Each player becomes the head of a Scottish clan of the 1600s and seeks to maximize the clan's influence and power in the Scottish highlands.

Each clan leader attempts to steadily increase his landholdings by adding tiles to his display, which he then activates for specific benefits: resources that can be used to gain new territory or transformed into victory points; or new clan members to oversee territorial expansion; or any of the 13 special locations, which offer particular advantages to their owners. This is to say nothing of the countless whiskey distilleries and taverns ...

Due to the novel game system - in which the current turn goes to the player whose figure is at the start of the chain of figures and tiles on the track - players have an unusual amount of self-determination over the size and development of their territories. This keeps the games interesting and replayable.

The player with the most points after 3 scoring rounds wins the game.

Components

• 25 clan members
• 5 player figures
• 44 resources
• 16 whiskey barrels
• 1 die
• 8 die-cut frames with: 1 game board, 13 special location cards, 72 tiles, 33 coins, 58 VP tokens.

Setup

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Sort the tiles by their backs (0, 1, 2, and 3) to form 4 face-down stacks next to the board. In addition, there are 5 starting villages (with identical fronts and backs), 1 per player (see below).

Set the 13 special location cards near the game board. Form a general supply near the board of the following pieces:

• 25 clan members (black wooden men),
• 16 whiskey barrels (natural colored, octagonal pieces),
• 44 resource cubes
• 33 coins,
• all victory point tokens.

Each player takes:

• 1 starting village, which he places in his play area (the space on the table near him); this begins the player's display (return unused starting villages to the game box)
• 1 clan member from the general supply, which he places on his starting village;
• 1 player figure in his chosen color, which he places according to the rules below;
• 6 coins, which he places visibly in his play area.

The die is only used when playing with 2 or 3 players. (See rules for 2 or 3 players on page 8).( The players choose a starting player. He places his figure on any of the 14 spaces on the track around the board.

The other players, in clockwise order, place their figures on the next spaces on the track in clockwise order around the track until all players have a figure on the track.

Next, the players draw tiles from the "0" stack one at a time and place them face-up, one per space on the track, starting with the next space after the last player's figure and continuing up to, but not including the space directly behind the starting player's figure. When playing with fewer than 5, the players will need to draw from the "1" pile to complete the track.

Important: the space behind the start player remains empty, regardless of how many are playing (see figure at above right). This one space (behind the "starting" player of the chain), remains empty during the game so players know where the chain begins and ends.

Game Play

The game consists of 3 rounds. At the end of each round, a scoring phase takes place. The first round ends when the last tile from the "1" pile is placed on the board; the second when the last "2" tile is placed, and the third when the last "3" tile is placed.

After the third scoring phase, players conduct a special final scoring. Whoever has the most points wins.

Important: In contrast to most types of games, players do not take turns in clockwise order. Rather, the player whose turn it is always the player whose figure is at the start of the chain on the track. How many turns a player gets in the game will depend on how far he moves his figure each turn. This also means that players may have uneven numbers of turns, or that a player may get several turns in a row.

A player's turn always consists of the following, in the order shown:

1. He moves his figure to any space on the track that contains a tile.
2. He places that tile in his own display.
3. He activates this same tile and all adjacent tiles.
4. He draws a new tile and places it at the end of the track.

1) Moving A Figure

On his turn, the player moves his figure to any space containing a tile (as long as he can legally place the tile in his display and pay for it, as discussed below).

2. ) Placing A Tile

The player takes the tile under his figure and places it in his display in his play area.

It is the red player's turn. If she moves her figure to the meadow or to the village, she will still be at the start of the chain and will be able to immediately take another turn.

If she moves her figure to the forest or beyond (even as far as the Loch), yellow will take the next turn (and remove the meadow and the village tiles).

3. ) Activating Tiles

The player then activates the new tile and all adjacent tiles (including diagonally adjacent tiles).

4). Drawing A New Tile

At the end of his turn, the player draws a new tile from the current stack and places it on the space at the end of the track so that, once again, 13 of the 14 spaces are covered (with figures or tiles).

Of course, once the "0" stack is exhausted, players draw from the "1" stack, then the "2" stack when the "1" stack is exhausted, and, finally, the "3" stack when the "2" stack is exhausted.

Note: it can sometimes happen that the spaces directly behind the starting player figure still have tiles on them. A player should remove any such tiles in phase 4 of his turn (putting them back in the game box), adding an equal number of newly drawn tiles face-up to the end of the track.

The Tiles

Each tile has an name and a colored border that indicates the tile's type. For example, all brown tiles produce victory points for their owners.

• About half of the tiles have purchase costs, usually in resources (pictured in the upper left). If no costs are shown, the tile is free. If a player cannot pay the full costs shown before placing the tile (either with his current holdings and/or through buying and selling at the warehouse, as indicated below), he cannot place his figure on it.

• On some tiles (villages, distilleries and special locations), a picture on the bottom right of the tile shows what a player gets as a 1-time windfall when the tile is placed in his display in addition to whatever the tile's activation allows.

