Rise of The Gnomes

Rise of The Gnomes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Overview

Rise of the Gnomes is a stand-alone sequel to Dragon Brew with a higher level of player interaction. Rise of the Gnomes is an area control game where regions are controlled by winning the loyalty of beer customers in the fantasy world of Brumanica. To make things even more exciting a dragon, Gloomtail the Eternal, has emerged from the sea looking to eat your customers and burn your breweries to the ground. Players earn points by expanding their customer base, building breweries, brewing beer, recruiting allies and pleasing the judges at Dragonkeep.

Rise of the Gnomes features the Gnome Union, an automated competing player. All players lose the game if the Gnomes have the most victory points at the end of the game. Players must both compete with other players for control of Brumancia and work together to keep the Gnomes in check.

Rise of the Gnomes comes with three rule books:

Cooperative & Solo Rules: Play the game solo or with your friends and work together to defeat the Gnome Union revolution.
Competitive & Cutthroat Rules: Play the game with your friends and compete with each other while defeating the Gnome Union revolution.
Rules Reference: An explanation of all brewery upgrades, allies and judge cards.

The cooperative and competitive rule books contain the entire rules in order to play the game. Rules sections in this book that are identical to the competitive rules are labeled with the competitive icon. You may skip a labeled section if you are already familiar with the rule from the competitive rule book.

Four Ways to Play

This rule book is written for cooperative play with pop-up boxes depicting any changes needed for solo play. The rules for competitive and cutthroat play are in the Competitive and Cutthroat rule book.

Cooperative: Players work together to stop the Gnome uprising. This is a great variant for players who enjoy working together toward a common goal.
Solo: You alone must stop the Gnome uprising. The Solo variant is a great challenge for experienced players.
Competitive: Players compete against each other and the Gnomes.
Cutthroat: Players compete against each other and the Gnomes. The Cutthroat variant gives the players more control of the Gnomes and is great for game groups who enjoy a very high level of player interaction and treachery.

Game Objective

Cooperative: The players win if every player has more victory points than the Gnomes at the end of the game. All players lose if one or more players do not have more points than the Gnomes.
Solo: You win if you have more victory points than the Gnomes at the end of the game.

Game Components

5 Double Sided Player Boards
1 Score Board
1 Action Board
1 Gnome Board
43 Board Tiles
10 Action Cards
38 Allies Cards
54 Brewer Meeples
232 Customer Cubes
50 Gnome Cards
18 Judge Cards
50 Breweries
6 Score Tokens
Upgrade Tokens
Beer Tokens
Gold Tokens
5 Boat Tokens
5 Beer Barrels
Dragon Meeple
Starting Player Card
Difficulty, Turn and Phase Markers

Extra Scenario Components: Rise of the Gnomes contains extra components for upcoming downloadable scenarios and expansions. Use them to create your own custom scenarios as well. These include a Special Gnome Tile, Monster and Objective Tokens, and a 6th Player Scoring Token. The 6th Player Scoring Token is used in the Desert Expansion, which adds a 6th player and desert player races.

Judge Cards are only used in the competitive and cutthroat games.

Game Setup

1. Set Up the Resources, Gnome & Action Board

Place the brewery upgrade, boat, gold, and beer tokens within reach of all players.
Place the action board on the table.
Place the gnome board on the table.
Fill the five Gnome brewery boxes on the Gnome board with white Gnome breweries.
Fill the thirty-two customer boxes on the Gnome board with the white Gnome customer cubes.
Place the score board on the table.
Put the white Gnome score token in the zero space on the score board.

2. Set Up Game Board Tiles

Separate the board tiles in stacks by type.
Refer to the chart below to determine how many tiles of each type are used in the three game board zones (green, yellow and red). Return the unused tiles to the game box.

Tile Types: DragonKeep, Plains, Swamp, Sea Lair, Highland, Sea, Desert, Forest, Special, Gnomeland, Mountain.

Board Tiles

Tile	1-2 Players (Green 7 / Yellow 12 / Red 6)	3 Players (Green 7 / Yellow 12 / Red 12)	4-5 Players (Green 7 / Yellow 12 / Red 18)
DragonKeep	1 (green)	1 (green)	1 (green)
Highland, Forest, Swamp, Mountain, & Plains	5 green (1 each); 10 yellow (2 each)	5 green (1 each); 15 yellow (3 each)	5 green (1 each); 20 yellow (4 each)
Desert	1 green; 3 yellow	1 green; 3 yellow	1 green; 4 yellow
Sea	4 yellow	5 yellow	5 yellow
Sea Lair	1 red	1 red	1 red

The green, yellow and red columns are the three game board zones.

Build Green Tile Zone

Place the DragonKeep tile face up in the center of the table.
Shuffle together a deck of tiles comprised of the following tiles: 1 mountain, 1 swamp, 1 forest, 1 plains, 1 highlands and 1 desert tile. Shuffle the deck of six tiles and deal them face up around the DragonKeep tile.

Build Yellow Tile Zone

Set the Sea Lair tile aside. Build a deck containing the yellow and red board tiles. Consult the table above for the quantity of each tile. Shuffle the deck of tiles face down.
Build the yellow zone by placing one tile face up in each space around the green zone tiles.
The remaining tiles in the deck will be used to build the red tile zone.
The yellow tile deck zone is made up of twenty-three tiles in a three player game: 3 Highland, 3 Forest, 3 Swamp, 3 Mountain, 3 Plains, 3 Desert, and 5 Sea. Shuffle and deal 12 tiles to form the yellow tile zone on the game board.

