Underwood — Rules Manual

4 Trees2 Ant Trail TilesFor variants
The Idea of the Game
Goal of the Game
Game Components
transports you to the magical world of the forests, where true miracles
happen in secret. A giant network of mycelia from a wide variety of mushrooms is
constantly expanding to generate new growth. Only the most resourceful and strongest
mushroom species prevail and displace supposedly weaker competing species.
Every player tries to expand their own mycelium and mushroom colony as extensively
as possible to secure the survival of their species. But overgrowth by foreign colonies
is constantly threatening, so at the end of this strategic race, the most ingenious and
clever mushroom species will win.
Your goal is to gain the majorities on the individual forest floor tiles through skillful
expansion. The tiles on which you have the majority will earn you points at the end of
the game. Whoever has the most points after the final scoring wins the game.
17 Forest Floor Tiles
(24 each in 4
different player
colors)
1 Rulebook
(DE/EN)
96 Mushroom/Mycelium Tiles
Front: Mushroom Back: Mycelium
1

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2 2
Lay out the playing area: Randomly select the number of forest floor tiles based
on the player count and lay them face up in the middle of the table. Put the re-
maining forest floor tiles back in the box. They are no longer needed for this game.
2 Players 3 Players 4 Players
11 Forest floor tiles 14 Forest floor tiles 17 Forest floor tiles
1.
The forest floor tiles must be laid out in such a way that they connect directly
without any gaps. You decide on the shape and structure.
Example for a 3-Player setup:
2.
Distribute mushroom tiles: Each of you chooses a color and
receives the mushroom tiles in that color. Place them in front of you
as your personal supply with the mycelium side facing up (see
illustration). This way, all players can see at any time how many
tiles you and your opponents still have available.
3.
Determine starting player: Whoever picked mushrooms in the forest last
becomes the starting player (otherwise decide randomly).
4.
Starting setup: Starting with the player sitting to the right of the starting player,
you take turns counter-clockwise placing one tile each (with the mycelium side
up) on any empty space on the board. Repeat this until each of you has placed
exactly 4 starting tiles.
5.
Setup

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IMPORTANT: Your starting tiles must not be placed adjacent to an already placed opponent‘s tile. There must always be at least one empty forest floor space between tiles of different colors. You may also place your own tiles adjacent to each other. (see illustration). As soon as all tiles are placed correctly, the game can start. The game is played in turns clockwise. The starting player begins. On your turn, you must grow a mushroom to expand your colony. Passing is not allowed.

Expand Colony:
On your turn, you spread your mushroom colony. Proceed in the following steps:
1. Grow mushroom:
Flip exactly one of your mycelia already on the board to the mushroom side. From this mushroom, your colony can now spread and form new mycelia.
2. Choose target area:
You may now only spread on one forest floor tile. To do this, choose either the forest floor tile (1), on which your newly flipped mushroom lies, or a forest floor tile that is directly adjacent to this mushroom (2 or 3).
3. Spread mycelia:
You must now place mycelia from your supply onto all allowed spaces of the chosen forest floor tile that are adjacent to the mushroom. If you do not have enough mycelia in your supply to cover all spaces, you cannot perform the action on this target area at all.
IMPORTANT: You must always be able to place at least one new mycelium from your supply. You may not flip a mushroom without letting the colony grow!

Gameplay

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Rules for Covering Spaces
• Allowed spaces: You may only place your tiles on empty forest floor spaces or on spaces that contain opponent mycelia (i.e., opponent tiles with the mycelium side facing up).
• Forbidden spaces: You may never place a new mycelium tile on your own mycelium tiles or on mushrooms (whether yours or an opponent‘s).
• Covering opponents: If you cover opponent mycelia, you must give the affected player one of your own mycelia from your supply as compensation for each covered space. They remain in the opponent‘s supply until the end of the game and can bring them victory points.
• The covered opponent‘s tile remains on the space, but is worthless for the rest of the game. You can later turn your overlying mycelium into a mushroom as usual.
• If an already stacked space is covered again, only the player whose mycelium is currently visible (i.e. at the very top) receives compensation. Tiles underneath are ignored.

The game ends immediately as soon as a player cannot take their turn. This happens if a player has no mycelia of their own left in their supply or cannot perform the action Expand Colony (see page 3). This is followed by the scoring:

1. Determine Majorities
Now determine individually for each of the forest floor tiles who has the majority there.
• Count the mushrooms (tiles with the mushroom side up) on each forest floor tile. Whoever has the sole majority wins the tile.
• If no one has placed a mushroom or if there is a tie for the mushroom majority, the majority of mycelia decides. This is only determined among the players involved in the tie. Whoever leads here receives the forest floor tile.

