Great Western Trail: New Zealand Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Setup
  • Game board setup
  • Player setup
• Your Flock Deck
• Gameplay
  • Phase A — Move your runholder to another location along the trail
  • Phase B — Use the action(s) of your reached location
  • Phase C — Draw up to your hand limit
• Actions
  • Hire one worker
  • Invest in a bonus tile
  • Buy sheep from the sheep market
  • Place one of your private buildings
  • Move your ship / Upgrading harbours
  • Shear your sheep
  • Gain one objective card
  • Advance on the pathfinder track
  • Gain an exchange token
  • Perform one single or one double auxiliary action
  • Remove a hazard
  • Move your runholder forward
  • Collect gold and spend it
• End of the Game
  • Final scoring
• General notes and special cases
• Credits

Components

• 1 game board and 1 sea routes board, 4 player boards (1 per player), 5 double-sided player count tiles, 4 fee tiles (double-sided), 1 scoring pad.
• 28 worker tiles (7 each of shepherd, craftsman, sailor, shearer) and 16 hazard tiles (9 rockfalls, 7 floods); all worker and hazard tiles share a common back.
• 34 bonus tiles (common back) and 1 bonus tiles market token.
• 2 bags — the Wellington supply — for sorting worker/hazard tiles and bonus tiles by their back letter.
• 4 step tiles, used to raise a player's step limit during setup and play.
• 4 runholders (rancher, 1 per player), 64 player discs (16 per player, not in player colours), 57 coins (32 silver coins worth 1 pound, 25 gold coins worth 5 pounds), 12 exchange tokens.
• 4 hats (1 per player), 40 storehouses (10 per player), 4 ships (1 per player), 8 markers for gold and certificates (1 of each per player).
• 93 sheep cards: 56 player sheep cards (14 per player: 5 Shropshire, 3 Southdown, 3 English Leicester, 3 Merino) and 37 market sheep cards (5 Dorset Horn, 7 Lincoln, 7 Corriedale, 6 Hampshire, 6 Ryeland, 6 Suffolk).
• 56 deck-building cards: 18 Romney sheep, 12 Sheepdog, 14 Ferry, 12 Kōtare bird, plus 5 additional-cards tiles for a clearer overview of these stacks.
• 60 bonus cards in 10 sets of 6 (each set's cards carry that set's number; one card per set is marked with a white star) and 4 bonus cards tiles.
• 24 objective cards.
• 8 harbourmaster tiles and 8 neutral building tiles (lettered A to H; 4 are double-sided with a flip icon on the back).
• 40 private building tiles (10 per player, double-sided; numbered 1 to 10, with a lowercase "a" side and a "b" side), plus 1 neutral buildings overview tile.
• Solo mode components: 1 specialization tile, 17 Sarah's cards, 1 Sarah's sheep market tile, 1 Sarah's board.

Object of the Game

You move your runholder along a trail that winds and forks from the lower left corner of the game board to Wellington in the upper right. Along your path, you perform actions that provide you with various ways to earn victory points — for example: placing private building tiles, buying sheep from the sheep market, upgrading harbours and removing hazards. Each time your runholder reaches Wellington, you deliver sheep to a local or foreign trading post, which may also be worth victory points. Afterwards, your runholder continues its movement again in the lower left corner. In an average game, your runholder will usually reach Wellington 5 or 6 times. All victory points are awarded at the end of the game: add up the victory point icons on the various components in front of you as well as the ones marked with your colour on the game board and the sea routes board. The player with the most victory points wins.

Setup

Game board setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table and the sea routes board above it.
2. Shuffle the 8 harbourmaster tiles and place one at random face-up onto each of the 5 harbourmaster spaces on the sea routes board. Return the remaining 3 to the box.
3. Take the 8 neutral building tiles and place one face-up (the four double-sided ones with their flip icon visible) onto each of the 8 neutral spaces on the game board. In your first game, place each tile onto the space marked with its matching letter (A to H); in later games you may shuffle them and distribute them at random, still all face-up.
4. Place the bonus tiles market token onto the top dashed round space in the bonus tiles market.
5. Take the 28 worker tiles, the 16 hazard tiles and the 34 bonus tiles and turn them face-down. Sort them by the letters on their back (A and B) and put them into their corresponding bags — these bags are the Wellington supply. Place the bags next to the game board (close to Wellington).
6. From the Wellington supply, first pick 1 of each worker type (with an "A" on their back) and place these 4 worker tiles face-up onto the indicated spaces of the top row in the job market. Then, depending on your player count, draw a number of "A" tiles from the Wellington supply: 12 tiles (2 players), 13 tiles (3 players), 14 tiles (4 players). Where each drawn tile goes depends on its type:
   • Hazard tile — place it in its corresponding hazard section (flood or rockfall) onto the empty space with the lowest number. If no empty space remains in that section, return the tile to its bag and draw a new one.
   • Worker tile — place it onto the top-most empty space of its corresponding column (the one in its colour with the highest cost) in the job market. If no empty space remains in that column, return the tile to its bag and draw a new one.
   • Bonus tile — return it to its bag; bonus tiles are placed separately in step 7.
7. Start drawing tiles with a "B" on their back (bonus tiles only) from the Wellington supply. Put these bonus tiles one after another into the bonus tiles market: start at the top row and place the first drawn tile onto the space directly beneath the player count sign of your actual player count, then continue placing tiles to the right. After placing a tile onto the rightmost space of the top row, continue along the second row (again beginning in line with your player count sign), and so on rightwards, until you place a tile onto the space to the left of the bonus tiles market token — this is the last tile. Depending on player count, there are now 3, 5 or 7 bonus tiles in the bonus tiles market.
8. Fill the 4 foresight spaces in Wellington with tiles from the Wellington supply: draw 2 tiles with an "A" on their back and place them face-up onto the two foresight spaces marked A; draw 2 tiles with a "B" on their back and place them face-up onto the two foresight spaces marked B.
9. Shuffle the 37 market sheep cards and place them as a face-down market stack beneath the lower right of the game board. Depending on player count, draw a number of sheep cards from this stack: 9 cards (2 players), 11 cards (3 players), 14 cards (4 players). Sort the drawn cards by colour and place them face-up beneath the game board in the sheep market, forming an overlapping row in which the left side of each card is visible, arranged left to right: orange, red, yellow, blue, brown, purple (not all colours may be present).
10. Shuffle the 24 objective cards and place them as a face-down stack to the right of the game board. Reveal 4 cards from this stack and display them face-up in a column below the stack — this is the general objective display.
11. Place the 16 Romney sheep cards, the 12 Sheepdog cards, the 14 Ferry cards and the 12 Kōtare bird cards on the left side of the game board — this is the deck-building supply. You may optionally place the 5 additional-cards tiles above their corresponding stacks for a better overview.
12. Pick the one card marked with a white star from each of the 10 bonus cards sets. Shuffle those 10 picked cards, draw 4 of them at random and return the 6 leftover cards to the box. To each of these 4 drawn cards, add a number of the remaining 5 cards from its set (indicated by the set number on the lower right), depending on player count: add 2 cards for a total of 3 (2 players, returning the 3 leftover cards); add 4 cards for a total of 5 (3 players, returning the 1 leftover card); add all 5 cards for a total of 6 (4 players). Place the 4 resulting bonus cards tiles next to the sea routes board: the stack with the lowest set number (of the 4 determined) goes below the tile with the steering wheel; the second-lowest below the barrel; the second-highest below the bell; the highest below the compass. This display is the bonus cards supply. (The back of 3 bonus card tiles shows a reminder whose use is explained under "Gain an exchange token" and "Buy sheep from the sheep market.")
13. Place a number of step tiles equal to your player count onto the respective orange space next to the pathfinder track — e.g. 3 step tiles in a 3-player game next to space 4 of the pathfinder track, or 4 step tiles in a 4-player game next to space 6.
14. Place the coins and exchange tokens within reach of all players as a general supply (the bank). Place the neutral buildings overview tile next to the game board.

