Underwater Cities

Set up the main board in the center of the table. Sort all resources, tunnels, buildings, and tokens into accessible supplies. Each player receives a player board, player markers, starting resources, and three action tiles. Shuffle the era decks and deal starting hands of cards to each player, allowing them to discard a few to tailor their opening hand. Place the round and phase markers on the start spaces of the tracks.

Players aim to build a thriving underwater civilization by constructing cities, tunnels, farms, desalination plants, and laboratories. The core goal is to connect your network of cities and maximize efficiency to score the highest number of victory points by the end of the game.

On your turn, choose a card from your hand and place one of your action tiles on an available space on the main board. If the card's color matches the board space, you get both the card effect and the board action; if it doesn't match, you only get the board action and discard the card. Afterward, perform any associated building or card actions.

Scoring happens during production phases and at the end of the game. You score points for connected metropolises, specific card conditions, remaining resources, and specialized city types. The player with the most total victory points wins the game, with ties broken by federation track positions.

The game spans three eras, each consisting of several rounds and concluding with a production and cleanup phase. After the third era's final production, a comprehensive endgame scoring phase takes place to determine the winner.