We're embezzling millions and forging permits.
That's right it's the Estates from Simply Complex.
(upbeat music)
This building builder pits two to five
real estate moguls against one another
in a competition for developer dominance.
Here's the lowdown.
The city is allowing developers
to build two rows of four buildings each
between the main street and the river.
However we're all greedy and corrupt,
you know, like real estate moguls,
so we're just gonna build as many as we can as far as we can
even into the meadow area reserved for recreation.
I know, we're evil.
Now to stymie us the city council placed an ultimatum.
As soon as the first two rows are completed
all the buildings in the unoccupied third row
will be destroyed at a huge loss
for all those who invested there.
Set up begins with a game board placed center.
Arrange the six company certificates nearby
along with the three building permits,
cancel cube, and mayors hat.
Next, take all 36 floor cubes
and toss them into the linen bag.
Randomly draw 24 out of the bag
placing them in three rows of 8.
The remaining 12 can go back in the box,
they're not used in this game.
Place the 12 rooftop tiles in the second linen bag
and give it a little shake.
Finally give each player 12 million dollars
in my preferred method of payment, cheques.
Each cheque is a million buckaroos.
Randomly determine the first player
and you're ready to start.
The Estates is played in turns each divided
into three steps: stow funds, auction piece, place piece.
In the stow funds step the active player may choose
to stow away one million dollars of their cheques
into a personal supply of illegal earnings
for end game scoring.
This cash stash isn't usable during the remainder
of the game and can never be inspected by other players.
In the end game each cheque in this stash is worth one point
but cheques in your general pool will be worth no points.
Next in the auction piece step the active player
chooses one piece from the available game pieces
to put up for auction.
These pieces include the mayor, the three building permits,
and the cancel cube, any one of the 24 cubes
but only if they're on either end of the three rows,
or a rooftop piece from the bag.
I'll explain what each of these do in the next step.
Once the piece has been selected by the active player
the auction begins, starting with the player to the left
and proceeding clockwise.
Each player bids for the chosen piece or passes.
The first player may bid any amount
and the subsequent players must
either place a higher bid or pass.
Each player may only bid once and cannot use any
of their stowed away illegal earnings.
After each player, except the auctioneer,
has either bid or passed,
the active player now has two choices,
they can either give the chosen piece
to the highest bidder and take the money from them,
or, they can keep the chosen piece
and pay the highest bid amount to that highest bidder.
Naturally if all players pass
that means the auctioneer wins it for free.
Next in the place piece phase whomever won the piece
may now either place it,
or in some cases, remove it from the game.
Let's go over each piece.
The floor cubes, the main pieces of the game,
must be placed immediately after their auction on one
of the three rows on the board, number side up.
Floor cubes placed in empty lots must always be placed
on the left most available space in a row.
But players can build on any of the three rows.
Floor cubes may also be placed on top
of other floor cubes provided the number on the cube below
is higher than the cube being placed.
However, the development lots with white dirt
may only have one floor cube max built upon their space.
If a player places the first floor cube of any color
on the board they take the matching company certificate
and place it face up in their play area.
Players may own multiple company certificates
and at the end of the game they will score points
for each building with a floor cube
of that color directly underneath a rooftop.
I'll explain the scoring in the end game section.
Stay with me.
The rooftops.
These can only be selected for auction if there is
at least one building without a rooftop on the board.
Pull it from the bag and reveal the number
before the auction begins.
Once the rooftop is won place it on a building cube
of any value or height to complete that building
ending all further construction on it.
The rooftop value will also be worth points in the end game.
The permits.
These can either be used immediately
upon winning them at auction
or at the winners choosing be removed from the game.
If used they apply their barrier value either one,
two, or three to either increase
or decrease the development limit on a row.
For instance, placing the two barrier permit here
increases the previous development limit
to complete a row from this space to this space.
Now all the buildings in these spots must be completed
before the row is considered complete.
This can also be done to decrease the limit
potentially ending the game a bit early
which might be smart of you've got the most buildings.
The mayor must be immediately placed
or removed from the game at the winners choosing.
When placed the mayor may go on any of the three spots
on Made Street which corresponds to a row.
At the end of the game the mayor doubles the scores
of all buildings in the chosen row.
The cancel cube can also be immediately removed
from the game or used at the winners choosing.
The cancel cube discards any one
previously placed building permit
returning the development requirement back
to its original limit.
Turns continue around the table until one
of two end game triggers occur.
Either it's impossible to complete more buildings
because there are no rooftops or floor cubes available,
or, two rows of buildings are completed
filling the designated length
and all buildings in that row have a rooftop.
In either case proceed to end game scoring.
All buildings in completed rows score positive points
but all building in the incomplete rows
score negative points.
Remember a player only scores points from buildings
that have a topmost floor cube matching one
of their company certificates.
Each floor cube in that building,
along with the rooftop, score points equal
to their printed value for the player
who owns the certificate.
Additionally the row with the mayor scores double value,
even in the case of negative points.
Finally, each player scores one point for each cheque
in their personal stash of illegal earnings.
The player with the highest score wins.
And that's Estates.
I'm Becca Scott and I'm built without a permit.
It's totally fine.
You can watch me and my friends play this game
and other awesome games on Game the Game
right here on Geek and Sundry.
We will see you there.
(lively music)