Between Two Cities Essential Edition – Stonemaier Games

Between Two Cities Essential Edition

Between Two Cities Essential Edition

  • Designers Ben Rosset & Matthew O'Malley
  • Artists Laura Bevon & Agnieszka Dabrowiecka

A consolidated edition of the modern classic partnership-driven, tile-drafting city-building game.

Base Game
30 mins Game Length
3 mins Setup Time
1-7 Players
Light Game Weight
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Between Two Cities is a 30-minute tile-drafting game for 1-7 players in which each tile is part of a city. You work with the player on your left to build one city center while simultaneously working with the player on your right to build a second city center. On each turn you select two tiles from your hand, reveal them, then work with your partners to place one of your selected tiles into each of your two cities.

At the end of the game, each city is scored for its architectural grandiosity. Your final score is the lower of the scores of the two cities you helped design, and the player with the highest final score wins the game. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion equally Between Two Cities.

The Essential Edition combines components from the original game and the Capitals expansion into one cohesive whole. While it features a bigger box than the original game, different art on some tiles, and a scorepad instead of a board, there are no new gameplay elements (i.e., if you own Between Two Cities and the Capitals Expansion, you already have everything).

Components

*The rules and box show the Zollverein Mine, but the actual token that ended up in the game is the Colosseum.

Media and Other Information

Release Details: Between Two Cities Essential Edition is available from Stonemaier Games’ fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. The retail release date was October 21, 2022.

Product Details: The price is as listed on the webstore. In addition to the two primary artists, Ossi Hiekkala illustrated the box and Beth Sobel illustrated the landscape and tabletop graphics.

The following graphic shows the difference between the original (top row) and the new tiles (bottom row):

Copyright 2015 Stonemaier LLC. Between Two Cities is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC. All Rights Reserved. This content is not authorized for posting on Steam.

FAQ: General Questions

Why should I preorder from Stonemaier Games instead of waiting a few months for the retail release?

We offer delivery much earlier than the retail release date (shipped from a fulfillment center in the US, Canada, Europe, or Australia) and a guarantee that you’ll actually get a first-run copy in a timely manner, as we only sell products we actually have in stock. We will offer a special preorder price. We also support anyone’s choice to order from their retailer of choice on the retail release day.

Are there any mechanical changes from the previous edition?

Jordan Watts offers a good summary on BoardGameGeek:

  • Districts (formerly part of Capitals) are now a variant, and are not required if using the civic tiles and landscape mats.
  • Shops have changed from scoring 2/5/10/16 for 1/2/3/4 to 2/5/10/15/20 for 1/2/3/4/5. The Capitals rules explicitly said that “Five shops in a line score 18 points (a line of four shops scores 16 points and one additional shop scores 2 points)”.
  • Tiebreaker order of the building types on the reference card has changed from shops, factories, taverns, offices, parks, houses, civic buildings to factories, shops, parks, taverns, offices, houses, civic buildings.
  • A new advanced two-player variant has been added, where a virtual third player, ‘Jamey’, picks two random tiles, and the player who will get Jamey’s tiles next (i.e. the player to the left in Round 1, and to the right in Round 3) picks which city gets which one, then each player gets to choose the locations of all tiles in the city they share with Jamey. Round 2 adds a preliminary stage where each player gets two duplex tiles and chooses one to add to the city they share with Jamey, before finishing up as normal.
  • The seating order cards have been removed.

Is there a mistake on page 6 of the Automa rules?

Yes–the example is incorrect. Here is a mock-up of the corrected example. The only element left out of this mock-up are the arrows shown in the example on p. 6, which are exactly the same.

 

51 Comments on “Between Two Cities Essential Edition

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  1. Two questions – and stating in advance, I do appreciate the effort to make a reply.

    First, I previously owned Between Two Castles and unfortunately sold it due to the very small size of the tiles/iconography. I found this City Essential variant which referenced the original game and I’ve searched…. but cannot find out if the tiles are same, better, worse?? I hope bigger!

    Second, can you elaborate on the solo and two player variant in the Essential version? Is it the same as Between Two Castles?

    Enjoyed Between Two Castles multiplayer and the solo puzzle…but everyone struggled with the iconography and tile size. Does this fix it?

      1. Thanks for the super fast reply! Your response sent me down the rabbit hole researching the difference between castles/cities. To your point, similar, but different.

