How to Play Tiny Towns

Game Objective

In Tiny Towns, you are the mayor of a small town in the forest, inhabited by tiny woodland creatures. Your goal is to build the most prosperous town, using scarce resources ingeniously.

Your town is a 4x4 grid board. On it, you place Resource cubes in specific structures to erect Buildings. Each Building grants Victory Points ( ) in a unique way. The game ends when no player can place more resources or erect buildings. At the end, all squares without a Building are worth -1 . The player with the most wins!

Preparation (Setup)

1. Give each participant a player board.
2. Leave the Resource cards in the box (unless playing according to the Town Hall rules or the Solo variant).
3. Place the Cottage card (with the symbol on the back) face up in the center of the table.
4. Organize the remaining Building cards into separate piles, according to the symbols on the back.
5. Shuffle each pile of 4 cards.
6. Draw 1 card from each pile and place them face up next to the Cottage card, so they are visible to all players.
7. Return the remaining Building cards to the box – they will not be used in this game. If this is your first game of Tiny Towns, it is recommended to use the Building cards shown on the right in the manual.
8. Form a general supply with the Resource cubes (Wood, Wheat, Brick, Glass, Stone) and wooden buildings (but NOT the monuments), leaving it within reach of all players.
9. The player who, in real life, built something most recently starts the game. Give this player the Master Builder's hammer.
10. Shuffle the Monument cards and deal 2 of them to each player, face down. Players can see their own cards, but must keep them secret. Players must choose 1 Monument card and discard the other into the box, face down.
11. Give each player 1 wooden monument ( ), which they must place next to their Monument card. Return the remaining monuments to the box — they will not be available to players in this game. If this is your first game of Tiny Towns, it is recommended to play without monuments.

Game Flow

The game progresses in rounds, following this structure:

1. The Master Builder announces a type of resource (Wood, Wheat, Brick, Glass, or Stone).
2. All players MUST take a cube of that resource and place it on an empty square of their town's grid board. Players do this simultaneously.
3. Players can erect any building, provided they have the corresponding resources structured correctly. Players do this simultaneously, and must state which building they are erecting.
4. Once all players have placed their resources and erected their buildings, a new round begins. The Master Builder token is passed to the player on the left.

The new Master Builder must always wait until all players are ready, and then announce the next resource. Players can hold the resource cube — thus demonstrating that they are still thinking — until they choose where to place it. After a resource is placed, players must erect the desired buildings until another resource is announced.

Actions and How to Play

Resource Placement

• Resources can never be moved to a different square after being placed.
• Resources can only be removed when used to erect a building.
• Only 1 resource or building can occupy a square.
• When resources are removed from a board, they return to the general supply.

Rules for erecting a building

Building structures can be mirrored/inverted and rotated, as long as the arrangement of resources remains the same. To erect a building:

1. Remove the correct resources, in the correct structure, from your board and return them to the general supply.
2. Take the corresponding wooden building from the general supply.
3. Place it on 1 of the squares that was occupied by the removed resources.

• A resource can only be used to erect 1 building — in other words, every building requires all of its resources.
• It is not necessary to erect buildings at the moment the resources are placed.
• Players can wait as many rounds as they wish to erect a building.
• Players can erect multiple buildings at once.
• Buildings can never be moved to a different square after they are placed.
• Any player can erect any building (except other players' monuments).
• Building cards are not replaced when players erect the buildings.
• Players cannot erect a building as soon as a resource is announced without first physically placing the resource cube in their town.

Monuments

A monument is a special type of building that can only be erected by the player who possesses that card. Players can erect their monuments only once. Monuments can be erected in any round, in the same way as a normal building. When erecting a monument, the player must read the Monument card aloud, place it face up in front of them, and deal with the immediate effects. If the card grants an ability, that ability takes immediate effect and is applicable only to the cardholder. The score received from Monument cards is counted at the end of the game. Monuments are not part of the general supply.

Cave Rule (Optional)

During the game, players have the option to place up to 2 resources announced by other players next to their boards, instead of on the grid. These resources do not receive points or penalties at the end of the game. Players must decide when is the most advantageous time to use this special ability!

End of Game and Scoring

Completing your town

When your town is full of resources and you cannot (or do not wish to) erect any other building, your town is complete. You exit the game and can begin calculating your score. (You will no longer be able to be the Master Builder who announces resources.)

A player can continue to place and announce resources as Master Builder as long as they have space for new resources in their town, even when it is not possible to erect any building.

If only 1 player remains, they can continue announcing resources as the sole Master Builder, until their town is complete.

End of the game

The game ends as soon as all players' towns are complete.

Remove all remaining resource cubes (except from Warehouses). Each empty square is worth -1. Players add for each building in their town and subtract penalties to calculate their final score. The player with the most wins!

Tie-breaking Criteria

1. In case of a tie, the player who participated in fewer rounds as Master Builder wins.
2. If there is still a tie, the player with fewer empty squares wins.
3. If there is still a tie, the player with more Cottages wins.
4. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Tips for Winning

• Cottages ( ) must receive food from buildings to be worth 3 . Cottages without food, at the end of the game, receive 0 .
• Buildings like Wells receive points for neighboring Cottages, with food and without food, in the same way.
• Abbeys like to be isolated. If an Abbey is neighboring (above, below, left, and right) any , it is worth 0 .