Tea Garden: Puerh
Tea Garden: Puerh Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Puerh - The Noble Court
Game Components
- 1 Noble Court board
- 24 Basic Puerh tokens (green central circle)
- 24 Premium Puerh tokens (beige central circle)
- 16 Courtier figures in 4 colours (4 for each player)
- 15 Hall tiles
- 7 Imperial Decree tiles (double-sided)
- 2 Region Bonus tokens
- 8 Caravan cards (4 basic - orange, and 4 advanced - blue) marked with the expansion symbol at the top of the card
- 1 Emperor card marked with the expansion symbol at the top of the card
- 4 Player board extensions
- 12 Overview cards (6 cards in English and 6 in German)
- 16 Worker figures in 4 colours (4 for each player)
Game Setup
- Follow the base game setup rules. Shuffle the two new Region Bonus tokens among the ones from the base game, then randomly place them on the designated spaces on the game board following the standard setup rules. Shuffle the Caravan cards marked with the expansion symbol into the respective Caravan decks according to their type. Likewise, shuffle the Emperor card marked with the expansion symbol into the Emperor deck.
- Place the Noble Court board near the game board. Sort the Puerh tokens into two piles based on the colour of their central circle – Basic (green) and Premium (beige). Draw 3 Puerh tokens from each pile at random and place them on the designated spaces of the Noble Court board. For the Premium Puerh tokens, use the side with the red field. Place the piles of the remaining Basic and Premium Puerh tokens next to the board.
- Shuffle the Hall tiles and create a deck, reveal 2 tiles (for a 1–2 player game) or 3 tiles (for a 3–4 player game) and place them on the Noble Court board. Make a draw deck out of the remaining tiles and place it face-down next to the board.
- Shuffle the Imperial Decree tiles and randomly place two face-up (side with brown border) and two face-down (side with red border) on the designated spaces on the Noble Court board. Return the remaining Imperial Decree tiles to the box.
- Each player takes a player board extension and attaches it to the right of their standard player board. Next, each player takes 4 Courtier figures in their colour, placing two of them on their player board extension and the other two on the designated spaces on the Noble Court board.
Noble Court Board Anatomy
The Noble Court board is divided into five sections:
- Imperial Decree Area – contains scoring conditions that players can fulfil.
- Noble Court Halls – used for performing the Noble Court main action.
- Premium Puerh Market – where Premium Puerh tokens are purchased.
- Basic Puerh Storage – where Basic Puerh tokens are acquired.
- Waiting Courtiers – holds Courtiers waiting to be placed.
Course of the Game
When playing Tea Garden with the Puerh - The Noble Court expansion, follow the base game rules. This expansion introduces two new main actions – Noble Court and Puerh Market – and adds the option to fulfil Imperial Decrees. The player board extension grants each player one extra turn per round, which must be paid for in the same way as for the fourth turn on the standard player board.
Main Actions
The expansion adds two new main actions. Instead of choosing from five main actions, players now have seven options. In addition to the standard actions, players can choose one of the following:
1) Noble Court
When a player chooses the Noble Court action, they take one of their Courtier figures from their player board extension and place it on a designated square space below a Hall tile of their choice. The Courtier can only be placed on a space with strength equal to or lower than the strength of the cards the player has just played. Upon placement, the player may immediately perform the action and gain the bonuses displayed on the selected Hall tile. These actions and bonuses may be resolved in any order. A player may place multiple Courtiers below the same Hall tile, but each placement requires performing the Noble Court action again.
At the start of the game, each player has two Courtier figures at their disposal. They can gain two additional Courtiers by fulfilling Imperial Decrees (see Imperial Decrees section).
Resolving Halls
At the end of each round, during the Maintenance Phase, Victory Points are awarded in each Hall on the Noble Court board. The player with the highest total strength on occupied spaces below a given Hall tile gains 5 Victory Points. The player with the second-highest strength gains 2 Victory Points. In case of a tie, the player whose Courtier is on a higher-value space (i.e. the leftmost occupied space of the given Hall) wins the tie. After scoring, players take back their Courtier figures from all Halls and return them to their player board extensions, ready for use in the next round.
