Each turn, a player has two options: either they play cards from their hand and build houses on the appropriate building sites or they draw two cards from the draw pile. The second action is obviously self-explanatory, so let's take a closer look at the first one: to construct a building on a building site, you have to play cards in the same colour as the building site. In addition, the building site must be next to another building; at the start of the game, the centre of the game board is considered already to be built. For each card you play, you can build one of your house pieces on this building site, which you simply place on top of each other. With three cards, you would therefore construct a three-storey building. In return, you receive three times the value shown on the building site by the dice symbol as victory points.

You can then continue building on an adjacent building site, provided you have the matching card (again in the colour of the building site). This continues until you can't or don't want to build any more. However, the maximum is reached with 5 cards in hand, which means that you can construct a maximum of five buildings (or, for example, a five-storey building). Finally, you draw a new card, which ends your turn.

Alternatively to playing a card in the same colour as the site, you can also discard any card and then place a park on a building site. What is this good for? Well, you don't get any points for this, but you "open up" the next building site, as you can now build on an adjacent site to the park. If this field then gives you a lot of points and you can perhaps also build several floors on this, that might be a lucrative approach.

In principle, we are already through with the rules, but there are still three special scorings at the end of the game: each quarter of the playing field have special scorings: in two quarters there are special victory points for the highest (respectively second and third highest) building and in the other two quarters for the most buildings of a player (second most....). Finally, there is a final scoring for the longest connected building chain of a player colour.

You can see: Sunrise Lane is a wonderfully easy-to-explain game that is ready to play straight away. We have enjoyed the game so far with any number of players. With more players, the blocking of squares becomes more important, but the game also works very well with two players. With a playing time of around half an hour, it actually always fits, whether as a game in between or as a short family game during the week.

Reiner Knizia has adopted some of the rules from Rondo for Sunrise Lane, but in my opinion the new rules give the game more depth and more tactical possibilities. A great game, with just one weak point: the two colours red and violet cannot be distinguished very well in low light. Although not only the colours but also the building types differ, it can still be a problem, as these symbols are depicted quite small on the game board. So far, however, this hasn't been a major problem in my rounds and I'll probably have to get myself a pair of reading glasses soon anyway....