Color Field Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Prime your canvas
  • Fill the Palette board
  • Complete your painting
    • Drawing and placing Paint tiles
    • Inspiration
• End of Round
  • Score your painting
    • Score for matching Paint tile edges
    • Score for your largest patch
    • Score for Advanced Play
  • Reset your canvas and Player card
  • Clear the Palette board
• Example of Scoring
  • Score each tile, one at a time
  • Score for your largest patch
• Game End
• Advanced Play

Components

• 1 × Palette board
• 4 × Player cards (1 per player)
• 20 × Inspiration tokens (5 per player)
• 4 × Canvas boards (1 per player)
• 48 × Foundation Paint tiles
• 24 × Round 1 Paint tiles
• 24 × Round 2 Paint tiles
• 24 × Round 3 Paint tiles
• 18 × Community Tools cards
• 1 × Scoreboard
• 4 × Score markers (1 per player)
• 1 × First Player marker

Setup

1. Place the Palette board in the center of the table. You can choose to use the painted side or the clean side, whichever you prefer.
2. Place a Player card face-up in front of each player.
3. Give each player three Inspiration tokens matching the color on their Player card. (The other two tokens in their color are only used for Advanced Play.) These start face-up (bright side showing).
4. Place one randomly chosen Canvas board face-up in front of each player, beside their Player card. Each Canvas board has paint colors in different positions around the edges, but they are all equally valuable.
5. Shuffle the Foundation Paint tiles and place them face-down within reach of all players to form the Foundation deck. You may wish to make several piles.
6. Shuffle the Round 1 Paint tiles and place them face-down within reach of all players to form the Round 1 Paint deck. Repeat the process for the Round 2 Paint tiles and the Round 3 Paint tiles.
7. Place the scoreboard on the table, and place each player's score marker on the top section of the board to indicate a 0 starting score.
8. Optional: If you wish to use Advanced Play options, shuffle the Community Tools cards and place them face-down to form the Community Tools deck. We suggest playing without these for your first game. See the Advanced Play section on page 8 for more details.
9. Give the First Player marker to the player who most recently painted something. It does not change position during the game.

How to Play

A game of Color Field has three rounds. In each round you must:

1. Prime your canvas with Foundation Paint tiles.
2. Fill the Palette board with three tiles.
3. Complete your painting by taking turns to choose Paint tiles to add to your canvas.

Prime your canvas

Deal a number of Foundation Paint tiles to each player face-down equal to the number of empty spaces on their canvas.

In Round 1, everyone starts with a completely empty canvas, so you receive six Foundation Paint tiles.

In Rounds 2 and 3, you may be allowed to keep some of your tiles from the previous round, which means you will need fewer Foundation Paint tiles to finish priming your canvas.

If the Foundation deck ever runs out, shuffle the discarded Foundation tiles to form a new deck.

When you get your Foundation Paint tiles, place them in the spaces numbered 1 to 6 on your canvas in the order they arrive, one tile per space. The first tile goes into the first empty space, and so on.

All Foundation Paint tiles have a "^" mark on them, and must be placed with that mark pointing to the top of the canvas.

There are no decisions to make when priming your canvas, just some quick paint coverage to let you get started!

Fill the Palette board

Once all players have six tiles on their canvas, draw three tiles from the Paint deck for the current round and place them face-up on the Palette board.

Complete your painting

Each round, you draw and place Paint tiles on your canvas, one tile at a time, taking turns with the other players.

• ROUND 1: Each player takes 5 turns.
• ROUND 2: Each player takes 4 turns.
• ROUND 3: Each player takes 4 turns.

Drawing and placing Paint tiles

You can choose a Paint tile from the three tiles revealed on the Palette board, or you can draw the top tile (without looking at it first) from the current round's Paint deck.

If no one has taken a Paint tile from the Palette board since your last turn, you may clear and replace all three tiles before taking your turn.

You can place your new tile into any space on your canvas by removing the tile already in that space. The old tile goes to the discard space on your Player card.

IMPORTANT! You can place a Paint tile even if the colors don't match on all of its edges.

When placing a new tile, you may rotate the new tile so that it is pointing in any direction you wish, but once it is placed, the tile cannot be moved or rotated again unless you use an Inspiration token (explained below).

You score points at the end of the round for each matching edge. It's best if the new tile matches on at least one edge, but it's not a requirement.

If you don't wish to place the tile you drew, you may send it to the discard space on your Player card instead.

Placing the discarded tiles on your Player card allows you to easily track how many turns you have taken — one for each tile on the card.

Your turn ends once you've discarded a tile. Refill the Palette board to three tiles (if needed) by drawing a new tile from the top of the Paint deck for the current round. The player to your left then takes their turn.

Inspiration

You might have an "inspiration" that a tile would match better on your canvas if it were rotated in place, or swapped with another tile.

So that you can adjust your canvas this way, you have three Inspiration tokens. (There are five Inspiration tokens for each player, but the other two are only used in Advanced Play.)

You can use an Inspiration token at any time. Flip it from face-up (bright side showing) to face-down to indicate it has been used, and then adjust your canvas accordingly.

Using an Inspiration token does not use up your turn, and you can use more than one token at once if you wish.

• ROTATE: You can rotate one Paint tile on your canvas (even a Foundation Paint tile), to point in whichever direction you choose.
• SWAP: You can swap the position of any two Paint tiles on your canvas, without changing the direction they point.

