Bosa
Bosa Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In the game of Bosa, each player will create their own townscape by placing Building cards. Use your buildings to gain coins, resources, and points—but make sure to place them in ways that let your Goal cards score too! Earn the most points and you'll be the talk of the town!
Setup
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Place the Castle board in the center of the play area.
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Separate the Building cards by their backs into four face-down stacks: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, and Start. Shuffle each stack separately.
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Remove cards from each Season stack using this chart, returning them to the box.
PLAYERS 2 3 4 5 REMOVE 17 12 7 2 -
Flip over the top four cards from the Season 1 stack and place them on the four spaces at the bottom of the Castle board. Keep the Season 1 and Start stacks nearby, setting the other stacks aside.
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Each player takes a player board, placing it so there is room for cards on the right-hand side. Find the Score marker that matches the symbol on your player board and place it near the Castle board.
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Each player takes a set of three Resource trackers: Fish, Textiles, and Pottery. Place each tracker on the "1" space of its track on your player board.
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Each player takes one random Start card and places it face up directly next to their player board, at the top and to the right of the board.
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For a simpler first game, you may play without Goal cards. If you wish to include them, shuffle the Goal cards and give four to each player. When the game ends, you will choose two to score. Keep your Goal cards hidden from the other players.
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Each player takes 3 coins. Place the remaining coins into the tray and keep the tray near the Castle board.
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The player who last visited an island takes the First Player token.
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Learn how to play with a quick video, funkogames.com/PlayBosa, or continue reading these instructions!
On Your Turn
Players take turns in clockwise order. Each turn has three steps: Take a Building Card, Place the Building, and Do the Actions in the Row or Column.
1. Take a Building Card
Take any one of the four face-up Building cards at the bottom of the Castle board. There are six building colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.
2. Place the Building
Place the building you just took next to another one of your buildings. The Building cards you have placed in front of you are called your townscape.
The following rules apply whenever you place a building:
- Buildings must be placed directly below or directly to the right of another card in your townscape. In this way, each new building will go in the same row or column as another card.
- If you place below a building, the new card should overlap the lower half of the card above it. Always keep the top halves (windows) of your buildings visible. If you place to the right of a building, do not overlap it.
- You may not have more than four buildings in any row or column of your townscape.
- You may never leave a gap when placing a building. Each new card must be as far to the left and as close to the top as possible.
- When the game ends, each player's townscape will have 16 cards (4x4).
3. Do the Actions in the Row or Column
All Building cards have icons in the window, which show the action you can do with that card. (See the Card Glossary on page 8 for details.) After you place a new building each turn, you may then do the actions on all Building cards in either the row OR the column of the card you just placed. Choose the row or the column, then do the action on each card in it one time.
Actions must be done in the order the buildings were placed: either left-to-right across a row, or top-to-bottom down a column. In this way, you will always end with the building you placed this turn.
All actions are optional, but any that you do must happen in order. If you can't do an action, skip it and go to the next building. You can also choose to skip an action so you're able to do another one later.
Buildings with resource or coin symbols let you gain the number shown in the symbol. When you gain a resource, move its matching tracker up your player board's track that many spaces. You cannot have more than 10 of any resource.
Arrow symbols mean you may spend what is on the left to gain what is on the right. Some cards allow you to score points this way. When you score points, move your Score marker along the track on the Castle board. If you exceed one hundred points, take a 100 Point token.
Some buildings gain you resources or coins for each building you have of a certain color. Count buildings of that color anywhere in your townscape, including this card itself.
Example Turn: Nicole takes the green Building card and places it in her townscape below the red building. She cannot place it below the yellow building because it would leave a gap. Then Nicole can do building actions. There are two cards in this building's column and just one in its row, so she chooses to do the actions down the column. First, she gains one textile from the red building, then gains a resource of her choice from the green building. (She chooses fish.)
After the three steps above, flip the next card in the Season stack and add it to the bottom of the Castle board. Then the player to your left takes the next turn. If you cannot flip a new card because the Season stack is empty, the current Season is over.
