Indian Summer

Fall in New England

Before winter makes its appearance, a particularly warm fall bathes the forest in a golden shimmer. During the Indian Summer, New England blossoms one last time. Treetops are ablaze with countless colors. A living rainbow, from green to orange to red. Slowly the first leaves are starting to fall. Meanwhile, our steps and the diligent squirrels rustle the colorful foliage.

On our walks through the woods we discover all kinds of little treasures. Collect berries, nuts, mushrooms and feathers. We pause for a moment to watch the shy inhabitants of the forest, before we set off towards home once again. There, a good game and a hot tea are already awaiting.

Components

What’s in the box?

• 2 game board pieces (backs are for the solo game)
• 6 different Forest Floor boards (with different front and back)
• 75 Leaf tiles in 3 colors (puzzle pieces with a Hole):
  • 17 green threes
  • 29 yellow fours
  • 29 red fives
• 20 Animal tiles (puzzle pieces without a Hole)
• 32 Squirrels tokens
• 4 Backpacks (player aids)
• 1 Berry Bush (assemble before the first game)
• 1 Hiking shoes (start player marker)
• 80 Treasures tokens:
  • 30 Berries
  • 24 Nuts
  • 18 Mushrooms
  • 8 Feathers

  Each Treasure shows 1 illustration on one side and 1 icon on the other side. Decide which side you would like to use. In our pictures we always use the icon side.

These are the rules for the multiplayer game. The changes for the solo game can be found on page 13. A comprehensive list of all puzzle tiles can be found on page 16.

What am I actually supposed to do in this game?

On your way home from your hiking tour you cross a piece of Forest Floor. Each Forest Floor is divided into 6 Areas depicting various Treasures. In your turn you place Leaf tiles on your Forest Floor and this way fill up these 6 Areas.

Each Leaf tile has 1 Hole, through which you can peek at an empty space or at Treasures, after you have placed it on your Forest Floor. Try to place Leaf tiles on your Forest Floor in such a way that they completely cover your Forest Floor and leave little free space. Ideally you place the Leaf tiles in such a way that the Treasures are still visible through the Holes. These Holes are then covered with Treasures from the common supply.

Every time you completely cover 1 of the 6 Areas, you collect the Treasures that are lying on top of the Leaf tiles in this Area. With the Treasures you gain new options to cover your Forest Floor faster.

The first player to cover their entire Forest Floor with Leaf tiles wins the game. Treasures are only used to resolve draws, so use them during the game instead of collecting them.

How do I set up the game?

1. A: Shuffle the 6 Forest Floor boards and hand every player 1 Forest Floor board, hereafter called Forest Floor. Give 1 Backpack to each player and place it next to the bottom left corner of your Forest Floor. Put the remaining Forest Floors and Backpacks back into the box, they are no longer needed in this game. (The Forest Floors are divided into 6 Areas each, with different Treasures depicted on them. The 6 Forest Floors show 2 unique sides each. Turn your Forest Floor on a side of your choice.)
2. B: Turn the two game boards to the multiplayer game side and place them next to each other in the middle of the table.
3. C: Sort the Animal tiles and place them on the designated spaces on the game board. Place the corresponding Treasures on the 3 specially marked Animal tiles (Racoon, Fox, Badger).
4. D: Place the Treasures and Squirrels separately next to the shorter sides of the game board to form the common supply.
5. E: Shuffle the Leaf tiles. Each player draws 5 random Leaf tiles (2 green threes, 2 orange fours, 1 red five), which they place in the order from left (“front”) to right (“back”) on the bottom edge of their Forest Floor in front of them, starting directly next to their Backpack. On the left with 2 green threes, followed by 2 orange fours and 1 red five on the very right. This line of Leaf tiles is called the “Player Path”.
6. F: Place additional Leaf tiles in a circle around the game board. The order of the Leaf tiles is random. At a place of your choice, leave an empty space of about 1 hand. This incomplete circle of Leaf tiles is called the “Common Path”.
7. G: Put the Berry Bush, hereafter only called Bush, in the empty space of the Common Path.
8. H: Place the remaining Leaf tiles readily accessible in 1 corner of the table.
9. I: Give each player 1 Berry, 1 Nut and 1 Mushroom. Each player should place these Treasures above their Backpack.
10. K: The last person to have taken a stroll in the forest is the start player and takes the Hiking Shoes.

