Watch Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Solo components
• Setup & Overview
• Game Play
  • Phase 1 - Place workers
  • Phase 2 - Reveal watch cards
  • Phase 3 - Carry out actions
  • Phase 4 - Turn hand of the watch
  • Phase 5 - Reveal a new market card
  • Debts
• Action Spots
  • Loading Dock
  • Workshop
  • Warehouse
  • Foreman's Office
• Document Cards
• 2-Player Game
  • The Third Worker
• End of the Game
• Solo Play
  • Solo play setup
  • Solo play rules
  • Sequence of solo play
  • Scoring
• Credits

Components

• 1 factory board
• 1 hand of the watch
• 1 black token
• 1 six-sided die
• 57 coins (39x 1 ruble, 15x 5 ruble)
• 8 debt markers
• 45 crates (5 of each value, values 1-9)
• 50 gears (28x value 1, 12x value 5, 10x value 10)
• 4 workers
• 80 tokens (20 of each color)
• 4 player boards
• 4 watch cards: Office, Loading Dock, Warehouse, Workshop (front); an eyes image (back)
• 12 market cards
• 28 document cards
• 4 overview cards
• 1 majority tracks board
• 1 tally board

Solo components

• Back of the player boards for solo play
• 6 solo scoring cards
• 3 watches
• 2 "closed" markers

Setup & Overview

Setup of a 2-, 3- or 4-player game:

1. Place the factory board in a central location reachable by all players.
2. Place the majority tracks board next to the factory board.
3. A) Shuffle all the market cards together and place them as a face-down stack next to the factory board. B) Draw the topmost card and place it face up in the center of the factory board and make sure that it aligns with the 4 sections of the factory board: The "eyes" on the market card align with the Foreman's Office, while the dark background quarter aligns with the Workshop.
4. Shuffle all the document cards together and place them as a face-down stack next to the Foreman's Office section of the factory board.
5. Place the 4 watch cards next to the Foreman's Office section of the factory board near the WATCH action.
6. Separate the crates by color and then sort them by value. Take player count + 1 of them of each value and stack them with their value side up. Place the 9 stacks next to the Loading Dock section of the factory board. Return the remaining crates to the game box.
7. Place all coins, gears and debt markers next to the factory board as a common unlimited supply.
8. Place the watch hand on the shell between the Foreman's Office and the Loading Dock at 12 o'clock. Place the black token on the WATCH action.
9. Each of you now carries out the following:

Choose a color and take your set of components:

• 1 player board
• Place the 20 tokens on the upgrade spots of your player board.
• Place your worker next to your player board. It will enter the factory board during the first game round.
• Draw 1 document card from the stack to your hand.
• Take 3 rubles and 2 gears from the common supply.

Only in a 2-player game: place 1 unused worker (the third worker) and the 6-sided die next to the factory board, as well as the 20 tokens in its color. The third worker will enter play during the first round. See page 9 for further rules of the 2-player game.

The solo setup is detailed on page 11. The solo components are not needed in multiplayer.

Whoever looks most likely to be a smuggler goes first as the start player. If there are too many or too few options, let the dice decide.

The factory board is divided into 4 sections (loading dock, workshop, warehouse and foreman's office), each of these has 2 action spots. In each section there is 1 safe action (light background) spot and 1 risky action spot (dark background).

Game Play

You play 12 rounds. In each round you place your worker on a new action spot, then the watch cards are revealed and you may be caught. Only thereafter you carry out your actions. The WATCH action is carried out each round, even when no worker has been placed there. To end the round you move the hand of the watch and reveal a new market card for next round. The 12th round ends immediately after phase 3. Then each player can take one last smuggle action and you proceed with final scoring.

Each game round consists of the following phases:

1. Place workers
2. Reveal watch cards and pay bribes if caught
3. Carry out actions (+ WATCH action)
4. Turn hand of the watch
5. Reveal a new market card

Phase 1 - Place workers

Only in the first round: Beginning with the start player and continuing around the table, you place your worker upright on one empty action spot of the factory board. Each action spot may only accommodate 1 worker. As an exception, you then proceed immediately with phase 3.

