Description & Objective

• Each player represents a subway-building company, and will dig two subway lines across the city.
• The goal is to connect important destinations – residential areas, commercial areas, and entertainment areas – and to provide them with subway stations.
• Take advantage of other players lines (for example, stations are built wherever two lines meet; you can win points at the end by sharing the quickest trip), and try also to de-route or even block off your opponents at the right time, to keep them from well completing their lines!
• At the end of the game, the city government will run seven "test trips" between designated destinations, placed by the players themselves during the game.
• For each test trip, the fastest connection between the two points will be rewarded with Public Utility Points, and the player whose subways have the most points wins!

English version of the rules

Game Components & Setup

Game Board

• To set up the board, take the four border pieces and put them together. Take the six triangular "city" pieces, and arrange them randomly within the border.

Counters

• Each player takes a set of counters of a particular colour.
• Each has a score marker (showing a subway train), which is placed on the game board on the "0" space of the scoring track.
• Each player also has counters for two subway lines:
  • One with a solid colour, and another with a "striped" colour.
• Each line should have a Start marker (white arrow), an End marker (black arrow), and eighteen triangular Tunnel counters.
• There are also twelve Destination markers. Each is marked with a letter (A-F), and is paired with another Destination marker.
  • These will be the destinations that will be "tested" after the building phase is complete. The summary of these tests is in the upright corner of the board.
• Finally, there are thirty "station" markers, which are set by the side of the board, and are not controlled by any player.
• The map is made up of smaller triangles, which are either blank, have a destination symbol, or a lake/park.
• Along the edge of the city are white arrows indicating where a subway line starts, and black arrows indicating where they exit the city

The Course of the Game

Setup

• Take the destination markers and shuffle them letter-side down.
• With 4 players, each player takes one Residential, one Commercial, and one Entertainment Destination at random.
  • That player then secretly looks at their markers. If two have the same letter, they put one back and draws a new one until all three have different letters.
• When all the players have their three Destination markers, they flip them letter-side-up in front of them, visible for others.
• With 3 players, each player takes one more Destination marker.
• With 2 players, each player gets 6 Destination markers:
• One player gets the Destinations A,B,C,D,E,F shown on the left of the game board test Summary, the other player uses the ones on the right.

Player turn

• The most "urbane" player begins.
• Play goes clockwise starting with the first player.
• On one's turn, the player must do one and only one of the following:
  • Dig 3 tunnels (to continue one or both of their lines) or
  • Build an intermediate station (on one of their lines)

Starting a line

• Each player has two subway lines.
• On their first turn, a player must, of course, begin a subway line - but only one!
• A subway line must start from an empty space with a white arrow along the edge of the city. To start a line, place its first tunnel, topped with its "start" marker, in any of these spaces.
• Then continue normally the line in the city by digging the remaining tunnels.
• When you will begin your second subway line at any subsequent turn, it must start on one of the "opposite" edges from where your first line began.

Digging tunnels

• Subway lines are built in the city by placing Tunnels in the triangular spaces. Only one tunnel may be placed in a space, and must conform to the following:
  • A line must always be built from its terminus; and never "branch off"
  • A line may not be continued with an acute angle.
    • Exception: when a line terminates at a station, it may be built out from that station at any angle, even acute.
  • A line may never make a loop or double back on itself
• If you choose to dig tunnels on your turn, you must place 3 tunnels.
  • Unless it is only possible to place fewer.
• If you have two lines, you may distribute your 3 tunnels between them as you wish.

Special areas

• The start or end spaces (with an arrow) along the edges of the city can only be used to start or end a line.
• Tunnel counters may never be placed on the park or the lake.
• When a player places a tunnel counter on top of a destination area, the player must place immediately one of their Destination markers on that tunnel piece (of the appropriate type, of course), letter-side up.
• If a player does not have the appropriate marker, the player may not place that tunnel piece on the destination.
• Furthermore, each player may only place one destination marker per turn, and two destinations of the same letter cannot touch, either on an angle or on the side.

Stations

• Most of the stations are created while digging tunnels.
• A station is immediately placed when:
  • The line being dug joins another line. In this case, a station is placed where the two lines meet up.
  • The line, which was running alongside another line, splits off from it. In this case, a station is placed where the line splits off.
  • When a line, running alongside another line, changes side, no station is placed.
• The player scores 1 point for each destination area on the board that touches the station.
• They continue to dig tunnels after placing a station, if they still has some left to build.
  • i.e., building a station like this does not stop your tunnelling.

