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This rulebook contains two parts. The first part will teach you how to play the game. It does not cover all the rules, but will give you what you need to play the game. The second part contains detailed rules governing the game. If you ever feel the detailed rules contradict what you learned from "how to play", use the detailed rules. In conflicts between these rules and the cards, the cards prevail. Some of the cards described or used in examples in these rules may not be in this starter deck, but are available in other starters and boosters.
In SimCity® The Card Game, players work cooperatively and
competitively to build a city. The players play cards as blocks in the city and
are paid for each new block added.
Playing the game is very simple. Each player, in turn:
1) draws a card
2) plays a card
3) scores the card
Play continues clockwise around the table until the game ends, when:
The winner is the player who has the most money at the end of the
game.
Before beginning play, select an area to play on. The area should be flat
(tables work very well) and large enough to accommodate the city you plan to
build. We recommend an area the size of a card table for this starter deck.
Clear the space of extraneous stuff.
To begin play, remove the Mayor card from the deck and set it aside (see
Politics in the Big City). If you have any long cards (from booster packs),
separate them into their own deck (see Optional Rules). Shuffle the standard
(shorter) cards and deal seven cards to each player. Place the remaining cards
face down where they can be reached by all
players. With more players and larger decks, you can split the deck into
separate draw
piles placed conveniently for any player
to draw from.
Now determine who will start; we suggest you use one of the following ways:
1) the youngest player starts
2) the oldest player starts
3) the person who owns the deck starts
4) each player cuts a card and the player with the highest value card starts
(for use in formal play)
Next, select one player to record each player's score on a piece of paper (which
you need to supply). If you take a pack of money from another game (or get one
separately from Mayfair), choose one player to be the banker; players can then
keep track of their scores by being paid for each card played with the money.
Players start with no money (score=0).
The first player starts the game by drawing a card, adding it to his or her
hand, and choosing a card from the hand to play. Which card? At the beginning of
the game, only cards which are settlement phase cards may be played. Looking at
a card:
This is the stat box; its background color indicates the first phase during
which the card may be played. The only card which can be played now at the
beginning of the game is one which has a white color in the stat box, indicating
that it is a settlement phase card.
Additionally, you need to find out whether or not the card requires sims in
order for it to be played. Again, look at some cards:
Compare the second icon in the stat boxes on these 2 cards; the first symbol
indicates
that the card provides sims (in fact, exactly 1 sim) and the second symbol
indicates that the card requires sims, that is, that 1 sim must be connected to
it in order for it to be played. On this first play, since there are no cards to
provide sims for any sim required card, the first card must be either a sim
provided card or a zero sim required card (0.)
After all this, the first player chooses from his hand 1 card, which is a
settlement phase (white) card and which is not a sim required card. The player
plays the card by placing it face up anywhere on the playing area and then
scores it.
Once again, look at a card:
The first icon is $, which identifies the basic value of a card (see page 2 -
3). The player playing the first card receives the value of the card (the amount
following the $ icon) as his score for this play (and if you are playing with
money, is paid this amount in cash). On later plays (and in a couple of rare
cases, on the first play), the player will also receive one or more of five
possible bonuses in addition to the value of the card. When the player has
scored his card play and received the score, the player's turn is over.
Play continues clockwise around the table; after a player has finished his turn,
the player to his left takes a turn.
The second player next takes a turn by drawing a card, adding it to his hand,
and selecting a card to play. Every card played after the first one must be
played so that either the long edge or the short edge of the card being played
is aligned beside the like edge of a card already in the city and that the title
bar of both cards read from the same direction.
The second player must also play a settlement phase card (you'll see why in a
minute). However, if the first card played provided sims, then the second player
may have the option of playing a sim required card. Look at these 2 cards:
The card on the left provides sims and the card on the right requires sims for
it to be played. By laying the right one next to the left, the left card
provides sims to the card on the right, along the path of the road. The same
would be true if both had rail, but not if one had rails and the other had road.
Sims (the simulated citizens of our city) can travel across any number of cards
by road or by rail, but not both. Without the sims being connected to the
right-hand card, it could not have been played.
The sims on the left-hand card may travel to other cards to support their
placement; the sims are not "used up" each time they travel to a newly
placed sim required card. As your city grows, many sims become available to
travel the roads and rails of your city; sims traveling either by road or by
rail, but not some from each path, may be counted in placing a new sim required
card. Except for the connections required to enable your sims to travel around
your city for the placement of sim required cards (and for a few cards which
have special connection requirements for placement, like the Gravel Supplier and
the Lumber Mill), the roads, rails, or power lines (collectively called
"services") do not ever have to link when placing the blocks in your
city.
