We will prefer four-player games, with five players where necessary.

The following boards will be used (subject to availability):

Heat 1 - USA or Benelux
Heat 2 - Italy or Central Europe
Heat 3 - Germany or France

The GM will attempt to accommodate players who would like to use deck 2 for qualifying rounds but deck 1 will be used in the Elimination Rounds.

Elimination Rounds

A 16 player semi-final will be held, consisting of four 4-player games. All two game winners will advance automatically. Remaining seats will be filled by one-game winners as ranked in order of their second best finish. In the event that not enough winners are available to play in the semi-final, the closest second-place players will advance to fill the tables.

Winners of the semi-final games will advance to a four-player final.

The semi-final shall be played on the Germany map. The final shall be played on the France map.

Exceptions:

If there are more than 16 two-game winners, the semi-final will consist of four 5-player games, with the 5 winners advancing to a 5 player final.

If there are more than 20 two-game winners, the semi-final will consist of five 5-player games, with the 5 winners advancing to a 5 player final.

Rule Change

Do not collect income the final round of the game.

Errata

Plant 29 (in the original deck) powers 4 cities.

Clarifications

Randomly determine the initial player order. Then each player (in order) selects one region to be in play. You may select any region with the caveat that all regions must be contiguous when the last player has selected.

In a four-player game, randomly remove 4 plants (face down) from the deck before putting plant 13 (or 11) on top.

When the Step 3 card is revealed, immediately shuffle the remainder of the deck.

The FAQs available here shall be in effect: http://www.2f-spiele.de/spiele/faq/faq_frames_eng.htm

Money is hidden but MUST remain on the table.

Tiebreakers

At the end of each game, players are ranked by the number of cities supplied with power with any ties broken by the amount of ending cash. A specialized score sheet will be provided to record this information as it will also be used to rank players for advancement to the elimination rounds.

For example if Bill wins with 15 cities and $110, Jim has 15 cities and $101, and Tom has 15 and $10 then Bill's score would be recorded as 15,110, Jim's score would be recorded as 15,101 and Tom as 15,010.

Map Errata:

When playing the Benelux map, during Stages 1 & 2, the discard and replacement of the lowest power plant at the same time as the highest power plant is placed at the bottom of the deck: both plants will be removed, and then two replacements will be drawn from the deck.

When playing the Benelux map, the purple area (Luxembourg) is considered to be part of the dark blue area, and so there are only 5 areas on this map.

Time Limit Adjudication

Any game that is not finished 20 minutes prior to the end of the time slot is subject to adjudication by the GM.