Between Two Cities Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Goal
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay: Overview
• Gameplay: Details
  • Round One
  • Landscape Mats
  • Round Two
  • Round Three
• Ending the Game
• Scoring
  • Factories (16 buildings + 8 duplex)
  • Shops (16 buildings + 8 duplex)
  • Taverns (20 buildings + 8 duplex; 7 of each)
  • Parks (16 buildings + 8 duplex)
  • Offices (20 buildings + 8 duplex)
  • Houses (20 buildings + 8 duplex)
  • Civic (21 buildings)
• Variants
  • Two-Player Variant (Standard)
  • Two-Player Variant (Advanced)
  • Beginner Variant
  • Districts Variant (Advanced)
• Quick Reference Guide
  • Round Summary
  • Placement Rules
  • Scoring Summary
  • Final Score

Overview

Between Two Cities is a tile-drafting game in which each tile is part of a city. You work with the player on your left to build one city center while simultaneously working with the player on your right to build a second city center. On each turn you select two tiles from your hand, reveal them, then work with your partners to place one of your selected tiles into each of your two cities.

This Essential Edition combines components from the original game and the Capitals expansion. There are no new components in the Essential Edition.

Goal

At the end of the game, each 5x5 city is scored for how happy it makes its citizens. Your final score is the lower of the scores of the two cities you helped design, and the player with the highest final score wins the game. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion equally between two cities.

Components

• 129 building tiles (square)
• 24 duplex tiles (rectangular)
• 7 landscape mats
• 7 city tokens
• 7 reference cards
• 1 scorepad (100 sheets)
• Advanced (Districts) variant: 7 district cards and 3 district tiles

Setup

1. Make sure to sit with equal space between players, as each city will be built between two side-by-side players.

   Between each pair of players (where their city will be), place one city token and one random landscape mat (with the arrow pointing toward the center of the table). Place one reference card in front of each player.

   Two-player variant: see the Variants section.

2. Shuffle the duplex tiles (rectangular) and place them in face-down stacks.

3. Place the box in the middle of the table with the building tiles (square) randomized inside.

Gameplay: Overview

The game is played in three rounds. At the start of each round, you draw a random hand of tiles (9 building tiles in rounds one and three; 3 duplex tiles in round two). On each turn, you secretly choose 2 tiles to place face-down in front of you. If you have more than one tile remaining in your hand, pass your hand to the next player. Then all players flip their selected tiles simultaneously and discuss with their partners to place one tile in the city to their left and one tile in the city to their right. These cities are shared with your respective partners.

The tiles you select, and their positioning, determine how many points you score at the end of the game. See Scoring for a detailed description of how each tile type is scored.

At the end of the game, each of your cities must form a 5x5 square of 20 building spaces—16 building tiles and 2 duplex tiles—and 5 landscape spaces. You may never play a tile in any position that would cause the end result to not be a 5x5 square.

Gameplay: Details

All players conduct the steps below simultaneously.

Round One

Draw 9 building tiles from the box to form your hand. Then take the following steps in order:

CHOOSE: Secretly choose 2 of the tiles from your hand to play. Put the remaining tiles face-down on the table above the city to your left and place the city's token on those tiles. This signals to the other players that you have finished choosing your tiles. When you have finalized your choice, you may not change it, nor may you look at the hand you passed. You may not discuss your tiles during the choose phase.

REVEAL: Once every city token has a stack of tiles under it, all players simultaneously reveal their chosen tiles by placing them face up on the table in front of them.

PLACE: You may now openly discuss strategy with your partners to determine the best location for your chosen tiles. You must place one of your chosen tiles into the city to your left and the other into the city to your right, but you can change which tile goes into which city after discussion with your partners. All tiles must be oriented in the same direction so that you and your partner can read the scoring key on each tile, and all tiles must be placed adjacent to at least one other tile in that city (they must share an edge).

• NOTE 1: The first tile placed into each city (at the beginning of the game) must be on the landscape mat.
• NOTE 2: You must place all tiles so that your final city is a 5x5 square. After being placed, tiles in the cities are set in place and cannot move.
• NOTE 3: Very rarely it may happen that a player does not want to place tiles until another player places first (in the spirit of partnership, we discourage this, but it can happen). If this happens, the players flip a tile for a heads/tails decision.

REPEAT: If there is more than 1 tile under the city token to your right, pick up those tiles and choose, reveal, and place again. When there is only 1 tile remaining under the city token, discard it face-down to the center of the table (don't place it back in the box with the other tiles), and begin round two.