Player setup

15. Each player chooses a player colour and takes the player board of that colour (identifiable by its 16 round coloured spaces), placing it in front of them. Also take a player count tile showing the appropriate player count and a fee tile; place both in the Phase A box of your player board, with the fee tile showing the side with two coins marked -1 and -2 (the side with the crossed-out hands is used later in the game).
16. You receive the 10 private building tiles of your colour. Each is double-sided, marked with a number (1 to 10) and with lowercase "a" on one side and "b" on the other.

• In your first couple of games, turn your private building tiles to the a-side and display them above your player board in ascending order of required craftsmen.
• As you know the game better, you may instead have one player determine the side of each tile at random (e.g. by tossing them in the air) and display them in ascending order of required craftsmen; all other players then copy that same display by turning their tiles to matching sides. For the rest of the game, the side of each building tile is then identical for all players, and no one may deliberately flip a tile to its other side.

17. You also receive the following items of your colour: 16 discs, placed onto your player board to cover each of the 16 coloured disc spaces (only the 2 grey spaces in the upper left remain empty); 10 storehouses, covering the 10 coloured square spaces; 1 ship, placed onto a starting water-space on the sea routes board; 1 certificate marker, placed onto the top space of your certificate track (next to the 0); 1 gold marker, placed onto the second space of your gold track (next to the 1 — you start with 1 gold); 1 runholder, placed next to your player board for now.
18. You receive the 14 player sheep cards marked with your colour — these make up your flock deck. Shuffle it and place it as your face-down personal draw stack to the left of your player board.
19. Finally, determine a starting player; the other players follow in clockwise order. Receive your starting capital and 1 exchange token from the bank, and draw cards from your personal draw stack to add to your hand: 1st player — 7 pounds, 4 cards and 1 exchange token; 2nd player — 8 pounds, 5 cards and 1 exchange token; 3rd player — 9 pounds, 6 cards and 1 exchange token; 4th player — 10 pounds, 7 cards and 1 exchange token. You are now ready to start the game.

Important: at the beginning of your very first turn, discard cards from your hand until you have only 4 remaining (discarded cards go to your personal discard pile). Then place one of your player discs from a disc space with white corners onto space 0 of the pathfinder track (you may choose the same disc as a previous player). Afterwards, place your runholder onto any neutral building tile — you may share a tile with other players — and continue directly with phase B.

Your Flock Deck

Your flock deck represents your flock, which you lead along the trail. Each sheep card of that flock represents one animal of a specific sheep type, clearly denoted by the card's colour as well as its breeding value and wool value. Each player starts with an identical flock deck of rather low breeding and wool values. During the game, you can improve your flock deck by adding sheep cards with higher breeding or wool values as well as deck-building, bonus and objective cards to it.

Your flock deck is made up of: your face-down personal draw stack to the left of your player board; your hand cards, drawn from that stack up to your hand limit (starting at 4 cards); and your face-up personal discard pile, onto which you place any cards you discard from your hand as well as any cards you acquire during the game. Important: when you must draw a card from your personal draw stack but have none left, pick up your personal discard pile, shuffle it thoroughly and place it as your new face-down personal draw stack, then continue drawing from it as usual.

On the locations of the trail, there are several actions that require specific sheep cards to be discarded from your hand in order to gain rewards. Also, each time you reach Wellington, you want to have many different types of sheep with high breeding values in your hand — the more varied and valuable they are, the more money and victory points are in store for you. Selling wool is a further way of obtaining pounds during the game. Finally, deck-building and bonus cards are very helpful and make each deck — and hence each game — unique; they strengthen your strategy or turn it in a different direction, depending on your decisions.

Gameplay

Beginning with the starting player (the one with a starting capital of only 7 pounds), players consecutively take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, you must carry out all of the following phases in this order:

• Phase A — Move your runholder to another location along the trail.
• Phase B — Use the action(s) of your reached location.
• Phase C — Draw up to your hand limit.

Then it is the next player's turn. (The 3 boxes at the top of each player board give an overview of the 3 phases.)

