Myrmes Game Rules

Hey there! Welcome to the fascinating world of Myrmes, a strategic board game that will challenge your decision-making skills and immerse you in the intriguing life of ants. Let’s take a deep dive into the game rules, shall we?

Components:

To start, gather all the components needed for the game. You’ll need an ant colony board, action pawns, larvae tokens, resource tiles, cards, and markers.

Objective:

As an ant colony, your goal is to thrive and prosper. You’ll need to gather resources, expand your colony, and fulfill various tasks to earn victory points. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins!

Setup:

Place the ant colony board in the middle of the play area. Each player will take their colored action pawns and larvae tokens and place them near the board. Shuffle the cards and create a deck, then place the resource tiles and markers within reach.

Turn Overview:

The game is played over a series of rounds, with each round consisting of three phases: Planning, Resolution, and Regeneration.

In the Planning phase, you’ll secretly assign your action pawns to different areas on the board. Each area provides different resources or abilities, so choose wisely based on your strategy.

Once all players have assigned their pawns, the Resolution phase begins. Starting with the first player, actions are resolved in the order determined by the pawn placement. This is where you’ll gather resources, perform special actions, and expand your colony.

After all actions have been resolved, it’s time for the Regeneration phase. Some resources and abilities regenerate during this phase, so plan ahead for future rounds.

Ant Colonies:

Your ant colony is made up of queen ants, worker ants, and soldier ants. Each type of ant has its own unique abilities, so make sure to strategize and make the most of their strengths.

Tasks:

Throughout the game, you’ll have the opportunity to complete tasks to earn victory points. These tasks involve gathering specific resources, expanding your tunnels, or fulfilling special conditions. Keep an eye out for these tasks and plan your actions accordingly.

End of the Game:

The game ends after a predetermined number of rounds. Players then add up their victory points earned from completed tasks and other sources. The player with the most points is declared the winner, with ties being broken based on specific conditions.

Now that you have a grasp on the Myrmes game rules, it’s time to start building your ant empire! Get ready to make strategic decisions, gather resources, and outsmart your opponents in this exciting board game adventure. Good luck!

Welcome to the fascinating kingdom of Myrmes, where brave ant colonies have been engaged in an intense struggle for dominance for centuries.

In a bid to bring about peace, the wise council of queens has declared that a final battle will determine the ultimate victor. It’s time for you to take charge! Assemble your soldiers and workers, and lead them to conquer the kingdom. Gather food for your colony, track down insects, and strategically deploy your pheromones to claim territories. Oh, and don’t forget – winter is coming, so make sure you’re prepared!

What’s Included

In the game, you will find the following components:

– Main game board

– 4 Individual boards

– 3 Dice

– 1 First player token

– 1 Year token

– 20 Objective tiles

– 30 Larva cubes

– 15 Earth cubes

– 20 Food cubes

– 18 Prey tokens

– 8 Sub-colony tiles

– 8 Aphid farm / Scavenging tiles

– Rulebook

Each player will have:

– 8 Workers/Soldiers

– 4 Tunnel Exit discs

– 1 Marker disc (ant colony level)

– 8 Nurses

– 1 Event cube and 4 cubes to mark special tiles

– 17 Pheromone tiles

Now, let’s talk about the objective of the game. Your goal is to lead an ant colony from the world of Myrmes and establish its dominance over the kingdom. Can you rise above the rest and claim victory? It’s up to you to show your strategic skills and make the right moves. Prepare yourself for an exciting and challenging adventure where every decision counts. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

When we play the game, we score points in different ways. We can place pheromone tiles, hunt prey, feed the Queen, and complete objectives. At the end of the game, the person with the most points wins!

Let’s get started!

The game board goes in the middle of the table. We’ll need resource cubes, larvae, and special tiles nearby. The Year token shows which year we’re in, so let’s put it on the first year space.

We’ll roll the Season dice and put each one on the season track. Prey tokens go on their spaces too. And we’ll randomly choose two level 1, level 2, and level 3 objectives and put them on their spots.

When you play this game, you get to pick a color and gather all the pieces that go with it: a board, ants, nurses, octagons, discs, cubes, and pheromones. Place them next to your board so they’re ready.

In the game, you start by putting 3 nurses in the nursery, 2 workers in the worker rook, and a larva in the larvae room. Each player also gets a tunnel exit token to put on their starting space.

