Momiji Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Contents
• Set-Up
• Your Turn
  • A - Collect Leaf Cards
  • B - Play Leaf Cards in Your Personal Area
  • Matching Acorns Bonus
  • C - Activate an Objective Token
• Landscape Abilities
• End of the Game
• Final Scoring
• Solitaire Mode
  • General Rules
  • Scenario 1: Cold Breeze (Easy)
    • Set-Up
    • Victory Conditions
• Landscape Cards
• Objective Tokens
• Credits

Overview

Players try to get the most victory points and attempt to fulfill their objectives, collecting the most valuable autumn leaves in the Imperial Garden. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner.

Contents

• 84 leaf cards, 6 leaf types, 14 cards each. Every leaf type is composed by these cards: 5 cards "0", 4 cards "1", 3 cards "2" and 2 cards "3".
• 20 landscape tiles
• 12 objective tokens, with a Torii symbol on the back
• 32 acorn tokens, 8 with value "5" (pink) and 24 with value "1" (yellow)
• 1 scoring pad

NOTE: the acorns for the Matching Acorns Bonus (see Matching Acorns Bonus paragraph) are shown only on cards with value "0" or "1", on the left/right side or on both sides. See the dark icons on the top left and right corner as a reminder of the acorn position.

Set-Up

• First player. The last person to pick a leaf from the ground is elected first player.

• Leaf cards. With 4 players use all leaf types (6). With 3 players, use only 5 leaf types, with 2 players use only 4 leaf types: put back into the box the 14 cards related to the leaf type you are not using. Shuffle the remaining leaf cards and deal 6 to each player. Place the deck face down in the middle of the table: draw 4 cards and place them next to the deck, sorting them into face-up, separate columns according to their leaf types. The numbers on the cards must be visible so it is recommended to put the cards slightly shifted in their columns.

• Objective tokens. Remove the tokens related to the discarded leaf cards, then randomly take and reveal an amount of tokens equal to the number of players +2. Put them face up on the table within everyone's reach.

• Torii tokens (back of objective tokens). In the middle of the table, place a number of tokens equal to the number of players +2. Put the remaining tokens in the box: they will not be used in this game.

• Landscape tiles. In order to become familiar with the Imperial Garden of Momiji, you can use a series of suggested landscape tiles. For their first game, every player receives a series of 3 landscape tiles with the same icon (e.g. the 3 landscape tiles with the flower icon).

  For your next games, remove the tiles with a rabbit icon (3) and the tiles with a deer icon (3). Shuffle the remaining landscape tiles and reveal 3 of them in the middle of the table. In clockwise order and starting from the first player, every player chooses a landscape tile then reveals a new one from the deck. Continue until each player gets 3 landscape tiles. Place the landscape tiles you chose in your personal area, side by side, to create a unified landscape. Place the remaining landscape tiles in the box, they will not be used in the current game.

• Acorn tokens. Give 4 acorn tokens to the first player, then all the other players take 5 acorn tokens. Put the remaining tokens in a general stock within everyone's reach.

Your Turn

Rounds proceed in clockwise order starting from the first player. During your turn, you can perform only one of the three main actions:

• A - Collect leaf cards from the general display;
• B - Play leaf cards in your personal area;
• C - Activate an objective token.

During their turn, players may also perform these optional actions:

• Use a landscape ability;
• Discard any 2 cards from your hand to obtain 1 acorn token.

You can perform one or both of them, but only once during your turn.

NOTE: at the end of their turn, players can hold a maximum of 8 leaf cards in their hand. The exceeding cards must be discarded.

A - Collect Leaf Cards

A player takes an entire column of leaf cards from the general display and places it in their hand.

Before taking the cards, you can optionally return 1 acorn token to the general stock, to draw from the deck 4 new cards. Add them to the existing columns on the display, sorting them according to their type. Then proceed with the normal collecting leaf action.

Exception: if a certain leaf column already presents 7 or more cards, discard that type of cards as soon as they are revealed.

The leaves display in the middle of the table should never be empty. If there are no left columns in the middle of the table at the end of a "Collect leaf cards" action, then draw and sort 4 new leaf cards with no cost.

B - Play Leaf Cards in Your Personal Area

Leaf cards are played in front of each player, in their personal areas, in different piles according to their type and starting from number "0". They must be placed on top of each other: you will not be able to see the numbers on the cards below.

On each pile, you can place a card showing the same number as the card below or a card showing the immediately following number.

e.g. You cannot play a "2" on a "0".

However, it's not possible to play any card over a "3": it shows the Japanese Torii symbol, a reminder that the pile is closed. Each time a leaf pile is closed with a "3", place a Torii token on that pile.

Piles are placed next to each other in your personal area. There can only be 1 pile for each leaf type. You can not start any new pile between other piles already placed on the table.

To play leaf cards in your personal area, you can choose one of the following actions:

• Play 2 or more leaf cards of different types and activate the matching acorns bonus
• Play 1 or 2 same type cards (you never get bonus acorns for this action).

NOTE: Once your cards are played, piles order can never be changed. Moreover, players can never count the cards in their opponents' piles or in their own. Indeed, memory can be a crucial feature to win the game.

Matching Acorns Bonus

After playing different types of leaf cards, if two acorn icons on two adjacent leaf cards match and are still visible at the end of your turn, you earn 2 acorn tokens. It is possible to earn more than 2 acorn tokens if there are more than 2 icons matching in the row.

NOTE: You get the matching acorns bonus only if you played two or more different types of leaf cards. Moreover, the icons matching do not need to be on the cards you played in the current turn!

