Pandemain: Traditional Farmers' Bread
Pandemain: Traditional Farmers' Bread Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- General Information and Objective
- Components
- Preparing the Game
- Rounds and Turns Summary
- 1. Daytime (Actions Phase)
- Locations
- Selling Bread
- Church
- River
- Trade House
- Bakers' Guild
- Additional Actions
- 2. Dusk
- 3. Night-time (Actions Phase)
- 4. Dawn (Maintenance Phase)
- Finishing the Game
- 2 and 3 Player Games
- Alternative Rules
- Automa Mode
- Scenarios
- Mixed Mode
- Appendix
General Information and Objective
Pandemain: Traditional Farmers' Bread is a game for 1 to 4 players, it has a duration of 60 to 120 minutes and you will have to work hard to become the most distinguished baker in the trade. Your prestige is measured in victory points which are obtained by carrying out certain actions during the game, mainly making bread and selling it in the villages.
Each game has 5 rounds. Each round represents 1 day and this is divided into 4 phases: daytime, dusk, night-time and dawn. At the end of the 5th day, the town holds a mass for St. Honoratus, the patron saint of bakers, and the final total of victory points is tallied to determine the player that will be honoured in the ceremony - the winner of the game.
Throughout the game, players use workers to carry out actions and reap the rewards. The most frequent actions are buying ingredients, baking bread and then selling it. However, there are many more things to do in a medieval town! Master bakers improve the baking process and provide bonuses; animals and carts supplement certain actions; and lastly, offerings to the church increase your penitence level in the eyes of the Inquisition.
The game's historic background is based on ancient documents and history books, and its mechanics are inspired by situations found whilst reading authentic literature from the age.
Basic Mode and Expert Mode
Pandemain: Traditional Farmers' Bread is a game suitable for all types of players. If you haven't played Euro-style games before, it is recommended to start with basic mode: it has a lower difficulty level and this makes it easier to familiarise yourself with how to play.
Once you have come to grips with the general mechanics, try expert mode and you will find that the master bakers become especially relevant, that the Inquisition is more troublesome and that you can sell bread to the Feudal Lord's Servant.
The special rules for expert mode are set within boxes like this one. Do not use them if you are playing in basic mode.
To play in basic mode, remove church reward tokens 9 and 12.
Components
- 1 Main Board
- 4 Villages
- 4 Player Boards
- 18 Family Cards
- 1 Initial Bonuses Card
- 1 Cloth Bag
- 32 Villager Cards
- 80 Grain Tokens
- 16 Ingredient Tokens
- 33 Coins (12 × 5 pfennigs, 21 × 1 pfennig)
- 5 Round Tokens
- 8 Loan Tokens
- 12 Church Reward Tokens
- 16 Offering Tokens (8 × level 1, 8 × level 2)
- 10 Cart Tokens
- 10 Cow Tokens
- 10 Ox Tokens
- 1 Inquisition Marker
- 20 Workers
- 4 Penitence Markers
- 4 Victory Points Markers and 8 Turn Markers
- 4 Help Cards
- 44 Automa Mode Cards
- 1 Rulebook
Expert mode only:
- 10 Master Baker Cards
- 16 Reputation Markers
- 1 Feudal Lord's Servant
- 8 Feudal Lord Favour Tokens
- 20 Penance Tokens
- 24 Control Tokens
Preparing the Game
The Main Board
The main board represents the area around Nördlingen, the town in which the players carry out their actions.
- Place the main board within easy reach of all players.
- At random, place the 5 round tokens on the round track, without looking at the backs. These tokens represent the number of rounds in the game.
- Place the loan tokens next to the board, place 2 of them on Katzenstein Castle.
- Place all the rye, spelt, oat and wheat tokens in the bag. This is the grain reserve.
- At random, place grain tokens from the grain reserve to fill the appropriate spaces in the mill. These represent the flours that the players can acquire during the game.
- Place the cow, ox and cart tokens next to the board. Divide the offering tokens into two piles according to the crosses on their backs and place them face down next to the board.
- Place the Inquisition marker on the left hand side of the penitence track.
- Place a stack of 3 random church reward tokens on positions 5, 10 and 15 of the penitence track, giving a total of 9 tokens. Put any remaining church reward tokens back in the box.
- At random, place one level 1 and one level 2 offering token in the corresponding spaces in the church.
- Randomly, place 8 master bakers at the indicated spaces in the bakers' guild and discard the rest as they will not be used during this game.
- Place all the favour tokens face down next to the board and turn over 5 at random.
- Leave the penance tokens next to the board.
Grain Tokens
The use of the grain tokens will vary depending on where they are placed:
- In the mill and the players' reserve, they represent flour, the raw material needed for baking bread in the oven.
- On the staleness track of the player boards, they are placed bread side up, representing the loaves made by the players and its staleness level.
- In the villages, they are placed bread side up, representing the orders for bread which the players have to fulfil. This is where you sell the goods you produce in the oven.
The Villages
The village boards represent the various areas which have placed orders that the players must fulfil so as to sell the bread they bake.
- Place the village boards next to the main board.
- At random, fill the empty spaces of the village boards with grain tokens from the bag. These tokens represent the current and upcoming bread orders in the villages.
- Randomly, choose 4 different villager cards. Then, form 4 decks, each one with all 4 cards of one of those villagers, and place one on each of the 4 village boards.
The Players
- Each player chooses a color and receives a) 1 player board, b) 4 ingredient tokens, c) 4 workers, d) 1 victory points marker, e) 1 penitence marker, f) 2 turn markers and g) 6 control tokens in that color.
- Leave each player's 5th worker by the board for later use.
Each player places the following components of their colour on the main board:
- One victory points marker on position 5 of the victory points track around the main board.
- One penitence marker on the left hand side of the penitence track.
- Each player takes 1 family card at random and gets the ingredients of that card. Mark the quantities received with your ingredient tokens in the reserve of your player board (see possible benefits in Family Cards).
