The Golden Wilderness
The Golden Wilderness Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Beginner Rules
Start with pioneers coming to California.
With a few pioneers and a little money, you set sail for California, a vast wilderness at the far edge of the world. Your goal is to become the wealthiest landowner in the colony.
We start with the beginner rules, a simple introduction to the game. Try them for a game or two, and when you're ready for more, move on to the next level.
Unending Decks — In this game, each deck of cards has two stacks: a stack to draw from and a stack to discard to. Whenever the draw stack runs out of cards, shuffle the discard stack and make it the new draw stack.
Setup
Follow the steps below to set up the game.* You may find it helpful for one player to be a banker in charge of handing out money and cards during the game.
Board Tiles — Choose ten tiles and put them together as the board. Make sure at least one tile on the board has a coastline.
Pioneer Cards — People immigrating to California are represented by pioneer cards. Shuffle the pioneer cards, then put them face down in a stack. This is the pioneer draw stack. Leave a space next to it for discarded pioneers. Each player starts with one pioneer in their hand.
Immigrant Pool — New pioneers on their way to California go face down on the immigrant pool card. Put it next to the stack of pioneers.
* Some of the components aren't described here; they're for the more advanced rules.
Money — The local currency is the Spanish peso ($).* Each player starts with ten pesos.
* That's not a mistake — the Spanish peso uses the same symbol as the US dollar.
Settlements — A house on the board represents a settlement in California. Each player chooses a color and takes all the markers of that color.
Industry Cards — You can see what someone produces by the industry cards they have. Find all the industry cards with one pioneer icon on them: farmland-hides, plains-hides, forest-wood, and sierra-wood. Put them in separate stacks, face up.
Event Cards — Events that happen during the game are represented by event cards. Take the two event cards labeled Immigrants and Taxes. Add in the market cards labeled coast. Shuffle these four cards and put them face down on the table. This is the event draw stack. Leave a space next to it for discarded event cards.
Country Cards — Other versions of the rules have multiple countries. Find the country card labeled Beginner and put it out; that's the only one we'll need for now.
Keeping Score — Get a pen and a piece of paper for keeping score.
Each pioneer card has a pair of years on it, showing when that person was born and when they died. For example, Jedediah Smith lived from 1799 to 1831.
Whoever has the pioneer born in the earliest year gets to take their turn first. Play proceeds to the left.
On Your Turn
On your turn you can build settlements (to make money) and buy points (to win the game).* At the end of your turn you must play an event card.
* These are both optional; you can do them in any order, as many times as you like, if you can afford to.
Building Settlements — You can use a pioneer card in your hand to build a settlement on an empty tile. The tile must be on the coast or adjacent to any inhabited tile. Put the pioneer face up on the pioneer discard stack and put a settlement of your color on the tile.† There can only be one settlement on a tile.
† Remember that you may settle pioneers as many times as you like during your turn. In the beginner rules, the text on a pioneer card doesn't matter; all pioneers are considered exactly the same.
Terrain — Different parts of California have different terrain. The appearance of a tile tells you which terrain it is. Plains are light brown, farmland is light green, deserts are white, forests are green, and sierras are grey.
Terrain tiles shown: plains, farmland, desert, forest, sierra.
Industry — When you have a settlement in a certain type of terrain, you need to have an industry card to show what people produce there. If you don't have an industry card for that terrain, take one and put it on the table in front of you so everyone can see it. For example, if you're building your first settlement in the plains, take a plains industry card and put it in front of you.‡
Industry cards don't cost anything, they're just an indicator to show what your settlements produce. If you have any settlements in the plains, you will have a plains industry card; if you have any in the forest, you will have a forest industry card; and so on.
‡ You can't build a settlement in a terrain that has no industry card, which is why no pioneers settle in the desert — there's no way to make a living there.
Buying Points — On your turn, you can spend pesos to gain points. Mark down one point for each peso you spend this way. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
Events — At the end of your turn an event happens. Take two cards from the event draw stack; you get to choose which one happens. Place the one you don't want back on the draw stack, face down. Place the one you do want face up on the event discard stack and see what happens:
Immigrants Event — Take two pioneers from the pioneer stack and place them on the immigrant pool, face down. Any time there are at least as many pioneers in the pool as there are players in the game, all the cards in the pool get picked up. If it's your turn, you take one first. The player to your left takes one next, and so on, proceeding to the left, until the immigrant pool is empty.
