Fromage

Objective and setup: Players operate individual creameries, make and age cheese, gather resources, and earn Prestige at Villes, Festival, Fromagerie, and Bistro. Choose the quadrant inserts for the player count and assemble the central board; two-player games seat players opposite one another, while four-player games use a square arrangement. Each player takes cheese tokens, Workers, Worker Bases, and a random Player Board, then receives starting Resources as directed.

Turn structure and simultaneous play: At the start of a turn, each player retrieves any used Workers that are facing them. All players then act simultaneously in the quadrant currently facing them. Using available Workers, each player may perform one Gather Resources action and one Make Cheese action, in either order. After everyone finishes, rotate the Board ninety degrees clockwise. Workers move with it and return to a player's supply when they face that player again.

Make Cheese: Choose an empty Cheese space in the current quadrant, place one of your Cheese Tokens there, and put the matching Soft, Hard, or Bleu Worker on top. Each space specifies a Cheese Type and Age. Bronze cheese ages in one turn, Silver in two, and Gold in three. Board rotations advance the cheese's age; longer aging usually improves the scoring opportunity but keeps the Worker unavailable for longer. A player can take only one Make Cheese action per turn.

Gather Resources: Place an available Worker on an empty numbered space in the Resource quadrant and immediately take the indicated number and type of Resources from the tray. Structures, Livestock, Fruit, and Orders support different creamery abilities. Higher-value spaces provide more Resources but take longer before their Worker returns. The type of Worker does not matter for gathering, and Resources may be used on the same turn they are acquired. A player can Gather Resources only once per turn.

Fruit and Jam: Put Fruit Tokens in the basket on your Player Board. When making a cheese on a space marked Fruited Cheese or Jam, spend the required Fruit by moving it to the used area. At game end, score Fruit according to the number used for Fruited Cheese multiplied by the number used for Jam. Fruit also grants access to some Cheese spaces that would otherwise be blocked.

Livestock and bonus cheese: Store Livestock on the pasture shown on your Player Board. Move the required number of animals to a Milking Parlour to use its ability and immediately place that Parlour's Bonus Cheese without assigning a Worker. Each Milking Parlour can generally be used once. The Bonus Cheese still has to match an available space's Type, Age, and any Fruit requirement, and it can be placed in the same turn as the regular Make Cheese action.

Structures and Orders: Spend Structure Resources to unlock the Structure abilities on your Player Board. Once the required spaces are filled, move the Structure Tokens as instructed and use the unlocked ability or score its end-game bonus. Order cards show a Cheese Type and Age requirement. When you place a matching cheese, you may immediately complete one Order and score it. You do not have to complete an Order if another Cheese space better supports your Venue plan.

Scoring the Venues: Festival scores orthogonally adjacent groups of cheese; diagonal spaces do not count as adjacent. Fromagerie scores the shelves occupied and their Display Sign bonuses. Bistro scores cheese pairings placed on the same table according to the board's chart. Villes divides its map into six regions and rewards influence: Bronze affects one region, Silver two, and Gold three. Each Venue has its own scoring rubric, so resolve them separately at game end.

End game and winner: When any player places their final Cheese Token, they announce the end-game trigger. All players finish the current turn, then the game ends. Remove Workers from the Board, but count all Cheese Tokens whether or not they have fully aged. Score the Venues, Structures, Orders, Fruit, and Resources as directed; every two unused Resources are worth one Prestige Point. The most Prestige wins. Ties go to the player who made more cheese; if still tied, victory is shared.

Solo and advanced play: The rulebook includes a solo Corporation opponent with selectable difficulty levels. Follow the standard rules, then let the Corporation act first each turn by drawing an Order and placing one of its Cheese Tokens; it uses no Workers or starting Resources. The Corporation's last Cheese Token triggers the end game, when its track, customer tokens, and completed Orders determine its score. For experienced groups, an optional Structure Tile draft can replace the abilities printed on Player Boards.