Silberzwerg Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Setup
• Round Overview
• 1. Place Dwarves
  • 1.1 The Action Board
  • 1.2 The Digger Dwarves
  • 1.3 The Shadow Dwarf / Silver Dwarf Figures
• 2. Remove Screens
• 3. Set Gem Price
• 4. Shadow Dwarf Actions
  • 4.1 On the "Tunnel" Action Space
  • 4.2 On the "Orders" Action Space
  • 4.3 On the "Gems" Action Space
• 5. Distribute Gems
• 6. Silver Dwarf Actions
  • 6.1 On the "Tunnel" Action Space
  • 6.2 On the "Orders" Action Space
  • 6.3 On the "Gems" Action Space
• 7. Rotate Orders Clockwise
• 8. Pay Penalties
• 9. Deal New Orders
• 10. Discard Gems
• 11. Pass the Start Player Figure
• Special Order Functions
• Public Orders
• A Word on Your Own Cash
• End of the Game
• Silberzwerg for Two Players
• Silberzwerg for Three Players
• Short Game Variant for Four Players

Components

• 1 game board
• 4 screens
• 4 action boards
• 1 start player figure
• 34 order cards
• 84 glass gems (4 colors: blue, red, yellow, green)
• 16 digger dwarves
• 4 cloth bags
• 8 leaders (double-sided wooden discs: silver dwarf / shadow dwarf)
• 8 marker stones
• 1 rulebook

Objective

Players try to earn the most silver talers by mining gems, fulfilling orders, and using the shadow dwarf's manipulations. To do this, digger dwarves are sent into the tunnels, the silver dwarf buys or sells gems, and the shadow dwarf annoys the other players with shady actions.

Setup

Carefully separate the action boards and screens from their die-cut sheets.

Now sticker the 8 leaders. Peel off the first shadow-dwarf sticker and stick it in the middle of one of the large wooden discs. Then peel off a silver-dwarf sticker and stick it on the back of the same disc. Repeat these steps for the remaining seven wooden discs. You now have 8 discs, each with a shadow dwarf stuck on one side and a silver dwarf on the other.

Lay out the game board. The gems are sorted by color onto the four tunnel entrances. One gem of each type acts as a marker for the price table. Shuffle the order cards and place them face down, ready to draw.

Each player receives:

• 1 screen, 1 action board, 1 cloth bag
• 2 leaders, 4 digger dwarves, and 2 marker stones of the same color for the count track and the hundreds chests

Each player receives 50 silver talers, shown on the count track with one of their two marker stones.

To determine the start player, take one gem of each color. Distribute these to the players face down at random. Whoever receives the yellow gem becomes the start player and receives the start player figure. Everyone may keep their first gem as a small starting capital and put it in their bag.

Starting with the start player, each player receives one order, which they place in their designated space. They orient their order so that the yellow number in one corner of the card points to the arrow. Then two public orders are placed the same way in the spaces provided in the center. Then the game can begin.

Round Overview

"Silberzwerg" is played over several rounds. Each round consists of up to 11 steps, carried out in a fixed order (see below). This overview can also be found on the inside of each player's screen.

1. Place 6 dwarves (simultaneously, hidden)
2. Remove screens (simultaneously)
3. Set gem price (start player)
4. Shadow dwarf actions (in turn order)
5. Distribute gems (in turn order)
6. Silver dwarf actions (in turn order)
7. Rotate orders clockwise
8. Pay penalties, if applicable
9. Deal new orders, if applicable
10. Discard gems, if applicable (maximum 12 gems)
11. Pass the start player figure

1. Place Dwarves

1.1 The Action Board

The action board is divided into 6 columns, representing the places where a player's various dwarves can be stationed.

There are also 3 rows, one for each type of dwarf: only shadow dwarves may be placed in the top row, only silver dwarves in the middle row, and digger dwarves go in the bottom row.

Shadow dwarves and silver dwarves may not stand on the same space, but digger dwarves may share a space freely.

If a space is occupied by a figure, that dwarf carries out the space's instruction during the corresponding phase.

Once every player has set up their screen, they may now secretly position their six dwarf figures on their action board.

1.2 The Digger Dwarves

The four digger dwarves are placed on the bottom spaces of a tunnel to mine gems there. How they are divided among the four colors is left entirely up to the player. Each digger dwarf mines 1 gem of the corresponding color — unless the digger dwarf was previously removed by a shadow dwarf, or the supply of that gem color is currently empty.