Ingredients reserve: each player will mark their ingredients by using the ingredient tracks and tokens on their player boards. The ingredient tokens have a "+10" on their backs, in case you have more than 10 units of an ingredient in your reserve during the game.
Grain tokens: any grain tokens you receive during the set-up form your initial flour reserve and they will be used to make bread during the game.
- Then, each player places one of their cubes on the right column of the church: the turn order track. Place them from top to bottom, from lowest to highest according to the value shown at the bottom right corner of your family card. Leave the extra cube in your reserve.
- Players receive a bonus according to their current position on the turn track:
- Player 2: 1 random flour token from the reserve.
- Player 3: 1 random flour token from the reserve and 1 pfennig.
- Player 4: 1 random flour token from the reserve and 2 pfennigs.
- Each player places one reputation marker on each of the 4 central positions of the reputation table.
- The player whose turn marker is in last place puts the Feudal Lord's Servant on any location they want on the board, except the villages (see Locations). Bear in mind that this token does not occupy any spots.
Rounds and Turns Summary
The game takes place over 5 days (rounds) and each one is divided into 4 phases:
- Daytime (actions phase): Players take turns to place one worker on a space of the board and immediately perform that action. This phase ends when the players have no workers left to place.
- Dusk: Players recover all the workers of their colour. The bread starts to go stale.
- Night-time (actions phase): In reverse turn order, players can take an optional turn, using one of their workers.
- Dawn: The game is prepared for the next round (maintenance phase).
Each of these phases is explained in more detail in the sections that follow.
Turn Order
The turn sequence during the action phases – both daytime and night-time – is determined by the order in which the players' turn order cubes are arranged in the church tower. The daytime actions phase begins with the player whose marker is located at the top of the tower and it ends with the player whose marker is at the bottom. In the night-time actions phase, this order is reversed.
You can influence the turn order of the next round by making offerings to the church (see Locations: Church).
Worker spaces: the worker spaces are the circular areas found in various locations on the boards and they determine where the players must place their workers in order to carry out their actions. Normally, you can place as many workers as you want in the larger spaces. The small spaces can be occupied by one worker only.
1. Daytime (Actions Phase)
In turn order, each player places one worker from their reserve onto one of the game's worker spaces and then carries out the corresponding action (see Locations). Some locations have requirements to use their worker spaces, like paying pfennigs or using a cart, which must be fulfilled to play the action.
During their turn, players can also carry out the additional actions detailed in the Additional Actions section of these rules.
When a player's turn ends, it is then the turn of the next player, and so on, until none of the players have any workers left. If a player has no workers, the turn passes immediately to the next player.
After the daytime actions phase has ended, the dusk phase begins.
Locations
Farm
Daytime action, no worker space limit
Place a worker on the farm to purchase one cart, one ox and/or one cow. The prices are as follows:
- Ox: 4 pfennigs
- Cow: 3 pfennigs
- Cart: 1 pfennig
Example: Manuel places a worker on the farm and pays 8 pfennigs to purchase one ox token, one cow token and one cart token.
Market
Daytime action, limited by the available worker spaces
You can buy these ingredients in the market: water, salt, yeast and milk.
To place a worker in the market, pay 2 pfennigs plus 1 pfennig for each worker located at any of the worker spaces to the right of your worker, in the market.
To shop at the first stalls of the market you will need additional transport. Use one of your oxen tokens (flip it) to send a worker to the leftmost stall of the market, and an ox or cart token to send them to the second on the left.
Once you've placed your worker on a worker space in a market stall, you will take resources from every stall to your right in your purchase route and add them to your ingredient reserve. The purchase route are all the stalls to your right connected by arrows, you can choose two paths in the central stall to add different ingredients to your reserve.
Example: Manuel places a worker in the indicated spot in the market, he pays 2 pfennigs and immediately gains 2 units of salt, 1 of water and 1 of yeast.
Example: Angela uses a cart (flipping the token) and places one of her workers in a market worker space of the second column of stalls. Angela pays 4 pfennigs, 2 pfennigs for the base fee plus 2 pfennigs for the two workers located to her right in the market. Once the fee is paid, she adds all the ingredients on every stall of her purchase route. Angela will add the following to her reserve: 2 units of water, 1 of milk, 2 of salt and 1 of yeast. Manuel also obtains 1 unit of salt and 1 of yeast.
You can never have more than 20 units of any ingredient in your reserve. You must discard excess ingredients.
You also take any ingredients provided by your master bakers and any ingredients shown in your current positions of the reputation markers.
You will only receive each master baker bonus once, identical bonuses provided by different master bakers are not accumulative.
Mill
Daytime action
Place a worker at the mill to buy one column of available flour tokens. There can only be up to 4 workers at this location.
Pay the price in pfennigs as indicated on the chosen column, then take all the flour tokens in that column.
To buy the column with 4 flour tokens you will need to use an ox or a cart, flipping the token when carrying out the action.
Example: Manuel places a worker in the mill, he pays 2 pfennigs and gains 2 rye flour tokens and 1 spelt token.
You cannot have more than 10 flour tokens in your reserve at the end of your turn – discard any extra flour tokens back into the bag.
Granary
Daytime action
Place a worker on a free worker space in the granary. You will receive 2 or 3 flour tokens of your choosing from the reserve at dawn phase.
The Feudal Lord's Oven
Daytime and night-time action, no worker space limit
"Feudal Lords would sometimes reserve the right to use ovens in their lands. Although it varied by region, those laws began to change during the Middle Ages, allowing bakers to have and use their own ovens."
The only oven in the area belongs to the Feudal Lord. You can use it to bake rye, spelt, oat and wheat bread.
In order to place your worker at that location, you must pay the Feudal Lord's tax. Pay 1 pfennig for each other worker located at the oven, up to a maximum of 2 pfennigs. The first player to visit the oven does not have to pay the tax. If you don't have any pfennigs, you can't use the oven.