From the second round onwards: Beginning with the player whose worker is placed closest to the watch hand in a clockwise direction, move your worker to another empty action spot. After moving your worker place it upright. The actions are detailed on pages 7 and 8.

Example: first round

Example: Place workers in round 2

1. As the blue worker is the closest to the hand of the watch in a clockwise direction (green arrow), blue is the first to choose an action and selects WATCH by placing the blue worker there.
2. Yellow is next as that worker is lying sideways on the SEARCH FILES action, thus, yellow now selects an action for this round. Yellow choses UPGRADE by placing its worker upright in that action spot. Note that this spot has been left empty by the blue worker in this same "place worker" phase.
3. Red goes last in selecting its action and places its worker in the sell gears spot.

sideways = action completed upright = action chosen

Phase 2 - Reveal watch cards

From the second round onwards: Reveal the watch cards that have been activated last round by the action WATCH. Each worker that is on a risky action spot (dark brown background) of a revealed section is caught and they must pay the bribe in rubles to the player that had activated the cards last round. If the watch cards have been randomly activated last round, they must pay the bribe to the bank. (See the action WATCH on page 8 for the details on how to activate the watch cards.)

The amount of the bribe is determined by the columns on your player board of which you have already removed a token. The column that is the furthest to the right and has already empty upgrade spots shows the money you have to pay on top. If you do not have enough money to pay the bribe, you must take debts - as described on page 6. If you catch yourself, you don't pay a bribe.

Example: Bribe

Yellow is caught during phase 2 on the action spot OVERTIME by a random watch card. On its player board the rightmost empty upgrade spot of all rows is in the fourth column. Thus, yellow must pay the bribe that is shown at the top of this column. Yellow pays 5 rubles to the bank.

Example: reveal watch cards placed by a player

In round 2, two watch cards have been chosen by the blue player, as they carried out the WATCH action (see page 8) in phase 2 of round 3, Blue reveals the chosen watch cards: Warehouse and Loading dock. Blue has anticipated the moves of its opponents correctly: Red has been caught in the Warehouse while upgrading and Yellow has been caught at the Loading dock smuggling crates. Both of them are due to pay their bribes to Blue. Yellow is lucky, it had a "Bank pays bribe" document card and places it face-up out front - thus, Blue takes the 2 rubles that yellow would have had to pay from the bank instead. Red pays the bribe of 1 coin grudgingly directly to Blue.

Phase 3 - Carry out actions

Play order in this phase: You carry out your actions one after another, beginning with the player, whose worker is placed the closest to the watch hand in a clockwise direction, and so on (see the example of phase 1 for a description of this order). Lay your worker sideways after you carry out your action. The WATCH action is carried out, even if there is no worker there.

Each action consists of two parts:

1. the part that is described on the action spot (see details on p. 7 and 8).
2. place a token from your player board onto one of the 6 majority tracks. Take the token that is the furthest to the left in the row of the section of this action spot and place it on any one of the majority tracks. You always place it on the empty spot the furthest to the left of the chosen majority track. (A spot is not empty if there is already a token or a gear. If there is no empty spot in the chosen track, you must choose another majority track.) If the empty spot has a bonus, you take it immediately or forfeit it. If you have no token in the row of your section, you do not place a token this time. The two rightmost spots of each majority track are only used in a 4-player game.

Bonuses on majority tracks

• Take the number of rubles from the supply.
• Take the number of gears from the supply.
• Smuggle 1 crate of the shown color for the number of gears shown. You can only smuggle white or dark brown if you have upgraded the player board far enough. See page 7 "SMUGGLING".

Red goes first: After smuggling, red takes the leftmost token from the smuggling upgrade row and places it on the fourth majority track. Red then takes 2 gears from the supply, as this is the immediate bonus of this spot. (4-player game only)

Phase 4 - Turn hand of the watch

The hand of the watch is turned to its next spot. The hand moves from 12 o'clock, to 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock and then back again to 12.

