Africa
Africa Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 Gameboard
- 96 Discovery Markers
- 20 Base Camps
- 1 Bonus Marker for the Game End "+3"
- 10 Researchers (2 each in 5 player colors)
- 5 Game Summary Charts (in 5 player colors)
- 5 Point Markers "50"
- 1 Game Overview
- 1 Rulebook
Before the first game carefully punch out the Discovery Markers and the Game Summary Charts from their frames.
Game Setup
The Discovery markers are shuffled face down on the game board and spread out in such a way that there is one face down marker on each space. The five spaces with the start cities remain uncovered.
10 Base Camps and the Bonus marker are put as a supply into the circle with the Monument, which is in the right top corner of the game board.
Additionally, each player receives two Base Camps and place them before themselves. With less than five players some Base Camps remain. These surplus Base Camps are not needed for the game and are put back into the box.
Each player selects a color. He takes the Game Summary Chart in his color and places it before himself. Then he takes the two researchers of his color and places a researcher immediately as scoring figure on the "0" space on the scoring track.
The victory point scoring track runs around Africa. It begins with the large "0" space in the Atlantic. For each point a player wins, he moves his scoring figure one space forward on the track.
The "50" Point Markers are placed as a small stack on the 0/50 space of the scoring track. The "0" space serves as the "50" space if a scoring figure makes a complete lap around the scoring track. If a scoring figure passes the 50 space on the scoring track, its owner takes a "50" Point Marker. Afterwards 50 points are added to that player's score.
The players agree who begins. The start player selects a start city and sets his second researcher there. The remaining players follow in a clockwise direction and select start cities for their researchers that do not already have another player's researcher.
Object of the Game
As researchers the players begin in one of the start cities. In their turn they can uncover discovery markers, move animals or Nomads into other regions, or establish a new Base Camp in order to research or use natural resources. For some of these actions the players receive points immediately.
Also under the discovery markers are eleven Monuments. After the last Monument is uncovered, the game ends and the players received points for their collected goods and natural resources. The player with most points wins.
Game Play
Play proceeds clockwise. On a player's turn he must choose one of the two following possibilities:
Once — Move a researcher anywhere.
Or
Twice — Move a researcher and execute one of the following five actions:
- Uncover a marker and undergo its effect.
- Move Animals.
- Move Nomads.
- Establish a Base Camp and Perform Research.
- Establish a Base Camp and Use Natural Resources.
A. Move a Researcher Anywhere
A player can move his researcher to any space, however not on a face down marker or a space that another researcher is on.
B. Move a Researcher and Execute Actions
Researchers move. Before each of his two actions a player may move his researcher first up to two fields away. Of course, a researcher may also remain on his current space.
Researchers may be moved to empty spaces, spaces with face up markers, or spaces with Base Camps. You must never move on or over spaces with face down markers or spaces with other researchers.
Uncover a marker and undergo its effect. A player may uncover a concealed marker of a neighboring space of his own researcher. At first the marker is left face up on the space so that all players can see it. According to the kind of the marker different effects take place:
Uncovering Gold and Jewels
The marker remains face up on its space.
The player immediately receives 1 or 2 points, depending on whether the marker shows one or two gold nuggets or jewels.
Uncovering Goods
The player takes the marker off the gameboard. Thus an empty space is created on the board. The player keeps the goods for points at the end of the game. The more of an item a player has, the more valuable it becomes.
The player either keeps the item face up in front of himself, or he exchanges it with another player. The other player cannot reject the exchange.
If a player wants to exchange markers, he must take all markers of one type of goods from the other player. However, he must give that player the same number of goods markers that he took in this action. If he does not have sufficient markers of this item, he may not make the exchange.
Example: Andreas uncovered a statue. He can exchange it with Birgit for the kettle. Additionally, he can exchange both statues for the two articles of clothing instead.
A player can exchange a goods marker that he already has laying in front of him only if he uncovered another marker of the same item.
Uncovering Animals
The player puts the marker face up on the gameboard. He now has a choice of where he would like to put the marker.
He can simply leave the marker on the original space.
