How to Play

London (Second Edition)

2-4 players 60-90 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players reconstruct London after the Great Fire by strategically playing development cards, then activating all cards simultaneously to generate resources. Success requires balancing construction projects with managing debt and minimizing poverty levels compared to opponents. Victory goes to whoever creates the most prosperous city while keeping relative poverty low.

Published 2017

London (Second Edition)

Get Ready

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

1
Select score trackers
Each player picks a score tracker and places it on the 0-space of the board
2
Distribute starting money
Each player receives £5
3
Establish public information
Coins, loans, poverty tokens, boroughs, and building stacks are visible to all players
4
Prepare the city deck
Separate building cards into decks A, B, and C, shuffle each, then stack face-down with C on bottom and A on top
5
Deal starting hands
Each player receives 6 cards from the city deck
6
Place starting boroughs
Put City, Westminster, and Southwark & Bermondsey borough cards (grey top) face-up below the board
7
Create borough deck
Shuffle remaining borough cards and place face-down to form the borough deck
8
Choose first player
Select a starting player by preferred method

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Repay loans (optional)
At the start of your turn, you may pay £15 for every £10 in loans to repay them
2
Draw a card
Draw 1 city card from the deck or from the development board
3
Perform one action
Choose one of the following four actions:
4
Discard played cards
Place discards in empty top row spaces (per player count); if full, place in 2nd row; if both full, remove 2nd row cards, shift 1st row down, place in top row
5
Take loans as needed
At any time, take a £10 loan by receiving £10 and a loan token
6
Enforce hand limit
Discard any cards over 9 from hand, including Paupers

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Trigger game end
The game ends when the city deck is empty at the end of a player's turn; other players each take one final turn
2
Add poverty for remaining cards
Gain +1 poverty for each card left in hand
3
Score city cards
Gain VP for all city cards in your display, including face-down and built-over cards
4
Settle loans
Pay £15 for every £10 in loans; lose 7 VP for each unpaid loan
5
Convert remaining money
Gain +1 VP for each £3 remaining
6
Calculate poverty penalty
Player with fewest poverty returns all their tokens to supply; other players return the same number; remaining poverty costs VP per the board's poverty table (1-2 poverty = -1 VP, scaling up to 10 poverty = -15 VP, then -3 VP per additional point)
7
Determine winner
Player with most VP wins
8
Break ties
Compare tied players by least poverty, then most borough cards, then city card worth most VP

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

London (segunda edição) - Como Jogar

London (segunda edição) - Como Jogar

Instructional

Ersteindruck: London, 2. Auflage | Auf den Tisch!

Ersteindruck: London, 2. Auflage | Auf den Tisch!

Other

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FULL rules

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

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