Cacao (game)
| Cacao | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Phil Walker-Harding |
| graphic | Claus Stephan |
| publishing company | Abacus games u. a. |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| Art | Placement game |
| Teammates | 2 to 4 |
| Duration | 45 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years
|
| Awards | |
|
Game of the year 2015: Recommended list |
|
Cacao is a placement game by the Australian game designer Phil Walker-Harding , which was published in 2015 by the German game publisher Abacusspiele , among others . In the same year it was included in the recommendation list for Game of the Year and was recognized as a game hit for families at the Austrian Game Prize for Games .
In 2016, Cacao: Chocolatl, the first official expansion to Cacao with four expansion modules, was published, followed in 2017 with Cacao: Diamante, the second expansion, also with four modules. In addition, several mini-expansions to the game have been released.
Style of play
In Cacao , the aim of the players is to earn as much gold as possible as the chief of an Aztec tribe by harvesting and selling cocoa and other activities. It is a puzzle game in which, similar to Carcassonne, a landscape gradually emerges, which in this case consists of villages and jungle fields. The winner is the player with the most gold at the end of the game.
The game material consists of the instructions and an overview sheet with the properties of the jungle tiles:
- 44 worker tiles in four colors (white, purple, red and yellow)
- 4 game figures (water carriers) in four colors
- 4 village boards in four colors
- 28 jungle tiles (10 different types with different properties)
- 20 wooden cocoa pods
- 12 sunstones
- 48 gold coins (coins with the values 1, 5 and 10)
Game preparation
At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a game color and receives the corresponding worker tiles, the water carrier and the village board. The player board is placed in front of the players, the water carrier is placed on the "-16" space. In the case of two players, each player gets
- four cards with one worker on each side,
- five cards with two on one side and no worker on one side and
- two cards with three workers on one edge and two empty edges.
If there are three players, one of the former is removed from the game for each player, and if there are four players, additionally one with two workers on one side. The remaining cards are shuffled and laid out as a draw pile, each player takes three cards from hand.
Then the gold coins, the temple tiles and the cocoa fruits are laid out as a depot. When playing with two players, some of the jungle cards specified in the game instructions are removed, otherwise all tiles are used. One tile each with a single cocoa field and one with a 2-market are placed diagonally to each other in the middle of the table. The remaining jungle cards are shuffled and laid out as a face-down draw pile, the top two cards are turned up. Finally, a starting player is chosen (according to the game instructions, the oldest player).
Game flow
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Actions per turn
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Beginning with the starting player, each round the players place a village tile on the jungle tiles on display so that they are always adjacent to one another on at least one side. A worker tile can be rotated as desired, but it may never border on other worker tiles and a jungle tile can never border on other jungle tiles.
After the tile has been laid out, the refilling of jungle spaces can be triggered if any two worker tiles are adjacent to a jungle space that has not yet been placed. For each jungle space to be refilled, the player chooses one of the openly displayed jungle tiles from the draw pile and places it on the space to be filled. If there are two fields to be filled, he can choose which of the two open jungle tiles is placed on which of the two fields; if more fields have to be filled, the player draws more tiles from the draw pile after he has dealt the open cards. The open display is only refilled at the end of the turn. There is no need to add more when there are no more jungle tiles.
After the display and the filling of the jungle spaces, all workers on the newly placed worker tile that border on jungle spaces, as well as the workers that border on newly placed jungle tiles in other villages, are activated. The players are allowed to take the action of the adjacent jungle tile for each worker, but they can also partially or completely waive. The order in which the actions are to be carried out is up to the player, but the actions for workers on one tile side must be completed before the actions for workers on another tile side.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
|
1 cocoa plantation 2 cocoa plantations |
For each cocoa plantation and for each worker activated by it, the player receives one cocoa fruit. These are placed on the corresponding field on the village board. When the maximum number of cocoa fruits on the board has been reached, no further fruits can be accepted. |
6 2 |
|
Market , selling price 2 Market , selling price 3 Market , selling price 4 |
One cocoa fruit can be sold on the market for each activated worker for the specified sales price. |
2 4 1 |
|
Gold mine , value 1 Gold mine , value 2 |
In the gold mine, a player receives one or two gold pieces for each activated worker according to the specified value. |
2 1 |
| water | For each activated worker on the water tile, the player may advance his water carrier on the village board by one space. If the water carrier reaches the last field with the value "16", it cannot be advanced any further. | 3 |
| Sun cult site | For each activated worker at a sun cult site, the player may take a sun stone from the supply and place it on his village plateau. When the maximum number of sunstones on the board has been reached, no more sunstones can be accepted. In the last phase of the game, when there are no more jungle tiles available, sun stones can be used to build over your own village tiles and activate the appropriate workers. Sunstones that are still on the village board at the end of the scoring count one gold piece. | 2 |
| temple | The temples are scored at the end of the game and do not trigger any direct action. The player who has the most workers at the temple receives 6 gold pieces, the one with the second most 3 gold pieces and in the event of a tie the respective coins are divided between the corresponding players | 5 |
The active player's turn ends when all actions of the activated workers of all players have been carried out. Finally, the player draws the top worker tile from his worker draw pile and puts it into his hand. Then he refills the open display of the jungle tiles to two cards. If the plates are used up in both cases, there is no need to re-draw.