End of a Season
When you need to flip a new Building card but none are left in the stack, the current Season is over. (Note that each player will take five turns during a Season.) Follow these steps at the end of each Season:
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Each player must spend money toward the patronage of Bosa. Count the number of coins you have, then check the Patronage chart on the Castle board. You must spend as many coins as the highest number you can reach on the chart, then score the matching number of points. You only spend coins one time each Season. Keep any coins you can't spend for the next Season.
Example: Jordan has 11 coins. The highest number he can reach on the Patronage chart is 9, which means he must spend 9 coins. He then scores 12 points and keeps his 2 remaining coins for the next Season.
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Return any leftover Season cards on the Castle board to the box.
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Place the next Season's stack of Building cards by the Castle board. Flip the top four cards of the stack face up and place them onto the spaces of the Castle board.
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The player with the fewest points takes the First Player token; they will go first in the next Season. If there is a tie, break it in clockwise order starting from the previous first player.
After three Seasons, the game ends.
End of the Game
After completing patronage for Season 3, players score one point for each resource they have left. (Coins are not a resource.) Each player then chooses two Goal cards to score out of their four. (See Goal Cards for details.)
The player with the most points wins! If there is a tie, the tied player with the most coins wins. If still tied, the tied players share the victory.
Card Glossary
Icon key used on Building cards: Fish, Textiles, Pottery, One of Each, Per, Or, Spend, Repeat.
Building Cards
- Gain one of the resource shown: fish, textiles, or pottery.
- Gain one coin AND one of the resource shown.
- Gain one fish OR one textile OR one pottery.
- Gain two fish OR two textiles OR two pottery. You may not gain two different resources.
- Gain one of the resource shown for EACH building in your townscape matching the color of this card. This card is included.
- Gain one coin for EACH building in your townscape matching the color of this card. This card is included.
- Gain one coin AND one of the resource shown for EACH building in your townscape matching the color of this card. This card is included.
- Spend one coin to gain two of the resource shown.
- Spend one of the resource shown to score 4 points.
- Spend three of ANY ONE resource type to score 8 points. You may not spend different types of resources.
- Spend one of EACH resource type (one fish AND one textile AND one pottery) to score the points AND gain the coins shown.
- Choose ANY other card in your townscape matching the color of this card. Do the action on that card.
Goal Cards
Goal cards are only checked for scoring at the end of the game. If you meet the scoring requirement multiple times, score the points listed for EACH time you meet it.
- If you have exactly three buildings of a color in your townscape, score 7 points. If you have exactly three of several different colors, score 7 points for each.
- To be in a "group," the buildings must be next to one another horizontally and/or vertically (not diagonally). You may score more than one group of a color (two green groups, for example), but those groups cannot be next to each other.
- For each building in your townscape of the color listed, check all the cards next to it horizontally and vertically (not diagonally). If all of these cards are different colors than each other, score 6 points. One of these surrounding cards may be the same color as the card they surround. Buildings on the edges of your townscape may score this way, and need fewer different colors next to them than cards in the middle.
- Check each of the four rows of your townscape one at a time, then check each of the four columns. For each of these that has exactly one building of the color listed, score 3 points.
- Check each of the four rows of your townscape one at a time. For each row in which all four of the buildings are different colors, score 8 points.
- Check each of the four columns of your townscape one at a time. For each column in which there are exactly two different colors of buildings, score 8 points.
- A "quarter" is a group of four buildings in a two-by-two square. Your townscape has four quarters: top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right. Check each of these four quarters. For each quarter in which all four of the buildings are different colors, score 8 points.
Components
Castle Board, 5 Player Boards, 5 Wooden Score Markers, 15 Wooden Resource Trackers, 96 Building Cards, 20 Goal Cards, 70 Coins, Coin Tray, 10 100 Point Tokens, First Player Token, 2 Envelopes, Instructions.