Hedge Mage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Overview
  • Garden Boards
• Round Overview
• Setup
• 1. Maze Building Phase
  • Place a Tile
  • Hedge Placement Rules
  • Calculate Movement Points
• 2. Maze Running Phase
  • Move Mages and Awake Gnomes
  • Carrying Gnomes
  • Movement Tokens
  • Moving on Top of Hedges
  • Enchanting Gnomes
  • Gnome Movement
  • Rescuing Gnomes
  • Bonus Sigil Tokens
  • Springshroom Tokens
  • Movement FAQ
• 3. End of Round
  • Final Scoring
  • Winning

Components

• 4 Garden Boards
• 4 Sets of Hedge Tiles (12 per set)
• 8 Mages (2 of each player color)
• 48 Gnomes (16 Flower, 16 Mushroom, 16 Pumpkin)
• 8 Tunnel Tokens
• 12 Springshroom Tokens
• 24 Movement Tokens
• 4 Player Tokens
• 12 Hedge Cards
• 9 Gnome Enchantment Cards (3 Flower, 3 Mushroom, 3 Pumpkin)
• 8 Bonus Sigil Tokens
• 6 Favorite Gnome Cards
• 1 Score Track / Enchantment Card Holder
• 4 "Gnome Sweet Gnome" Player Boards

Game Overview

The goal of the game is to rescue as many gnomes as you can from your rival's garden (the board on your right), while stopping your neighbor to your left from stealing the gnomes in your garden.

Each round, you'll add a new hedge tile to your garden, defending your gnomes from your neighbor's invading mages and generating movement points for your mages to navigate your rival's maze. The more gnomes you rescue from your rival's garden, the more points you'll get. You'll also gain points for gnomes you keep in your own garden.

The game ends at the end of a round in which:

• All 10 Hedge Cards have been revealed, or
• A player has rescued all Gnomes from their Rival's garden.

Garden Boards

In this game, you'll be interacting with both your Garden Board, and the Garden Board of the player to your right, your "Rival."

Hint: So you're not reaching too far across the table, it can help to move your Garden Boards in between the players, instead of directly in front of you.

Round Overview

In each round of the game, there are two phases:

1. Maze Building Phase: Place a Hedge Tile in your garden to block your opponent and gain Movement Points.
2. Maze Running Phase: Run around your Rival's garden to wake up Gnomes and rescue them through the two Tunnels.

You don't take turns in order in Hedge Mage. Instead, during each phase, you can do your actions at the same time as all the other players.

Hint: It can help for new players to take turns one at a time. That way, everyone can see how the game works before you try taking turns simultaneously.

You build a hedge maze on your board, as your rival builds theirs. You'll run through their maze, as your other neighbor runs through yours!

Setup

1. Give each player:
   • 2 Mages of their chosen color
   • A Garden Board
   • A "Gnome Sweet Gnome" Board
   • A set of Hedge Tiles
   • 1 Springshroom Token
   • 4 Movement Tokens
   • 2 Tunnel Tokens
2. Choose a random Gnome Enchantment Card for each of the 3 Gnome types (flower, mushroom, and pumpkin) and place them face-up in the center of the table. Note: For your first game, we recommend using the Planter Enchanter, Morel-evate, and Pump-kin enchantments.
3. The Mushroom and Pumpkin Enchantment cards determine where the 2 Tunnel Entrances will be for this game. Place a Tunnel Token on each of the matching numbered spaces on your Garden Board.
4. Place your 2 Mages on top of the 2 Tunnel Tokens on the board of the player to your right.
5. Each player takes 4 Gnomes of each of the 3 Gnome colors (purple Flower Gnomes, red Mushroom Gnomes, orange Pumpkin Gnomes). Shake them up and place 1 Gnome randomly onto each of the remaining shaded spaces on your Garden Board, placed face-down to show they're "sleeping."
6. Place the Bonus Sigil and remaining Springshroom Tokens to the side.
7. Place the remaining Movement Tokens in a pile accessible by all players.
8. Shuffle all 12 Hedge Cards, remove 2 cards at random from the game without revealing them, and place the remaining 10 face-down in the center to form the Hedge Deck.
9. Shuffle the Favorite Gnome Cards, deal 1 to each player, and return the rest to the box. Keep your "favorite gnome" secret from the other players. These will grant you extra points for matching Gnomes that remain in your garden at the end of the game.