Phase A — Move your runholder to another location along the trail

The main location of the trail is Wellington. Furthermore, any tile placed on a space of the trail is considered a location (every building tile as well as every hazard tile). Spaces without any tile are considered an unimpeded part of the trail and are NOT locations. In this phase, you must move your runholder from its current location along the trail to another location, bearing the following rules in mind:

• The movement of your runholder is measured in steps. Each location along your path takes 1 step (empty spaces are not locations and cost no steps).
• You must always move your runholder forward along the intended direction of the trail as indicated by the arrows. If the trail forks, choose one of the available paths to continue along (a path is always used in one direction only).
• You are not allowed to pass over Wellington — when your runholder reaches Wellington, they must end their movement there.
• The runholders of the other players do not interfere in any way with your own runholder; several runholders can be on the same location.
• You must move your runholder at least 1 step and not more steps than the current step limit your player board indicates (you start with a step limit of 3 or 4 depending on player count, which can be increased during the game).
• The location on which your runholder ends their movement — either because you want them to or because your step limit is exhausted — is the location you use in phase B.

Fees (hands): several locations show a green or black hand. If your runholder moves to or passes over such a location, you must immediately pay a fee: if it is a hazard tile, pay the fee to the bank; if it is a private building tile of another player, pay the fee to that player. The fee depends only on the colour of the hand, regardless of player count: each black hand costs 1 pound; each green hand costs 2 pounds. If you cannot pay for some or all of the hands along your path, you are still allowed to move — pay as much as you can and continue as usual. You never pay fees retroactively, even if you receive money while still at a location whose fee you could not pay before. This leniency applies only to fees levied by hands; all other costs and requirements in the game must always be paid/met in full.

Phase B — Use the action(s) of your reached location

After moving your runholder, use the location on which they ended their movement. Your options differ depending on what you reached:

1) A neutral building tile or a private building tile of your own colour — you have two options: EITHER use the local action(s) of that tile, OR use one single auxiliary action.

• Most building tiles show two different local actions on their bottom half, separated from one another by full-length dividers (only a few show just one or more than two local actions). You may perform each of that tile's local actions once, in any order (without combining them). You do not have to perform all of the available local actions, but if an action shows a cost or requirement, you must pay/meet it completely in order to gain that action's reward.
• A few tiles show two actions within the same local action, separated by a white slash — you are only allowed to perform one of those actions.
• Some spaces of the trail have risk actions attached; if a building tile is placed on such a space, the risk action becomes part of that tile's local actions and can be performed by its owner each time that player reaches the location.
• If you do not perform any of the local actions of the reached tile, then and only then may you perform one single auxiliary action instead, found on the left side of your player board in the auxiliary action section. At the beginning of the game, before your first turn, only 2 auxiliary actions are available; each other one becomes available after you have cleared at least one of its two disc spaces.

2) A private building tile of another player, or a hazard tile — you have only one option: perform one single auxiliary action.

3) Wellington — you must carry out all 4 Wellington subphases in succession. To make sure you do not forget any subphase, you may move your runholder along the numbered spots and perform the corresponding subphase before moving on to the next spot.

The 4 Wellington subphases are:

• Income — reveal as many sheep of different types as you like from your hand, calculate your income and gain that amount from the bank, then discard the revealed cards to your personal discard pile.
• Delivery — move one of your player discs from your player board onto a trading post crest and pay any transport costs arising.
• Foresight A — choose one of the 2 tiles in the foresight spaces next to spot 3 and move it to its corresponding section.
• Foresight B — choose one of the 2 tiles in the foresight spaces next to spot 4 and move it to its corresponding section.

Income: reveal as many sheep of different types as you like from your hand to the other players and calculate their total breeding value — sum the breeding values of each different type of sheep you have revealed (you may reveal each type only once, no matter how many copies you hold in hand; ignore any victory points or wool values). You cannot reveal any deck-building or bonus cards that are not sheep. Then, if possible and if you like, you can increase that total breeding value by adding certificates:

• Temporary certificates — the number next to your certificate marker's current position tells you how many are available; use as many as you want now by moving your certificate marker backwards accordingly.
• Permanent certificates — those you cleared on your player board, and any depicted on the upper half of harbourmaster tiles in front of you; each increases your total breeding value by one for the rest of the game.

Once your total breeding value is set (including any certificates), take that many pounds from the bank and place this amount a little set off from the rest of your money, so you can track it during Delivery. Then discard all the cards you revealed to your personal discard pile (cards you did not reveal, e.g. duplicates, stay in your hand).

Delivery: the sheep for which you just received income must now be delivered to a trading post. The crest of each trading post shows a trading post value corresponding to those sheep's total breeding value — the higher the total breeding value, the better you can deliver. At the start of the game, only the local trading posts on the game board are available; during the game you can unlock foreign trading posts by placing storehouses onto the sea routes board (see "Move your ship / Upgrading harbours"). To deliver, decide on a trading post whose trading post value is equal to or lower than your sheep's total breeding value. You are not allowed to choose any trading post to which you have delivered before (i.e. that already has one of your discs on its trading post space), except: the first local trading post (number 0), and the terminal local trading post (number 21) — you may deliver to either of these even if you already have discs there.

Once you have decided on a trading post, place one of your player discs onto its trading post space (stacking on top of any discs already there). Take that disc from any disc space of your player board, bearing in mind there are two types of disc spaces: those with white corners and those with dark corners. A disc from a disc space with white corners can be placed onto any trading post space; a disc from a disc space with dark corners can only be placed onto a trading post space that also has dark corners. By clearing a disc space of its disc this way, you unlock its ability — some disc spaces have additional requirements or give rewards for clearing them:

• Clearing the space in the auxiliary action section broadens your auxiliary-action options.
• Clearing the space marked with a coin symbol immediately gains you 3 pounds if you take the disc from that space.
• Clearing either of the two hand-limit spaces increases your hand limit — but taking a disc from either requires you to immediately pay 3 or 8 pounds to the bank (if you can't, choose another space to clear; the 3 victory points for clearing the right-hand space are awarded at end of game).
• Clearing either of two spaces unlocks permanent wool for "shear your sheep" — taking the disc from the right space requires paying 4 pounds to the bank (if you can't, choose another space).
• Clearing this space increases your step limit; taking the disc from it immediately gains you 3 pounds from the bank.
• Clearing these spaces unlocks some of the available permanent certificates for you; taking the disc from the left space requires paying 4 pounds to the bank (if you can't, choose another space).
• Clearing this space increases your temporary certificate limit to 5 (you start with a limit of 3).

