Machi Koro

Rules
Machi Koro Official Rules (PDF) - http://idwgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Machi-RULES-reduced.pdf

Wiki
List of cards - Machi Koro Wiki - Wikia - http://machi-koro.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_cards

Business Center
Business Center - Machi Koro Wiki - Wikia - http://machi-koro.wikia.com/wiki/Business_Center

Convention Center




"You may choose to activate another of your non tower establishments in place of this one, on your turn only. If you do, return this card to the market."

Activate one or all
Official Ruling

Micro-Review: Gaming Mega Store promo card | Machi Koro: Gaming Mega Store | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1256944/micro-review-gaming-mega-store-promo-card
 * "In the Machi Koro rules forum, Nathan from Pandasaurus clarified that all the ranches would activate. Go go gadget jackpot!"

Mega Gaming Store promo | Machi Koro | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/17261404#17261404

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Official Ruling from Pandasaurus Games (a Publisher of Machi Koro)

Convention Center (renamed from Mega Gaming Store) activates all cards of that type

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/17261404#17261404
 * “It activates all cards of that type.”

-- Pandasaurus Games (a Publisher of Machi Koro)

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The order activation is what allows this:

1) Red buildings (other players) activate first and you pay them if you owe them money - In this case no red buildings would activate.

2) Green/Blue buildings activate at the same time - In this case your apple orchard.

3) Purple Buildings Activate - In this case your Mega Game Store. You could discard it and reactivate your Apple Orchard Engine or any other cards you want to activate.

The intention of this card is a one time use activation of whatever card type you want activated.

Do I still get the benefit from Apple Orchard? | Machi Koro: Gaming Mega Store | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/17302314#17302314

-- Pandasaurus Games (a Publisher of Machi Koro)

---


 * "The Gaming Mega Store card refers to "another of your non-major establishments."


 * The IDW rules seem to use the term "Establishment" to refer to individual cards. It uses the term "Establishment type" to refer to the class of identical cards.


 * Thus, if you have three Cheese Factories and one Ranch, the Gaming Mega Store would get you only 3 coins if you used it to a Cheese Factory - because you can activate only one.


 * Of course, if you had one Cheese Factory and three Ranches, you would get 9 coins, because that is how much the single Cheese Factory earns (thanks to the Ranches). "

---

Nathan McNair of Pandasaurus has clarified that, when you use this card, you activate all cards you have of the specific non-purple building that you select.

For example, Gaming Mega Store lets you activate all of your Cheese Factories - not just one.

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/17262090#17262090

market capacity
Opinion only - no official ruling

Rule clarification | Machi Koro: Gaming Mega Store | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1274971/rule-clarification

"I believe you simply return the Mega Store to the supply, making an extra pile.

Only when you drop below the number of piles do you draw more cards from the deck. In this case, it would be when two piles are emptied."

--

"The rules do say "If during the game there are less than 10 unique Establishments..." as when to draw. It doesn't say anything about having more than 10.

If playing with both Gaming Mega Store and International Exhibit Hall, it's theoretically possible to have 12 cards in the market. "

Names

 * Mega Gaming Store
 * International Exhibit Hall
 * Convention Center

Symbol still usable
Renovated building & Loan Office/Moving Company question | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1423090/renovated-building-loan-officemoving-company-quest

"Finally heard from IDW on my questions.

1) Forest/Flower Shop & Loan Office. Which triggers 1st? If you have no money, you can't pay for loan office. So do you get the money for the Forest/Flower Shop first or do you do the Loan Office (and thus not pay anything)?

Answer: You can choose which blue / green triggers first as the active player.

2) If a building is under renovation, does it count for cards that get coins for having that type of building? For example a Forest/Mine and the Furniture Shop?

Answer: Yes."

Individual Buildings are Put Under Renovation
First Play through lot's of questions | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1425039/first-play-through-lots-questions

Q: If my Pizza joints are under renovation and I buy another pizza joint is this newly purchased pizza joint also automatically under renovation or not?(when someone next roll 7's will I get paid for the pizza joint I just bought and finish renovating the others or will it just finish renovations)(for the night we said that newly constructed buildings were not under renovation and would earn income when next activated while the ones that were under renovation would just be finished renovating and not earn income.)

A: Individual buildings are put on vacation, not the whole set. When a pizza joint is put on vacation, only that one is affected.

