Welcome to Centerville Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Inventory
• Rules of Play
  • Playing the Game
  • Winning the Game
• Game Terms & Components
  • Dice
  • Markers
  • Tiles
• Setting Up the Game
• Rolling the Dice
• Spending the Dice
• Passing the Dice
• The Favor Tiles
• Disasters
• Hourglasses
• The Safe Tile
• Fate
• Trees
• Contracts
• Contract Examples
• Education
• Reseed Vocations
• Benches
• Votes
• Vote Example
• Scoring Rounds
  • 1. Score the Town
  • 2. Score the River
  • 3. Score the Political Offices
  • 4. Score Status
  • 5. Reset
  • 6. Score the Vocations
  • 7. Score the Villas
  • 8. Score Legacy
• 2-Player Rules
  • 2-Player Setup
  • 2-Player Game Play
• Bot Actions
• Play Tips
• Player Aid: Die Faces
• Player Aid: A Player's Turn
• Player Aid: Disaster Summary
• Player Aid: Icon Key
• Player Aid: Legacy Tiles Summary

Inventory

• this rule book
• game board
• four player aids
• six custom dice in six colors
• eight wooden discs in four player colors
• 128 wooden cubes in four player colors
• one sheet of stickers (for the discs)
• one sheet of die-cut tiles
• wood cylinder
• cloth bag

Rules of Play

Playing the Game

Welcome to Centerville is played in a series of three action rounds, each capped by a scoring round. The action rounds are where players will be attempting to position themselves favorably in the various areas on the board in order to earn valuable victory points—in the form of both wealth and prestige—during the ensuing scoring rounds. Balancing your individual wealth and prestige points, rather than excelling at one at the expense of the other, is the best route to victory.

Note: Throughout the rules the term "victory point" is interchangeable with either or both of "wealth" and "prestige."

Action Rounds—During the action rounds, players take turns being the "active player" clockwise around the table. The active player's turn is divided mainly into two distinct phases which must be performed in the following order:

• roll the dice; then
• spend the dice.

No die may be spent until all rolling is declared finished. Similarly, once the active player begins spending dice for actions no more rolling is allowed for the turn.

Sometimes, prior to rolling dice for the turn, the active player may need to reseed the vocations [page 12], resolve Disasters [page 9] or set dice according to his Master tiles [page 8].

Scoring Rounds—Players conduct turns in this manner indefinitely until a scoring round is triggered [page 14]. After each of the first and second scoring rounds a new action round begins, starting with the next active player in clockwise order. After the third scoring round, the game ends and a winner is determined.

Winning the Game

At the end of the third and final scoring round the game ends. A winner is then determined as follows:

1. Each player notes which of his two victory point markers is lowest on the victory track: the space occupied by that marker is his final score. (For example, having 48 wealth and 55 prestige means a final score of 48.) The player with the highest such final score wins the game.

   If there is a tie:

2. Among the tied players, the player whose other victory point marker is highest on the victory track wins.

   If there is still a tie:

3. Among the tied players, the one who finished with the highest status wins the game.

Game Terms & Components

Stickers—Before starting your first game carefully apply the small round stickers to both the front and back of the wooden discs of the matching color.

Dice

The colored dice are the beating heart of the game. The first half of each player's turn consists of rolling the dice, up to three times each; the second half is spending those die results on the board:

Contracts & Building The four contract icons allow a player to build in the four like-colored zones of the town in the center of the board. Players use their cubes to represent buildings erected in town. Contracts can also be used to permanently improve the quality of a player's status in the community.

Benches & Central Park The bench icons allow a player to interact with the park space in the center of town then, once in the park, to directly affect the status track.

Trees, the Greenbelt & the River The tree icons allow a player to develop the land surrounding town. This includes the greenbelt—the forested number track near the top of the board—as well as the river and its bridge to the right of town. Players keep track of their current level on the greenbelt track by means of the stickered wooden discs depicting a tree, and use their cubes to mark development of villas along the river. Tree icons can also allow a player to build directly into the four most valuable outskirts sections of town.

Education & Vocations The education icons allow a player to acquire vocation tiles from the campus section to the left of town. Education icons can also allow a player to take control of the Media tile.

Votes & Political Offices The vote icons allow a player to take control of the like-colored political offices on the right side of the board. Players use their cubes to keep track of controlled offices, one cube per vote. An outvoted player must relinquish their office to the new owner. Votes can also allow a player to acquire one or more powerful Master tiles.

Fate The fate icons act as a sort of wild card, becoming an exact copy of one of the above icons.

Hourglasses & Time The hourglass icons force the passage of time through three scoring rounds and the eventual end of the game. The time marker advances one space—and a minor compensation is awarded to the player—for each hourglass rolled during the turn.

Markers

Time Marker Players keep track of game time by advancing the wooden cylinder along the board's time track. When the time marker enters either clock tower space at the end of the time track a scoring round occurs. After the first two scoring rounds the marker is reset to its starting space and play resumes. After the third scoring round the game ends.