1. Maze Building Phase

Each round, you'll get a new Hedge Tile to place. How you place your Hedge Tile will limit how your opponent's Mages can move around. However, just as importantly, it will generate the Movement Points you'll need to run around your Rival's garden.

Place a Tile

1. One player flips over the top card of the Hedge Deck to reveal the Hedge Tile for this round.
2. Simultaneously, each player finds the matching Hedge Tile in their supply and places it on their Garden Board.

Once per game, a player may choose to place their 2 x 1 tile instead of the tile shown on the Hedge Card.

Hedge Placement Rules

• Tiles can be flipped or rotated, but cannot be moved once placed.
• Tiles do not need to be placed adjacent to another tile.
• You can only place Hedge Tiles on empty ground spaces, meaning it can't cover Mages, Gnomes, Hedges, or Tokens.
• Additionally:
  • The tile must fit inside the grid and cannot extend past the edges of your Garden Board.
  • You cannot make a 2x2 (or bigger) section of Hedge Tiles (that would be a bush, not a hedge).
  • All parts of the board must remain accessible via ground spaces at all times. You cannot wall off part of the board.

Calculate Movement Points

Every Hedge Tile has a Sigil on it, which is used for calculating Movement Points. On your first turn, the Sigil on the first Hedge Tile you place grants you 1 Movement Point.

In subsequent turns, you can generate extra Movement Points by placing your Hedge Tile so that other Sigils are in the same rows and columns as the Hedge Tile you place. You generate 1 Movement Point for each Sigil in the row(s) and column(s) occupied by the tile you place (including the Sigil on the tile you just placed).

Example: This player generated 4 Movement Points. Note that the Sigils themselves don't need to line up.

The number of Movement Points you generate will be used in the next phase. Once your Rival has placed a hedge in their garden, you may continue onto the Maze Running Phase.

2. Maze Running Phase

In this phase, you'll move your characters (Mages and Gnomes) in your Rival's garden (board to your right). Each round, you can move both of your Mages and one Awake Gnome of each color (see "Enchanting Gnomes" on pg. 6). Each of these characters can move 1 space for each Movement Point you gained in the Maze Building Phase or from spending Movement Tokens.

Move Mages and Awake Gnomes

When moving a character, you must follow these rules:

• All movement is orthogonal, never diagonal.
• Characters can't move onto a Hedge Tile space directly from the ground (see "Carrying Gnomes", "Gnome Movement", and "Springshroom Tokens" for exceptions).
• Characters can be moved in any order.
• You can pause movement with one character to move with another character, just remember how much movement each character has remaining.
• Each character can move the full number of Movement Points generated, you don't divide your points between them.
• Characters can move through each other's spaces, but cannot end their movement in the same space (see "Carrying Gnomes" for an exception).
• Unused Movement Points do not carry over between rounds.

All players can do this phase at the same time.

Example: If you generate 3 Movement Points, you could move both your Mages 3 spaces each. If you've woken up any Gnomes, you could move one of each type of Gnome 3 spaces each.

Carrying Gnomes

While moving, a Mage may pick up, carry, and drop Gnomes, as many times as they're able to.

Pick Up a Gnome

• Spend 1 Movement Point to pick up a Gnome from an adjacent space, or pick it up for free if in the Mage's current space.
• Place the Gnome on top of the Mage, making sure to keep the Gnome face-down if asleep or face up/upright if awake.

Carry a Gnome

• A Mage holding a Gnome can carry it, using the Mage's normal movement.
• Each Mage can only carry one Gnome at a time.

Drop a Gnome

• Spend 1 Movement Point to drop a gnome into an adjacent space, or drop it for free in the Mage's current space.
• You may use this action to drop a Gnome on top of an adjacent Hedge Tile.

Movement Tokens

You can spend Movement Tokens to increase your Movement Points by 1 point per token for this round. This applies to all characters' movement this round.

• You can spend any number of Movement Tokens at any time during the Maze Running Phase, including to move characters you've already moved.
• If you gain Movement Tokens mid-round (see "Rescuing Gnomes"), you can spend those as well.
• Unused Movement Tokens carry over from round to round.
• You can store up to 6 Movement Tokens at a time.