Card Order
Like the rainbow color order:


 * 1) Red
 * 2) Green / Blue
 * 3) Purple

GB can be played in any order

---

Direct email from IDW in response to me asking a similar question: []

"1) Forest/Flower Shop & Loan Office. Which triggers 1st? If you have no money, you can't pay for loan office. So do you get the money for the Forest/Flower Shop first or do you do the Loan Office (and thus not pay anything)?

Answer: You can choose which blue / green triggers first as the active player."

---

Renovated building & Loan Office/Moving Company question | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1423090/renovated-building-loan-officemoving-company-quest

Q: 1) Forest/Flower Shop & Loan Office. Which triggers 1st? If you have no money, you can't pay for loan office. So do you get the money for the Forest/Flower Shop first or do you do the Loan Office (and thus not pay anything)?

IDW Answer:

A: You can choose which blue / green triggers first as the active player.

Does renovating a Loan Office permanently disable it?
Does renovating a Loan Office permanently disable it? | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/21656147#21656147

Questions to Publisher
"they said on Twitter that an email with rules questions to "Games@idwpublishing.com" with games questions should be answered within 3 days." 

English Translation of Japanese Rules
English translation of the Japanese cards by zenxacred + traduction française des cartes de l'anglais par deejaydeep | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/104985/english-translation-japanese-cards-zenxacred-tradu

Take From All Players
https://mobile.twitter.com/anoo/status/653242795378016256

Andrew Beard – ‏@anoo: @idwgames in Machi Koro, does "tech startup" collect that investment from every player, or just the total of it from all players?

IDW Games - @idwgames: @anoo That amount, from each player.

Harbor
Adds 5th player and new market mechanic

Millionaire Expansion Cards
Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | Image | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2672859/machi-koro-millionaires-row?size=original

Shopping Mall + Restaurants?
Unofficial Answer

Shopping Mall + Restaurants? | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19592113#19592113

Q: Does the Shopping Mall combo with the restaurants (e.g. Shopping Mall + Pizza Joint = opponents must pay you 2 coins per Pizza Joint)?

A: Yep, that's the Cup icon

Starting Card Pool Lockout Concern
Starting Card Pool Lockout Concern | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1426186/starting-card-pool-lockout-concern

Ending Variation
Ending the Game

1. The game end is triggered once someone has built all of their landmarks. Finish out the round so everyone has had an equal number of turns.

2. The winner is the player with the highest total value of constructed landmarks. Ties are broken by the player with the most remaining coins.

Speed Variants
Variant 1) Make 1 pile for each color. Shuffle each pile and draw 5xBlue, 5xGreen, 3xRed, & 3xPurple. Stack any multiples of cards. Draw a new card once a space has been emptied.

Variant 2) Make 4 piles of cards depending on their cost 0-1, 2, 3-4 & 5-8. Shuffle each pile and draw 4 cards from each. Stack any multiples of cards. Draw a new card once a space has been emptied.

Variant 3) I separated the colors into 4 decks and set 3 face up from each, stacking any duplicates per the Harbor rules. The game was still very slow so I placed all of the Wheat Field and Bakery cards in 2 more stacks. This prevented the no possible move problem and sped the game dramatically.

Variant 4) I separated a copy of wheat field and bakery for each player at the start of the game which only could be bought if nothing else could. It was a nice little patch.

Variant 5) If you look at the card distribution in the base game and both current expansions you'll notice that if you play with all cards you will end up with a many more 7-12 cards than 1-6. If you play with just one expansion and the base game you get an equal or almost equal number of both. Looks like there might have to be some sort of redistribution of cards if you want to play with all the cards or maybe play with 15 cards instead of 10.

Variant 6) Another thing you could do is just separate out the 1-3 cost buildings, shuffle those and place out 10 unique buildings (discard any duplicates). Once that is done, shuffle all the remaining cards and finish as normal. This puts out buildings for everyone to have at least 1 on the first round. Just my 2 cents.

Variant 7) This would make 15 offer stacks to be used if using both expansions.

Variant 8) As suggested earlier, expand the number of available purchases from 10 to 15. This should help early in the game when players need those less expensive cards before the purple cards anchor themselves on the table.

Variant 9) Make all of the purple cards available (as they would be in the Basic Game), and then separately establish the 10 card market as in the expansion games.

Variant 10) Whenever my families plays we always use this variant setup:


 * We use three different decks.
 * Deck one is all the cards that are rolls 1-6.
 * Deck two is all the cards that are rolls 7-14.
 * Deck three is all of the purple cards.