Now, take a colored disc and place it at level O in the ant colony. The Score token goes on the starting space of the score track, with 10 points. And don’t forget to put the event cube on the event track, depending on the roll of the Season die.

The other pieces should be kept close to the individual boards. Finally, the player who is the shortest gets to go first and takes the first player token. Now, let’s start the game!

Playing the Game

Hey there! Let me tell you about this awesome game. It lasts for three years, and each year has four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The first three seasons are regular turns, but winter is a special maintenance phase where we have to spend food to make it through.

Now, during spring, summer, and fall, we go through six phases in a normal turn. Let me break it down for you:

1. Event

Here’s a fun and optional phase that everyone plays at the same time. We can use the larvae we have to change the seasonal event for that year. Each larva we spend lets us move the Event cube one space to the right or left. There’s no limit to how many larvae we can spend. Once I’m done with this phase, I can move on to phase 2 without waiting for the others. Cool, right?

When you choose the VP+1 event, you’ll get an extra victory point as soon as you score victory points during the current season. This could be by placing a pheromone, feeding the queen, or completing an objective. It’s a simple way to boost your score!

Let’s jump into a springtime event – it’s Soldier+1, with a shiny green die showing a 5.

I want to shake things up and swap out that event for a Worker +1. To make the switch, I’ll spend 2 larvae and move the Event cube two spaces to the right.

2. The Miracle of Life

Now it’s time for all of us to take part in this exciting phase. We each have our nurses, and here’s what we can do with them:

First option – we can place our nurses in one of the three birth tracks and bring new ants into the world. Or, we can invite them to the atelier, where they’ll be handy during phase 5 (Atelier).

We’re free to allocate our nurses between the birth tracks and the atelier in any way we like. And no pressure, we don’t have to use all of our nurses (though it’s a good idea to make the most of them).

The birth tracks are where we can use our nurses to give birth to three different types of ants.

Larvae: In this track, you have the option to use up to 3 nurses. The first nurse will produce a single larva, while the second and third nurses can each give birth to 2 larvae.

Soldiers: Similarly, in this track, you can utilize up to 3 nurses. The first two nurses will produce one soldier each, and the third nurse will add an extra soldier.

Workers: In this track, you have the opportunity to use up to 4 nurses. It takes two nurses to give birth to a worker, and then you will need two more nurses to give birth to another worker.

When I choose the event Larvae+2/Worker+1/Soldier+1, my nurses give birth to two extra larvae/one worker/one soldier. But there’s a catch – I need to use enough nurses to give birth to at least one of the ant types I’m interested in.

Let me explain with an example. If I want to benefit from the Larvae+2 event, I have to use at least one nurse to give birth to a larva.

Once all of us players have placed our nurses on the birth tracks (and maybe the atelier too), we all move to the next phase together – the birth of ants. These new ants are placed in our own rooms on our individual boards.

After this, we’re ready for phase 3.

Note: So here’s the deal – when we play this game, we don’t differentiate between workers and soldiers because, let’s be honest, soldiers don’t venture into the garden anyway. Each of us starts with 8 ants in reserve, which can never be exceeded. That means if you have 5 soldiers and 3 workers, you can’t recruit any new ones until you get rid of some of your ants.

Dig in and let’s get started: Blue has 4 nurses. So, what does Blue do with them? Well, one goes straight to the atelier, where it gets busy. Two others go to the worker track, while the last one heads for the larvae track. Once all players have placed their nurses, it’s time for the grand finale: the birth of the ants.

Guess what? Blue gets lucky! They end up with a larva, which finds a cozy home in the larvae room. And as if that weren’t enough, they also have two workers. One came from the nurses, and the other, a bonus from the Worker+1 event. These diligent ants take their spot in the worker room.

3. Workers

We’re moving right along! Now it’s time for the workers to shine. Each player takes their turn, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise. Here’s the deal: you’ve got a worker, and you’ve got choices. You can either send them outside, or you can put them to work inside the ant colony. But one thing’s for sure – passing is not an option.

Note: So here’s the deal. During phase 2, depending on what choices you made, some folks might end up with more workers than others. And well, that means those lucky few are gonna be taking more turns in this here phase.

In this game, you have the option to send your worker to work in an ant colony. The colony has four levels, but only the first level is available at the start of the game. Each level can only have one worker at a time. To use the colony, simply place your worker on a space in the level where you want it to work. You will receive the indicated bonus, and then it will be the next player’s turn. Your worker will stay in place and cannot be used again during the turn. No other worker can come and work at that level.

