Waka Waka

Waka Waka Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview and how to win

"Waka Waka" means "Do it!" in Swahili. The players are African merchants who buy goods for their villages. Fruit, hides, salt, tea, textiles and jewellery come from far away. The shaman of the village presents missions to the players that they have to complete. The players have to discard a certain combination of goods to complete a mission. By doing so, they gain reputation among the villagers.

Whoever has got the highest reputation at the end of the game, is the most successful merchant and wins the game.

Components

4 status pawns [Statusfiguren]
2 status displays [Statustafeln]
66 playing cards [Spielkarten]
56 pieces of gold [Goldstücke]
84 goods markers [Warenplättchen] – there are 14 markers of each kind of goods (fruit [Früchte], hides [Felle], salt [Salz], tea [Tee], textiles [Stoffe], jewellery [Schmuck])
1 fire marker [Feuerplättchen]

Preparing to play

Before playing for the first time, punch out the markers carefully.
The status displays aren't needed for your first games, so put them back into the box.
The playing board is put in the middle between the players.
Along the edge of the board are several holding spaces: on the left-hand side are spaces for 6 goods markers. The cards that were played by a player (a maximum of 3 per turn) are put next to the spaces on the right-hand side. Each player uses the holding spaces he is sitting at.
The goods are shuffled face-down and put into a face-down stack on the upper right-hand corner of the board (where the river runs).
There are spaces for available goods on the 4 boats. Put randomly drawn markers on these spaces. Put markers face-up on spaces with an "eye"-icon. Put markers face-down on all other spaces.
Furthermore put 6 randomly drawn goods as general supplies on the village – face-up.
Put the gold on the upper part of the board (on the Savanna).
The fire marker is placed on the shaman's hill showing the side with the burning fire.
Each player gets 1 status pawn in a colour of his choice and puts it in front of him.
Furthermore each player receives a total amount of 8 gold (Gold exists in denominations of 1, 3 and 5 which can be freely exchanged).
The playing cards are shuffled. Each player is dealt 6 cards face-down that form his playing hand. The rest of the cards is put onto the holding space in the upper left-hand corner face-down (above the trees).
Should a player receive the card "Shaman's fire" [Feuer des Schamanen], he returns it and draws a new card instead. (Don't confuse it with the card "Shaman" [Schamane]!) Returned cards are shuffled into the deck again.
The player sitting on the side of the board that shows the elephants in the lower right-hand corner becomes first player and starts the game.

Playing the game

The game is played in a clockwise order. The player whose turn it is may play 1, 2 or 3 of his cards. But he needn't play a card. Then he gets new supplies of cards and gold. The more cards you play, the less supplies you get. After that, it's the next player's turn.

1. Play 1 – 3 cards and use actions

Important: If the player does NOT play any cards, he gets more supplies.
If he plays a card from his hand, he puts it next to the holding spaces at his side of the board.
The first card played on his turn is put next to the left-most card-holding space.
After putting the card down, the player immediately uses the action provided by the card, before he plays his next card.

Tip: It's best when you read the card text to all players when playing a card, so that everyone can quickly learn the effects of the cards while playing. At the end of these rules there are additional explanations about the cards that can help if there are questions about card effects.

If the player wants to, he can play a second card which he puts next to his first card. After using the effect of the second card, the player could play a third one. He puts the card next to the second one and uses the action.
If the player doesn't want to play another card, he replenishes his supplies of cards and gold.

2. Take cards or gold as new supplies

After a player has played all the cards he wanted, or didn't play any cards at all, he takes his new supplies.
This means that he draws new cards from the deck or takes gold from the stockpile.
In general, a player is always free to decide if he wants to take new cards or gold or both.
The card-holding space where the player put his last card this round shows the amount of cards and/or gold the player is allowed to take.

Example: the player played one card. So he gets new supplies worth 2 points: 2 cards, or 2 gold or 1 card and 1 gold.
If the player played three cards, he doesn't get any supplies at all.
If the player didn't play any cards, he gets new supplies worth 3 points: 3 cards, 3 gold, or 2 cards and 1 gold, or 2 gold and 1 card.
Important: A player may never keep more than 6 cards on his hand at the end of his turn. Should he have more than six cards, he has to discard down to six. He can choose which cards he wants to discard. But it's possible that a player has got more than six cards on his hand during his turn due to certain card effects.
If the deck of cards is exhausted, take the discard pile and shuffle it to form a new draw pile.