End of game and evaluation
The game ends when all players have completely used up their village tiles. This is followed by the final scoring, in which the temples are first scored individually one after the other and the corresponding players are paid out. Then each player receives one gold piece for each sunstone that he still has at the end of the game. Finally, the water carrier is scored according to the water space it is standing on. The winner is the player who has the most gold after the final scoring, in case of a tie the player with the most remaining cocoa fruits wins and in case of another tie there are several winners.
Mini extensions
At Cacao since the publication in 2015 several mini expansions appeared:
- Volcanoes
The mini-expansion Volcanoes brings three tiles with volcanic fields into the game. When the expansion is used, the three gold mines will be replaced by the volcanoes. It also contains four coins with a value of 20.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| volcano | Depending on the position on the volcano, a player receives two gold pieces or loses one for each activated worker. | 3 |
- Large market (board game advent calendar 2015)
The expansion consists of a single tile, a market tile with a retail price of 5. The tile is brought into play in exchange for a market with a retail price of 3.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| Big market , selling price 5 | One cocoa fruit can be sold on the market for each activated worker for the specified sales price of 5 gold pieces. | 1 |
- Golden Temple (Board Game Advent Calendar 2015)
The expansion consists of a single tile, a golden temple with the values 8 for the player with the most workers at the temple and 1 for the player with the second most workers. The tile is placed in the game in exchange for a normal temple.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| Golden temple | The player who has the most workers at the temple receives 8 gold pieces at the end of the game, the player with the second most 1 gold piece and, in the event of a tie, the respective coins are divided between the respective players | 5 |
- The Glade
The clearing is an unofficial extension in the form of a postcard that was given to supporters of the German podcast Bretterwisser in 2015 . The postcard shows a clearing with four adjoining jungle fields. It is laid out next to the display in the middle of the table and can be used by each player once per game by placing a village tile with four individual workers in the clearing and activating two of the four jungle fields. The tile is then turned over to show which players have already used this option.
Cacao: Chocolatl
In 2016, the first official expansion of the game appeared under the title Cacao: Chocolatl , which should bring several new possibilities into the game. The expansion contains four expansion modules with the names Chocolate , Irrigation , Huts and Maps , which can be played together or individually.
- Maps
The map module brings a map board and eight map tiles into play. Each player receives two map tiles, the map board is placed next to the draw pile of jungle tiles. Then, instead of just two, four jungle tiles are laid out face up, the first two being placed face up on the map board and the other two forming the normal display.
During the course of the game, the player can choose one of the two open tiles when filling up the jungle spaces as usual, but instead he can also select and use one of the tiles from the tableau. To do this, he must discard one of his two map tiles, which is then removed from the game. After the round, the display is filled again from the draw pile, whereby the remaining tiles from the map board are placed in the normal display first and then the board is filled. Map tiles that are not used do not bring any gold in the settlement at the end of the game. As a variant, the players can agree to allow overbuilding when the jungle draw pile has been used up, even if there are still tiles on the tableau.
- irrigation
The irrigation module brings three new jungle tiles into play, which can be exchanged for a single plantation and two double plantations (when playing with two players, only the two double plantations are exchanged for irrigation tiles). Instead of the market, an irrigation tile is placed on the starting display as a starting tile.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| irrigation | For each activated worker, the player may move his water carrier back one water space and receive four cocoa fruits from the supply, which he places on free storage spaces on his village board. If a player's water carrier is already on the water space with the value −10, he cannot get any fruit. | 3 |
- chocolate
With the chocolate module, six new jungle tiles come into play, three of which each with a chocolate kitchen and a chocolate market. There are also 20 wooden chocolate bars. At the beginning of the game, the three gold pits and three cacao markets with the selling price 3 are replaced by the chocolate kitchens Chocolate markets.In the game for two, only one gold mine with the values 1 and 2 is replaced by two chocolate kitchens and only 2 markets with the selling price 3 are replaced by two Replaced chocolate markets. The chocolate bars are placed with the cocoa fruits as a reserve.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate kitchen | For each activated worker, the player may convert one of his cocoa fruits into a chocolate bar, which he places in the display on the village plateau. | 3 |
| Chocolate market | On the chocolate market, each activated worker can sell one cocoa fruit for the specified sales price of 3 gold pieces or a chocolate bar for the sales price of 7 gold pieces. | 3 |
- Huts
In the hut module, 12 hut tiles printed on both sides with different functions on the front and back are inserted into the game as additional game material. When preparing for the game, the tiles are taken in both hands and dropped onto the playing surface from a small height. The top page shows the function of the respective hut, after which they are placed next to the bank as a supply according to construction costs.
