Tower Up
Tower Up Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the Game
Be the richest player at the end of the game.
To achieve this, you must collect the right raw materials and put your 10 roofs in play in an ideal manner and timing.
Strategy
As you'll discover in the rules, there are 3 separate sources of income:
- Placing your roofs on high buildings;
- Reaching the city planning's objectives, as fast as possible;
- Having many of your roofs on top of buildings by game end.
Of course they don't always work in synergy, and you'll have to find the best balance between those 3 axes.
Game Components
Please read this before your first game.
1 Board
The board shows a city downtown divided in 5 areas. The front of the board is used for games with 3 or 4 players, while the half board on the back is only for 2 players.
The board displays many square construction sites connected by a network of white streets. Two sites directly connected by a street are called "adjacent".
120 Floors in 4 Colors
30 white, 30 black, 30 brown, 30 grey.
The floors are stacked to create the buildings of the game. For example, a building may be made of a 2-floor stack, a 1-floor stack, or a 4-floor stack.
40 Roofs
10 each in 4 colors (one color per player).
Each player has their own roof color. They indicate your presence in a building, no matter at which level your floor is. A building can show the roofs of several different players if each of them is present in it.
4 Personal Boards
They are used to track your benefits throughout the game. Depending on which city planning objectives you reach, there are spaces to store 1 bonus chip of each type on the righthand side.
44 "Materials" Cards
The Materials cards allow you to collect floors from the general reserve and add them to your own supply.
10 "Objective" Cards
These cards show the current directives of the city council and may earn you bonuses in the form of chips.
3 of them are Starting cards that display an "S" in the bottom right corner.
12 Bonus Chips
They come in 3 shapes and 3 different values (7-5-3 millions).
16 Vehicle Markers
The markers are placed on the personal boards, each on a dedicated track. 4 markers in each of the 4 colors matching the floor colors.
4 Traffic Cone Markers
These markers are placed at the bottom of your personal board to indicate your end-of-game bonus.
Set Up
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Place the board in the center of the table. For a 2-players game, fold the board and place the half-board on the back between both players.
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Place the container with all the roofs sorted out by color next to the board.
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Shuffle all the Materials cards, create a draw pile and place it in the space to the left of the container. Reveal 3 cards and display them on the container to form the Market.
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Place 3 starting floors on the board. To do this, check the cards from the Market:
- For each card, take a floor matching the color of the bottom floor.
- Place these floors on 3 construction sites of your choice (anywhere on the main board).
For example, if the Market shows a black-bottomed card, a grey-bottomed card, and a white-bottomed card, you would place one black, one grey, and one white floor as starting floors.
If the floor shown at the bottom of the card is multicolored, you may place a color of your choice.
Attention: two floors of the same color may never be adjacent.
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Choose a personal board and place it in front of you.
- Place each vehicle marker on the first spot of the appropriate track (see below).
- Take all 10 roofs matching the color of your board.
- Take the matching traffic cone and place it next to them.
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For your first game, use the Starting ("S") cards and place them face up on the dedicated slots of the board.
Once you are familiar with the game, you may take 3 random cards from the 10 available in the game.
You only need 3 objective cards for each game. You may return the unused ones in the box.
All the cards are detailed at the back of this booklet.
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Place the bonus chips on the dedicated slots, according to their shape and value.
- With 3 players, you may leave out one 3M chip of each shape.
- With 2 players, only place the 7M and one 3M chip of each shape, as indicated on the board.
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Take 1 floor of each color and place them in front of your personal board, this is your starting supply.
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You're ready to begin! The player who lives on the highest floor is 1st player.
Game Turn
The game is played in clockwise order, starting with the 1st player. On your turn, you may take one of the two possible actions:
TAKE 1 CARD OR START 1 NEW BUILDING, THEN PLACE 1 ROOF, THEN SCORE
Take 1 Card
Choose a card from the Market, discard it in the space provided on the right of the container and gain what is depicted on it. Immediately draw a new card to refill the Market.
- For each depicted floor, take the matching floor from the container and place it in your supply.
- A multicolored floor is a joker that allows you to choose the color you want to take.
- For each depicted vehicle, you may move the matching marker by 1 step forward on your track.
- Attention: at the end of your turn, your supply may not contain more than 10 floors. If that is the case, put the floors of your choice back in the container.
Examples:
- Take: 2 black floors + 2 white floors
- Take: 1 brown floor + 1 white floor + 1 black floor
- Take: 2 floors of your choice
- Move: your black marker 2 steps to the right; Take: 1 floor of your choice
- Move: your grey marker 1 step to the right; Take: 1 white floor + 1 brown floor
Start 1 New Building
To start a new building, take a floor from your supply and place it on an empty site of the board. You must obey the two following rules:
- This site must be adjacent (= connected by a street) to at least one other building;
- The building you start may never be of the same color as any building adjacent to it.
You then must "pay" the price of the new building, which means adding a floor to each adjacent building.