To carry out this action, you must use ingredients from your reserve for each batch of bread you want to produce, following the corresponding recipes. Look at the recipes shown on your player's board to find out which ingredients to use for each bread.
With this action, you can bake 2 bread tokens at once. If you use one of your carts or oxen (by turning over their token) you can skip that limitation and bake as much bread as you can or want.
Until you hire a master baker, you can only make rye bread. You will need to hire master bakers at the bakers' guild in order to make spelt, oat or wheat bread. Depending on the type of bread you are going to bake, make sure you have the right type of master baker (see Bakers' Guild).
Follow these steps for each type of bread that you want to bake:
- Announce which type of bread you are going to bake.
- Discard/subtract from your reserve all the ingredients you need to follow the corresponding recipe. Place the used flour tokens on the grain reserve. You can control the quality of the bread you are going to bake by varying the flour tokens used to make it: a) High quality bread: to bake high quality bread, follow the exact bread recipes. b) Low quality bread: if you don't have all the flours you need to bake a type of bread, or if you don't want to use them, you can bake low quality bread by replacing any flour tokens marked with an asterisk in the recipe (*) with any other type of flour.
- Your bread is ready! From the flour tokens you used, place the appropriate flour token with the bread side face up on the staleness track of your player's board: use the top track for high quality bread and the lower track if it is low quality.
Each type of bread goes stale at a different rate: place rye bread on day 2 of the staleness track and spelt, oat and wheat bread on day 3 of the track.
Example: Angela sends a worker to the oven and has to pay 1 pfennig, since another worker was there already. She turns over her ox token, using it so that she can bake more than 2 bread tokens. She decides to bake one batch of high quality rye bread, one of spelt bread and one batch of low quality wheat bread. Angela has the master bakers which enable her to make spelt and wheat breads. To bake the bread, Angela uses these ingredients: High quality rye bread: 2 units of water, 1 of salt and 1 of yeast from her reserve, plus 1 of rye flour and 1 of wheat flour. High quality spelt bread: 2 units of water, 2 of salt and 1 of yeast from her reserve, plus 1 of spelt flour and 1 of rye flour. Low quality wheat bread: 2 units of water, 1 of yeast and 2 of milk from her reserve, plus 1 of wheat flour and 1 of oat flour to replace the last wheat flour. Once she has taken the indicated ingredients from her reserve, she places the appropriate grain tokens for the types of bread she baked, showing their bread side, on the corresponding positions of the track.
To show experience, place 1 control token on your un-upgraded master bakers when any of the bread you received coincides with the type of bread they know how to bake. You can only place 1 control token per bread type.
Do not place more than 2 control tokens on a master baker; they can be upgraded during the dawn phase.
Katzenstein Castle
Daytime action, no worker space limit
"In the Middle Ages, no-one paid interests on any loans. Unlike today, charging interests on a loan was considered to be usury and the Inquisition punished those who practiced it. Usury was considered to be a sin comparable to heresy, bigamy or blasphemy."
You can place a worker at this location to carry out one of the following actions:
- Work in the castle: Receive 3 pfennigs if you use an ox (turn over its token).
- Ask for a loan: If there are loan tokens left in the location, you may take 1 loan token from the castle and 6 pfennigs from the general reserve. Then you subtract 2 victory points from your score. You cannot ask for a loan if there are none available or if you do not have at least 2 victory points.
Villages
Daytime action
On the village boards you can find bread orders, represented by the grain tokens placed in the spaces for current and upcoming orders.
The top row shows the current bread orders which can be completed in the current round. There is a permanent order in that row which can always be completed (it is printed on the board), whilst the others are filled with grain tokens from the reserve and discarded once completed by the players.
The bottom row shows the upcoming orders for bread and will replace the current orders during the dawn phase.
You can sell a bread token from your reserve that matches one of the current orders shown in the villages (rye, spelt, oat or wheat).
Place a worker in the first available worker space (the topmost one) of a village to complete the orders. To place a worker in a village, you must bear in mind the following factors:
a) You must fulfil at least one of that village's current orders. b) You cannot send two workers to the same village. c) There can be no more than 3 workers in the same village in 4 player games, 2 workers in 3 player games and 1 worker in 2 player games (no. of players –1). d) You must pay 1 pfennig to each player already in the village to get a license to sell there. You must pay the price before placing your worker in the village and therefore before selling any bread there.
After you place a worker to complete one or more orders and once you have fulfilled the requirements, you can then sell your bread (see Selling Bread). You can complete more than one order in the same village but you cannot complete the same order more than once.
Selling bread in Augsburg: You can only sell bread in Augsburg once you have reached a penitence level of 5 or more. Raise your penitence level by 1 for each bread token you sell there.
Don't forget to apply the bonuses provided by the master bakers in your reserve!
Selling Bread
Whenever you are going the sell bread in one of the villages, follow these steps:
- Take the bread token you are going to sell and look at its position on the staleness track, then move up your victory points marker by as many spaces as indicated.
- If you are selling wheat bread, move up your victory points marker by as many spaces as indicated by the current round: +3 in the 1st round, +3 in the 2nd round, +2 in the 3rd round, +1 in the 4th round and +1 in the 5th round.
- Gain the corresponding pfennigs, according to the bread price chart.
- Discard the bread token you are selling from your reserve to the grain reserve.
- Gain as many victory points as indicated by the current order you are fulfilling.
- If you are fulfilling a non-permanent order, also discard the order token you have fulfilled, leaving the space empty until dawn.
- Take a villager card from that village, if you do not have one of the same type in your reserve. These villager cards give you bonuses in certain locations (see Appendix) and victory points at the end of the game, for each different card you have.
- Use the bonuses provided by your master bakers.
- Increase or decrease your reputation marker according to the type of the bread you are selling: increase it if you are selling high quality bread or decrease it if you are selling low quality bread. If the marker is at the highest point on the track, you receive additional victory points (see Reputation).
Reputation
The reputation tracks, located at the top of the main board, indicate the average quality of bread that you have sold throughout the game. Your reputations will vary depending on the quality of the bread you sell.
