Fantasy Brewers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • General Limit of Three
  • Phase 1: Place Worker pawns
    • Placement Rules for Workers at the City Doors
    • Placement Rules for Workers at the Tavern
    • Immediate Placement Bonus for Workers
  • Phase 2: Taking Actions in the City
    • Payment for Actions
    • The Doorway Actions
    • Monthly Bonuses for Selling
    • Refreshing the Extension and Homestead cards
  • Phase 3: Pay Upkeep
  • Phase 4: Clean-up
• Game End
  • End Game Scoring
• The Building Cards
  • Extension Cards
  • Statues
  • Homesteads
• The Brewery Cards
  • Beginner Brewery Cards
  • Advanced Brewery Cards
  • Expert Brewery Cards
• Icon Glossary

Components

• 41 Assistant Cards: 12 Growers, 12 Labourers, 12 Brewers, 5 Brewmasters
• 60 Goods Cards: 12 Hops, 12 Peats, 12 Cows, 12 Goats, 12 Pigs
  • On the back of Hops is Premium Beer, on the back of Peat is Smoked Whisky, and on the back of Animals are bigger Animals.
• 25 Homestead Cards
• 20 Extension Cards
• 12 Statue Cards
• 24 Brewery Cards, with three different levels (see the icon in the top-right corner)
• 1 Central Board (Tavern and City Doors)
• 2 Doors tiles (A and C)
• 4 Player Boards
• 1 Score Pad
• 1 First Player token
• 49 Coins: 35 Silver and 14 Gold
• 30 Victory Point tokens
• 22 Penalty tokens
• 14 Festival tokens
• 1 Calendar token
• 12 Worker pawns (in 3 sizes and 4 player colours)
• 1 Seasonal Worker pawn (white)

Game Setup

1. Place the main board in the middle of the table. It depicts the Tavern on the left, and the City Wall on the right, with three large doorways. Place the A Door tile on the right side of the A doorway, and the C Door tile on the right side of the C doorway. In other words, the game begins with both doors «turned to the right».
2. Place the Calendar token on the «1» at the top of the board. This track, numbered 1-6 is the Month track. Each round, the Calendar token will move one month to the right, and at the end of the 5th Month (round) the game will end (at the end of the 6th month in the Advanced Game).
3. Each player places the Player board of their chosen colour in front of themselves, takes the 3 Worker pawns of their colour and places them on the corresponding spaces of their board. In a 2-Player Game the Player boards should have the side with 4 Worker spaces face-up. Return any unused Player boards and Worker pawns to the box.
4. Below the Main board, create 5 separate face-up draw piles of the 5 different Goods cards. For the Goods, ensure Hops and Peat are face up, and for the Animals ensure all the cards show the animals with their «small» side face-up. On the back of each card, the animal is shown much larger and with decorations.
5. Also below the Main board, create 3 separate face-up draw piles of the 3 types of standard Assistant Cards (Growers, Labourers, Brewers), with their colourful sides face-up.
6. Shuffle the decks of Extension cards, Statue cards and Homestead cards, and place them to the right side of the Main board near their matching icons. Draw 4 Extension Cards and place them face-up (with the non-Decorated side face-up) in a row to the right of the deck. There are 5 Extension cards available for players to buy. Do the same with the Homestead cards. Do not draw any Statue cards. The Statue cards can all remain in a deck (with the un-Decorated sides face-up, showing the number «5»).
7. Place the Coins, Points and Penalty tokens near the board in a general Supply. Place the scorepad nearby for the end of the game.
8. For a Beginner Game every player gets a Brewery Card with just one level icon in the top-right corner (they are identical). For the Advanced game, use the Brewery cards with two level icons instead. Each player then takes all the tokens and/or cards shown on their Brewery card and places them near their Player board. If players start with Festival tokens (as in a Beginner game), place these face-up or draw face-down (depending on what the Brewery card depicts), on the image of the Town on your Player board. Any unneeded Brewmaster cards must be returned to the box. Note that the Brewery cards with three level icons may be used by players who are experienced with the game and would like extra variety. See page 17.

