Wolkenbruch
Wolkenbruch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Spielmaterial (Components)
The game contains 76 Wolkenbruch cards:
- 56 Rain cards (Regen-Karten): 40 Drop cards (Tropfen-Karten), 4 Wave cards (Wellen-Karten), 4 Cloud cards (Wolken-Karten), 8 Lightning cards (Blitz-Karten)
- 20 Special cards (Spezial-Karten): 4 Spark cards (Funken-Karten), 4 Dragon cards (Drachen-Karten), 12 Event cards (Ereignis-Karten)
Further components:
- 4 Flame cards (Flammen-Karten)
- 10 Profile cards (Profil-Karten), each with a personal ability
- 4 Umbrella cards (Schirm-Karten)
- 6 Wolkenbruch display cards (Wolkenbruch-Anzeige-Karten), including the difficulty scales
- 1 Rain barrel card (Regentonne)
- 5 Sun cards (Sonnen-Karten)
- 1 Wooden Piece card (Holzstück-Karte)
- 2 overview cards (Übersichtskarten)
- 1 Share card
Spielprinzip & Spielziel (Game Principle and Goal)
The goal of the game is to protect all four flames together from the incoming masses of rain. The game is won only when all four flames have been protected by the players.
WOLKENBRUCH is a cooperative game. This means the players either win or lose together. They should therefore form a good team, communicate, and work together. However, a single brave player can also take on the challenge of WOLKENBRUCH alone ("solo").
The players have several actions available to them, which they perform by spending action points. The main task is to protect a flame by collecting five Rain cards of one colour. And do this four times!
But be careful! At the end of each turn the active player must play a Rain card from their hand into the game (Precipitation phase, Niederschlag-Phase), and the game itself brings further Rain cards and Event cards into play with increasing difficulty (Wolkenbruch phase, Wolkenbruch-Phase).
Spielaufbau (Setup)
For solo play: before setup, remove all Event cards and Profile cards bearing the solo icon (a single-person symbol) and return them to the box. These cards are not needed for a solo game.
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Lay out the four Flame cards in a random order in a circle, so that the flames face outwards and show their lit side. Leave one card-width of space between the four cards, because further cards will be added during the game.
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Slide the Umbrella card of the matching colour under each Flame card so that it cannot be seen.
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Place the Wooden Piece card in the middle of the circle. Its side does not matter.
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Lay out the Wolkenbruch display (Wolkenbruch-Anzeige). The players agree on a difficulty, choose the matching scale, and place the indicator card (Anzeiger-Karte) over it so that all numbers are covered except the first, smallest value (shown in grey). The first game is recommended to be played on scale 1 (Nieselregen, drizzle). Unused scale cards go back into the box.
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Place the Rain barrel card (Regentonne) at the edge of the play area.
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Depending on the number of players, place Sun cards in a general supply (allgemeiner Vorrat):
Number of players 1 2 3 4 Sun cards 2 3 4 5 Surplus Sun cards go back into the box.
Spielablauf (Sequence of Play)
The players take their turns clockwise, one after another, until the game has been either won or lost together.
The players must always observe the following:
- During the game the players may not voluntarily show their hand cards to one another, nor talk specifically about their hand cards. They may, however, express preferences and should coordinate closely.
- Each player's personal card display (persönliche Kartenauslage) has a limit of six cards and is open and visible to all players. If a seventh card would enter a display area, a card already displayed must be discarded.
- At setup each player received a Profile card, which gives them a personal, unique ability. This ability applies only to the player who owns that Profile card and is explained on the card itself.
- If a Flame card must be turned to its burnt side but is already extinguished, the players lose the game immediately.
The player who most recently lit a match starts the game.
Spielzug (Turn)
A player's turn consists of 4 phases: Actions, Precipitation, Wolkenbruch, and Drawing hand cards.
1. Phase: Aktionen (Actions)
A player has up to 4 action points (AP) per turn, which they may divide freely among the following actions. Each action costs a specific number of action points, which the player must spend to perform it. Unused action points expire at the end of the player's turn.
Vertreiben (Drive away) Take the top Rain card from the current flame, the one the Wooden Piece card is lying against, and place it face up on the discard pile. If the flame has already been protected, i.e. its Umbrella card is visible, all cards on the current flame are placed on the discard pile. Note: Wave cards can only be driven away once a flame has been protected.
Bewegen (Move) Move the Wooden Piece card to a directly adjacent Flame or Spark card, clockwise or anticlockwise.
Springen (Jump) Discard a Rain card from your hand onto the discard pile and immediately move the Wooden Piece card to the flame of that colour. The state of the flame does not matter. Note: jumping to a Spark card is not possible.
Abschöpfen (Skim off) Take the top Rain card from the current Flame card, the one the Wooden Piece card is lying against, into your personal display. Note: Wave cards cannot be skimmed off.
Weitergeben (Pass on) Give a Rain card from your personal display to another player. That player places the card into their own personal display. Note: a hand card cannot be passed on with this action.
