Between Two Cities: Capitals

To set up the game, ensure there is equal space between players for building cities. Place a city token and a random landscape tile between each pair of players, with the compass rose pointing towards the center of the table. Each player receives a reference card. Shuffle the duplex tiles and place them face down in the center of the table. Finally, place the box containing all the building tiles, thoroughly shuffled, in the center of the table.

In Between Two Cities, you will construct two cities, one to your left and one to your right, in collaboration with your neighboring players. Your goal is to score the most points from your lowest-scoring city. This means you must work cooperatively with your neighbors to ensure both cities you are involved in building are as balanced and high-scoring as possible.

The game is divided into three rounds, each with multiple simultaneous stages. In the first round, draw nine building tiles to form your hand. Each round consists of four phases: selecting tiles, revealing tiles, placing tiles, and repeating the process. In secret, choose two tiles from your hand. The remaining tiles are placed face down above the city to your left, under the city token. Once tiles are chosen, you cannot change your mind or look at the tiles you passed. During this selection phase, no talking is allowed. After all players have chosen their two tiles, everyone reveals their chosen tiles simultaneously, placing them face up in front of them. Now, you can discuss with your neighbors where to place your chosen tiles. You must place one tile in the city to your left and the other in the city to your right. All tiles must have the same orientation so that you and your neighbor can easily read the scoring conditions, and all tiles must have at least one common edge with another tile. The first tile placed in each city must be on a landscape tile. Tiles must be placed to form a 5x5 square by the end of the game. Once a tile is placed, it cannot be moved. If there is more than one tile under a city token, you must repeat the selection, revealing, and placement phases until only one tile remains. Discard any remaining single tile face down in the center of the table, not back into the box. The second round begins by drawing three duplex tiles. Choose two to place in your cities and pass the third to the city on your left, under the city token. The duplex tiles are treated as two connected building tiles. At least one of the buildings must be adjacent to an already placed tile. The duplex tile must be placed so that the final city does not exceed a 5x5 square, and it must respect the orientation of other building tiles. Discard any remaining duplex tile face down. The third round is similar to the first, but you pass tiles to your right instead of your left.

After the third round, each player takes a scoring sheet and calculates the points for their left city. Once calculated, place the sheet face up above the left city for all players to see. Your final score is the lowest score between your two cities. Factories score 4 points each if your city has the most factories, 3 points if it has the second most, and 2 points otherwise. Shops score points based on the longest continuous line or column of shops: 2 points for 1, 5 for 2, 10 for 3, 15 for 4, and 20 for 5. Taverns score points based on the number of unique tavern types: 1 point for 1, 4 for 2, 9 for 3, and 17 for 4. Parks score points based on the largest connected group of parks: 2 points for 1, 8 for 2, 12 for 3, and 13 for 4. Each additional park connected to a group of three or more adds 1 point. Offices score 1 point for 1, 3 for 2, 6 for 3, 10 for 4, 15 for 5, and 21 for 6. Each office also gains 1 additional point if it is adjacent to at least one tavern. Houses score 1 point for each unique building type in the city (excluding other houses and civic buildings). If a house is adjacent to a factory, it only scores 1 point. If your city has all building types, each house scores 5 points. Civic buildings score 3 points if adjacent to at least one preferred building type, 6 points if adjacent to both preferred building types, and 1 point if adjacent to an undesired building type (regardless of preferred types).

The game ends after three rounds. Each player calculates their score for both cities they helped build. Your final score is the lower of the two city scores. The player with the highest final score is declared the winner. In case of a tie, tied players compare the higher scores of their two cities. If still tied, they compare the number of buildings of each type in their cities, in the order listed on the reference cards (factories, shops, parks, taverns, offices, houses). The player with more of the first differing building type wins.