In the game, at the end of his turn, a player may build a hut of his choice from the supply at the specified building costs and place it next to his own village board. A player may not build a hut with the same function twice, but may own any number of huts with different functions. In the game, the huts can be used according to their function:
| Hut type | function | building-costs |
|---|---|---|
| Barkers | During the game, the player sells his fruit for three gold instead of two gold at markets with a selling price of 2. | 4th |
| hermit | The player receives one gold for each of his own workers who do not adjoin a jungle tile at the end of the game. | 6th |
| Road workers | At the end of the game, the player receives one gold for each worker tile in the row or column in which he has most of his worker tiles. | 6th |
| Dealer | Remaining cocoa fruits in your own warehouse bring you one gold at the end of the game. | 6th |
| Farmer | If the player gets exactly four cocoa fruits in one turn during the game, he receives an additional fruit if he still has space for it on his tableau. | 8th |
| shaman | If the player builds over during the game, he does not have to discard a sunstone. | 8th |
| monk | At the end of the game, the player receives one gold for each temple where the player has at least one worker. | 10 |
| builder | For each of his other huts, the player receives one gold at the end of the game. | 10 |
| foreman | Worker tiles with three workers on one side, which the player plays during the game, are treated as if they had an additional fourth worker on that side. | 12 |
| Well master | The player receives four gold at the end of the game if his own water carrier is on the water field with the value 16. | 12 |
| Chief daughter | The player receives four gold at the end of the game. | 14th |
| Chief son | The player receives four gold at the end of the game. | 16 |
| Chief's wife | The player receives five gold at the end of the game. | 20th |
| Chief son | The player receives six gold at the end of the game. | 24 |
At the end of the game, the players add the building costs of their huts to their gold, sometimes there is an additional bonus that is also used.
Individual mini-expansions also appeared for the Chocolatl expansion:
- New storage locations
The expansion New Storage Areas brings two new tiles into play that are treated like huts. These cost 6 gold each and bring three new storage spaces for cocoa or chocolate into play.
- New huts (board game advent calendar 2016)
The mini-expansion consists of three new huts that can be used like the existing huts in the game:
| Hut type | function | building-costs |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate maker | During the game, the player sells his chocolate bars for eight gold instead of seven gold in chocolate markets. | 7th |
| Scouts | During his turn, the player may use jungle tiles from the map board without giving up a map tile. | 9 |
| Rainmaker | The player places his water carrier directly on the "0" space and cannot move it any further. In the watering module he does not have to go back to get four cocoa fruits on the watering tile. | 13 |
Cacao: Diamante
At SPIEL '17 , Cacao: Diamante was the second official expansion that once again integrates four expansion modules into the game, which can be combined with the basic game and modules that have already been released. The following expansion modules are included: The Gem Mines , The Tree of Life , The Emperor's Favor and The New Workers . In addition, rules for the big game are described, in which all previous expansions are played together.
- The gem mines:
The gem mine module brings five new jungle tiles with gem mines, 32 gemstones in five different colors, seven mask tiles and a three-dimensional cart to the game
To play this module, the five temple tiles from the basic game are replaced by the gem mines. The masks are sorted according to their value and placed next to the playing field, and the precious stones are filled into the cart and shaken together. If the game is only played by two people, only 4 gem mines come into play and the 12 mask and 2 gems of each color are removed from the game.
The game is played according to the basic rules. Whenever a gem mine comes into display, the active player takes the cart and shakes out five random gems that are placed on the tile. These stones remain on the map until it is placed. When the card is placed, beginning with the active player in turn order, each player may take any gem from the mine for each adjacent worker and place it in front of him next to the village plateau. If a player owns a set of four different gemstones, he must immediately exchange this for the mask with the lowest value; the gemstones used for this are removed from the game. At the end of the game, the values of the masks collected are added to the gold of the players; for each remaining gem, the respective player receives an additional piece of gold.
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| Gem mine | For each activated worker, the respective player can take a gem from the tile and place it in front of him. If there are four different gemstones, he receives the mask with the lowest value. | 5 |
- The tree of life:
In the The Tree of Life module , the three gold mines are exchanged for three “The Tree of Life” tiles. When playing with two players, only two gold pits are exchanged and when playing with the Chocolatl expansion, the tiles are added without exchanging and the number of worker tiles is adjusted according to the rules:
| Jungle tile | action | number |
|---|---|---|
| The tree of life | For each activated worker on The Tree of Life, the respective player receives one gold piece from the bank. If a player has no workers on the tile, he receives 3 gold pieces. | 5 |
- The Emperor's Favor:
An additional brown pawn, the emperor, is introduced as an additional element. At the start of the game, the Imperator is placed on the market with a value of 2 or, in the case of the Chocolatl expansion, on the first waterhole displayed. In the game, whenever a player places one of his worker tiles in a row or column in which the emperor stands, it is placed on the newly added tile and the player receives a gold piece. If it is a player's turn and the emperor is still on his worker tile, he receives another gold piece.
