Fences Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Overview
• Preparation
• Playing the Game
  • Setting farm tiles
  • Building Barns
  • Scoring completed fields
• Game End

Contents

• 84 farm tiles which picture cows, pigs, sheep, and fences.
• 16 cards which picture a farmer profile
• 20 barns in 4 colors. One of each player's barns is the player's scoring piece
• 1 scoreboard
• Rule booklet

Overview

The players place farm tiles one at a time, each turn. The farms grow with each tile and, after many tiles have been played, are closed in completely by fences. The players earn points by building barns on farms they own. Completing a farm, even one you don't own, can also score points. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the most successful farmer.

Preparation

If there are three players, remove all the tiles with a 4-barn pictured. If there are only two players, remove all the tiles with a 4-barn AND a 3-barn pictures. Shuffle all the farm tiles face down and arrange them in such a way so that all players have access to them, while they stay hidden. Each player takes two farm tiles from the supply. Shuffle all the farmer cards face down and deal one card to each player. Players should place their farmer profile card face up in front of them. Place the scoreboard off to the side, so there is plenty of room in the middle of the table to play farm tiles. Each player takes the 5 barns in his/her color and places one as his scoring piece in the first corner of the scoreboard. Each player places his other 4 barns in front of him/her on the table as his/her stock. The player who most recently saw a wild animal is the first player (Any other method can be used to select the first player)

Playing the Game

Players take turns in clockwise order beginning with the first player. On a player's turn, the following actions occur in the order shown:

• The player must set one of his/her two tiles.
• If, by setting the farm tile, a farm is completed, it is now scored.
• The player may build one of his barns from his/her stock to the farm tile he/she just set.
• The player then draws a replacement tile from the stacks.

The player's turn is over. The next player proceeds with his/her turn in the same way.

Setting farm tiles

Each player selects one of his two tiles to play, and places it on the table, using the following rules:

• The new tile (with red borders in the examples) must be set with at least one edge fully touching an edge of an existing farm tile. Edges must line up fully, the farm tile's edge cannot touch only a portion of its neighbor's edge and cannot just touch corners.
• The new tile must be set so that all fences on the new tile continue fences on all neighboring tiles.

Examples:

• The new tile meets all the requirements. There is a field edge lined up with an existing field edge. The wall on the new tiles continues the wall on the tile to the left. The player can now place a barn on one of the fields of that tile.
• Tiles must share edges fully.
• The tile cannot be laid here as there is a fence that is only half finished.

Building Barns

After the player places a farm tile, he/she may build one of his/her barns, using the following rules:

• The player may only build 1 barn on a turn
• The player must take it from his/her stock
• The player may only build it on the tile he/she just set
• The player may choose where to build the barn on the tile, but it can only be built fully in one field on the tile.
• The player may not build a barn in a field if that field connects to a field on another tile (no matter how far away) that already has a barn built (from any player, including himself/herself) on it. See the following examples:

When a player has built all his barns, he continues to set and draw tiles each of his/her turns. Although a barn may not be torn down, barns are returned to the players' stocks when fields are completed and scored.

Example: Orange cannot play in two of the field on the new tile because other farmers already have barns owning those animals.

Scoring completed fields

A field is completed when it is surrounded by fences with no gaps in the fences. A field may have many segments on different farm tiles. The player who has a barn in a completed field scores one point for each animal in the field. If the field only has one type of animal, then the player scores two points for each animal in the field. The player who placed the last farm tile (which completed the farm) may also score points as listed on his farmer profile card, regardless of which players had barns in the field.

Example: Yellow completed the field and placed a barn in a new space. Blue scores 6 points for owning the animals in the field. Yellow has the Farmer Tim profile so scores 3 points for the farm he closed having at least one cow in it.

What if a completed field has more than one barn? It is possible for there to be more than one barn in a field. In a completed field with multiple barns, calculate the total point value of the field and then divide by the number of barns in the field (rounding up). Each player with a barn in the field scores a portion of the field's points based on the number of barns he had in it. The player who completed the farms still scores the total value of points as listed on his farmer profile card.

After a field is completed (but before the turn is over), the barns involved are returned to the appropriate player's stock. The returned barns may be rebuilt this turn based on the rules above.

Game End

The game ends after the last farm tile is placed and any fields completed are scored.