At the end of round one, each city will consist of 8 tiles.

Landscape Mats

The first building tile placed in a city must be played on an open space on the landscape mat. Additional building tiles must be placed adjacent to at least 1 previously placed tile.

Each city's landscape mat shows a natural feature that is within that city's boundaries—five tile spaces of landscape features that cannot be built upon. At the end of the game, your city must form a 5x5 square. You may never play a tile in any position that would cause the end result not to be a 5x5 square. The entire landscape mat must be within the 5x5 square of the city. Remember that the landscape mat is placed with the arrow toward the center of the table.

BRIDGES: Tiles are adjacent across bridges for all placement and scoring purposes. For example, if a house and a factory are placed on opposite sides of a bridge, they are considered to be adjacent. Citizens don't want their houses to be next to factories, so the adjacency would cause this house to only be worth 1 point.

Round Two

Draw 3 duplex tiles to form your hand. Secretly choose 2 tiles for placement in your cities, then place the 3rd above the city to your left under the city token to signal that you have made your decision. Once all players have chosen their tiles, reveal and place 2 tiles, adding 1 tile into each of your cities. Just like in round one, when placing your tiles, you may openly discuss strategy with your partners to determine the best city and location for your chosen tiles. A total of 2 duplex tiles will be added to each city in this round, because each player adds 1 duplex tile to each of their cities.

Treat duplex tiles just like 2 building tiles stuck to one another—1 of the buildings must be placed adjacent to another building tile in the city, and they must be placed in such a way that the final city can be a 5x5 square. Duplex tiles also must be placed so their orientation matches the other tiles. (The scoring prompts on the tiles will face you.)

At the end of the round, take the remaining duplex tiles from under each of the city tokens, discard them face-down, and begin round three.

Round Three

Round three follows the same steps as round one (start with a hand of 9 building tiles), except that you put your remaining tiles face-down under the city token to your right and you pick up your tiles from your left. At the end of round three, each city will be a complete 5x5 square.

Ending the Game

After round three is over, each player takes a scoresheet and calculates the points for the city to their left. Write that city's score as a giant number in the box on the scoresheet and place it on top of the city for all players to see.

Your final score is the lower of the scores of your two cities (to your right and left), and the player with the highest final score wins.

• First tiebreaker: Tied players compare the scores of their higher-scoring cities.
• Second tiebreaker: Winners add and compare the quantity of buildings by type in both of their cities, starting at the top of the player aid and moving down until the tie is broken. First, count the number of factories in both of their cities. The player with the most factories wins. If still tied, move on to shops, parks, taverns, offices, houses, and finally civic buildings.

Scoring

Notation used on the tiles: = or ≠ means "different"; & means "and"; adjacency is shown by the adjacency icon; | separates the values in a set.

Factories (16 buildings + 8 duplex)

A factory tile is worth 4, 3, or 2, determined by majority. In the city (or cities, if tied) with the most factory tiles compared to other cities, each factory tile scores 4 points. In the city or cities with the second most factory tiles, each factory tile scores 3 points. In all other cities, each factory tile scores 2 points.

Example: Cities A and B each have five factories (4 points per factory), City C has three factories (3 points per factory), City D has two factories and City E has one factory (each city receives 2 points per factory), and City F has zero factories (0 points).

Shops (16 buildings + 8 duplex)

A set is worth 2 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20. Shops score when they are connected in a straight line (row or column): 2 points for one shop tile, 5 points for two connected adjacent shop tiles, 10 points for three connected shop tiles in a straight line, 15 points for four connected shop tiles in a straight line, or 20 points for 5 connected shop tiles in a straight line. If lines of shops cross (in an L, or T, or + shape), each tile can only be counted for one of the sets.

Score each set of shops separately. Example: a row of five shops scores 20 points, plus 2 points for a single shop, and 5 points for a column of two shops, for a total of 27 points.

Taverns (20 buildings + 8 duplex; 7 of each)

A set is worth 1 | 4 | 9 | 17. There are four different tavern tiles, each with a different icon inside a red diamond. Taverns score 1 point for one in a city, 4 points for two different taverns, 9 points for three different taverns, or 17 points for all four different taverns in a city (regardless of location or adjacency to each other).

A city can contain duplicate taverns. Each set of taverns is scored separately. Example: if a city has one music, two drink, and two food taverns, that city scores 13 points for taverns: 9 points for the first set of music, drink, and food taverns and 4 points for the second set of drink and food taverns.

