Serengeti Sanctuary Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setting up for play
• Playing a turn
  • The Drafting Phase
  • The Expansion Phase
• Victory
• Solo Variant
• Card distribution

Components

• 1 deck of 52 animal cards
• 2 reference cards, which show the distribution of animal and terrain types
• 1 sanctuary playmat with six card slots
• 4 team members playmats, which incorporate the permanent 'Park Ranger' team member
• 1 score-track playmat
• 20 sanctuary tokens (small tokens with pawprint shield)
• 1 start player token (large token with pawprint)
• 16 wooden discs, for players to indicate their flexible team members (4 each of 4 different colours)
• 4 wooden discs, for players to keep their score — the reverse of these discs show '50+' (1 each of 4 different colours)
• 4 wooden cubes, for players to indicate their advance on their repopulation track (1 each of 4 different colours)
• 1 rules booklet

Note that the 4 player colours — pink, sky blue, yellow and turquoise — are designed to be colour-blind friendly.

Setting up for play

1. Give each player a team members playmat, which they keep face-up in front of them, and 4 team member wooden discs in the matching colour. These 4 discs start on the three Trail Guide and the Conservationist slots. Note that the Park Ranger team member is permanent, and so does not need a wooden disc. Each player also places their correctly coloured wooden cube on the start (lowest) box of their repopulation track.

2. Place the score-track playmat to hand, and start each player's score-track disc on the 'zero' space, so the '50+' face is downwards.

3. Keep the two reference cards and the sanctuary tokens to hand, to one side of the play area and ready for use. These sanctuary tokens form the 'supply'.

4. Place the sanctuary playmat in the middle of the playing area. This creates a space for 6 cards in the middle of the array. The other 14 peripheral cards in the array will go around the edge of the playmat.

5. Shuffle the deck of 52 animal cards together face-down and deal 20 cards out as shown in the example at the top of page 3. This creates the opening array of available cards (four rows and five columns) with the sanctuary area in the middle of the array. Put the remaining deck of cards face-down to form a draw deck. When a discard pile is needed, this should be created next to the draw deck with the cards face-up.

Filling the array

Note that during the game, whenever dealing out cards from the deck into the array always start from the top left empty slot and work along the rows from left to right.

Two cards can never occupy a single slot.

If a card is ever needed for the array or because of a team member action and the deck is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to make a new deck and continue.

6. Select a start player randomly, and give them the start player token (large pawprint cardboard token).

7. If there are fewer than four players, set any un-used team members playmats, team member discs, score track discs and repopulation track cubes to one side; they will not be used in this game. All the cards and all the sanctuary tokens are always used regardless of the number of players.

How a card works

• Set values: the paw icons on the left edge of a card show its set value. In the example, one elephant card is worth 0, two elephant cards are worth 3, and three elephant cards are worth 10 points.
• Animal type is shown by the icon at the bottom left corner of the card, and by the actual main image on the card.
• Terrain type is shown by the icon at the bottom right corner of the card, and by the name and colour panel at the bottom of the card. It is also represented within the actual main image on the card.

Playing a turn

Each turn has two phases: the Drafting Phase and the Expansion Phase. The game continues until one or more players has reached at least 50 victory points. A game normally lasts four or five turns.

The Drafting Phase

In the Drafting Phase, players acquire cards from the array. This is done using a 'boomerang' draft: the start player goes first, then the player to their left, then the next player round to the left, until all players have drafted; then the last player to draft takes another draft action, then the player to their right, until it has come back round to the start player. All players will therefore have taken two drafting actions when this phase has been completed.

When taking a drafting action, a player takes all the cards of one terrain type from any row or any column in the array and adds them to their hand. They also take any sanctuary tokens on those cards. Note that the three Herd cards are each a unique terrain type. See page 5 for examples of drafting actions.

Herd Cards

The three different herd cards are each worth 3 points. They can never be used in a set. The herd cards each have their own unique terrain type when drafting. To draft two different herd cards you would need to use the Park Ranger's ability.