C - Activate an Objective Token

Spending 3 acorn tokens, players may activate an available objective token (check the objective tokens list to know their meanings). They place the activated objective token in their personal area, visible to all players and they become the owner. Everybody can try to fulfill an activated objective token during the game even if they are not the owner. At the end of the game, completed objective tokens worth a certain number of victory points (see Final scoring paragraph).

Landscape Abilities

In your turn, you can activate a landscape ability by placing an acorn token on your tile. Each ability can only be used once during the game. Check the landscape tiles list to know their meanings.

NOTE: the acorn token used to activate that ability wont be considered for the final scoring.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as the leaf cards deck is depleted or when there is no Torii token left in the middle of the table. Each player, including the one who triggered the end of the game, plays a final turn.

Final Scoring

Discard the acorn tokens placed on the landscape tiles, then count your score as follows:

• For each leaf pile in their personal areas, players earn a number of victory points equal to the number of cards in that pile, multiplied by the value shown on the topmost card (e.g. if a player has 5 cards in a pile with a "3" on the top, they obtain 15 points);

• Pink acorn tokens worth 5 victory points each;

• Yellow acorn tokens worth 1 victory point each;

• Each completed objective token worth a certain number of points according to its condition:

  • 10 points if the player who completed the objective is the owner of the token;
  • 3 points if the player who completed the objective is not the owner of the token.

  If one or more players are tied, all players involved take 3 victory points except for the token's owner who takes 10 victory points.

The player with the most points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most cards in their hand is the winner. In case of a further tie, the victory is shared.

Solitaire Mode

General Rules

The solo version of this game is played like the multiplayer version, with a few changes:

• At the beginning of the game, take 4 acorn tokens;
• Take the landscape tiles according to the scenario rules: they are indicated by a letter;
• Use only the leaf types required in the scenario rules;
• When collecting leaf cards, you can never refill the display in the middle of the table by returning 1 acorn token to the general stock;
• When taking a column of cards from the display in the middle of the table, discard from the display all the remaining cards, then immediately reveal 4 new cards from the deck;

Clarifications: When you use the ability (Take the topmost leaf card of a column in the display and obtain 2 acorn tokens) the cards on the display in the middle of the table are not discarded (indeed this ability provides an extra action); When you use the ability (If you choose to take leaf cards as your main action, you can take up to two different columns from the display) the remaining cards on the display in the middle of the table are discarded normally, because this ability is part of the main action.

• When you play cards in your personal area, you must also discard 1 card from your hand; anyway you don't have to discard anything if, after playing, you have no more cards in your hand;
• When you buy an objective token, discard all the columns of leaf cards from the display, then immediately reveal 4 new cards from the deck;
• Costs, meanings and requisites of the objective tokens change according to the scenario rules;
• The game ends when you can't reveal 4 new leaf cards because the deck is depleted. You can still perform one last action;
• You win or lose according to the scenario victory conditions.

Scenario 1: Cold Breeze (Easy)

Set-Up

• Use only 3 leaf types: brown, green, purple (42 cards);

• As your starting hand, draw 6 cards from the deck;

• Play with the following landscapes: A-E-C (only one each);

• Use only the following objective tokens with these changes in costs and meanings:

  • Requirement: take these objective tokens (highest number of cards of the green / purple / brown leaf type) only if you played at least a card in the corresponding leaf pile (it can also be a "0"). Cost: the cost of these objective tokens depends on the topmost value shown on the corresponding leaf pile in your personal area.
  • Requirement: you have the highest number of cards in the central pile in your personal area. Cost: 3 acorn tokens.
  • Requirement: you possess at least 4 cards showing a "0" (both in your hand and/or visible in your personal area). Cost: 3 acorn tokens.

Victory Conditions

• You gained at least 10 victory points on each pile;
• You have the highest number of cards in the central pile in your personal area (compared to the other piles in your personal area).
• You own at least 3 objective tokens: (highest number of cards of the green / purple / brown leaf type) + (highest number of cards in the central pile) + (highest number of "0" cards).

Landscape Cards

Letter	Effect
A	If you choose to play leaf cards in your personal area as your main action, you can skip one number once (e.g. play a "2" on a "0" or start a new pile with a "1").
B	If you choose to take leaf cards as your main action, you can take up to two different columns from the display. You can only take whole columns and total taken cards must not exceed 4.
C	You can rearrange the position of your leaf piles, then take 2 acorn tokens from the general stock.
D	If you decide to take leaf cards from the display as your main action, do not take a column of visible cards; draw 4 cards from the leaf cards deck instead then discard one of them.
E	If you choose to take leaf cards as your main action, you can additionally play up to two cards in your personal area from your hand according to normal rules.
F	Take the topmost leaf card of a column in the display and obtain 2 acorn tokens.
G	Take 1 discarded leaf card of your choice.

Objective Tokens

• Get the highest number of cards of a specific leaf type.
• Get the highest number of cards in a single pile.
• Get the highest topmost leaf cards value (sum the topmost cards value on the leaf piles in your personal area).
• Get the highest number of visible Torii tokens.
• Get the highest number of acorn tokens.
• Get the highest sum of different piles and unactivated landscape abilities.
• Get the highest number of "0" cards played among all the piles (not necessarily visible).

Credits

Designers: Francesco Testini e Dario Massarenti Illustrator: Apolline Etienne Publisher: 3 Emme Games Project Manager: Matteo Gravina Creative & Art Director: Ylenia D'Abundo Graphic Designer: Huachong Zhuang Copy Editing: Floriana Luciani

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