Gamehelpapplejack
Plant your orchard with gorgeous apple trees, match beehives and get ready for the harvests!
The player with the most honey wins the game. You will collect honey by skillfully placing tree tiles in your orchard and through regular apple harvests. After 19 turns each player will have a full orchard and will participate in final scoring.
Gameplay
Players take turns in clockwise order, until their orchards are full.
On your turn, you must select a tree tile, then place it in your orchard (either face up by paying its cost or face down to receive honey). The die is then moved to the next spot on the track, sometimes triggering harvests or blossom scoring.
1. Selecting a tree tile
The position of the die dictates where you can pick a tile. You choose 1 tree tile that is located in one of the two troughs next to this space.
Alternatively, you can take a hidden tree tile from the general supply.
2. Placing the selected tile
You must then place the selected tree tile on any free space in your orchard. You can either:
- Place it face up. You must pay the honey cost indicated on any of the beehive on that tile. You can rotate it before placing it.
- Place it face down (pasture side). You immediately receive 2 honey, but the tile will not grant any further advantages.
Honey reward: For each beehive on the newly placed tile that directly connects with another beehive, you receive the lower of the two numerical values in honey. Occasionally, when you lay a tree tile, you may have connected multiple beehives. In this case you get the lower number of each connection in honey!
In the corners of your orchard you will also find beehives with numbers in it. You can use these - just like the ones on your tiles to make beehive connections.
3. Die movement, harvest and blossom
Once you have finished your turn, the die moves clockwise to the next spot.
Replenishment
If the die would only provide a maximum of 1 tree tile to choose from in the two troughs that are next to it after moving, 1 new tree tile is added to each of the seven troughs.
Harvest
Whenever the die crosses one or two of the apples when moving along the harvest board, a harvest is triggered. The colour of the apple shows you which kind of apple is ripe for harvest. If two colours are shown, both varieties are harvested separately, one after the other. For each apple colour, groups of adjacently connected apples form areas. For each area, you receive the number of coloured apples in that area, minus the die value (1/2/3) in honey. You don't lose honey for areas which don't have enough apples.
The amount of honey you would receive for the harvests is shown in your player area.
Blossom
Whenever the die reaches the end of the track, it moves back to the beginning and triggers a blossom.
During the first harvest, you receive as much honey as you have pink cherry flowers on your tree tiles. The flowers do not have to be adjacent and form contiguous areas as the apples.
During the second harvest, your receive two time that amount.
After any harvest, the die value is increased by 1.
End of the game and scoring
The game is over as soon as all players have completely filled their orchard. The die shows 3 pips on it and has reached the space with the autumn leaves.
There is a final scoring phase where:
- each apple colour is scored twice
- you receive a variety bonus if you scored multiple colours during the final harvests (4/11/21/35 honey for scoring 4/5/6/7 different colours)
- you receive 1 honey for each pink flower in your orchard
The player who has the most honey wins. In the event of a tie, tied players share the victory.
Variants
Individual orchards
You play with the back sides (side B) of the orchards, which are all different. Instead of only beehives, you will also find apples in the corners, which you can connect with neighbouring tree tiles and count as an apple of the respective colour during harvests.
Random apple harvest
Special apple tiles are randomly used to cover the first 7 printed apples on the path of the harvest plan, on the main board. So the order of the first 7 harvests will change from the standard games.
Additional tree tile
At the beginning of the game, you receive 1 additional tree tile from the supply, tree side up, which is placed next to your orchard. When it’s your turn to select a tree tile, you are allowed to select this tile instead of a tile from the troughs or a tile blindly drawn. You must pay for the tile as usual or turn it onto the pasture side and place it in your orchard. Then, you immediately take a new tile from the trough adjacent to the die or draw from the supply which is placed next to the orchard. This give you a chance to "store" a tree tile from the troughs for a later turn that you won’t or can’t pay for yet.