Component Quantities: Coins, Victory Point tokens and Penalty tokens are not intended to be limited (use a substitute if you run out), but all other components are intended to be limited. If a deck of cards runs out, it is no longer available!

Note on the Brewery level icons: the printed rulebook shows these as a symbol in the top-right corner of each Brewery card, repeated one, two or three times for the Beginner, Advanced and Expert cards respectively.

Gameplay

Fantasy Brewers is played over several Months or rounds: in a Beginner Game you play 5 Months, in an Advanced Game you play 6 Months. Every Month consists of 4 phases. Each of these phases have to be completed (in order), before the next Month can begin. Each phase is described in detail, below.

General Limit of Three

A very important rule for this game is the general limit of three. No player may ever have more than 3 copies of each type of card. In other words, a player's maximum is: 3 Growers, 3 Brewers, 3 Labourers, 3 Extensions, 3 Homesteads, 3 Decorated Homesteads (on the flipped side), 3 Decorated Extensions, 3 Statues, 3 Cows, 3 Pigs, 3 Goats, 3 Hops, 3 Peat, 3 Beer, and 3 Whisky. Note: A player may only have 3 of each animal, no matter whether they are Large or Small.

Phase 1: Place Worker pawns

To begin each Month you must send your Workers out to buy and sell goods or improve your brewery!

This phase is played clockwise. Beginning with the Starting Player each player places their smallest Worker pawn on the Main board, beneath one of the 4 possible places: The Tavern, or below one of the three City doors. See the rules for placing Workers, below.

When play returns to the Starting Player, everyone will then place their medium-sized Worker pawn in the same way. Then, the third time around the table, each player must place their remaining, large Worker pawn.

Important note: A player can have more than one Worker at the same place!

In a 2-Player Game the owner of the Seasonal Worker pawn places it last, after the third round of Worker placements.

Placement Rules for Workers at the City Doors

On the Main board you will find the 3 doorways of the town (A, B and C from left to right). Worker pawns placed in these locations must be placed below the doors, in a queue in order of their placement (the second behind the first, the third behind the second, and so on).

After placing a Worker at a door, a player must check immediately if there are any smaller pawns standing ahead of the Worker they just placed in the queue. The current player must begin checking at the front of the queue, until they reach the first Worker that is smaller in size than their newly placed Worker, and then ask its owner for 1 coin, as Protection Money.

a) If the player agrees and pays the current player 1 Coin, their Worker is allowed to stay where it is in the queue.

b) If the player doesn't agree to (or can't) pay, they have to move their Worker to the end of the queue (behind the Worker that was just placed by the current player).

Then the current player continues and asks the second in line that is smaller than their Worker, and so on.

Notes: Of course a player never asks for Protection Money from their own Workers. They stay where they are for free. In a 2-player game the Seasonal Worker also asks for Protection Money. A Worker that has to move to the end of a queue doesn't get to ask for Protection Money, as this only happens on a player's turn after they place a new Worker at the back of the line!

Example: Blue just has placed their medium Worker and asks the smaller Purple pawn in front of the queue for Protection Money. Purple doesn't want to pay, so he must move to the end of the queue. Blue then asks the smaller Green Worker. Green accepts to pay and stays where she is. The next in line is Purple again, but this Purple Worker is the same size as Blue, so Blue can't ask for Protection Money and it stays where it is.

Placement Rules for Workers at the Tavern

To the left of the City Doors is the Tavern. Worker pawns may be placed here also, but Workers at the Tavern are not placed in a queue. Workers are simply placed directly on the Tavern. There can be an unlimited number of Workers at the Tavern.

Immediate Placement Bonus for Workers

If you place your smallest Worker beneath doorways «A», «B» or «C» you immediately receive a Placement Bonus from the Supply. If you place a Worker of any size at the Tavern, you also immediately receive a Placement Bonus from the Supply. The Placement Bonus is displayed beneath each Worker placement space on the board.

Remember: Never take a Placement Bonus at the City Doors for Workers other than your smallest!

