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Gamehelpultimaterailroads

2021-11-01T14:19:45Z

Marsleclair: Created page with "==Gameplay== The players take actions, one after the other in order, until all players have passed. At the end of each round, players score points as a measurement of their pr..."

==Gameplay==
The players take actions, one after the other in order, until all players have passed. At the end of each round, players score points as a measurement of their progress.
In a four-player game, the game ends after the 7th round. The winner is the player with the most points.

On your turn, you must either resolve an action or pass. To resolve an action, choose an
unoccupied action space and place as many workers as required on that space. Then, resolve
that action.

*! Action spaces on the game board (and any engineers on it) let you resolve direct actions. All other actions, if not specifically labeled as direct, are indirect actions.

*! Note: You cannot save actions for your next turn.

===Playing a turn===
Each turn a player will choose an empty/unoccupied action space, occupy it with the required number of workers and perform that action.
You must consider the following:
* You must choose an unoccupied action space (i.e. one that is not already occupied by workers).
* You must place the exact/correct number of workers from your supply on the required action space you wish to use (i.e. 1, 2 or 3).
* You must only use workers from your personal worker supply.
* You must immediately make use of the direct/chosen action or pass.
* You must perform the direct action in its entirety.
* Engineers you have hired count as indirect actions. You can partially resolve these actions.
* You may perform only one action per turn.
* Actions that become available to you (either by choosing an action space or otherwise) during your turn go into your action pool. This means that you can resolve these actions during your turn, in any order you choose. You can also choose not to resolve indirect actions.

Note: Exceptions to these rules will be noted where applicable.

==The areas of the board (possible actions)==
* 1. Track extension
* 2. Locomotives and factories
* 3. Industrialization
* 4. Auxiliary actions
* 5. Engineers
* 6. Turn order track

====1. TRACK EXTENSION====
The track extension actions are among the most important in the game.

Each player’s personal player board depicts 3 railroads, which can be independently extended over the course of the game. These railroads are called Trans-Siberian railroad, Petersburg railroad and the Kiev railroad.

The better each of their railroads is developed, the more points each player will score at the end of each round.

First, place the required number of workers on one of the track extension action spaces. Then, advance the appropriate track(s) on your player board the number of spaces indicated on the action space.

You may choose to distribute track advancements between multiple railroads.

And so ends the action.

In order to earn more points, the players should strive to extend their railroads through the advancement of these tracks. To maximize their progress, players will also need to advance tracks of other colors, indicating tracks of higher value.

In order to advance the tracks in the other colors, you must first earn them. Your earn these tracks by advancing the black track to spaces 2, 6, 10 and 15 on the Trans-Siberian.

Once a player has advanced the black track to or beyond space 2 of the Trans-Siberian, they immediately take 3 gray tracks from the general supply. They place these new tracks to the left of each railroad depicted on her player board. She may now begin advancing her gray tracks. When a player’s black track reaches or passes space 6 of the Trans-Siberian, the player receives 3 brown tracks, space 10 grants access to 2 natural tracks and space 15 to 1 white track.

The two actions at the bottom of the area of rail extension.

To use this action, a player must place a worker and 1 coin/ruble. This action gives them two advancements of their choice (split between 1 or 2 tracks).

This is the only action in the game that may be used more than once during a round. When a player places a worker there, they must then move either a black or a gray track. The action space is not considered occupied and may be used again during the same round by any player (including players who have already used it).

----------------------------

The following must be observed when advancing tracks:
* Tracks advance in a specific unchangeable order: first black, then gray, brown, natural and finally white.
* A track can only be moved onto an empty space. A track may never catch up to or go beyond the track that is in front of it. As such, the order is always respected.
* Advancements may be split between different railroads.
* Not all railroads use every track color. Your player board shows which colors go with which railroads.
----------------------------

====2. LOCOMOTIVES and FACTORIES====
=====Building locomotives=====
First, place the required number of workers on one of the locomotive action spaces. Then, take 1 locomotive from the lowest numbered pile in the supply. Finally, place this locomotive in front of one of the 3 railroads of your player board.

There can be only 1 locomotive on these railroads: St.Petersburg and Kiev. There can be up to 2 locomotives on the Trans-Siberian. The number of a locomotive indicates the number of spaces it can reach on a railroad.

The Trans-Siberian is the only railroad where there can be 2 locomotives. One of these is placed next to the board to the left of the track, while the other is placed directly on the board. You must add up the value of both locomotives on the Trans-Siberian to determine the total number of spaces that can be reached on this railroad.

=====Upgrading locomotives=====
To upgrade a locomotive, simply replace it with one whose number is higher. The “old” locomotive is not lost: you can move it to one of the other two railroads. When you move an “old” locomotive to a railroad where there is a locomotive, this can create a chain reaction.

When a player is unable to place a locomotive, she flips it purple side up and places it next to the locomotive supply. That locomotive will now be used as a factory. What are factories? They will be explained in the next section.

During each end of round scoring, you will only score points for the spaces that your locomotives can reach. Furthermore, special spaces are spread amongst your railroads and in order to benefit from their advantage, you must first reach them with a locomotive.