End of Round

Score your painting

After all players have taken all of their turns, score your completed painting.

Score for matching Paint tile edges

Consider each of the six Paint tiles on your canvas one at a time. If the edge of the tile is the same as the edge color of a tile beside it, it's a match and you score 1 point for that edge.

At each edge where the tile overlaps against the canvas, the canvas has two possible colors. If the tile is the same as one of the colors on that edge, it's a match and you score 1 point for that edge.

Some Paint tiles have the number "2" or "3" painted beside an edge. If your tile matches on that edge, you score that number of points instead of only 1 point.

NOTE: Because you score each tile individually, you will score a matched edge between two tiles twice — once when you consider this tile, and once for the same matched edge from the other direction when you consider that tile.

• Match! — 1 point
• No match — 0 points
• Match! — 2 points

Score for your largest patch

Score points equal to the largest patch of one color in your painting. Count tiles as 1 element, and each canvas edge in the patch as 1 element.

The largest patch must be at least 3 elements in size to score the bonus.

For example, if the patch starts on the top edge of the canvas, runs through three tiles, and ends on the bottom edge of the canvas, you score:

1 canvas edge + 3 tiles + 1 canvas edge = 5 points

If you have more than one patch of equal largest size, score only one of those patches.

Score for Advanced Play

If you are using Community Tools cards for Advanced Play, be sure to check if the current card affects your score.

Reset your canvas and Player card

Before starting a new round, you must reset your canvas. Depending on your current score, you may be allowed to keep some of the Paint tiles on your canvas to carry over to the next round.

The player with the highest score takes 1st position, second-highest takes 2nd position, and so on.

If players are tied, they share their position equally.

Example: If players A and B each have 56 points and players C and D each have 47 points, then players A and B take 1st position, and players C and D take 2nd position. There is no 3rd or 4th position in this case.

Your position determines your bonus:

• 1st position — keep no tiles from your canvas.
• 2nd position — keep up to one tile.
• 3rd position — keep up to two tiles.
• 4th position — keep up to three tiles.

IN A 2-PLAYER GAME: Both players may keep one extra Paint tile, in addition to whatever their position allows in the list above.

If you are allowed to keep any Paint tiles, choose which tiles you wish to keep and discard the others to the central discard pile.

Any tiles you keep must stay as they are on your canvas. You cannot move or rotate them while resetting.

Discard the tiles on your Player card to the central discard pile to clear it for the new round.

Clear the Palette board

Discard the tiles on the Palette board to make way for three new tiles drawn from the Paint deck for the new round.

The player who has the First Player marker begins the new round.

Example of Scoring

This example shows your final painting at the end of Round 3. It has one tile that was kept from Round 2, one Foundation tile not replaced, and four new tiles from Round 3.

Score each tile, one at a time

• Tile 1: Top: match lemon, 1 pt. Right: match coral, 1 pt. Bottom: no match, 0 pt. Left: no match, 0 pt. Total: 2 points.
• Tile 2: Top: match navy, 2 pt. Right: match navy, 2 pt. Bottom: match turquoise, 1 pt. Left: match coral, 1 pt. Total: 6 points.
• Tile 3: Top: match turquoise, 1 pt. Right: match coral, 2 pt. Bottom: match coral, 2 pt. Left: match navy, 1 pt. Total: 6 points.
• Tile 4: Top: no match, 0 pt. Right: match coral, 3 pt. Bottom: match navy, 1 pt. Left: match turquoise, 1 pt. Total: 5 points.
• Tile 5: Top: match turquoise, 1 pt. Right: match coral, 1 pt. Bottom: match lemon, 2 pt. Left: match coral, 1 pt. Total: 5 points.
• Tile 6: Top: match coral, 2 pt. Right: match lemon, 1 pt. Bottom: match navy, 1 pt. Left: match coral, 2 pt. Total: 6 points.

Score for your largest patch

On this painting, the largest patch is the coral color, with 4 tiles plus the edge of the canvas, for a total of 5 points.

Grand total this round: 35 points

Game End

After the final scoring at the end of Round 3, the player with the most points is the winner.

In the case of a tie, the tied player with the largest Patch bonus from Round 3 is the winner.

If still tied, the tied player with the most unused Inspiration tokens is the winner.

If it is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Advanced Play

Once you're familiar with the basic idea of the game, you can add some extra scoring possibilities with the Community Tools cards.

Shuffle the cards during setup and place them face-down to form the Community Tools deck.

Mahl Stick (Community Tools card): Score 1 point for each perfect tile scored by any other player. Details: A perfect tile is one that scores points on all four sides. During scoring, you score 1 extra point for each perfect tile on the canvases of other players.

At the start of each round, reveal the top Community Tools card from the deck. Place it face-up beside the deck as the current card.

The effect of a Community Tools card lasts for only one round before being replaced in the next round. Each card has a special ability that applies to all players during that round.

Each player may choose not to use the Community Tools effect, but if they do use it, they must apply all parts of the effect.

INSPIRATION: One of the Community Tools cards, Local Collective, allows you to use five Inspiration tokens instead of the normal three. When playing with the Community Tools cards, be sure to have the extra Inspiration tokens available in case they're needed.

THE GOLDEN RULE: If a card contradicts the rulebook, the card takes precedence.