Ladybird
Ladybird Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 128 Ladybird Cards
- 25 Orchard Cards
- 20 Garden Tiles, 5 in each player color
- 16 Flowerbed Cards
- 48 Feeding Tiles
- 20 Life Cycle Cards
- 1st Player Token, "The Sticky Leaf"
- Rulebook
- Reference Sheet
- Scorepad
- Childhood Memories tokens
- Aphids tokens
Setup
Shuffle the Ladybird Cards thoroughly. Give each player 4 cards in hand. Place the remaining cards in a draw pile in the center of the table.
Place the Life Cycle and Flowerbed Cards in their piles to the right of the draw pile.
Draw 9 Ladybird Cards face up in a 3 x 3 cards grid below the 3 card piles. This area is referred to as the Ladybirds Common Pool or simply the common pool.
Shuffle the Orchard Cards and place this deck face down to the upper right side of the area and draw out 3 cards face up in a column below the deck parallel to the common pool. Place 2 Aphid tokens on each card.
Place the Garden Tiles of each color in piles, portrait side up, in the centre of the table, so that they feature the numbers 1-5 in top-down order.
Create 8 randomly composed stacks of Feeding Tiles, each containing 6 tiles face down. Place the stacks in the center of the table and turn all top tiles face up.
Give The Sticky Leaf (1st player token) to the player who last saw their grandmother.
Keep Aphid tokens within reach of all players. Keep the heart-shaped Childhood Memory tokens next to these, in the center of the table.
All players take the top Garden Tile with their preferred color and character, and place it in their play area with the Rose Garden action side face up.
How to Play
The aim of Ladybird is to collect and place colored Ladybird Cards in a tableau of cards in your play area, which will make you score the most points by the end of the game.
You begin with just 1 Garden Tile. Each new day you add 1 new tile, increasing your range of actions.
At the end of day 5, the game ends and players score their ladybird tableaus.
Orchard Cards and Life Cycle Cards increase your points for ladybirds in the columns of their color.
Flowerbeds increase your points for all ladybirds in the column where you add them.
Collecting Feeding Tiles increases the points you get for collecting cards featuring their type of ladybird.
The game is played over 5 days. The 1st day has 1 round. Day 2, 2 rounds. Day 3 has 3 rounds. Now guess how many rounds day 4 and 5 have? Exactly.
Each round, all players simultaneously reveal 1 card from hand, then take turns to place it in their tableaus, draft 1 unlocked card in hand from the common pool of Ladybird Cards, and resolve 1 Garden Tile action.
Anatomy of a Ladybird Card
Each Ladybird Card shows:
- Life cycle state of this card — eggs, larva, pupa, or adult.
- Color of card column this card belongs to (for example blue/blueberries), which you collect for points.
- Unlocked life cycle state card type you take — the life cycle state shown unlocks the next state you may take from the common pool.
- Ladybird type — for example the Transverse Ladybird — which you also collect for points.
Round Overview
Reveal Phase
All players choose a card from their hand, and place it face down on the table. When all players have chosen, all simultaneously reveal their card. Place your revealed card at a slight angle in your play area, to indicate that the card has not yet been placed.
Garden Phase
Next, in clockwise order, beginning with the 1st player, players place the revealed card in their play area, draft 1 unlocked card, and resolve 1 available Garden Tile action.
1. Place your chosen Ladybird Card
If you already have one or more cards of the same card color in your tableau, place your card on top of those, with the top part of the below cards still visible.
If there is no column of your card's color in your tableau, your card begins a new column.
If you have one or more columns already in your tableau, place the new card next to the column(s) already created.
After placing your card, check for any Placement Effects.
2. Take a Ladybird Card on hand
The life cycle state of the card you place unlocks the next state in the common pool, which means you may take a card on hand, with the next life cycle state, regardless of its color or type.
If you place:
- eggs, take a larva
- a larva, take a pupa
- a pupa, take an adult
- an adult, take eggs
Whenever you draft a card with an unlocked life cycle state, but no card with that state is in the common pool, draw the top 2 cards from the draw pile instead.
This rule applies to every such draft, including the extra draft a Garden Tile action may grant you.