- The new workers:
In the module “The New Workers”, 16 new worker tiles come into play, in which the four workers on the edge are distributed differently than in the basic game. It is a tile with the combination 0-0-2-2, 0-2-0-2, 0-1-0-3 and 0-0-0-4 in each player color. Before the game, the players agree on a permanent combination of the worker tiles from the basic game and the expansion, although each player should still have the same combinations. Alternatively, more worker tiles can be put into play, which enables a longer game with more jungle tiles.
- New huts (board game advent calendar 2017)
The mini expansion again consists of three new huts that can be used when playing with Chocolatl and Diamante like the existing huts in the game:
| Hut type | function | building-costs |
|---|---|---|
| Tree guardian | On the tree of life, the player always receives an additional gold piece for each side of the tile involved. | 7th |
| Consultant | If the player uses the favor of the emperor, he always receives an additional cocoa fruit if he has a corresponding storage space available. | 9 |
| jeweler | When the player builds this hut, he immediately shakes any gem of his choice from the cart and places it in front of him. | 13 |
Big game
The Big Game enables play with all elements of the basic game and the two official expansions Chocolatl and Diamante for three or four players. In the four-player game, all 60 worker tiles and all 45 jungle tiles are used, and in the three-player game, 45 worker tiles and a correspondingly adjusted number of jungle tiles are used.
Expenses and reception
The game Cacao was developed by Phil Walker-Harding and published in 2015 by Abacusspiele , among others . In the same year, the game appeared in other editions in numerous other languages, including in English by Z-Man Games, in French by Filosofia Éditions and in Dutch by 999 Games.
The game has been nominated for various prizes and some awards have been made. In 2015, for example, it was included in the recommendation list for Game of the Year and was recognized as a game hit for families at the Austrian Game Prize for Games . The jury for the game of the year characterizes the game as follows:
"Fast moves, bitter decisions and long-term planning enjoyment are wonderfully balanced in this tactical game with at least 70 percent cocoa."
As a result, several mini expansions were released in the form of individual new tiles for the basic game. For SPIEL '15, Abacusspiele released the expansion volcanoes with three new volcano cards. Also in 2015, the two mini-expansions, The Great Market and The Golden Temple, appeared together in the board game advent calendar 2015. At SPIEL '16 in Essen, both expansions were published and distributed individually by Abacusspiele, and they have been available from Abacus since then.
In 2016, Cacao: Chocolatl, the first major expansion, appeared as mini-expansions New Storage Spaces for SPIEL '16 and New Huts in the Board Game Advent Calendar 2016. The second official expansion for SPIEL '2017 was Cacao: Diamante , and it appeared in the 2017 Board Game Advent Calendar another version of New Huts related to Diamante .
An online version of the game Cacao with the extensions Chocolatl and Diamante as well as various mini-extensions is made available on the Internet platform Yucata, which can be played in the browser.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Official rules of the game for cocoa . (PDF)
- ↑ a b Cacao - volcanoes at Abacusspiele; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Cacao - Large market at Abacusspiele; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Cacao - Golden Temple at Abacusspiele; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ^ Cacao: Die Lichtung , description in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Cacao: Chocolatl at Abacusspiele; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Official rules of the game for Cacao: Chocolatl . (PDF)
- ↑ a b Cacao: Chocolatl - New storage places at Abacusspiele; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b New huts ; Rules for the Cacao expansion in the Board Games Advent Calendar 2016 on the Frosted Games website; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Cacao: Diamante at Abacusspiele; accessed on August 20, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Official rules of the game for Cacao: Diamante . (PDF)
- ↑ a b New huts ; Rules for the Cacao expansion in the board games advent calendar 2016; accessed on August 20, 2018.
- ↑ Versions of Cacao in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on April 21, 2017.
- ↑ a b Cacao on the website of the Spiel des Jahres eV ; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ Golden Temple , description in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ Day 17: Cacao ; Cacao expansions in the board games advent calendar 2015 on the Frosted Games website; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ Big Market & Golden Temple , description in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ^ Big Market , description in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ Golden Temple , description in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ↑ yucata.de with online version of the game Cacao ( [1] ), accessed on April 23, 2017.
Web links
- Official rules of the game for Cacao
- Cacao on the website of abacusspiele
- Cacao in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Cacao in the Luding games database