Circle the Wagons
Circle the Wagons Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
18 cards with territories on the front side and scoring conditions on their reverse side.
Setup
Shuffle the cards and randomly place 3 in the center of the table with their scoring conditions face-up. These 3 cards show the special scoring conditions that apply to this game.
Place the remaining 15 cards with their territories face-up in a circle around the 3 center cards.
Choose a player to go first. The second player chooses any card around the circle to be the starting card for the first player.
Territories
A territory is defined as a rectangular quadrant in one of the six land types: desert, forest, mountains, plains, snow or water. Each card has four territories on it.
Land Types
- Desert
- Forest
- Snow
- Mountains
- Plains
- Water
Icons
- Beer (bottle)
- Cow
- Fort
- Gun
- Mine (pickaxe)
- Wagon
Building Your Town
Your turn consists of drafting a card from the circle and then placing it in your boomtown.
When placing your first card, simply position it in front of you to begin building your town. Each time you draft a new card, you must place it so at least one territory edge meets an existing territory edge in your town or so that it covers a territory (or multiple territories) with your new card.
You may not place a card so that it only connects to your town by a corner.
You may place a card upside down, but you may not place a card on its side.
You may not "tuck" a card under an existing territory.
Drafting a Card
If you are the first player, you will either: take the first card OR, moving clockwise around the circle, skip to take the card of your choice.
For each card you skip, you must give that card to your opponent as a free card. Players cannot refuse free cards.
Once you have selected your card, place it in your town and your turn is over.
Your opponent must then place any free cards they received (placing them in their town in the order they appeared, clockwise in the the circle).
After cards are placed, play passes to your opponent.
Play continues until all cards have been drafted and placed. When the last card has been placed, the game ends and scores are tallied.
Example: Player Two begins the game by choosing this as the starting card.
Player One must either choose the starting card or skip ahead to another card clockwise; she chooses to skip the starting card and instead takes the next card in line.
As a result, Player Two gets the starting card for free! Play then passes to Player Two to draft a card.
Tally the Final Score!
Territories
Each player scores 1 Prosperity Point per territory in their largest group of each territory type (desert, forest, mountains, plains, snow and water). A territory "group" is considered to be a cluster of matching territories connected by at least one edge. Only your largest group of each type is scored. If 2 or more groups of the same type are tied for your largest, you choose which group to score.
Bonus Scoring
In addition to your 6 scoring territory groups, you may also score Prosperity Points for each of the 3 cards in the center of the table. Each has unique scoring conditions described on the cards themselves.
Add the total of your 6 scoring territory groups and any bonus scoring from the 3 center cards to get your final score.
Example: Your final town has been built. The following territory types would score:
Desert 4, Forest 1, Mountains 6, Plains 5, Snow 1, Water 3 for a total of 20 Prosperity Points. Add any Bonus scoring to get your final score.
Note: The Desert with the Bottle on the bottom row does not score as it is not part of the largest group of desert territories.
Credits
Design: Steven Aramini, Danny Devine & Paul Kluka
Art: Beth Sobel
2017 Button Shy Games
Rules questions? Visit buttonshygames.com
Special thanks to GameKrackers for playtesting.