Entdecker (Discoverer) Soeding Variant

Integration of original rules of the original German edition and Emanuel Soeding's variant by Vitas Povilaitis, March 20, 2002.

A game by Klaus Teuber for 2-4 Players
Published by Gold Sieber Spiele, 1996
English Rules Translation by Chris Mellor
Originally Typed, Edited and Distributed from The Sumo Rules Bank by Mike Siggins

The Rules

Setup

1. Sort the Reserve Tiles (with the Goldsieber balls) from the other discovery tiles.
2. The Reserve Tiles are sorted according to their number and are placed next to the board, face up, number down, in six piles.
3. Each player gets four discovery tiles: one with four sea edges, one with three sea edges, and one of each with two sea edges (sea on opposite sides, sea on adjacent sides.)
4. The remaining discovery tiles are well shuffled and are placed in five face down piles.
5. The Discovery Chips are shuffled and placed in the cloth bag.
6. The event table is placed next to the board, or make a copy for each player.
7. Each player receives all pieces and the success counter of one colour, a gold display and a gold marker.
8. The gold marker is placed in space 4 of the gold display.
9. The success counter is placed on the start space of the border track.
10. The youngest player receives the income display and the ship, and begins as the starting player.

Overview of the Round

A round consists of each player getting a turn to explore.

1. Determine Gold Income.
   At the beginning of each round the starting player determines the income for everybody.
2. Discovery.
   When it is your turn, place the ship on an already discovered space on the board in an attempt to discover new lands. The more gold coin you invest, the greater your chances of success.
3. Placing Units.
   Whoever discovers new land can place their units there.
4. An Island is Fully Discovered.
   If one or more islands have been fully discovered and a player has ended his turn, all players with units on the island receive victory points.
5. New Player.
   At the end of his turn, the player passes the ship clockwise to the next player.
6. New Starting Player.
   At the end of the round, starting player gives the spinner to the next player to his left.

The Game in Detail

1. Determining Income

At the beginning of the round, the starting player spins the income spinner. Each player adds that amount to the gold on his gold display, to a maximum of twelve.

2. Discovery

When it is your turn, you place the ship in the middle circle of an already discovered space. This space must possess at least one free white line (connecting line) to an undiscovered space on the board.

In the first turn the ship can only be placed on a circle in a discovered side area (the blue circles off board).

If a player begins his turn on a space in which there is a unit of another player, this incurs extra cost. He must spend as much gold as the value of the opponent's unit. eg if there is a fort there, he must move his gold marker back three spaces.

Declaring Discovery Tiles

The player now declares how many gold he will spend for exploration. For one gold, he must draw a face-down discovery tile. For two gold, he may choose one of the tiles he received at the beginning of the game. A player may build only one of his own tiles per turn in addition to any number of the selected tiles. He must declare at least one gold.

Drawing and Placing Discovery Tiles

1. The player draws a tile from one of the five decks, or from one of his own tiles. If he draws a tile with a question mark, then after placing the tile the event is read off from the event table and carried out.
2. He places the tile on a free side of the space on which the ship stands. All four sides of the tile must fit with any tiles already in place - water to water, and land to land.
3. When a tile is turned up that cannot be played, it is not removed from the game, instead it is placed next to it's corresponding reserve tile pile. Once the reserve pile is dry, these tiles can be used to fill spaces that have four sides filled. Note - "?" tiles are removed from the game. The Player does not get to redraw the tile, and gold spent for exploring it remains spent.
4. If the tile fits, then it must be placed down. The player then moves the ship along the connecting line onto the circle of the newly discovered space. If the player has more than one placing down option, the he chooses which one.
5. If the player has declared more than one gold for exploration, then he can keep on trying to discover - he places down tiles and moves the ship onto the tile.
6. It can happen that a player can turn over fewer tiles than he has declared. Indeed, if he moves with his ship onto a tile which has no more connecting lines to an undiscovered area he has no choice but to stop. Any additional gold spent for exploration is lost.
7. If at the end of a turn there is a gap in which only a specific type of tile can be played, ie all four sides are surrounded by discovered areas, then this gap can be filled from a tile in the reserve. In rare cases a group can consist of more than one space which is surrounded only by land. This gap is filled with reserve tiles on which there is only land.