- These floors must be paid from your supply.
- A floor you pay with must always be of the same color as the building you place it on (therefore, it is impossible to build multicolored buildings).
- If you can't afford to pay a new building, you can't start it.
Example: You're playing Blue. You want to found a black building next to the brown one. There are 2 possible sites. The site marked with a red cross is forbidden as it is adjacent to a pre-existing black building.
- Place the black floor on the chosen site.
- "Pay" one floor on each adjacent building (white + brown).
- You then choose to place your roof on the white building.
Finally, move your white marker 4 steps forward (the number of floors the white building now has).
Place 1 Roof
You then must place one (and only one) of your roofs on one (and only one) of the floors you just placed. This can be on the newly started building or any other floor that served as payment.
Score
Finally, move forward the marker matching the color of the building that you've placed a roof on by as many steps as the number of floors of that building.
Extra Turn
After moving one of your markers, check if they have ALL reached (or passed) the column of stars on your board. If yes, you get to immediately play an extra turn (take a card or start a new building).
Example: after moving their white marker, Orange gets to play an extra turn as all their markers have now reached (or passed) the first column of stars.
Objectives
The 3 objective cards of the game allow you to collect up to three bonus chips ranging from 3M to 7M.
To reach an objective, you must be present in a given number of buildings and in a specific pattern.
When you reach an objective, take the highest valued chip next to the card and place it on the matching shape on your personal board. You can get rewarded only once for each objective type.
Example: Blue is present in the 5 areas, which is one of the three objectives of the game. They take the 5M chip and place it on their board, the 7M having previously been taken by an opponent.
Game End
Placing your last roof triggers the final phase.
- Finish your turn normally, then immediately count the number of roofs you have on top of a building. This number tells you which square to place your cone on at the bottom of the board, counting from the left. (Note that the maximum is 7).
- Then, all opponents can play their final turn (with possible extra turns). When they're done, they also count their visible roofs and place their marker as well.
Example: Blue places their last roof and counts their visible roofs (5). They therefore place their end-of-game marker on the 5th step.
Final Score
Once every player is done, sum up:
- The millions earned from all your markers;
- The millions earned from your bonus chips.
The richest player wins the game.
In case of a tie, the player with the most remaining floors in their supply among the tied players is declared winner. In case of a new tie, the tied players share the victory.
Example: 31 M (from markers) + 12 M (from bonus chips) = 43 M.
Objectives Cards
Starting Cards (for your first game):
- Be present in 1 building of each color.
- Be present in 4 different buildings next to a park. (4x in the deck)
- Be present in all 5 areas of the city.
Other objective cards:
- Be present in 4 different buildings next to a lake. (4x in the deck)
- Be present in 5 connected buildings.
- Be present in 4 different brown buildings. (4x in the deck)
- Be present in 3 different buildings in a grey area and 2 in the other grey area.
- Be present on both sides of two different area borders. You cannot count the same building twice.
- Have two roofs per building in two different buildings. (2x in the deck) It doesn't matter at which floor.
- Have a roof at least once on level 1, 2, 3, and 4. Being present more than once in the same building may count for this.
Precisions and Reminders
Game Turn
- You may start only one new building per turn, and may also place only one roof per turn.
- You may be present more than once in the same building.
- When "paying" for a new building, you will sometimes cover your own roofs.
Scoring
If one of your markers reaches the end of its track, it cannot go further. Any future movement on this track will be ignored.
Tactical Advice
- Take a moment to study the board and define which sites are the most interesting according to the objectives.
- Sometimes, it is better to choose a lower building over a higher one in order to achieve some objectives. That's how you'll reach them faster than your competitors.
- If you keep an eye on your opponents' supply, you can know if they can afford a specific site and be there before you or not. Use this knowledge to define your action priorities.
Extra Turn
- To get an extra turn, no need to go beyond a star column, reaching it is enough.
- A vehicle marker trailing far behind may sometimes reach 2 star columns in one go. This only grants you one extra turn if the usual conditions are met.
- An action performed during an extra turn may trigger an additional extra turn.
Game End
Your only available action in the last turn may be to take a useless card. You must still do it and refresh the Market.
Component Shortage
If you cannot gain the depicted floor when taking a card (because the matching color is no longer available), you may take a floor in another color of your liking.
This also triggers the end of the game. All players, you included, get a final turn.
Variant
- With 2 or 3 players, you can tighten the game a bit by placing up to 7 starting floors (draw additional Materials cards and then reshuffle them into the deck).
- With 4 players, you may go up to 5 starting floors, but that makes the end game very tight.
Credits
Game Design: Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey, Sébastien Pauchon
Illustrations: Laurent Escoffier, Geoffrey Stepourenko, Nadège Calegari
Graphism and Layout: Laurent Escoffier, Sébastien Pauchon, Nadège Calegari
Publisher: © 2024 Monolith Board Games, 153 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris - France