Tipperary
Tipperary Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Game Board with Spinner Wheel — before your first game, you must attach the wheel to the game board as shown.
- 1 River
- 5 Hometowns
- 60 Landscape Tiles
- 12 Bonus Tiles
- 1 "Largest Flock" Marker
- 12 Towers
- 24 Wooden Sheep
- 6 Barrels
- 1 Cloth Bag
- 1 Scoring Pad
Setup
- Place the game board in the center of the table. (When playing for the first time, remember to attach the spinner wheel to the game board.)
- Place the river beside the game board: with 2-4 players, use the side showing numbers from 1-12; with 5 players, use the side showing numbers from 1-10. Place a barrel in the hole numbered "1" on the river.
- Put all the landscape tiles into the cloth bag. Then randomly draw landscape tiles from the bag and distribute them among the five areas of the game board until there are two landscape tiles in each area.
- Turn the bonus tiles to the side showing a big fox, shuffle them, and place them ready at hand.
- Set the wooden sheep, the towers, and the "Largest Flock" marker aside, forming the supply.
- Take a hometown each and place it with a random side up in front of you so that the town name is properly oriented. Also take a barrel each and place it on the starting space of the whiskey track (i.e., the space depicting a barrel). Return any remaining hometowns and barrels to the game box—you will not need them this game.
- The player who has most recently seen a (living) sheep takes the cloth bag. (Alternatively, you can determine randomly who shall get the bag.)
Course of Play
The game is played over a set number of rounds consisting of the following three phases. With two, three, and four players, twelve rounds are played; with five players, only ten rounds are played.
- Placement Phase — Spin the wheel. Then, simultaneously, all players select a landscape tile and add it to their display.
- Sheep Phase — Check who has the largest flock of sheep.
- End of Round — Prepare the next round.
1. Placement Phase
The player who has the cloth bag must spin the wheel in the center of the game board. (We recommend you hold the game board with one hand while using the other to set the spinner wheel in motion.) After the wheel stops spinning, make sure that each coat of arms on the wheel clearly points to one area of the game board. If in doubt, adjust the wheel a little in clockwise direction.
The twigs on the walls sticking out from the game board constitute the dividing lines between the areas.
Then all players simultaneously carry out the following three steps.
Note: If you like, you can take turns to carry out these steps. Starting with the player who has the cloth bag and proceeding clockwise, carry out all three steps before the next player takes their turn.
a. Determine which area your coat of arms on the spinner wheel is pointing to. Then pick up the two landscape tiles from that area.
You can find your coat of arms in the center of your hometown.
Example: An Chathair (coat of arms: castle) takes the depicted landscape tiles.
b. Select exactly one of these two landscape tiles and place it in your display, according to the placement rules. (You may try out the tiles before making your decision.) Return the other landscape tile to the area from which you took it.
Placement Rules
- You must place each landscape tile orthogonally adjacent to another tile in your display, making sure the spaces on adjacent tiles align.
- You may rotate the landscape tile or turn it to the other side if you wish. (The illustrations on a landscape tile may be upside down.)
- Landscape tiles may not overlap.
- You may not rearrange the landscape tiles in your display once they have been placed.
- Your display is not limited in size; you may expand it in any direction.
- You may leave gaps.
c. Landscape tiles comprise multiple spaces with different landscape features; some spaces also show a sheep symbol. Check if any effects are triggered from placing the tile: some landscape features have an immediate effect, while others become relevant only later in the game. The possible effects are explained on the following pages.
Landscape Features
- Meadow
- Pasture
- Distillery
- Grain Field
- Ruin
- Stone Circle
- Bog
Meadows and Pastures: Sheep
The most common landscape features are meadows (without sheep) and pastures (with one or two sheep). When placing tiles, try to place pastures next to other pastures, to create as large a flock of sheep as possible.
A flock of sheep is a group of (one or more) orthogonally contiguous pasture spaces. Meadows and other landscape features are never part of a flock (not even if they show a sheep symbol).
Example: There are two flocks of sheep in your display, comprising 2 and 3 sheep, respectively. They are not connected because the sheep on the left are not orthogonally but only diagonally adjacent to the sheep on the right. You place the depicted landscape tile as shown, connecting the two flocks to a larger one comprising 6 sheep.
Wooden Sheep
In addition to the landscape feature, some spaces also show a sheep symbol at the top. After placing a landscape tile with the sheep symbol, take a wooden sheep from the supply and place it in your display immediately.
