Metallurgie
Metallurgie Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- this rules sheet
- 2 Summary Cards
- 1 End Card
- 103 Metal Cards: 44 Iron, 30 Copper, 18 Silver, 11 Gold
- 4 Bonus Cards (Iron, Copper, Silver, Gold)
Object of the Game
The object of Metallurgie is to collect the most metal cards during the game. The players play cards to expand a pattern of iron, copper, silver and gold cards. They gain cards by creating large areas of a single metal. The player with the most cards at the end wins.
Game Setup
The summary cards are placed on the table so that all players can easily have a look at them. The bonus cards are only used with the variant rules described later.
Figure 1 shows the setup of the game. Start with seven iron cards. On these, four copper cards are placed, and finally, one silver card is placed on the copper card in the middle.
(Figure 1: Initial Setup.)
The other metal cards are shuffled and three cards are distributed to each player. The rest of the cards forms the draw deck, with the end card shuffled into the bottom five cards.
Game Play
Metallurgie is played in a series of turns. Each player takes a turn in which he plays one or more cards into the pattern and refills his hand to three cards, then play passes to the player to the left.
During his turn, a player has two basic options regarding the cards he may play: he can either play only one metal (e.g. one or more copper cards) or only in one position (e.g. a silver card with a gold card placed onto it).
As shown in figure 2, the metal cards are placed in a somewhat unusual pattern. Each card in this pattern can have up to six cards placed adjacently to it.
(Figure 2: The pattern is extended with three iron cards.)
When playing cards, the pattern can only be extended with iron cards. Figure 2 shows the placement of three iron cards. All other metals have to be placed in ascending order: a copper card can only be played onto a free iron card, silver can only be played on copper, and gold is placed on silver.
As an additional choice, the player can either play only cards from his hand (up to three cards of one metal or different metals in one position), or he can try his luck first with a card from the draw deck. In the latter case, he must immediately place the card drawn from the deck, but afterwards can follow up with cards from his hand - either more of the same metal or in ascending order on the card just placed.
If the drawn card cannot be legally placed, the player has to discard it and his turn ends. In summary, a player can play a maximum of four cards during his turn: one card from the draw deck and/or up to three cards from his hand.
Scoring Points
Points are scored when the cards placed by the player create a connected and sufficiently big area of one kind of metal. The necessary size depends on the metal: the area has to consist of at least nine iron cards, seven copper, five silver or three gold. These minimum numbers are also shown in the upper left corner the metal cards themselves.
The number in the lower right corner of the metal cards shows how many cards belonging to the area are removed from the pattern. One of these cards is placed in front of the player as a victory point, the rest is discarded. If the removal of these cards reveals enough cards in the next layer of metal to form a sufficiently big area, this area is also immediately scored by the same player.
When removing iron cards, dividing the pattern into separate parts is not allowed.
At the end of his turn, the player replenishes his hand up to three cards from the draw deck.
Game End and Winning
When the end card is taken from the draw deck, the game ends immediately; no more cards are placed regardless of whether the end card was taken while replenishing a players hand or drawn to be placed at the start of a turn.
The player with the most metal cards in front of him wins. In the case of a draw, the most collected gold cards decide the winner. If there is also a draw between the most gold, the most collected silver tips the scales, and so on down to iron.
Variant Rules
Before the game starts, each player is dealt one of the four bonus cards and looks at it without revealing it to the other players. At the end of the game, collected cards of this metal are worth two victory points instead of just one.