Cities is a fast, tactical placing and positioning game. Every player builds one of the following cities: New York, Paris, London or Berlin. Each turn you choose the best spot to place the new tile. As your city grows, you place tourists at attractions, terraces and parks. The player who has built the most attractive city and has placed his tourists in the best positions wins the game.

Think of Cities as the urban planner version of Take it Easy! One player is the Master Builder, removes eight of his 24 tiles from the game, then turns over three tiles. All players, including the Master Builder, create a starting position with these tiles touching only at the corners. The MB then turns over one tile at a time and players add it to their display, keeping all the tiles within a 4x4 space.

For each tile, a player can choose to place a tourist on that tile or move a tourist already on the board to it. Depending on the level of game play -- which affects the scoring possibilities -- you're trying to connect fields and attractions to give your tourists something to admire or create terraces that overlook the water. The player with the most satisfied tourists (i.e. the most points) wins.

Description written by W. Eric Martin and used with permission of BoardgameNews.com