Placing Wooden Sheep
- Wooden sheep are placed on meadow spaces in your display. You may (but you do not have to) place a wooden sheep on the landscape tile you just placed, if it has a meadow space.
- Each meadow space can accommodate at most one wooden sheep.
- If you cannot place a wooden sheep according to the above rules, you do not get the wooden sheep. (You may not place it later.)
Note: You can get additional wooden sheep from producing whiskey (see next section). The above placement rules also apply to those wooden sheep.
A meadow space with wooden sheep is considered a pasture. Thus, wooden sheep allow you to connect two separate flocks of sheep or to expand an existing flock.
Example: There are two separate flocks of sheep in your display, comprising 2 and 3 sheep, respectively. You place the depicted landscape tile providing a wooden sheep, which you place such that it connects the two flocks to a larger one comprising 6 sheep. (The sheep symbol on the bog you just placed does not count.)
What Are Sheep Good For?
During scoring, you will get one victory point for every sheep in your largest flock; additional flocks are worth nothing. The player with the largest flock of them all will get five bonus victory points.
Grain Fields and Distilleries: Whiskey
Placing a grain field orthogonally adjacent to a distillery (or vice versa) produces whiskey, i.e., you may advance the barrel on your whiskey track one space.
Example: You place a distillery next to the existing grain field, thus producing your first whiskey. Consequently, you move the barrel on your whiskey track to space "3".
Three spaces on the whiskey track (with values 6, 13, and 21) show a sheep symbol. When you move the barrel onto (or past) a space with sheep symbol, take a wooden sheep from the supply and place it in your display immediately (see "Placing Wooden Sheep" above).
Example: You place a grain field next to the distillery you just placed, thus producing your second whiskey. Consequently, you move the barrel on your whiskey track to space "6" and take a wooden sheep from the supply, immediately placing it on a meadow space.
As shown in the example above, the same space can produce more than one whiskey, because you may advance the barrel on your whiskey track for every new adjacency between a grain field and a distillery. It is, thus, possible to get more than one whiskey with a single tile placement (see the following example).
Example: There are two diagonally adjacent grain fields in your display. You place the depicted landscape tile such that the distillery touches both grain fields, thus producing two whiskeys at the same time. Consequently, you advance the barrel on your whiskey track by two spaces.
What Is Whiskey Good For?
In addition to the up to three wooden sheep that you can gain from the whiskey track, whiskey is worth victory points during scoring, according to the value indicated by the barrel.
Ruins: Towers
Whenever three ruins form a new uninterrupted straight line in your display (horizontally or vertically), you get a tower from the supply, placing it in front of you—towers are not placed in your display until the end of the game (see "End of Game" below).
Example: If you placed the depicted landscape tile as shown on the left, the three ruins would not form a straight line; consequently, you would not get a tower. Placing the tile as shown on the right, however, will form a horizontal line of three ruins and, thus, earn you a tower.
Extending a line of three ruins on either end will not get you another tower. It is possible to "re-use" a ruin space, though, if you use it to form a new line perpendicular to the existing one.
Example: If you placed the depicted landscape tile as shown on the left, you would not get a tower, because this would only extend an existing line. Placing the tile as shown on the right, however, will form a new (vertical) line of three, thus earning you a tower.
What Are Towers Good For?
During scoring, you will get victory points for your largest rectangular area. Right before that, you may place the towers that you have collected throughout the course of the game, e.g., to fill gaps.
Bogs: Bonus Tiles
Orthogonally adjacent bog spaces are considered protected sites. Whenever you create a new protected site, you get a bonus tile from the supply; adding a bog to an existing protected site does not earn you another bonus tile.
Bonus tiles depict a big fox on the back and a landscape feature on the front (meadow, pasture, distillery, grain field, ruin, bog, or stone circle). When gaining a bonus tile, immediately place it in your display with the landscape side up: either orthogonally adjacent to another tile or onto a meadow space (without sheep or bonus tile). Then check if another effect is triggered by the bonus tile placement (see example).
Example: You place the depicted landscape tile as shown, creating a protected site. As a reward, you draw a bonus tile: another bog! You place that one above the bog on the left, thus creating yet another protected site. The newly drawn bonus tile features a ruin, which you place on a meadow space to complete a line of three ruins, earning you a tower. If you had placed the first bonus tile (the bog) on the marked meadow space, you would not have gained a second bonus tile, because this would have only expanded the existing protected site.
Note: Protected sites do not necessarily have to be formed from exactly two bog spaces. For example, if you connect two diagonally adjacent bog spaces with a third bog, you will also get a bonus tile (but only one).