By placing your disc onto a trading post space, you may gain or lose victory points at the end of the game, and may trigger a delivery action you must perform immediately (e.g. gain pounds, gain a specific card). For each disc you place on trading post 0, immediately gain 6 pounds from the bank; at the end of the game, you lose 8 victory points for each of your discs there. The victory points shown in the green arrow on a trading post are only applied at game end when both adjacent local trading post spaces have one of your discs on them. Most other delivery actions add a specific card to your discard pile: EITHER take the shown card from its supply and place it onto your personal discard pile, OR — if it is an objective card — immediately choose one from the general objective display, place it face-up onto your personal discard pile and replenish the display if necessary (see "Gain one objective card").

Finally, check whether you need to pay transport costs for your delivery (these are in general only applied for disc spaces with dark corners). If you can't immediately pay the transport costs (including any potential disc-clearing cost), you must choose a different combination or trading post. Since you gain your income beforehand, you are always able to pay any arising transport costs, but this may not be true for clearing disc spaces at the same time — these combined costs must always be paid/met in full before, as usual.

Foresights (A & B): each of the 2 tiles that you choose in subphases Foresight A and Foresight B must immediately be moved to its corresponding section:

• Worker tile — place it onto the most expensive (farthest up) free space of its corresponding worker type column in the job market. If no spaces remain for workers of that type, remove this worker tile from the game by returning it to the box.
• Hazard tile — place it in the corresponding hazard section (flood or rockfall) onto the empty space with the lowest number. If no hazard spaces of that type remain, remove this hazard tile from the game by returning it to the box.
• Bonus tile — place it onto the next free space of the bonus tiles market. The tile must always go in the row where the bonus tiles market token is located, and the spaces of that row are always filled from left to right. (In a 3-player game, each row only comprises 3 spaces, starting beneath the 3-player count sign, and the entire left column is left empty. In a 2-player game, each row only comprises 2 spaces, starting beneath the 2-player count sign, and both left columns are left empty.) The last space to be filled in each row is always the one with the bonus tiles market token; as you place a bonus tile onto this space, move the token along the arrow to the dashed round space of the next row. When the token is moved to the next row along a black arrow, nothing in particular happens; when it is moved along a yellow or turquoise arrow, you must immediately either refill the sheep market or flip the 4 neutral building tiles to their back showing the flip icon.
  • Refill sheep market: draw from the market stack as many cards as it takes to bring the cards in the sheep market up to their initial number — 9 (2 players), 11 (3 players), 14 (4 players) — sorted by colour as in setup, left to right: orange, red, yellow, blue, brown, purple. If the sheep market already has that many or more cards, don't add any. If the market sheep stack is empty, no more cards are added.
  • Flip the 4 neutral building tiles: when the token moves to the next row along the turquoise arrow, flip the 4 neutral buildings that show the flip icon on their front to their back (as depicted on the neutral buildings overview tile). Runholders on any of the 4 flipped tiles remain on that tile's back and continue their movement from there as usual; the actions of the now-hidden front side are no longer accessible. For the rest of the game, these 4 neutral buildings remain flipped, offering modified options for their actions.

After finishing the 4 Wellington subphases, carry out two final steps: (1) move your runholder to the start of the trail, onto the horseman space in the lower left corner of the game board — the next time it is your turn, movement starts from there; (2) refill each of the 2 empty foresight spaces in Wellington with tiles drawn from the Wellington supply, making sure each space receives a face-up tile whose letter on the back matches the letter of that space.

End of game trigger: if the bonus tiles market token is moved from the bottom row along the red arrow, the end of the game is triggered (see "End of the Game").

Phase C — Draw up to your hand limit

Each player starts with a hand limit of 4 and can increase it up to 6. If you have fewer cards in your hand now than the current hand limit your player board indicates, bring their number up to that limit by drawing as many cards from your personal draw stack as you lack (shuffling your personal discard pile into a new draw stack first if necessary). Note: during this phase you may not play any deck-building or bonus cards. Then it is the next player's turn.

Actions

The main source of actions in the game are the local actions of the neutral building tiles and of your private building tiles, though there are a few other situations in which actions might be triggered (delivery actions, single auxiliary actions, etc.). Irrespective of the situation, the actions themselves are always represented by the same icons — wherever the same icon appears, it refers to the same action.

Quite a few actions consist of a specific requirement and a specific reward. Only if you meet the requirement are you allowed to gain the reward. Requirements are usually associated with red (red arrows or red numbers), while rewards are usually associated with green and white (green arrows and/or white numbers). You are allowed to forfeit a reward completely or in part even though you meet the requirement. However, if you receive an amount of pounds as a reward, you must take that entire amount; likewise, if you receive a card due to a delivery action, you must take that card as well.

The most frequent requirement is discarding cards: wherever an action shows one or more cards with a red arrow, you must discard the exact depicted card(s) from your hand to your face-up personal discard pile in order to gain the reward shown next to it (you can perform the action only once, no matter how often you would be able to meet the requirement). A specific card is represented by its colour and breeding value; the specific victory points of the meant card are also indicated for better distinguishability. Where a player sheep card is meant, its symbol is depicted.

Terminology used throughout this rulebook:

• Discarding a card always means placing the card from your hand face up onto your personal discard pile.
• Gaining a specific amount of pounds always means taking that exact amount from the bank.
• Paying a specific amount of pounds always means returning that exact amount to the bank.
• Moving your certificate marker forward means it is moved forward on your certificate track, by as many spaces as the action icon indicates; you can never move it beyond your temporary certificate limit (3 at the start of the game).
• Moving your gold marker forward follows the same rules as the certificate marker, while your gold limit is always exactly 5. Whenever you move your certificate marker from 0 or 1 to 2 or further, you also move your gold marker 1 space forward.
• Moving your ship means you may move it in any direction and/or upgrade a harbour if possible (see "Move your ship / Upgrading harbours").

