Fürstenfeld Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Foreword of the Author
• Game Components
• The Base Game
  • Preparations
  • Playing the Game
  • Player Order
  • Phase 1. Draw Cards (all players draw their cards)
  • Phase 2. Harvest Goods (all players harvest their cultivated goods)
  • Phase 3. Sell Goods (in player order, all players sell their goods and may get additional money from already built cards (banks))
  • Phase 4. Build Cards (in player order, the players build new cards)
  • Phase 5. Discard Cards (all players must discard some of their cards)
  • Phase 6. Adjust Market Prices (the players adjust the market prices together)
• Game End
• The Expert Game
  • Preparations
  • Playing the Game
• The Cards
  • The Base Game Cards
  • Only for the Expert Game
• Credits

Foreword of the Author

Looking at the structure of Fürstenfeld, this game is very simple: players harvest goods, sell them, and, afterwards, build houses and production spaces. The special part is the permanent necessity to replace earlier built houses by new ones. Near the end of the game players must even give up farming to finish their palace. The excitement of the game is to find the exact moment to start building the palaces. As players normally go through their card supplies about one and a half times during a game, a player will have a good chance to win the game if he successfully manages the changing prices at the breweries to his greatest advantage. To successfully play Fürstenfeld, it helps if a player can remember the order he placed unused cards beneath his card supply. In this way a clever player can plan future moves as he discards unused cards.

I really hope, that you have a lot of fun with this challenging game.

— Friedemann Friese

Game Components

1. 140 building cards (5 sets of 28 cards per player)
2. 5 summary cards
3. 7 demand cards for the breweries
4. 6 palace price cards
5. 1 game board:
   • 5 breweries with demand spaces for the demand cards
   • 1 player order display (with 2 separate income tracks)
   • 1 storage space for palace price cards
   • 5 storage spaces for the goods tokens and coins
6. 75 goods tokens (25 each of hops, barley and spring water)
7. 5 player sheets "Fürstenfeld" (each with 6 building spaces, one per player)
8. 60 coins (35 grey "1" and 25 yellow "5")
9. 5 palace price markers
10. 5 player order discs (in the player colors green, red, blue, purple and orange)
11. rules booklet

The Base Game

The base game offers the players the chance to learn the central mechanisms of Fürstenfeld. Players learn how to develop their farming systems and the constant decline of their production capabilities as they build their palaces. A lot of different roads lead to a success in this game.

Preparations

1. Each player takes 1 Fürstenfeld, 2 coins (two grey coins with a total value of 2), a player order disc, and a set of 26 playing cards in the player's color. In the base game, players do not need the "Tour Guide" and "Scavenger" cards (see the card overview at the end of these rules). Each player shuffles his 26 cards and places them in a face down card supply next to his Fürstenfeld. Afterwards, each player draws the topmost 3 cards from his card supply as his starting hand.
2. Place the game board in the middle of the table, so every player can easily reach it. Place the remaining coins and all goods tokens in separate piles on the matching storage spaces on the board. If any of the goods tokens supplied are exhausted, please use replacements as these tokens are not limited to those supplied.
3. Shuffle the 7 demand cards. Draw a number of random demand cards equal to the number of players and place them on the demand spaces of the breweries the players want to use in the game (breweries without demand cards are closed and are not used during the game). Place one goods token each of hops, barley, and spring water on all marked spaces of value 1 on each chosen brewery (these are the starting prices of the three goods).
4. Take the player order discs, shuffle them and place them on the player order display as one stack on space 0 of the left income track. The starting player is the player with the top-most player order disc.
5. Sort the palace price cards by decreasing number and place them as a face up stack on the game board (the 18 is at the bottom and the 8 is on top of the stack). Place a number of palace price markers equal to the number of players next to this stack of palace price cards.

Playing the Game

A game of Fürstenfeld lasts several game rounds. Each game round contains the following 6 phases:

1. Draw cards (all players can play the first two phases simultaneously)
2. Harvest goods
3. Sell goods
4. Build cards (in player order, each player plays the following three phases directly one after the other)
5. Discard cards
6. Adjust market prices (the players adjust the market prices together)

Player Order

The player order during each game round is determined as follows: the player with the player order disc on the lowest space of the actual income track is starting player, followed by the player with the next lowest player order disc, etc. In case of a tie, the player with the top-most disc in a stack plays first.

Phase 1. Draw Cards (all players draw their cards)

Each player draws 3 cards from his own draw stack and now has a total of 4 cards in his hand.

Exception: in the first turn each player has 6 cards in his hand.

Hint: if the player already built one or both laboratories, he may draw more than 3 cards during phase 1 as mentioned on the laboratory cards.

