Altiplano Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Materials
• Set-up of the Game
• Course of the Game
  • Phase 1: Drawing
  • Phase 2: Planning
  • Phase 3: Actions
  • The basic actions
  • Phase 4: New round
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• "Missions" Expansion
• Hints before the First Game
• Explanations of the Extensions
• Explanations of the Mission Cards
• Credits

Game Materials

• 7 location tiles: village, market, road, harbor, farm, mine, forest
• 5 markers (1 per color)
• 5 game figures (1 per color)
• 5 containers (1 per color)
• 1 starting player figure
• 15 carts
• 56 game cards, divided into: 10 house cards, 10 boat cards, 16 order cards, 20 mission cards
• 7 role tiles: woodcutter, fisherman, shepherd, miner, farmer, trader, stonemason
• 50 coins
• 1 extension strip
• 5 action boards
• 5 warehouses
• 28 extensions
• 209 goods tiles, divided into: 36x food, 25x corn, 20x wood, 20x stone, 15x ore, 15x cloth, 15x wool, 15x silver, 12x fish, 12x glass, 12x alpaca, 12x cacao
• 5 cloth bags
• 1 score pad
• 5 VP overviews

Set-up of the Game

Place the 7 location tiles (village, market, road, harbor, farm, mine, and forest) in random order so that each of these locations is adjacent to 2 others and they all form a circle; this is the playing area. During the game, you travel with your game figure from one location to another.

Put goods, carts, and cards on the locations. The following table indicates how many of the different components are needed:

Number of players	Food	Corn	Wood, stone	Ore	Cloth, wool	Silver, glass, cacao	Carts	Orders
2	36x	12x	12x	8x	7x	6x	6x	10x
3	36x	17x	15x	12x	9x	9x	9x	10x
4	36x	22x	18x	14x	11x	12x	11x	12x
5	36x	25x	20x	15x	12x	15x	12x	12x

Remove any excess goods and carts from the game. Shuffle the order cards; then randomly remove 6 cards (with 2 or 3 players) or 4 cards (with 4 or 5 players) from the game.

Place the following items directly on the locations:

• Market: the glass tiles and the order cards
• Farm: the alpaca tiles, wool tiles, and cloth tiles
• Mine: the stone tiles, ore tiles, and silver tiles
• Put the food tiles and all coins in the center of the playing area, so that they are easily accessible to all players.
• Forest: the wood tiles and cacao tiles
• Village: the house cards and the wooden carts
• Road: the corn tiles
• Harbor: the fish tiles and the boat cards

Tiles and cards are limited, coins are not

When tiles or cards of one kind are used up, there are no replacements. Principally, actions that let you acquire tiles or cards can still be carried out even if they are depleted (although this often doesn't make much sense). In such a case, you simply would not obtain the applicable tile or card. Coins, however, are unlimited – if they are used up, you can substitute other material for them.

Place the extension strip on the table as well.

To begin with, remove those extensions that are not needed.

• Cards marked "5+" stay in the game with 5 players only;
• Cards marked "4+" stay in the game with at least 4 players;
• Cards marked "3+" stay in the game with at least 3 players.

After that, separate the extensions that stay in the game by their backs, A, B, C, and D, and shuffle each pile. Now arrange into one face-down pile as follows:

• at the very bottom, the card pile with D on the back;
• on top of that, the cards of category C;
• on top of that, those of category B;
• and at the very top, the A cards.

Then reveal the top 5 cards from this pile and adjoin them to the right of the extension strip, one after another, beginning at the space at the bottom.

At any time

All players may check at any time what orders, boats, and houses currently are on the locations or with the other players. And, at any time, anybody may count how many goods tiles are left in the supply and how many extensions are still in the pile – however, without revealing the extensions or changing their order. Additionally, a player may check anytime the goods that are in his bag and in his container.

Each player chooses one color and gets:

• 1 action board
• 1 warehouse
• 1 game figure
• 1 marker
• 1 container
• 1 cart (from the village)
• 1 cloth bag

Place your marker on the top space of the road. Put your cart on the applicable upper cart space of your action board.

The youngest player obtains the starting player figure.