Market Events — When the coast market card is played, a market event happens, allowing settlements to sell the products they produce. Choose a coastal tile for the market to happen on and a product (such as hides or wood) for the market to buy.
If there's a settlement on that tile, you'll need to see what they produce. The color of the settlement tells you whose it is. The color of the tile tells you which of their industry cards to check. The industry card tells you what that settlement produces.
If that settlement produces the product you chose, the player who owns the settlement collects $3.* This price comes from the Beginner country card which is sitting out on the table for reference.
Illustration: a Coast market card, plus a tile with a settlement on it, plus a WOOD industry card, equals the Coast market paying $3 wood and $3 hides.
* If the tile you chose doesn't produce the product you chose, pick a different tile and/or a different product. When a market card comes up, someone has to get paid, if at all possible.
Taxes Event — This card has two results: everyone collects $3 from the bank, then you check if the game ends.
End of the Game
When the Taxes event happens, if all tiles (except deserts) have settlements on them, the game ends.* At the end of the game each player collects additional points:
- Add five points for each tile with a settlement of their color.
- Subtract two points for each pioneer they have in their hand.
The winner is the player with the most points.
* Depending how the board is set up, you could have a tile cut off from the rest of the board by a desert. Since you can only settle a tile on the coast or adjacent to a settled tile, you could have a tile that can never be settled because it is unreachable beyond a desert. Such a tile does not have to be settled for the game to end.
After the Beginner Rules
Now that you've played a game with the beginner rules, here are a few things that change in the next ruleset:
- Where you settle makes a difference.
- Tiles offer multiple industries, so industry cards become important.
- Winning isn't just a matter of luck.
Easy Rules
Develop the local economy.
California is a place rich in natural resources, drawing pioneers from all over the world. Develop the local industries to become the wealthiest landowner in the colony.
Now that you've tried the beginner rules, you know the basics of the game. The easy rules add depth to the economy of California: roads, cities, and new industries. All of the beginner rules still apply, unless contradicted by one of the rules here.
Setup
Board Tiles — Use all 38 tiles to make the board. You can set them up like the actual shape of California (see A Rough Map of California on page 8) or you can assemble them however you like.
[Map: A Rough Map of California, page 8 of the source. The map is a picture of California's coast and inland towns (Mendocino, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego and others) and is not reproduced here.]
Pioneers & Pesos — Each player starts with one pioneer and ten pesos.
City & Road Markers — Set all five city markers out on the table. (For a faster game, start with only three city markers.) Set out all the road markers.
Industry Cards — Get out all the industry cards this time.
Event Cards — Use these two event cards: Immigrants and Taxes. Find the market cards labeled coast and city. Shuffle the two coast markets into the event deck. There aren't any cities in the game yet, so put the city markets aside with the city markers.
Country Cards — Using a different country card changes many factors in the game: how many immigrants come out, what taxes are collected, how much different markets pay, etc. This time we'll be using the Easy country card.
Gold Rush — Put the Gold Rush card next to the sierra-gold industry cards.
On Your Turn
These actions are optional, you can do them in any order, and you can do them as many times as you like (if possible):
- Build a settlement.
- Change from one industry to another.
- Found a city.
- Build a road.
- Trade with other players.
- Buy points.
At the very end of your turn you must play an event card. As soon as you've played an event card, your turn is over.
Building a Settlement — You can build a settlement on any tile that is: on the coast, adjacent to a settlement, adjacent to a city, or with a road connecting it to any of those three (coast, settlement, or city).
Population — Each tile has a certain amount of population. Uninhabited tiles have zero population. Cities have a population of five (see Founding Cities on page 11). A tile with a settlement has a population somewhere in between, based on the cost of its industry.
In the beginner rules, all industries had a cost-per-settlement of one pioneer, and therefore, tiles with those industries had a population of one. In these rules we introduce industries that have higher costs.
For example, the farmland-wine industry has a cost-per-settlement of three pioneers. If you have this industry card, your farmland tiles each have a population of three; building a settlement on a farmland tile will cost you three pioneers.
