High Moon Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Description
• Game Setup
• The Turn
  • 1st Phase: Place Card (Mandatory)
  • 2nd Phase: Place Tokens or PASS
    • Connecting to a Distillery
    • Covering Tombstone Spaces
    • PASSING
  • End of Turn
• Scoring
• Scoring Example

Components

• 4 decks of 8 cards (1 per player)
• 4 player aid cards / discard tokens
• 2 starting cards
• 4 sets of 30 cow/ranch tokens (1 per player)
• 4 sets of 3 tombstone markers (1 per player)
• 4 scoring markers (1 per player)
• 4 +40/+80 points tiles (1 per player)
• 1 tombstone board
• 1 scoring board
• 3 sets of 5 distillery tiles (3 distinct icons)
• 3 sets of 8 liquor bottles (3 distinct icons)
• 3 sets of 4 double and triple liquor bottles (3 distinct icons)
• 4 reversible scoring criteria cards
• 1 rulebook

Card Description

Each card is divided into 12 spaces, showing: tombstone, distillery, ranch, and wild tombstone icons.

Game Setup

1. Create a reserve with the distillery tiles distributed randomly face-down (showing the question mark symbol). (In 2- and 3-player games, remove one of each type.)

2. Create a general supply with the liquor bottles, showing their full bottle side.

3. Place the two starting cards in the centre of the table, overlapping as indicated. Take 2 distillery tiles at random from the reserve and place them randomly on each distillery space, showing the liquor type side. Leave enough free space around these starting cards, as the map will expand from them.

4. Shuffle the scoring criteria cards and place 3 of them face-up for all to see, as indicated (one of the three cards covering half of the other two cards). These will be the 4 scoring criteria for the game. Cards marked with the immediate-scoring icon are scored immediately when fulfilled. The rest are scored at the end of the game.

   For your first game, you can play with only 1 card (2 visible scoring criteria).

5. Place the tombstone board and the scoring board to one side of the table.

6. Each player places their three tombstone markers and their scoring marker on the starting spaces of the corresponding boards.

7. Each player keeps a reserve of 30 tokens beside them. These are their available tokens for the entire game (limited supply).

8. Each player takes 3 tokens from their reserve and places them next to their player aid card (these will be available from the first turn).

9. Each player prepares their deck (8/7/6 cards depending on whether there are 2/3/4 players) and shuffles it. In 3-player games, remove the card with the 4-player icon from the game, and in 4-player games, also remove the card with the 3-player icon. Each player draws one card from their deck to start the game with one card in hand. Choose the starting player at random.

The game is played in turns, clockwise.

The game ends when every player has played all the cards in their deck and completed their turn.

The Turn

Each player's turn is divided into two phases.

1st Phase: Place Card (Mandatory)

Throughout the game, a map will be built by placing cards over others. You start your turn playing the card you have in your hand:

• You MUST keep the same orientation as the two starting cards (you may rotate it 180°, but never place it perpendicularly).
• You MUST cover at least one space on the map.
• You CANNOT completely cover an entire part of the map (you MUST leave at least one of the spaces on your card not over another card).
• You CANNOT place your card on top of any token nor tile already on the map.

For each ranch space of YOUR COLOUR that you cover, gain 3 tokens from your reserve. For each ranch space of ANOTHER COLOUR that you cover, gain 1 token from your reserve, and the player with that colour (if applicable) gains 2 tokens from their reserve.

If the card you placed has a distillery, take a distillery tile at random from the reserve and place it on top, showing the liquor type side.

2nd Phase: Place Tokens or PASS

Place as many tokens as you want and are able to. With these tokens, you will create routes from your ranches to the distilleries.

The first token you place on your turn is free but to place the second token you will have to discard 1 token, to place the third token you will have to discard 2 tokens, and so on.

Use the player aid card to keep track of the tokens you have placed and the ones you have to discard. Store the first token of the turn in the semicircular slot, which will become empty when you place the token on the map. Use the remaining spaces to store the tokens you have to discard to continue placing tokens on the map. At the end of the turn, return the discarded tokens on the card to your general token reserve.

If your general token reserve is empty and you must gain tokens due to a game effect during your turn, you can take already discarded tokens, starting with the first slot on the card. This does not reduce the cost of placing further tokens.

