Strandbüfé

Strandbüfé Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

6 × 3 worker tokens (3 in each player colour)
6 × 3 coloured tokens (3 in each player colour)
30 star tiles
140 grey tokens
6 clock tokens
1 starting player marker
6 two-sided player boards
6 cooler boards with scoring tracks
16 goal cards
16 round bonus cards
72 guest cards

Setup

Each player's supplies

Take the following:

1 player board (the colour of the van shows the player's own colour). In beginner mode the A side faces up; in advanced mode the B side faces up.
1 cooler board, placed to the left of the player board. The scoring side faces down; it is only needed at the end of the game.
3 coloured tokens and 3 worker tokens in your own colour. Place the coloured tokens above the player board (3/A). Place the workers numbered 2/3, 3/4 and 4/5 on their designated spaces, with the 2-3-4 side facing up (3/B).
21 grey tokens. Place 3 of them in each compartment of the cooler board (4/A). Advanced mode: depending on your player board, one compartment receives +1 token of the ingredient marked on the B side (4/B). The remainder is the common supply.
1 star tile on the first star space of the player board.
Advanced mode only: 1 clock token on the 0 space of the time track.

Preparing the play area

Shuffle the guest cards and form a face-down draw deck in the middle of the play area. Then reveal cards beside the deck, according to the number of players:

Players	1	2	3	4	5	6
Cards revealed	3	3	5	7	9	11

The round bonus cards show the round numbers and give one-time bonuses for that round. In beginner (A) mode, take out the two cards showing a clock; these are only needed in advanced mode. Shuffle the cards and place 6 of them randomly in a face-down pile at the edge of the play area, then turn the top card face up beside the pile. These 6 cards form the round marker. Return the remaining cards to the box.
Shuffle the goal cards, then reveal 5 of them in a row at the edge of the play area. Return the remaining cards to the box.
Give the starting player marker to the player who most recently ate a hamburger.

Illustration: setting up a 3-player advanced game.

Game Sequence

Strandbüfé lasts 6 rounds. Each round has two phases:

Attracting guests
Serving guests

Phase 1: Attracting guests

Golden rule: a beach buffet can have at most 2 guest cards next to it at one time.

Beginner (A) variant

Starting with the starting player and moving clockwise, each player chooses 1 guest card from the card row and places it beside their board.
After everyone has chosen, the last player may decide whether to take a second guest card.
Moving counterclockwise, the other players may also decide whether to take a second guest card.
Guests left in the row go to the discard pile.

Advanced mode: taking the second guest card is compulsory, except before closing time in the last round (see "The end of the game (closing time)" below).

A player who cannot bid (because they already have 2 guest cards) does not send a worker out to attract guests, so all of their tokens stay in the food truck and they receive no guest card.

Attracting guests continues until every player has 2 guest cards, or until the cards in the row run out.

Guest cards left in the row go to the discard pile. Sent-out workers can only be taken back at the end of the round.

Tip: a player who does not receive a second guest card is not at a disadvantage over the course of the game, because opportunities even out as play goes on.

Advanced (B) variant

1. Bidding

In advanced mode, guest cards are taken through bidding. Under the golden rule, a player who already has 2 guest cards waiting does not take part in bidding, but everyone else must.

How bidding works:

The starting player, if taking part, places one (and only one) worker token of their choice under one of the guest cards in the row. This starts the bid for that card.
The other players, in clockwise order, each also place one worker token under one of the guest cards.
A card that already has a worker token under it can only be bid on with a higher value: the value of your worker plus the number of stars on your buffet must be greater than the same sum for the player who last bid on that card.
If a player is outbid, they must move their worker to a different card. (If this creates a conflict there too, resolve it in the same way.)
Nobody may replace a worker token they have already placed.
When every participant has placed a worker token and no card has more than one token beneath it, bidding ends. Players take their cards; the worker tokens stay where they are for now.

Example: Lila is the starting player. Everyone bids with a 2-worker, so the 3 and 4 workers remain on all player boards.

2. Distributing the remaining guests

The remaining guest cards now choose a beach buffet. Deal them out in order of their point value, starting with the highest-value guest card:

A guest card only goes to a buffet food truck that does not yet have a second guest card.
If there are several such trucks, the guest card goes to the one with the highest quality: the sum of the values of the workers left in the truck plus the number of star tiles on it is highest.
In a tie, the guest card goes to the truck nearest the current starting player (or to the starting player's own truck).
If several guest cards of the same point value are looking for a place, the player receiving them may choose among them.