Wealth & Prestige Markers These represent the players' victory points. A stack of three coins indicates wealth; a medal represents prestige. Players keep track of their current wealth and prestige totals by means of their colored tiles on the numbered victory track that wraps around three edges of the board. The wealth marker is round, picturing coins; prestige is a square marker showing a medal. If a player's score exceeds 50, flip the relevant marker to its "+50" side and continue anew around the track. Players' wealth and prestige can never drop below 1.

Status Markers A five-pointed star indicates status. Players keep track of their current status rank—1st through 4th—on the status track by means of their stickered wooden disc depicting one star on the front, two stars on the back. Players at a higher rank in status earn more wealth and prestige.

Tiles

Favor Tiles Each of the ten Favors are acquired after occupying the top of the status track. A Favor gives its owner the option of using a "Favor Bonus" to enhance certain actions. Favors are removed from the game once used.

Media Tile The Media tile is acquired with education icons. Media allows its owner an extra roll on each of his turns. During final scoring, Media's owner may treat it as if it were any one vocation of their choice.

Vocation Tiles The 45 vocations—comprised of nine different types—are kept in a cloth bag, pulled randomly to be put on display in the campus section of the board, then acquired with education. Vocations are kept in sets in front of their owners until scored in the final scoring round. (Note: The number is not a value but instead indicates how many of that particular vocation exist in the game.)

Master Tiles The Masters are acquired with votes. A Master allows its owner to set the matching die to a specific face at the start of their turn.

Disaster Tiles A Disaster tile is put into the cloth bag containing the vocation tiles if and when another marker reaches its setup space. If a Disaster is then drawn while reseeding the vocations, a random calamity hits the players.

Safe Tile The Safe tile protects its owner from the harmful effects of Disasters.

Legacy Tiles The Legacy tiles are randomly assigned, one per player, at the start of the game. Each player's Legacy tile is known to them but should be kept face-down and secret from their opponents until final scoring, when all players are eligible to benefit from, or suffer by, each revealed Legacy.

Setting Up the Game

Important!—The following setup is for 3 or 4 players. If there are only 2 players, see page 16.

A. Board & Player Aids—Lay the board in the middle of the table. Everyone gets a player aid.

B. Player Colors—Each player selects a player color then gathers up all pieces of that color: 32 wooden cubes, two wooden discs, one wealth tile and one prestige tile.

C. Greenbelt Marker—Put all players' greenbelt markers on space "0" of the forested greenbelt track.

D. Wealth and Prestige Markers—Place all players' wealth and prestige markers in the "10" space of the numbered outer victory track.

E. Status Marker—Randomly select one player's status marker. Place it—single star face-up—into the "1st" (top) space of the status track. Proceeding counterclockwise around the table, place the next player's status marker into the "2nd" space, then the "3rd" space, then "4th" space if there are four players.

F. Starting Player—Hand the six dice to the player in last place (bottom-most) on the status track. This player will take the first turn of the game.

G. Favor Tiles—Stack the ten Favor tiles in the "Favors" space next to the status track.

H. Time Marker—Put the wooden cylinder in the time track space with the 3- or 4-pawn icons, depending on the number of players (in this example 4 icons for 4 players).

I. Media Tile—Place the Media tile in the "News" space.

J. Master Tiles—Place the four Master tiles in the "Airport."

K. Safe Tile—Place the Safe tile in the "Police & Fire" political office.

L. Vocation Tiles—Put the 45 vocation tiles into the bag. Blindly draw six tiles. Put the drawn tile with the lowest number into the bottom space of the campus area, the second lowest tile in the second lowest space, and so on, ending with the highest numbered tile in the top space. Set the bag of undrawn tiles aside for future use.

M. Legacy Tiles—Place the seven Legacy tiles face-down on the table and shuffle them. Each player gets one marker chosen at random (you may look at yours but keep it secret from your opponents). Put the remaining Legacy tiles back in the box, unrevealed.

N. Disaster Tiles—Place the four Disaster tiles face-down on the table and shuffle them. Being careful not to reveal their hidden sides, place one tile onto the first of the two clock tower spaces at the end of the time track; one on the "12" space of the greenbelt track; and one each on spaces "13" and "40" of the outer victory track.

Rolling the Dice

At the start of the active player's turn—after reseeding vocations [page 12], resolving Disasters [facing page] and setting Master dice [below]—he rolls the six dice. He may then choose to set aside—"keep"—all, some or none of the dice.

Important exception: Hourglass icons [facing page] must always be kept; they may never be rerolled.

It is suggested that the active player place any rolled hourglass icon(s) directly onto the next space(s) of the time track. This serves as both a reminder that they can't be rerolled as well as a cue to advance the time marker during that player's turn.

• If the active player keeps all the dice, rolling is finished and he proceeds to the second half of his turn where he may spend any or all of the icons on those dice for various actions.
• Otherwise, he rerolls any number of (non-hourglass) dice.

Rerolls may include dice that were just rolled and/or dice that were kept from a previous roll: that is, other than hourglass icons, a kept die is never 'locked' and may be rerolled later.

Players aren't committed to (non-hourglass) dice kept during their first roll. For example, some could be picked up for inclusion in the third roll, perhaps after the second roll produced a more intriguing combination of icons.

