Tabletop games
Tiny Towns
Build the most prosperous town on a 4 x 4 grid by placing resources in the layout of buildings. At the end of the game, each square left without a building costs one point.
Checked against the official rules · October 2026
- players
- 1–6
- minutes
- 45
- variants
- 5
You’ll need the game box. Marquoir sums up the rules and keeps score.
Never played? Aim of the game and full rulesStep by step, with examples, for a first game.Setup
- Each player receives a 16-square town board.
- The Resource cards are only needed for Town Hall and solo play; otherwise they stay boxed.
- The Cottage card, with the light blue symbol on its back, goes face up in the middle of the table: it is used in every game.
- Split the other Building cards into six piles of four according to the symbol on their backs, one pile per colour: red, grey, orange, green, yellow and navy. Shuffle each pile.
- Reveal the top card of each pile beside the Cottage: these seven buildings are the only ones in the game, and the other cards go back in the box.
- For a first game, the rulebook suggests the Cottage, Farm, Well, Chapel, Tavern, Theater and Factory.
- The resource cubes and the wooden buildings form a common supply; monuments are not part of it. The five resources are wood (brown), wheat (yellow), brick (red), glass (blue) and stone (grey).
- Whoever last built something in real life starts: they take the Master Builder hammer.
- Each player is dealt 2 Monument cards face down from the shuffled deck, picks one to keep secret and boxes the other unseen. Everyone also gets a wooden monument piece. Monuments can be left out of a first game.
- 1 to 6 players, ages 14 and up.
How to play
- Each round, the Master Builder names a resource: wood, wheat, brick, glass or stone.
- Everyone, the Master Builder included, then takes a cube of that resource and sets it on any empty square of their town; all do so together.
- A placed cube never moves. A square holds a single cube or a single building, and a cube only leaves the board when used to build: it then returns to the supply.
- Building: when cubes form the layout of one of the game's buildings, you may remove them, take the matching wooden building and place it on one of the squares just freed. Announce what you are building; everyone builds at the same time.
- Turning or flipping the layout is allowed: what matters is that the cubes keep the same positions relative to one another.
- Each cube is used for a single building. Nothing forces you to build as soon as the layout is complete, and several buildings can go up in the same round. A placed building never moves.
- Everyone may build every building in the game, as many times as they like: the cards never run out. Only the monument is reserved for its owner, who builds it just once.
- You cannot build with the resource just named before actually placing its cube.
- After placing, each player has until the next resource is named to build. When everyone is done, the hammer passes to the player on the left, who waits until everyone is ready before naming.
- A Cottage pays off only once a red building feeds it; the order in which the two are built does not matter.
- Monuments follow the normal building rules and can go up in any round; when yours is built, read its card to everyone, lay it face up and carry out any instant effect, its points coming at the end.
- Completed town: once your board is full and no further building is possible, or you decline to build, you drop out of play and stop taking the Master Builder role. While a square is still free, you go on placing and naming resources, even with nothing left to build.
- A last player still building keeps choosing the resources on their own until their town is full.
Scoring
- Once every town is complete, the game stops. Clear away every cube left on the boards, apart from those kept on a Warehouse.
- Each square without a building costs 1 point.
- Each building scores what its card says. Red buildings never score anything themselves: they feed Cottages.
- A fed Cottage is worth 3 points. A Cottage left hungry scores nothing itself, yet it still counts for buildings such as the Well.
- Scores quoted by the rulebook: Chapel, 1 point per fed Cottage; Well, 1 point per adjacent Cottage, fed or not; Tavern, 2, 5, 9, 14 then 20 points for 1 to 5 Taverns; Theater, 1 point per other building type in its row and column; Warehouse, 1 point lost per stored resource.
- Rulebook example, without monuments: two Wells 5 points, four fed Cottages 12, one Chapel 4, three Taverns 9, one Bakery 3, one Warehouse -3 and two empty squares -2, for 28 points.
- In Marquoir, enter the points for each building colour and for the monument, then the number of empty squares.
End of the game
- The highest total wins; a negative score is possible.
- Ties are broken by fewest turns as Master Builder, then fewest empty squares, then most Cottages; if still level, the win is shared.
House rules and pitfalls
- Two squares are adjacent when they share a side; a diagonal never counts.
- Wooden cubes and buildings are not meant to be counted exactly: if some run short, any other marker will do.
- Cavern rule, to ease your first games: over the whole game, each player may set aside, next to their board, no more than 2 resources that someone else named; those cubes neither score nor cost anything.
- The French edition, Les Petites Bourgades, may give the buildings other names, but their colours are the same.
never played?Aim of the game and full rules9 chapters · about 5 min read
Red buildings
They score nothing: their job is to feed Cottages.
- Farm: up to 4 Cottages fed, wherever they stand.
- Granary: it feeds the Cottages placed all around it, on the eight surrounding squares, corners included.
- Greenhouse: it feeds a single group of Cottages stuck to one another, even far away from it.
- Orchard: six Cottages fed at most, wherever it sits.
Grey buildings
- Fountain: never more than 2 points.
- Millstone: capped at 2 points, however many red or yellow buildings surround it.
- Shed: it can settle on any free square of the town, not only where the cubes that built it used to be.
- Well: each neighbouring Cottage, fed or unfed, adds 1 point.
Orange buildings
- Abbey: a single green, yellow or navy neighbour brings it down to zero.
- Chapel: count each Chapel on its own, at 1 point per fed Cottage in the town; hungry Cottages add nothing to it.
