GrandBois Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Play a Tile From the River (mandatory)
  • 2. Play Your Watchtower (Optional)
• Harvest Time
• Two-Player Rules
• Optional Rule for Experts Only

Overview

Each player secretly plays as one of the 5 Clans. As the players take turns, they lay tiles to keep the Forest growing. At the end of the game, everyone reveals their Clan and collects their golden chestnuts. The player with the most golden chestnuts is the winner.

Setup

• Place the Starting Tile (the one with 4 Clearings) in the middle of the table.
• Shuffle the 36 Tiles to form a face-down deck. Draw 4 tiles and place them face up beside the deck. They form the River.
• Shuffle and deal one Clan card face down to each player, who looks at it without letting anyone else see it.
• Each player chooses a Watchtower, and puts it in front of them, and also takes the corresponding Watchtower token.
• The player who most recently walked through a forest starts.

Each tile is divided into 4 spaces. The Starting Tile has 4 Clearing spaces. The Tile deck sits face down; drawing from it refills the River.

Playing the Game

• Each player plays in turn, going clockwise, until every tile has been placed in the Forest.
• When it's your turn, you MUST take a tile from the River and add it to the Forest. Then, if the tile you've played has a Clearing, you CAN place your Watchtower on this Clearing.

1. Play a Tile From the River (mandatory)

Choose one of the tiles from the River and add it to the Forest, respecting the following rules:

• The new tile must cover at least one Forest space AND expand the Forest.

Example: The 3-Fox space will cover the 1-Lizard space. The 1-Fox space will cover the Clearing. The other 2 spaces will expand the Forest.

• A new tile is always played on top of the others (never under).
• A space with at least one animal on it can only be covered by a space with more animals on it (whether or not they are the same). Example: You can cover a 1-Fox space with a 2-Lizard or 2-Fox space.
• You cannot cover a space with a Watchtower in it.
• A space with a Bear can cover any space (except a Watchtower), and cannot be covered.
• A Clearing space can be covered by any space, even another Clearing.
• Covered spaces no longer count; only those things in the Forest that are still visible count.

Finally, draw a tile to refill the River (so it has 4 tiles). If there are no more tiles in the deck, the game continues until all of the tiles in the River have been played.

2. Play Your Watchtower (Optional)

After placing your tile, if you have not already placed your Watchtower, you can do so. If you do, you must place your Watchtower ONLY on a Clearing of the tile that you just placed.

Your Watchtower token reminds everyone which Watchtower is yours. You must always keep this token where everyone can see it.

Harvest Time

When the last River tile has been played, and the last player has finished their turn, it's time to score golden chestnuts. Everyone reveals their Clan card. You must tally the scores according to the rubric on the scoresheet:

• 1 golden chestnut for each of your Clan's spaces; those are the visible spaces with at least one animal of your Clan on them.
• 2 golden chestnuts per space for the largest contiguous group of your Clan's spaces. A contiguous group includes spaces that are all orthogonally adjacent (diagonals don't count!).
• 2 golden chestnuts for each of your Clan's spaces that is directly around your Watchtower (i.e. on the 8 squares surrounding it, including the diagonals).
• 1 golden chestnut for each space belonging to another Clan (including Clans that nobody is playing, but excluding Bears) that is directly around your Watchtower.

The player with the most golden chestnuts wins.

If there is a tie, the sequence of tiebreakers is the scoring categories on the scoresheet, in that order (spaces, largest group, your clan surrounding your Watchtower, other clans surrounding your Watchtower). In the extremely rare case that the tie persists through all of those tiebreakers, just play again!

Attention! The Watchtower doesn't count as a space for your Clan.

Two-Player Rules

The game plays in the usual way, with the following exceptions:

• Each player starts with 2 secret Clan cards and 2 Watchtowers (1 for each Clan).
• Each of your Watchtowers will earn you 2 chestnuts per space occupied by either of your Clans, and the usual 1 chestnut per space occupied by other Clans.
• The player with a higher combined total for both of their Clans wins.

Optional Rule for Experts Only

You can't use an animal space to cover the same type of animal.