Zwergendorf

Zwergendorf Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Components

16 dwarf cards
4 pencils
1 pad (village plans)
10 phase cards
31 goal cards (statue of a dwarf on the back)
31 resource cards (wheelbarrow on the back)
31 building cards (building site on the back)

Setup

Each player gets a village plan and a pencil. Give your village a pleasant-sounding name and draw yourself as a dwarf.

The resource, building and goal cards are each shuffled separately and placed face down as separate stacks in the middle of the table. For your first game you should keep an eraser at hand.

It is best to lay the phase cards out fanned (as in the picture) in the middle of the table, so that you always see the complete course of the game. The phase cards show the numbers 1 to 10.

They include 6 CARD PHASES, 3 PRODUCTION PHASES and one SCORING PHASE at the end of the game.

The phase cards are played in the course of the game from 1 to 10.

Dwarf Cards

There are 4 different dwarf card sets in the colors grey (I), beige (II), brown (III) and green (IV).

For your first game take the dwarf woman (Zwergin) and the smith (Schmied) from the grey (I) set.

Lay them in the middle of the table, clearly visible to all. Read the tasks on these cards; the most points at the end of the game are given for these. For the next games it is best to take one more grey dwarf card.

You can play every game with up to 4 dwarf cards.

Once you have played through all the color sets, you can also combine the different dwarf card sets with each other.

When making your selection, make sure that the dwarf woman is always included and that no dwarf appears twice.

The goals of the dwarf woman (top left) are also fulfilled when additional other resources, buildings or dwarves are inside the wall.

REMEMBER: On some dwarf cards the term "forest edge" (Waldrand) appears. "Forest edge" always means all squares at the outermost edge of the grid.

Phase Cards

The phase cards guide you through each game round. There are three types: CARD PHASE, PRODUCTION PHASE and SCORING PHASE.

Always carry one out completely, then turn it over and turn to the next phase card. They are numbered from 1 (start) to 10 (scoring).

On your village plan you will find the individual phases again, marked by color and symbols.

Phase card contents shown on the cards:

Card phase (1): 1. Draw 1 goal, 1 building and 1 resource card. 2. Keep 1 card. 3. Pass the rest 1x to the left (or right, per the arrow). 4. Keep 1 card. 5. Discard the rest. 6. Draw both cards in.
Production phase (4): Steps A-G.
Scoring phase (10): 1. 3 own goal cards. 2. Dwarf cards in the middle. 3. Most taverns. 4. Most smiths. 5. Minus felled trees.

The Village Plan

The labels, numbering and symbols on your village plan support you in each phase.

It is best to keep a village plan next to you while studying the rules, to better understand the connections.

The Game Begins

Card Phase

Phase card 1 is played. It is a CARD PHASE: each person draws one card each from the goal card, resource card and building card stacks.

Choose 1 of these cards and place it face down above your village plan at "1. KARTE ABLEGEN" (1. Place card).

Pass the remaining 2 cards to the left or right neighbor (depending on what the arrow on the phase card says).

Then choose 1 card again and place it face down above your village plan at "2. KARTE ABLEGEN" (2. Place card).

1 card is left over for each player. It goes onto the face-down discard pile.

Entering Resources on the Village Plan

Next: "3. ANKREUZEN" (3. Tick off). The players tick off in the list the number of resources received as boxes. The list is meant to make it easier to keep track of the resources gained. Because of it, in the production phase you do not have to search the plan for resources and count them.

TIP: When a card phase is over, draw a cross-stroke through each row of your list; then you know what you have already drawn into your village.

Next: "4. EINZEICHNEN" (4. Draw in). Each resource can now be entered on any free square in your village. They do not have to be connected!

Already when entering, pay attention to how you arrange the resources in your village, so that you fulfil the tasks of the dwarves and thus get as many victory points as possible at the end of the game.

EXAMPLE: If you received 3 wood, 2 stones and 1 coin this round, you make 3 crosses at wood, 2 at stone and 1 at coin. Then you draw the chosen resources into your village under "4. Einzeichnen".

The term "village" in these rules always means the grid in which your village arises in the course of the game.

REMEMBER: You must always draw in EVERYTHING you receive or produce! Unless you fell a tree (see page 9, "X. Fell Trees" below).

Symbols on Cards

The 4 resources are: coin (Münze), wood (Holz), stone (Stein), beer (Bier). When received, these are ticked off on the list and entered into the village.

In addition you will find on the cards: dwarves (Zwerge), mines (Minen), wall sections (Mauerabschnitte), smiths (Schmieden), taverns (Tavernen), trees (Bäume). These are not ticked off on the list, since they produce nothing new in the production phase.

