# Prestige: A City Building Game ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2024 - **BGG Rating**: 7.9 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 1-4 (Best with: 3) - **Duration**: 30-45 min - **Weight**: 2.00 / 5 - **Designers**: Fritz Paull - **Artists**: Terri "Chienyi" Ogwulumba, Zachary Hunt - **Publishers**: Kingdoms of the Earth, New Kingdom Gaming - **Categories**: Ancient, Card Game, City Building, Civilization - **Mechanics**: Area Majority / Influence, Events, Open Drafting, Ownership, Semi-Cooperative Game, Variable Player Powers ## Verdict If you love card games with deep strategy and a dash of diplomacy, Prestige will blow your mind.Unique city buildingEngaging influence mechanicFun open draftingSteep learning curveHigh attention requiredFOR GENRE FANS ## Description Prestige: A City Building Game is an asymmetric, semi‑cooperative card game that puts you in the shoes of a tribal leader in an ancient era. Each player receives a unique deck of building cards and abilities that reflect their tribe’s culture. The goal? Build the most magnificent city possible, but watch out: the city is shared and every decision can attract invaders or earn influence. The game blends open drafting – you pick cards from a common pool – with area majority mechanics, where neighboring cards determine bonuses or penalties. Random events pop up each round, shifting the course of play and demanding quick adjustments. The core twist lies in managing economic resources used to place cards on the board; discarding them makes them vulnerable to attacks. While most players cooperate to keep the city from chaos, each strives to ensure their tribe dominates, because only the most represented leader is remembered forever. The tension between cooperation and competition makes the game tactical and engaging, and the 30‑45 minute playtime keeps everyone involved without dragging. If you enjoy deep card games with historical themes and a dash of diplomacy, Prestige will hook you. Just keep in mind the learning curve can be a bit steep due to influence rules and open drafting. ## How to Play Objective of the Game In Prestige: A City-Building Game, you and your tribe will work together to build a magnificent city that will be remembered throughout history. Nomadic tribes, once at odds, have united in the Lush Valley to form the greatest city the world has ever seen. As your tribe's leader, you'll collaborate with other tribes for the city's greater good. While you share resources, decks, and even defeat, if the city succeeds, only the most represented tribe will be remembered for their great Prestige! The city can achieve victory in two ways: Reach the highest space on the Prestige Track. Go through all Favor Gained Event cards. If the city prevails, the player whose tribe has the most cards played (with Leader cards counting as 2) will be remembered as the True Founder. In case of a tie, the total monetary cost of cards played for each tied tribe is added, and the tribe with the highest cost wins. If there's still a tie, both tribes win. Preparation (Setup) Let's get your city ready for building! Place the Tribal Center card in the center of the playing area. Place the City Tracker board within reach of all players, with the Squalor side face down. Place the Resource Tracking tokens on their start locations. Place 5 coins on the Coffers area of the City Tracker board. Shuffle all Event card decks (Favor Lost, Favor Gained, Invader) separately. Randomly choose 8 Favor Gained cards, 8 Favor Lost cards, and 10 Invader cards. Place these cards face down in stacks as shown in the manual. Return the rest of the Event cards to the box. Randomly choose 8 cards from each of the Tribal City card decks and 10 random Communal City cards. Shuffle all 58 cards together to form a combined City Card deck. Deal 4 cards to each player from the combined City Card deck. Split the combined deck into 3 approximately even draw piles. Place one face up and two face down. Leave space for a discard pile. In a 2-player game: deal each player 2 Tribal Identity cards. In a 3-4 player game: deal each player 1 Tribal Identity card. Set any unused cards aside. Give each player a Game Icon guide card and Quickplay guide card. Fluxo do Jogo Prestige is a turn-based game. The first player is the person in the group who has most recently visited a new city. Turns continue in clockwise order until an end-game condition occurs. At the start of your turn, before taking an action, you might need to resolve certain effects: If your turn starts with a Resource Tracking token on a spot with an Event icon, draw that type of Event card and resolve it before taking your action. There are three types of events: Favor Gained, Favor Lost, and Invader. If you are required to draw an Event card but the corresponding deck is empty, an end-game condition is triggered. If your turn starts with a resource on a spot with a specific icon (as shown on the City Tracker board), discard an active Unit card of your choice before starting your turn. If there are multiple effects caused by resources at the start of your turn, resolve them in descending order on the City Tracker board. On every turn, you must take 1 of 4 actions: placing, discarding, restoring, or unique actions. Once you play or discard a City card, draw a new card from any of the City Card decks. You should always maintain 4 cards in your hand as long as there are cards in the decks. Ações e Como Jogar On your turn, you must choose one of four actions: Placing Action You may place 1 card from your hand into the city. Cards can be played to the right or left of those already in play, including the Tribal Center card. Some cards may have special placement rules or Adjacency Effects. You can place cards in a way that no Adjacency Effect is triggered if you wish. Some cards have a Card Cost in Coins that must be paid from the Coffers before placement. Cards may also have Card Needs, which are conditions that must be met before the card can be played (e.g., the city must have 2 Market-type cards already placed to play a Main Road card). The effects of a newly played card are immediately resolved after it is placed. Only the effects of the card being played are resolved. City Card Elements Card Name Tribal Logo Card Cost: Coins to be paid before placement. Card Type(s): Cards can have up to 3 types. Card Needs: Conditions that must be met before a card can be played. Standard Effects: Effects that always take place when this card is placed. Special Effects: Effects that vary for each