Phase 5 - Reveal a new market card

Reveal the top market card from the stack and place it in the center of the watch on top of the market card from last round.

Debts

When you are forced to pay rubles, either as you have been caught or by choosing the action UPGRADE and you do not have enough rubles, you must take 1 debt marker and 5 rubles from the supply to pay your costs or the bribe. You may take multiple debt markers until you have enough rubles to pay the cost or bribe.

At any time you can pay 8 rubles to return 1 debt marker to the supply. Each debt marker scores -10 points at the end of the game.

Action Spots

Loading Dock

SMUGGLE: Trade gears in exchange for munitions crates according to the icon that is below the rightmost empty upgrade spot in the row of the Loading Dock on your player board. If you have not removed a token yet in that row, use the icon in the box to the left. You take the crate(s) with the highest value available in that color. (You can default to a lower color.)

In the beginning, trade 1 gear for the most valuable light brown crate.

Example: SMUGGLE

Red carries out the action smuggle. Red has removed 2 tokens from its loading dock row from its player board, so red trades 2 gears for 1 light brown crate and one white crate. The 2 gears are paid to the bank. There are no value 3 crates left, so red takes a light brown value 2 crate and a white value 6 crate.

SELL GEARS: Sell gears to the bank at a rate of 1 gear for 1 coin. Then take the Loading Dock market card bonus in rubles once.

Upgrade crates: Return one of your crates to the matching stack and take a crate that is from a more valuable color one step up. If you return a light brown crate you take a white crate, if you return a white crate you take a dark brown crate.

Example: SELL GEARS and upgrade crates

Red carries out the Sell gears action. Red sells 5 gears and receives in return 5 rubles. Then red also takes the rubles indicated on the market card, in this case 3 rubles.

Then red also upgrades one of its crates: Red has a light brown value 2 crate and returns it to the stack and therefore then takes a white value 6 crate.

Workshop

OVERTIME: Take the number of gears according to the icon that is below the rightmost empty upgrade spot in the row of the Workshop on your player board. If it shows points (number on a star), refer to the third column. If you have not removed a token yet in that row, use the icon in the box to the left. Then take the workshop market card bonus in gears once (box with the dark background).

Example: OVERTIME

A. Red carries out overtime and thus takes 4 gears due to the workshop upgrade level on its player board and 2 gears due to the market card, a total of 6.

B. The fourth column on Red's player board is already empty, thus, Red takes 6 gears according to the icon in the third column, as well as the market card bonus of 2 gears; in total 8.

PRODUCE GEARS: Take the number of gears according to the icon that is below the rightmost empty upgrade spot in the row of the Workshop on your player board. If it shows points (number on a star), refer to the third column. If you have not removed a token yet in that row, use the icon in the box to the left.

Move on the majority track: Move one of your tokens from any one of the majority tracks to the leftmost empty space on the same track. Place a gear from the supply on the now empty spot where you took your token from.

Example: PRODUCE GEARS & move token

Red produces gears and thus takes 4 gears due to the workshop upgrade level on its player board. Then red moves the token in the first spot of the lower crates majority track to spot 4 that grants 3 gears immediately (1). Red then places 1 gear from the common supply onto the first spot of the track to block it (2).

Warehouse

UPGRADE: Take the token that is the furthest to the left of one of your rows and place it on one of the leftmost empty spots of one of the majority tracks. You must pay the cost in rubles that is shown at the top of the column from which you take the token. Pay the money to the bank. You can take debt tokens to have enough money to pay for these costs.

Example: UPGRADE

Red carries out an upgrade and decides to remove the leftmost token from the Loading Dock row. In this case, red has to pay 3 rubles to the bank, as these are the costs on top of the third column. Then red places that token on an empty leftmost spot on any one of the majority tracks.

SCROUNGE: Take rubles and gears according to the icon that is below the rightmost empty upgrade spot in the row of the Warehouse on your player board. If it shows points (number on a star), refer to the third column. If you have not removed a token yet in that row, use the icon in the box to the left. Then take the warehouse market card bonus in rubles and/or gears once.