=====Factories=====
Factories are essential to the industrial development of your railroad network. Not only that, but each factory can be used to benefit from a unique ability.

A factory is depicted on the back of each locomotive. Locomotives with the same number all have the same factory on their back. Each factory grants its owner a special ability that she can benefit from

The ability a factory possesses is also depicted in the top left corner of a locomotive.

=====Building Factories=====
To build a factory, you must use the same actions that were required to build locomotives. First, place the required number of workers on the action space. Then, just like you did for the locomotives, take a locomotive from the lowest numbered pile in the supply. Flip this locomotive purple side up (with the factory) and place it under your board, in one of the 5 spaces reserved for factories. You must place your factories from left to right. If a player wishes to build a factory and there are some factories next to the locomotive piles, the player will be able to choose between one of the face up factories or one from the lowest numbered pile.

If you manage to fill your 5 factory spaces, you can replace them with other factories. When you wish to replace a factory, you must first place one of your “old” factories in the general supply, to the left of the locomotive piles, factory side up (purple side). Then, you place the new factory in the recently freed space. You do not have to replace your factories from left to right.

Note: How factories are used will be covered in the next section “Industrialization”.

====3. INDUSTRIALIZATION====
Another type of action is possible: industrialization. Industrialization lets you score points during the scoring phase at the end of a round, and also gives you access to the abilities of your factories.

First, place the required number of workers on one of the industrialization action spaces. Then, advance your Industry marker the number of spaces indicated by the chosen action space. You will notice that there is a gap after the first 4 spaces of your industry track. You cannot move your Industry marker into or beyond this gap.

For your Industry marker to progress on your industry track, you must first fill these gaps with factories. This represents another way in which your industries are improving. Each factory features an industry space/slot (represented by a purple hexagon/circle) onto which your Industry marker can move. After each factory there is another industry space that becomes available.
When a marker moves onto a factory, you must then immediately use that factory’s ability. If you are unable to use it at that time, the effect is cancelled.

====4. AUXILIARY ACTIONS====
* 1 Doubler
Place 1 worker on this action space to take 1 doubler from the supply. Then, you must place this doubler on an empty dashed space above the Trans-Siberian (and only there). You must fill these 8 spaces from left to right and there may only be 1 doubler per space. A track does not have to be present for you to be able to place a doubler. A doubler multiplies by 2 (doubles) the value of the space below it during scoring.
* 2 Rubles
Place 1 worker on this action space to take 2 rubles from the supply and then place them in front of you. Rubles may replace workers when playing on action spaces. Although rubles can replace workers, workers cannot replace rubles. Like action spaces occupied by one or more workers, an action space that is occupied by a ruble cannot be used again during this round.
* 2 Temporary workers
Place 1 worker on this action space to take the 2 turquoise temporary workers. You must use these workers during this round, and they act as if they were your own color. Just like rubles, you can use temporary workers by themselves (individually or together), or combine them with workers of your own color or rubles. You may not keep the temporary workers for the next round.

====5. ENGINEERS====
=====Hiring engineers=====
Engineers can help players during the game with their special skills. They can also give players a certain number of points at the end of the game. Each round, only one engineer can be hired. The engineer that can be hired is located in the right-most space (the hiring space) of the engineer area of the game board. To hire an engineer, you must place a ruble on the hiring action space. You then take the engineer from this space and place it, light side up, close to your player board.

The light side of each engineer shows an action. If a player has one or more engineers next to his game board, he may use these actions just like those from the game board. A player may use his engineer actions, even if he is unable to use the action completely. Another advantage to having “your own engineers” is that they are not “time sensitive”, meaning that since the other players do not have access to them, you are able to use them exactly when you need to.

=====The 2 light side up engineers on the game board=====
Both engineers that are placed light side up on the board allow players to use their respective action. Players are unable to hire these engineers. They represent extra action spaces available to all players, just like all other action spaces on the game board (track extension, locomotive, etc.). And just like all other action spaces on the board, these actions can only be used once per round.

=====The 4 left-most engineers=====
These engineers can neither be used, nor hired. However, at the end of a round, every engineer is moved one space to the right. In other words, these engineers will become available during future rounds. Seeing them lets players plan ahead for the rounds to come.

====6. TURN ORDER TRACK====
In this game, players do not play in clockwise order. The turn order track is used to determine player order. The player occupying the first position plays first, followed by the player occupying the second position, and so forth. Once the last player has taken her turn, it is once again the first player’s turn to play.

When a player does not wish to or cannot continue playing, they pass; this means that for the remainder of this round, they will not be able to play. Finally, to show that they are out of this round, they flip their Turn Order card and immediately scores the points shown on the back of their card.

The other players keep playing, one after the other, until every player has passed.

Note: Even if a player runs out of workers, this does not mean that they must pass right away. They can continue performing actions with rubles.

They can place one of their workers under the first or second position of the turn order track. This will be their position in the turn order sequence of the following round. A player may not place a worker on the action space under their current position in the turn order, nor may they occupy both turn order action spaces.

