Come to Fishing Village! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Number of Players
• Game Objective
• Contents
• Game Preparation
• Game Procedure
  • Secrecy Rules (Important)
  • 1) Worker assignment and book-closing stage
    • a. Assign a worker
    • b. Remove a land shark
    • c. Recruit a worker
    • d. Resolve a book-closing
  • 2) Development check stage
  • 3) Next round
• End of Game
• Special Rules for 1- or 2-Player Game
• Strategy Tips

Number of Players

1-8 players. Age recommended: 10 or older. Play time: 30-75 minutes.

Game Objective

To win the game, your village has to survive 24 book-closings with at least 1 population.

If at any time your village's population is reduced to zero or less, all of you lose the game.

During the game, the population increases and decreases by results of book-closings and developments. All of you should cooperate and discuss how to succeed in each book-closing and development, assign workers at right places, and ultimately attract people to your village as much as possible.

Contents

Cards total: 150

• Worker cards: 78
  • Single symbol: 48
    • Agricultural Worker: 12
    • Fishery Worker: 12
    • Industrial Worker: 12
    • Commercial Worker: 12
  • Double symbol: 30
    • Agricultural Worker: 12
    • Fishery Worker: 9
    • Industrial Worker: 6
    • Commercial Worker: 3
• Land Shark cards: 36
• Book-closing cards: 8
• Development cards: 8
• Population cards: 20
  • 1/5 Population: 10
  • 1/10 Population: 10
• Playing manual (Japanese/English): 2 Sheets

Game Preparation

1. Shuffle all Worker cards and deal some of them to each player. See the table below for the number of cards to be dealt to each player. (There are special rules with 1- or 2-player game, explained later.)

Difficulty	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Easy	9	8	5	6	7	7	7	7
Normal	8	7	4	5	6	6	6	6
Hard	7	6	3	4

(Columns are the number of players.)

2. Place the remaining worker cards at center of the table face down, forming a worker pile.
3. Shuffle all land shark cards and deal three cards to each player. Each player stacks the cards dealt to their field, and slides them so that all exclamation symbols can be seen. (A field is in front of each player, where their face-up cards are placed.)
4. Shuffle all book-closing cards and place them at center of the table face down, forming book-closing pile. Draw two cards from the pile and place them near the pile face up. Remember or mark which is the first card drawn in an appropriate manner.
5. Your village initially has 20 population. Take one 10-population card and ten 1-population cards and place them at center of the table.
6. Each player may now look at their own hand. Then each player chooses one development card and places it on their field. Face-up side is the development that player is going for. All of you may discuss who is going for what development. Note that development cards are double-sided with different developments. You may choose the same development as other player chooses.
7. All of you discuss and determine who plays first. The turn goes clockwise starting with that player.

Game Procedure

A game consists of three rounds, and a round is eight-year long in game time. There are two stages in a round.

1. Worker assignment and book-closing stage: Players take turns assigning their workers, removing land sharks, and resolving book-closings. This stage ends when eighth book-closing is resolved.
2. Development check stage: Each player checks if their development is achieved.

After completing three rounds, if your village still has at least one population, all of you win the game.

Secrecy Rules (Important)

During the game, players may discuss any aspect of the game. You may not show the cards in your hand to any other player, but you may tell other players what cards you have (though telling every card is too time-consuming).

1) Worker assignment and book-closing stage

Active player must choose one of the four actions below.

a. Assign a worker

You may place one worker card from your hand to your field. By spending one population from your village, you may instead place one worker card from your hand to other player's field. You may not choose this action if you have no cards in your hand.

For visual clarity, stack your worker cards of the same type and slide them so that all production symbols can be seen.

b. Remove a land shark

You may discard one worker card from your hand to remove the top land shark card in your field. By spending one population from your village, you may instead discard one worker card from your hand to remove the top land shark card from other player's field. In either case, the discarded worker card and the top land shark card must have any symbol at the same column. You may not choose this action if you have no cards in your hand.

Example: If the top land shark card has an exclamation symbol at the middle column, you must discard a worker card with a production symbol at its middle column.

c. Recruit a worker

You may spend two population from your village to draw a worker card. If the worker pile is empty, shuffle the worker discards to form a new worker pile. You may not draw a card if worker pile is empty and there are no worker discards.

d. Resolve a book-closing

You may resolve a book-closing card. There are two face-up book-closing cards on the table. You must resolve the first-drawn card between these two.

Three numbers and symbols are printed in a book-closing card. They represent type and number of production symbols you need to pass the book-closing. The top number is for the first round, middle number for the second round, and bottom for the third round.

Example: The Agricultural Score card has numbers 3, 5, and 8 on its face, so you need three corn symbols in round 1, five corns in round 2, and eight corns in round 3 to pass the book-closing.