3. Resolve a Garden Tile action
After placing your card and drafting a new card in hand, you must resolve 1 Garden Tile action and flip the tile to its portrait side, to indicate that the tile has been used.
Placement Effects
Completing a Life Cycle
After placing a card, check to see if you have completed a life cycle in one color, meaning that the column has a complete set of egg, larva, pupa and adult icons, in any order.
If so, immediately claim a Life Cycle Card in that color and place it above your column, like an Orchard Card (see The Orchard). Each Life Cycle Card collected increases the points in its column by 3 points per card. There can be just one Life Cycle Card added to a column. While you can collect more life cycle icons in a card color you already have a full set of icons in, only the first full set will award you a Life Cycle Card.
Flowerbeds
If your card completes a full row of all 5 card colors across your tableau, immediately claim a Flowerbed Card and add it above any column you prefer.
Flowerbeds increase the points for all ladybirds in that column by 2 points per card. There can be just one Flowerbed Card added to a column, but you will earn another Flowerbed Card each time you complete a full row of 5 different colored Ladybird Cards.
Childhood Memories
When you take the last card in a row or a column in the common pool, also claim 1 Childhood Memory token.
Immediately refill the vacant spots of the cleared row or column with 3 new cards from the draw pile. The common pool is only ever refilled when a row or column has been cleared, and just that row or column.
If you clear a row and a column at the same time, the power of your memories is twice as strong: claim 2 Childhood Memories, and refill the empty spots with 5 new cards from the draw pile.
Childhood Memories score you bonus points. Check the Reference Sheet for an overview.
Share a Real Memory (Optional rule)
If your group likes the idea and is comfortable with it, you can choose to share a real memory from your childhood with the other players, each time you take a Childhood Memory token.
The Harlequin Ladybird
The Harlequin Ladybird is an invasive species. They can be played only during the Reveal Phase of the round.
When placing the Harlequin, choose another player's tableau to "invade" and replace the most recently placed card in one of their columns with the Harlequin. Then place that card in your own tableau, and resolve the rest of your turn, as if you had originally placed it there.
The Harlequin assumes the color of the card it replaces and will score like any other card of that color, but the invaded player will lose the Ladybird type and life cycle state of the replaced card. If this means that the invasive Harlequin destroys a complete Life Cycle, the Life Cycle card in that column is lost and must be returned to the supply.
When Harlequin Ladybirds appear in the common pool, they are automatically unlocked and can be taken by anyone, in place of a regular unlocked card. However, you are never forced to take a Harlequin and can still take cards from the draw pile, if prevented from taking a card with your unlocked life cycle state.
Once placed, the Harlequin remains in the invaded column for the rest of the game. However, the invaded player can collect Harlequin Feeding Tiles to score points for each Harlequin in their tableau (see Picnic).
Garden Tile Actions
Day 1. Rose Garden
"The roses must be met gently," says Grandmother. A ladybird sits on the tip of your finger. You're lost in the moment - it suddenly spreads its wings and embraces the sky, before you get to make a wish.
Place 1 Ladybird Card from hand in your tableau and draft a card from the common pool with the life cycle state your card unlocks.
Day 2. The Orchard
Sweet strawberries, lush apples, and the rhythm of falling branches from Grandmother's shears. "Care," she says, "is shaping what grows so that it can thrive."
Add 1 Orchard Card from the available 3 face up Orchard Cards. Add the card to your tableau, and take all aphids on the card.
Orchard Cards. There are 5 different types of Orchard Cards, each in its own color: Strawberry Beds (red), Blueberry Bushes (blue), Orange Trees (orange), Apple Trees (green) and Vines (purple). Each corresponds to a color of Ladybird Card. When added to your tableau, they increase the points for these by 1 point for each card.
Add the card above the column of the same color in your tableau. If you do not already have Ladybird Cards in the color of the Orchard Card, simply place it above an empty column, and later start the Ladybird column of that color below.
When an Orchard action has been resolved, fill the vacant slot created with the top card of the draw pile, and turn it face up. Add 2 Aphids to this card. Also immediately add 1 Aphid to the other two face up Orchard Cards.
Day 3. Picnic
The syrup on Grandmother's pancakes runs thick and golden. The sticky leaves in the garden lead the ladybirds to their prey. "One life feeds another," she says. "Such is the circle of life."