- Cloister: whether or not it sits in a corner, each Cloister earns 1 point per Cloister occupying a corner, up to 4.
- Temple: it needs at least two neighbouring Cottages, or it scores nothing.
Green buildings
- Almshouse: its total is capped at 26 points, even beyond six Almshouses.
- Feast Hall: if the player on your right has as many, each of yours drops to 2 points. In a two-player game, whoever has more scores 3 points per hall, the other 2, and a tie gives 2 each.
- Inn: an Inn that shares its row or column with another Inn scores nothing.
- Tavern: count all your Taverns together, wherever they are: 2, 5, 9, 14 then 20 points for 1 to 5 Taverns; any further ones add nothing.
Yellow buildings
- Bakery: only its direct neighbours count, not diagonals.
- Market: pick its row or its column, never both; it earns 1 point for itself and 1 for each other Market in that line, capped at 4.
- Tailor: even off-centre, it earns 1 point, plus 1 per other Tailor on the four middle squares, capped at 5.
- Theater: look along its row and its column and count the different building types other than Theater; a type found in both counts once, a monument counts as a type of its own, and the total is capped at 6.
Navy buildings
- Bank: a sixth Bank is impossible, since there would be no resource left to put on it.
- Factory: two Factories may keep the same resource, but that brings nothing extra.
- Trading Post: it acts as any resource in the layout of later buildings and is not removed when they are built; several can serve one building, as long as at least one real cube goes in too.
- Warehouse: it stores up to 3 resources, placed on top of it. When another player names a resource you do not want, you may store it there, and take another one out to place on a free square. A resource only leaves the Warehouse when a new one replaces it: its load can only grow. At the end of the game, each stored resource costs 1 point.
Monuments
Each player has a single monument, which only they may build, just once. Its card is the reference; the rulebook clarifies a few of them.
- Barrett Castle: every scoring treats it as a pair of Cottages, never as a monument.
- Fort Ironweed: from the moment it stands, its owner skips the Master Builder role and hands the hammer on to the left, unless nobody else is still playing.
- Shrine of the Elder Tree: 8 points is its ceiling, however late it is built.
Town Hall rules
Another way to choose resources, with the 15 Resource cards. One player is appointed Mayor.
- Shuffle the Resource cards, then put the first 5 face down on a discard pile without looking at them.
- First round: the Mayor turns over the top card, and everyone places the resource shown.
- Second round: the Mayor discards that card and turns over a new one, which everyone places too.
- Third round: each player freely chooses one of the five resources, all at the same time.
- Repeat this three-round cycle. When the draw pile runs out, the Mayor shuffles the discards into a new pile, then sets 5 cards aside face down once more.
The end of the game does not change. Cards that mention a resource named by another player (Factory, Warehouse, Statue of the Bondmaker) apply in the rounds where the Mayor turns over a card. The Bank applies in the free-choice rounds: you can no longer choose a resource placed on one of your Banks. The owner of Fort Ironweed takes and places no resource in the free-choice rounds, unless they are the last player still in the game.
Solo
There is no Master Builder. Remove the Inn, the Bank, Fort Ironweed and Opaleye's Watch.
- Shuffle the 15 Resource cards and turn over 3.
- Each turn, take one of the three resources on show, place it and build normally; its card is tucked face down under the pile and the next one takes its place.
- Cards that mention a resource named by another player apply to the choice made among the Resource cards.
- The game ends when your town is complete. Rulebook scale: 38 points or more, Master Architect; 32 to 37, Town Planner; 25 to 31, Engineer; 18 to 24, Carpenter; 10 to 17, Builder's Apprentice; 9 or less, Aspiring Architect.
Variants
Game mode
Master Builder
The basic rules: the hammer passes to the left each round, and whoever holds it names the resource everyone places.
Town Hall
A Mayor draws the Resource cards: in two rounds out of three, everyone places the resource drawn; in the third, each player chooses their own.
Solo
Three Resource cards face up, pick one each turn, until your town is complete. 38 points or more: Master Architect.
For beginners
Cavern rule
Up to two resources named by other players may be placed beside the board: they neither score nor cost anything.
Without monuments
Recommended for a first game: nobody receives a Monument card.
chosen when starting, the scorer follows
Frequently asked questions
How do you score in Tiny Towns?
Add up the points of each building, according to its card, and those of your monument, then subtract 1 point per square without a building. A Cottage is only worth 3 points if it is fed.
Can you rotate or flip a building's layout?
Yes: turning or flipping it is allowed, as long as the cubes keep the same positions relative to one another.
Do you have to build as soon as the layout is complete?
No. You may wait as many rounds as you like, and build several buildings at once.
What happens to the cubes left on the board at the end?
They are removed, except those on a Warehouse, and each square left empty costs 1 point.
The box
- Released
- 2019
- Age
- Ages 14+
- Designer
- Peter McPherson
- Artwork
- Gong Studios
- Publisher
- Lucky Duck Games
- Mechanics
- Pattern BuildingGrid CoverageVariable Set-upSolo Play
- Contents
- 6 town boards of 4 × 4 squares
- 25 Building cards and 15 Monument cards
- 15 Resource cards, for Town Hall and solo
- 90 wooden resource cubes: wood, wheat, brick, glass and stone
- 126 wooden buildings and 6 wooden monuments
- 1 Master Builder hammer
- 1 score pad
- Expansions
- Tiny Towns: Fortune
- Tiny Towns: Tiny Trees