Villagers

To set up Villagers, place the starting road villagers in a line. Shuffle the remaining village cards and deal them into six face-down stacks above the road based on the player count. Place any undealt cards into a reserve deck, and insert the first and second market cards at the bottom of specific stacks. Set out the basic villagers (Hares, Lumberjacks, and Miners) and the bank supply of gold. Each player receives a founder card showing its gold side, a village square, a player reference, eight gold, and five secret cards from the reserve. Finally, give the first player card to whoever has lived in the same place the longest or decide randomly.

The main objective of Villagers is to construct a thriving post-plague community by strategically drafting and playing people into your village. You must manage production chains, requirements, and food sources to grow your village and generate the most wealth. At the end of the game, the player who has accumulated the most total gold wins.

The game is played over a series of rounds divided into two main phases. First is the draft phase, where players determine their draft limit based on food symbols in their village and take turns drafting villagers from the face-up display or top face-down stacks. After drafting, players update the road display. Next is the build phase, where players use their build limit to play villagers directly from their hand to their village square. Players can also acquire basic villagers by discarding cards from their hand. Production chains must be built on top of the correct foundational cards, and padlocked cards require specific workers or gold payments to unlock.

Scoring happens during two specific market phases triggered when the market cards are exposed and their corresponding decks are depleted. During a market phase, players total the value of gold symbols and coins on their cards, and for the second market, silver circle values as well. You then collect this total amount of gold from the bank into your personal supply. Alternatively, actual coins sitting on cards can be taken directly into your supply during the final scoring.

The game immediately concludes after the second market phase is resolved. Players count their total wealth in gold, and the player with the most gold is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the tied player with the fewest villagers wins. If a tie still remains, the victory is shared among those players.