Hire one worker

Choose exactly one worker tile from the job market, pay that worker's hiring cost and place the tile in the worker section of your player board. The hiring cost is the cost depicted on the right side of its row, modified by the value shown on the action icon itself: unmodified, costs 3 pounds more, or costs 2 pounds less. Place the worker tile onto the leftmost free space in the row of its worker type; each player already starts the game with one worker of each of the 4 types (shepherd, craftsman, sailor, shearer), so the first space of each row is already occupied. If the space on which you place the hired worker depicts an immediate action, you must choose to either perform that action immediately or forfeit it. If a row is already full, you may not hire another worker of that type. At the end of the game, each worker placed on the fifth space of any row is worth 4 victory points.

Immediate actions by row: Shepherd row — advance your disc 1 space on the pathfinder track; take a Romney sheep from the supply and place it onto your discard pile. Craftsman row — build or upgrade once and pay 1 pound for each craftsman needed. Sailor row — move your ship up to 5 spaces in any direction (and/or upgrade a harbour if possible). Shearer row — EITHER take exactly 2 sheep cards with a victory points value of 2 each from the sheep market, OR take 1 Hampshire or Ryeland sheep card from the sheep market, and place them/it onto your discard pile; alternatively, pay 4 pounds and take 1 Hampshire or Ryeland sheep card, OR buy sheep from the sheep market.

Invest in a bonus tile

Choose exactly one bonus tile from the bonus tiles market, pay that tile's investment cost, receive its bonus and place it next to your player board. Bear the following rules in mind:

• You are not allowed to invest in a bonus tile from the row where the bonus tiles market token is currently located — those are unavailable until the token has moved.
• The investment cost of any other bonus tile in the market is the cost depicted on the right side of its row, modified by the value shown on the action icon: unmodified, or costs 3 pounds more.
• The joker worker (which can be placed in any worker row) shows an additional cost of 1 gold which must always be paid. Some other bonus tiles have additional costs or requirements which must always be paid/met in full. All other bonuses appearing on bonus tiles are explained on the last page of the Appendix.

Buy sheep from the sheep market

Acquire sheep cards from the sheep market and place them face-up onto your personal discard pile. The number and types of sheep cards you may acquire is not fixed — it depends on how many shepherds you have in your shepherd row and how much money you spend, with each shepherd put to use only once.

With 1 shepherd, choose one of: buy 1 Dorset Horn sheep card for 3 pounds; buy 1 Hampshire or Ryeland sheep card for 9 pounds; buy 1 Corriedale or Lincoln sheep card for 5 pounds.

With 2 shepherds, you additionally may: buy 1 Dorset Horn sheep card for 1 pound; buy 1 Suffolk sheep card and 1 exchange token for 10 pounds; buy 1 Corriedale or Lincoln sheep card for 2 pounds. The more shepherds you have, the better your options — split your shepherds among the options as you like, as long as each shepherd is only put to use once. For example: putting 3 shepherds to use and paying 3 pounds gets you exactly 2 sheep cards with a victory points value of 2 each; putting 4 shepherds to use and paying 4 pounds gets you exactly 1 Suffolk sheep card and 1 exchange token.

Any shepherd you do not put to use to buy sheep cards you may instead use to draw 2 cards from the market sheep stack and add them face-up to the sheep market — you may do this at any moment while performing this action, even before you buy sheep cards. As mentioned under setup, the number of sheep cards in the market can be higher than the total for your player count.

Important: you can only buy/choose sheep cards currently available in the sheep market; you can always choose to buy fewer sheep cards than allowed; any sheep card you acquire must be placed face-up onto your personal discard pile.

Place one of your private buildings

Choose one of the private building tiles above your player board: EITHER place it onto any empty building space on the trail, OR use it to replace one of your private building tiles already placed on a building space on the trail. Remember, the side of each building tile is identical for all players — you are not allowed to flip it to its other side.

Before choosing a building tile for this action, you must make sure: (a) that you have enough craftsmen for it, and (b) that you can pay the tile's cost. In its upper left corner, each private building tile shows how many craftsmen you need. If the number of craftsmen in the craftsman row of your worker section equals or exceeds that number, you can place the tile onto any empty building space on the trail, provided you immediately pay its cost — for each craftsman needed, you must pay 2 pounds.

Alternatively, you can use this action to replace one of your private building tiles on the trail with a higher-valued private building tile from above your player board: you only need the difference of craftsmen between the two tiles, and only pay that difference. Put the new tile in place of the old one and remove the old tile entirely from the game by returning it to the box. This is the only way to place building tiles that require more than 5 craftsmen.

Important: there are four building spaces on the trail which, as a condition for being allowed to build on them, must not only be empty but also require a certain advancement (2, 4 or 7) on the pathfinder track. If you have not advanced at least the required amount of steps on the pathfinder track, you cannot build on such a space. Note: the neutral building tile "B" is the only one that allows you to place your own building tiles on the trail; the only other two ways are the immediate actions of your craftsman row (whose right immediate action costs only 1 pound per craftsman needed) and the bonus cards from Set 6 (which works for replacing one of your building tiles with an exactly 1-value-higher one; see the last page of the Appendix).

Move your ship / Upgrading harbours

If you move your ship via this action icon, you can move it up to as many spaces in any direction on the sea routes board as you have sailors in your sailor row. (Note: other actions let you move your ship regardless of the number of sailors — in that case the same rules below still apply.) Every space of the sea routes can accommodate any number of ships. Along the routes there are several harbours, each of which either allows you to place a storehouse or one of your player discs, if your ship is on its associated water space. Each time you want to place a storehouse or a disc, you spend one movement step and your move action is concluded. When choosing to move your ship, you may move it fewer spaces than allowed, but once you stop on a space (whether or not you upgrade a harbour), you forfeit any excess movement from that action — it cannot be saved for later.

