Boitas Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Cards
  • Tokens
• Setup
• Key Concepts
  • Gameplay
  • Trick
  • Suits
  • Trump
  • Import Goods
  • Ranking Hierarchy of Cards
• Gameplay
  • How to play a Trading Phase
  • How to play a Market Phase
• Endgame Scoring
• 2-Player Variant
• Elephant & Number 4 Special Rule
• Appendix - Card Abilities

Components

Cards

• 80 Boita Cards. Cards have a value of 0-9, and belong to 4 Colored Suits: Rice (Yellow), Gems (Red), Betel (Green), Cloth (Blue), including a total of 8 Wild Cards.
• 12 Port Cards.
• 4 Elephant Boita Cards (Grey).
• 4 Player Aids.

Tokens

• 25 Cowries.
• 1 Start Player Token.
• 4 Port Tokens, numbered 1, 2, 3 and Market.
• 25 Import Goods Tokens.

Setup

1. Place the 4 Port Tokens in the order of 1, 2, 3 and Market.
2. Separate all Cards by their types and shuffle them. Place the Cards in separate stacks to create the:
   • Ports Deck with 12 Port Cards face down;
   • Elephants Deck with the 4 Elephant Boita Cards face up;
   • Boita Deck with the 80 Boita Cards face down.
3. Take the top 4 Boita Cards from the Boita Deck and place them face up separately in a new row. This is the Market.
4. Shuffle all the 25 Import Goods Tokens and place them face down above the Market Port Token.
5. Place one Port Card and two Import Goods Tokens (all face up) for each of the Port Tokens numbered 1, 2, and 3.
6. Place all the Cowries nearby as a common supply.
7. Give each player:
   • 5 Boita Cards from the Boita Deck (in their hand, hidden from other players);
   • 2 Cowries from the common supply (kept near them);
   • 1 Player Aid.
8. The player who most recently visited a port receives the Start Player Token.

Key Concepts

Gameplay

Boitas is played over four rounds, each consisting of four phases - three Trading Phases, and one Market Phase.

• Phases 1-3: Trading Phases. In each Trading Phase, players take turns playing a Boita Card. The winner and the second place player get the Import Goods Tokens. Others gain 1 Cowrie each.
• Phase 4: Market Phase. In turn order, players may spend Cowries to select Boita Cards or acquire Elephant Boita Cards, adding more cards for future trading phases.

Trick

During the Trading Phases, players play tricks for each of the Ports 1, 2 and 3. In clockwise order, starting with the Start Player, all players must play 1 Boita Card face up to the table. The person who plays the highest ranked card wins the trick and takes an Import Good of their choice. The player ranked second takes the remaining Import Good. All other players gain 1 Cowrie each.

Suits

Boita Cards are divided into 4 standard suits: Rice (Yellow), Gems (Red), Cloth (Blue), and Betel (Green).

In each suit, there are two copies of cards from 0 - 9. Exception: One copy each of 0 and 5 are wild cards!

The game also includes 4 Elephant Boita (Grey) Cards. The Elephant Card acts as a "Special trump" suit that beats all the other suits in ranking (explained later). Players can take the Elephant Card during the Market phase.

Trump

Trump refers to a standard suit that is ranked higher than other suits for the Trading phase, and most likely would help win the trick. In a trick, the Trump suit is determined by the active Port Card.

In this example, when playing the Trading phase for Port 3, the Trump suit is Betel.

Import Goods

Winning tricks in the Trading phase lets you choose one of the Import Goods Tokens. The game has five different types of Import Goods: Porcelain, Spices, Gold, Horses and Pearl.

The points that can be earned from the Import Goods are mentioned on the top left of the Token. Pearls do not have points mentioned on the Token but they let you score points from other Import Goods, Cards or Cowries.

Pearls Scoring:

• Hi: Score the highest valued Import Good Token you have.
• Lo: Score the lowest valued Import Good Token you have.
• 1 per Boita Card: Score 1 point for every Boita Card in your hand.
• 1 per Cowrie: Score 1 point for every Cowrie you have.

