Components

• 150 mini tomatoes
• 60 cards
• 5 baskets
• 2 dice
• Instructions

Object of the Game

Harvest tomatoes while defending both your patch and stockpile from a variety of intruders. Whoever has the most stockpiled tomatoes when the "Market Time" card is drawn wins.

Setup

• Sort through the deck of cards and give each player one Turn Summary card. (Place any extras out of play).

• 

  Remove the "Market Time" card from the deck. Shuffle the deck thoroughly and then randomly insert the Market Time card into the bottom 10 cards of the deck.

• Deal each player five face down cards. (Look at them but keep them secret from opponents).

• Stack the deck face down in the center of the playing area. Note that there will be a discard pile next to the deck, which will better be known as the "Compost" pile.

• Give each player one basket. Place it face up in front of you to form your patch. Also note that you have an invisible "stockpile" area next to it where you will keep harvested tomatoes.

• Pile the mini tomatoes along with the two dice in the middle of the playing area.

Types of Cards

There are five main types of cards in the deck, as indicated by the icon in the top left corner. See "Card Guide" on the back for details about each card's actions, but here is an overview of the basic types:

Green Thumb cards help defend your tomato patch from a variety of attacks. You may play one per turn. Discard to the Compost pile immediately upon playing.

Fence cards help protect your stockpile from varmint attacks. Instead of a Green Thumb card, you may play one Fence card per turn, which stays in play near your stockpile.

Thumbs Down cards are used to attack your opponents' patches. Play one per turn on any opponent, as long as they don't already have three in play in front of them. Discard to the Compost pile upon playing, unless otherwise indicated on the card.

Star cards have the special ability to be played instantly, usually during another player's turn. Red stars are played as attacks. Green stars are played in defense. Discard to the Compost pile upon playing.

Blue Ribbon cards are special bonuses that give you extra help during your turn. You may play one per turn. Discard to the Compost pile upon playing.

Game Play

Whoever can best make their face look like a tomato starts the game, and play continues clockwise. On your turn, proceed through the following steps in order:

1. Draw back up to 5 cards from the draw pile.

2. Play either 1 card to rid your patch of Dang Varmints, Hungry Hornworms, or Pesky Weeds OR play card to protect your stockpile.

3. Deal with any undefended varmints, hornworms, or weeds that may still be on your patch. (In other words, roll dice to determine their damage).

4. Harvest tomatoes. Roll dice (or in some cases 1 die). Then take the total number of tomatoes from the middle and add them to your basket.

5. Play 1 card on any opponent's patch. (Limit: 3 per player at a time. Also, you may not play a duplicate card already in front of someone. )

6. Discard any unwanted cards in your hand to the Compost pile.

Note: If you can't (or don't want to) perform one of the above steps, just skip to the next one.

Optional Actions

You may do one or both of these actions any time during your turn:

1. Play 1 card.

2. Stockpile

   Bank the contents of your basket if you think there are at least 20 tomatoes inside. However, you lose them all if you have fewer than 20! Spill out the tomatoes and count them up.

   If there are at least 20, place them in your "stockpile". (These are the tomatoes that will count at the end of the game). If there are fewer than 20, put them all back in the middle pile.

Turn Example

At the beginning of your turn, you have Pesky Weeds and Hungry Hornworms face up in front of you.

After drawing back up to five cards you have the following cards in hand:

You first play a 1 Hoe card to the Compost pile to rid your patch of weeds. (Place the Pesky Weeds card there as well).

However, you still have Hungry Hornworms, which you can not defend. You roll one die to determine how many tomatoes they eat from your harvest and get a 5.

It's now time to harvest, so you roll both dice and get an 8. You decide to play your 2 Bumper Crop card, which doubles your harvest to 16. You subtract 5 for the Hungry Hornworms damage and then collect 11 tomatoes from the middle.

With this latest harvest, you now think you have more than 20 tomatoes in your basket, so you spill it out and count them up. It turns out that you have exactly 20. (Lucky!) You add them to your stockpile.

You end your turn by playing a 3 Dang Varmints card on an opponent's stockpile.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when the Market Time card is drawn.

All players count the tomatoes in their stockpiles (tomatoes in baskets do not count) and whoever has the most wins.

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