Nucleum: Australia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Changes in Setup
• Changes in Map Setup
• Changes in Player Board Setup
• New Concepts
  • Shipping Lanes
  • Special Shipping Tile
  • Coal Mines
  • Coal Imports
  • Power Plants
  • Minor Uranium Findings
• Modified Endgame Conditions
• Expert Variant
• Solo Rules: Baron von Automat Goes to Oz
  • Place a Boat Action
  • Coal Mines
  • Special Shipping Tile
• The Sly Baron Challenge
• Appendix
  • Icon Key
  • Silver Contracts
  • Gold Contracts
  • Purple Contracts
  • Milestone Tiles

Components

• 1 Australia main board (double-sided)
• 13 new setup cards
• 1 Nucleum token
• 1 power plant standee
• 1 new milestone tile
• 11 new contract tiles (including 2 replacements)
• 5 new action tiles
• 8 coal mine tiles
• 3 neutral boats
• 2 side board overlays
• 1 additional player aid
• Per player color (×4): 1 special shipping tile, 1 coal mine extraction tile, 4 boats

Changes in Setup

1. Place the Australia main board in the center of the table with the side matching the number of players facing up, and place the side board next to the main board.
2. Place the Coal Import Wagon tiles with the side showing the coal icon facing up on the indicated spots on the Queensland coal import area.
3. Place the VP Flag token under the "75" spot on the VP track.
4. Place the Coal Mine tiles on the spaces in the cities indicated on the tiles.
5. After separating the 20 Base Action tiles from the base game, add the 5 new ones into the remaining 30 and shuffle them together. Then, continue setting up the Action tiles as normal.
6. Place the two side board overlays on their respective locations in the Contract market and the endgame condition area.
7. Perform Contract setup with the following changes:
   • A. Remove the following base game Contracts: C06, C13, C24, and C26 (i.e., those relating to Praha or tile count).
   • B. Add the five new Silver, five new Gold, and one new Purple contract to their respective stacks before shuffling.
   • C. Select two more Silver and two more Gold contracts than instructed in the base game (8/11/14 Silver contracts and 12/14/18 Gold contracts when playing with 2/3/4 players).
8. Shuffle the new Milestone tile with the base Milestone tiles before selecting four for the game.

Changes in Map Setup

9. Do not use the Riesa Power Plant standee. Instead, place a Power Plant standee with the Nucleum token on top in Hobart.
10. Using the new Setup cards, place the starting Nucleum, Neutral Urban Building tiles, and Rubble tiles following the same steps as in the base game. Then use the same cards for next step.
11. Additionally, place Neutral Boats on the shipping lanes visible on the first revealed Setup card. Place three Neutral Boats in a 2-player game and two Neutral Boats in a 3- or 4-player game.

Changes in Player Board Setup

12. Give each player one Special Shipping tile (increasing the number of starting tiles by one), one Coal Mine Extraction tile, four Boats in their color, and one player aid.

New Concepts

Nucleum: Australia introduces several new concepts and rule changes to the base game. All the new tiles from this expansion can be easily distinguished by the kangaroo icon depicted on them.

Shipping Lanes

Shipping lanes are a new connection type between cities, different from regular links. There can be multiple Boats on a single Shipping lane but only one Boat per player. Shipping lanes with your Boats extend your network, just as a rail line does; however, they are not Railway tiles for the purposes of Milestones, Contracts, and scoring Technologies. You may transport coal and uranium using your own Boats, but unlike completed rail lines, you cannot transport electricity using Boats. And finally, you cannot transport anything using other players' Boats.

The new Place a Boat action allows you to place a Boat on a Shipping lane. The cost of placing a Boat is 1 Thaler, plus 1 Thaler for each Boat already present on that Shipping lane. You may place a Boat on any Shipping lane where you do not already have a Boat. Just like when placing a Railway tile, this Shipping lane does not need to be connected to any of your networks.

Your Special Directive tile cannot be used to perform a Place a Boat action.

EXAMPLE: Red uses their Special Shipping tile along with a tile containing Industrialize and Energize actions. They want to place their Boat on the Shipping lane between Sydney and Hobart. Because Teal's Boat is already on this space, Red pays 2 Thaler (instead of 1) before placing their Boat here.

Next, Red uses their Industrialize action to take a Coal Mine from Toongi. It requires Red to use 1 of their available Workers, placing it on their Coal Mine space. Red then places the tile on an available space on the Coal Mine Extraction tile, adjacent to another Coal Mine tile, thus immediately receiving a reward of 2 Thaler.