Changing Industries — When you change from one industry to another (for a given terrain type), the population on your tiles (of that terrain) has to go up. To go up in population, you spend pioneers.*
For example, a plains tile that produces hides has a population of one. If you want your plains to produce corn, that requires a population of two. You'll need to spend one more pioneer for each plains tile you have.
When you change industries, you change industry cards. You can only have one industry at a time (for any given terrain). For example, you could have farmland-hides and plains-corn industries at the same time (because they're for different terrain types) but you couldn't have farmland-hides and farmland-corn at the same time.
The sierra-gold industry card has a note on it that says "Play Gold Rush." When someone first takes a sierra-gold card, the Gold Rush begins. Set the Gold Rush card next to the Easy country card. Each time Immigrants is played, there will be additional pioneers showing up.
* Population can only go up. You can't change from (say) plains-corn to plains-hides.
Founding Cities — When enough people arrive at a settlement it becomes a city and is no longer under a player's control. Cities provide a place to sell products (see Market Locations on page 13).
You can turn one of your settlements into a city by spending pioneers.† Check the cost of that tile's industry — that's the current population of the tile. The population of a city is five. Spend the difference in pioneers, and the tile becomes a city. Replace the settlement with a city marker. If there are no more city markers, you can't found a city.
For example, if you have the farmlands-corn industry card, each of your farmlands tiles has a population of two. Spend three pioneers, and you can change one of your farmlands into a city.‡
When you found a city, you gain $20 from the bank. This represents selling your land to the new city dwellers. Put a city market card on top of the event discard stack so it can get shuffled into the event deck later.
† This means you can't found a city in the desert.
‡ This changes one of your farmlands into a city, not all of your farmlands.
Building Roads — Roads connect tiles together, allowing you to reach markets beyond a single tile (see Markets and Roads on page 13). When you place a road marker on the board it lays across the border between two tiles.
A road crossing a mountainous border costs $5. A road across any other land border costs $2. A road across a sea border costs $5, representing a ferry route.
Road examples: lowland road: $2; mountain road: $5; sea route: $5.
Trading — At any time you can trade with other players. You can trade settlements on the board, money, and pioneers.* When you give a settlement to another player, both of you have to have the same industry card for that terrain type.
* You can make any agreements you like, but these are not enforced by the rules of the game.
Events — Notice how the Taxes card doesn't say how much to collect in taxes, nor does the Immigrants card say how many immigrants are added to the pool? This is where you refer to the country card. The country card sets the level of taxation, the rate of immigration, and the prices of the different markets.†
† In the easy rules we use one country card all the time, but in the advanced rules the country can change.
Markets and Roads — In the beginner rules, only a single tile could participate in a market. Roads allow more tiles to participate in a market, but at a cost of $1 per step of road traveled.
For example, if you play a coast market for hides on one tile, it pays $3 to whoever produces hides there. Let's say there are two roads connecting this tile to adjacent ones. In those adjacent tiles, this market pays $2 to anyone producing hides there. Let's say one of those tiles has a road connecting to a further tile. In that tile, the market pays $1 for hides. Beyond that, the market wouldn't pay anything.
When you choose a tile for a market, it has to be one where somebody gets paid, if possible. Generally you'll want to choose the tile where you make more money than your neighbors.
Market diagram: a market on one tile pays $3; the connected tiles pay $2, $2 and $1 along the road, with $0 on the tile beyond.
Market Locations — A market card pays for a particular product in a particular location. The location could either be on the coast or in a city, depending on which market card it is. When you play a coast market card, choose a coastal tile for the market to happen at. When you play a city market card, choose a tile with a city on it.
End of the Game
The game ends when the Taxes event card is played and all five cities are placed on the board. (For a shorter game, use only three cities.)
After the Easy Rules
In the next ruleset, California becomes a wilder and more dangerous place.
- The land is not fully known when you begin to settle.
- Pioneers get to use their special abilities.
- California is already inhabited when your pioneers arrive.
- Pioneers are joined by soldiers and priests.
Standard Rules
Explore the land and face dangers.
Beyond the Ocean Sea, on the far side of the New World, California lies just beyond the lands known to the Spanish Empire. Explore this golden country, hoping for prosperity but ready for danger.
