Gem Hens
Gem Hens Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Gem feed: 81 pieces in total (8 types)
- Garden board (6×6): 1
- Hen action dice (for 4-player play, per colour): 32 in total
- Power Chicken cards (for expert mode): 12
- Farmer dice: 6
- Farmer pawn: 4
- Hen pawn: 4
- Player action board: 4
- Egg board: 4
- Turn order token: 4
- Score reference sheet: 1
- Feed bag: 1
- Egg timer: 1
- Rulebook: 1
Setup
- Each player takes an egg board, a player action board, and 8 hen action dice of their colour, and places them in front of themselves.
- Place the garden board where all players can reach it.
- Place the farmer pawn on the tractor space of the garden board.
- Each player places their hen pawn on any one of the coop spaces of the garden board.
- Put all of the gem feed into the feed bag.
- Place the score reference sheet where all players can see it.
- Place the farmer dice, egg timer, turn order tokens and Power Chicken cards (if you are playing with them) where all players can reach them.
Game Overview
Gem Hens is played over 3 rounds. At the end of the 3rd round, players calculate the value of their "egg decorations," and the player with the highest total wins. If an egg board is completed before the end of the 3rd round, the game ends after the current round has been played.
Each round consists of the following phases:
- Scatter Feed: The farmer throws feed into the garden to lure the gem feed out of the coop.
- Roll Hen Dice: To help the hens find and eat the gem feed, each round players gain actions and produce the most beautiful egg they can.
- Determine Pecking Order: The result of the hen dice roll determines the order of the players in the Hen Action phase.
- Hen Actions: Players play hen action dice from their player action board to acquire their hens around the garden, in order to collect the delicious grains of gem feed.
Scatter Feed Phase
At the start of each round, move the farmer pawn to the adjacent feed storage space, according to the number of players. The number printed on a feed storage space shows how many farmer dice to roll and which rows and columns they mark.
- Starting farmer positions for the first round:
- 2 players: space #3
- 3 players: space #2
- 4 players: space #1 (the first #1 space)
- Roll as many farmer dice as the number of the current feed storage space. Place these dice in the garden's left column, one on each row, by row number (rows numbered from top to bottom: 1, 2, 3...).
- Roll the same number of farmer dice again, and place them along the bottom of the garden, by column number (columns numbered from left to right: 1, 2, 3...).
- Starting at garden space (1,1) in the top left, moving from left to right and from top to bottom, place 1 gem feed on each space where a row and column that contains a farmer die intersect.
Roll Hen Dice Phase
Once the farmer has scattered the gem feed, the Roll Hen Dice phase begins.
- Each player receives 8 hen action dice of their colour.
- The first player sets the egg timer to 20 seconds. That player says "Are you ready? Ready, cock-a-doodle-doo!" and starts the timer.
- All players then roll their dice simultaneously and place them on their own player action board.
- While the dice are rolling, a player may set aside any die they wish onto a space of their own action board whose number matches the die. A die set aside this way is locked and cannot be rolled again.
- Players may re-roll as often as they like until all of their dice are locked or the time runs out.
- When time runs out, all dice must be on the player action board, using the last roll.
The player action board spaces and the dice values they accept are:
- 1, 2, 3: Move (Move 1 space, Move 2 spaces, Move 3 spaces)
- 4, 5: Mark 1 row or column
- 6: Pecking Order (the board also reads "Rerolled 6 = wild")
Determining the Pecking Order
After the Roll Hen Dice phase, each player rolls all of the hen action dice in the Pecking Order area of their player action board and adds up the pips on the dice.
- The player with the highest total takes the first place in the pecking order, takes the first player turn order token, and places it in their player area.
- The player with the second-highest total takes the second turn order token, and so on.
- Dice placed in the pecking order can be rolled only once and cannot be rolled again.
- If totals are tied, the tied players keep their previous order.
- In the first round, if players are tied, each tied player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number goes first.
- A player who has no dice in the Pecking Order area cannot roll dice for the pecking order automatically.
After the pecking order has been determined, each player returns their hen action dice that were rolled for the pecking order to the appropriate spaces of their player action board, based on the result (see the example below).
Example: Suppose a player has 3 dice in the pecking order area and, after re-rolling, gets 1, 3 and 6. The 1 is moved to "Move 1 space" and the 3 is moved to "Mark 1 row or column," and the 6 is returned to the "Pecking Order" space to be used as a wild die.
Note on the example: the printed text gives the second value as 3, but the figure in the rulebook shows a 4 on that die (which is what the "Mark 1 row or column" space accepts). The figure has been followed here and the text value should be treated as a printing error.
Hen Action Phase
In pecking order, a player uses one hen action die at a time to carry out the associated action. Players must use all of their hen action dice in each round.