Mix the role tiles and lay them out face down. Beginning with the starting player, each player draws one role tile. The roles enable the players to carry out a specific action; plus, the cards indicate the additional game materials each player starts with.

Role assignment

Once all players are familiar with the game, it is recommended that they change the role assignments. In this case, the role tiles are laid out face up. Beginning with the last player in the order of play, each player, in counter-clockwise order, chooses one of the roles still available – the starting player goes last.

Take the goods tiles indicated on your role tile from the applicable locations, plus food tiles and coins from the supply. Put the tiles into your cloth bag. (To keep it simple, you can also place them directly onto the planning spaces at the bottom of your action board; in this case, phase 1 is omitted in the first round.) Put the coins next to your action board.

Now the game can begin!

Course of the Game

The game proceeds over several rounds. Each round is divided into four phases:

• Phase 1: Drawing (tiles from the bag)
• Phase 2: Planning (and placing the tiles on action spaces)
• Phase 3: Actions (to be carried out in turn until all players have passed)
• Phase 4: New round (preparation)

The game ends with a complete final round, as soon as the display of extensions can no longer be refilled and/or one location is empty, i.e., if all cards, carts, and/or goods tiles there have been acquired.

The player who has collected the most points by the end of the game wins.

Phase 1: Drawing

All players simultaneously draw tiles out of their cloth bag and, for the time being, place these on the planning spaces of their action board. At the beginning, you can occupy planning spaces 1 – 4 only (and more later, through road construction). That means you may draw only as many tiles as you have unoccupied spaces available. If, for example, planning space 1 is occupied (since the tile lying there was not relocated to an action space in the previous round), you may draw no more than three tiles and use them to occupy spaces 2 – 4. Alternatively, you may also put already-placed tiles from action spaces back onto planning spaces; you need to do this before you draw tiles out of the bag. You may never occupy more than the allowed maximum number of planning spaces.

Example: Steven may occupy a maximum of 4 planning spaces. First he moves 1 fish from the harbor back onto planning space 1. Then he draws 3 more tiles out of his cloth bag and puts them on planning spaces 2 - 4.

Important: You may never remove tiles from your warehouse or from orders and put them back onto planning spaces!

You may take coins back into your own supply that you placed on extensions or movement action spaces in previous rounds – also before you draw tiles out of the bag.

If you don't have enough tiles left in your bag to occupy all allowed planning spaces, you empty the contents of your container into your cloth bag when the bag has become totally empty (all used tiles as well as the newly-acquired ones are first kept in the container). If, even after this, there are still fewer tiles in the bag than you would be allowed to draw and place on planning spaces, the aforementioned planning spaces remain empty for this round.

Phase 2: Planning

After that, all players simultaneously plan their actions. To this end, you relocate tiles from your planning spaces to action spaces on your action board and/or on your role tile and extensions. You don't have to use all tiles from your planning spaces, but you may also keep tiles there. This entails, however, that you may be limited to drawing fewer tiles in the next round. Nevertheless, in some circumstances it might make sense to leave tiles on planning spaces and accept drawing fewer tiles later on.

Most locations allow you different actions. These locations don't stipulate which tiles to place – but they need to be tiles that would principally make it possible to carry out an action there. In order to be able to carry out one of the actions allowed there later on, precisely those tiles have to lie on the location that you use to carry out the action.

Example: The farm allows you to use the combination alpaca and food to produce 1 wool.

In order to produce 1 wool, this very combination first has to be placed in the farm.

Alternatively, you could also just place 1 alpaca there in order to produce 1 food.

And you would also be allowed to place 2 alpacas there; in this case, you could produce 2 food or, for instance, produce 1 food and leave the second alpaca on the space.

The role tile and extensions bring additional actions into play. These additional actions normally require 1 or more specific tiles as indicated on the card. You need to place exactly these already-stipulated tiles in order to be able to carry out the action later on.

In doing so, you may not relocate tiles that were placed in a previous round. But you may keep moving new tiles (i.e., tiles that you take from the planning spaces) back and forth during the planning phase until all players have declared their planning over. After that, the tiles may no longer be relocated (not even in later rounds) – with the exception of putting tiles back during phase 1, as described above.