Build Red Tile Zone

Randomly remove five tiles from the deck used to build the yellow and red zones without looking at them. Return the removed tiles face down into the game box.
Add five face down Gnomeland tiles and one Sea Lair tile. Shuffle the tiles.
Deal the tiles in the Red Zone deck face up as indicated by the diagram and table on page six (based on the number of players).
Add one boat to each sea tile adjacent (touching sides) to a Gnomeland tile. A boat is not added to the Sea Lair tile.

Build Red Tile Zone (Solo): Return the remaining tiles in the yellow and red deck to the game box. Build a new deck comprised of five Gnomeland tiles and one Sea Lair tile. Shuffle the deck. Deal all the tiles in the Red Zone deck face up as indicated by the diagram and table on page six (based on the number of players). Add one boat to each sea tile adjacent (touching sides) to a Gnomeland tile. A boat is not added to the Sea Lair tile.

Source note: the solo pop-up on page seven and the page 31 summary both describe the boat step; it is shown here once, as the page 31 summary states it, for both modes.

Starting Resources (Each Player): Your starting resources are listed in the top-right corner of your player board: 4 starting beer tokens, 4 starting gold, and 4 customer cubes placed in your starting tile.

3. Set Up Player Boards (Each Player)

Select a player board and choose which side of the board to play. Only one player board of each color can be used during the game.
Take the customer cubes and breweries matching your player board color from the box. Fill the nine brewery boxes on the player board with your wooden breweries.
Add a brewery upgrade token to the five upgrade spaces to the left of the brewery boxes on your player board.
Place a beer barrel on the lowest beer production on your player board.
Use your customer cubes to fill the 40 customer boxes on your player board.
Place your colored scoring token on the zero space on the score board (barrel side face up).
Collect your starting beer tokens, listed in the upper right hand corner of your player board.
Collect your starting gold, listed in the upper right hand corner of your player board.

4. Starting Player Tokens, Cubes and Breweries (Each Player)

Your starting game board tile type is denoted in the upper right hand corner of your player board. Take your #1 brewery from your player board and place it on your starting tile type adjacent to the DragonKeep tile. Then, increase your beer production by one point on your player board.
Move the upgrade token located next to your #1 brewery slot to one of the Brewery Upgrade slots of your choice on your player board. Each brewery upgrade is explained in the Rules Reference Book on page six.
Take your starting number of customer cubes from the left most customer cube squares on your player board and place them into your starting tile.

Brewery and Cube Placement Example: The red player starts with four customer cubes and one brewery in the Green Zone swamp tile. She places her first brewery and four customer cubes into the swamp tile adjacent to DragonKeep. She increases her beer production from three to four. She then moves her first upgrade token to the Beer production upgrade and increases her beer production by another one to a total of five. The victory points and gold coins under each brewery and customer cube boxes are not collected immediately, but later during phase five of the game.

5. Starting Gnome Gold, Cubes and Brewery

Give the Gnomes two gold tokens and place them on the Gnome gold bag on the Gnome board. This gold is used during the game to bribe the dragon.
Take the first Gnome brewery from the Gnome board and place it onto the DragonKeep tile. The victory points and gold coins under each brewery and customer cube box are not collected immediately, but later during phase five of the game.
Move the eight left-most Gnome customer cubes from the Gnome board to the center DragonKeep tile on the game board.
Place one Gnome customer cube from the Gnome board (left to right) into each unoccupied land tile touching the DragonKeep tile. No Gnome cube is placed in the desert tile.

6. Starting Brewer Meeples

Refer to the Brewer Meeples per Player table below. Collect the number of brewer meeples based on the number of players.
Place the brewers above your player board.
Place one additional Brewer Meeple in the square between the third and fourth turn on the score board.
Return any unused brewers to the game box.

Cooperative Brewer Meeples per Player

2 players: 7 brewers each
3 players: 6 brewers each
4 players: 5 brewers each
5 players: 4 brewers each
+1 added to the square between the third and fourth turn on the score board.

Solo Player Brewer Meeples: Place eight of your brewers above your player board and one additional Brewer Meeple in the square between the third and fourth turn on the score board (nine total).

Gnome Meeples

The Gnomes use white brewer meeples in cooperative and solo games. Give the Gnomes the same number of brewers as given to each player.
Place the white Gnome brewers in the Gnome brewer box on the action board.
Place one Gnome Brewer Meeple in the square between the third and fourth turn on the score board.
Return any unused brewers to the game box.

Gnome Brewer Example: For example, give each player and the Gnomes seven brewer meeples in a cooperative two player game. Then add one meeple for each player and the Gnomes to the box between turns three and four on the score board.

7. Set Gnome Difficulty Level

There are seven Gnome difficulty levels on the Gnome board. Each level depicts the victory point adjustment for the Gnomes each turn.
Place the white difficulty token on the gold difficulty level circle next to the difficulty level you wish to play.

The difficulty levels, from easiest to hardest, are: Easy (-2), Beginner (-1), Normal (0), Challenging (+1), Hard (+2), Difficult (+3), and Impossible (+4). The number is the victory points the Gnomes subtract (negative) or add (positive) each turn.