Special case: If the first player places a worker on the 2nd position (probably because they do not wish to move further back) and that no other player places a worker on the first position, the turn order will not change. The player still replaces their worker.

A worker, on a turn order action space, provides another benefit. Once the turn order has been reorganized, players who placed a worker on the turn order action spaces can each move their worker to a free action space. The player whose worker occupies the second position is first to move their worker. They take their worker from the turn order action space and moves it to a free action space of their choice (this can be one of their engineers). They then performs the corresponding action. Then, the player who placed his worker on the first space does the same, following the same rules.
----------------------------
When moving your worker, you must observe the following:

* You may only move your worker to an action that requires exactly 1 worker (i.e. you may not combine it with other workers, temporary workers, or rubles).
* If there are no better options, you can always use the bottom track extension action.
----------------------------

Gamehelpabyss

2021-04-21T12:10:31Z

Marsleclair: /* Recruit a Lord */

==Gameplay==
On your turn, you must do these actions in order:

===Plot at Court (Optional)===
* At the beginning of your turn, you may choose to pay one Pearl to add a Lord to the furthest empty space away from the Lord deck in the Court.
* You may perform this action as many times as you want (as long as you can pay and there are empty spaces).
* If there are no empty spaces at Court or if the Lord deck is empty, you may not Plot at Court.

===Take an Action===
You must perform one of the actions below:

====Explore the Depths====
* Reveal cards of the Exploration deck one by one and place them on the Exploration Track, starting with the space next to the deck and to the right.
* If the revealed card is an Ally, offer the other players the opportunity to buy this Ally.
* Ask each player in turn, going clockwise. Each player can either pass or purchase the Ally.
* The first player who purchases the card pays its cost to you and adds the Ally card to their hand.
* The cost to purchase an Ally increases during your turn. The first purchased costs 1 Pearl, the second costs 2 Pearls, and so on.
* It doesn’t matter which player purchases the Allies, but each opponent can only purchase an Ally during your turn.
* If nobody wants to buy an Ally, you either add it to your hand and end your turn, or reveal the next card and sell it, and so on.
* If all the spaces on the Exploration Track are filled with Allies, and none of your opponents wants to buy the last Ally you revealed, you must add that Ally to your hand and gain a Pearl.
* If the revealed card is a Monster, you must either fight or keep exploring.
* If you decide to fight, discard the Monster and gain the reward shown on the Threat Track.
* After defeating the monster, return the Threat token to the first space of the Threat Track and end your turn.
* If you decide to keep exploring, move the Threat token one space up the track and continue revealing cards.
* When a Monster is revealed on the last space of the Exploration Track, you must fight it and receive one extra Pearl.
* After you Explore the Depths, put all remaining Allies to the Council and discard any Monsters.

====Request Support from the Council====
Take all of the cards from one stack in the Council without looking at them beforehand and add them to your hand.

===Recruit a Lord===
* Choose a Lord available at Court and play the exact number of Allies from your hand needed to buy it.
* The total value of the Allies you play may be more than what is required, but the extra Ally points are lost.
* If the sum of the card values is not high enough, you can spend one Pearl for each missing point.
* After recruiting a Lord, affiliate the lowest value Ally from those used to recruit the Lord by placing the Ally in front of you and discard the rest. If two or more Allies used in recruiting the Lord have the same lowest value, you may choose which one to affiliate.

====Refill the Court====
After you recruit a Lord, the remaining Lords in the Court slide to the right, until there are no empty spaces between them. If there are at least three Lords left in Court, the recruited Lord is not immediately replaced. But, if there are only two Lords left, you gain two Pearls (as shown on the board), and all empty spaces in the Court are filled by Lord cards from the top of the deck.

===Control Locations===
* If you have 3 or more keys, you must immediately take an available Location or draw 1-4 Locations, choose one and put the rest face up.
* Any Lords used to control that Location lose all their Powers for the rest of the game, but still have their influence points.
* Any Keys used are discarded.

After these actions are taken, your turn is over. The player to your left takes his turn.

==End of Game==
* The game ends when there are not enough Lords to refill the Court or a player recruits his seventh lord.
* In either case, the active player completes his turn and each opponent gets a final turn.
* Finally, each player affiliates the lowest value Ally of each race from those still in their hand, placing them down in front of the player, and discards the rest.
* Each player adds up their influence points from: Locations controlled, Lords recruited, the highest value affiliated Ally of each race, and Monster tokens collected.
* The player with the highest influence wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most Pearls wins. If they are still tied, the player with the highest-value Lord wins.

Gamehelpabyss

2021-04-21T12:07:23Z

Marsleclair: /* Recruit a Lord */

==Gameplay==
On your turn, you must do these actions in order:

===Plot at Court (Optional)===
* At the beginning of your turn, you may choose to pay one Pearl to add a Lord to the furthest empty space away from the Lord deck in the Court.
* You may perform this action as many times as you want (as long as you can pay and there are empty spaces).
* If there are no empty spaces at Court or if the Lord deck is empty, you may not Plot at Court.