• If you place your smallest Worker at Door A you immediately get 2 coins from the Supply.
• If you place your smallest Worker at Door B you may immediately turn one black Festival token to its white side (see later for more info), and get 1 coin from the Supply.
• If you place your smallest Worker at Door C you immediately get 1 Coin from the Supply and can turn one of your face-down Assistant cards face-up, (see later for more info).
• If you place a Worker of any size at the Tavern you immediately get 1 Coin from the Supply, may turn one of your black Festival tokens to white, and may turn one or two of your face-down Assistant cards face-up.

Phase 2: Taking Actions in the City

In this phase, the Worker pawns placed on the Main board (in phase 1) perform actions. This does not occur in turn order, but in the order of the queue of Workers placed beneath the City Doors, in order from «A» to «C».

Workers at the Tavern have no action to perform. Workers placed there only receive the immediate Placement Bonus.

At the City Doors (beginning with the owner of the Worker at the front of the queue under Door A, and ending with the Worker at the end of the queue under Door C), players take turns choosing one of the Actions depicted in the open doorway above the Worker. The player then moves their Worker to the chosen Action space and performs two actions:

1. The action displayed as on the chosen action space in the open doorway, and,

2. The action which is displayed on the Door of that space.

Then the owner of the next Worker in line chooses an empty Action space in the open doorway, moves their Worker to it, and performs the two associated Actions, and so on down the line until all Workers have been moved and performed their actions.

Each action may only be performed once. (A description of the different types of actions follows.) For every action a player doesn't want to (or can't) perform, they receive 1 Coin from the Supply, instead. Importantly, the current player may decide which order their two actions are performed in!

If you can't place a Worker on an Action space in a doorway (because all six spaces already have Workers on them), the Worker is moved to the Tavern instead. This Worker still receives the Placement Bonus of the Tavern, even though it may have already received a Placement Bonus at its original location. This can not be done by choice - only when there is nowhere to place a Worker.

Note that because the Door tiles flip each round, the actions available to players will change! This is not the case at Doorway B, however. There, the same Door Actions are always available.

Payment for Actions

Several type of actions require the player to pay something in order to perform the action. If there is anything to pay for an action, the price is displayed on the right of the action symbols.

How to pay using the following resources and cards:

• Pay Money to the Supply (with the exception of the Protection Money).
• Pay Beer, Grain, or Strength (fist) by flipping any of your Assistant cards with the matching icon(s) face-down. Once an Assistant card is turned face-down it cannot be used again until an action or effect allows you to turn it face-up again.

The Brewmaster is a special card, as he can be used as 1 Beer, 1 Grain or 1 Strength. You can decide every time you use it what payment he will make. An Assistant card acquired by a player may be used immediately to help pay for an action.

The Doorway Actions

• Earn Money: In this instance, take 1 coin from the Supply.
• Flip Assistant Card(s): Flip one (left icon) or two (right icon) of your face-down Assistant cards face-up again.
• Prepare for the Orctober Fest: Flip one of your black Festival tokens to its white side.
• Buy a Good: Make the required payment and then take a corresponding Resource or Animal card from the Supply and place it face-up (small side) above your Player board. In this instance, pay 1 Beer and take 1 Goat card.
• Hire an Assistant: Make the required payment and then take a corresponding Assistant card from the Supply and place it face-up (coloured side) below your Player board. In this instance, pay 1 Coin and take 1 Labourer card.
• Build: Take 1 Extension, Statue or Homestead card of your choice from the face-up rows of cards and place it face up (un-Decorated side) to the left or right of your Player board. As shown on the board, the costs are: 1 Extension for 4 coins, 1 Statue for 8 coins, or 1 Homestead card for 10 coins.
• Or, instead of Building, you may Decorate: Flip 1 of your Extension, Homestead or Statue Card face-down, to show the Decorated side. Decorating any Extension, Statue or Homestead card costs 3 coins. Note: You can't Decorate a Building that has already been Decorated.
• Sell: Sell 1 or more Good cards of the same type and receive the amount of Money for each card you sell, as displayed on the Door of Barn «B». Give sold cards back to the Supply, with the unbrewed/smaller side face up. For example: Yellow is selling Goats. He has 2 small Goats and 1 large one (how to get a large animal is explained later). He decides to sell all 3 and gets 3 coins for each of the small Goat and 8 coins for the large one (as shown on the doorway). Andy could not sell another type of Animal or Good now, but if he is able to activate this action again later, Yellow could sell something else, or even Goats again if he wanted to (you don't have to sell all of an animal or good that you have).