Schützen (Protect) If a player has five Rain cards of the same colour in their personal display, they can protect a flame. If the Wooden Piece card lies against the matching, burning Flame card, place the five same-coloured Rain cards from your display under the Rain barrel card to protect the flame. The Rain cards that are at this moment lying against the flame are placed on the discard pile, without changing their current order. Slide the Umbrella card under the Flame card upwards. This shows that the flame has been protected. Each flame can only be protected once. Note: cards that lie under the Rain barrel card are permanently removed from the game. The players should therefore agree which cards they use for this action.
Entfachen (Kindle) Turn an extinguished Flame card, against which the Wooden Piece card lies, to its burning side.
Tauschen (Exchange) Take the top card lying face up on the discard pile into your hand, and in exchange discard another card from your hand onto the discard pile. Note: this allows a Rain card to be exchanged for an Event card, and vice versa.
Sonne tanken (Gather sun) A player can use this action to "save up" action points for a later turn. For one action point, take an available Sun card from the general supply into your display. If no Sun cards are available, this action is not possible. Note: Sun cards count towards the player's display limit. If a Sun card causes this limit to be exceeded, any other card must be discarded.
oder (or) Ereignis-Karte aus der Hand spielen (Play an Event card from hand) For 1 or 2 action points, play an Event card from your hand and carry out its Event effect, which is marked with an exclamation mark, in full. Afterwards the Event card is normally removed from the game completely and returned to the box.
Individuelle Sonderfähigkeit (Individual special ability) Use the ability or abilities of your personal Profile card. Some of these require you to spend action points.
Unter Strom (Under power) In the Actions phase a player may play Sun cards from an earlier round to gain additional action points for this turn. For each Sun card played, the player receives one additional action point, which they must use immediately. The played Sun cards return to the general supply and are then available again to all players.
2. Phase: Niederschlag (Precipitation)
Once a player has used up their action points, they must play a Rain card from their hand onto the flame against which the Wooden Piece card currently lies.
If, at the end of a player's turn, the Wooden Piece card lies against a Spark card, the player must play the Rain card from their hand onto one of the two adjacent Flame cards. They may freely choose which of the two flames to play it on.
The Rain cards are laid over one another in an offset way, so that the coloured cloud at the lower edge remains visible. This lets the players keep track of how many cards are lying against each flame.
If the card played is the fifth Rain card that would be laid against a flame, that flame is extinguished. The Flame card is turned to its burnt side. The fifth Rain card is discarded onto the discard pile and is not laid against the flame. Any card effects are not carried out.
If the card played is the first, second, third or fourth Rain card laid against a flame, the status of the flame does not change.
If the player plays a Wave or Cloud card, the corresponding card effects are carried out (see page 13, "Card effects").
If a player cannot play a matching Rain card onto the flame, the flame against which the Wooden Piece card lies is extinguished. The Flame card is then turned to its burnt side. A player may also choose not to play a matching Rain card onto a flame, even though they hold a matching Rain card in hand.
If the player has no hand cards left, the Flame card against which the Wooden Piece card lies is likewise turned to its burnt side.
3. Phase: Wolkenbruch (Cloudburst)
Afterwards, further cards are drawn from the Wolkenbruch deck and brought into play according to the current Wolkenbruch display.
If these cards are Rain cards, they are laid against the matching flames. The same rules apply as in the Precipitation phase: if a Rain card is the first, second, third or fourth card laid against a flame, the status of the flame does not change.
If a Wave or Cloud is drawn here, the corresponding card effects are carried out (see page 13, "Card effects").
If a played card is the fifth Rain card that would have to be laid against a flame, the flame is extinguished. The Flame card is turned to its burnt side, and the Rain card is discarded onto the discard pile without its card effect and is not laid against the flame.
If an Event card is drawn here, the Wolkenbruch effect is carried out, i.e. the half of the card with the grey cloud cover. The Event card is then placed on the discard pile.
If a Spark card is drawn, it is placed immediately, starting from the current position of the Wooden Piece card, into the next free gap clockwise between two Flame cards.
If a Dragon card is drawn, the Wolkenbruch display is raised by one step. Then the open discard pile is shuffled and placed face down on top of the Wolkenbruch deck. The Dragon card is then removed from the game and returned to the box.
With a Dragon card the Wolkenbruch phase ends immediately. No further cards are drawn and brought into play.
4. Phase: Handkarten aufziehen (Draw hand cards)
The player now draws cards until they reach their hand limit again. If the player draws a Spark or Dragon card in doing so, they bring it into play and resolve the corresponding card effects. They then continue drawing cards until their hand limit is reached.
Spielende (End of the Game)
The game ends immediately once it has been either won or lost.
The game is won as soon as all four flames have been protected by the players.
The game is lost if, at any moment, all four flames are extinguished.
The game is also lost if an already extinguished flame would have to be extinguished again.
The game is also lost if a card must be drawn from the Wolkenbruch deck but the deck is empty.
Did the players manage to save the flames from the falling masses of water? Or have the flames gone out?
Use the Share card to share your victory, or your defeat, with friends and the world via social media!
Den Druck erhöhen (Raising the Pressure)
The game offers 10 different Wolkenbruch scales, which present the players with ever greater challenges.