===Take an Action===
You must perform one of the actions below:

====Explore the Depths====
* Reveal cards of the Exploration deck one by one and place them on the Exploration Track, starting with the space next to the deck and to the right.
* If the revealed card is an Ally, offer the other players the opportunity to buy this Ally.
* Ask each player in turn, going clockwise. Each player can either pass or purchase the Ally.
* The first player who purchases the card pays its cost to you and adds the Ally card to their hand.
* The cost to purchase an Ally increases during your turn. The first purchased costs 1 Pearl, the second costs 2 Pearls, and so on.
* It doesn’t matter which player purchases the Allies, but each opponent can only purchase an Ally during your turn.
* If nobody wants to buy an Ally, you either add it to your hand and end your turn, or reveal the next card and sell it, and so on.
* If all the spaces on the Exploration Track are filled with Allies, and none of your opponents wants to buy the last Ally you revealed, you must add that Ally to your hand and gain a Pearl.
* If the revealed card is a Monster, you must either fight or keep exploring.
* If you decide to fight, discard the Monster and gain the reward shown on the Threat Track.
* After defeating the monster, return the Threat token to the first space of the Threat Track and end your turn.
* If you decide to keep exploring, move the Threat token one space up the track and continue revealing cards.
* When a Monster is revealed on the last space of the Exploration Track, you must fight it and receive one extra Pearl.
* After you Explore the Depths, put all remaining Allies to the Council and discard any Monsters.

====Request Support from the Council====
Take all of the cards from one stack in the Council without looking at them beforehand and add them to your hand.

== Recruit a Lord ==
* Choose a Lord available at Court and play the exact number of Allies from your hand needed to buy it.
* The total value of the Allies you play may be more than what is required, but the extra Ally points are lost.
* If the sum of the card values is not high enough, you can spend one Pearl for each missing point.
* After recruiting a Lord, affiliate the lowest value Ally from those used to recruit the Lord by placing the Ally in front of you and discard the rest. If two or more Allies used in recruiting the Lord have the same lowest value, you may choose which one to affiliate.

=== Refill the Court ===
After you recruit a Lord, the remaining Lords in the Court slide to the right, until there are no empty spaces between them. If there are at least three Lords left in Court, the recruited Lord is not immediately replaced. But, if there are only two Lords left, you gain two Pearls (as shown on the board), and all empty spaces in the Court are filled by Lord cards from the top of the deck.

===Control Locations===
* If you have 3 or more keys, you must immediately take an available Location or draw 1-4 Locations, choose one and put the rest face up.
* Any Lords used to control that Location lose all their Powers for the rest of the game, but still have their influence points.
* Any Keys used are discarded.

After these actions are taken, your turn is over. The player to your left takes his turn.

==End of Game==
* The game ends when there are not enough Lords to refill the Court or a player recruits his seventh lord.
* In either case, the active player completes his turn and each opponent gets a final turn.
* Finally, each player affiliates the lowest value Ally of each race from those still in their hand, placing them down in front of the player, and discards the rest.
* Each player adds up their influence points from: Locations controlled, Lords recruited, the highest value affiliated Ally of each race, and Monster tokens collected.
* The player with the highest influence wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most Pearls wins. If they are still tied, the player with the highest-value Lord wins.

Gamehelpterramystica

2021-04-06T16:01:35Z

Marsleclair:

== Overview ==
Terra Mystica is a civilization building game for 2 to 5 players. At the beginning of the game, you'll choose a faction, each of which has its own separate home terrain and special abilities. As the game progresses, you'll terraform the land, build new buildings, and upgrade existing ones in order to collect more income and score more points. The player with the most points after 6 rounds wins!

Note that certain factions will change some of the rules here - exceptions and additions will be mentioned in parentheses and summarized at the end of this article.

== Game Anatomy ==
At any given moment, each player will have the following resources:
* Workers, represented by white cubes. These are usually earned from dwellings and can be spent to build new buildings.
* Coins, represented by...well, coins. These are usually earned from trading posts and from taking bonus tiles not chosen by other players, and can be spent to build new buildings.
* Priests, represented by meeples. These are usually earned from temples and sanctuaries and can be spent to increase on the cult tracks and to upgrade your terraforming and shipping.
* Power, represented by purple discs. These are placed in three bowls, labeled I, II, and III. Power is typically gained from trading posts, strongholds, and as a side effect from other players building near you. When you gain power, you cycle it from bowl I to bowl II; if bowl I is empty, then you move from bowl II to bowl III. Only the power in bowl III can actually be spent, and doing so moves it back to bowl I. In other words, power needs to charge itself twice before it becomes usable.

