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How to Play Machi Koro

Check out our easy to read How to Play Machi Koro Rules Guide.

Find out about Machi Koro (how to play videos)

Players: 2 to 4 | Game duration from: 30 mins | Game Complexity: EASY How to play Machi Koro rules in simple steps Machi Koro rules pdf / rulebook [amazon box=”B07HKZ4BH6″]

What is the goal?

The objective of Machi Koro is to be the first player to finish construction on all four of your landmarks.

Game setup

Each player places their two starting Establishments (1 Wheat Field, 1 Bakery) face up in front of their play area
Place your four landmark cards – Train Station, Shopping Mall, Amusement Park & Radio Tower – face down (Under Construction).
For a game with less than four players: Any excess starting cards (Establishments and Landmarks) should be returned to the box as they will not be in use in the game.
Create a marketplace for all of the Supply Cards (Establishment and Major Establishments) by creative stacks of cards of the same type (for example: all Wheat Fields in one stack and all Mines in another).
These stacks should be arranged in order of their dice roll requirements (for example: Wheat Field first and the Fruit and Vegetable Market last).
Give each player three coins and form a bank with the remaining money.
Determine a starting player and commence play.

Gameplay

Game Flow:

A turn consists of three phases:

Roll Dice
Earn Income
Construction

Play continues in a clockwise rotation.

Roll Dice:

Players begin their turn by rolling the dice. At the start of the game, each player will roll a single die.
A player may have a choice on rolling one or two dice on their turn once they have built their Train Station.
The dice are always added together when rolling two dice.

Earn Income:

Players earn income based on the dice roll and the effects of the Establishments they own that match the dice roll.
There are 4 different types of Establishments and they earn income in different ways:

There is a possibility that multiple types of Establishments can be activated by the same die roll. In this case, the Establishments are activated in the following order:

Restaurants (RED)
Secondary Industry (GREEN) and Primary Industry (BLUE)
Major Establishments (PURPLE)

If a player owns multiple copies of the same type of Establishment, the effects are multiplied by the number of that type owned.
SPECIAL NOTE: The \”Shopping Mall\” Landmark affects each card. For example, a player owning multiple copies of the \”Bakery\” would see each copy of that card earn +1 income.

Coin Transactions Between Players

A player\’s coin total can never go below zero, so if a player owes another player money and cannot afford to pay it, they pay what they can and are exempt from the remaining amount. The receiving player is not compensated for the lost income.
If multiple Establishments are activated on the same die roll, Restaurant (RED) Establishments are activated first, thus, payment to other players is processed prior to earned income from other Establishments.
If payment is owed to multiple players at the same time, payment is processed in reverse player order (counter-clockwise).

Construction

Building New Establishments and Completing Landmarks

Players may conclude their turn by paying to construct one single Establishment OR pay to finish a single Landmark by paying the cost shown on the lower left-hand corner of the card.
Once constructed, an Establishment is taken from the supply and added to the player\’s play area.
When constructing a Landmark, the Landmark card is turned right-side up (full colour side) and the Landmark\’s effects are now active.
Landmarks may be constructed in any order of the player\’s choice.

Cards:

Players may not construct more than one of each type of card with the above symbol in their town.
They may construct as many unique cards of that symbol as they choose, but never construct a second of that symbol.

Players may construct multiple copies of all other Establishment types. Stacking the cards vertically on top of other cards of that type in the player\’s play area may be a useful way to keep track of this.