• Level 0 (gestation room): You will receive a larva, which will be placed in the larva room.
• Level I (larder): You will receive a cube of food, which will be placed in your stockpile.

I’ve been thinking a lot about leveling up in games and how it can be fun and challenging at the same time. And if you’re like me, then you’ll love the different levels you can reach in a game called Life!

One of the key aspects of leveling up is that you get rewards for your efforts. For example, in Level II, you get to choose a cube of earth or stone and add it to your stockpile. It’s like getting a prize for your hard work!

But leveling up isn’t just about rewards. It’s also about overcoming obstacles and becoming stronger. In Level III, you have to spend a cube of food to feed the queen. It may seem like a sacrifice, but in return, you gain 2 victory points. It’s a double-edged sword, but it’s worth it!

Overall, the meaning of leveling up is to challenge yourself, grow stronger, and reap the benefits. It’s about pushing your limits and exploring new possibilities. By following this path, you can achieve great things and have a lot of fun along the way.

So, if you’re looking for that sense of achievement and excitement, I encourage you to embrace the leveling up concept. It can elevate your gaming experience and regenerate your response to challenges. Just like in a game, you have the power to level up in your own life, and the rewards are truly worth it. So why not give it a try? Take the first step and see where it leads you. You might be surprised by what you can achieve!

If you choose the Level+1 event, you can send one of your workers to a higher level. Let’s say you have a level 0 ant colony when you start the game. With the Level+1 event, you can send a worker to the larder, which is level 1.

#image.jpg#image.jpg

Once upon a time, Red decided to send their first worker to join the ant colony. So, I took my worker and placed it in the gestation room. Right away, I got a larva, which I put in the larva room. Now, it’s your turn to play.

• Do you want to hunt a prey?
• How about placing a pheromone?
• You can also place a special tile.
• If you want, you can clean up a pheromone.

Now let’s talk about movement: You can use 1 movement point to do two things. First, you can move through an empty space without any pheromones. Or, you can cross an entire pheromone tile, which counts as just one empty space. But remember, you can’t cross spaces with water! Also, if there’s prey in a space, you can only cross it if it’s already been hunted.

If you choose the Move+3 event, you’ll have 6 movement points instead of 3 for this turn.

When it comes to opposing tiles: you can cross them with your worker. But be aware that it will cost you a soldier. So, for each opposing tile your worker enters, you have to spend one soldier from the soldier room and put it back in the reserve.

Example: When I want a worker to leave their tunnel, I can use the Red pheromone. By placing it on the worker’s tunnel exit, the worker will be compelled to move to hexagon A with 1 movement point. With another movement point, the worker can cross friendly pheromone B. Finally, using its last movement point, the worker will reach the space where its prey is located.

Hunting a prey: If I make my worker enter a space that has a Prey token, the soldier ants are immediately alerted and we must hunt that prey. However, I can only enter a space with a prey if I have enough soldiers to hunt it, or if I even want to hunt it. In order to hunt the prey, I have to discard soldiers as required by the type of prey we encounter.

When soldiers are no longer needed, they are sent back to the reserve. After that, I get to take the Prey token and put it next to my board. This earns me victory points and food cubes based on the number of prey I hunted. The food cubes go into my stock. If my worker still has movement points left, I can keep moving it.

I am going to show you a new and exciting way to understand and appreciate a game. Let’s dive right in! Here are some special abilities for different bugs:

1. Ladybug: I can discard 1 soldier and get 2 food cubes as a reward.

2. Termite: If I discard 1 soldier, I can earn 1 food cube and 2 victory points.

3. Spider: By sacrificing 2 soldiers, I can gain 1 food cube and 4 victory points.

Still with me? Great! Now, let’s play out an example. Imagine I am playing as the red player. I decide to discard 1 Soldier from my soldier room and use it to hunt down a termite. As a result, I receive 1 food cube and 2 victory points. Exciting, isn’t it? I place the Prey token next to my individual board. At this point, my worker no longer has any movement points but can still place a tile.

Alright, let’s move on to the next part. We’re going to talk about placing pheromones. If my worker happens to be on an empty space with no Prey token, pheromone, or special tile, I have the option to place a pheromone from my reserve. The size of the pheromone I can place depends on the level of my ant colony. The higher the level, the bigger the pheromone I can place.

And that’s it! Hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the game. It’s a whole new world of strategy and excitement. Happy gaming!