The Gnomes are a little less powerful with higher player counts. Consider upping a difficulty level based on the number of players. Here are some suggested levels to start with:

2 players: Beginner
3 players: Normal
4 players: Challenging
5 players: Challenging

Adjusting the Game Difficulty: Make the game easier by moving the difficulty token up the difficulty table on the Gnome board, decreasing the victory points the Gnomes earn each turn. Make the game harder by moving the difficulty token down the difficulty table, increasing the victory points the Gnomes earn each turn.

Difficulty Change Example: A player wishes to introduce Rise of the Gnomes to a new group of players so she decides to make the game easier to win. She reduces the Gnome difficulty level to "Easy". The Gnomes will subtract two points each turn.

8. Set Up Dragon and Turn/Phase Markers

Add the phase marker to the first space of the phase track on the score board.
Add the turn marker to the first space of the turn track on the score board.
Place the dragon meeple in the sea lair space on the score board.

9. Set Up Action Card Deck

Shuffle the action card deck and deal eight cards face up into two rows of five next to the action board.
Place the two unused action cards face down next to the game tiles.

Action Card Setup Example (in the original).

10. Set Up Allies Card Deck

Shuffle the allies card deck and place it face down next to the game tiles.

11. Set Up the Gnome Card Deck

Shuffle the Gnome card deck and place it face down next to the Gnome board.

12. Select First Player

The first player is the person who does the best imitation of a Gnome (or choose another method if you prefer).
Give the first player the starting player card.

What About the Judge Cards? The Judge Cards are only used in competitive and cutthroat games. Return the Judge Cards to the game box.

You're set up and ready to play. Pour yourself a nice drink.

The Game Turn

Rise of the Gnomes is played over five turns. Turns are tracked along the turn track on the Scoring board.

A game turn is broken into six steps called phases. Each phase is played clockwise around the table, starting with the player with the "starting player" card. Phases are tracked in the phase track barrels on the game score board. The track disk is moved to the right.

Once all six phases are complete, the turn track is moved up one number along the track and the phase disk is moved back to the first spot on the phase track. The first player card is passed one player to the left (clockwise).

This process repeats until five turns have been completed.

Turn Four Tile Flip: When the turn counter is moved from the third turn to the fourth turn space, all face down tiles on the game board are flipped face up. Immediately place the dragon meeple into the Sea Lair tile when the Sea Lair tile is flipped face up.

Turn Four Extra Brewer Meeple: When the turn counter is moved from the third turn to the fourth turn space, give each player and the Gnomes one additional brewer meeple.

Scoring Victory Points

Victory points are recorded with scoring tokens on the scoring track on the Score Board. Flip your score token to the "50" side and move it to the zero space on the track when you score more than 49 points.

The Game Phases

The six phases of each turn are:

Allies Card Drafting
Assign Brewer Meeples
Play Action Cards
Play Gnome Cards
Score Points & Collect Gold
Reset Game

1. Allies Card Drafting

Allies cards grant you special abilities, upgrades, private actions or immediate rewards.

Draw allies cards equal to the number of players plus one and lay them out face-up on the table. In turn order, players select one allies card. Immediately collect any victory points or rewards listed on the selected allies card. The rewards (points, resources, etc.) are collected only once when the card is drafted.

Place your selected allies card face-up next to your player board. Your drafted allies cards remain face up next to your player board for the rest of the game.

After all players have selected their allies cards, there will be one card remaining. If there are any victory points on the remaining allies card, they are given to the Gnomes. Discard the extra allies card into the box.

Each allies card is explained in detail in the Rules Reference book on page 12.

Allies Cards: Each allies card has a Victory Points value and an Ability or Reward. Card types are:

Upgrade: Boost the ability on an action card.
Action: Brewer placement space on the card.
Ability: Adds a special rule that applies only to you.
Reward: Collect a one-time reward when drafted.

2. Assign Brewer Meeples

Starting with the Gnomes and continuing in player turn order, players and the Gnomes take turns claiming one brewer space by placing one of their brewer meeples in it. The Gnomes always go first each turn when claiming brewery spaces.

The players and the Gnomes must place a brewer meeple on their turn. They may not pass.

The phase ends after all brewer meeples have been placed in brewer spaces.

There are two types of brewer spaces: immediate and action card spaces.

Immediate Brewer Spaces: Immediate brewer spaces are located on the action board, allies cards and your player board. When an immediate brewer space is claimed, the action is performed immediately. These spaces are labeled with a red exclamation mark.

Circle shaped immediate spaces may only be claimed by a single player. These are called "Single Brewer" immediate action spaces. Once a single brewer space is claimed, it is blocked for the rest of the turn.
Oval shaped spaces are called "Multiple Brewer" action spaces and may be claimed by any number of brewers.

Action Board Spaces: Action board spaces are located on the action board. All players may claim these action spaces.

Brewery Upgrade: Pay three gold to take an upgrade token from the supply and add it to one of your vacant Brewery upgrade spaces. The upgrade tokens next to your breweries on your player board are not used until the brewery next to it is added to the game board.
Build Brewery: Pay three gold to add a brewery to a tile you control. You are not allowed to build breweries in Sea, Sea Lair, Desert or Gnomeland tiles unless a race or allies ability allows it. Only one brewery may be built in a tile unless an ability allows an extra (max 2). When building a brewery, all existing breweries are removed. If all of your breweries are already out on the game board during a build brewery action, you may choose to move one of your existing breweries instead of adding one from your player board.
Dragon Tribute: Pay three gold and move the dragon up to two tiles. The Dragon Tribute may not be used if the dragon meeple is not on the game board yet (still on the score board). See Dragon Movement on page eight.
Employ Thugs: Pay two gold. Remove up to three Gnome cubes from a tile and add up to two cubes of your own from your player board. This action space must be used in a tile containing one or more Gnome customer cubes.
Hire Bard: Pay one gold token to immediately add one of your customer cubes into a tile adjacent to a tile you occupy. You may use a boat with the hire bard action.
Orctoberfest: Earn one victory point for every three gold discarded (round down). For example, you collect three points for discarding nine gold.
Tavern Sales: Discard three beer barrels and collect three gold.