card they appear on. Adjacency Effects: Effects based on other cards to the left, right, above, or below this card when placed. Special Card Types Unit Cards: These are played in the Unit card slots of the City Tracker board. They are active until discarded and may give free resources or bolster other cards' effects. Only 5 Unit cards can be active at once. If you play a Unit card when 5 are already active, you must discard an active Unit card of your choice. Leader Unit Cards: A type of Unit card that typically offers higher benefits. Each Tribal deck includes at least 1 Leader card. At the end of the game, Leader cards count as 2 cards for their tribe. Below Cards: Must be played in a row below another card already placed in the city. They can be placed below other Below cards to create additional lines. Other cards can be placed next to them once they are placed. Above Cards: Must be played above a card already placed in the city. They can be placed above other Above cards to create additional lines. Other cards can be placed next to them once they are placed. Water Cards: Can be placed to the left or right of other played cards, like a standard City card. They can also be played orthogonally adjacent (up, down, left, or right) to an already played Water card to make additional lines. Other cards can be placed next to them once they are placed. Wall Cards: Placed like normal City cards (to the left or right of in-play City cards). Their primary benefits often come from Between Two Walls effects, which are unique to some Wall cards. A Between Two Walls icon indicates an effect based on having certain building types between the Wall card it appears on and the closest Wall card already placed in the same line of the city (orthogonal directions). They can also help defend the city against Invader Event cards and Favor Lost Event cards. Discarding Action You may discard as many City cards from your hand as you want in a single discard action, but they must all be discarded at once. After discarding, draw an Invader Event card and resolve it immediately. After resolving the Invader Event card, draw new City cards until you have 4 cards in hand again. Discarded cards are not shuffled back into the draw piles. Running out of cards to play is a loss condition. Restoring Action When cards are destroyed, they are flipped face down. If a card is destroyed, you can restore it as an action by discarding 1 card from your hand (flipping it back face up). This particular discard does not trigger an Invader event. Only 1 card can be restored per restoring action. The effects of a card are ignored when restoring it. If there is a destroyed card in the city: You may place any new card so that it covers the destroyed card, but then that destroyed card can no longer be restored. New cards may not be placed directly next to a destroyed card. Destroyed cards are not counted during end-game scoring. Note: Destroyed cards and discarded cards are not the same. If a card is discarded, it is added to the discard pile. Destroyed cards remain in the city. Unique Actions Some cards offer unique actions. After such a card is played into the city, you can use one of these unique actions on your turn as your standard action, even if you did not play the card. Follow the instructions listed on these cards. Managing the City's Resources Five resources are tracked on the City Tracker board and shared by all players: Coffers: How much funds the city has available. Increased or decreased by adding or removing coins. Prestige: How well-known the city has become. Populace: How many people live in the city. Happiness: How pleased the citizens are. Defense: How resilient the city is to invasion and attack. The remaining resources (Prestige, Populace, Happiness, Defense) use slide trackers with Resource Tracking tokens. Fim de Jogo e Pontuação The game ends when either a victory condition is met or a defeat condition occurs. Victory Conditions The city prevails if one of the following occurs: The city reaches the highest space on the Prestige Track. All Favor Gained Event cards are gone (the deck runs out when you need to draw one). If the city prevails, determine the True Founder: Everyone counts the number of cards played with their tribe's symbol on them (regardless of who played them). Communal cards and cards from unclaimed tribes are ignored. Remember that Leader cards count as 2 cards. The tribe with the most cards played wins and that player earns the title of True Founder. In case of a tie, the cost of each card played from the tying players' decks is added up, and the tribe with the highest monetary cost of their cards played is the winner. If there is still a tie, both tribes win. Defeat Conditions All players lose and the city falls if any of the following occur: The Populace Track declines to 0. There are no cards left in the combined decks and the active player has no cards left in their hand at the start of their turn (completely empty hand and deck). The Tribal Center card is destroyed. You run out of Invader Event cards and need to draw another. You run out of Lost Favor Event cards and need to draw another. Dicas para Vencer Be aware of the icon shown on the back of the City cards when you draw from a deck, as they indicate the tribal identity of the card which affects your end-game score. Since discarding any number of cards results in 1 Invader Event card, you should discard as many cards as you are comfortable parting with at once to avoid taking multiple discard actions throughout the game. However, be careful not to discard too many cards, as running out of cards to play is a loss condition. ## FAQ ### How long does a typical game of Prestige last? A game usually lasts between 30 and 45 minutes, depending on player experience. ### How many players can join? The game supports 1 to 4 players, allowing solo or group play. ### What is the complexity level? Prestige has a moderate to high learning curve, involving open drafting, events, and influence control. ### What components are included? The game includes city building cards, economic resource tokens, a shared event deck, and invader tokens. ### Who is Prestige recommended for? It’s ideal for fans of asymmetric card games, historical themes, and a good mix of diplomacy and competition. ### Are there digital versions available? Yes, there’s a mod available on TableTop Simulator for virtual online play. ### How does the influence mechanic work? The majority of cards in an area determines who controls the region, granting bonuses or penalties to players.