Board Game Arena - User contributions [en]

Gamehelptangramcity

2026-09-23T09:36:14Z

SimplicatusGames: Added info about fountain tiles.

The following rules apply to placing City and Fountain Tiles:

Players may:
* Place the Tiles on empty squares
* Rotate and flip the Tiles before placing them
* Place the Tiles exclusively on your own City Board
Players may not:
* Overlap or stack the Tiles
* Extend them beyond the edge of your City Board
* Move them once the next Card has been revealed

It is not mandatory to place the Tiles adjacent to each other. However, the importance of
doing so will become evident during the round scoring.
Additionally, players are allowed to refrain from placing Tiles. In that case, they simply
set the corresponding Tile aside. They may not play it at a later time.

The game consists of 5 regular rounds and a 6th Final round, which has slightly different rules.
The process for the 5 regular rounds is always the same:

1. DEAL CARDS
In each round, 4 Cards are dealt to all players, regardless of the number of players.
However, the distribution varies depending on the number of players:

If you are playing alone, lay out the 4 Cards in a row in front of you. The first 2 Cards are
face-up, while the last 2 Cards are face-down.

If you are playing with 2 players, each player receives 1 Card face-down in their hand.
The other 2 Cards are placed in the middle of the table, with 1 Card face-up and 1 Card
face-down.

If you are playing with 3 players, each player receives 1 Card face-down in their hand.
The last Card is placed face-up in the middle of the table.

If you are playing with 4 players, the player with the Start Marker and the player to their left
each receive 1 Card face-down in their hand. The remaining 2 players receive 1 shared
Card. The last Card is placed face-up in the middle of the table.

If you are playing with 5 players, the player with the Start Marker receives 1 Card facedown in their hand. The next 2 players to the left of the Start player receive 1 shared Card,
as do the remaining 2 players. The last Card is placed face-up in the middle of the table.
You are allowed to look at the Card in your hand or the Card you are sharing with someone

2. PLAY CARDS
The Cards are played starting with the face-up Card in the middle. If you have any facedown Cards in the middle (depending on your player count), play them next. Then, play the
Card of the player with the Start Marker, and continue clockwise until all Cards are played.

To play a Card, each player selects the corresponding City Tile from their set and places it
on their City Board according to the puzzle rules. Fountain tiles are single small triangles, half a single square.

Once everyone has placed the corresponding Tile, the next Card is played.
Note that all Cards, disregarding their position, must be played by all players.

You are allowed to refrain from placing Tiles, but you may not place it at a later time.
Cards with an exclamation mark on them are very similar to others. Be careful to
place the correct City Tile.

3. PLACING FOUNTAIN TILES
After all 4 Cards of a round have been played, each player takes one of their Fountain Tiles
and places it according to the puzzle rules.

4. ROUND SCORING
After placing the Fountain Tiles, it’s time for a round scoring. Each
player looks at their City Board and finds the largest fully built
rectangle. Players earn as many points as the rectangle has
squares. For example, if you have a rectangle of 3x4 squares in
your City, you earn 12 .

Scoring example: A City built as depicted would score you 16 ,
as the biggest rectangle is 4x4 squares. Anything outside of the
biggest rectangle is not counted.
Note that for the round scoring, the color of the City Tiles is irrelevant. Only the fact that the squares are fully built matters.

5. ROUND END
Before moving on to the next round, there are a few steps to be taken.

Each player counts the number of squares in their City that are fully built with Red Tiles and
adjusts their Red Balance Marker accordingly on their Balance Scale. Do the same with the
Green Tiles and the Green Balance Marker (see the scoring example above).

Squares that are fully built with both a Red and a Green Triangle do not count for either
color. However, if a Red or Green Triangle is combined with a Fountain Tile on a square, that
square counts for the corresponding color. If there are two Fountain Tiles on one square,
it does not correspond to any color, and, therefore, has no influence on your Balance.

Once everyone has finished this, place the 4 Cards of this round on a shared discard pile.
Pass the Start Marker to the person who currently has the highest score. If multiple players
have the highest score, the Start Marker must be given to the next player with the highest
score in clockwise direction of the previous starting player. This rule also applies when the
previous starting player has the highest score as well.

FINAL ROUND (ROUND 6)
After playing 5 regular rounds, there are only 3 Cards left in the deck.
Reveal these Cards in the middle of the table. Now, all players simultaneously place
these last 3 City Tiles on their City Boards according to the puzzle rules.
Once everyone is done, each player receives their final Fountain Tile, and performs one
last round scoring before reaching the end of the game. Adjust your Balance before
reaching the end of the game

The game ends after the Final Round (Round 6). In addition to the points players have
collected at the end of each round, they may receive bonus points.

PLANNING BONUS
If a player has fully built the entire 7x7 grid of their City Board
by the end of the game, they receive an additional 15 .

BALANCE BONUS
Now, each player checks the distance between their Red and
Green Balance Markers. Depending on the distance between
the two Markers, players receive additional bonus points:
Distance = Bonus Points
O = 2O points
1-2 = 1O points
3-4 = 5 points
5+ = O points
After the bonus points ( ) have been awarded, compare your
final scores. The player with the highest score wins the game. If
players tie for first place, they share the victory.

Gamehelpelongo

2026-06-30T14:55:32Z

SimplicatusGames: Added line breaks before bullet points and slightly edited end game explanation.

Elongo is a competitive tile-laying and area majority game with the goal of placing all of a player's animals (zebu, goats, and sheep) into grazing fields and enclosures tended by Maasai warriors and boys. Players use shields (tiles) to expand, enclose, and claim land, construct bomas (fenced enclosures), frustrate opponents plans, and strategically place their animals and caretakers.

The game ends when a player places all their animals, or shields run out and animals placed are compared to decide the winner.

Core Objectives

• Place all assigned animals (zebu, sheep, goats) into valid grazing areas on the board.

• Control grazing fields using warriors (for zebu) and boys (for sheep/goats) and construct secure bomas for permanent animal placement.

Setup

• Each player receives a set number of animals (20 each of zebu, goats, and sheep in long game; 14 each in short game), 4 warriors, 7 boys, and 13 shields per round (8 wide, 5 narrow).

• Three shields form a central hexagon to start; players may claim land patches using warriors or boys in this phase.

Game Flow

• Players take turns, each laying 2 shields per turn and optionally placing warriors/boys on newly laid shields.

• Shields expand the playing area, joining fence foundations to create contiguous land parcels and potential enclosures.

• Players optionally claim land and complete enclosures or build bomas with warriors; animals are placed as enclosures and bomas are completed.

• Players may remove warriors/boys already on the playing area if they are not being optimally used, although animals they are guarding are also removed.

• The stock of shields is replenished back to 13 when all players are down to one, warriors building bomas are returned to stock to be reutilised, leaving animals in the bomas safe.

Land Types & Control

• Red land is for zebu (claimed by warriors).

• Green land is for sheep (claimed by boys).

• Yellow land is for goats (claimed by boys).

• Enclosures are made by completely surrounding land patches of one colour; bomas are fenced enclosures where animals are protected without needing indefinite caretaking.

Key Actions

• Lay shields to expand/surround land parcels and/or build boma fences.

• Lay shields to frustrate opponent’s possibilities to complete land enclosures.

• Steal opponents land parcels by joining claimed parcels and reclaiming them.

• Place, move, or remove warriors/boys and animals as land is claimed and enclosures and bomas are created.

Endgame & Scoring

• The winner is the player who places all their animals first.

• If not all animals are placed when all the shields have been placed, the player with the most zebu placed wins; ties are broken by total sheep and goats placed.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T08:40:49Z

SimplicatusGames: Additional updates

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:

• A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")

If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"

• Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== '''''Draft limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:

• Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau

• The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)

Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== '''''End of the Draft phase''''' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:

• In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled

• In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus

These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:

• The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round

• The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round

• The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== '''''Production chains''''' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play

• Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play

• Acquiring Basic villagers does ''not'' count toward a player's Build limit

• Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit

• The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit

• Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Many cards have a ''padlock'' symbol and must be "unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:

• If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager

• If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager

• If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank

• Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''

• Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round

• By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

• Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards

• Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):

• Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards

• Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)

• Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always '''10 of each "Basic Villager" card''' available at the start of the game

These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase

2. The '''6 face-up "Road" cards''' for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The '''rest of the cards''' (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck

The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")

4. '''Each player starts with:'''

• 8 money

• 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck

• a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau

5. Then, '''6 smaller decks''', each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"

Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road

6. Finally, the '''cards remaining in the deck''' after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck

Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks

7. One player is '''randomly chosen as the First Player'''; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

=== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.

• Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round

Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack

• Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand.

[TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

• If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply

• The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)

• If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck

• If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

• This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back

• As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices

• If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

=== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ===
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road

• Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round

• Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card

[TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]

Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====
• All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

• After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

• Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

• Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round

• Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a SOLITARY Villager====
• The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.

• Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a PRODUCTION CHAIN====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section

• The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right

• A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)

• Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a ''Padlock'' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a SPECIAL Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.

• Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.

• If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.

• When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit

In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain

--- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.

--- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?]

[TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====TRADE for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card

• Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card

-- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)

• Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card

• Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders

-- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road

• There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager

• When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down

--- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack

--- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck

• Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in

• Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====UNLOCK a Villager====
Many Villagers have a ''padlock'' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "unlocked" before it can be built

• Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...

• Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played

Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
• 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
• 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
• 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player'''s Unlocking Villager

• If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay

• A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them

''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''

• You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game

• All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a SPECIAL Villager with the "DISCARD" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock ''your own'' Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still choose to put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

• The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

''Example:'' Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
• After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side

• The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player

• If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated.

The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied. Remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers.

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases

• This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards

• However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order

• It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed

'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:

'''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''

'''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''

Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):

''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''

''• "Food" symbols''

''• "Builder" symbols''

''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:

'''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols

'''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T08:03:44Z

SimplicatusGames: Update spacing

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:

• A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")

--- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"

• Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== '''''Draft limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:

• Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau

• The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)

--- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== '''''End of the Draft phase''''' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:

• In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled

• In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus

• These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:

--- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round

--- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round

--- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== '''''Production chains''''' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play

• Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play

• Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit

• Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit

• The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit

• Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Many cards have a ''padlock'' symbol and must be "unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:

• If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager

• If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager

• If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank

• Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''

• Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round

• By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

• Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards

• Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):

• Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards

• Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)

• Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always '''10 of each "Basic Villager" card''' available at the start of the game

--- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase

2. The '''6 face-up "Road" cards''' for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The '''rest of the cards''' (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck

--- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")

4. '''Each player starts with:'''

--- 8 money

--- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck

--- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau

5. Then, '''6 smaller decks''', each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"

--- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road

6. Finally, the '''cards remaining in the deck''' after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck

--- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks

7. One player is '''randomly chosen as the First Player'''; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.

• Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round

Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack

• Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand.

[TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

• If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply

• The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)

• If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck

• If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

• This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back

• As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices

• If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road

• Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round

• Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card

[TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]

Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====
• All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

• After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

• Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

• Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round

• Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====
• The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.

• Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section

• The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right

• A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)

• Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.

• Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.

• If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.

• When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit

In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain

--- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.

--- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card

• Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card

-- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)

• Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card

• Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders

-- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road

• There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager

• When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down

--- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack

--- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck

• Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in

• Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a ''padlock'' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "unlocked" before it can be built

• Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...

• Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played

Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
--- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
--- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
--- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player'''s Unlocking Villager

--- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay

--- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them

''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''

• You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game

• All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

• The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

''Example:'' Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
• After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side

• The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player

• If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases

• This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards

• However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order

• It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed

'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:

'''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''

'''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):

''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''

''• "Food" symbols''

''• "Builder" symbols''

''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:

'''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols

'''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T07:25:13Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved spacing in bullet lists

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:

• A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")

--- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"

• Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== '''''Draft limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:

• Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau

• The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)

--- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== '''''End of the Draft phase''''' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:

• In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled

• In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus

• These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:

--- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round

--- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round

--- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== '''''Production chains''''' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play

• Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play

• Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit

• Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit

• The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit

• Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Many cards have a ''padlock'' symbol and must be "unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:

• If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager

• If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager

• If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank

• Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''

• Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round

• By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

• Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards

• Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):

• Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards

• Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)

• Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always '''10 of each "Basic Villager" card''' available at the start of the game

--- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase

2. The '''6 face-up "Road" cards''' for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The '''rest of the cards''' (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck

--- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")

4. '''Each player starts with:'''

--- 8 money

--- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck

--- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau

5. Then, '''6 smaller decks''', each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"

--- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road

6. Finally, the '''cards remaining in the deck''' after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck

--- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks

7. One player is '''randomly chosen as the First Player'''; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.

• Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round

Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack

• Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand.

[TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

• If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply

• The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)

• If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck

• If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

• This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back

• As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices

• If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road

• Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round

• Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card

[TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]

Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

• Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

• Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round

• Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====
• The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.

• Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section

• The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right

• A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)

• Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.

• Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.

• If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.

• When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit

In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain

--- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.

--- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card

• Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card

-- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)

• Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card

• Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders

-- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager

• When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down

--- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack

--- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck

• Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in

• Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a ''padlock'' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "unlocked" before it can be built

• Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...

• Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played

Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
--- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
--- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
--- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player'''s Unlocking Villager

--- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay

--- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village<blockquote>

'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them

''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''

• You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game

• All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

• The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

''Example:'' Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
• After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side

• The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player

• If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases

• This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards

• However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order

• It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed

'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:

'''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''

'''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):

''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''

''• "Food" symbols''

''• "Builder" symbols''

''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:

'''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols

'''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T02:05:20Z

SimplicatusGames: Removed empty "Commonly Overlooked Rules" section at the end

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== ''Draft limit'' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== ''End of the Draft phase'' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== ''Production chains'' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Many cards have a ''padlock'' symbol and must be "unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* --- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* --- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* --- 8 money
* --- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* --- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* --- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* --- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. [TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card [TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* --- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* --- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** --- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** --- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a ''padlock'' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
* --- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager
* --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* --- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

* • The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* '''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''
* '''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
* ''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''
* ''• "Food" symbols''
* ''• "Builder" symbols''
* ''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
* '''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
* '''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T01:51:21Z

SimplicatusGames: Additional updates

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== ''Draft limit'' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== ''End of the Draft phase'' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== ''Production chains'' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Many cards have a ''padlock'' symbol and must be "unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* --- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* --- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* --- 8 money
* --- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* --- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* --- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* --- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. [TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card [TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* --- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* --- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** --- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** --- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a ''padlock'' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
* --- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager
* --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* --- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

* • The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* '''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''
* '''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
* ''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''
* ''• "Food" symbols''
* ''• "Builder" symbols''
* ''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
* '''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
* '''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T01:46:30Z

SimplicatusGames: Added more spacing and adjusted some subtitles

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

===== ''Draft limit'' =====
The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

===== ''End of the Draft phase'' =====
Certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== ''Production chains'' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

==== End of Round ====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.

==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* --- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* --- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* --- 8 money
* --- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* --- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* --- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* --- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. [TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card [TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* --- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* --- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** --- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** --- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
* --- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager
* --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* --- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
''Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game''
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

* • The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

==== Road Stacks ====
The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* '''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''
* '''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
* ''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols''
* ''• "Food" symbols''
* ''• "Builder" symbols''
* ''• coins on Unlocking Villagers''

'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
* '''•''' ''Suit symbols'' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
* '''•''' ''Padlocks'' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T01:34:19Z

SimplicatusGames: Additional improvements to the subtitles - subtitle level 1 is identical to title, and clarified bullet points and markup which doesn't work for italics and boldface

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== '''''Production chains''''' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

===== '''''End of Round''''' =====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.
==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* --- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* --- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* --- 8 money
* --- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* --- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* --- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* --- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFT PHASE: ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. [TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card [TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== '''Build Phase: "BUILD" ACTIONS''' ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* --- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* --- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== '''Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING"''' ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains

===== '''''Grain''''' =====
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice

===== '''''Grape, Leather and Wool''''' =====
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game

===== '''''Hay, Wood and Ore''''' =====
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood and Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** --- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** --- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)
[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

===== '''a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)

===== '''b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:''' =====
* --- 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager

===== '''c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:''' =====
* --- 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other play''<nowiki/>''er'''s Unlocking Villager
* --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* --- A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

* • The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== '''END OF THE BUILD PHASE''' ===
* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== '''FIRST MARKET''' ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* '''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''
* '''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== '''SECOND MARKET''' ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
* '''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols'''
* '''• "Food" symbols'''
* '''• "Builder" symbols'''
* '''• coins on Unlocking Villagers'''
'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
* '''• Suit symbols''' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
* '''• Padlocks''' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-29T01:23:47Z

SimplicatusGames: Additional improvements to the subtitles - subtitle level 1 is identical to title, and clarified bullet points and markup which doesn't work for italics and boldface

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

''(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)''

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''ROUNDS''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking ''one'' of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player ''must'' draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players may have unlimited "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player ''may'' (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== '''''Production chains''''' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== '''''Unlocking''''' =====
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

===== '''''Build limit''''' =====
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

===== '''''End of Round''''' =====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.
==== '''INCOME''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* --- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* --- The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* --- 8 money
* --- 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* --- a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* --- Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* --- Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

==== '''DRAFTING ACTIONS''' ====
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you ''must'' draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. [TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?]

