Machi Koro

• For 3 or 4 players, best with 4.
• Game designed by Masso Suganuma 2012.
• F2F rules with Japanese artwork and English text, and card images / translations are available to download from Boardgamegeek here
• This is the basic game (see also expanded version) but with a couple of tweaks for postal play.
• Postal rules by Richard Smith 2014.

1. Cards (108)

• 4 x 4 Landmarks
• 4 x 2 Start Cards (extra Wheat Field and Bakery)
• 4 x 3 Major Establishments (Purple)
• 6 x 12 Establishments (Blue = Primary Industry; Red = Restaurants; Green = Shops, Factories, Markets)

1.1. Table of Cards

2. Game Start

Each player is allocated a player number 1,2,3 or 4. Clockwise order is Player 1, Player 2, Player 3, Player 4, Player 1 etc. Anticlockwise order is Player 1, Player 4, Player 3, Player 2, Player 1 etc. Each player gets 3 coins, a Wheat Field and a Bakery.

3. A Turn

Each postal turn consists of one dice roll per player, plus an additional go for the player going first. This way the first player rotates clockwise throughout the game. For example in a 4-player game, in turn 1: Player1, Player 2, Player 3, Player4, Player1. Then in turn 2 it's Player 2, Player 3, Player 4, Player 1, Player 2 and so on.

3.1. Dice Roll

A single dice is rolled unless the player has the Train Station, in which case he may choose to roll two. The default is to roll two if possible.

3.2. Payments

Payments are processed before income. If a player rolls a 3 (Cafe) or a 9/10 (Restaurant) he must pay opponents in anticlockwise order until he runs out of money. If the paying player cannot afford the full payment, they pay what they can and the receiving player is not compensated for lost income.
Example: Player 3 has two coins and rolls a 3. Player 2 has one Cafe and receives one coin. Player 1 has no Cafes. Player 4 has two Cafes but only gets one coin as that is all Player 3 has left.

3.3. Income

All players receive income (from the bank) from blue cards matching the rolled number. Green cards only generate income (from the bank) for the player who rolled the dice. For Factories and Markets only count the player's own cards to calculate the income.
If the rolling player owns any purple cards and a 6 is rolled, they all take effect (the order is not important). Owners of the TV Station and the Business Complex should supply orders for these cards. The default for the TV Station is to take the coins from the richest player. The default for the Business Complex is to elect not to swap, and no swap takes place in the unlikely event that the named card (e.g. one of player 2's Mines) is not available. Note that the card to give to the victim must also be named and be present in the player's town.

3.4. Purchase Card

Each player may purchase one and only one card on each go. Players may not own more than one of each Landmark and one of each Major Establishment (purple), but for other cards there are no restrictions.
Players may name up to 5 candidate cards to buy for each go. The GM will attempt to purchase these cards in order, and to succeed there must be at least one card of the type remaining and sufficient funds in the player's bank. If no cards are listed (e.g. NMR) no cards are purchased.
Funds for the selected card (if any) are paid to the bank, remaining funds are kept for later. There is no limit on the number of coins a player can hold.

3.5. Special Actions

Each player has two special actions that can be used once per game, and they only work for a single roll (if a player has two rolls in the same postal turn he must specify which one the special action applies to).
1) Choose Number - the player states what his dice roll is to be.
2) Number Shield - the player states a single number that the dice roll cannot be.

Note that the number shield merely forbids a named total, but for the choose number you can state the exact dice (relevant if you have an Amusement Park). If you do not have a Train Station you only have one dice to choose the roll of.

3.6. Conditional Orders

Conditional orders are not permitted other than the very limited options as follows:

• For cards to purchase a simple preference order is required.
• For the TV Station, it must be a named victim or the richest player.
• For the Business Complex a card and player must be named.
• For the Radio Tower the player should state the numbers which will trigger the card e.g. "re-roll if 3,9,10".

4. Turn Report

The result of each roll is reported. For each player, the cards and number of coins owned are listed. The number remaining of each Establishment card is also reported.

5. Game End

The winner of the game is the first to construct all four Landmarks. If no one has constructed all the Landmarks at the end of 12 turns, the player with the most Landmarks constructed wins. If there is a tie it is the highest total cost of the constructed Landmarks, and if still a tie after that, most leftover coins. If still a tie, victory is shared.