There are various reputation tracks on the board, one track for each type of bread. The position of your reputation markers on each track indicate victory points that you will earn (in blue) or lose (in red) at the end of the game. They also provide additional ingredients in the market during the game. Use your control tokens in the market to indicate that you can receive extra ingredients.
Once any of your reputation markers has reached the top position of the track, gain victory points every time you sell high-quality bread of that type, according to the track:
- Rye bread: +1 victory point
- Spelt bread: +1 victory point
- Oat bread: +2 victory points
- Wheat bread: +2 victory points
Church
Daytime and night-time action, no worker space limit
Place a worker in the church to make offerings, to increase your penitence level and establish the turn order in the next round. Increasing your penitence level gets you church rewards, victory points and can cancel out the penances imposed on you by the Inquisition.
Optionally, bless low quality bread, converting it into high quality bread.
Making Offerings
Check the offerings available at the church (see Appendix), and choose one or more that you can complete.
To complete an offering you must:
- Remove and/or discard from your reserve the corresponding ingredients/resources, according to the offering/s you want to complete (see Appendix).
- Increase your penitence level by moving your marker to the right on the track, as many spaces as there are crosses on the completed offerings. If you reach the right end of the track (max. level), convert each new penitence level gained into 1 victory point.
- Discard from the board any completed offerings.
- At random, take offering tokens of the appropriate level to replenish any empty spaces in the church. If there are no offering tokens left in the reserve, create a new reserve by turning face down any discarded offering tokens of the appropriate level.
- When you reach levels 3, 6, 9 and 12 on your penitence track, you immediately gain 2 victory points.
- Once you reach levels 5, 10 and 15 on the penitence track, take one of the church reward tokens of your choosing from that position. You can choose whether to take the bonus shown and then you discard the token (see Appendix).
There is always one permanent offering that you can make: donate 2 pfennigs to increase your penitence level by 1.
The last worker: players start with 4 workers that are used to carry out their actions. When a player reaches or passes position number 8 on the penitence track, they immediately receive their last worker. They can use that worker from that point onwards, following the usual game rules.
You can complete more than one offering in the same turn, but you cannot complete the same offering more than once.
Establish the Turn Order of the Next Round
If you are the first to visit the church this round (and second as well in 4 players games), discard a penance token from your reserve, if you have any. Any penance tokens in your reserve take away victory points at the end of the game.
The first time you visit the church during daytime each round, place the turn marker of your colour in the topmost empty space on the left column of the church tower. This will be your turn position for the next round, which will change once the current round has ended.
Blessing Low Quality Bread
The church can convert low quality bread into high quality bread with the simple act of blessing it (we have taken the liberty of thinking that this may have happened in the Middle Ages).
Once you have reached penitence level 5, you can bless 1 bread tokens in your reserve for each offering you complete.
Each bread token you want to have blessed will cost you 1 victory point. Once you have deducted the victory point from your score, the bread is blessed and you move it from the low quality bread track to the high quality bread track, respecting its staleness level. You can't bless bread if you don't have any victory points.
Don't forget that you can bless as many bread tokens as offerings you completed in the same action.
River
Daytime and night-time action, no worker space limit
Place a worker next to the river to collect 2 units of water for your reserve. You can use a cart (and turn over the token) to carry out this action and obtain 4 units of water.
Trade House
Daytime and night-time action, no worker space limit
Place a worker here to make one trade between any of the following sets of resources:
- 1 pfennig
- 1 flour token of any type
- your choice of an ingredient: milk, salt or yeast
- 1 victory point
To make the trade, hand over the resources from your reserve (or discount them from your reserve by moving the marker down on the track in the case of water/milk/salt/yeast) and gain the resources from the corresponding reserve (or add them by moving the marker up on the track).
Example 1: Manuel places a worker in the Trade house. He first subtracts 1 yeast from his reserve, and trades it for 1 pfennig from the general reserve. Then his turn ends.
Example 2: Manuel places a worker on the Trade house. First he subtracts 1 salt from his reserve (set 1), then he pays 1 pfennig to the general reserve (set 2), trading them both for just 1 victory point. Then, he moves his worker to play the action of another location.
Passing through: You can go to the Trade house, AND then play other action on the board with that same worker, but the trade rate doubles, that is, you will have to pay 2 different sets in exchange for 1.
Remember that you can never have more than 10 units of flour at the end of your turn.
Bakers' Guild
Daytime action, no worker space limit
"Artisans and traders were grouped into guilds, with their own statutes which controlled their activity in the city, in order to regulate the number of active workshops, the profession's apprenticeship systems and to seek the economic wellbeing of their members."
At the Bakers' Guild you can carry out one of the following actions: hire a master baker or upgrade a master baker.
Hire a Master Baker
Choose a master baker to hire from the baker's guild. Then, pay the pfennigs indicated at the upper left corner of the master baker card and place it next to your player board. Whilst they are in your employment, you can bake the corresponding type of bread in the oven and you will gain the bonuses they provide. The types of bread that a master baker enables you to bake are shown by the coloured icons at the bottom of their card. The grey icon represents a second type of bread that a master baker can bake when they have been upgraded (see Appendix).
There is no limit to the number of master bakers that you can have.
Example: this master baker enables you to bake spelt bread and earn one additional victory point when you sell that type of bread.
At dawn, you will have to pay your master bakers for them to keep working for you (see Dawn).
Upgrading a Master Baker
Pay 1 pfennig to upgrade one of your master bakers. Once you've made the payment, turn the master baker card over; from then on you will receive the benefit of their new abilities (see Appendix).
Example: When you upgrade this master baker, you will also be able to bake wheat bread.
Additional Actions
During any of your turns, you can carry out certain additional actions aside from your turn action. These do not require workers and take immediate effect.
Milking cows: Flip any number of your face up cow tokens to add 2 units of milk per cow to your reserve. Flipped cows cannot be used again until the next round, after recovering at dawn.