Once the players have mastered level 1 (Niederschlag, precipitation), they can turn to the higher levels. The following further difficulty levels can be mastered: 2 – Schauer (showers); 3 – Aprilwetter (April weather); 4 – Hundewetter (dog weather); 5 – Dauerregen (persistent rain); 6 – Monsun (monsoon); 7 – Platzregen (cloudburst); or 8 – Tsunami.
Level 9 – Konfetti (confetti) and level 10 – Schnee (snow) are recommended for a solo player and are therefore also marked with the solo icon. Experienced players can, of course, also try their luck with these demanding Wolkenbruch scales as a team!
Karten-Effekte (Card Effects)
Rain card: Wave (Welle) When a Wave card is played onto a Flame card, all Rain cards lying there at that moment are placed on the discard pile. The order of the cards is not changed. The Wave card is then laid against the flame. Special rule: Wave cards can only be driven away (vertrieben) once a flame has been protected.
Rain card: Cloud (Wolke) A Cloud card is laid against the matching Flame card. In addition, the top card of the Wolkenbruch deck is then drawn and also brought into play, regardless of whether it is a Rain, Event, Dragon or Spark card.
Rain card: Lightning (Blitz) — action card (Aktionskarte) A Lightning card may be discarded by a player at any time to turn the matching-coloured extinguished Flame card to its burning side. This costs no action point and may also be carried out during another player's turn. The Lightning card may come from the hand or from the display of any player. It is not possible to use a Lightning card to prevent a flame from being extinguished. Note: for a Lightning card played from the hand, the player draws a replacement card only in the next "Draw hand cards" phase of that player.
Spark cards (Funken-Karten) See the Wolkenbruch phase, page 11. Spark cards make it more difficult to navigate between the flames.
Dragon cards (Drachen-Karten): "The clouds break!" (Die Wolken brechen!) See the Wolkenbruch phase, page 11. Dragon cards increase the difficulty by raising the Wolkenbruch display.
Sun cards (Sonnen-Karten) A player may use Sun cards to "save up" action points for a later turn. When the card is returned to the general supply, the player immediately receives one additional action point for this turn. See the action "Sonne tanken" on page 9.
Event cards (Ereignis-Karten) An Event card is split into two parts: the Event effect and the Wolkenbruch effect. When an Event card is played from a player's hand for action points during their turn, the Event effect is carried out in full. When an Event card is brought into play during the Wolkenbruch phase by a Cloud card or by another game effect, the Wolkenbruch effect is always carried out.
Kurzübersicht (Quick Reference)
Spielzug
- Aktionen: 4 action points (AP), page 7
- Bewegen (Move): move the Wooden Piece one step clockwise or anticlockwise.
- Springen (Jump): discard a Rain card of a colour to jump to that flame.
- Vertreiben (Drive away): place the top card of the current flame on the discard pile.
- Abschöpfen (Skim off): take the top card of the current flame into your personal display.
- Weitergeben (Pass on): give a card from your personal display to another player.
- Schützen (Protect): with 5 same-coloured Rain cards, protect this burning flame.
- Entfachen (Kindle): turn an extinguished flame to its burning side.
- Tauschen (Exchange): exchange the top card of the discard pile with a hand card.
- Sonne tanken (Gather sun): take a Sun card into your personal display.
- Use your personal special ability from the Profile card, for 0 to 2 AP.
- Niederschlag (Precipitation), page 10: the active player plays a Rain card from their hand into play.
- Wolkenbruch (Cloudburst), page 11: further cards are drawn from the Wolkenbruch deck according to the current Wolkenbruch display.
- Handkarten aufziehen (Draw hand cards), page 11.
Karten-Effekte (Card effects), page 13
- Rain card: Wave: all Rain cards at this flame go to the discard pile.
- Rain card: Cloud: brings 1 card from the Wolkenbruch deck into play.
- Rain card: Lightning: playable at any time. Turns the flame of this colour back to its burning side.
- Spark: placed between two Flame cards.
- Dragon: "The clouds break!" Raise the Wolkenbruch display one step, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down on top of the Wolkenbruch deck.
- Sun: generates +1 AP for further actions.
- Event: depending on the phase, either carry out the Event effect as an action for 1 or 2 AP, or resolve the Wolkenbruch effect.
Spielende (End of the game), page 12
- Victory: all four flames have been protected.
- Defeat: all four flames are extinguished at any moment.
- Or: an extinguished flame would have to be extinguished again.
- Or: a card must be drawn from the Wolkenbruch deck, but the deck is empty.
Translator's notes: all card names are rendered in English, with the German name in parentheses where it appears on the components. The numbering of the setup steps is added for readability; the original marks them with icons. The numeric values of the Wolkenbruch scales are printed on the display cards, and the text of the Profile and Event cards is printed on the cards themselves; neither is restated in the rulebook text. The "Spiel-Tagebuch" (game diary, a blank score sheet with the columns Datum, Spieler, Skala, Gewonnen?) on page 15 of the original is a play aid and is not transcribed. The "Schnell-Start" quick-setup card is a companion component and is not transcribed.