Neko Syndicate
Neko Syndicate Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Content
- 24 mission cards
- 4 path cards
- 1 Kumichō meeple
- 4 leader meeples (1 per player color)
- 12 scoring mission markers (3 per player color)
- 4 warehouse cards (1 per player color)
- 4 leader cards (1 per player color)
- 4 lieutenants cards (1 per player color)
- 32 tuna sushi cubes
- 32 salmon sushi cubes
- 32 sea bass sushi cubes
- 32 mackerel sushi cubes
- 48 minions cards
- 1 scoring book
Objective
During the game, you will build and walk down a pyramidal structure of cards which represents both a city district under your control and your chain of command.
This pyramidal structure will be used both as a board and an action tree, allowing you to prepare sushi and transport it to different delivery zones.
Your objective is to earn the appreciation of the Kumichō by acquiring as many Prestige Points (PPs) as possible within 15 turns, achieved by delivering sushi and completing assigned missions as soon as possible.
Game Set-up
- Shuffle the minions cards' deck and place it face down, within everyone's reach. This will be the drawing deck during the game.
- Place the 4 Path Cards in consecutive order in the center of the table, then place the Kumichō meeple (supreme leader) on position 1.
- Shuffle the missions' deck and reveal cards until you have 1 of each type (mission types are marked by icon), returning the rest to the box. These will be the 3 cards scored in this game.
- Each player selects a color, takes a meeple, the scoring mission markers, a leader card (aid card), a lieutenants card and a warehouse in that color, along with 8 sushi cubes of each color, placing them as shown in the image.
- Each player draws 4 minions cards, placing 1 of them just below the Accountant action, on the left of their lieutenants card, and 1 in their Minions' Waiting Room (a space to the left of your leader card), discarding the other two. If someone doesn't like their 4 cards, they may discard all of them and draw 4 new ones (this can only be done once). Discarded cards are placed face up in a discard pile next to the drawing deck. Leave enough space at the bottom to build your pyramidal structure (there will be 4 cards below your leader).
Component Description
Leader and lieutenants cards
These cards represent the clan you lead. The leader card has, on one side, the summary of the turn phases, and on the other side, the summary of the final scoring.
The lieutenants card serves as the starting point for your leader (meeple) to descend each turn in order to activate the orders (actions) in cascade. It is divided into two neighborhoods (without subway station), and you will find the Accountant and Chief Operating Officer actions, which are explained below.
Warehouse card
32 color cubes, 8 on each of the 4 different colors are placed on this card. These cubes represent different sushi types (tuna, sea bass, salmon and mackerel) and they are your personal supply of resources.
Mission cards
They represent goals to achieve, and will be available for every player to complete during the game. They are explained on the last page of this rulebook.
Minions cards
They represent both the chain of command, the neighborhoods under your control, as well as your sushi delivery zones.
With these cards, you will build your personal pyramidal structure during the game, which will let you perform actions. Each card shows two minions and their corresponding action boxes, one on each side, showing the actions you may activate as the minions pass on your commands, from top to bottom on the chain of command.
The central area is divided into two neighborhoods, one upper and one lower, with a subway station in each neighborhood.
Delivery zone
In the upper neighborhood of each card is the delivery zone with several delivery slots where you will try to fulfill with sushi cubes. Filling these slots will be the main way to get prestige points, and will also help you accomplish missions, which is the second way to get those points.
There are two types of delivery slots, sashimi (cut portions of raw fish) which are fulfilled by moving cubes of the color matching the slot on the delivery area, and nigiri (raw fish on a portion of rice), which require you to move the cubes of the matching color to the neighborhood first, and then to perform the Cook action. Multicolor slots are wild, meaning you can fill those slots with any cube of your choice.
Each slot is completed with a single cube, and it will be considered as fulfilled until the end of the game.
Next to delivery zones including nigiris, extra prestige points are shown, and will be scored at the end of the game, only if all slots on the card are fulfilled.
Kumichō's path
This represents the remaining lifetime of the 9th life of the supreme leader and counts the 15 turns of the game (bottom of the card). It also has three rows, where players will use to indicate when they have fulfilled each mission. On the upper part of the card, points to be scored for the missions are indicated, together with bonus PPs for completing the missions sooner than your opponents. The sooner you fulfill Kumichō's missions, the more prestige points you will get.
Turn Phases
Neko Syndicate is played during 15 turns, played simultaneously (in your first game, you may play non-simultaneously to make sure everybody has understood the activation mechanic). Each turn consists of two consecutive phases: the Command phase and the Kumichō's meeting.
