Cloudship
Cloudship Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's Part of the Game
- 12 flowers
- 9 hail tiles (each with a front side and a back side)
- 3 raindrops
- 3 hailstones
- 3 dice
- 1 storm marker
- 2 flowerbed dividers
- 1 cloud ship consisting of:
- 1 bottom
- 2 side panels
- 4 snap grommets (2 different parts each)
- 4 strings
- Bottom half of the box with 4 flowerbeds and weather bar
- Box lid with engine room
Before Your First Game
Before you can get started, you need to put together the cloud ship once. You don't need any tools to do it. Nevertheless, you should ask an adult to help you with the assembly.
The cloud ship is now ready to be used in the game. You can store it in the box between games without taking it apart.
Setting Up the Game
Place the bottom half of the box in the middle of the table. Assemble the 2 flowerbed dividers as shown and insert them into the slots provided in the bottom half of the box. Place the storm marker on the starting square of the weather bar, with the small cloud ship shown facing outwards.
Place the box lid on the table so you can see the engine room inside. Turn all the hail tiles so the tool parts (the back sides) are on top and shuffle them up well. Then place each hail tile on a space in the engine room with the matching tool part without looking at the front sides of the tiles. Do not place any tiles on the three spaces without a tool part. Now place a flower on each of the spaces (both the spaces with and without hail tiles).
Place the cloud ship next to the bottom half of the box and place the raindrops and hailstones as well as the dice within everyone's reach.
And now the wild ride can begin!
How to Play
Wolkenschiff is a cooperative game. You win or lose together.
Tip: There is more than enough for the whole crew to do on the cloud ship. Divvy up the tasks among yourselves: Who will move the storm marker? Who will load the ship? Who will take care of the flowers?
Over the course of several rounds, you will try to plant all 12 flowers in the flowerbeds before the storm marker reaches the end square on the weather bar.
The player who most recently held a watering can in their hand takes command in the first round. Command passes to the next player to the left after each round.
Each round includes the following steps:
1. Roll the Dice
Whoever is in command in this round rolls all 3 dice once.
Please note: If you roll 3 storm symbols on your roll, the roll does not count: Roll the dice again.
Example: Emma is in command in the first round. She rolls all three dice and gets the following result: yellow, purple, and a storm symbol.
2. Move Storm Marker
For each storm symbol rolled, you must move the storm marker on the weather bar 1 square closer to the end square. Oh no, you're getting closer to the storm!
Example: Since Emma rolled a storm symbol once, Milan moves the storm marker 1 step ahead. The storm marker is now on the square with the 1.
3. Load the Cloud Ship
Now load your cloud ship: For each die that shows a color (and no storm symbol), place a raindrop in the ship. If you have already uncovered hail in the engine room, place as many hailstones in the ship as are visible in the engine room (see the Hail section on page 6).
Example: 2 dice from Emma's roll show colors (yellow and purple), so Aaron places 2 raindrops in the cloud ship. The crew has not yet uncovered any hail in the engine room, so no hailstones are put into the cloud ship yet.
4. Fly
All crew members take hold of the strings of the cloud ship as described below:
- When there are 4 players, you each hold 1 string.
- When there are 3 players, everyone holds 1 string and whoever is in command holds 2.
- When there are 2 players, you each hold 2 strings.
Now insert 1 outstretched finger into 1 string loop into the string loop in your string. You only steer the cloud ship using this 1 finger inserted into your string.
If you are in command, the first thing you do is lift the cloud ship a little bit so the raindrops (and hailstones) roll to one side. Then you give the start command of "1, 2, 3 – Cloud ship ahoy!" and everyone carefully lifts the ship at the same time.
Balance the cloud ship by raising and lowering your fingers so that the raindrops (and hailstones) do not fall out. Be careful and work together!
Now, steer the cloud ship over the flowerbeds.
Please note:
- The cloud ship must float freely. It is not allowed to rest on the box or the flowerbed dividers at any time.
- Do you disagree about which direction you should fly next? If you do, the last word goes to the player in command this round.
5. Water the Flowerbeds
Your goal is to steer and tilt the cloud ship so the raindrops fall through the hole into the flowerbeds that match the color you rolled. Each die with a color determines the target for 1 raindrop.
Example: Emma rolled yellow and purple. This means that 1 of the 2 raindrops has to go into the yellow flowerbed and 1 into the purple one. The crew skillfully steers the cloud ship first over the yellow and then the purple flowerbed and – drip, drop – lets the raindrops fall into them. Great – both flowerbeds matching the die roll have been watered!
Once you have dropped all the raindrops or if you want to end your flight early, land the cloud ship next to the bottom half of the box and take your fingers out of the loops.
6. Plant and Remove Flowers
Each time a raindrop falls in a flowerbed that matches the die roll, plant a new flower there. Take the raindrop out of the flowerbed and replace it with a flower from the engine room. Start with the flower at the red arrow and then follow the pipe through the engine room.
A maximum of 3 flowers can grow in each flowerbed; then the flowerbed is full.
Example: The crew has dropped both raindrops into the correct flowerbeds. Olivia first takes the raindrop out of the purple flowerbed and puts it aside. Then she takes the first flower from the engine room and places it on the purple flowerbed. She repeats the same action with the yellow flowerbed. Great – 2 flowers have already grown!
