The Portuguese summer is filled with lively outdoor festivals, called Arraial.
Each neighborhood, and even each street, hosts its own Arraial, where friends and neighbors join to enjoy music, food, and drink. In Arraial, players organize their own festivals. Whoever attracts the greatest number of visitors will win the game!
Components
- 1 Phase Marker
- 4 Couple Visitors
- 72 Color Pieces
- 56 Individual Visitors
- Manjerico First-Player Token
- 4 Street Boards
- 4 Level Bars
- 1 Phase Card
- 24 Color Piece Cards
- 1 Central Board
- Instructions
Setup
1 Place the Central Board in the middle of the table.
2 Each player receives a Street Board and places it vertically in front of him or herself.
Examples of some possible ways to arrange the Street Boards. For 1, 2, or 3 players, use one of the examples shown and place the remaining Street Boards back into the game box.
3 Each player places a Level Bar on his or her board where indicated, according to the number of players. This bar defines the space in which a player must organize an arraial.
4 Shuffle the 24 Color Piece cards and place them face- down in a draw pile, within reach of all players.
With 2 players: before shuffling, remove one Color Piece card of each type (8 in total) from the draw pile and return them to the box. They will not be used in this game.
5 Draw 3 Color Piece cards and place them face-up in the octagon, in the designated spots.
Important: cards must be properly oriented; make sure that the yellow dot on the card covers the yellow dot on the octagon.
6 Draw 3 Color Piece cards and place them face-up next to the Central Board. If you have to draw cards, draw from these 3. Whenever the last card is taken, replace these cards with ones drawn from the pile.
7 Place the Phase Marker on the first space of the Phase Card.
8 Select a starting player; give the Manjerico token to that player.
9 Place the Color Pieces and Visitors within reach of all players.
You are ready to begin!
Game Play
Arraial is played over the course of 3 Phases. In each phase, players will take turns in clockwise order until there are no more cards available to place on the octagon. This marks the end of the Phase, which will be followed either by a new Phase or the end of the game.
On a player's turn, he or she has 3 Action Points that can be spent in two ways:
1. Rotate Octagon 90° = Spend 1 Action Point
This is an optional action; it is not mandatory.
Movement can only be made in the direction of the arrows on the central board.
Each 90° rotation of the octagon costs 1 Action Point.
After rotating the octagon, make sure that its symbols are aligned with those on the square.
2. place a color piece on your street = spend 1 action point
This action is mandatory.
To place a Color Piece, select any card on the octagon. Place the piece shown on that card onto your Street Board, then discard the card.
Placing a Color Piece costs 1 Action Point.
Important
In Phases 1 and 2: On your turn, you must place at least 1 Color Piece (of any color) on your Street Board.
In Phase 3: On your turn, you must place at least 2 Color Pieces (of any color) on your Street Board.
On your turn, you can take these actions in any order and you can even take the same action more than once. You are not required to spend all of your Action Points.
End of the Turn
At the end of your turn, you must place a new Color Piece card onto each empty space of the octagon; draw these from the face-up cards next to the Central Board.
If you are unable to fill every empty space on the octagon, fill as many spaces as possible. Then, immediately proceed to the end of the Phase.
If the Phase has not ended, draw new Color Piece cards and place them face- up next to the central board, up to a total of 3. If there are not enough cards, place as many as possible.
The next player can start his or her turn.
Placing Color Pieces
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When placing a piece, it must be placed in the same orientation as shown on the card.
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The piece must fit into a free space of the grid, below the Level Bar. Slide the piece downwards from the top of the board, until it comes to a stop on another piece or hits the bottom row.
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If your piece finishes its movement and there is an available opening in the same row, you may slide the piece sideways to fit into the empty space.
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You Cannot:
- rotate the piece.
- pass through a space that does not fit.
- be misaligned from the grid.
- overlap another piece.
- be off the grid.
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What happens when the Level bar prevents you from placing a new Color Piece?
Return your Level Bar and any Visitors on it to the game box. Removed Visitors do NOT count towards your final score, and your Level Bar is out of play for the rest of the game. Then, place the Color Piece.