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

==== '''END OF THE DRAFT PHASE''' ====
After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose ''not'' to place a coin on any card [TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin? ]
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road ''without'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards ''with'' coins on them are discarded and replaced.
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them.

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player ''may'' build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.''</blockquote>

=== Build Phase: BUILDING ACTIONS ===
Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== '''''Monk''''' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor must ''always'' be played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

a) The Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* --- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, ''except for Founders''; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
b) The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* --- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you ''may'' swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
[TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?]

=== Build Phase: ACTIONS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED "BUILDING" ===
Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)
[TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?]

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round''</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== '''''Tinner''''' =====
You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round.

This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village:

* • The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary

Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

[TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?]

=== END OF THE BUILD PHASE ===
* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
'''1. The First Market''' occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

'''2. The Second Market''' occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

=== FIRST MARKET ===
Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* '''• Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers'''
* '''• Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers'''
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

=== SECOND MARKET ===
After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

==== 1. Each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers ====

==== 2. Each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards) ====
These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.

'''2A. The following symbols are only counted when they are on Top Villager cards''' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
* '''• the value/count of "Gold" symbols'''
* '''• "Food" symbols'''
* '''• "Builder" symbols'''
* '''• coins on Unlocking Villagers'''
'''2B. The following symbols are counted for all Villager cards''' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
* '''• Suit symbols''' (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
* '''• Padlocks''' (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)

==== 3. Move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply ====
This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T23:29:14Z

SimplicatusGames: Changed Block quote to Preformatted since the former makes no visual difference

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''Rounds''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== ''Production chains'' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== ''Unlocking'' =====
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game
Build limit

The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

===== ''End of Round'' =====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.
==== '''Income''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* -- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* • The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* • 8 money
* • 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* • a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* • Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* • Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''
'''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== ''Monk'' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

• So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* -- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
• The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* -- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
'''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round
On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== ''Tinner'' =====
* • You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
* • Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
* • Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.
TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
1. The First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

2. The Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* • Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
* • Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

1. First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers

2. Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
* • These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.
* • The following symbols are only counted when they are on ''Top Villager cards'' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
** -- the value/count of "Gold" symbols
** -- "Food" symbols
** -- "Builder" symbols
** -- coins on Unlocking Villagers
* • The following symbols are counted for ''all Villager cards'' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
** -- Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
** -- Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
3. Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
* • This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T23:27:09Z

SimplicatusGames: Added some bullets and reformatted subtitle 3 level as it is hardly visible on BGA

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''Rounds''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

===== ''Production chains'' =====
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name: This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

===== ''Unlocking'' =====
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game
Build limit

The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

===== ''End of Round'' =====
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase.
Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started.
==== '''Income''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* -- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* • The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* • 8 money
* • 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* • a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* • Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* • Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.</blockquote>

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== ''Monk'' =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== '''''Apprentice''''' =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

• So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* -- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
• The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* -- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== ''Tinner'' =====
* • You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== '''''Smuggler''''' =====
* • Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
* • Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.
TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
1. The First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

2. The Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* • Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
* • Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

1. First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers

2. Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
* • These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.
* • The following symbols are only counted when they are on ''Top Villager cards'' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
** -- the value/count of "Gold" symbols
** -- "Food" symbols
** -- "Builder" symbols
** -- coins on Unlocking Villagers
* • The following symbols are counted for ''all Villager cards'' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
** -- Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
** -- Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
3. Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
* • This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T23:21:42Z

SimplicatusGames: Switched -• bullets to -- bullets

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''Rounds''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -- If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -- Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -- The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -- The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -- The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains
To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
* • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
* • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

==== '''Income''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* -- These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* • The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* • 8 money
* • 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* • a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* • Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* • Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.</blockquote>

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== Monk =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== Apprentice =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

• So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* -- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
• The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* -- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -- ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== Tinner =====
* • You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== Smuggler =====
* • Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
* • Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.
TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
1. The First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

2. The Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* • Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
* • Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

1. First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers

2. Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
* • These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.
* • The following symbols are only counted when they are on ''Top Villager cards'' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
** -- the value/count of "Gold" symbols
** -- "Food" symbols
** -- "Builder" symbols
** -- coins on Unlocking Villagers
* • The following symbols are counted for ''all Villager cards'' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
** -- Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
** -- Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
3. Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
* • This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T23:20:08Z

SimplicatusGames: Changed 2 title levels because BGA displays subtitle 1 and subtitle 2 identically

'''The Groundwork:''' You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

'''The Game:''' Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases.

There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

'''The Goal:''' To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

==== '''Rounds''' ====
Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -• If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -• Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -• The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -• The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -• The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains
To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
* • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
* • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

==== '''Income''' ====
In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* -• These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* • The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* • 8 money
* • 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* • a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* • Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* • Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.</blockquote>

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== Monk =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== Apprentice =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

• So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* -• This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
• The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* -• If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -• This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -• With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -• ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -• If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== Tinner =====
* • You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== Smuggler =====
* • Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
* • Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.
TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
1. The First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

2. The Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* • Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
* • Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

1. First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers

2. Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
* • These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.
* • The following symbols are only counted when they are on ''Top Villager cards'' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
** -• the value/count of "Gold" symbols
** -• "Food" symbols
** -• "Builder" symbols
** -• coins on Unlocking Villagers
* • The following symbols are counted for ''all Villager cards'' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
** -• Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
** -• Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
3. Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
* • This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T22:48:03Z

SimplicatusGames: Comprehensive restructuring of the bullet points (way too many levels) to make it more readable. Also changed markdown symbols _ _ and * * to italics or boldface.

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== Draft phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
* • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
** -• If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
* • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"
Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
* • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
* • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
** -• Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit
At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
* • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
* • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them
==== Build phase ====
Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
* • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
** -• The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
** -• The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
** -• The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")
One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
* • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
* • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
* • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
* • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
* • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains
To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
* • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain
Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
* • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
* • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
* • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
* • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game
The number of cards that a player ''may'' (but is not required to) build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau ''at the start of their build phase''
* • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
* • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further
At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
* • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

==== First Market ====
Occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:

* • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
* • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

==== Second Market ====
Occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
* • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
* • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
* • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply
''After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!''

==Setup==
1. There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
* -• These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
2. The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game

3. The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
* • The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
4. Each player starts with:
* • 8 money
* • 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
* • a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
5. Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
* • Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
6. Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
* • Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase, or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
7. One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===
There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn.
* • Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
Drafted cards are ''always'' displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
* • Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player takes these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
* • If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
* • If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. The new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====
In ''reverse player order'', each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
* • Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
* • Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round.

* • Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase)

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit.

* • Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round
* • Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed

Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. ''You are always allowed to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.''<blockquote>'''Important:''' "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase DO NOT affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.</blockquote>

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
* • Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====
Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
* • The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "'''card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name'''"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
* • A player ''may'' build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
* • Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a '''Padlock''' symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

===== Monk =====
The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
* • Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it.
* • If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
* • When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)

===== Apprentice =====
Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.

• So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
* -• This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
• The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
* -• If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card. If you do this, you can choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village
TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====
To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
* • Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
** -• This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
* • Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
* • Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
** -• With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
* • There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
* • When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
** -• ''Any'' non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
** -• If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
* • Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, you can get as many Basic Villagers as the number of cards you want to trade in
* • Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====
Many Villagers have a '''Padlock''' symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
* • Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it ''could'' cost 2 money...
* • Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:

a) If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed ''into the Bank'' (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
b) If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:

* • 2 money is taken ''from the Bank'' and is placed onto the ''current player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager

c) If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
* • 2 money is paid by the ''current player'' and is placed onto the ''other player''<nowiki/>'s Unlocking Villager
* • If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
* • A player may ''not'' choose to pay the Bank if there is an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
<blockquote>'''Important:''' Unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that same round</blockquote>On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
* • You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
* • All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies
====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

===== Tinner =====
* • You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
This power may be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage: If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager

===== Smuggler =====
* • Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
* • Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.
TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does ''not'' have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they ''must'' flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right. As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
* • This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
* • However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
* • It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
1. The First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied

2. The Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
* • Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
* • Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
Note: The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:

1. First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers

2. Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
* • These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are ''in their own Village''.
* • The following symbols are only counted when they are on ''Top Villager cards'' (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
** -• the value/count of "Gold" symbols
** -• "Food" symbols
** -• "Builder" symbols
** -• coins on Unlocking Villagers
* • The following symbols are counted for ''all Villager cards'' in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
** -• Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.). Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
** -• Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
3. Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
* • This is done ''after'' calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T18:24:54Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Market Phases */ Added bullet points

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== '''Draft phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
** • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
*** - If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
** • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

* Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

* The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
** • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
** • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
*** - Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

* At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
** • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
** • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== '''Build phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
** • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
*** - The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
*** - The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
*** - The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

* One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
** • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
** • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
** • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
** • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
** • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

* To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
** • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

* Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
** • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
** • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
** • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
** • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

* The number of cards that a player *may (but is not required to)* build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau *at the start of their build phase*
** • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
** • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

* At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
** • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

* First Market - occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:
** • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
** • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

* Second Market - occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
** • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
** • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
** • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

==Setup==

* • There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
** - These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
* • The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game
* • The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
** - The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
* • Each player starts with:
** - 8 money
** - 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
** - a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
* • Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
** - Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
* • Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
** - Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
* • One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===

* • There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn
** - Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
* • Drafted cards are _always_ displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
** - Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player also puts these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
*** -- If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. These new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====

* • In _reverse player order_, each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
** - Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
** - Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
* • Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round. Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase).

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit. Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round. Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed.
* Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. You _are always allowed_ to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.

Importantly: "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase *DO NOT* affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
** - Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====

* • Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
** - The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
** - A player _may_ build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
** - Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a Padlock symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

* • Monk
** - The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
*** -- Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
** - If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it
*** -- If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
*** -- When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
**** --- In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)
* • Apprentice
** - Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.
** - So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
*** -- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
** - The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
*** -- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card
**** --- If this is done, you get to choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====

* • To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
** - Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
*** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
** - Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
* • The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
** - Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
*** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
* • The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
** - There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
* • Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
** - When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
*** -- _Any_ non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
*** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
** - Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, there is no limit to the number of times this action may be taken in a given round
*** -- ...well, aside from the number of cards in your hand- you can only get as many Basic Villagers as cards that you can trade in
** - Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====

* • Many Villagers have a Padlock symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
** - Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it _could_ cost 2 money...
** - Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
** - Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:
*** -- If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:
**** --- 2 money is taken _from the Bank_ and is placed _onto the current player's Unlocking Villager_
*** -- If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
**** --- 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _onto the other player's Unlocking Villager_
**** --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
*** -- If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
**** --- 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _into the Bank_ (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
**** --- A player may NOT choose to pay the Bank if there *is* an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
* • Important to note: unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that round
** - On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
* • Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
** - You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
*** -- All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

* • Tinner
** - You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
** - This power _may_ be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage:
*** -- If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager
* • Smuggler
** - Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
** - The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
*** -- Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does _not_ have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they must flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

* • The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right
** - As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
*** -- This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
*** -- However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
**** --- It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
* • First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied
* • Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

* • During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
** - Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** - Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
*** -- The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

* • In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:
** - First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** - Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
*** -- These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are _in their own Village_.
*** -- The following symbols are only counted when they are on "Top" Villager cards (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
**** --- the value or count of "Gold" symbols
**** --- "Food" symbols
**** --- "Builder" symbols
**** --- coins on Unlocking Villagers
*** -- The following symbols are counted for *all* Villager cards in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
**** --- Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.)
***** ---- Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
**** --- Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
** - Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
*** -- This is done *after* calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

• Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over.

• The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner.

• If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T18:22:35Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Build Phase */ Added bullet points

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== '''Draft phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
** • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
*** - If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
** • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

* Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

* The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
** • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
** • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
*** - Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

* At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
** • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
** • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== '''Build phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
** • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
*** - The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
*** - The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
*** - The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

* One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
** • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
** • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
** • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
** • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
** • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

* To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
** • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

* Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
** • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
** • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
** • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
** • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

* The number of cards that a player *may (but is not required to)* build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau *at the start of their build phase*
** • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
** • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

* At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
** • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

* First Market - occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:
** • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
** • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

* Second Market - occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
** • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
** • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
** • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

==Setup==

* • There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
** - These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
* • The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game
* • The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
** - The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
* • Each player starts with:
** - 8 money
** - 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
** - a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
* • Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
** - Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
* • Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
** - Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
* • One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===

* • There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn
** - Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
* • Drafted cards are _always_ displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
** - Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player also puts these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
*** -- If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. These new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====

* • In _reverse player order_, each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
** - Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
** - Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
* • Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round. Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase).

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit. Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round. Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed.
* Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. You _are always allowed_ to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.

Importantly: "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase *DO NOT* affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* • The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
** - Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====

* • Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
** - The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
** - A player _may_ build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
** - Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a Padlock symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

* • Monk
** - The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
*** -- Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
** - If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it
*** -- If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
*** -- When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
**** --- In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)
* • Apprentice
** - Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.
** - So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
*** -- This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
** - The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
*** -- If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card
**** --- If this is done, you get to choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====

* • To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
** - Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
*** -- This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
** - Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
* • The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
** - Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
*** -- With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
* • The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
** - There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
* • Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
** - When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
*** -- _Any_ non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
*** -- If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
** - Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, there is no limit to the number of times this action may be taken in a given round
*** -- ...well, aside from the number of cards in your hand- you can only get as many Basic Villagers as cards that you can trade in
** - Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====

* • Many Villagers have a Padlock symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
** - Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it _could_ cost 2 money...
** - Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
** - Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:
*** -- If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:
**** --- 2 money is taken _from the Bank_ and is placed _onto the current player's Unlocking Villager_
*** -- If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
**** --- 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _onto the other player's Unlocking Villager_
**** --- If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
*** -- If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
**** --- 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _into the Bank_ (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
**** --- A player may NOT choose to pay the Bank if there *is* an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
* • Important to note: unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that round
** - On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
* • Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
** - You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
*** -- All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

* • Tinner
** - You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
** - This power _may_ be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage:
*** -- If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager
* • Smuggler
** - Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
** - The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
*** -- Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* • After all players have completed building, if any player does _not_ have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they must flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* • The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* • If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

* The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right
** As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
*** This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
*** However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
**** It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
* First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied
* Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

* During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
** Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
*** The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

* In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:
** First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
*** These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are _in their own Village_.
*** The following symbols are only counted when they are on "Top" Villager cards (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
**** the value or count of "Gold" symbols
**** "Food" symbols
**** "Builder" symbols
**** coins on Unlocking Villagers
*** The following symbols are counted for *all* Villager cards in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
**** Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.)
***** Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
**** Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
** Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
*** This is done *after* calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over. The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner. If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T18:19:04Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Draft Phase */ Added bullet points

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== '''Draft phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
** • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
*** - If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
** • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

* Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

* The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
** • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
** • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
*** - Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

* At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
** • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
** • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== '''Build phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
** • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
*** - The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
*** - The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
*** - The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

* One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
** • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
** • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
** • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
** • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
** • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

* To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
** • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

* Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
** • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
** • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
** • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
** • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

* The number of cards that a player *may (but is not required to)* build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau *at the start of their build phase*
** • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
** • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

* At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
** • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

* First Market - occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:
** • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
** • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

* Second Market - occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
** • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
** • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
** • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

==Setup==

* • There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
** - These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
* • The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game
* • The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
** - The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
* • Each player starts with:
** - 8 money
** - 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
** - a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
* • Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
** - Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
* • Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
** - Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
* • One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===

* • There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn
** - Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
* • Drafted cards are _always_ displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
** - Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* • If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player also puts these coins into their money supply
* • The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
*** --- If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* • This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* • As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
** - If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. These new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====

* • In _reverse player order_, each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
** - Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
** - Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
* • Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* • All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* • After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round. Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase).

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit. Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round. Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed.
* Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. You _are always allowed_ to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.

Importantly: "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase *DO NOT* affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
** Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====

* Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
** The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
** A player _may_ build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
** Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a Padlock symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

* Monk
** The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
*** Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
** If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it
*** If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
*** When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
**** In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)
* Apprentice
** Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.
** So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
*** This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
** The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
*** If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card
**** If this is done, you get to choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====

* To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
** Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
*** This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
** Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
* The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
** Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
*** With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
* The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
** There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
* Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
** When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
*** _Any_ non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
*** If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
** Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, there is no limit to the number of times this action may be taken in a given round
*** ...well, aside from the number of cards in your hand- you can only get as many Basic Villagers as cards that you can trade in
** Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====

* Many Villagers have a Padlock symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
** Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it _could_ cost 2 money...
** Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
** Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:
*** If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:
**** 2 money is taken _from the Bank_ and is placed _onto the current player's Unlocking Villager_
*** If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _onto the other player's Unlocking Villager_
**** If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
*** If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _into the Bank_ (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
**** A player may NOT choose to pay the Bank if there *is* an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
* Important to note: unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that round
** On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
* Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
** You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
*** All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

* Tinner
** You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
** This power _may_ be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage:
*** If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager
* Smuggler
** Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
** The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
*** Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* After all players have completed building, if any player does _not_ have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they must flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

* The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right
** As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
*** This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
*** However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
**** It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
* First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied
* Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

* During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
** Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
*** The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

* In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:
** First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
*** These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are _in their own Village_.
*** The following symbols are only counted when they are on "Top" Villager cards (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
**** the value or count of "Gold" symbols
**** "Food" symbols
**** "Builder" symbols
**** coins on Unlocking Villagers
*** The following symbols are counted for *all* Villager cards in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
**** Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.)
***** Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
**** Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
** Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
*** This is done *after* calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over. The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner. If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-05-28T18:17:45Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Setup */ Added bullet points

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== '''Draft phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
** • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
*** - If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
** • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

* Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

* The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
** • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
** • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
*** - Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

* At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
** • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
** • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== '''Build phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
** • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
*** - The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
*** - The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
*** - The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

* One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
** • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
** • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
** • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
** • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
** • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

* To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
** • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

* Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
** • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
** • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
** • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
** • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

* The number of cards that a player *may (but is not required to)* build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau *at the start of their build phase*
** • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
** • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

* At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
** • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

* First Market - occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:
** • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
** • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

* Second Market - occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
** • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
** • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
** • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

==Setup==

* • There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
** - These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
* • The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game
* • The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
** - The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
* • Each player starts with:
** - 8 money
** - 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
** - a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
* • Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
** - Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
* • Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
** - Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
* • One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===

* There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn
** Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
* Drafted cards are _always_ displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
** Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player also puts these coins into their money supply
* The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
** If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
*** If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
** If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. These new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====

* In _reverse player order_, each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
** Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
** Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
* Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round. Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase).