After the first roll the active player may repeat the roll/keep process up to twice more, for a possible total of three rolls. After the third roll, all dice must be kept.

The Media Tile During the active player's "roll dice" portion of his turn, if he controls the Media he may choose to make a fourth (and final) roll. This is an exception to the normal maximum of three rolls per player per turn.

You can acquire Media with "Education" icons [page 12]. The benefit of owning Media at the end of the game is explained in "Score the Vocations" [page 15].

The Master Tiles Each of the four Masters is a different color, matching the color of one of the dice. (There are no black or green Masters.)

At the start of the active player's turn, immediately prior to rolling the dice, if that player owns a Master he may choose to set the matching die to any face desired. If he does, that die is considered locked for the turn and can't be rolled or rerolled. A player owning multiple Masters may set those dice to the same or to different faces.

You can acquire Masters with "Votes" [page 13].

Spending the Dice

Once the active player has finished rolling the dice he executes the results in a manner of his choosing by "spending" the dice—singly or in groups—for various actions on the board.

The actions allowed during implementation of the dice are described in detail on the following pages. The actions are also presented in abbreviated form on the player aids.

Spending—Dice may be spent in any order the active player wishes. Each die may only be spent once for a single action. With the exception of hourglass icons, which are mandatory, individual dice need not be spent at all, at the active player's discretion.

Options—Oftentimes an icon will present more than one option as to which action it is assigned to, either singly or as part of a group with other dice. The active player may always choose which legal action to assign a die to.

This is most commonly the case with a fate icon, which usually has several different dice it could copy and therefore several different types of actions it could enhance.

Dead Dice—Sometimes the active player will find that a die can't be used for any action, either because of choices the player made earlier in the turn or because of an unfortunate game state: in such a case the die is wasted, remaining unused for the turn.

Example: If the last die to be spent shows a vote icon it would be wasted since gaining a political office requires a minimum of two votes.

Component Limits—The number of player cubes in the game is a hard limit: any action requiring the use of more cubes than the active player has remaining available in front of him can't be played.

Passing the Dice

Once the active player has finished spending the dice, check for a possible scoring round:

• Time—If the time marker occupies one of the two clock tower spaces, play is interrupted by a scoring round [page 14].

If the third and final scoring round is performed this way the game ends. If the game doesn't end, either because there was no scoring round or because this was the first or second scoring round:

• Pass—The active player passes the dice to the player sitting on his left, who becomes the new active player and begins his turn.

The Favor Tiles

There are four specific actions in the rules that follow which have a "Favor Bonus" associated with it, modifying that action in some beneficial manner.

Acquiring Favors—Whenever the player who occupies the "1st" (top) space of the status track is bumped down to the "2nd" space, he immediately takes a Favor tile (if any remain).

Using Favors—A Favor Bonus is only available to the active player if he currently possesses at least one Favor. The cost to use a Favor Bonus is to permanently discard one Favor tile (put it back in the box). If this cost is paid, the appropriate bonus is applied to the action currently being implemented. A maximum of one Favor Bonus can be claimed per action taken.

A Favor Bonus is never mandatory. Players can maintain possession of their Favors, unused, for as long as they choose.

Disasters

The Calm—If and when another game marker enters or passes through a space containing a Disaster tile, immediately remove that Disaster tile from the board and put it into the cloth bag containing the vocation tiles, being careful not to reveal its hidden side as you do so.

The Storm—Whenever a Disaster tile is drawn from the bag while reseeding the vocation area of the board at the start of the active player's turn, game play pauses in order to execute the Disaster. (Don't start rolling just yet!)

Depending on which of the four Disasters was drawn, the following calamity affects each player in turn order beginning with the active player:

• -1 (vote icon) = Lose 1 political office (remove all cubes there).
• -2 (vocation icon) = Lose 2 vocations (put them back in the box, out of play).
• -3 (building icon) = Lose 3 cubes from town (buildings and/or in the park).
• -4 (greenbelt icon) = Go back 4 spaces on the greenbelt track (not below 0).

Exception: the player in control of the Safe tile may ignore any effect listed above.

When finished, put the Disaster tile(s) back in the box and continue with the active player's turn (set Masters/roll dice).

Consecutive disasters are possible—and often disastrous!

Hourglasses

The two hourglass icons have no action associated with them. An hourglass simply forces the passage of game time while granting a compensatory bonus to the active player.

Hourglasses have three important exceptions to the base rules:

1. When rolling dice, hourglasses must be kept; and
2. When spending dice, kept hourglasses must be spent; and
3. Fate icons [page 10] can never copy an hourglass.

Implementing hourglasses works as follows:

Spend 1 Hourglass: Time Marches On—

• First, advance the time marker one space along the time track (towards the clock tower spaces).
• Second, choose one of the following options:
  • Gain 1 status: swap places between your status marker and the one directly above yours on the status track; or
  • Gain 1 wealth: advance your wealth marker 1 space along the victory track; or
  • Gain 1 prestige: advance your prestige marker 1 space along the victory track.

If a player drops from 1st place on the status track to 2nd place due to the first option, that player takes an available Favor tile.