Phase 2. Harvest Goods (all players harvest their cultivated goods)

Each player takes the goods tokens from his built production spaces (including the production spaces directly printed on the Fürstenfeld). The players take the goods from the storage spaces and for a better overview place them on the symbols of the matching production spaces.

Example: at the start of the game, the players produce one token each of hops, barley, and spring water. The matching production spaces are directly printed on the Fürstenfeld.

Phase 3. Sell Goods (in player order, all players sell their goods and may get additional money from already built cards (banks))

The player sells all goods tokens of his choice at a single brewery and gets, for each type, the actual price in coins for each goods token. If the player already built one or both banks, he gets additional coins as mentioned on the bank cards.

The breweries: the demand of the breweries for the three different goods in each single game round is shown on the demand cards, which are placed below the price tracks at the bottom of the breweries. The players can sell more tokens of a single type to the market than the demand asks for, but, in this case, the price will drop immediately, as explained in the following paragraphs. If all players together sell fewer goods than demand asks for, the price will rise during phase 6 of the game round.

The player places the sold tokens on the matching colored demand spaces of the chosen brewery. These tokens remain there until phase 6 of the game round. The player takes a number of coins for each sold token matching the actual price.

Example: during the first game turn the player gets 3 coins, 1 coin each for the three sold tokens.

Once all spaces of a certain goods type are filled in the brewery, all surplus tokens are temporarily placed below the demand spaces. After the player takes coins for all sold tokens, he immediately moves the matching price marker for each surplus token one space toward the bottom and places these tokens back into the storage. The price may be lower for the following player and the lowest price per token is 0 coins.

Example: the player sells 4 barley tokens to the brewery and gets 4 coins. He places two tokens on the empty demand spaces and directly places the two surplus tokens back into the storage. The player immediately moves the price marker for barley two spaces down the track.

If the price for a certain goods type is "0," the brewery does not take any further tokens of that type, regardless of any empty demand spaces on its demand card. This rule is in until the price increases to at least 1 coin per token during phase 6 of a game round.

Afterwards, the player takes his player order disc from the actual income track (at game start this is the left track) and places it on the other income track on the space matching his actual income in coins (in the first game round this is the right track): the player adds the value of all his sold tokens plus the number of coins from already built banks. If another player already had the same income in this game round, he places his disc on top of the other player's disc (during the next game round this player will play before the player whose disc was there before his).

Hint: the player can decide to sell fewer tokens and discard remaining tokens at the end of the game round, resulting in a lower income. As a result, he may have a better position in the player order of the next game round.

Phase 4. Build Cards (in player order, the players build new cards)

The player can build up to 2 cards from his hand on his Fürstenfeld. Each Fürstenfeld has 6 building spaces. At the start of the game, each player already owns three production spaces (one each for hops, barley, and spring water), printed directly on the Fürstenfeld.

The cost to build a card is printed at the top left corner of each card. When a player wants to build a card, he pays the required number of coins, placing them in the storage. Any card can be built on each of the 6 building spaces and if necessary, all already built cards (or the starting production spaces printed on the field) can be overbuilt by new cards. Only the top-most visible cards on all 6 building spaces are active, all overbuilt cards are out of the game. All built cards are immediately active and, if applicable, can be used in the same game round. Please refer to the card overview at the end of these rules for an overview of the different buildings.

Similar to all other cards, the important Palace Tiles can be built on all 6 building spaces. Once built, they cannot be overbuilt and block the building spaces on that field for the rest of the game.

At the start of the game, the price for the Palace Tiles is 8 coins. Each time a number of Palace Tiles matching the number of players is built, the price rises by 2 coins. For a better overview, the players place palace price markers on the Palace Price cards for each tile built. If the last palace price marker is placed on the palace price card, the player removes this card from the game and places the palace price markers back next to the pile. The price for building the next palace tile is immediately 2 coins more expensive.

Example: during a 3-player game, the active player builds a Palace Tile and places a third palace price marker on the Palace Price card. He removes the Palace Price card from the game and places the markers back next to the pile. The price for the next Palace Tiles is now increased by 2 coins.

Phase 5. Discard Cards (all players must discard some of their cards)

The player discards all but one of his cards and places them face down below his card supply. He can choose the order of the discarded cards. If the player still has goods tokens on his production spaces, he discards them into the general storage at this point.

Hint: if the player already built one or both town halls, he may keep more than 1 card in his hand as mentioned on the town hall cards.

Phase 6. Adjust Market Prices (the players adjust the market prices together)

After all players have finished phases 3 to 5, together they adjust all goods prices in all the breweries. For each empty demand space the price increases (as a reminder the empty spaces have "demand" signs). The players move the corresponding price markers for each empty space one space to the top (the maximum price per goods token is 3 coins). Afterwards, the players remove all goods tokens from the markets and place them back into the storage.

