Welcome to the Homesteaders Game Rules!

Are you excited to dive into the world of Homesteaders? Then you’re in the right place! Here, I’ll guide you through the essential rules of the game to help you make the most of your experience.

Objective of the Game

In Homesteaders, the goal is to build and develop your own frontier town. You’ll be taking on the role of a homesteader, striving to create a thriving community. To achieve this, you’ll need to carefully manage resources, construct buildings, attract workers, and utilize various strategies.

Starting the Game

Before we begin, let’s set up the game. Each player will start with a homestead board, which represents their own personal town. The board is divided into different sections, such as the town area, buildings, and the railroad track.

At the beginning of the game, each player will receive a certain amount of resources and workers. These resources will be crucial for constructing buildings, while the workers will help you carry out various actions throughout the game.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of rounds, with each round divided into multiple phases. These phases include the auction phase, where players can bid on available buildings, and the construction phase, where players can use their resources and workers to build new structures in their town.

As you build new buildings, you’ll unlock new abilities and benefits. Some buildings may generate income, attract more workers, or provide special abilities that can give you a strategic advantage.

Scoring Points

In Homesteaders, points are earned through various means. Building new structures will earn you points, as well as attracting workers to your town. Additionally, the railroad track on your homestead board can help you score bonus points if you reach certain milestones.

At the end of the game, the player with the highest score is declared the winner!

In Conclusion

Now that you know the basic rules of Homesteaders, it’s time to dive in and start building your own frontier town. Remember, managing your resources, constructing buildings, and utilizing strategic gameplay will be key to your success. Good luck, and may your homestead thrive!

In 1862, something called the Homestead Act came into play. This act allowed Americans to claim land that had not yet been developed. All they had to do was live on it and farm it for a period of five years. Around this same time, in the 1860s, the Transcontinental Railroad was being built. This railroad connected the rail networks on the East and West coasts of North America.

The creation of the transcontinental railroad had a big impact on the spread of homesteaders settling in the West. It made it easier and faster for people to travel and transport goods, which in turn led to the rapid growth and cultivation of new land.

In the game Homesteaders, you get to pretend to be one of these settlers in the Old West. Your goal is to claim land and develop it into a town. But that’s not all! The player who contributes the most to building up the town and turning it into a city will get the honor of having the city named after them and being declared the winner of the game.

The Pieces You’ll Need

• 1 Auction board
• 1 Start Player marker
• 1 Auction board
• 4 Player screens
• 4 Market Reference tiles
• 8 Player markers
• 30 Auction tiles
• 36 Debt chits
• 27 Rail Line chits
• 63 Silver coins
• 36 Trade chits
• 51 Victory Point chits
• 53 Building tiles
• 25 Workers
• 74 Resources

Let Me Tell You about the Setup

When I’m getting ready to play this game, I gather all the necessary materials. Here’s what I need:

– 1 Auction board

– 1 Start Player marker

– 1 Auction board

– 4 Player screens

– 4 Market Reference tiles

– 8 Player markers

– 30 Auction tiles

– 36 Debt chits

– 27 Rail Line chits

– 63 Silver coins

– 36 Trade chits

– 51 Victory Point chits

– 53 Building tiles

– 25 Workers

– 74 Resources

Once I have everything together, I’m ready to begin setting up the game and diving into the fun!

1. First, make sure to arrange the Auction board, Resources, Workers, Silver, Trade, Debt, Rail Line, and Point chits so that everyone can easily access them.

When you start playing this game, each person gets their own set of tools. You’ll need a screen, tile, markers, worker, and silver. Your markers are used for bidding and tracking your progress on the railroad development track. Make sure to keep the extra pieces in the box for now.

Okay, here’s what you need to do. First, gather all the auction tiles and separate them into three groups: ‘Auction 1’, ‘Auction 2’, and ‘Auction 3’. Now, let’s focus on ‘Auction 1’. Arrange these tiles in order of their round number and put them in a pile. Make sure they are face up, so players can see them. You can even take a look at this pile to get an idea of what’s available.

Hey there! Let’s talk about the auction tiles in the ‘Auction 2’ pile, shall we? Here’s what you need to do: Grab those ten tiles and give them a good shuffle. But wait, don’t peek at them! Keep them face down the whole time.

After shuffling, take the two City tiles and put them on the bottom of the pile. Make sure they’re face down! Next, grab the four Town auction tiles and place them right on top of the City tiles. Still face down, of course. And finally, take the four Settlement auction tiles and put them on the very top of the pile. They should be face down as well.