Parks (16 buildings + 8 duplex)

A group of one or more connected parks is worth 2 | 8 | 12 | 13 | 14… Parks score in groups of one or more connected parks. A single unconnected park is worth 2 points. Two connected parks are worth 8. Three connected parks are worth 12. Every additional connected park after the third increases the score by 1.

To be in a connected group, a park must share a border with another park. The group does not have to form a straight line.

You may have more than one unconnected park group in your city. Score each park group separately.

Examples: in a city with four separate park tiles, the parks score 8 points total (2 each). Three adjacent parks and one separate park score 14 points total. Four adjacent parks score 13 points total. Two separate groups of two parks each score 8 points for a total of 16 points.

Offices (20 buildings + 8 duplex)

A set is worth 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 21, and a tile is worth +1 if adjacent to at least 1 tavern. Offices score 1 point for one office tile, 3 points for two office tiles, 6 points for three, 10 points for four, 15 points for five, or 21 points for six office tiles (regardless of location or adjacency to each other).

If a city has seven office tiles, the seventh starts a new set of offices, and the scoring starts over again at 1 for that set. (Example: if a city has 7 office tiles, it scores 22 points for offices: 21 + 1.)

In addition, each office gets +1 point if it is adjacent to at least one tavern. Each office tile can only score 1 bonus point, but several offices can receive that point from the same adjacent tavern tile. A single office adjacent to a tavern is worth 2 points (1 + 1). A single office adjacent to four taverns is still worth 2 points.

Houses (20 buildings + 8 duplex)

A tile is worth 1 per other building type (excluding houses and civics), but a tile adjacent to a factory is only worth 1. Each house tile is worth 1 point for each other building type (excluding houses and civics) in the city (regardless of location or adjacency). If there is one other building type in the city, each house is worth 1 point. If there are five other building types in the city, each house is worth 5 points. All taverns count as a single building type.

If a house tile is adjacent to a factory tile, that house tile instead scores 1 point (people don't want to live right next to a factory).

Civic (21 buildings)

A tile is worth 3 if adjacent to at least 1 preferred building type, 6 if adjacent to both preferred building types, or only 1 if adjacent to its undesired building type (regardless of adjacency to preferred building types).

Each civic tile shows two positive tile types that help the civic tile when placed adjacent to it, and one negative type that hurts the civic tile when placed adjacent to it. These are different for every civic tile.

At the end of the game, check each civic tile, and score each one individually in the following way:

• If it is not adjacent to any positive or negative tile types, it scores 1 point.
• If it is adjacent to only one of the positive tile types, it scores 3 points.
• If it is adjacent to both of the positive tile types, it scores 6 points.
• If it is adjacent to the negative tile type, it scores only 1 point, regardless of any other tiles surrounding it (much like a house next to a factory).

When scoring civic tiles, it does not matter if the civic tile is adjacent to multiples of one positive tile type. For example, the Elementary School is still only worth 3 points even if it is next to two houses, but no parks, and 6 points even if it is adjacent to two parks and two houses.

Variants

Two-Player Variant (Standard)

In a 2-player game, you each design two cities on your own (four cities total): one to your left and one to your right. On each turn you choose two tiles and place one in each of your cities. Each of the rounds from the 3–7 player game is played twice as indicated below:

1. Round 1a—draw 9 building tiles; choose, reveal, and place 2; then pass the remaining tiles to your opponent until only 1 tile remains
2. Round 1b—same as round 1a
3. Round 2a—draw 3 duplex tiles, choose and place 2
4. Round 2b—same as round 2a
5. Round 3a—same as round 1a
6. Round 3b—same as round 1a

At the end of the game, score each city the same way as in the 3–7 player game, but instead of only counting your lowest-scoring city, add together the scores of both of your cities to determine your final score. Ties are broken using the second tie-breaker rule from the 3–7 player game.

NOTE: Without the element of partnership, the 2-player variant can be more aggressive than the 3–7 player game. You have much more influence on your opponent's choices when passing tiles.

Two-Player Variant (Advanced)

Set up a 2-player game as if there are 3 players. There will be 3 cities, each with a landscape mat and city token. The third player is called Jamey. The 2 human players will be building a city together, like normal, and each human player will also be building 1 city with Jamey.

Round One: During round one, each player draws 9 tiles. Jamey also draws 9 tiles (place them face down in front of him, as if he were a human player). Do not look at Jamey's tiles.