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit. Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round. Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed.
* Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. You _are always allowed_ to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.

Importantly: "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase *DO NOT* affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
** Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====

* Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
** The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
** A player _may_ build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
** Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a Padlock symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

* Monk
** The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
*** Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
** If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it
*** If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
*** When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
**** In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)
* Apprentice
** Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.
** So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
*** This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
** The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
*** If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card
**** If this is done, you get to choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====

* To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
** Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
*** This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
** Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
* The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
** Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
*** With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
* The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
** There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
* Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
** When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
*** _Any_ non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
*** If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
** Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, there is no limit to the number of times this action may be taken in a given round
*** ...well, aside from the number of cards in your hand- you can only get as many Basic Villagers as cards that you can trade in
** Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====

* Many Villagers have a Padlock symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
** Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it _could_ cost 2 money...
** Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
** Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:
*** If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:
**** 2 money is taken _from the Bank_ and is placed _onto the current player's Unlocking Villager_
*** If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _onto the other player's Unlocking Villager_
**** If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
*** If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _into the Bank_ (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
**** A player may NOT choose to pay the Bank if there *is* an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
* Important to note: unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that round
** On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
* Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
** You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
*** All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

* Tinner
** You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
** This power _may_ be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage:
*** If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager
* Smuggler
** Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
** The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
*** Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* After all players have completed building, if any player does _not_ have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they must flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

* The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right
** As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
*** This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
*** However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
**** It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
* First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied
* Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

* During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
** Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
*** The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

* In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:
** First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
*** These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are _in their own Village_.
*** The following symbols are only counted when they are on "Top" Villager cards (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
**** the value or count of "Gold" symbols
**** "Food" symbols
**** "Builder" symbols
**** coins on Unlocking Villagers
*** The following symbols are counted for *all* Villager cards in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
**** Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.)
***** Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
**** Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
** Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
*** This is done *after* calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over. The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner. If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpthedwarfking

2026-05-23T21:32:42Z

SimplicatusGames: Added colours and symbols, corrected mistake about which player picks the Contract

== The Dwarf King ==

'''The Dwarf King''' is a trick-taking card game played over 7 rounds. In each round, the scoring rules change depending on unique contracts and special cards.

=== Game Objective ===
Collect the most points over 7 rounds. Since contracts can also award negative points, the player with the highest total sum at the end wins.

=== Game Flow ===
The game consists of 7 rounds. Each round follows this sequence:

==== 1. Preparation & Special Card ====
* The dealer shuffles the deck and randomly draws one '''Special Card''' (blue back) to be shuffled into the deck.
* All cards are dealt equally among the players.

==== 2. The Contract ====
* The player who received the '''5 of Knights''' '''(blue 💙🛡️shield)''' reveals the top card from the Contract deck.
* They choose one of the two '''challenges''' described on the card (e.g., "Each trick is worth 2 points" or "Each Dwarf is worth -1 point").
* This contract applies to the entire current round.

==== 3. Playing the Round (Tricks) ====
* The player who received the '''5 of Dwarves (red 🟥 square)''' leads the first trick.
* '''Following Suit:''' Players must follow the suit played (Dwarves, Goblins, or Knights).
* If a player cannot follow suit, they may discard any other card.
* The player with the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads the next one.
* '''Special Cards:''' These cards often modify the rules of the trick (e.g., changing the suit or the value of a card). Their effect triggers immediately when played or during scoring.

==== 4. End of Round & Scoring ====
* Once all cards have been played, players calculate their points based on the chosen '''Contract'''.
* Points are recorded on the score pad. The special card is removed from the game, and a new round begins.

=== Card Categories & Symbols ===
* '''Dwarves (Red 🟥 squares):''' Often the target of contracts (positive or negative).
* '''Goblins (Green 🟢 circles):''' Usually low values, often "trouble" cards.
* '''Knights (Blue 💙🛡️shields):''' High values, crucial for winning tricks.
* '''Special Cards:''' Unique effects that vary each round.
* '''Contract Cards:''' Determine which cards are "good" or "bad" for the current round.

=== End of Game ===
The game ends after the '''7th round'''. The player with the highest total score is crowned the new Dwarf King.

Gamehelpelpasogwt

2026-05-17T18:58:36Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved and added info under Display section

El Paso at the end of the 19th century: five railroad companies have connected the Sun City to their network and made it a major hub for the cattle trade. Take on the role of ranchers of that time and bring your best cattle to El Paso to earn money and victory points. Hire more cowboys, builders, and engineers to get closer to your goals.

==Display==

The '''central display''' at the top features:

*• The map with El Paso (building A at the top) and a clockwise trail connecting Neutral buildings B-G and empty spaces, appearing as a dashed line. In the center of the map, there are trading posts with numbers above them and bonuses shown below them, as well as the orange Simmental cattle cards, with a counter how many are left.
*• Above the map, you see four train cards, each with 2-3 actions that can be accessed at building F.
*• Below the train (or on the right, depending on scaling), you see the stack of bonus tiles (with a bell icon) and three face-up tiles beside it, as well as the stack of objective tiles (with a horn icon) and, also, three face-up tiles beside it. These can be gained at building F.
*• Below the map (or on the right, depending on scaling), there is the building display, featuring the six types of buildings; each building has a counter showing how many are left. For details on the building cost, click the question mark icon. Buildings can be placed/replaced on the map at building E.
*• Below the buildings, there is the cattle market, featuring the four types of cattle, also showing how many of each type are left. Note the question mark icon that tells you how much each cattle card costs. Cattle can be acquired at building D.
*• Last, but not least, below the cattle market, you see the four types of workers and how many of each type are left. These can be hired at building B.

Your '''personal play area''' features:

*• At the top, your draw pile, showing how many cards it contains, and your hand of cattle cards (four at the start). As the game progresses, your discard pile will be shown to the right of your hand.
*• Below that, on the left, you see your player board featuring 4 auxiliary actions on the left, of which 4 spaces are covered with a disc; in the middle, you see three bonuses you can unlock; and, on the right, you see your certificate track, which shows how many certificates you will be able to spend in El Paso (see El Paso action).
*• Finally, to the right of your player board, you see how many workers of each type you have at your disposal. Note that workers have bonuses printed at the top that you can use at any time on your turn (you will see a button in the status bar reminding you of that).

The '''player panel''' in the side bar shows:

*• With live scoring enabled, your score below your username.
*• Below that: your cash (coin = $); your cards in hand; your herder’s range
*• Below that: the number of permanent certificates; the value on your certificate track; how many exchange tokens you have; how many cards you have trashed (removed from the game)
*• Below that: the numbers of your Cowboy cards; Builder cards; Engineer cards; Wild worker cards
*• Below that: any Objective Tiles you have, see Setup and Train action.

==Setup==

As part of setup, in reverse play order, players pick one of the face-up objective tiles, which will be placed in your player panel in the side bar. A little icon will show which objectives you meet (for now, you will see an X for the first one you take).

==Your Turn==

Your turn comprises three phases in this order: movement, actions, and cleanup. At any point during your turn, you may discard workers from your play area for their printed bonus or use exchange tokens to improve your hand. Note the buttons on the right of the status bar informing you of these options.

===Movement===

On your first turn, simply pick any starting building except El Paso (B-G). Later, you may pick any building in clockwise order within your herder’s range, which is 3 at the start (see player panel in the side bar). Empty spaces do not count. If the trail forks, the game will consider the more advantageous option.

===Actions===

Carry out the actions of the building you chose during movement. You may always choose to take an auxiliary action instead of the building actions. If you land on an opponent’s building (see Construct a Building below for details), you can only take an auxiliary action.

====Auxiliary Actions====

The left side of your player board features 4 auxiliary actions: two are available from the start and can be improved, the other two need to be unlocked first. Some buildings allow you to take an auxiliary action as part of their effect (cogwheel icon).

The four auxiliary actions on the left of your player board, from top to bottom, are:

*• Gain $1. If unlocked, gain $3 instead.
*• Gain 1 certificate on your certificate track (max. 4).
*• Exchange 1 card (same as using an exchange token, see there). If unlocked, you may exchange a second time.
*• Trash 1 card from hand (i.e., remove it from play permanently, max. 5 times). Unlocking this action costs $3.

====Building Actions====

These are some of the common building actions. Note that all these actions are optional and can be performed in any order. If in doubt or if an action is not listed here, check the tooltip or printed appendix.

{{infoBox
|title=Discard Cattle for Money (B, D, and E)
|background=grey
|body=
• Discard the depicted cattle card to gain $2. Even if you have more of that cattle in hand, you can only discard one per action.
}}

{{infoBox
|title=Hire Workers (B)
|background=grey
|body=
• Pay $5 and pick a worker type from the central display; the worker will be immediately placed with your other workers.

• If you choose a wild worker (showing all three types), you must pay an additional $4.

• You can hire a second worker for an additional $8, but you must choose a different one than the first.

• You must pay $5 and $8 only on building B—other buildings and effects (e.g., trading post 9) may offer this action at no cost (except when choosing a wild worker—they always cost an additional $4).

• Each worker is worth 2 or 3 VP, as printed on the card.
}}

{{infoBox
|title=Buy Cattle (D)
|background=grey
|body=
• Pick a cattle from the cattle market and pay the indicated cost—from left to right, cattle cost $2/$4/$6/$8 and you must discard 1/2/3/4 cowboys (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.

• New cattle will be placed in your discard pile; you can only buy one cattle per action, even if you have more money and cowboys.

• Cattle are worth varying numbers of VP, as printed on the card.
}}

{{infoBox
|title=Construct a Building (E)
|background=grey
|body=
• Pick a building from the central display and pay the indicated cost—an amount of money and you must discard a number of builders (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.

• Then choose an empty space along the trail and pay the additional cost printed on the space, if any.

• If you already have a building on the map, you may upgrade it to a more valuable one by paying the difference between the two. The new building will then replace the old one and the old one will become available for building once again. When upgrading a building, you don’t have to pay the cost printed on the space again.

• You can build any building you can afford, but each player may only have at most 2 buildings on the map. Once you have 2 buildings, you can only upgrade them.

• Each building is worth a number of VP, as printed on the building.
}}

{{infoBox
|title=Use the Train (F)
|background=grey
|body=
• Pick a train card and pay the cost printed on the card—up to $8 and you must discard a number of engineers (and/or wild workers) from your worker area.

• Carry out the effect of the chosen train. When gaining an objective or bonus tile, you may take a face-up one or draw one from the respective stack.

• Objective tiles score at game end if you meet their condition. Every component in the game can only be assigned to one objective; for building requirements, you “spend” that many workers paid for buildings, not the building itself (i.e., you may complete more than two of those objectives).

• Bonus tiles provide a one-time bonus or a permanent effect. Among the permanent effects are the permanent certificate (with an infinity symbol) and the ability to count duplicate cattle cards at El Paso (see that action for details).

• Other building actions include: taking an auxiliary action (cogwheel symbol); gaining money or certificates; gaining exchange tokens (sometimes at a cost), cattle, or bonus/objective tiles; moving your herder along the trail to take another action.
}}

====El Paso Actions====

When moving your herder, you can never move past El Paso. In El Paso, you must carry out the following actions in this order:

*1. You gain $5 and a Simmental cattle card that is placed on your discard pile. If the Simmental cattle pile on the map is empty, the first player to visit El Paso will place their herder on that space, gaining 2 VP during scoring; this will trigger the end of the game, with every other player taking one more action. Any later arrivals at El Paso do not place their herder on that space.
*2. The game will reveal your hand to everyone else and compute your breeding value, i.e., add up the numbers at the top of the cattle cards in your hand; each type of cattle will only contribute once, i.e., duplicates are ignored unless you have the appropriate bonus tile.
*3. The game will also add any permanent certificates you have (with an infinity symbol) and ask you how many of the certificates on your certificate track you’d like to add. Note that you may also discard builders from your worker area to purchase additional certificates, as per that worker’s printed bonus action.
*4. Once you confirm the total, you must choose a trading post on the map with the same or a lower value and a disc from your player board, which will be placed on that space. If that space has a bonus action, you will now take it. Note that you may have at most one disc per space, except spaces 0, 12, and 16. Discs of other players don’t matter. To remove a disc from the middle of your player board, you must pick a trading post of value 10 or more. Spaces 10 and up are worth VP at game end.
*5. Finally, your hand is discarded.

===Cleanup===

At the end of your turn, the game will draw up to your hand limit, which is 4 at the start. Any cards you did not use this turn will remain in your hand.

==Scoring==

See El Paso Actions, bullet point 1 for how the game ends. After each other player has had their final turn, players will score:

*• 1 VP per $5—on your final turn, you will have the option to exchange
*• VP from building tiles on the map
*• VP from trading posts with your discs—each disc counts
*• VP from cattle + 2 VP if your herder is on the Simmental space
*• VP from workers
*• VP from bonus tiles

*• VP from your objective tiles—the game determines automatically the best outcome if you have competing tiles. Each component can only attribute to one objective tile; for building objectives, the total of workers spent on buildings is considered, not the buildings themselves. You don’t lose VP for failed objectives.

Gamehelpscythe

2026-05-15T21:52:30Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved formatting of headlines. Added line breaks, numbers and bullet symbols since the markdown doesn't work

== Overview ==
Aim of the game: Score the most points (coins) when someone places their 6th Star.

==== Objectives ====
Each player starts with two objectives, you can only complete one of these. When you do, gain a star for completing the objective and discard the one you didn't.

== Turn ==
On your turn, move your action piece to one of the action spaces on your player mat other than the space you were on last turn. ''(You may not take the same action two turns in a row)''

1. On the new space, first resolve the upper action, if desired. ''(The Upper actions and how to take them are described below)''

2. Then, resolve the lower action, if desired. ''(The Lower actions and how to take them are described below)''

You may perform no actions if you wish, but still must move to another action space on the start of your next turn.

• After to taking up to 2 actions, you may then resolve objectives if they apply

• Each player is a Faction, and this brings with it unique bonuses and abilities

== Actions ==
Each player board has slightly different pairings of top and lower actions, but everyone can perform the same actions in some combination.

• The Cost of the lower actions vary per player, but all have something that costs 2/3/4/4

• Upper action benefits start with cubes on them which stops you from gaining the full benefit.

• Lower action costs have some of the cost in a broken black border which forms part of the cost at start of game.

• There are ways of moving cubes from blocking benefits to blocking costs as long as they have that broken black border

Note: The squares with a '''red background are costs'''. The squares with a '''green background is a benefit''' you gain from taking the action.

==== Upper actions ====
• Bolster

• Move

• Produce

• Trade

==== Lower actions ====
• Build

• Deploy

• Enlist

• Upgrade 

== Upper Actions ==

==== Bolster ====
You have to pay one coin, then at the start you can gain either 2 Power or 1 Combat card, both of these features will help you in a Combat

==== Move ====
To start, this action lets you either move 2 different units or gain 1 coin

• A point of movement allows a unit to move to an adjacent hex

• Units moved can carry resources from their start hex to destination hex if desired

• Mechs can carry Workers from their start hex to destination hex (or pick up/drop off workers along the way), and this only counts as moving the Mech, not the Workers

'''Rivers and Lakes are impassible terrain at the start''', with the exception of certain abilities

'''All Tunnels are adjacent''', so a single move can take a unit from one Tunnel to any other Tunnel

• If an opponent has Workers occupying a Hex, your Workers cannot move in alone, whilst your Mech and Character scare them off to their Faction Home Base however you cannot move any further with that unit and lose 1 Popularity for each opponent Worker removed this way

• If an opponent has just a Structure occupying a Hex, you a free to move into it and then are considered controlling it once you do

• If an opponent has a Character or Mech occupying a Hex, your Workers cannot move in alone. Your Character and Mechs can move in, but nothing happens until all your movements have completed, then battle occurs.

A Home Base, including your own, cannot voluntarily be moved into.

• Some spaces have Encounter tokens, if you end the movement phase with your Character occupying a space with one of these tokens, resolve an Encounter.

• Each Hex has unlimited space for units of the same player.

==== Produce ====
At the start, this action is free.

• At the start, you can choose two different Hexes where you have Workers, and produce the resource depicted on the Hex multiplied by the number of Workers you have there, these resources are placed on the Hex chosen to produce

• There is no limit to the quantity of resources which a Hex can hold

==== Trade ====
You have to pay one coin, then at the start you can either gain 2 Resources to place on Hexes where you have Workers or gain 1 Popularity

== Lower Actions ==

==== Build ====
• This costs the pictured amount of Wood, gives you 0-3 coins (depending on Faction), and lets you place a Structure into a Hex with no other Structures and at least one of your Workers

• Like Mechs, the different Structures will provide different benefits as shown on the space on the action board they come from, so choose carefully which you wish to place when

• Structures are never destroyed, but if an opponent occupies a Hex with your Structure, then they control the Hex, but you still get your Structure bonus

• The Structure Bonus goal card will give points at end game if you place your Structures in certain ways e.g. adjacent to certain other features

===== Deploy =====
• This costs a stated amount of Metal, gives you 0-3 coins (depending on Faction), and lets you place a Mech into a Hex where you have at least one Worker.

• '''Choose which Mech you deploy carefully, as each Mech unlocks a space which gives you a new Mech ability'''. These do not have to be unlocked in a specific order, so its up to you which ability you wish to gain first.

• It is important to note that the different Factions will provide different Mech abilities.

==== Upgrade ====
• This costs a pictured amount of Oil, gives you 0-3 coins (depending on Faction), and lets you move a blocking cube from a Top Row Action green space to a Bottom Row Action red space with a broken black border, the two spaces do not have to be from the same segment.

• Going forward, now something has an additional benefit and something else has a reduced cost.

==== Enlist ====
• This costs a stated amount of Food, gives you 0-3 coins (depending on Faction), and lets you take a Recruit from any action segment you wish and claim a one time bonus.

• The space the Recruit came from is now revealed, any time you or the player to your left or right takes the associated bottom-row action, you gain the bonus listed.

== Combat ==
Whenever a Combat is triggered, resolve each Combat separately before moving on to another

• Each player involved in the Combat takes the power dial and can secretly choose an amount of power they wish to spend, they can only pick a value which they can actually afford to spend on the Power Track, up to a max of 7

• In addition, for each Character & Mech, a player can secretly add a combat card to power amount

When each player is ready, reveal the dials and any chosen cards

• The player with the highest total value wins the combat, ties are won by the attacker

Each player pays the power they chose to set on their dials and discards used combat cards

• The winner gains control of the Hex, places a star on the Combat space of the Triumph track if a space is available. If the attacker won, they resolve any Encounter which may have been present and also lose Popularity for each defending Worker forced to retreat.

• The loser retreats all their units on that Hex to their Home Base. If the defender loses, and they used at least 1 power via the dial or cards, they gain 1 combat card as compensation.

== Encounters ==
At the start of game, Encounter Tokens were scattered across the map

• If you move your Character onto one of these spaces, and if Combat is successful, if applicable, the Encounter triggers

• A Character cannot move beyond an Encounter Token space, they must end their move on it and cannot pass through it

• Draw an Encounter card and select one of the options, as long as you can afford the cost of an option, then it is available to you to select

== The Factory ==
The Factory is the central purple Hex, it provides no resources during game but is worth 3 Hexes for end game purposes

• When your Character enters the Factory for the first time, look through the available Factory cards and pick one to add to your action board, this becomes a new space which you can move to with your action pawn and use on any future turn like a regular action space

• All Factory Cards have the same Lower Action, move one unit two spaces, but the Upper Action will vary

• You can never have more than one Factory Card, and cannot exchange it later

== Stars ==
A few ways to gain a Star have already been mentioned, but the full list is as follows:

• Complete all 6 Upgrades

• Deploy all 4 Mechs

• Build all 4 Structures

• Enlist all 4 Recruits

• Deploy all 8 Workers

• Complete one of your two starting Objectives

• Win Combat (x2)

• Have 18 Popularity

• Have 16 Power

There are 10 ways to gain a Star, but you only have 6 Stars to place

Once a Star is gained, you cannot lose it even if game state changes

== Game End ==
The game ends when any player places their 6th Star, the rest of their turn is voided

1. Count up the number of actual coins held

2. Gain the Structure Bonus if you achieve it

3. Then gain coins for your Stars, Controlled Hexes (remember The Factory counts as 3), and pairs of resources. The coins you gain for these areas depends on your Popularity, as follows:

• 0-6 Popularity scores 3 (Stars), 2 (Hexes), 1 (Resource Pairs)

• 7-12 Popularity scores 4 (Stars), 3 (Hexes), 2 (Resource Pairs)

• 13-18 Popularity scores 5 (Stars), 4 (Hexes), 3 (Resource Pairs)

The player with the most coins wins!

Tips scythe

2026-05-15T21:34:50Z

SimplicatusGames: Added line breaks and bullet points

== Pre-Game ==
Pick 6 stars you want to achieve:

• Generally you always want worker star, objective star, and 1-2 combat stars.

If picking factions:

• Tier 1 = Crimea/Rusviet

• Tier 2 = Polania/Saxony/Nordic (in that order)

Plan to abuse your faction’s power:

• Crimea = enlist a lot

• Rusviet = Get stars and factory fast

• Polania = move a lot and gain encounters

• Saxony = tons of fighting and objectives

• Nordic = hide and accumulate resources, usually

Abuse lake retreat.

== Early Game ==
Beginning of the game until midgame

• Get workers on village

• Get workers on tiles that match the bottom row stars you want to pursue

• Get 1-2 mechs

• Quick factory card if you don’t have the resources you want nearby

• 1-2 early upgrades can be helpful for smoothing out later production

== Mid-Game ==
Mid-game begins once most players start to have access to the middle of the board and can hit other people’s resources.

• Make sure to start hammering out your stars (don’t let a game end when you have 3 mechs/buildings/enlists).

• Watch who has lots of stars and try to track how quickly they will end the game

• Track who can attack you and who you can attack (riverwalk and lakewalk abilities can be complicated here).

• Take advantageous combats as long as it won’t mess up your other star plans.

• Interfere with opponents who are winning.

== Endgame ==
Triggered once someone is 1-3 turns away from winning.

• Focus on spreading out your troops as much as you can without giving away easy combats

• Finish final stars even if you might not get 6 stars.

– If you are rushing the game, end it quickly.

– If you are playing slowly, delay these turns as long as possible (2+ extra endgame turns usually destroys the rush players).

Gamehelppyramis

2026-05-14T05:05:22Z

SimplicatusGames: Added explanation of draw piles above.

== Overview ==
Players: 2 to 4

Duration: About 15 minutes

Goal: Score the most points by building a pyramid of cards

== Turn Structure ==
On their turn, a player performs the following actions:

=== 1. Choose a card ===
Take one card from the three available in the river (the 3 cards in the third row above).

=== 2. Place the card ===
The first card can be placed freely on the lowest level. Subsequent cards must be:

• Adjacent to at least one previously placed card, or

• Placed above two cards from the level below.

=== 3. Shooting Star (if shown on the card) ===
Draw a Shooting Star card (the single card in the top row above), look at it, and keep it face down.

=== 4. Refill the river ===
Add a new card from one of the two Exodus decks (the 2 cards with yellow back in the second row above).

=== 5. Check rotations ===
If both decks show the same color, all players must rotate one card of that color (if possible).

== End of the Game ==
The game ends when each player has built a pyramid of 10 cards (4 levels).

=== Scoring ===
Each visible Pyramid symbol is worth 1 point.
Aliens only score for the player who has the most.
Pyramids in your largest connected area of the same color score a second time.

=== Victory ===
The player with the most points wins the game.

Gamehelptzolkin

2026-05-14T00:39:52Z

SimplicatusGames: /* See also */ Removed link since it went to this wiki and not Strategy tips page

Rules are here: http://czechgames.com/files/rules/tzolkin-rules-en.pdf

(A picture of all 18 Age II buildings: https://i.imgur.com/BOGVhXA.jpg )

== '''For Each Round''' ==

- Each player takes their turn, going around the table

- On a food day, feed your workers and take your rewards

- Advance the Calendar

== '''Player turn''' ==

- '''Beg for corn:''' If you have 2 or less corn, you may beg for corn unless you are at the bottom step of all three temples. (Turn in all corn, take 3 corn and move one step down on any temple)

- '''Either place workers OR pick up workers'''

-- ''Placing workers'': pay corn for the number of workers you place. The cost for the number of workers you place is 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, or 15 for, respectively, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 workers placed on that turn, plus the cumulative cost noted next to each of your placed workers.

--- ''Starting Player Space'': When you take this non-gear action, three things happen:

---- You'll get the food that has accumulated on the T'zolkin gear teeth
---- You get the worker back at the end of the round
---- You either become start player, or pass start player to your left

-- ''Picking up Workers'': You may pick up one or more of your placed workers. For each worker picked up either

--- Use the action where your worker was standing

--- Use a lower action on the wheel from where your worker was standing(if not
standing on a free action space,pay 1 corn for each step back)

--- Do nothing.

== '''Food Day''' ==

Players must feed their workers at the end of Day 8, Day 14, Day 21, and Day 27.

-'''Feed the Workers''' Each players must pay 2 corn for each worker they have in play (on a gear or in front of you) with the exception for any farms you own. You must feed as many workers as you have corn for.
-- For each worker not fed, you lose 3 points

-'''Take Rewards'''

--''Middle of Age (Brown days)''

--- Receive items shown on the left edge of temples from step you are on and all steps below

-- ''End of Age (Teal Days)''

--- Remove all Age 1 buildings and fill spaces with Age 2 buildings

--- Receive points shown on the right edge of temples for the step you are on.

--- Bonus points on each temple track for the player whose marker is highest. Bonus amount is shown above each temple. For ties, everyone receives half the bonus.

== '''Advance the Calendar''' ==

If there is no worker on the starting player space, place a corn on the current Tzolk'in gear tooth and advance the gear one day.

Otherwise:

- The worker on the Starting Player space returns to the player

-- If this person was not the starting player, they take the starting player marker.

-- If they were the starting player, the starting player marker is moved to the player on their left

- Advance the Tzolk'in Gear one day.

- The player that placed their worker on the Starting Player space may decide to advance the gear one extra day if the player board is light side up AND this advance will not push a player off the gears.

-- If you use this option, flip your board to dark side up.

-- This does not avoid food days.

== End of Game Scoring ==
The game ends after the fourth Food Day. The Tzolk'in gear will have made one complete revolution. Players convert all of their commodities to victory points and score their monuments. Then the player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, whoever has the most workers left on the gears wins. If it is still a tie, then all tied players win. Esoteric Note: Technically, the Tzolk'in gear advances one more day after the end-of-Age-2 scoring and before the final scoring. This might push workers off the gears, which could affect the tiebreaker.

=== Final Scoring ===
To score your final victory points, do the following:

1. Convert all resources to corn using the exchange rate for the market.

2. Score 1/4 victory point for each corn.

3. Score 3 victory points for each crystal skull you still have.

4. Score your victory points from your monuments.
== '''See also''' ==

Strategy Tips (menu above)

Tips tzolkin

2026-05-14T00:35:43Z

SimplicatusGames: Added bullet symbols since the markdown doesn't work

'''The strategy hints below only describe one of the main strategy lines in the game. Check the strategy forum on BoardGameGeek for a more accurate description of how you might approach the game.'''

== Corn ==

Seeing as you are liable to lose 3 points per unfed worker, make sure to have sufficient corn. Many buildings provide some of this.

During the whole game you need corn, many-many corn. There are only two realistic ways to gather significant number of corn:
1) advance the last level of resource extraction technology, use last Yaxchilan action and from time to time go to the market to exchange gold and stone for corn;
2) advance the last level of agriculture technology and use Palenque circle.

The first way is more effective, on the 5th Yaxchilan you can get the equivalent of 16 corn and only 12 corn on the 5th Palenque action. You can see, 16 is greater than 12 :-)

If someone is dominating the Palenque gear, tell them it's a corny strategy.

== The typical game schedule ==

1st quarter:
* ● get 1-2 additional workers;
* ● advance resource extraction technology for the last level;
* ● go 1-2 times to the 5th Yaxchilan;
* ● it's not a problem if you beg few times;
* ● it's better not to feed your workers and save your resources in gold and stones, but you should be prepared to go to the market at the beginning of the 2nd quarter.

2nd quarter:
* ● get 1 additional worker;
* ● go to the 5th Yaxchilan as many times as possible;
* ● you should have MANY resources at the end of the quarter;
* ● usually there is no any reason to build building from the first half.

3rd quarter:
* ● advance architecture techonology for the last level;
* ● get the 6th worker if you have only 5 yet;
* ● 4th Tikal and 5th Yaxchilan become your most important places, build as many buildings and monuments as possible;
* ● it's good idea to build feed buildings now.

4th quarter:
* ● continue building and monuments building;
* ● advance theology technology for the 2nd or 3rd level;
* ● at the middle of the quarter put 3-4 workers to Chichen Itza;
* ● other workers find skulls and build last building/monuments.

You should get 120-140 points by this tactic.

Gamehelppyramis

2026-05-12T20:28:35Z

SimplicatusGames: Add proper formatting - part 2

== Overview ==
Players: 2 to 4

Duration: About 15 minutes

Goal: Score the most points by building a pyramid of cards

== Turn Structure ==
On their turn, a player performs the following actions:

=== 1. Choose a card ===
Take one card from the three available in the river.

=== 2. Place the card ===
The first card can be placed freely on the lowest level. Subsequent cards must be:

• Adjacent to at least one previously placed card, or

• Placed above two cards from the level below.

=== 3. Shooting Star (if shown on the card) ===
Draw a Shooting Star card, look at it, and keep it face down.

=== 4. Refill the river ===
Add a new card from one of the two Exodus decks.

=== 5. Check rotations ===
If both decks show the same color, all players must rotate one card of that color (if possible).

== End of the Game ==
The game ends when each player has built a pyramid of 10 cards (4 levels).

=== Scoring ===
Each visible Pyramid symbol is worth 1 point.
Aliens only score for the player who has the most.
Pyramids in your largest connected area of the same color score a second time.

=== Victory ===
The player with the most points wins the game.

Gamehelppyramis

2026-05-12T20:24:02Z

SimplicatusGames: Add proper formatting - part 1

== Overview ==
Players: 2 to 4

Duration: About 15 minutes

Goal: Score the most points by building a pyramid of cards

== Turn Structure ==
On their turn, a player performs the following actions:

=== 1. Choose a card ===
Take one card from the three available in the river.

=== 2. Place the card ===
The first card can be placed freely on the lowest level. Subsequent cards must be:

• Adjacent to at least one previously placed card, or

• Placed above two cards from the level below.

=== 3. Shooting Star (if shown on the card) ===
Draw a Shooting Star card, look at it, and keep it face down.

4. Refill the river

Add a new card from one of the two Exodus decks.

5. Check rotations

If both decks show the same color, all players must rotate one card of that color (if possible).

End of the Game

The game ends when each player has built a pyramid of 10 cards (4 levels).

Scoring

Each visible Pyramid symbol is worth 1 point.
Aliens only score for the player who has the most.
Pyramids in your largest connected area of the same color score a second time.

Victory

The player with the most points wins the game.

Gamehelpvillagers

2026-04-20T19:11:31Z

SimplicatusGames: Added bullet symbols since the markdown doesn't work

The Groundwork: You are the founder of a small settlement, and you have dreams of one day turning your settlement into a booming and bustling Village! To do this, however, you must compete with other founders to attract the best inhabitants to your village, so that it can be the most prosperous of all...

The Game: Games are composed of a variable number of rounds where players first take turns drafting cards into their hands, and then go around the table playing cards into their tableaus. Cards have different symbols on them representing how many cards a player can draft, how many cards they can play, or how much money they generate during special income phases. There are only two income phases in the entire game, one approximately at the middle of the game's duration, and one at the very end. These two income phases are where the majority of players' money will be generated.

The Goal: To have the most money at the end (just like in real life).

==Overview==

(This section contains a quick, TL;DR version of the exhaustive rules listed below...)

Games are composed of a variable number of rounds focused on expanding tableaus, interspersed by two special income-generating phases.

===Rounds===

Each round consists of two basic phases:

==== '''Draft phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players take turns picking _one_ of the following:
** • A single face-up card ("Villager") from the 6 face-up cards (the "Road")
*** - If there are coins placed on the face-up card that a player selects, they take those coins immediately into their "Supply"
** • Blind-drawing a single face-down card from the top of any of the 6 "Road Stacks"

* Drafting continues in this one-at-a-time fashion until each player has reached their Draft limit

* The number of cards that a player *must* draft each round (their "Draft limit") is determined by adding 2 to the number of red "Food" symbols showing on cards in their tableau:
** • Thus, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards drafted per round, since no one starts the game with a "Food" symbol in their tableau
** • The maximum Draft limit is 5 cards drafted per round (or, 3 "Food" symbols showing in a player's tableau)
*** - Players *may* have more than 3 "Food" symbols in their tableau, but only 3 of these may be counted toward the player's Draft limit

* At the end of the Draft phase, certain cards may be removed from the Road and replaced with new ones, to provide some variety in cards available:
** • In 2 player games: in reverse-player-order, each player *may* (but is not required to) place a coin from the Bank onto a Road card to exempt it from being recycled; once both players have had a chance to place a coin, all cards in the Road without coins on them are recycled
** • In 3+ player games: No player action is required; all cards in the Road with coins on them are recycled, then all 6 cards in the road get 1 coin placed on them

==== '''Build phase''' ====
* Starting with the current 1st Player, and going around the table clockwise, players play ("Build") cards into their tableaus ("Villages") to improve the abilities of cards in their tableaus
** • These new cards generally increase one or many of the following attributes of the player's Village:
*** - The number of cards they will draft (via red "Food" symbols) in a round
*** - The number of cards they may build (via black "Builder" symbols) in a round
*** - The amount of money (via "Gold" & "Silver" coin symbols) they generate in the income phases ("Markets")

* One of the most important aspects of the Build phase is creating production chains, which typically require a "Basic" villager card of the same suit (card color) as a card you wish to play
** • Basic villagers are not drafted; instead, to play one, a player must trade a card from their hand (placing it on the top of any Road Stack) for the Basic villager to put into play
** • Acquiring Basic villagers does *not* count toward a player's Build limit
** • Each Basic villager may be used to start 2 separate production chains of their suit
** • The "Founders" card that all players start with in their Village is the only Basic villager for the turquoise "Grains" suit
** • Brown "Solitary" suit cards do not require Basic villagers, and they do not create production chains

* To play cards onto production chains, look at the production chain summary below the card's name
** • This will tell you which cards must precede it in a chain

* Some cards must be "Unlocked" by another type of Villager before they can be played; if a player wants to play a card that must be unlocked, they must first find out where the available unlocking villagers are:
** • If the player who is playing the card also has the unlocking villager in their own village, they take 2 gold from the Bank and place it onto their unlocking villager
** • If another player has the unlocking villager, the current player must place 2 gold from their Supply onto the other player's unlocking villager
** • If no one has the unlocking villager in their tableau, then the current player must pay 2 gold from their supply to the Bank
** • Money placed on unlocking villagers remains on them until the end of the game; it cannot be used to pay for anything during the game

* The number of cards that a player *may (but is not required to)* build each round, or their "Build limit" is determined by adding 2 to the number of "Builder" symbols showing in their tableau *at the start of their build phase*
** • Because no one starts with a Builder symbol in their village, each player starts with the minimum of 2 cards that may be built per round
** • By playing cards with Builder symbols, this can be increased to a maximum of 5 cards that may be built per round; additional Builder symbols beyond 3 will not increase a player's Build limit further

* At the end of the Build phase, if one of the Market phases was triggered by uncovering a Market card during the Draft phase, then continue on to the appropriate Market phase
** • Otherwise, the 1st player designation passes clockwise to the next player, and a new round is started

===Income===

In addition to the two basic phases, there are two special events, the Markets, that happen after the Build phase of the round in which they are triggered. These two Markets are the main ways in which money (the central resource and victory point of the game) is generated:

* First Market - occurs once the first and second Road Stacks are emptied; during this Market, money is generated in two ways:
** • Players receive income equal to the sum of all gold symbol values visible on their cards
** • Players also receive income for all money placed on cards that have been used to unlock others (but the money itself on the cards is not removed at this time)

* Second Market - occurs once all of the road supply decks have been emptied; during this Market, money is generated in three ways (two of which are basically the same as in the First Market):
** • Players receive income again equal the sum of all visible gold symbol values printed on cards
** • Additionally, players receive income for all visible silver symbol values (which are calculated based on other cards in their tableau)
** • Finally, players also take all the money placed on unlocking cards off of those cards and into their Supply

After the Second Market is completed, the game is over: the player with the most money in their Supply is the winner!

==Setup==

* There are always 10 of each "Basic Villager" card available at the start of the game
** These cards are required for building most of the production chains in the game; they will be described in detail in the "Build" phase
* The 6 face-up "Road" cards for drafting are always the same at the start of each game
* The rest of the cards (except for the starting "Founders" and the "Basic Villager" cards) are shuffled together to form the deck
** The deck holds 2 copies of each Villager card, except for the 6 starting "Road" cards, of which there are only 1 each (since the other copy of these cards starts out in the "Road")
* Each player starts with:
** 8 money
** 5 cards in hand, dealt from the shuffled deck
** a "Founders" card showing a gold symbol with a value of 2 in their tableau
* Then, 6 smaller decks, each with twice the number of cards as there are players in the game, are dealt face down to form the "Road Stacks"
** Cards will be taken from these stacks during the Draft phases, either to draw cards directly from them, or to replenish face-up cards drafted during the road
* Finally, the cards remaining in the deck after dealing hands and Road Stacks form a face-down "Reserve" deck
** Cards will only be drawn from here either to cycle out un-drafted cards at the end of each Draft phase or to be used as a Road Stack in the final round of the game, once all cards have been drawn from the 6 original Road Stacks
* One player is randomly chosen as the First Player; they begin the first Draft Phase of the game

==Draft Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player must draft one card from the face-up or face-down options on the Road until each has reached their Draft limit.

===Drafting Actions===

* There is no "passing" before you've reached your Draft limit; if you are not at your Draft limit, you _must_ draft a card on your turn
** Draft limits start at a minimum of 2 cards/round and increase by 1 with each visible Food symbol, up to a maximum of 5 cards/round
* Drafted cards are _always_ displayed face-up in a player's Village Square (a sort of waiting area for a player's drafted cards in a round), even if one of them was drafted from a face-down stack
** Once a player reaches their Draft limit, they take up all the cards from their Village Square into their hand. (TODO: What if the last card drafted is face-down? Does it remain a secret to the other players?)

Drafting a card can be done in one of two ways:

====Drafting Face-up====

A player may choose to take any 1 of the 6 face-up villagers from the Road on their turn.

* If the villager has any coins placed on top of them from previous rounds, the player also puts these coins into their money supply
* The drafted card is immediately replaced with the top card of the leftmost Road Stack (which is, of course, flipped face-up)
** If all Road Stacks are empty, replace the taken card with the top card of the Reserve deck
*** If the Reserve deck is also empty, the card is not replaced

====Drafting Face-down====

Alternatively, a player can choose to blindly (i.e., without seeing the face value) draft a card from any 1 of the 6 (or fewer) non-empty Road Stacks.

* This is not an entirely blind draft, though, since the suit of each card is shown on its back
* As the game progresses, stacks will become exhausted, which will restrict the number of face-down choices
** If all Road Stacks are empty, the top card of the Reserve deck may be taken as a face-down draft

===End of the Draft Phase===

After all players have reached their Draft limit, certain cards will be discarded from the face-up Road villagers to make space for new ones. These new cards will always be drawn from the Reserve deck (or the leftmost Road Stack, if the Reserve deck has been emptied), but the method for discarding cards differs between 2-player games and those with 3 or more players.

====Updating the Road: 2 Players====

* In _reverse player order_, each player is given the option to place a coin from the bank onto 1 card in the Road
** Players may even choose the same card to have a coin placed on it; in that case, the card would get 2 coins placed on it for this round
** Alternatively, a player may choose _not to place a coin_ on any card (TODO: Does this mean the player gets to keep that coin?)
* Once both players have made their choice, all cards in the Road that do _not_ have coins on them are discarded and replaced

====Updating the Road: 3+ Players====

* All cards with coins on them are discarded and replaced
* After replacing cards, each of the 6 cards in the Road have 1 coin placed on them

==Build Phase==

Going around the table in clockwise order (starting with the current 1st Player), each player takes a turn playing all cards that they wish to play and/or build for the round. Each player *may* build Villagers up to their Build limit, but they are never required to do so (unlike in the Draft phase).

At the start of this phase (before any building have occurred), all players must declare their current Build limit. Build limits for each player start at a minimum of 2 "Build" actions per round and increase, with each visible black "Builder" symbol in their Village, up to a maximum of 5 "Build" actions per round. Not all actions that may be taken in the Build phase are technically "Build" actions; those that are not have no limit to the number of the times they may be performed.
* Although there is a limit to the number of "Build" actions you may take, there is no such restriction on card *types* that may be built. You _are always allowed_ to have more than one of the same Villager in your village.

Importantly: "Builder" symbols on cards played (or covered up) in the current Build phase *DO NOT* affect the number of "Build" actions a player may take in that round; the new "Builder" symbol counts take effect at the beginning of the next Build phase.

===Building Actions===

Any time that a new card is permanently placed from a player's hand into a Village, this is considered a "Build" action, and it counts toward the player's Build limit. These Build actions fall into three general categories:

====Build a Solitary Villager====

* The "Solitary" suit is unique in that each of these cards are played directly into their own standalone "Production Chain"; no cards will ever be underneath or on top of these cards when in play.
** Because of this, the only requirement for playing any of these cards is that the unlocking cost of 2 money is paid (either by the player or by the Bank; see the "Unlock a Villager" section for more info).

====Build a Villager as part of a Production Chain====

* Most cards in the game, aside from "Basic" cards and "Solitary" ones, will require a certain card to already be present in the player's Village before they can be played; when this new card is played, it must go on top of the required predecessor card, covering up any symbols below the "Name" section
** The required predecessor card onto which the new card must be placed can be found on the new card, just below its name (format: "card name + card name + BOLD NAME OF CURRENT CARD + card name"); the predecessor card is one listed just before the bold name, reading left-to-right
** A player _may_ build a Villager card and its required predecessor in the same round (i.e., there are no rules against expanding a Production Chain by more than one villager per turn)
** Again, just as with the Solitary villagers, if a card has a Padlock symbol on it, then the unlocking fee must be paid before the card can be played

====Build a Special Villager into an existing Production Chain====

There are two "Special" suit cards that may be played into your village (or, in one case, another player's village), and each of these cards has a unique power:

* Monk
** The Monk card may be used in place of any other card in the game, but only for the purposes of being another card's predecessor; Monks do NOT take on any other property (e.g., Suit, Padlock, Food, Builder, or Gold symbols) of the card that they are replacing.
*** Because the Monk's sole purpose is to act as a predecessor card, the card that is using it as a predecessor *must always be* played in the same round as the Monk (i.e., it can never be the "Top" card of a production chain at the end of the round)
** If the Monk is played as the bottom card in a production chain (e.g. for suits where the "Basic" villager must be drafted from the Road), then it may have have 2 branches off of it
*** If this is the case, then only 1 of the 2 branches must be "Built" by the end of the round.
*** When played as the bottom card in a chain, the Monk can only accommodate 2 *first-level* villagers (i.e., each with only one predecessor before it in a chain), and both of these villagers must be of the same suit
**** In other words, once a Monk is played as a certain card in a chain, it immediately "becomes" the single real card that it replaces (but only for the purposes of being a predecessor)
* Apprentice
** Apprentices are swapped with one non-Top villager in any village, and the card that the Apprentice replaced goes into play for the player who played the Apprentice.
** So, the Apprentice may be used to "steal" another player's villager card that is part of a production chain
*** This can be done for all non-Top cards in other villages, *except for* Founders; you may not steal another player's Founders with the Apprentice
** The Apprentice may also be used to essentially "duplicate" one of your own existing cards.
*** If you use the Apprentice in this manner, within your own village, you _may_ swap it with your Founders card
**** If this is done, you get to choose the side (2 Gold or Food symbol) of the Founders card that is facing up when you place it into your village

TODO: Is the player from whom you stole allowed to still play new villagers on top of the Apprentice (in the case of it being swapped for a Basic villager)?
TODO: What happens if you are not able to play the villager card that you've just stolen? Does it go to the discard pile? Do you take it into your hand? Or are you not allowed to play the Apprentice onto a card that you cannot immediately accommodate?

===Actions that are not considered "Building"===

Certain actions that can be taken during the Build phase do not actually count toward a player's Build limit, and thus are not considered "Build" actions. These actions include the following:

====Trade for a Basic Villager====

* To build most villagers that are part of a production chain, you must start with a "Basic" Villager card
** Basic Villagers are distinguishable from other cards in that they have two rounded rectangle (card) symbols on the top right of the card
*** This denotes that these cards may act as the "Basic" card for two different production chains, or Branches, as long as they are of the same suit as the Basic card (or at least the same suit as each other, in the case of Monks and Apprentices played as Basic Villagers)
** Every suit except for Solitary has a Basic Villager which is required for building production chains
* The Basic Villager for the Grain suit is the Founders card
** Each player begins with 1 Founders card in play, and there is no way to gain additional Founders
*** With the one exception being that a player's own Founders may be duplicated, potentially twice, by the Apprentice
* The Basic Villager cards for the Grape, Leather, and Wool suits must either start out in a player's hand or be drafted from the Road
** There are only 2 copies of each of these suits' Basic Villagers in the game
* Finally, to acquire a Basic Villager for the 3 most common suits with production chains (Hay, Wood, or Ore suits), a player must trade in 1 of their existing hand cards to get and play 1 Basic Villager
** When a player trades in the card from their hand, they choose any non-empty Road Stack onto which to place their card, face-down
*** _Any_ non-emptied Stack is eligible for placing cards onto; you are not required to place your card onto the leftmost Stack
*** If all Road Stacks are empty, then the player must place their traded card on top of the Reserve deck
** Since trading for Basic Villagers is not a "Build" action, there is no limit to the number of times this action may be taken in a given round
*** ...well, aside from the number of cards in your hand- you can only get as many Basic Villagers as cards that you can trade in
** Basic Villagers may be acquired and played without needing to be covered by other cards in the production chain that round (unlike the Monk)

TODO: What happens if a Basic Villager stack is emptied? Can no one get that type of Basic Villager anymore, or are these also intended to be infinite, like the gold?

====Unlock a Villager====

* Many Villagers have a Padlock symbol in their upper left corner; this signifies that the card must be "Unlocked" before it can be built
** Unlocking does not cost a Build action, but it _could_ cost 2 money...
** Every card with a padlock symbol on it will also have the name of the Villager that must unlock it; this will be listed just below the Name on the card to be played
** Unlocking a card will always involve a transaction of 2 money (except when a player uses the Tinner, as described in the next section), but who pays the 2 money and who gets the 2 money vary based on who has the Unlocking Villager in their Village:
*** If the player who is playing the card also has the Unlocking Villager in their own Village:
**** 2 money is taken _from the Bank_ and is placed _onto the current player's Unlocking Villager_
*** If the player who is playing the card does not have the Unlocking Villager in their own Village, but another player does:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _onto the other player's Unlocking Villager_
**** If more than one Unlocking Villager is in play, then the current player chooses which one to pay
*** If no one has the Unlocking Villager in play:
**** 2 money is _paid by the current player_ and is placed _into the Bank_ (essentially, you've hired an outside contractor to unlock your villager)
**** A player may NOT choose to pay the Bank if there *is* an Unlocking Villager in another player's Village
* Important to note: unlike Build symbols, which do not take effect until your next turn, you may use Unlocking Villagers played earlier in the round to unlock other cards that you play that round
** On each Unlocking Villager, you will see a card symbol with a key at its bottom and a number inside of the card symbol; this denotes how many cards there are in the game that require this Villager to unlock them
* Finally, any money played onto an Unlocking Villager will remain on the card until the end of the game
** You may NOT use this money to pay for anything during the game
*** All payments from a player (i.e., for unlocking cards) must *always* come from their respective Supplies

====Play a Special Villager with the "Discard" symbol====

Two Special suit cards, the Tinner and Smuggler, have a card symbol with an "X" over it on the top right of the card; this symbol means that these cards are discarded at the end of the round in which they are played. Because they are discarded, these Villagers do NOT count toward a player's Build limit. Here's what each of these cards do:

* Tinner
** You do not have to pay to unlock *YOUR OWN* Villager cards for the rest of the round
** This power _may_ be applied on a card-by-card basis to your advantage:
*** If you own one of the required Unlocking Villagers for a card you are playing this round, you can still put 2 coins from the Bank onto the Unlocking Villager
* Smuggler
** Immediately adds money into your Supply based on the single highest value Gold Symbol printed on a card in your own Village
** The amount of money received is equal to half of this highest value Gold Symbol, rounded up if necessary
*** Example: Say you have a Thatcher (Gold symbol with value of 2) and a Vintner (Gold symbol with value of 5) in your Village when you play the Smuggler; you will receive 3 money to your supply because the Vintner's 5 is the highest value, and 5/2 = 2.5, so this is rounded up to 3.

TODO: I assume that the Smuggler only considers "Top" Villagers, but it says "printed on", not "Top" - does this mean that, if your highest value Gold symbol is actually covered by another card, it still could be used for the purposes of the Smuggler?