How can I place Leaf tiles, Squirrels & Animal tiles?

With Leaf tiles, you may:

• place them on empty spaces.
• place them on spaces with printed-on Treasures.
• flip over and rotate them any way you like.
• only place them on your own Forest Floor.
• place them with their Hole over empty Forest Floor.
• place them with their Hole over printed-on Treasures.
• place them on the line between 2 or more Areas.
• only place them in your Main Action.

With Leaf tiles, you may NOT:

• not place them on Animal tiles.
• not place them on Squirrels.
• not place them overlapping or onto others.
• not place them in a way that they protrude over the edge of your Forest Floor.
• never move them again as soon as your Main Action is executed.

Leaf tiles do not have to be placed adjacent to another.
The same rules apply to Squirrels.

With Animal tiles, you may:

• only put them on free Holes in the Leaf tiles whose outline corresponds to the shape of the Animal tile.

For Animal tiles the same restraints apply as for Leaf tiles and Squirrels.

Game Flow

How does a game run?

Beginning with the start player you each take 1 turn in clockwise order. In your turn you execute 1 Main Action. Before and/or afterwards you can execute as many Special Actions as you like.

As soon as 1 player has covered their entire Forest Floor with Leaf tiles, the round is played until all players had the same number of turns, and then the game is over. Count the number of empty spaces on your Forest Floors to find out who played how well. Treasures are only needed to resolve draws.

Normal Main Action

Which Leaf tile can I place?

Execute in your turn 1 of the two following Normal Main Actions. Follow the tile placement rules while doing so. You are not allowed to pass. Note! Only in certain cases it is better to place 1 squirrel instead of placing 1 Leaf tile.

• Take 1 Leaf tile of your choice from your Player Path and place it on your Forest Floor.
  OR
• Take 1 Squirrel from the common supply and place it on 1 empty space on your Forest Floor. Never place the Squirrels into your supply.

At any time during the game (even when it is not your turn) you can take 1 Leaf tile from your Player Path and try placing it on your Forest Floor. Then return the Leaf tile to the same space.

Player Path

How do I get new Leaf tiles?

Refill your Player Path immediately when you are taking the last Leaf tile from your Player Path. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Take the Leaf tile from the Common Path that is directly next to the Bush and place it right of your Backpack.
2. Move the Bush clockwise to the next Leaf tile on the Path.
3. Take the Leaf tile that is directly next to the Bush and place it to the right of the Leaf tile that was last placed on your Player Path.
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 until you have exactly 5 Leaf tiles on your Player Path.

In doing so, do not change the order of the Leaf tiles! Neither on the Common Path nor on your own Path.

You can pay 1 Berry to take new Leaf tiles even when you still have Leaf tiles on your Player Path. See Special Action Berry.

The Common Path

What happens when the Leaf tiles run out?

Refill the Common Path with randomly picked Leaf tiles as soon as it contains less than 7 Leaf tiles. To do this, take the Leaf tiles you placed aside at the beginning of the game and add them at the end of the Common Path (where the Bush is not) until you have almost circled the entire game board once again.

If there are no longer any Leaf tiles available to refill the Common Path, you refill as many as possible. If there are too few Leaf tiles on the Common Path to fully refill your own Player Path, refill it as much as possible. On the rare occasion that there are neither any more Leaf tiles on the Common Path nor on your own Player Path, you need to use Mushrooms to place the Leaf tiles of your fellow players or place Squirrels.

Covering depicted Treasures & Completing Areas

Treasures

What happens if I cover a Treasure?

