Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale

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Coins are a permanent income of points, so getting a few of them early on means you’ll get those points in every subsequent scoring. Now that the season has ended, it’s time to calculate your score. At the bottom of the map sheet there are four different scorings shown, each one divided into four sections. Each season scores differently. Each Season card has a different number printed in the top left corner of the card. This is a sort of time counter that dictates when the season will come to an end. This number corresponds to the numbers printed on the Explore cards. During each season Explore cards will be flipped up one at a time and, in addition to dictating which shapes and features may be drawn that turn, these cards will also use up time as well. For instance, Spring has a time counter of 8. If you turn up an Explore card that has a 2 printed on it then you have used up 2 of your 8 total time. If you ever reach or exceed that number with a card flip, that season comes to an end once everyone draws in their features on their maps. Players will score at the end of each season based on that season’s scoring conditions before moving on to the next one. Pencil Me In Remember that a group of 5 houses only needs a single tile to get to six, which means a single Riftlands could get you there if you plan for it (which means never put a Riftlands house into a group of 3-4 houses, as any two tiles can make six even without it), which means you might even get 16, then 24 points. It would be great if it weren’t for the monsters being so ridiculously over done… the other thing that happens a lot is getting ruins spaces right after the monsters where you can’t fill in the spaces properly: Randomly and Occasionally would be fine but this is almost every game.

Ambush and Hero cards do not have a time impact, presumably because it doesn’t take long to write “don’t go there” on a map whilst running away. When an Ambush card comes out, pass your map to the player next to you in the direction indicated on the card. Your opponent will then draw the monsters for you, most likely in the most unhelpful place they can put it. When drawing Monster shapes on your opponent’s map, try to consider how easily that player can fill in the adjacent squares. Also, some edicts, such as Stoneside Forest, give you reputation stars for connecting certain terrain together. If you can cut off these connections before they are formed you can get the upper hand on your opponent! There are four scoring cards with two our of the four being scored every round. Each card is scored twice per game. Players can also acquire points for gold coins earned. They lose points for monsters that are not surrounded by other terrain types. At the end of the forth season, all players tally up their points and the one with the most points is the winner.Take time at the beginning of the game to familiarise yourself with how each Edict works. They are all fairly straightforward, but there’s nothing worse than curating a beautifully drawn map only to realise it won’t be scored highly because it doesn’t satisfy the Edicts correctly. You might still win the unofficial “Most Beautiful Map” award though…. On the Explore card you will note a couple of things. First is the terrain type and second is the shape that can be drawn on your map. This brings us to the Draw phase. Everyone will draw the type of terrain shown on the Explore card, in the shape that is also shown on the Explore card. If there is more than one choice, the players can choose what to draw. The shapes can be rotated and flipped as needed on the player’s map. On the card above, note the shape on the left and the coin. If the player chooses to draw that shape, they are also going to be marking off a coin on their map sheet. Coins are worth points equal to the amount of coins the player has claimed each scoring phase. If you fill in the four adjacent squares around a Mountain on your map, you also gain a coin. If for some reason the player cannot draw the shapes on the cards, they may then fill one, 1×1 square, on their map sheet with the chosen terrain. The symbols on the tiles are spot on. They are distinct enough, so you easily tell the difference between a tree and a monster, yet fast and easy to draw. Even if you’re, like me, not a big drawer, you’ll have no problems recognizing the images. You can use your own symbols or even colors for greater clarity – there are some true works of art created by the players on BGG. Scalability and playing time When an Explore card is revealed it’s going to display two distinct items – the feature(s) that will be drawn in and the possible shapes that feature can take on the map. If there are multiple features shown the players choose which one they wish to draw. Some players may decide to draw one feature while other players decide to draw the other – and that’s perfectly fine. That’s one of the nifty things about playing this game: your final map is going to look nothing like anybody else’s. Just two of many possibilities.

After four scoring rounds (conveniently named after seasons), the scores are tallied up and the winner declared. Theme and Components Each player will take a sheet with a grid on it. Across the grid are ruins and mountains and possible a massive canyon, depending on the difficulty chosen. You will then set up the cards for the current season. The four seasons you play through get progressively smaller - in theory, so you will need to make forward thinking decisions from the off. To score points you must collect coins, and achieve goals. Four goal cards are laid out but only two are scored each season. A & B, then B & C, then C & D, before D & A. This means each card will score twice and that you know when they will score, allowing you to plan ahead. Of course most games you will get lost in a couple of the objectives, forgetting the ones you were meant to concentrate on this round! If an ambush card is revealed, all sheets are passed to a neighbor who draws a monster shape on their opponent’s sheet. Players will need to try and surrounded these ambush spaces with terrain or lose points at the end of the season.

Now, the game comes with an easy way to see how you’re doing. If you look in the bottom right corner of each scoring card, there’s a number. That’s the expected score for that card (used only for solo play). For each season, you can half that number and compare your score for that card to that number. If your score is smaller, then you’re behind. If it’s larger, then you’re ahead. After you have flipped enough explorer cards for their time values in the top left corner to equal or exceed the season total, you move to scoring for that season. Each of the four seasons are going to have a combination of 2 of the four letters (Like A/B or B/D or A/C) that is unique to that season. These are the two unique scoring edicts that you score this round. Each of those will have their own condition to get you points. Add it up and fill in the total in the respective space at the bottom of your scoresheet.

Ruins: If one or more ruins cards are revealed, each player must draw one of the available shapes, depicted on the next explore card that is revealed, so that it overlaps a ruins space on their map. If not possible, instead draw a 1×1 square anywhere on their map and fill it with any terrain type. Flip over the top Explorer card so everyone can see it. It is most likely going to have an icon of its terrain type and a configuration shape (like a Tetris piece).Three Sisters combines drafting game mechanics with the classic Roll and Write formula. The result is a combo-heavy game that makes gardening feel truly thrilling. While real gardens take months to bear fruit, you can get all the satisfaction of a green thumb in under an hour by playing Three Sisters. Now in each season, you will be scoring two of the queen’s edicts. Edict A & B in Spring, B & C in Summer and so on, until each edict is scored twice. Score your two edicts. Add the number of coins you have gathered, and deduct points for each unfilled square that is adjacent to a monster square. At the end of the round, regather the explore cards and add in one more hero and ambush card. Any heroes or ambush cards that came out are discarded. Rooting For The Wrong Team I am not sure if the small expansion that is in my copy comes with the retail version or not. The expansion adds some Skills to the game. At the beginning of the game three skills are randomly drawn, and each season a player may pay the coins noted on the skill to use one of the skills. These skills of course will allow you to break the rules in your favor. Allowing you to draw shapes differently than assigned or different terrain types than what was drawn. They add a bit more flexibility, which is always welcome in games where sometimes, you are just going to paint yourself into a corner. We haven’t used the skills too much early on, the need to have more flexibility grows as the game progresses, so most of the time any skill use is saved for the Fall and Winter seasons. Each player is given a map sheet to map the lands as they are discovered. The map sheet starts exactly the same for each player. You’ll have mountains and some ruins marked on the map already. Rift Lands: If the rift lands card is revealed, each player draws a 1×1 square anywhere on their map and fills it with any terrain type shown on the card. All normal rules and restrictions apply.