Endless Winter: Rivers & Rafts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Gameplay Changes
  • River Tiles
  • Placing Camps
  • Moving Camps
  • Moving Your Raft
  • Building Villages
• Raft Scoring
• Fishes
• Landmarks
• The Sea Cow
• Sacred Stone
• Warrior Tribe Cards

Components

This icon on a component indicates that it is from this expansion.

• 5 Landmarks
• 1 Delta tile (double-sided)
• 1 Headwaters tile (double-sided)
• 5 Landmark cards
• 15 Warrior cards
• 4 Rafts (one per player)
• 3 River tiles (double-sided)
• 15 Fish tokens
• 4 Starting Base tiles (one per player)
• 5 Animal cards (Sea Cow)
• 1 Sacred Stone

Game Setup

Follow all of the normal rules for setting up the game except for the changes listed below.

Important: If using the variant setup rules where you draft the Setup cards, the setup of the Terrain board must be done before player order is determined and Setup cards are drafted.

When playing with Rivers & Rafts, the Base Terrain tile is not used; return it to the box.

Each of the River tiles consists of 3 hexes for rules that use the term 'hex'.

1. Place the central River tile (the one with the river in just one hex) in the middle of where the Terrain board will be. Use a random side of this tile.
2. For each of the other two River tiles, choose to play with either the Landmark hex showing or the Glacier hex. Each Landmark used in the game increases the complexity of the game but brings additional scoring opportunities.
3. Randomly place the other two River tiles onto each end of the central River tile.
4. Place the Headwaters tile at one end of the river (chosen at random). Use the side of the tile so the artwork lines up.
5. Do the same with the Delta tile at the other end of the river.
6. From the Land Terrain tiles, remove one of each type from the game (not counting Glacier).
7. From the remaining Land Terrain tiles, set aside one of each type (not counting Glacier).
8. To these set-aside tiles, add a number of Glacier tiles equal to one fewer than the number of Landmark hexes you are using. For example: if you are using all 3 Landmark hexes, add 2 Glacier tiles. Note: If you are also playing with the Cave Paintings expansion, add in the Cave Paintings Terrain tile now.
9. Shuffle the remaining Land Terrain tiles face down, and add a number of them at random to bring your total tiles up to 10. Return any unused tiles to the box.
10. Shuffle the chosen 10 hexes and place them randomly to complete the Terrain board, forming the same size and shape as in the base game.
11. For each Landmark hex, choose a Landmark by mutual player agreement (or choose at random) and place it on the hex.
12. When placing Sacred Stone tiles on the Main board, ensure that the Rivers & Rafts Sacred Stone is one of the ones in play. Also, if any of the Era I Sacred Stones score for Villages touching a type of Terrain, and there is only 1 of that hex type in play, replace it with a random Era I Sacred Stone from the box. Continue doing this until the only Village-scoring Sacred Stone tiles in play are for Terrain types where there where there are at least 2 hexes of that type in play.

After all other setup steps have been completed, but before the game begins, perform the following steps:

A. Each player places their Raft on the Headwaters tile.

B. In reverse player order, each player places their Starting Base tile attached to the outside of the Terrain board (so that the straight edges line up with two straight edges of adjacent hexes on the board). Place the leftmost Camp from your Player board on your Starting Base tile.

Note: Starting Base tiles cannot be placed so that they are next to each other (see the figure below). The figure shows two base tiles next to each other, and two examples of a Starting Base tile not next to two hexes, each marked as not allowed.

Gameplay Changes

River Tiles

Each River tile is divided into 3 hexes. One of the hexes may be a Landmark hex.

Note: Although River hexes and Landmark hexes depict snowy artwork, they are not Glacier hexes.

Placing Camps

Whenever you would place a Camp on the Base Terrain hex, you place it on your Starting Base tile instead.

Alternatively, you can place a new Camp on the same hex as your Raft. Camps cannot be placed on the Headwaters or Delta.

Moving Camps

Camps may only be moved onto the hexes of the Terrain board, never onto the Headwaters, the Delta, or moved back to a Starting Base tile (yours or another player's).

For example: Instead of moving a Camp, you may use that Camp movement to move your raft to any of the indicated places.

Moving Your Raft

Whenever you would move one of your Camps, you may move your Raft instead. If you move your Raft 'downriver' (away from the Headwaters, toward the Delta), you may move your Raft as far as you want to, even all the way to the Delta. Other players' Rafts, Camps, Villages, etc. do not hinder your movement. If you move your Raft 'upriver' (towards the Headwaters), you can only move your Raft 1 hex per Camp movement you use.

