Basic game
In the basic game of Dorfromantik, there are two main types of tiles: Landscape tiles and Task tiles. There is also a third type of tile that comes in the campaign boxes, Special tiles. On every tile, there are six sections that can each contain one terrain type. The six terrain types appear on both landscape and task tiles, but only five terrains have corresponding tasks. The five terrains with task tiles are wheat fields, forests, villages, railroad tracks, and rivers, and the remaining "neutral" terrain type is meadows. Neither landscape nor task tiles may be placed in such a way that a railroad or river tile edge does not continue on to the next tile. Except for the very first tile, all tiles placed must be connected by at least one edge to the rest of the game map. [8] [13]
When a task tile is placed, a random task marker of the same terrain type is drawn. On the back, task markers have a terrain type, and on the other side is a number from four to six. The number on the front of the task marker is exactly how many tiles of the terrain on the back must be connected in order to score points. This connected area of one type of terrain (except for meadows) is called a territory. The greater the number on the front of the marker, the more points are scored by that task. Printed flags on tiles score more points for large territories, as long as the territory has been closed off (i.e., no tile edges with the type of terrain that is the flag's colour are open to the edge of the map). [8] [13]
To start, players draw three task tiles and place them down to start the map. After these three original tasks are drawn and placed, landscape tiles start being drawn. These landscape tiles are used to expand territories, and therefore complete tasks for points. Once a task is completed, the next players draws another task tile and corresponding task marker to always bring the number of tasks to three. Once the task pile is exhausted and no task tiles remain, the game ends immediately and scoring begins. In the basic game, points are scored based on completed based on tasks, flags, and the longest railroad track and river. [8]
Dorfromantik is a cooperative game, so player order does not particularly matter, although the rulebook recommends playing in a clockwise order. All players contribute to the hex map of tiles, and points are not distributed individually. [8]
Campaign
After scoring is complete, players may start or continue a campaign. On the campaign sheet, players round their score down to the nearest ten, then match their rounded score to the number of "bubbles" to advance and consult the number of steps on the sheet that they can fill in. [8] [17] The number shown corresponds to bubbles on the sheet, which are filled in by the players to unlock campaign boxes and achievement cards. [8] The campaign consists of five boxes which are closed at the beginning of the campaign. [13] [14] These boxes contain other ways to score points such as new tokens, tiles, or achievement cards. [18] While there is no definitive end to Dorfromantik, the campaign eventually runs out of boxes and achievements to unlock, which usually takes 15-20 games. [19] Following this (as well as the unlocking of all achievements), the game does not have any more campaign content remaining. [8] Players can either start the campaign again or keep playing without unlocking any more campaign content. [18]