When I’m playing this game, there are a few important rules I need to follow for placing the pheromone:

• I have to place one of the hexes of the pheromone on the space where my worker is located.
• The pheromone can’t cover any other tiles, tokens, or go beyond the garden area.
• I can’t place the pheromone on a water space.

For example: Let’s say I have an ant colony at level I and I want to end my turn. To do that, I need to put a pheromone of size 3 on the space where my ant is.

Once I place the pheromone, I can then add resource cubes like food, earth, and stone on top of it, depending on what the pheromone covers.

If there are mushrooms on the space, it’s not fertile and I can’t put any cubes there. But if the pheromone is big enough to score victory points (all pheromones of a size greater than 2), then I get to score those points right away. After that, I get rid of the ant and it’s the next player’s turn, moving clockwise.

Red does the funky chicken dance, dropping 1 food cube and 1 earth cube on the pheromone, making it rain with 2 victory points before giving their worker the boot.

Installing a special tile: When you’re rolling solo on an empty space (no Prey token, pheromone, or special tile), you can flex your ant colony’s level and pop a special tile like a boss:

To build special tiles like the aphid farm, scavenging, and sub-colony, you’ll need to follow the same placement rules as pheromones. The difference is that special tiles also require resource cubes.

For example, if you want to build an aphid farm, you’ll need one cube of stone. Scavenging requires one cube of food, while a sub-colony needs one cube each of earth, stone, and food.

Once you’ve placed a special tile, you’ll place one of your cubes on it to show that it belongs to you. You’ll also score points based on the tile you placed, and then you’ll discard the worker. After that, it’s the next player’s turn to use a worker.

If you chose the Level+1 event, you can use pheromones, power, or special tiles from the next level. For instance, if your ant colony is at level 0, you can use size 3 pheromones or build scavenging structures.

If you chose the Hexagon+1 event, you can use pheromones from the next level. If your ant colony is at level 3, you can even use the sole size 6 pheromone.

Clear a pheromone: If one of your workers moves across an empty pheromone, they can choose to clear it. Simply discard an earth cube from your stockpile and the pheromone will be removed from the board and the game. Don’t worry, you won’t lose the points indicated on the pheromone.

Opposing Pheromones: Sometimes, I come across enemy pheromones occupying spaces that I want to claim. Luckily, I can clear them away by sending my worker to that area. It’s a simple process – just one cube of earth is enough to get rid of the enemy scent. What’s interesting is that when I remove an opponent’s pheromone, I gain any points that are printed on it! But don’t worry, the opponent doesn’t lose any points in this situation. Once the competing scent is gone, my worker can continue its movement freely.

4. Harvest

After every player has finished playing all their workers, we move on to the exciting harvest phase. This phase is played simultaneously, which adds to the suspense!

During the harvest phase, I get the opportunity to collect a cube of my choice from each of my non-empty pheromones on the board. It’s mandatory to pick up these cubes, and I place them in my stockpile. But wait, there’s more! Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• For every Aphid farm I own, I get one cube of food.
• When I Scavenge, I can choose between getting one cube of earth or one cube of stone.
• If I have a Sub-colony, it earns me 2 victory points.

Harvest+3: If you chose the Harvest+3 event, you can gather an additional 3 cubes of your choice from your pheromones after your regular harvest. These extra cubes go into your stockpile. This action is optional, not mandatory.

5. Atelier

After everyone completes their harvest, the atelier phase begins. Each player takes turns in this phase, but only those who have placed one or more nurses in the atelier during phase 2.

If you’re one of those players, you take your nurses from the atelier and put them in the corresponding spaces on the main board. You can only put one nurse in each atelier space (which means you can only perform each action once per turn).

Hey there! When you have more than one nurse in the atelier, you get to decide in what order you want their actions to happen.

The atelier has 4 spots, and here they are:

Tunnel: When I place a nurse in this atelier, I get to create a new tunnel exit in the garden area and earn a cube of earth for my stockpile.

The new tunnel exit is one of my color tokens, and I need to place it on an empty hexagon next to one of my pieces on the board (pheromone, tunnel exit, special tile). This new tunnel exit gives me an extra option when my workers leave the colony in future turns.

Note: I can’t have more than 3 tunnel exits, in addition to the starting one, throughout the game.

Hey there! When you play the game, you can use a cool strategy called “tunneling” to create a new tunnel exit for your ants. All you have to do is place it next to one of the pheromone markers of your colored ants. Pretty neat, right? Oh, and you also get to collect a cube of earth and put it in your stockpile. Keep those cubes coming!

