Boomerang: Europe
Boomerang: Europe Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 28 cards
- 4 pencils
- 1 score pad
Setup
- Give each player a sheet of paper from the score pad, and a pencil.
- Shuffle all the cards, place them in a face-down deck, and you are ready to begin!
What's on a Card?
Each card shows:
- Throw number — the number in the corner used for the Throw & Catch score.
- Scoring icons — the tourist site, cuisine, transport, or national treasure icons found on the card.
- Map location — the letter showing where on the map of Europe this tourist site is found.
- Name of tourist site — the name of the location depicted on the card.
Game Play
The game will be played over the course of four rounds. During each round, players will draft from a hand of cards in the hopes of scoring in five different categories.
At the end of each round, players will record their scores and then the cards will be shuffled again. After four rounds, the players add up all their scores and determine the winner!
Every round, follow these steps:
- Deal seven cards to each player
- Players select their Throw cards
- Players pass and draft 6 more cards
- Players score
In detail, this is what happens during each step...
1) Deal seven cards to each player
To begin each round, simply shuffle the 28 cards and deal each player a hand of seven cards. If you are playing with less than four players, there will be some cards left over. Place these face down and away from the players. They should not be looked at until the start of the next round when all 28 cards will be shuffled together again.
2) Select a Throw card
After receiving their seven cards, players should look at their hand and select a Throw card. Each player places their chosen Throw card face-down in front of themselves. This card will form part of a player's score for the round, but unlike the other cards players will select, the Throw card is not revealed to the other players until the round ends. (You may always look at your own Throw card.)
Your main goal when selecting a card to be your Throw card is to score a good Catch at the end of the round. This is done by regarding the numbers at the top left of the cards (cards are numbered 1-7). You will compare the number on your Throw card to the number on your Catch card (the last card you receive - see below), and you will score the difference as points.
3) Players pass and draft cards
Once each player has selected a Throw card and placed it face-down in front of themselves, they pass all the remaining cards in their hand, face-down, to the player on their left. Every player will then look at the new hand of cards, select one card from it, and place it face-up in front of themselves, next to their Throw card.
After this is done, pass your hand (now containing five cards) to the left again. Every player will then select another card, place it face-up next to their other chosen cards, and then pass the hand once more.
This continues until there is just one card remaining in each player's hand. That one card is passed to the left and instantly added to that person's face-up row of cards. This final card will be known as each player's Catch card (see below).
4) Players score
Now players score their holiday, based on the cards they collected. Every player will calculate their scores for the round on their personal score sheets. There are several different categories of scoring, and each player's score for the round will be determined by the seven cards they drafted during the round.
In detail, these are the different ways players will score at the end of each round...
Throw & Catch
To begin scoring, compare the number on your Throw (first card) and Catch (final card). Score the difference between these two cards as points.
Enter this score every round at the top of your score sheet.
For example: If your Throw card has a 4 as its number, and the final card you receive as your Catch card has a 1 as its number, you would score 3 points this round for your Throw & Catch (because 4 – 1 = 3.) Likewise, if your Throw was 1 and your Catch was 4, you would also score 3 points.
This player scored 2 points for their catch in round 1, 1 in round 2, 0 in round 3 and 4 in round 4.
Tourist Sites
For each country you have 'visited' this round (the locations depicted on each card you drafted), cross out its corresponding letters on the map on your score sheet. At the end of the game, you will get one point for each country you visited.
This player drafted cards O and P in round 1, and crossed them out on their map. They will be on the lookout for card N in future rounds to finish the region!
In addition, each region of Europe also has a 2-5pt bonus associated with it. (The regions are separated by color.) If you are the first to visit every country in a region, you will also score these bonus points! Announce if you have finished visiting a region to the other players while scoring your sites and circle the region's bonus star. All other players should scribble over the corresponding star as a reminder that the bonus has been taken by another player and can no longer be won.
Over a number of rounds, this player visited all the sites in Benelux. They earn a 3 point bonus that no other player may now claim!
Note: If multiple players finish the same region at the end of the same round, then they all earn the same bonus.
Also note: You may collect the cards of sites you have already visited on future rounds, however you will not cross out the site on your map again, nor will you score any points for visiting the same place more than once.
There is also a bonus for players who are the first to visit at least one country in every region. If you complete this task, announce it to the other players and circle the score you achieved (as designated on the score sheet next to the passport icon), while the other players should cross it out as a reminder that that score is now taken. Each player can only score the all-region passport bonus once.
