How to Play Boomtown: Full Rules Guide | Playgridia
Boomtown is a turn-based settlement game on a hex island. You roll dice, the land produces goods, and you build Roads, Villages and Cities, trade, and race to be first to the victory point (VP) target. 2-4 players against bots or friends, free in your browser — no download.
Setup: two villages, two roads
The game opens with a snake draft: in turn order everyone places 1 village + 1 road, then the order reverses and everyone places their second village + road. Two rules matter: a village needs its neighbouring corners to be empty (the distance rule), and a road must connect to your own network. Your second village pays you one resource for every producing tile it touches — that is your opening hand, so don't place it carelessly.
The three steps of a turn
- 1 · Roll: roll two dice. Every tile showing that number produces to each Village (1) and each City (2) touching it — unless the Bandit is sitting on it.
- 2 · Act: build, trade, buy and play development cards, in any order.
- 3 · End turn: play passes on.
The board and the goods
The island has fixed geometry: 19 tiles, 54 corners, 72 edges. Only the terrain layout, the number discs and the port types are shuffled per game. The land yields five goods: forest → Timber, hills → Brick, fields → Grain, pasture → Wool, mountains → Ore. There is also a wasteland tile: it produces nothing and the Bandit starts there. Number discs come from the classic 18-token bag (there is no 7), and the layout avoids putting two 6/8 tiles side by side.
The coast holds 9 trading posts: four are generic 3:1, the rest are one 2:1 per resource. To use a post you need a village or city on one of the two coastal corners tied to it.
Costs
- Road: 1 Timber + 1 Brick
- Village: 1 Timber + 1 Brick + 1 Grain + 1 Wool
- City (upgrades a village): 2 Grain + 3 Ore
- Development card: 1 Grain + 1 Wool + 1 Ore
Your supply is limited: 15 roads, 5 villages, 4 cities.
Development cards (25 in the deck)
14 Gunslinger (move the Bandit and rob an opponent — feeds Largest Army) · 5 Deed (hidden +1 VP) · 2 Road Master (2 free roads) · 2 Supply Wagon (take any 2 goods from the bank) · 2 Boom (name a resource, take everyone's). Two rules: a card bought this turn cannot be played this turn (Deeds excepted — they only ever count) and you may play one card per turn.
When a 7 is rolled: the Bandit
A 7 produces nothing and starts a sequence instead. First everyone holding more than 7 cards discards half (rounded down), one player at a time. Then the roller moves the Bandit to any other tile and steals one random good from a player adjacent to it. Which good you take is the server's draw — the pick is blind, exactly as on the tabletop. The tile the Bandit occupies produces nothing until it is moved.
Scoring and winning
- Village: 1 VP · City: 2 VP
- Longest Road: 5 or more continuous roads → +2 (ties keep the current holder)
- Largest Army: 3 or more Gunslingers played → +2
- Deeds: hidden +1 each
The target is a room option: Classic 10 VP or Quick 8 VP. Whoever reaches it on their own turn wins. The score everyone can see excludes hidden Deeds — so the leader may be one step closer than they look.
The move clock defaults to 90 seconds; on expiry the server plays that sub-step for you, so the table never stalls. Next up: opening and winning tactics and the dice-odds guide. Or just play Boomtown free.
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