1.3 The Shadow Dwarf / Silver Dwarf Figures

The two leaders (large wooden discs) have different sides (silver dwarf and shadow dwarf); depending on which side they are turned to, they are placed on different spaces of the action board. Players decide anew each round how to deploy their leaders, either:

• 2 silver dwarves, or
• 2 shadow dwarves, or
• 1 silver dwarf and 1 shadow dwarf.

2. Remove Screens

Once all players have placed their dwarves, the screens are removed simultaneously, so that everyone can now see where the other players placed their figures.

3. Set Gem Price

After the screens are removed, the start player counts the digger dwarves of all players in each tunnel and marks these values on the price table. For each color, they place the matching gem in the row that shows the number of digger dwarves counted. The price of that gem for this round can be read directly next to it, in the right-hand column of the table. It applies for one round only.

Example (price table): the number of digger dwarves mining a color, 0 through 9, corresponds directly to a price from 10 down to 1 silver taler — a count of 0 gives a price of 10, a count of 9 gives a price of 1. As a worked example from the rulebook: if 1 blue gem is being mined, its price is 9 silver talers; correspondingly, other gem colors might cost, say, 8 silver talers (red), 5 silver talers (yellow), or 2 silver talers (green), depending on how many digger dwarves are in each of their tunnels.

4. Shadow Dwarf Actions

First, one after another, starting with the start player, everyone carries out the actions of their shadow dwarves, if they placed any. Players who placed no shadow dwarf are simply skipped. Anyone who placed both leaders as shadow dwarves carries out both actions before the next player takes their turn; the order between the two is up to them.

Wherever a shadow dwarf stands, it has two options. These are shown on the action board and described below.

4.1 On the "Tunnel" Action Space

• The shadow dwarf removes up to 2 dwarves total belonging to other players from a tunnel of the matching color, as many as are present (it doesn't matter whether they are digger, silver, or shadow dwarves) — or
• The shadow dwarf takes 1 gem of the matching color from the general supply.

4.2 On the "Orders" Action Space

• The shadow dwarf turns one of their own orders, or a public order, up by one step, to a maximum of its highest value — i.e., the next-higher value now sits in the marked corner — or
• The shadow dwarf turns another player's order, or a public order, back by one step — i.e., the next-lower value now sits in the marked corner.

Should an order fall below its lowest value this way, it is removed from the board. If the order belonged to another player, that player must pay the printed penalty to the bank.

4.3 On the "Gems" Action Space

• The shadow dwarf may immediately trade 2 gems of their choice from their bag for 2 gems of their choice from the supply — or
• The shadow dwarf may draw 2 gems, unseen, from an opponent's bag. In this case, the shadow-dwarf player decides whether to draw both gems from one player or one gem each from two different players.

5. Distribute Gems

Now, in turn order, each player receives 1 gem of the matching color for every digger dwarf they have in the tunnels. If the supply of that color is exhausted, that player receives no gems of that color.

6. Silver Dwarf Actions

As with the shadow dwarf actions, the start player goes first. Each player carries out all of their own silver dwarves' actions (if they placed any) before the next player takes a turn.

6.1 On the "Tunnel" Action Space

Silver dwarves still standing in a tunnel at this point may buy gems of the matching color from the supply, at the price currently shown on the price table. A player may buy as many gems as they can afford and as the supply allows — but watch out: at the end of each round, a player may have no more than 12 gems in their bag in total.

6.2 On the "Orders" Action Space

A silver dwarf on this space — i.e. the player — may fulfill 1 order, either their own or one of the two public orders. To do so, the player must present exactly the combination of 8 gems shown on the order card and return them to the general supply on the game board. The order's current value, marked on the board by the corner with the arrow, is credited to the player on the count track (their marker stone advances the corresponding number of spaces).

If the order card has a symbol next to the penalty in the middle, the player may keep the card until they wish to use its special function. They then hand in the order; it is out of the game.

6.3 On the "Gems" Action Space

Here, the silver dwarf's player may sell any number of gems from their bag at the current price shown on the price table. The gems go back into the supply on the game board. This too can turn a good profit.

7. Rotate Orders Clockwise

Once all the dwarves' actions are finished, the orders still remaining on the game board are rotated forward by one position, so that they are worth less in the next round.

