Copycat Game Rules

Components

40 start cards
11 cards for section I
15 cards for section II
13 cards for section III
12 cards for section IV
4 cards for section V (the doctorates)
15 office cards
4 overview cards
28 campaign workers
8 playing pieces
25 green victory point markers
1 game board
Rulebook

Layout of Action Cards

A Each action card contains a number in the upper left-hand corner. Each set of start cards is numbered 9 to 18: Each player takes one set of identical start cards. Each one of the remaining action cards has an individual number. The red action cards are numbered 1 to 8, and the remaining action cards are numbered 19 to 61.

B The price (the number of coins that a player has to pay to buy the action card) is displayed in the bottom left-hand corner.

C The picture in the middle of the card and the title of the card indicate what kind of action it is. They have no further importance.

D The roman numeral directly below the picture on the right-hand side indicates in which section (I to V) of the game the card is available. On the start cards, the letters A-D are displayed here.

E The action box below the picture shows the action of the card. The color indicates, which type of action this card offers and therefore the phase, in which the action can be used.

Offices in the Federal Department

There is no difference between the office spaces on the game board and the office cards. All offices are treated the same throughout the course of the game.

A The picture and the title of the office cards indicate what kind of action it is. They have no further importance. (To save space, the office spaces on the game board do not have a title).

B The numeral directly below the picture on the right-hand side indicates in which section (1 to 5) of the game the card is placed in the federal department. The four normal offices for 3-4 or 4 players show the player symbol here.

C The action box below the picture shows the action of the office. The color indicates which type of action this office offers and therefore the phase, in which the action can be used.

The colors of the actions (action cards and offices)

Game Play

The game consists of several rounds. Each round consists of the following four phases:

Planning: Drawing cards and determining the order of play
Action: Placing campaign workers in the federal department and using actions
Buying and success: Buying cards and taking victory points
Cleaning up: Clearing the game board and preparing the next round

Phase 1: Planning

What are the options in this round? And who gets to be the first to sharpen their elbows or secure new perks?

In this phase, the following steps are carried out in the following order:

Each player draws 5 cards from his own face-down draw pile, holding them in his hand.
To determine the order of play each player selects one of his cards and lays it face-down in front of him on the table. Once everyone has selected a card, the players turn the cards over.

Whoever selected the highest card goes first and places his playing piece on the first bus window. The player with the second highest card goes second and places his playing piece on the second bus window, and so on. The new order of play applies to the rest of the phases of this round.

If two players selected a card of the same value, they trade positions in their order of play, so that the player who went first in the previous round goes second in this round.

If three players all drew a card of the same value, they trade positions in their order of play, so that the player who went first in the previous round trades positions with the player who went last in the previous round. If four players all have a card of the same value, the player who went first in the last round trades positions with the player who went fourth, and the player who was second trades with the player who was third.

Example: Helen and Angela both selected the card 16; the other players selected a lower number. In the last round, Angela was second and Helen was third. In this round, Helen is now first and Angela is second.
The players now discard the cards used to determine the order of play in the temporary clipboard piles (turned 90° to emphasize their position).These cards can no longer be used during this round.

Phase 2: Action

Everyone sends out his workers and tries to be present at all the most important functions: raise money, recruit new campaign workers, or even score some victory points to advance your political career.

Taking turns according to the new order of play, each player, one by one, places one of his campaign workers in an empty office of the federal department. Each office may contain one campaign worker only.

If there happens to be one or more victory point markers in the selected office, the player takes them and puts them into a pile in front of himself.

On a player's turn, he can also play cards and/or use any actions of selected offices either before or after having placed his campaign worker. Cards that have been played are laid face up in the player's own play area.

If the action of an office has been used, the player lays down his campaign worker in the corresponding office to indicate that its' action has already been used. Once the player decides not to play any more cards and/or the action of the selected office has been carried out, it is the next player's turn to place one of his campaign workers.

If a player has no campaign workers left, he has to pass on his turn and cannot play more cards or use any offices. All other players continue placing their campaign workers in offices until nobody has any campaign workers left.

A player can voluntarily decide not to place all of his campaign workers. If all offices are occupied by campaign workers, any remaining campaign workers cannot be placed anymore.

Once all campaign workers have been placed into offices, phase 3 begins.

Note: In general, blue and purple cards, and blue office actions are used in phase 2 only. During the first round only blue offices are available. All green and yellow cards and office actions are used in phase 3 only.

Office actions and cards that are grey are subject to special rules. Red cards do not have any actions.

Hint: In this phase purple actions help you recruit more campaign workers, who can help you to get more lucrative offices, while blue actions let you draw more cards. You use all green and yellow actions only in the next phase, as these let you buy new cards or give you victory points.