What Are Protected Sites Good For?
Protected sites are not worth any victory points during scoring. However, the bonus tiles that you get from them can affect your score if used to trigger other effects (e.g., the production of whiskey).
Stone Circles: Victory Points
During scoring, stone circles are worth the printed number of victory points.
Example: This stone circle is worth 2 victory points during scoring.
2. Sheep Phase
Once all players have placed the selected landscape tile in their display, determine the player who alone has the largest flock of sheep among all players; this player takes the "Largest Flock" marker from the supply or from its current holder. (What constitutes a flock has been explained under "Meadows and Pastures: Sheep" above.)
In case of a tie for largest flock, consider the following three cases:
i. Currently, no player holds the marker: The marker remains in the supply. ii. The current holder is among the tied players: The marker stays with that player. iii. The current holder is not among the tied players: Return the marker to the supply.
Whoever gets the "Largest Flock" marker places it next to their display. (The sheep on it do not increase the size of their flock.) It is worth 5 bonus points during scoring but only for the player who then holds it.
Example: With a flock of 5 sheep, An Chathair (at the top) is the current holder of the "Largest Flock" marker. This round, Tiobraid Árann (on the left) and Béal an Átha (on the right) were able to increase their largest flocks to 6 sheep each, which now contain more sheep than An Chathair's largest flock. Consequently, An Chathair must return the "Largest Flock" marker to the supply because An Chathair is not among the players tied for largest flock.
3. End of Round
A round ends after the sheep phase. To prepare for the next round, move the barrel on the river into the hole with the next highest number. When the barrel enters hole "12" or, in 5-player games, hole "10" (in other words, the last hole of the river), the final round begins.
Example: At the end of the first round, move the barrel into hole "2".
Finally, if there is another round left to play, pass the cloth bag to the next player clockwise, who adds new landscape tiles to the game board, drawn randomly from the bag, until there are exactly two landscape tiles in each area again.
Example: In a 3-player game, you will be adding three new landscape tiles at the end of each round. Areas from which no player has chosen any tiles that round do not get replenished.
End of Game
After the sheep phase of the 12th (or, in 5-player games, the 10th) round, you can place the towers that you have gained throughout the course of the game in your display. Place them, like landscape tiles, orthogonally adjacent to existing tiles (not on top of them), filling gaps or expanding your display with them (in preparation of the subsequent area scoring).
Scoring
After all players have had the chance to place their towers (if any), using the scoring pad, score your displays and determine the winner. You can score victory points (VP) in five categories:
- Area: Determine the largest rectangular area within your display that has no gaps in it. (You had the chance to fill gaps with bonus tiles during the game and with towers at the end.) You get 1 VP for each space in that area.
Note: Some or all of the nine spaces comprising your hometown may be part of your largest rectangular area. (Even though the inner six spaces featuring the whiskey track and other information are not clearly separated, they do count as individual spaces.)
- Sheep: Whether you have the "Largest Flock" marker or not, you score 1 VP for each sheep in your largest flock. (If two or more flocks in your display are of the same largest size, consider only one of these flocks.) The "Largest Flock" marker scores an additional 5 VP in this category.
- Exploration: You get 5 VP if you managed to completely enclose your hometown with tiles. For this, all 18 surrounding spaces (orthogonally and diagonally adjacent to your hometown) must be occupied by landscape tiles, bonus tiles, or towers. (The small illustration at the top of your hometown reminds you of this.)
- Whiskey: Check the current position of the barrel on your whiskey track and score VP equal to the number printed on that space.
- Stone Circles: Total the printed VP of all stone circles in your display.
Your score is the total of these five values. The player with the highest score wins. In case of a tie, enjoy your shared victory!
Example: This display results in a score of 90 VP, composed of the following values:
- Area: Your largest rectangular area is 7 by 8 spaces for a total of 56 VP.
- Sheep: Your largest flock comprises 12 sheep. Unfortunately, another player has a larger flock, so you score only 12 VP in this category.
- Exploration: Thanks to the tower at the bottom right, you managed to fully enclose your hometown, so you score 5 VP.
- Whiskey: The barrel is on space "10", so you score 10 VP.
- Stone Circles: The three stone circles in your display score a combined total of 7 VP.
Credits
Designer: Günter Burkhardt
Editors: Maren Holderbaum, Grzegorz Kobiela, Ralph Bienert
Illustration: Anna Block (Cover), Klemens Franz (Components)
Graphic Design: atelier198
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