• The bottom middle of each tile shows what a player gets each time he activates the tile.

• The 13 special location tiles are marked on the lower left so they can be easily identified.

The Warehouse

The warehouse is in the center of the board. Each of the 5 resources has its own row (containing the numbers 1, 2 and 3). A player may engage in transactions at the warehouse at any time on his turn by buying and selling resources there.

Buying (only permitted to cover immediate costs!): when a player wants to buy a resource from the warehouse, he places as many coins as are shown on the cheapest open numbered space (which will be either 1, 2 or 3 coins). If the row is already full, the player is temporarily not permitted to buy that resource.

A player can purchase as many resources of as many types as he wants on a given turn, as long as it is done only to cover the immediate costs of placing a tile or to cover the costs of a brown tile or a distillery when needed. In such cases, the player should just leave the purchased resource(s) in the supply because he will have to turn them in immediately upon buying them anyway.

Selling (allowed at any time on a player's turn, including multiple times): when a player wants to sell a resource to the warehouse, he places the resource back into the general supply and takes the coins from the highest coin-occupied space in that resource's row.

A player may sell as many resources of as many types as he wants on a turn; however, if there are no coins in the corresponding row, the player is temporarily unable to sell that resource.

Note: whiskey does not count as a resource and, therefore, cannot be bought or sold. (Obviously, the same is true for clan members).

A Comprehensive Example:

Anna wants to take the Iona Abbey and needs 1 wood, 1 stone, and 1 sheep to pay for it. She has 2 wood, 1 cattle, and 3 coins. She sells her cattle to the warehouse for 2 coins.

She then buys 1 stone, placing 2 coins into the warehouse, and 1 sheep, placing 3 coins into the warehouse. She then turns in 1 wood, places the Iona Abbey next to a stone quarry, a meadow, and the mid-sized annual fair.

As a result, she gets 1 stone, 1 sheep, and the opportunity to turn in up to 4 different resources for victory points. As the benefit of the Abbey, she chooses to take 1 sheep, which she then sells to the warehouse for 3 coins.

With this money, she buys 1 grain for 1 coin, which she turns in together with her 1 wood, 1 stone and 1 sheep for 8 victory points (as the annual

The warehouse at the start of Anna's turn

Placement Rules

• Every tile must be placed so that at least 1 of its edges is adjacent to that of another tile. (Corner to corner is not enough!)

• Additionally, at least 1 of the neighboring tiles must have a clan member on it (in this situation, corner to corner does count!).

• A river must be continuous, and a player may not start a second river. Also, the river must run straight North and South. The same is true for the road, except that it must run straight East and West.

• Tiles without a river or road may only be placed along the edge of another tile if that edge also does not show a river or road.

• Otherwise, there are no further limitations on on placement, and tiles of different colors may be placed adjacent to each other.

In other words, it is permissible to place a castle next to a meadow, or a forest next to a loch, etc.

The function of the tiles

Once a player has legally placed a tile in his display, he may take any one-time benefits it provides (as shown on the tile's bottom right). Then, he may activate the tile he just placed as well as all neighboring tiles (including those diagonally adjacent!).

The player may choose the order in which he activates eligible tiles. The benefits of any 1 tile may only be used once per activation phase. Therefore, during an activation phase, a player may use a distillery to exchange exactly 1 grain for exactly 1 whiskey barrel, or he may use an annual fair once to change resources into victory points, and so on.

Yellow And Green Bordered Tiles: Production Tiles, Distilleries And The Iona Abbey.

Stone quarry, forest, meadow, pasture, and wheat field: whenever a yellow or green production tile is activated, the player takes 1 resource cube of the type shown from the general supply and places it on the producing tile.

Important: a tile may never contain more than 3 resources at once. If a player is supposed to receive more than that, he simply does not take the extra.

Tip: it may be wise to make room in such circumstances by selling a resource to the warehouse before activating the tile.

Distillery: when a player adds a distillery to his display, he immediately takes 1 whiskey barrel from the supply.

Additionally, whenever the distillery is activated (including upon initial placement), the owner may distill whiskey by turning in any yellow resource cube from his display to the supply (the tile it comes from need not be activated) and placing a new whiskey barrel next to his display (not on the distillery itself).

Iona Abbey: in addition to special location cards, activating the abbey permits a player to take 1 resource cube of his choice and place it on the abbey tile. As with other tiles, the abbey can only hold a maximum of 3 resources.

Brown Bordered Tiles: Butchers, Taverns, Annual Fairs, Etc.

Butcher: there are 3 types of butchers. One permits a player to turn in 1 (or 2) sheep for 2 (or 4) victory points by returning the chosen number of white resource cubes from any tiles to the supply and drawing the corresponding number of victory point markers.

There is an identical butcher for cattle. The third butcher requires the player to turn in exactly 1 sheep and 1 cattle for 5 victory points.

Annual fair: depending on which fair the player has, he can turn in 1-3, 1-4 or 1-5 resources of any type as long as they are all different (buying and selling at the warehouse as necessary) in exchange for 5, 8, or 12 points. In other words, to score 8points with the mid-sized fair, a player may not choose to turn in 2 cattle and 2 sheep, but must instead turn in 4 of the 5 different resources. Whiskey, as mentioned earlier, does not count as a resource!