In the Preparation Phase of each round, all Rafts are returned to the Headwaters.

Building Villages

Rafts count as a Camp for the purposes of building Villages. Return the other two Camps to your Player board as usual, and return the Raft to the Headwaters.

Note: Villages cannot be built on the junctures of the Headwaters, Delta, or Starting Base tiles.

Raft Scoring

For the purposes of scoring, a Raft always counts as a Camp. This includes a Raft providing 1 Influence to the hex it is on when determining the benefits of the Terrain hexes.

After resolving all of the other steps during step 3 of the Eclipse phase, if your Raft is the closest, or joint closest to the Delta, you score 1 point per Camp you have on a River hex, (including the Raft itself). For this purpose alone, the Delta and Headwaters count as River hexes (i.e., if your Raft is on the Delta, you are closest to the Delta. If every player's Raft is on the Headwaters, everyone is joint closest).

This scoring happens when you resolve your Eclipse phase. It can happen that as players resolve their Eclipse phase, the positions of the Rafts move, thus changing who is eligible to score.

For example: The Red player resolves their Eclipse actions first, and since their Raft is joint closest to the Delta, they score 3 points (1 for the Raft itself, and 2 for having another 2 Camps on River spaces). Then, Yellow resolves their Eclipse actions, one of which allows them to move their Raft downriver to the Delta. Since they are now the closest, they now score 1 point (just for the Raft, as they have no Camps on River spaces). Finally, Green resolves their Eclipse actions, but is unable to move their Rafts. Therefore, they do not score any points for their Raft as they are no longer the closest to the Delta.

Fishes

Each River hex has an Eclipse icon and a Fish icon. During step 3c of the Eclipse phase, the player with the most (or tied for the most) Influence on the hex draws 1 random Fish token from the supply pool, reveals it, gains the benefit shown, and then discards the token face up near the supply pool.

Note: One of the Fish tokens is special. As well as the player who reveals it scoring 2 points, they also take all the discarded Fish tokens and mix them back into the face-down supply pool.

Editor's note: the rulebook does not list the benefit of each Fish token in text; the benefit is shown on the token itself.

Landmarks

During step 3c of the Eclipse phase, the player with the most (or tied for the most) Influence on a hex with a Landmark gains points based on the Landmark's criteria (shown on the reference card for the Landmark).

Volcano: Score 1 point for each Camp still on your Player board.

Butte: Score 1 point for each of the middle 7 hexes of the Terrain board that has at least one of your Camps or your Raft on it.

Arch: Score 1 point for each of the 12 outer hexes of the Terrain board that has at least one of your Camps or your Raft on it.

Monolith: Score 1 point for each Camp you have on this hex.

Tree: Score 2 points for each Village you have that is touching at least one River hex.

For example: here, you score 4 points. (The rulebook illustrates this with a River and Landmark layout; the figure is not reproduced here.)

The Sea Cow

This expansion contains an Animal card which you may choose to play with if you are using the Rivers & Rafts expansion (it cannot be used without using Rivers & Rafts). During setup, shuffle the Sea Cows into the Animal deck before creating the Animal display.

The Sea Cow is a new type of Animal with its own color and icon. Therefore, there is no Sacred Stone or other effect that refers to them. If you Tip a Sea Cow, you gain 2 Fish tokens (immediately take them from the supply pool, gain their benefits, and discard the tokens). During final scoring, a single untipped Sea Cow is worth 2 points, and two or more are worth 5 points.

Sacred Stone

Gain 2 points for each of your Villages that touches at least one Landmark hex.

Warrior Tribe Cards

This expansion includes 15 Warrior cards. If you choose to play with them, they replace the 15 Pathfinder cards from the base game; use only Pathfinder or Warrior cards in a game, not both.

Note: These cards can be used when playing just the base game alone, or with any other modules; they do not require Rivers & Rafts to use them.

Migrate ability: Gain 1 Tool.

Eclipse ability: You may move one of your Camps (or your Raft) and/or move an opponent's Camp (but not their Raft) from one hex to an adjacent hex (including the Base Terrain tile if not playing with the River tiles).

Note: You can only move a Camp onto a hex, not onto a Headwaters / Delta / Starting Base tile.