In the standard rules, pioneers are no longer the only people in the game. Priests come to convert the lost. Soldiers come to defend the colony. California Indians inhabit the land before the new colonists arrive.
Setup
Board Tiles — Set out the cards Coastal Tiles and Inland Tiles. Sort the board tiles into coastal and inland stacks. Shuffle the coastal tiles and put them face down on the Coastal Tiles card. Do likewise with the inland tiles.
Country Card — If this is your first time with the standard rules, we recommend the Standard country card. Otherwise, feel free to try any country card you like.
People Cards — There are four decks of people cards: pioneers, priests, soldiers, and indians. Shuffle each deck and set it face down on the table. Each player starts with whatever the country card adds during the Immigrants event.*
* For example, if you're using the Standard country card, each player starts the game with two pioneers, two soldiers, and one priest.
Markers — Get out markers for roads, cities, presidios, and missions. (For a shorter game, use only 5 cities, 5 presidios, and 5 missions.)
Other Cards — Get out the industry cards and all the market cards. Use these cards as the event deck: Immigrants, Taxes, Neophytes, both coast markets. Put the city markets with the cities and the presidio market with the presidios.
Money — Each player starts with ten pesos.
On Your Turn
There are only a few new actions in the standard rules: building missions, building presidios, and playing a person card for an ability.
Icons — People cards have icons on them: pioneer, priest, and soldier icons. These icons are like special types of currency that you can spend to do things. For example, building a hides-producing settlement costs one pioneer icon. If you play a card with a single pioneer icon, you can build one hides-producing settlement.*
There are two other types of icons: priest and soldier icons. Priests generally provide priest icons, which are used for building missions and converting the locals; soldiers provide soldier icons, used for building presidios and defending against attacks (see Missions and Presidios on page 15).
* In the easy rules, we assumed that one pioneer card always equalled one pioneer icon, which is why we never talked about priest or soldier icons. This is true for most pioneers; Cornelio Avila, for example, has one pioneer icon, so he could be used to add one population to a tile.
A few pioneer cards are different. For example, John Augustus Sutter has two pioneer icons. When you play this card, you get two pioneer icons to spend. You could raise one tile's population by two, or you could raise two tiles' population by one each.
If you play a card with multiple icons (like Sutter) you don't have to use all of them, or even any of them. You could play Sutter and only use one pioneer icon if you chose.
Missions and Presidios — A mission is a place where you can recruit the local California Indians to farm the land. Spend a priest icon and $5 to build one.
A presidio is a fort that defends the surrounding countryside from attacks. Spend two soldier icons and $5 to build one.
You can build a presidio or a mission on your own tile, an empty tile, or a tile where you have the owner's permission. A tile can only have a presidio or a mission, it can't have both.
Abilities
Many people cards have special abilities. Instead of using the icons on the card, you can use the card for its ability.* Each ability is divided into two parts: the cost of using the ability and the effect the ability has. There are four kinds of costs: an eye symbol means you show the card to everyone, a card symbol means you discard it, a trash can symbol means you trash it — that is, you remove it from the game entirely, and a cost in pesos means you spend that many pesos to use the ability.†
Supporting a country and voting are not used until the advanced rules.
* You can only use an ability if it will affect the game. For example, Cabrillo can explore four coastal tiles. You could use this ability if there were only two coastal tiles remaining, since it would have the effect of exploring two tiles, but you couldn't use this ability if there were no coastal tiles left to be explored, since it would have no effect.
† A few people cards have more than one ability with the same cost. For example, Mariano Vallejo can be discarded either to take the top Indian discard or to build a presidio.
If the cost of an ability is simply spending pesos, you can spend that many pesos multiple times to use the ability multiple times.
The icons on a card (pioneer, priest, soldier) are just like an ability — if you discard a card to use its icons you cannot use a discard ability at the same time.
Exploring — Exploring abilities let you draw tiles from a certain stack and connect them to the board. Let's say you play Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, using his ability "$5: Explore four coastal tiles." Draw the top four coastal tiles. Add them to the board anywhere you like, so long as the entire coastline stays connected.‡ If you have a tile that can't connect anywhere, discard it and draw another.