Now that you’ve got your auction tile pile all set up, go ahead and place it on the Auction 2 space. But remember, nobody can peek at those tiles until it’s time to reveal them! And hey, if you’re playing with four people, you’ll need to create a third auction tile pile using the ‘Auction 3’ tiles. Just follow the same steps as with the Auction 2 pile.

Oh, and if you’re playing with only two or three players, you can leave those Auction 3 tiles out of the game. They aren’t needed for this round. So there you have it – everything you need to know about setting up the auction tiles. Have fun!

When it comes to playing the game Homesteaders, there are a few important steps to follow in order to get started. Let me break it down for you:

1. First, let’s organize the buildings. Take all the ‘Settlement’ and ‘Settlement/Town’ buildings and place them near the board in the Building Supply. Make sure to sort them by type – Residential, Industrial, or Commercial. Keep the ‘Town’ and ‘City’ buildings in separate piles for now. You can look through these buildings at any time. In a 2 player game, we only need one of each building, except for two Farms, Markets, and Foundries.
2. Next, we need to determine who the starting player will be. This can be done by randomly choosing a player and giving them the Start Player marker.

Now, let’s get into the Game Play!

Homesteaders is an exciting game where we use auctions and resource management to develop our land and buildings. We’ll be playing for 10 rounds, so let’s dive in and start the adventure!

When we play the game, we go through different stages in each round. In the income phase, we collect resources, and in the auction phase, we compete for land and use our resources to construct buildings on that land. Finally, there is a final income and scoring round at the end of the game.

Rounds And Their Phases

Let me break down the different phases of each round:

1. Getting Ready

At the start of each round, we all get our bid markers from the auction board. We also reveal the top tile of each of the facedown auction piles for this particular round. Any old auction tiles are removed from the game.

If it’s Round 5, that means the Settlement stage is finished and we move on to the Town stage. All the buildings that haven’t been built yet are removed from the game, and we add all the Town buildings to the Building Supply. You can use both Settlement and Town buildings during this stage, but don’t worry – the buildings you already own won’t be taken away.

When Round 9 comes around, the Town stage ends, and it’s time for the City stage. Any remaining buildings that haven’t been built are removed from the game, and we add all the City buildings to the Building Supply.

2. Income

Allocate Workers

Now, it’s time to decide where you want to allocate your Workers. You have different slots on your buildings where you can place them. If you don’t have enough slots for all your Workers, don’t worry – the extra ones can hang out on your Homestead tile. And the best part is, you can change where you put your Workers every turn.

Hey there! Just a heads up, some buildings have double worker slots, which means they need 2 workers to produce the listed resources. So, let’s say you have two workers on a river port, you’ll get one gold. But if you have just one worker, well, you won’t get anything. Tough luck!

If you want to know how another player is going to assign their workers first, just follow the player order starting with the Start Player. That way, you won’t be caught off guard.

Time to Get Paid

Now, it’s time for the best part – collecting income! Each player gets their sweet Automatic income from their buildings and Rail Lines. Plus, don’t forget about those Worker income from the worker slots you’ve got occupied. And hey, did you know that Rail Lines give you a super cool Automatic income of 1 Silver? Pretty neat, right?

Before we start the game, it’s important that everyone shows their income to the table. This way, we can all see what each player is getting.

Pay Your Workers

Now it’s time to pay up! For each Worker you have on your tiles, you’ll need to give 1 Silver to the bank. You have to pay for all your Workers, even if they’re not doing anything.

If you’re short on cash, don’t fret! You have some options. You can use the Marketplace, spend some Gold, or even take on some Debt to pay your workers. Check out the sections on Trade and the Marketplace, Spending Gold, and Debt for more details.

3. The Auction

Bidding

Let’s talk about bidding, shall we? It’s where things get interesting. So, I’m at the table with you, and we take turns making bids on those auctions. You can either make a bid or pass. Simple, right?

Now, when you want to make a bid, all you have to do is place your bid token on any available auction, on the space that matches your bid. Just remember, the minimum bid is 3, and your bid must be higher than any of your opponents’ previous bids on that auction.

But here’s the exciting part: you can make any bid you want, regardless of how much cash you have at the moment. That’s the spirit of bidding! Now, if one of your rivals outbids you, no biggie. On your next turn, you can come up with a new, valid bid or simply pass. The choice is yours!

Oh, and here’s a list of the available bid values: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 16, and 21. They give you quite a range to work with, don’t they?

Remember, when it’s your turn and you’re already winning an auction, you don’t have to do anything. You’re ahead of the pack, my friend.

When I’m playing a game, I have to choose whether to make a valid bid or pass. If someone bids higher than me, I can either bid again or pass and let them have it. The Bidding phase ends once everyone has either passed or has the highest bid.

Now, when I pass in the auction, my marker on the Railroad Development Track moves forward, and I get the item from that space or any previous space on the track.