8. Pay Penalties

If an order falls below its lowest value as a result of this rotation, the order is removed from the board; it is out of the game. If it was a public order, nothing further happens. If, however, it was a player's own order, that player must now pay the printed penalty. Their marker stone on the count track is moved back the corresponding number of spaces.

9. Deal New Orders

If any order spaces are now empty, new orders must be placed there. Going around the table, the start player fills the gaps, drawing a new order from the face-down pile each time. Lastly, the start player fills any empty public-order spaces.

10. Discard Gems

At this point in the round, each player may have no more than 12 gems in their bag. Anyone with more must return all excess gems to the supply. Each player chooses which gems to give up.

11. Pass the Start Player Figure

At the end of the round, the start player passes the start player figure to the player on their left, who becomes the new start player. The new round then begins again with the first step.

Special Order Functions

Orders represent pieces of jewelry that players must still complete by adding gems. These pieces of jewelry are shown on the order cards, along with the 8 gems needed. The color of the gems shown on the order naturally indicates the color of the gems the player must give up to fulfill the order.

There are 4 price categories of orders. The more gems of one type an order requires, the more valuable it is. The higher an order's starting value, the higher its penalty as well, if the order is not fulfilled.

Except for the most expensive orders, every other order also has an additional symbol in the middle. The meaning of these symbols is explained below; they can also be found on the inside of the screens.

• The four most expensive orders have a starting value of 120 silver talers and carry no special symbol.
• Axe, pick, or hammer symbol: whoever turns in a matched set of 3 orders bearing the same symbol (all axes, all picks, or all hammers) receives an additional 40 silver talers.
• Coin-stack symbol: whoever turns in an order with this symbol receives 5 silver talers extra and may deduct 5 talers from any one opponent.
• Crossed-axes symbol: whoever turns in an order with this symbol may cancel one shadow dwarf action.
• Circle/target symbol: whoever turns in an order with this symbol may reduce the price of any one gem color by 3 spaces on the price table.

Public Orders

During the game, there are 2 public orders lying in the center of the game board. This changes toward the end of the game if an empty order space can no longer be filled because the order cards have run out. In that case, every remaining order immediately becomes public, so that it can be fulfilled by any player.

A Word on Your Own Cash

Everyone starts with an initial capital of 50 silver talers. Normally, this amount should steadily grow. In the early rounds, however, it can happen that paying a penalty would leave a player with less than 0 talers. In this case, their marker stone on the count track is set to "0," and any further debt is forgiven. In this game, no one can go into debt, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

End of the Game

The game ends in 2 ways:

a) When a player succeeds in reaching the 600 chest. The game ends immediately, and that player is the winner.

b) When the last order is removed from the game board and out of the game. The round is played to its conclusion. The player with the most silver talers after the final round wins.

Silberzwerg for Two Players

Played with the same rules as the 4-player game, with the following changes:

Setup: Each player receives two complete sets of figures (8 digger dwarves and 4 leaders), as well as 1 screen, 1 action board, 1 cloth bag, and 2 marker stones of the same color for the count track and the hundreds chests.

Both players have two order spaces on the game board, matching their figure color.

Placing dwarves: a) Never more than 4 digger dwarves may stand on 1 space. b) On the "Orders" action space, 2 silver dwarves may stand together, so a player can fulfill 2 orders in one round.

Silver dwarf and shadow dwarf actions: during the relevant phases (4 and 6), the leaders (shadow dwarves or silver dwarves) are resolved only one at a time, alternating with the other player.

Example: Player A (the start player) has placed 2 shadow dwarves, Player B has placed one. First Player A takes a turn with one shadow dwarf, then Player B follows, then Player A again with their last shadow dwarf.

Silberzwerg for Three Players

With 3 players, the following order cards are set aside and do not come into play: all orders bearing 2 blue gems, as well as these three orders:

• 4 blue and 4 green gems
• 4 blue and 4 yellow gems
• 4 blue and 4 red gems

Otherwise, the same rules apply as in the 4-player game.

Anyone who prefers a slightly longer game can also play "Silberzwerg" with three players using all the orders.

Short Game Variant for Four Players

Players who prefer a short, fast game simply use a smaller stack of order cards. Which cards to remove can be found in the "Silberzwerg for Three Players" section above.