The starting player is the first to declare his planning over; then the other players follow clockwise until all players have signaled that they have finished their planning. Once you have declared your planning finished, you may no longer relocate your tiles.

Now the action phase can begin.

Phase 3: Actions

Now players, in turn and in clockwise order, carry out actions. Beginning with the starting player, one player carries out one action; then the next player has his turn and carries out one action (unless he passes), and so on. This continues until all players have passed. Once a player passes, he may no longer carry out any action in the current round.

You can carry out your actions in any order. Your own game figure always has to be on the location that the action is affiliated with. If you want to carry out an action in the village, for example, your figure needs to be on the village tile.

Before your very first action in the game, you can place your game figure on any location (the cart is not needed for that). Later in the game, you can move your own figure before and/or after one of your actions:

Movement

For moving between the locations, each player has one cart to begin with. You can use that cart once per round for free. A cart allows you to travel up to 3 steps – each from one location to an adjacent location; this way, you can reach any location. If you travel with a cart, you move it to the right to show that you are using it.

In addition to this cart, you may make more moves with your game figure by placing 1 food for each step on the movement action spaces. This allows you to travel to an adjacent location – that means, to move only 1 step in any direction. If you do so, you take the food from the movement action space(s) and put it into your container. If you have acquired additional carts, you can use these plus 1 food each to travel up to 3 steps.

Moving is not considered an action of its own. Before and/or after your actual action, you may move your game figure to another location and, in doing so, even use several movement actions. The different moves (with and without a cart) may be made in any order.

It is not mandatory to carry out actions. You may prepare actions, i.e., place tiles that would enable you to carry out an action, but leave them in place to carry out the action possibly in a later round.

You may also combine different actions at one location, provided this is possible there. In the village, for example, you can build a house and additionally put a tile into the warehouse. These count as two separate actions, though.

When carrying out an action, you put the tiles you needed for this as well as all tiles you might have gained by this action into your own container. From there, these tiles are put into the cloth bag only when you would have to draw tiles out of the bag but it is empty.

All tiles remain in your possession – those that you use to carry out an action as well as all those that you gain through an action. Only coins are used up and then put back into the general supply. However, coins are always freely available; that means you never have to put them into the cloth bag and not onto the planning spaces either, but keep them next to the action board instead.

On market extensions, you have to put the coins on the applicable coin spaces in the planning phase in order to be able to carry out the action later on. During the action phase, you may no longer place any coins there.

For the basic actions at the market or in the village (acquire an order, buy an extension, or buy a cart), however, you don't place coins on an action space but simply put them back into the general supply when carrying out the action. For this, you may even use coins that you have acquired during the course of the current round.

When all players have passed, the round is over. Before the next round begins, a few preparations need to be made (see "Phase 4").

The basic actions

The basic actions that are available to everybody are shown on the action boards. At most locations, you can carry out different actions. But since the number of action spaces at the locations is limited to 2 or 3, you usually can't carry out all actions at the same time that would be possible there. If, for example, you want to build a boat for 2 wood at the harbor, you cannot exchange 2 fish for 1 stone there in the same round.

The following basic actions are available:

Farm

• Produce food: Take 1 or more alpaca from the action spaces and obtain 1 food per alpaca from the supply. Put all tiles into your container.
• Produce wool: Take 1 alpaca and 1 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 wool from the farm. Put all tiles into your container.
• Produce cloth: Take 1 wool and 1 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 cloth from the farm. Put all tiles into your container.

Forest

• Produce wood: Take 2 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 wood from the forest. Put all tiles into your container.
• Trade cacao: Take 1 or more cacao from the action spaces and obtain per cacao 1 food from the supply, 1 cloth from the farm, or 1 glass from the market. Put all tiles into your container.

Mine

• Produce stone: Take 2 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 stone from the mine. Put all tiles into your container.
• Produce silver: Take 1 ore and 1 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 silver from the mine. Put all tiles into your container.