‡ If you're placing a coastal tile and it cannot attach to the existing coastline, you may either discard it and draw again, or place it anywhere you like.
Attacking — Some people cards let you attack things: settlements, missions, and presidios. If you successfully attack something, it gets removed from the board.
Presidios protect the tile they're on and all adjacent tiles. You can't attack anything that is protected by a presidio.§
§ This means that a presidio next to another presidio can't be attacked by anything at all.
When someone attacks something on your tile, you can play cards to gain soldier icons. One soldier icon is enough to defend, and the attack fails.
When you attack someone else, you can spend soldier icons to strengthen the attack. For each soldier icon you add to the attack, they would have to spend one soldier icon to defeat it. You don't have to spend all these soldier icons up front. You can wait and see what the defender plays, then add more soldier icons to the attack. They might respond by adding soldier icons to their defense, then you might strengthen your attack, and so on.
For example, let's say you play Hippolyte de Bouchard to attack your opponent's presidio, and you play José de Zúñiga to add a soldier icon to the attack. The attack has a strength of two. Your opponent now has the opportunity to play cards to try and defend. If they play cards for two soldier icons or more, the attack fails. Otherwise the attack succeeds, and the presidio is removed.
Affecting Discarded Cards
A few cards have the ability to affect the top card of a discard stack. When you use this ability, it applies to the card already on top of the discard stack, not the person card you're using. The Ohlone, for example, do not pick themselves up.
Events
Neophytes — A neophyte is a novice in the Christian faith. When the Neophytes event is played, missions have a chance to convert the local populace. For each mission a player has, they draw a card from the Indian draw stack.
Immigrants — Pioneers, soldiers, and priests can all come into the immigrant pool.* In the easy rules, it didn't matter which immigrant you received, since they were all the same. In the standard rules, players care which immigrant they get. When there are at least as many immigrants as players, each player takes one, starting with the player whose turn it is and proceeding to the left.†
* Be sure to check the country card (and Gold Rush, if it is in play) to see how many of each type of person get added to the immigrant pool.
† When it's your turn to take an immigrant from the pool, you may only look at the backs of them. This lets you choose whether you get, say, a pioneer or a soldier, but it doesn't let you choose which soldier you get.
End of the Game
The game ends when the Taxes card is played and any of the following conditions are met:
- All five cities are on the board.
- All ten presidios are on the board.
- All ten missions are on the board.
For a shorter game, use only five cities, five presidios, and five missions.
After the Standard Rules
In the advanced rules, players have more ability to alter the conditions of the game. Here are a few of the changes:
- Different players have different roles.
- The country governing California can change.
Advanced Rules
Govern California or rebel against authority.
Officers appointed by the king govern the fledgling colony. If their governance is too strict, you can call for an election, or start a revolution.
The advanced rules add politics to the game: roles for players, and different countries to govern California.
Setup
Set out the board tiles, cards, and markers as in the standard rules (see Setup on page 14). Start with the Spain country card face up, but keep the other country cards around as the country can change during the game.
In the advanced rules, players have different roles, represented by role cards. If this is your first time using roles, deal them out randomly. If you're familiar with the roles already, elect a governor* who then auctions off the other roles.
* You are allowed to bid less than zero pesos for a role, meaning that you would receive money from the bank upon winning the auction.
Roles
Governor — You may look at the fronts of cards in the immigrant pool at any time. You may show them to other players if you wish.
Viceroy — As the king's representative in the New World, no one may build a presidio without your approval.
Presiding Father — As the priest in charge of the missions of California, no one may build a mission without your approval. When Immigrants is played, you draw a priest card before cards are placed in the pool.
Newspaper Magnate — As the publisher of a newspaper in California, you can influence public opinion. You may buy extra votes for governor (or extra support for a country) for $5 each.
Military Commandant — When Immigrants is played, you draw a soldier card before cards are placed in the pool.
* Whoever gets the most votes wins, with no minimum threshold. Break ties randomly.
On Your Turn
The advanced rules add two new actions: electing a governor, and changing countries. You can only do one of these once on your turn. If you call for an election or attempt to change countries during your turn, you can't do either of them again until your next turn.