Example: SCROUNGE

Red scrounges 1 gear and 2 rubles due to the warehouse upgrade level on the player board plus 1 gear and 1 ruble due to the market card.

Foreman's Office

SEARCH FILES: Take a number of document cards according to the icon that is below the rightmost empty upgrade spot in the row of the Warehouse on your player board. If you have not removed a token yet in that row, use the icon in the box to the left.

Take, according to the icon, 3 to 6 document cards from the stack (card icons in total). You may keep 1 to 3 of these in your hand (dark card icons). Shuffle the cards that you don't keep and place them back to the bottom of the stack.

Example: SEARCH FILES

Red searches files and thus is allowed to draw 5 document cards and keep 2 of these, according to their office row. Red then shuffles and returns the 3 remaining cards to the bottom of the stack.

WATCH: Set a number of watch cards for the next round according to the number of observations on the current market card (example: 3). Additionally, you may peek at the market card of the next round to help make your decision. Choose the watch cards you want to assign and place them face-down next to your player board. These chosen cards are revealed during next round's Reveal watch cards phase (phase 2, i.e., after each player has chosen their action for that round). Place the remaining watch cards face-down next to the foreman's office.

The WATCH action is carried out in each round: In case that no player has chosen this action, the cards are determined randomly. Draw as many cards as shown on the market card randomly from all four watch cards and then place the drawn cards face-down on the Foreman's Office section of the factory board to be revealed next round. The remaining cards are placed face-down next to the factory board.

If you choose the WATCH action, also carry out the following:

Repay debts at reduced cost: You may pay 5 rubles to the bank to return 1 debt marker. (May be done multiple times.)

Black token: You take the black token either from the action spot or from its current owner. As long as you have the black token, the bank will pay any bribes that you must pay, when you get caught.

Example: WATCH

Yellow takes the WATCH action, thus takes all 4 watch cards and choses 2 cards for next round as the market card indicates a 2. Yellow keeps these 2 cards with themself and returns the 2 remaining cards face-down. Yellow then returns one of her debt markers and pays 5 rubles to the bank. Yellow also takes the black token from Blue and keeps the token until someone else carries out the WATCH action, until then the bank will pay any bribes that yellow would have to pay.

Document Cards

Each document card shows a color and an action.

Move one of your tokens on the majority tracks: While you carry out any action in phase 3: Place this card next to your player board, then you can move one of your tokens on the majority tracks. Take one of your tokens and place it in another leftmost empty spot on any one of the majority tracks. Place a gear from the supply in the spot that you left empty. You can only play one such card per round.

When caught bank pays bribe: When you get caught during phase 2 while doing a risky action, you can place this card next to your player board, so that the bank pays the bribe instead of you.

When smuggling: Play one or multiple copies of this card, while you carry out the SMUGGLE action OR during final smuggling: You can smuggle once more per card using any of the indicated ratios on the cards, as long as you are already able to smuggle crates in that color according to your player board.

Example: Move one of your tokens on the majority tracks

Yellow has just carried out the smuggle action and places a token on the majority track (1) and carries out the bonus action of it (take 2 gears). Yellow then immediately plays one of the cards from their hand face-up next to their player board - beside any other cards that might already have been played for their actions and for set collection (2). The card allows moving one of your own tokens from any spot to any majority track (3). It is placed on a bonus spot in this case, so the bonus action may be carried out (4) (take one light brown crate). Then one gear token from the common supply is placed on the original spot of the token (5), in order to indicate that this spot is not empty for the remainder of the game.

2-Player Game

The Third Worker

The third worker that has been prepared during setup takes up action spots and blocks them during the game. In the first round it is placed after you have chosen your first action spots. Roll the die and count an empty spot for each rolled pip (from the hand of the watch in a clockwise direction). Later on, it is moved, whenever it is its turn by rolling a die and moving it one step per pip in a clockwise direction. Only count empty spots. There are always 5 empty spots, thus rolling a 1 or a 6 moves it 1 step to the next action spot.

If the third worker is caught, the bank pays its bribes. The amount of the bribe is determined by the player board of the other player.