He can also place it on any empty space on the board, if more animals of the same kind are bordering the new space than there were next to the original space.
The player receives 1 point immediately for the animal and per 1 point for each of the same animal bordering the new space.
Example: The player uncovers an elephant. On its original space the elephant would bring 2 points. However, the player can put it beside the two other elephants. He now receives 3 points, because the fourth elephant is not situated directly beside the new space.
Uncovering Nomads
The player puts the marker face up on the gameboard. He now has a choice of where he would like to put the marker.
He can simply leave the marker on the original space.
He can also place it on any empty space on the board, if more empty spaces are bordering the new space than there were next to the original space.
The player receives 1 point immediately for each empty space bordering the new space.
Uncovering Monuments
The marker remains face up on its space.
The player receives a Base Camp from the stockpile and places it in front of himself.
Moving Animals. An animal that is already face up can be moved from a space that a player's researcher is on or next to.
It may be placed on any empty space.
There must be more animals of the same type bordering the new space than there were bordering the original space.
The player receives points according to the difference between the bordering animals of these two spaces.
Note: If a marker with an animal is uncovered again, the player always gets points for the animal itself and for all of the same bordering animals. If on the other hand an already uncovered animal is moved, the player only gets points for the improvement that it made.
Moving Nomads. A Nomad that is already face up can be moved from a space that a player's researcher is on or next to.
It may be placed on any empty space.
There must be more empty spaces bordering the new space than there were bordering the original space.
The player receives points according to the difference between the bordering empty spaces of these two spaces.
Example: The player moves the Nomad. Before the Nomad had one free border space, afterwards he has three. The player receives 3 - 1 = 2 points.
Establish a Base Camp and Perform Research. If the researcher is on an empty space, the player can establish a Base Camp there. He takes one of his Base Camps and places it on the space with his researcher.
The player gets as many points as there are face up animals, Nomads, and Monuments bordering the Base Camp. Uncovered markers of gold and jewels do not add points.
All markers remain on the gameboard.
Establish a Base Camp and Use Natural Resources. If the player establishes a Base Camp in order to use natural resources, he does not receive points for face up markers next to the Base Camp.
Instead the player removes all gold and jewel markers bordering the Base Camp and places them in front of himself.
The object is to collect more gold and jewels than every other player.
Some General Rules
Empty and Occupied Spaces. Start Cities and spaces with researchers, without markers or Base Camps, are considered empty spaces.
Thus, when uncovering and/or moving animals or Nomads a player can move a marker under a researcher.
Spaces with markers or Base Camps are not empty.
The Sequence of Actions. The sequence of actions can be chosen freely. The same actions may also be executed twice. A player can also perform no actions.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends immediately if a player uncovers the eleventh, and last, Monument. The player takes the "+3" bonus tile and gets credited for it immediately by adding 3 points on the scoring track.
Goods. Now the points for the Goods are scored.
- For 5 similar goods score 12 points.
- For 4 similar goods score 8 points.
- For 3 similar goods score 5 points.
- For 2 similar goods score 3 points.
- For 1 single good score 1 point.
Example: For the Statues the player receives 8 points. For the Kettle he receives 3 points. Altogether the player receives 11 points for his goods.
Gold and Jewels. Lastly, there are still points for the natural resources. The player with most gold gets 10 points. Count the number of gold lumps shown on the markers and not the number of markers.
The player with second most gold receives 6 points. All remaining players score nothing.
If several players possess the same amount of gold, the victory points are added together and divided by the number of players involved. Round down if necessary.
Jewels are scored in the same way.
Example: For the most gold, Andreas scores 10 points. Birgit and Connie tied for second place, so they each get 6/2 = 3 points.
Andreas and Connie tied for the most jewels so they each receive (10 + 6) / 2 = 8 points.
After figuring out the score the player with the most points wins.
Special Variant for 2 Players
With two players put only 8 Base Camps and the bonus label into the circle with the Monument. The game ends when the ninth Monument is uncovered.
Simple Game Variant
For young players the game can be simplified: each player only moves his researcher once per turn and only executes one action.