Then, Red performs their Energize action. Red transports 2 Uranium and 1 free coal from their Uranium and Coal Mines respectively, located in Toongi, to Sydney via a completed rail line. Additionally, Red pays 2 Thaler to buy 2 coal from Queensland and transports them via long distance rail to Brisbane, then further to Sydney via Shipping lanes by Boat. Finally, Red transports all the aforementioned coal and Uranium from Sydney to Hobart by Boat, where 2 Uranium are transformed into 4 electricity and 3 coal into 3 electricity, while 1 electricity comes from their 4th Turbine on their player board (not shown). With 8 total electricity, Red's building in Hobart is energized. Red also has a Coal Mine in Latrobe, but could not transport its coal as they cannot use Neutral Boats or Boats belonging to other players. Furthermore, they couldn't use Hobart's Power Plant to energize Neutral Buildings in Sydney because Boats cannot transport electricity.

Special Shipping Tile

The new Special Shipping tile is a chaining tile: it allows you to take a Place a Boat action (as described above), then immediately play another tile on top of this tile, also resolving it. You may never place this Special Shipping tile as a railway.

Coal Mines

Using the Industrialize action, you may (instead of placing a Turbine or a Uranium Mine) spend 1 Worker to take a Coal Mine tile from a city that is within one of your networks. Place the spent Worker on the empty Coal Mine space to indicate your presence, and place the Coal Mine tile in any slot on your Coal Mine Extraction tile. If you perform the Industrialize action with a discount of 1 Worker, then take this Worker from the supply. Placing a Worker on a Coal Mine space that is not part of your network (only possible on your first turn or with certain Technologies) adds that city into your networks. Workers on a Coal Mine space can therefore contribute to "Any Building" Contracts (such as C01-C04 and C18-C21). However, Coal Mines are not eligible for Contracts explicitly showing a Uranium Mine (i.e., C17, C33, and C39) and for the Uranium Mine Milestone, nor does the Worker on the Coal Mine count towards Workers on Railway tiles (i.e., C08, C25, and C50).

During Energize actions, each Coal Mine tile produces 1 free coal at the Mine's location, which you need to transport (as usual) to the power plant you are activating to produce +1 electricity.

Your Coal Mine Extraction tile contains four spaces for your Coal Mines. When you place a Coal Mine in a space adjacent to one that already contains a Coal Mine, immediately receive the reward(s) printed between those spaces.

Coal Imports

On the Australia map, you may import coal the usual way from Queensland (top of the board), or you may pay 3 Thaler per coal (any number of times) to import it from Adelaide.

Power Plants

• The Lucas Heights Power Plant: The reward for placing a Nucleum here is a Level 1 Technology.
• The Geelong Power Plant: The reward for placing a Nucleum here is a completely free Place a Boat action.
• The Hobart Experimental Power Plant: This Power Plant has a pre-built Nucleum. You cannot place another Nucleum token here.

Minor Uranium Findings

There is a reward of 1 Uranium depicted on several railway spaces. When you place a railway in one of those spaces, you immediately (before resolving your actions) gain 1 Uranium, which you must place in one of your Uranium Mines. If you did not build any Uranium Mines or they are all full, you may convert that Uranium into a Worker as usual but only after you have already placed an available Worker on the tile.

Modified Endgame Conditions

In 3- and 4-player games, the number of conditions to trigger the end of the game has increased from 2 to 3, while in 2-player and solo games the number of conditions remains unchanged.

Expert Variant

Players who are already well-acquainted with Nucleum and Nucleum: Australia are encouraged to try the following expert variant. Players no longer take Experiments in reverse player order; instead, in player order, players proceed to an open auction, using Victory Points to determine their order in choosing an Experiment. The auction is an open-bidding process: each player may "offer" an amount of VP to be first to choose, and this amount must be higher than the previous said amount, or pass. In a 4-player game, the player who passes first will choose last, then the next player to pass must lose the amount of VP equal to their last bid and be 3rd, and so on. In a 3-player game, only the first and second players to choose lose their last bid amount of VP, and in a 2-player game, only the first player to choose loses their last bid amount of VP. All players must mark down (in any way they choose) the amount they bid and lose that number of VP at the end of the game, just before tallying up Victory Points and determining the winner.

Expert variant is not supported by the solo mode.

EXAMPLE: Players A, B, C, and D are bidding for priority of choosing Experiments, as follows: A, "1 VP"; B, "3 VP"; C, "4 VP"; D, "6 VP"; A, "7 VP"; B, "Pass." Being the first to pass, B will be the last to choose an Experiment and loses no VP. Bidding continues as follows: C, "8 VP"; D, "10 VP"; A, "Pass." So, A will choose third and must lose their last bid amount of 7 VP. Bidding continues one final time: C, "11 VP"; D, "12 VP"; C, "15 VP"; D, "Pass." Therefore, D loses their last bid amount of 12 VP and chooses second, while C loses their last bid amount of 15 VP and chooses first. All these Victory Points will be lost at the end of the game, before determining the winner.

