Aspens Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• How to Get Started
  • 1. Seed Your Starting Forests
  • 2. Grow Your Starting Forests
  • Summary of Getting Started
• Taking a Turn
  • 1. Roll for Sun and Wind
  • 2. Gain Trees
  • 3. Plant Your New Trees
    • A — Grow Up
    • B — Grow Out
  • 4. Check for and Resolve "Cascades"
  • Turn Summary
• Example Turns
• Summary of Play
  • Taking Your Turn
  • Helpful Reminders
• Finishing & Scoring
• Variable Starting Setups

Goal of the Game

Your goal is simple: to grow the largest forest. You'll claim spaces by planting trees of your type on them. And the player who has claimed the most spaces at the end of the game wins.

Components

• 1 Sun Die
• 1 Wind Die
• 4x Water tiles
• 120x Aspen tree pieces
• 120x Pine tree pieces
• 7x Board tiles
• 2x Cloth bags

Important note: The different colors and sizes of Aspen and Pine tree pieces are just for visual purposes, and do NOT represent any gameplay or scoring difference.

Setup

a. Each player picks a tree type, either Aspen or Pine, and takes the corresponding bag of tree pieces.

b. Put the board together, using the 7 board tiles, and place it between you.

• It is easiest if you start with the center tile and then attach the NE/NW and SE/SW tiles first.

c. Place the 3 water tiles on the empty spaces as shown in the rulebook diagram.

• There are variable starting water tile setups provided on p. 13 (see "Variable Starting Setups"). But for your first few games, we suggest the standard one.

d. Randomly choose a first player, and continue to the next step.

How to Get Started

1. Seed Your Starting Forests

a. Each player takes 3 trees from their bag.

b. Starting with the first player, take turns each placing 1 tree on any empty space adjacent to 1 of the 3 water tiles.

Do this until you have each taken 3 turns, and placed all 3 of your trees, 1 tree next to each water tile.

• A single player cannot place more than 1 tree next to the same water tile.

Strategy tip: You will spread outward from these initial forests, capturing as much territory as you can, and trying to control the most spaces by the end of the game. It is best to place your trees on the spaces closer to the center of the board, rather than the spaces toward the edges of the board.

2. Grow Your Starting Forests

c. Each player takes 4 trees from their bag.

d. Starting with the first player; each player takes a single turn to distribute all 4 of their trees among their existing 3 spaces that they seeded in the previous step.

• ! You cannot place on an empty space in this stage. You must place them on your existing 3 spaces.
• You can place all 4 of your trees on 1 space, or spread them across multiple of your starting spaces however you choose.

Strategy tip: The more trees you have on a single space, the more likely it is to gain a tree based on the roll of the Sun Die. But, the more spaces that gain trees, the more trees you get. Cluster more trees on fewer spaces for a "slow-and-steady" strategy or spread them out for a riskier, "boom-or-bust" style.

Summary of Getting Started

After the first two steps, both players should have:

• 3 spaces that they control, each adjacent to a water tile.
• A total of 7 trees among them.

Example (step 1): Each player places 3 trees, 1 next to each water tile.

Example (step 2): The Aspen player places 2 of their trees on their forest to the West, and 2 trees on their forest to the East, hoping to roll lower numbers and gain more trees. The Pine player places all 4 of their trees on their forest to the South, giving them less, but much more consistent tree production potential.

Taking a Turn

1. Roll for Sun and Wind

At the start of your turn, roll both the Sun and Wind Dice.

• The Sun Die determines which of your spaces will produce new trees in Step 2. Its faces show the Sun values 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
• The Wind Die determines which directions you can place new trees in Step 3-B. Its faces show the six hex directions: NE, E, SE, SW, W and NW.

2. Gain Trees

Each player

• Count the number of your spaces that have at least the number of trees as the value of the Sun Die.
• Take this many trees.

Current player

• The current player always takes an extra tree as a bonus because it is their turn.

Any time you gain trees, take them from your bag into your hand.

Note: Only the current player will plant their trees in Step 3. The other player keeps their trees to plant when it is their turn.

Example: The Aspen player rolls a 3 for Sun and gets 4 trees in total.

• They have 3 spaces with at least 3 trees. Each earns the player 1 tree to take into their hand.
• They also get the 1 bonus tree for it being their turn.

The Pine player gets a total of 4 trees.

• They have 4 spaces with at least 3 trees. Each earns the player 1 tree to take into their hand, to use once it is their turn (currently it's Aspen's turn).

3. Plant Your New Trees

When placing new trees, how and where you plant each tree is an independent choice. For every tree, you have two options.

A — Grow Up

Place a tree on any space you already own, adding it to your existing tree(s) there.

• This will increase your odds of gaining trees from that space in the future.
• You can do this on any space you own. The Wind does not relate to this option.

Strategy tip: See the chart below for the odds a space will produce a tree, based on how many trees it has.

Chances for tree production

Trees on the space	Chance to produce	Sun values that produce
2 trees	16%	2
3 trees	33%	2, 3
4 trees	50%	2, 3, 4
5 trees	66%	2, 3, 4, 5
6 trees	83%	2, 3, 4, 5, 6
7 trees	100%	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

B — Grow Out

Place a tree on any valid, empty space using the Wind. For a space to be valid, it must be:

• Adjacent to a space you already own.
• In a valid Wind direction from a space you control, based on the Wind Die.
  • The valid directions are the direction you rolled, and the adjacent directions to either side of it.
  • This means you will always have 3 valid Wind directions on your turn. (Example: a roll of E makes NE, E and SE valid.)
• When you plant a tree on an empty space, you immediately control that space, and can now plant adjacent to it.
• Clarification: You may plant in multiple Wind directions, and from multiple different spaces on a single turn.
• ! Water tiles are not considered empty spaces. You can never place a tree on them.