Ranking Hierarchy of Cards

A card with a higher number generally means a higher rank, irrespective of suits. So, a 9 defeats an 8 which defeats a 7 and so on.

Any card of the Trump suit (suit matching the active port of that trick) is always ranked higher than the other 3 suits, irrespective of the number. For example: if the Trump suit is Betel, a 0 Betel will defeat a 9 of any other suit.

A card of the Trump suit as well as the matching number on the active Port Token, is the highest ranked card in the Trump suit. For example: if the Port Token is 2 and the Trump suit is Betel, then the 2 of the Betel suit will defeat any other number in the suit.

However, an Elephant Card defeats the highest ranked card of the Trump suit and all other suits.

If and only if an Elephant Card is in play in a trick, the 4 numbered card of the Trump suit defeats the Elephant Card. In such a case, it is the highest possible ranked card in the entire phase, and will always win that trick. If an Elephant Card is not in play, it acts as a regular card of value 4 of the Trump suit.

If more than one player played the same number cards, then the tied player who played the card first in turn order, is the winner amongst the tied players. For example, if the Trump Suit is Betel and John plays 6 of Rice first and then Sam plays a 6 of Gems, then John breaks the tie and his card is ranked higher than Sam's.

Some Boita cards provide additional abilities. Refer to the Appendix (page 10).

Gameplay

How to play a Trading Phase

The lowest numbered Port Token which is face up and the corresponding Port Card determine the Trump suit and the highest ranked number for the current Trading Phase.

1. Starting with the Start Player and proceeding clockwise, each player plays one Boita Card face up on the table. Any card can be played regardless of the Trump suit or previously played cards. In addition, an Elephant Card can be played only if no other Elephant Card has been played in this Trading phase.
2. After all players have played a Boita Card, determine the two highest-ranked cards (refer to the "Ranking Hierarchy of Cards" on page 5).
3. The player with the highest-ranked card picks one of the two Import Goods Tokens beside the active Port and collects the Start Player Token. The player with the second highest-ranked card takes the remaining Import Goods Token. They keep the collected Import Goods Token face up near them.
4. All other players gain 1 Cowrie each from the common supply, that they keep near them.
5. Discard all played Boita Cards to the discard pile. If an Elephant Card was played, return it to the Elephant deck face up.
6. Flip the active Port Token face down and discard the active Port Card from the game.

Begin a new Trading phase with the next Port Token as the active Port. Continue to play a new Trading phase till all three Port Tokens are face down. Once three Trading phases are completed, move to the Market phase. For the fourth round, once the three Trading phases are completed, move to Endgame Scoring.

How to play a Market Phase

1. Flip all 3 Port Tokens back to their numeric sides.
2. Draw and place a new Port Card and two Import Goods Tokens for each Port Token (1, 2, and 3). Now there should be 3 new Port Cards, and 6 new Import Goods Tokens in total!
3. In turn order, each player draws the top 3 Boita Cards from the Boita deck and adds them to their hand.
4. Starting with the player with the most Cowries and proceeding clockwise, each player may optionally take only 1 of the 3 actions by spending Cowries to take Boita Cards to their hand:
   1. Spend 1 Cowrie to take 1 Boita Card (from either the Market or the top of Boita deck).
   2. Spend 2 Cowries to take 2 Boita Cards (from either the Market or the top of Boita deck).
   3. Spend 3 Cowries to take an Elephant Boita Card (if available in the Elephant deck).

Spent Cowries are returned back to the common supply.

Every time a faceup card is taken from the Market, immediately replace with a new card from the Boita deck.

If two or more players have same number of Cowries and are tied for the most Cowries (to start the Market Phase), then the tied player who is closest to the Start Player in turn order, breaks the tie.

There is no limit to the number of Boita Cards a player may have during the game.

Once all players have taken their actions, or chosen not to, the round ends. Start a new round with a new Trading Phase.