Immediate Brewer Space Example: The purple player places her brewer on the Orctoberfest immediate brewer space on the action board. She immediately discards four gold and earns one victory point. Since all three of the immediate action spaces are now full, the Orctoberfest action can't be taken for the rest of the game phase.

Allies Card Action Spaces: Some allies cards contain an action space. The action spaces on your allies may only be used by your meeples. Allies cards and their specific abilities are located in the Rules Reference book on page 3.

Player Board Action Spaces: The action spaces on your player board may only be used by your meeples. The action spaces next to brewery upgrades may not be used until the upgrade is unlocked.

Brew Beer: Place a brewer meeple on the brew beer action space on your player board during the Assign Brewer Meeples phase to immediately collect beer tokens equal to your beer production. You may not use another player's Brew Beer action space. Because it is a multiple brewer space, the Brew Beer action may be claimed by additional brewers throughout the turn.
Maximum Beer Inventory: You may never have more than 20 beer tokens in your inventory. Any excess inventory above 20 during production is returned to the supply.

Player Board Example: The green player places his brewer on the Brew Beer immediate brewer space on his player board. He immediately collects beer tokens equal to his beer production.

Action Card Brewer Spaces: Action card brewer spaces are located on the action cards. All action card brewer spaces are round so they can be claimed by only one brewer meeple in a turn. Inside of each brewer space are beer barrel icons. This cost is paid when the action is performed, not when the brewer is placed. The actions are performed in the Play Action Cards phase after all brewer meeples have been placed.

Solo: The action card brewery spaces with two barrels are not used in solo games. Only the one and three barrel spaces are used. These spaces are labeled to remind the players they can't be used.

Action Card Brewer Spaces (Action Card Brewery Spaces): The following action card actions are available to brewers on the action cards:

Barrel Delivery: Add three cubes into a tile adjacent to a tile you occupy. You are permitted to add cubes onto a tile you already occupy if it is adjacent to an occupied tile. You may use adjacent boats for Barrel Delivery. You may move your customer cubes from other tiles if all of your cubes are already on the game board.
Beer Competition: Remove up to two customer cubes in a tile you occupy (you select) then add up to two customer cubes from your player board to the tile. There must be at least one opponent's cube in the tile where you perform this action. You may move your customer cubes from other tiles if all of your cubes are already on the game board.
Brew Festival: Take three customer cubes from your player board and add them to a single tile you occupy. You may move your customer cubes from other tiles if all of your cubes are already on the game board.
Caravan: Move up to five customer cubes from a single tile into adjacent tiles. More than one cube may be moved into adjacent tiles. You may use adjacent boats to caravan.
Expand: Add a brewery to a tile you control. You are not allowed to build breweries in Sea, Sea Lair, Desert or Gnomeland tiles. Only one brewery may be built in a tile. When building a brewery, all existing breweries are removed. Some brewery upgrades and allies cards allow you to build more than one brewery in a tile or build breweries in sea or desert tiles. These upgrades supersede the standard brewery building rules. If all of your breweries are already out on the game board during an expand action you may choose to move one of your existing breweries on another tile instead of adding one from your player board.
Gnome Brewery Conversion Bonus: Immediately collect two points every time you replace a Gnome brewery with one of yours.

Adjusting Brewery Production: Adding breweries to the game board may reveal the beer production icon in the brewery box. Immediately increase your beer production by one when this occurs. Reduce your beer production by one point when you return a brewery to a player board brewery box and cover a beer production icon.

Adjusting Brewery Production From Allies: Some allies cards provide a one time reward to increase your beer production by one. Increase your beer production after drafting the card.

Unlocking Brewery Upgrades: Brewery upgrade tokens on your player board are initially placed in the upgrade token slots to the left of your breweries. When the brewery to the right of an upgrade token is placed on the game board, the adjacent upgrade token is immediately moved to an open brewery upgrade slot of your choice. Each brewery upgrade may be selected only once. Once an upgrade token is placed on a brewery upgrade slot, it remains there until the end of the game. Upgrade tokens are not returned when a brewery is removed from the game board and returned to your player board.

Brewery Upgrade Actions: The Brewery Upgrade action and some allies cards enable you to place additional brewery upgrade tokens on your player board. These brewery upgrade tokens are taken from the game supply and not from the spaces to the left of your unplaced breweries. Like the brewery placed upgrade tokens, these upgrade tokens are not returned when a brewery is removed from the game board and returned to your player board.

Adding and Removing Customer Cubes and Breweries: Customer cubes are always removed from left to right in your customer boxes. Customer cubes are always returned from right to left. Gnome customer cubes are removed and returned in the same manner. Player breweries are always removed from the player board from top to bottom. Player breweries are always returned to the player board from bottom to top. Gnome breweries are removed from the Gnome board from left to right. Gnome breweries are returned from right to left to the Gnome board.