Selling bread to the Feudal Lord's Servant: At the end of your turns during the day phase, you can sell one bread token from your reserve to the Feudal Lord's Servant if you are both in the same location. Follow the instructions to sell bread but skip steps 5, 6 and 7 (see Selling Bread).
Once you have sold the bread, you can immediately choose and receive the reward of one of the face-up Feudal Lord favour tokens (see Appendix). Then turn over the favour token to show the reverse side. If all of the favour tokens are turned over, turn 5 tokens face up, at random. Lastly, move the Feudal Lord's Servant to another location on the main board (see Locations), bearing in mind that he does not occupy a worker space.
2. Dusk
Your workers return home after a hard day's work and enjoy a well-earned rest.
- Bring your workers back to your reserve, except those located in the granary.
- Bread goes stale: move all bread tokens one space to the right on the staleness track of your player board. If there are any loaves in the last space on the right, it has gone completely stale and is only good for feeding the animals, discard it and receive 3 pfennigs for each discarded token.
- Remove the Feudal Lord's servant from the board.
Once the dusk phase has ended, the night-time actions phase begins.
3. Night-time (Actions Phase)
"In the Middle Ages there was a law forbidding people to work at night, but bakers were exempt from it."
In reverse turn order to that established by the turn markers in the church tower, each player can take an optional turn, placing one of their workers in any of the following worker spaces:
- The river
- The Trade House
- The church
- The Feudal Lord's oven
Don't worry about using a worker in this phase, they will be available again in the next round. However, any player who wishes to use this action has to pay 1 pfennig to the reserve, in addition to the payments generated by carrying out the desired action.
Once these optional turns have been played, the game continues with the next dawn phase.
4. Dawn (Maintenance Phase)
This phase takes place after the night-time phase and marks the end of each round. In order to make it easier for all players to complete this phase simultaneously, the points listed below are shown on the help card.
-
Increase the penitence level of the Inquisition: from left to right, flip over the round token indicating the current round, to show its reverse side. Move the Inquisition marker along the penitence track by as many spaces as there are crosses on said token. Then each player ahead of the Inquisition receives 1 victory point.
Give 1 penance token to each player who has fallen behind the Inquisition.
If it is the 5th round, the game finishes and players should follow the steps indicated in the Finishing the Game section. Otherwise, the game continues:
-
Players recover all their workers from the board. Players with workers in the granary receive 2 units of the flour of their choosing from the grain reserve, or 3 flour tokens if they have an active ox in their reserve, respecting the maximum limit of 10 and discarding surplus tokens if they exceed that limit.
-
Move all milk reserve markers to 0, seeing as the milk goes sour.
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Reactivate any ox, cow and cart tokens used in the last round, turning them face up.
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Place loan tokens in Katzenstein Castle so that there are 2.
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Discard all the grain tokens in the mill onto the grain reserve, then refill the spaces with grain tokens from the reserve, at random.
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Discard the current orders of each village marked with the dawn icon, putting them in the grain reserve.
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Fill the current order spaces of the villages with the tokens from the upcoming order spaces, following the printed arrows.
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Then fill the empty upcoming order spaces of all the villages with grain tokens from the grain reserve.
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Reorganise the turn order markers, preparing the turn order for the next round: a) Fill in the empty spaces that show the next round's turn sequence (on the left hand side of the church tower) with turn order cubes of any players who still have them in their reserve, following the same turn order as used in the current round (on the right of the church tower). b) Return the player turn markers on the right hand side to the players and move the cubes on the left side over to the right.
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You can upgrade master bakers who have accumulated enough experience, i.e. if they have two control tokens. If you do this, turn over the baker card to the expert side and return the control tokens to your reserve.
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Players choose to pay any master bakers in their employment, giving them the amount of pfennigs indicated on the card. However, any master baker who does not receive their pay will stop working for you - place them in any free space in the bakers' guild so that they can be re-hired in subsequent rounds. An upgraded master baker remains upgraded even when they have returned to the bakers' guild due to not having received their daily pay.
The dawn phase ends, the current round finishes and a new round begins with the next daytime actions phase.
Finishing the Game
This last phase of the game takes place after the dawn phase of the 5th round and the victory points are tallied to determine the game winner.
At this point, players must repay any loans they took out by paying 6 pfennigs to the reserve for each loan token they possess. Then the victory points for each player are tallied:
- Start counting the victory points from each player's current position on the victory points track.
- Add victory points according to the number of different villagers you possess:
- 1 villager: 1 victory point
- 2 villagers: 3 victory points
- 3 villagers: 6 victory points
- 4 villagers: 10 victory points
- Add 3 victory points for each bread token in your reserve.
- Subtract 3 victory points for each loan token in your reserve.
- Add or subtract the victory points indicated by your reputation markers.
- Subtract 3 victory points for each penance token in your reserve.
Once you have finished, the baker with the most victory points wins. If it is a draw, the player with the highest penitence level wins. If there is still a draw, the player with the most pfennigs wins. In the improbable case that there is still a draw, the players share the victory. The winner is honoured as the region's most illustrious baker at the mass for St. Honoratus.
2 and 3 Player Games
In order for games with fewer players to have the same feel, you will need to apply different rules depending on the number of players. Detailed below are certain special rules:
Adapting the Game for 2 Players
- Place only 2 church reward token on numbers 5, 10 and 15 of the penitence track.
- The worker limit for the granary and villages is 1.
- The worker limit for the mill is 3.
- The maximum number of loans in Katzenstein Castle is 1.
- You cannot discard a penance token on the second position of the church.
Adapting the Game for 3 Players
- Place only 3 church reward tokens on numbers 5, 10 and 15 of the penitence track.
- The worker limit for the granary is 1.
- The worker limit for the villages is 2.
- The worker limit for the mill is 3.
- You cannot discard a penance token on the second position of the church.
Some of the rules are printed on the board so that players remember to follow them.
