Cake of Doom Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Winning
• Playing
• Bribing
  • Offer
  • Sabotage
  • Resolve
  • Example Bribe
• Variations
• Clarifications
• Set Up
  • Players Set Up
  • Game Set Up
• Components

Winning

A player who controls 2 regions & the Democratic Order Of Mankind DOOM wins immediately.

Playing

The player who had cake most recently starts. Players take turns clockwise.

On your turn:

1. Play unlimited grab cards and steal cards.
2. Make a bribe, or pass.

To do this, target 1 region and make an offer with cake cards from your hand. Other players can each play 1 sabotage card, so keep any block cards handy! See example bribe below.

Advanced: A player is immune to sabotages when they control 2 regions on the same continent, e.g. North and South America. Their regions can still be stolen by bribes.

Advanced: If you win a region with a control bonus, do this now.

3. Draw 1 card in round 1, 2 in round 2 etc. using the draw tracker to keep track. You can draw a mix from the two draw piles.

If you run out of cards, leave the top card per discard pile, then reshuffle.

You can never hold more than 10 cards, but you can discard anytime on your turn.

Bribing

There are 3 stages in a bribe: Offer, Sabotage and Resolve.

Offer

Target 1 region and play any number of cake cards as your offer.

Once this is done, your offer cannot be changed anymore.

Your target can be:

• A neutral region: offer at least the minimum shown on the region card.
• A region controlled by another player: offer more than the previous bribe.
• DOOM: for the win! You must already control 2 regions.

Sabotage

Other players can each play 1 or 0 sabotage cards to reduce the offer. Players can sabotage in any order and they have up to 1 minute to discuss. The offer cannot be changed now.

The player who plays a sabotage decides which bonus(es) and/or cake(s) are discarded in what order. Place a cake card sideways if only the +1 bonus is removed.

The briber can play any number of block cards to defend their bribe.

Resolve

The bribe succeeds if the offer meets or exceeds the required number of cakes. Keep this region with the cake cards in front of the player.

If this region has been stolen from another player, those cakes are considered eaten and get discarded.

If the bribe fails, all cake cards that are not fully sabotaged return to the player's hand.

Example Bribe

Offer: Sally the Saboteur targets Western Europe. They offer 4 cakes: Tiramisu (+1 bonus), Starry Fruit Cake, and Moon Cake (no +1 bonus).

Sabotage: Paulo the Protector chooses to play the Space Teddy to move the Moon Cake to the discard pile. No one else sabotages.

Resolve: The bribe is successful as there are 3 cakes left. Sally places Western Europe and the 3 cakes in front of themselves.

Advanced: Sally the Saboteur won a new region, so they do its one-off control bonus: take the top cake from the discard into their hand.

Variations

Advanced variation: Blind sabotaging. When making a bribe, place cake cards face down until all sabotage(s), if any, have been played. Opponents must decide without knowing the exact number of cakes.

Any block cards must still be played immediately after the sabotage card it is blocking.

Clarifications

• The Cake Monster card destroys half the bribe value, rounded down. For example if the bribe is worth 5 cakes, 2 would be discarded.
• The alien Freya's +1 bonus applies only during the initial bribe.
• When sabotaging the alien Freya, you must target cake cards first.
• If a bribe is unsuccessful, cake cards that return to the player's hand always keep their full value (regardless of sabotages played).

Set Up

Players Set Up

Give each player 1 alien card and 1 player aid face up.

Shuffle the two draw piles, cake and mischief. Deal each player 8 cards: 5 cakes and 3 mischief.

Advanced: Each player chooses their mix of 8 cards, instead of 5 and 3. This is done in player order.

Game Set Up

Place the remaining cake and mischief piles face down where all players can reach. Leave some space above the placement guide for discards.

Place the DOOM card in the middle of the table. Shuffle and place more regions in the middle based on the number of players:

No. of players	3	4	5	6
No. of regions (and DOOM)	5	7	9	11

Do this spaceship-side facing up (no control bonus text).

Advanced: Place regions with control bonuses side up.

Components

160 cards in total, including:

• 90 cake:
  • 45 'earthly' cakes worth 1
  • 45 regional specialties, each with a +1 bonus for:

Region	No. of cards
Asia	9
Africa	9
Europe	9
Oceania	6
Poles	6
Americas	6

• 40 mischief:
  • 20 sabotages:

Worth	No. of cards
½, rounded down	1
-3	3
-2	4
-1	12

• 5 block sabotages

• 5 grab discards

• 10 steal

• 14 regions

• 8 aliens

• 6 player aids

• 1 draw tracker

• 1 alien meeple

• 1 placement guide

• 1 rulebook