Overview
La Citta is a Renaissance city-building game where each player is an Italian prince starting with two cities. Players expand their cities by constructing buildings, managing food production, and providing services (health, education, culture) that their citizens desire. Citizens migrate toward cities offering better services, creating intense competition. The player who best manages growth and citizen satisfaction wins.
Components
- 1 game board (hexagonal grid with terrain areas)
- 141 building tokens (farm houses, quarries, markets, palaces, hospitals, statues, cathedrals, schools, universities, fountains, public baths, castles)
- 22 terrain tiles
- 130 citizen figures (dark gray)
- 20 citizen figures (4 per player colour)
- 32 gold coins
- 65 food tokens (30 large, 35 small)
- 74 cards (27 Voice of the People, 15 Action, 32 Politics)
- 5 summary cards
- 1 starting player token
Setup
- Place board centrally. Randomly place terrain tiles on large land areas.
- Sort building tokens into stacks by type.
- Each player places 2 castles on the board paths, each with 3 citizen figures (representing 3,000 people each).
- Shuffle Voice of the People, Action, and Politics card decks separately.
- Each player receives starting gold and action cards.
Turn Structure
Each game year consists of 8 steps:
- Change the starting player: Pass clockwise.
- Layout Voice of the People cards: Reveal cards showing which service (health, education, or culture) the people most value this year.
- Quarry earnings: Players earn gold from quarries adjacent to mountain terrain.
- Population growth: Each city gains 1 citizen if it has food surplus.
- Five political rounds: Players play Action cards and Politics cards to build and take special actions.
- Tally the Voice of the People: Determine which service category wins (health, education, or culture).
- Citizen relocation: Citizens compare their city’s service level with neighbouring cities and migrate toward better services.
- Feeding the citizens: Each city must feed its citizens. Unfed citizens leave.
Actions
Building (during Political Rounds)
- Action cards: Allow placing buildings. Each building must be adjacent to an existing building in the city and occupied by a citizen.
- Politics cards: Provide special building options or other effects.
Building Types and Services
| Building |
Service |
Special |
| Castle |
– |
Starting building, produces food near farmland |
| Farm House |
– |
Produces food near farmland |
| Quarry |
– |
Produces gold near mountains |
| Market Place |
– |
Allows city to exceed 5,000 population |
| Fountain/Public Bath |
Health (blue arches) |
Allows city to exceed 8,000 pop; must be near lake |
| Palace/Hospital |
Health (blue arches) |
– |
| Statue/Cathedral |
Culture (white arches) |
– |
| School/University |
Education (black arches) |
– |
Population Limits
- Without market: max 5,000 (5 citizens)
- With market but no water: max 8,000 (8 citizens)
- With market AND fountain/bath: unlimited
Scoring / Victory Conditions
The game ends after a set number of years (varies by player count). Final scoring:
- 1 point per citizen figure in your cities
- Bonus points for largest cities
- The player with the most points wins.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
- Citizen Migration: After tallying the Voice of the People, citizens in each city compare their city’s relevant service arches with ALL neighbouring cities (within 3 hexes). If a neighbouring city has more arches of the winning service type, 1 citizen migrates there per city comparison. Multiple citizens can leave one city in a single year.
- Demolition cascade: If citizens leave and a city has more buildings than citizens, excess buildings must be demolished. Losing a farm house reduces food, potentially causing further citizen loss.
- Food production: Farm houses and castles produce food only when adjacent to farmland terrain. Food value depends on the terrain tile.
- Neighbouring cities: Cities are neighbours if they are within 3 hexagonal spaces of each other on the paths.
- 2-player game: Use only light green hexagons.
- 3-player game: Use light green and brownish hexagons.
- 4-5 player game: Use entire board.
Player Reference
Year Summary:
- Change start player
- Reveal Voice of the People cards
- Collect quarry income
- Population growth (if food surplus)
- Five political rounds (build/play cards)
- Tally Voice of the People (determine winning service)
- Citizen relocation (migration to better services)
- Feed citizens (remove unfed)
Service Types:
- Health = Blue arches
- Education = Black arches
- Culture = White arches
Population Caps:
| Condition |
Max Population |
| No market |
5,000 (5 citizens) |
| Market, no water |
8,000 (8 citizens) |
| Market + fountain/bath |
Unlimited |