Intermediate stations

• In lieu of digging tunnels, a player may use all their turn to place one station anywhere on one of their lines, between two preexisting stations.
• A starting or ending marker counts as a station for this purpose.
• Points are scored as for stations placed while digging tunnels.

Ending lines

• A line ends on a space with a black arrow. The player digs their last tunnel on that space, topped with an "End Line" counter.
• A line may not end on the same edge as it started, nor on an adjoining edge to that "start edge," unless all the end spaces on the allowed sides are already taken.
• When a line ends, that player may immediately place an intermediate station anywhere on the line. However, once a line is completed (with this bonus station), the player may never place an intermediate station on that line again.

End of the building phase

• Players continue building until one of the following occurs:
  • A player has completed both of their lines
  • A player places the last station available
  • Five lines are either completed, or blocked and unable to be completed
• Note: a line is blocked if it can no longer be extended, typically because all the spaces at its end are already occupied, forbidden, or has run out of tunnels.
• Then all other players have one last turn to play.
• After, scoring begins.

The Scoring Phase

Lines scoring

• First, scores are adjusted as follows:
  • Players who completed both of their lines lose no station points.
  • Players who completed only one line lose half their station points (rounded down)
  • Players who completed none of their lines lose all their station points.
• Adjust the scoring markers accordingly.

Test trip scoring

• Each test trip runs between destination markers of the same letter: A to A, then B to B, and so on.
• You can see the summary of these trips in the upright corner of the board.
• For each trip, determine the shortest route:
  • a trip takes 1 minute to go from one station to another
    • No matter how many tunnel pieces are in between
  • and 3 minutes to change from one line to another.
• A trip may have more than one fastest route.
• Each player who has a line making up part of the fastest route gets 3 points, plus a bonus of 3 points if they placed one of the destination markers
  • i.e., if the marker is on a tunnel piece of the player's colour.
• A player may only get points once for each test, even if the player is involved in more than one route.
• Players who are not involved in the fastest route never get any point.

Impossible trips

• Sometimes, a test run may be impossible.
• If that is the case, a city investigation takes place to determine the guilty party or parties:
  • If the destination marker was never placed on the board, the guilty party is the player who didn't place the marker.
  • If the marker was placed but nobody put a station touching it, the guilty party is the player who placed the destination.
  • If the markers were both placed, but no route exists between the two, both players who placed the markers are guilty.
• The guilty party or parties get no points, and all other players get 6 points.

Final test

• The last test run is between the park and the lake.
• Determine the fastest route, as always.
• Each player involved in the fastest route gets 5 points.
• Note: if your score goes beyond 20 points, move your marker normally, but place one of your tunnels near the 20 to show that. If your score goes below 0 point, place one of your tunnels near the 0.

The Winner

• At the end of the game, the player with the most points is crowned King of the Subway - i.e., wins.
• If there is a tie, the winner is the player who finished the most lines; if there is again a tie, the winner is the player who placed the most tunnels.
• If there is still a tie, litigation is the only possible solution.

Special Rules

Two players

End of game

3 lines finished and/or blocked ends the building phase. The other conditions still unchanged.

Test trip scoring

the second version of the rules on this topic is not implemented on BGA.

Three players

End of game

4 lines finished and/or blocked ends the building phase. The other conditions still unchanged.

Test trip scoring

same as with four players.

Variants

Unfair Municipality (3-4 players)

• Each player keeps their destination markers letter-side-down in front of them. The markers are only revealed when they are placed on a destination area in the city.

No Corruption (3-4 players)

• Ah, everything is straight and clear… Because each player takes pre-established destination markers and keeps them in front of them, letter-face-up, of course!

4 players

• Player 1: A Residential, B Commercial, C Entertainment
• Player 2: D Residential, A Commercial, E Entertainment
• Player 3: F Residential, E Commercial, B Entertainment
• Player 4: C Residential, D Commercial, F Entertainment

3 players

• Player 1: A & D Residential, B Commercial, C Entertainment
• Player 2: C Residential, A & E Commercial, F Entertainment
• Player 3: F Residential, D Commercial, B & E Entertainment

- Adapted from Metromania Official Rulebook, Spiel-ou-Face