In each political round, the player may play one of the two different kinds of cards:

Action cards. Each player has 3 action cards of his own that he may play in the 5 political rounds. To play an action card, he announces the action, executes the action, and places the card face down on the table.

Note: at the end of each year, the players take back any action cards they have played by placing them face up in their play areas. Thus, a player has his 3 action cards available for each set of political rounds.
Politics cards. Instead of playing an action card, a player may take one of the face up politics cards and play it immediately.

When playing a politics card, a player takes one of the 7 face up politics cards, places it face up on the table, executes the action shown on the card, and then turns the card face down. At the end of the 5 political rounds, players place all politics cards played in the politics card discard pile.

A player is not required to play a minimum number of action cards in a set of political rounds. So, for example, a player may play no action cards and 5 politics cards if he chooses.

Action cards

Possible actions on the action cards:

Take 2 gold coins.

Start a new city. The player takes one of his castle tokens and places it on an empty hexagonal space on the board.

Note: players place their castles so there are at least 3 empty hexagons between the castle, along a path, and all other cities (whether the city belongs to the player or to an opponent).

The player moves one spare citizen figure from one of his castles to the new castle. He then puts two citizen figures on the new castle from the general citizen supply. If the new castle is next to one or more farm lands, he takes the appropriate number of food tokens from the supply to represent this added food production.

Note: a player may only start 1 new city each game year.

Build a small building. Small, in this case, means a building that has no more than one arch. The possible small buildings are:
- Farm house (no arch). A farm house (like a castle) produces food when built next to farm land terrain. Thus, a farm house is best built next to farm land as that gives a player the greatest value for the building.
- Quarry (no arch). A quarry produces 1 gold coin each game year when built next to a mountain range. If a quarry is next to two mountain ranges, it produces 2 gold coins.
- School (black arch). A school gives a city one service point in education.
- Statue (white arch). A statue gives a city one service point in culture.
- Market place (no arch). A market place enables a city to grow beyond 5 citizen figures (to a maximum of 8 without a fountain or public bath). Each city may have just one market place.
- Fountain (blue arch). A fountain gives a city one service point in health. A fountain may only be built on a space that is next to lake terrain. To use the ability of a fountain to allow a city to grow beyond 8 citizen figures, the city must also have a market place.

How to build a building

The player then takes a spare citizen figure from the castle in this city and moves it to the new building. To be spare, the citizen figure must not be the last citizen figure in the castle.
When there are no more building tokens of the type wanted, the building cannot be built. If the building being built is one of those with a different building on its back side and there are still tokens in the building's twin stack, the player may use one of these by flipping it over.

Important building rules

Available citizens: A player may only build a new building in a city if he has a spare citizen figure in the city's castle to place on the building. That is, a player can only add a building to a city when he has at least two citizen figures in his castle.

Exception: when building a market place, the player takes a citizen figure from the general supply and places it on the market place. He does not move a citizen figure from elsewhere in the city as with other new buildings.
Building place: A new building must be placed on an empty space next to a building already in the city. Limitation: A player may not build a building that connects one city to another, even if both cities are his. There must always be at least one empty space, along a path, separating two cities.
Fountains and public baths must be built next to lake terrain! To emphasize this, the tokens are marked with blue waves.
A player may not voluntarily demolish a building in one of his cities for any reason. However, a player may be forced to demolish a building if he does not have the population to support it.

Tips for building

The costs

Adjacent terrain

Defection

Politics cards

Instead of playing an action card in a political round, a player may take one of the face up politics cards and play it, but he must play it immediately.

When a player takes a politics card, he must play it immediately. To play the card, the player places it face up and executes the instructions on the card. Then he places the card face down.
The players place the action and political cards they play face down to track the number of political rounds they have played. When a player has 5 face down cards, he has played 5 political rounds.
There will always be 7 face up political cards for a player to choose from: when a player takes a face up politics card, he draws the topmost card from the politics stack and places it face up in the empty space.

When the politics card stack is exhausted, shuffle the politics cards in the discard pile and turn them face down to create a new politics card stack.

There are two kinds of politics cards:

politics cards for building buildings, and
politics cards with other actions.

