Welkin
Welkin Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.
Components
- 1 central board
- 4 individual boards
- 46 Construction Site cards
- 75 Construction Material tokens (15 of each type: Plant Products, Elements, Metals, Animal Products, Gemstones)
- 10 Bid tokens
- 70 Money tokens (values of 1, 5, and 10)
- 20 Procurement tokens
Set-Up
Put the central board in the middle of the table. Take then the 10 Bid tokens and put them on the board any side up. Sort them into each of the zones of the board according to the Construction Material visible on each token.
Shuffle the Construction Site cards and form a draw pile of:
- 20 cards for 2 players,
- 24 cards for 3 or 4 players.
Put this pile in the middle of the table near the central board. Put the remaining cards away in the box; they will not be used during the game.
Draw the top 5 cards from the pile and put them face up in the slots around the central board.
Put the Money and Construction Material tokens in the middle of the table near the central board.
Each player takes an individual board and 5 different Procurement tokens and puts them on the corresponding spaces on their boards with the Construction Material side up.
The player whose head is most "in the clouds" (i.e. the tallest player) goes first.
Playing the Game
When it is your turn, you may perform only one of the following three actions:
- Open a Construction Site
- Procure Construction Materials
- Use Construction Materials
1. Open a Construction Site
Take one of the available Construction Site cards from around the central board and put it in one of the two Construction Site slots on your individual board.
Important: If both of your slots are full, you cannot perform this action.
Replace the card you took by putting the top Construction Site card from the draw pile in the empty slot on the central board.
If the bid symbol is in the upper-left corner of the Construction Site card that you just took, choose a Bid token from the central board and flip it over. Then, move it to the zone on the central board that matches the newly visible Construction Material on the token.
Example: Alice chooses a card. She puts it in one of the slots on her board and replaces it on the central board. Since the card she chose has the bid symbol, Alice chooses a Bid token on the central board, turns it over, and moves it to the corresponding zone.
Tip: Side A of each Bid token includes a (small) indication of the Construction Material on side B, and vice versa.
2. Procure Construction Materials
This action lets you procure Construction Materials with the help of the Procurement tokens on your individual board.
The procurement-capacity sides represent your procurement capacity, and the Construction Material sides represent the Construction Materials you can procure.
To perform this action: You must choose at least one Procurement token on your individual board and flip it over (it does not matter which side was up originally). Turning the first Procurement token over is free. You may then turn over as many additional Procurement tokens as you wish, but to do so you must pay 1 money for each additional token you turn over.
Then, take as many Construction Material tokens as there are procurement-capacity symbols visible on your Procurement tokens and add them to your stock. You may only procure Construction Materials that are visible on your Procurement tokens.
NOTE: Be careful. Your stock is limited to 4 Construction Material tokens. If you have more than 4 Construction Material tokens in your stock, immediately discard the tokens of your choice, keeping only 4.
Important: It is possible to turn the same Procurement token over twice. Players can decide to turn over a Procurement token for free and then pay 1 money to turn it over again.
Example: Alice must turn over one Procurement token for free. Then, she turns over 2 other Procurement tokens. She therefore pays 2 × 1 money, which she puts back in the reserve. Since 3 procurement-capacity symbols are visible, she takes 3 Construction Material tokens of her choice from among the visible types of Construction Materials and puts them in her stock. This means she may take either 3 of one type, or 2 of one type plus 1 of another, in any combination totaling 3, matching the visible types.
3. Use Construction Materials
This action lets you move all or some of your Construction Material tokens to empty spaces of the same type on your Construction Sites. A Construction Site is complete when all the Construction Material symbols on the card are covered by matching tokens.
As soon as a Construction Site is complete, it is sold. To know how much you make, calculate the value of the Construction Materials on the Construction Site.
Each Construction Material token on a completed Construction Site brings in as much money as there are matching tokens visible on the central board.
Take the corresponding money from the reserve. Put all the Construction Material tokens from the completed Construction Site back in the central reserve, and put the completed Construction Site face up next to your individual board.
NOTE: When a Construction Site is complete, slide all the other open Construction Sites to the left in order to fill the empty slots on your individual board.
Example: Alice puts 3 Construction Material tokens on her Construction Sites: two animal products and one steel. The Construction Site on the right is complete! On the central board, there are three animal product Bid tokens and three steel tokens face up. Alice therefore collects 2 × the animal-product value and 1 × the steel value, puts the completed Construction Site card next to her board, and returns the Construction Materials that were used to the central reserve.
Special Construction Sites
Some Construction Sites are special. Construction Materials of any type can be put on their spaces. They do not have powers (see Powers of Completed Construction Sites).
Powers of Completed Construction Sites
Completed Construction Sites give you powers that you may use once per game. These powers may be used during your turn, before and/or after performing your action. Once you have used a power, turn the corresponding card over face down (you cannot re-use that power). You may use as many powers as you like during your turn. Using a power never counts as an action for the turn.
- Until the end of your turn, you may sell Construction Sites even if they are not complete, as long as there is at least one Construction Material token on the site. However, you only receive the money corresponding to the Construction Materials present on the Construction Sites in question.
- Perform a "Use Construction Materials" action.
- Perform an "Open a Construction Site" action. If you already have two open Construction Sites, this power lets you open an additional site, without any limit on the number of Construction Sites in front of you (put the Construction Site card to the right of your other, already-open Construction Sites).
- You may pay 1 money to take 2 Construction Materials of your choice from the central reserve and add them to your stock. If you go over the limit of 4 Construction Materials in your stock by doing so, immediately discard the excess.
- Choose 2 Bid tokens of different Construction Material types and turn them over.
End of the Game
When a player takes a Construction Site card and it cannot be replaced on the central board because the draw pile is empty, that player finishes their turn, and then all the other players play one last turn. After that, the game ends.
The player with the most money wins the game. In the event of a tie, the player who has the most completed Construction Sites wins. If players are still tied, the winner is the player whose completed Construction Sites have the highest combined cost (in number of Construction Materials on the sites). If, after this, players are still tied, they are invited to break the tie by playing the game again!