Command phase
The Command phase is the main phase of the turn. During this phase, you will pass on commands to your chain of command and execute the available actions.
To pass on commands, you will move your leader meeple from an action box to the following, starting on any of the 2 action boxes on your lieutenants card through all of your pyramid, activating the actions of the minions you pass through in descending order.
After activating the action on your leader's current action box, you must always move your leader meeple from its current action box to any one of the two boxes on the card placed immediately below the box your leader is on.
As your pyramidal structure extends, you will be able to activate more, and more powerful actions during your turn. Your pyramidal structure can have a maximum of 4 levels.
Actions activated during your walk may be activated up to a number of times equal to their level on the pyramidal structure, considering the lieutenants card as Level 1 and the lowest possible level of the pyramidal structure to be Level 4, so, for instance, an action placed 2 levels below the lieutenants card (Level 3), may be activated up to 3 times.
You must repeat this process until you reach an action box with no card below. Once that happens, your Command Phase is over.
Kumichō's meeting
After the Command phase, you will meet the Kumichō, placing your Leader Meeple on the top of the drawing deck, and checking if you have accomplished any missions. For each accomplished mission, place your scoring mission marker on the corresponding row depending on the mission's type, and on the column where the Kumichō currently is. You may accomplish more than one mission on the same turn, and more than one player may accomplish the same mission at the same time / turn (placing both scoring mission markers, and scoring the same number of prestige points).
Only when ALL the Leader Meeples have been placed on the top of the drawing deck and everyone has checked if they have accomplished any missions, move forward (to the right) the Kumichō meeple, and start the Command phase of the next turn. At the end of the 15th turn, the game ends, and it's time for final scoring.
REMEMBER: it is important to wait for everybody to finish the meeting to avoid mismatching turns.
Chain of Command Actions
Lieutenants card
The Command Phase always starts at Level 1 (lieutenants card). Activating one of its two actions is mandatory, but you can choose between the Accountant and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) action. These actions let you plan and expand your pyramidal structure.
Accountant
This action allows you to choose what minions to place in your Minions' Waiting Room (in the following turns, they may be used to expand your organization).
- Draw 3 minions cards from the Drawing Deck and place them in your Minions' Waiting Room.
- Discard 2 cards from your Waiting Room and place them on the discard pile (you can discard cards previously in the Waiting Room from previous turns).
If the Drawing Deck is empty, flip the discard pile face down to create a new Drawing Deck (you don't need to shuffle it).
If you already have 3 cards in the Minions' Waiting Room at the start of your turn, YOU CANNOT CHOOSE THIS ACTION, you MUST use the Chief Operations Officer action instead.
Remember! This action only allows you to plan the expansion of your pyramidal structure by increasing the number of cards in the Minions' Waiting Room, you DO NOT PLACE the card directly in your structure (you will do this using the Chief Operations Officer action).
Chief Operations Officer
This action allows you to assign one of your minions, from your Minions' Waiting Room, to a position in your chain of command.
- Choose a minions card from your Minions' Waiting Room.
- Place it into your pyramidal structure, connecting it to a previously placed card.
The pyramidal structure can't exceed 4 levels, and it must follow the shape shown on the diagram.
It is not mandatory to completely fill a level before starting to place cards on the following.
If you don't have any cards in your Minions' Waiting Room at the beginning of your turn, YOU CANNOT CHOOSE THIS ACTION, you MUST use the Accountant action instead.
Minions cards
The Command phase continues descending the chain of command through the minions cards. These actions are always optional: when moving through them, you may activate these actions completely, partially, or not activate them at all.
Fishmonger
This action allows you to prepare (produce) sushi and make it available for other minions to transport it.
You may take as many cubes (of the matching color) from your warehouse as the level where the Fishmonger action box is, and place them in the bottom neighborhood of your card (next to the action box). This is the only effect performed on the same card where it is activated.
It is not mandatory to take all the cubes allowed by the action level. For example, if you activate this action on Level 3, you may take up to 3 cubes: meaning that you may take 3 cubes, but you may also take 2, 1 or even none.
Delivery lady
This action allows you to transport sushi between adjacent neighborhoods, vertically.
Each movement involves taking a NON-DELIVERED sushi cube from anywhere in the pyramidal structure, and moving it into an upper or lower adjacent neighborhood, i.e., moving it up or down one step. You may perform as many vertical movements as the level where the Delivery lady action box is.
