Cultive
Cultive Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 98 plant cards
- 20 terrain cards (12 of them have the bee/management icons)
- 2 round marker cards (the back is a scoring reference)
- 1 first player card (the back is a scoring reference)
The scoring reference on the backs of the cards shows: vertical consortia (cards / points), horizontal consortia (cards / points), 1 point for each unused bee/management card, and points for harvested plants. See "Final Scoring" below for the tables.
Object of the Game
Cultivate fruits and vegetables in an agroforest so as to take advantage of the synergy bonus between species and thereby score more victory points.
Setup
- Each player receives 5 Terrain cards of the same color and places them in a row in front of them. The illustrations form a landscape, but their position does not matter during the game.
- Shuffle the plant cards to form a face-down draw deck. Set aside a space next to it for the discard pile.
- Deal 5 cards to each player to form their hand.
- Reveal 8 plant cards to form the Fair (Feira).
- Place the 2 round cards so as to mark the first round.
- Give the first player card to whoever most recently planted a seedling.
How to Play
Cultive is played in rounds according to the number of players:
| Players | Number of rounds |
|---|---|
| 2 | 10 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 4 | 8 |
Each round comprises 4 phases:
- Actions (one player at a time, clockwise)
- Check*
- Harvest*
- Reveal Cards*
*Simultaneous phases. However, in the first games, you may optionally perform all phases one player at a time.
At the end of the last round, conduct an extra Check phase and an extra Harvest phase, and then perform final scoring. Whoever scores the most points wins the game.
1. Actions
On your turn, perform up to 3 actions in any combination you wish. Then refill your hand up to 5 cards and pass the turn. The actions are:
a. Plant b. Grow c. Go to the Fair d. Renew the Fair
a. Plant
Play 1 card from your hand, face down, onto an empty Terrain (one with no cards on top of it).
If the plant species has the double icon, you must play two cards of the same species, both face down. This planting counts as 1 action.
b. Grow
Play from your hand 1 card of a 2-Stage or 3-Stage species, face down, onto a revealed plant card of the corresponding species.
Anatomy of the plant cards
- Plant name (species)
- Light requirement (if any)
- Indication of the number of Stages and whether the plant is double
- Score (if harvested)
- Number of cards of this type in the deck
- Circled icons on the edges of the card: used to make the consortia at the end of the game (see "Consortia")
- Illustration (no mechanical effect)
c. Go to the Fair
Exchange 1 card from your hand for a card from the Fair. This card can be used in the same round if you still have actions.
d. Renew the Fair
Discard all 8 cards of the Fair. Then reveal 8 plant cards, forming a new Fair.
At any moment, if the plant deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
After performing your actions, refill your hand to 5 cards and then pass the turn.
Special actions
In addition to the actions described above, players have up to 3 special actions to use throughout the whole game. At any moment of your Actions phase, turn face down one of your terrain cards that has the bee / management icon and choose one of these 2 effects:
- Bee: Reveal all the cards of one plant on one of your Terrains of your choice.
- Management: Choose 1:
- Move all unharvested plants from one of your Terrains, without changing their order, to another Terrain, which must be empty. Cards that have not yet been revealed must stay face down;
- Discard all unharvested plants from one of your Terrains.
2. Check
After all players have performed their actions, check which revealed plants meet the light and growth requirements. Check them one by one, from left to right. After checking, the plants that do not meet the requirements die and must be discarded. This phase is resolved simultaneously.
Note: in the first round, there will be a Check step only if one of the players used the bee special action, since face-down plants are not checked.
Light Requirements
Sun: In the Check phase, the plant must be positioned in a place where no other cards are casting shadow on it.
Shade: In the Check phase, the plant must be positioned in a place with at least one other card casting shadow on it.
Species that do not have the Sun/Shade icon can be positioned anywhere and therefore will never be discarded because of the light requirement.
The height of the plant determines the shadow it casts:
- Unrevealed cards do not count toward the height of the plant.
- Plants of 1 card (or in the first stage) do not cast shadow.
- Plants of 2 cards (or in the second stage) cast shadow on plants of 1 card in adjacent terrains.
- Plants of 3 cards (necessarily in the third stage) cast shadow on plants of 2 cards in adjacent terrains and on plants of 1 card that are up to two terrains away.
Example of the shadows of a 3-stage plant on terrain (E): terrains are labeled A B C D E from left to right.
Example of a light requirement check: The pineapple, in A, is in the sun. The coffee, in C, is in the sun and casts shadow on the onion, in B. The jambo, in E, is in the sun and casts no shadow on any plant. In this case no plant is discarded, because the pineapple needs Sun and the onion needs Shade; coffee and jambo have no light requirement.
If there were a corn (2 cards) revealed in D, it would have to be discarded, because it would be in the shade of the jambo in E. Whereas, if there were a corn (2 cards) revealed in C, and a coffee (2 cards) revealed in D, no card would be discarded, because the coffee, being in the shade, has no light requirement and the corn would be in the sun.
Growth Requirements
Each species shows one of four growth icons [leaf symbols]:
- Short-cycle plants with low verticalization: 1-Stage species, 1 high. Plant 1 card with 1 action. Once revealed, this plant must be harvested in the next Harvest phase.
- Short-cycle plants with medium verticalization: 1-Stage species, 2 high. Plant 2 cards simultaneously with 1 action. Once revealed, the 2 cards must be harvested in the next Harvest phase. If a player reveals only one card with this icon, discard it immediately.