        The deciding factor was the fresh art and clarity in the Essentials Cities that I will lean towards it. Normally artwork is low on my rationale, but it actually is driving my decision. Fixes the major struggle that I had with Castles. Take care – Tim

  2. Loving the game so far! I had a question about the stage when players are discussing tile placement with their neighbours, after everyone has chosen their two tiles for that turn. At this point, is a player allowed to tell the others what tiles are left over in the stack he/she just finished choosing from?

    Thanks.

    1. You’re allowed to talk openly (without looking at the passed tiles) only during the phase when you’re placing tiles.

  3. Jamey: I have the original edition and the expansion — love the game. In fact, I just reviewed it for Meeple Mountain.

    One of the things I love is the seating arrangement cards. It occurred to me that many games have effects that can only impact your opponents to the left and right.

    Would you consider selling those cards (with perhaps some more ways to set up seating) as a separate product? They could certainly be quite useful as a general play-aid for a lot of games.

    Just a thought.

      1. Wow! Thanks, I will make a spare set of these tonight.

        Still think it would make for a great little product to sell. :)

      1. Thanks! Would it work to combine one copy of the essentials edition with one copy of the original edition, or would they be too different? Would having both of the copies be essentials edition work better?

  4. What if you can’t make a legal move?
    In round 2, you could find yourself with 2 horizontal or 2 vertical without room for both.

    Or with the landscapes you could isolate a spot you can’t legally reach.

    1. I wondered that too, Rusty, but it’s actually impossible to not have room for both due to the flexible nature of the grid at that point in the game. Feel free to prove me wrong (post a photo on BGG or the Between Two Cities Facebook group), but I think it’s mathematically impossible.

  5. Hello, we found the game “between two cities” on a list of games for 10 people, that says if you buy two copies you can play with more people easily. Would that be true of the “between two cities essential edition” as well, or do the added components make it not work for 10 people anymore?

  6. Hi! I have a big favor to ask, is there a link to the previous version’s rule book that you could share? I just bought a copy of the original at my local game store in Seoul and it would be helpful to see the English version side by side when I’m learning it with my friends.

    Trying to hunt down the capitals expansion in the meantime….

    1. Absolutely! It’s already on Dropbox–same place as the rulebook link on the above page. :) It’s the files that was last updated in 2020.

    1. I don’t think there is a French version planned, but feel free to ask Matagot. Also, the game is language independent, so even the English version can work for anyone. :)

    1. I think this is just a glitch–I’m pretty sure we still have it in stock, but just in case, we’ll check with the warehouse.

    2. Marc: Unfortunately, it does appear that we’re out of stock, but we’ll make more. In the meantime, feel free to check with your preferred retailer(s) to see if they have it.

      1. Hello Jamey, thanks for checking. Was hoping to add this to Wingspan Asia and use my Champions discount, but I will look around. In hindsight, I should have pre-ordered.

  7. Does this version come with the game trays from the original? I didn’t see them in the unboxing, just everything loose in the box.

    1. Jacob: I’m sorry, I missed this comment before. Between Two Cities has never had Game Trayz–that’s Between Two Castles. Between Two Cities’ cardboard insert is designed so that the tiles float loosely in a large pool in the box–that way they’re always shuffled, making for really easy setup, cleanup, and drafting.

  8. Would it be possible to see a side by side comparison of just one set of tiles from old version vs the new version? Maybe one of the double tiles? Just so that people have a bit of an idea of what the updated art looks like. I know you have previously said it is not much difference but it would still be great to be able to look and see :)

  9. On the punch boards, a few say to place the large empty ones under the insert. Does this refer to the blank tiles that get punched out or the actual punch boards. What is the purpose? Thanks

  10. Do you know roughly when this will be possible to buy in the shop? I’m hoping to order it this month to get in on that Smitten deal too :)

    1. Both the Smitten offer and Between Two Cities Essential will become available at the same time whenever they arrive (hopefully next week). Stay tuned to our enewsletter for a notification!

  11. Finally!!!

    Will definitely buy this!

    Still waiting for a second expansion though. ;)

    Also: Any chance of reproduction of the promo city tokens? Really want to expand the selection of tokens for our games!

    1. Thanks Simon! I appreciate your interest, but we don’t have any plans for a second expansion or for reprinting the city tokens. Maybe there will be renewed interest in them with the release of this new edition–we’ll see! :)

    1. All components are listed above, so no. It’s easier just to have an open area in the box to shuffle tiles for Between Two Cities.

    1. Yes, it’s no longer an expansion–it’s part of the core game. Capitals is available on the secondary market (it’s been available there since 2017).

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