If you cover 1 Treasure depicted on your Forest Floor with the Hole of a Leaf tile, take 1 Treasure of the same type from the common supply and place it onto this Hole.

Nothing happens if you cover an empty space on your Forest Floor with a Hole in a Leaf tile or place 1 Squirrel onto 1 depicted Treasure.

Area

When am I allowed to take the Treasures off the Leaf tiles?

Each Area consists of 12 spaces (3×4) and is regarded as complete when all spaces of this Area are covered with Leaf tiles and/or Squirrels. Spaces that are covered by Holes in Leaf tiles are also regarded as covered.

Whenever you have completed 1 Area with Leaf tiles and/or Squirrels, immediately take all Treasures from the Holes in this Area and put them in your supply.

If you just glance at the game, you might be tempted to think that the Treasures are victory points that need to be collected. It is important to eliminate this impression and clarify matters when you are explaining the rules.

Using Treasures

What can I do apart from my Normal Main Action?

Place 1 Treasure from your own supply back into the common supply to execute its Action. The Treasures have different powers:

• Berries and Nuts grant you Special Actions.
• Mushrooms and Feathers grant you an Alternative Main Action.

Before and after your Main Action you may execute as many Special Actions as you like.

INSTEAD of your Normal Main Action you may execute 1 Alternative Main Action. You may never execute more than 1 Main Action in your turn. Which means you can use a maximum of 1 Mushroom or 1 Feather in your turn.

Berry: How do I get the right Leaf tiles?

Place 1 Berry back into the common supply and execute this Special Action:

• Refill your Player Path to 5 Leaf tiles. To do this, follow the steps 2 to 4 described under Player Path.
• If you already have 5 Leaf tiles on your Player Path, you may take a sixth Leaf tile once. To do this, execute step 3 described under Player Path. You can never have more than 6 Leaf tiles in your personal supply.

Nut: How can I fill gaps between Leaf tiles?

Place 1 Nut back into the common supply and execute this Special Action:

• Take 1 Squirrel from the common supply and place it on 1 empty space on your Forest Floor.
• If this completes 1 Area, immediately take all Treasures from this Area and put them into your own supply.

Mushroom: How can I take Leaf tiles from my fellow players?

Place 1 Mushroom back into the common supply and execute this Alternative Main Action:

• Take the 1st Leaf tile from 2 fellow players, the one directly next to their Backpack, and place these tiles in the order of your choice onto your Forest Floor. Only if there is no more space for them on your Forest Floor you are allowed to forgo taking one of the two Leaf tiles.
• In the two-player-game you get the Leaf tile directly next to the other player’s Backpack and the Leaf tile from the Common Path that is directly next to the Bush.
• If you take the last Leaf tile from the Path of another player, that player then immediately follows steps 1-4 described under Player Path. If 2 players should be affected, they both refill their Player Paths in turn order.

Feather: How can I place 2 of my Leaf tiles in one turn?

Place 1 Feather back into the common supply and execute this Alternative Main Action:

• Place 2 Leaf tiles from your Player Path in an order of your choice onto your Forest Floor. You need to have at least 2 Leaf tiles on your Player Path to be able to execute this Action.

You may have as many Treasures as you like in your own supply. We advise you not to save up too many Treasures over the course of the game. The winner is often the player who repeatedly uses his Treasures in order to be able to place more or better suited Leaf tiles onto their Forest Floor.

Exchanging Treasures

How do I get more Mushrooms and Feathers?

You may exchange Treasures from your supply for those in the common supply. Each Treasure has a value of its own. Feathers are the most valuable, followed by Mushrooms, Nuts and Berries, in that order. You may exchange Treasures at any time and as often as you like during your turn:

• Exchange 1 Treasure for 1 Treasure of a lower value.
• Exchange 2 of the same Treasures for 1 Treasure of the next higher value.

How can I get more Treasures?

There are 7 different Animal tiles in varying numbers. At the beginning of the game on 3 of them (Racoon, Fox, Badger) 1 Treasure is placed.