Players also have the following things in or near their faction boards:
* Buildings. The cost to build each building is given underneath it. When a building is in play, it exposes resources, which can then be earned during the income phase.
* The terrain cycle. Your faction's home terrain is pictured at the top, and all others in a circle around it, separated by shovels. Your buildings can only be placed in your faction's home terrain, and the closer another terrain is on this circle, the easier it is to terraform something into your home terrain.
* Your terraforming rating. The higher this is, the fewer workers are needed in order to terraform a space. (Darklings don't have this.)
* Your shipping rating. The higher this is, the more river spaces you can skip for the purposes of adjacency. (Dwarves and Fakirs don't have this.)
* Any other special abilities your faction may have. At minimum, you'll have one ability by default, and another when your stronghold is built. See the bottom of this article for more information on them.

The board as a whole contains the following features:
* The game map.
* The round tracker. There are six rounds in the game, each represented by a tile. During each round, building a specific building or taking a specific action will award bonus points, and at the end of a round, you will receive an additional bonus based on how far you've advanced on the cult tracks (except during the last round).
* Special powers. Each of these provides a bonus when used, and can be claimed by any player for the appropriate power cost. These can each be used once per round.
* The cult tracks. There are four cult tracks, fire, water, earth, and air. Players receive a bonus at the end of each round based on their progress here, and additional points for advancing the furthest at the end of the game.
* Bonus tiles. These are worth additional income or bonus points. At any given moment, each player will claim one of them, then exchange them when they pass for the round, so there will be three unclaimed ones to choose from.
* Divine favors. These are worth additional income, bonus points, and cult spaces, and are claimed on building a temple or sanctuary.
* Town tiles. These are worth bonus points and some other one-time bonus, and are claimed when a player builds a town.

== Setup ==
Before the game begins, in addition to segments automated by BGA, each player does the following:
* 1. Each player, in turn order, selects a faction to play as and takes all components and starting resources needed for that faction.
* 2. Each player, in turn order, places one of their dwellings on any space on the board of their home terrain. Don't pay for this dwelling. (Chaos Magicians don't place a dwelling yet.)
* 3. Each player, in reverse turn order, places a second dwelling on any space on the board of their home terrain. Don't pay for this dwelling either. (Nomads place a third dwelling after all other players have placed their second dwelling. Chaos Magicians place their first and only dwelling after all other players, regardless of the turn order.)
* 4. Each player, in reverse turn order, claims a bonus tile. Any bonus tiles not claimed get 1 coin placed on them, and the next player to claim these gets the money attached to them.

== Game Flow ==
Terra Mystica is played across six rounds. Each round is broken into three phases:
* 1. Income phase. Each player collects income. Any printed resource with an open hand under it is income, and these will generally be found from the spaces under built buildings, your bonus tile, and some divine favors.
* 2. Action phase. Each player, in turn, takes an action. All players continue taking actions one by one until all players have passed.
* 3. Cult phase. Each player gets a bonus based on their progression on a cult track specified by the round. For every number of spaces advanced on the specified cult track, players get the specified bonus. If this bonus involves terraforming, this is completed in turn order.

== What To Do On Your Turn ==
One turn consists of taking one action, possibly with free conversions before or after this. Here are the actions you may take on your turn. Note that certain actions will be worth points just for doing based on the round tiles.
* 1. Terraform the land. You may terraform one space any number of spaces. At the beginning of the game, each step of your terraforming track will cost 3 workers, but this can be improved later. The space you are terraforming must be adjacent to an existing building. If this space is now your home terrain (or already was to begin with), you may build a dwelling by paying the appropriate cost. (Darklings pay priests to do this instead of workers. Halflings score 1 point for each terraform performed this way. Dwarves and Fakirs may opt to pay a cost to terraform/build one space further away and gain points.)
* 2. Improve an existing building. This replaces one building type with another. A dwelling can be upgraded to a trading post. You pay the smaller money cost if it's adjacent to another player, and the bigger cost if it isn't. A trading post can be upgraded to either a stronghold or a temple, and a temple can be upgrade to a sanctuary. If you build a temple or sanctuary, you also get a divine favor (two divine favors if playing as the Chaos Magicians). If you build your stronghold, you get another special ability dependent on your faction - see the end of the article for how that works.
* 3. Improve your terraforming rating. By paying the cost given, you move your terraforming rating up one step, thereby gaining 6 points and reducing the cost for how many workers are required to terraform a space. (Darklings don't have this. Halflings have a reduced cost to do this.)
* 4. Improve your shipping rating. By paying the cost given, you move your shipping rating up one step, gaining points. From now on, you may skip over that number of river spaces when determining adjacency. (Dwarves and Fakirs don't have this. Mermaids have a different track, ranging from 1-5 instead of everyone else's 0-3.)
* 5. Send a priest to a cult track. Move up the specified number of spaces on the track. If you pass by any gates containing power, gain that amount of power. Priests sent here remain there for the rest of the game. To advance to space 10 of any track, you need a key, gained from forming a town.
* 6. Take any special action, indicated by an orange octagon. Six of these are on the board, cost power to use, and are first come first served amongst all players. Other actions may be printed on faction boards, divine favors, or bonus tiles.
* 7. Pass. When you pass, gain any bonus points included on bonus tiles or divine favors (if any; the Engineers also have a bonus here if their stronghold is built), then select a new bonus tile. If you are the first player to pass, you will be the first player in the next round. (If the Variable Turn Order option is enabled, the turn order will be the same as the order in which they passed; otherwise, it will proceed clockwise from there.) You no longer take actions for the rest of this round.