On the left 2-space forest tile, there is a tie: no one receives this tile. On the middle 4-space forest tile, Green has 2 mycelia and Blue has 1. However, since Red has 1 mushroom, Red wins. On the right 3-space forest tile, there are no mushrooms. Since Blue has the most mycelia on this tile, Blue wins.

Die Spielidee End of Game and Final Scoring

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5 5
• If there is a tie here as well, then no one gets points for this forest floor tile.
• Collect all won forest floor tiles.
2. Count Points
• Spaces: Add up all the individual spaces on your won forest floor tiles. Each space
is worth 1 victory point.
• Tile Supply: Count all mycelium tiles that you have in your supply at the end
(your own remaining ones as well as those won from opponents). For every 2 tiles
(rounded down) you receive 1 additional victory point.
Whoever collected the most victory points wins the game and can boast that their own
mushroom species has spread the best in the . In the event of a tie, the play-
er who collected more opponent tiles in their supply wins. If there is still a tie, you share
the victory.
If you want to vary the game, you can try one of the following variants. Pay attention to
the changed game setup and the following rules.
Variant 1: Clearings
Setup: In step 1, place the forest floor tiles together
in such a way that gaps are created.
Gameplay: No mycelia and consequently no
mushrooms may be placed in the gaps. Otherwise,
nothing changes in the course of the game.
For the left tree, Yellow has
the majority and wins the
tree. For the right tree, no
one has the majority.
Therefore, it is removed.
Variant 2: Mycorrhiza
Setup: Set up the game board so that up to 4 gaps are
created that are exactly 1 space large and place 1 tree
in each gap. If there are fewer than 4 gaps, the remai-
ning trees are placed at the edge of the board. Make
sure that each tree placed there must be surrounded
by at least 4 spaces of one or more forest floor tiles.
Scoring: First, score the trees at the end of the game.
Check who has the majority on the directly adjacent
spaces. It does not matter whether the spaces belong
to one or different forest floor tiles. The majority is
determined in the same way as for the forest floor tiles.
The player with the majority receives the tree. If there is
no clear majority, the tree is removed. Every tree won
is worth 3 points. The rest of the scoring takes place
as in the final scoring in the standard game.
Variants

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Variant 3: Saplings
Setup: After you have formed the playing field in step 1, the starting player places the 4 trees on any spaces of the forest floor tiles. No more than 1 tree may stand on a forest floor tile. Unlike in the standard game, each player only places 3 mycelium tiles during the starting setup.
Gameplay: During the game, no mycelia (and therefore no mushrooms) may be placed on the spaces with trees.
End of game: Determine the majorities for the forest floor tiles as usual and distribute them to the respective players. Every forest floor tile is worth as many points as it has spaces, even if 1 tree stands on one of the spaces. Every tree is additionally worth 1 point.
Blue has grown a mushroom and uses the ant trail to place their mycelia on another forest floor tile adjacent to the ant trail.
The pictured forest floor tile consists of 6 spaces and a tree stands on it. Red has the majority during the final scoring, wins the forest floor tile and receives 7 points (1 per space and 1 additionally for the tree).
Variant 4: Ant Trail
Setup: In addition to the forest floor tiles, take the two ant trail tiles and put them together so that they share a maximum of 2 edges. Then place the forest floor tiles against the ant trail without creating gaps.
Gameplay: No mycelia (and thus no mushrooms) may be placed on the ant trail tiles. If you grow a mycelium into a mushroom on a space adjacent to the ant trail, you can either spread the mycelia to adjacent spaces of a forest floor tile as usual or use the ant trail. To do this, select any forest floor tile that is also adjacent to the ant trail. Cover all empty spaces on this target area that are directly adjacent to the ant trail with mycelia. The mycelia of other players may not be covered.
End of game and scoring: Both follow the process of the standard game.
Designers: Andrea Mainini & Remo Conzadori
Illustration: Claus Stephan & Antje Stephan
Editing: dlp games
© dlp games 2026
dlp games Verlag GmbH
Eurode-Park 86
D - 52134 Herzogenrath
Tel.: 0049-2406-8097200
E-Mail: info@dlp-games.de
www.dlp-games.de

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