Sagani
Sagani Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 72 Spirit of Nature tiles (18 per element type: Fire, Water, Earth, Air)
- 4 player scoring markers
- 1 game board
- 1 start player marker
- 96 Sound discs (24 per player color)
- 10 Cacophony discs
Goal of the Game
Each turn, you will choose a Spirit of Nature tile and place it in your personal display. The arrows on the tiles placed indicate the needed alignment of other tiles so that they match in color.
As soon as you have aligned together all the arrows on the tiles with the proper colored tiles, you will be rewarded with points for completing the task.
However, the pressure is on, because if at any point too many tasks remain unfulfilled, you will receive Cacophony discs and negative points.
Setup (2-4 Players)
- Each player selects a color and takes the Sound discs and the scoring marker in this color. These Sound discs make up your personal supply.
- The Cacophony discs are neutral. Place these discs so that they are easily accessible to all players from this general supply. The number of Cacophony discs is meant to be unlimited in the game. If, at any point, you run out of Cacophony discs, use a suitable replacement.
- Place your scoring marker on space 0 of the harmony bar on the game board.
- Ensure all of the Spirit of Nature tiles are facedown. (The front of the tile shows a vessel and 1-4 arrows, while the back depicts the spirit outside of its vessel.)
- The Spirit of Nature tiles are shuffled and placed as three facedown draw stacks. The Spirit of Nature tiles are divided into 3 stacks. The players will draw all tiles from the first stack before drawing tiles from the second stack, and then tiles from the third stack.
- Reveal the first five tiles and place them faceup as an offer display.
- Randomly determine the start player and give them the start player marker.
The example in the original rulebook shows the setup for a three player game, with the draw stacks numbered 1, 2, 3 and the offer display tiles numbered 4-7, arranged around the Fire, Water, Earth, and Air spaces on the board.
The Spirit of Nature Tiles
The Spirit of Nature tiles have three components:
- Each tile has a single base color on both sides that corresponds to the element type of the tile (Fire, Water, Earth or Air). This base color is shown on both the front and the back of the tile.
- Each tile has 1 to 4 arrows on the front that point in different directions. An arrow also has a basic color which corresponds to one of the four different elements. Each arrow presents you with a task that you can fulfill. (More on that later.)
- Each tile also has a number on the front and on the back. This corresponds to the point value of the tile: tiles that have 1, 2, 3 or 4 arrows on the front are always worth 1, 3, 6 or 10 points respectively.
Playing the Game
Beginning with the start player, and moving clockwise, each player takes a turn drawing and placing a tile. The start player marker remains with the same player until the end of the game.
Each player forms their own display of tiles, separate from the shared offer display and draw stacks.
1. Select and Place Tiles
On your turn, take a Spirit of Nature tile from the offer display and place it faceup orthogonally adjacent (not diagonally) to a tile that is already in your personal display. The first tile may be placed faceup in any orientation. Whenever you take a subsequent tile, you can rotate it any direction you like before placing it adjacent to one or more other tiles in your display.
Tip: Leave some space between the tiles to make it easier for you to access them when you need to flip a tile facedown.
Details:
- You may test the placement of a tile and then put it back into the offer display without placing it.
- Once placed, a tile can no longer be rotated, moved to another place, or removed.
Example: A new green tile can be placed above a green tile already in a player's display, so that the fourth arrow on the new tile can be covered by an existing tile (see "4. Cover the Arrows with Sound Discs" below).
! Whenever the offer display consists of only one tile, the active player can choose whether to place this tile in their display or to place it on an intermezzo storage space above the game board. When the intermezzo placement is chosen, the player must flip the top tile from the draw pile and place it in their display instead.
q A special feature of the draw pile is that you can see the base color and value of the tile, so you have a general idea of what to expect on the front of the tile.
2. Place Sound Discs
After you have placed a tile in your personal display, stack Sound discs from your personal supply on the vessel in the middle of the tile equal to the number of arrows on the tile. These discs cover the point value that the tile could potentially score.
Note: If you run out of Sound discs in your personal supply, you will need to fill in for the missing discs with Cacophony discs! However, you should first check to see if you can recover any discs by covering the last arrow on another tile (see "5. Move the Last Disc and Earn Points" below).
Tip: You should always evaluate completely filled tiles before you place Sound discs on the newly placed tile in order to unlock and reuse Sound discs. This may save you from having to take Cacophony discs!
3. Take Cacophony Discs
Whenever you no longer have enough Sound discs in your personal supply to fill a tile, and you cannot recover them by scoring other tiles, you must use Cacophony discs from the general supply. You will not be able to discard these Cacophony discs once you have taken them, but you can use them as Sound discs until the end of the game.
Each Cacophony disc costs you 2 points, which you deduct from your score on the harmony bar the moment you take the Cacophony disc. It is possible to drop below 0 points due to this discord! Use the provided -1/-3 tokens to track your score while below 0.
4. Cover the Arrows with Sound Discs
An arrow can be covered with a disc from the center of the tile if it points (orthogonally or diagonally) to another tile that corresponds to the required element of the arrow (i.e. the color of the arrow on the starting tile and the base color of the target tile match).
Newly placed tiles serve not only as a starting tile, but also as a target for tiles that have already been placed!
Important: It does not matter how far the target tile is, provided that the arrow points in the correct direction.
Details:
- Players may have other tiles or even open gaps between the starting tile's arrow and the target tile.
- An arrow that has been covered with a disc is of no further importance for the remainder of the game. It cannot be covered again.