Harbor

• Produce food: Take 1 fish and 1 food from the action spaces and obtain 1 additional food from the supply. Put all tiles into your container.
• Get stone in exchange: Take 2 fish from the action spaces and obtain 1 stone from the mine. Put all tiles into your container.
• Build a boat: Take 2 wood from the action spaces and obtain 1 boat card of your choice from the harbor; the boat is worth 2 points and you immediately get the good depicted from the applicable location (one time only). Put all tiles into your container and the boat face up next to your action board.

Village

• Build a house: Take 2 stone from the action spaces and obtain 1 house card of your choice from the village; the house is worth 4 points and increases the value of one type of good by 1 for you (see "Scoring"). Put all tiles into your container and the house face up next to your action board.
• Store goods: Take 1 or more goods (except for food) from the action spaces and put them into your warehouse according to the following rules:

Storage

Goods tiles that are brought into the warehouse have to be stored in the following way:

• Place the first goods tile on the very left in the bottom row of the left depot.
• The first tile in a row determines what type of good is stored in this row. You may store only goods of this type in that row. The exception is corn; it can be placed in any row (see below).
• Every further goods tile has to be placed in the next higher row – unless it is the same type of good, or corn.
• You may start any number of rows. That means you don't necessarily have to complete one row before starting a new one.
• You may never start a row with goods tiles if there are still incomplete rows of this type of good.
• As soon as you have started all rows of the left depot, you continue with the bottom row of the right depot.
• Food tiles can never be placed in the warehouse.

Example: Clarence currently has 2 fish in row 1, and 1 silver and 1 corn each in row 2. Now he wants to take 1 wool and 2 fish from the village and store them in his warehouse. First Clarence places 1 fish; with this, he completes row 1. Therefore, he has to place the second fish in row 3, where he may now collect only fish (and corn). Then Clarence has to place the wool in row 4. Instead, he could also have stored the wool in row 3 first and then the fish (first fish in row 1 and then starting row 4 with the second fish).

Special rules apply to corn:

• If corn is the first good you place in a new row, you may collect only corn there, i.e., you have to keep placing corn in this row until the row is completed.
• If you have already started rows with other goods when you obtain your first corn tile, you can alternatively also add corn to any of these rows. In every row, corn can substitute for the tile required there. In a silver row, for example, you may place either silver or corn.
• You always have to store corn as soon as you get it – unless you have the extension allowing you to put corn into interim storage.

• Buy a cart: Spend 1 coin, take 1 cart from the village and immediately place it next to one of the movement action spaces. You can use it from now on, even immediately. A cart enables you to take up to 3 steps (instead of just 1) in a move that requires 1 food. If you use such a cart, you move it to the right (in the same way as the top cart), to indicate that it can't be used any more in the current round. You may acquire no more than one cart per round and own a maximum of 4 carts!

Market

• Sell goods: Take 1 or more goods tiles from the action spaces and sell them at the price indicated on the market tile. Obtain the coins from the supply. Put all tiles into your container. Goods without a price cannot be sold.
• Buy an extension: Take one of the extensions displayed at the extension strip, pay the purchase price, and adjoin the card to the corresponding location of your action board. The purchase price of the extension is the total of the price indicated on the card plus the additional costs listed on the extension strip. To this end, the coins for this don't have to be placed on the market beforehand. You may acquire no more than one extension per round.
  • Important: You may neither have more than one extension of the same kind nor acquire the extension that shows the same action as your role tile! (Example: The second card from the bottom costs 3 coins – 2 for the card and 1 for the position.)
• Acquire an order: Spend 1 coin, take one order card of your choice from the market and lay it face up next to your action board. The coins for this don't have to be placed on the market beforehand.
  • Important: You may have no more than 1 unfulfilled order in front of you. You may acquire another order only when you have completed the previous one.
• Deliver goods: Take 1 or more goods tiles required for your order from the action spaces and put them on applicable empty spaces of your unfulfilled order on open display. You don't have to deliver all goods required for completing the order at one go. When you complete an order by delivering the final good required, you obtain 1 corn from the road and immediately store it in the warehouse (see "Storage").

Road

• Road construction: Take 1 stone and 1 wood from the action spaces and move your marker on the "Road" location 1 space down. Put all tiles into your container. By constructing the first road, you increase the number of your planning spaces to 5; that means, from the next round on you can use planning spaces 1 to 5 in phase 1. When you construct the second road, you obtain 1 corn from the road and immediately store it in the warehouse (see "Storage"). Additional road construction either increases the number of your planning spaces or gives you corn.

