How to Play The Grand Carnival: On the Road

Objective of the Game

In The Grand Carnival: On the Road, the carnivals have grown too large to stay in one place, so it's time to take the show on the road! Players are trying to create the greatest carnival this country has ever seen by stopping in cities across the US, featuring clowns, enormous attractions, golden tickets, and plenty of peanuts. The game is played through a series of game sessions called cities, which introduce new modules and offer varied scoring opportunities. The ultimate goal is to achieve the highest score by strategically building attractions, moving guests, and completing various objectives.

Preparation (Setup)

The setup for The Grand Carnival: On the Road involves several modules that can be added to the base game. When playing a city campaign, specific modules are required. When playing the base game with a module or in a city that doesn't require it, use the "Stand-Alone Scoring" section for that module.

• Engine Board: Place the Engine Board to the side of the Railyard board, with the scoring side face-down.
• Mini Foundation Tiles: Place the mini foundation tiles in two piles on the Engine Board.
• Double Foundation Tiles: Give each player a random double foundation tile. Return any extras to the box. Each player immediately places this tile, covering two spaces of their Fairground on their player board. Players may use either side of their double foundation tile and may rotate them in any orientation.
• Clown Pawns: Place the clowns next to the attractions in the supply.
• Golden Ticket Tokens: Place the golden tickets next to the barkers in the supply.
• Grand Finale Cards: Look through the deck of grand finale cards, removing any cards with icons in the top-right corner that are associated with modules you are not including in your game. Some grand finale cards have no icons and can always be included. Shuffle the remaining cards and draw a number of cards equal to the number of players in the game, placing them face up above the Railyard board within view of all players.
• Enormous Attraction Tiles: Place a number of enormous attractions in the supply equal to the number of players plus one. The Peanuts module must always be included with enormous attractions.
• Peanut Tokens: Place the peanuts in a supply.
• New Tricks of the Trade Cards: Add a subset of new tricks of the trade cards to your deck that match the modules you are including in your game. Select these cards by matching the icons in the top-right corner of each card with the icons associated with the modules. If multiple icons are present, all associated modules must be part of your game. Shuffle these cards with the tricks of the trade cards of the base game and proceed with setup as usual.
• City Scoring Cards: When playing a particular city campaign, deal each player a city scoring card from the associated city. Players should use that card in place of the scoring reference found on their player board.
• Knoxville City Specific Setup: Give each player 2 clowns. Each player should place 1 clown to the left of each of their "Bonus" point tracks.

Flow of the Game

The game progresses through rounds, with players taking turns. Unless otherwise specified, all base game rules remain the same.

On Your Turn

1. Cover an action number and take one action:
   • Place a Foundation: Take a foundation tile from a Railyard space up to your action number.
   • Build an Attraction: Take an attraction tile with a size up to your action number and place it on construction sites in your Fairground.
   • Move a Guest: Move a guest in your Fairground spaces up to your action number, plus one space per carnival barker in your Fairground.
2. Check if you completed tricks of the trade.
3. Check for Grand Finale Cards: After you finish taking an action (at the same time you are checking for completed tricks of the trade), check if you have met the goal for any of the available grand finale cards. If so, take the matching card and place it in front of you. Each player may only claim 1 grand finale card during the game.

End of Round

Consulte o manual para detalhes sobre esta seção.

Actions and How to Play

Players perform actions by covering an action number. The value of the action number determines the scope of the action they can take. Peanuts can be spent to increase the effective action number.

Core Actions

• Place a Foundation: Take a foundation tile from a Railyard space up to your action number.
  • Mini Foundations: When taking any foundation tile from the Railyard using at least a "5" action number (including actions raised to "5" or higher via peanuts), you may take a mini foundation tile in addition to the foundation tile you select. Place the mini foundation tile to the side of your player board. During this or any future turn, you may place the mini foundation tile, with either side facing up, on a foundation tile in your Fairground as a free action. If you build an attraction that covers a mini foundation, return the mini foundation tile to the supply before placing the attraction. You cannot place a mini foundation tile on top of an existing mini foundation.
  • Double Foundations: Double foundation tiles count as 2 foundation tiles for the purposes of tricks of the trade cards.
• Build an Attraction: Take an attraction tile with a size up to your action number and place it on construction sites in your Fairground.
  • Clowns: When building an attraction, you may "overpay" your action number to place clowns on the attraction you build. The number of clowns placed is equal to the "overpaid" amount. For example, if you use a "5" action number to build a size-3 attraction, you may place up to 2 clowns on that attraction. Each clown occupies 1 space of the attraction they are on, but they do not reduce the number of tickets the attraction can hold. An attraction can hold a number of clowns up to the number of spaces it covers. Once a clown is placed in a space, it cannot be moved. If using the Peanuts module, you may also "overpay" using peanuts to increase the size of the attraction being built and/or the number of clowns being added to the attraction.
  • Enormous Attractions: Each enormous attraction is a size-6 attraction. To build an enormous attraction, you must use a "6" action number. This means you must spend at least 1 peanut.
• Move a Guest: Move a guest in your Fairground spaces up to your action number, plus one space per carnival barker in your Fairground.
  • Golden Tickets: When a guest ends their movement adjacent to a barker, any tickets they place that turn are golden tickets instead. Golden tickets work identically to regular tickets, taking a space on an attraction and allowing that attraction to score. Golden tickets also count as regular tickets for the purposes of scoring thresholds and tricks of the trade unless specifically noted.
  • Peanuts: When a guest ends their turn adjacent to food stands (size-1 attractions), take 1 peanut for each size-1 attraction they are adjacent to (whether or not you are placing a ticket on that attraction). Place the peanuts near your action tokens.