When setting up the pool, four cards are from deck one, four from deck two, and two from deck three. That gives the ten cards and it's always a nice even mix of the type of cards so you don't have to worry about anything getting stale. It's also easier this way to find cards that work together, like the cheese factory and ranch.

I can't imagine playing it any other way.

Variant 11) Breaking the offering piles by ratios:

Breaking the offering into cost:

Both expansions:


 * 0-2: [6 stacks]
 * 3-4: [4 stacks] (3 if you want less red cards)
 * 5+: [3 stacks] (4 if you want more purple cards)

Harbour Only:


 * 0-2: [5 stacks] (6 if want a more green cards)
 * 3-4: [3 stacks]
 * 5+: [4 stacks]

Breaking the offering into activation (die/dice roll):

Both expansions:


 * <=6: [6 stacks]
 * 7+: [7 stacks] (8 if you want more purple)

Harbour Only:


 * <=6: [6 stacks]
 * 7+: [6 stacks]

Breaking the offering into color:

Both expansions:


 * Blue: 3
 * Green: 5
 * Red: 2-3
 * Purple: 3-4
 * 13-15 total

Harbour only:


 * Blue: 3-4
 * Green: 3
 * Red: 3
 * Purple: 3
 * 12-13 total

I prefer the cost splits over the other options but by using these you can tailor your game to you taste.

I was surprised with the splits for some reason. No reds cost more than 5 and only 1 purple costs less than 3.

Varian 12) Separate decks into the 4/4/2 variant decks (one deck is the 1-6s; one is 7-12s; and the third is all the purple cards).

Deal 5 cards to each player from the 1-6 deck. Draft. (take one, pass the rest to the right, repeat).

You may play locations worth a collective 10 Gold to add to your starting tableau (the Wheat Field and Bakery). Any excess gold becomes your starting gold (instead of the 3 gold start-up gold in the rules). Any locations you cannot afford are placed at the bottom of the 1-6 deck.

You get a jump start on a strategy to quicken the game.

Variant 13) Deal out 8 piles for 2 players, 9 for 3 players, 10 for four players, and 11 for five players.

Variant 14) When building the initial set of 10 establishments, skip any red or purple establishments. Continue as normal. The cards skipped, they go to the bottom of the deck. We do not shuffle thereafter. This keeps the card frequency after the initial setup the same as a normal game, rather than weighting red and purple higher to "catch up."

Better City Hall
Pumped-up City Hall Variant: (government subsidies)

In addition to earning you a dollar from the bank whenever you don't make any money from your businesses on your roll, the City Hall will also do the following:

"If, after your roll, you cannot afford to purchase any card currently in the market, collect one coin from the bank."

I got this feeling the last time I played the game that when I earned, say, one coin from my die/dice roll, but still could not afford to buy the cheapest building in the market, that my City Hall should have been coughing up a buck to help my cause.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1513233/pump-city-hall-speed-things

Balance Variants
an attempt to fix the unbalanced random variant | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1345513/attempt-fix-unbalanced-random-variant

So this weekend we tried a variation that seemed to help balance things significantly.


 * I divided the deck into two different decks: one with cards costing 3 or less, and another with all of the higher-priced cards.
 * We drew the initial 10 cards from the lower-priced deck.
 * After making a purchase, the current player would end their turn BEFORE drawing a new card to fill a gap in the 10-card pool.
 * The next player, at the start of their turn, would draw a new card to fill a gap (if there was a gap) in the pool. It would be this player's choice to draw a card from either the "cheap deck" or the "pricey deck."
 * Everything else played as normal.

---

My playgroup has found this variant works best for us. Divide the deck into 3 different decks... cards that activate on 1-6, cards that activate on 7+ and a purple deck. Then we create 4 piles from each of the 1-6 deck and the 7+ deck (for 8 piles). Then 2 piles from the purple deck. 

Meaning of Machi Koro
Dice Town

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 * "Machi" means town. "Koro" is onomatopoeia for a small clattering sound, i.e. the roll of a die.


 * Dice Town. Koro is short for saikoro -- dice.


 * Literally, "around town": https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#ja/en/%E8%A1%97%20%E9%A0%83


 * Google translates "街 コロ" as "city rollers".

-

Machi 街 (City) Saikoro サイコロ (Dice, Chinese loan word)

It is extremely common in Japanese for words to be truncated; in this case a portmanteau is formed between machi and saikoro --> machikoro

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Machi means "Town", and Koro... well... saikoro means dice, so perhaps 'koro' is a short form of die/dice. Of course, I have also heard that koro could also be one of those words that sounds like a sound... an onomatopoeia for a small clattering sound - in this case the sound dice makes when it is rolled. 

