Tea for 2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Contents
• Setup
• Anatomy of a Card
• Game Round
• Gaining Stars
• Buying a Card
• Destroying a Card
• Taking Tarts or Hourglasses
• End of the Game
• Effects of the Cards
• Effects of the Pocket Watch
• Effects of the Objective Tiles
• Credits

Goal of the Game

Be the player with the most stars at the end of the game.

Contents

• 50 Character cards
• 1 Pink Flamingo tile
• 5 (double-sided) Objective tiles
• 2 Player pawns (March Hare and Mad Hatter)
• 2 Teacup tokens
• 5 Hourglass tokens
• 9 Tart tokens
• 1 Score board
• 1 One-Hand Pocket Watch board

Setup

1. Players sit across from each other. The Score board is placed to the side.

2. The 2 Player pawns are placed on space 0 of the Score board.

3. The 5 Objective tiles are shuffled and placed randomly — faceup or facedown — on 5 spaces allocated for them on the Score board (we recommend the setup shown in the rulebook illustration for your first game).

4. Each player takes the 9 Character cards that match the color of their side of the board (blue or pink), shuffles them, and places them facedown in front of them to create their draw pile. A player's discard pile is immediately adjacent to their draw pile.

   Important: You can look at all the faceup piles at any time (without altering their order).

5. Place the 2 Teacup tokens on space 25.

6. The 25 Character cards are sorted into 5 piles according to their value (4 to 8). Each pile of 5 cards of the same value is shuffled and placed faceup on the corresponding space of the Score board.

7. One player (the person who last drank tea, or decided randomly) takes 1 Tart and the Pink Flamingo. The other player takes 3 Tarts. A supply is created between the two players containing: the 5 remaining Tarts, the 5 Hourglasses, and the 7 faceup Rabbit Character cards (all are identical).

8. The Pocket Watch board is placed within reach of both players, its hand randomly pointing at one of its spaces.

Anatomy of a Card

A Character card shows:

• its Effect (in the middle of the card),
• its Value (bottom right),
• the Stars it is worth if destroyed (top right).

Game Round

Both players simultaneously reveal the top card of their draw pile and place it faceup on their discard pile. The player who revealed the higher valued Character card wins the round. In case of a tie, the player with the Pink Flamingo wins.

The winner performs one (and only one) of the following actions:

• Apply the effect of their revealed Character, or
• Buy one (and only one) card from the Score board.

Once they have performed their action, the winning player can spend any number of Hourglasses to move the Pocket Watch hand that many spaces clockwise. If the player spends at least 1 Hourglass, they apply the effect of the space on which the Pocket Watch hand finishes its movement.

Example: Matt spends 2 Hourglasses to move the Pocket Watch hand 2 spaces clockwise, and gains 2 stars.

Then, if your draw pile is empty, add a Rabbit card from the supply to your discard pile, flip over your discard pile, and shuffle it to create a new draw pile.

Proceed to the next round.

Gaining Stars

When you gain stars through a Pocket Watch effect or card destruction, move your Player pawn forward on the Score board one space for each star you gained.

If a player exceeds 25 stars, they take a Teacup token (worth 25 points) and start over at space 0.

Buying a Card

If buying a card, the winning player is allotted purchase points equal to the difference between the players' revealed Character cards. The player then spends these purchase points to buy one card. The player can spend Tarts to buy a higher valued card (1 Tart = 1 extra purchase point). A player can also buy a card of lesser value, but no change is given for unspent purchase points.

The purchased card is taken from the top of the corresponding valued pile and placed in the player's discard pile.

Important: A player cannot buy a Rabbit card.

Example: The Pink player, who revealed "7", could buy an Executioner (4) or a Knave of Hearts (5) at no cost, but chooses to pay 1 Tart to buy a Caterpillar (6).

Destroying a Card

When a player destroys a card, they place it next to their side of the Score board, and gain the stars depicted on the top right of the destroyed card.

Taking Tarts or Hourglasses

When you must take Tarts or Hourglasses from the supply, but there aren't enough left, take as much as you can from the supply and steal the rest from your opponent.

End of the Game

If 4 of the Score board's 5 Character piles are depleted, or if a player must take a Rabbit but there are none left, complete the current round, then tally your points: in addition to the stars already gained, each player scores additional stars for the Objectives above the Score board's depleted Character piles.

The player with the most stars wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the Pink Flamingo wins.

Effects of the Cards

• CHESHIRE CAT (value 1): You can move the Pocket Watch's hand to any space and apply its effect (see Effects of the Pocket Watch).

• DORMOUSE (value 2): You can take 2 Tarts from the supply.

• GUARDS (value 3): You can force your opponent to reveal and discard the first 3 cards from their draw pile. The effects of these 3 cards are not applied.

  Important: If your opponent's draw pile is depleted because of that effect, they must immediately shuffle their discard pile (without forgetting to add a Rabbit card) to make a new draw pile. Then, they continue the process until 3 cards have been revealed and discarded.

• EXECUTIONER (value 4): You can destroy the top card of your opponent's draw pile. The Queen is immune to this effect: it is simply discarded.

  Important: If your opponent's draw pile is depleted, they must immediately shuffle their discard pile (without forgetting to add a Rabbit card) to make a new draw pile. Then, you can destroy the top card of their draw pile.

• KNAVE OF HEARTS (value 5): You can take 3 Tarts from the supply.

• CATERPILLAR (value 6): You can take 2 Hourglasses from the supply.

• KING (value 7): You can take the Pink Flamingo from your opponent or take 2 Tarts from the supply.

• ALICE (value 8): You can take 1 Hourglass from the supply.

• QUEEN (value 9) or RABBIT (value 1): You can destroy the top card of one of the Score board's Character piles.

Effects of the Pocket Watch

• Destroy a card in your discard pile. Important: You can look at your discard pile any time.
• Gain 2 stars.
• Take the Pink Flamingo.
• Reveal and discard the first 2 cards from your draw pile and gain the stars depicted on those cards.
• Apply the effect of the topmost Character card of your opponent's discard pile.

Effects of the Objective Tiles

• Award ? stars (where ? is equal to the value of the corresponding depleted pile) to the player who has the most cards of the depicted type in their deck (draw pile + discard pile).

• Award ? stars (where ? is equal to the value of the corresponding depleted pile) to the player who has the most cards in their deck (draw pile + discard pile).

• Award ? stars (where ? is equal to the value of the corresponding depleted pile) to the player who destroyed the most cards.

• Gain 2 stars for each Hourglass that you have.

• Gain 1 star for each Tart that you have.

For all tiles, ties are broken in favor of the player with the Pink Flamingo.

Reminder: Only the Objectives above depleted piles are scored at the end of the game.

Credits

Tea for 2 is a game published by SPACE Cowboys. Designer: Cédrick Chaboussit. Artist: Amandine Dugon. ©2021 SPACE Cowboys. All rights reserved.