The following team member special actions may be used in the Drafting Phase, but only if your staff team includes the relevant team member. These abilities are in the section of the team members playmat with the orange strip at its top. The sequence in which you may use your team members runs from left to right on the team members playmat, as follows: Trail Guides (up to three); Conservationist; Animal Caretaker; Park Ranger; Animal Breeder. Note that team members are not discarded when their ability is used. They are kept in place, ready for future use.

With this team, during your drafting action you may slide 1 card using your one Trail Guide's ability; then refill any empty spaces in the Sanctuary area using your Conservationist; then switch two cards using your Animal Caretaker; then draft from a row or column taking one extra card of a different terrain type if you pay 1 sanctuary token, using your Park Ranger; and then finally pay 1 sanctuary token to move your repopulation cube up 1 space using your Animal Breeder. All the team member discs remain in place, ready to be used again in a subsequent drafting action.

Team member abilities (Drafting Phase)

• Trail Guide: for each Trail Guide, before a card-drafting action slide one card one space orthogonally (sideways, upwards or downwards – not diagonally) into an empty space within the array (you may not slide a card outside the 20-card array area);
• Conservationist: before a card-drafting action, add cards from the deck to all empty spaces on the 'sanctuary' part of the array;
• Animal Caretaker: before a card-drafting action, switch 2 cards (or 1 card and 1 empty space) within the array;
• Park Ranger: when taking a card-drafting action, pay 1 sanctuary token to take 1 extra card of a different terrain type from the row or column you are drafting from;
• Animal Breeder: after taking a card-drafting action you may pay 1 sanctuary token to advance 1 step on your repopulation track (on your Team Members playmat); move the wooden cube 1 space up the track (this gives a bonus in the Expansion Phase). Note that as each player has 2 drafting actions, it is possible to gain 2 steps on the repopulation track each Drafting Phase. Note that even if an Animal Breeder team member is subsequently promoted to another role, any previous advances on the repopulation track are kept.

Example drafting actions

• Example 1: You use your single Trail Guide's ability to slide the Lion Plateau card down one space, then you use your Park Ranger's ability by paying 1 sanctuary token to draft at the Plateau in the bottom row: the Meerkat and Lion Plateau cards and the Meerkat Scrubland card (drafting at the Plateau but with 1 extra card of a different terrain type).
• Example 2: You use your Animal Caretaker's ability to switch the Flamingo River Delta card and the Crocodile Wilderness card, then you draft at the River Delta in the third column: the Giraffe, Gorilla and Flamingo River Delta cards.
• Example 3: You use your three Trail Guides to slide the Hyena Scrubland, Meerkat Wetland and Lion Plateau cards off the sanctuary area, and then you use your Conservationist's ability to add 3 new cards from the deck to the spaces those cards previously filled. Then you carry out your drafting action.

At the end of the Drafting Phase, all players will have used two drafting actions to add cards to their hand, and may also have gained 1 or 2 advances on their repopulation track.

Important — Array Clean-up

Once the Drafting Phase is completed and all players have had their two drafting actions, remove any cards left in the array which are not in the sanctuary area and place them in the discard pile. Any sanctuary tokens on these cards are returned to the supply. Then place 1 sanctuary token from the supply onto any cards which are left in the sanctuary area. If a card already has 1 or more sanctuary tokens on it, add another one. These cards with sanctuary tokens remain in place ready for the next turn. If there are not enough sanctuary tokens in the supply, add as many as can be done to cards in the sanctuary area, starting on the top row going from left to right and then moving to the second, third and fourth rows. Now go on to the Expansion Phase.

The Expansion Phase

Beginning with the player holding the 'start player' token and going round clockwise, players take turns to complete their Expansion Phase. In the Expansion Phase, you do the following on your turn:

1. Choose which of your cards in hand to play to the table. These represent animals you are introducing to your wildlife sanctuary. Un-played cards are kept in hand.