During the Choose step of each turn this round, the player to the left of Jamey will shuffle and randomly pick 2 of Jamey's tiles. They should look at those tiles and choose 1 of them to keep for the city that they share with Jamey and 1 for the city that the other human player shares with Jamey. Place both of Jamey's tiles face up, each near the city it was chosen for. Then the human players choose their own 2 tiles from their own respective tile stacks.

When both human players have finished choosing their tiles and all stacks (including Jamey's) have been passed to the left, conduct the Reveal and Place steps. Each human player chooses where to play their own tile and also where to place Jamey's tile into the city they share with Jamey. Once the Place step is finished, repeat the steps as normal.

Round Two: Round two begins with Jamey drawing 4 duplex tiles. Each human player gains 2 at random, selects 1 (discard the other), and places it in the city they share with Jamey. Then proceed with the normal round two steps.

Round Three: Round three follows the same steps as round one, except that the human player to Jamey's right will shuffle and randomly pick 2 of Jamey's tiles each turn, assigning 1 to each of Jamey's cities.

At the end of round three, score all cities like normal. It's possible for Jamey to win the game!

Beginner Variant

For a simplified version of Between Two Cities, do not use the civic buildings and landscape mats, and only draw 7 building tiles at the beginning of rounds one and three (instead of 9 tiles). You will make 4x4 cities instead of 5x5 cities.

Districts Variant (Advanced)

Each pair of district cards is a district that citizens want in their city. There are three districts with this variant. Districts are regions of connected tiles of those types. A district does not need to have both tile types present in order to score. A city only counts its largest district of each type.

SETUP: Place the three District tiles in order near the center of the table, and randomly draw two district cards to place above each tile. If the Factory and House cards are placed in the same district, discard the second one drawn, and continue drawing district cards until all three tiles are filled.

SCORING: Districts are scored at the end of the game after individual tiles are scored. Each district's scoring tile shows the scoring for that district. For each district type, the city with the largest district scores the points for first place, and a different city with the next largest district scores the points for second place. One city cannot score both first and second place for the same district.

TIES: If there is a tie for first place for one district, combine the first and second place points and split them evenly between the tied cities, rounding down (e.g., if there is a three-way tie for first place, each tied city will receive 4 points). If there is a tie for first place, there is no second place for that district.

If there is a tie for second place, all the tied cities split the points equally, rounding down (e.g. if there is a two-way tie for second in District 3 for second place, each tied city will receive 2 points).

Quick Reference Guide

Round Summary

Step	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Setup	Draw 9 square building tiles.	Draw 3 rectangular duplex tiles.	Draw 9 square building tiles.
Choose	Secretly choose 2 tiles; pass the rest to the left with the city token on top.	Secretly choose 2 tiles; discard the remaining tile to the center.	Secretly choose 2 tiles; pass the rest to the right with the city token on top.
Reveal / Place	Simultaneously reveal your tiles. Place 1 in each city on your sides.	Simultaneously reveal your tiles. Place 1 in each city on your sides.	Simultaneously reveal your tiles. Place 1 in each city on your sides.
Draw	Take the tiles on your right. If only one tile remains, discard it face-down in the center. Start round 2.	No draw. Start round 3.	Take the tiles on your left. If only one tile remains, discard it face-down in the center. Calculate scores.

Placement Rules

• The first tile must be placed on the landscape mat.
• After the first, all tiles must be placed adjacent to at least 1 other tile.
• All tiles must be oriented upright.
• Tiles must fit within a 5x5 grid.
• Once placed, a tile cannot be moved.

Scoring Summary

• Factories: Each factory is 4 points in the city/cities with the most factories, 3 points in the city/cities with the second most, 2 points in all others.
• Shops: 2 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 points for each set of 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 in a line (horizontal or vertical). Each tile may only score in one set.
• Parks: 2 | 8 | 12 | 13 | 14… for parks in a connected group.
• Taverns: 1 | 4 | 9 | 17 points for each set of 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 different tavern types anywhere in the city. Each tile may only score in one set.
• Offices: 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 21 points for 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 anywhere in the city. +1 for each office adjacent to 1 or more taverns.
• Houses: Each house is 1 point per other tile type in the city (excluding houses and civics), or only 1 if adjacent to a factory.
• Civic tiles: Score 1 if not adjacent to +/– types or if adjacent to – type (even if also any +), 3 if adjacent to one + type, 6 if adjacent to both + types.

Final Score

Your final score is the value of your lower scoring city. The winner is the player with the highest score. Break ties with the value of your higher scoring city first, then by the number of factory tiles, then shops, parks, taverns, offices, houses, and civic buildings.

© 2015 Stonemaier LLC. Between Two Cities is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC.