Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Components
- Setup
- Goals & Winning
- Turn Sequence
- Gathering
- Hunting
- Market
- Carrying Limit
- Exchanging Equipment
- Equipment Glossary
Introduction
To do...
Components
Quantities will vary depending on if this game winds up playing with at most 4 or 5 players. I'll assume 5 player for now.
- 1 Game Board with 2 Score Tracks wrapped around the perimeter
- 3 Dice
- 10 Prediction cards (5 Hunt, 5 Gather)
- 30 Player Pawns (15 Hunters, 15 Gatherers) 3 of each for each player for characters and scoring
- 24 Exploration Tiles (6 Nuts, 6 Herbs, 6 Berries, 2 Squirrel 2 Rabbit, 2 Deer, 2 Boar, 2 Wolf, 2 Bear)
- 60 Claim Markers (12 per player)
- 60 Equipment Cards (8 Club, 8 Sling, 12 Spear, 12 Arrow, 4 Atlatl, 8 Bow, 8 Pouch)
Setup
Shuffle the Market Value tiles and distribute them evenly on the Market spaces labeled 1-5.
Deal out 5 equipment cards to each player face down and place 5 face up along one side of the board. The rest of the cards go in a pile face down by the board creating a draw deck. Also deal out one Hunt and one Gather card to each player (the cards marked with H || G on the back).
Players secretly choose 2 equipment and one H || G card. Place the discarded equipment under the draw deck. During the game, discarded equipment will be placed face up beside it. Place the discarded H || G cards face down under the edge of the board. Keep the chosen H || G card secret until the end of the game. Once that is done reveal equipment and placing Gatherer equipment to one side, and Hunter to the other.
Deal out 5 equipment cards to each player face down and place 5 face up along one side of the board. The rest of the cards go in a pile face down by the board creating a draw deck. Also deal out one Hunt and one Gather card to each player (the cards marked with H || G on the back).
Players secretly choose 2 equipment and one H || G card. Place the discarded equipment under the draw deck. During the game, discarded equipment will be placed face up beside it. Place the discarded H || G cards face down under the edge of the board. Keep the chosen H || G card secret until the end of the game. Once that is done reveal equipment and placing Gatherer equipment to one side, and Hunter to the other.
Goals & Winning
There are four ways to score points at the end of the game, a base score plus three possible bonuses:- A player's base score is the lower of their two scores in the Hunt and Gather Tracks.
- A bonus of 10 points is awarded to the player who had the highest single score in either the Hunt or Gather track.
- Reveal the face down H || G card. If that card correctly predicts which track had the highest single score gain another 10 points. In case of a tie no points are awarded.
- Lastly look at the board at all the spaces that have been claimed. The player with the largest number of connected places, touching side-to-side, gets 10 bonus points. In case of a tie no points are awarded.
End Game
The game ends after the stack of Exploration Tiles runs out. Once that happens each player takes one last turn, including the player who drew the last tile.
After the last round is completed go around the table and total each player's score. The highest number of points is the winner.
Turn Sequence
- Choose a Character
- Move
- Explore or Buy & Sell in the Market
Choose a Character
Each turn a player will pick one of their color characters, Hunter or Gatherer, to activate. Only that character will move and take actions.
Movement
Characters can move up to 4 spaces in a turn, orthogonally only (side-to-side, no diagonal movement allowed). Players may move for free through any space or set of spaces that they have claimed during previous exploration.
(diagrams showing movement here.)
Exploration
When a character successfully takes a tile (see the Hunting and Gathering sections) the player places his or her color claim tiles on the space and ends his or her turn.
If a character cannot or chooses not to collect the tile, and has movement remaining, the player may continue to move and explore one more time. If the player has forgotten how much movement the character has left that movement is forfeit. It is sometimes helpful to use a spare die to mark how many movement spaces remain.
If a character stops on a face down tile the player may attempt to explore the space following all the same rules as if it were an empty space, except drawing the tile from the space instead of the stack. If a player forgets what a face down card is and cannot take it, that counts as one of the two explorations.
Move to the Market
If a player wishes to sell tiles for points and/or equipment he or she must move the character who collected those tiles back to the village in the middle of the board. See the Market section for more details.
Each turn a player will pick one of their color characters, Hunter or Gatherer, to activate. Only that character will move and take actions.
Movement
Characters can move up to 4 spaces in a turn, orthogonally only (side-to-side, no diagonal movement allowed). Players may move for free through any space or set of spaces that they have claimed during previous exploration.
(diagrams showing movement here.)
Exploration
- A character may explore up to 2 spaces, but take only 1 tile per turn.
When a character successfully takes a tile (see the Hunting and Gathering sections) the player places his or her color claim tiles on the space and ends his or her turn.
If a character cannot or chooses not to collect the tile, and has movement remaining, the player may continue to move and explore one more time. If the player has forgotten how much movement the character has left that movement is forfeit. It is sometimes helpful to use a spare die to mark how many movement spaces remain.
If a character stops on a face down tile the player may attempt to explore the space following all the same rules as if it were an empty space, except drawing the tile from the space instead of the stack. If a player forgets what a face down card is and cannot take it, that counts as one of the two explorations.
Move to the Market
If a player wishes to sell tiles for points and/or equipment he or she must move the character who collected those tiles back to the village in the middle of the board. See the Market section for more details.
Gathering
Hunting
Gatherers can...
- Take Herbs, Nuts, or Berries.
- Swap a previously taken tile for one from the board.
A player whose gatherer character finds a plant tile, either Herbs, Nuts, or Berries can take it, claiming the space and ending his or her turn. A character may carry any number of tiles, but they must all be of the same type. For example, a gatherer who is already carrying two nuts may take a third, but they may not take any berries.
Swapping
Instead of taking a tile, a player whose gatherer has already taken a tile may exchange that tile for one from the board. If the tile had just been discovered via Exploration, the swap counts as one Explore, and the player can move and explore once more if he or she has not already. If the tile was face down on the board at the beginning of the player's turn the swap is a free action and does not count to the two Explorations per turn limit.
- Pick an equipment card with a weapon on it
- Roll 3 dice and add the results to the first number on the weapon
- If you have rolled the animals "to hit" number or higher, you hit it
- Find the animal's "life" and subtract the weapon's "damage" which is the second number
- If you did as much damage or more than the animal's life, you killed it, take the tile and claim the space
If you did not hit the animal look to see if it is "deadly". If it is, you die. But don't worry, if you want to hunt in future turns your character's cousin can start from the village as your new hunter character. You must discard any weapon you were using against it that animal, and any tiles you had previously taken and not sold.
If you hit the animal but did not do enough damage it runs away. You move it two empty spaces of your choice. If you have enough movement remaining you may follow it and try to hunt again. Any damage that you did in your first attempt remains subtracted from the animal's life until the end of the turn.
You may not, after attempting to hunt one animal, explore another space this turn.
Market
After moving to the village in the center of the board without exploring any spaces or collecting any tiles (swapping with tiles that were already face down on the board is allowed) a character may sell tiles and buy equipment.
Selling
Tiles are sold one at a time for the full value. Not all tiles must be sold. In the case of animal tiles, the player sells either the animal's meat or the animal's hide value first, followed by the other. Place the sold tile in a face up discard pile next to the stack of face down tiles. It is generally advisable to sell the larger value first, as that may push the other value higher in the market.
Selling a tile gives a player points equal to the tile value multiplied by that type's value in the market. After buying equipment (see next section) apply the remaining points to that character's score track. As you are counting off points, do not count score track spaces with an opponent's marker. Take those for free.
Each time a tile is sold, or meat or hide in the case of an animal, it's value in the market reduces. After counting the points and adding them to the player's total this turn, move the corresponding market value tile down a number of spaces equal to the value sold. The other tiles shift up in value to fill the gap. Market value cannot fall below 1.
For example, if Nuts are in the 5 slot and a player sells a tile valued at 2 Nuts, the player gets 10 points and shifts the Nuts value tile down two spaces to the 3 slot. The value tile previously worth 4 is now worth 5, and 3 is now worth 4.
Buying Equipment
Equipment costs 3 points points per card. Players first calculate the total value of every tile that they wish to sell, and then before moving on the score track reduce that number by 3 for every equipment card they take.
Equipment cards must be taken from the 5 face up beside the board. After each purchase another card is taken from the draw deck and placed face up. If ever there are 4 of the same equipment cards face up, immediately discard all of them and draw 5 new ones.
Characters may purchase equipment they cannot use. For example, a hunter may purchase a Pouch, or a gatherer may purchase a Spear. See the section on Exchanging Equipment to learn how to get he equipment to the right character.
Each character may carry no more than 3 equipment cards. A character may discard an equipment card at any time to make room for a new card.
Any time a player's two characters are on the same space, including the village, they may swap equipment cards as a free action. It does not matter who has the equipment or which character is active this turn.
Equipment Glossary
Club
A club has +1 to hit and does 4 damage. It can be re-used any number of times.
Sling
A sling has +4 to hit and does 1 damage. It uses rocks for ammunition and can be re-used any number of times.
Spear
A spear has +2 to hit and does 3 damage. A spear card is actually a pair of spears. After the first time that you use a spear turn it upside down, whether you hit or not. After the second use the spear card is discarded.
Atlatl
An Atlatl or spear thrower has +3 to hit and does 4 damage. It cannot be used without a spear, and using it uses up one of the two spears.
Bow
A bow has +3 to hit and does 2 damage. A bow card comes with one shot built in. Once you use it turn the bow upside down. it cannot be used again without an arrow card. Because of the bow's long range, if you miss with a bow against a deadly animal, your hunter has time to escape and is not killed.
Arrow
An arrow is used by the bow (see above). Each arrow card has two uses. After the first use turn it upside down. After the second use discard it.
Pouch
A pouch is used by a gatherer character allowing them to take an additional type of plant. With two pouches a gatherer can take any type of plant regardless of what they are already carrying.
Pouch
A pouch is used by a gatherer character allowing them to take an additional type of plant. With two pouches a gatherer can take any type of plant regardless of what they are already carrying.
