Aucteraden
Designed by Jack Neal
Players 1
Length 15-30 minutes
Extra Material Suit chips

A Solitaire Tableau Building and Market Game

Background

You are a trader in the land of Aucteraden taking goods from market to the different clans within the province. Your object is to acquire goods at a fair price to create trade routes. You must be frugal and plan your routes well to amass your wealth and expand your influence.

Equipment

  • Standard Decktet.
  • 4 Suit chips of each suit. Alternate markers can be used.
  • Pad and Pencil (or optional scoring sheet at end of rules).

General Description of Play

You are building a 4 x 4 tableau of cards from cards in a market. Cards from the market can be bought to place in the tableau. Each suit should have a long chain (sequence) of cards in the tableau. You are restricted by how many times you may go to the market and the size of the tableau itself. Play continues until the tableau is filled or the market is empty.

Setup

You will use suit chips during the game for payment later. Draw three cards and place them in a row at the top of the table to create an area called the Market. You will build your tableau below this.

Game Play

  1. Buy a card from Market.
  2. Play to tableau.
  3. Refill Market.
  4. Check for End Game.

Buy a Card from the Market

The value of a card depends on its position in the market. The left card costs 2 chips, the middle card costs 1 chip and the right card is free. You must purchase one card from the market to place in the tableau. If you must pay for a card, you must pay with one chip matching one of the suits of the desired card. Only chips from one of the suits may be used.

If you are unable to place a card you must discard all of them for a 3 VP penalty. You may voluntarily discard all market cards but suffer a 3 VP penalty.

Discarded cards are permanently removed from the game. Discarded chips are permanently removed as well.

Play to tableau

The acquired card can be played up/down/left/right of an existing card on the tableau. The tableau can never be more than 4 cards wide or 4 cards long. Finally, an Ace or Crown cannot be placed directly next to another Ace or Crown but they may be diagonal.

Refill Market

Shift all remaining cards to the right. Fill in any gaps. Draw the top card from the deck and discard any cards that match the suits on the drawn card. Once this is done, if necessary, fill in any gaps by shifting cards to the right and place the freshly drawn card in the leftmost place. Continue to draw cards until the market is refilled to 3 cards. Only the first drawn card determines what cards are removed from the market.

Examples

The Market has the following cards:

image07.gif image05.gif image02.gif

If an Ace of Leaves is drawn, the market does not change - the Ace is placed in the leftmost place.

image03.gif …………… image03.gif image05.gif image02.gif

If a (Wyrm/Knot) combination is drawn then both existing cards are discarded. The newly drawn card is placed on the right place and two more cards are drawn to fill the center and left positions.

image01.gif …………… image06.gif image04.gif image01.gif

If a (Wyrm/Leaves) combination is drawn, the (Wave/Wyrm) card is discarded, and the (Wyrm/Leaves) card is placed in the middle position. Another card is drawn to fill the left position.

image00.gif …………… image04.gif image00.gif image05.gif

Check for End Game

If the tableau is completely filled (4 x 4) or the Market is completely empty, the game is over. Otherwise, continue as above.

Scoring

Scoring is based on chains on the tableau. The chain must be the same suit and must go in ascending order. Ranks in the chain may be skipped. The chain of cards must be a contiguous sequence (or chain) of cards. Chains are considered to be cards up/down/left/right - diagonals are not allowed. Only one chain per suit may be scored.

Choose the longest chain for each suit. Score each suit based on:

Rewards

The length of the chain determines the base VP earned.

Cards 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+
VP -5 -5 2 5 9 14 20 30

If a chain starts with an Ace an additional 1 VP is earned. If a chain ends with a Crown, 2 VP are granted. If an Ace and a Crown are in the same chain 4 VP is earned.

Penalties

If you are out of chips for a suit OR no chips were used for a suit, subtract 5 VP.

Each empty space in the tableau results in a 5 VP penalty.

Each time you discarded an entire market row, subtract 3 VP.

Winning the Game

A score of 40 VP is considered a win. A score of 50 VP is a commanding win.

Extended Decktet

The extended Decktet can be used with a few additional rules.

  • If the Excuse is drawn at any point refilling the Market then all the cards are removed from the game. The Excuse is then discarded and is never used on the tableau.
  • The Courts and Pawns are considered to have a rank of 0 below Aces. They cost one extra chip and are played to the tableau. Courts and Pawns may not be placed next to each other.
  • An Ace does not have to start a chain for 1 VP if there a Pawn or Court is the first card in the chain.

Links

Comments

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License