Santa Cruz

Overview and object

For 2–4 players, ages 8 and up · About 45 minutes.

Settle Santa Cruz in two independent rounds. Build houses, churches and lighthouses, gain access to resources and score . After the first round the buildings are removed and you choose cards again: knowledge of the island and scoring cards gives you a second chance. Whoever is furthest ahead after the second round and the final bird-token scoring wins.

Components

1 board, 28 building cards, 16 scoring cards, 54 tiles, 52 buildings, 22 bird tokens, 4 scoring markers, 8 fifty- markers and 4 reference cards.

Preparation

1. Take buildings: Choose a colour and take 8 houses, 3 churches and 2 lighthouses as your supply. Return unused colours to the box.
2. Lay out tiles: Shuffle tiles separately by their backs and distribute them randomly onto matching board spaces: volcano, land and coast. Keep volcano and land tiles face down; reveal every coastal tile. Return surplus tiles to the box without looking at them.
3. Prepare tokens: Mix the bird tokens face down beside the board. Place the fifty- markers on the compass.
4. Deal scoring cards: Shuffle all 16. Deal each player 4 cards with 2 players, 3 with 3 players or 2 with 4 players. Look only at your own cards. Keep the remaining cards as a face-down pile for round two.
5. Choose building-card sets: Sort the cards by letter into four sets of seven. The oldest player chooses first; the others follow counterclockwise. Add your chosen set to your scoring cards. Return unused sets to the box.
6. Determine the starting player: The last player to take a set starts round one at 0 . The following players clockwise start at 1, 2 and, if applicable, 3 .

The four building-card sets

First-game tip: The original rules recommend dealing sets randomly for beginners. In that case, the youngest player starts.

Round one

Play always proceeds clockwise. Each round starts with landing, followed by card turns until everyone has played all their cards.

Landing

Starting with the first player, each player places a building on an available coastal tile of their choice, without playing a card. Apply the normal building rules: use the building shown, score , take a bird token if indicated and reveal adjacent tiles.

Play one card

From your second turn onward, play exactly one card face up. A building card requires you to build; a scoring card requires you to score. Keep played building and scoring cards in separate visible groups so everyone can see what has been played. The round ends only when all players have played all their cards.

Building

Building normally means playing one building card and placing one building on a tile. Complete these steps in order.

1. Where to build?

2. What to build? – 3. Place from your supply

The tile determines the building type. Place the house, church or lighthouse pictured on it from your supply. If you have none of that type left, you cannot build there.

4. Score building

Immediately score the building printed in the middle right of the tile. A separate “+” on a fish tile is a bonus for later scoring cards, not extra building .

5. Take a bird token

If the tile shows a bird token, draw one face down after building and scoring. Look at it secretly and keep it face down in front of you. You may inspect your own tokens at any time. Each will be worth 1, 2 or 3 at the end of the game.

6. Reveal tiles – 7. End the build

Reveal every tile directly connected to the new building by road or river. This completes the build. In the board game, any player may correct forgotten reveals at any time.

Further building rules and exceptions

Occupied tiles and sharing

Normally you cannot build on an occupied tile. The player who goes last in the current round has one exception: once in the entire round, they may add a building to a tile occupied by another player. The played card must still reach that tile and all other building rules apply. This privilege may also be used when landing. You cannot share a tile with your own building.

Unable to build

You must place a building if you can. If you cannot, that build ends immediately after playing the card. You may deliberately play a card with which no build is possible.

Face-down river tiles

A river card may target a face-down tile on the appropriate river. Reveal it first, then place the building shown. If you have none of the required type left, that build ends without placing a building.

Double move

The double-move card lets you build twice consecutively, as if you had played two ship cards, two river cards or two road cards. Complete the entire build, including , bird tokens and reveals, before starting the second. The second build may benefit from the first. You cannot mix types, such as ship and river.

Two-river exception: Even if the first build fails, carry out the second if possible.

Scoring

Play a scoring card face up and check its condition. Every player who meets the condition scores, including opponents. The player who played the card moves their marker first; the others follow clockwise.

Resource scoring

You have a resource or animal if at least one of your buildings occupies a tile showing it. A single-resource card pays its once, even if several of your buildings provide that resource. A combined card pays 7 for both resources or 3 for only one. Without either resource you score nothing.

Fish bonus

Whenever a card with fish is played – fish alone or sheep + fish – each player adds all bonuses marked “+” on their occupied fish tiles to their scoring-card .

All 16 scoring cards

Building scoring

“4 houses” needs at least four built houses. “Variety” needs at least one house, one church and one lighthouse. “Street” needs at least four of your buildings connected directly by roads; branches are allowed. Each condition pays once.

Places and birds

Coast, river and volcano score 3 per matching building. Two coastal buildings score 6, one scores 3. Bird scoring pays 2 per token collected so far: three tokens score 6 regardless of their secret values. Keep the tokens for final scoring.

Volcano eruption

Each player loses 2 per building on volcano tiles. Then all buildings on volcano tiles are destroyed and removed. They are unavailable until round two. The tiles remain in place and can immediately be built on again. Destruction does not restore an already used sharing privilege.

The scoring track

Move your marker along the track when scoring. If it reaches an occupied space, place it behind all markers already there. This gives an unambiguous order even at the same score.

When passing 49, take a fifty- marker, place it beneath your scoring marker and continue from the start of the track. At 51 your marker is on space 1 with one fifty- marker underneath.

After an eruption, move backwards for lost and again join behind any markers on your destination. If you cross below space 0, return a fifty- marker and move to the appropriate space at the end of the track.

Round two

Settle Santa Cruz again, using what you learned about the island and the scoring cards.

1. Clear buildings: Return every building of your colour to your supply, including destroyed ones. Keep your score and face-down bird tokens. Leave tiles exactly as they are and keep each player’s played cards grouped face up.
2. Draw a new scoring card: Each player draws one from the remaining pile, looks at it privately and sets it aside for now.
3. Choose cards: The player furthest behind chooses one complete face-up card set, including the scoring cards played with it in round one. The next player from the back chooses next, and so on. You may choose your own previous set. The leader takes the remaining set.
4. Discard a scoring card: Add the newly drawn card to your chosen hand. Then discard any one scoring card face down without showing it to the others. You may discard the card you just drew.
5. New starting player: The player furthest behind starts. Play continues clockwise, beginning with landing without playing a card. The rest of the round follows the same rules as round one.

End of the game

After everyone has played all cards in round two, score the bird tokens. Starting with the player who played the last card and continuing clockwise, reveal your tokens and add their printed values of 1, 2 or 3 each.

The player furthest ahead on the scoring track wins. At the same score, the marker in front is better placed.