Add a Feeding Tile to your play area. It will cost you the number of aphids indicated by the tile. Choose the top tile from any of the stacks of Feeding Tiles, and return the number of aphids required for that tile from your play area to the supply (unless it is a Mildew Tile, see below). Immediately turn the next tile in the stack face up.
If you add a Feeding Tile with Honeydew, you may add another Feeding Tile as part of the same action. You may keep adding tiles, as long as the tiles you take show Honeydew, and you can afford the cost.
Feeding Tiles. Feeding Tiles increase your points for each card featuring the type of ladybird on the tile. Feeding Tiles are different for each ladybird type. For a complete overview of all the Feeding Tiles in the game, see the Ladybird Appendix on the Reference Sheet.
Mildew Tiles. The 22-spotted is a vegetarian, feeding only on mildew. It also prefers to feast together with other 22-spotted Ladybirds.
Mildew Tiles are special Feeding Tiles just for the 22-spotted. You don't need aphids to claim them. You need at least 1 card in your tableau featuring the 22-spotted Ladybird.
Mildew Tiles increase the points for all cards in your tableau featuring the 22-spotted Ladybird, by 2 or 3 pts for each card.
If you wish to have more than one Mildew Tile during the game, you must meet the total threshold of the tiles you claim.
Example: If you want 3 Mildew Tiles, you must have at least 3 cards with a 22-spotted Ladybird in your tableau, at the time you claim the third tile.
Mildew Tiles are yours to keep, even if a 22-spotted of yours happens to be replaced by a Harlequin, reducing your numbers.
Day 4. The Toolshed
Grandmother never wastes any strength. "Always use the right tools," she says. Being resourceful is not working harder – it is knowing how to work wisely.
Choose one:
- A: Place a Ladybird Card and draft an unlocked card in hand.
- B: Acquire an additional Orchard Card, along with all the aphids on it.
Day 5. Tea Time
Grandmother's tea spurs warm memories. Belonging grows in these moments – in shared stories, laughter, and creating new memories together.
Choose one:
- A: Take one final Childhood Memory home with you from the garden.
- B: Conduct one last Picnic action: take one Feeding Tile, or more, as long as the tiles you acquire has Honeydew.
After the Round
When all players have finished their turns, pass The Sticky Leaf to the next player in clockwise direction. Discard any cards on hand, in excess of 4 cards.
The game proceeds with a new round until all players' available Garden Tiles are portrait side up. A new day then begins: all players take the next available Garden Tile in their color and flip all of their tiles action side up. Then proceed to the next round.
The End of the Game
When all players' five Garden Tiles are flipped portrait side up – after 15 rounds – the game ends. Use the scorepad for jotting down each player's points.
Colors: Count the number of points awarded by cards at the top of the column and multiply by the number of Ladybird Cards in the column.
Ladybirds: Add up the points for all Feeding Tiles you have with one type, and multiply that by your number of cards with that type.
Childhood Memories: Score according to the table on the Reference Sheet.
Aphids: Each aphid scores you 1 point.
The winner of the game is the player with the most points. If the score is tied, the winner is the player who has come in touch with the most Childhood Memories.
If they are still tied, they share the victory.
Solo Play: Beat Your Own High Score!
Play with the multiplayer rules, with these adjustments:
Set up a Common Pool of 2 rows of 3 Ladybird Cards and 2 face up Orchard Cards. Use 1 set of Garden Tiles. Return the rest to the box.
Round Structure:
- Place a Ladybird Card from hand.
- Draft a card with the unlocked life cycle state, or draw 2 blindly from the draw pile, if you cannot.
- Resolve 1 Garden Tile action. If this ends your day, add the next Garden Tile and flip all your Garden Tiles to their action side.
- Discard down to 4 cards on hand.
Clearing columns or rows: When you clear a column, refill the 2 empty spaces. When you clear a row, gain 1 Childhood Memory and refill the 3 empty spaces. When you simultaneously clear both a row and a column, gain 2 Childhood Memories and refill all 4 empty spaces.
The Harlequin in solo play: Place in any column. Replaces the most recently placed card (discard this card). When you place the Harlequin, take any card from the common pool in hand.