Keyflower

Setup: Two to six players play spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each receives a random home, eight secretly drawn ordinary workers and the player-count allocation of winter tiles. Configure boats, turn-order tiles and seasonal tiles using the player-count table. Green workers start in a separate supply, outside the bag.

Turns: In clockwise order, place one group at one location to bid for a village or turn-order tile, or use a village tile; alternatively pass. A season ends only when everyone passes consecutively. A player who passed can act again before that happens.

Bidding: Put workers beside your side of a tile and exceed its highest bid. A winning bid cannot be withdrawn, but can be increased. An outbid group can be relocated intact and supplemented; it cannot be split or returned behind the screen. Winning bids go to the bag at season end; losing bids return to their owners.

Colors: Workers using a tile and workers bidding beside it normally must share one color, set by the first workers placed there. Green is a separate color, not wild. Specific summer boats in the base box provide explicit exceptions.

Using tiles: You may use production tiles in your village, other villages and the current spring, summer or autumn auction. Each use requires more workers than the previous use, normally one, then two, then three. At most six usage workers can occupy a tile in a season. Overpaying is allowed within these limits.

Production and transport: Resources produced in your village stay on the producing tile; resources produced elsewhere go to your home. Skills and new workers go behind your screen. Using a home or transport tile moves resources along roads within your village and permits the indicated upgrades. One transport unit moves one resource across one adjacent connection.

Upgrades and expansion: Required resources must be on the tile being upgraded; pay skills from behind your screen. Flip it without changing orientation or removing unspent items. Add acquired tiles at season end with adjacent road, field and water edges matching. Placed tiles cannot be rearranged; specific boat abilities can alter some rules.

Season end: A successful bidder takes the tile and all usage workers on it; players also collect all usage workers from their own villages. In spring, summer and autumn, choose boat workers and skills in turn order, one boat per player. Winter supplies no ordinary boat cargo; instead choose boat tiles and take won turn-order tiles into your village.

Winter and scoring: Each player contributes at least one private winter tile to the public auction. After winter, score tiles and gold. The four autumn storage tiles require resources delivered during play; other goals normally allow eligible items to be allocated freely. Each item scores only once. Unallocated gold is worth one point each; the purple start marker can represent one resource, skill or worker of any color. Most points wins; equal scores remain tied.