Wayfinder Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Game Play Overview
  • Voyaging
  • Special Move: Homecoming
  • Forming a Village
  • Scoring a Village
  • Unsuccessful Voyages
  • End of Turn
  • Choosing Your Next Voyage
• Options for 2 Players
• Solitaire
• Game End
• End Game Scoring
• Strategy

Contents

• 144 tribesman gems in 4 colors
• 24 huts in 4 colors
• 4 Wayfinders
• 1 game board
• This rule booklet

Setup

• Lay down the game board.
• Place one tribesman of each color on each square of the map.
• Each player chooses a color and takes the Wayfinder of that color. Unplayed colors are neutral.
• Choose a starting player.
• Beginning with the starting player and in clockwise order, choose a starting location for your Wayfinder.

Playing the Game

Game Play Overview

Throughout the game, the Wayfinders will go on ocean voyages to transport tribesmen and take them to villages forming throughout the islands. On your turn, you will execute a voyage. During the other players' turns, you must race to choose the location of your Wayfinder's next voyage.

If at any point in the game a player is unable to place his Wayfinder for the next voyage, then the turn sequence changes. At that point, game turns proceed as follows: 1. place your Wayfinder, then 2. execute your voyage. There is no longer a race to get your Wayfinder placed.

Voyaging

On your turn, begin a voyage from the space where your Wayfinder is located.

• Pick up all the tribesmen (gems) on the space containing your Wayfinder, but leave huts and the Wayfinder.
• From this space, you voyage in a straight line and may take one right or left turn during the voyage.
• As you pass over grid squares, you must place one tribesman on each Waypoint (the circle with the ship in it) along the way until you've placed all of the tribesmen. If you encounter an empty space (no gems), you can leave a tribesman of any color in that space. This is how you establish a village of that color in that space.
• Special Move: If you encounter an empty space, you may choose to end your voyage early and place the remaining tribesmen in that space.
• If you pass over a space that contains exactly one color of tribesmen, then you must place a tribesman of that color at that Waypoint because a village is being formed there. If you don't have a tribesman of that color you may not pass onto or through that space.
• If there is a move available, you must make the move, even if it is merely moving all the pieces into an adjacent empty space.

Important Note: The only time you can place more than one tribesman in a space is in the final voyage move during a Homecoming, or when you end your voyage early by placing your remaining tribesmen in an empty space.

Special Move: Homecoming

If you are making your final move into a forming village, then you may be able to make a special Homecoming move and put the remaining tribesmen into that space under the following conditions:

1. The pieces remaining in your hand are the same color as the forming village that you are entering, and
2. The sum of the pieces in your hand and the ones in the forming village is not greater than 5.

If the sum of the pieces is greater than 5 then you may only place one piece in that space and must continue the voyage.

Example Homecoming Move: In the example, the green player has 2 green tribesmen to place in the last space. There is a green village forming there. Since the number that she is putting in that space plus the number of pieces already in the space are less than or equal to 5, she can place the remaining 2 green pieces in that space.

Forming a Village

When a space that is forming a village (i.e. a space that has only one color of tribesmen) gets a population of exactly 5, then a village is formed in that space. This is how Wayfinders gain prestige among the islands.

After you form a village, pick up the 5 tribesmen and place them in front of you. Replace the tribesmen with a hut of the same color as the tribesmen.

Scoring a Village

Each village of your color that you create is worth 25 points. You get 5 points for creating villages of your opponents' color. This is how points are scored until the final scoring. You may want to keep track of the score with pen and paper.

For the purposes of future voyages, the space where the village was just formed is now considered empty. Any color tribesman may begin another village there on subsequent turns.

Note: it is possible to form more than one village in a single turn in different spaces. A space that is forming a village can never contain more than 5 tribesmen.

Unsuccessful Voyages

There are two ways that a voyage can be unsuccessful: 1) if you run out of spaces to play the remaining pieces; 2) you can't make a further move in a direction due to color constraints.