===End of the Build Phase===

* After all players have completed building, if any player does _not_ have any visible Food symbols in their Village, they must flip their Founders card from its 2-value Gold symbol side to its 1 Food symbol side
* The 1st Player designation passes to the next player clockwise from the current 1st player
* If either of the Market phases have been triggered, move on to that Market phase; otherwise, begin a new Draft phase

==Market Phases==

Market phases are the two "checkpoints" of the game (approximately halfway through the game and at the very end of the game) in which the majority of players' money will be generated. The timing of when these two phases occur depends on when certain face-down Road Stacks are emptied (and, remember: once a Road Stack is emptied, it can never be re-filled with hand cards that are traded for Basic Villagers).

* The Road Stacks are numbered from #1 to #6, from left to right
** As the game progresses, certain Road Stacks will become exhausted due to face-down drawing and replenishing face-up Road cards taken during the Draft phases
*** This will *usually* happen from left-to-right, as this is how cards will be drawn for replenishing face-up Road cards
*** However, unconventional drawing tactics (i.e., exclusively drawing face-down cards from the right-most stacks) may lead to stacks being exhausted in random or even right-to-left order
**** It is for this reason that more specific rules, based on which Road Stacks have been emptied, are used for determining when the First and Second Markets occur, rather than just having these Markets occur when the First and Second Market cards are revealed
* First Market occurs once Road Stacks #1 and #2 have been emptied
* Second Market occurs only once all Road Stacks (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) have been emptied (i.e., there are no more Road Stacks remaining)

===First Market===

Once the first two Road Stacks are emptied, the "First Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the First Market will occur at the end of the round.

* During the First Market, in turn order, money will be added to each player's Supply in the following 2 ways:
** Sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Sum of all coins placed on top of Unlocking Villagers
*** The coins themselves that are on top of these villagers, however, will stay on top of them; essentially this amount is doubled and then the newly generated money is added to the player's Supply

===Second Market===

After all Road Stacks have been emptied, the "Second Market" card will be revealed and turned sideways to remind all players that the Second Market will occur at the end of the round (and, after this Market phase, the game will be over).

* In the Second Market, money will be generated in generally the same 2 ways as in the First Market, as well as in a third way that is unique to the Second Market. In this phase, money will always be generated in the following order:
** First, each player receives the sum of values written on all visible "Gold" symbols on Villagers
** Second, each player receives money equal to the sum of all "Silver" symbol formulas visible on Villagers (i.e., not covered by other Villager cards)
*** These "Silver" symbol formulas are variable/conditional values that depend upon the counts of certain symbols or coins on Villagers that are _in their own Village_.
*** The following symbols are only counted when they are on "Top" Villager cards (i.e., those that are not covered by any other cards):
**** the value or count of "Gold" symbols
**** "Food" symbols
**** "Builder" symbols
**** coins on Unlocking Villagers
*** The following symbols are counted for *all* Villager cards in a player's Village, regardless of whether they are "Top" cards or those that are covered by other cards:
**** Suit symbols (e.g., purple "Hay", green "Wood", turquoise "Grains", etc.)
***** Some cards have two Suit symbols on them; these cards count for twice the usual Suit symbols
**** Padlocks (the lock symbols showing on the top left of every Villager that must be unlocked by another Villager)
** Third, move all coins that are on top of Unlocking Villagers into each player's Supply
*** This is done *after* calculating "Silver" symbol values because some Silver formulas will count the number of coins on Unlocking Villagers

==End of the Game==

Once the Second Market is completed, the game is over. The player with the most money in their Supply is the winner. If there is a tie for the most money, then the player among the tied players who has the fewest cards in their village is the winner.

==Commonly Overlooked Rules==

Gamehelpninetynine

2026-03-01T12:53:27Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Scoring */ Changed "reveal bid" to "declare bid"

[[Category:Card games]]
== Game play ==

* 36 card deck.
* 3 player trick taking game.
* Maximum points from one hand = 99.
* Gain points for each trick taken + bonus points for making a bid exactly.
* Unique bidding system.

=== Bidding ===

* Each player sets aside 3 cards in secret.
* Bid = sum of the suit values:
:{|class="wikitable"style="width:auto;text-align:center;"border="2"
!Suit
|{{diamond}}
|{{spade}}
|{{heart}}
|{{club}}
|-
!Value
|0
|1
|2
|3
|}

=== Scoring ===

* +1 point/trick taken.
* Only one bonus/hand.
* If a player misses their bid, the other players gain the bonus.
* Bonus points for making a bid exactly:
** '''declare''' their bid +30 points.
** '''reveal''' their hand and bid +60 points.
::{|class="wikitable"style="width:auto;text-align:center;"border="2"
!# players
|{{player|1}}
|{{player|2}}
|{{player|3}}
|-
!Points
| +30
| +20
| +10
|}

== Options ==

{{optionGroup|Game style|
{{option|df=|Standard|
* Trump suit by random card draw.
* {{card|9}} or {{card|Joker}}: no trump.
}}
{{option|Junk the Joker|
* 1st deal: {{diamond}} trump.
* Other deals: trump suit depends on the number of correct bids in the last trick.
}}
{{option|Junk the Joker (no starting trump)|
* 1st deal: no trump.
* Other deals: trump suit depends on the number of correct bids in the last trick.
}}
}}

{{optionGroup|Scoring style|
{{option|df=|1 Round per player (with end of round bonuses)|
* Each game is 3 rounds.
* Rounds end when at least one player reaches 100 points.
* Players that reach or pass 100 points gain bonus points:
** 30/20/10 points for 1/2/3 players.
}}
{{option|1 Round per player (no round bonuses)|
* Each game is 3 rounds.
* Rounds end when at least one player reaches 100 points.
* No bonus points.
}}
{{option|First to 3 rounds|
* Rounds end when at least one player reaches 100 points.
* 1st player to win 3 rounds wins.
}}
{{option|9 hands|
* Each game is 9 hands.
* Highest score at the end wins.
}}
}}

Gamehelpgardennation

2025-12-31T13:36:13Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Ploy Tokens */

===Overview===

Build structures brick by brick to satisfy projects and secret missions, whilst maintaining your Inhabitants

===Core Concepts===

There are two core concepts to keep in mind

Firstly, where you take an action determines what area will be used next, e.g. if you use the top right space of any area, the top right area will be the next used

Secondly, although everyone will get a turn in a round, the next player is decided by the current player out of those who have not taken a turn yet

===Turn===

On a turn, a player may take one or two actions based on their place in turn order

In addition, they may complete a common project &/or use a Ploy

The three actions to choose from are: Construct in an Empty Area, Construct on an Existing Building, Abandon an Existing Building

If a player truly can't do anything in the region they are designated, they can take their action(s) in the region in the next numerical value

===Construct in an Empty Area===

To build on an empty patch, spend Inhabitants equal to the number on that patch

To build on a Bramble (no value) spend 5 Inhabitants and choose what type of land it becomes

Either way, after which place a floor on the empty space

===Construct on an Existing Building===

If a player has previously made a floor, they can add a floor to this for the cost of the land as above +1 for each floor already there, e.g. a land cost of 3 with 2 floors already will cost 5 to add the third floor

There is no height limit, but you can only build on your own structures

===Abandon a Building===

Completely demolish a building, no part deconstructions, completely remove the tower and receive Inhabitants equal to 2 X the cost to build it

===Complete a Common Project===

As a bonus action, and once per main action (so up to twice per turn) a player can complete a Common Project

A Common Project can only be claimed at the moment a floor is placed which completes its objective

An Objective which requires a certain number of floors desires a MINIMUM number, not an exact number of

The floor which caused the Project to complete receives a roof, which means it can't be built any higher AND it can no longer contribute to other future projects

No other structures which contributed to the objective receive a roof

The player takes the Objective so no one else can claim it and moves forward the depicted number of points

A new common project is then revealed

It is possible for a player to complete the newly revealed project if they completed their first objective with their first action, and have a second action which lets them complete the newly revealed project

Secret Missions are similar to Common Projects except that they are scored at game end

===Ploy Tokens===

As an addition per action, a player can use a Ploy Token to enact a Ploy

Strategic Movement & Roof Transfer are IN ADDITION TO the main action

Building Invasion is INSTEAD OF the main action

===Strategic Movement===

This allows the player to take their action(s) in the region one value higher or one value lower than their current location

1 & 7 wrap round

===Roof Transfer===

This allows the player to move a roof from their current area to another area as long as the land types match

===Building Invasion===

This allows the player to take control of another player's structure and turn it into their own

To do this, the active player must pay double the cost of building the structure and the passive player gains double the cost of building the structure (as if it were an Abandon action from their perspective)

===Territory Control & Preparations===

After all players have had a turn, the current round ends

In each region, the player with the most floors gains 2 inhabitants, or 1 each if two players are tied

The player who played last this round now becomes first player for the next round

===Game End===

Once a player plays their final floor (even if they use their second action to gain floors back) the current round is finished properly and the game ends

Players all reveal their Secret Missions and score these as depicted

Players gain or lose points depending on how many or how few inhabitants they have

The player with the most points wins!

Gamehelpgardennation

2025-12-31T13:35:15Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Game End */

===Overview===

Build structures brick by brick to satisfy projects and secret missions, whilst maintaining your Inhabitants

===Core Concepts===

There are two core concepts to keep in mind

Firstly, where you take an action determines what area will be used next, e.g. if you use the top right space of any area, the top right area will be the next used

Secondly, although everyone will get a turn in a round, the next player is decided by the current player out of those who have not taken a turn yet

===Turn===

On a turn, a player may take one or two actions based on their place in turn order

In addition, they may complete a common project &/or use a Ploy

The three actions to choose from are: Construct in an Empty Area, Construct on an Existing Building, Abandon an Existing Building

If a player truly can't do anything in the region they are designated, they can take their action(s) in the region in the next numerical value

===Construct in an Empty Area===

To build on an empty patch, spend Inhabitants equal to the number on that patch

To build on a Bramble (no value) spend 5 Inhabitants and choose what type of land it becomes

Either way, after which place a floor on the empty space

===Construct on an Existing Building===

If a player has previously made a floor, they can add a floor to this for the cost of the land as above +1 for each floor already there, e.g. a land cost of 3 with 2 floors already will cost 5 to add the third floor

There is no height limit, but you can only build on your own structures

===Abandon a Building===

Completely demolish a building, no part deconstructions, completely remove the tower and receive Inhabitants equal to 2 X the cost to build it

===Complete a Common Project===

As a bonus action, and once per main action (so up to twice per turn) a player can complete a Common Project

A Common Project can only be claimed at the moment a floor is placed which completes its objective

An Objective which requires a certain number of floors desires a MINIMUM number, not an exact number of

The floor which caused the Project to complete receives a roof, which means it can't be built any higher AND it can no longer contribute to other future projects

No other structures which contributed to the objective receive a roof

The player takes the Objective so no one else can claim it and moves forward the depicted number of points

A new common project is then revealed

It is possible for a player to complete the newly revealed project if they completed their first objective with their first action, and have a second action which lets them complete the newly revealed project

Secret Missions are similar to Common Projects except that they are scored at game end

===Ploy Tokens===

As an addition per action, a player can use a Ploy Token to enact a Ploy

Strategic Movement & Roof Transfer are AS WELL AS the main action

Building Invasion is INSTEAD OF the main action

===Strategic Movement===

This allows the player to take their action(s) in the region one value higher or one value lower than their current location

1 & 7 wrap round

===Roof Transfer===

This allows the player to move a roof from their current area to another area as long as the land types match

===Building Invasion===

This allows the player to take control of another player's structure and turn it into their own

To do this, the active player must pay double the cost of building the structure and the passive player gains double the cost of building the structure (as if it were an Abandon action from their perspective)

===Territory Control & Preparations===

After all players have had a turn, the current round ends

In each region, the player with the most floors gains 2 inhabitants, or 1 each if two players are tied

The player who played last this round now becomes first player for the next round

===Game End===

Once a player plays their final floor (even if they use their second action to gain floors back) the current round is finished properly and the game ends

Players all reveal their Secret Missions and score these as depicted

Players gain or lose points depending on how many or how few inhabitants they have

The player with the most points wins!

Tips kaiser

2025-12-28T20:30:42Z

SimplicatusGames:

Here's a deeper dive with more strategy, card details, and gameplay tips.

'''🧩 Advanced Kaiser Tutorial'''

'''🃏 Special Cards'''

Some cards are exceptions and remain in the deck despite the general removal of 2–7:

♦7 (Seven of Diamonds) – Often a high-value card or scoring card.

♣7 (Seven of Clubs) – May have strategic importance.

♥5 (Five of Hearts) – Sometimes used as a penalty card.

♠3 (Three of Spades) – Often a bonus card.

These cards can drastically affect scoring and trick outcomes depending on the variant.

'''🔢 Bidding Strategy'''

Start conservatively: If you're unsure of your hand, bid the minimum (6).

Count your winners: Estimate how many tricks you can realistically win.

Watch others: If someone bids No-trump, expect reversed rankings and adjust your play.

Bluffing: You can bid higher to pressure others, but failing your bid means zero points.

'''🧠 Playing Tips'''

Lead with strength: Start tricks with your strongest suit to control the round.

Track suits: Pay attention to which suits have been played and which are still in play.

Use special cards wisely: Save the ♠3 for a clutch win or avoid the ♥5 if it's a penalty.

Adapt to No-trump: In No-trump rounds, low cards may beat high ones—plan accordingly.

'''🏁 Endgame & Winning'''

The game continues over multiple rounds.

The player with the highest cumulative score after a set number of rounds wins.

Strategic bidding and careful card play are key to long-term success.

Gamehelpkaiser

2025-12-28T20:26:58Z

SimplicatusGames:

'''🃏 Kaiser Tutorial: How to Play'''

'''🎯 Objective'''

Win tricks to earn points. Each trick = 1 point. The goal is to win at least as many tricks as you bid.

'''🧠 Game Setup'''

Played with a modified deck: cards 2–7 are removed except ♦7, ♣7, ♥5, and ♠3.

These remaining cards have special roles or scoring implications.

4 players compete individually.

'''📢 Bidding Phase'''

Starts with the player to the dealer’s left.

You can bid or pass.

First bid must be at least 6.

Each bid must be higher than the previous.

You may also bid No-trump, which changes how tricks are ranked.

'''🃎 Playing Tricks'''

Each round consists of multiple tricks.

Players play one card per trick.

The highest card (or best card based on trump rules) wins the trick.

Each trick won = 1 point toward your bid.

'''🔄 No-Trump Twist'''

If you bid No-trump, suit rankings are reversed.

This adds strategic depth and risk.

'''🏆 Scoring'''

Meet or exceed your bid → you score the number of tricks won.

Fail to meet your bid → you score zero for the round.

== Complete guide to Kaiser ==

Here’s a complete tutorial for Kaiser, the trick-taking card game featured on Board Game Arena. This guide covers everything from setup to strategy so you can play confidently and competitively.

'''🃏 Kaiser: Full Tutorial'''

'''🎯 Objective'''

The goal of Kaiser is to win tricks and score points by bidding accurately and playing strategically. Each trick won earns 1 point. The player with the highest score after several rounds wins.

'''🧰 Game Setup'''

Players: 4 (individual play)

Deck: Modified standard deck

Cards 2 to 7 are removed except:

♦7 (Seven of Diamonds)

♣7 (Seven of Clubs)

♥5 (Five of Hearts)

♠3 (Three of Spades)

These four special cards have unique scoring effects.

'''📦 Card Roles'''

Card Role/Effect

♠3 Bonus card (+3 points)

♥5 Penalty card (−5 points)

♦7, ♣7 Regular cards, used in tricks

'''📢 Bidding Phase'''

Starts with the player to the dealer’s left.

Players take turns to either:

Bid: Declare how many tricks they aim to win (minimum 6 if no bids yet).

Pass: Skip bidding.

Each bid must be higher than the previous.

No-trump bid: Optional bid that removes suit hierarchy and allows rank reversal.

'''🃎 Playing Tricks'''

Each round consists of multiple tricks.

Players play one card per trick.

The highest card (based on suit and rank) wins the trick.

In No-trump, suit hierarchy is ignored and ranks may reverse.

'''🔄 No-Trump Rules'''

No suit is dominant.

Trick-winning depends solely on card rank.

Rank reversal: Lower cards may beat higher ones depending on the variant.

'''🧮 Scoring'''

Each trick won = 1 point.

♠3 adds +3 points to your total.

♥5 subtracts −5 points from your total.

If you meet or exceed your bid → score all points earned.

If you fail your bid → score 0 points for the round.

'''🧠 Strategy Tips'''

''Bidding

Count your winners: Estimate how many tricks you can realistically win.

Bid conservatively early on.

Use No-trump if your hand lacks strong suits but has high-ranking cards.

''Playing''

Track suits: Know which suits are still active.

Save special cards: Use ♠3 strategically; avoid ♥5 unless necessary.

Lead with strength: Control the round by starting with your best card.

''Psychological Play''

Bluffing: Bid higher to pressure opponents.