Alternative Rules
Local Trade
This game mode increases the interactions between players, adding a player-to-player exchange system:
During the daytime action phase, players can trade amongst themselves to obtain ingredients (water, salt, yeast, milk, flour of any type), animals (cows, oxen) and carts. On their turn, a player can ask for resources from the other players in exchange for pfennigs or a worker, following the turn order.
If they exchange a worker, the player who receives it can use it as their own on their turn, the worker will count as the colour of the player who uses it in all aspects (e.g. the worker space limits must be followed and workers cannot be placed in a village if there is one of the same colour there already). These workers must be returned to their respective owners in the dawn phase.
No News from Ulm
In this game mode, don't use the future order spaces on the village boards.
Automa Mode
"The Bakers' Guild in the Duchy of Swabia is in disarray! For some time now, they have all been furiously trading ingredients, kneading dough, baking bread and even sabotaging their fellow bakers, all to make the best bread in the region. Will you be able to face the best bakers in Nördlingen and become one of the upper crust?"
You can play Pandemain: Traditional Farmers Bread using a special deck provided with the game – the automa deck. The automa deck contains action cards which replace the actions of real players. You can use the cards to control up to 3 virtual players in the same game and these players are called sim-bakers. Each of the characters has their own personality and special rules.
There are various game modes you can play with the automa deck: Solo Mode in which you can play Pandemain by yourself; Scenario Mode in which you start the game with a few variations to the usual rules; and Mixed Mode which allows you to mix sim-bakers, scenarios and real players, all in the same game.
The 3 sim-bakers are represented by the character cards from the automa deck and they are as follows:
- Rudolf, the most pious baker in all of Nördlingen. Rudolf is a very competitive person and he's always trying to sabotage players to get the most out of his own actions. He's not actually a bad person, though. Rudolf never misses the opportunity to take advantage of his excellent relationship with the clergy and wherever he goes, you'll hear him chanting prayers and singing psalms while he walks.
- Hans, Rudolf's cousin. Hans is clearly not as pious as his cousin Rudolf – he owes a lot of money to a lot of people and is always asking for loans. If you cross his path, he will most likely end up convincing you to hand over at least a few coins.
- Helga, the aspiring noble. Helga dreams of one day becoming a member of the nobility. This desire has turned her into a haughty person who refuses to interact with people she believes to be of inferior rank or reputation.
The special characteristics of each baker will be detailed further on.
Solo Mode
Solo mode works similarly to a 2 player game, with the difference being that the human player is playing against a sim-baker controlled by the automa deck. The locations in which the sim-baker will place their workers during the game will be determined by 5 action cards from the automa deck, one card per round.
Setup
Choose the sim-baker you want to play against, from the three available. Choosing Rudolf for the first few games is suggested. Take the corresponding character card from the automa deck and discard the remaining character cards.
Depending on the chosen sim-baker, choose 1 card at random from each of the five corresponding sets of cards, as shown in the table below. Place them face down on the table to form a deck. This deck must have 5 cards arranged accordingly for rounds 1 to 5. Discard all the remaining action cards.
| Sim-baker | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rudolf | 1–6 | 7–13 | 7–13 | 14–18 | 14–18 |
| Hans | 19–22 | 23–25 | 26–27 | 28–31 | 28–31 |
| Helga | 32–34 | 35–37 | 35–37 | 38–40 | 38–40 |
Example: If Pablo wanted to play against Hans, he'll have to use one of the following cards each round: 1st a card between cards 19 to 22, 2nd one card between 23 and 25, 3rd one card between 26 and 27, 4th a card between 28 and 31, and 5th a card between 28 and 31.
Having prepared the action deck for the sim-baker, the setup is the same as a 2 player game, but bear in mind the following aspects:
- You need to choose a colour for the sim-baker but they don't need a player board.
- The sim-baker doesn't have an ingredients tally, so they don't receive a family card.
- Place their turn marker in the church tower space indicated by their behaviour rules (see: Behaviour of the sim-bakers).
How to Play
At the start of each round, turn over the first card of the action deck and before looking at all the information on it, cover it with the character card.
Take the player's turns during the daytime and night-time phases as normal. For each turn of the sim-baker, slide the character card down slightly so that it shows the next action on the actions card. Then, place the sim-baker's next worker at the location shown by the last visible action, or the location where the Feudal Lord's servant is when indicated by the action. Tally up the corresponding victory, reputation and penitence points according to the sim-baker's action rules (see: Behaviour of the sim-bakers).
Play through the dusk and dawn phases, bearing in mind the following factors for the sim-baker:
- They recover their workers like the other players.
- Ignore any rules which affect ingredients, loaves, carts, cows and oxen.
- They can be penalised with penance tokens and they can also discard them in the usual way.
- At each dawn phase, discard the top action card from the deck used by the sim-baker.
- If you play with any sim-baker, place only 1 loan token on Katzenstein Castle during the dawn phase.
End the game as normal, with the winner being the player with the most victory points.
Beating the sim-bakers is extremely difficult, so don't give up! It might take you a few games to achieve victory.
Behaviour of the Sim-Bakers
Special rules for the sim-bakers, valid for all three characters:
- Ignore any ingredient, bread or money requirements. Sim-bakers have unlimited quantities.
- Ignore any requirements for carts, oxen and cows when they play their actions. They always have an active cart, cow and ox.
- They start with their victory point, penitence and reputation markers in the same place as the other players.
- When they visit the Feudal Lord's oven, their action is limited to increasing the tax.
- When they visit the mill, they discard the column which has the most flour tokens, returning them to the bag.
- When they visit the Katzenstein Castle, discard 1 loan token.
- When they visit the bakers' guild, discard 1 master baker, at random.
- When they visit the market, they do not receive ingredients but they do occupy empty spaces. They are placed at the leftmost space available, from top to bottom, in relation to the choices of the human player. In other words, if the human player has a cart but doesn't have an ox, they will be placed in the second column of shops.