Fancy name: The Ant Colony Levels. It’s an extra fun feature that lets you improve your ant colony. All you need to do is spend some cubes of earth or stone to make it happen.

• Level 0 to 1: Spend 2 cubes of earth,
• Level 1 to 2: Spend 1 cube of stone and 2 cubes of earth,
• Level 2 to 3: Spend 3 cubes of stone.

To show off the new level of your ant colony, just move your ant colony disc to that level. Pretty cool, right? Just remember, you can’t skip a level or dig two levels at once – gotta do it step by step and have fun along the way!

Example: When yellow ants improve their ant colony, they spend two cubes of earth from their stockpile and move the ant colony disc from level 0 to level 1.

New nurse: As a new nurse, I am created by the player who places me in this atelier. To bring me to life, they need to use 2 cubes of food and two larvae from their stockpile. Then, they can take a new nurse from their reserve and place me in the nurse room of their individual board.

I will be ready for action on the next turn. Remember, a player can only create one nurse. Even if they have all the resources, they cannot make two nurses.

Objective: As the player who has placed a nurse in this atelier, you have the power to complete an objective. The objectives are categorized into three levels, with two objectives per level. Your first objective must be a level 1 objective.

When you play the game, you’ll have the chance to accomplish different objectives. These objectives are divided into levels, with level 1 being the easiest and level 3 being the most challenging. Completing the objectives will earn you victory points.

Each objective can only be completed once, so you can’t do the same objective more than once. To complete an objective, you may need to discard certain items from your inventory.

Once you complete an objective, you place your nurse on the first available space next to that objective. You also score victory points based on the level of the objective. Level 1 objectives earn you 6 points, level 2 objectives earn you 9 points, and level 3 objectives earn you 12 points.

Here’s an interesting twist: if other players have already completed the same objective before you, they will also earn some points. Each player who has completed the objective before you will score 3 points. However, this only happens if the objective was completed in previous turns and not during the current round.

For example: When I complete the “2 Preys” objective, I have to discard 2 Prey tokens. Then, I place my nurse on the first available space and score 6 points.

If someone else, like Red, has already completed that objective before, they will score 3 points as well.

6. Time to Wrap Up

We all do this phase at the same time. First, we get rid of any larvae that we used during phase 1.

Then, we have to discard any extra cubes we have left in our reserve. If our ant colony is level 0 or 1, we can keep up to 4 cubes of our choice. Anything beyond that, we have to throw away. If our ant colony is level 2 or 3, we can keep up to 6 cubes of our choice and toss the rest.

When winter arrives, it’s time for us ants to regroup and prepare for the cold season. We gather up all the workers who have been hard at work, bringing them back to their cozy worker room. The nurses, too, return to their nurse room, ready to rest and recharge.

But not all the nurses come back; the ones we used to accomplish our objectives stay behind. They’ve done their part, and now it’s time for us to carry on without them.

As we bid farewell to the past season, we remove the die from the main board. The first player token is then passed on to the player sitting on the left of the current first player. It’s a fresh start, and everyone gets a chance to take the lead.

Now, depending on the season we’ve just completed—spring, summer, or fall—we have different tasks to attend to. If it’s spring or summer, we return the event cube to its designated spot, ready for the next season. If it’s fall, it’s time to move forward to the winter phase.

Winter

Winter is a challenging time for us ants. We need to make sure we have enough food to sustain ourselves during the cold months. Each player must use up some of the food they have stockpiled:

• In the first year, each player has to discard 4 cubes of food from their stockpile.

In the second year, I’ll have to get rid of 5 cubes of food, and in the last year, I’ll have to get rid of 6 cubes of food. But what if I don’t have enough cubes? Well, in that case, I’ll lose 3 victory points for each missing cube. Luckily, if I have any soldiers during winter, they can help me out by reducing the number of cubes I need to spend by 1. And the best part is, I get to keep my soldiers – they’re not discarded like the cubes!

Imagine this: It’s the second year winter, and you have to get rid of 5 cubes of food.

But wait, there’s a twist! Yellow, who only has two soldiers, only needs to get rid of 3.

After winter comes to an end, a new year starts. The Season dice are rolled again and the players replace the event cube based on the number shown by the spring die. Then, a new turn starts.

The Game’s Conclusion

The game concludes after the third year’s winter. The player with the most victory points comes out on top. If there’s a tie, the players who are tied share the victory together.