SONORA
Welcome to Sonora, a thrilling game of creativity and strategy! Each part of the board represents a unique desert landscape, filled with stunning colors and decorations that determine your points.
As we play, we’ll use our disk scores strategically to earn bonuses in different areas. And if we’re skillful enough, we might even flick our disks to knock opponents away from high-scoring regions. But remember, we have to keep track of our own scores and play fair. So let’s dive into the world of Sonora and have some fun!
SETUP
First, let’s choose our colors and gather all five disks, a scoresheet, and a pen. The player who has recently helped a wild animal will go first and take the first player marker.
Now, here’s what you need to do: position the gameboard so that each corner faces a player. Make sure there’s enough space for the board to be moved around during the game. Rotate the board so that Cliff-Dweller Ruins is pointing towards the first player.
How to Play
First things first, decide with your group how many rounds you want to play. You have the choice of playing five, six, or seven rounds, depending on how long you want the game to last. Starting with the first player, go around the board in a clockwise direction, taking turns to flick discs onto the gameboard. Each player gets three turns per round, flipping two disks on the first two turns and just one on the last turn.
When playing the game, each player has a launch corner from which they flick their disks. The launch corner stays the same for all players throughout the round. During the Flick Phase, players can use their flicks to try and knock other players’ disks into different zones on the board. It’s important to remember that the position of the disk only matters at the end of this phase.
If a player successfully flicks their disk into the recessed hole in the middle of the board, they can remove it and place it on their sheet. This allows them to treat the disk as if it had landed in the section of their choice during the Write Phase. However, if a disk is flipped off the board, it is disqualified and does not score any points. And if you happen to flick another player’s disk off the board, they must immediately flick it again from their own launch corner.
Once we’ve all done flicking our disks, we need to record them on our scoresheet. This is where we earn points by marking each section. To complete the Write Phase, we’ll need to follow three steps.
First, let’s use any Swap Bonuses we have to switch the positions of our disks. This is the time to strategize and make the most of our bonuses.
Next, we’ll focus on the disks we found in the Cliff-Dweller Ruins. We’ll record them one at a time, making sure not to miss any.
Finally, we’ll record the remaining disks we have. This is our chance to ensure that every disk is accounted for.
Now, when it comes to assigning our disks to their respective zones, we have a rule to follow. If a disk is split in half, we can choose which zone it goes in. If it’s not split, then we look at where the majority of the disk is. That’s the zone it’ll be assigned to. Oh, and if a disk is touching a multiplier circle in a zone, it earns bonus points!
So, you’ve resolved all the disks, and now you’ve got a pile of them in front of you for the next round. But hold on, we need to follow some steps to resolve them properly.
Let’s start with the Cliff-Dweller Ruins. You need to resolve them first before moving on to the other disks. Once you’ve resolved the Ruins, you can mark the remaining disks.
Now, it’s time to tally up the points for your disks in the Cliff-Dweller Ruins. The player with the highest points in the Ruins goes first, and the lowest scoring player goes last. Take the total value on your disks and cross off that number of hexes on the sheet. As soon as you’ve crossed off all the hexes of a building, you’ve completed it and you get a reward.
Here’s the deal: the player who completes a building first gets the top reward. Everyone else only gets the bottom reward. You have the freedom to distribute your Ruins value across any number of buildings.
Whenever I record a disk assigned to the Canyon, I have to draw a shape in the Canyon section of the score sheet. The shape I draw must either match the number of the disk or be lower. I always start drawing the shapes adjacent to each other, beginning with the 4×4 square at the bottom. Once I’m done drawing the shape, I can remove the disk from the board.
I have the freedom to rotate or flip the shapes, but I can’t let them overlap. The shapes have to fit entirely inside the white squares that make up the Canyon. If I draw a shape around a bonus icon, I immediately earn the bonus. And if I draw a shape around a Cactus icon, I can mark one matching cactus on the scoring table. It’s important to be strategic and make the most of these opportunities!
When I record a disk on the Creek Bed, I mark a path through it. But I can’t just go anywhere; each new path has to start from a spot I’ve already visited. The number on the disk tells me how long the path should be. And remember, each circular space counts as one unit.
I have to travel the entire distance according to the disk. If I come to a fork in the road, I get to choose which way to go. But if going the full distance would take me past the last space, then I can’t take that path. If I reach a dead end with no more paths to follow, the disk becomes useless. If my path ends on a bonus spot, I score extra points. But if it ends on a number, then I earn that many points instead.
In the Mudcrack section, there are nodes that are connected to each other. In between these nodes, you can find bonus icons and Cacti. When I record a disk in the Mudcracks, I need to figure out the total value of the disks. After that, I can mark off any number of nodes whose total value is the same or less than the total value of the disks.
When I mark off nodes, I have to collect them and connect them to at least one previously marked node. To do this, I draw a line from the marked node to the connected node. If the lines eventually form a completely surrounded area, I earn any rewards in that area. When all the nodes are marked, I can use any leftover points to mark the bonus columns at the bottom of the Mudcracks. Once all the boxes in a column are marked, I get to earn those bonuses.
Once everyone has finished marking their sheets and taking their disks off the game board, we can call it a round. To get the next round going, all we have to do is turn the gameboard 90 degrees to the right. This will give each player a new corner to aim for when launching their disks. Oh, and don’t forget to pass the first player marker to the next person in line, going clockwise.
When the final round comes to an end, that’s when the game is officially over. Now it’s time for each player to tally up their scores for each section and write down the grand total next to the animal icons. Once all these points are added together, the player with the highest score is declared the winner of the game.
When it comes to scoring The Creek Bed, you just need to add up all the places you’ve circled and write that number next to the owl. For scoring The Canyon, count how many Cacti of each type were inside the shapes you drew. Write your score for each type in the boxes next to the scoring table, add them up, and then write the total next to the fox. To score The Mudcracks, count the total number of Cacti of each type that you have surrounded. Multiply each count by the value of the Cactus type, write the scores in the boxes, add them up, and write the total next to the rabbit.
Once all the points have been added, we can determine the winner.
END OF GAME
The game will end when we have completed the final round. After the final round, we will tally up all our points. The player with the highest score will be the winner of the game!