The third worker does not carry out any actions, but it places a token in its color on the majority tracks. It places the token in the row that is the result of the die (counting rows from the top to the bottom). It, thus, blocks bonus spots and may take majorities from you.

Example: 2-player game

The "third worker" (red) rolls the dice to see how far it moves in a clockwise direction. The result is a 6, thus, it moves 6 steps, only counting the empty spots. This results in it moving to the SEARCH FILES action spot - in counting like indicated on the image to the right (white numbers). Independent of the action spot that the third worker selected, it places a token in its color on the majority tracks during phase 3. As it rolled a 6, the token is placed in on the sixth majority track, counting the tracks from the top to the bottom.

End of the Game

The game ends after phase 3 of the 12th round. At this point the stack of market cards is empty and the watch hand is on 9 o'clock. You then continue with the final smuggle action. The player whose worker is closest to the watch hand in a clockwise direction and continuing with all players, you may smuggle once again using your best unlocked ability. (You do not place a token though!)

After each player has smuggled, you must pay your debts (each debt token costs 8 rubles).

Then continue with final scoring. Follow the scoring help on the tally board to score for each player. Mark your points on the tally board with your worker:

1. Crates - Points on the crates
2. Player board - Points for unlocked points on your player board (adding them together)
3. Set collection - Points for collecting document cards
4. Gears bonus - according to the top two majority tracks (maximum 60 points).
5. Coins bonus - according to the middle two majority tracks (maximum 60 points).
6. Crates bonus - according to the bottom two majority tracks. Points for this are awarded for each crate independent of its color and value.
7. Debts - for each remaining debt marker you get minus 10 points.

The player with the most points is the winner.

Scoring the majority tracks

Count and compare the number of tokens within each row to establish the majorities of that track. Then award 1st and 2nd places. Depending on which place you reached, you get points for the components you own. In case of a tie all players tied receive the same points, lower places will not be awarded in that case.

A. The two (independent) majority tracks for gears B. Points per gears for the 1st place in this track C. Points per gears for the 2nd place in this track D. Maximum bonus points possible for gears: 60 points

Scoring the document cards

Check all cards in your hand and in front of you:

• If you have all four colors you score 25 points (once).
• Then count all the cards of each color seperately (as sets) and score depending on how many you have: 0 / 5 / 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 points.

Example: 4 document cards in one color score 20 points.

Example: Scoring Blue in a 3-player game

At the end of the game Blue pays off their debt by paying 8 rubles to the bank and thus returning the debt marker to the supply to avoid a minus 10 points disadvantage.

Blue then follows the scoring order:

1. Crates: 2 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 9 = 36 points
2. Player board: 5 + 10 = 15 points
3. Set collection: 5 + 0 = 5 points
4. Gears bonus: Blue has 33 gears left. With 2 tokens in the top row it is second place behind red, thus, 1 point per gear. With 3 tokens in the second row, it is 1st place, thus, 1 point per gear. This totals to 2 x 33 = 66 points, but the maximum allowed for gears is 60 points.
5. Coins bonus: Blue has 4 rubles left. With 3 tokens in the third row it is second place, thus, 1 point per coin. With 1 token in 4th row it is third place, thus, no additional points. This tallies up to 1 x 4 = 4 points
6. Crates bonus: Blue has 7 crates total. With two tokens in 5th row, it is a tie for 1st place, thus, 4 points per crate. With 2 tokens in the last row it is again a tie for 1st place, thus, 3 points per crate. This amounts to 7 x 7 = 49 points
7. Debts: With no debts left, no negative points for blue.

Blue scores a total of 169 points.

Final score: Yellow 103, red 139 and blue 169. (Use your playing figure and one of your tokens that stayed on your player board to tally up your score. The removal of this token does not affect your score of course.)

Solo Play

Experimental automation has come to the factory and you are the only human employee left. Even the foreman is gone, his office locked. Do your best in order to keep your job!