For instance, if the action box you are activating is on Level 4, you could activate up to 4 vertical movements, such as moving the same cube 3 times and another cube 1 time. Remember that all cards have two neighborhoods, and each of them counts as one step when moving sushi cubes through them.
Sushi delivery: Whenever a sushi cube is in the top neighborhood of any card, and the delivery zone has any sashimi slot of the same color, you may fulfill the delivery automatically (place the cube on the slot) at any moment. In order to deliver nigiri, you must use the Cook action.
NOTE: The Delivery zone is not a neighborhood, so no extra movement is needed to pass through or to deliver a cube on it.
Subway operator
This action allows you to transport sushi between neighborhoods with subway stations sharing the same line (A, B, C or D).
One subway movement involves taking a NON-DELIVERED sushi cube from anywhere on the structure (the neighborhood letter where the Subway operator is, is not relevant), and moving it to a neighborhood with a subway station of the same letter as the one in the neighborhood where the cube was. You may perform this subway movement with as many cubes as the level where the Subway operator action box is.
Each different movement may be activated between different letters and neighborhoods, meaning that, if you have 4 Subway station movements, you may move 1 cube between two A neighborhoods, 2 movements between two B neighborhoods, and the last movement between two D neighborhoods, or, for example, move 4 cubes from a Line A neighborhood to 4 different Line A neighborhoods.
Sushi delivery is performed in the same way as explained on the Delivery Lady action.
Cook
This action allows you to make sushi rice, combining it with a sushi cube to fulfill the nigiri deliveries.
Nigiri may be completed anywhere on the structure, whenever there is a sushi cube at an upper neighborhood where there is a nigiri slot of a matching color. You may fulfill as many nigiri as the level where the Cook action box is.
Deliveries may be performed on the same or different upper neighborhoods. For example, when activating a Cook on level 3 you could fulfill 2 nigiri on one neighborhood (card) and the third one on a different neighborhood (different card).
Storekeeper
This action allows you to exchange sushi cubes from the city (pyramidal structure) with the cubes still stored in your warehouse.
An exchange means taking any NON-DELIVERED sushi cube from your pyramidal structure, and replacing it with a different color cube from your warehouse. The first cube returns to the warehouse and the exchanged cube is placed exactly where the first cube was located. You can exchange as many cubes as the level where the Storekeeper action box is.
New cubes may allow new deliveries, and they are performed in the same way as explained on the Delivery Lady action.
Game End and Scoring
At the end of the 15th turn, each player calculates their final scoring using the scoring sheet.
Pyramidal Structure Points
Add and subtract the prestige points obtained on each level, and then multiply them depending on the level, as shown here:
Prestige Points (PPs) per level:
- +1 PPs per delivery (cube placed on a slot)
- +? PPs extra points per card fully completed, as shown on the card
- -2 PPs per loose sushi cubes on the pyramidal structure (non-delivered cubes on neighborhood cards on this level)
- -2 PPs per card WITH NO DELIVERED cubes
- -2 PPs per missing card in the full structure (full structure = 10 cards)
Upper levels have a higher weight on the final score (4x) than lower levels (1x). TIP: Fill the upper levels and don't leave loose cubes there.
Scoring example of level 2: 5 (fulfilled cubes) + 2 (extra points from the fully completed card) - 2 (loose cube) = 5 PPs (level total scoring). 5 x 3 (level multiplier) = 15 PPs.
Mission Points
Add the prestige points shown on the position of all your scoring mission markers on the Kumichō's Path. In addition, each mission will grant you bonus points (5/3/1/0 PPs) based on your relative position to the other players (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th), with the players furthest to the left on each mission receiving the most points for these criteria. In case of a tie, both players receive the same amount of points (next player scores the next position points, regardless of how many scoring discs were placed on the previous position).
Mission scoring example:
- Red: 20 (+5) + 16 (+5) + 8 (+3) = 57 PPs
- Blue: 18 (+5) + 16 (+5) + 8 (+1) = 53 PPs
- Green: 16 (+5) + 2 = 23 PPs
- White: 14 (+3) + 6 (+3) = 26 PPs
The sum of your Pyramidal Structure Points plus your Mission Points will be the final score. In the event of a tie, whoever has completed more deliveries will receive an additional prestige point. If the tie persists, tied players share the victory.
Solo Mode
In solo mode, you duel with CatANNA (Cat with Artificial Neural Network Architecture), the leader of a rival clan.
