Cities (2008)

From the website:

The story

In Cities you are the architect of a city of the world. You try to build a city that is most attractive for tourists. You position attractions close together. You build parks as big as possible and place terraces close to the water. You guide tourists to their favourite spots, because only through them you can earn your points.

The dilemma

But... you never know exactly which tile will be drawn next. Will you wait another round for the perfect tile? Will you adjust your planning? Or have you got a brilliant idea and can you position the tile in a way that it brings points for more than tourist?
Every player builds his own city and makes his own choices. "All" you have to do is making better choices than your opponents!

Awards

• 2009 Spiel des Jahres Recommendation.
• 2009 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Nomination.

Online Play

• http://www.boiteajeux.net/ (turn-based). For english explanation see: http://www.martynf.com/website/?Cities:Online_Game
• http://www.martynf.com/website/javaenzo/CitiesOnline/cities.htm

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Cities fan

Game play in short:

Target
Every player tries to build a more attractive city than the other players. He tries to achieve this by building big zones of attractions and parks. A zone consists of horizontal or vertical adjacent fields. At playing level 2 and 3 players can also earn points by positioning terraces close to the water (and parks).

Preparations
Every player has his own stack of 24 tiles and sorts it after number. There is 1 player who plays the role of Master Builder. He is the only player to shuffle his stack.

Gameplay
The Master Builder draws a tile from his stack and reads the number on it aloud. All other players look up the tile with the same number. Then the players place this new tile in their city.

Every player builds his own city, separate from other players. Every new tile must border on another tile completely (= with a complete side). Or it must touch the corner of another tile.

On the tiles are always four fields: a combination of attractions, parks, terraces and/or water. Players can rotate the tile as they wish, before placing it in their city.

After playing a new tile, a player is allowed to place a new tourist on one of the fields of this tile. He can also move a tourist that is already standing on a tile in his city.

End
The game ends, as soon as 16 of 24 tiles have been used.

Playing levels
There are 3 levels of playing. The easiest level can be played with children. The hardest level is only recommended for the die hard puzzler and planner.

Scoring
Level 1: A player scores 1 point for each field in a zone of attractions or parks. But only if there is a tourist standing in it.

Level 2: Same as level 1. Players can also score points for tourists on a terrace. They receive 1 point for every water field this tourist looks at. Tourists on terraces look at water fields that are lying in a continuous straight line in a horizontal or vertical direction from the terrace.

Level 3: Same as level 2. Players also receive points for each terrace that borders directly at a field in a zone of attractions.
Players also receive points for each water field that borders directly at a field in a park zone.
And players recieve points for every park field at which a tourist on a terrace looks out.