- When they visit the church, place their turn marker and discard a penance token, following the usual game rules. They can then move their penitence marker by as many spaces as there are crosses on the level 2 offering token placed there. Discard the original offering and replace it with another level 2 token from the reserve. They also get 1 additional penitence point, as if they had made an offering of 2 pfennigs. If their penitence marker reaches the 5, 10 or 15 spots, discard the top church reward token from the pile. They receive 2 victory points when they reach spots 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15. They receive their 5th worker when they reach position 8.
- When they visit a village, they sell 1 loaf of bread to satisfy the available bread demand, selling the type of bread which gets them the most points at that time. They receive the corresponding victory points as if the bread had been baked in the same round. Also, their reputation marker increases as if they had sold good quality bread and they receive the villager from that village.
- When they visit the trade house, river, farm or granary, they play no action.
- Any villagers they control give them points in the final tally of victory points, but ignore their effects during the game.
- They can use workers in Augsburg without having to attain 5 penitence points first.
- When they visit a location and the Feudal Lord's servant is also there, they play the corresponding action and then they take one random flour token from the bag and sell 1 bread token of that type, obtaining the corresponding rewards as detailed above. They do not receive Feudal Lord favour tokens.
- If the sim-baker's action card indicates that they have to play an action but they have no workers left, that action is not played.
- Sim-bakers do not interact with each other. In other words, Rudolf could visit a location even if Hans' workers are already there, without having to pay him or give him victory points.
Special rules for Rudolf:
- Rudolf always plays first in the first round.
- Rudolf sings psalms wherever he goes and is always commenting on passages from the Bible, he only allows other bakers to accompany him if they follow suit. In practice, you can only use locations where Rudolf's workers are present if your penitence level is no more than one level lower than his. Ignore this requirement at the oven, market, mill and church.
- If he has a worker left once all of the actions on his actions card have been used, he sends that worker to make a donation to the church. He is tremendously religious, after all.
- Whenever Rudolf moves the Feudal Lord's servant, he places him on the mill.
Special rules for Hans:
- Hans always plays second in the first round.
- Hans has a lot of debts and is always talking people into giving him loans. In practice, when you place a worker at a location where Hans already has a worker, you must pay him 1 pfennig or he will immediately gain 1 victory point. Ignore this requirement at the oven, market, mill and church.
- If he has a worker left once all of the actions on his actions card have been used, he sends that worker to make a donation to the church.
- Whenever Hans moves the Feudal Lord's servant, he places him on the market.
Special rules for Helga:
- Helga always plays last in the first round.
- Helga wants to be a noble and will not talk to you if she thinks you are unworthy. In practice, you can only use locations where Helga's workers are present if you have no more than 3 victory points less than her. Ignore this requirement at the oven, market, mill and church.
- If Helga visits a location which is also being visited by the Feudal Lord's servant, she immediately gains 2 victory points, in addition to those she receives from selling him bread.
- If she has a worker left once all of the actions on her actions card have been used, she sends that worker to the same location as the Feudal Lord's servant, selling him bread as indicated above.
- Whenever Helga moves the Feudal Lord's servant, she places him on the Katzenstein Castle.
Scenarios
Scenarios are used in games in which the main objective may change and they have special rules which simulate various situations. They are a true challenge to the players and have a higher difficulty level than solo mode.
Scenario 1: "Famine in Ulm"
A huge smile spread across Rudolf's face as he began to cross over the bridge on his donkey. It would still be a few days before the other bakers in Nördlingen would discover that a plague of rats had eaten all the grain reserves in Ulm and that the people there were paying many pfennigs for bread from other towns. He planned on taking full advantage of this privileged information...
The sim-baker in this scenario is Rudolf and his actions deck is formed as follows:
- 1st card in the deck: card 3
- 2nd card in the deck: card 9
- 3rd card in the deck: one random card from among cards 7, 10 and 13
- 4th card in the deck: one random card from among cards 16 and 17
- 5th card in the deck: card 18
Special rules: All bread sold in Ulm immediately gives the seller 2 additional pfennigs and 2 additional victory points.
Changes in the final scoring rules: In the event of a draw after the final tally of victory points, the winner is the last player who sold bread in Ulm – the hungry townsfolk are extremely grateful.
Scenario 2: "Taking the Cloth"
It is rumoured in Nördlingen that they are looking for a new supplier of Sacramental Bread in the Bishopric of Augsburg. A prestigious contract like that would be a great boost for a small business and so many bakers tried to win the favour of the Church. Without making it too obvious though - they wouldn't want to give any ideas to their competitors.
The sim-baker in this scenario is Rudolf and his actions deck is formed as follows:
- 1st card in the deck: card 5
- 2nd card in the deck: card 8
- 3rd card in the deck: card 13
- 4th card in the deck: one random card from among cards 16 and 17
- 5th card in the deck: card 15
Special rules:
- Instead of the usual 5 penitence points, the human player will need 7 penitence points to be able to sell bread in Augsburg.
- Whenever Rudolf sells bread to the Feudal Lord's servant, he places him on the trade house.
Changes in the final scoring rules: The following steps are taken after the final tally:
- Penance tokens take away 4 additional victory points from the scores.
- Divide the victory points by 3, rounding down.
- Each player receives as many victory points as the penitence level shown on their corresponding track.
- The result is the final score in victory points.
The winner is the one with the most points. In the event of a draw, the winner is the last player who sold bread in Augsburg – the Bishop's memory isn't what it used to be.
Scenario 3: "Hail, Lord of the Castle!"
Baron Tannhäuser recently inherited large swathes of land on the outskirts of Nördlingen and has become the new Lord of the Castle. They say he has exquisite taste. Helga found this out through the priest and decides to be one of the first to go and give her respects, alongside one or two other choice guests, of course. Who knows, maybe the Baron has an eligible nephew?
The sim-baker in this scenario is Helga and her actions deck is formed as follows:
- 1st card in the deck: card 34
- 2nd card in the deck: one random card from among cards 35 and 37
- 3rd card in the deck: card 36
- 4th card in the deck: card 38
- 5th card in the deck: one random card from among cards 39 and 40
Special rules:
- Baron Tannhäuser is the Feudal Lord for this game.
