The Prestel New York Architecture Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
  • Lay out four building commissions
  • Determine the starting order
• Search the Stack
• Take Out a Building Part
• Exchange the Building-Part Stack for a Starting Stone
• Slide a Building Part Back or Place a Building Part on a Building Commission
• Place One or Two Marker Chips on a Building Part
• Take Completed Building Commissions off the Table
• Marker Chips Go to the Players
• Exchange Unbuilt Building Commissions, Replace Completed Ones
• The Winner Is ...

Game Components

• 24 building commissions (Bauaufträge): The building commissions are placed as an open stack on the table and played out. The player who builds the most wins.
• 64 building parts (Bauteile): Each player always keeps two of the 64 building parts. Tactics matter: a player who uses their building parts cleverly gets the upper hand.
• 5 symbol cards (Symbolkarten): Memory is important here. Behind the symbol cards (which bear stonemason's marks from the Strasbourg Minster) building parts are hidden. Whoever knows which building part lies where has an advantage.
• 5 starting stones (Startsteine): The starting stones determine the order of play. Number one has (usually) the best chances.
• 100 marker chips (Markierungs-Chips): With the chips, players mark their building parts and secure their points.

Setup

Lay out four building commissions

1. Shuffle the building commissions (the large cards showing whole buildings).
2. Lay four building commissions face up on the table from this stack. The rest of the stack is placed face up beside them.
3. Shuffle the building parts (the small cards showing parts of buildings).
4. Deal two building parts face down to each player.
5. Divide the building parts into five roughly equal stacks and lay them out alongside the building commissions.
6. On top of each of these stacks, place a symbol card (with stonemason's marks) as the top card.
7. Each player chooses the colour of their marker chips. The chips remain in the supply.

Figure 1: The starting situation.

Determine the starting order

8. Each player chooses one of the face-down starting stones.

   The number on a starting stone determines the order of the players, and it is renewed from round to round. The player with the lowest number always begins.

9. The starting player (the player with the lowest starting number) chooses one of the five building-part stacks, places it in front of themselves, and places their starting stone, number visible, in the spot of the building-part stack they took.

10. The player with the next starting number chooses a stack from the remaining four, places it in front of themselves likewise, and places their starting stone in the spot of the stack taken, and so on.

11. Once every player has a stack in front of them, the last player who was able to take a stack gives a start signal (for example, clearly saying "Los!" – "Go!").

Figure 2: The players have exchanged their starting stones for building-part stacks of their choice.

Search the Stack

12. Only now may the players look through their stack. The goal of each player is to find, as quickly as possible, a building part that fits one of the four building commissions lying on the table.

Take Out a Building Part

13. Each player must take out one building part. Rearranging the building-part stack while searching is not allowed!

Exchange the Building-Part Stack for a Starting Stone

14. When a player has taken out a building part, they choose a starting stone and immediately place the building-part stack back in the spot of the starting stone they took. The second player then takes a starting stone, and so on. Each player now has three building parts in hand!

In this way the players determine, through their speed in searching the building-part stacks, the order in which they build in the next round, and each player chooses a new building-part stack.

Figure 3: Andrea was the first to find a building part; she exchanges her building-part stack for a starting stone of her choice.

Slide a Building Part Back or Place a Building Part on a Building Commission

15. Each player must now give back one building part. In the order of their starting number, each player must carry out one of the following actions:

    a) Slide one building part from their hand back under any stack. This ends that player's turn, and the player with the next starting number is up.

    or b) Build a building part: place a matching building part on an open building commission. This ends that player's turn.

Figure 4: Andrea was the first to build a part; the others follow in the order of their starting stones.

Place One or Two Marker Chips on a Building Part

When a player has built a building part (option b), one marker chip in the player's colour is taken from the supply and placed on the building part just built (Figure 4). If the player builds the last missing building part of a building commission, two marker chips in the player's colour are placed on that building commission instead.

When everyone has had their turn, each player must still have exactly two building parts in hand (Figure 5).

Take Completed Building Commissions off the Table

16. Completed building commissions (all required building parts lie on them) are taken from the table together with their building parts immediately after the turn of the player who completed them, but they are not replaced immediately.

Marker Chips Go to the Players

17. The players receive the marker chips that lay on this building commission. They lay these chips face up in front of them.

Exchange Unbuilt Building Commissions, Replace Completed Ones

18. Once every player has ended their turn, building commissions on which no building part lies are pushed under the stack of building commissions and replaced by new building commissions from this stack (Figure 5). Completed building commissions are now also replaced.

At the end of a round, four building commissions are therefore always laid out!

19. The next round now begins. Continue as from rule 9 above.

Figure 5: At the end of a round: building was done on two building commissions. One building commission was completed by Michael and removed from the table at once; the fourth building commission remained unbuilt. It is exchanged for a new building commission. The completed building commission is replaced. Now everything is ready again for the next round.

The Winner Is ...

20. The first player to have 13 marker chips lying in front of them wins. The game ends immediately; the round is not finished.