Alien City

Alien City
Michael Schoessow
Icehouse/piecepack hybrid game of city building
:Players	Players:	2
:Time	Length:	Long
:Complexity	Complexity:	High
Trios per color:		5
Number of colors:		3 or more
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:
Five-color sets:
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Piecepack
Setup time:		3 minutes
Playing time:		40 minutes
Strategy depth:		High
Random chance:		Low
Game mechanics:		Tile laying, City building, complex scoring
Theme:		City building
BGG Link:		Alien City
Status: Complete (v2.2), Year released: 2002

Alien City is an Icehouse/piecepack hybrid game of city building designed by Michael Schoessow.

Equipment

To play, you will need a piecepack set and:

• 5 large red pyramids
• 5 large blue pyramids
• 4 large green pyramids (or yellow, see below)
• 3 small red pyramids (or 3 smalls in a fourth color)
• 3 small blue pyramids (or 3 smalls in a fifth color)

The color of the large pyramids is important so that the pyramids coordinate with the piecepack graphics, but suitable adaptations can be made to accommodate other colors. The color of the small pyramids is arbitrary as long as they are distinct for each player.

Some piecepacks use yellow graphics in place of green; in that case use large yellow pyramids instead of green.

You can also play with 2 Treehouse sets (or Pyramid Arcade) by using more sizes of each color. The size is not used by the game, so that doesn't change it. Instead of the small red and blue player colors, you can use smalls from the leftover colors (e.g., Black and Yellow).

What's a Piecepack?

A piecepack includes square tiles, round tokens (often called coins), dice, and pawns. Alien City uses only the 24 tiles and tokens, which come in six each of the four colors (red, blue, green, and black). The tiles are each (ideally) subdivided into four squares, with one corner marked. The tiles and tokens are numbered, but these numbers have no significance in Alien City and should be ignored. Only the colors and the corner mark on the tiles matter.

Setup

Lay out the tiles, colored sides up, randomly in a 4x5 rectangle to make the 8x10 grid.

Divide all piecepack tokens and large pyramids evenly between the two players (so that each has three tokens of each color and two pyramids of each color), and give the extra red large to one player and the extra blue large to the other.

Each player should take one color of the small pyramids.

Goal

Your goal is to claim the three most profitable towers (large pyramids) in the city. There are only fourteen towers available, and you can claim only three of them. Because the city also needs streets, you may run out of building space. In addition, you cannot claim a tower on your last turn, so don't wait too long to stake your claims.

A tower's value is its number of near neighbors of a different color, whether domes (tokens) or towers (claimed or otherwise), multiplied by its distance from the nearest competition (any tower of the same color, claimed or not). There are also bonus points available for claimed red or blue towers that are closest to each unclaimed green tower.

Lots, Streets and Distances

There are 80 smaller squares on the board; these are the building lots on which the city's buildings will be built, but many will also be required to form the street network which is the heart of the city. As the game progresses and lots are built up, the network of streets emerges.

All towers and domes must have street access on at least one side. All streets must connect orthogonally. The latter means that you may not cut off part of the street network to form a courtyard, even if all of the buildings involved also have street access on another side.

Distances between buildings are measured orthogonally, by counting the number of squares between them along the street network. All distances for scoring are measured this way, whether from tower to tower or from tower to customer. Buildings one or two street squares away from a tower (and of a different color) are its customers.

Placement

On your turn you place one building of your choice from your supply. You must place a building if possible; if you cannot, the game ends for you. The other player may continue placing buildings if possible. When neither player can place buildings, or all buildings have been placed, the game ends and you score.

Placement Restrictions

Besides the placement restrictions involving maintaining and accessing the street network, there are additional restrictions involving the colored board tiles:

• Domes must be placed on tiles of the same color, unless all such placements are illegal. In that case the dome may be placed on another color of tile.
• Towers must be placed on tiles of the same color, unless the tile is black or the tile has at least two buildings built on it already.
• The marked square on the tile must be the last one built upon. (Often this means that it is cannot be built on at all.)

Scoring

When neither player can place buildings, or all buildings have been placed, scoring occurs. Recall that neither player was allowed to claim a tower on their final move, so unclaim any such towers before scoring.

For each claimed tower, multiply its number of customers (different-colored buildings one or two street squares away) by the distance to its nearest competition (towers of the same color, regardless of claims), and assign those points to the player who claimed it.

For each unclaimed green tower, find the closest red tower within 5 street squares (if any). If that tower is claimed by a player (or there's a tie and all tied towers are claimed by the same player), that player scores a bonus of 10 minus twice the distance. Do the same for the closest blue tower. (That's up to eight individual bonuses, depending on claims and distances.)

The player with the most points wins. There is no tiebreaker.

Rules PDFs

For the full-flavored rules, see these local PDFs or the external links, below.

• Latest version: Alien City 2.2 (2004)
• Older version: Alien City 1.2 (2002)

Additional Languages

Alien City (German)

External Links

• Alien City on Piecepack wiki
• Alien City could be played online at Super Duper Games before it closed down, and is now playable at Abstract Games.
• Rules availables in French in pdf format at www.jeux-icehouse.com

Credits

Michael Schoessow, 2002.

Winner: Ludic Synergy piecepack contest.