Siebenpunkt Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Beginner's Game
  • Preparation
  • How to Play
  • Phase 1: Choose Landscape Tiles
  • Phase 2: Place the Landscape Tiles
  • Phase 3: Observe the Animals
  • Calculation of Points and Appointment of the Winner
• Advanced Game
  • Landscape Tiles
  • Animal Cards
  • Mandates for Ecological Compensation Areas
  • Calculation of Points and Appointment of the Winner
• Variants
• Modifications for Two Players
• Overview of VPs

Components

24 mandate cards for areas of environmental compensation in three classes: Easy, medium and difficult

61 animal cards

• 16 start cards (without arrow)
• 30 ordinary cards (with arrow)
• 15 expert cards

120 landscape tiles

5 arable land boards

75 observation markers

A set of rules

5 summary cards

The landscape tiles are illustrated as follows:

• Apple tree
• Cherry tree
• Plum tree
• Walnut tree
• Poppy seed mix
• Bluebell seed mix
• Primrose seed mix
• Daisy seed mix
• Bush
• Body of water
• Piles of stones
• Field

Animals are classified into the following categories:

• Spiders
• Mammals
• Birds
• Reptiles and amphibians
• Invertebrates
• Insects

In this regard, it should be noted that insects and spiders are of course part of the class of invertebrates. But because of the perception that we have and their role in our daily lives, they were assigned specific categories.

Beginner's Game

Ladybird can be played in several ways:

The Beginner's game is for inexperienced players and children from 9 years. Various additional rules are added to complicate the game for advanced players.

Special rules for the game for two players are at the end of these rules.

Duration: 30 minutes

Preparation

In the variant for beginners, you do not need mandate cards or expert animal cards – these are all placed aside.

The 16 start animal cards are thoroughly shuffled. Eight are placed face-up in a line in the middle of the table. This is the initial draw.

The other eight are unnecessary and are placed back in the box. The remaining 30 animal cards are shuffled and placed face-down next to the initial draw. These form the deck.

The 12 landscape tiles which show one or two fields are unnecessary in the beginner's game and are placed aside. The other tiles are mixed, face-down.

Each player receives:

• A stock of 18 landscape tiles, face-down
• An arable land board
• 15 observation markers of one colour

How to Play

The game lasts for six turns, each of which comprises three phases:

• Phase 1: Choose landscape tiles
• Phase 2: Place landscape tiles
• Phase 3: Observe the animals

Phase 1: Choose Landscape Tiles

Each player draws the first three landscape tiles of his stock. He chooses a tile to later place on his board and puts it in front of him, face down. He passes the other two tiles face down to his neighbour.

The first card of the animal deck indicates whether the neighbour is the right or left one. Each player therefore receives two of his neighbour's landscape tiles. He chooses one of these and passes the last tile in the direction indicated.

Each player now has three landscape tiles that he can place in the next phase.

Phase 2: Place the Landscape Tiles

Players simultaneously place their landscape tiles on their arable land board to form their estate:

• A player can place his tiles horizontally or vertically at the location of his choice depending on the pre-printed fields.
• Tiles already placed can be covered. Thus, it is possible that the new tiles will not lie flat.
• Tiles can be positioned in such manner that half lies over the edge of the board. Sections outside of the board, however, have no value as a living space. Seeds sown on the road do not germinate ...
• Each player may set aside a landscape tile face-up to place in Phase 2 of a following round. Each player can only have a single tile in reserve. It is of course possible to place an old reserved tile or discard it to make way for a new reservation.
• A player who does not wish to place a tile or reserve one can discard it.

Example: André places the three tiles that he has chosen in Phase 1 onto his board. Since he has no use for his cherry tree, he covers it with a pile of stones. During the second round, Andre places his three new tiles. As the water is of no use, he places it outside of the board. It will be not taken into account during the evaluations and the observations of animals.

Phase 3: Observe the Animals

When all players have finished placing their landscape tiles, they check which species from the initial draw were able to find a habitat.

All players simultaneously check whether their board provides the living conditions necessary for one or more animals in the middle of the table. If this is the case, the player places his observation markers on these cards to indicate that these species can be observed on his estate.

In this regard, we must ensure the following:

• To fulfill the conditions, the landscape elements must be placed on the estate in the exact configuration shown on the card.
• Cards often show two or three blocks of landscape elements linked by a line. To qualify, the blocks must be interconnected by at least one edge of field. For the red-backed shrike (Neuntöter), some of the correct combinations are shown in the following example.
• An additional condition represented by an animal symbol is associated with some animals. This is the occurrence of prey which forms the staple food of the animal in question.

The small horseshoe bat (Kleine Hufeisennase) feeds on insects. So it prefers to live in environments where insects are available as prey.

It is however possible to observe an animal even if you do not (yet) have its prey. But if several players simultaneously claim observation of an animal, the preference is given to those with not only the correct living environment but also the prey.

The staple food is also available even if the prey was claimed during the current round. However, no animal can serve as basic food for itself.

If at the end of the game a player has claimed an animal without having its staple food, then the animal has not survived and its value is subtracted from the player's score.

Now all the animals observed by at least one player are removed from the draw. Cards with a single marker go to the player who made this observation. Cards with multiple markers are placed clearly visible out of play, so all players can see them at any time.

Warning: The animals observed during a previous round and whose cards are thus claimed by a player or lie next to the game cannot be observed again by another player, even if he has the required environmental conditions currently in play.