If you build next to another player, they have an option to gain power from this. Specifically, each building type has a power level associated with it - dwellings are worth 1, trading posts and temples 2, and strongholds and sanctuaries 3. For each power level on buildings directly adjacent (in other words, ignore shipping for this) to the one you built, they can gain 1 power. However, they will also lose points equal to the amount gained this way minus 1. This power gain is optional, and is not at all dependent on which building was built to trigger this. (If any player accepts this power gain as a result of the Cultists' building activity, the Cultists can advance one step on any cult track.)

If your move results in four or more directly adjacent buildings with a total power level of 7 or more, this forms a town. If the Sanctuary is one of those buildings, this can be completed with 3 buildings. One divine favor reduces the power cost to 6. Towns are worth additional points, some other one-time bonus, and an opportunity to advance to space 10 on a cult track (the "11 points" tile does not have this key, and the "2 points/2 steps on each cult track space" has two keys; both of these are part of the Mini-Expansions option). Any new buildings directly adjacent to this are considered part of the same town and can't be used to form a new one; however, two towns can freely be merged together once already established. (Witches and Swarmlings get extra bonuses on forming a town. Mermaids can include one river tile in their town.)

In addition to the above, there are free conversion actions you may take before or after the above actions. These are specified near your power bowls of your faction board. You may exchange power for resources, or downgrade other resources (i.e. turn a priest into a worker, or a worker into a coin). Another type of free action is to burn power. To do this, move any number of power discs from bowl II to bowl III, and remove the same amount of power from bowl II from the game. This can be useful if you need to get power immediately.

== End Of The Game ==

The game ends after 6 rounds. At the end, players earn bonus points based on the following:
* The player with the largest connected civilization earns 18 points. The second largest civilization scores 12, and the third largest scores 6. Civilizations are considered "connected" if they are directly adjacent, or can reach each other using their shipping track (or the range attached to Dwarves' digging or Fakirs' flying). If players are tied for a position, add the value for that position and the next, and split it between all players.
* For each cult track, the player highest on the track score 8 points, the second highest scores 4, and the third highest scores 2. Ties are broken the same way they are with largest civilization.
* For every 3 coins left in your supply, gain 1 point. All resources are automatically downgraded to coins for this. (Alchemists instead gain 1 point for every 2 coins.)
After all this, the player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

== Faction Abilities ==
If you are playing for the first time, Witches, Nomads, Mermaids, and Halflings are generally seen as some of the most straightforward factions.

=== Alchemists ===
* Home terrain: Swamps (Black)
* Any time you would be able to do a free conversion, you may trade 1 point for 1 coin, or 2 coins for 1 point. (This last part is done automatically during final scoring.)
* When you build your stronghold, gain 12 power. Additionally, each time you terraform (from any action or effect), you gain 2 power.

=== Auren ===
* Home terrain: Forests (Green)
* When you build your stronghold, gain a divine favor. Additionally, you now have access to a new action. This action allows you to advance two spaces on any cult track.

=== Chaos Magicians ===
* Home terrain: Wastelands (Red)
* You start the game with only one dwelling, placed after all other players have place their dwellings.
* When you build a temple or sanctuary, gain two divine favors instead of one.
* When you build your stronghold, you have access to a new action. This action allows you to take two turns in a row.

=== Cultists ===
* Home terrain: Plains (Brown)
* When another player gains power as a result of your building activity, advance one step on any cult track. If no players gained power from this, but still had the opportunity to do this, instead gain 1 power. (But if no player was able to gain power at all, nothing happens.)
* When you build your stronghold, gain 7 points.

=== Darklings ===
* Home terrain: Swamps (Black)
* Instead of terraforming as normal, you can use one priest to terraform one step. Gain 2 points each time you do this. Because of the above, you have no terraform rating.
* When you build your stronghold, you may exchange up to 3 workers for one priest apiece.

=== Dwarves ===
* Home terrain: Mountains (Gray)
* You have no shipping.
* By paying 2 extra workers, you may terraform or build a dwelling skipping one space. Gain 4 points each time you do this.
* When you build your stronghold, the above ability only costs 1 worker.
* For the purposes of endgame scoring, your largest civilization counts all buildings as if they could be reached from this ability.

=== Engineers ===
* Home terrain: Mountains (Gray)
* All of your buildings cost 1 worker and 1 coin less than usually (to a minimum of 1), but generally with worse production rates.
* By paying 2 workers, you may build a bridge. This otherwise works the same way as the bridge action printed on the board.
* When you build your stronghold, every time you pass, you score 3 points for each bridge you have in play that has one of your buildings on both sides of it.

=== Giants ===
* Home terrain: Wastelands (Red)
* Instead of the terraforming cycle as normal, you pay the cost of two terraforms (i.e. 6 workers at first) to terraform any terrain into wasteland.
* As a side effect of the above ability, a single terraform action does nothing.
* When you build your stronghold, you have access to a new action. This action allows you to perform a double-terraform for free.