If you started on a space with many tribesmen, then it is quite possible that you can't complete your full voyage even after making one right or left turn. If that is the case, your only options are to end on an empty space.

Sometimes you will find that you've run into a dead end because you don't have the right colors of tribesmen to continue. In either case, you must pick up your pieces from the Waypoints and try to find another path.

If you cannot move at all, then you must pick up your Wayfinder. Your turn is over. However, if you can move, you must.

End of Turn

Your turn is complete after you've placed all the tribesmen on the Waypoints along the path of your voyage. After you place your last tribesman, pick up your Wayfinder and do housekeeping (i.e. push the tribesmen that are on the Waypoints into the middle of the space). The turn passes to the left.

Choosing Your Next Voyage

Now time is of the essence. You must find a place for your next voyage before the player to your right picks up his Wayfinder. Should he pick up his Wayfinder before you place your piece, then someone may begin a 5 second count down. If you have not chosen a valid place for your Wayfinder at the end of the count down, you lose your next turn.

You can only place a Wayfinder on a space containing voyagers (i.e. a space containing tribesmen of 2 or more colors). You cannot place your Wayfinder on a space with another Wayfinder, on a space that is forming a village, or on an empty space.

Options for 2 Players

For a more cerebral experience (and longer game) use the following turn sequence: 1) execute the voyage. 2) Place your Wayfinder. In this variant, there is no race to get your Wayfinder down before the other player completes his turn.

Solitaire

In all solitaire games, the minimum length of a voyage is 2 spaces.

• Level 1: Play with only one color. Play the game with only one color, treating the non-played colors as neutral, and try to achieve the highest score possible.
• Level 2: Play with two colors. Alternate turns between the two colors. Non-played colors are neutral. Keep track of the scores separately for each color. At the end of the game, total the individual scores for both colors.
• Level 3 and 4: Levels 3 and 4 are played with 3 and 4 colors respectively. The rules are the same as with level 2.

Game End

The game ends when there are no more valid moves.

End Game Scoring

At the end of the game, each space that has a village that is forming (at least one tribesman and of only one color) will be scored for the player of that color. The score is the number of all the elements of your color in that space squared. That is, sum up the tribesmen, the huts of that color and add 1 if the Waypoint in that space has that color, and square it (or look it up in the chart below).

End Game Scoring Aid:

Elements of your color	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Score	1	4	9	16	25	36	49

Space score = (tribesmen + huts + 1 for same color Waypoint) squared

• Example 1: A space contains 3 yellow tribesmen. The score for this is 3 squared = 9 points.
• Example 2: A space contains 2 red tribesmen and 2 red village markers. The score = (2 tribesmen + 2 huts) squared = 16 points.
• Example 3: A space contains 1 blue tribesman, 1 blue hut and the space contains a blue Waypoint. The score = (1 tribesman + 1 hut + 1 Waypoint bonus) squared = 9 points.
• Example 4: A space contains 2 huts, two blue tribesmen and a red tribesman. The score = 0 because this space isn't forming a village.
• Example 5: A space contains 3 red villages and has a red Waypoint and no tribesmen. Score = 0 because this space is not forming a village.

Add the end game score to the score acquired during the game. The player with the highest score is the winner!

Note: End game scoring is quite significant and can make up more than 50% of the total score.

Strategy

• Try to start villages of your color in areas that have Waypoints or huts of your color. This will help maximize end game scoring.
• When starting villages of opponents' colors, avoid placing a tribesman which has the same color as existing opponent huts.
• Try not to create a 4 in your color (especially in a 4 player game) as this gives other people a chance to complete your village and rob you of 25 points.
• It is good to set the player to your left up with the ability to complete a village of the player on your right or opposite of you, to rob them of 25 points.
• If the player after you has his Wayfinder on a space with many tribesmen, you can limit his choices by voyaging over empty spaces.
• Look for Homecoming scoring opportunities.
• You can block another player's Homecoming scoring opportunity by adding just one more traveler to the space containing his Wayfinder.