Brewery Production Adjustment Example: The blue player adds her #5 brewery to a tile and reveals a beer production symbol. Her beer production is increased from seven to eight.

Unlocking Brewery Upgrade Example: The blue player adds a new brewery to the game board, unlocking an upgrade token. The blue player moves the unlocked upgrade token to the Hops Glen brewery upgrade on her player board.

Gnome Brewer Placement: During the Gnomes' turn, draw a Gnome card and refer to the icon on the lower right hand corner on the card. Place a white Gnome brewer meeple from the Gnome brewer box onto the action board or action card brewer space that matches the icon. Place the Gnome card into the Gnome discard pile after placing the Gnome brewer.

Action Card Brewer Space: Place the Gnome brewer in the matching action card brewery space with the lowest barrel cost. If there are two matching action card brewery spaces with the lowest barrel cost, select the action card which comes first in card order (left to right and top to bottom). If there are no empty spaces matching the Gnome card, the Gnome brewer is placed in the cheapest available brewer space. In the event of a tie, select the action card which comes first in card order (left to right and top to bottom). If there are no action card brewery spaces left, the Gnome brewer assignment is skipped.
Action Board Brewer Space: Place the Gnome brewer in the matching action board brewery space. If there are no empty spaces matching the Gnome card, the Gnome brewer is placed in the cheapest and first available brewer space (left to right and top to bottom) on an action card. If there are no action card brewery spaces left, the Gnome brewer assignment is skipped.

Gnome Placement Spaces: The original shows the Gnome placement spaces on the action board and on the action cards (layout diagram).

Five Player Coop Gnome Action Space Claiming Example: It's the Gnomes' turn to place a brewer. A Gnome card is drawn with the brew festival symbol in the lower right hand corner of the card. There are two brew festival cards with open spaces containing three barrels, so the Gnome meeple is added to the first brew festival card in the action space offering.

Tile Adjacency, Occupation & Control

Some actions require you to be adjacent, occupy or control a tile in order to perform an action. Each of these requirements has a specific definition.

Occupying a Tile: A tile is considered "occupied" if it contains at least one of your customer cubes or a brewery.

Control a Tile: A player (or Gnomes) "controls" a tile when he or she has the highest market strength in the tile they occupy. Each customer cube is worth one point of market strength and each brewery is worth two.

Market Strength: Market Strength represents the number of beer customers you have in a tile. Your market strength in a tile is the total of the following:

Customer Cube (1): One point of market strength for each of your customer cubes in a tile.
Brewery (2): Two points of market strength for each brewery in a tile.

Tile Control Ties: No one controls a tile if there is a tie for the highest market strength.

Tile Adjacency: Two tiles (land and sea) are considered adjacent if the tiles share a common side.

Dragon Sea Tile Adjacency: All sea tiles (and sea lair) are considered adjacent to all other sea tiles during dragon movement, even if they are not sharing a side.

Boats and Adjacency: Sea tiles that share a common side form a single body of water made up of one or more sea tiles. Any land tile sharing a side with a sea tile containing a boat is considered adjacent to all land tiles adjacent to the entire body of water and all sea tiles in the body of water. Boats in a body of water which do not share a side with the tile you occupy can't be used.

Boat Example 1: The red player is adjacent to a sea tile containing a boat. The red player is adjacent to all land tiles adjacent to the body of water.

Boat Example 2: The blue player is adjacent to a body of water but not adjacent to a sea tile containing a boat, therefore the blue player is not adjacent to all the land tiles adjacent to the body of water.

Gnomes and Boats: Gnomes may use boats to perform all Gnome actions except for the Caravan action.

Dragons and Boats: The Dragon may not use boats. A boat is removed and returned to the game supply when the dragon ends her movement in a sea tile containing a boat.

Dragon Boat Example: The Dragon moves two tiles into a sea space containing a boat. The boat is removed from the sea tile.

Building Boats: Brewery upgrades and allies cards enable players to build a boat by placing a boat token in an adjacent sea tile. Only one boat may occupy a sea tile.

3. Play Action Cards

The action cards are resolved from left to right, from top to bottom. The action card brewer spaces on each card are resolved one at a time from top to bottom.

Pay the number of beer tokens in the brewer action space to perform the action. The action is not performed if you choose not to pay or cannot pay the listed beer tokens in the brewer action circle.

Remove your brewer meeple from the brewer action space after performing, or choosing not to perform, the action.

Action Card Brewery Space Play Order: The original shows the play order for action card brewery spaces (layout diagram).

Substitute Gold for Beer: Gold tokens can be used in lieu of beer tokens at any point during the game. Beer tokens may not be used in lieu of gold.

Gold for Beer Tokens Example: The purple player pays one beer and one gold token. She performs the brew festival action.

No Player Customer Cubes on the Game Board Tiles: If you have no customer cubes on the game board at any time during the Action Card phase, you immediately take four customer cubes from your player board and add them to any land tile on the game board. You may not place them in a tile occupied by the Dragon. This rule does not apply to the Gnomes.

Example: The Green player's last customer cube is removed by another player's Beer Competition action. The Green player immediately takes four green cubes off her player board and places them into a plains tile.

Player Board Empty: If all of your customer cubes are out on game tiles (player board empty), you may remove your customer cubes from one tile and add them to the destination tile while performing a Beer Competition, Brew Festival or Barrel Delivery action.