=== Halflings ===
* Home terrain: Plains (Brown)
* Gain 1 point each time you terraform via any action or effect.
* When you build your stronghold, you may terraform up to 3 times. This can be split between any number of spaces. If this results in a plain, you may build a dwelling on it by paying the appropriate cost.

=== Mermaids ===
* Home terrain: Lakes (Blue)
* Your shipping track is different, ranging from 1 to 5. This means you start the game with shipping already available.
* Your towns can include one river space, allowing you to have towns straddling across the river. This can be invoked immediately when it becomes available or any time after the fact. If you do that, your town tile is placed on the river space included.
* When you build your stronghold, your shipping level increases one step for free. Gain points for this as if you had taken the usual "improve shipping" action.

=== Fakirs ===
* Home terrain: Deserts (Yellow)
* You do not have shipping.
* By paying 1 extra priest, you may terraform or build a dwelling skipping one space. Gain 4 points each time you do this.
* When you build your stronghold, you may use the above ability to skip two spaces.
* For the purposes of endgame scoring, your largest civilization counts all buildings as if they could be reached from this ability.

=== Nomads ===
* Home terrain: Deserts (Yellow)
* You start the game with three dwellings, placing a third dwelling after all players have placed their second.
* When you build your stronghold, you have access to a new action. This action allows you to immediately transform one space into a desert for free. You may build a dwelling on this immediately by paying the appropriate cost. This action does not work across a bridge or when using shipping.

=== Swarmlings ===
* Home terrain: Lakes (Blue)
* All of your buildings cost 1 worker and 1 coin more than usual, but generally have better production rates.
* Gain 3 workers when you build a town.
* When you build your stronghold, you have access to a new action. This action allows you to upgrade a dwelling to a trading post for free.

=== Witches ===
* Home terrain: Forests (Green)
* Gain 5 points when you build a town.
* Once you build your stronghold, you have access to a new action. This action allows you to build a dwelling for free, on any forest on the board regardless of adjacency.

== Expansions ==

=== SPECIAL LANDSCAPES ===
General Rules:
* Each Faction may place only one special landscape!
* Unless stated otherwise, the special landscape may be placed during the Action phase instead of a regular
Terrain tile when transforming Terrain into your Home Terrain.
* You may NOT place the special landscape during the Cult Bonus phase.
** The special landscape is considered a Structure with a Power value of 1:
** It counts towards forming a Town.
** You get Power when another player builds next to it.
** The other players get Power when you place it directly adjacent to their Structures (or special landscape).
* It counts towards the Area Scoring and the Final Scoring tiles.
* Unless stated otherwise, the special landscape is not considered any of the existing types of Structures.
Especially, it is NOT considered a Dwelling and, therefore, any tiles providing Victory points for Dwellings (or
any other Structure for that matter) do not provide any for the special landscape.
* The special landscape cannot be upgraded into another Structure. Once you have placed it, it will remain
there for the rest of the game.
* When taking the “2 Spades” Power action, if you use the first Spade to transform a Terrain space into the
special landscape, you may not use the second Spade to transform a Terrain space that is solely adjacent to the
special landscape.

