Salamandra Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the game
• Game Components
• Game setup
• Secondary divinities board and reminder
• Key concept
  • Active and inactive apprentice
• How to play?
  • A. Place an apprentice
  • B. Build a tile
  • C. Activate a Cauldron tile
  • D. Activate the temple
  • E. Pass and harvest one or several Groves
• A new round begins
• Use of Scroll tokens
• End of the game
• Solo Mode
  • Goal of the solo game
  • Additional game components
  • Setup
  • How to play?
  • 1. Give the VP to Rudolph and placement of his apprentices
  • 2. Player turns
  • 3. End of the round
  • Preparation for the next round
  • End of the game

Goal of the game

You have 2 days and 2 nights to strategically place your apprentices, to activate them smartly in order to win Veneration Points (VP in this rulebook) and became the Great Druid!

Game Components

• 1 Salamander Temple tile
• 4 starting Field tiles
• 20 Field tiles
• 30 Grove tiles
• 10 Spellbook cards
• 30 crystals + 12 "5" crystals tokens
• 1 Veneration Points board
• 1 Secondary Divinities board
• 40 Apprentice discs (10/colour)
• 8 score markers (2/colour)
• 4 player mats and their Druid tile
• 13 Scroll tokens
• 12 Bear Divinity cards
• 12 Eagle Divinity cards
• 8 Black Salamander cards
• 8 White Salamander Cards

Game setup

A. Place the Salamander Temple tile in the centre of the game area, shuffle, separately, the 2 decks of Salamander cards then place them on their respective spots.

B. Place, at random, the 4 starting Field tiles, with fields on both side of the tile, all around the Salamander Temple tile as indicated on the diagram.

C. Place the Veneration Points board a part from the tiles placed previously.

D. Shuffle the Grove tiles and place 8 of them at the intersection of at least 2 tiles previously placed in the game area as indicated on the diagram here after. Then make a pile with the remaining tiles face down next to the Veneration Points board.

E. Shuffle the 20 Field tiles and pile them up, face down, next to the Veneration Points board. Then, place 1 tile face up under each notch of the Veneration Points board.

F. Place the secondary Divinities board. Shuffle the Bear Divinity cards and pile them up, face up, on the dedicated spot. Do the same with the Eagle Divinity cards.

G. Shuffle the Spellbook cards and place, face up, the number of cards matching the number of players in the upper notches of the Veneration Points board.

H. Make a stock of Scroll tokens.

I. Make a stock of crystals.

J. Each player takes a player mat, their Druid tile that they place DAY side up (the sun symbol face), the Apprentice discs and the two score markers of their colour. Place your Apprentice discs on your player mat, as indicated, then place a score marker on the "0" spot of the score track and another marker in the area next to the "100+" spot.

K. Shuffle and make a pile with the score markers on the "0" spot. The player with their marker on the top of the pile starts the game.

Diagram caption: Game setup for 3.

Secondary divinities board and reminder

• At any time during your turn, you can spend 4 crystals to harvest a primary resource of your choice: leaf, flower or fruit.

• At any time during your turn, you may flip one of your active apprentices to take 1 crystal. You do not activate the tile on which the Apprentice is. Receiving a crystal this way does not count as an action.

• Harvesting a Grove costs 3 crystals. This action can be done when you pass your turn as explained in E, page 6.

Key concept

Active and inactive apprentice

To differentiate if an Apprentice is active or inactive, refer to the face of your Druid that is currently facing up. If the Apprentice is on the same face as your Druid, they are then active and they can be put to work (see here after). If it is the opposite, they are inactive.

• ACTIVE Apprentice: same symbols (the Apprentice's symbol matches the face of your Druid).
• INACTIVE Apprentice: different symbols (the Apprentice's symbol does not match the face of your Druid).

To put to work one of your apprentices, choose one of your active Apprentices (symbol matching the one shown on your Druid) and flip it to do the Billhook, Cauldron or Temple action. Or simply to receive 1 crystal.

How to play?

Salamandra is played in 4 rounds (one day, one night, one day, one night). You will have, for each round, a set number of Apprentice to place and put to work to generate resources and Veneration Points (VP) which are the victory points of this game.

At the beginning of each round, place your available apprentices on the active round spot and take 2 crystals from the supply.

Starting with the player who has the least VP, or on the top of the score markers pile in case of a tie, and clockwise, one after the other, do 1 of those 5 actions listed hereunder:

• A. Place one of your available apprentices on a tile
• B. Build a new tile by paying its costs
• C. Activate a Cauldron tile
• D. Activate the Salamander Temple
• E. Definitely pass for this phase and harvest one or more Groves

Attention: you can only pass when all your available apprentices for this round have been placed. When all the players have passed, the round ends.

A. Place an apprentice

Take one of your available apprentices and place it, active face up, on 1 of the free spots of the tile of your choice, then:

• If the chosen spot is the Bonus spot, take the indicated gain,
• If the chosen spot has a connection with one or several paths with 1 crystal, take this number of crystals from the supply and place them next to your player mat.

