Hello everyone!
Today we're going to talk about Moorland! It's your turn to manage the marshes, for 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up, for 45 to 60 minutes, to protect them and score the most points!
Peatlands are a little-known ecosystem, yet they are an essential component of our planet and its balance. They cover 3% of the Earth's surface but represent more than 30% of the carbon stored in the soil. Their destruction is therefore a major cause of CO₂ emissions worldwide. They are also a refuge for thousands of different species, often endemic.
The disappearance of a peatland is a huge blow to biodiversity, and therefore to life as we know it. Each player receives a personal player board, which outlines the turn order and final scoring, and allows them to place their cards and certain tokens (excess water and plants). They also receive four peatland tiles, each divided into four zones. The peatland tiles are placed in front of the players, forming a game board of 16 spaces (one per player). The game board will be the same for everyone, randomly determined at the start of the game. It contains 4 pre-filled spaces (each with a stream and a root space) and 12 empty spaces, each with 6 plant spaces.
The swamp cards are then shuffled, along with the plant cards, and both decks are placed face up on the table. Two cards are then removed from the plant deck and returned to the box. At the beginning of each turn, a river will be formed using the swamp cards (one more card than the number of players), and one plant card will be revealed.
The swamp cards contain a stream, which connects the sides of the card, and 1 to 4 plants, which can be withered, rooted, or floating. Some cards also contain animals (beetles, birds, snakes, dragonflies, butterflies, and frogs) and/or water spiders. Pairs of animals will score points at the end of the game, as will having multiple types of animals on your board. Water spiders do not count as animals, but will grant a bonus to the player with the most at the end of the game.
Plant cards usually feature two types of plants, but some feature all four.
On their turn, the active player can perform different actions: Take a card from the river (mandatory), place plant tokens on their board (optional), or place one or more swamp cards on their board (optional). The player takes one of the river cards and places it under their personal board. There can only be two swamp cards under the personal board at the end of the turn. If the player has three cards under their personal board at the end of this action, the "place a swamp card on your board" action becomes mandatory.
The player can take plants of one of the types shown on the active plant card from the reserve. They can then place these plants in a space on their bog board that is not covered by a swamp. Each space has 6 free plant spaces and displays a symbol that indicates the number of plants the player must place during this action (from 1 to 3). Some spaces have a special symbol that allows the player to place a plant of any type during this action.
If there are not enough free spaces on the space to place all the plants, the excess plants will be placed on the player's personal board, reducing their end-game score. The player can place one or more swamp cards on free spaces in their bog. To do so, the space must contain at least the plants indicated on the swamp card. It may contain other plants; this is not a problem. The plants on the space are removed, and the swamp card is placed on the space. The plants are then replaced according to the following rules:
Wilted plants are returned to the main supply. Rooted plants are placed on the swamp card and remain in place. The remaining plants drift to another empty space (or an empty root space) along the watercourse.
If a plant cannot drift, or if there are no more empty spaces, it is considered surplus and placed on the player's personal board.
If the player is the first to cover a space, they gain a water token. Water tokens are worth one victory point or can be spent to move a plant from one empty space to another.
The game ends after 12 rounds. The points are then tallied: 1 point per rooted plant, 1 to 12 points depending on the number of animal species present in the peat bog, 2 points per pair of animals, 1 to 7 points depending on the number of water spiders, 1 point per section of the watercourse.
One point per remaining water token, one point per excess plant. The player with the most points wins.
Good day and good game ;)
Add a comment