The Nacho Incident

The Nacho Incident Rulebook

Table of Contents

Goal

At the end of the game, the player who has earned the most money wins.

Components

Province cards: front: flag; back: 4 food elements with a number
Cantina cards: with the name of the province and a + number
Food cubes: yellow = grain, brown = beans, green = pepper, black = olive, blue = tortillas, purple = onion, white = sour cream, red = salsa

Full component list: 56 smuggler cards, 12 Mountie cards, 12 province cards, 16 cantina cards, 1 rules card, 40 coloured cubes, 8 score cards, 4 warehouse cards, 1 gemstone, 1 end-of-round card.

Setup

Take the set of 8 matching cubes from the bag (depending on the game copy they are either light green or orange). These are the score cubes. Give each player two and put any leftovers aside.
Each player gets two score cards (one for the tens and one for the units). Place the score cubes, one on the "10" and one on the "0", so that you start the game with 10 gold pieces. As you win or lose money you move the score cubes on your score card. If you go above 100 or below zero, just remember it.
Leave the remaining 32 food cubes in the bag. There are four cubes for each of the eight different food elements.
As shown in the diagram at the bottom of page 1 of the manual, place the 4 decks of province cards next to each other and turn the top card of each of these piles face up.
Each player gets a set of 4 cantina cards, one for each province. Lay them next to each other in front of you. It also helps if all players lay them out in the same order as the province cards are laid out.
Each player draws 2 food cubes from the bag and puts them in front of them. This is your food warehouse. Blank cards are provided that can be slid under the cubes, in case this is needed to define the colour better.
Shuffle the smuggler cards and deal 8 cards to each player. (Optionally, players may discard all unwanted smuggler cards and refill their hand to 8 cards.) Place the remaining smugglers in a draw pile, face down.
Shuffle the Mountie cards. Make 3 decks of four cards each, face down. Fan the cards out slightly, so you can see how many cards are in each pile.
Place the "end-of-round card" at the bottom of one of these decks, and then turn the top Mountie card of this deck face up. This deck becomes the "current" deck for the first round.
Give the gemstone to the player who has the most interesting thing in their pocket.

You are ready to begin.

Overview of Play

The Nacho Incident is played in 3 rounds, each of which in turn consists of 4 turns for each player.

Each turn consists of the following steps:

Step 1: Every player chooses a smuggler and reveals their choice simultaneously.
Step 2: Determine the playing order for steps 3 and 4. When it is their turn, players go through steps 3 and 4.
Step 3: Smuggle!
Step 4: Cantinas and arrests.
Step 5: When the round is over, wrap up the round!
Step 6: Get ready for your next turn.

Step 1: Choose a Smuggler

Each player chooses a smuggler card from their hand and places it face down on the table. Smugglers have a province flag, a number, and a gold coin fee that you must pay to hire them. The flag indicates where the smuggler may travel. He may travel directly to the place the card indicates or to a province immediately adjacent to it. Refer to the province cards lying on the table to determine "adjacency". Smugglers with the Alberta or Quebec flag have a choice of 2 destinations, while those with the flag of Ontario or Saskatchewan have three choices. (See the example on page 1.)

The number indicates the smuggler's rank on a scale of 1 to 9. High numbers indicate fast smugglers who are also good cantina keepers, but they charge high fees and tend to attract the men of the law. Low numbers indicate slow, foolish smugglers, who charge little and are usually not noticed by the Mounties.

Step 2: Determine the Playing Order for Steps 3 and 4

Simultaneously turn over the chosen smuggler cards. The player who played the card with the highest number goes through steps 3 and 4 first. Continue like this until everyone has had a turn. When equal cards are played, look at who has the gemstone. The player with the stone has priority and plays first. Going clockwise from the player with the stone, priority decreases the further away someone sits from the person with the stone.

Example: Kamiel has the stone. Going clockwise, to his left sit first Filip, then Johan and then Bart. Kamiel has a "3" smuggler. The other players all played a "5" smuggler. So Filip is first, then Johan and then Bart. Kamiel plays last because he has the smuggler card with the lowest value.

Important "first player" rule: Give the Mountie card that is face up to the player who comes first in this round! The player must place the Mountie on the cantina card with the matching flag. More on that below.

Step 3: Smuggle!

The province cards show food icons and prices that indicate which food is in demand. For example, a red "salsa 7" on the Alberta province card means that Alberta is willing to pay 7 gold pieces for the "first" red salsa delivered. Once that salsa has been delivered, however, the spot is full and no more salsa can be delivered to Alberta.

The smuggler now acts in your place. You must choose his destination province and what he will bring there (if anything). He may smuggle any food cube from your warehouse. When it is possible for the smuggler to bring food to an empty spot on a province card, you may bring the food to that spot and collect the money for it.

Important "first player" rule: The player who comes first may smuggle a food cube from the warehouse of another player instead of a cube from their own warehouse. When he does this, he must deliver this food to a province and he must give "all" his own food cubes to the player he stole from.