Politics cards for building buildings

Players use politics cards to build the more valuable buildings. Such buildings are built using the same rules as for the small buildings, but offer more service points and also cost more gold coins.

Palace: A palace costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 2 service points of culture.
Cathedral: A cathedral costs 3 gold coins to build and provides 3 service points of culture.
University: A university costs 3 gold coins to build and provides 3 service points of education.
Hospital: A hospital costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 1 service point of health and 1 service point of education.

Note: although the hospital provides a service point of health, it does not need to be placed next to a lake. With two services (arches), building a hospital makes it easier to have all three services in a city.

A hospital does not substitute for the requirement to have a fountain or public bath to grow a city beyond 8 citizen figures.
Public bath: A public bath costs 1 gold coin to build and provides 2 service points of health. A public bath must be built next to lake terrain.

Politics cards with other actions

Master builder

When this card is played, the player pays the indicated amount of gold to build one building of his choice:

For 1 gold, any small building (farm house, quarry, school, statue, market place, and fountain).
For 2 gold, any medium building (palace, hospital, and public bath).
For 4 gold, any large building (cathedral and university).

Bread and games

For 0 gold, place one of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.
For 2 gold, place two of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.
For 5 gold, place three of your colored citizen figures on one arch in one building in one of your cities.

Each colored citizen figure counts as 1 service point of the kind represented by the arch.

As a hospital has 2 different colored arches, a player must be careful to place his colored citizen figure on the arch he wants to add value to. He cannot choose later.

Golden times

A player uses this card to add citizens to one of his cities:

For 0 gold, place one citizen in one of your cities.
For 2 gold, place two citizens in one of your cities.
For 5 gold, place three citizens in one of your cities.

Rich harvest

A player uses this card to double the food production of one of his farm houses for one game year.

Polling the people

A player uses this card to learn more about the desires of the people for the current game year.

The player looks (without showing or telling other players) at two of the face-down "voice of the people" cards. After looking, he replaces the cards where they were face down.

For 2 gold, a player may look at all 3 face down "voice of the people" cards. The player must decide before looking at any cards, whether to pay to look at all 3 or not.

Note: by using this card, a player knows 3 or 4 of the 4 "voice of the people" cards and can use this knowledge to add buildings with the desired services to his cities.

End of a player's turn in a political round

When a player, on his turn, has played a political or action card, his turn ends. The player to his left now takes his turn, and so on around the table.

End of a political round

When all players have played a card, the round ends and another begins. When all players have played 5 cards, the phase ends.

6. Tally the voice of the people

If there are more cards of one of the services than either of the other two, that service is the voice of the people for this year.
If two services tie with 2 cards each, either of the two may be used by players as the voice of the people for this year.

In the next phase, some citizens may choose to relocate to neighboring cities if those cities offer better services matching the service chosen as the voice of the people.

7. Citizen relocation

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player checks all his cities, one at a time in the order he chooses, for relocating citizens.

There is no citizen relocation between the cities of a player.
Citizens will not relocate if the distance between two cities, along the path, is greater than 2 hexagons. Cities greater than 2 hexagons apart are not neighbors.
When the distance between two cities, along the path, is 1 or 2 hexagons, relocation is possible between cities of opposing players.

If the player's city has more service points, he gets one citizen figure from the opposing city, which he places on the castle of his city.
If a player's city has more service points than several neighboring cities, the city gets 1 citizen figure from each.

Note: if the player's city has no room for the new citizen figure because it has reached a limit, the citizen figure is immediately placed in the common supply.
When a city loses a citizen figure, the owner of the city decides which citizen figure to give up. If the city has extra citizen figures on the castle, the decision is easy and the player gives up one of these. If the city has no extra citizen figures on the castle, the player chooses which building to take the citizen figure from.

Two services tie for voice of the people

When two services tie with 2 cards each for the "voice of the people", both services may attract relocating citizens.

For example: a player with 3 cities in a year when culture and health are chosen, can choose culture for 2 of his cities and health for the third.

On each player's turn, he decides for each of his cities which of the 2 services will be used.