4. Play Gnome Cards

Draw a Gnome card from the deck, play it and then discard it. Repeat this process until you have played seven Gnome cards. The number of Gnome cards played is increased to nine during the fourth and fifth game turns. An icon on the turn track helps to remind you of this rule.

For example, nine Gnome cards are played during turn five.

Gnome Cards Played Each Turn (Cooperative & Solo): seven Gnome cards in turns one through three; nine Gnome cards in turns four and five.

Solo Gnome Cards Per Turn: Decrease the number of cards drawn while playing solo mode on the three lowest levels of difficulty. Two additional cards are still drawn during the fourth and fifth game turns.

Easy (-2): 5 cards
Beginner (-1): 5 cards
Normal (0): 6 cards

Play Gnome Card Steps: Playing a Gnome card is broken into two steps:

Dragon Movement and Rampage
Gnome Action

1. Dragon Movement and Rampage

Move or fly the dragon meeple into the matching tile type on the top of the Gnome card then rampage in the new tile.

Dragon Fly and Dragon Move:

Fly (Green Curved Arrow): Pick up the dragon meeple and place it into the tile type indicated. Do not count tiles or adjacency.
Move (Blue Arrow): Move the dragon one space into an adjacent tile. Adjacent tiles share a common side. All sea tiles (and sea lair) are considered adjacent to all other sea tiles, even if they do not share a common side. Dragons may freely move from sea tile to sea tile (and sea lair).

More than One Tile to Move Into: If there is more than one eligible tile of the indicated tile type, refer to the icon order on the bottom of the Gnome card. Move the dragon into the tile whose icon first appears in the icon order (left to right).

The dragon meeple must move if possible. If there are no eligible adjacent tiles, the dragon does not move or rampage.

Because the dragon rampages every time it moves and playing each Gnome card can move the dragon, the dragon may move and rampage multiple times during the Play Gnome Card phase.

Dragon Movement (rules):

The dragon meeple must be on the game board in order to move. The dragon is not moved if it is not on the game board yet (still on the score board).
Dragons move between adjacent tiles of any type. The dragon is free to move in both sea and land tile spaces. The Dragon may not use boats.
Dragons may move from any sea tile to any sea tile (or sea lair) for one space of movement. All sea tiles (and sea lair) are considered adjacent to all other sea tiles, even if they are not touching.
Unless unable to move, the dragon may not end its movement in the same tile it started from. If the dragon is eligible to move, the dragon must move. It may move along any path, and even back-track while moving. If possible, the dragon must end its movement on a different tile than it started from.
Dragons destroy boats. When the dragon ends on a tile with a boat, the boat is removed from the tile.
The Dragon rampages in the tile it ends its movement. The dragon does not rampage if it ends its movement in the same tile it started from or does not move. See Dragon Rampage below.

Dragon Movement Example: A player performs an action that allows him to move the Dragon up to two times. For the first move, the dragon is moved from one sea tile to another. The dragon moves from a sea tile to an adjacent Forest tile for the second move. The move is complete and the Dragon rampages in the forest tile.

Dragon Move Example: The Gnome card shows the dragon moves into an adjacent plains tile. The dragon meeple is adjacent to two plains tiles. The icon order on the bottom of the Gnome card is consulted, and the dragon is moved into the plains tile whose icon appears first in that order.

Dragon Fly Example: The Gnome card shows the dragon flies into the DragonKeep tile. The dragon meeple is picked up and placed in the DragonKeep tile, where it rampages.

Don't Forget to Rampage: The dragon rampages every time it moves and ends its move in a new tile it started from.

Player Abilities That Move the Dragon: Gnome card dragon movement, allies cards that move the dragon, and Dragon Tribute.

Dragon Rampage: The dragon eats customer cubes and burns a brewery in the tile it ends its movement. The dragon does not rampage in tiles it moves through, only the tile it stops in. The dragon rampages every time it moves and ends its movement in a different tile than it started from. The dragon will not rampage if it does not move.

The steps to play the dragon rampage are:

Collect Bribes
Apply Dragon Damage

1. Collect Bribes: Each player occupying the dragon's tile has the option to pay gold to bribe the dragon to avoid all rampage damage. The amount of gold each player must pay is listed in the white box below each space in the turn track (for example, three gold on turn three and four gold on turn four).

Dragon Bribe Example: The dragon is rampaging a tile on turn three. Each player in the tile may pay three gold to avoid the dragon damage.

Gnome Dragon Bribe: If possible, the Gnomes will always use the gold in their supply to bribe the dragon. If the Gnomes do not have enough gold to bribe the dragon, then they will suffer the consequences of the dragon attack.

2. Apply Dragon Damage: The dragon first destroys one brewery in the tile and then eats customer cubes in the tile.

Destroy Brewery: The dragon removes one brewery in the tile. The destroyed brewery is returned to the player board (or scoring board for Gnome breweries). Only one brewery is destroyed if the tile contains more than one brewery. All breweries in the tile are spared and stay in the tile if the player (or Gnome) who owns the brewery (or breweries) paid the Dragon bribe. The bribe is only paid once if there are multiple breweries.

Eat Customer Cubes: The Dragon will eat the number of customer cubes listed below the dragon icon in the turn track. This value is called the "Dragon's Fill" (five customer cubes on turn four, per the example below).

