Underwood
Underwood Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Your goal is to gain the majorities on the individual forest floor tiles through skillful expansion. The tiles on which you have the majority will earn you points at the end of the game. Whoever has the most points after the final scoring wins the game.
Game Components
- 17 Forest Floor Tiles
- 96 Mushroom/Mycelium Tiles — front: mushroom, back: mycelium (24 each in 4 different player colors)
- For variants: 2 Ant Trail Tiles, 4 Trees
- 1 Rulebook (DE/EN)
Setup
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Lay out the playing area: Randomly select the number of forest floor tiles based on the player count and lay them face up in the middle of the table. Put the remaining forest floor tiles back in the box. They are no longer needed for this game.
2 Players 3 Players 4 Players 11 Forest floor tiles 14 Forest floor tiles 17 Forest floor tiles -
The forest floor tiles must be laid out in such a way that they connect directly without any gaps. You decide on the shape and structure.
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Distribute mushroom tiles: Each of you chooses a color and receives the mushroom tiles in that color. Place them in front of you as your personal supply with the mycelium side facing up. This way, all players can see at any time how many tiles you and your opponents still have available.
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Determine starting player: Whoever picked mushrooms in the forest last becomes the starting player (otherwise decide randomly).
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Starting setup: Starting with the player sitting to the right of the starting player, you take turns counter-clockwise placing one tile each (with the mycelium side up) on any empty space on the board. Repeat this until each of you has placed exactly 4 starting tiles.
IMPORTANT: Your starting tiles must not be placed adjacent to an already placed opponent's tile. There must always be at least one empty forest floor space between tiles of different colors. You may also place your own tiles adjacent to each other.
As soon as all tiles are placed correctly, the game can start.
Gameplay
The game is played in turns clockwise. The starting player begins. On your turn, you must grow a mushroom to expand your colony. Passing is not allowed.
Expand Colony
On your turn, you spread your mushroom colony. Proceed in the following steps:
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Grow mushroom: Flip exactly one of your mycelia already on the board to the mushroom side. From this mushroom, your colony can now spread and form new mycelia.
IMPORTANT: You must always be able to place at least one new mycelium from your supply. You may not flip a mushroom without letting the colony grow!
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Choose target area: You may now only spread on one forest floor tile. To do this, choose either the forest floor tile on which your newly flipped mushroom lies, or a forest floor tile that is directly adjacent to this mushroom.
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Spread mycelia: You must now place mycelia from your supply onto all allowed spaces of the chosen forest floor tile that are adjacent to the mushroom. If you do not have enough mycelia in your supply to cover all spaces, you cannot perform the action on this target area at all.
Rules for Covering Spaces
- Allowed spaces: You may only place your tiles on empty forest floor spaces or on spaces that contain opponent mycelia (i.e., opponent tiles with the mycelium side facing up).
- Forbidden spaces: You may never place a new mycelium tile on your own mycelium tiles or on mushrooms (whether yours or an opponent's).
- Covering opponents: If you cover opponent mycelia, you must give the affected player one of your own mycelia from your supply as compensation for each covered space. They remain in the opponent's supply until the end of the game and can bring them victory points.
- The covered opponent's tile remains on the space, but is worthless for the rest of the game. You can later turn your overlying mycelium into a mushroom as usual.
- If an already stacked space is covered again, only the player whose mycelium is currently visible (i.e. at the very top) receives compensation. Tiles underneath are ignored.
End of Game and Final Scoring
The game ends immediately as soon as a player cannot take their turn. This happens if a player has no mycelia of their own left in their supply or cannot perform the action Expand Colony. This is followed by the scoring:
1. Determine Majorities
Now determine individually for each of the forest floor tiles who has the majority there.
- Count the mushrooms (tiles with the mushroom side up) on each forest floor tile. Whoever has the sole majority wins the tile.
- If no one has placed a mushroom or if there is a tie for the mushroom majority, the majority of mycelia decides. This is only determined among the players involved in the tie. Whoever leads here receives the forest floor tile.
- If there is a tie here as well, then no one gets points for this forest floor tile.
- Collect all won forest floor tiles.
Example: On a 2-space forest tile, there is a tie: no one receives this tile. On a 4-space forest tile, Green has 2 mycelia and Blue has 1. However, since Red has 1 mushroom, Red wins. On a 3-space forest tile, there are no mushrooms. Since Blue has the most mycelia on this tile, Blue wins.
2. Count Points
- Spaces: Add up all the individual spaces on your won forest floor tiles. Each space is worth 1 victory point.
- Tile Supply: Count all mycelium tiles that you have in your supply at the end (your own remaining ones as well as those won from opponents). For every 2 tiles (rounded down) you receive 1 additional victory point.
Whoever collected the most victory points wins the game and can boast that their own mushroom species has spread the best in the underwood. In the event of a tie, the player who collected more opponent tiles in their supply wins. If there is still a tie, you share the victory.
Variants
If you want to vary the game, you can try one of the following variants. Pay attention to the changed game setup and the following rules.
Variant 1: Clearings
Setup: In step 1, place the forest floor tiles together in such a way that gaps are created.
Gameplay: No mycelia and consequently no mushrooms may be placed in the gaps. Otherwise, nothing changes in the course of the game.
Variant 2: Mycorrhiza
Setup: Set up the game board so that up to 4 gaps are created that are exactly 1 space large and place 1 tree in each gap. If there are fewer than 4 gaps, the remaining trees are placed at the edge of the board. Make sure that each tree placed there must be surrounded by at least 4 spaces of one or more forest floor tiles.
Scoring: First, score the trees at the end of the game. Check who has the majority on the directly adjacent spaces. It does not matter whether the spaces belong to one or different forest floor tiles. The majority is determined in the same way as for the forest floor tiles. The player with the majority receives the tree. If there is no clear majority, the tree is removed. Every tree won is worth 3 points. The rest of the scoring takes place as in the final scoring in the standard game.
Example: For the left tree, Yellow has the majority and wins the tree. For the right tree, no one has the majority. Therefore, it is removed.
Variant 3: Saplings
Setup: After you have formed the playing field in step 1, the starting player places the 4 trees on any spaces of the forest floor tiles. No more than 1 tree may stand on a forest floor tile. Unlike in the standard game, each player only places 3 mycelium tiles during the starting setup.
Gameplay: During the game, no mycelia (and therefore no mushrooms) may be placed on the spaces with trees.
End of game: Determine the majorities for the forest floor tiles as usual and distribute them to the respective players. Every forest floor tile is worth as many points as it has spaces, even if 1 tree stands on one of the spaces. Every tree is additionally worth 1 point.
Example: The pictured forest floor tile consists of 6 spaces and a tree stands on it. Red has the majority during the final scoring, wins the forest floor tile and receives 7 points (1 per space and 1 additionally for the tree).
Variant 4: Ant Trail
Setup: In addition to the forest floor tiles, take the two ant trail tiles and put them together so that they share a maximum of 2 edges. Then place the forest floor tiles against the ant trail without creating gaps.
Gameplay: No mycelia (and thus no mushrooms) may be placed on the ant trail tiles. If you grow a mycelium into a mushroom on a space adjacent to the ant trail, you can either spread the mycelia to adjacent spaces of a forest floor tile as usual or use the ant trail. To do this, select any forest floor tile that is also adjacent to the ant trail. Cover all empty spaces on this target area that are directly adjacent to the ant trail with mycelia. The mycelia of other players may not be covered.
Example: Blue has grown a mushroom and uses the ant trail to place their mycelia on another forest floor tile adjacent to the ant trail.
End of game and scoring: Both follow the process of the standard game.