Phase 2: Serving guests

This phase consists of two actions, which may be taken in any order. You must spend action points on them:

A. Serving (Kiszolgálás)
B. Restocking supplies (Készletek feltöltése)

In this phase you may also use the round bonus of the current round (see "Round bonuses" below).

Golden rule: you may restock your supplies either before or after serving guests.

Action points

The value of your available workers gives the number of action points you may spend on serving guests and restocking your supplies.

Beginner mode: the value of your workers is 2+3+4=9 action points.
Advanced mode: the number of action points available depends on which tokens remain on your board after bidding, whether you have upgraded your workers earlier, and whether you have time savings to use (see "Time savings" below).

A. Serving

To fulfil a request, take a grey token from the matching compartment of your cooler and place it on the matching ingredient icon of your guest card (1). Each token moved costs 1 action point.

If the icon shows the number 2 (2), you must place 2 tokens on it, spending 2 action points.

Example: Lila's 4-worker could place 4 of the ingredients needed by the guest card in the example: 1 vegetable, 2 bakery items and 1 ice cream.

If you have fulfilled all of a guest's wishes, you receive the card's point value at the end of the game, and its card bonus at the moment of fulfilment, if it has one (see "Card bonuses" below). Return the grey tokens to the common supply, and place the guest card face down beside your player board.

If you cannot serve the guest, you may keep them for one more round if you can offer them a free drink: place a coloured token from your drink compartment on the centre of the guest card. You have this option only once per guest card, and this action does not cost an action point.

! A free drink cannot be used to fulfil the guest's request in the following round; a new token is still needed for that!

If you do not want to (or cannot) keep the guest with a drink, or you still fail to serve them in the following round, the guest leaves disappointed, whether or not you have given them anything. Discard the guest card, return the tokens to the supply, and discard one star if you have one, because the poor quality reflects badly on the buffet.

B. Restocking supplies

If ingredients run out, you cannot serve guests; they leave dissatisfied and spread bad word about your buffet.

At the start or end of the second phase, you may send out one (and only one!) of your workers to restock supplies. Its token must be taken off the food truck.

Restocking rules:

You may refill any compartment, including one that has not yet been fully emptied.
Advanced mode: one compartment may be filled up to 4 tokens.
A supplier worker fully refills as many compartments as its point value, at 1 action point per compartment.
A worker that restocks uses its full capacity, so you have fewer action points left for serving guests by the token's value.
Advanced mode: you must also account for the fact that the worker you sent to bidding cannot help serve guests. You may choose to send your restocking worker only at the end of the phase. In that case too, you must set that worker aside for restocking, and you may use the remaining action points for serving.

Example: Lila sends her 3-worker to restock at the start of the second phase, so it can fill 3 compartments. In beginner mode, only (2+4)=6 action points remain for serving guests.

Example (advanced): Lila sent her 2-worker to bidding in the first phase and her 3-worker to restock at the start of the second phase. So in this round only 4 action points remain for serving guests.

! A single worker's capacity cannot be split between different tasks. A 3-worker, for example, cannot fill 2 compartments and also take part in serving guests with a value of 1!

Time savings (advanced mode)

In advanced mode, if you do not use all of your action points in the second phase, you may record the remainder on the time track (move the red token). Up to 3 extra time units can be stored there. You may use these as extra action points for serving guests (not for restocking).

Card bonuses

If the guest card you fulfilled had a star bonus (star icon), take a star tile and place it on the next star space on your player board.

If the guest card you fulfilled had a time bonus (clock icon):

Beginner mode: you score 1 point for each clock icon at the end of the game.
Advanced mode: record 1 or 2 time units on the time track, if there is room there.

! A guest card's bonus can only be used from the next round! So in advanced mode, the star bonus from the first guest card cannot be used immediately to upgrade your workers, nor can the time bonus be used to increase your action points so that you can serve the second guest.

Upgrading workers (advanced mode)

In advanced mode, in exchange for discarding the stars placed on the worker-upgrade icon ( ) on your player board, you may at the end of the round flip the worker token matching the number of the star to its higher-value side.

You may always discard the highest-value star, but you may discard several in succession!

Round bonuses

During the serving phase you may use the round bonus of the current round at any time. Besides showing the round number, a round bonus card gives 1 bonus opportunity, from the ingredient shown by its icon, in that round. To use it, you must spend one of your coloured tokens.

If the offered bonus is an ingredient:

Place one of your coloured tokens in the matching compartment of your cooler (the 3 or 4 token limit of that compartment may not be exceeded).