At any time during your turn place 1 Animal tile over a continuous outline of free Holes. The shape of the Animal tiles has to correspond to this outline. It doesn‘t matter if these Holes cover depicted Treasures or not.

For each Treasure covered this way take another 1 Treasure of this type from the common supply and put it in your personal supply. The shape of Holes must not contain any empty spaces and there must not be any Treasures on the Holes!

You can also choose Animal tiles that are smaller than the continuous shape of the Holes.

If you place 1 of the 3 Animal tiles (Racoon, Fox, Badger) that got a Treasure on top at the start of the game, you also take the corresponding Treasure and put it in your supply. You take this Treasure in addition to the other Treasures that you gained by placing that Animal tile.

End of the game

How do I win?

The game ends as soon as a player completely covers their Forest Floor with Leaf tiles and/or Squirrels. Finish the current round up to the player to the right of the start player. Then exchange all Treasures, according to the exchange rules, for Nuts and use them to place Squirrels onto the empty spaces on your Forest Floor.

If you complete Areas this way, take Treasures if appropriate, which you can once again exchange for Nuts and so on. Squirrels are not limited, if they run out in a game, please replace them.

The player who covered his Forest Floor completely with Leaf tiles and/or Squirrels wins the game. If more than 1 player has completely covered their Forest Floor, they add up the Nuts in their supply to resolve any draws:

1. The winner is the player with more Nuts.
2. If there is a draw in the amount of Nuts, resolve it in favor of the player that has 1 Blue Berry remaining.
3. If there still is a draw the players share the victory.

All other players then count the empty spaces on their Forest Floors. The player with less empty spaces gets the higher ranking.

Turn example

How do all the possibilities interlock?

It’s Tini’s turn. She has 2 Leaf tiles on her Path, 2 Berries and 1 Feather. She places 1 Berry back into the common supply and refills her Path to 5 Leaf tiles. Then she also places the 2nd Berry into the supply, to be able to take a sixth Leaf tile. She returns 1 Feather, to execute the corresponding Alternative Main Action. She places the 3rd and 6th Leaf tile on her Forest Floor. This way, she completely covers an Area and gains 1 Nut and 1 Mushroom. She places the Nut back into the common supply, takes 1 Squirrel and places it on her Forest Floor. This completely covers another Area and she takes 1 Berry, 1 Nut and 1 Mushroom. She places 1 Berry back into the common supply to refill her Leaf tiles to 5.

How can I play Indian Summer on my own?

The solo game differs only in a few aspects from the multiplayer game. Each game takes about 15 minutes. For a particularly exciting challenge you can play up to three successive games.

Set-up solo game

How do I set up the solo game?

• Shuffle the 6 Forest Floors and take 1 Forest Floor and 1 Backpack. Put the remaining Forest Floors, Backpacks, the start player marker and the Bush back into the box. You do not need them for your solo game(s).
• Turn the two game board halves on the solo game side and place them next to each other in the middle of the table.
• Split up the Leaf tiles randomly in 3 stacks of 25 tiles. In each of your (up to 3) games you are playing with 25 puzzle tiles. That way, all Leaf tiles will be used and you will get a final scoring that is less luck-dependent.
• Take 1 stack and distribute the 25 Leaf tiles as follows:
  • A: Above and below the game board, place 5 random Leaf tiles each in a line. These two lines form the Top and Bottom Path respectively.
  • B: On each of the 10 spaces labeled “X” place also 1 Leaf tile at random.
  • C: Place the remaining 5 Leaf tiles in front of you. They represent your Player Path.

There is no Common Path in the solo game.

• Put the two other Leaf tile stacks to the side, you will only need them for the next game(s). Sort the Animal tiles and place them next to the game board. Place the corresponding Treasure on the special 3 Animal tiles (Racoon, Fox, Badger).
• Place the Treasures and the Squirrels separately next to the shorter sides of the game board.
• Take 1 Berry, 1 Nut and 1 Mushroom. Place these Treasures above your Backpack.