Solo Rules: Baron von Automat Goes to Oz

The solo rules from the base game remain unchanged. Set up the game as per regular Australia rules, using the setup rules for Baron from the base game. Include the new Special Shipping tile in the Baron's tiles when shuffling, while the original Special Directive tile continues to function as the stopblock. Give the Baron the four Boats in its color but not the Coal Mine Extraction tile.

The end of the game is triggered in two ways:

• Two (not three) of the four Endgame Condition markers have been placed.
• The Baron has Recharged three times (or if playing against two Barons, once they both have Recharged three times).

Either way, finish the current round and then you and the Baron play one additional turn as in the multiplayer game. However, the Baron takes two Energize actions without paying Thaler on its last turn instead of its usual selection procedure.

Place a Boat Action

The Baron selects a Shipping lane where there are the fewest Boats already present. If multiple such spaces exist, use the standard tie-breaker on the Logic card to choose between Shipping lanes (using the numbers on the lanes themselves).

• If the selected lane already has one of your Boats, the Baron pays 1 Thaler. The Neutral Boats and Boats belonging to other Baron do not increase the Thaler cost. If it does not have 1 Thaler, it ignores spaces with your Boats.
• If no legal space can be selected (the Baron has a Boat on every space, or every space with the fewest Boats has your Boats and the Baron does not have 1 Thaler), the Baron forfeits the action. If the forfeited action originated from the Special Shipping tile, the Baron still resolves the tile directly after it.

Coal Mines

The Baron will take a Coal Mine off the board during the Industrialize action as its lowest priority (if it cannot build a Uranium Mine or a Turbine). It needs an available Worker to do this, and it spends the Worker when doing so (placing it on the Coal Mine space). If there is a Nucleum present in the same network, the Baron scores 1 VP per Coal Mine when it performs an Energize action (applying the same rules as for Uranium Mines).

Special Shipping Tile

If the Baron selects the Special Shipping tile, it performs a Place a Boat action (see above) and additionally resolves the tile directly after it (the next one to the right), as if the die roll selected that tile. If the next tile after the Special Shipping tile is the stopblock, the Baron forfeits this additional action. After resolving both the Special Shipping tile and the tile directly after it, move both tiles (or just the Special Shipping tile if the next tile was used as a railway or was the stopblock) to the end of the queue, preserving their order. The Special Shipping tile can never be placed on the board as a railway, so resolving it is always a Regular turn.

If there is a choice, the Baron prioritizes the Place a Boat action before all other actions.

The Sly Baron Challenge

If you wish the Baron to put a greater pressure on you about ending the game, use the following advanced variant. These rules can be used in the base game or when playing with Australia.

• Put the two Action tiles the Baron receives during the setup behind the stopblock.
• Change the Baron's income at each Recharge to 2 Workers, 3 Thaler, 4 VP.
• When the Baron is resolving a Development action, and it has 8 or more tiles behind the stopblock, it removes 2 tiles from the offer (to the box) instead of keeping them, and gains 1 worker and 2 VP instead.
• Baron can trigger the VP endgame condition.

Appendix

Icon Key

• Place another tile on top of this one
• Place a Boat
• A Coal Mine
• Tasmania

Silver Contracts

• (C06B) Have 9 Action tiles (available or on top of your player board), excluding Railway tiles. Gain 1 Worker, and a Level 1 Technology.
• (C51) Have 1 Coal Mine. Gain 3 VP and 1 Action tile from the offer without paying any cost.
• (C52) Have 2 Boats on Shipping lanes. Gain a Level 1 Technology and 1 Worker income step.
• (C53) Have a total of 2 Uranium Mines and/or Coal Mines in different colored cities. Gain a Level 1 Technology and 2 Thaler income steps.
• (C54) Have 1 Urban Building in Tasmania. Gain a Level 1 Technology.

Gold Contracts

• (C26B) Have 12 Action tiles (available or on top of your player board), excluding Railway tiles. Gain 2 Workers, a Level 2 Technology, and 5 VP.
• (C55) Have 3 Coal Mines. Gain 6 VP and 2 Action tiles from the offer without paying any cost.
• (C56) Have 4 Boats on Shipping lanes. Gain 3 VP, a Level 2 Technology, and 2 Worker income steps.
• (C57) Have a total of 3 Uranium Mines and/or Coal Mines in different colored cities. Gain a Level 2 Technology and 2 Thaler income steps.
• (C58) Have 2 energized Urban Buildings in Tasmania. Gain 4 Thaler and a Level 2 Technology.

Purple Contracts

• (C59) Have a total of 4 Uranium Mines and/or Coal Mines in different colored cities. Gain 6 VP, a Level 3 Technology, and 2 Thaler income steps.

Milestone Tiles

• Score for every Boat you have on the map.