Phase 4: New round

Before the next round begins, a few things need to be done:

• The starting player passes the starting player figure to his left neighbor.
• All used carts are moved back to the left.
• If at least one extension was acquired, the gap(s) at the extension strip are closed by moving all the cards down (in the direction of the space without additional costs). Then the strip is refilled with new cards from the pile.
• If no extension was acquired, the card at the bottom of the extension strip (at the space without additional costs) is removed and taken out of the game. All the other cards displayed are moved down. The top space is refilled with a new card from the pile.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered as soon as all tiles and cards on at least one location are used up (e.g., no fish and no boats left at the harbor, or no corn on the road) and/or an empty space at the extension strip can't be refilled any more. If this occurs, the current round is completed and then one more complete round is played.

Then, if special extensions entail storing, this is done now.

After that, the scoring takes place.

Scoring

First, each player takes all the goods tiles out of his container and his cloth bag, from the planning spaces and action spaces of his action board, from his role tile and from all extensions, and lays them face up in front of him. The tiles in the warehouse remain where they are, but they are included in the scoring. Only the goods on the orders are never included in the count.

Now, players tally their points and note them on the score pad in order to determine who was able to accumulate the most points. First, the goods are scored. For each of his goods tiles, a player gets:

Goods	Points
Food	0 points
Fish, alpaca, corn	0 points
Wood, stone, cacao	1 point
Wool, ore	2 points
Cloth, silver	3 points
Glass	4 points

For each of his boats, a player gets 2 points, for each of his houses 4 points.

Then, players add up the points of their own completed orders. Unfulfilled orders are not scored, and any goods lying on them go to waste.

After that, players earn bonuses if they have houses. For each type of good for which a player gets a bonus through a house card, he scores 1 point for each goods tile of this type that he has.

Finally, players get storage points. For each completed row in his own warehouse, a player scores the number of points indicated at the end of the row.

Each player adds up his points. The player who was able to accumulate the most points overall is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most coins wins.

"Missions" Expansion

In this expansion, each player additionally gets 2 missions that he tries to fulfill. If he succeeds in completing one or both missions, he earns the number of points indicated on the respective card.

After all preparations have been made and before the game begins, the mission cards are shuffled. Each player gets 3 cards. He chooses one mission that he would like to fulfill and puts it face down in front of him. Then he passes one of the two remaining cards to his left neighbor and the other to his right neighbor. This way, each player gets 2 cards from his neighbors. He chooses one of these additional cards in order to fulfill it, and removes the other card from the game.

In the 2-player game, each player selects 1 of the 3 cards and hands 1 card to his opponent. The third card is removed from the game. With this, each player chooses 1 mission for himself and another one for his opponent.

The mission cards remain in place, face down, until they have been completed; then they are revealed. Everybody may look at his own face-down missions anytime.

At the scoring at the end of the game, each player scores the points indicated on the card(s) for the missions he completed. Only goods that have been scored are considered as collected, i.e., not the goods on orders.

Hints before the First Game

In Altiplano, there are plenty of possible actions, and there are many ways to reach the goal. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Don't forget food. Each player starts with 1 or 2 food. That is pretty little for an entire game, and so you should keep in mind producing more food (by using fish or alpaca) in time, since food is needed not only for all productions but also for movement. It can be bitter if you are able to move your figure only once in a round. However, too much food is not good either, so you need to find an appropriate balance.
• Exchange fish. The fishmongers bustle at the market. With fish, you can not only get food but also exchange goods well. As a basic action, you can only exchange 2 fish for 1 stone, but there are a few interesting exchange extensions available in the game.
• Store at the right time. When you play the first game of Altiplano, you might underestimate the warehouse. Storing goods is not only important for reducing the supply of tiles in your cloth bag but also for purposefully completing rows and scoring for them. If, for example, you collect many different goods to begin with, you can start many rows and then complete the valuable ones and score many points for them.
• Boats as an alternative. In Altiplano, there are many goods, but you don't have immediate access to all of them. Without alpaca, for example, you can't come by wool, and without wool, you can't get cloth. There are numerous extension cards that allow you to produce or buy resources and goods during the game. Another option is the boats. Each boat comes with a certain good. You should not only pay attention to the value of the good but also whether this gives you access to other goods: A cloth tile, for example, is worth 3 points; but you can use a wool tile to produce cloth again, or an alpaca tile to produce wool and then use wool to produce cloth.
• Use coins cleverly. Coins aren't worth any points in the end. Therefore, it's pointless to hoard coins. If you get a market extension, you can obtain goods there – provided you earn enough coins – without having to use tiles from the planning spaces for them. Coins thus give you additional action possibilities.