Phase 3: Buyings

Finally comes the hard-earned success! Hoard new action options for the future and further your career. What else could you ask for?

Taking turns in player order, each player plays ALL his remaining cards from his hand (laying them in his own play area) and uses all actions of his selected offices with green, yellow or grey actions that he hasn't yet used. As soon as the first player has finished all his actions, his turn is over and the next player begins his turn.

Note: In the third phase blue and purple cards, as well as blue office actions, cannot be used.Their actions are forfeited.

A player buys new cards with all of his available money, if he has campaign workers in the offices offering buy actions .

He adds all coins, which are depicted on the cards from within his own play area including any coins that may be depicted on his selected office spaces in the federal department.

With this virtual money he can buy 1 card for each buy action from the street, which are lying face up at the bottom of the game board (Only a single office in the whole federal department allows a player to buy 2 cards).

The cards lying on the first four street spaces from left to right cost the same amount as shown on the cards.

The cards from the fifth to the eighth space increase in cost by one coin each, and the cards from the ninth to the eleventh space increase in cost by two coins each, as shown below the respective space on the game board.

The total cost of all cards that the player buys from the street may not exceed the total sum of his coins. Any left over money that the player has not spent is forfeited: Money cannot be saved for the following round!

If there are any RED CARDS on any street fields to the left of the acquired card, the player has to pick ALL of them. The player puts all the new cards, both the bought cards and all red cards, into the temporary clipboard pile in the player's own play area.

Hint: Red cards do not have any actions and are more of a nuisance. They should be avoided if it can be helped. Players can get rid of the red cards, for example, by using the action card "Election Campaign Office" to trade one in for an additional campaign worker.

Note: Empty street spaces are not replenished with cards until phase 4!
After he made any card purchases, the player adds up all his victory points that he gets for cards, offices and/or collected wooden victory point markers.

Then, he moves his game piece forward along the career path by the same number of spaces as victory points. He then returns the wooden victory point markers to the pool of victory point markers next to the game board.

Note: All campaign workers always remain in their appointed offices until phase 4!

Phase 4: Cleaning Up

Starting a new round with a dean slate. Kick it into high gear and get your campaign rolling...

In every office where there is no campaign worker, place a wooden victory point marker. If there are already one or more victory point markers in an office, add another one.

Each player takes the cards from his play area, including the cards from his temporary clipboard pile and lays them all face up on his discard pile.

Note: The discard pile may only be shuffled, once the player wants to draw a new card, but his draw pile is empty. As long as there are cards in his draw pile, the player draws cards from it.

Once it is empty, the player shuffles his discard pile and lays it down as his new draw pile on the corresponding draw pile space, from which he then draws the new cards. During a round, cards from the temporary clipboard pile and play area are NEVER shuffled into a new draw pile.

Note: Cards that were played in a round, for example, for determining the order of play or which were traded in for other action cards, lie in the temporary clipboard pile and may not be used again in this round!

All players remove their campaign workers from the game board. Each player keeps three campaign workers of his own color. If a player used more than three campaign workers, he returns the remaining pieces to the other unused campaign workers beside the game board.

Place the uppermost card from the supply of office cards on the next free window in the federal department building on the right side according to the appropriate section. After three rounds, all the offices in the federal department building for section 1 have been used. The offices for section 2 are placed in the second column, and so on.

Depending on the number of players, some or even all action cards from the first three street fields from left to right, which were not bought, are taken off the game board and removed from the game.

The number of depicted people above these spaces indicate how many cards must be removed: For example, all the unsold cards from the first two spaces are removed for a three-player game.

Once these cards have been taken off the board, move all the cards in the remaining street spaces to the left to the less expensive spaces. The now vacant street spaces to the right are replenished with cards from the supply, so that there are once again eleven cards lying face up, covering all the street spaces.

A new round can now begin, starting with phase 1.

General Rules for Action Cards and Offices

If an action of a card or office contradicts a rule, the action takes precedence. The actions on cards and offices vary in their strengths. All actions on the cards and offices can be used to the maximum limit as indicated by the numeral in front of a symbol (or above the arrow) on the card.

For example, the symbol on the right office of the second row of the game board means that a player, whose campaign worker is standing on the office, can buy 0,1 or 2 cards. A player can always pass completely on a chosen action.

The player can combine his actions on his action cards and offices in any way to get the best result.

Very important: All cards, campaign workers, wooden victory point markers and coins can be used or doubled a maximum of two times per round!

The corresponding action can therefore be used once, and then, with the help of certain offices or action cards, can be re-activated for use once more only.

Cards that have been played a second time with the help of an office are taken from the play area and moved to the temporary clipboard pile (turned 90°).