Welcome to the city of Machi Koro, the Japanese card game that is sweeping the world.

You’ve just been elected Mayor. Congratulations! Unfortunately, the citizens have some pretty big demands: jobs, a theme park, a couple of cheese factories, and maybe even a radio tower. A tough proposition since the city currently consists of a wheat field, a bakery, and a single die.
Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors’ coffers. Just make sure they aren’t doing the same to you!

Machi Koro is a fast-paced, lighthearted game for you and up to 3 friends. Once you’ve had a taste of Machi Koro, this infectiously fun game may have you wondering if the dinner table ever served another purpose other than gaming.

They say you can’t build Rome in a day, but Machi Koro will be built in less than 30 minutes!

COMPONENTS

Cards (108)
Starting Cards (24)

Starting Establishments (8) Starting Landmarks (16)
Supply Cards (84)
Major Establishments (12) Establishments (72)

1 Coin (42)
5 Coin (24)
10 Coin (12)

Dice (2)
Game Rules (1) this document

 

CARD EXPLANTION

Establishments - The cards have the following information in this order.
Dice roll needed to activate effect Type and Name
Effect
Construction cost

Landmarks - The cards have the following information in this order. Type and Name
Effect
Completion cost

GAME SETUP

Each player should place their two starting Establishments (one Wheat Field and one Bakery) face-up in front of their play area, and their four Landmark cards (Train Station, Shopping Mall, Amusement Park, Radio Tower) face-down (Under Construction). This is the starting area of each player’s city. Any excess starting cards for a game of less than four players (Establishments and Landmarks) should be returned to the box as they will not be used in the game.

Next, create a marketplace for all of the Supply cards (Establishments and Major Establishments) by creating stacks of cards of the same type (e.g., all Wheat Fields in one stack, all Mines in another, etc.) arranged in order of their dice roll requirements

(e.g., Wheat Field first and the Fruit and Vegetable Market last) as shown on the set-up image. Finally, give each player three coins and form a bank with the remaining money. Determine a starting player and begin play.

GAME FLOW

Players take turns in clockwise order. A turn consists of the following three phases:
• Roll Dice
• Earn Income
• Construction


Game End: The player to construct all four of their Landmarks first wins the game!

ROLL DICE

• To begin their turn a player rolls the dice. At the start of the game each player will roll a single die.
• Once a player has built their Train Station, they may roll one or two dice on their turn.
• When rolling two dice, the dice are always summed together.

EARN INCOME

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

BLUE: Primary Industry
Get income from the bank, during anyone’s turn.

GREEN: Secondary Industry
Get income from the bank, during your turn only.

RED: Restaurants
Take coins from the person who rolled the dice.

PURPLE: Major Establishment
Get income from all other players, but during your turn only.
EARN INCOME (CONTINUED) • It is possible that multiple types of Establishments are activated by the same die roll, in this case the Establishments are activated in the following order:
1) Restaurants (Red)
2) Secondary Industry (Green)
and Primary Industry (Blue)
3) Major Establishments (Purple)

• If a player owns multiple copies of a single Establishment, the effects are multiplied by the number of Establishments of that type owned.
• Special Note: The “Shopping Mall” Landmark affects each card.
Example: a player owning multiple copies of the “Bakery” would see each copy of that card earn +1 income.

COIN TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN PLAYERS

If a player owes another player money and cannot afford to pay it, they pay what they can and the rest is exempted (a player’s coin total can never go below zero), the receiving player is not compensated for the lost income.

Example

Player A rolls a “3”. Player B owns a Cafe in their town, so Player A is charged one coin. However, Player A has no coins, so they do not have to pay anything. Afterwards, Player A receives two coins from the bank for the two Bakeries in their town.

As a reminder, if multiple Establishments are activated on the same die roll, Restaurant (Red) Establishments are activated first, followed by Primary/Secondary Industry (Blue/Green) and finally Major Establishments (Purple). So 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).

Player A rolls a “3”. Player B owns 3 Cafes, and Player C owns 2 Cafes. Player B charges 3 coins and Player C charges 2 coins, but Player A only has 3 coins. Payment is processed in counter-clockwise order. Player A first pays Player C two coins. He has one coin left, which he pays Player B. The remaining two coins Player A owes Player B are exempted.

BUILDING NEW ESTABLISHMENTS AND COMPLETING LANDMARKS

To conclude a player’s turn, he or she may pay to construct one single Establishment
OR pay to finish construction on 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-color side) and the Landmark’s effects are now active. Landmarks may be constructed in any order the player chooses.

Players may not construct more than one of each type of card with the Major Establishment(me) in their town. A player may construct as many unique (me) cards as they choose, but may never construct a second of the same (me) card.
Players may construct multiple copies of all other Establishment types as described in the Income section of these rules. Stacking the cards vertically on top of other cards of that type in the player’s area may be a useful way to keep track of this.

ENDING THE GAME

Play continues clockwise until one player wins the game by completing all four of their Landmarks first.

CREDITS

Game Design: Masao Suganumo
Game Development: Nathan McNair and Molly Wardlaw
Product Development: Jerry Bennington and Nate Murray
Editing: Jerry Bennington, David Hedgecock, Nathan McNair, Nate Murray, Chris Ryall, and Scott Tipton
Art Direction: Robbie Robbins
Graphic Design: Taro Hino
Graphic Design by IDW Games: Sam Berlin
Logo Design: Sam Berlin
Photography: Delaney Mamer and Robbie Robbins
Cover Illustration: Noboru Hotta
Card Artwork: Noboru Hotta
Production Management: Kathy Cheong and Thomas Cho
Special Thanks To: Ted Adams, Greg Goldstein, Chris Ryall, and Robbie Robbins
Copyright © 2014 Grounding Inc. All rights reserved.