Habitats Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Preparation
• Expanding Your Park
  • 1. Take a tile from the market
  • 2. Move your player figure
  • 3. Place a new tile in the market
  • 4. Add your obtained tile to your park
• Turns Per Year
• Yearly Goals
  • The 9 goal tiles
• Park Scores
  • Animals
  • Flowers
  • Watchtowers
  • Tourists
  • Extra Access Roads
• Park Score Example
• Publisher

Contents

Player color content (per player):

• 5 entrance tiles
• 5 score markers
• 5 player figures

Different game boxes contain different ceramic animals, to be used as player color pawns in the game. After playing, pack the ceramic animals in the same bags and separate box space, to protect them from breaking.

General content:

• 1 score track numbered 0–70, with a replacement tile for 2 or 3 players
• 9 goal tiles
• 112 park tiles

Preparation

1. All players place an entrance tile in front of themselves. The player color is shown by the building (or by the brown boat).
2. Place the score track at its side for 4 or 5 players. Place the replacement tile on it for a 2 or 3 player game.
3. Place the players' score markers at '0' on the score track.
4. Shuffle the 9 goal tiles and place 1 tile face-up at each calendar year (1, 2 and 3) beside the score track.
5. Mix the 112 park tiles and place these face-down as stock.
6. Determine a start player. Turns proceed clockwise.
7. Randomly place park tiles, face-up, as in the rulebook pictures, in the middle of the table. Place the player figures as in the picture. Let all animal figures point to their opposite side of the grid. This central grid is called the market. (The starting layout and figure positions differ for 2, 3, 4 and 5 players.)

Expanding Your Park

Each turn consists of 4 parts, in this order:

1. Take a tile from the market

Take the first tile at your figure's head side, left side or right side. (Other player figures don't block this.) You cannot take the tile at your figure's backside!

Exception: If there is no tile in any of the 3 allowed directions, you take the tile at your figure's backside.

2. Move your player figure

Place your figure where you took your tile. Position its backside at the side where you came from.

3. Place a new tile in the market

Randomly take a tile from the stock and place it face-up in the space where your figure came from.

4. Add your obtained tile to your park

Your tile you place orthogonally adjacent to a tile anywhere in your park, except:

• Your entrance road is a long straight road to the park entrance. So there are no park tiles allowed in the column below your entrance.
• Park tile sides with a road may never connect to any tile during the entire game. (These are access roads.)

Turns Per Year

Number of turns per player:

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
With 2 players	9	6	6
With 3 players	8	6	6
With 4 players	7	6	6
With 5 players	6	6	6

Yearly Goals

After 1 year the victory points (vp) for the first goal tile (at YEAR-1 at the score track) get calculated. Victory points for the second goal get calculated after 2 years. The last goal gets calculated at the game end, so after 3 years.

To count down the number of turns in each year, place a number of park tiles, equal to the number of turns per player, at the right neighbor of the start player. Only that player uses these when placing a new tile in the market. (In the first year of a 5 player game, place a pile of 6 tiles at the last player.)

To calculate the goal's victory points, compare the parks of all players. The player who fulfills the goal the best, gets the highest score number written for the calendar year, the second place gives the second-most points, and so on. In case of a tie, all tied players get the score of the lowest rank of the tied players. For example, if 3 players share the 1st place, they all get the score for the 3rd place. Use the score markers on the score track to keep track of the victory points.

(After the 1st year with 4 players, the 1st goal brings 3 vp for the player who fulfills the goal the best, 2 vp for the second-best player, 1 for the 3rd player and 0 vp for the last player.)

The 9 goal tiles

Two goals are about areas. An area consists of 1 tile or a group of tiles (connected side to side, not diagonally), of 1 of the 4 landscape types. Only the watchtower tiles (grey) don't count as a landscape type.

• Who has the biggest area? In case of a tie, look at the tied players' second-biggest area. If that's still a tie, look at their third-biggest area, and so on. (Example: Red has a grassland area of 4 tiles. In case of a tie, Red's next-biggest areas have a size of 2, 2 and 1, 1, 1, 1.)
• Who has the most of the 4 different landscape types? In case of a tie, the tied player with the most sets of their landscapes (2 of each, 3 of each, etc.) wins. (Example: Red has the 4 different landscape types; in case of a tie, Red has 2 tiles of each of the 4 landscape types.)
• Who has the most tiles in a rectangular shape which is completely filled with park tiles? (Example: Red's biggest rectangle is 5 tiles wide and 2 high, so it contains 10 tiles.)
• Who has their tiles the closest to their entrance tile? Count the minimum number of steps, orthogonally from tile to tile, to reach the furthest tile from the entrance. (Example: Red needs at most 4 steps from its entrance.)
• Who has the most areas? (Example: Red has 7 areas.)
• Who has the most different flowers? There are 4 different flowers, 1 per landscape type. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most flowers in total wins. (Example: Red has 2 different flowers; in case of a tie, Red has 3 flowers in total.)
• Who has all tiles the closest to a road tile? Count the minimum number of steps, orthogonally from tile to tile, for the tile which is the most far away from roads. (Example: Red has all tiles within 2 steps from a road.)
• Who has the longest row of connected tiles (orthogonally)? (Example: Red's longest row is 6 tiles long.)
• Who has the longest diagonal chain of connected tiles? (Example: Red's longest diagonal chain contains 3 tiles.)