Endgame Scoring

Players score their collected Import Goods, leftover Boita Cards and Cowries in hand. The player with the highest total points wins, with ties broken by the number of Import Good Tokens.

1. Scoring the Import Goods: Lay out all the Import Goods Tokens (including Pearls) that you have collected, and sort them by their type. You must choose one of the two ways to score, ideally the one that scores higher for you:

   1. Score only the highest valued Import Goods Token of each good type that you have, OR
   2. Score ALL the Import Goods Tokens of any 2 good types.

   All Import Goods that are not scored based on the selection that you make will score 2 points each.

2. Scoring the Boita Cards: Add the point value of each Boita Card (7, 8, and 9 number cards) still remaining in your hand.

3. Scoring the Cowries: For every 2 Cowries, gain 1 point.

Add up the scores from the 3 steps and arrive at your individual score. Player with the highest score wins!

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most number of Import Goods Tokens wins! If still a tie, the tied player with the most Cowries wins. And if still a tie, the tied players make a paper boat and race it across the table by blowing on the boats to determine the winner.

Example: Amit gains the following Import Goods: 4 Spices, 5 Spices, 6 Horses, 7 Horses, Hi Pearl.

Amit chooses to score the highest valued Import Goods Token of each good type, hence he scores the Hi Pearl, the 7 Horse, and the 5 Spices. The 2 unselected Import Goods Tokens will score 2 points each for a total of 4. The Hi Pearl will score the 7 Horse again, hence the total points from Import Goods will be 4 + 7 + 7 + 5 = 23.

Example: Neha gains the following Import Goods: 6 Horses, 7 Horses, three Pearls, 3 Porcelain, 5 Porcelain.

Neha has 2 Cowries and 2 Cards at the end of the game. She chooses the first option of scoring Import Goods - highest valued Import Goods Token of each good type. She chooses the Lo Pearl, the 7 Horse and the 5 Porcelain. The 4 unselected Import Goods Tokens will score 2 points each for a total of 8. The Low Pearl will score the lowest Import Good that she has, which is the 3 Porcelain. The total points from the Import Goods would be 8 + 3 + 7 + 5 = 23.

As her remaining Boita Card does not have any points on it, she scores 0. She scores 1 point for the 2 remaining Cowries. Her total points would be 23 + 1 = 24.

2-Player Variant

A 2-player game of Boitas has the same rules, with only one exception. Distribute the number of Import Goods Tokens per Port as follows:

• Round 1 - 1, 1, 1
• Round 2 - 1, 1, 2
• Round 3 - 1, 2, 2
• Round 4 - 2, 2, 2

The player who loses a trick will take a Cowrie when there are no Import Goods Tokens remaining.

Elephant & Number 4 Special Rule

The Elephant changes the way that the ranking for a trick is determined. The example below provides some details:

The Port suit is Betel and Port number is 1. John plays Betel 1. Sunita plays an Elephant. Ron plays a Betel 5. In this case, the ranking is Sunita and then John. However, if Ron played a Betel 4, then the ranking would be Ron and then Sunita, as the Betel 4 defeats the Elephant. John would not win even after playing the perfect Port and Suit card.

Appendix - Card Abilities

Some Boita Cards have an ability printed on them. The printed ability text for each example card is:

• 0-valued Boita Card of any suit, including the Trump suit: "0-valued Boita Card of any suit, including the Trump suit."
• 5-valued Boita Card of any two suits shown on the card, including the Trump suit: "5-valued Boita Card of any two suits shown on the card, including the Trump suit."
• 4-valued Boita Card (green): "Defeats the Elephant Boita Card if the Trump suit matches the suit of the card."
• 5-valued Boita Card (green): "Gain 1 Cowrie immediately."
• 6/9-valued Boita Card (blue): "Place 1 Boita Card from your hand to the bottom of the Boita Deck and take 2 Cowries."
• 6/9-valued Boita Card (red): "Place 1 Boita Card from your hand to the bottom of the Boita Deck and take 1 card from the Market (from either the Market or the top of Boita deck)."