Reading opponents: Watch their bids and plays to predict their hands.

'''🏁 Winning the Game'''

The game is played over multiple rounds.

After all rounds, the player with the highest cumulative score wins.

Smart bidding and tactical card play are key to victory.

Gamehelpkaiser

2025-12-28T20:24:36Z

SimplicatusGames:

Gamehelpkaiser

2025-12-28T20:23:07Z

SimplicatusGames: Moved Strategy part to Strategy page. Removed unnecessary comments from forum and added a subtitle for the "complete tutorial".

'''🃏 Kaiser Tutorial: How to Play'''

'''🎯 Objective'''

Win tricks to earn points. Each trick = 1 point. The goal is to win at least as many tricks as you bid.

'''🧠 Game Setup'''

Played with a modified deck: cards 2–7 are removed except ♦7, ♣7, ♥5, and ♠3.

These remaining cards have special roles or scoring implications.

4 players compete individually.

'''📢 Bidding Phase'''

Starts with the player to the dealer’s left.

You can bid or pass.

First bid must be at least 6.

Each bid must be higher than the previous.

You may also bid No-trump, which changes how tricks are ranked.

'''🃎 Playing Tricks'''

Each round consists of multiple tricks.

Players play one card per trick.

The highest card (or best card based on trump rules) wins the trick.

Each trick won = 1 point toward your bid.

'''🔄 No-Trump Twist'''

If you bid No-trump, suit rankings are reversed.

This adds strategic depth and risk.

'''🏆 Scoring'''

Meet or exceed your bid → you score the number of tricks won.

Fail to meet your bid → you score zero for the round.

== Complete guide to Kaiser ==

Here’s a complete tutorial for Kaiser, the trick-taking card game featured on Board Game Arena. This guide covers everything from setup to strategy so you can play confidently and competitively.

'''🃏 Kaiser: Full Tutorial'''

'''🎯 Objective'''

The goal of Kaiser is to win tricks and score points by bidding accurately and playing strategically. Each trick won earns 1 point. The player with the highest score after several rounds wins.

'''🧰 Game Setup'''

Players: 4 (individual play)

Deck: Modified standard deck

Cards 2 to 7 are removed except:

♦7 (Seven of Diamonds)

♣7 (Seven of Clubs)

♥5 (Five of Hearts)

♠3 (Three of Spades)

These four special cards have unique scoring effects.

'''📦 Card Roles'''

Card Role/Effect

♠3 Bonus card (+3 points)
♥5 Penalty card (−5 points)
♦7, ♣7 Regular cards, used in tricks
📢 Bidding Phase
Starts with the player to the dealer’s left.

Players take turns to either:

Bid: Declare how many tricks they aim to win (minimum 6 if no bids yet).

Pass: Skip bidding.

Each bid must be higher than the previous.

No-trump bid: Optional bid that removes suit hierarchy and allows rank reversal.

'''🃎 Playing Tricks'''

Each round consists of multiple tricks.

Players play one card per trick.

The highest card (based on suit and rank) wins the trick.

In No-trump, suit hierarchy is ignored and ranks may reverse.

'''🔄 No-Trump Rules'''

No suit is dominant.

Trick-winning depends solely on card rank.

Rank reversal: Lower cards may beat higher ones depending on the variant.

'''🧮 Scoring'''

Each trick won = 1 point.

♠3 adds +3 points to your total.

♥5 subtracts −5 points from your total.

If you meet or exceed your bid → score all points earned.

If you fail your bid → score 0 points for the round.

'''🧠 Strategy Tips'''

''Bidding

Count your winners: Estimate how many tricks you can realistically win.

Bid conservatively early on.

Use No-trump if your hand lacks strong suits but has high-ranking cards.

''Playing''

Track suits: Know which suits are still active.

Save special cards: Use ♠3 strategically; avoid ♥5 unless necessary.

Lead with strength: Control the round by starting with your best card.

''Psychological Play''

Bluffing: Bid higher to pressure opponents.

Reading opponents: Watch their bids and plays to predict their hands.

'''🏁 Winning the Game'''

The game is played over multiple rounds.

After all rounds, the player with the highest cumulative score wins.

Smart bidding and tactical card play are key to victory.

Tips kaiser

2025-12-28T20:09:45Z

SimplicatusGames: Copied from How to Play

Here's a deeper dive into the Kaiser tutorial with more strategy, card details, and gameplay tips:

🧩 Advanced Kaiser Tutorial 🃏 Special Cards Some cards are exceptions and remain in the deck despite the general removal of 2–7:

♦7 (Seven of Diamonds) – Often a high-value card or scoring card.

♣7 (Seven of Clubs) – May have strategic importance.

♥5 (Five of Hearts) – Sometimes used as a penalty card.

♠3 (Three of Spades) – Often a bonus card.

These cards can drastically affect scoring and trick outcomes depending on the variant.

🔢 Bidding Strategy Start conservatively: If you're unsure of your hand, bid the minimum (6).

Count your winners: Estimate how many tricks you can realistically win.

Watch others: If someone bids No-trump, expect reversed rankings and adjust your play.

Bluffing: You can bid higher to pressure others, but failing your bid means zero points.

🧠 Playing Tips Lead with strength: Start tricks with your strongest suit to control the round.

Track suits: Pay attention to which suits have been played and which are still in play.

Use special cards wisely: Save the ♠3 for a clutch win or avoid the ♥5 if it's a penalty.

Adapt to No-trump: In No-trump rounds, low cards may beat high ones—plan accordingly.

🏁 Endgame & Winning The game continues over multiple rounds.

The player with the highest cumulative score after a set number of rounds wins.

Strategic bidding and careful card play are key to long-term success.

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

Would you like a printable cheat sheet or a sample round walkthrough next?

make a full tutorial with everything included Here’s a complete tutorial for Kaiser, the trick-taking card game featured on Board Game Arena. This guide covers everything from setup to strategy so you can play confidently and competitively.

🃏 Kaiser: Full Tutorial 🎯 Objective The goal of Kaiser is to win tricks and score points by bidding accurately and playing strategically. Each trick won earns 1 point. The player with the highest score after several rounds wins.

🧰 Game Setup Players: 4 (individual play)

Deck: Modified standard deck

Cards 2 to 7 are removed except:

♦7 (Seven of Diamonds)

♣7 (Seven of Clubs)

♥5 (Five of Hearts)

♠3 (Three of Spades)

These four special cards have unique scoring effects.

📦 Card Roles Card Role/Effect ♠3 Bonus card (+3 points) ♥5 Penalty card (−5 points) ♦7, ♣7 Regular cards, used in tricks 📢 Bidding Phase Starts with the player to the dealer’s left.

Players take turns to either:

Bid: Declare how many tricks they aim to win (minimum 6 if no bids yet).

Pass: Skip bidding.

Each bid must be higher than the previous.

No-trump bid: Optional bid that removes suit hierarchy and allows rank reversal.

🃎 Playing Tricks Each round consists of multiple tricks.

Players play one card per trick.

The highest card (based on suit and rank) wins the trick.

In No-trump, suit hierarchy is ignored and ranks may reverse.

🔄 No-Trump Rules No suit is dominant.

Trick-winning depends solely on card rank.

Rank reversal: Lower cards may beat higher ones depending on the variant.

🧮 Scoring Each trick won = 1 point.

♠3 adds +3 points to your total.

♥5 subtracts −5 points from your total.

If you meet or exceed your bid → score all points earned.

If you fail your bid → score 0 points for the round.

🧠 Strategy Tips Bidding Count your winners: Estimate how many tricks you can realistically win.

Bid conservatively early on.

Use No-trump if your hand lacks strong suits but has high-ranking cards.

Playing Track suits: Know which suits are still active.

Save special cards: Use ♠3 strategically; avoid ♥5 unless necessary.

Lead with strength: Control the round by starting with your best card.

Psychological Play Bluffing: Bid higher to pressure opponents.

Reading opponents: Watch their bids and plays to predict their hands.

🏁 Winning the Game The game is played over multiple rounds.

After all rounds, the player with the highest cumulative score wins.

Smart bidding and tactical card play are key to victory.

Gamehelpzefiria

2025-05-22T19:49:14Z

SimplicatusGames: Added colour words for identifying wind gods, and bullet points for clarity

===Overview===

Zefiria is a co-operative game to try to put all the cards in the grid back in the right order as depicted on the goal map card.

At the beginning of the game, each player choose their Wind Spirit and place it on a corner to start at. Each Wind Spirit has a unique way for its actions of '''Breeze''' and '''Fly'''.

The time track is put to the side based on the number of players and the relevant number of purple round the markers is placed on it to determine the game's length.
===Turn===

On your turn, you have 4 action points to spend (5 in 2-player) on two actions which will then vary by character, these are:

● Fly - Generally a move type power.

● Breeze - Generally a manipulation type power.

You cannot move through or onto the same space as another player.

You cannot manipulate a tile occupied by a player.

If your breeze causes a tile to in effect pass over another during the exchange, for each it passes over this will cost you an extra action point and is known as overflying a tile.
===Borea (green)===

Fly

● 1 Action Point to move to an orthogonally adjacent space.

● 1 Action Point to move to a card of the same colour as the current space.

Breeze

● 1 Action Point to swap two unoccupied tiles if at least one of them matches the symbol of your current space.

===Jugo (yellow)===

Fly

● 1 Action Point to move to an orthogonally adjacent space.

● 1 Action Point to move to a card with the same icon as the current space.

Breeze

● 1 Action Point to swap two unoccupied tiles if at least one of them matches the colour of your current space.

===Etesia (pink)===

Fly

● 1 Action Point to move to an orthogonally adjacent space.

● 1 Action Point to move to a card along the diagonals to the one she's occupying.

Breeze

● 1 Action Point to swap an orthogonally adjacent tile with any other tile.

===Skyron (blue)===

Fly

● 1 Action Point to move to an orthogonally adjacent space.

Breeze

● 1 Action Point to swap the tile you stand on with any other, then decide which to reside on.

===Austro (red)===

Fly

● 1 Action Point to move around the edge of the board (outside the map) to land on an edge space, but cannot move into the central areas.

Breeze

● 1 Action Point to swap tiles in your current row or column.

===Game End===

The game ends on the final round, and scoring is based on how well you managed to put the island back to its true form.

● Gain 1 victory point for each Island card in the right place.

''● In Storm Mode, gain 1 victory point for Magical Gem still owned by the Wind Spirits.''

● Lose 1 victory point for each Island card in the wrong spot, on the right row.

● Lose 2 VP for each Island card both in the wrong spot and in the wrong row. 

===Summary===

SETUP

The Island cars are shuffled and placed in a 5x5 grid. Players pick their individual wind spirit. First player chosen and given the timer card.

PLAY

The first player will remove a time gem then all players and a clockwise order take their turn of the round, each wind spirit has a different movement and breeze they can use to move islands.

GOAL

As a group of wind spirits you are to put the islands back in order.

END GAME

After every player has taken their turn after removing the last time gem.

SCORING

● Every island in its proper place scores +1.

● Every island in its color row but not in its place scores -1.

● Every island not in its color row scores -2.

Tips factum

2025-05-21T13:11:42Z

SimplicatusGames: Fixed formatting

== Hints and Tricks ==

* '''The right balance:''' The link between the story and the card should not bee too obvious (otherwise, the judge of the opposite team will "overtake" it). But it shouldn't bee too difficult either. The balance comes with practice.

* '''Link to emotional summary:''' Usually, it is a bad tactics to link the story to a specific detail on the card. For example if you see a cat in the picture and your story is about cats or mentions them. Although there might be exceptions, this usually leads to the opponent's team winning the scores. Instead, try finding a relation between the "emotional summary" of the story and the "emotional summary" of the card. For example, you story is about the joy of obtaining the driver's license. The bad choice would be a card about cars. The good choice would be a card about a sense of triumph.

* '''Benefits of being a captain:''' The captain's role allows you to earn additional points - both as a storyteller and as a judge, so whenever possible, try to be the first to volunteer.

* '''The trick with two similar cards:''' There are some additional tactics how captains can earn extra points:
** As a storyteller, if you have two similar cards, choose the less obvious (but still obvious) card as your main card; if the judge overtakes the guessing to their team, you get a chance to add your second, more matching card to your own story and try to lure the opposite team into choosing your second card, thus losing the turn to your team and bringing you 3 points.
** As a judge, if you see that you have in your hand a card that matches the story even better than the storyteller's card, leave guessing to the storyteller's team, add your card and hope that the opponents will choose your card instead of the storyteller's.

Tips factum

2025-05-21T13:07:31Z

SimplicatusGames: Created page by copying hints and tips from original How to play page.

Hints and Tricks
The right balance: The link between the story and the card should not bee too obvious (otherwise, the judge of the opposite team will "overtake" it). But it shouldn't bee too difficult either. The balance comes with practice.
Link to emotional summary: Usually, it is a bad tactics to link the story to a specific detail on the card. For example if you see a cat in the picture and your story is about cats or mentions them. Although there might be exceptions, this usually leads to the opponent's team winning the scores. Instead, try finding a relation between the "emotional summary" of the story and the "emotional summary" of the card. For example, you story is about the joy of obtaining the driver's license. The bad choice would be a card about cars. The good choice would be a card about a sense of triumph.
Benefits of being a captain: The captain's role allows you to earn additional points - both as a storyteller and as a judge, so whenever possible, try to be the first to volunteer.
The trick with two similar cards: There are some additional tactics how captains can earn extra points:
As a storyteller, if you have two similar cards, choose the less obvious (but still obvious) card as your main card; if the judge overtakes the guessing to their team, you get a chance to add your second, more matching card to your own story and try to lure the opposite team into choosing your second card, thus losing the turn to your team and bringing you 3 points
As a judge, if you see that you have in your hand a card that matches the story even better than the storyteller's card, leave guessing to the storyteller's team, add your card and hope that the opponents will choose your card instead of the storyteller's.

Tips federation

2025-05-19T21:09:14Z

SimplicatusGames: Added formatting, bullets for clarity

This is not a definitive list of strategy tips for Federation, this is just the thinking process I recommend, and it works more often than not. I think this list should be helpful for beginners. More experienced players please comment and add your ideas.

THINGS TO DO AT THE START OF THE GAME, ONCE THE BOARD IS LAID OUT

A) Some progress tracks are must-do's. You should always do these irrespective of the game board.

A1) You should always target to '''max your Authority''' every game, you earn various bonuses that should not be missed.

A2) Plan to get '''all your 8 spaceships''' and put them on the board, always.

A3) Orange Planet 🟠 (Neo) and Blue Planet 🔵 (6Moon) are usually good for resources.

B) Based on the above tracks, at the start of the game decide '''which two green mega structures''' on the Robotic planet, you are targetting for scoring in rounds 4 and 5. Based on this, and the tips mentioned in A1 to A3, you can refine the final 4 or 5 tracks (out of the 8 possible), that you will be focussing on for this game for scoring.

'''This needs to be decided at the start of the game.'''

C) Then based on the tracks that you have decided, choose which one or more Level 3 erudite tiles work synergistically for you to score points. Then from these, check which level 1 Erudite tiles are good for you for round 1, and decide your path on the Purple Planet 🟣 (Atalum) accordingly.

THINGS TO DO IN THE FIRST TWO ROUNDS

D) The most important thing to do in rounds one and two is to get a minimum of two green production structures (and place your robot), so that you have a nice engine going.

E) In these rounds, don't focus too much on scoring, build your engine, get in as many ticks and ships as possible, nice blue tokens, resources, etc., whatever you need for your engine to keep humming along nicely.

F) Keep in mind you should reserve a few ships (1-4) for scoring in later rounds. There are 5 scoring opportunities on your personal player board. At the start of the game, you don't need to decide. But by the end of round two, you should have a fairly good idea of which scoring items you will score from your personal player board.

THINGS TO DO IN THE LATER ROUNDS

G) Don't be afraid to take the first player token (and medal) 1 to 2 times during the game, especially in rounds 4 and 5, if it helps with 5 points or more.

H) Try and score the votings to the extent possible without spoiling your strategy (if possible)

I) Try and stick to your strategy decided in section B. But if it is not happening for whatever reason (one reason could be that your opponent has also read this post and is following the same strategy, but better), then take a pause, think deeply, refocus, and '''form a different strategy,''' don't just go along and see what happens.

J) As per my friend Ben Downtown (who introduced me to the game), and "claims" to be a co-author of this post "I feel like funding projects are a happy bonus, they're too hard to really aim for". I agree, but you have a choice fund the projects that are aligned to the top 4/5 streams you have chosen (in step B). '''Especially look at these in rounds 4 and 5.'''

K) In general, always be on the lookout for a medal, if you and one more player are at the same level, and whoever moves ahead will grab the medal, if possible just go ahead and grab it. Again, if it doesn't spoil your overall strategy too much. If you play ok, you should get 4 to 5 medals. Combine this with point G, maybe you can get all of them.

Thanks to Ben for contributing with initial ideas, to for adding points after my initial draft.