3. Put cards on the discard pile and replenish boats

At the end of his turn a player takes his played cards from the card-holding spaces and puts them onto the discard pile.
If he bought any goods during his turn, the boats are now replenished with new goods. Put the markers face-up on "eye"-spaces and face-down on the other spaces.
Then it's the next player's turn, in clockwise order, to play 0 – 3 cards.

Cards with a gold icon

Some of the cards show a gold icon in the upper left-hand corner.
Whenever a player plays a card showing a gold icon, every other player (in clockwise order) is allowed to use this card, too, after its action was used.
If a player wants to use the card's effect, he has to pay one gold to the original owner of the card.
A player is not allowed to forbid other players to use a card he played.

Trade (20x)

The most important and most common card in the game is "Trade" ["Handel"]. This card shows 3 symbols and therefore offers 3 possible ways how to use this card. One of the following actions can be chosen when you play "Trade": Buy goods, sell goods, or increase your status level by one.

Buying goods

The player chooses one of the 4 boats and takes all the markers (face-down ones and face-up ones) offered in that boat.
To do so, he pays the amount of gold that is printed underneath the boat (2, 3, 4 or 5 gold).
The bought goods are placed face-up on any free spaces of the player's holding spaces.
If there are already 6 goods on his holding spaces, the player has to put the surplus of goods with the other face-up markers in the village. The player may choose which goods he wants to put there. He may also give away the goods he's just got from the boat.
At the end of his turn the player replenishes the empty spaces in the boats with new goods.
It's NOT possible to buy goods without the "Trade" action.

If there aren't any available markers in the face-down draw pile, then take all the goods from the village, turn them face-down, shuffle them and create a new draw pile. Then, take 6 goods markers and put them face-up onto the village again.

Selling goods

The player takes two of his goods from his holding spaces and puts them onto the village.
The player chooses freely which goods he wants to sell.
But the goods have to be of the same kind, e.g. 2 x tea.
Then the player takes 10 gold from the stockpile.
It's NOT possible to sell goods without the "Trade" action.

To remind players of the possibility to sell goods, there is also a corresponding symbol printed onto the board.

Increase status by 1

This is the most important action in the game, as it is the player with the highest status that wins the game.
To increase his level of status, a player has to accomplish a mission. That means he has to discard a certain amount of goods.
The kind of goods you have to discard is printed next to the level of status you want to gain.
The player takes the demanded goods from his holding spaces and puts them onto the village. Then he puts his status pawn on the higher status position.
The status pawn starts the game in front of the player. When a player increases his status for the first time in the game, he puts his pawn onto the board next to the first (lowest) level.

In the first game, you use the status display that's printed onto the board. To reach the first level, you have to discard two goods of the same kind of your choice.

It's NOT possible to increase your status without the "Trade" action.

How you can trade even without the "Trade" card

If a player wants to use the "Trade" action without having the playing card, he may substitute it through three cards of his choice.
To do so, the player puts three cards face-down next to the current (free) card holding space at his side of the board.
These 3 cards are treated as one played card when determining the amount of supplies a player may take at the end of his turn.
A player is allowed to use this substitute "Trade" action up to three times during his turn, if he's got enough cards to use.

The shaman's fire ["Feuer des Schamanen"]

The "Shaman" card allows a player to increase his status by one by spending 12 gold instead of the necessary goods. But you are only allowed to play this card when the shaman's fire is burning.
In the card deck are 3 cards "Shaman's fire". If such a card is drawn, the player does NOT take it, but uses its effect immediately. When the first card is played, the fire marker on the shaman's hill must be flipped over. Then the fire is extinguished. The "Shaman" card can't be used as long as the next "Shaman's fire" card hasn't been played. Then the fire marker will be flipped to its burning side again.
After that, the "Shaman's fire" card is put onto the discard pile and the player draws a new card. If the new card should be "Shaman's fire" again, then the fire marker will be flipped again right away.
When the discard pile is shuffled later in the game, the 3 "Shaman's fire" cards will be back in the new draw pile.

