Overview

Build the best ranch by the time all the plots are distributed

Setup

As part of setup, each player chooses an unoccupied plot in the display and places a Ranchero on it

In 3 players, the unchosen plot is discarded

Term Definition: A Territory is a group of connected plots which share the same terrain type

Turn

There is no predetermined turn order, instead the current player is whoever has a Ranchero on the highest spot on the active plot column

When it is your turn, first take the plot your Ranchero is sat on

If there is space in your reserve, place it in your reserve

If there is not space, then you MUST carry out Expand Your Ranch

Expand Your Ranch is usually optional, unless your reserve is overflowing, however you must have at least 2 plot tiles in order to take this action

Take 2 plots from your reserve and lock them together to make a conjoined domino, there is no orientation rules based on visuals, just as long as you can make them lock

Place the newly formed domino in your grid

Whether you took the Expand Your Ranch action or not, finally move your Ranchero to a new Plot on the pending column (i.e. what will be used next round)

Remember, the higher in the column you place, the more choice you'll have the following round

Expand Your Ranch

As mentioned, as soon as you have 2 plots (or 4) you can (must) take this action

Two plots create a Domino

A new domino can either be placed next to a pre-existing one or adjacent to one of your 3 bridges

If placing adjacent to a pre-existing domino, at least one of the depicted terrains on the new domino must match up with the same terrain type on the previous domino

If you had 4 plots and were forced to place, you may play TWO dominos, but also can just stick to the minimum requirement of one. However, each domino must be fully placed and resolved before placing the other.

If you are forced to expand but can't make a legal placement, pick any two of your plots and discard them from the game

Some plots and thus dominos have special symbols on them, which can be resolved after placement

The symbols must be resolved in a set order if you have multiple of them (cows first, skulls second, circles last)

If you placed a cow symbol, take the number of cows corresponding to the number of symbols and place the cow pieces on that plot

If you placed a skull symbol, kill a cow for each skull symbol which resides in the SAME territory. i.e. if there are no cows in the skull's territory, but cows elsewhere, those cows live. If a skull fails to kill a cow, it is ignored and not resolved later. Remember that if both plots making up the domino are from the same territory and both have skulls on them, ALL skulls will affect the same territory

If you placed a circle symbol, first choose a partner token from those available in the saloon, decide whether you want it as a specialist or a cowboy then place it in the circle, then apply its effect. Partner token supply does NOT get refreshed at this point. As such, if you place a circle symbol and the supply is empty, nothing happens.

End of Round

The round ends when everyone has had a go (i.e. there are no Rancheros on the active column)

Slide the pending column along to become the new active column, and create a new pending column (if you can't do this, the game ends)

Otherwise, refill the Partner supply so all Partners are on the Specialist side then start a new round

Partners

Regardless of whether you play the Partner as a Specialist or a Cowboy, the Partner will protect that territory from the Cattle Thief Partner

The Cowboy - you get 3 points of movement to move the same or different cows to orthogonally adjacent plots, however the cows aren't allows to step on corn plots or else you'd starve

The Desperado - Swap a plot in your reserve with a plot in an opponent's reserve, as long as you both have at least 1 plot

The Cattle Thief - Steal a cow from an opponent and place it on the cattle thief's plot (remember Partners protect cows in their territory, which includes the Cattle Thief, so once stolen it can't be stolen back!)

The Gold Digger - at end game, score 1 point per nugget in your ranch

The Trapper - at end game, score 1 point per beaver in your ranch

The Farmer - at end game, score 1 point per corn in your ranch

https://blueorangegames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MoonRiver-Rules-EN.pdf

Game End

The end game is triggered when the pending plots can't fully be filled

One final round occurs, where you take actions on the active plot row but obviously can't pick a new plot

Expand Your Ranch action is mandatory in this final round, even if you don't have 4 plots (however, if you only have 1 plot, you can't take it)

After the round is complete, check for Cow Overpopulation, whereby each plot can only contain ONE cow. Plots with 2+ cows on them have the excess cows discarded from the game, so all plots at most only contain 1 cow

Once done, move on to scoring:

Territories score by multiplying cows by plots, a 4 plot territory with 2 cows is worth 8, a 10 plot territory with 0 cows is worth 0. Note that this is the cow figures NOT the symbols. Multiple Territories of the same type ALL have the chance to score, so if you have a 2Px2C Forest one end of your ranch and a 4Px3C Forest at the other end of the ranch, they BOTH can score

Each Nugget, Beaver, and Corn symbol gives everyone 1 point naturally

If you have Partners which give you bonus points for these symbols, you get these as extra points too

The player with the highest score wins!

If tied, the player with the largest single territory wins!

If still tied, the player with the most cows wins!