If a victory marker lands on one of the Disaster tiles due to the second or third options, put it in the bag.

The Safe Tile

The player who controls the Safe tile is immune to the effects of any Disaster tiles drawn for as long as he maintains possession of the tile. In other words, this player will not suffer the consequences of the drawn Disaster [see left] while all other players will suffer as normal.

You can acquire the Safe tile by taking control of the "Police & Fire" political office [page 13].

Fate

The five fate icons are used by the active player as a sort of "wild" die, copying another die's icon.

Implementing fate works as follows:

Spend 1 Fate: Improvise—Copy a bench, contract, education, tree or vote icon (never hourglass). This copies the other icon in every respect, including the color of its die. Multiple fate can copy the same icon in this manner.

Example: A fate icon (of any color) copying a red contract icon acts as a red contract for all rules purposes.

Trees

The six tree icons are most often used by the active player to either advance on the greenbelt track running across the top of the board or to acquire lucrative riverfront property. Trees also allow the active player to build in the best parts of town.

Implementing trees works as follows:

Spend 1 Tree: Expand City Limits—Advance your marker 1 space along the greenbelt track. If you can't because you already occupy the "12" space, instead lower any one opponent's marker by 1 space.

Reminder: If you reach space 12 put the Disaster tile in the bag.

Spend 3 Trees: Develop the River—Choose an empty river space. Place one of your available cubes there to indicate control.

Favor Bonus: Instead of an empty river space, take control of the bridge space (whether empty or controlled).

Spend 4 Trees: Build in Town—Choose an empty level-4 space in town. Place one of your available cubes on the desired space to indicate control.

Note: Unlike building in the town using contract icons [see right], none of the spent dice need match the color of the chosen zone.

Contracts

The four contract icons are used by the active player to claim control of lots (spaces) within town. Alternatively, they can permanently increase the quality of a player's status.

Town Zones—The board's central town is separated into four corner "zones." Each zone has both a unique color and symbol to represent it on both the board and on the dice.

At least one of the dice used for a town contract action (below) must match the color/symbol of the zone being built in; the remainder may be of any color/symbol.

Town Neighborhoods—The town is also divided into four neighborhood "levels" of value 1 through 4. These levels emanate concentrically outward from the central park space. Levels are defined and separated from one another by thick black lines. Level 1 comprises the twelve space (three in each zone) adjacent to the park; level 2 the twenty spaces just outside level 1; level 3 the spaces just outside level 2; and finally there are four level 4 spaces on the far outskirts of town.

The "value" of a building cube is equal to the town level it occupies.

Example: A cube in a level-2 town space has a value of 2 for purposes of scoring [page 14] or for the Public Works political office bonus [page 13].

Implementing contracts works as follows:

Spend 1, 2 or 3 Contracts: Build in Town—Choose an empty space in town. Place one of your available cubes on the desired space to indicate control. It costs 1 contract die to build in a level-1 space; 2 contracts to build in a level-2 space; and 3 contracts to build in a level-3 space. [see examples on facing page]

Favor Bonus: You may build in an occupied space: Replace the existing cube with one of yours to indicate the new ownership. The replaced cube is given back to its owner for future use.

Players can only build in town levels 1, 2 and 3 using contracts: level 4 spaces require tree icons [see left].

Spend 4 Contracts: Landmark Building—Flip your status marker to its "★★" side.

Hint: Doing this will give you a better status payout during ensuing scoring rounds [page 14] so the earlier it's done, the better.

Contract Examples

With the following dice... [yellow contract, red fate, purple contract]

...the active player has many options:

1. build a level-1 building in the town's yellow zone, plus a level-1 building in the purple zone, and use the red fate for something else;

With the fate copying the yellow die: [yellow contract, yellow contract, purple contract]

2. build two level-1 yellow buildings and a level-1 purple building;
3. build a level-2 yellow building and a level-1 purple building;
4. build a level-3 yellow or purple building;

With the fate copying the purple die: [yellow contract, purple contract, purple contract]

5. build a level-1 yellow building and two level-1 purple buildings;
6. build a level-1 yellow building and a level-2 purple building;
7. build a level-3 yellow or purple building;

In no case could the active player build in the red zone, since the red fate icon must first copy another icon—including its color!—in order to be used at all.

Education

The six education icons are most often used by the active player to acquire the vocation tiles arrayed at the campus on the left side of the board. Higher education can also create national or even global news, gaining media attention.

Implementing education works as follows:

Spend 1 Education: Common Vocation—Take the vocation tile in the top section of the campus area.

Spend 2 Education: Uncommon Vocation—Take one of the two vocation tiles from the middle section of the campus area.

Spend 3 Education: Rare Vocation—Take one of the three vocation tiles from the bottom section of the campus area.

Favor Bonus: Instead of taking a vocation from the bottom section of campus, take any one vocation from another player.

Spend 4 Education: National Headlines—Take control of the Media tile [page 8].

The main benefit of the Media tile—allowing a fourth roll—will kick in beginning with the player's next turn, assuming he still controls it at that time.