Solo play setup

1. Place the factory board in a central location.
2. A) Shuffle all the market cards together and place them as a face down stack next to the factory board. B) Draw the topmost card and place it face-up in the center of the factory board and make sure that it aligns with the 4 sections of the factory board: The "eyes" align with the Foreman's office, while the dark background aligns with the Workshop.
3. Close the Foreman's office: Place the 2 closed markers on the action spots of the Foreman's office. These action spots are not used in solo play.
4. Place the 4 watch cards next to the Foreman's office section of the factory board near the Watch action.
5. Separate the munition crates by color and then sort them by value. Take only 2 crates of each value and stack them separately. Number side up. Place the 9 stacks of 2 crates each next to the Loading dock section of the factory board.
6. Place all coins, gears and debt markers next to the factory board as a common supply.
7. Place the robot (a worker of any color) on the SMUGGLE action spot and place the 6-sided die next to the factory board.
8. Shuffle the 6 solo cards for scoring, draw 1 and place it face up next to the factory board. Return the remaining cards to the box.
9. Choose a player color and take that set of player components:
   • 1 player board, place it with its solo side face up in front of you
   • Place the 3 watches in the Foreman's office row of your player board
   • Place 15 tokens on the upgrade spots of your player board (rows Loading dock, Workshop and Warehouse, return leftovers to the box)
   • Take 3 rubles and 2 gears from the common supply.

Components not used in Solo play: Return the majority tracks board and the watch hand to the box.

Solo play rules

In general, solo play differs only in some ways elaborated here from the multiplayer mode:

• The tokens are used as a new currency. If you are caught by the surveillance system, you must pay tokens at the same rate as you would have paid money in the multiplayer mode. Yet if you do not have enough tokens, you must pay the remainder at a rate of 3 rubles to 1 for each token that you are short.
• Your gears, coins and tokens will be worth points at the end of the game as determined by the Solo card.
• The robot moves before you every round by rolling the die. It occupies one action spot, that you may not use in this round.
• Watch cards are random every turn. The first three times the Foreman's office card is revealed, remove watches. When you remove the third, also remove the Foreman's office card. (At that point only Loading dock, Workshop or Warehouse are left in the stack of watch cards. I.e., it is more likely that you will be caught by surveillance.)

Sequence of solo play

1. Roll the die to move the robot. A 5 will keep the robot on the same action spot, a 1 or a 6 will move it 1 step - as the 2 actions spots of the Foreman's office are closed. (Skip on first turn.)
2. You choose a new action spot. Must be different from previous round. (On first turn, you may choose any action spot other than SMUGGLE.)
3. Reveal watch cards. (Skip on first turn.) If caught, pay bribe in tokens. If you do not have enough tokens, pay 3 rubles for each token you are short. If you do not have enough rubles, take out 5 coin loans until you have enough, taking a debt marker for each loan.
4. Carry out action. Then remove leftmost token from your player board in the row matching the factory section you take the action of. Keep the token in your supply.
5. Set the watch cards for the next turn.
6. Reveal the next market card and place it in the center of the board.
7. After 12 rounds, score as usual but using the Solo card instead of the standard scoring ledger.

Scoring

The solo card determines how many points you score for each component that you own of gears, rubles and tokens. You score the points for your player board and the crates as usual.

You can compare your high score with these benchmarks:

• Score 75 - You barely keep your job.
• Score 100 - You are the new foreman.
• Score 125 - You now run the entire factory.
• Score 160 - Behold a true hero of soviet labor! Congratulations!

Credits

Game design: Daniel Newman Illustration: Harald Lieske Editor: Philippe Schmit Art direction and game development by SPIELPUNXX (www.spielpunxx.com)

Many thanks to Gil Hova, Rocco Privetera, Ryan Courtney, Eric Buscemi, Chris Kirkman, Matt Wolfe, Chris Zinsli, Peter Hayward, Aaron Wilson, and everyone else who helped playtest at NYC Playtest and Unpub.

Special thanks to Uli Blennemann.

Copyright: (c)2021 PD-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Everstorfer Str. 19, 21258 Heidenau, Germany (www.pd-verlag.de)