Suburbia

First, lay out the population board and place the money on the table. Put four of each of the Heavy Factory, Community Park, and Suburbs tiles in piles on the table, and give one of each to each player, returning any unused to the box. Lay out the market board using the side for the player count (blue for 2-4 players, purple for 5 players). Shuffle the A, B, and C tiles into three face-down piles, lake side up. We only need the tiles from the base game with no symbol and those from the Suburbia Inc. expansion (with the necktie symbol). We won't be using the Con tiles (dice symbol), Essen tiles (Essen Spiel symbol), or Nightlife tiles (moon symbol). If using the 5-star expansion (star symbol), add these tiles by replacing an equal number of random A, B, and C tiles from the base game. Shuffle each set of A, B, and C tiles and stack the amount of each shown on the market board for the player count. For a three-player game, you need 18 A tiles (11 in one pile, 7 in the other), 15 B tiles, and 23 C tiles (separated into three stacks of 9, 9, and 5). The 'One More Round' tile is shuffled into the middle stack of 9 C tiles. Shuffle the Suburbia Inc. border tiles face down and lay three out face up. Shuffle the bonus and challenge tiles into two piles, putting a bonus tile on top of stack B and a challenge tile on top of stack C, face up. Shuffle the goal tiles, add one face up per player on the market board, and keep the rest nearby. Give a random player the start player token. Players get a borough board, three investment markers, and wooden pieces of their color. They also get $15 and two face-down goals. Players put their population marker meeple on '2' on the population board, marked with an arrow. On the borough board, place the Suburb in the center slot, above it the Community Park, and then the Heavy Factory in that exact order. You can put the borough board the other way up, but the tiles must stay in the same order with the Suburb tile touching the borough board. Place the income cylinder on '0' and the reputation cube on '1'. Players look at their two face-down goals, secretly choose one, and return the other as well as any other unused goals to the box. If playing with five players, put five of each of the Heavy Factory, Community Park, and Suburbs tiles in piles on the table instead of four. The market board holds eight tiles instead of seven. Lay out the star track and randomly put the players' star counters in a stack on zero. Give the turn order tokens to each player in turn order, which is top to bottom on the star stack, with the top going first.

You plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis by laying tiles representing different residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas while managing the income, reputation, and population of your growing borough. The player with the largest population at the end of the game is the winner.

The game starts with the start player, who takes their first round, which consists of four phases. Phase 1: Buy a tile or place an investment marker. The active player must choose one of these two options. To buy a tile from the real estate market, choose one from those available, pay the cost on the tile plus the real estate market cost, and place the tile in your borough. It must touch at least one edge of a tile already there. After doing this, pay just the real estate market cost of a tile and discard it, ensuring one tile leaves this row on each player's turn. Another option is to buy one of the three basic tiles (Suburb, Community Park, or Heavy Factory). Take either a Suburb, Community Park, or Heavy Factory from those available, pay the cost of the tile, and place it in your borough. To take a tile as a lake, choose and pay just the real estate market cost of any tile, flip it over to the lake side, and place the tile in your borough. Instead of taking a regular tile, you can instead take a border tile. Pay the cost of the border shown on the left and add it to your borough. Remember to pay the real estate market cost of a tile and discard it, so one tile leaves this row each player turn. To place a border, put it next to at least one tile, not next to or overlapping another border tile. Only the four slots on the border shown with lakes are considered adjacent to the border. You may also take a border for free and flip it face down to take it as a lake. If you do take a border as a lake, it is no longer considered a border but is considered a lake for the purposes of scoring. Instead of taking any tiles, you could place an investment marker on a tile or border in your borough that doesn't have an investment marker on it already. Pay the cost of that tile again and gain the benefit of that tile only once again. Keep in mind this doubles the effect on the invested tile only and doesn't double the tile for the purposes of resolving other tiles. Phase 2: Collect or pay money. Gain or pay the amount shown on the income cylinder. If you do not have the money to pay, pay as much as you can and then move your population meeple back one space per $1 owed. Phase 3: Adjust the population. Increase or decrease the population meeple based on the reputation cube value. Whenever the population meeple crosses a red line, reduce both the income cylinder and the population cube by one on your borough. If you ever go backwards over a red line, you increase them both to gain that loss back. This increase occurs immediately, even midway through resolving a tile. If your population ever goes off the end of the score board, just move it back to zero and count as a red line after every even number (2, 4, 6, etc.). Phase 4: Add a new tile to the real estate market. Slide the tiles down to fill the gap and add the next tile from the next stack in the last space. Remember, as one tile is always taken or discarded in Phase 1, this will happen every round. Work through stack A, and when stack A is finished, stack B, and then stack C. When the active player has completed Phase 4, refilling the real estate market, they end their turn and play continues clockwise. If the 'One More Round' tile is flipped over in Phase 4, discard it, replace it with the next tile in the stack, and play continues back around to the start player, then everybody takes one more turn, then the game ends. If playing with the 5-star expansion, during gameplay, if you place a tile with gold stars in your borough, move up that many spaces on the star track, putting it on top of any token already there. Landing on or passing a +1 income or +1 reputation icon on the track will give that player that reward immediately. When moving, move as far as you can, respecting the movement rules. Once everybody has taken a turn, the player with the most stars increases their population by one. The player with the fewest decreases their population by one. Rearrange turn order with the player with the most stars going first, with the token on top considered the head.

After the game ends, the final scoring begins. During final scoring, ignore the red lines on the population track while adding your score. First, score public goals. The player that wins this will score the population shown on the goal; no one will win anything in a tie. Then players reveal their private goals. Unlike public goals, the player with the goal is the only player that can score it, but they still have to win outright; they can't win if they tie. Finally, for every $5 a player has, they pay it to the supply and gain one population. The player with the highest population is the winner. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the highest reputation wins, then the highest income, then the most remaining money. If playing with the 5-star expansion, the star track is used to break ties when scoring goals. If there's still a tie, the rulebook suggests playing another game to decide the winner.

The game ends when the 'One More Round' tile is flipped over in Phase 4. Discard it, replace it with the next tile in the stack, and play continues back around to the start player, then everybody takes one more turn, then the game ends.