Upgrading harbours: if your ship is already on a space with a harbour connection, or you land on such a space and have at least one ship movement left, you may upgrade that harbour by placing a storehouse or one of your player discs on the associated space and paying the indicated cost if applicable — this concludes the ship move action, even if you moved fewer spaces (or not at all) than you could have. You can only upgrade a harbour if you can pay the upgrade cost and have not upgraded it before (you'll already have one of your storehouses or discs on it if you have). It does not matter whether an opponent already has a storehouse or disc there; however, if you have no storehouses or discs left on your player board, you can no longer upgrade a corresponding harbour. There are three kinds of harbours:

• Small harbour — pay the upgrade cost depicted on one of the storehouse spaces of that harbour, then choose one of your storehouses and place it there. Take the card depicted on that small harbour and place it face-up onto your personal discard pile (only if it is still in the supply). Then check whether you unlocked a permanent or immediate bonus on your player board: every time both storehouses linked (by two brown arrows) to an immediate bonus on your player board have been placed on the sea routes board, either take that bonus immediately or forfeit it (a permanent bonus is ongoing as usual).
• Medium harbour — pay the upgrade cost depicted above the disc space of that harbour, then place one of your player discs onto that harbour's disc space (stacking onto any discs already there). Take that disc from any disc space of your player board, bearing in mind that harbour spaces also have either white or dark corners, following the same rules as delivering. Take the card depicted on that medium harbour (only if it is still in the supply). After placing your disc, check whether there is a harbourmaster tile still next to that harbour — if so, you may acquire it by appointing one of your hired workers (shepherd, craftsman, sailor or shearer) currently placed on the rightmost space of its row as the harbourmaster: remove that worker tile, put it in place of the harbourmaster tile, and place the harbourmaster tile face-up next to your player board. Once a worker tile is placed on a harbourmaster space, it remains there for the rest of the game. You only get the chance to acquire a harbourmaster tile at the moment you upgrade the harbour — if you forfeit it, you cannot get it later. If you remove a worker from your worker section (uncovering its immediate action again), you can perform that action the next time you place another hired worker onto that space. (Joker workers may become harbourmasters like any other worker.)
  • Each harbourmaster tile comprises two halves: the upper half either depicts an immediate action (perform it right away or forfeit it) or a permanent certificate; the lower half depicts a unique way of gaining additional victory points at the end of the game (see "Final scoring").
• Large harbour — upgrading works similarly to a small harbour, but you do not pay any upgrade cost. Place your storehouse on one of the four storehouse spaces as usual, then check whether you unlocked a permanent or immediate bonus. Placing it enables another option for one of your future deliveries. When you later want to place a disc on a large harbour, pay the depicted transport costs on that foreign trading post crest to the bank as always. Only one player disc may be placed per foreign trading post; if the large harbour involves a foreign wool trading post, you can only deliver there when you shear your sheep. You are not obliged to deliver to a foreign trading post just because you have a storehouse there.

Attention: the small harbour connected to the very last space of each of the three sea routes is special. You may upgrade one as usual, but if you do, you must reset your ship to the starting space after you took the compass bonus card. At the end of the game, you gain the 4 victory points depicted on the yellow arrows in the upper left of the sea routes board only if both adjacent small harbours have one of your storehouses on them.

Shear your sheep

When you perform this action, you may reveal up to as many different sheep cards from your hand as you have shearers in your shearer row. To determine your total wool value, sum the wool values of each different type of sheep you just revealed and add all permanent wool you have unlocked (ignore any victory points or breeding value on those cards). Once your total wool value is set, take that many pounds from the bank. You can do this only once per "shear your sheep" action; you cannot reveal any deck-building or bonus cards that are not sheep. Then discard all sheep cards you revealed to your personal discard pile.

The wool value you just received money for might allow you to also place one of your player discs onto a wool trading post on the sea routes map. There are three local wool trading posts (values 5, 9 and 13) available from the start of the game, and two foreign wool trading posts you may unlock by upgrading their associated large harbour. The crest of each wool trading post shows a wool value corresponding to your just-determined sheep's total wool value. To place a disc, check which wool trading posts are equal to or lower than that total. You are not allowed to choose any wool trading post to which you sent wool before, except the wool trading post with value 13, which you may send wool to even if you already have discs there.

Once decided, place one of your player discs onto its wool trading post space (stacking on top of any discs already there). Take that disc from any disc space of your player board — a disc from a disc space with white corners can go onto any wool trading post space, while a disc from a dark-corner disc space can only go onto a dark-corner wool trading post space. By clearing a disc space this way, you unlock its ability (see "Delivery" above for the list of disc-space effects). Each wool trading post disc space with dark corners gives you a Romney sheep card, which you must take (as long as the supply is not depleted) as a delivery action you must perform immediately; place it face-up onto your personal discard pile.

Any shearer you do not put to use to shear your sheep you may instead use to draw 1 card from your personal draw stack and then immediately discard 1 card — you may do this at any moment while performing this action, even before you shear your sheep. How you use each shearer is up to you, as long as each is only put to use once during this action.

Gain one objective card

Either choose one objective card from the general objective display to the right of the game board, or draw the top card of the objective stack. Place this card face-up onto your personal discard pile. If you take a card from the display, fill its vacant place immediately with a new face-up card drawn from the objective stack. With this action, you may not choose a bonus objective card (Set 8, 9 or 10) that is on display at the bonus card supply (which is why 3 bonus card tiles carry a reminder). All other rules otherwise apply also to bonus objective cards.

At some point later, objective cards you acquired will enter your hand. During your own turn, if you have one or more objective cards in your hand, you can play any of them, either before performing phase A, or before or after any single action in phase B (the 4 Wellington subphases count as one action). You are not allowed to play objective cards in the middle of your movement or an action, nor after you have started phase C.

When you play an objective card, place it face-up in your personal objective area (beneath your player board), then perform the immediate action depicted in the upper left corner of the card or forfeit it. Immediate actions found on objective cards include: gain 4 pounds; gain two exchange tokens; move your certificate marker up to 2 spaces forward; advance your disc 2 spaces on the pathfinder track; move your ship up to 2 spaces in any direction (and/or upgrade a harbour if possible).

