Tang Hu Lu Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Materials
• Set-up
• Turn of Play
  • Roll the Custom Dice and Apply its Effect
  • A. Go to Work and Get Income
  • B. Buy Fruits from the Store
• Special Rules
  • How to Place the Fruit Tiles?
  • What Happens if a Stick is Completed?
• What Happens at the End of a Turn?
• Game End and Final Scoring

Overview

• Designer: Francesco Testini
• Players: 2 to 4
• Time: 25 min
• Age: 6+

Materials

• 2 jigsaw tiles joint into a fruit store
• 54 fruit tiles, each one with 1 front side (white) which represents one fruit, and 1 back side (pink) which represents the same fruit dipped with crystal sugar; there are 12 oranges, 12 apples, 12 kiwis, 12 strawberries, 6 haws (wild); each fruit tile is worth 0 to 2 stars on the front and a 1 star more on the back
• 20 sweet cards with one particular sweet description, each one may be worth 1 to 3 stars
• 30 crystal sugar drops (crystal tokens)
• 4 player boards, with a coin track from 0 to 9
• 4 coin markers
• 1 custom dice
• 1 bag for the fruit tiles
• 1 marker of "Crystal Sugar King"
• 1 first player marker

Set-up

1. Place the fruit store in the center of the table.
2. Place the 54 fruit tiles in the bag, shuffle and draw 4 tiles to put in the spaces on the fruit store. Place the tiles so that they show the white side, filling from left to right, first row and then second row.
3. Each player takes 1 player board and 1 coin marker for tracking their incomes. Put the coin marker on the number FIVE (each player starts with 5 coins). Then, each player takes 2 crystal sugar drops and places them beside his player board.
4. Shuffle the 20 sweet cards and pile them up a face down stack near the fruit store.
5. The remaining crystal sugar drops, the custom die and the "crystal sugar king" marker are also placed in the center, so that everyone can reach them.
6. Deal the First Player Marker to the youngest player.

Turn of Play

The player in turn performs their actions, then the player on their left and so on in clockwise direction. First of all, the current player must roll the custom dice and applies its effect on the top side (which is always a bonus for the current player or all other players), then choose one of the following actions:

• A. Go to work and get income
• or
• B. Buy fruits from the store

At the end of the game, continue playing until each other player finishes their last turn, so that each player has played the same number of turns. Then proceed counting the final scoring.

Roll the Custom Dice and Apply its Effect

The player rolls the custom dice and gets the depicted bonus:

• Obtain 1 crystal sugar drop and all the players may garnish: spend 4 crystal sugar drops (return them to the general stock) to garnish 1 complete fruit stick. Flip the four tiles on the back side to show the pink side covered with crystal sugar; each tile is worth 1 star more on the back side.
• Obtain 1 coin.
• Draw a random fruit tile from the bag: you can use it to arrange your sticks or you can put it back in the bag.

A. Go to Work and Get Income

The player obtains as many coins as the coins showed on his personal board, where the spaces are not covered by fruit tiles yet. Track the amount of coins moving the coin marker on the coins track according to the coins obtained. If you already reached the space with 9, then you can not get more.

Example: At the beginning of his turn, Luigi has 0 coins so he can't buy any fruit tile. So he decides to go to work and get income (action A). The sum of the coins depicted on the free spaces on his player board at that moment is: 1+1+1+1 = 4. So, he moves his coin marker 4 spaces to right.

B. Buy Fruits from the Store

The player may buy all the fruit tiles as he wish, if he has the enough coins requested. To buy each fruit tile follow these rules:

• The number of coins required is indicated by how many the coin bags showed on the fruit store: if you want to buy a fruit tile, before you take back the tile from the fruit store, you must pay the coins according to the total of coin bags showed on those free spaces on the fruit store (not covered by a fruit tiles), then plus the fixed cost of 1 coin depicted on the POS. The cost of the first tile you take will be 1 coin (shown on the POS), the second one will be 2 coins and so on; you can not buy a tile if you don't have enough coins to pay it.
• Move the coin marker on the coins track according to the coins spent.
• Take the fruit tile from the main board and immediately place it on your personal board and arrange it on one stick.

Example: In the first turn, Viola has 5 coins, so she decides to buy fruit tiles (action B). She buys a first tile by 1 coin, which depicted on the POS, and she places it on her player board. Then she wants to buy a second tile, which now costs 2 coins, 1 indicated on the POS, plus 1 depicted on the space which shows a coin bag. Finally she takes this second tile and places it on her board too. She can not obtain the free crystal sugar drop because she has bought 2 fruit tiles.

Special Rules

Notice: If the player buys only 1 fruit tile in his turn, they also receive 1 crystal sugar drop.

How to Place the Fruit Tiles?

The tile may be placed on any of the three sticks, but you must follow a simple rule: the tile must be put on the lower blank spot on that stick which you have chosen. You may complete the 3 sticks in any order.

What Happens if a Stick is Completed?

When you complete a stick, immediately receive a bonus according to the pattern you have formed on your stick:

• If all the fruits are in different colors, the player obtains 5 coins (you may continue buying fruit tiles with the coins obtained in this way).
• If there are fruits in the same color, the player draws 2 sweet cards and places them face down beside his player board. He can always look at them, but not show them to other players; each card is worth 1 to 3 stars at the end of the game.
• If there are two different couples of same fruits, in any order, the player obtains 1 sweet card and 2 crystal sugar drops.

For all the patterns, the haw fruit acts as a wild. The possible patterns are shown on a summary on the fruit store.

Example: In one of the following turns, Viola has completed one stick with 3 Kiwi fruit tiles and a haw fruit. She can draw 2 sweet cards immediately which may assign her 1 to 3 happiness points each at the end of the game. If she had completed her stick with 4 different fruits instead, she would have obtained 5 coins immediately then accordingly move her coin marker 5 spaces to the right.

What Happens at the End of a Turn?

At the end of the player's turn, refill the blank spaces on the fruit store with new fruit tiles randomly taken from the bag, always proceeding from left to right and from top to bottom (same as the set-up procedure).

Game End and Final Scoring

The game ends when one player has completed all his 3 sticks; continue playing until the other players finish their last turn. By doing so, more than one player may end up with all the three sticks completed. Finally, count the stars in this way:

a. Each fruit on your personal board is worth the stars depicted.

b. Reveal all the sweet cards that players have got during the game: each card is worth the star depicted.

c. The player with the most crystal sugar drops remaining is the Crystal Sugar King and obtains the "Crystal Sugar King" marker, which is worth 2 stars. In case of a tie, no player obtains this marker.

The player with the most stars (also said happiness points) is the winner. The coins remaining on the personal board are the tie breaker.