Recto Verso
Recto Verso Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Game in 2 Minutes
- The box, which serves as the building board, is placed between the two Partners of the round (see "Who is my partner?" on page 3). The wooden pieces are placed loose next to the box.
- A player who is not involved in the round prepares a stopwatch with their phone (if you prefer, you can also use the Recto Verso app available on the Tiki Editions and Super Meeple websites).
- A player who is not involved in the round draws a card and slides it into the slot provided for this purpose in the box, hiding it with their hands to keep the surprise. This player then removes their hands and reveals the card.
GO! Start the stopwatch!
- The two Partners of the round observe their side of the card. They may communicate with each other as much as they want in order to place and move the wooden pieces on the grid of the building board. However, it is forbidden to turn the box and/or to see what one's partner sees.
Example: "I should have pink at the bottom here, on the first 2 squares on the left!", "there should be yellow here! Yes, but I don't see any!"...
Communicate quickly and efficiently!
- When both Partners, each thinking they have finished, have respectively shouted Recto for the first one then Verso for the second, someone at the table then stops the stopwatch. Stop the stopwatch. If there is a mistake, the Partners score no points. If the 2 facades match exactly the 2 sides of the card, then both partners score points based on the time they took to complete the Building (see the scoring grid on the sides of the box).
Warning: All the wooden pieces must have been used in the construction, which sometimes means hiding some of them inside!
Material
- A. Box and game board.
- B. 100 Victory point tokens (small round tokens of value 1, 2, 5 and 20).
- C. 30 small hexagonal Partner tokens (5 of each color).
- D. 6 large hexagonal Player tokens (front and back identical).
- E. 11 wooden construction pieces.
- F. 32 building cards with a light blue background (easy level).
- G. 32 building cards with a purple background (hard level).
When You Open the Box for the First Time
Before your first game, detach all the tokens from the 4 cardboard sheets. DO NOT THROW AWAY THESE 4 SHEETS! You must leave them at the bottom of the box and place the plastic insert on top of them, then, on top of everything, the game board.
Make sure to line up the slot in the game board with the slot in the plastic insert; this will allow you to insert a "building" card during play.
All the components (tokens, cards, wooden pieces) can be stored in the space provided in the plastic insert (A).
Recto Verso — Detailed Rules
Setup
- Choose the difficulty level:
EASY: You play with the cards with a light blue background. Put the cards with a purple background away in the box. Take out all the wooden pieces except the red piece, which stays in the box (it is not used in easy mode).
HARD: You play with the cards with a purple background. Put the cards with a light blue background away in the box. Take out all the wooden pieces.
- Place the box in the center of the table with the board placed with the "3-6 players" side visible.
- Place the wooden pieces next to the box, except the red one in easy mode, which is not used.
- Place the Victory point tokens on the table.
- Each player chooses a large hexagonal Player token, which will represent their color, and places it in front of them. Each player also takes one small token of the color of each other player (for a game with 4, 5, and 6 players) or two small tokens of the other players' colors (for a game with 3 players). These small tokens are called Partner tokens.
Example: with 4 players, each player must have in front of them 1 large Player token indicating their color + 3 small Partner tokens, one for each of the 3 other players.
Turn your small Partner tokens face down (gray color visible) and shuffle them.
- Prepare a stopwatch. For this, you can use the stopwatch on a smartphone. You can also use the dedicated app, if you wish, available on the Tiki Editions and Super Meeple websites.
Course of the Game
The player who most recently did some construction work becomes the first active player!
Turn of the game: When you are the active player.
Who is my partner? The first thing to do at the start of your turn is to flip over a small Partner token that is still face down. The color that appears tells you who you are going to play with.
IMPORTANT: Mistakes not to make.
- ALL the available pieces must be used (sometimes some will be completely hidden).
- Each player may only look at their own side of the card and of the box.
- The building must fit within the 4x4 zone of the board. But it does not have to cover the whole zone.
- No piece may rest on empty space:
Example of a mistake: There is an empty space under the yellow piece.
During their turn, the 2 Partners may place, move, rearrange, and reorient all the wooden pieces over the whole gridded area (4 squares by 4 squares).
COMMUNICATION: To do this, they may communicate with each other. Nothing is forbidden. They may therefore say the names of colors, locations, columns, floors, directions, etc., or point at locations however they see fit. Be careful, it is forbidden to look at what your Partner sees.
END OF CONSTRUCTION: When both Partners, each thinking they have finished, have respectively shouted Recto for the first one then Verso for the second, someone at the table immediately stops the stopwatch.
Scoring
SCORE:
- If the Partners made a mistake, they score no points.
- If the 2 facades match the 2 faces of the card, then each Partner receives the same number of points. These points correspond to the time it took them to complete the building. Look at the scoring grid on the side of the box to find out the score achieved. They take Victory point tokens to record this score.
End of turn: The player to the left of the active player becomes the new active player. A new turn begins.
End of the Game
The game ends when all the Partner tokens of all the players have been flipped over. Each player will thus have played the same number of turns. Each player then counts their Victory points. Whoever has the most is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the players share the victory.
Cooperative Rules for 2 Players
7 levels to climb, will you reach the top?
When you play Recto-Verso with 2 players, you play cooperatively to try to clear the 7 levels of the game and reach the ultimate title of "Kings of Construction."
Setup
Install the building board on the box, "2 players" side. You will find a 7-level ladder there. Place a token of the color of your choice on level 1 of this ladder. Put the other tokens away in the box, as they will not be used in this game mode.
Choose a difficulty level for the cards: Easy or Hard. Keep or remove the red wooden piece the same way as in the classic game.
Here We Go!
Stage 1: 1 minute and 30 seconds
Set a timer on your smartphone (or use the app) and set it to: 1 minute and 30 seconds. Draw a card at random from the chosen level. Place it in the slot while keeping it hidden between your hands for now.
Your Partner starts the timer. Reveal the card!
If you manage to finish the building according to the usual rules within the time allowed, move your token forward one space and move on to level 2. Well done! If not, start a new attempt...
Stage 2: 1 minute and 15 seconds
Choose a new card. And this time you only have 1 minute and 15 seconds to complete the construction.
If you succeed, move on to level 3.
And so on.
- Stage 3: 1 minute
- Stage 4: 45 seconds
- Stage 5: 30 seconds
- Stage 6: 20 seconds
- Stage 7: 15 seconds
If you succeed at this final stage, congratulations!
Proudly place your token on the "Kings of Construction" space.
Credits
- Authors: Inka and Markus Brand
- Illustrator: Camille Chaussy
- Layout: Stéphanie Lairet
- Art Director: Igor Polouchine
- Packager: ORIGAMES
- Rules: David Duperret and Bernard Philippon
Recto Verso is a co-edition, ©2021 SuperMeeple and Tiki Editions.