How to Play

London

2-4 players 90-90 min 7.3 Board Game Geek Rating

Players rebuild London after the 1666 Great Fire by selecting and playing building cards representing 250 years of progress. Cards provide money, victory points, or reduce poverty when activated, but some require entry costs. Players strategically manage their hand and city display, choosing when to run their city and activate buildings in preferred order to maximize efficiency and score the most victory points.

Published 2010

London

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Prepare the game board
Place the board in the center with districts visible showing costs, card draws, and VP values
2
Set up the Card Display
Create a display area with two rows for discarded cards
3
Distribute starting components
Each player receives building tokens in their color
4
Place initial buildings
Ensure at least one building is placed to allow adjacent placement for land purchases
5
Prepare the draw deck
Shuffle all cards and place them in a draw pile

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Draw a card
Take 1 card from the draw pile at the start of every turn
2
Choose one action
Select exactly one of the four available actions to perform:
3
Play any quantity of cards
You may play multiple cards in a single action
4
Place cards in Building area
Put each card on top of an existing stack or start a new stack
5
Discard matching color
For each card played, discard one card of the same color to the Card Display
6
Pay the cost
Pay the amount shown on the top left of the card
7
Use card abilities
Text on the top portion of face-up cards can be utilized each turn
8
Activate face-up cards
Choose some or all face-up cards in your Building area in any order
9
Follow stone base instructions
Execute payment requirements, collect rewards, and flip cards as indicated
10
Calculate poverty points
Add your card stacks plus cards in hand, then subtract districts owned
11
Place building token
Put your token in a district adjacent to any existing building
12
Pay the district cost
Pay the amount shown on that district of the board
13
Draw cards
Take cards equal to the number shown on that district
14
Note end-game VP
That district's VP value will be scored at game end
15
Draw from Card Display
Take up to 3 cards from available cards in the display
16
Take fewer if limited
If fewer than 3 cards are available, take all remaining cards
17
Pass if empty
If no cards are available, you may take this action and do nothing
18
Use Underground Tokens
Place tokens adjacent to other Underground tokens when playing the Underground card
19
Manage Card Display discards
Fill top row first, then bottom row
20
Two Player Variant restrictions
No two identical face-up cards allowed in your Building area

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Score Victory Points from districts
Collect VP values shown on the board for each district you own
2
Score Underground bonuses
Earn 2 extra VPs for each of your buildings in districts with Underground tokens
3
Subtract poverty penalty
Lose points based on your final poverty calculation
4
Determine the winner
The player with the highest total Victory Points wins the game

watch & Learn

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London på 7 minutter

London på 7 minutter

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

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