Theming: What’s the point?
Work together to turn 15 landscape cards into a productive farm and meet three revealed scoring conditions.
Players
- Agropolis is a cooperative game for 1-4 players.
- Discuss placement freely, but never show cards in hand. Once a player reveals a chosen card, it must be placed.
Setting up: How to get started?
- Shuffle all 18 cards and set three aside scoring-condition side up. Add their numbers: this is the target score.
- Choose a start player. Deal that player three cards, block side down, and each other player one card, also block side down.
- Put the remaining cards to one side, block side up, as the draw deck. Put its top card face up in the build area to begin the map.
- The start player takes the first turn; play proceeds clockwise.
Rounds and Phases
A placement turn
- Choose one of your cards, reveal its block side, and add it to the map.
- Pass every card still in your hand to the player on your left. They become the active player.
- Draw the top card of the draw deck, if any, so you hold one card. When you have fewer than two cards to pass, pass what remains after your turn.
- Continue until all 15 non-scoring cards have been added.
Placement constraints
- Place every card horizontally; it may be rotated 180 degrees but not otherwise rotated or flipped.
- A new card must either have a block edge touching an existing block edge or cover one or more existing blocks.
- Never tuck a card under another card and never join the map only at a corner. Gaps are allowed if these rules are met.
Farm planning
- A block is one rectangular quarter of a card. The four types are cornfield, orchard, vineyard, and livestock.
- A group is matching blocks connected by at least one edge. Build large groups, but inspect the three scoring conditions before committing space.
- A road is a continuous stretch of roadway. Keeping roads together reduces the final penalty.
Scoring
When the fifteenth map card is placed, score as follows:
- Score one point for every block in your largest group of each of the four types. For a tie, choose one tied largest group.
- Subtract one point for every separate road.
- Add or subtract the result of each revealed scoring condition.
- Win if the final total equals or exceeds the target score; otherwise the team loses.
Feed Fees
Feed Fees are an optional harder-game rule. For every matching livestock symbol beneath the three selected scoring conditions, add one to the target score. A game can have more than one fee.
Terminology
- Block: one rectangular zone on a card.
- Group: matching blocks joined edge-to-edge.
- Road: a continuous roadway, from one block to the map edge or across several blocks.
- Scoring condition: one of the three set-aside cards; its number contributes to the target and its text modifies scoring.
Official rules
Button Shy: Agropolis is the publisher’s official product page. No public publisher-hosted standalone rulebook URL was available during research.