Points (J), (K), complete credit to him :-)

Gamehelpthehanginggardens

2025-05-14T23:37:21Z

SimplicatusGames: Added formatting, bullets for clarity

== How to play ==
1 Construct your hanging garden (mandatory)

a) Select a Garden card

b) Place your Garden card

c) Resolve your Garden card

2 Reveal a new Garden card (mandatory)

3 Buy a single Enhancement tile (optional)

4 Complete a single Royal Objective (optional)

== End of round ==
The round ends when all players have placed all their Gardeners. Take back all your Gardeners and begin the next round. If you have played 4 rounds, you have all finished constructing your hanging gardens. Proceed to scoring.

== Scoring ==
Scoring Score your victory points as follows:

• Irrigation: Count the number of irrigated Garden cards in the places specified on your Irrigation card. Score the corresponding number of victory points.

• Blooms: Only your largest connected group in each flower color (red, yellow and blue) scores. Gain 1 point per flower in those groups.

• Trees: Score the number of points shown for your groups of connected trees of the same species.

• Animals: Score the number of points for the level on which your animal is placed.

• Visitors: Score the points shown if the features your visitor wants to see are in your garden.

• Royal Objectives: Score the same number of points as Royal Objectives you have completed.

The winner is the player with the most victory points.

If there is a tie, the winner is the player with the most tools and gold coins. If there is still a tie, the tied players both win.

Gamehelpfiftyfirststate

2025-05-06T00:39:19Z

SimplicatusGames: Added markup and emojis

===Overview===

Play cards to your area in order to earn points. When a player has 25 victory points (VPs), the current round finishes and then whoever has the most VPs (including end game scoring) wins!

===Round===

The round is split into five phases, each of which is completed by every player before moving to the next, the phases are:

# 1. Lookout phase
# 2. Production phase
# 3. Action phase
# 4. Check for game end
# 5. Cleanup phase

===1. Lookout Phase===

First, reveal n+1 cards, where n is the number of players (e.g. 4 cards in a 3-player game). Then:

* • Players take turns taking a new card in clockwise order.
* • After each player has taken 1 card, discard remaining cards.

Then draw n+1 cards again, and:
* • Starting with the last player and proceeding counter-clockwise, each player takes a card.
* • After each player has taken 1 card again, discard the remaining cards.

===2. Production Phase===

# First, gain resources according to your faction board. Usually this includes 3 workers {{meeple|black|3}}, 1 resource ⚙️/💳/🔫/⛽, 1 connection token {{blackCylinder|>}}, and 1 card {{cardBack}}.
# Second, each deal provides the good depicted on the card.
# Third, each production location produces goods (including open production cards).

===3. Action Phase===

In clockwise order, '''each player takes a single action or passes''' until all players pass.

If you pass then:
* • you cannot take additional actions
* • your locations cannot be razed or interacted with in any other way, e.g., use open production locations.

The actions are:

==== Construct a location ====
Build a location by spending the number of grey connection tokens {{greyCylinder|>}} equal to the card's Distance value. Earn any building bonuses and if building a production location (including open production locations), take the goods from the supply.

==== Develop a location ====
Build a location on top of an existing location by spending a brick and removing the old location. You earn 1 VP after developing. The new location must have at least 1 matching symbol with the old location. Ruins can be built over with any type. Earn any building bonuses and if building a production location (including open production locations), take the goods from the supply.

==== Make a deal ====
Spend the number of blue connection tokens {{blueCylinder|>}} equal to the card's Distance value, and then turn the card upside down to show its Deal value.

==== Raze location from your hand ====
Discard a card and spend the number of red connection tokens {{redCylinder|>}} equal to the card's Distance value. Take the goods shown in the spoils field.

==== Raze opponent's location ====
Spend the number of red connection tokens {{redCylinder|>}} equal to the location's Defense value (3 for Production, 4 for Feature, 5 for Action). Take the goods shown in the spoils field. The location's owner takes the good in the Deal field and turns the location upside down to indicate that the location is now a Ruin.

==== Use an action from a location ====
Spend the goods to perform the card action and keep the goods on the card to remember you used it this round, as each action can only be used once per round.

==== Use an action from your faction board ====
Spend the goods to perform the faction action and keep the goods on the faction board to remember you used it this round, as each action can only be used once per round.

==== Use another player's open production location ====
Spend a worker to earn the good on the opponent's open production location. The opponent takes a worker from the supply. You cannot send a worker to your own open production location. Each open production location can only be used once per round.

==== Take a connection card ====
Spend 2 workers to take a face-up connection card.

==== Play a connection card ====
Play a connection card and earn the goods on it.

==== Place a shield token on a location (free action) ====
Place a shield token on a location to increase its defense value by 1. Each location can only have 1 shield token.

==== Pass ====
Pass for the round and do not take any more actions.

===4. Check for Game End===

If one player has 25 VPs or more, do not go to the Cleanup Phase, and instead calculate the final score for each player.

===5. Cleanup Phase===

* • You can use the storage ability on any locations to save goods. All other goods (resources, workers, contact tokens, shields) in your personal supply and on your cards are returned to the general supply.
* • Beside stored goods, you can only keep cards in between rounds.
* • Discard all face-up connection cards.
* • Pass the first player token to the left and start a new round.

===End Game Scoring===

Each player adds 1 VP per location (but 0 VP per Ruin) to their current score.

In the case of a tie, use the following tie breakers in order:
*• The player with the most total goods
*• The player with the most locations
*• If still tied, share the victory

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-05T18:58:27Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Game End and Scoring */ Emphasis on points per column

== Overview ==
The game ends after all 7 temple columns have been constructed with 5 stones in each. Players have either white or black stones.
== Turn ==
On your turn, you have two options:

* 1. Take 1-3 stones (either 3 of your own colour, 2 of the neutral grey or 1 of your opponent's colour), from the Quarry into your Workshop, which can hold up to 3 stones.
* 2. Place a stone from your Workshop onto a temple column, and possibly carry out a Bonus Action. 

== Column Bonus Actions ==
Each column / temple location (α, β, γ, δ, π, Σ, Ω) has its own Bonus Action that a player can take IF they supplied their own stone (right click/tap and hold/hover to see a tooltip with info for each column location). If a Bonus Action causes changes to (an)other column(s), no additional bonus from the other adjusted column(s) is provided

==== Location α: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''Gray''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

==== Location β: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''White''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

==== Location γ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may return the top stone (of any color) of the column '''from a different temple location back to the Quarry.'''

==== Location δ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) '''from the Quarry to their own workshop'''; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

==== Location π: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) '''from their rival's workshop to their own workshop'''; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

==== Location Σ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may place a stone (of any color) '''from their own workshop to another valid temple location.'''

==== Location Ω: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''Black''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

== Game End and Scoring ==
The game ends when all 7 columns are completed, with 5 stones on each.

* 1. Each column is scored independently, whoever has the most stones of their colour in that column wins the column.
* 2. Each column scores for the winner as follows:
<blockquote>1 VP per winner's stone

3 VP per opponent's stone

-2 VP per neutral stone</blockquote>''Thus, it is possible to win a column and score negatively, e.g. 4 neutral stones and 1 of your own stones will give you -7 VP!''

The player with the most points after scoring all 7 columns wins.

Gamehelpfiftyfirststate

2025-05-05T18:45:21Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved formatting and wording for clarity

===Overview===

Play cards to your area in order to earn points. When a player has 25 victory points (VPs), the current round finishes and then whoever has the most VPs (including end game scoring) wins!

===Round===

The round is split into five phases, each of which is completed by every player before moving to the next, the phases are:

# 1. Lookout phase
# 2. Production phase
# 3. Action phase
# 4. Check for game end
# 5. Cleanup phase

===1. Lookout Phase===

First, reveal n+1 cards, where n is the number of players (e.g. 4 cards in a 3-player game). Then:

* • Players take turns taking a new card in clockwise order.
* • After each player has taken 1 card, discard remaining cards.

Then draw n+1 cards again, and:

* • Starting with the last player and proceeding counter-clockwise, each player takes a card.

* • After each player has taken 1 card again, discard the remaining cards.

===2. Production Phase===

# First, gain resources according to your faction board. Usually this includes 3 workers, 1 resource, 1 connection token, and 1 card.
# Second, each deal provides the good depicted on the card.
# Third, each production location produces goods (including open production cards).

===3. Action Phase===

In clockwise order, '''each player takes a single action or passes''' until all players pass.

If you pass then:

* • you cannot take additional actions
* • your locations cannot be razed or interacted with in any other way, e.g., use open production locations.

The actions are:

==== Construct a location ====
Build a location by spending the number of gray connection tokens equal to the card's Distance value. Earn any building bonuses and if building a production location (including open production locations), take the goods from the supply.

==== Develop a location ====
Build a location on top of an existing location by spending a brick and removing the old location. You earn 1 VP after developing. The new location must have at least 1 matching symbol with the old location. Ruins can be built over with any type. Earn any building bonuses and if building a production location (including open production locations), take the goods from the supply.

==== Make a deal ====
Spend the number of blue connection tokens equal to the card's Distance value, and then turn the card upside down to show its Deal value.

==== Raze location from your hand ====
Discard a card and spend the number of red connection tokens equal to the card's Distance value. Take the goods shown in the spoils field.

==== Raze opponent's location ====
Spend the number of red connection tokens equal to the location's defense value (3 for production, 4 for feature, 5 for action). Take the goods shown in the spoils field. The location's owner takes the good in the Deal field and turns the location upside down to indicate that location is now a Ruin.

==== Use an action from a location ====
Spend the goods to perform the card action and keep the goods on the card to remember you used it this round, as each action can only be used once per round.

==== Use an action from your faction board ====
Spend the goods to perform the faction action and keep the goods on the faction board to remember you used it this round, as each action can only be used once per round.

==== Use another player's open production location ====
Spend a worker to earn the good on the opponent's open production location. The opponent takes a worker from the supply. You cannot send a worker to your own open production location. Each open production location can only be used once per round.

==== Take a connection card ====
Spend 2 workers to take a face-up connection card.

==== Play a connection card ====
Play a connection card and earn the goods on it.

==== Place a shield token on a location (free action) ====
Place a shield token on a location to increase its defense value by 1. Each location can only have 1 shield token.

==== Pass ====
Pass for the round and do not take anymore actions.

===4. Check for Game End===

If one player has 25 VPs or more, do not go to the Cleanup Phase, and instead calculate the final score for each player.
===5. Cleanup Phase===

* • You can use the storage ability on any locations to save goods. All other goods (resources, workers, contact tokens, shields) in your personal supply and on your cards are returned to the general supply.
* • Beside stored goods, you can only keep cards in between rounds.
* • Discard all face-up connection cards.
* • Pass the first player token to the left and start a new round.

===End Game Scoring===

Each player adds 1 VP per location (but 0 VP per Ruin) to their current score.

In the case of a tie, use the following tie breakers in order:

*• The player with the most total goods
*• The player with the most locations
*• If still tied, share the victory

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-05T18:21:27Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Column Bonus Actions */ Improved formatting for clarity

== Overview ==
The game ends after all 7 temple columns have been constructed with 5 stones in each. Players have either white or black stones.
== Turn ==
On your turn, you have two options:

* 1. Take 1-3 stones (either 3 of your own colour, 2 of the neutral grey or 1 of your opponent's colour), from the Quarry into your Workshop, which can hold up to 3 stones.
* 2. Place a stone from your Workshop onto a temple column, and possibly carry out a Bonus Action. 

== Column Bonus Actions ==
Each column / temple location (α, β, γ, δ, π, Σ, Ω) has its own Bonus Action that a player can take IF they supplied their own stone (right click/tap and hold/hover to see a tooltip with info for each column location). If a Bonus Action causes changes to (an)other column(s), no additional bonus from the other adjusted column(s) is provided

==== Location α: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''Gray''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

==== Location β: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''White''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

==== Location γ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may return the top stone (of any color) of the column '''from a different temple location back to the Quarry.'''

==== Location δ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) '''from the Quarry to their own workshop'''; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

==== Location π: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) '''from their rival's workshop to their own workshop'''; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

==== Location Σ: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may place a stone (of any color) '''from their own workshop to another valid temple location.'''

==== Location Ω: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top '''Black''' color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different — and valid — temple location.

== Game End and Scoring ==
The game ends when all 7 columns are completed, with 5 stones on each.

* 1. Each column is scored independently, whoever has the most stones of their colour in that column wins the column.
* 2. Each column scores for the winner as follows:
* 1 VP per winner's stone
* 3 VP per opponent's stone
* -2 VP per neutral stone

''Thus, it is possible to win a column and score negatively, e.g. 4 neutral stones and 1 of your own stones will give you -7 VP!''

The player with the most points after scoring all 7 columns wins.

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-05T18:10:24Z

SimplicatusGames: /* Column Bonus Actions */ Added explanation from tooltips.

== Overview ==
The game ends after all 7 temple columns have been constructed with 5 stones in each. Players have either white or black stones.
== Turn ==
On your turn, you have two options:

# 1. Take 1-3 stones (either 3 of your own colour, 2 of the neutral grey or 1 of your opponent's colour), from the Quarry into your Workshop, which can hold up to 3 stones.
# 2. Place a stone from your Workshop onto a temple column, and possibly carry out a Bonus Action. 

== Column Bonus Actions ==
Each column / temple location (α, β, γ, δ, π, Σ, Ω) has its own Bonus Action that a player can take IF they supplied their own stone (right click/tap and hold/hover to see a tooltip with info for each column location). If a Bonus Action causes changes to (an)other column(s), no additional bonus from the other adjusted column(s) is provided

==== Location α: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top Gray color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different —and valid— temple location.

==== Location β: ====
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top White color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different —and valid— temple location.

===== Location γ: =====
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may return the top stone (of any color) of the column at a different temple location back to the quarry.

====== Location δ: ======
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) from the quarry to their workshop; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

====== Location π: ======
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may move a stone (of any color) from their rival's workshop to their own workshop; the player must have room for it in their workshop.

====== Location Σ: ======
The player who places a stone of their color in this location may place a stone (of any color) from their workshop in another valid temple location.

====== Location Ω: ======
The player who places a stone of their color in these locations may move the top Black color stone of the column at a different temple location to a third different —and valid— temple location.

== Game End and Scoring ==
The game ends when all 7 columns are completed, with 5 stones on each.

1. Each column is scored independently, whoever has the most stones of their colour in that column wins the column.

2. Each column scores for the winner as follows:

1 VP per winner's stone

3 VP per opponent's stone

-2 VP per neutral stone

Thus, it is possible to win a column and score negatively, e.g. 4 neutral stones and 1 of your own stones will give you -7 VP!

The player with the most points after scoring all 7 columns wins.

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-04T23:19:08Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved text

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-04T22:52:12Z

SimplicatusGames: Added title for segment about bonus actions

== Overview ==
The game ends after all 7 columns have been constructed with 5 stones in each. Players have either white or black stones.

== Turn ==
On your turn, you have two options:

# Take 1-3 stones (either 3 of your own colour, 2 of the neutral grey or 1 of your opponent's colour), from the Quarry into your Workshop, which can hold up to 3 stones.

2. Place a stone from your Workshop into a temple column.

A column can have a maximum of 5 stones on it.

== Column Bonus Actions ==
Each temple column (α, β, γ, δ, π, Σ, Ω) has its own bonus action that a player can take IF they supplied their own stone (right click/tap and hold/hover to see a tooltip with info for each column).

If a temple bonus causes changes to another column, no additional bonus from the adjusted column is provided

== Game End and Scoring ==
The game ends when all 7 columns are completed, with 5 stones on each.

Each column is scored independently, whoever has the most stones of their colour in that column wins the column.

Each column scores for the winner as follows: 1VP per winner stone, 3VP per opponent's stone, -2VP per neutral stone (thus, it is possible to win and score negatively, e.g. 4 neutrals and 1 of yours is -7 VP)

The player with the most points after scoring all 7 columns wins!

Gamehelptholos

2025-05-04T22:49:53Z

SimplicatusGames: Improved info about tooltips and added column names (Greek letters).

== Overview ==
The game ends after all 7 columns have been constructed with 5 stones in each. Players have either white or black stones.

== Turn ==
On your turn, you have two options:

# Take 1-3 stones (either 3 of your own colour, 2 of the neutral grey or 1 of your opponent's colour), from the Quarry into your Workshop, which can hold up to 3 stones.

2. Place a stone from your Workshop into a temple column.

A column can have a maximum of 5 stones on it.

Each temple column (α, β, γ, δ, π, Σ, Ω) has its own bonus action that a player can take IF they supplied their own stone (right click/tap and hold/hover to see a tooltip with info for each column).

If a temple bonus causes changes to another column, no additional bonus from the adjusted column is provided

== Game End and Scoring ==
The game ends when all 7 columns are completed, with 5 stones on each.

Each column is scored independently, whoever has the most stones of their colour in that column wins the column.

Each column scores for the winner as follows: 1VP per winner stone, 3VP per opponent's stone, -2VP per neutral stone (thus, it is possible to win and score negatively, e.g. 4 neutrals and 1 of yours is -7 VP)

The player with the most points after scoring all 7 columns wins!