Eden Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Course of a Turn
  • 1. Receive Mana
  • 2. Play Cards
    • 2a. Irrigation Cards
    • 2b. Cultivation Cards
    • 2c. Pass
  • Selling and Buying Cultivation Cards
  • 3. Draw a Card
• Land Conquest
  • Outcome of a Land Conquest
• End of the Game

Goal of the Game

The player who first has landscape cards with a combined value of 20 fertility points lying on the game board wins the game.

Components

• 1 game board
• 49 irrigation cards
• 17 cultivation cards
• 54 mana cards (with different values)
• 96 landscape cards (24 per player)
• 4 overview cards

Setup

• The game board is placed in the middle. It is divided into fields by means of coordinates. These coordinates also appear on the irrigation cards: for every field there is a corresponding card. In this way, by playing irrigation card A1 you water field A1, and with irrigation card B1 only field B1.
• The mana cards are separated from the other cards. Each player receives 100 mana (1 x 50, 1 x 20, 2 x 10 and 2 x 5). The player places the cards face down in a stack in front of them, so that the other players do not know during the game how much mana that player has. The remaining mana is sorted and placed next to the game board. One player takes over management of the mana bank. Mana can be used to increase the value of your fields and to adjust them, and to take fields belonging to your fellow players into your possession.
• Each player receives all the landscape cards of one colour, which they lay face up in front of them. The landscape cards show cultivated soil at different stages of development. The more cultivated the soil, the more fertile it is. This is made clear by white and red fertility points. The more dots a card has, the more valuable it is. The white dot indicates the first stage of development: the dry soil turns into fertile land. The red dots indicate the income per round.
• The irrigation cards and the cultivation cards are shuffled together and placed as a face-down stack next to the game board. Each player takes 6 cards from the face-down stack into their hand. Like their mana, these hand cards are kept secret from the other players. With the irrigation cards you make the land fertile. With the cultivation cards you can increase the value of your own land.

Course of a Turn

Each turn consists of three different phases, which the player whose turn it is carries out as indicated. The other players then follow in clockwise order. The oldest player begins.

1. Receive mana
2. a) Play 1 or 2 irrigation cards and, optionally, take fields or b) Play 1 cultivation card and increase the value of landscape cards or c) Pass Additionally: whenever action a, b or c is carried out, you may sell cultivation cards for mana and/or buy face-up cultivation cards lying open.
3. Draw 1 card from the stack

1. Receive Mana

Add up the red fertility points on your played landscape cards. For every red point you receive 5 mana from the bank. Remember to declare your income. If your turn has ended and you have forgotten your mana income, you are out of luck; you receive nothing afterwards.

2. Play Cards

2a. Irrigation Cards

Place 1 irrigation card on the discard pile and place one of your own landscape cards on the field indicated on the card. If you wish, you may play a second irrigation card.

After an irrigation card has been played, you may take adjacent landscape cards of a fellow player (see: Land Conquest). If you have played two cards, you may try to take over two fields.

or

2b. Cultivation Cards

• Instead of one or two irrigation cards, you place 1 cultivation card on the discard pile in order to increase in value, step by step, your fields as shown on the card. Example: you play the depicted cultivation card. For this you must have an area on the game board with 4 landscape cards in this arrangement.
• You may rotate the cultivation card freely in order to find a matching arrangement on the game board. You may not mirror the picture in order to use it upside down.
• It is permitted to designate an area that consists of landscape cards with different values. However, only the lowest value is then increased. Example: with the card on the previous page, only two fields can be increased.
• The area to be increased may consist only of your own landscape cards.
• You may also use a card when you have an area that consists of more cards than are shown on the card. Only the area shown on the card is increased. Example: the field marked * (outside the frame) is not increased, because it does not belong to the area shown on the card.