Now that the second player has played a card, it must be scored. First, the
value of the card is scored. With this second card, the first (of five kinds of)
bonus may be available, called the "Special Bonus". Look at these
cards:
Look at the Specials box on the card on the left. When the card on the right is
played, in addition to its value of 3, it receives a bonus of 1 since it is
"within 2 blocks" as required by this Specials box. Counting blocks is
done at right angles, not diagonally; a card beneath the right-hand card is 2
blocks from the left-hand card. Bonuses are cumulative, and a card will receive
a bonus for every Special box for which it meets the requirements.
Many of the specials boxes have Add bonuses like: Add 1 to Residentials within 3
blocks. The Add means that this bonus only benefits another card played after
the card with the bonus has been played; the card with the bonus never receives
any benefit from an Add bonus. Also, to get the bonus, the card must be
residential zone (orange), including non-house blocks like certain schools and
churches, and must be located at a distance of 3 or fewer blocks from the card
with the bonus. The bonus adds $1 to the amount otherwise payable on placing the
card.
Contrast that to a Receive bonus like: Receive 1 for each Residential within 3
blocks, which benefits only the card just played and none other. The Receive
bonus is computed when the card with the bonus is played and is added to the
value of the card with the bonus (along with any other applicable bonuses) to
yield its score. To compute this bonus, every block of residential zone (orange)
within a distance of 3 blocks is identified and then counted; the bonus is the
total count times $1. After the card with the Receive bonus is scored, the
Receive bonus need no longer be considered.
After the city has grown large, it is common that a card will receive a
confusingly large number of bonuses from many cards, some of which may be quite
distant in the city; by slowly counting each special bonus and noting the
bonuses that repeat for many subsequent cards (and with a growing familiarity
with the game), the process of counting the special bonus will become easy.
The second player has completed his turn when the card play has been scored. The
player to his left now takes a turn; this third player must also play a
settlement phase (white) card and may play either a sim provided or a sim
required card, depending on what cards have already been played and what cards
he has in his hand. If, after drawing a card, a player does not have a card to
play that meets these requirements (for example, none are settlement phase
cards), he must pass, but does not discard. After completing his turn, either by
passing or by scoring, the next player takes
his turn. Play continues in this way until the end of the game, with a few high
points along the way.
The first major change comes when the city has a house for each player in the
game; the village phase then begins. To determine whether this phase change
requirement has been met, count the number of blocks in the city with; there
must be one such card for each player in the game, with a minimum of four. After
this threshold has been met, players may play cards of either settlement (white)
or village (green) phase. Nothing else changes when the village phase starts.
Another high point is the scoring of zone bonuses. A zone is formed when you
have four or more blocks of the same zone in a group. To receive a zone bonus,
the zone must be composed of residential, commercial, industrial, or (with
special restrictions) undeveloped land blocks, but may include city services
blocks. To compute this bonus, count all the blocks in the zone, excluding the
new card; the bonus is the total count times $1. Another group that can score
you extra
bonuses is the complex. For complete information on complexes and zones, read
the detailed rules.
The most significant change comes as the village becomes a city. There are two
parts of this phase change; the village must become a balanced community and
then be powered by a power plant. The village becomes a balanced community when
the number of blocks in the city with non-zero is two for each player in the
game, with a minimum of eight. After this threshold has been met, players may
play cards of settlement (white), village (green), or city (tan) phase. However,
the first city (tan) card that may be played is a power plant. No other city
phase cards may be played before a power plant, including event and politician
cards.
In addition to being able to play city phase cards, players may now participate
in the
politics of a big city. The player who played the power plant is the first
mayor. Players may now play Council Member cards as well as event cards. Players
may also play cards on top of blocks by rezoning the existing blocks; such a
play requires an affirmative vote by the city council. The particulars of all
this are provided in the detailed rules, but for now the game can progress quite
far without presenting any need to address these complexities of big city life.
When the city's population has grown greatly and the residential areas have
become
significant, the city becomes a metropolis and metropolis (pink) phase cards may
be played. This phase shift requirement is somewhat complicated, so the detailed
rules should be consulted for the particulars.
You now have the information you need to play SimCity® the Card Game. To learn
about upgrades and the Governor, to answer any questions that remain, or to
address particular requirements please consult the more detailed rules
accompanying these introductory directions.
Taken from Mayfair Games, Inc web site. www.coolgames.com
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