If you are not able to deliver food, or you choose not to, you simply indicate where the smuggler goes and receive no money.

Smugglers ask payment for their services, indicated by a number of gold pieces on their card. Pay the cost by subtracting the points on your score card, regardless of what the smuggler has done for you.

Example: Filip is first, so he takes the face-up Mountie card as a penalty card and places it on his Ontario cantina card. He chooses to pick a salsa cube from Johan and gives him the 2 food cubes from his own warehouse in exchange. His smuggler, Jen, has a Saskatchewan flag. He decides to send her to the adjacent province Alberta and receives 7 gold pieces for the salsa delivery. He pays Jen 2 gold pieces, leaving him 5 gold pieces from this operation. He then goes on to step 4. When the other players get their turn in this step, they must choose food from their "own" warehouse.

Step 4: Cantinas and Arrests

Next, the smuggler you chose opens a cantina in the province to which you sent him. Remember that the destination can differ from the flag on the smuggler card. To build a cantina in a province, you place the smuggler card on the matching cantina card lying in front of you. You may have received Mounties by acting first, or from a previous turn. If you have a Mountie that shares a province with another card, the following happens:

Mountie(s) with 1 or more smugglers: The Mountie arrests the smuggler on the cantina card with the highest number. If there are 2 Mounties, you choose who makes the arrest. Remove the Mountie and the prisoner from the game and leave any remaining cards on the cantina card.

Only 2 Mounties: One Mountie gets bored and kicks it off. He arrests the cantina keeper with the highest number that you have among all provinces! In case of a tie, you decide whom he arrests. Remove both cards from the game. If you have no cantina keepers at all, simply place the wandering Mountie on a cantina card of your choice.

Once the player has gone through steps 3 and 4, the next player takes their turn. When all players have gone through those steps, proceed to step 5.

Step 5: When the Round Is Over, Wrap It Up!

When the Mountie deck in use is exhausted and the "end of round" card becomes visible, do the following. Otherwise skip this step.

Bonuses and Penalties

Look at all cantina keepers of each player in each province. If one player has in total more than the other players in a province, he/she has the best cantina and scores the bonus indicated at the bottom of the cantina card. Afterwards his cantina keepers can retire thanks to their new wealth: the winning player must remove all his cantina keepers in that province from the game. If there is a tie, no bonuses are awarded and no cards are removed from the game.

Look at the Mounties present on each player's cantina cards. For every Mountie a player has, he loses the number of points stated at the bottom of the Mountie card (3 or 4). Do not remove Mountie cards from the game; they stay lurking until they can arrest someone!

Game Over?

When all Mountie decks are exhausted, the game is over! Go directly to "End of the Game". Otherwise just continue.

Passing the Gemstone and Refreshing Hands

The player with the gemstone passes it to the player with the lowest score (possibly to himself). In case of a tie, the player with the gemstone chooses to whom he passes it.

Each player may now discard smugglers they no longer want. Afterwards they draw new smuggler cards until their hand is back to 8. If there are not enough smuggler cards in the smuggler deck, shuffle the discarded smuggler cards and make a new draw pile.

Full Provinces

When all 4 food spaces on a province card are full, put those food cubes back in the bag. Place that province card at the bottom of the province card deck and draw a replacement province card.

New Food!

Players place new stock in their warehouse, starting with the player who holds the gemstone. You may sell the food cube that remained in your warehouse at the Mexican market. To do so, place your food cube aside and receive 1 gold piece for each. After selling as desired, look at how many food cubes you have in your warehouse. If you have fewer than 2, draw cube(s) from the bag until you again have 2 food cubes in your warehouse.

Pass the bag to the player on your left and continue like this until every player has supplied their warehouse with new stock. Afterwards, put any cubes that were placed aside back in the bag.

New Mountie

Turn the next Mountie card of the Mountie deck in use face up. If that deck has just been exhausted, start with any new Mountie deck and place the end-of-round card at the bottom of this newly chosen Mountie deck.

On to the new round with step 1.

End of the Game

After 12 turns the game is over. The player with the most money wins! In case of a tie, the tied player who holds the gemstone wins, or the one who sits closest, going counter-clockwise ("linksom" in the Dutch text), to the player holding the gemstone.

Optional Rule: Re-choosing Smugglers at the Start of the Game

Allow every player to discard all unwanted smugglers and then refill the hand to 8, before the first Mountie is seen.

Optional Rule: Random Mounties

If you would like the Mounties to show up more by chance, do not lay out all Mounties as described in the game setup. Instead lay out enough Mounties for the current round. When the round is over, shuffle the Mounties removed from the game back into the Mountie deck and lay out new Mounties for the next round.

Do not flip the Mountie card face up at the start of each round.

Tip!

The Canadian dollars have the nickname "loonies". To feel more Canadian, you might like to call each gold piece "1000 loonies".