At the end of each round, remove the Hall tiles from the game board and replace them with new ones according to the number of players.
Example (image on page 4): Charles (pink) played the main action, Noble Court, twice this round, placing his Courtiers on spaces with strengths of 4 and 2 (based on the strength of the cards played that turn). Anna (green) played the Noble Court action only once, but since her total card strength was 6, she placed her Courtier on the 6-value space under the same Hall tile as Charles. During the Maintenance Phase, when each Hall is evaluated, Anna earns 5 Victory Points from this Hall tile, while Charles earns 2 Victory Points. Although their total strengths were the same, Anna's Courtier was placed further to the left, securing her victory in this Hall.
Examples of Hall Tile Effects
- Perform any secondary action.
- Gain one fresh Tea Leaf of the corresponding Region's quality for each of your Tea Gardens on the board.
- Perform the secondary action depicted on the Hall tile.
- Take any Basic Puerh token from the Storage and 1 scroll token.
2) Puerh Market
Puerh is a traditional Chinese tea from the Yunnan province, known for its post-fermentation process. It has a distinct earthy flavour and beneficial effects on the human body. It matures over time, but can also be consumed as a young tea. Traditionally, it is pressed into cake-like shapes – just like in the game, where a complete set of Puerh tokens forms a full tea cake.
There are two types of Puerh tokens in the game:
Basic Puerh – Can be obtained from the Basic Puerh Storage on the Noble Court board, through various bonuses and effects in the game. These tokens are free and do not require using a main action.
Premium Puerh – When performing the Puerh Market main action, a player may purchase 1 to 3 Premium Puerh tokens. The number of tokens they can purchase depends on the strength of the cards they played (1 strength = 1 token, 3 strength = 2 tokens, 5 strength = 3 tokens). The player must pay the cost indicated in the red field on each Puerh token they wish to purchase. Once placed, Premium Puerh tokens should be flipped to the side without a depicted cost, as their purchase price is no longer relevant.
The goal is to strategically assemble Puerh tokens, gain their immediate bonuses, and score as many Victory Points as possible for completed Puerh tea cakes at the end of the game.
Placing a Puerh Token
After purchasing a Premium Puerh token or gaining a Basic Puerh token, the player has two options:
- To place the new token in their play area and gain the bonus shown in the middle of the Puerh token's brown outer circle.
Example (image on page 5): As his main action, Charles builds a Tea Garden. That grants him a Basic Puerh token as a Region Bonus. He then places the Basic Puerh token in his play area next to his player board and immediately gains its bonus – one fresh Tea Leaf of quality 1.
- To connect a Puerh token to one (or two) already placed. Every time a player does so, they gain bonuses from all the tokens forming the new, expanded Puerh set (a complete Puerh tea cake consists of 3 tokens). However, it is not possible to connect two Puerh tokens acquired on the same turn.
Example (images on page 6): Charles performs a Puerh Market action with a strength of 3. He purchases two Puerh tokens and pays the cost shown in the red field – 3 fresh Tea Leaves and 2 fermented Tea Leaves. He places one purchased Puerh token next to two previously connected Puerh tokens, completing a tea cake and gaining all bonuses from the three connected tokens: an Emperor token, the option to draw and discard a card, and Fermentation of 1 Tea Leaf. He places the second Puerh token in his play area separately and receives its individual bonus – 2 fresh Tea Leaves of quality 1.
Basic and Premium Puerh tokens can be combined, meaning players may connect tokens of both types. Once three Puerh tokens are connected, they form a complete Puerh tea cake, which earns the player Victory Points at the end of the game.
After a Puerh token is taken from the Market or Storage, immediately refill the supply with a new Puerh token from the corresponding pile.
Scoring Puerh Tokens
At the end of the game, each player tallies their Victory Points for every completed Puerh tea cake (a full set of 3 connected Puerh tokens) as follows: Multiply the number of stars on the Puerh by the Victory Points shown in its centre. If a completed Puerh does not have any stars or point values, it does not earn the player Victory Points.