Note: If the crew had dropped both raindrops into the purple flowerbed, only 1 flower would grow there, because only 1 die is showing purple.
Hail
Whenever you take a flower out of the engine room, you turn over the hail tile underneath it. With a bit of luck, the tile will be blank and nothing will happen. But sometimes, when the temperature controller malfunctions, you will find hail on the tile.
That's not a good thing, because each round you have to load the cloud ship with as many hailstones as you can see in the engine room (see section 3. Load the Cloud Ship on page 4).
Example: After Olivia has taken the flowers out of the engine room, she reveals the 2 hail tiles underneath. The first one is blank – luck was on your side! But the second one shows hail – oh no! From now on, the crew must load 1 hailstone into the cloud ship every round.
You will need to try to keep the hailstones in the cloud ship and only let the raindrops fall onto the flowerbeds – because hailstones destroy your flowers.
For every hailstone that falls onto a flowerbed that contains flowers, you must remove 1 flower from that flowerbed. If a hailstone falls onto an empty flowerbed, nothing happens.
Important: A raindrop and a hailstone that land in the same flowerbed cancel each other out. In this case, you don't have to remove a flower. This is true even if you didn't roll the color of the flowerbed beforehand.
Example: In a later round, the crew rolls the die once. The crew first lets 1 raindrop fall into the purple flowerbed, but unfortunately 1 hailstone also drops into it. The raindrop and the hailstone cancel each other out: A flower is not added to the purple flowerbed but you do not have to remove one.
At the end of the round, take the hailstone from the flowerbed and put it aside. If you have to remove a flower, place it back in the engine room on the empty space furthest away from the temperature controller.
This may cause you to cover a hailstone that has already been uncovered. You only have to count this hail again when loading the cloud ship if you replant the flower on top of it and the hail becomes visible again.
Wild Colors
A flowerbed with 3 flowers is full. The matching color is now "wild" for you: If you roll that color and water the full flowerbed, you get to decide where to plant the flower, in any flowerbed that is not already full.
Example: Towards the end of the game, there are 3 flowers in the crew's purple flowerbed. That flowerbed is full and therefore counts as a wild! The crew rolls and lets a raindrop fall into the purple flowerbed. Great! Now the crew can plant the flower in any other flowerbed. The crew chooses the white flowerbed.
If you have to remove flowers from a full flowerbed due to hail, that flowerbed no longer counts as a wild.
Once you have removed all the raindrops and hailstones from the flowerbeds and planted or removed all the flowers for this round, the round ends. Pass the dice to the next player on your left. This player will be in command in the next round. Play as many rounds as it takes to reach the end of the game.
End of the Game: Did You Win or Lose?
If you can plant all 12 flowers, the game ends and you win. Hurray!
However, if the storm marker moves all the way to the end square of the weather bar before then, the game also ends and you have lost. Why not try again in another game?
Adjusting the Difficulty
Are you not able to plant all the flowers after several games, or would you like to make the game more challenging? Then try another mode of play:
- "Sunny": Play the game without hail. When setting up the game, leave out the hail tiles and the hailstones and play without any hail at all. This is recommended particularly when playing with younger children.
- "Partly cloudy": Play the game with less hail. When setting up the game, leave out 1 or 2 sets of hail tiles (each set has 3 tiles with the blank back side + 1 white ball). Then the setup has no hail tiles on the 3 spaces of the last pipe section as well as no hail tiles on the 3 spaces of 1 or 2 additional pipe sections. Choose how many sets as well as which sets you want to remove from the game.
- Instead of shuffling the hail tiles during game setup and placing them face down in the engine room, you can also place the hail tiles with hail face up in certain positions:
- "Overcast": Place the hail tiles with hail on the last space of each pipe section.
- "Dreary": Place the hail tiles with hail on the middle space of each pipe section.
- "Stormy": Place the hail tiles with hail on the first space of each pipe section.
- "Tornado": Shuffle all the hail tiles face down and place them on the spaces in the engine room with no regard for what is on their back sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
A ball falls over the edge of the cloud ship. What happens now? Regardless of whether a ball is a raindrop or a hailstone, it only counts if it falls through the hole in the bottom of the cloud ship and then into one of the flowerbeds. So don't count this ball; instead, put it back into the cloud ship. If you are playing a 2-player game, it is best to let the cloud ship land briefly, free up one hand, collect the ball, and take off again when the start command is given.
A ball bounces from a flowerbed or from outside the box into another flowerbed. Where does it count? Whether the ball is a raindrop or hailstone, it counts on the flowerbed where it ends its movement.
A ball falls next to the game area. What do we do now? Regardless of whether the ball is a raindrop or a hailstone, it only counts if it ends its movement on a flowerbed. So don't count this ball; instead, put it back into the cloud ship.
Are we allowed to land the cloud ship even if there are still balls in it? Yes, you can interrupt or cancel a flight at any time. Decide together when it's the best time to land.
We rolled blue once, and a raindrop and a hailstone landed in blue. Can we let a second raindrop fall into the blue flowerbed so we can plant a flower there after all? Yes, because a raindrop and a hailstone cancel each other out. It's as if a raindrop didn't fall into that flowerbed yet.