Four Tribes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Special Cards
• Ending the Game
• Advanced Mode
  • Setup
  • Playing the Game
• 4-Player Team Mode
  • Setup
  • Playing the Game
• Quick Guide
  • Setup
  • Playing the Game
  • Scoring
  • Ending the Game

Objective

Be the first player to gain the favor of either all three elders from one tribe, or one elder from each of the four tribes, and you win!

Components

• 46 – Green Army Cards
• 46 – Orange Army Cards
• 6 – White Village Cards
• 6 – Black Village Cards
• 3 – Longhouse Cards
• 50 – Wooden Houses (12 blue, 12 green, 12 red, 12 yellow, & 2 black)
• 12 – Village Elder Pawns (3 blue, 3 green, 3 red, & 3 yellow)
• 1 – Drawstring Bag

Setup

1. Choose either the white or black village cards to play with. Shuffle the six village cards and lay them all out in a row so that the river connects card-to-card in between each player. Village cards may be placed with either side facing up; there are no advantages to either player while placing these cards.

2. Both players receive a longhouse card. Place the third longhouse card on either end of the six village cards.

3. Each village card has a colored circle in the center--place a matching village elder pawn on the circle of each village card, and place the remaining six village elder pawns on the longhouse card next to the village cards.

4. Place the 50 village houses into the drawstring bag and shake them up. Extract houses from the bag at random and place one on each of the dark brown squares of the village cards.

5. Remove all the provision cards with a tower icon in the upper right hand corner. Players should select five of these cards to add to the rest of the deck. You may add less or add them all, but it is suggested that you add five. This will create a new experience every time you play if you choose to add different cards each time.

6. Each player chooses and shuffles a deck of provision cards (One player uses the green deck, and the other uses the orange deck). Players then place their decks facedown, off to one side, and draw six cards off the top to form their starting hands. Now you're ready to play!

The table layout: the six village cards are laid out in a row (river connecting card to card) with a longhouse card at one end. Each player's draw pile sits to one side of the layout, with their discard pile at the opposite end.

Playing the Game

Your turn will consist of two simple actions:

• Place a card.
• Draw a card.

When and where you decide to place your cards will determine the outcome of the game. If you run out of provision cards, simply shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck.

Placing Cards: Cards are ranked 1 to 7, and most bear the color of either yellow, red, blue, or green (These colors correspond to the houses on each village card). Additionally, several special wild cards bear the color black, which will be explained in detail later.

On your turn, you may place one of your cards next to a village card. Cards ranked 3-7 may only be placed on your side of a village card, while cards ranked one or two may be placed on either side (These cards are adorned with a dragon image).

The number of provision cards played on either side of a village card cannot exceed the number of its houses (example: If a village card has three houses, exactly three cards may be placed on each side). Furthermore, the cards must match the colors of the houses in the village (example: If a village has two red houses and one green house, you must place two red cards and one green card).

Above is an example of one village card that players are vying for. Player One has two cards placed on his side and Player Two has three cards on her side. Player One still needs to place an additional red card, while Player Two cannot add anymore cards to this village. As soon as Player One plays one more card, the village will be scored (explained in detail later). Note how the card colors match the colors of the houses.

You may place cards next to ANY village on your turn. This means that you may have cards placed by any number of villages at any given time during play; you DO NOT have to concentrate on one village at a time. You may discard up to three cards and draw new ones instead on placing a card.

Black Houses are wild, and players may place any card they wish to meet the requirement of that house—you do NOT need to play a black card for a black house!

Scoring the Village: Once each side of a village card has a number of valid provision cards equal to the number of houses, the village is scored.

Players simply add up the total value of the cards on each side—the player whose side has the higher sum wins the favor of the village elder, and places the pawn in his/her longhouse (If there is a tie, the player that had the required number of cards placed first wins). The losing player gathers the provision cards from both sides of the contested village and places them facedown in separate piles to form a discard pile for each player. Then, the houses on the village card are discarded (DO NOT put them back into the bag), and the village card is flipped to reveal a new side.

The player who won the favor of the village elder gets to place more randomly selected houses and a new village elder pawn that match the newly revealed village. Play then continues as normal. NOTE: If the new side of the village card requires a Village Elder that is not available, the card should be flipped back to its original side. If the original side also requires an unavailable Village Elder, then the Village card is removed from play.

If the bag becomes empty, place the discarded houses back into the bag and give it a shake!

Special Cards

All Special Cards are considered wild and they ignore the color of the houses in any particular village.

Assassin cards bear the color black and have the value of two. They may only be placed on your opponent's side of a village. When placed you may remove any card from that village or any adjacent village.

Black Dragon cards bear the color black and have a rank of one. They may be placed on either side of a village.

Catapult cards bear the color black and are ranked four. They may be placed on either side of a village and can represent any color you choose. Whichever side of the village you choose to place this card will require you to remove a provision card from the opposite side of the same village.