Example (image on page 6): At the end of the game, Anna has two Puerh tea cakes in front of her, but only one of them is complete. She gains no points for the incomplete Puerh set. For the completed Puerh tea cake, she scores 15 Victory Points because it has 3 stars and a value of 5 points (3×5 = 15 points).
Imperial Decrees
The left section of the Noble Court board allows players to fulfil Imperial Decrees, which then earns them additional Victory Points. Whenever a player meets an Imperial Decree condition, they place one of their worker figures on any available space on the corresponding Imperial Decree tile. Each space shows a Victory Point value that the player adds to their score at the end of a game. Additionally, when a player fulfils an Imperial Decree, they gain a Courtier figure in their colour, which they may then use when performing the Noble Court main action. This way, a player may gain up to 2 additional Courtiers.
The side with the red border of an Imperial Decree presents a more difficult challenge, but offers higher rewards. The side with brown border offers an easier challenge, but awards fewer Victory Points. Imperial Decree tiles remain on the board for the entire game and do not change. Players may fulfil any number of Decrees, but only the first two players to fulfil the Decree receive Victory Points. Each player may fulfil each Imperial Decree only once.
Explanation of Imperial Decrees
Each Imperial Decree is shown with two versions (brown border and red border), each depicted by the icons below:
- River segment – The first two players to reach a designated River segment gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Emperor track – The first two players to reach a designated space on the Emperor track gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Tea University – The first two players to place 1/2 worker(s) in the centre of the Tea University gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Tea Gardens – The first two players to build the required number of Tea Gardens (4× or 5×) gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Caravan cards – The first two players to acquire the required number of Caravan cards (3× or 5×) gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Cup tiles – The first two players to acquire the required number of Cup tiles (4× or 7×) gain Victory Points according to the order of completion.
- Puerh tea cakes – The first two players to complete the required number of Puerh tea cakes (1× or 2×) gain Victory Points according to the order of completion (both Basic and Premium Puerhs count).
Emperor Card Scoring
At the end of the game, this Emperor card grants 5 Victory Points for each completed Puerh tea cake, up to a maximum of 4 Puerh tea cakes.
Solo Mode
Lu Yu was a pioneer in tea cultivation and a true master of tea preparation. Known as the "Sage of Tea", he is the author of The Classic of Tea – a book dedicated to both the cultivation and preparation of this revered beverage. Now you can test your skills against this legendary tea master. Will you be able to surpass him?
The Solo Mode for Tea Garden can be played with the base game alone or together with the Puerh expansion.
Game Components
- 24 Lu Yu cards: 3 Basic cards, 3 Expert cards, 18 Advanced cards
- 1 Lu Yu player board
- 1 Lu Yu Emperor scoring card
Game Objective
The solo game objective is to score more Victory Points than Lu Yu, the tea master. Lu Yu plays automatically using cards from his deck, which he upgrades throughout the game. The player plays in the same way as in a standard multiplayer game.
Game Setup
Set up the base game as if playing a regular 2-player game.
For Lu Yu, instead of a standard player board, prepare his special Lu Yu player board. Select a player colour for Lu Yu and prepare the corresponding components: Tea Gardens, Worker figures, Boat and a Victory Point marker. Lu Yu also receives 2 fresh Tea Leaves, which should be placed in his Basket.
If playing with the Puerh expansion, prepare Lu Yu's player board extension and 4 Courtier figures. Place Lu Yu's emperor scoring card next to the Emperor track.
Sort Lu Yu's cards into Basic, Expert, and Advanced cards. Shuffle the Expert and Advanced cards separately. Take 3 Basic cards and draw 3 random Advanced cards. Sort the remaining Advanced cards based on the secondary action symbols on their backs and shuffle each pile separately. These three piles form the supply of Advanced cards for Master Lu Yu.
Now, decide on the difficulty level you wish to play and prepare the cards according to the table below. Use the corresponding number of randomly selected Expert cards in the game.
| Number of Expert cards | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| 0 | easy |
| 1 | medium |
| 2 | hard |
| 3 | expert |
Shuffle all the selected cards (3 Basic, 3 Advanced, and the chosen number of Expert cards) together and place them face-down to the left of Lu Yu's player board. This is Lu Yu's draw deck.