If the offered bonus is a time unit (clock) (advanced mode only):

Place one of your coloured tokens beside the round bonus card, and record the extra time on your time track if there is still a free space there. You may have at most 3 time savings.

! You have 3 coloured tokens for bonuses in total over the whole game, and you may use only one token per round. At the end of the game, however, each remaining coloured token is worth 1 point!

Preparing the next round

After every player has finished serving guests and restocking supplies, prepare the next round:

Turn over another round bonus card and place it on top of the previous card, covering it.
Return all of your workers from the player board to your supply.
Reveal from the guest deck again as many cards as the number of players requires (see setup).
The previous round's starting player passes the starting player marker to the player on their left.

The end of the game (closing time)

When the 6th round bonus card has been turned over, the last round of the game begins. It differs from the earlier rounds as follows:

Beginner mode: citing closing time, you may already refuse to take the first guest card.
Advanced mode: citing closing time, you may refuse the second guest card you are due. Bidding is still compulsory, and you must still take the first guest card if there is room beside your buffet.

Scoring

After the last round, the game ends and scoring takes place.

Goal cards score points at the end of the game for the goods shown on them, according to how many times that goods icon appears in total in the lower part of your fulfilled guest cards.
Turn the cooler board over to its scoring side, and place one grey token on the starting (0) space of the 10 column and one on the starting (0) space of the 1 column.
Move your points down the track in this order (record the 1s in the 1 column and the 10s in the 10 column):
1. The total points of your fulfilled guest cards.
2. 2 points for each star tile on your board.
3. The points from your goal cards.
4. 1 point for each remaining coloured token.
In beginner mode, each clock icon on your fulfilled guest cards is worth 1 point.

The player who collects the most points wins!

In the event of a tie, the number of points gathered from cards decides.

Solo Play

Solo play follows the advanced (B) mode rules, set up for two players against a virtual opponent. The virtual opponent does not need a cooler board, grey tokens or a clock token.

The virtual opponent is the starting player in every round.

Phase 1: in the first phase, the virtual opponent places one worker token under a guest card according to the table below. In bidding, the sum of its worker tokens and stars is the value that counts.

Round	Guest card 1	Guest card 2	Guest card 3	Extra star at end of round
1	2	-	-	No
2	-	3	-	No
3	-	-	4	Yes
4	Takes no guest card	-	-	No
5	-	3	-	Yes

If you outbid the virtual opponent on your own turn, its token goes under the higher-value of the other two cards. The remaining guest is placed according to the rules (see page 5).

Phase 2: the virtual opponent fulfils the orders of every guest card it has received. If it does not yet have 5 stars, it receives the star bonuses of those cards, and where the table shows it, an extra star at the end of the round.

Scoring follows the multiplayer method (see page 11). You win if you have more points than your opponent.

The following is translated from the publisher's Hungarian promo card rules sheet (Promókártyák – Strandbüfé Játékszabály, Private Moon Studios). Each promo guest card's printed text is given under its name.

Eszkimók

Perhaps they got the house number wrong, but they like all the unclothed people around. Cook them two fish; in exchange you may take 3 grey tokens from the supply and place them in any one cooler compartment (respecting the appropriate limit).

Bro+Cicus

Give the bro an espresso, but the kitty will need 6(!) meat (and you will need two full rounds for that, naturally). He will consider you a good guy; he won't smile, but he will raise his thumb and give 10 points (plus a star) for all of this.

Alienek

The aliens dropped in for a coffee and are quick enough that they grant 1 time. But you can do business with them as well: if you optionally give them any ingredient (from any cooler compartment), they gladly pay for it with +2 time (for the next round, naturally).

Bohóc

He has not a penny, so if you invite him for a beer, he repays you by clowning around in front of the food truck, and with that +2 stars he increases your renown.

David Hüsselgrof

The attractive lifeguard asks for a sandwich and asks whether you have seen his colleague, Prunella Anderson. If you have her (or will have her by the end of the game), he gives you +3 points.

Prunella Anderson

The attractive lifeguard drops in for a shake and asks about her colleague, David Hüsselgrof. If you have him (or will have him by the end of the game), she gives you +3 points.

Ronald Grump

The businessman feels lost in the world, so he quickly asks you for a double espresso and a full waffle, because his blood sugar has dropped. If you serve him, he spreads word that the buffet is "big and beautiful" (+1 star). But if you do not, he gets angry and tears off 2 of your stars.

Punk

In one go he orders three beers, then downs them all by himself. If serving beer will be scored among the goal cards, he rewards you straight away with a minimum of +2 points.