World Wonders

Set up the main board in the center with player count expansions if needed. Organize building tiles by shape and color, revealing the top tile of each stack. Set up supplies for roads, wooden towers, loan tokens, and monuments with their corresponding cards. Each player receives a double-sided map board, a resource board, matching resource markers, starting tokens including gold and population, a free starting long road, and player aids. Finally, place player markers randomly on the turn order track to begin.

Players compete to build the most impressive ancient city by placing various building districts, expanding road networks, erecting towers, and constructing magnificent monuments. Success requires balancing resource production, spatial puzzle placement, and careful management of your limited gold supply to maximize victory points across multiple scoring categories.

Rounds consist of players taking turns in turn order. On your turn, you must buy one available item—a road, a building, a tower, a monument, or a turn order pedestal—by moving your gold marker right by its cost. Purchased items must be placed immediately onto your map following specific adjacency rules. You may also take out a loan once per game to increase your spending limit for that round. Turns continue until everyone runs out of gold.

At the end of the game, players score victory points for reaching milestones on the population track, the value of their lowest resource track, ring icons on constructed monuments, exposed natural resources adjacent to placed pieces, and completely surrounded buildings. Players lose two points for any unpaid loans. The player with the most points wins, with ties broken by monuments built.

The game concludes under two conditions: either immediately after the completion of a round in which any player's population marker reaches the very end of its track, or automatically at the conclusion of the tenth round, which is when the final building tiles are revealed and purchased. Once triggered, final scoring takes place.