Queensland Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Short Overview
• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Placing a Tile
  • 2. Adding and Moving Toads
  • 3. Scoring
  • 4. Refilling the Market
• End of the Game
• Final Scoring
  • Final Scoring Example

Short Overview

In this game, players are trying to develop their farms (containing sugar cane and wheat fields) into thriving companies. But at the same time, their land is being overrun by toads. Lots of toads! In large numbers, they move straight across the fields towards the west... Or maybe the south... Wherever they can find ponds. In order to catch them, you will try to lure exactly 5 toads into a pond. This will score a maximum number of points, and will also immediately remove toads from the game. If a pond contains more than 5 toads, you score fewer points.

At the end of the game, all tiles with toads on them are removed from the game. Then, players will score points for their remaining empty ponds, but also for their largest completed field of each type, and for various farm traits. The player with the most points wins.

Components

• 1 compass rose board with score track
• 1 market board
• 4 scoring markers in the player colors
• 1 pink toad scoring marker (solo mode)
• 4 sets of 4 starting tiles in the player colors
• 4 "50/100 points" tiles
• 50 farm tiles
• 60 wooden toads
• 4 player aids
• Rulebook
• Solo rules

Setup

1. Place the compass rose board in the middle of the table.
2. Place the market board right next to it. The side showing the right number of players should be visible.
3. Choose a color and take the corresponding scoring marker and the 4 starting tiles. Return any unused scoring markers and starting tiles to the box.
4. Shuffle the 50 farm tiles into a number of face-down piles and place them next to the market board. Draw 3 tiles and place them face up on the market board. The orientation of the tiles on the market board doesn't matter.
5. Place your scoring marker on space 0 of the score track.
6. Place your 4 tiles in front of you, as depicted above.
7. You must make sure your 4 tiles are perfectly aligned with 1 of the 4 cardinal directions of your choice. This means your farm must point towards one of the four cardinal directions.
8. Place the 60 toads and the player aids within reach.
9. Randomly determine a starting player.

How to Play

Players take turns in clockwise order. If it's your turn, you are considered to be the active player. All the other players are then passive players. The active player carries out all phases mentioned below in the designated order. Then, the next player takes their turn. A turn consists of 4 phases:

1. Placing a tile
2. Adding and moving toads
3. Scoring
4. Refilling the market

1. Placing a Tile

As the active player, take 1 tile from the market board and place it horizontally or vertically adjacent to 1 or more of your farm tiles. The patterns on adjacent sides have to match. You may freely rotate the chosen tile. You may only add tiles to your own farm. A tile can contain the following landscapes: sugar cane field, wheat field, soil.

Example: you're allowed to place the tile like this, because the sugar cane field and the soil line up perfectly. Example: you're not allowed to place the tile like this, because the wheat field and the sugar cane field don't match.

Most tiles also show farm traits: cows, scarecrows, or tractors. You will score extra points by collecting sets of as many identical traits as possible. This is clarified at final scoring.

2. Adding and Moving Toads

Depending on the location of the tile you just took from the market board, you must add 1, 2 or 3 toads to the tile you just placed (in accordance with the toad symbols above the market spaces). If there aren't enough toads available in the supply, add the ones that are available.

After adding toads, you must move all the toads on your farm. The arrow on the tile you just placed indicates how you should do this.

While moving your toads, clearly state to the other players the type of arrow, as well as the cardinal direction (as indicated by the compass rose in the middle of the table) in which you're moving them. This allows the other players to check what you're doing. You'll therefore always use north, south, east and west, and no directions like "up" or "to the right". This ensures that players always refer to the same cardinal direction.

• Single movement: as the active player, move all toads on your own farm by 1 tile in the direction of the arrow. The passive players do nothing.
• Double movement: as the active player, move all toads on your own farm by 2 tiles in the direction of the arrow. The passive players do nothing.
• Group movement: as the active player, move all toads on your own farm by 1 tile in the direction of the arrow. Then, each passive player chooses 1 of the following 2 options: A: move all toads on your farm in the same cardinal direction as the active player; or B: don't move any of your toads.

Exceptions

There are 2 cases in which the toads don't move:

Farm boundary — Toads never move off the farm. Each toad that would move off the tiles in the play area remains on the last possible tile instead. This has no impact on the movement of the other toads.

The ponds — Toads inside of a pond never move. This means that toads you add to a pond tile you just placed, don't move either. Toads that end up in a pond after the first step of a double movement, only move by 1 step. This has no impact on the movement of the other toads.

Example: it's Ronald's turn. He takes the center tile from the market and attaches it to his farm. He places 2 toads on it, because he took the tile from the second market space. The arrow on the tile indicates a 'group movement'. Referring to the compass rose in the center of the table, he states: 'Group movement to the west'.

For Ronald, this means he must immediately take the 2 toads on the tile he just placed and move them west ('to the left'). However, he also has to move each of the other toads on his farm west by one step.

Since this is a group movement, all other players must now simultaneously choose whether or not to move all toads on their farms west. All players have decided to go with this option. For Linda, this means 'down'. For Sophie, this means 'to the right' and for Patrick, this means 'up'.