Reseed Vocations

At the start of a player's turn—prior to setting Masters and rolling the dice—if one or more spaces within the campus section of the board are empty, refill those spaces as follows:

• First, the active player blindly draws tiles from the bag until there are once again six available vocations tiles or until the bag is empty, whichever occurs first; then
• Second, arrange the available vocation tiles—those already in campus plus any that were just drawn—in lowest-to-highest numerical order from the bottom space to the top space (as was done during setup); then
• Third, if any Disasters were drawn, execute them now.

Note: If there are not enough vocations remaining in the bag to fill all six spaces, fill as many as possible from the bottom up.

Benches

Benches allow the active player to gain presence in the town's central park. Once there, benches can help improve a player's status.

Implementing benches works as follows:

Spend 1 Bench: Leisure Time—Gain status equal to your presence in the park: For each cube you have in the park, swap positions between your status marker and the one directly above yours.

Remember: If you cause another player to drop from 1st place on the status track to 2nd place, that player takes a Favor tile (if still available).

Spend 3 Benches: Public Spaces—Place one of your available cubes in the town's central park space. There's no limit to the number of cubes, belonging to any number of players, that can occupy the park.

Having presence in the park increases a player's value in each of the four town zones, as explained in "Score the Town" [page 14].

Votes

The six vote icons are most often used by the active player to take over one or more of the political offices found on the right half of the board. Votes can also attract masters of their field from abroad. Implementing votes works as follows:

Spend 2 or more Votes: Local Politics—Choose a political office, which must match the color of one of the votes spent for this action. Place exactly X of your available "vote" cubes in that office, where X is the number of vote icons expended.

It requires a minimum of 2 vote icons to gain an office, even if that office is currently empty (uncontrolled). If any player already controls the desired office, the active player must assign a number of vote icons greater than the number of vote cubes already present there. These new vote cubes replace all vote cubes already in the office, which are given back to their owner for future use.

Note: You are allowed to take over control of an office from yourself—you've been reelected!

Favor Bonus: Take control of an occupied office by assigning a number of vote icons equal to the number of vote cubes already present there.

Election Bonus—Whenever the active player takes control of an office he may perform an immediate bonus, as follows:

• Mayor—Move to the top of the status track. (All opponents who were above you slide down one space.)
• Urban Planning—Take another turn after this one, but without rolling the green die.
• Police & Fire—Take control of the Safe tile [page 9].
• Public Works—Increase the value of one of your buildings in town by 1 level. (Physically move the building cube into an empty space within the same colored zone and of the next higher level: 1→2, 2→3 or 3→4.)
• Finance—Gain wealth equal to the value of your best building in town (1, 2, 3 or 4).
• City Council—Gain prestige equal to the value of your best building in town (1, 2, 3 or 4).

Spend 4 Votes: Regional Politics—Take control of any one Master tile [page 8] remaining in the Airport space of the board.

Note: None of the dice spent on this action need match the color of the Master you choose.

Vote Example

With the political offices as shown at right... and with dice showing the following... [fate, red vote, black vote, fate] ...the active player:

• can't take the Mayor's office (too few votes);
• can't claim any of the middle four offices (no votes of the proper color);
• can take control of the City Council from the gray player by spending all four dice as votes, one of which is the requisite red vote.

Mayor: The player you force to drop from 1st place on the status track to 2nd place takes a Favor tile (if still available).

Urban Planning: So instead of passing the dice to the next player you keep them and go again, albeit with only five dice.

Police & Fire: If an opponent has the Safe tile, take it from them.

Public Works: The Favor can't be used to move the building into an occupied space. If there are no empty spaces available, or the player has no buildings in town, this bonus is forfeit.

Finance and City Council: If you have no buildings in town, you get nothing. Cubes in the park are not buildings. If your victory marker enters a space containing a Disaster tile, put it in the bag.

Scoring Rounds

At the end of any player's turn, if the time marker occupies either clock tower space at the end of the time track, play is interrupted for one of three scoring rounds. The first two scoring rounds are identical; the third and final scoring round includes a few additional scoring opportunities. After the first and second scoring rounds player turns resume from wherever they left off. After the third scoring round the game ends and a winner is determined.

Scoring activities are performed as follows, in the order presented.

1. Score the Town

Summary—One at a time, each of the four town zones will be evaluated as to which players have the greatest total presence and which have the least. Players with the most value will earn victory points while those with the fewest will lose points.

• How—First, in the town's YELLOW zone, each player calculates the sum total of his own buildings' values within that zone: 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on which level the building occupies.
• Second, every player adds +1 to his total (even if zero) for each cube he has in the central park space.
• Third, the player with the highest sum total gains 6 wealth (if there is a tie for greatest all tied players benefit).
• Fourth, the player with the lowest sum total—including zero—loses 3 wealth (if there is a tie for lowest all tied players suffer).

Then, repeat the four steps above for the BLUE, RED and PURPLE sections of town. The blue zone also pays/costs players wealth; the red and purple zones, however, pay/cost players prestige.

Town Scoring Example

With building and park cubes as shown...

...the yellow zone scores as follows: The gray, white and brown players can each count a total of 2 value (remember brown's +1 for the park cube) while orange has 1. Orange loses 3 wealth for having the least total value; the three other players gain 6 wealth each.

