How to Play Pergola

1. Game Objective

In Pergola, you take on the role of a gardener dedicated to cultivating plants that attract beautiful insects. Your success depends on how you plan and fill your garden throughout the game. The goal is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of 15 turns by optimizing the arrangement of your plants, the placement of insects, and the strategic use of resources like lanterns and honey pots.

2. Setup

1. Player Boards: Each player receives a garden board, a pergola board, a waterfall board, and a score board.
2. Starting Components: Each player receives a tool pot containing 1 frog, 2 water droplets, 4 honey pots, and 1 birdhouse. Place the frog and the birdhouse in the garden, the water droplets on the starting spaces of the waterfall, and the honey pots on the bench in front of the pergola.
3. Central Area: Place the token organizer and the pond board in the center of the table. Shuffle the leaves, create 3 equal stacks, and place them on the leaf board.
4. Tools: Position the action board. Separate the tools by type, shuffle them, and place them in the tool holder. Place 4 shovels above the action board (one per space).
5. Pond: Distribute the dragonflies onto the 4 water lilies in the pond, according to the number of players (stacks of 2 for 2-3 players; stacks of 3 for 4 players).

3. Game Flow

The game lasts exactly 15 rounds. The starting player is the one who has gardened most recently (or the person wearing the most colorful clothing). The game proceeds clockwise, and each turn consists of 4 mandatory steps:

1. Choose a tool: Select one of the 4 tools available above the action board and take the components indicated on it.
2. Improve your garden: Place the obtained components in your garden.
3. Perform an action: Execute the action corresponding to the space where the chosen tool was positioned.
4. Clean up: Slide the remaining tools on the action board, refill the empty space with a new tool from the holder, and place the used tool into your tool pot.

4. Actions and How to Play

When choosing a tool, you perform the action associated with the space below it:

• Insect Flutter: Move up to 2 insects (ladybug, bee, or butterfly) to any plant with free space.
• Bird Flight: Take the top leaf from one of the stacks, place it in the birdhouse, and gain the insect illustrated on it.
• Water Drip: Move a water droplet on the waterfall. When landing on stones with symbols, gain the corresponding insect. Upon reaching the end, gain an insect and a scoring bonus.
• Frog Leap: Move your frog to an adjacent water lily in the pond to gain the illustrated insect or dragonfly (respecting the plant requirements for dragonflies).

5. End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when all players have completed 15 turns (15 tools in the pot). Scoring is performed using the score pad, summing up:

• Plants: Points for sets of hollyhocks, levels of magnolias, pairs of buttercups, and lavender leaves.
• Insects: Points for butterflies (based on plant level), ladybugs (based on quantity per level), bees (on fully occupied plants), and dragonflies (fixed value per size).
• Bonuses: Points for full honey pots, leaves in the birdhouse, and waterfall bonuses.

The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, the victory is shared.

6. Tips for Winning

• Plan your bonuses: You can earn a maximum of 2 bonuses on the waterfall throughout the game. Choose wisely between points for insect sets, dragonflies, or full honey pots.
• Optimize Insect Flutter: Use this action to move insects that are flying freely to plants that maximize your score, such as placing ladybugs on the same level to increase the value of each one.
• Manage your Lanterns: You can use more than one lantern in the same turn, even in the turn you received it. They allow for powerful actions, such as repeating a frog leap or performing an action different from the one associated with the chosen tool.