King Chocolate Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Assorted Contents
• Overview
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Turn Sequence
  • Step 1: Place 1 of Your Tiles
  • Step 2: Take Any 3 Actions
  • Action 1: Place a Worker and Populate a Group (2 APs)
  • Action 2: Production (1 AP)
  • Action 3: Draw a Tile (1 AP)
  • Action 4: Move a Worker (1 AP)
• Winning the Game
• Strategy Tips
• Credits

Assorted Contents

• 5 Player Screens
• 90 Money Tokens
• 20 workers (4 each in 5 colors)
• 85 Cacao Cubes
• 42 Production Tiles
• 15 Starting Tiles (3 for each player)
• 1 Starting Ring

Overview

The fruit of the Cacao tree goes through 6 steps to become chocolate. Each player can only handle one of these six steps, so players work together to keep the chocolate flowing through the production chain. It sounds friendly—but did we mention the player with the most money wins? Things always get complicated when money is involved.

You'll find yourself helping your customers and suppliers, crushing your competitors, forcing others to help you on their turn, and manipulating the supply chain to make sure your buildings get used the most. All in a day's work.

Setup

1. Shuffle the Production tiles, and create a number of face-down stacks away from middle of the table. Now turn over 4 tiles face-up next to these stacks.
2. Place the starting ring in the middle of the table.
3. Create 2 roughly equal piles of cacao cubes and money and place them at two different spots on the playing surface so all players have easy access to the components.
4. Each player takes the screen in a color, 4 workers in that color, and a set of 3 starting tiles with the same letter. The sets are labeled on the back "A" – "E". Keep any tiles you hold and coins you gain behind your player screen.
5. The sweetest player takes the first turn.

Gameplay

On your turn, you must play a tile, and then you can spend 3 Action Points (APs). When you're finished, the next player in clockwise order takes the next turn.

Turn Sequence

• Step 1: Place 1 of your tiles.
• Step 2: Spend 3 APs, on these actions in any order:
  • Place a Worker and Populate a Group (2 APs)
  • Production (1 AP)
  • Draw a Tile (1 AP)
  • Move a Worker (1 AP)

Step 1: Place 1 of Your Tiles

You must choose a tile from behind your player screen, and place it so that it touches any existing tile. Tiles do not need to match in color when placed. However you'll often want to match colors, since 1 or more connected hexes of the same color form a "group." You can play a tile that connects 2 groups, but not if both groups have workers on them (even if they're workers from the same player). Tiles must touch on at least one side with another tile. You may play tiles inside the starting ring, and you may create holes or gaps in the board.

In Step 2, you'll move cacao cubes on and off the circles on the groups—so the more circles in a group, the more cacao cubes you can move.

IMPORTANT: If you do not have a tile in your possession to place at the beginning of your turn, you must draw a tile and immediately end your turn.

Step 2: Take Any 3 Actions

You are given 3 APs to spend. You may take any of the following actions in any order and/or repeat them as long as you don't spend more than your 3 APs. You don't need to spend all your APs (but most of the time, you will want to).

Action 1: Place a Worker and Populate a Group (2 APs)

Place a worker from your supply onto any unoccupied group on the board. Don't cover the circles. NOTE: a group is one or more connected hexes of the same color. You now control that group. Other players can still move cacao cubes onto and off your group (explained in the "Production" section below), but now you'll make money whenever cacao cubes are moved off your group.

You must then fill all the circles on that group with cacao cubes from the cube supply.

Action 2: Production (1 AP)

Production moves through 6 different stages; pods, beans, roast, nibs, liquor, and finally selling the finished chocolate at a store. The tiles represent the production facilities necessary to move the cacao along the chocolate-making process. (Note that the colors of the tiles, in addition to being numbered, are colored from lighter to darker to emphasize the correct order.)

The production action allows you to move cacao cubes through the production cycle. Each cube must be placed on an unoccupied circle. Do one of the following:

• Grow cacao pods. Place cacao cubes from the cube supply onto one yellow (pod) group, indicated by a single hash mark on the tiles, or
• Move cacao cubes from one group to the next in the production chain. For example: move cubes from step I (yellow) to step II (green), or from step III (orange) to step IIII (red) and so on, or
• Return cacao cubes from 1 brown group back into the cube supply.

You can move some (or all) of the cacao cubes in the group, but each cube must be placed on an unoccupied circle.

The groups don't need to be adjacent, and you don't need to own the group. You'll frequently need to move cacao cubes onto and off of other players' groups. You can even move cacao cubes onto, or off of, a group that no player owns.

Cacao cubes must always move through the proper production order during the production action.