Each objective card depicts a combination of tasks to be fulfilled at the end of the game. If all of a card's tasks are fulfilled by then, you gain the victory points printed on it; if its tasks are not fulfilled completely, you lose the negative victory point value printed on it. Tasks found on objective cards include: having 1 disc on any trading post (wool/foreign/local) with a trading post value of 13 or higher; having 1 of your private building tiles on the game board; having 1 private building tile on the board that needs at least 4 craftsmen; having 2 shearers in your shearer row (a joker worker counts); having 1 storehouse placed on the sea routes map; having 1 Lincoln or Corriedale sheep card in your deck; having 1 Hampshire or Ryeland sheep card in your deck; having 1 Ferry card in your deck (including one from bonus cards Set 1); having your disc on the pathfinder track advanced by 6 spaces; having 1 flood hazard tile in front of you. Important: each single fulfilled task can only count towards one objective card — if several objective cards show the same task, each must be fulfilled individually.

Note: you are not compelled to play your objective cards; you can keep some or all of them in your deck by the usual means (for example, discarding them via the discard-card icon). For each objective card still in your deck at the end of the game, you may then decide whether to score it or not. For cards placed in your personal objective area, you do not have that choice — those must be scored.

Advance on the pathfinder track

With this action you advance on the pathfinder track (also consider spaces occupied by other players' discs), which provides you with rewards when you reach or exceed certain spaces:

• Spaces 3 and 8 each let you collect 1 gold (move your gold marker 1 space forward immediately).
• Spaces 4 or 6 (depending on player count) grant you an orange step tile, which increases your step limit by 1 — place the tile in the designated square on your player board.
• Spaces 2, 4 and 7 do not provide a direct reward, but unlock building spaces along the trail.
• On reaching or exceeding space 11, you must decide: EITHER flip the previously received step tile to its +2 side, increasing your step limit by one more, OR flip your fee tile to the side with the crossed-out hands, meaning that from now on you do not pay any fees anymore (ignore all black/green hands).
• Finally, at the end of the game, you gain the highest victory point value you have reached (maximum of 15).

In case you reach space 16 of the pathfinder track and earn further advancement there, you will instead receive 1 pound for each further advancement. Your pathfinder disc never moves backwards, not under any circumstances.

Gain an exchange token

Gain one exchange token from the bank and place it in front of you. Exchange tokens are special because you can use one or more of them at any point in the game — even mid-action or when it is not your turn:

• To use an exchange token, place it back into the bank, then draw up to 2 cards from your personal draw stack and immediately discard as many cards as you drew.
• Alternatively, combine 2 exchange tokens to remove 1 of your Shropshire sheep cards from your hand entirely from the game (returning it to the box) and move your gold marker 1 space forward.

Each player starts the game with one exchange token, and you may gain new ones on different occasions: as a local action; on the private building "8b"; when buying a Suffolk sheep card from the sheep market; as an immediate action in your shepherd row; when investing in certain bonus tiles.

Perform one single or one double auxiliary action

The auxiliary action section of your player board shows 5 different auxiliary actions. Each has 2 disc spaces next to it; as long as both are occupied by a disc, the action is locked and cannot be used. Only if at least one of its disc spaces has been cleared is the action unlocked and available.

If you use this icon to perform one single auxiliary action on a location, you can never double it (even if both disc spaces of that action are cleared). Whenever you use this action icon, choose one of your available auxiliary actions and perform it: if only one of that action's two disc spaces is cleared, you may use it once (single auxiliary action); if both are cleared, you may use it as a double auxiliary action (its requirement, if any, and its reward are both doubled).

The five auxiliary actions (single / double): gain 1 pound / gain 2 pounds. Draw 1 card from your personal draw stack, then immediately discard 1 card / draw 2 cards, then immediately discard 2 cards. Pay 2 pounds and move your certificate marker 1 space forward / pay 4 pounds and move your certificate marker up to 2 spaces forward. Pay 1 pound and move your ship 1 space in any direction, or upgrade a harbour if possible / pay 2 pounds and move your ship up to 2 spaces in any direction (and/or upgrade a harbour if possible). Pay 1 pound and advance your disc 1 space on the pathfinder track / pay 2 pounds and advance your disc 2 spaces on the pathfinder track.

Remove a hazard

Remove one hazard tile of your choice from any hazard section, place it face-up in front of you and take the associated deck-building card. If the icon shows a cost, you must immediately pay that many pounds (otherwise you are not allowed to take the hazard tile); if the icon shows no cost, take it free of charge. Each hazard tile has either 2, 3 or 4 victory points printed on it, gained as usual at the end of the game. When you pick a rockfall hazard tile, you also take one Sheepdog card and place it onto your personal discard pile; when removing a flood hazard tile, you take one Ferry card instead. If both hazard sections are empty, you cannot get a hazard tile.

Move your runholder forward

This local action allows you to move your runholder forward to another location along the trail. If you do, you must move it at least 1 step and no more steps than the white number in the icon states. On the location where you stop, you must then perform once more all of phase B. Note: you do not replenish your hand cards before performing phase B again — that only happens at the end of your turn in phase C.

Collect gold and spend it

Each player starts the game with 1 gold and may collect more on different occasions: as an immediate action in your sailor row; when investing in certain bonus tiles; when placing a new private building onto the trail (not when you replace one). On your gold track, the number next to your gold marker's current position tells you how much gold you have available (if you receive more gold than you can store, the excess is lost).

You may use as much gold as you have available during phase A or B as you want, by moving your gold marker backwards accordingly, to buy one of the 4 different randomly determined bonus cards from the bonus cards supply. When you perform this "free action," choose one bonus card from the bonus cards supply next to the sea routes board (below their respective bonus cards tiles) and place this card face-up onto your personal discard pile. For the bonus cards below the steering wheel and the barrel you must pay 3 gold each; for a card from below the bell, pay 4 gold; for a compass card, pay 5 gold. These bonus cards can only be obtained by using gold or upgrading harbours. Among the bonus cards, the two sheep sets (Set 3 and 7) as well as the three objective card sets (Set 8, 9 and 10) work the same as any other sheep or objective card, with no other special rules. The rules of the other five bonus cards (Set 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6), which may be obtained the same way, are explained in detail on the last page of the Appendix.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when you place a bonus tile onto the last space of the bonus tiles market while carrying out the Foresight subphase in Wellington. As this makes the bonus tiles market token move along the red arrow out of the bonus tiles market, immediately take the token and place it in front of you. Afterwards, refill any empty foresight spaces at the end of your turn. This was your last turn.