4. Check for and Resolve "Cascades"

When you close off an area of the board, making it impossible for another player to reach, this is called a "Cascade".

• Water tiles, because they are permanently unplayable spaces, can also be used as part of the boundary to close off an area.

When this happens, you immediately claim all the surrounded spaces for free.

• Do this by taking trees from your supply and putting 1 tree on each space in the surrounded area, filling it up.

Turn Summary

On your turn, you will always do these 4 actions in this order. After your turn, pass the dice to your opponent — alternating turns, until the game ends (see Finishing & Scoring).

Important reminders

• Only the current player places their trees in Step 3. The other player holds their trees to plant on their turn.
• You can never place a tree on a space that another player already controls.
• Each tree is an individual choice. You can plant them all in different ways, and in different areas on a single turn as long as each move is valid.

Strategy tip: For most players, we strongly recommend you place all of your trees each turn. But as you learn and master the game, there may be rare occasions when there is a strategic value to holding some, or all, of your trees for a future turn.

• You do not have to place all of your trees on your turn. You can instead choose to hold up to 5 trees for a future turn.

Example Turns

The Aspen Player Rolls the Dice — Both players check if they gain trees.

The Aspen player rolls a Sun Value of 4 and gets a total of 4 trees.

• They have 3 spaces with at least 4 trees.
• They also get the 1 bonus tree for it being their turn.

The Pine player gets 0 trees.

• They don't have any spaces with 4 or more trees.

The Aspen Player Plants their Trees, Growing Out according to the wind.

• 1, 2, 3 — The Aspen player plants 3 of their trees, growing outward from one of their spaces near the water tile in the West. They plant using East, North East, and then East again, to get around the Pine player to avoid getting cut off.
• 4 — Then they plant their 4th and final tree North West from one of their spaces near the Eastern water tile.

The Pine Player Rolls the Dice — Both players check if they gain trees.

The Pine player rolls a 2 for the Sun Value and gains a total of 6 trees.

• They get 5 trees for the spaces they have with 2 or more trees.
• They also gain the 1 free bonus tree because it is their turn.

The Aspen player gets a total of 3 trees.

• They have 3 spaces on the board with 2 or more trees on them.
• Since it is not their turn, they must hold their 3 trees to plant on their next turn.

The Pine Player Plants their Trees, Growing Up and Out.

• 1, 2 — The Pine player decides to "Grow Up" with 2 of their trees; placing 1 tree on each of their existing spaces that already had 3 trees, increasing their odds of producing trees on higher Sun Die rolls.
• Then they decide to plant outward in two different areas.
  • 3, 4, 5 — First they grow NW, W, and SW — starting from their space next to the Eastern water tile.
  • 6 — Next they decide to grow NW from one of their spaces near the Southern water tile.

Summary of Play

Taking Your Turn

1. Roll for Wind and Sun.
2. BOTH players gain trees based on the Sun Value.
   • The current player gets 1 bonus tree for their turn.
   • Both players get 1 tree for each space they own that has at least the number of trees on it as the Sun Value.
3. Plant your trees (only the current player).
   • "Grow up" on spaces you own to increase your odds of gaining a tree from that space in the future.
   • "Grow out", using the 3 valid directions based on the Wind Die, to expand your territory.
4. Resolve any Cascades.
   • If you close off an area of the board, making it impossible for another player to reach, you create a "Cascade".
   • Immediately fill in the surrounded area for free, using trees from your bag.

Helpful Reminders

• The winner is the player with the most spaces in the end.
• Closing off areas means you create a "Cascade" and immediately get to take control of that area for free (place 1 tree from your supply on each space in the area).
• You can place trees adjacent to ones that you just placed on the same turn, planting in a "chain" effect.
• You can never place a tree on a space occupied by another player.
• There is no capture or clear mechanic in the game. Once a space is taken, that player will always own that space.

Note on running out of trees: A player running out of trees is not an intended part of the game, and should be very rare. If this happens, either:

• Use a suitable replacement from your home, or...
• Take trees from the inside of areas you have already surrounded and use these. Make sure to keep these areas clearly defined/marked as "yours" for end game scoring.

Finishing & Scoring

The game is over when there are no remaining empty spaces on the board. All playable spaces have been taken by a player.

• Count up how many spaces each player owns. The easiest way to do this is for each player to:
  • Remove any additional trees from your spaces, so that each of your spaces only has 1 tree on it.
  • Then, count the number of your trees on the board.
• The player with the most spaces wins.
• In the extremely rare case of a tie, either share the victory, or play again to determine the real winner.

If you want to be sure that your counting is correct, there are 148 playable spaces on the board in a standard game. So, both player's scores combined should add up to 148.

• In a game with 4 starting water tiles, there are 147 spaces.

Variable Starting Setups

Once you've mastered the base game, here are some different starting setups to refresh the game and offer new challenges.

Choose one together, or roll the Sun Die and play with the setup that matches the number you rolled (2 being the standard setup).

Some setups will have you start with different numbers of forests.

• Setups 3 and 4 have you start with 3 initial forests like the base game rules (3 water tiles, seeding 3 trees).
• Setups 5, 6, 7 all have you start by seeding 4 initial forests (4 water tiles, seeding 4 trees).

Note: All the base rules for seeding and growing your initial forests outlined in the front of this rulebook apply.

The exact water tile placement for each of setups 2-7 is shown in the board diagrams in the rulebook.