Between Two Cities

To set up the game, place landscape tiles and city tokens between neighboring players, ensuring equal space on both sides. Shuffle the building tiles and place them in the center of the table. Each player receives a reference card, and duplex tiles are placed face down in a separate pile. Make sure everyone has enough room to build two cities simultaneously with their left and right neighbors.

The objective of Between Two Cities is to act as urban planners cooperating with your left and right neighbors to construct two thriving cities. Your final score is not your highest city, but rather the lower score of the two cities you helped build. Therefore, you must work equally well on both sides to maximize your lowest score and claim victory.

The game spans three rounds. In rounds one and three, players draft building tiles from their hands, keep two to place in their cities, and pass the remaining tiles to their neighbor. In round two, players draft duplex tiles instead. All placed tiles must connect orthogonally to existing tiles and fit strictly within a 5x5 grid. Communication and negotiation with your neighbors are key during placement.

At the end of the game, players score their cities based on specific building types. Factories award points based on relative counts across all cities. Shops score in continuous lines and columns. Taverns reward variety, parks score in connected groups, and offices gain bonuses when adjacent to taverns. Houses score based on building variety but suffer penalties near factories, while civic buildings score points based on adjacent preferred types.

The game concludes after three full rounds of drafting and building. Players calculate the victory points for both of their cities using the score pads and record them. Your final score is the minimum of your left and right city scores. The player with the highest final score wins, with tie-breakers resolving through highest individual city scores and specific building counts.