It costs an action whenever you move cacao cubes from 1 group to another group. So if you want to move cacao cubes off 1 group and put them on 2 different groups, you must use 2 separate actions.

When cacao cubes move OFF an owned group, the player who owns the group takes $1 per cube. When cacao cubes are moved off an unowned group, the player who did the production action takes $1 per cube.

No money is earned when cacao cubes are moved onto a group.

Example: There are only 3 open circles available in the green group. So, you may only move up to 3 cacao cubes from the step I (yellow) group to the step II (green) group.

Example: Blue spends 3 APs.

AP 1: she moves 3 cacao cubes from a neutral beans step II group (green) to White's step III (orange) roaster. Blue gets $3, as no player owned the beans step II group. White gets nothing.

AP 2: Blue moves the 3 cacao cubes from the White's roaster step III (orange) to join the 1 cacao cube on her own nibs step IIII (red) facility. White gets $3 because the cubes were moved off of his facility.

AP 3: Finally, Blue moves 4 cubes total off of her nibs step IIII (red) facility to her liquor processing plant step IIIII (purple), earning $4.

Action 3: Draw a Tile (1 AP)

Draw a new tile from the 4 face-up tiles, or a face-down tile from the top of one of the face-down stacks. Place it behind your screen. Now turn over a new tile to replace it.

You can't hold more than 5 tiles at any time, but you must end your turn with at least 1 tile.

Action 4: Move a Worker (1 AP)

Move one of your workers onto any unoccupied group. If there were any cacao cubes on the group you vacated, leave them there. Unlike the "Place a Worker" action, you don't fill the group with cacao cubes from the supply.

Winning the Game

When you can no longer refill the display of 4 face-up tiles from the face-down tile supply, the game ends immediately. If you have the most money you become King Chocolate!

Strategy Tips

• Don't just add tiles on your own groups! You can add to other players' groups that you need for moving cacao cubes onto and off of your own groups. You should also close out the growing groups that compete with you through clever tile laying and force other players to deal only with you.
• Actions are a precious resource—try to get players to use their actions to move cacao cubes on and off your groups. To do this, decrease competition for the colors you own (own the only group in one color), and increase competition for the colors you don't own (make sure there are 2 or 3 good-sized groups).
• The 2-player game needs different strategies. The only thing that matters is gaining on your opponent, so it's better to make $1 and have your opponent make nothing, than to have both of you make $10.
• More groups isn't always better—sometimes focusing on 2 groups is better than splitting your tiles and actions among 4 groups.
• There are slightly more hexes at the beginning of the production chain than at the end. So expect more yellow hexes than brown hexes. Be prepared to take advantage of the tiles when they come up rather than wait and never see them again.

Credits

Game Design: Stefan Alexander

Author's Thanks:

Core playtesting group: Jonathan Huras, Kris Lamb, Dan Hills, and Jeremy Kapp.

Additional Playtesting: Alex Wilson, Dustin Teschke, Sheldon Morris, Quinn Ortmeyer, Nino Zahirovic, Anne Leask, Erika Nitsch, Jay Cormier, and Maran Ma.

Special thanks to Sen-Foong Lim and Daryl Andrews for the final breakthroughs.

Thanks to the Game Artisans of Canada for being an awesome resource for game design in Canada.

Cover Art: Morgan Dontanville, Ron Magin, & Steen

Interior Art: Steen

Development and Production: Coleman Charlton, Morgan Dontanville, Ron Magin

Art Director: Morgan Dontanville

Playtesting: Pete Fenlon, Kurt Fisher, Bruce Glassco, Kenny Horneman, Ron Magin, Dallas Pitt, Dave Platnick, Steve Smith.

Special Thanks: Mary Bertok, Richard Bertok, Peter Bromley, Robert T. Carty, Jr., Dan Decker, Patrick De La Font, Pete Fenlon, Chris Funk, Beatrice Jones, Phil Kaplan, Hazel Kemp, Rebecca Kjeer, Kim Marino, Brad McWilliams, Jim Miles, Chuck Rice, Bridget Roznai, Larry Roznai, Loren Roznai, Nate Scheidler, Brad Steffen, Brian Steffen, Keith Thomasson, Bill Wordelmann, Elaine Wordelmann, Alex Yeager, and Julie Yeager.

Copyright © 2015 Mayfair Games, Inc. King Chocolate is a trademark property of Mayfair Games, Inc. All rights reserved.

You have purchased a game of the highest quality. However, if you find any components missing, please contact us for replacement pieces at:

email: [email protected]

King Chocolate Parts, c/o Mayfair Games, Inc. 8060 St. Louis Avenue Skokie, IL 60076.

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