Possible actions:
Move (1, 2, 3)
With a 1, 2 or 3 die, a player may move their hen pawn on the garden board the number of spaces shown on the die. Movement is only in straight lines, and the player must move the full distance if possible. If the hen pawn hits the edge of the garden board or another hen pawn, its movement stops immediately and the remaining movement is lost.
Entering the garden: If a hen pawn is not yet on the garden board, the player may use a move die to bring it from the coop onto the garden through any ramp of the coop. With the move die, the hen pawn may move in any available direction up to the number of spaces shown on the die, to a maximum of 3 spaces (the highest face of the die). The ramp space counts as the first movement space.
Blocking: Two hen pawns cannot occupy the same space. If a hen pawn is positioned on a ramp, it effectively blocks the exit from the coop. The player must then either bring their hen onto the garden from another ramp of the coop, or push the blocking hen pawn out of the way. A push can happen on any space of the garden board.
Pushing
Pushing is a special kind of movement that occurs when a hen pawn tries to move onto a space occupied by another hen pawn. When this happens, the active player may use an additional move die to push the blocking hen pawn out of the space.
- First, the blocking hen pawn is moved in the direction the pushing hen pawn is trying to move, by the number of spaces shown on the move die used.
- Then, the pushing hen pawn is moved using another available move die, by the number of spaces shown on that die.
Until one of the following happens, move the blocking hen pawn 1 space at a time, and then move the pushing hen pawn 1 space at a time:
- The blocking hen pawn cannot move any further.
- The pushing hen pawn cannot move any further.
- The blocking hen pawn bumps into another hen pawn.
- The blocking hen pawn bumps into the edge of the garden board.
Note: If a hen pawn is pushed onto a space containing gem feed, the pushed hen may obtain that gem feed to eat.
Movement on the garden board is how the hens can eat all of this high-quality, beautiful gem feed. By eating gem feed, the hens can lay legendary jeweled eggs!
Eating Gem Feed
Whenever a hen pawn finishes its movement on a garden space containing gem feed, the player must promptly take all of that gem feed and place it on their egg board.
- Gem feed may be placed in any decoration on the egg board. Egg decorations contain spaces for 2, 3, 4 or 5 gems.
- Each egg decoration may contain only gem feed of one type.
- There are 8 types of gem feed, and their values depend on how rare they are.
Gem Combinations (score table): An egg decoration scores points according to its gem type and the number of gem feed in it. The score sheet has four columns for completed decorations of 2, 3, 4 and 5 gems, and a fifth column marked with a red X, which gives the points lost for each unused gem feed of that type. The number in brackets is the number of pieces of that type.
| Gem type (count) | 2 gems | 3 gems | 4 gems | 5 gems | Red X (unused, per piece) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold (24) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| Emerald (18) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -2 |
| Sapphire (15) | 3 | 5 | 6 | 8 | -3 |
| Ruby (12) | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | -4 |
| Orange Fire Opal (10) |
The score sheet's entry for Imperfection (6) reads: "-2 points per pink cube in a completed feature. +1 per wild collected but not placed in a feature."
Note on the score values: the component list gives 81 gem feed of 8 types, while the score sheet counts above add up to 100 pieces (24 + 18 + 15 + 12 + 10 + 8 + 7 + 6). The counts are transcribed as printed on the score sheet, and the mismatch is flagged here rather than resolved.
Note on imperfections: the score sheet says each pink cube is -2 points "in a completed feature", but the Game End and Scoring section (below) says each imperfection in an incomplete egg decoration is -2 points. Both are transcribed as printed; the rulebook text should be checked against the original.
Defective gems (pink): Pink gem feed is defective. A defective gem can be placed in any decoration, regardless of the colour of the other gem feed in it. A decoration may also be filled with defective gem feed only. Defective gems help complete a decoration, but a decoration containing defective gems does not earn the same number of points as a completed decoration without them.
If a player cannot place a gem feed in a decoration, or chooses not to, that gem feed is placed beside the egg board. It is not used, and it cannot be used later. At the end of the game, a player loses points for each unused gem feed.
A player may remove gem feed from a decoration and replace it with gem feed that would earn more points. When this happens, all removed gem feed is placed beside the egg board as unused gem feed.
Marking a Row or Column (4, 5)
With a 4 or 5, a player's hen may scratch the soil of a row or column of the garden board to unearth gem feed buried in it.
- Take a hen action die from the "Mark 1 row or column" section of your player action board and place it on any empty space in a row or column of the garden board that has no number on it.
- When a column is chosen, draw 1 random gem feed from the feed bag and place it on the chosen column, at the space where that column meets the row on which the farmer die or the scratching die sits.
- When a row is chosen instead, do the same with rows and columns exchanged: draw 1 random gem feed and place it on the chosen row, at the space where that row meets the column on which the farmer die or the scratching die sits.