Important notes: you never «pay» cards to Earn Acclaim. You just need to have the depicted items. It doesn't even matter for Earning Acclaim whether your Assistant cards are face-up or not. The Brewmaster Assistant card never counts for any kind of Bonus.

Monthly Bonuses for Selling

During each Month there is a Bonus for selling specific kinds of Resources or Animals (Goods cards). These are depicted on the Month track at the top of the Main board and are earned by the player as soon as they Sell the required item(s).

The Bonuses for Selling in each Month are:

1. Sell any kind of Good and receive 2 additional coins from the Supply.
2. Sell Pigs or Hops and get 1 Peat from the Supply, if available.
3. Sell Cows or Hops and flip a Hops or Peat Card. If you flip Hops you'll now have Premium Beer, if you flip Peat you'll now have Smoked Whisky.
4. Sell Cows or Goats and get 1 Peat from the Supply, if available.
5. Sell Pigs or Goats and flip a Hops or Peat Card. If you flip Hops you'll now have Premium Beer, if you flip Peat you'll now have Smoked Whisky.
6. Advanced Game only: Sell any kind of Good and if you now have 15 or more coins, you get a «5» Victory Point token from the Supply, if available.

Players receive the Selling Bonus once per sale, no matter how many of a Good or Animal they sold. However, if a player is able to Sell more than once during a Month then they may earn the Bonus more than once! Note that Premium Beer or Smoked Whisky can never be flipped back to be Hops or Peat.

For example: In the 2nd Month Red takes the Sell Hops action. He sells 2 Hops cards and receives 3 coins for each (6 coins total). He then receives one Peat card from the Supply.

Remember: A player doesn't have to Sell all of their Goods and Animals of a type when they Sell.

Refreshing the Extension and Homestead cards

If all 5 of the available Extension or Homestead cards have been bought by players, immediately fill the row back up to 5 face up cards.

Phase 3: Pay Upkeep

Now everyone has to pay Upkeep on their brewery and farm. What you have to pay in order to keep your brewery going is depicted on the top right of each card and is listed below.

• Every Animal must be fed 1 Grain. To pay this, flip Grower and/or Brewmaster card(s) face down. Every Animal that is fed is flipped over to their Large side.
  • Note: Now the value of the Animal is higher than before! Never flip a large Animal back to its small side!
  • Every Animal that you cannot feed remains on its current side.
• Pay the depicted amount of coins/Beer/Strength/Grain with your Assistant cards and coins to upkeep your Extension, Homesteads and Statues. Importantly, note that some Brewery cards also require you to pay Upkeep every Month!

For every coins/Grain/Beer/Strength you cannot pay, you have to flip one of your Festival tokens from the white side to the black side. If you already have all of your Festival tokens on the black side and you can't pay Upkeep, you receive 1 Penalty token from the Supply. These are worth -3 Victory Points!

As soon as you receive a Penalty token, immediately turn all your Festival tokens to their white side. Then, if you still have to Pay Upkeep and you cannot, begin flipping your Festival tokens to their black sides again. This may result in you receiving more Penalty tokens!

Notes: if you are able to pay, you have to pay! You can Feed and Pay Upkeep in the order you prefer! This phase can be performed simultaneously by all players.

Phase 4: Clean-up

At the end of the Month, perform the following steps:

• The player who made the last Action of the Month, receives the Starting Player token and will be the first player in the following Month.
• Return all Worker pawns to their owners. In a 2-Player Game the Seasonal Worker pawn is handed to the player who did not have it this Month. (If playing a 2-Player Beginner Game that only lasts 5 Months, remove the Seasonal Worker from the game before the start of the 5th Month.)
• Turn the doors over one by one after each month. This means, after the first Month turn the Door «A» to the left, after the second Month turn the Door «C» to the left, after the third month turn the Door «A» to the right, and so on. (The printed rulebook shows the door position for Months 2 to 6.)
• Replenish the rows of Extension and Homestead cards so there are 5 face-up cards of each type, if necessary.
• Move the Calendar tracking token to the next Month at the top of the board.