Course of the Game
Decide whether you want to start or to let Lu Yu take the first turn.
Lu Yu's Turn
- Reveal a card.
- Perform main and secondary actions from top to bottom.
- Check the fulfillment of Imperial Decrees (if playing with the Puerh expansion).
The player follows the standard turn procedure. When it is Lu Yu's turn, flip the top card from Lu Yu's draw deck and place it face-up in the leftmost available space below Lu Yu's player board. Lu Yu fills the available spaces from left to right. If the designated space requires Tea Leaf payment, Lu Yu will pay it. If Lu Yu does not have the required Tea Leaves to play a card in the designated space, he cannot play the card, must pass, and will not participate in the rest of this round.
The just revealed card shows which main and secondary actions Lu Yu will perform. Perform these actions for Lu Yu from top to bottom. Any effect shown to the right of a slash is performed only if the corresponding action to the left cannot be completed. The topmost card of Lu Yu's draw deck also indicates the strength of his main action and specifies his decisions (e.g. which Tea Garden to build, which Cup tile to choose).
Lu Yu never takes any bonuses or resources from the game board.
If playing with the Puerh expansion, after Lu Yu's turn, check if he has completed any Imperial Decrees. If he has, place one of his Worker figures on the appropriate Imperial Decree tile. He will receive his waiting Courtier figure from the Noble Court board.
Lu Yu's Cards
- Front: (1) Main action; (2) Secondary action; (3) Effect if corresponding action cannot be completed.
- Back: (1) Strength of a main action; (2) Indicator for Secondary action; (3) Additional indicators for resolving the actions from the revealed card.
Explanation of Lu Yu's Actions
- Building a Tea Garden – Lu Yu builds a Tea Garden. For this action, the played strength is irrelevant. The tea master builds the Tea Garden in the highest quality neighbouring Region. If multiple Regions meet this condition, he will choose based on the bonus priority shown on the topmost card of his draw deck. Lu Yu does not obtain any Region bonus or Victory Points indicated on the game board, but he places the Tea Garden on the highest Victory Point space available in that Region. If no space is available in any of the adjacent regions, Lu Yu performs the effect shown after the slash instead.
- Buying an Action card – Lu Yu takes a card from the Action card display. Which card he chooses depends on the total strength of his cards: If the total strength is 1, he takes the card from the second column (with the strength 1). Gained cards are placed in Lu Yu's Action card discard pile. Lu Yu never plays these cards. However, he scores Victory Points for them at the end of the game.
- Caravans – Lu Yu takes the Caravan card located in the designated space – green position – in the display. (This information is shown on the topmost card of his draw deck.) He neither pays for it nor requires certain strength for this action. He takes the card and places it on his Caravan card discard pile. Lu Yu does not gain any bonuses from Caravan cards; he only scores 5 Victory Points for each Caravan card at the end of the game.
Secondary Actions
Lu Yu performs the secondary action shown on the topmost card of his draw deck.
- Tea Studies at University – Lu Yu moves one of his Worker figures to the next University sector (quarter). It does not matter which part of the sector it is, as Lu Yu does not gain any bonuses there – only Victory Points at the end of the game.
- Cup Production – Lu Yu takes a Cup tile from the Province in which he has built a Tea Garden. He selects a tile that can connect to his existing tiles via a matching colour connection. If multiple options exist, Lu Yu chooses the tile from the Province that appears highest on the coloured priority scale on his topmost draw deck card. If he cannot connect any tile based on its colour, he will choose according to the priority of Province colours, too. Lu Yu always has only one line of Cup tiles, and never places Cup tokens on his Cup tiles and does not gain any bonuses from them – he only scores Victory Points for same-colour Cup connections at the end of the game.
- River Navigation – Lu Yu moves his Boat forward by one River segment. He gains no bonuses for this action, but scores Victory Points at the end of the game based on his Boat's position.
Free Actions
- Gaining an Advanced Lu Yu card – Lu Yu takes the topmost Advanced card from the pile with a symbol corresponding to the secondary action shown on his topmost draw deck card. Place the gained card on top of Lu Yu's draw deck.