The purple zone would score as follows: White has by far the greatest presence with a total of 5 value; orange and gray tie for last with 0 value apiece (brown's lone park cube gives it 1 value in purple). Therefore white scores 6 prestige while orange and gray each lose 3 prestige.

2. Score the River

Summary—Players with one or more cubes occupying bridge and river spaces will earn victory points and possibly claim a villa for endgame scoring [facing page].

How—First, each cube north of the bridge gains its owner an amount of wealth equal to his position on the greenbelt track.

Second, each cube south of the bridge gains its owner an amount of prestige equal to his position on the greenbelt track.

Third, if there's a cube on the bridge its owner gains both wealth and prestige equal to his position on the greenbelt track.

Finally, players slide their cubes out of each river and bridge space to the right along its associated road in order to take control of the furthest empty villa on that road. If all associated villas along a particular road have already been claimed, that cube is instead returned to the owning player for future use.

3. Score the Political Offices

Summary—Players controlling two or more offices will earn victory points. Player with no offices will lose points.

How—Each player counts how many of the six offices he controls then references the table shown at right.

The number of vote cubes within each office is not relevant.

offices	wealth + prestige
0	-3
1	0
2	3
3	7
4	12
5	18
6	25

Find the number of offices the player controls in the left-hand column. The value directly opposite in the right-hand column indicates how much wealth and prestige that player gains or loses.

4. Score Status

Summary—Players earn victory points based on their current rank on the status track.

How—Each player notes the position of his marker on the status track—1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th—and whether that marker shows one or two stars, then references the table at right.

wealth + prestige (1 star)	rank	wealth + prestige (2 stars)
4	1st	8
2	2nd	4
1	3rd	2
0	4th	1

The left-most column indicates how much wealth and prestige that player gains based on his rank (center column) if his marker still shows a single star. The right-most column shows how much wealth and prestige that player gains based on his rank if his marker has been flipped to its two-star side.

5. Reset

Note—During rounds 1 and 2 this is the last step before normal play resumes. Important: Reset is NOT performed during round 3.

Summary—During scoring rounds 1 and 2, players perform a couple of cleanup items in preparation for action rounds 2 and 3, respectively.

How—First, remove all but one cube from each controlled office. Give those cubes back to their owners for future use.

Thus each player controlling one or more offices will maintain control of them into the next round, albeit with only a single vote.

Then, reset the time marker back to its appropriate starting space based on the number of players. The active player passes the dice to the next player in clockwise order and play resumes.

6. Score the Vocations

Note—If this is the first or second scoring round STOP!: You've gone too far. Steps 6-8 are only performed during the third scoring round.

Summary—Players will gain prestige based on the number of different vocations they own. Players will also gain wealth for each set of three or more of the same vocation they own.

How—First, the player controlling the Media tile names any one of the nine vocation tiles: Media becomes a copy of the named vocation for all scoring purposes. (The named vocation need not already be in the owning player's collection nor even be in play.)

Second, each player counts how many different types of vocations he owns, referencing this number on the central column of the table shown at left. (There are nine vocation types, numbered 1-9.) The number directly opposite in the left-hand column indicates how much prestige that player gains.

Third, for each vocation type, players count how many of that type they own, referencing this number on the central column of the table shown at left. The number directly opposite in the right-hand column indicates how much wealth that player gains.

prestige	Qty.	wealth
0	0-1	0
1	2	0
3	3	5
6	4	10
10	5	20
15	6	35
21	7	35
28	8	35
36	9	35

Vocation Scoring Example

At the end of the game David owns the vocations shown below. David will score: 3 prestige for having three different types; 0 wealth for the pair of Finance; 20 wealth for the set of five Service; and 5 wealth for the triple Retail.

Three different vocation types: Finance (set of 2), Service (set of 5), Retail (set of 3).

If David controlled the Media tile, a couple of options would include assigning it as a sixth Service for a big boost in wealth, or perhaps as vocation number 7 "The Arts" for a fourth different type giving a bit more prestige.

7. Score the Villas

Summary—Players score victory points if they own one or more villas.

How—Each villa space has a value of "1", "2" or "4" as indicated by the footpath column that it occupies.

• Each villa north of the bridge scores the owner its value in wealth.
• Each villa south of the bridge scores the owner its value in prestige.
• The villa on the bridge's road scores its owner 1 wealth and 1 prestige.

8. Score Legacy

Summary—Players will gain and lose victory points according to how well they've done in certain aspects of the game, based upon all of the Legacy tiles the players were assigned during setup.

How—One at a time in player order around the table each player reveals his Legacy tile, which is evaluated and scored.

Legacy tile evaluation and scoring is as follows:

The Yellow/Blue/Red/Purple Zone: The player or players with the greatest number of building cubes in that zone—the value of those buildings being irrelevant—each gain 6 wealth and 6 prestige. The player(s) with the fewest cubes (including zero) in that zone each lose 3 wealth and 3 prestige.

The Greenbelt: The player or players furthest ahead on the greenbelt track each gain 6 wealth and 6 prestige. The player(s) furthest behind each lose 3 wealth and 3 prestige.