Each player (and Gnome) in the tile removes one customer cube. Compare the total number of cubes to the dragon's fill value. If the number of cubes is less than the dragon's fill, then each player (and Gnome) in the tile removes another customer cube. Repeat this process until the total number of cubes removed is equal to or greater than the dragon's fill requirement or there are no eligible cubes to remove from the tile.

Players (or Gnomes) who paid the bribe do not remove their customer cubes from the tile.

Dragon's Fill Example: During turn four, the dragon moves into a plains tile containing three red, two blue and four white Gnome cubes. The blue player pays the four gold bribe to protect her cubes from the dragon. The dragon's fill is five customer cubes but the Dragon will not eat the blue player's customer cubes. The red and white player begin by removing one cube each from the tile for a total of two cubes. The Dragon's fill requirement is not met (five cubes), so more cubes are eaten. The red and white players each remove another cube for a total of four cubes. The Dragon's fill requirement is not met so more cubes are eaten. The red and white players each remove another cube for a total of six cubes. The Dragon's fill requirement is now met and the rampage ends. The red customer cubes are returned to the red player's board and the white Gnome cubes are returned to the Gnome Board. The Gnomes and the blue player each have customer cubes occupying the plains tile containing the dragon with the blue player controlling the tile.

Dragon Blocking: The dragon meeple blocks actions from being performed in a tile it occupies. You (or the Gnomes) may not perform any actions that occur into, out of, or through a dragon occupied tile.

Dragon Blocking Example: The blue player wants to perform a Beer Competition action in a plains tile. Unfortunately, the tile is occupied by the dragon so the blue player is prohibited from performing the beer competition action.

2. Gnome Action

Each Gnome card has a primary, secondary, and tertiary action. You must attempt to perform the primary action. If the primary action is not possible, then you must perform the secondary action. If the secondary action is not possible, then perform the tertiary action.

Discard the Gnome card after performing an action.

Perform Gnome Action: A Gnome action is comprised of a symbol, depicting what action the Gnomes will take, along with a list of tile types in order of priority.

Perform the action in the first valid tile type (left to right) of the tile priority list. If the action can't be performed in the first tile type, then try the next tile. Repeat until a valid tile is found and perform the Gnome action in that tile.

If there is more than one identical eligible tile, refer to the icon order on the bottom of the Gnome card. Perform the action in the tile whose icon first appears in the icon order (left to right).

If either of the following conditions are met, proceed to the next action on the Gnome card (secondary then tertiary):

None of the listed tiles are eligible
The Gnomes have no customer cubes or breweries on their board to perform the action.

Gnome Action Example: The primary action icon on the Gnome card is Barrel Delivery. Three Gnome cubes are added into a tile adjacent to a Gnome occupied tile. There are no Plains tiles adjacent to a Gnome occupied tile (1st priority) but there are two adjacent Highland tiles (2nd priority). The icon order on the bottom of the Gnome card is consulted to resolve the identical tiles. The three Gnome cubes are added to the Highland tile whose icon appears first in the icon order.

Performing a Partial Gnome Action: The Gnome action is still performed if there are enough Gnome cubes to partially perform the Gnome action. For example, the Brew Festival Gnome action adds three Gnome cubes into a tile occupied by the Gnomes. If there are only two cubes left on the Gnome board, the Brew Festival action is performed by adding the remaining two cubes.

Gnome Action Descriptions:

Beer Competition: Remove up to two customer cubes in the specified tile the Gnomes occupy. Then the Gnomes add two customer cubes from the Gnome board. This action must be performed in a tile containing one or more player customer cubes.
Immigration: Add three Gnome cubes from the Gnome board onto the specified tile.
Expand: Add a Gnome brewery onto a tile controlled by the Gnomes that does not already contain a Gnome Brewery. After adding a Gnome brewery, all existing player breweries in the tile are removed and returned to their owners.

Expand Example: The primary action on the Gnome card is Expand. Referring to the tile order below the Expand action icon, there is already a Gnome Brewery in DragonKeep. The next tile in the priority list is plains. There are two plains tiles the Gnome can build a brewery in. The icon order appears before the other icon so the blue brewery is removed from the first plains tile and a Gnome brewery added.

Barrel Delivery: Add three Gnome cubes from the Gnome board into the specified tile adjacent to another tile the Gnomes occupy.
Brew Festival: Add three Gnome cubes from the Gnome board into the specified tile occupied by the Gnomes.
Victory Point: The Gnomes score two victory points. The victory point action does not have a list of eligible tiles. The Gnomes simply score two victory points.
Caravan: Move one Gnome cube from one tile (first valid tile type of the tile priority list) onto each touching land tile. Boats may not be used. The Gnomes will not move into water, desert, Gnomeland or dragon lair tiles. After moving one cube into the DragonKeep tile (if applicable), use the icon order to determine which tiles to move the cubes into if there are less than six customer cubes. If there are not enough Gnome cubes to move into the tiles with the specified icon, then the starting player chooses the tiles matching the icon to move the Gnome cube into. Any Gnome cubes left over after moving one Gnome cube into each touching land tile remain in the tile.

Caravan Example: The Gnomes perform a Caravan action from the DragonKeep tile. There are four Gnome cubes in the tile and five adjacent tiles (not counting the desert tile). The icons on the bottom of the Gnome card are referenced. The first three cubes are moved into the three adjacent lion tiles. The last Gnome cube is moved into the forest tile with the scale icon.