Tuna Boat + Harbor
Harbor's effect and the Tuna Boats | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19505262#19505262

Q: I know that the Radio Towers ability may be used on the Tuna Boat's money roll (assuming it hasn't been used already that same round), but can the Harbor be used to bump up the money on the Tuna Boat money roll?

I ask because the Harbor reads "If the dice total is 10 or more, you may add 2 to the total, on your turn only." This doesn't appear to be a once per round effect or even limited to the initial roll for the round.

A: The rules here say "The dice rolled to determine the income of the Tuna Boat have no effect on and are not affected by anything else. Example: If the Tuna Boat income roll is 10, the Family Restaurant does not happen. On snake eyes, the Amusement part does not happen. You can not add 2 to the roll even if you have a Harbour." (Emphasis added.)

The printed rules that came with my set say, "The dice rolled to determine the income of the Tuna Boat do not effect on and are not affected by any other Landmark or Establishment."

I would interpret these statements to mean that the Radio Tower's ability may NOT be used on the Tuna Boat's money roll and that the Harbor CANNOT be used to bump up the money on the Tuna Boat money roll.

---

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2868030_t.jpg

The Deluxe Edition of the rules say:
 * dice rolled for income are rolled only once
 * does not activate other cards such as Amusement Park
 * example provided, with harbor, did not get a +2 income increase

Over Powered Tuna Boat
My group and I noticed very quickly that the Tuna Boat card is quite overpowered. All of our games were won by whoever built the most as early as possible. We've come up with a few tweaks that help balance it out a little more. 

Choose one:


 * 1) Make it only work on your turn
 * 2) Make it unique
 * 3) Only roll one die when determining income
 * 4) Change the 12-14 die roll to 14 only
 * 5) Make it cost 8 coins
 * 6) Remove it completely

Triggers on 12, 13, 14
Official Answer

Tuna boat 12~14 | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1327264/tuna-boat-1214

Q: does 12~14 mean 12 to 14 or 12 and 14? Not sure how to interpret the tilde(~)

A: (Pandasaurus Games) It means 12, 13 and 14

Strategies
1) Found a game breaking strategy - Red Cards + Food Warehouse = easy and a fast win. Start slow with 2's and 3's and then pile up those red cards, 5 or 7 red cards, go into Food Warehouse, buy 2 dice rolling landmark and hope for the 12-13. Harbor help A LOT +2 to dice roll, super easy.

2) The "rural" cards (Corn Field and General Store) and the French Restaurant can be part of an effective strategy to jump to the Airport.

Sorting Cards
Cards to omit in a teaching game.... | Machi Koro: Deluxe Edition | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/21632976#21632976

For sorting out expansions, I put a tiny letter/number in the bottom right of each of my cards:


 * "B" for Base cards
 * "H" for Harbor cards
 * "M" for Millionaire cards
 * "D" for Deluxe cards (only 2)

I also put a tiny 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the bottom right of the landmarks / start cards so we can quickly separate out each player's starting cards.

Loan Office
Q: How does it work when you have loan office and a card that makes you money (same color).

Can you decide the order it fires off? So you can say pay loan first and then make money?

A: Direct email from IDW in response to me asking a similar question:

"1) Forest/Flower Shop & Loan Office. Which triggers 1st? If you have no money, you can't pay for loan office. So do you get the money for the Forest/Flower Shop first or do you do the Loan Office (and thus not pay anything)?

Answer: You can choose which blue / green triggers first as the active player."

httLoan office timing | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - ps://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1451595/loan-office-timing

City Hall is not a Constructed Landmark
Does the City Hall count as a constructed landmark? | Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1421480/does-city-hall-count-constructed-landmark

https://twitter.com/IDWGames/status/637401508837896192

My friend tweeted IDWGames to ask this very question, they replied with a very terse "No."

--

"I'd just like to point out that in the translation of the original Japanese rules by the game designer, he calls the City Hall a "starting establishment" and the Airport and Harbour a "landmark"." 

Sushi Bar Cost 4 or 2
Sushi Bar Price: 2 or 4? | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1418208/sushi-bar-price-2-or-4


 * "Suganuma says he wasn't aware of the price of 4 in the English version, but also says that if it was an intentional change, he doesn't protest."