- A garden space can hold at most 3 gem feed. If a 4th gem feed would be drawn and placed, do not draw it from the bag.
- Any gem feed placed on a garden space where a hen pawn is standing is eaten promptly (see Eating Gem Feed above).
Note: the wording of this section is transcribed from the Japanese text as closely as possible; the rulebook figure shows the marking die placed in a side slot, with two gems circled in the first two rows of the garden's left column.
Pecking Order (6)
The first roll of the 6s is used for determining the pecking order (see page 5, "Determining the Pecking Order"). After the pecking order has been determined, the remaining dice on the 6 space become wild dice, which can be used for any action.
End of Round
A round ends once all players have used all of their hen action dice.
- Return all hen pawns to the coop area.
- All gem feed remaining on the garden board stays where it is.
- Check whether the game ends. If it does not, begin the next round.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends when any of the following happens:
- The 3rd round ends.
- The round ends in which any player has completed all of the egg decorations on their egg board.
- The round ends in which all gem feed has been drawn from the feed bag.
Once the game has ended, players total their points based on the gem feed they obtained and the unused gem feed they hold. Use the points table (see Gem Combinations above).
- Completed egg decorations: Players earn points for each completed egg decoration, based on the type of gem feed used and the size of the decoration.
- Note: an incomplete egg decoration scores nothing, whether or not it contains imperfections.
- Unused gem feed: Players lose points for each unused gem feed, according to its type (the red X column of the table).
- Note: an unused imperfection, instead of losing points, gains +1 point.
- Imperfections in egg decorations: Players then calculate the effect of the imperfections in their egg decorations. Each imperfection in an incomplete egg decoration is -2 points. (See the note on imperfections above regarding the completed/incomplete wording.)
The rulebook figure for this section shows a completed egg board with point values written beside its decorations (+0, +5, +0, +6, -2, +4, +4, +0), an unused orange gem worth -5, and two unused pink gems worth +2 in total.
Once all players have totalled their points, the player with the most points has produced the most beautiful egg and is declared the winner. (The rulebook does not print a tie-break rule.)
Expert Mode Rules (optional)
Power Chicken
Power Chickens give each player's hen pawn a unique ability that can be used only once during a round.
- When playing with Power Chicken cards, after the Scatter Feed phase, place Power Chicken cards face up beside the garden board. The number of cards equals the number of players.
- After the pecking order has been determined, players draft these cards in reverse pecking order. The chosen Power Chicken is active during the Hen Action phase and is discarded at the end of the round.
- New Power Chickens are drafted in each of the game's 3 rounds.
Power Chicken abilities
- Heavy Weight: Prevents pushing.
- Picky: May leave one gem feed it would not like to eat in its own space.
- Nimble: When using a move die, may turn in an L shape.
- Tough: May push an opponent's hen without using an additional move die. A hen pushed in this way can only be pushed 1 space.
- Clever: In a middle round, may roll one unused die.
- Hungry: May eat gem feed from an adjacent space.
- Wanderer: Adds +1 to movement (up to 4 spaces).
- Flight: This hen may jump over other hens. It cannot stop on a space occupied by another hen.
- Farmer's Favorite: Move any one 4 or 5 die on the garden board to a row or column your hen is in. Add gem feed to the board based on the new placement.
- Eat-and-Run: While moving through a space, may eat 1 gem feed on that space.
- Hight-Endurance: This hen may use one of its hen action dice twice this round.
- Waste Not: At the end of the round, may discard one unused gem feed next to your egg board. Return it to the feed bag.
Hen Fights (optional rule)
Hen Fights is an optional rule that allows a player to gain a chance to steal gem feed from another player's egg board, at the risk of losing one of their own gem feed.
- To fight, after the player has performed an action this turn, their hen must be adjacent to another player's hen.
- The attacker declares a fight by using an additional hen action die of any value to activate the attack. Roll the die used and apply the result as follows:
- 1: The defending hen takes 1 gem feed of its choice from the attacker's egg board.
- 2: The defending hen gives the attacker 1 gem feed of its choice from a size-2 egg decoration.
- 3: The defending hen gives the attacker 1 gem feed of its choice from a size-3 egg decoration.
- 4: The defending hen gives the attacker 1 gem feed of its choice from a size-4 egg decoration.
- 5: The defending hen gives the attacker 1 gem feed of its choice from a size-5 egg decoration.
- 6: The attacker takes 1 gem feed of its choice from the defending player's egg board.
- The chosen gem feed may be an imperfection; this is not a problem.
- A player may choose to fight once after each action.
The rulebook figure for this section shows an attacking hen (red) adjacent to a defending hen (blue), and an example in which the blue player chooses to hand over one of its rubies to the red player.