Example: When placing their apprentice, Gray receives the gain of the Bonus spot and 2 crystals. When placing their apprentice, Blue receives 1 crystal. When placing their apprentice, Red received nothing.

Exceptional case: If there are no available spots on the tiles in game to place one of your apprentices, AND, you do not have the possibility to generate resources: you may build one tile for free without earning the gain for its placement and place one of your apprentices on it, as described in the action A.

B. Build a tile

Choose a tile to put in play amongst the 4 tiles face up under the Veneration Points board and pay its cost. In order to do so, discard the crystals that may be required and/or generate the required resources using your apprentices.

To generate a resource, put to work one of your active apprentices on a Billhook tile. This way, you can generate primary resources (leaf, flower, fruit), upgraded resources or crystals.

The resources cannot be stored, they must be produced and used in the same turn. The crystals can be stored from one turn to the other.

Example: Red flips an apprentice on a Green Field Billhook tile that allows them to harvest 1 leaf resource and spends 1 crystal from their supply to put in play a new Purple Field tile.

Once the cost has been paid, proceed like this:

1. Receive the gain indicated on the bonus spot, under the cost.

2. Take the tile and place it in the game area, connected with, at least, one side of a tile already in play.

3. If the placement of the tile creates an empty space in between 4 Field tiles, called a glade, draw a Grove tile and place it immediately in that spot, face up.

4. Then choose one option amongst these 2:

   • You immediately place one of your available apprentices on any available spot on the newly placed tile. If you place your apprentice on the Bonus spot, you receive the gain once again.

     Note: if you have no more available apprentices, you cannot choose this option.

   • If this tile shares a colour with one of the connected tiles, take the secondary Divinity card of your choice (Eagle or Bear). Place it in front of you: the effect of the card has now to be applied for the remainder of the game.

     Attention! You can only take one single secondary Divinity card per tile played.

5. Place a new tile, face up, in the available spot under the Veneration Points board.

C. Activate a Cauldron tile

Put to work one of your active apprentices on this tile, pay the required cost, then receive the indicated gain.

To generate the required resources, put to work one of your active apprentices placed on a Billhook tile.

Example: The blue Druidess puts to work an apprentice to generate a white ephemeral flower and 1 crystal. She puts to work another apprentice to transform her white flower into a potion, then she puts to work another apprentice to do the following action: spend the potion to generate 3 VP by White Field tile with at least one of her apprentices on it.

D. Activate the temple

Flip one of your active apprentices on any tiles in game on its inactive face, without activating the tile. Pay the required cost from the temple of your choice then take the matching Salamander card and the indicated gain.

Example: Blue wishes to activate the black Salamander temple. To do so, Blue:

• puts to work several apprentices to create a white/purple potion.
• flips one of their still active apprentices without receiving the effect of the Field tile.
• spends 1 crystal.

Therefore, Blue can take the first black Salamander card and place it in its row of Salamander.

Clarification: if there are no more cards available, you can activate the temple to receive the gain printed on the tile without receiving a card.

E. Pass and harvest one or several Groves

If all your available apprentices of the current round have been placed in game, you may pass.

If you have some active apprentices left on Billhook tiles generating crystals, you can put them to work. Then, flip all your remaining active apprentices on their inactive face and generate 1 crystal for each of them.

You may then harvest as many Groves as you wish if:

• You have at least one apprentice connected through a path to this Grove tile,
• You can pay 3 crystals for each harvested Grove tile.

You immediately receive the gain indicated on the Grove tile then, place it, face down, on the upper part of your player mat, on the first available spot, starting from the left and score, if applicable, the VP matching that spot.

Flip your Druid, which will now show the active face of the apprentices for the next round.

Clarification:

The 2nd Grove tile is worth 4 VP, the 4th: 3 VP and the 6th: 2 VP. The 7th tile and afterwards will pile up on the 7th spot without scoring any additional VP.

A new round begins

When everyone has passed, the round ends.

Refill all the glades (empty spaces between 4 Field tiles) with a new Grove taken from the supply.

Move your apprentices to the available spot for this round and take 2 crystals.

The player with the least VP starts the round. In case of a tie, it is the player with their score marker on the top of the last pile on the score track that starts the round.

Use of Scroll tokens

The Scroll tokens are used to place one apprentice on a Spellbook card. You can receive Scroll tokens in different manners (placement of an apprentice, building, activation of some tiles, Temple action, or from harvesting Groves).

As soon as you receive your 4th scroll, discard them all, then choose one of your apprentices (active or inactive) on a tile in game and place it on an available spot of a Spellbook.

Note: it is possible that an action makes you gain 2 Scroll tokens at once. If you already had 3, you will then have 5. In that case, discard 4 of them then place 1 of your apprentices on a Spellbook as explained above and keep the 5th scroll.

End of the game

At the end of the 4th round, proceed to the final score count:

• THE SPELLBOOKS: Proceed to the VP count matching the place of your apprentices on the Spellbooks.

• THE FAITH: Proceed to the VP count generated by the majority of Faith for each Divinity (Bear, Eagle and Salamander).