- Each time bread is sold to the Baron's servant, the seller gains 1 additional victory point or 2 victory points if the loaf is wheat bread.
- The Baron's servant can only visit the farm, the granary and Katzenstein Castle.
- During the night-time actions phase, the oven cannot be used.
Changes in the final scoring rules: In the event of a draw after the final tally of victory points, the winner is the player who has the highest reputation for making wheat bread – it's the Baron's favourite.
Mixed Mode
If you like to be a bit adventurous with your baking, you can add a sim-baker to your 2 or 3 player games. The rules to follow are the same as in Solo Mode. You can even play the different scenarios in your 2 or more player games, with or without a sim-baker.
If you are really brave, you could use a second (and even a third) sim-baker, bearing in mind the following factors:
- Create a second (and third) actions deck, following the instructions shown in the Setup section.
- In the first round, follow the turn order rules for each sim-baker.
- Follow the limitations for human players that visit locations already being visited by the workers of a sim-baker.
You can play Pandemain with any combination of human players and sim-bakers, but don't add more than one sim-baker in games in which you are using a scenario. Also bear in mind that the difficulty increases considerably if you take on more than one sim-baker at a time.
Lastly, if you really can't sleep at night, it is recommended to try some board game therapy: sit down and enjoy a game between Hans, Rudolf and Helga, without the involvement of any human players.
Appendix
Tracks and Markers
Tracks are the numeric scales printed on the game boards. These tracks indicate the rounds, victory points, reputation, penitence level, and ingredients reserves, as well as the amount of bread produced and its staleness. Markers are the components which show values or positions on the tracks.
Family Cards
Family cards grant one of the following starting bonuses:
- Receive the specified units of water.
- Receive the specified units of salt.
- Receive the specified units of yeast.
- Receive the specified units of milk.
- Receive 1 unit of rye flour from the reserve.
- Receive 1 unit of spelt flour from the reserve.
- Receive 1 unit of oat flour from the reserve.
- Receive 1 unit of wheat flour from the reserve.
- Receive the specified pfennigs.
- Receive 1 cart from the reserve.
- Increase your penitence level by 1.
Master Bakers
Master bakers allow you to make certain types of bread: spelt, oat and wheat, and they also give you certain bonuses. The type of bread and the bonuses they provide are detailed at the bottom of the card.
- Spelt. +1 salt when you use the market. Upgraded: Spelt + oat. +1 salt and +1 yeast when you use the market.
- Spelt. +1 yeast when you use the market. Upgraded: Spelt + oat. +1 salt and +1 yeast when you use the market.
- Spelt. +1 pfennig when you sell spelt bread. Upgraded: Spelt + wheat. +2 pfennig when you sell spelt bread.
- Oat. +1 pfennig when you sell oat bread. Upgraded: Oat + wheat. +2 pfennig when you sell oat bread.
- Oat. +1 victory point when you sell oat bread. Upgraded: Oat + wheat. +1 victory point when you sell oat bread.
- Oat. +1 victory point when you sell oat bread. Upgraded: Oat + spelt. +1 victory point when you sell oat bread.
- Spelt. +1 victory point when you sell spelt bread. Upgraded: Spelt + wheat. +1 victory point when you sell spelt bread.
- Spelt. +1 victory point when you sell spelt bread. Upgraded: Spelt + oat. +1 victory point when you sell spelt bread.
- Oat. Use 1 less milk unit when making wheat bread. Upgraded: Oat + wheat. Use 1 less milk unit when making wheat bread.
- Spelt. +1 water when you use the market. Upgraded: Spelt + oat. +1 water and +1 salt when you use the market.
Offerings
- Pay 3 pfennigs, increase penitence level by 2.
- Pay 1 unit of rye flour, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 1 unit of oat flour, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 1 unit of spelt flour, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 1 unit of wheat flour, increase penitence level by 2.
- Pay 2 units of flour of any type, increase penitence level by 2.
- Discard 1 cow, increase penitence level by 2.
- Discard 1 ox, increase penitence level by 2.
- Discard 1 cart, increase penitence level by 2.
- Pay 1 unit of salt and 1 of yeast, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 2 units of salt, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 2 units of yeast, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 1 unit of flour of any type, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 1 unit of milk, increase penitence level by 1.
- Pay 2 units of milk, increase penitence level by 2.
Feudal Lord Favours
- Receive 2 units of salt and 2 of yeast.
- Move your penitence marker 2 spaces forward.
- Receive 3 victory points.
- Take 2 units of flour of your choice from the reserve.
- Receive 1 cart.
- Receive 1 cow.
- Receive 1 ox.
- Discard 1 penance token.
Church Rewards
- Reactivate any ox, cow and cart tokens used in the round, turning them face up.
- Immediately receive 3 victory points.
- Take 2 units of flour of your choice from the reserve.
- Take 1 unit of flour of your choice from the reserve.
- Receive 2 units of salt, 1 of water and 1 of yeast.
- Receive 1 cart.
- Receive 1 ox.
- Receive 1 cow.
- Receive 1 master baker from the bakers guild.
- Improve 1 master baker you employ.
- Receive the reward of 1 of the face-up Feudal Lord favour token and turn it face down.
- Discard 1 penance token.
Villagers
Villagers improve the actions of your workers when they visit certain locations:
- Receive 1 victory point whenever you visit the church.
- Increase your penitence level by 1 whenever you visit Katzenstein Castle.
- Receive 1 pfennig whenever you visit Katzenstein Castle.
- Receive 1 flour token of your choosing whenever you visit the mill.
- You can make up to 2 trades in the trade house. You cannot do this if you're passing through.
- Receive 1 additional unit of water, salt or yeast whenever you visit the market.
- You can buy cows and oxen using salt, yeast or milk as payment, with each resource unit having a value of 1 pfennig.