Important: if the symbol on Ronald's tile had shown a 'single movement' instead of a 'group movement', only Ronald would have needed to move all his toads west.

Example: in this example, Ronald activated a 'group movement'. If Patrick chose to move, his single toad would move west but the 2 toads inside the pond wouldn't: not even if there was a tile to the west of it.

Remember: toads inside of a pond never move, and toads can never move off of a farm.

3. Scoring

If after all movements one of your ponds contains 5 or more toads, you score points, no matter who the active player is. This means ponds from different players can score at the same time. Return all toads from the pond you're scoring to the supply. The tile itself stays in place. The number of points you score depends on the number of toads that were in the pond:

• If the pond contained exactly 5 toads, you score 5 points.
• If the pond contained 6 or more toads, you score 3 points.

Advance your scoring marker on the score track accordingly.

Example: it's Sophie's turn. She places down a group movement tile. She moves all the toads on her farm to the south and ends up with a pond containing 7 toads. She removes the toads and scores 3 points.

By using Sophie's group movement to the south, Linda managed to fill one of her ponds with exactly 5 toads. She removes the toads and scores 5 points.

4. Refilling the Market

First, slide all tiles on the market board to the right, then refill the market with a new tile from one of the face-down piles. The new tile is always placed on market value '1' (the leftmost space).

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when it's no longer possible to refill the market board. Remove the 2 remaining tiles on the market board from the game.

Final Scoring

After the final turn has been completed, proceed to final scoring. Carry out the following steps in the designated order. For each individual step, adjust the players' scores on the score track.

A. Fewest toads — All players count the number of toads on their farm. The player(s) with the fewest toads score(s) 3 points.

Exception: if all players have the same number of toads, the player(s) with the fewest tiles containing toads score(s) 3 points. If all players have 0 toads, all players score these points.

B. Most toads — The player(s) with the most toads lose(s) 3 points. A minimum of 1 toad is required this way.

Exception: if all players have the same number of toads, the player(s) with the most tiles containing toads lose(s) 3 points.

Removing tiles

All players now remove all the tiles containing toads from their farm, including the toads themselves. This could lead to gaps in your farm. Separated tiles stay in place and are considered a part of your farm. Place your removed tiles with toads on them to the side, so everyone can see how many tiles and toads each player removed. Removed tiles are no longer part of your farm and are ignored during final scoring.

Before removing tiles: the tiles that now contain toads are removed from the farm, along with the toads (and placed to the side). After removing tiles: all circled tiles are part of the farm, including separated tiles, which stay where they are. The 3 removed tiles are ignored during final scoring.

C. One sugar cane field — All players score points for a single (remaining) completed sugar cane field in their farm of their choice. They score 2 points per tile that's part of this field. If a tile contains 2 separate sections that belong to the same field, the tile is counted twice. Incomplete fields don't count. A field is complete if it's completely enclosed by a black border.

Example: this field consists of 4 tiles, but 2 of its sections are on the same tile. The field therefore scores 5 x 2 = 10 points.

D. One wheat field — All players score points for a single (remaining) completed wheat field in their farm of their choice. They score 1 point per tile that's part of this field. If a tile contains 2 separate sections that belong to the same field, the tile is counted twice. Incomplete fields don't count. A field is complete if it's completely enclosed by a black border.

Example: the (largest) complete field consists of 3 sections. The player scores 3 x 1 = 3 points. Although the other field contains more sections, it's incomplete. That's why it is not considered.

E./F./G. Farm traits - Cows / Scarecrows / Tractors — Each player counts the number of cows on their farm and scores for them according to the following table:

In a game with 2 players:

Number	0-2	3	4	5-6	7	8	8+
Points	0	1	2	4	6	8	10

In a game with 3 or more players:

Number	0-1	2	3	4	5	6	6+
Points	0	1	2	4	6	8	10

Do the same for your scarecrows and tractors.

H. Ponds — Each player scores 1 point for each (remaining) pond in their farm.

The player with the most points wins!

In case of a tie, the player with the most farm tiles of their color remaining in their farm wins. If there's still a tie, the tied player with the largest completed wheat field wins. If the tie is not solved this way, the tied player with the largest completed sugar cane field wins. If the tie still persists, the victory is shared.

Final Scoring Example

Linda finishes the game with 6 toads on her farm, just like Sophie. Patrick ends with 2 and Ronald with 3 toads. Patrick scores 3 points, since he has got the fewest toads. Both Linda and Sophie lose 3 points, while they have got the most toads. Until now, Linda scored 27 points, which is reduced to 24.

Afterwards, the players remove all tiles with toads. In Linda's case this means that she has to remove 3 tiles from her farm.

Linda's score is calculated in this way:

• She's got a complete sugar cane field of 6 tiles and scores 12 points.
• Due to the tiles removal, her largest wheat field is no longer complete. However, she still has a complete wheat field of 5 tiles and scores 5 points.
• She's got 2 cows, which score only 1 point.
• However, her 7 scarecrows score 10 points.
• She's also got 3 tractors, which give her 2 points.
• There are also 2 ponds left on her farm, which score another 2 points.

Linda's total score is 24+12+5+1+10+2+2 = 56 points. She takes a "50 points" tile to mark that she has moved past field 50 of the score track.