Santa Cruz

Game preparation

2 to 4 players can join a game by typing /join . Start the game with /start . It's also possible to use shortcuts from the Game tool.

The game

Santa Cruz is a strategic discovery game that is easy to access and makes you want to play again.

Players explore a newly discovered island, colonize it and try with the help of rating cards to make as many points as possible for themselves, without being obliged to share them with other players.

This rule mainly presents the rules of the online game. For those who want to delve deeper into the rules or have a specific question, it's possible to consult the official rulebook, which can be downloaded in pdf [Editor's note: in German] from the publisher's website.

Game board

1. Player display
2. Number of points
3. Personal evaluation cards
4. Overview of cards in hand (path, river, boat, double turn cards)
5. Coastal bases (blue)
6. Volcano bases (orange)

The current player's name is always displayed surrounded by white.

Player display:

On the top left is displayed the number of evaluation cards that have not yet been played (2). On the right is displayed the number of bird tiles recovered (0).

The right-hand column shows the number of buildings still available (houses, churches, lighthouses).

Round tiles indicate how many building cards a player has. The number on the right indicates the building cards in the set chosen at the beginning (so which cards he has available for this round), the number on the left indicates how many of these cards have already been played.

In the example Nessi has already played his 4 out of 4 path cards. She still has one river card, one boat card and two double-turn cards left - which she hasn't used yet.

Alternative view of player display:

When you move the mouse over the player display, you get an alternative view with an overview of the attributes harvested by the relevant player.

Attributes with a green tick have been harvested by the player (Here: sugar, gold, sheep)

Game flow

The game is played in two rounds. During the preparation phase, all players receive their evaluation cards and take turns choosing a set of building cards.

Then the first phase begins, in which all players take turns playing their cards. When all cards have been played, the second phase begins. All players must choose a new set, receive a new rating card and discard a rating card. The second round is played in the same way as the first. At the end of the second round the collected bird tokens are evaluated and the game ends.

Preparation

All players are each given eight houses, three churches and two lighthouses to build. Some of the 16 evaluation cards are distributed as follows: with 2/3/4 players, each player receives 4/3/2 evaluation cards.

The construction cards are divided into four sets:

Each set is made up of six construction cards with different distributions between road, river or boat as well as a double-turn card.

As soon as the game is launched, each player one after the other can choose one of the sets. Whoever is the last player in the turn order can start, the first player must choose last. Tip: before choosing, take a look at your evaluation cards and then choose your building card set with full knowledge of the facts.

To compensate for the first player's advantage, subsequent players receive in order 1/2/3 victory points as "start-up help".

Session 1

Each player in order starting with the first player, then chooses their starting location. The starting location can be any free (blue) coast tile. Possible building squares are always indicated by a flag.

Then the main phase of the game begins: players take turns laying down their cards. This can be not only a construction card but also an evaluation card. To do this, move the mouse over the evaluation card overview (3) to see all the cards in hand.

Build

To build, you must play one of your construction cards. Each type of card can only be built in the appropriate location:

Ship cards:

With a boat card it is only possible to build on coastal (blue) building locations. You need to click on a boat card, all possible locations are then displayed (flags) and then simply click on the location you want to build on.

Path maps:

When a player plays a path card, he must choose a building location that is accessible by a direct path from one of his previously constructed buildings.

Example:

Red has already built two buildings (circled in green). The yellow-circled squares can be used, as they can be reached by a path from the two red buildings. The lower red-circled square is already occupied by Green and the upper one is not accessible by a direct path.

River maps:

In order to (usefully) play a river card, the player must already own a building of some kind on a river. If he then plays a river card, he can choose any free location along that river.

Example:

Green has already built a house on one of the two branches of the river (circled in green). He can now build on one of the free squares indicated by a flag (circled in yellow). He cannot use the square circled in red, as it is already built by the Red player.

Double-turn card:

With the double turn card, it's possible to play twice in a row. To do this, you must choose one of the three construction types (road, boat, river); this choice applies for both two turns.

To use the double turn, click on the double turn card. The three symbols representing the three types of building cards appear, simply click on the chosen type. Then we place the two buildings following the previous rules.

The basic rules are:

• It goes without saying that you must have the type of building in your reserve in order to build.
• The number of points indicated on the building tiles are directly counted in the player's scoreboard.
• As soon as a tile has been built, all directly adjacent tiles (by road or river) are uncovered.
• Immediately lay on an open tile as on a masked tile. A hidden tile is turned over. If a player does not have the corresponding building type, his turn ends.
• The following constraint applies: if a player can place a building, he must do so.
• A card can also be played when no building can be placed: in this case the card placed is without action.

To avoid playing an impossible move, a confirmation window appears when playing a card that doesn't allow building.

If you don't want to play the card right away, select the red X. If this was planned and you wish to discard the card without playing, select the green tick.

Basically, it's forbidden to build on a square that's already occupied. Exception: the player who is the last to play in the current round, may build once in the current round on a tile already occupied.

Evaluations

Instead of playing a construction card you can also play one of your evaluation cards. Evaluation cards are always calculated for all players!

When a player plays one of these evaluation cards, all players who have built at least once on a square with this resource, receive the indicated number of points. Multiple builds on the same resource do not increase the number of points!

Example: if a player plays the Gold 6 card, all players who have at least one building on a Gold square earn 6 points.

When a player plays one of these rating cards, all players who have built at least once on the two resources, receive 7 points. Players who have taken possession of only one of the two resources, receive 3 points.

Fish bonus:

For fish there is an additional fish bonus. Each time, when a devaluation card with fish is played, players receive the bonus points shown at the bottom of each fish tile built. Here unlike other valuation cards, the effect of multiple tiles is cumulative.

Example:

A player chooses the bonus card fish 5. Both Blue and Green immediately earn 5 points as both have at least one fish tile. Green also receives +1 bonus point for his tile, Blue receives +5 (+2 and +3) for his two tiles. Green therefore receives a total of 6 points for the fish card and Blue 10 points.

When a player plays this rating card, all players who have built each building type at least once, receive 6 points.

When a player plays this rating card, all players who have built at least four houses, receive 6 points.

When a player plays this rating card, all players who have built at least four contiguous buildings, receive 7 points. Buildings must be connected to each other by a direct path!

When a player plays this rating card, all players receive 3 points for each building on a river. Buildings do not need to be connected.

When a player plays this rating card, all players receive 3 points for each building on a coastal tile (blue).

When a player plays this rating card, all players receive 3 points for each bird token they have collected.

Warning: Here only the number of tokens is counted, not their value! The value of the tokens is only taken into account at the end of the game (see below)!

When a player plays this rating card, all players receive 3 points for each building on a volcano tile (orange).

When a player plays this rating card, all players lose 2 points for each building on a volcano (orange) tile.

When this card is played, all buildings on volcano tiles are removed from the game and are no longer available for that round. They return to their owner's reserve for the next round. It is possible to build on newly released tiles.

Set 2

Each player recovers all his buildings (even those destroyed by the volcano) from his reserve.

Then each player starting with the last in player order, can choose one of the sets already chosen in the first round. In addition each player receives a new hidden rating card. Each player must then discard one rating card from all those in their hand.

The second round then proceeds in the same way as the first.

End of game

The end of the game occurs when all cards have been played during the second round. The points of the collected bird tokens are then added up. Whoever has the most points wins the game.