Dos Rios Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Aim of the Game
• Set Up
  • Fundamentals of River Flow
  • Example (see page 1 of the German rulebook)
  • Workers and Action Cards
• A Player's Turn
• Attacking
• Building
• Harvests
• Bandits
• Game End

Aim of the Game

The game is won by the first player to place all four Farms and the Estate on the board, or by the first player to have his Estate and three Farms on hexes irrigated by the Rivers.

Players will harvest money and Logs from the hexes along the River in order to build the Farms and Estate. Workers are used to harvest these resources, build the Farms and Estates, and drive off opposing workers. Logs are used to dam the Rivers and divert them away from opposing players.

Set Up

Assemble the board by placing the tiles within the frame at random.

Each player receives all the pieces in their chosen colour – one Estate, 4 Farms and 3 Workers in front of them. They also place 3 more Workers in the Town at the bottom of the board. They also receive two Logs – the brown sticks – in front of them. They start with no money.

Shuffle the Action Cards and place them face down in a stack.

Choose a start player at random.

The start player then assembles the two Rivers, one at a time. The Rio Verde flows from the green source in the mountains, and the Rio Moreno flows from the brown source. The Rivers are made up from the blue cardboard River segments. River segments always run from the centre of one hex into the centre of the next, according to the following rules. Where there is a choice of which way a River is to run, the start player (or current player in subsequent turns) may choose which hex the River flows into.

Fundamentals of River Flow

Treat the board as a big slope, running from a high point in the mountains down to a low point at the Lakes and Town.

Each River must start from its own source. There are two sources, each with two possible routes out of the mountains. Each River can only use one of those two routes at a time.

The River will then flow from hex to hex downhill. For each hex, the River can only flow out of the three hex sides closest to the bottom edge of the board. It will never flow back up the board towards the mountains. The River will never flow into the mountains or paths to the sides of the board.

Brown hexes are hills. Dark green hexes are forests. Light green hexes (printed with the tobacco, wheat and maize symbols) are fields.

The River will always try to flow into the "lowest" hex possible. When determining which hex is the lowest, the Lake/Town is lower than fields, the fields are lower than forests, and forests are lower than hills.

The two Rivers MAY merge. If at any time the second River runs into the first one placed, further placement of River segments ceases, and both Rivers are considered to flow downstream together.

Example (see page 1 of the German rulebook)

The River Verde, on the left-hand side of the game board has been set up ready for play.

The River left the mountains and flowed into the first forest hex – it could not flow into the mountains as a lower hex was available.

It left the forest and flowed into the hills below – the start player could have chosen to send the River into the hills on the right instead.

From the hills, it flows into the forest – it cannot now go into the hills to the right, as a forest is always lower than hills.

It then flows into a second forest hex, on the right – again, that is because the forest hex is lower than the hills that lay straight ahead.

From that forest, it could go into the fields to the right, but the start player chose instead the field straight ahead.

The next two placements are into fields straight ahead.

From the last but one fields hex, the start player has a choice of sending the River left, right or straight ahead as all three hexes are fields and of equal "height".

From the final fields, the River flows into the Lake. Note that the River may finish in the Lake or at the town (where it flows into the town sewers, I presume).

Workers and Action Cards

Each player starts with 3 Workers in the town, and two dams. The start player places one of his other three Workers on any one hex. Players then take it in turns around the table, placing one Worker at a time until they have three on the board in addition to the three in the Town. No hex can ever contain more than two Workers of the same colour. During this phase of the game, no player may place Workers in a hex where there is already a Worker of a different colour.

Reveal one more Action Cards from the stack than there are players (so in a 4 player game, 5 Cards are revealed), and place in a row near to the board running from left to right. Place the stack of face-down Action Cards at the right hand end of the Row. If any of the cards show the Bandits (marked with a gun symbol and a red background), draw a fresh card and reshuffle the Bandits into the deck.

At the end of the set-up phase, there should be two Rivers on the board (which may merge before reaching the bottom edge of the board), half of the Workers on the board and half in Town, and a row of revealed Action Cards (none showing the Bandits).

A Player's Turn

At the start of their turn, each player will receive six action points that are used to move their own Workers. Action points may not be saved between turns, although it is not necessary to spend all six. Players may not use action points to move opposing Workers.

Action points may be used as follows:

• One point moves one Worker to an adjacent hex.
• One point moves one Worker from (or to) the Town to an adjacent hex on the board.
• One point moves one Worker from (or to) the Town to the pathways at the side of the board.
• One point moves one Worker from (or to) the pathways at the side of the board to an adjacent hex on the board.
• Two points move one Worker from the Town to an Estate of the same colour.

Movement is not blocked by the Rivers or by Dams built on the board. Note that it is not permitted to move onto the Mountains at the top of the board or the Lakes at the bottom.

No hex can ever contain more than two Workers of the same colour. There is no limit on the number or colours of Workers that may be on the pathways or the Town.

Workers may move several hexes, so long as each move is paid for. Players may move several different Workers, and may interrupt the move of one Worker with the move of another. Whether the player chooses to move one Worker or all six, the player has only 6 action points to spend in total.

Workers may move through opposing Farms so long as they are not occupied. However, they must not end their move in the same hex as an opposing Farm. Hexes containing both a Farm and an opposing worker, or containing an Estate (whether occupied or not) may not be entered.

Attacking

Workers may only move onto a hex that is occupied by an opposing Worker if they are able to drive the other Worker off. A single Worker can only be driven off if attacked by two Workers, or if a single Worker attacks him from higher ground. The Town and the paths are always considered to be lower than any adjacent fields. Therefore a single Worker attacking from a hill hex can drive off a Worker on an adjacent forest or field, a Worker on a forest hex can drive off a Worker on an adjacent field hex, and a lone Worker standing on a field hex cannot successfully attack anyone. Two Workers standing on a hex together may only be driven off if attacked by two Workers who both attack from higher ground. Workers in Farms or the Estate cannot be attacked or driven off.

