Cities of Venus is a medium weight, scifi Euro, based in the year 2222. Various countries on Earth have set up colonies in cities that float in the clouds. Each player represents the governor of a floating city and must compete with other players to maximize the growth of their city by growing their population and strategically deploying it across the various departments to keep their city running. To help the cities, Earth has been sending immigrants and city upgrades in the form of Drops. At some point, a catastrophe occurs on Earth, cutting off communication with Venus. No one knows when the last Drop from Earth will come. Each round, players move through several phases: Resolve events, erode shields, grow and deploy population, mine for resources and modify the city, and grab a drop to improve the city. A player can gain victory points in the following ways: Points on station upgrades Points for a certain amount of mined resources Points for city population Bonus points for the most populous, the richest, and most upgraded cities Some time in the third phase of the drops, a card (randomly shuffled into the card deck) will turn up with the Earth on it. This card signifies that this is the last drop that will arrive from Earth and triggers the end of the game. The player with the most victory points at that point wins. —description from the publisher