Resolving Gnome Action Ties: The player holding the starting player card breaks any icon ties on the Gnome Cards.

5. Score Points & Collect Gold

The players score victory points and collect gold. Then, the Gnomes score victory points and collect gold. Points and gold are earned from beer production, breweries built, customer cubes placed, and controlling DragonKeep.

Player Scoring:

Beer Production
Breweries
Customer Cubes
DragonKeep

Score Player Beer Production: Score the depicted points and/or gold for every completed empty row in the beer production table on your player board.

Beer Production Scoring Example: The blue player has a beer production of fourteen. Two rows have been completed so two victory points are earned by the blue player on the scoring track.

Score Player Breweries: Points and gold are revealed in the Breweries box on your player board as you add breweries to the game board. Earn the victory points and gold revealed in the empty Breweries box.

Player Brewery Scoring Example: The blue player has four breweries on the game board, revealing two victory points and two gold. Two gold are collected and two victory points are earned by the blue player on the scoring track.

Player Customer Cube Scoring: Customer cubes are placed into cube boxes in groups of four on your player board. This group of four cube boxes is called a "customer box". Collect the victory points and gold below each empty customer box on the player board. Customer boxes that are partially filled are not scored.

Customer Cube Scoring Example: The blue player has twenty-three customer cubes on the board. The blue player scores three victory points and collects two gold. The third gold box is not scored because there is one customer cube remaining in the box.

Player DragonKeep Scoring: Earn two victory points for having a brewery built in DragonKeep.

Gnome Scoring:

Breweries
Customer Cubes
DragonKeep
Difficulty Level

Score Gnome Breweries: Points and gold are revealed in the Breweries box on the Scoring board as the Gnomes add breweries to the game board. The Gnomes earn the points and gold revealed in the empty Breweries box.

Gnome Customer Cube Scoring: Gnome customer cubes are placed into boxes in groups of eight cubes on the Scoring board. This is called a "customer box". Collect the victory points and gold below each empty customer box on the Scoring board. Boxes which are partially filled are not scored.

Gnome Brewery and Customer Scoring Example: The Gnomes earn four victory points (two from breweries and one from customer cubes). The Gnomes collect two gold (customer cubes).

Gnome DragonKeep Scoring: The Gnomes earn two points for having a brewery built in DragonKeep.

Gnome Difficulty Level Scoring: The Gnomes' victory points are decreased or increased by the amount indicated on the difficulty table on the Gnome board. The Gnomes' victory points can't be reduced below zero on the Scoring Track.

Gnome Difficulty Scoring Example: The difficulty level is set to "difficult". The Gnomes' victory points are increased by three points each turn.

6. Reset Game

If this was the last turn (turn five), proceed immediately to end game scoring. Do not perform the remaining Reset Game actions below.

Perform the following if it was not the last turn:

Pass the starting player card one player to the left (clockwise).
Return all brewer meeples to the players.
Return all Gnome brewer meeples to the Gnome box on the action board.
Return the phase counter to the left most barrel.
Advance the turn counter one space to the right.
Pick up and shuffle the action cards with the two unused cards (total of ten cards). Flip eight new action cards face up in two rows of four to the right of the action board. The two extra cards are not used this turn and kept face down to the right of the eight face-up action cards.

Turn Four Reset: When the turn counter is moved from the third turn to the fourth turn space, do the following: all face down tiles on the game board are flipped face up, and give each player and the Gnomes one additional brewer meeple.

End Game Scoring

The players win the game if all of the players have more victory points than the Gnomes at the end of five turns. If one or more players have victory points equal to or less than the Gnomes, all players lose the game.

Solo: You win if you have more victory points than the Gnomes at the end of the game. Gnomes win on a tie.

That's it! Now you know the basics of Rise of the Gnomes. Read the Rules Reference Book to learn more details about the rules or for reference while playing.

Solo and Co-op Game Advice

Allies Card Drafting

Work together as a team to decide which Allies card is best for each player.
Avoid giving the Gnomes the two-point Allies cards.

Assign Brewer Meeples

The Gnomes are slightly more likely to claim the Expand Action card spaces. Claim them first if you want to ensure you build your breweries.

Dragon Tribute

Use the Dragon Tribute action space to move the dragon meeple to Gnome controlled tiles. Even if you are unable to destroy a Gnome Brewery, it will force the Gnomes to bribe the dragon and keep their gold supply low.

Employ Thugs

Employing Thugs are a great way to get a foothold in a Gnome controlled tile by removing three Gnome customer cubes and adding two of yours. However, keep in mind the action costs two gold and can leave your gold supply depleted to bribe the dragon or perform other immediate actions.

Keeping the Gnomes in Check

Focus on eliminating the Gnome breweries as they are worth three points each every turn.
Don't forget to remove or convert Gnome customers. If the Gnomes get all of their customer cubes out on the game board, they can't perform their primary or secondary actions and will execute their tertiary action which gives them two points.

Help the Weakest Player

Don't forget that the Gnomes win a cooperative game unless all players have a higher score than the Gnomes. Work together to help the player with the lowest score while playing a cooperative game.

Sell Beer and Buy Points

Producing and selling beer using the Orctoberfest Action Space is a great way to earn extra points when the game board is full. Using this strategy too much can leave your gold supply depleted to bribe the dragon or perform other immediate actions.

Solo games are a great way to learn the rules and develop strategies against the Gnomes and the dragon.