- Advancing on the Emperor track – If Lu Yu has 2 Emperor tokens, he discards them to move one space up the Emperor track and removes the Emperor card depicted in the space designated on the topmost card of his draw deck. For this, he pays nothing more than the two Emperor tokens and gains nothing apart from the removal of the corresponding Emperor card. A new Emperor card is then revealed in its place.
If you are playing the solo variant without the Puerh expansion and Master Lu Yu is supposed to perform an action from the expansion, ignore this action and instead perform the effect after the slash in the given row.
Explanation of Lu Yu's Action When Playing with the Puerh Expansion
- Noble Court – Lu Yu places his Courtier figure on the Noble Court board. The Hall into which he places the figure is determined by the topmost card of Lu Yu's draw deck and the total strength of the action (consisting of the value indicated next to the Noble Court action symbol and the strength value in the upper-left corner of the topmost card of Lu Yu's draw deck). Lu Yu places his Courtier figure on a space with the same or lower strength. If all such spaces of the given Hall tile are occupied, he then places his Courtier in the second Hall tile according to the priority on the card. If all options are full, Lu Yu gains the effect after the slash. Lu Yu does not gain any bonuses from Hall tiles, only Victory Points at the end of the round.
- Puerh Market – From the designated spaces on the Market, Lu Yu gains between 1 and 3 Premium Puerh tokens according to the strength of the played main action. (Add the strength from the topmost card of his draw deck to the strength next to the main action icon on the revealed card.) He takes the Puerh tokens according to the order shown on his topmost draw deck card. Lu Yu does not pay for Puerh tokens, nor does he gain bonuses from them. He automatically places the Puerh tokens following the order in which they were acquired. The rule that prevents placing Puerhs gained from the same action together does not apply to him. At the end of the game, Lu Yu gains Victory Points for both completed and incomplete Puerhs (see End of the game scoring 8. and 9.).
Example of Master Lu Yu's Turn
Example (images on page 11): You reveal this card of Master Lu Yu. The card is resolved step by step from top to bottom. First, Lu Yu gains 2 fresh Tea Leaves and performs the Caravan main action. The card he gains is determined by the illustration on the topmost card of his draw deck. In this case, Lu Yu gains the card furthest to the right and places it on his Caravan card discard pile next to his game board. Then, he ferments 2 Tea Leaves and performs the River Navigation secondary action. He moves his Boat forward by one segment (without gaining any bonuses). If Master Lu Yu had 3 fermented Tea Leaves, he could have performed this secondary action again, but he only has 2, so he can't. Since Lu Yu has 2 Emperor tokens, he pays them and moves up one space on the Emperor track. He removes one Emperor card from the game, in this case the card furthest to the right. This concludes Lu Yu's turn, and it's time for the player's turn.
Maintenance Phase
During the Maintenance Phase, Lu Yu gains Tea Leaves from his Tea Gardens: 2 fresh Tea Leaves for each of his Tea Gardens on the board. Tea Leaf quality is not important.
At the end of the round, shuffle all of Lu Yu's played cards and place them at the bottom of his draw deck.
End of the Game
The game ends after 5 rounds. The player scores Victory Points according to the standard rules. Lu Yu scores Victory Points as follows:
- Victory Points for Action cards – according to the standard rules.
- Victory Points for River Navigation – according to the standard rules.
- Victory Points for Tea Studies – according to the standard rules.
- Victory Points for Cup Production – according to the standard rules.
- 5 Victory Points for each Caravan card.
- 1 Victory Point for every 2 fresh Tea Leaves and 1 Victory Point per fermented Tea Leaf.
- Victory Points for the highest space reached on the Emperor track according to the following table:
| Emperor track space | Victory Points |
|---|---|
| 6 | 45 |
| 5 | 35 |
| 4 | 26 |
| 3 | 18 |
| 2 | 11 |
| 1 | 5 |
If playing with the Puerh expansion, Lu Yu also scores:
- 10 Victory Points for each completed Puerh tea cake.
- 5 Victory Points for each incomplete Puerh tea cake.
- The corresponding number of Victory Points for each fulfilled Imperial Decree.