You have two ways to resolve the book-closing.

d-1. Abandon (intentionally fail) the book-closing. If you don't have enough symbols to pass, you may abandon the book-closing. Your village loses five population immediately. Land shark effect (explained below) doesn't happen in this case.

d-2. Undergo the book-closing. If you have any land sharks in your field, they interfere with your book-closing. If a worker card has a required symbol to pass the book-closing, and if the worker and any of these land sharks have a symbol at the same column, that worker card is discarded. If more than one worker card matches the condition, all of them are discarded. Other types of workers are not affected at all.

Then count the appropriate symbols to pass the book-closing. If you don't have enough symbols of that type, you fail the book-closing and your village loses five population. If you have required symbols, you pass the book-closing. If you have symbols more than required, your village gains population equal to the excess amount. You may not gain more than five population per book-closing in this way.

Note: Double symbol cards. Count the number of symbols (not cards) when resolving a book-closing or checking a development. If you have a double symbol card, it counts as two symbols.

Example: You are undergoing an Agricultural Score. If you have a land shark with a symbol at center column, your Agricultural Workers with a symbol at center column are discarded. You have to undergo the book-closing with reduced corn symbols. (Other types of workers are not affected even if they have a symbol at center column.)

Note: Increasing or decreasing population. When your village gains or loses population, add, remove, and/or flip population cards on the table so that appropriate number is indicated.

• You may exchange population cards anytime.
• There is no limit to the population your village can have. It may have more than 20 population.

No matter how the book-closing ends, do the following afterwards:

• Discard all land shark cards from your field, and draw three land shark cards and place them to your field.
• Draw three worker cards and add them to your hand. (There is no hand limit.)
• Draw one book-closing card and place it near the book-closing pile. Remember or mark the older book-closing card as it is resolved first.

Important: When the last population would be gone. Anyone may remove their development card from the game to gain one population. Return that card into the box. That development can never be fulfilled for the rest of the game. This action can be performed by anyone at any time, even in other player's turn.

2) Development check stage

When eighth book-closing is done, each player starting with active player checks if their development requirement is fulfilled. Each development card has production requirements and amount of bonus population when fulfilled for each round. The top row is for the first round, middle row for second, and bottom row for third.

If, in your field, you have enough production symbols required for current round, your village gains bonus population for that round. There is no penalty for not fulfilling your development. Land sharks don't do anything in this stage.

Example: In the Local Cuisine development card, the top row indicates "you need three corn symbols and three fish symbols to gain two population at the end of round one."

3) Next round

When every player is done checking development, the game goes to the next round. (Or the game ends if it is the third round. See End of Game below.) Shuffle all book-closing cards, draw two cards and place them at the center of the table. Remember or mark the first card drawn. Keep each player's field and hand as is. Begin the next round with worker assignment and book-closing stage. The turn passes to the next player.

End of Game

If at any time your village's population is reduced to zero or less, the game immediately ends and all of you lose the game.

At the end of third round, if your village has at least one population, your village survives and all of you win the game.

A victory grade is awarded according to the number of population left.

• 1-10 population left: Limited Victory. Your fishing village has survived somehow, but still in danger of disappearing.
• 11-20 population left: Standard Victory. Known as a comfortable village to live, your fishing village is getting revitalized as a commuter town.
• More than 20 population left: Miraculous Victory. The whole nation respects your fishing village as the model of most successful reformation. Observers come to see how it was done from all over the country.

Special Rules for 1- or 2-Player Game

When playing with 1 or 2 players, apply these two modifications.

• At game preparation, each player chooses two development cards instead of one. Any one player may not choose the same development twice.
• After you draw three worker cards for resolving a book-closing, you have to discard one card from your hand.

Strategy Tips

1. Avoid having few cards in your hand. To draw cards, you have to resolve a book-closing or spend two population, and if your hand is empty, you will be forced to do either of these. Considering that you definitely don't want to spend population, you need to resolve a book-closing as early as possible. And keep in mind that you shouldn't resolve book-closing too frequently, otherwise other players miss the chance to draw and will have few cards in their hands.
2. Discuss who will undergo next book-closings in advance. During the game, you know what the next two book-closings are, so you should discuss who will undergo the first book-closing and who will do the second.
3. Should you go for your development? Of course it's good to achieve your development, but if doing so would delay resolving a book-closing, is it worth trying? It may be hard to achieve your development every round, so sometimes players should ignore their development.
4. When there is no way out, hope for your next game. There might be a situation where all population would be gone no matter what you would do. All of you have abandoned your developments, but that's not enough. In this case there is no chance of winning. Have hope for your next game.
5. Sometimes it's better to abandon a book-closing. Sometimes you don't have any cards you really need, or someone has to resolve a Commercial Score but no one has any Commercial Workers. In such case, you will have to spend two populations to draw one, or abandon the book-closing. It is a tough decision, but it may be better to abandon the book-closing and change the situation drastically.
6. If you always lose games. It might be a good idea to deal more cards than easy difficulty, especially when little kids are playing.