Santa Timea
Santa Timea Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
80 Cards:
- 60 Wheel Cards (values 1 to 14 for each direction, plus four Piratess Cards)
- 20 Wind Cards (one and two damage points twice, three damage points once for all directions)
Note: the printed rules' component line is garbled in the source at the end of the list ("/values 1 to 14 for each direction, plus four Piratess Cards) and"); the list above is restored from the rest of the document.
Object of the Game
The less damage points players get, the more victory points they score. Extra points are available under certain conditions for more experienced players. The game lasts five rounds, twelve tricks are played per round and the player making most points wins.
Game Start
The Wind Cards are shuffled at the beginning of each round and placed face down in the middle of the table as the Wind Card deck. The top three cards are turned face up and put in a row next to the deck so that all three can be seen conveniently by all players. The card furthest away from the deck is the wind direction for the first trick, the next one will follow in the second trick, and so on.
The Wheel Cards are shuffled and twelve cards are dealt to each player (remaining cards when playing with less than five players are put aside). Start player leading the first trick is always the player who gained most victory points so far (in case of a tie, the start player does not change). In the first round, the start player is randomly determined.
Game Turn
The Wind Card furthest away from the card deck poses the challenge for this trick.
Beginning with the start player and following clockwise each player puts one Wheel Card from his hand into play. The player who puts the lowest valued Wheel Card takes the damage indicated on the Wind Card by placing the Wind Card visible to the other players in front of him.
The two remaining face up Wind Cards are moved on a little bit, and the uppermost Wind Card from the card deck is turned face up. The played Wheel Cards go to a discard pile, and the player who has put the highest valued Wheel Card becomes the start player for the next trick. (Example 1)
So far, so simple. But there are a few more things to mention:
Opposite direction. If a player puts a Wheel Card of the opposite direction as indicated on the Wind Card, the value of the Wheel Card becomes zero. If more than one player do so, the rank of the cards is determined by their values.
Example 2: The current wind direction is north, Sebastian plays the „South Eight“ Wheel Card, and Nadine plays the „South Five“. Both have the value of zero, but as Sebastian has played the higher card, Nadine gets the Wind Card.
Other direction. If a player puts a Wheel Card of any other direction not identical to the one indicated on the current Wind Card, it counts only half its value.
Example 3: The current wind direction is east, Sebastian plays „East Five“, and Nadine plays „North Eleven“. As the direction of „North Eleven“ is not quite correct, it counts only five and a half points, but as this is still more than five („East Five“ counts full, as east is the current wind direction), Sebastian gets the Wind Card.
Piratess Card. A Piratess Card always has the same value than the Wheel Card played beforehand.
Example 4: The current Wind Card indicates north wind, and Sebastian puts the „North Thirteen“. Next is Nadine, who puts „North Fourteen“. Johannes puts a Piratess Card, which counts fourteen points in this case (as the card previously played was Nadine's „North Fourteen“). And poor Sebastian has to take the Wind Card although he played „North Thirteen“ …
A Piratess Card may only be played as first card in a trick if the opening player has no other cards left on his hand. No matter what the other players put in the trick, the Piratess Card will be the lowest valued card and will automatically get the Wind Card.
Ties. If two or more Wheel Cards played have the same value, they are out.
If only one Wheel Card remains in the trick, it is both the lowest and the highest valued card.
Example 5: Same situation than example 3, and Johannes puts „South Ten“. Both „South Ten“ and „East Five“ count five points, so they are put aside. „North Eleven“ is the only remaining Wheel Card in the trick. So Nadine „gains“ the Wind Card and she will be first player in the next trick.
No Wheel Cards remaining. If no Wheel Cards remain in the trick, the Wind Card is put aside, and the game continues (the lead for the next trick remains with the same player).
Scoring
A round finishes after the twelfth trick, the remaing Wind Cards are not used. Players calculate the damage their ships have taken by the values printed on the Wind Cards they received:
First, players who managed to collect a one, two and three damage point Wind Card of identical wind direction may discard the triplet.
Then, players add the damage points on all other Wind Cards they made.
Finally, players score victory points according to the damage points they took: The player with most damage points scores one victory point, the player with second most damage points scores two victory points, etc.
If only two players participate, the player with more damage points scores no victory points (while the player with less damage points still scores two victory points).
In case of a draw, the scoring points of all players with equal damage points are added, divided by their number and as may be the case approximated. (Example: 5 player game, 2x 2nd place: 4+3/2=4; the next player has to take the scoring points of the 4th place.)
The victory points are recorded on a score sheet.
Example 6: Sebastian has a north Wind Card with one damage point, two north Wind Cards with two damage points and the north Wind Card with three damage points. Nadine has two south Wind Cards with one damage point and one east Wind Card with two damage points. Annabelle has the other east Wind Card with two damage points and a west wind card with two damage points. Johannes has a west Wind Card with one damage point, a Wind Card card with two damage points and a south Wind Card with three damage points. Sebastian discards the north wind triplet with one, two and three damage points and has only two damage points for his remaining Wind Card. Nadine and Annabelle both have four damage points, and Johannes has six. Thus, Johannes gets only one victory point, Nadine and Annabelle both get three victory points, and Sebastian gets four.
The German text of the same example adds the standings after this round, written as "victory points + special victory points − penalty points": Sebastian 4+0-0=4; Nadine 3+1-1=3; Annabelle 3+0-0=3; Johannes 1+0-1=0. Per the German text, Nadine receives one special victory point because she has two Süd 1 (South 1) Wind Cards, and Nadine and Johannes each received three Wind Cards, so each must give up one victory point.
End of the Game
After five rounds, the player with most victory points wins the game. In case of a draw, more than one player may win.
You can download a scoring sheet on our homepage www.argentum-verlag.de.
Alternative Rule for more experienced Players
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Setting up the Wind Card deck, three more cards are layed open on the other side of the deck: They are kind of a long term weather forecast showing some of the winds which will not occur this round.
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If no Wheel Cards remain in the trick, the Wind Card is not put aside. The player who puts the lowest valued Wheel Card in the next trick has to take this Wind Card in addition.
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Players get extra victory points for damage points if they have the same Wind Card twice. As in example 6 Nadine scores one extra point, as she has two south Wind Cards with one damage point. Sebastian does not score two extra points for his two north Wind Cards with two damage points, as he discarded one of them. Of course he could have kept the triplet, but in this case he would only gain two victory points: one for having most damage points (1+2+2+3 = 8), plus two extra points, minus one penalty point).
When scoring, one victory point is deducted as a penalty for each four (2-3 player game) or three (4-5 player game) Wind Cards a player collected.
Example 1 (from the German section)
In the first trick the Wind Card North 2 is played. The player with the lowest valued card placed down receives this card into his display. Then the card South 1 takes the freed place, and the card West 1 moves on one place as well. Now a new card is turned face up and placed in the place freed next to the draw pile. In the next trick the wind card in play is South 1.
Note: the English caption for Example 1 has no text of its own in the source; this paragraph is rendered from the German text of the same example, which is the only written form of Example 1 in the document. The German examples 2 to 6 duplicate the English examples above and are not repeated.