Aquicorn Cove: How to Play
Aquicorn Cove is a cooperative game for 2-4 players. In this game, players play as Lana, Mae, Andrew and Florian, the members of a small fishing village struggling to survive while maintaining a balance with the natural world. To win, the villagers must feed and grow their village in an effort to help restore the health of the reef and the aquatic ecosystem.
The Set up should look something like this: *image of the game set up*Then the first head fisher is the most recent player to have helped an aquicorn or any other creature. They take the Fishing Bag and the boat!
Each game consists of 2 years and and an epilogue and each year has 3 rounds of play representing spring, summer and fall, followed by a winter storm! Each round the players will work together to catch fish, plant food, build the town and restore the reef.
Each round consists of 7 total phases.
First, reveal the event and choose character cards. Draw the top card from the event deck! In the upper right hand corner is how much pollution seeps from the bay into the fishing bag. There’s also a main effect, here, on the card and an event card icon at the very bottom of the card. The card is placed onto the action track and the main effect will be resolved during the phase listed on the card.
Then each player chooses a card from their hand to play, freely discussing it with the other players. Each card has one or more options showing what actions the character will take and when they will happen during the turn. In clockwise order, starting with the Head Fisher, each player places a card on the Action track in the phase matching the Option they would like to take. More than one card may be played to a phase
By the end of it all, the board state should look something like this, with everything lined up in the order of which the actions will be taken.
In later phases, players will take their Actions from the card Option they chose earlier. Each Action is represented by an icon and a number. The icon tells you what to do, and the number tells you how many times to do it. Each action may also have a Pollution in the corner. If it does, add one Pollution to the bay but also remember that players may always choose to skip an action!
Second, The Village Fishing will take place! The Head Fisher will draw tiles from the fishing bag one at a time until the boat is full or until they choose to stop. Then the village gains food equal to the total value of all the fish in the boat. If there are multiple fish of the same type that were drawn, the players have overfished. When returning fish to the bag, only return one of each type of fish and set the others aside. They’re out of play for the rest of the game.
Within the bag, there are 4 kinds of tiles. Fish, Empty Nets, Pollution and an Aquicorn. The fish are worth food. The empty nets are worth no food and simply fill a space, Pollution lowers the reef health by one and it's placed into the bay. If either column in the bay is full, put that entire column in the bag. If any player draws the Aquicorn, the card is drawn and placed on the action track, then put the Aquicorn tile into the bay!
The Aquicorn is a magical creature that lives in the reef with the wondrous reef Guardian, Aure. Occasionally they need help and will seek out human boats. If you help it, it will grant the village a magical boon. Once drawn its placed on the action track into the space matching it’s phase number. Then during that phase its main effect takes place, if the players choose to take its action. For example, this card would discard the rounds event card or gain 2 food.
Third is the Gather and Clean phase. At the end of the phase if there is no pollution then increase the reef health by one and return one acquicorn to the bag.
During the fourth phase, the players will be Farming. Plant one # food from the supply in an empty farm space. Sometimes there will be a Season Bonus, if at least one player plants food, the Village plants bonus food, like so:
The Fifth Phase is the Village Phase during which players will Harvest the food by taking the food from the farm and adding it to their villages supply and then feed their villagers. The amount required to feed the entire Village is the number next to the current position on the Prosperity track, here. If the Village does not have enough food, they spend the food they have and move the Aquicorn meeple down one on the Prosperity Track.
The Sixth phase is the Building Phase. During which the players will help their village recover and grow. They repair existing buildings and build new ones. If they have a hammer they can either choose one of the four available buildings and pay its cost in food and/or building supplies and place it into the village, or they may repair any damaged building for free and flip it to its intact side.
If they have this wood and coin they may gain one building supply. In order to be built the players must be able to pay the building cost in food and/or building supplies. These are listed in the upper left hand corner of the tile. The bottom left hand corner has the building reward listed on it and the bottom right hand corner will list the matching fence and it’s icon.
When placing a new building the buildings may only be placed to the right of an intact building or the shore. Building must be placed with their left fence connected to a fence of the same color and buildings cannot be rotated. If at any time during the Building Phase none of the buildings in the market can be legally placed then put all four on the bottom of the stack and refill the market. When a new building is built, advance the Aquicorn meeple on the Village Prosperity track by one. If the Aquicorn meeple moves onto a space showing a shell icon, each player draws one card from the Villager deck and places it on top of their character deck, without looking at it.
The buildings will give the players instant rewards or income each round in addition to increasing the village prosperity! Buildings with the fishing icon will allow the players to remove a boat tile from their fishing boat when they are built or repaired, however, when a building with this icon is damaged, the tile must be returned to the boat.
After phase 6, the players will have to deal with the pollution in the bay. During the game, Pollution will move from the supply to the bay, and then to the Fishing Bag if it is ignored. Once it is in the Bag, you will not be able to Clean it until you find it during the Village Fishing phase, decreasing the overall amount of food and building power your team will have as a whole.
The pollution is divided into two columns. Whenever you add or remove a pollution tile you may choose either column but if any any time all 3 spaces are full, immediately move all of its tiles to the fishing bag. Some actions will add pollution to the bay.
The End of Round phase will be when the players collect their building income, store up to four food and then prepare for the next round. They do this by discarding all cards from the action track, advance the round marker in the season track, the head fisher passes their fishing bag and boat to the player on the left and then each player draws a card from their deck.
After each Fall, there is a Winter storm. The Head Fisher rolls dice equal to the next number above the Aquicorn meeple on the Reef Track. Players must place storm dice. For each die rolled, find the row with the yellow warning sign shown on the die closest to the shore that does not already have a die on it. Then resolve all of the dice once they are placed. If there is no building in the space the die was placed, there is no effect. If the building is intact, flip it to its damaged side. If the building is already damaged, add 2 pollution to the bay. At no point during this time do you need to move down the prosperity or reef health track.
And finally we have the Epilogue. This is a final round of play in which it’s a quiet season in the aftermath of the final storm, allowing rebuilding of the village. The Farm bonus during this period is +2 and players Harvest as they would in Fall and of course, there is no storm.
Because this is a cooperative game, players will receive an overall score in the end and that’s how well they did, or didn’t do. Nobody wins or loses but the players are given a different ending to their story depending on their final scores and I don’t want to spoil those for you, so I’m not going to show what they are and instead leave it to you to discover! Aqcuicorn Cove is a game about finding a balance between growing a thriving village and keeping the ocean healthy and clean! I have faith that you’ll be able to build a perfectly prosperous village with the strongest reef ever. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below and let us know what your favorite creature in a reef is! Be Bold, Play Games, Be you! Happy gaming!