Carrying out a cultivation

1. You play a cultivation card.
2. Place the corresponding landscape card with the next higher value on the fields indicated on the cards. Landscape cards with value 1 (one fertility point) must be turned over to change into value 2 (two fertility points). If you want to increase landscape cards with value 2, they must be replaced by cards with value 3 (three fertility points). Value 3 is increased to value 4 when you turn this card over.
3. For each field you increase, you must pay 10 mana to the bank. You pay only for the fields that are actually increased, even when more are shown on the card. In the example at the top left you pay only 20 mana, because you can increase only 2 fields.

or

2c. Pass

Instead of playing a card, you may also pass and do nothing.

Selling and Buying Cultivation Cards

In addition to a, b or c, you may at any time during your turn exchange cultivation cards for mana. You may therefore sell any number of cards to the bank and/or buy any number of face-up cards from the bank by paying mana.

When you sell cultivation cards to the bank, you place them face up next to the game board (not on the discard pile!). For each field shown on the card you receive 10 mana from the bank.

When you buy cultivation cards from the supply of face-up cards, you pay 10 mana to the bank for this purchase regardless of the number of fields shown, and in addition 10 mana for each field on the card.

It is permitted to buy a cultivation card and use it immediately, provided you have not yet played a card in the same turn.

3. Draw a Card

If you have fewer than 5 cards, you draw one card, regardless of the number of cards you have played during the turn. If you play more than one card in your turn, your card supply shrinks over the course of the game! If you already have 5 cards, you may not draw a new card. For the maximum number of cards only the irrigation and cultivation cards are counted. Mana cards do not count.

Land Conquest

By means of land conquest, a player can take land from fellow players by committing mana.

• After you have played an irrigation card, you may attack a landscape card of an opponent that borders the card of the player. The attack must take place immediately after placing the card, otherwise it is no longer possible.
• In addition to the card just placed, you may attack with a second card during the attack. This card must border the previous card horizontally or vertically.
• You can always attack only one fellow player. If cards border several players, you must choose one player.
• You may also attack several landscape cards of one player, provided they border the attacking card.

Example: the red player attacks not only card A but also B, C and D. They could also attack card E, but they decide not to.

Outcome of a Land Conquest

The cost of the attack is determined by the sum of the red and white fertility points on the landscape cards that are being attacked.

Conversely, the cost for the player being attacked is determined by the sum of the red and white fertility points with which the attack is made.

So: the attack costs are always calculated by multiplying the mana offered by the sum of the fertility points on the opponent's side.

• The minimum bid in an attack is 10 mana per fertility point of the opponent. The attacker makes the first bid and lays the offered mana face up.
• The attacked player may accept the bid or raise it. To do so, they must outbid the bid placed by at least 5 mana, and likewise lay their bid face up.
• The attack ends as soon as one of the players accepts the bid of their opponent. The player who made the highest bid pays their offered mana to their opponent. Then they take the landscape cards and replace them with their own colour of the same value.

1. Example: You place a landscape card (with one white fertility point) on field B4. On field C4 lies a card of another player, which likewise has one white fertility point. You bid 10 mana for it. Your fellow player raises the bid and bids 15 mana. You now raise to 25. Your opponent passes, so accepts the bid, and receives 25 mana from you. Now you remove his landscape card on field C4 and place in its place a landscape card of your own with likewise one white fertility point.

2. Example: You (red) attack 3 fields (with 4 points) of the blue player with 2 fields (with two points). This means that if you bid 20 mana and win the land conquest, you must pay your fellow player 80 mana (20 x 4). If your opponent bids 25 mana, they must pay you 50 mana (25 x 2). If you then raise to 30 mana, it will cost 120 mana (30 x 4). Your opponent, for their next bid of 35 mana, need pay only 70 mana (35 x 2). For you, every bid is therefore more expensive than for your opponent. So you should undertake such land conquests only when you are certain you can win them.

Even when you attack one field with only one other field, bidding can lead to serious differences. If, for example, you attack a 3-point field (3 fertility points) with your 1-point field (1 fertility point), you must also multiply every bid by 3, while your opponent does not have to.

End of the Game

The player who first has landscape cards with a combined value of 20 fertility points (white and red) lying on the game board wins. That player does not need to be the active player for this. Mana is worth nothing at the end of the game.