Patchwork: Automa — Rules Manual

When you don’t have the time, option, or desire to play with a partner, don’t worry—we have you covered!
This solo variant introduces an artificial opponent called “Automa” to PATCHWORK, so that it can be played solitaire.

AUTOMA
Designed by Lines J. Hutter and Morten Monrad Pedersen

Components
1 base game (not included)
24 Automa cards, divided into two decks:
The 12 cards (numbered 1-12) without buttons on the back form the normal deck.
The 12 cards (numbered 13-24) with buttons on the back form the tactical deck.

Setup
1. Set up the game as described in the base game rules. Automa does not get a quilt board or any starting buttons.
2. Choose which deck you want to use, shuffle its 12 cards, and place them face down on the table as the Automa deck. Discard two cards from the deck unseen, placing them in a discard pile.
3. Depending on your experience with PATCHWORK, you can compete with Automa on one of five levels of difficulty. The level you choose will decide when Automa gets the 7×7 special tile and how it will score at the end. Take a button from the general supply and place it a number of spaces away from the final space of the time board, according to your chosen difficulty:

I. Intern: 1 space away
II. Apprentice: 9 spaces away
III. Fellow: 12 spaces away
IV. Master: 15 spaces away
V. Legend: 18 spaces away

Note: The numbers (1-24) printed on the bottom left of the cards have no effect during the game. For legal reasons, card #12 shows a barcode and additional product information that have no relevance during play.

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Course of Play
The game is played as normal. The changes only affect who takes the first turn, Automa’s turn, and how Automa scores points at the end of the game.
When it is Automa’s turn, reveal a card from the top of the Automa deck. Each card shows a number of buttons at the top indicating how many virtual buttons Automa has available to spend on a patch. Even though Automa can have buttons in its supply, it never spends any on patches!
Note: In the tactical deck, the number of buttons is also shown on the back of each card, so you know ahead of time which patches Automa can afford.
Look at the next three patches in the circle and determine which patch Automa can afford. There are three cases to consider:

Automa’s Turn
- You always take the first turn.
- Automa plays according to the following rules:
- Automa’s patch choice is determined by a card from the Automa deck.
- Automa does not spend buttons for its patches.
- Automa receives button income according to special rules.
- Automa does not place patches on a quilt board but rather collects them in two piles: patches with buttons go in one pile; patches without buttons go in the other pile.
- Automa scores based on the chosen level of difficulty.

A Automa cannot afford any of the three patches.
Automa passes and moves its time token accordingly, which may trigger button income (see next section).
Automa does not get any buttons for passing, but it can gain buttons for moving past a button income symbol.

B Automa can afford exactly one of the three patches.
Take that patch and place it in the appropriate pile. Move Automa’s time token per the normal rules, which may trigger button income (see next section).

C Automa can afford more than one of the three patches.
In this case, consider the three filters shown on the Automa card, which will narrow the choice down to exactly one patch (see box). Apply the filters from top to bottom until there is only one patch remaining.
Skip a filter if it leaves Automa with no patch. Once you determine which patch Automa chooses, take that patch and place it in the appropriate pile. Move Automa’s time token per the normal rules, which may trigger button income (see next section).
Finally, discard the current Automa card and determine whose turn is next, according to the normal rules.

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Button Income
7x7-Special Tile
Empty Automa Deck
You get income as normal. Whenever Automa triggers button income, it gets a number of buttons equal to the number shown at the bottom right of the current Automa card (0 to 5 buttons).
Automa gets the special tile when its time token moves onto or past the space marked with a button during setup, unless you cover a 7×7 square on your quilt board before that happens. In either case, remove the button from the time board.
When the Automa deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile (including the two cards discarded during setup) to form a new face-down Automa deck.

Filters
- Automa takes the patch that costs so little time that Automa’s time token will not overtake yours. (Reminder: If none of the three patches work, apply the next filter.)
- Automa takes the patch with the most buttons.
- Automa takes the largest patch.
- Automa takes the patch furthest from the neutral token.

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Determine your score as normal. Automa scores 7 points if it has the 7×7 special tile. Based on the chosen level of difficulty, Automa also scores:
I No additional points. (Automa scores either 0 or 7 points.)
II 1 point per collected button.
III 1 point per collected button and 1 point per collected patch with buttons.
IV 1 point per collected button and 1 point per button on its collected patches.
V 1 point per collected button, 1 point per collected patch with buttons, as well as 1 point per button on these patches.
You win if you have more points than Automa. In case of a tie, the normal tie-breaker applies.

Scoring:
| | I | II | III | IV | V |
| :--- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| 7x7-Special Tile | X | X | X | X | X |
| Collected Buttons | | X | X | X | X |
| #Patches with Buttons | | | X | | X |
| #Buttons on Patches | | | | X | X |

Acknowledgments: This PATCHWORK solo variant is designed by Lines J. Hutter and has been developed and thoroughly tested by Morten Monrad Pedersen and his Automa Factory team. We would like to express our great gratitude to Lines and Morten for their hard work and permission to publish this variant. The designer and us would also like to thank the lead play-testers, Mike Martins and Nick Shaw, and all the other play-testers for their invaluable feedback; in particular: Stéphane Martineau, Jerry Santos, Dimitris Xs, Mihnea Cateanu, Alexandre Correia, Franziska Steiner, Roslyn M. Jordan, Brie Zobel, Ben Griffiths, Cesar Tonatiuh Garcia Ramirez, ektopia, Andrew Shields, Maria Bertram, David Studley, Jay Atkinson, Ben Griffiths, James Gordon, Jon Beach, Kevin Wilkinson, Marcius Fabiani, Pablo Pizarro, Paul Jennings, arkroyal, David Wiley, Eric Miller, and Jessica Rickardsson.

About Automa Factory: The Automa Factory team has been developing solo variants for games since 2013. Six of these variants have been published so far. Their first project was developing a solo variant for Viticulture by Stonemaier Games, which is set in Italy. “Automa” is the Italian word for “automaton”.

Designer: Lines J. Hutter
Development: Morten Monrad Pedersen
Editing: Grzegorz Kobiela
Graphic design: Klemens Franz | atelier198

Questions, suggestions or criticism? Contact us at: buero@lookout-games.de
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If you have any damaged or missing parts, please contact us at: parts.asmodeena.com

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