Electing a Governor — On your turn you may call for an election for governor.* All players say who they're voting for. They may also use card abilities that grant them extra votes.†
To win an election, you need more votes than anyone else, and you also need at least as many votes as there are players. If no one meets these criteria, the governor does not change.
If anyone doesn't like the results of the election, they may start a fight (see Fighting over Outcomes on page 21).
Changing Countries — On your turn you may call for a revolution. This works as an election; players say which country they support, using card abilities to gain further support if they so choose.
* Remember, you can't call for an election if you have already done so this turn, or if you have called for a revolution this turn.
† This can be done formally, starting with the player whose turn it is announcing their vote and using abilities for votes, then proceeding around the table to the left until everyone has voted. Cards that can be shown to gain a vote can only be shown once per election. Players may abstain from voting if they so choose.
In order for a different country to take over, that country has to receive more support than any other, and at least as much support as there are players. If anyone doesn't like the results, they may start a fight.
All Roles Change — Once a new country has taken over, all roles change. Everyone turns their role cards in. Elect a new governor (see Electing a Governor on page 20). The new governor picks up the remaining roles and auctions them off in whatever order they choose. Winning bids are paid to the bank, in pesos.*
Neophytes — Two countries (Spain and Russia) allow the Neophytes card. If you draw Neophytes while any other country is in play, remove it from the event deck and draw again. If there are any missions on the board when Spain or Russia comes to power, add Neophytes back in.
Fighting over Outcomes
If you don't like the outcome of an election for governor or for a new country, you can fight. The fight can have one of two results:
- The election is upheld and the new governor/country takes over.
- The election is defeated, the previous governor/country remains in power.
Each side may spend soldier icons in the fight; these may be spent all at once, or added one at a time. Whichever side spends more soldier icons wins. If no one is willing to spend even one soldier icon, there is no fight and the election results stand.
Events
Immigrants — Before putting any cards in the immigrant pool, the presiding father gets to draw a priest and the commandant gets to draw a soldier.
Reference
(Quick-reference card printed at the back of the rulebook.)
Setup
- Board: Stack tiles by inland and coastal. (B/E: Assemble the board first.)
- Event Deck: Immigrants, Taxes, both coast markets.
- Per Player: $10 + what's listed for Immigrants. (B/E: $10 + one pioneer.)
- Country Card: (B) Beginner, (E) Easy, (S) Standard or your choice, (A) Spain.
- Roles (A): Elect governor, they auction off the remaining roles.
- Player with earliest-born card goes first.
On Your Turn
Actions, then play 1 of 2 event cards.
- Build a Settlement: Spend as many pioneer icons as that terrain's industry requires. (B/E: one pioneer = one pioneer icon.)
- Change Industries (E+): New industry costs more than old. Spend difference in cost per tile you have of that terrain.
- Found a City (E+): Spend enough pioneer icons to get your tile's population to 5. Gain $20. Add city market to event discards.
- Build a Road (E+): Across mountains or water: $5. Anywhere else: $2.
- Trade: Settlements of same industry, money, people, roles.
- Points: Buy points ($1 each).
- Buildings (S/A): Mission: $5 + priest icon; presidio: $5 + two soldier icons. One per tile.
- Card (S/A): eye symbol = show; card symbol = discard; trash can symbol = trash; $X = spend X pesos.
- Elect Governor (A): Players vote + play cards for votes. Need majority of votes (and votes ≥ players). Or fight.
- Change Country (A): Like election.
- Fight (A): Spend soldier icons to support elected or incumbent. Majority of soldier icons wins.
Events
- Immigrants: Add to pool. If pool ≥ players, players take till pool is empty. (A: Priest for father, soldier for cmdt.)
- Taxes: All collect taxes. End of game?
- Market: You pick tile and good. Payout drops by $1 per road step.
- Neophytes (S/A): Players draw one Indian card per mission they have.
Roles (A)
- Governor: See fronts of immigrants.
- Viceroy: Approve new presidios.
- Presiding Father: Approve new missions. Draw priest during Immigrants.
- Newspaper: $5: vote or support.
- Commandant: Draw soldier during Immigrants.
End of the Game
- Conditions: Taxes played and any of: all cities, all presidios, or all missions.
- Points: Written points, +5 per settlement, −2 per person card.