2. Add up your score for this round. This consists of the following:

• the value of your animal sets, as shown on the cards you have played to table
• the three Herd cards, when played to table, are worth 3 points each; they cannot be used to make sets
• the score indicated on your repopulation track is added (up to a maximum of 5 points)
• if you have a Park Manager team member you may pay 1 sanctuary token back to the supply to gain an extra 4 points

Scoring your cards (example): You've played these six cards, so your score is 15 points: 3 for the Buffalo herd, 1 each for the Hyena and Crocodile, and a very nice 10 for the set of three Elephants.

3. Add the score you've made this turn to the Score Track. If your total score has now reached 50 points or more, take no further actions. The game will be ending this turn, and you have achieved your final score. Flip your score-track disc over to the '50+' side and use it to indicate your total score. If your score-track disc ever lands on the same space as another player's, place it on top.

4. If your total score is 49 or less, you may use the points you've scored this turn to do some or all of the following:

• a) use points to retain any cards you have in hand: each point used in this way allows you to keep 1 card; any un-played cards not paid for in this way must be discarded — place them in the discard pile; cards you keep in hand can be used next turn;
• b) use points to promote team members to a new role; the cost of doing this is shown by the disc space for that role; move one of your team member markers to the new role (their previous role is now unfilled and the ability it has may no longer be used);
• c) use points to purchase sanctuary tokens from the supply; the first new sanctuary token you buy costs 1 point, the second costs 2 points, the third costs 3 points etc.. (so three new sanctuary tokens would cost 6 points in total); if there are no sanctuary tokens left in the supply you may not take this action.

If you have any remaining points they cannot be used and are lost.

5. If you have the Habitat Warden in your staff team, you may then use their ability to take 1 sanctuary token from the supply. Note that you can use the Habitat Warden even if you only promoted a team member into that role earlier this phase.

6. If you have the Wildlife Guard in your staff team, you may then use their ability by paying 3 sanctuary tokens back to the supply to draw 2 cards from the top of the deck into your hand. Note that you can use the Wildlife Guard even if you only promoted a team member into that role earlier this phase.

7. If you have the Veterinarian in your staff team you may then use their ability to draw 1 card from the top of the deck into your hand and then discard 1 card from your hand. Note that you can use the Veterinarian even if you only promoted a team member into that role earlier this phase.

8. Place all the cards that you've played to table this turn into the discard pile.

The next player round to the left then takes their Expansion Phase, until all players have completed this phase.

Important — End of Turn Clean-up

When all the players have taken their Expansion Phase, refill all the empty slots in the array by dealing cards from the deck so the array is completely re-filled and has 20 cards in it. Then find a new start player for the next turn. The player now in last place on the score track may choose whether or not to take the start player token. If they decide not to take it, the player in second last may choose whether or not to take it. If all other players decide not to take it, the player in first must accept it. If two players are on the same score, the player whose score-track disc is on top decides first.

If ever a card is needed from the deck and it is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck.

Victory

The game ends on a turn when at least one player has reached 50 or more points on the score track. After all players have taken their Expansion Phase, the player with the highest score wins. If it is a tie, the tied player with the most sanctuary tokens wins. If it is still a tie, the tied player with the most un-played cards wins. If it is still a tie, the tied player whose score-track disc is on top wins.

Solo Variant

Serengeti Sanctuary is designed for 2 to 4 players, but it can be played as a solo game. Simply use the normal rules. Note that each turn you will always take your two drafting actions consecutively. To win you must reach 50 or more points in three turns. This is quite challenging to achieve, so if you want to make it easier, before you start try promoting one of your Trail Guides to the Animal Caretaker role.

Card distribution

Table as printed: rows are terrain types, columns are animals; a tick marks each animal/terrain combination in the deck.

Terrain	Cheetah	Crocodile	Elephant	Flamingo	Giraffe	Gorilla	Hippo	Hyena	Lion	Meerkat	Rhino
Forest			✓		✓	✓				✓
Plateau						✓

Herd cards (legend on the printed page): Buffalo Herd ×1, Gazelle Herd ×1, Zebra Herd ×1. The herd cards each have their own unique terrain type.