Zahltag Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Contents
• Preparation
• The Cards
• Gameplay
  • 1. Finish Jobs
  • 2. Add, Drop, or Exchange Workers
  • 3. Reveal a Job Card
  • 4. Bid for a Job or Complete Payday
    • 4.1 Bid for a Job
    • 4.2 Execute Payday
  • Special Cases
• Game End

Goal of the Game

Each Player tries, through skillful bidding, to receive many profitable Jobs. The Player who possesses the most Money after 5 Paydays has won.

Contents

• 52 Worker Cards:
  • 14 Foremen
  • 16 Workers
  • 10 Cranes
  • 12 Excavators
• 4 x "00" Cards (1 in each of 4 colors)
• 32 Job Cards
• 6 Payday Cards
• 16 Offer Cards (4 in each of 4 colors)
• Game Money

Preparation

Each Player gets 4 Bid cards as well as the "00" Card in a color. Cards are taken into hand so that the other Players cannot see them. Additionally, each Player gets 20 Million in any denomination, which is set openly on the table. The remaining Money will become the Bank.

The 52 Worker cards are shuffled and each Player is dealt 7 cards, which are added them to their hand.

The remaining Worker cards are sorted into four face-up stacks, one for each type, and are placed in the middle of the table. Starting with the youngest Player and proceeding clockwise, each Player now has the opportunity to swap, discard, or take up to three Worker cards from a stack. Each Player thus decides for themselves how many cards - at least four and at most ten - to begin the Game with.

The 32 Job cards and the 6 Payday cards are shuffled together and are placed in a Stack face-down in the middle of the Table.

The Cards

Job Cards

The Job cards show the Jobs that Players will compete to win. Each Job card indicates what Workers are necessary to complete the Job.

Offer Cards

With the Offer cards Players bid on the Jobs. Each Player selects one of his Offer cards face-down to play. Each card has 2 numbers on it. The Player's bid is the number facing the Center of the Table.

"00" Card

A Player who has no interest in the revealed Job or who is not in a position to fulfill it, plays their "00" card face-down.

Payday Cards

If a Payday card is revealed, the Players must pay for the Worker cards in their hand - except for the Player with the fewest cards, who pays nothing.

Worker Cards

The four different types of Worker cards are required to carry out the Jobs.

Gameplay

The youngest Player starts the Game, then play continues clockwise.

The current Player (and only that Player!) performs three actions in succession. The fourth action applies to all Players.

1. Finish Jobs
2. Add, Drop, or Exchange Workers
3. Reveal a Job Card
4. Bid for a Job or Complete Payday

1. Finish Jobs

Return Worker cards to your hand

This action does not occur at the beginning of the Game, since no Jobs have still been won and therefore no Player has Workers on a Job.

If the current Player has Worker cards on the table, they do the following:

All Worker cards on the Player's right are taken back into hand. They are now available for future Jobs. All Worker cards on the Player's left are moved to the Player's right. This indicates when the Worker cards are available from previous Bids (see 4.1 Bid for a Job). To clarify: the implementation of a Job is divided into 3 phases:

1. A Player wins a Job: They lay out the necessary Worker cards to their left.
2. The Player's next turn: They move the displayed Worker cards to their right.
3. The Player's next turn after this: They take the displayed Worker cards from the right back into their hand. These cards are available to the player again for future Jobs.

(The printed rulebook illustrates these three steps with a diagram: 1. a hand takes cards, 2. the cards move along the arrow, 3. the cards return to the hand.)

2. Add, Drop, or Exchange Workers

The current Player may either:

• Add a Worker card from any one of the 4 stacks to their hand, or
• Exchange a Worker card, placing it on its stack and drawing a Worker card from any other stack, or
• Discard a Worker card to its stack.

Attention: A Player may never have more than 12 Worker cards (including those in hand and those on the table)!

If, during the game, a Player is found to have more than 12 cards, they must pay 1 million to each of the other Players for each excess card. If they cannot do so, they are eliminated from the game.

If a stack of Worker cards is used up, no card can be taken from this stack until corresponding Worker cards are discarded again.

3. Reveal a Job Card

The current Player reveals the top card of the face-down pile, either a Job card or a Payday card.

4. Bid for a Job or Complete Payday

4.1 Bid for a Job

When a Job is revealed, the Job will be awarded to one of the Players. Each Player who is interested in the Job and who holds the necessary Workers as indicated on the Job card places an Offer card from their hand face-down on the table. The side pointing toward the center of the table indicates which of the two bid values on the card the Player is bidding.

If a Player is not interested in the Job, or if a Player does not have the necessary Workers in hand, they place the "00" Offer card on the table instead.

Once each Player has chosen an Offer card, they all are revealed simultaneously. The Player with the lowest Offer card wins the Job and receives from the Bank the amount of Money indicated on the Offer card. They Player then immediately starts to complete the Job by placing all the necessary Worker cards from their hand on the table to the left. The Worker cards are placed open and slightly offset on top of each other, as shown in the printed figure.

If multiple Players bid the lowest Offer card, each of these Players get the Job for 2 million less than the amount indicated on the Offer card. In case several Players play a 1 as an Offer card, they both have to pay 1 million to the bank.

If all Players play their "00" card, the Job is not won.

After the Job is given, each Player takes his played Offer card back to his hand. The Job card, as well as all subsequent Job cards, are placed on the edge of the table until a Payday card is revealed. The number of Job cards must be clearly visible to all Players. The corresponding Job card is also placed on the edge of the table.

(The printed rulebook shows the Job cards laid out in a row along the edge of the table, next to each other, until Payday is revealed.)

4.2 Execute Payday

When a Payday card is turned over, each Player must pay for the Worker cards they have in hand (but not for the Worker cards on the table). With one exception, the Player(s) with the least number of Worker cards in their hand pay nothing. All other Players pay 1 million to the bank for each card they have more than that Player. If a Player cannot pay, they are eliminated from the game. If all Players have the same number of cards, they all pay nothing.

After a Payday is completed, the Payday card is placed on the edge of the table with the previous Job cards under it, so that each Player can see how many Paydays have already taken place.

Once a Job or a Payday is completed, the round is over. Now the next Player clockwise takes their turn.

Special Cases

• No 2 Paydays in a row: If a Payday immediately follows a previous Payday, it is not executed but shuffled back into the Job stack. Afterwards, a new card is revealed. If it is a Payday card again, it too is shuffled back in, and so on.
• After the ninth (eighth) Job = Payday: If nine Job cards are turned over since the previous Payday, a Payday will be enforced in the next Player's turn. (With 2 Players, this occurs after eight Job cards.) The next Player completes the first two stages of their turn as usual. However, instead of revealing a Job card, the player goes through the deck, finds a Payday card and reveals and executes it as usual. The Player then reshuffles the remaining Job cards, and the next Player begins their turn.

Game End

The Game ends after the fifth Payday is executed. The Player with the most Money wins. In case of a tie, the Player with fewer total Worker cards wins. If still tied, the player with fewer Worker cards on the table wins.