The Vocations: The player or players with the greatest number of vocation tiles—including the Media—each gain 6 wealth and 6 prestige. The player(s) with the fewest vocation tiles each lose 3 wealth and 3 prestige.

The Political Offices: The player or players with the greatest number of vote cubes amongst all six offices each gain 6 wealth and 6 prestige. The player(s) with the fewest vote cubes (including zero) amongst the offices each lose 3 wealth and 3 prestige.

2-Player Rules

When playing Welcome to Centerville with only two players there will be a phantom third player—called the "bot"—that is considered to be sitting at the table with the two players. The bot is run by an engine which is outlined in the rules on these two pages as well as on the back side of the player aids. This engine will instruct the two real participants on how to handle the bot's pieces on the board.

Players should note that the bot isn't crafted to necessarily be competitive, but rather to be a bit of a nuisance and act as a foil to the players' well-laid plans. The bot could end up winning the game with some timely rolls but this is deemed unlikely.

Whenever a rule on these two pages contradicts an earlier rule, the one here takes precedence.

2-Player Setup

Follow the setup procedure found on the back of the player aids instead of the one on page 6.

2-Player Game Play

Follow the player turn and scoring procedures found on pages 6-13 as normal—treating the bot as if it were another player—with the following modifications:

Tiles—The bot can acquire, and benefit from, the Safe tile normally. The bot gains Favors normally but never uses them except when spending contracts (see right). The bot can't acquire the Media or a Master.

Election Bonuses—If the bot acquires an office it executes the election bonus normally. For the Public Works office, the player highest on the status track chooses which of the bots buildings increases in value.

Disasters—When executing a Disaster, three of the four effects will affect the bot a little differently, as follows:

• Lose 1 Political Office: The bot loses its office containing the fewest cubes; if there's a tie, it loses the bottommost one (that is, closest to City Council).
• Lose 2 Vocations: Determine any two at random.
• Lose 3 Cubes from Town: The player highest on the status track determines which three the bot loses, but they must be the three least valuable (with cubes in the park being considered of highest value, and thus chosen last).

The Bot's Turn—The real players will take the first two turns of the game, then the bot will take the third turn. The bot will then take every third turn for the remainder of the game The bot goes after the same player every time as if it were sitting to that player's left.

During the bot's turn have either player roll the dice for the bot:

• The bot must keep all non-fate dice on the first roll, rerolling any fate.
• If it makes a second roll it must similarly keep all non-fate and reroll any fate.
• The bot must keep all dice after any third roll.
• The bot's dice are then spent as outlined on the facing page, and are implemented in the order given.

The Open Legacy—When evaluating and scoring each player's secret Legacy tile during the third and final scoring round, you will also evaluate and score the Legacy tile that was placed face-up on the board during setup.

Bot Actions

First, the bot spends all rolled fate icons simultaneously. It gains that much wealth or prestige, whichever is currently lowest. If the bot's wealth and prestige are tied, it gains that much of both.

Second, if the bot rolled exactly 2 tree icons (no more; no less) it attempts to claim a river space:

• If its wealth is lower it claims the empty river space north of the bridge that is closest to the bridge (if any).
• If its prestige is lower it claims the empty river space south of the bridge that is closest to the bridge (if any).
• If its wealth and prestige are tied it claims the bridge space, but only if the bridge is currently empty or controlled by an opponent.

If the bot doesn't claim a river space, it advances 1 space on the greenbelt track for every tree icon rolled. (If at 12 when it would advance, the player with lower status goes back 1 space.)

Third, the bot spends any education icons rolled:

• If the bot rolled 3 or more, it spends 3 to take the vocation in the bottom space of campus.
• Then, if the bot has 2 or more education icons left, it spends 2 to take the vocation in the space third from the top of campus.
• Then, if the bot has 1 education icon left, it takes the vocation in the top space of campus.

Fourth, the bot spends any contract icons rolled. For each contract (yellow/blue/red/purple):

• It claims an empty 1-value space in the matching zone, if possible.
• If it can't, it moves one of its 1-value buildings in that zone into an empty 2-value space in that zone, if possible.
• If it can't, it moves one of its 2-value buildings in that zone into an empty 3-value space in that zone, if possible.
• If it can't, it moves one of its 3-value buildings in that zone into the empty 4-value space in that zone, if possible.
• If it can't and the bot has a Favor, the bot spends one Favor to claim a 1-value space occupied by one of the players in that zone (if more than one option, the player with higher status chooses).
• If it can't, it puts a cube in the park.

Fifth, the bot spends any vote icons rolled. For each vote:

• If the matching political office contains one or more cubes belonging to an opposing player, remove one of those cubes.
• If the matching political office contains one or more cubes belonging to the bot, add one bot cube.
• If the matching political office contains no cubes at all, add one bot cube and give the bot that office's election bonus.

Sixth, the bot gains 1 status for each bench and hourglass icon rolled (do not advance time).