Publishers
IDW - Nate Murray - https://boardgamegeek.com/user/natecm

Pandasaurus Games - https://boardgamegeek.com/user/stooge

Airport Double Roll Combination
Airport & Amusement Park | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1477280/airport-amusement-park

Q: After rolling doubles the card says to take another turn, while the Airport gives 10 on any turn you didn't build. So if you don't build after rolling doubles then again on the second roll does the airport give 20 coins?

A: Yep

Expansion Card Symbols
Expansion symbols on cards anywhere? | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1473926/expansion-symbols-cards-anywhere

-- https://boardgamegeek.com/article/21657457#21657457 and https://boardgamegeek.com/article/21632976#21632976

For sorting out expansions, I put a tiny letter/number in the bottom right of each of my cards:


 * "B" for Base cards
 * "H" for Harbor cards
 * "M" for Millionaire cards
 * "D" for Deluxe cards (only 2)


 * "1" .. "5" - I also put a tiny 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the bottom right of the landmarks / start cards so we can quickly separate out each player's starting cards. (and see who didn't properly return their cards ;-)

Limit on Rolling Doubles?
Amusement Park - how many additional turns? | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1480254/amusement-park-how-many-additional-turns

q: So if I have built the amusement park is there a limit to how many additional turns I get for rolling doubles? If I'm lucky and roll doubles three times in a row do I get three additional turns? Or do you limit it to just one additional turn?

my thoughts: The Radio Tower specifically says "Once every turn...". As it was called out specifically like that in another landmark, and not in the Amusement Park, I also would interpret that it does leave it open for the possibility of repeated doubles.

Harbor with Doubles
Official Ruling

Amusement Park + Harbor | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1312128/amusement-park-harbor

Q: If I rolled doubles but used the harbor to add +2 to the total, do I still get another turn via the Amusement Park's ability?

A: (from Pandasaurus Games) Yes! You still rolled doubles!

Shopping Mall
"The general idea is that, if you have Shopping Mall, you increase by 1 any number printed on a restaurant or shop card." 

Flower Shows + Shopping Mall?
Using a 'Flower Shop' when you have the 'Shopping Mall' card in play | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1340305/using-flower-shop-when-you-have-shopping-mall-card

Q: With the Shopping Mall, do Flower Shops still earn +1 coin, even if you don't have any Flower Orchards?

A: This question was resolved in this thread by someone who checked with the designer.

The general idea is that, if you have Shopping Mall, you increase by 1 any number printed on a restaurant or shop card.

The text on Flower Shop says, "Get 1 coin from the bank for each Flower Orchard you own, on your turn only."

Shopping Mall changes this to "Get 1+1 (=2) coins from the bank for each Flower Orchard you own, on your turn only."

That is consistent with what is printed in the rules.

Shopping Mall and Flower Shop = confusion | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1340760/shopping-mall-and-flower-shop-confusion

Got my book now... "Notes on the Establishments...Flower Shop: With the effect of the Shopping Mall, the Flower Shop causes you to get 2 coins per Flower Shop you have."

--

"I just got a reply from Suganuma. The text on the card want to imply that you "add 1 to the coin number that the card says".

So "get 1 coin per Flower Field" turns into "Get 2 coins per flower field".

It says exactly the same thing on the Japanese cards, so he's got a lot of questions from Japanese customers too. The text on Shopping Mall is misleading, and he apologizes for that."

6 Player Variant
6 players? | Machi Koro: Harbor Expansion | BoardGameGeek - https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1321468/6-players

Is it just to add another Harbour expansion and have six player or do I miss something (except the obvious extra downtime and playtime?)

I've thought about doing this myself, since I own two copies of the base game. I figured I'd use a variant based on how I like to play Magic, and that's to have each player only interact with the two players to their left and right. Other players other than the two neighbors do not affect, and are not affected by, the acting player.

This would allow you to play with a larger group, while having each player essentially play a three player game, and maintaining game balance. I would also increase the number of available cards to 10 + 1 per player over four.

-

Why not just play two seperate 3 player games (or a 2 and 4 player game)?

Why add all the down time (I would hate to wait 5 minutes for a turn in machi koro - ugh) and shift the power in favor of many red and purple cards (as another poster already pointed out)?

Outstanding Questions



 * PDF of Deluxe?


 * Convention center - does blue activated card activate for other players too?

Business Center
Play with Business Center? A little OP

Questions
Q: Does Shopping Mall with Pizza Joint cause player to receive +1 coin from players or bank?

A: From players - strong!

-

Q: Does City Hall count as "constructed" landmark for "corn field"? We assume not because you can't destroy it for Demolition Company

A: ?