Opposing Workers that have been driven off in this way are placed back on the Town. Workers on the Town or path spaces may not be driven off in this way. The cost of this attack is the action point(s) that it takes to move your Workers onto the target hex. There is no additional cost.

Note that in the first complete round of play, no player may attack another player who has yet to take a turn.

Building

At any point in their turn, a player may use a Worker to construct a building (either a Farm or an Estate). This can be before the Worker moves, during the Worker's move, or after the Worker moves. It does not cost any action points to construct a building. Instead it costs 500 cash to build a Farm, and 1,000 cash to build an Estate. No more than two buildings may be constructed in a player's turn. The building is placed in the same hex as the Worker. Buildings are never removed from the board.

Workers can also construct Dams, using Logs. Dams may only be placed in accordance with the following rules:

• For each hex, the Rivers can only flow out of the three hex sides closest to the bottom edge of the board. No hex may have all three of these hex sides blocked with dams (or two sides for the columns of hexes at the right and left-hand edges of the board) – there must always be a legitimate route for the River to flow out of the hex. There is no restriction on the damming of the hex sides on the top half of each hex (so long as you are not blocking the out-flowing hex sides of any other hex).
• There is no limit on the number of Dams each worker may construct in a turn, so long as the player holds sufficient Logs.
• A Dam can be built before the Worker moves, during the Worker's move, or after the Worker moves.
• It does not cost any action points to construct a Dam. Instead, the player takes a Log from his supply in front of him and places it on any hex side adjacent to the Worker.
• Dams are never removed from the board.
• Dams may be placed on either of the hex sides at the two Rivers' sources, but not both hex sides. The hex sides along the edge of the Lakes and Town may also be dammed, so long as the first rule above is observed.
• There is no requirement that a Dam has to be placed on either River. Players may build Dams in the hope of affecting their future courses.

Damming either River may cause the River to divert from its current path. In this situation, the player whose turn it is re-directs the River in accordance with the rules governing River flow outlined on the first page. All of the new River segments are placed first, until the River has either rejoined its old course, merged with the other River, or flows into the Lakes or under the Town. Once the River has been completed, any River segments remaining on the board that are not flowing from either source are removed (see page 3 of the German rulebook).

Harvests

At the end of a player's turn they have the choice to activate the first Action Card in the row, in which case after use it is discarded onto the discard pile, or to pass over the card. If it is passed over, it is placed last in the row, to the right of the other face-up cards on display and the player's turn ends without a harvest. If actioned, a harvest occurs before the player's turn ends. Note that any player may benefit from the harvest, depending upon the state of the Rivers, and the position of their men and buildings.

The Action Cards show Tobacco, Maize, Wheat, the Forests and the two Rivers.

The Tobacco, Maize and Wheat harvests – If actioned by the player whose turn it is, every hex which bears the matching symbol can be harvested by Workers or buildings that occupy those hexes, so long as one or other of the Rivers run through their hex. Hexes that are not irrigated in this way cannot be harvested. The Farm and the Estate allow the irrigated hex to be harvested regardless of whether there is a Worker in the hex. Each harvested hex pays 100 to the player that owns the Worker or building standing on the hex. The payout is always 100 per hex, regardless of how many Workers or what type of building is standing on the hex.

The Forest harvest – If actioned by the player whose turn it is, every Forest hex which is irrigated can be harvested by Workers or buildings that occupy those hexes. Again, the hexes must be irrigated by having either River run through the hex. The Farm and the Estate allow the irrigated hex to be harvested regardless of whether there is a Worker in the hex. Each harvested hex allows the player that owns the Worker or building standing on the hex to add one Log to the supply in front of him. The payout is always one Log per hex, regardless of how many Workers or what type of building is standing on the hex. No player may ever have more than five Logs in front of him or her.

The Rio Verde/Rio Moreno harvests – If actioned by the player whose turn it is, every hex along the named River can be harvested by Workers or buildings that occupy those hexes. The Farm and the Estate allow the irrigated hex to be harvested regardless of whether there is a Worker in the hex. Each forest hex on the River allows the player that owns the Worker or building standing on the hex to add one Log to the supply in front of him. Each Field hex on the River pays 100 to the player that owns the Worker or building standing on the hex. If the two Rivers merge at any point, the hexes downstream of the confluence can be harvested regardless of which River is named on the card.

Once the left-most card is actioned, it is discarded face-up onto a discard pile. The player whose turn it is then draws a new card, and adds it to the row in the position furthest to the right, moving each of the other face up cards one space to the left. Shuffle the discard pile if the draw stack is ever exhausted.

Bandits

If the Action Card drawn displays the Bandits (marked with a gun symbol and a red background), then rampaging bandits attack from out of the mountains. They will travel down the River named on the tile from its source to its end, and shoot the first three Workers that they encounter. If the Workers are in pairs, the Bandits will only shoot one of the Workers, but will continue their rampage further down the River until a total of three Workers have been shot. Bandits can also shoot Workers at a Farm, but Workers standing on the same hex as an Estate are safe from the Bandits. All casualties are returned to the Town. Once the Bandits reach the end of the River, the card is discarded without further effect.

By drawing a new Action Card at the end of a player's turn, the next player to go will be able to see what harvest he can enact at the end of his current turn and his next turn.

Note that no harvests occur during the first round of play. No Action Cards are actioned or replaced during each player's first turn.

Game End

The game ends as soon as one player achieves the victory conditions. These are:

• Any player has built all four Farms and the Estate;
• Any player has built three Farms and the Estate and all four are on hexes irrigated by either River.