Garden Gnomes: Violent Vendetta
Garden Gnomes: Violent Vendetta Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Content
- 120 Tokens
- 16 dice
- 1 First Player token
- 53 Gnomes (wooden cubes)
- 48 objective cards
- 6 clan-cards
- 1 board
Clan stats (Total Number of Gnomes in the clan / Dice roll needed to kill your Gnomes / Number of reinforcements per turn):
| Clan | Gnomes | Dice roll to kill | Reinforcements per turn | Clan card text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DINGLESON | 8 | 5 | 4 | |
| SCHNITZEL | 9 | 3 | 5 | Revive one Gnome on a 6 |
| WESTDINGLEDONGLESON | 7 | 5 | 3 | +1 on every dice roll |
| O'DINGLE | 9 | 4 | 5 | |
| McDINGLE | 9 | 4 | 5 |
Additionally the white clan adds +1 to the result of all dice rolled. The Blue clan has the ability to revive after a battle: for each 6 they rolled, remove one Gnome less from the board.
Setup
Sort the tokens into piles according to type.
Randomly determine who will go first as well as who will play as each of the clans.
Give each player the Objectives and cubes, matching their clan color, as well as 3 random neutral Objectives. Each player now chooses 3 of the 8 Objectives and discards the rest.
You may wish to play with only 2 objectives to keep the game length under an hour.
Example setup: for this rulebook we imagine a game of 4 players being played. The players are seated as follows. Rachel was chosen at random to have the 1st Player token. (Picture captions: Yasmin al-ready chose her objectives and placed the rest in the discard pile; Rachel & Brian are thinking hard what objectives to chose; Good Greg shows you all the objectives he has to chose from.)
Round Structure
Each game round consists of 4 phases:
- Reinforcement Phase. Each player puts gnomes (cubes) onto their home territory.
- Movement Phase. Starting with the first player, and continuing in clockwise order, each player moves his/her gnomes.
- Combat Phase. In each territory containing gnomes from more than 1 clan, combat will need to be resolved.
- Loot Phase. Players collect tokens.
Reinforcements
At the start of each round, each player may put Gnomes from his/her reserve onto the board. Reinforcements are always put onto your home territory.
Game Map
The Garden Gnome world consist of 16 territories, 6 of which are home to the clans. Gnomes can move into adjacent territories through bridges and open passages.
Movement
When moving your Gnomes, you can only move through territories in which you already have Gnomes, or territories that are empty. Therefor it is possible to block off other players.
Example: Here Rachel, Greg and Brian have already moved, and now it is Yasmin's turn. Her movement is limited because the other players are blocking the map, she can move according to the yellow arrows to some of the territories but are unable to reach the rest. (We made the unaccessible territories grey in this example.)
Gathering or spreading?
When deciding how to move, you are restricted by Gnomish lack of tactics. Therefore you must pick 1 territory to focus your movement around. You may either move onto the chosen territory or move away from the chosen territory. You need either a single point of origin, or a single point of destination.
Examples: Here, Brian may move from 3 territories onto the same territory. Here Brian may move from the same territory onto 2 different territories (because he has 2 Gnomes). He has many moving-options to chose from.
Combat
If Gnomes from more than 1 clan ends the movement phase in the same territory, there will be a battle. When battling each player rolls as many dice as he/she has gnomes in the territory.
For each die with at least their opponents 5 one Gnome is killed. Remove any casualties from the board.
Keep rolling until there is a maximum of 1 clan left in the Territory.
If more than 2 players have gnomes in the same territory, the player with the first player marker decide how his/her Gnomes attack, then the next player in clockwise order, and so on.
Players may split their Gnomes attack amongst the other players. When all players have selected how their gnomes attack this round of combat, each player rolls dice simultaneously.
Players may choose new targets for their gnomes before each roll. Combat continues until there is a maximum of 1 player per territory.
Example: Rachel starts off, by attacking Brian with 2 and Greg with 1 dice. Greg then attacks Rachel with 3 dice. Brian attacks both Rachel and Greg with 1 dice each. Rachel rolls a red die and a red die against Brian and a red die against Greg. Greg rolls two green dice. Brian rolls two blue dice. Resulting in Brian losing 1 Gnome, Greg losing 2 and Rachel losing 2.
Second round of the example: Rachel now attacks Brian, Greg attacks Rachel and Brian attacks Greg. Rachel rolls a red die, Greg rolls a green die and Brian rolls a blue die. Because Brian rolls a blue die, his Gnome survives even though Rachel's roll of a red die would normally have killed it. After the battle the territory is held by one blue Gnome.
Roll the number in the heart or higher to kill the Gnome. (Printed kill thresholds: red heart 5, blue heart 3, green heart 3.)
Loot
After all combats have been resolved, each player collects 1 token matching each Territory they occupy. It does not matter how many Gnomes you have in the Territory, you will always gain exactly 1 token for each Territory. Check to see if any player has completed all Objectives, if not, pass the first player token to the next player in clockwise order and begin the next round.
Completing Objectives
To complete an objective you need to accumulate the needed number of tokens represented on the Objective card. If you have picked more than one Objective that require the same kind of tokens, you need to gather tokens for each Objective separately, you cannot reuse the same tokens. The statue Objectives require you to have a Gnome present at 2 specific statues, when the game ends.
Finishing the Game
When at least one player have completed all of his/her Objectives the game ends.
For a basic game, the first player(s) to complete their Objectives are the winner(s).
For an advanced game, each player counts his/her score as follows:
- 20 Points for each completed Objective
- 3 Points for each Gnome Token (including your own that was not captured)
- 2 Points for each food token
You are using tokens to complete Objectives, so you will not gain points for tokens used to complete any objectives. You need to complete all Objectives simultaneously, so you cannot complete the statue Objective beforehand.
Objective Types
Food Gathering Objectives
To complete your objectives you need to collect enough resources to complete all objectives separately.
Example: If you have these two objectives (the first needing x3 acorns and x3 berries, the second x4 apples and x2 acorns), you need a total of 5 acorns, 4 apples and 3 berries.
Statue Objectives
If you have chosen a statue objective, it only gives you credit if you occupy the statues at the end of the game.
Gnome Objectives
When collecting Gnomes, it doesn't matter if the clans are being played or not, you can always collect Gnomes of all colors, except your own.
2 Player Variant
It is possible for 2 players to play the game, but then each player will need to play 2 (or 3) Clans separately, and the combined point-total for your clans will determine the winner.
Long Game Variant
Depending on how long you wish your games to last you can pick a higher number of Objectives, but the standard is: 3 Objectives for 3-4 Player games, and 2 Objectives for 5-6 Player games.