Note: It is possible for a player to have a city that attracts a citizen figure from one neighbor and loses a citizen figure to another neighbor.

Demolishing unsupported buildings

If a city has only a castle and the last citizen figure has been removed from the castle, the castle is demolished and the castle token returned to the "owning" player.
When a player demolishes a farm house or a castle, he must return a number of food tokens equal to the amount of food that building could produce in a year.

8. Feeding the citizens

In clockwise order, starting with the starting player, each player counts his food units and the citizen figures in all his cities.

If the player has at least as many food units as citizen figures, all are fed and his turn in this phase ends.

Note: a player shares all his food among all his cities. Thus, the city where food is produced is not important in terms of where the citizens who use it live.
If a player has more citizen figures than food units, he must remove the excess citizen figures from his cities and return them to the common supply. They have wandered off searching for food and do not relocate to other cities.

Note: after the players have removed their excess citizen figures, they may have to demolish unsupported buildings. This is done as explained above in "Demolishing unsupported buildings". The colored citizen figures are not counted as citizen figures. Please note that colored citizen figures may indicate the presence of a rich harvest and make the appropriate food unit adjustments.

Penalty for having unfed citizens

Normally, a player plays 1 action or politics card in each of the 5 political rounds.

If a player has lost citizen figures because he could not feed them, he will only play 4 action or political cards in the next game year.
On his first turn in the political rounds in the next game year, the player turns one of his action cards face down, but takes no action. This is his penalty for not feeding all his people in the previous year. Thus, he will have, at most, only 2 action cards to play in this game year.

End of a Game Year

The players place the politics cards they played face up on the politics discard pile.

Players take their 3 action cards and place them face up in their play areas. They are available to be used in the next game year.

Players who used their colored citizen figures during the game year, return them to their play areas. They are available to be used in the next game year.

The next game year begins.

Special rule for the 6th game year

In the last (6th) game year, players may not use the "rich harvest" politics card to help feed their citizens.

End of the Game

The game ends after 6 game years.

Scoring

Each citizen figure is worth 1 victory point.
Each city that has at least one arch of each of the 3 services (culture, education, and health) is worth 3 victory points.

Note: As a hospital has arches for both education and health, it can be especially important to a city.
Each player who lost one or more citizen figures in the last round because he could not feed them, loses 5 victory points.

The winner is the player with the most victory points. If two or more players tie with the most victory points, the player among them who has the most gold is the winner.

Example: Development of a City

Strategy Tips

Placing a castle next to two rich farm land tiles gives you plenty of food to feed your people. Starting a castle next to a single poor farm land tile can doom your city to failure.

With an optimal castle placement, you can leave room to build an adjacent farm house (as in the above example) to give you twice the food from your rich farm lands.

Try to build your quarries in the first two rounds. This will maximize your gold earnings. Building quarries in later rounds gives too little gold for the effort.

Try to start your cities near lakes. Cities without access to water may not grow beyond 8 citizen figures and, thus, 8 buildings.

The 3 bonus points you receive for having all 3 services in a city can be the difference between winning and losing. Try to get this bonus in each of your cities.

A city may attract a citizen figure on its player's turn, but have no room for it and then lose a citizen figure on another player's turn; thus, the city has a net loss of a citizen figure.

Initial Setups for Beginners

The setup diagrams referenced below show the exact terrain layout and castle placement for each player count; the text below gives the rule changes and worked examples that go with them.

The game for 2 players

Rule changes: With two players, the players may only build on the light green hexagons. The brownish and yellow-green hexagons are not in the game.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

The game for 3 players

Rule changes: With three players, the players may only build on the light green and brownish hexagons. The yellow-green hexagons are not in the game.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

For example, a quarry built on space 1 provides 1 gold coin, on space 2 a quarry provides nothing, and quarries on the 3 spaces provide 2 gold coins each.

The game for 4 players

Rule changes: With four players, the players use the entire board, just as in the game with five players.

Note: the 8 red lines mark the borders between the different terrains along the edge of the board to make it clear where players can get the different resources.

For example, a farm house built on space 1 provides 4 food tokens, and a farm house built on space 2 provides only 2 food tokens.