=== Auren: Tree of Serenity ===
Once the Tree of Serenity is placed, every time the Auren advance to space 10 of a Cult, they get 4 Victory points.
=== Witches: Raven's Blunder ===
When Raven's Blunder is placed, every time the Witches found a new Town, they must choose between gaining 5 Victory points as usual or advancing 3 steps on a Cult track of their choice.
=== Alchemists: Gloomy Workshop ===
After placing the Gloomy Workshop, the Alchemists may immediately and only once do both, advance on the Shipping track and/or lower the Exchange rate for Spades, without paying the Priest cost. They must pay
the other resources; and they gain Victory points as usual.
=== Darklings: Camp ===
The Camp counts as a Dwelling (so tiles providing Victory points for Dwellings also provide them for the Camp). The Camp cannot be upgraded.
=== Cultists: Cult Palace ===
The Cult Palace does not provide any additional benefit during the game. During Cult Scoring, the Cultists break ties, i.e. they are supposed to be half a step ahead of where they actually are in each Cult.
=== Halflings: Driller ===
The Halflings pay a total of 1 fewer Spade (but at least 1) every time they transform a Terrain space that is directly adjacent to the Driller.
=== Dwarves: Great Tunnel ===
With the Great Tunnel as the starting point, the Dwarves may Tunnel through 2 Terrain spaces instead of just 1. Every time they get Spades as a Cult Bonus, they may Tunnel to spend these Spades (and not paying Workers for that Tunneling).
=== Engineers: Bridge Tower ===
When the Bridge Tower is placed, the Engineers gain the ability to build so-called Land Bridges. A Land Bridge must start at one of the six corners of the Bridge Tower and leads along the shared edge of the two Terrain spaces adjacent to that corner. The Engineers must place an actual Bridge piece on that edge. It does not matter whether or not one of these Terrain spaces is a River space; and it does not matter whether or not one or both of these Terrain spaces are occupied by Structures (regardless of whose Structures they are). For instance, a Land Bridge may allow the Engineers to ”break through“ an impassible barrier of opponent Structures.
Land Bridges do not interfere with the adjacency of the Structures on the bordering Terrain spaces. Land Bridges count as normal Bridges with regard to the Bridge scoring once the Stronghold is built
(i.e. they provide 3 Victory points if the condition for that is met).
=== Mermaids: Coral Reef ===
The Coral Reef must be placed on a River space that is directly adjacent to a Mermaid Structure. It does not prevent other players from using that River space for expansion or indirect adjacency. Shipping works with the Coral Reef as with any other Structure.
=== Swarmlings: Breeding Ground ===
Breeding Ground allows a Town to grow even bigger while gaining additional Town tiles:
* At a total Power value of 14, the Town becomes a City, gaining its second Town tile.
* At a total Power value of 21, the City becomes a Metropolis, gaining its third Town tile.
* At a total Power value of 28, the Metropolis becomes a Megacity, gaining its fourth Town tile.
With the appropriate Favor tile ("2 Fire"), these values decrease to 12, 18 and 24, respectively.
=== Chaos Magicians: Chaos Portal ===
When the Chaos Magicians build their Stronghold, they may immediately place the Chaos Portal on a free Wasteland space of their choice, anywhere on the game board.
=== Giants: Cave of Wisdom ===
When the Cave of Wisdom is placed, the Giants may immediately and only once lower the Exchange rate for Spades at no cost by moving their marker on the Exchange track up one space. If they do, they gain the normal 6 Victory points.
=== Fakirs: Flight School ===
When the Flight School is placed, the Fakirs get 2 Coins every time they use their Carpet Flight.
=== Nomads: Trading Camp ===
Every time another player builds next to the Trading Camp, the Nomads may either take Power at the normal rate or take exactly 1 Coin from the general supply. If they take the Coin, they do not lose any Victory points.

=== OTHER FACTIONS ===
There are other Factions available for Terra Mystica but they are not available on BGA.
* Ice Maidens
* Yetis
* Acolytes
* Dragon-Lords
* River-Walkers
* Shape-Shifters

Gamehelpelfenland

2020-11-17T15:52:24Z

Marsleclair: /* Goal of the game */

== Goal of the game ==

Visiting as many different cities as possible in Elfenland over 4 rounds.

At the end of the 4th round, the player who collected the most Town Pieces wins. Any players having an equal number of Town Pieces are ranked by remaining cards (the more the better).

We advise you to play with at least 3 players to best enjoy the game (4 or 5 is even better). A lot of the fun comes from using the Transportation Counters set by other players to optimise one's travels, so the more the merrier!

== Round overview ==

A round is split into phases:

# Each player fills his hand up to 8 cards and gets a secret Transportation Counter.
# One after another, each player chooses a Transportation Counter from the 5 visible or draws from the facedown stack, until each player has taken 3.
# One after another, each player must plan a travel route by laying a Transportation Counter matching the terrain of the chosen road. This phase goes on until each player has passed consecutively. Each player also owns an Obstacle that he can lay down on a Transportation Counter to increase the cost of travel by an addtional card.
# One after another, each player travels from town to town. The current position of a player is indicated by the Elf Boot of his color, initially set on the biggest town, Elvenhold.

At the end of the round, a player can keep a maximum of 4 cards in hand, and keeps only 1 Transportation counter.

== Travel rules ==

Players can travel :
* on the roads on which a Transportation Counter has been set
* on the rivers
* on the lakes

To travel on a road, a river or a lake, the player needs to pay with the cards in hand the cost matching the terrain of the road and the means of transport used.

For example, if the Transportation Counter 'Magic Cloud' has been set on a mountain road, one can travel with just one 'Magic Cloud' card. But if it has been set on a forest or plain road, one needs to pay 2 'Magic Cloud' cards to pass (Note: the 'Magic Cloud' Transportation Counter cannot be placed in the desert, as it's too hot for a Cloud there).

Also :
* To travel a river, you need only 1 'Raft' card to go downriver, but you need 2 to go upriver (look for the small arrow pointing downriver).
* To cross a lake, you need to pay two 'Raft' cards.
* If an Obstacle has been set on a road, you need to pay 1 more card of the appropriate type.
* If you don't have the appropriate cards to travel on a road, you can still pass using a 'Caravan', by paying 3 cards of any type (4 cards if there is an Obstacle on the road). The cards may be any combination of transportation types.

== Variant ==

In the 'Hometown' variant, each player gets a secret town card at the beginning of the game, telling him which town he has to reach at the end of the 4th round.

If he doesn't manage to get there, he'll lose as many points as the remaining distance he has to travel to get there.

This variant gives more tactical depth to the game, as you have to plan each round to the best to get the most Town Pieces while making sure to be able to get to your hometown at the end of the game.

'''Have a good game!'''