- Medium-cycle plants with medium verticalization: 2-Stage species, 1 high per stage. Plant 1 card with 1 action. Then, grow 1 card if the first one is revealed. If this does not happen, the plant dies and is discarded. After the second card is revealed, the whole plant (2 cards) must be harvested in the next Harvest phase.
- Long-cycle plants with high verticalization: 3-Stage species, 1 high per stage. Plant 1 card with 1 action. Grow 1 card if the previous stage is revealed. In the Check phase, never discard this type of plant, regardless of its height. After the third card is revealed, only this card must be harvested in the next Harvest phase. The others remain on the terrain at the top. (Note that the hollow leaves denote that the 1st and 2nd cards always remain on top of the terrain.)
Complete example of light and growth check
Five terrains, A to E:
- A: Light: is in the shade of B. Growth: (1 stage).
- B: Light: is in the sun. Growth: (2 identical cards).
- C: Light: has none. Growth: (second stage).
- D: Light: has none. Growth: (second stage).
- E: Light: has none. Growth: (never discarded).
Above, only the card in C would be discarded.
Note: unrevealed cards are not checked.
After checking all plants of all players, move on to the Harvest phase.
3. Harvest
Revealed plants that qualify must be harvested according to the icons explained above. To do this, move these cards to the lower part of the respective terrain card, without covering any cards that are already there. This phase is resolved simultaneously.
Note: when harvesting plants with the 2-card icons (the short-cycle 2-high and the medium-cycle 2-Stage), join both cards, one over the other, and then place them on the lower part of the corresponding terrain card.
Example: In A, the single card is harvested. In B, both cards are harvested and overlapped, and in E, only the top card is harvested. Note that filled leaves represent the cards that must be harvested, and hollow leaves represent those that must remain on top of the terrain, without being harvested.
ATTENTION: Monocultures are not allowed. After the Harvest, if you identify two harvested cards of the same species horizontally adjacent, you must choose one of the two to nullify, turning it face down. The card still occupies space under the terrains, but does not score at the end of the game.
4. Reveal Cards
All face-down plant cards are revealed. This phase is resolved simultaneously.
Starting the next round
- Move the round marker card, leaving the next number visible;
- Pass the first player card to the person to the left of whoever held the card previously;
- Renew the Fair: discard the 8 cards of the Fair and reveal 8 new plant cards.
At any moment, if the plant deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile and form a new one.
Consortia
To create efficient plantations, players will have to pay attention to the consortia, determined by the continuous alignment of the icons that appear around the edges of the plant cards. They guarantee a symbiosis between plants and earn victory points for players at the end of the game. There are two types of consortia: horizontal and vertical.
Horizontal Consortia (rows)
Check the uninterrupted sequences in each row of harvested plants in your plantation.
Restriction: a single card cannot count toward more than one sequence. However, more than 1 sequence can score in the same row.
| Sequence | Points |
|---|---|
| 2 cards | 3 pts |
| 3 cards | 5 pts |
| 4 cards | 8 pts |
| 5 cards | 12 pts |
Example (cards A, B, C, D in a row): Icon 1 appears continuously on 3 cards (B, C, D). Icon 2 appears continuously on 2 cards (A, B). Icon 3 also appears on 3 cards (A, C, D), but B interrupts the sequence. Therefore, only C and D are considered. In this example, the player will score 6 points in total:
- Sequence of 2 cards (A, B) of icon 2 = 3 points.
- Sequence of 2 cards (C, D) of icon 3 = 3 points.
Note that the sequence of 3 cards (B, C, D) of icon 1 would be worth 5 points. However, B is already being scored in the icon 2 sequence and C and D are already being scored in the icon 3 sequence. Therefore, this sequence is not scored.
Had the player harvested a corn in E, the player would score 8 points for the sequence of 4 cards (B, C, D, E), and would not score the 6 points from the two sequences of the example above.
Vertical Consortia (columns)
Check the uninterrupted sequential links in each column of harvested plants in your agroforest. There are no restrictions.
In the first example, A, B and C are sequentially linked. Thus, this consortium is worth 8 points.
In the second example (cards A, B, C, D from top to bottom), A and B are linked by one icon. C and D are linked by another icon. However, B and C are not linked, since they show different icons. Therefore, 2 consortia of 2 cards are considered, each worth 5 points, totaling 10 points.
(Scoring table on the next section.)
End of the Game
After the Reveal Cards phase of the last round, perform one extra Check phase and one extra Harvest phase, following the usual rules. Then proceed to Scoring.
Final Scoring
Add up the points from the following elements:
- Horizontal consortia
- Vertical consortia
- Unused Bee/Management cards = 1 point each
- Points printed on all harvested plant cards, under the terrain cards (including the overlapped cards of the 2-card plants)
Note: plant cards that were not harvested, that is, on top of the terrains, do not score.
| Horizontal scoring | Points |
|---|---|
| 2 cards | 3 |
| 3 cards | 5 |
| 4 cards | 8 |
| 5 cards | 12 |
| Vertical scoring | Points |
|---|---|
| 2 cards | 5 |
| 3 cards | 8 |
| 4 cards | 12 |
| 5 cards | 17 |
| 6 cards | 22 |
| 7+ cards | 30 |
The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied players share the victory.
Round Summary: 4 Phases
- Actions - 3 per player
- Check
- Harvest
- Reveal cards
New round: Renew the Fair, adjust the round marker, pass the 1st player card to the left.
Actions:
- a. Plant: Starts the cultivation of a species on an empty terrain.
- b. Grow: Increases the stage of species already planted.
- c. Go to the Fair: Exchanges 1 card from the hand with 1 card from the Fair.
- d. Renew the Fair: Discards all cards of the Fair and reveals 8 new cards.