Play Tips

Very early in the game, with everything on the board wide open, it's tempting to sit on your first roll since every die likely does something. Alternatively, don't be afraid to reroll in order to chase the powerful 4-of-a-kind actions (for example: keep a pair of trees and a fate, rerolling the other three dice hoping for more of the same). Each of these actions is generally better the earlier they are taken:

• Four trees gets you a building in the most expensive part of town. This gives you a huge bump in value towards controlling that section of town. Doing this also immediately makes both the Finance and City Council political office bonuses highly lucrative for you. And the building can't be removed other than via an untimely Disaster, and even then only if you don't have enough other sacrificial buildings of lower value.
• Four contracts flips your status marker for what is essentially double victory points each time it is scored. Flip this during the first round and you'll reap the rewards three times—worst case is you gain an extra 3 victory points over the course of the game, but you could net up to 12.
• Four votes gets you a Master. The benefit of the Masters is being able to determine precisely what a die will 'roll' on each of your turns for the rest of the game. The more times you get to do this the better the value.
• Four education gets you the Media. There's always the risk an opponent will take it from you, but until they do you are allowed 33% more rolls on each of your future turns. As with the Masters the more turns in which you have this option, the better.
• Three benches (okay, not exactly a "4-of-a-kind" but with fewer bench icons the odds are nearly identical) gets you into the park. Not only does this give you a small value bump in each town zone for ensuing scoring rounds, but now every spare bench you roll allows you to climb your way up the status track instead of being wasted.

Speaking of the status track, it's sometimes a good idea early in the game to aggressively reroll the black and green dice. There are three main reasons: (1) to get the aforementioned benches; (2) searching for time icons in order to gain the associated bump in status; (3) trying for that black vote icon in order to take the Mayor's office and jump directly to the top of status. What these three goals have in common is getting to the top of the status track early in order to be next in line to grab a coveted Favor marker before they are all taken.

Early in the game—say, any time during the first round—do you spend three trees to get onto the river? Or do you spend them to advance three spaces on the greenbelt track for future considerations? It depends. An early river presence gives you the better-paying villa for endgame scoring, but if you're only at 1 on the greenbelt and the round is almost over ... maybe not the best play. If you're already at 3 or 4 on the greenbelt and you're likely to get another turn or two to climb that track ... maybe you go for the river.

Keep a sharp watch for somebody making a play on getting all six of the political offices. The ensuing windfall of victory points if they achieve this could make for a daunting uphill battle for the other players to play catch-up.

Similarly, look to sometimes swipe a vocation that an opponent needs even if it doesn't immediately benefit your collection. This is particularly true when that opponent is on the verge of assembling a 35-point set of six, or of acquiring their eighth or ninth different vocation type.

Late in the game if you find yourself in a sizeable wealth or prestige deficit don't underestimate the value of vocations to help even you up. If in the third round you find yourself well behind in prestige, for example, you can help make up the difference by going "wide" and collecting as many different vocation types as possible (usually by grabbing the low-numbered vocations using three education icons). The scoring impact of vocations is sometimes overlooked by newer players since they're only ever scored once at the very end of the game.

Another way to dig yourself out of a deep wealth/prestige hole is getting yourself a presence on the appropriate side of the river; then chase tree icons on your way to that 12 space.

Don't forget about the Legacy tiles. Whenever you have a tough choice as to whether to do action A or B during your turn, you may wish to err on the side of the action that helps you dominate a Legacy. To that end, also look for clues in what your opponents are doing in order to suss out the identity of their secret Legacy: knowing which ones they are likely to have is valuable information.

Don't forget to use your Favors! They're worth nothing if kept until the end of the game.

Player Aid: Die Faces

Each of the six dice shows six faces: a vote icon, a fate icon, an education icon, a tree icon, plus two more faces specific to its color.

Die color	Faces
Red	vote, fate, contract (red) ×2, education, tree
Yellow	vote, fate, contract (yellow) ×2, education, tree
Blue	vote, fate, contract (blue) ×2, education, tree
Purple	vote, fate, contract (purple) ×2, education, tree
Green	vote, fate, hourglass, bench, education, tree
Black	vote, hourglass ×2, bench, education, tree

Player Aid: A Player's Turn

• reseed vocations?
• resolve Disaster(s)?
• set Master(s)?
  • roll dice
  • spend dice
• scoring round?
• pass the dice

Player Aid: Disaster Summary

Disaster!—

• lose 1 political office; or
• lose 2 vocations; or
• lose 3 cubes from town; or
• lose 4 greenbelt spaces

Player Aid: Icon Key

• Wealth—coins
• Prestige—medal
• Status—star
• Greenbelt—tree

Player Aid: Legacy Tiles Summary

Each player with most cubes in purple section of town gains both 6 wealth and 6 prestige; each player with fewest loses 3 of each. (Same for blue section of town.) (Same for red section of town.) (Same for yellow section of town.)

Each player with most vote cubes among all offices gains both 6 wealth and 6 prestige; each player with fewest loses 3 of each.

Each player furthest along the greenbelt track gains both 6 wealth and 6 prestige; each player furthest behind loses 3 of each.

Each player with most vocation tiles (incl. Media) gains both 6 wealth and 6 prestige; each player with fewest loses 3 of each.