Moving on Top of Hedges

If a character ends up on top of a Hedge Tile, they may move as normal across adjacent Hedge Tile spaces. They may exit the hedge by moving off onto an adjacent ground space. See "Springshroom Tokens" and "Carrying Gnomes" for how characters can get on top of hedges.

Enchanting Gnomes

The three Gnome Enchantment Cards show you how to spark to life each of the three types of Gnomes: Flower Gnomes (purple), Mushroom Gnomes (red), and Pumpkin Gnomes (orange).

As soon as a Sleeping Gnome meets the condition of its corresponding Gnome Enchantment, it wakes up. Turn the Gnome face up (or stand it upright) to show that it is awake. This can happen even while being carried by a Mage.

Gnome Movement

You may move one Awake Gnome of each color, just like you move a Mage. In addition, an Awake Gnome may:

• Move from an adjacent space onto a Mage (so long as the Mage is not already carrying a Gnome)
• Move off of a Mage that is carrying them, into any adjacent space (including on top of a Hedge Tile)

A Gnome can move during the round it wakes up, if you haven't already moved a Gnome of that color this round.

Example: If you have 2 Awake Pumpkin Gnomes and 1 Awake Mushroom Gnome, you may move 1 Awake Pumpkin Gnome and 1 Awake Mushroom Gnome.

Rescuing Gnomes

If an Awake Gnome moves or is placed into a Tunnel space, it's rescued! A Sleeping Gnome can't be rescued (it would just block up the tunnel).

When a Gnome is rescued, place the Gnome on your Gnome Sweet Gnome board, in the leftmost space matching its color, and gain the Rescue Bonus in that space.

Place the rescue bonus (Movement, Springshroom, or Bonus Sigil Token) shown from the supply onto your player board. You may spend Movement Tokens and use Spring Shrooms during the round you gained them, or save them to use later.

Additionally, you'll get points at the end of the game for the Gnomes you wake up and rescue in your Rival's garden and the Gnomes you defend in your garden (see "Final Scoring" on pg. 7).

Bonus Sigil Tokens

When placing your next Hedge Tile, place this token on an empty space on top of it. It counts as a Sigil like normal when calculating Movement Points.

Springshroom Tokens

At any time, you can place a Springshroom token from your supply onto ANY ground space in your Rival's garden. Anytime any character (awake or asleep) is in the same space as a Springshroom, they immediately bounce into an adjacent space, including up on top of a Hedge Tile. This allows both Mages and Gnomes to get on top of Hedges.

• Once a Springshroom has been placed, it remains on the board permanently.
• You may place a Springshroom beneath a character, immediately bouncing them to an adjacent space.

Movement FAQ

When a Mage is on a hedge, can it pick up an adjacent Gnome from the ground? No! It's too far down to the ground!

Can a gnome use a Mage like a ladder? Yes! A Gnome can move on top of a Mage that isn't already carrying a Gnome, and then move onto an adjacent hedge.

A Mage that isn't carrying a gnome could also act as a bridge between two hedges for a moving gnome to pass over. Neither case requires extra Movement Points; the golden rule is that a character moving from one space to another costs 1 Movement Point.

Does moving a gnome with your Mage count for the one-gnome-per-color rule? No! If you transport an Awake Gnome with only your Mage's Movement Points, you can still move a different Awake Gnome of that same color.

3. End of Round

If all 10 Hedge Cards have been revealed, or if a player has rescued all the Gnomes from their Rival's board, the game ends and you move on to scoring. Otherwise, begin a new round.

Final Scoring

Your Gnome Sweet Gnome board shows all the possible ways to get points:

• The rightmost rescued Gnome of each type shows you how many points you get for that type of Gnome.
• Remaining Gnomes in your garden are worth 2 points each, plus extra points for your Favorite Gnomes Card (reveal during scoring).
• Awake Gnomes in your Rival's garden are worth 1 point each.

Winning

Track scores on the Score Track using each player's Player Tokens. The player with the most points wins! If there's a tie, the one with the most Movement Tokens wins. If still tied ... the shortest player wins.