Select a color for yourself and another one for CatANNA, and arrange the setup for a 2-player game, with the following changes: Return CatANNA's meeple to the box, as it won't be used, and DON'T draw 4 minions cards for CatANNA, nor place any cards below her Accountant, nor in her Minions' Waiting Room.
Place the 3 CatANNA's scoring mission markers on the Kumichō Path, each one on one of the 3 different values chosen, based on how easy or hard you want the game. You may choose which mission you want to assign to each value. The difficulty can also be adjusted by placing more or less sushi cubes in CatANNA's warehouse, as shown in the following table (CatANNA's Scoring Mission Markers, Top PPs track, against Warehouse Cubes):
- 6 cubes/color: Very easy at 6/4/2 PPs, increasing in difficulty across 8/6/4, 10/8/6, 12/10/8, 14/12/10, up to 16/14/12 PPs.
- 7 cubes/color: difficulty increases across the same PPs columns.
- 8 cubes/color: reaches Nightmare difficulty at 16/14/12 PPs.
Game flow
You play the game just like in a multiplayer game. CatANNA doesn't play any turns, so once you finish your turn, check if you have completed any missions as usual, and start the next turn.
Final Scoring
At the end of the game, before the final scoring, you must build CatANNA's pyramidal structure. Shuffle the discard pile, and use it to build her pyramidal structure, adding cards below its lieutenants card, from left to right, and from top to bottom, with the same "pyramid shape" as yours, until the fourth level is completed. Place 9 cards, and discard the rest.
Then, deliver sushi to CatANNA's neighborhoods, using the sushi cubes from her warehouse, filling the cards starting from the lieutenants card, and then proceeding from left to right, and top to bottom. You must try to fill the slots on each card from left to right.
- If it is not possible to fill a slot because the warehouse has no more cubes of that color, leave the slot empty and continue filling the next slot.
- You must choose the color of the cube placed on wild slots (multicolor), amongst the remaining ones in her warehouse.
- Once you finish delivering sushi to her last card, return the remaining cubes back in the box.
Finally, do the final scoring as usual, for both you and for CatANNA. If your score is higher than CatANNA's, kudos! You are worthy of inheriting Kumichō's place!
Mission Cards
The requirements to fulfill the missions are "at a minimum", it does not matter if you have overpassed them.
01: Have 9 resources or less in the warehouse.
02: Have 5 cards with the Fishmonger action in the pyramidal structure.
03: Have 3 cards with the Fishmonger action between both levels 3 and 4.
04: Have 5 cards with the Subway operator and/or Delivery lady actions in the pyramidal structure.
05: Have 3 cards with the Subway operator and/or Delivery lady actions between both levels 3 and 4.
06: Have 2 neighborhoods of each type (2A+2B+2C+2D) in the pyramidal structure.
07: Have 5 neighborhoods of the same type (A, B, C or D) in the pyramidal structure.
08: Have 15 sushi cubes between both levels 1 and 2 (delivered or not).
09: Deliver 10 sushi cubes in the pyramidal structure (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
10: Deliver in 6 nigiri slots (with rice) in the pyramidal structure.
11: Deliver 8 cubes of the same type of sushi (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
12: Deliver 1 sushi cube in 6 different cards (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
13: Deliver 6 sushi cubes between both levels 3 and 4 (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
14: Deliver in 5 nigiri slots (with rice) between both levels 3 and 4.
15: Deliver 2 of each type of sushi cubes (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
16: Deliver 1 of each type of sushi between both levels 3 and 4 (sashimi and/or nigiri, indistinctly).
17: Complete 4 cards in the pyramidal structure.
18: Complete 3 cards located, each of them, on a different level.
19: Complete 3 cards with different types of upper neighborhood (A, B, C or D).
20: Complete 3 cards with the same type of upper neighborhood (A, B, C or D).
21: Complete 2 cards that only demand nigiris (with rice).
22: Complete 2 cards at level 3.
23: Complete 2 central cards of the pyramid structure (out of the 3 possibilities).
24: Complete 1 card located in a vertex of level 4 (out of the 2 possibilities).
Credits
Author: Dani Garcia
Illustration: Jennifer Giner
Design and backgrounds: Pablo Sanz
Development: Kortes Serrano, Antonio Fernández Díez, Manuel J. García Gata, Pablo Sanz
Translation: Antonio Fernández Díez
Proofreading: Jael Herrera & Carlos Martínez
Published by: Combo Games S.L., C/ Teresa Claramunt, 3, 3B, 02006 Albacete (Spain), www.combogames.es
© 2024 Combo Games S.L. All rights reserved