  • In case of a tie with the divinities for the first place of these counts, sum up the points for the first and the second place. The players in the tie score the total of this points divided by the number of players in the tie (rounded down). The other players do not score any points.
  • In case of a tie with the divinities for the second place of these counts, the players in the tie score the points for the second place divided by the number of players in the tie (rounded down).
  • Note: you must have at least 1 symbol of Faith of a divinity to have a chance to score any points with this Divinity.

• THE SCROLLS: The unused Scroll tokens score 1 VP each.

The player with the most VP wins the game. In case of a tie, the players in the tie share the victory.

Example: Gray wins the game with 150 points with a final scoring that scores:

• 20 VP of Spellbooks (5 points for each Purple Field tiles where he is placed)
• 14 VP of Faith (he has the most Faith for the Bear and Eagle divinities and no faith for the Salamander so 8+6+0)
• 2 VP of Scrolls as he has 2 left.

Solo Mode

Goal of the solo game

Do not ever let Rudolph have more points than you at the end of any round, otherwise, you lose!

Additional game components

• 3 Labour cards
• 16 Rudolph placement cards

Setup

Do the same setup as for a 2-player game. You will play against Rudolph, the Gray scholar. Take his 10 Apprentice discs and his 2 score markers.

A. Choose his level by taking the appropriate labour card (level 1 to 3, easy to difficult). This card sums up the behaviour of Rudolph for the game.

B. Shuffle and place the 16 Rudolph Placement cards in a pile, face down.

C. Place Rudolph's picture next to his cards with 1 Scroll token on it. Rudolph starts the game with 1 Scroll token.

How to play?

The game is still played in 4 rounds. During each round, the game sequence is done as follows:

1. Give the VP to Rudolph and place his apprentices
2. Play your turns until the end of the round, using the same rules as the multiplayer mode
3. When you pass, proceed to the end of the round

1. Give the VP to Rudolph and placement of his apprentices

A. Rudolph scores his VP as indicated on his Labour card for the current round (1 hourglass for the 1st round, 2 hourglasses for the 2nd round...).

B. The number of apprentices that he has to place is equal to the number of the current round (ex: 1 apprentice for the 1st round, 2 apprentices for the 2nd round, 3 apprentices for the 3rd round...).

For each apprentice, reveal the first card of the Placement deck. The apprentice is placed on the furthest tile in the direction of the path indicated by the arrow (see the example here after).

Placement 1 (diagram).

Placement 2 - Before, Placement 2 - After (diagrams).

If the Bonus spot is available, place the apprentice on it, and do not grant any gain. If the Bonus spot is not available, place the apprentice on the next available spot on this tile, clockwise, then give 1 Scroll token to Rudolph.

(The source prints "It the Bonus spot is not available"; "If" is corrected here.)

When Rudolph receives his 3rd Scroll token, discard them all and take the last of his apprentices that was placed in game to place it on the first Spellbook card, starting from the left, with its upper spot available. If none of the upper spots of the Spellbooks are available, place his apprentice on the first lower spot available, starting from the left. Rudolph instantaneously wins the VP that are indicated on the Labour card, under the Spellbook symbol.

2. Player turns

Play your turns one after the other until you pass.

3. End of the round

After you have passed, you may pay 3 crystals to harvest the Grove tiles as in the multiplayer game. Then, if you decide to pass, Rudolph takes each Grove tile that are connected to paths where Rudolph has, at least, one apprentice. Rudolph score 1 VP per tile he gathers this way (he does not receive the gain mentioned on the taken Grove tiles). Each of these Grove tiles is placed face down next to the tile with Rudolph portrait.

Then, if you have strictly more VP than Rudolph, you proceed to the next Round. Otherwise, you lose the game.

Example: Rudolph's apprentice is connected to 2 Grove tiles by the paths. So, he takes these 2 tiles and scores 1 VP for each. (diagram)

Preparation for the next round

Recycling: You can put a face up card of the Bear, Eagle or Salamander deck or face up Field tile underneath its pile to reveal a new one. You can do this as many times as the recycling number on Rudolph's Labour card.

Recycling - Before, Recycling - After (diagrams).

Example: you play against Rudolph in the difficult mode, at the end of the round, you may proceed to 3 recycling. You choose to put the Bear card underneath the deck to reveal a new one. You choose to put the Purple Field and White Field tiles underneath the draw pile and you reveal two new tiles.

For each empty spot between 2 Field tiles in the game, place a Grove tile drawn from the supply (it is a change compared to the multiplayer mode to have more Groves in play).

End of the game

• THE SPELLBOOKS: Score your VP depending of your position on the Spellbooks as in a multiplayer game. Rudolph scores, once again, for each of his apprentices on a Spellbook, the associated VP under the Spellbook symbol on his Labour card.

• FAITH: Compare your Faith points with Rudolph for the Bear, Eagle and Salamander Divinity as in a 2-Player game. Rudolph has 3, 4 or 5 Faith points for each Divinity (Bear, Eagle and Salamander) at the bottom of his Labour card, depending of the chosen difficulty.

• THE SCROLLS: You and Rudolph score 1 VP per Scroll tokens you have.

In the end, if you have more VP than Rudolph, you win the game.