Park Scores

After the 3 years, count the individual park scores. Count systematically, for example from left to right and top to bottom, adding up all scores from the tiles in the park.

The 4 landscape types are: grassland, forest, dryland and water.

Animals

You score the number on an animal tile if its required landscape tiles are present in (orthogonally) adjacent areas. This habitat demand is shown by icons on the tile.

Exception: The bee, bumblebee and butterfly need flowers instead of landscape types. These flowers must be adjacent to the animal's tile or be in a chain of flower tiles (not diagonally chained) of which one is adjacent to the animal.

Park managers place their animal tiles face-up, but upside down (so they see its vp number upside down too) as long as its habitat demand isn't met. Once the demand is completely fulfilled, rotate the tile to have the number at the bottom.

Examples:

• The salamander has its demanded habitat because a forest area of 2 tiles is adjacent.
• The impala doesn't have 3 grassland tiles in 1 or more adjacent areas yet, so its victory points are currently upside down.
• The badger has grassland (its own tile) and needs forest adjacent.
• The vulture needs 2 grass and a dryland tile in adjacent areas.
• The giraffe needs grass, forest and water around its own grass tile.
• The hippo needs grass, dryland and 2 water in adjacent areas.

Flowers

Flowers always deliver 1 victory point. The flower doesn't need anything around its own tile to score 1 vp. (The bee needs a flower in an adjacent tile, for 2 vp.)

Watchtowers

These tiles show the points you get per animal or flower in sight. Only animals with fulfilled habitats count!

Exception: If another watchtower stands in the view of a watchtower, you can't look further.

Watchtower types:

• You get 1 vp for each animal and flower in the orthogonal (endless) view direction.
• You get 2 vp for each animal and 1 for each flower in the diagonal (endless) view direction.
• You get 2 vp for each animal and 1 for each flower in the maximum 4 adjacent spaces.
• You get 1 vp for each animal and flower in the maximum 8 spaces around it.

Tourists

There are 2 types of tourist tiles:

• A tile with "BIG" brings 1 vp per tile in its own area, not counting this tile itself. (Example: you please tourists who like a big lake.)
• A tile with "MANY" brings 1 vp per area of the landscape of this tile, not counting its own area. (Example: you please tourists who like many different lakes.)

Extra Access Roads

These tiles score the vp written diagonally in the corner of the tile, if all sides without a road have a tile adjacent. (These sides are marked by a yellow square.)

• Only 1 access road: you get the 4 vp only if visitors can move in your park in 3 directions.
• 2 access roads: you get the 3 vp only if visitors can move in your park in 2 directions.
• 3 access roads: you get the 2 vp anyway, because you must connect it at the single open side.

Park Score Example

It is best to count the players' park scores one park after another. Count systematically, for example from left to right and top to bottom, adding up all scores from the tiles in the park. Then add this total to the player's score on the score track.

Yellow's park score:

• The kudu is missing adjacent grassland, so it's placed upside down: 0 vp.
• The 2-road-sides tile has 1 unconnected open side, so 0 vp.
• The bushpig has its habitat, so 3 vp.
• The tourist tile for a big forest lays in a 3 tiles forest area. The tile itself doesn't count in the points, so 2 vp.
• The bumblebee neighbors 2 connected flower tiles. So 3 vp.
• The forest flower earns 1 vp, the grass flower 1 vp too.
• The watchtower with a view in 4 directions gives a view on the meerkat (animal: 2 vp) and forest flower (flower: 1 vp). So 3 vp.
• The tourist tile for many grassland areas: there are 3 grassland areas (containing 2, 1 and 2 tiles). The area with this tile doesn't count, so 2 vp.
• From this watchtower you can see the otter, grassland flower and meerkat, so that's 3 vp. (The hippo doesn't count for the watchtower because it is upside down — it doesn't have the right habitat.)
• The otter has its habitat: 3 forest tiles and 1 water tile in adjacent areas. So 4 vp.
• The hippo is missing 1 water tile in an adjacent area, so 0 vp.
• The owl is missing its required habitat, so 0 vp.
• The watchtower with the view in 8 directions gives a view on the meerkat and grass flower. So 2 vp.
• The 1-road-side tile has its 3 open sides connected to another tile, so 4 vp.
• The meerkat earns 2 vp.
• From the watchtower with the diagonal view you can see the meerkat (2 vp), forest flower (1 vp) and bushpig (2 vp). So 5 vp.
• The 3-road-sides tile brings 2 vp.

This gives a total park score of 37 vp.

Publisher

Publisher: Cwali, Einsteinstraat 4H, 6227 BX Maastricht, Netherlands. [email protected] · http://www.cwali.nl