Important: on your last turn, you do not carry out phase C — after carrying out phase B on your final turn, you do not draw up to your hand limit.

Then each of the other players has one final turn, in which they move their runholder as usual and use the reached location. Players who move to Wellington during their final turn also carry out the 4 subphases as usual; however, if they choose a bonus tile from foresight space B, it is removed from the game. At the end of their turn (after carrying out phase B), they must refill any empty foresight spaces. When the last player has finished their final turn (without carrying out phase C), the game ends.

Final scoring

Take the scoring pad and go through its 12 categories. In each category, write down the victory points for each player as follows:

1. Gain 1 victory point for every 5 pounds that you own.
2. Gain the sum of the victory points printed on each of your private building tiles that is placed on the game board.
3. Gain the sum of the victory points that you have unlocked with your discs on all the trading post crests (local, foreign and wool trading posts). Subtract any negative victory points, of course — even negative sums are possible.
4. Gain the sum of the victory points that you have unlocked with your discs and storehouses on small and medium harbours on the sea routes board.
5. Gain the victory points that you have unlocked with your disc on the pathfinder track (either depicted next to your disc or below it, at the most recent unlocked victory point space).
6. Gain the sum of the victory points printed on each of the collected hazard tiles and bonus tiles in front of you.
7. From your deck (personal draw stack, hand cards and personal discard pile), seek out all bonus cards (except bonus objective cards) and sheep cards that have victory points on them. Gain the sum of those victory points.
8. Seek out all objective cards (including bonus objective cards) still in your deck. For each of those, decide whether to remove it from the game or add it to your personal objective area now (without using its immediate action). Afterwards, check each objective card in your personal objective area to see whether you have fulfilled each of its tasks individually. For all cards entirely fulfilled, sum the positive victory points printed on them; for all cards not fulfilled completely, subtract the negative points printed on them. Gain the result as your victory points (this can be negative).
9. Gain the sum of victory points generated by the individual tasks of the harbourmaster tiles you have in front of you (these tasks, listed below, are totally independent of the tasks on objective cards).
10. Gain 4 victory points for each worker placed on the fifth space of any row in your worker section. Additionally, gain 2 and/or 4 victory points if you managed to clear the corresponding pair of storehouses on your player board.
11. Gain 3 victory points if you managed to clear this disc space (hand limit) on your player board.
12. Gain 5 victory points if you have the bonus tiles market token in front of you.

There are 8 different harbourmaster tiles in the box (5 are used in any given game, one per harbourmaster space); each has its own individual task:

• Gain 1 victory point for every certificate you have (no matter if permanent or temporary).
• Gain 1 victory point for every 2 storehouses you have placed onto the sea routes board.
• Gain 1 victory point for each of your objective cards in your objective area (whether you fulfilled them or not).
• Gain 1 victory point for each of your private building tiles that is placed on the game board.
• Gain 1 victory point for each hazard tile you have collected (of any kind).
• Gain 1 victory point for each card in your deck that shows a ferry (this includes the bonus cards of Set 1).
• Gain 2 victory points per 5 spaces you advanced on the pathfinder track.
• Gain 1 victory point for every 2 worker tiles in your worker section (including the ones printed on your player board).

After totalling all the categories, the player with the most victory points wins the game! In the case of a tie, the victory is shared.

General notes and special cases

• Money and exchange tokens are considered unlimited. If the bank should run out, use something else as a substitute.
• If the objective stack should run out, the vacant spaces in the general objective display are not refilled anymore. If the general objective display is empty, no new objective cards can be gained. The same is true for all 4 stacks of deck-building cards and the bonus cards supply.
• You are allowed to look through the cards of your personal discard pile at any time. You are not allowed to look at the cards of your personal draw stack.
• If you must place a disc onto a trading post space during delivering, or onto a harbour space while upgrading it, some special cases can occur: if you are supposed to place a disc onto a space with white corners but only happen to have discs on disc spaces with dark corners left, you are allowed to place a disc from a dark-corner disc space onto a white-corner space. If you are supposed to place a disc but are unable to (because you have none left or cannot pay for their removal), remove one of your discs from a medium harbour of your choice and place that one instead (if none of your discs is on a medium harbour, you do not place one).
• If you replace a building while your runholder is on that building, you are not allowed to immediately use the new building's local actions, in case you already used an action that was part of the replaced building (if you did not use any action of the replaced building, you may use the local actions of the new building).
• If you remove a hazard tile on which there are any runholders, leave those runholders on the empty space — they continue their movement from there as usual.
• When you reveal cards from your hand (during Wellington subphase Income, or when you calculate your wool value shearing your sheep), this is only a "snapshot of that moment in time," at which you cannot use an exchange token or a card that lets you draw from your deck.
• Whenever you play a deck-building or bonus card (that is not a sheep or objective card), you draw a card after performing or forfeiting its effect.

Credits

Designer: Alexander Pfister. Solo mode: Wil Gerken and Steve Schlepphorst. Illustrations: Chris Quilliams. Producer: Sophie Gravel. Art Direction: Sophie Gravel, Martin Bouchard. Development: André Bierth, Anh Tú Tran. Editing: André Bierth. Graphic design: Emeline D'Aoust. 3D Modelling: Emeline D'Aoust. Development by EGGERTSPIELE, a brand of Plan B Games Europe GmbH. © 2023 Plan B Games Europe GmbH, Am Römerkastell 10, 70376 Stuttgart, Germany. We wish to thank all playtesters, especially: Fernando Moritz, Joakim Glimsjö, Mario Rossi, Max Posti and Ryan Hendrickson. A particularly big thanks goes to Pike Stahlmann-Brown, Graeme Edgeler and Timon Bakker for their awesome help regarding New Zealand and their comprehensive feedback. A special thanks to the creators of the Garth Automa variant Steve Schlepphorst, Wil Gerken and David Lavoie for their inspiration. Also thanks to Brian Petro for his revisions.