Game End

The game ends at the end of the 5th Month in a Beginner Game and the 6th Month in an Advanced Game. The final Month ends after Phase 3: Pay Upkeep. Then continue to End Game Scoring (below).

Important note: In the rare case that any deck of Building cards (either Extensions, Homesteads or Statues) are exhausted during a Month's Phase 4: Clean-up, the Game ends at the end of that Month!

End Game Scoring

Before scoring, turn all face-down Assistant Cards face-up. Then tally each player's score using the scorepad and as listed below.

Players receive:

• 1 Victory Point for every card they have in front of them
• Victory Points as displayed on their Homestead, Extension and Statue Cards
• Victory Points equal to their Victory Point tokens
• Victory Points per Premium Beer and Smoked Whisky card they have (the value of each goes up whether the player has 1/2/3 copies, as shown on the cards). Premium Beer scores 3 / 6 / 10 and Smoked Whisky scores 5 / 10 / 15 for 1 / 2 / 3 copies.
• 1 Victory Point for every 5 coins they have left over

Players subtract:

• 3 Victory Points for every Penalty token they have.

The Player with the most Victory Points wins! Their Beer and Whisky has become known throughout the land, and they will be named the winner of the Golden Stein at the Orctober Fest!

Note: In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Labourer cards wins. If the tied players are still tied, the player with the most coins wins.

The Building Cards

On the bottom right of all Extension, Homestead and Brewery cards is an identification number. The following descriptions will help you understand all the cards in the game.

Extension Cards

Extensions can be built for 4 coins, they mostly offer helpful and valuable effects. These cards' effects are available to use from the moment they are purchased and last through the whole game. Their effects can be used every time the condition mentioned on the card applies, directly after the associated action. To trigger the effect of an Extension you have to complete the associated action, otherwise the effect of the Extension doesn't apply. Some of the Extensions have 1 Gold Star symbol, which can be useful for the Earning Acclaim action, or specific Homesteads.

An Extension can be Decorated (using the Build/Decorate action) for 3 coins. At game end they score +5 Victory Points, however they lose their ongoing effects once decorated.

• E1: After buying a Good, receive 1 coin from the Supply.
• E2: After buying a Good, you may turn a face-down Assistant card face-up.
• E3/E4: After buying a Good, you may turn up to 2 face-down Assistant cards face-up.
• E5: After hiring an Assistant, receive 1 coin from the Supply.
• E6: After hiring an Assistant, you may turn a face-down Assistant card face-up.
• E7/E8: After hiring an Assistant, you may turn up to 2 face-down Assistant cards face-up.
• E9: After hiring an Assistant, receive a «1» Victory Point token from the Supply.
• E10: After selling any type of Good, receive 1 coin from the Supply.
• E11: After selling any type of Good, you may turn a face-down Assistant card face-up.
• E12: After selling any type of Good, you may turn up to two face-down Assistant cards face-up.
• E13: After selling any type of Good, receive a 1 Victory Point token from the Supply.
• E14: After Earning Acclaim, you may turn a face-down Assistant card face-up.

Note: If you have two Extensions that have effects when you buy a Good card, you can use both effects right after you bought the Good. If you buy a Good with another Worker in the same Month you can use both effects again. The effects can be made in the order you prefer.

Statues

Statues can be built for 8 coins. At game end they score +5 Victory Points. A Statue can be decorated (using the Build/Decorate action) for 3 coins. At game end, Decorated Statues score +10 Victory Points.

Homesteads

Homesteads can be built for 10 coins, they do nothing for the player during the game but at game end they might bring you Victory Points, depending on how well you fulfill their conditions. A player may have more than one of the same Homestead. If they do, the effect works cumulatively.