Game flow solo game

How many turns do I have to completely cover my tableau?

The solo game consists of exactly 10 turns. Your turn varies from the multiplayer game as follows:

At the beginning of each turn move the one Leaf tile that is on the space with the number corresponding to the current turn (“X”) onto the last empty space on the very right. This way you can count your turns.

You execute one turn after the other. For the placement of the Leaf tiles the same rules apply as in the multiplayer game. Only the way you get your Leaf tiles and the Actions of the Berries and Mushrooms is going to change.

The Top and the Bottom Path

Where do I get new Leaf tiles?

Refill your Player Path immediately when you take the last Leaf tile from your Player Path. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Decide on the Top or the Bottom Path.
2. Decide on the left or right side of the Path you have chosen.
3. Take the outermost Leaf tile on this side, on the Path you have chosen.
4. Repeat step 3 until you have exactly 5 Leaf tiles on your Player Path.

If there are less Leaf tiles on your chosen Path than you are allowed to take, take only as many as there are on that Path. But you may pay 1 additional Berry to take the missing Leaf tiles from the other Path.

Mushroom: How can I take Leaf tiles from the game board?

Place 1 Mushroom back into the common supply and execute this Alternative Main Action:

• Take the 2 Leaf tiles on the Mushroom spaces and place them in an order of your choice onto your Forest Floor. Only when you have no more space for them on your Forest Floor can you forgo to take 1 of the 2 Leaf tiles. If there is only 1 Leaf tile on the Mushroom spaces, you may also take this tile alone.
• Afterwards move any Leaf tiles which lie on spaces with a lower number than the current turn one after the other to the last empty space on the very right.

Berry: How do I get suitable Leaf tiles?

Place 1 Berry back into the common supply and execute this Special Action:

• Refill your Player Path to 5 Leaf tiles. To do this, follow the steps 1-4 described for the Top and Bottom Path. You have to refill to 5 Leaf tiles if able. If there are not enough Leaf tiles in the Path you chose to refill your Path to 5 Leaf tiles again, you take all remaining Leaf tiles and end the Special Action Berry early. This is the only possibility to take less than 5 Leaf tiles when using the Special Action Berry.
• If you do already have 5 Leaf tiles on your Player Path, you may take a sixth Leaf tile. For this tile you may again choose from both Paths and between both sides. You may never have more than 6 Leaf tiles on your Player Path.

Scoring

Scoring of a game

After 10 turns you end your game. Continue filling your Forest Floor by exchange Treasures for Nuts and these Nuts again for Squirrels.

• Lost game: If you should not succeed in covering all the spaces of the Forest Floor, the game is considered lost and all spaces that are not covered count 1 minus point.
• Won game: If you manage to cover all spaces of the Forest Floor, the game is considered as won. You win points for every Treasure you still have in your supply:
  • Every Berry = 1 point
  • Every Nut = 2 points
  • Every Mushroom = 3 points
  • Every Feather = 4 points

An overall score of 0 points you can definitely treat as a success. Play the next game with one of the stacks you have initially laid aside.

Scoring of 3 games

• The overall result over 3 games is the point total from your 2 best won games.
• If you have only won 1 game, your overall result is the sum of your 2 worst lost games.
• If you lose your first two games, the 3rd game is forfeit.

Credits

• Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
• Graphics designer: Andrea Boekhoff
• Graphics: Martin Kleinke
• Realisation: Julian Steindorfer
• Animated rule video: Holger Zimmermann
• Translation & Copy Editing: Board Game Circus
• Special thanks to: Klaus Ottmaier, Rolf Raupach, Roman Rybiczka

© 2018 Edition Spielwiese
Kopernikusstr. 24, D-10245 Berlin
www.edition-spielwiese.de

Distribution: Pegasus Spiele GmbH, Am Straßbach 3, D-61169 Friedberg
www.pegasus.de