Fundamentally, the symbols we use are only a guideline. Feel free to get creative yourselves! Draw beautiful taverns or dwarves and let your imagination run free. Just make sure you can still recognize all symbols and tell them apart.

Explanation of the Individual Card Types

Each card has two halves: top and bottom. Both halves always take effect. On each card, for the upper half you must decide whether you want to enter the resources on the left or on the right.

Resource Card (wheelbarrow on the back)

These cards bring a one-time amount of many resources.

With these cards you must decide, in both the upper and the lower area, between the resources on the left and on the right.

Enter the resources at "3.-4." on your plan and then place the card on the discard pile.

With the resource cards your village fills up faster. Trees also appear on these cards. You additionally draw these in above the trees on your sheet at "X. Baum fällen" (X. Fell trees). They are explained later.

On the pictured resource card, for example, you can choose at the top between 1x coin and 1x wood or 2x beer, and at the bottom between 1x beer or 1x wood.

Building Card (building site on the back)

The upper part of the card again gives you the choice of which resources you enter at "3.-4.". The lower part concerns the production phase. Lay this card face up on the place provided at "5. Baukarten" (5. Building cards) on the left of your village plan.

You can have as many building cards as you like in the course of the game. At the start of the production phase you can always decide whether you use the card or not.

If you do not use it in a production phase, turn it over. It is then not available for this production phase. In a later production phase you can use it again.

Building cards refine your production and need more resources for it. At the same time, your village does not fill up as quickly.

You can use several building cards in the production phase.

On the pictured building card you must decide at the top between 2x beer or 2x stone. If you use this card in a production phase, then for a tavern you now need 2 stones instead of one stone.

Goal Card (statue on the back)

The upper part of the card again gives you the choice of which resources, buildings or dwarves you enter at "3.-4.". The lower part has a victory point condition or directly victory points.

Lay this card face up on the place provided to the left next to "6. Zielkarten auslegen" (6. Lay out goal cards). The goal cards have a limit of at most 12 victory points that you can generate with them.

There are goal cards for which you need the largest connected group of one kind of resource, or the most buildings of one kind. These cards only give points to the owner of the card, and only if he wins the comparison with his fellow players.

You can have as many goal cards as you like in the course of the game. At the end of the game you choose 3 of them for scoring; the rest you put on the discard pile.

On the pictured goal card you must decide at the top between 1x mine or 2x dwarf, and at the end of the game you get 3 victory points for every 3 stones in your village, but at most 12. In this case no resources are entered.

End of the First Card Phase

When you are done with the first card phase and the drawing in, reveal the next phase card and carry it out as stated on it.

Then reveal the next phase card again. As soon as you have played 3 card phases, each player has drawn the symbols of 6 cards into the village.

The first production phase follows.

Production Phase

In phase 4 the first PRODUCTION PHASE of the game follows.

On your plan you see all steps of the production phase depicted. Go through the individual steps simultaneously, one after the other.

NOTE: FOR ALL PRODUCTION STEPS THE FOLLOWING APPLIES:

All resources are used for every possible production and production phase.
What is produced is drawn directly onto an empty square in your village.
You may draw freely in your village; you do not have to draw connected.
If you use building cards, you need correspondingly more resources according to your building card.
When entering, always pay attention to your goals and the wishes of the dwarves, in order to make as many victory points as possible.

A. If at the beginning of a production phase you notice that an important resource (coin, wood, stone or beer) is missing for your planning, you can conjure it out of the dwarf cap. To do so simply tick off a cap, tick off the matching resource in the list and draw it into your village. You have up to 5 caps available during the game.

B. If you have building cards, you now decide whether you want to use them in the current production phase. If you do not want to use them, turn them over onto the back. When the production phase is finished, turn your building cards back.

C. Coin -> Dwarf: Every player who has entered a coin on his plan now draws one dwarf per coin.

D. Wood -> Mine: Every player who has entered a wood on his plan now draws one mine per wood.

E. Stone -> Wall section: Every player who has entered a stone on his plan now draws one wall section per stone. This always occupies two adjacent squares, is outlined and hatched.

F. Coin + Beer -> Smith: Every player who has entered a coin and a beer on his plan now draws one smith per pair of coin and beer.

G. Beer + Stone + Wood -> Tavern: Every player who has entered a beer, a stone and a wood on his plan gets one additional tavern per set of beer, stone and wood. This requires 4 squares.

REMEMBER: For every possible production you always use every resource; the resources are not used up! Example: One wood, one stone and one beer in your village bring in the production phase a mine, a wall section and a tavern.

When everyone has finished producing, you carry out the next phase card and start a new CARD PHASE. This one is now only 2 cards long.