Explanations of the Extensions

• Receive 1 alpaca for 1 food (farm).
• Receive 1 ore for 1 fish (harbor).
• Receive 1 wood for 1 food (forest).
• Receive 1 ore for 1 food (mine).
• Receive 1 fish for 1 food (harbor).
• Spend 2 coins for 1 cacao (market).
• Spend 1 coin for 1 alpaca or 1 stone (market).
• Spend 1 coin for 1 fish or 1 wood (market).
• Spend 1 coin for 1 stone or 1 wood (market).
• Receive 1 stone or 1 ore for 1 food (mine).
• Receive 1 cacao for 2 fish (harbor).
• Receive 1 ore or 1 stone or 1 wood for 1 fish (harbor).
• Receive 1 cacao for 2 food (forest).
• During the planning phase, place any tile here; you can use it later for an action at a location of your choice.
• Receive 1 wool for 1 alpaca (farm).
• Receive 1 cacao for 1 food (forest).
• During phase 2, you can choose to put 1 coin (instead of 1 food) on the movement action spaces. If you then use the movement, you put the coin into the general supply.
• Between phase 1 and phase 2, put 1 tile of your choice from the planning spaces into your container. Then either draw 1 tile out of your bag or pick 1 tile from your container. Place the tile on one of the planning spaces.
• These action spaces extend the village by 2 additional action spaces.
• During the planning phase, place any tile here; you can use it later for an action at a location of your choice.
• Receive 1 wool or 1 cacao for 1 fish (harbor).
• Spend 2 coins for 1 wool or 1 ore (market).
• Spend 3 coins for 1 silver or 1 glass (market).
• Directly before the scoring, draw up to 10 goods out of the bag (if need be, refill from the container). You may store these goods now – however, you may not start any new rows in the warehouse but only add these goods to already-started rows with appropriate goods.
• In phase 3, you can put up to 2 corn into interim storage here as soon as you get the corn. Later on, you can – as an action – store 1 or 2 corn from here permanently (see "Storage").

Explanations of the Mission Cards

All mission cards show the minimum conditions; you may also exceed them.

• Fulfill 3 orders.
• Store 3 alpacas in your warehouse.
• Store 7 types of goods in your warehouse.
• Store 20 goods in your warehouse.
• Be the first to complete a warehouse row.
• Complete 4 rows without corn in your warehouse.
• Have 3 silver and 3 cloth by the end of the game (not on orders).
• Have 4 glass by the end of the game (not on orders).
• Complete 3 rows in your warehouse.
• Store 5 corn in your warehouse.
• Be the first to complete a warehouse row with fish.
• Build 3 boats.
• Have more ore than any other player by the end of the game (not on orders).
• Build 3 houses.
• Store 4 cacao in your warehouse.
• Fulfill 1 order, build 1 boat and 1 house.
• Be the first to fulfill an order.
• Be the first to build a house.
• Have more stone than any other player by the end of the game (not on orders).
• Fulfill 2 orders involving wool or cloth.

Credits

Author: Reiner Stockhausen

Illustrations: Klemens Franz | atelier198

Development: dlp games, Stefan Malz

Layout: Andrea Kattnig | atelier198

English translation: Sybille & Bruce Whitehill, "Word for Wort"

© dlp games 2017

dlp games Verlag GmbH, Eurode-Park 86, D-52134 Herzogenrath

www.dlp-games.de, Email: [email protected]