Score 7pts for being the first player to do this, 3pts if you are second, and 1pt (if playing a 3 or 4-player game) if you are the third to complete the passport bonus.
Note: As with the yellow bonus stars, if multiple players achieve the passport bonus at the end of the same round, they all earn the highest available score.
Cuisine
Many cards also show green icons, referring to foods you have tasted on your travels. Each item has a value associated with it: Beer is 1, Cheese is 2, Wine is 3, and Spirits are 5. Add up all the values of each item you collected on your cards this round. If your total is 1-7, write this number as your score in the corresponding space on your score sheet. If you score 8+ then your score is half of this total (rounded up). You don't want a tummy ache!
For example: If Scott has collected 3 cards with Beer, and 1 card with Cheese, his Cuisine score is 5 (1 + 1 + 1 +2 = 5). However, if he had collected 2 cards with Wine and 1 card with Spirits, his score will be 6 (3 + 3 + 5 = 11, divided by 2 = 6 rounded up.)
For example, in round 1, this player drafted a massive 16 Cuisine points, but had to halve it as the total was higher than 7. In round 2, they collected 6 Cuisine points and scored it as 6.
Transport
For each pair of matching yellow transport symbols on the cards you drafted this round, you score the points marked on that form of transport (Cars are 3, Trains are 4, Bicycles are 5, Boats are 7, and Planes are 9). Total what you score for all the matching transportation pairs you collected this round and mark it in the next available square in the Transport row of your score sheet.
For example: Cars are marked with 3. So, if you get a pair of cars you score 3 points (not 6). If you only have one transport card of a type, you don't score anything for it. Three-of-a-kind would only score as if you had two. Four-of-a-kind would score twice, as you have two pairs.
For example, in round 1, this player collected two trains for a score of 4. In round 2, she collected a pair of cars and a pair of boats for 10 points!
National Treasures
Finally, check the blue National Treasures icons on all the cards you drafted. Scoring Treasures is optional. For any single Treasure type you would like to score each round, choose a blue Treasure icon that you have on at least one of your seven cards, and score 4/3/2 points (in a 2/3/4 player game) for every matching icon on the cards drafted by every other player. Write your score in the square under the matching icon in the National Treasures row of your score sheet.
For example: If you drafted at least one Art icon in the round and you decide to score Art, you would look at everyone else's cards. If you see 3 other Art icons on other players' cards, you would score 12 points in a 2p game (3 x 4 = 12), 9 points in a 3p game (3 x 3 = 9), and 6 points in a 4p game (3 x 2 = 6). You do not score the matching icons on your own cards, but you must have at least one matching icon in order to score that Treasure.
In round 1 of a 4-player game, this player scored Music, but only 2 other Music icons were drafted by other players, so they scored 4 points. On another round, they scored 8 points for Architecture because other players had drafted 4 Architecture cards.
Note: You may only score one National Treasure per round, and you may only score each Treasure (Art, Architecture, Music, Natural Wonders) once per game, so if you filled a particular Treasure's space once, it cannot be scored again! Also, if the game ends and you have not scored a Treasure type, you miss out!
Remember: You must have drafted at least one icon to score that Treasure in a round. The number of icons you have does not matter.
The Next Round
At the end of each round, after everyone has finished scoring, collect all 28 cards, and shuffle and deal out a new round as before.
Note: If playing with less than 4 players, collect the cards used in the previous round, shuffle them, and place them in a face down deck below the cards that were set aside when dealing out the previous round. Then deal the new round from the top of the deck. This way the cards that were not dealt last round will definitely be in the next round.
Game End
After scoring the fourth round, the game ends. Players must add up all their scores in every scoring category, and then find their grand total by adding up all their category totals. (Don't forget to add the countries, region bonuses, and passport bonus.) The highest score wins!
In the case of a tie, the tied player who scored the most for their passport bonus wins. In the unlikely event that no player completed this bonus, or if the tied players also tied for the passport bonus, then the tied player who scored the most for their Throws and Catches wins.
Direction Variant
To add more variation to the card drafting in a three or four player game, alternate passing cards to the left and then to the right each round.
Publisher's Note
In order to create a more interesting and entertaining game, some locations on the cards depict cuisines, etc., that may not actually be famous to these locations. We ask that Boomerang: Europe be treated as a game, not as an educational tool :)
Credits
- Designer: Scott Almes
- Illustrator: Kerri Aitken
Copyright © 2020 Grail Games. All rights reserved. Printed in China.
Warning: Choking hazard! Keep away from children under the age of 3. Please keep this information for future reference.