In addition, a player is not obliged to report the observation of an animal, even when its conditions are met. Under certain conditions, this could be wise if one intends to recover the correct conditions again later on.

Example: During the 1st round, André meets the conditions for two animals: the bumblebee (Steinhummel) and the golden beetle (Goldlaufkäfer). He places a marker on these two animals. Jacqueline also fulfills the conditions for the bumblebee and also places her marker on the card. André takes the golden beetle card for himself (his is the only marker on the card). The bumblebee card is set aside, clearly visible. The markers of both Jacqueline and André remain on the card.

During the second round, André meets the conditions for the glow-worm (Grosses Glühwürmchen) and the wolf spider (Wolfsspinne). Claudine also has the correct elements necessary for the wolf spider. However, unlike André, she does not have an insect as prey for the spider. In fact the latter could take the glow-worm as prey. Claudine cannot place her marker.

Once the observed animals have been assigned, new cards are drawn from the draw pile until there are eight animals on the table again.

The next round then begins with Phase 1.

Calculation of Points and Appointment of the Winner

The game ends after the sixth turn.

Each player checks to see if his estate still fulfills the living conditions for all animals he marked earlier.

Positive biodiversity points are gained for animals which still have the correct environmental conditions on the estate. However, points are subtracted for animals that have lost their habitat (partly because of tile rearrangement) or which lack their staple food.

The player who accumulates the most points is declared the winner. Ties are of course possible.

Advanced Game

Duration: 45 to 60 minutes.

The rules of the beginner's game are modified as follows:

Landscape Tiles

All landscape tiles are used, including those bearing a field. These are the only way to redevelop cultivated areas back into farmland.

The tiles are mixed face-down on the table and each player receives a stock of 24 tiles. The game is played over eight rounds instead of six.

Animal Cards

The initial draw is again composed of eight of the 16 start animal cards.

The expert animal cards are now mixed into the deck.

On these cards there are some new conditions for habitat requirements:

• Some cards include blank spaces and landscape features which are not assigned to specific places within the required configuration. Empty spaces must be filled with the features illustrated, but their position is irrelevant provided that they are all placed in the correct configuration for the required habitat.
• Two blocks of landscape elements not connected by a line are shown for some flying animals. These blocks must be present within the estate without necessarily being contiguous.

Mandates for Ecological Compensation Areas

The 24 mandate cards are shuffled. Each player receives four cards which he can look at. However, he should not show these to the other players. Players seek now not only to build ideal habitats for animals, but also to place environmental compensation areas in compliance with the mandates they have received. In this regard, it is necessary to ensure that the areas outlined in black of two different mandates cannot overlap. In contrast, animal's habitats may overlap mandate areas or other habitats.

Just as with the animal cards, landscape features are illustrated on the mandate cards. The features available may be arranged freely in the blanks illustrated in the configuration on the card.

Example: To form a lake, for example, place four bodies of water (the preprinted element and three available) and two seed mixes of any types. Only the location of one body of water is fixed.

Two additional symbols appear on mandate cards:

• It is prohibited to fill the empty spaces of the mandate with any tree.
• It is prohibited to fill the empty spaces of the mandate with a field. In other words, all spaces must be filled with a(nother) landscape feature.

The conservation headland (Ackerschonstreifen) is a special case: it requires a strip of seed mixtures along the edge of the cultivated land, followed by a strip of un-sown field.

It is seldom possible to complete all mandates!

At the end of the game, completed mandates score positive points. However, there is no penalty for unfinished mandates.

Calculation of Points and Appointment of the Winner

• At the end of the game, players receive points for positive and negative observations of animals, as in the game for beginners.
• In addition, they also gain points for completed ecological compensation mandates.
• It goes without saying that every farmer isn't just interested in producing environmentally, but also in earning income from his operations. Therefore, he will also score points for arable fields, which are used for traditional agriculture. However, the arable fields of the estate should be aggregated in order to be managed efficiently: For each uninterrupted strip of un-sown field crossing the estate horizontally or vertically, the player receives two points. The orientation of the preprinted furrows does not have any relevance.

Example:

• André scores 30 points for the three mandates he was able to complete.
• Of the seven animals that he succeeded in observing, all still have their required habitats. However, André was unable to provide a prey for the Treecreeper (Gartenbaumläufer). He therefore subtracts 4 points.
• For the remaining animals he scores 22 points.
• He scores 6 points for the strips of non-sown fields.
• In total, André has scored 54 points.

Variants

Inexperienced players are often overwhelmed when they attempt to address the possibilities provided by the four mandates. It is of course possible to use fewer mandate cards, provided that the degree of difficulty of the mandates are equal for all (e.g. by distributing one red card and an orange card to each player).

For further simplicity, we can also drop the points for the field strips reserved for intensive farming.

Modifications for Two Players

With two players, each player draws four tiles instead of three at the beginning of Phase 1. Thus, each player draws a stock of 24 tiles (6 turns for beginners) or 32 tiles (8 turns for advanced) before the game begins. In this case, players also exchange the tiles until they have selected three each. This will leave one tile per player which is not used.

Overview of VPs

• Positive points for animals
• Negative points for animals (habitat not met or staple food not available)
• Points for completed mandates
• +2 points for each field strip

The legend's colour-coded point tokens are graphical in the source and are not reproduced here.