Grocer: the player must turn in exactly 3 resources of any types in exchange for 8 victory points.

Bridge: the player must turn in exactly 1 stone and 1 wood in exchange for 7 victory points.

Tavern: a tavern allows a player to score 3 or 4 points when activated without any further costs.

Gray Bordered Tiles: Villages And Castles

Whenever a player adds a village or castle tile to his display, he immediately takes 1 clan member from the supply and adds it to the tile. In the case of a castle, he also gets to take the corresponding card.

Additionally, the player gets 1 movement point for each gray tile that is activated (including the one just placed). The player totals these movement points and may, at the end of his turn, divide them among his clan members as he sees fit. It costs a clan member 1 movement point to move to an adjacent tile (diagonal movement is allowed!). Unused movement points cannot be saved.

If for example, a player has 3 movement points at his disposal, he could use them to move 1 clan member 3 tiles or 3 clan members 1 tile.

Important: a player may also pay 1 movement point to take any of his clan members from his display and place it to the side. This clan member becomes a chieftain, and will score points for the player.

Note:

• Once a clan member becomes a chieftain, the piece can never be returned to the player's display.
• Players must always make sure to leave at least 1 clan member in their respective displays (at least until the last turn) because, otherwise, they will not be able to add any more tiles.

Blue Bordered Tiles ("lochs")

When a player adds a loch to his display, he immediately takes the matching card (see below). Activating a loch has no further effect (which is why there is no symbol in the lower middle of the tile).

Note: A player may pay the placement costs for Loch Ness with 1 clan member or 1 chieftain, and the costs for Loch Oich with any 2 resources, as long as they are different.

The Special Locations

When a player adds 1 of the 13 special location tiles to his display, he takes the matching card from the pile. These cards offer various advantages:

Iona Abbey: at the end of the game, the player scores 2 points for every yellow tile in his display (including the abbey itself).

Loch Lochy: the player immediately (and therefore once in the game) takes any 2 resources from the supply.

Loch Morar: at the end of the game, the player scores 2 points for every green tile in his display.

Loch Ness: once per turn, the player can activate any tile. This does not require activation of or adjacency to Loch Ness itself or the new tile. Remember, though, that no tile can be activated twice in the same phase.

Loch Shiel: the player immediately places 1 matching resource from the supply on each of his empty production tiles (i.e., stone quarries, forests, meadows, pastures, wheat fields). If he also owns the Iona Abbey and it is empty, he may place any 1 resource on it as well.

Tip: before taking resources, the player may sell as many resources as he likes to the warehouse, within legal limits.

Loch Oich: the player may immediately activate all of his tiles in any order. His turn then ends, and he may not carry out a normal activation (or use Loch Ness!).

Castle Stalker: the player immediately takes another clan member from the supply and places it on the tile (which then contains 2 clan members).

Castle Moil: the player immediately takes 1 whiskey barrel from the supply and places it next to his display.

Armadale Castle: the player immediately takes 3 coins from the supply.

Duart Castle: at the end of the game, the player scores 3 points for every village (not castles!) in his display.

Donan Castle: the player immediately takes 2 whiskey barrels from the supply and places them next to his display.

Castle of Mey: during every scoring (see below), each of the player's chieftains scores double.

Important: the players' Tam o' Shanters ("tams" or typical Scottish caps) also count but not double!

Cawdor Castle: During every scoring (see below), the player adds 3 tams when comparing chieftains.

The 3 Scorings

As soon as the last "1" tile is placed on the board, the game comes to a momentary halt for the first scoring. Afterward, the game resumes with the player whose figure is farthest behind on the track taking a turn.

The same holds true for the second scoring which occurs after the last "2" tile is placed on the board, and the third scoring which occurs after the last "3" tile is placed on the board.

During each of the 3 scorings, players compare their levels of achievement in 3 areas: whiskey production, chieftains (including all tams on the players' cards) and the number of special locations they possess (determined by comparing how many cards they have).

To score whiskey production, each player compares how many whiskey barrels he has to the number owned by the player with the fewest (which could be 0).

Each player then uses the difference to score points according to the table on the game board (below the warehouse), taking the number of victory point chips indicated. Players then do the same with their chieftains (counting tams) and their special location cards.

End of the Game

Right after the third scoring, the final scoring takes place:

• The owners of the Iona Abbey, Loch Morar, and Duart Castle score victory points for their tiles.
• Each player scores 1 point for each of his coins.
• Each player compares his total number of tiles with the total of the player who has the fewest. For each point of difference, the player must give up 3 victory points.

For example, at the end of the game, Anna has 15 tiles, Bruce 13, Clara 16, and Danny 13. Anna has to give up 6 points, and Clara has to give up 9.

The player with the most points wins.

If there is a tie, the tied player with the most resources wins. If there is still a tie, those players rejoice in their shared victory.

Continue Reading