Ending the game

The game ends when one player reaches the highest status level. But the current turn will be completed. After the turn of the player who is sitting to the right of the first player (elephant side of the board!), victory conditions are checked.
If only one player reached the highest status level, only this player has won.
If more than one player has reached the highest level, the player with the most gold wins.
If players are still tied, the winner is the player who reached the highest level last.

New missions: playing the game with the additional status displays

If you have already played the game, you can try the additional status displays next time. They provide a more varied gaming experience. The missions are getting more difficult from display to display, which also means that playing time will increase.
Before you start the game all the players agree on one of the two displays to be used and the other one is returned to the box.

Tip: It's best to play the displays in the order suggested: You can see 1-4 marks on the upper left-hand corner of each display. The more marks, the harder the display is to play.

Put the new status display onto the original one and cover it this way.
Important: With some missions on the status displays you'll find different symbols. Each symbol represents a different kind of goods. If a mission shows different symbols, the player has to choose different kinds of goods.

E.g.: three different symbols means three different goods / two times two different symbols means two pairs of different goods.

More explanation on the cards (read when needed)

Tribal elder [Stammesältester] 4x

After the action was used, the other player takes his cards back. So he doesn't lose any cards.
The other player may discard one card of his choice and draw one new card. He may even do this if the player doesn't want to use the action of a drawn card.
If the player uses a card with a gold icon, the other players are not allowed to use the gold card in this case.

Torch thrower [Fackelwerfer] 4x

This card may only be played as the second or third card of a player turn.
If the player plays a "Torch thrower" as his second and as his third card, he uses his first card three times this turn.
If the player uses the action of a card with a gold icon, the other players are not allowed to use the action as well in this case, as the "Torch thrower" doesn't show a gold icon.
You can't use the "Torch Thrower" to use a "Trade" action again that was initiated by using three face-down cards.

Rainmaker [Regenmacher] 4x

This card becomes more valuable when the player has a higher status. If his pawn is at the lowest level, he receives 1 gold. At level 4 on the other hand, the "Rainmaker" would provide him with 4 gold.

Shaman [Schamane] 7x

With this card, a player can increase his status by one level without using the "Trade" action.

As you never know, when the next "Shaman's fire" will be played, you can't be sure if you are able to use this card.

Chimpanzee [Schimpanse] 8x

With this card you can avoid buying the wrong goods. The two goods markers that were looked at are returned face-down onto their boat.

Gatherer [Sammlerin] 4x

The player is allowed to take the goods even if he already has 6 goods in his holding spaces. But then he also has to discard one goods marker onto the village supplies to make room for the new marker.

Bearer [Träger] 4x

The goods that the player takes in exchange can be chosen from the face-up supplies.

Drummer [Trommler] 4x

If other players use this card, they are allowed to exchange a different number of cards than the player who originally played this card.

Fortune teller [Wahrsagerin] 4x

The player is allowed to take the two cards even if this means that he's got more than 6 cards. Only at the end of his turn he has to reduce his hand size to 6 cards again.

The Cards (card texts)

Tribal elder [Stammesältester]: A player of your choice has to reveal his hand of cards. Use one of his cards. After that the chosen player may exchange one of his cards.
Torch thrower [Fackelwerfer]: Use the card that you've just played once again.
Rainmaker [Regenmacher]: Take gold according to your status level from the stockpile.
Shaman [Schamane]: Pay 12 gold to the stockpile and increase your status level by one.
Chimpanzee [Schimpanse]: Take 1 card from the draw pile. Then look at the face-down goods in one boat.
Fortune teller [Wahrsagerin]: Draw 2 cards from the draw pile.
Drummer [Trommler]: Discard 1 to 5 cards and then draw the same number of new cards from the draw pile.
Gatherer [Sammlerin]: Take 1 goods marker from the open supplies and put them onto your holding spaces.
Bearer [Träger]: Put 1 goods marker from your holding spaces onto the village supplies and take 1 goods marker from there in exchange.