Tip: At any time during the game, you can check whether you can legally move discs from the center of your tiles to the arrows on your tiles; and you may do so at any time, provided the relevant condition is met. This is often overlooked, so check this frequently as the game progresses.
5. Move the Last Disc and Earn Points
When the last disc is moved from the center of the tile onto an arrow, all the arrows are occupied. This completes the task for the tile. The discs are then removed from the arrows and returned to your personal supply (this also applies to Cacophony discs).
The unlocked Spirit of Nature tile is flipped over and is now worth the number of points shown on the tile. Record these points by advancing your scoring marker on the game board harmony bar. If your marker lands on an occupied square, place your marker on top of your opponent's marker.
Important: Flipped tiles continue to serve as targets for other tiles!
Example: Here three discs can be moved onto the arrows of a tile. With a newly placed blue tile, the fourth disc may be placed on the last arrow, and the player receives 10 points for flipping the tile over.
Intermezzo
Before you replenish the offer display, count the number of tiles that have been placed into the intermezzo storage spaces above the game board.
! If there are exactly 4 tiles (all intermezzo storage spaces are occupied), an intermezzo is triggered.
Each player may choose exactly one of the tiles from the intermezzo storage spaces, play the tile, and increase their harmony bar points (if points are earned). The players choose their intermezzo tile starting with the player that has the fewest harmony points, and continuing in reverse order of harmony points. (Players may also choose to not take a tile.) If players are tied, the player whose scoring marker is lower in the stack is considered to be ahead.
The tiles that were not taken simply remain there. Finally, the game continues by refilling the offer display with 5 tiles from the draw pile.
Details:
- If no player takes a tile, the four intermezzo tiles are all removed from the game.
- The order in which the players draw tiles is intended to give the players who are behind in score the chance to catch up.
- The tiles not taken can cause another intermezzo to occur more quickly as the game progresses.
- In a game with four players, there is often only one intermezzo.
6. Replenish the Offer Display
Refill the offer display with five tiles after the turn when it is depleted. Don't forget to check beforehand if there is an intermezzo (see "Intermezzo" above).
Example: In a three player game, the White player exceeded the 60 point mark. After the last turn, White wins with 63 points, defeating Black with 58 points and Brown with 49 points.
Ending the Game
The game end is triggered as soon as a player reaches or exceeds 45/60/75 points in a 2/3/4 player game. (The fields are marked accordingly on the harmony bar with an arrow.) The game continues until the player to the right of the start player has taken a turn, so each player receives an equal number of turns. (The start player marker reminds you who started the game.)
The player with the most points on the harmony bar is the winner!
If several players are tied, the player whose player marker is lower in the stack is considered to be ahead.
q The tie-breaker rule favors players who have to make their moves earlier. It compensates for the advantage that the other players have when they see how many points they need to move past the leader.
Special Case: If the (last) draw pile consists of 4 or fewer tiles after filling up the offer display, then play only until the player to the right of the start player has made a move; and then end the game.
Solo Variants
A. The Basic Solo Game
The same rules apply as in multi-player games with the following changes: there is no offer display and no intermezzo. Reveal one tile at a time and place the tiles in your display. You must always make do with the tile you get.
You must continue to replace missing Sound discs with Cacophony discs, immediately reducing your score by 2 points for each Cacophony disc taken.
The game ends as soon as you have at least 75 points. Try to do this with as few tiles as possible. Scoring 75 points using 25 tiles or fewer creates a magical symphony amongst the elements.
B. The Advanced Solo Game
The advanced solo game is designed to last over an hour. The same rules apply as in multi-player games with the following changes: there is no offer display and no intermezzo. Reveal one tile at a time and place the tiles in your display. You must always make do with the tile you get.
You must continue to fill in missing Sound discs with Cacophony discs. However, you only deduct the points from your score at the end of the game.
The game ends when you place the last (72nd) Spirit of Nature tile.
The last five tiles in the game: You do not reveal the first five 1-point or 3-point tiles you come across in the draw pile. Instead, you must place them facedown next to the draw pile. These five tiles will be the last tiles in the game that you uncover. You reveal these five last tiles in the order in which you drew them.
Bonus Points
As of the fifth tile you place and thereafter, the following applies: whenever you have two or fewer Spirit of Nature tiles faceup (showing arrows) after a turn, you receive a bonus of 5 points. Record the bonus points with a disc of a different player color.
Scoring at the End of the Game
- To determine your final score, subtract from your current score on the harmony bar the value of your tiles that are still covered with discs and therefore have not yet been flipped over.
- Add the bonus points you collected during the game.
- Subtract 2 points for each Cacophony disc that you had to take during the game.
Credits
- Author: Uwe Rosenberg
- Illustrations: Lukas Siegmon
- Typesetting and layout: Christian Schaarschmidt
- Editor: Dominic Büttner
- English Rules: Matthew Mayes
- Editorial Support: Rick Soued
The author and publisher would like to thank all test players. Many thanks to the Skellig team: Beate, Chrisly, Dominic, Marc, Stefan, Thomas, to our translator Perrin, and to the board game addicts for the German explanatory video.
How to Play video: www.sagani.egg-rules.com
Replacement Parts Service: We do everything we can to ensure you receive a quality game. If any part of this game is missing or broken, please contact us directly for replacement parts (Subject: Replacement Parts) at [email protected].
Made in EU. © 2020 Skellig Games. Eagle-Gryphon Games, 801 Commerce Drive, Bldg #5, Leitchfield, KY 42754.