Spending Peanuts

Claimed peanuts can be spent on any future turn. When taking an action, you may spend any number of peanuts to add 1 to the action number you covered for each peanut spent. Return spent peanuts to the supply. There are no restrictions to the newly increased action number: there may already be an action pawn on the new number. Also, the new action number may be above 5 (useful when playing with clowns and necessary when playing with enormous attractions).

Tricks of the Trade

When you meet the goal of a trick of the trade, place 1 of your action markers on it. Tricks won’t stick around forever! At the end of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds, remove the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd trick—from left to right—if you have not yet met its goal.

• Blockbuster Attraction: Goal: Build an attraction adjacent to 2 or more guests. Ability: Guests gain peanuts from diagonal size-1 attractions.
• Change of Plans!: Goal: Have 2 adjacent mini foundation tiles in your Fairground. Ability: Whenever you place a foundation tile, you may rotate it 180 degrees.
• Food Festival!: Goal: Have a foundation tile on all 4 center spaces of your Fairground. Ability: Guests gain peanuts from size-1 and size-2 attractions.
• Free Peanuts!: Goal: Have 3 peanuts in your supply. Ability: When claiming a foundation tile with a "4" action, gain a mini foundation tile.
• Gather 'Round!: Goal: Have 3 different guests adjacent to 3 different clowns. Ability: Guests may move through barkers for free.
• Get Your Tickets Here!: Goal: Have 3 golden tickets. Ability: When moving a guest to the Bigtop, place a ticket on an attraction adjacent to the Bigtop.
• Send in the Clowns!: Goal: Have 2 adjacent clowns on different attractions in your Fairground. Ability: You may gain a guest whenever either Entry space is empty.
• Showstopper!: Goal: Build an enormous attraction. Ability: When you cover your "1" action number, you may take 2 different "1" actions. The 2 actions may not be identical actions. When using this ability, you cannot use peanuts on either action.
• Topsy Turvy!: Goal: Have a foundation tile in each corner of your Fairground. Ability: Gain 2 mini foundation tiles.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends after 7 rounds. Scoring varies significantly depending on the city campaign being played or if modules are used in a stand-alone fashion. When playing with a module in a city that requires it, ignore the "Stand-Alone Scoring" section for that module and refer to the city scoring rules instead. When playing the base game with a module or in a city that doesn't require it, use the "Stand-Alone Scoring" section.

General Scoring Elements (Base Game & Stand-Alone Modules)

• Attractions with tickets of the same size: Points vary by set size (e.g., Set of 3: 10 pts, Set of 4: 15 pts, Set of 5: 25 pts).
• Attractions with tickets of all five sizes: 22 pts.
• Guests in the Bigtop: Points vary (e.g., 15 pts).
• 15 tickets: 12 pts.
• Carnival barkers: 3 pts each.
• Uncovered mallets: -1 pt each.
• Clowns (Stand-Alone): Each clown is worth 2 points per guest adjacent to them. Each guest can only count for 1 clown. Clowns only score when they are placed on attractions with one or more tickets.
• Double Foundations (Stand-Alone): Just like regular foundation tiles, each uncovered mallet on your double foundation tile is worth -1 point.
• Golden Tickets (Stand-Alone): Each golden ticket is worth 2 points.
• Grand Finales (Stand-Alone & City Campaigns): A claimed grand finale card is worth 8 points.
• Enormous Attractions (Stand-Alone): Only gain the 22 points for "Attraction Variety" if you have all 6 sizes of attractions in your fair, rather than the 5 sizes of the base game. Additionally, each enormous attraction also counts as a single attraction sized 1-5 for purposes of "Attraction Sets" (each player may choose which size their enormous attraction counts as).
• Mini Foundations (Stand-Alone): Each mini foundation tile still in your supply is worth -1 point.
• Peanuts (Stand-Alone): Peanuts are worth 1 point per every 2 peanuts in your supply.

City-Specific Scoring Examples

Tulsa, Oklahoma:

• For each attraction size (1 through 5), score points based on the number of attractions with at least 1 ticket on them.
• Each attraction that has 2 or more tickets on it will be worth an additional 2 points.
• Each guest in the Bigtop is worth 2 points. Guests in your Fairground are worth no points.
• Each trick of the trade you complete is worth 2 points.
• Each barker in your Fairground is worth 2 points.
• Each visible mallet (including double foundations & mini foundations in your supply) is worth -2 points.

Knoxville, Tennessee:

• Each guest in the Bigtop is worth 2 points.
• Every time a player moves a guest into the Bigtop, they may score bonus points. The first player places a golden ticket on the "10" space below "Guests in the Bigtop bonus" on their scoring aid. All players then cover the "10" with their clown. Subsequent players cover the number to the right of the clown with a golden ticket, and all players move their clowns to the right. Once 5 guests have been moved to the Bigtop, no further bonus points are scored for this. At the end of the game, each golden ticket on this track is worth points equal to the number it covers.
• When a player builds an attraction, they can choose to take a size-set bonus if they have just reached a certain number of different sized attractions (3, 4, 5, or 6 sizes). Place a golden ticket on the matching bonus on your scoring aid. Each player can take only 1 size-set bonus, and each size-set bonus size can only be taken by one player. At the end of the game, each golden ticket on this track is worth points equal to the number it covers.
• At any time on a player’s turn, they may remove 5 tickets from attractions in their fairground to score bonus points. Golden tickets removed count as 2 tickets for this purpose. The first player places a golden ticket over the "10" space below "5