A Homestead can be Decorated (using the Build/Decorate action) for 3 coins. At game end they score +10 Victory Points instead of what is shown on the undecorated side.

• H1: Score +4 Victory Points per Labourer Assistant card.
• H2: Score +3 Victory Points per Labourer Assistant card.
• H3: Score +4 Victory Points per Grower Assistant card.
• H4: Score +3 Victory Points per Grower Assistant card.
• H5: Score +4 Victory Points per Brewer Assistant card.
• H6: Score +3 Victory Points per Brewer Assistant card.
• H7/H8/H9: Score an extra 0.5 Victory Points per coin (rounded down).
• H10: Score +6 Victory Points per Extension.
• H11: Score +5 Victory Points per Extension.
• H12: Score +6 Victory Points per Decorated Homestead.
• H13/H14: Score an extra Victory Point for each of your Victory Point tokens. (1=1 and 5=5)
• H15: Score +4 Victory Points per Gold Star icon.
• H16: Score +3 Victory Points per Gold Star icon.
• Score +4 Victory Points per Homestead card (including this one).

The Brewery Cards

Every Beginner Brewery card and every Advanced Brewery card have the same Setup and Effects. All Expert Brewery cards are different.

Beginner Brewery Cards

As the Beginner Game is shorter, players start with additional resources: 2 Festival tokens with 1 face-up, 9 coins, 1 Peat, 1 small Goat, 1 Brewer, 1 Brewmaster and have a useful effect to use all game: After selling Goods of any type, you may turn up to two face-down Assistant cards face-up, if possible. These cards are numbered B1-B4.

Advanced Brewery Cards

As an Advanced Player you play a full length game with a standard setting. Start the game with 2 face-down Festival tokens, 7 coins, 1 Brewmaster, and you must pay an Upkeep of 1 coin every round. The game lasts 6 months! These cards are numbered B5-B8.

Expert Brewery Cards

To play the Expert game of Fantasy Brewers, each player is dealt an Expert Brewery card at the start of the game. These give players different abilities, starting resources, and strategies to follow. They are explained below.

As with the Advanced game, the Expert game lasts 6 months.

• B9: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (white side up), 7 coins, a Brewer and 2 Victory Point tokens. You also have 2 Gold Stars. Upkeep: 1 coin.
• B10: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins, and a Brewmaster. Ability: Whenever you take the Sell action you may discard a Penalty token. Upkeep: Flip a Festival token to the black side.
• B11: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 15 coins, and a Brewmaster.
• B12: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins, 2 Brewers and a Brewmaster. Upkeep: 1 coin and 1 Beer.
• B13: Start the game with 1 Festival token (white side up), 7 coins, and 2 Brewmasters. Upkeep: 1 coin.
• B14: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins, and a Brewmaster. Ability: At the end of the game, your Statues score an extra 2 Victory Points. Upkeep: 1 coin.
• B15: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), and 7 coins. Ability: Once per round you may place a Worker on an action space where you have previously placed a Worker and perform the action again. Upkeep: 2 coins.
• B16: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins, a Brewer, a Grower and a Cow. Upkeep: 1 coin.
• B17: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins and a Brewmaster. Ability: At the end of the game, your Decorated Extensions score an extra 3 Victory Points. Upkeep: 1 coin.
• B18: Start the game with 2 Festival tokens (black side up), 7 coins and a Brewmaster. Ability: You receive Placement Bonuses twice. Upkeep: 1 Beer.

Icon Glossary

The printed glossary shows the following icons. They are listed here by the names printed beneath them.

• Resources: Grain, Beer, Strength, Hops, Peat
• Festival tokens: Popular Festival (white side), Unpopular Festival (black side)
• Actions: Build/Decorate, Sell, Earn Acclaim
• Goods and drinks: Premium Beer, Smoked Whisky
• Money: Gain 1 Coin, 5 Coins
• Other: Goods, Gold Star, Victory token, Penalty token
• Cards: Assistant / Building / Good card; Flip 1 Card; Flip up to 2 Cards
• Buildings: Homestead, Homestead (decorated), Extension, Extension (decorated), Statue, Statue (decorated)