3. Placing Units

If a player has moved the ship onto a tile on which land is shown, then he can place down one unit from his supply. His turn then ends, even if the player would have turned over further tiles and placed them.

The player places the unit on the land and moves his gold marker down by the cost of the unit: Scout = 1; Fort = 3; Settlement = 6.

• Only one unit can be placed on each tile.
• If two separate land segments appear on the same area, the player must choose one on which to place his unit.
• A unit can only be removed when the island is completed (fully discovered), except the Scout pieces which may be returned to your supply at any time.

4. Complete Discovery of an Island

If at the end of a turn an island is completely discovered, the largest discoverer of an island is determined. This is the player with the most valuable type of unit on the island (a settlement is more valuable than a fort.) If there is a tie as to who is the largest discoverer, then in addition you take into consideration who has the most of the lesser units on the island (ie Settlement + Fort + Two Scouts beats Settlement + Fort + One Scout. Fort + No Scouts beats Three Scouts - it is the possession of a fort which wins, not the number of 'lesser' units.) If there is still a tie, then all player in the tie are joint discoverers of the new land.

If there is at least one fort or settlement on the island, then a new discovery has been made. The largest discoverer (or more than one if a tie) takes a discovery chip from the pile and places it face up in front of him. If there aren't enough chips for all eligible players to draw, then no-one receives one.

The value of an island is determined by adding together the number of tiles that form the island and the value of discovery chips found there. If more than one player has drawn chips, then only the chip with the highest value is counted.

The largest discoverer receives the entire value of the island as victory points. The other players on the island each receive half the victory points of the player ahead of them. ie If the winner receives twelve points, second receives six, the third three and so on. Round up fractions each time. Eg.: 10,5,3,2. All player who score points move their victory point marker around the track and all units from the island are returned to their owners' supply piles.

5. New Player.

At the end of his turn, the player passes the ship clockwise to the next player.

6. New Starting Player

When the round is over (each player explored something), instead of turning the spinner again, the starting player gives the spinner to the next player to his left. This player is now the starting player for this round, spinning the arrow and taking his turn. This results in the starting player missing one turn after he was the starting player.

End of Game

The game ends when all spaces on the board have been discovered. If the last tile laid completes an island, this island is scored as usual.

In exceptional cases it can happen that the board is not completely full when the last discovery tile is taken. In which case, the game ends when the placing of the latter takes place. All incomplete islands are scored as if they had been fully discovered at their current size. However a discovery chip is not given for these islands.

A discovery bonus is made to the player with the most discovery chips in front of them. The bonus is equal to the number, not total value, of discovery chips a player has and these are added to his victory point tally. If two or more players are tied for discovery chips, each player gains the discovery bonus.

Whichever player is now furthest along the victory point track is the winner.

Events

• Sturm - Storm:
  Your turn ends immediately. You cannot place any unit, nor turn over any further discovery tiles.
• Feindliche Ureinwohner - The Natives are Revolting:
  If you wishes to place a unit on this tile, then you must pay double the amount of money - so 2 for a scout, 6 for a fort. It is not possible to build a settlement here.
• Freundliche Ureinwohner - Friendly Natives:
  Draw a discovery chip from the pile and place it face up in front of you. This chip cannot be used to move along the victory point track. It has value at the end of game.
• Piraten - Pirates:
  You lose half your gold, rounding the loss up. You must move your gold marker back that number of spaces.
• Ruine - Ruins:
  You receive three victory points. You immediately move your victory point marker forward three spaces.
• Gold - Gold:
  You find three gold pieces. Move your gold marker up three spaces, but you cannot have more than a total of twelve gold pieces.