Game Visitors
Visitors are worth points at the end of the game; you can earn Visitors in 3 ways:
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When placing a piece to create a zone of at least 2 orthogonally adjacent, same-color tiles, place a matching- -colored Visitor into that zone.
You do not earn an additional Visitor for adding a piece to a zone that already has a Visitor.
Same-colored tiles that only touch at their corners are not considered to be adjacent to each other.
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If you are the first player to make a zone of a certain color, you automatically receive the Visitor Couple of the matching color (in addition to the Individual Visitor). This Visitor Couple indicates that this zone is the largest of that color among all players' arraial.
As soon as another player creates a LARGER zone of that color (as measured by total number of squares), that player claims the Visitor Couple and places it onto his board in the appropriate zone. Individual Visitors can NEVER be removed during gameplay.
Note: You do not gain additional Visitors for joining two zones that already have Visitors. However, joining same-colored zones can help you to "steal" Couples from other players.
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When you completely fill a line with Color Pieces of any color, raise your Level Bar by one line and place an Individual Visitor (white color) on it. These Visitors are waiting to enter your arraial; they can only do this at the end of the Phase.
If your Level Bar has reached the top of your Street Board, it cannot not go up any further; you still earn the Visitor.
Note: Gaining Visitors in this way is only possible if your Level Bar has not been removed from play.
End of the 1st and 2nd Phases
If you are unable to completely fill the octagon with cards from the face-up supply, place as many as you are able. When this happens, the Phase ends. The end of Phase 3 is also the end of the game.
At the end of Phases 1 and 2, do the following:
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Shuffle all discarded Color Piece cards (do not remove cards that are already on the Octagon) to create a new, face-down draw pile.
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Fill any empty spaces on the octagon with cards from the draw pile. Remember to orient the cards correctly!
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Draw 3 Color Piece cards and place them face-up next to the Central Board.
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Each player drops his or her Level Bar by 2 lines.
If the Bar does not overlap any Color Pieces, remove all Visitors from your Level Bar and place them onto any Color Piece(s) on your Street as they join the party.
Visitors may share the same Color Piece.
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Move the Phase Marker down to the next spot on the Phase Card. Play will begin with the player sitting immediately to the left of the player who ended the previous Phase.
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What happens when the Level Bar comes down and covers one of my Color Pieces?
Return your Level Bar and any Visitors on it to the game box. Removed Visitors do NOT count towards your final score, and your Level Bar is out of play for the rest of the game.
As you no longer have a Level Bar, you no longer have a place to put new (white) Visitors. You may still place Visitors when creating new color zones on your Street.
End of the Game
At the end of Phase 3, if there are no cards available to fill the octagon, the game ends immediately. If there are Visitors on your Level Bar, place them onto any Color Piece(s) on your street. The Level Bar does NOT move downward.
Final Score
Each player counts the number of points he has in his Street.
- Each Individual Visitor = 1 point
- Each Couple Visitor = 2 points
In the event of a tie, the tied player farthest clockwise from the starting player wins (e.g., in a game with 4 players, the fourth player is always the furthest from the first).
Solo Play
Set up the game as you would for two players, making the following changes:
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Use only one Street Board.
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Return all Couple Visitors to the box. There are no color majorities in this variant.
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DO NOT place the 3 Color Piece cards face-up. Whenever new cards are needed, draw them directly from the draw pile.
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Without looking at them, remove 4 cards from the draw pile and return them to the game box. They will not be used in this game.
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Arrange your Level Bar as you would for a 4-player game. NOTE: for a more challenging game, lower your Level Bar by one or two levels. For an easier game, raise the Bar by one or two levels.
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Take consecutive turns until you come to the end of a Phase.
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At the end of your turn, discard any cards remaining on the octagon.
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At the end of each Phase, discard any cards remaining on the octagon.
Final Score
Count your points as you would in the normal game.
- +17 points - Your arraial was epic; it was the the best anyone can remember.
- 14 to 16 points - Your arraial was the best in your neighbor- hood.
- 11 to 13 points - Your arraial was weak, but it can improve. Maybe you should try better music?
- -10 points - Was there even a party?
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