Beethupferl
Beethupferl Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Materials
- 2 sticker sheets
- 25 vegetable tiles (5 each of red cabbage, cucumber, carrot, pumpkin, red beet)
- 5 snail tiles
- 30 earth stickers, 12 of them as a reserve
- 30 tiles
- 1 vegetable garden with 16 places (hollows)
- 4 grass patches
- 20 water drops (mini-marbles)
- 4 watering cans
- 1 bowl for the drops
Before the 1st Game
Attach the stickers:
- Put the stickers on one side of all 30 tiles in the following way: 5 times each with red cabbage, cucumber, carrot, pumpkin, red beet; 5 times with a snail.
- Do you want it to look even nicer? In this case, also attach the earth stickers on the back of the tiles. You don't necessarily have to stick the "earth" on the backs of the tiles; they add to the garden, though. If you do, it is important to attach the "earth" on all tiles in the same way, so that players won't be able to see what's on the front.
Assemble the 4 watering cans.
Place each grass patch on one side at the edge of the garden.
Set-up before every game
The gameplay takes place inside the box. Take everything out of the box – except for the vegetable garden with the grass patches.
- Mix all tiles, with the earth side facing up.
- Put one tile on each hollow of the garden, without looking at what is at the tile's bottom.
- Keep the remaining tiles within reach as a face-down supply.
- Put all water drops in the bowl.
- Each player takes one watering can.
Object of the Game
Who can harvest the most vegetables by watering cleverly, and with luck and good memory skills, while, at the same time, avoiding the greedy snails?
Course of the Game
Players play in turn. The player who last ate a carrot begins.
On your turn, you fill your watering can with 1 water drop from the bowl. Then you may water.
Before you start playing, agree on which one of the two versions to use; this then applies to all players, or once you are ready for it:
Watering for players from 4 years and up: 1x directly from above the vegetable bed. You may empty your watering can directly above the vegetable bed. Choose a hollow you want to water.
Watering for players from 5 years and up: 2x from the grass into the vegetable bed or 1x directly above the bed. On each turn, choose whether you want to water 2x from the grass into the bed or 1x directly above the bed.
But sometimes, the water drop rolls somewhere else… gee…!
This is how you water from the grass into the vegetable bed: Pour out the drop from above one of the 4 tilted grass patches. You may do this once or twice. Each drop first has to hit the grass patch, before it rolls into a hollow.
Great, you can water 2x in a row! But consider carefully when it might be smarter to water only 1x, but in a more precise way.
The special "Beethupferl" watering from the grass: the drop finds its way by rolling to the plant… or it ends up at a snail.
Look, your water drop seeps away in the hollow. And now a vegetable will grow there… or a snail will turn up.
The following rules apply to both versions.
Harvesting
Keep watering, in turn, until either 3 vegetables of the same kind or 3 snails are visible.
3 vegetables of the same kind are visible: Super! Harvest one of these. Take this tile and place it face up in front of you. Turn the other two tiles (of this kind) back over – after trying to memorize what you have seen... Put the drops from all 3 hollows back into the bowl. After that, put a new tile from the supply, with the earth side facing up, on the now-vacant hollow.
3 snails are visible: Oh dear! Take one of the snails and place it face up in front of you. At the end of the game, it will unfortunately eat one vegetable and thus take it away from you. Turn the other two tiles (of this kind) back over – after trying to memorize what you have seen... Put the drops from all 3 hollows back into the bowl. After that, put a new tile from the supply, with the earth side facing up, on the now-vacant hollow.
Drops in a hollow
2 drops in the same hollow: the tile stands upright. A second drop in the same hollow makes the tile stand upright. This tile counts as a visible vegetable or as a visible snail.
But upsy-daisy! With twice as much water, the vegetable pops up erect out of the ground.
Every vegetable in the "Beethupferl" garden needs only 1 drop of water. Therefore, avoid watering a vegetable twice – since this enables the next player to add the third drop and harvest immediately.
3 drops in the same hollow: immediate harvest. Does yet a third drop also land in the same hollow? In this case, any more water would be too much of a good thing. Harvest the vegetable right away – even if there are not yet 3 of them visible in the bed. Unfortunately, this applies also to the snail: you have to immediately take it from the bed.
The immediate harvest also comes with the same rule: take all water drops out of the hollows of the same kind and put them back into the bowl. Turn the applicable tiles over on their back. After that, put a new tile from the supply, with the earth side facing up, on the now-vacant hollow.
Are you already really great with your watering cans? If you are, use the following immediate harvest rule from now on: a third water drop may roll only from the grass into a hollow – but never by watering directly from above the vegetable bed. If, in an attempt at watering directly, a third drop inadvertently lands in a hollow, you may not harvest the vegetable and have to put the third drop back into the bowl. You would have to take the snail, though.
End of the Game
The game ends when you have placed the last tile from the supply into the vegetable bed, or have taken 3 snails in total from the garden.
Now, each snail you have collected eats one of the vegetables you have harvested. That vegetable is now gone, so pick one and put it aside. After that, check who (still) owns the most vegetables. Is it you? Super! You win! There can be more than one winner.
Special Situations
This can happen even to the best gardener!
- Does a drop remain outside the hollows somewhere in the vegetable garden? In this case, you may use it again for watering right away.
- Has a drop that you are currently removing inadvertently rolled into a different hollow? In this case, take it out of there, put it back into the bowl and turn the tile back over.
- Has the second drop on your game turn landed directly in the vegetable bed – instead of first landing on the grass patch? If you would have been able to harvest a vegetable, now you may not do it; instead, the next player can do that (before he waters). If it were a snail, you would have to take it, though.
- Does a tile remain in a horizontal position, although there are 2 drops in the hollow? In this case, put one of the two drops back into the bowl.
- Has a tile been "pushed off" by drops? In this case, simply put it back on the hollow.
Variant: Let us harvest together!
If you want to try out whether you can move faster than "at a snail's pace" when harvesting together, play this variant.
Here, you have a common objective: cooperatively, try to harvest 2 pieces (or more) of each kind of vegetable, before you have to take the third snail from the vegetable bed.
This is the only change in the course of the game. If the third drop is in a hollow with:
- a vegetable, remove this vegetable from the game, since you now don't get it;
- a snail, place the snail in front of you.
Once you have taken 3 snails from the garden, all of you lose, unfortunately. If you together manage to collect 2 tiles of each kind of vegetable, you've done great and win the game together.
You can also use the rules of this variant to play alone "against the snails."