Caracas
Caracas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Content
1 Market board / 5 Seas / 73 (land) tiles / 1 score sheet pad
Preparation
- Place the MARKET board in the middle.
- Mix the stock of 73 tiles, face-down. Remove a number of tiles, unseen:
- 4 explorers: Remove 10 tiles. (Each explorer will place 15 tiles.)
- 3 explorers: Remove 22 tiles. (Each explorer will place 16 tiles.)
- 2 explorers: Remove 36 tiles. (Both explorers will place 17 tiles.)
- Solo explorer: Remove 52 tiles, so keep 21. (You will place 18 tiles.)
- (With 5 explorers, each will place 14 tiles.)
- Editor's note: the manual does not print how many tiles to remove for 5 explorers. Each explorer placing 14 tiles across 5 explorers is 70 tiles, which leaves 3 of the 73 to remove.
- Place 1 random open tile at each spot on the MARKET.
- Give each explorer a SEA. Orientate it so that the 4 symbols match with the MARKET symbols. (Use your side reading asterisk, nested square, spiral, triangle, or your side reading triangle, spiral, nested square, asterisk.)
- Determine a start player. Turns follow in clockwise order.
Symbols used in this transcription: ✻ = asterisk, ▢ = nested square, ◎ = spiral, ▲ = triangle (▽ = inverted triangle). The manual's own symbols are pictograms and are not named in the text.
Solo Game (End Score) Difference
- Jungle: 3 vp if your biggest Jungle has 5 or more tiles, 2 vp if 4 and 1 vp if 3 tiles.
- Savannah: 3 vp if you have 5 or more Savannah areas, 2 vp if 4 and 1 vp if 3 areas.
- Swamp: 3 vp if you have 0 or 1 Swamp area, 2 vp if 2 and 1 vp if 3 areas.
- River: 3 vp if you have 7 or more forks/mergers in 1 river basin, 2 vp if 6 and 1 vp if 5.
First Turn per Explorer
- Step 1: Take 1 of the 4 tiles from the MARKET. Store it above your SEA.
- Step 2: Take a new tile from the stock. Place it, face-up, on the emptied spot of the MARKET.
Each Next Turn
- Step 1: Place your stored tile, from above your SEA, in 1 of the 4 columns below your SEA. A tile side must touch the SEA or another tile (or both).
- Step 2: Take the tile from the MARKET at the same symbol (✻, ▢, ◎ or ▲) as the symbol above the column in which you just placed your tile. Store that new tile above your SEA.
- Step 3: Take a new tile from the stock. Place it, face-up, on the emptied spot of the MARKET.
Example: Alex Halfway
Alex's stored tile must go to 1 of the 7 adjacent spots. Alex will place the tile in this spot in column ▢. Then he will take the tile from the ▢ spot on the MARKET to store above his SEA.
End of Game
If, during your turn, you can't refill the MARKET (stock is empty), all explorers (including you) will get 1 more turn: All explorers place their last stored tile without taking a tile from the MARKET.
End Score Victory Points (vp)
Common Animals Score 1 vp Per
- Jaguar on a tile which isn't adjacent to any tile with another Jaguar.
- Capybara in your biggest group of 1 or more Capybaras. A group is formed by orthogonally connected tiles, with that animal in each tile.
- Howler Monkey in your smallest (!) group of 1 or more Howler Monkeys.
- Piranha in your river basin with the most Piranhas. Connected rivers form 1 river basin.
- Ibis in an orthogonal or diagonal sequence of at least 3 tiles with 1 Ibis in each tile. An Ibis can be part of several straight sequences of 3 or more Ibis tiles. But each Common animal, so each Ibis too, can only score 1 vp.
Rare Animals Score 2 vp Per
- Sloth in your largest Jungle. (Equally large isn't enough.)
- Anaconda in your largest Swamp. (Equally large isn't enough.)
- Anteater in your largest Savannah. (Equally large isn't enough.)
- Tarantula if adjacent to only 1 other land tile.
- Poison Frog if it has no tile adjacent at its south side.
- Kinkajou if not connected to a tile with a Jaguar.
- Shrimp if not connected to a tile with an Ibis.
- Squirrel Monkey if not connected to a tile with a Howler Monkey.
- Butterfly if not connected to a tile with a Capybara.
- Guppy if the 4 river sides don't connect to a river with a Piranha in that adjacent tile.
- Caiman if it's in your biggest (most tiles) river basin.
- Sotalia if its river leads, through 1 or more other tiles (!), to the SEA.
- Electric Eel if each of the 3 river sides is connected to a river on another land tile.
Compare Explorers' Landscapes for vp
- Biggest Jungle area.
- Most Savannah areas.
- Fewest Swamp areas.
- Most forks & mergers in 1 river basin.
VP for the Jungle, Savannahs, Swamps and river basin, for the best to worst explorer:
- 2 explorers game: 2/0 vp
- 3 explorers game: 3/1/0 vp
- 4 explorers game: 3/2/1/0 vp
- 5 explorers game: 4/3/2/1/0 vp
In case of a tie: Take their average vp, rounded up.
An area is a cluster of 1 or more equal LAND type tiles, orthogonally connected.
Penalty Points
Dead-end rivers: Each river at a side of a tile, which connects to another tile side without a river, gives 1 minus point.
Example: Alex's End Score
- The Jaguar has no Jaguars in adjacent tiles, so scores 1 vp. The other 3 Jaguars are adjacent to 1 or more other Jaguars, so don't score.
- The Caiman is in a river basin which contains 8 tiles. It scores the 2 vp because Alex's other river basins consist of only 5, 2 and 1 tile(s).
- The Flamingo is in a column of 4 connected tiles, not enough for the vp.
- The 4 Capybaras in 1 group give 1 vp each. All smaller (or equal) groups do not give vp. So the Capybara in column ▲ gives 0 vp.
- The 2 Piranhas in 1 river basin score 1 vp each. There are other river basins with Piranhas, but only 1 river basin scores.
- Here is no tile connected at the south of the Poison Frog tile, so 2 vp.
- The Snake has 4 different animal types around (3 common and 1 rare), just not enough for the vp.
- The Tarantula is connected to only 1 other land tile, so gives the 2 vp.
- The Sloth is in a Jungle which isn't larger than all of Alex's other Jungles, so gives no vp.
- The Kinkajou has no Jaguar around, so gives 2 vp.
- This Howler Monkey forms the smallest "group", so 1 vp. Other groups, so the group of 2 at the sea, don't give vp.
- 2 connected tiles isn't enough to score vp. The tile with the should have had an Ibis too, to score 3x1 vp. 4 Ibises in a row would make 4 vp.
Landscape:
- 0 vp for Jungle, because all 3 other explorers (not pictured) have a bigger Jungle.
- 1 other explorer has more than 3 Savannahs. Alex and the other 2 explorers have 3 Savannahs each, so they share the 2/1/0 vp, so each gets the average of 1 vp.
- 2 explorers have fewer Swamps than Alex's 4, one has more Swamps. So 1 vp for Alex.
- Alex has 5 forks/mergers in 1 River Basin (and 1 in another basin, but only 1 basin counts). All other explorers have fewer in all their river basins. So 3 vp for Alex.
There are 2 dead-end rivers. 1 halfway column ✻, and 1 between the bottom tiles in column ▲. So 2 penalty points.
The example score sheet totals 19 (as printed).