Let me explain with an example. When I reach the third space on the Railroad Development Track, I have three options: I can take a Trade chit, a Rail Line, or a Worker. But here’s the catch: once I pass my turn, I’m out of the auction for the rest of that round.

Since we have more players than auction cards, at least one person will pass each round. And if two players pass before making any bids, well, they both move forward on the Railroad Development Track.

Now, let’s say there are auction tiles that didn’t receive any bids. In that case, those tiles are simply discarded and no one gets them.

Bidding in a Game with Two Players

When I’m about to start playing, I need to place my bid token for the round. Along with that, I also need to place the neutral bid token on one of the auction items. The neutral bid level is determined below. To keep track of the neutral bid level, it might be helpful to use a second token.

To make things easier, I can place the neutral bid token on auction space 3. This way, it’s less confusing. But remember, as the start player, I have the option to place the neutral bid token on an item and then overbid it if I want. However, most of the time, I’ll probably want to place it on the other item.

At the beginning of the game, the neutral bid token level starts at ‘5’. On the first turn, I’ll place the neutral token on ‘5’ for one of the items, and then I’ll make my own bid. Usually, I’ll choose to bid on the other item, but if I want, I can also overbid the neutral token.

If both of us win an item in an auction round, we’ll bump up the neutral bid level by 1 for the next round. For example, if we both win something in round 1, we’ll raise the neutral bid level to 6.

Important: But if the neutral bid token is already at ‘9’, we can’t increase it any further.

Now, whenever one of us decides to pass, we’ll lower the neutral bid token by one level. The lowest it can go is 3.

If neither of us manages to win the first auction space, we’ll have to pass the start player token to the other person. But if one of us wins that space, they’ll get the start player marker as usual.

When I’m the start player and I decide to pass instead of making a bid at the beginning of the round, I still have to place the neutral bid token on one of the auction spaces. That way, the other players know that I’m not making a bid, but I still get to choose which item I want to place the token on. Let’s say the bid level was at ‘6’, I would pass and place the neutral bid token on an item of my choice at a bid of 6. This also means that the bid level for future rounds will be reduced.

Building

I’m going to explain how the auction works in this game. I’ll start with the player who won Auction 1, and then move on to the winners of Auction 2 and Auction 3. Once a player wins an auction, they have to pay for it. After paying, they can choose a building to construct based on the type listed on the auction tile. The auction tile is then thrown away – you can’t keep it for later use.

If you win Auction 1, you also get the Start Player marker. When it’s time to pay for an auction bid, you have a few options. You can use the Marketplace, spend Gold, or take on Debt – just like when paying Workers.

Some auction tiles don’t let you build. Instead, they give you Workers and/or advancements on the Railroad Development Track. In this case, you immediately get these items and then throw away the auction tile without building anything.

When it comes to auction tiles, there’s more than meets the eye. They not only offer buildings, but also extra opportunities to enhance your strategy. For example, you might get a bonus Worker or the chance to exchange resources for Victory Points or a Rail Line. These bonuses can be acquired after you’ve built your chosen building, and you can only take advantage of them once. Keep in mind that any bonuses you receive from building a specific structure, like a Trade chit from a Ranch, can be used to pay for these additional items found on the auction tile.

Now let’s talk about how to build a building. First, you need to select a building from the Building Supply that matches your auction tile. Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll need to pay the required amount of resources to acquire that structure. If you don’t have enough resources, no worries! You can always buy what you need at the Marketplace.

The Game Comes to an End…

Once we reach the 10th round, there’s an important Final Income and Scoring round. In this round, we go through the Income phase one last time, and then we can freely use the Marketplace. The goal is to pay off Debt and convert our Trade chits, Silver, and resources into Victory Points.

When it comes to scoring in the game, you need to keep track of a few things. First, you tally up the Victory Point chits you’ve collected during the game. Then, you add up the point values of all your buildings and any bonuses they have. On top of that, you get 2 Victory Points for each Gold, Livestock, and Copper resource you have. Unfortunately, Wood, Food, and Steel don’t count for anything.

Now, let’s talk about debt. If you have any Debt chits, you can pay them off for 5 Silver. It’s important to pay off your debt because you lose points if you don’t. The amount of points you lose increases with the number of debt chits you have. For the first Debt chit, you lose 1 point. For the second chit, you lose 2 Victory Points. And for the third chit and beyond, you lose 3 Victory Points each.

If you end up with five unpaid Debt chits, that’s a total loss of -15 Victory Points. So, it’s definitely in your best interest to stay on top of your debt. Remember, the player with the most Victory Points will be the one who gets the city named after them and is declared the winner!