Then you produce again as described above.

Example: If a player had drawn 3 dwarves for 3 coins in the previous production phase and now has 2 coins more, he now draws 5 dwarves. So you can enter more and more in the course of the game!

After that comes one last CARD PHASE, one last PRODUCTION PHASE and finally the SCORING PHASE.

X. Fell Trees

If you cannot or do not want to draw something in, no matter whether it is a resource in the card phase or a product from the production phase, you tick off one tree for each symbol not drawn.

So you fell a tree, since you need more space in the clearing for your village.

Also for large entries, such as a tavern or a wall section not drawn in, only one tree needs to be ticked off. At the end of the game the minus points of the last felled tree are scored. They are therefore not added up. (The values shown on the village plan beside the trees are 0, -2, -5, -10 and -20.)

You can therefore not get more than 20 minus points. If you have already felled the last tree and could not draw in something more, the game ends for you after the current phase. The player concerned can enter no further resources until the end of the game. The player only takes part in the scoring.

There are resource cards with which you can also draw in new trees. These may be ticked off exactly like the ones already printed, but give you no further minus points.

Game End

The last phase card is the SCORING PHASE, in which your victory points are counted.

You now go through the lower part of the village plan together. In general, only orthogonal squares are counted, never diagonal! Orthogonal: if the term adjacent or connected is used on dwarf or goal cards, only connections arranged above/below or right/left count, not diagonally.

First, choose from your own cards 3 goal cards (statues) that you score. The other cards are void. If you have 3 or fewer goal cards, you score all that you have. You enter the victory points on your plan in the fields provided.
Second, you score the 2-4 general tasks on the dwarf cards that were laid in the middle of the table at the start of the game, and enter the victory points on your plan in the fields provided. With these cards you will make the most victory points.
If you have felled trees, you also transfer the minus points.
The player with the most taverns receives 7 victory points. In case of a tie each participant receives 3 victory points.
The player with the most smiths receives 4 victory points. In case of a tie each participant receives 2 victory points.

Now add up all your plus points and subtract your minus points from the sum.

The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie the player with the most dwarves wins.

Variants

Advanced Building Variant

In this variant each building card can only be used for one production phase. If you have a building card and use it in a production phase, it is afterwards put on the discard pile. Therefore consider well in which of the 3 production phases you want to use the card.

Game Variant: The Nasty Dwarves (for more interaction)

The game principle and sequence are the same. Draw one card of each kind, choose one for yourself, throw one card directly onto the discard pile and pass one card on to your left or right player. That player must then enter it.

Solo Mode

Setup

First read through the regular rules.

The resource, goal and building cards are each shuffled separately and placed face down as separate stacks in the middle of the table.

The order must be kept in solo mode (resource cards on the left, goal cards in the middle, building cards on the right).

Now draw one card face down from each stack, beginning on the left, so that it lies on top. Repeat this 4 times, so that you have a prepared stack of 12 cards. Place this stack next to your sheet.

Also decide how many dwarf cards (2, 3 or 4) you want to play. The compositions of the dwarf card sets can be found in the regular instructions under Setup.

The Game Begins

The sequence is the same. In each card phase draw one card each from the resource, goal and building card stacks. Choose one card and put the remaining two cards on the discard pile.

Now you draw the top two cards from your prepared stack.

You choose one card here; the other goes onto the discard pile.

After a card phase you then have, as in the regular game, two cards from which you choose resources and enter them as usual.

This is how each card phase runs. The production phase is as in the regular game.

Scoring

In the regular game there are often goal cards where the majority plays a role and you have to compare your plan with those of the other players. This of course does not work in solo mode. Therefore there is a minimum number of resources or buildings that must be reached on these cards in order to get the victory points:

Goal cards with a majority of coin, wood, stone or beer: you must have 10 of this resource on your plan.
Goal cards with a majority of dwarves, mines or wall sections: you must have at least 20 of them on your plan.
Cards where you choose a card of your fellow player: choose one of your goal cards.
The most taverns: you must have at least 6 taverns.
The most smiths: you must have at least 7 smiths.
With 2 dwarf cards you should reach at least 60 victory points.
With 3 dwarf cards you should reach at least 80 victory points.
With 4 dwarf cards you should reach at least 100 victory points.

Play now to reach your personal high score!

Start Scenarios

1. The Small Clearing

Before the start of the game you draw forest into the outermost left and right columns in the village. This leaves you 16 fewer squares available. Can you manage to plan your village properly on the small clearing, or will many trees have to be felled again in the end?

2. The Even Smaller Clearing

You draw forest into all outer rows and columns. This leaves you 32 fewer squares available. Does your plan work out and how many points do you manage?