Cleric cards bear the color black and have the rank of five. They may only be played on your side of a village and in doing so; you may remove any disease card from that village or any adjacent village.

Disease cards bear the color black and have the value of two. They may be placed on either side of a village.

Donkey cards bear the color black and are worth six points if played on your side of a village or two points if you play them on your opponent's side. Players must say "HEE-HAW" when placing this card!

Dwarf cards bear the color black and have no rank. Instead, dwarf cards are reaction cards. You play this card to your discard and also remove and discard the last card played by your opponent.

Guardian cards bear the color black and are ranked five. They can represent any color you choose, but can only be placed on your own side. A guardian card allows you to remove one card from either the village on which it is placed, or from a directly adjacent village. Guardian cards are great for removing dragon cards!

Harvest cards bear the color black and are ranked at three. When this card is played, the player may proceed to play another card on their turn! Afterwards, the player shall draw back up to six cards.

Offering cards bear the color black and are ranked six. They may be placed on either side of a village and can represent any color you choose. Players DO NOT have to declare what color the card is until it is time to score that village.

Red Dragon cards bear the color white and have the value of two. This card acts as a bonus towards any village and does not count as a provision.

Sanctuary cards bear the color black and are also ranked five. They are defensive cards that can represent any color you choose, but can only be placed on your own side. Your opponent MAY NOT place any cards on your side of the village if there is a sanctuary card present.

Unicorn cards bear the color black and their value will always match that of the highest card played on the same side of a village they are on.

Wine cards bear the color black and have a value of three. This card must be played on your opponent's side. Once played, you may remove a card from that village.

Ending the Game

The game ends the moment one player wins the favor of either all three village elders of one color type, or wins the favor of one village elder of each of the four color types!

Advanced Mode

These rules are for players that want to add more strategy to the game. This variant plays almost the same as the standard mode, so we will only reference the changes here:

Setup

1. Before placing any of the village houses, both players must have their provision decks and starting hands ready.

2. Empty the bag and remove it from play; houses will be placed strategically in the advanced mode. Divide the houses into two matching piles, so that each player has a personal supply of one black (wild) house, and six each of yellow, red, blue, and green houses.

3. Looking at their own cards, both players take turns (starting with the youngest player) strategically placing one house at a time on the village cards. Players will keep any remaining houses on their own side after all house spaces have been filled. This allows players to manipulate the available houses based on what cards they have.

Playing the Game

Scoring the Village. When a player wins the favor of a village elder, they do not get to claim the pawn quite yet. Instead, the pawn moves from the center position, along the path on the village card, to the circle mark on the winning player's side. If the same player wins the favor of the village elder again, then he/she may claim him. But if the opposing player wins the favor of that village elder after the pawn has been moved away from the center position, the pawn is moved all the way to the opposing player's side; once the village elder pawn is moved from the center (starting) position, he will never return there.

Every time the village elder is moved, the houses on the village card should be removed and replaced with new houses. Starting with the player who DID NOT win the favor of the village elder, both players take turns removing one house at a time and adding them to their personal supplies. New houses are then added as they were during setup, again starting with the player who DID NOT win the favor of the village elder.

The game ends in the same manner as the Standard Version.

4-Player Team Mode

These rules allow 4 people to enjoy playing Four Tribes at once. Most of the rules for play remain the same as playing the standard 2-player mode, so we will only discuss the differences.

Setup

1. Choose teams. There should be two teams with two players in both teams. Teammates should sit across from each other, so that play will alternate between teams once play begins.

2. Teammates will both draw from the same deck, so each team should choose a deck and deal six cards to each teammate from that deck.

3. One player from each team shall take a longhouse card.

Playing the Game

4-Player Team Mode plays almost the same as standard 2-player mode except two players are working together to gain the favor of the village elders. Teammates will share one side of the village cards and will play accordingly.

On your turn you will play one card on your team's side of a village, unless the card indicates otherwise, and then draw back up to six cards. The catch is that you may not share with your teammates which cards you have in your hand. In fact you are not allowed to "table-talk"! You must base your decisions on what cards you have, on what cards you think your teammate has, and on what cards are in play. If a player table-talks (tells their teammate what they have or hints to what should be played) that player looses their next turn. Ouch!

The game ends and is scored in the same manner as the Standard Version.

Quick Guide

Setup

1. Shuffle and place the village cards.
2. Place and hand out longhouse cards.
3. Place Village Elders.
4. Draw and place houses.
5. Both players receive and shuffle a provision deck, (orange or green) and form a hand of six cards.

Playing the Game

1. Place one card.
2. Draw one card.

Scoring

Once both sides of a single village card have cards equal to the number of houses on that village card, and if the cards match the colors of the houses, then scoring can begin. Players simply add up the cards on their side and the player with the higher sum wins.

Ending the Game

First player to claim all three Village Elders of a single color or one each of the four different colors wins!