Tokens have 2 sides, allowing you to use the ranch side to found ranches and start or continue routes, or use the cow side if you want to continue an already started route.

• Place a RANCH TOKEN to found a ranch on top of any visible ranch space of your colour on the map.
• Place a COW TOKEN on an empty space orthogonally adjacent to any of your tokens, or orthogonally adjacent to a distillery connected to one of your routes (i.e., your route can pass through a distillery). You can continue your route on any side of a distillery to which you have an adjacent token, as it is considered connected.

You cannot:

1. Stack tokens.
2. Place tokens on top of distilleries.
3. Place tokens on ranches of another colour.

A "connection" is considered established when you create a route from one of your own ranches to a specific distillery on the map, either adjacently or through cow tokens.

Connecting to a Distillery

When you establish a connection for the first time in the game between one of your ranches and a specific distillery on the map (either adjacently or through cow tokens), you gain a bottle of the liquor type shown on the distillery. If you connect more ranches to the same distillery later, you do not gain the liquor bottle again.

Liquor Bottles: Liquor bottles allow you to execute one-off extra actions on your turn. You can only use one liquor bottle per turn, at any moment during the turn. Keep them on their full-bottle side while unused. When you use one, flip it (empty bottle) and place it on the space of the player aid card to remember that you cannot use any more bottles this turn. Keep your liquor bottles — used and unused — for final scoring.

• SPIDER LIQUOR: Gain up to 3 tokens from your reserve.
• BAT LIQUOR: Place up to 2 available tokens on the map (you don't have to discard other tokens).
• CROW LIQUOR: Place 1 token on the map, taking it directly from your reserve (you don't have to discard other tokens).

The placement rules apply equally in these cases.

Covering Tombstone Spaces

When you cover a tombstone space on the map, move up the corresponding track on the tombstone board and execute the bonus, if there is one (gain 1 token from your reserve). If you cover a joker icon, you can choose which track to move up.

Moving up these tracks will increase your final score.

PASSING

Instead of placing tokens, you can Pass (you don't place tokens or use a liquor bottle) to gain 3 tokens from your reserve.

End of Turn

At the end of your turn, empty your player aid card: return the tokens you discarded to your reserve, remove and keep the used liquor bottle. Draw a new card from your deck and pass the turn to the next player.

The game ends when all players have placed their final card and finished their turns.

Scoring

Bear in mind that:

A) A route must have at least one ranch and one distillery to be scored. B) A ranch must be connected to at least one distillery to be scored.

During the Game:

1. IMMEDIATE Scoring Criteria Cards: Score these as soon as you fulfil them. Move your marker accordingly.

At the End of the Game:

2. FINAL Scoring Criteria Cards: Award victory points according to the conditions shown.
3. Tombstone Track & Liquor Bottles: For each liquor type, multiply the number of bottles you own (used + unused) by your position on that tombstone track.
4. Tombstone Minimum: Check your lowest tombstone track and add the points indicated for that level.
5. Unused Tokens and bottles: Finally, gain 1 victory point for every two unused tokens or bottles (outside your reserve).

In case of a tie, the player with the most tokens in their reserve wins. If the tie persists, share the victory and toast with the finest bovine ectoplasm liquor you can find at home.

Scoring Example

Example of the final Map in a 2-player game.

For these scoring criteria, the scores would be:

• Jane: 1A: 16, 2A: 16, 2B: 16, 3D: 15
• Billy: 1A: 12, 2A: 12, 2B: 18, 3D: 12

Jane scores 16 for tombstone/liquor bottles:

• Spider bottles 3 x 2 = 6
• Bat bottles 2 x 3 = 6
• Crow bottles 4 x 1 = 4

She does not get a bonus as her least advanced marker is in the lowest space.

Billy scores 10 for tombstone/liquor bottles:

• Spider bottles 0 x 2 = 0
• Bat bottles 3 x 1 = 3
• Crow bottles 2 x 2 = 4

He gains 3 extra points for the position of his last marker.

They also add up their remaining tokens: Jane 2, Billy 1.

TOTAL:

• Jane: 16 + 16 + 16 + 15 + 16 + 2 = 81
• Billy: 12 + 12 + 18 + 12 + 10 + 1 = 65