Example: the demand spaces of the brewery are filled with 1 barley and 2 spring water. No hops were delivered in this game round. Thus, the price markers for hop and barley rise as follows: 1 demand space for hops is empty: +1 space on the price track; 2 demand spaces for barley are empty: +2 spaces on the price track. As the demand for spring water was fulfilled, the price marker stays where it is.

Now, a new game round begins. The new starting player is the player with the lowest player order disc on the new income track (the player with the lowest income in the just finished game round — this is the right track after the first game round).

Game End

As soon as one player builds all his 6 Palace Tiles, the game ends at the end of the current game round (all players have the same number of rounds). If only one player finishes his Palace, he wins the game. If several Palaces are finished in the same game round, the tied player with most remaining coins wins the game.

The Expert Game

The players are confronted with an even bigger challenge. Now, they need to build their palace tiles on specified building spaces of their Fürstenfeld. To give them better control over their fate, they can arrange a certain part of their personal draw stacks, to have a better plan for arranging their Fürstenfeld.

In the Expert Game, all rules of the Base Game are active, with the following additions.

Preparations

Each player takes 2 additional cards, the "Tour Guide" and the "Scavenger," and shuffles these two cards with the other 26 of the base game to form his card supply. Each player draws 10 cards from his own card supply and keeps only 1 card in his hand. He places the other 9 cards in any order he wishes beneath his card supply (and already knows the order of 1/3 of his draw stack).

Playing the Game

The Palace Tiles all have a specified location on the field. The players must build them on the matching building spaces. Of course, this needs far more careful planning and the players need to carefully remember where each single Palace Tile is in their card supplies and when they will be drawn (again).

The Palace Tiles have Roman numerals (I - VI). On the three building spaces of the top row of the fields, the players must build the palace tiles with numerals I, II, III from left to right. On the three building spaces of the bottom row the players must build the palace tiles with numerals IV, V, VI from left to right.

The Cards

Each player gets an identical set of cards. The effects of the cards are cumulative (if a player builds both town halls, he can keep 3 additional cards in his hand). The cards are active in different phases. This is important, as certain cards can be used in the same round as they are built, or a final time, when they are overbuilt.

The Base Game Cards

Production fields: all "Production field" cards produce a corresponding number of goods tokens during phase 2. The player places all harvested goods tokens on the matching symbols of his production fields.

Bank I and II: the player gets a secure income of three or five coins from these cards in phase 3, without needing to sell goods at one of the markets. This income is part of the total income (for determining position on the player order track).

Town Hall I and II: the player can keep one or two additional cards in his hand in phase 5. Without these cards the limit is 1 card.

Laboratory I and II: the player can draw one or two additional cards in phase 1. Without these cards the limit is 3 cards.

Palace tiles: the player must build the palace tiles to win the game. The price per palace tile depends on the current palace price card. For each built palace tile, place a palace price token on the palace price card. If the number of tokens equals the number of players, immediately remove the tokens and discard the Palace Price card, resulting in an increase of 2 coins for the following palace tiles.

Office: the player takes 1 additional coin per each sold goods token of a single type.

Warehouse: the player can store up to 3 goods tokens in phase 5 to sell them in a later game round. In each game round the player can choose to rearrange the stored goods tokens to store any (new) goods tokens.

Market: the player can sell up to 3 goods tokens of one type as exactly one of the other two types to one brewery during phase 3. When selling, he can sell less than 3 goods tokens.

Magistrate: when the player receives his income in phase 3 and places his player order disc on the other income track, he places his disc 3 spaces lower than his actual income. In the next game round this player most likely has a lower player order position.

Building crane: the player gets a discount of 2 coins on the building costs of all following cards in phase 4. He immediately gets the discount after building the crane, e.g. for building a second card in the same game round or if he builds a new card on top of the building crane.

Only for the Expert Game

Scavenger: the player may trash up to 2 cards from his hand in phase 5 and remove them from the game (instead of placing them beneath his card supply).

Tour guide: the player receives a secure income of 2 coins in phase 3 for each already built Palace Tile.

Credits

Author: Friedemann Friese

Rules development: Henning Kröpke & Friedemann Friese

Illustrations & Graphics: Fréderic Bertrand & Maura Kalusky

Rio Grande Games PO Box 1033 Placitas, NM 87043, USA [email protected] • www.riograndegames.com

© 2010 2F-Spiele, Made in Germany. Warning: The game contains small pieces and is not suitable for children age 0-3.