ALUBARI

OBJECTIVE OF ALBUARI: The objective of Alubari is to be the player with the most Victory Points when the game comes to an end. 

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 to 5 Players 

MATERIALS: 1 Game Board, 20 Ownership Markers, 10 Game Ownership Markers, 1 Starting Player Marker, 3 Workers, 16 Steel Bars, 18 Discs, 48 Rubble Cubes, 3 Blockage Tiles, 1 Darjeeling Blockage Tile, 2 Fog Tiles, 19 “5 Tea Leaves”, 48 tea Leaves, 1 Score Pad, 131 Cubes, 55 Game Cards, 1 Cloth Bag, 8 Tea Estate Cards, and Instructions 

TYPE OF GAME: Worker Placement Board Game 

AUDIENCE: Ages 10 and Up 

OVERVIEW OF ALUBARI 

In Darjeeling, an area with one of the most prestigious tea industries in the world. Players compete to harvest and cultivate the largest Tea Estates that they can establish. Each player supports the construction of the Himalayan Railway, which will expand their market extensively! Who will survive in the competitive market? Play, and see! 

SETUP 

To begin setup, place the game board in the middle of the playing area. Depending on the number of players, a blockage tile is placed on the final spaces of the Chai track. The weather markers are placed near the weather track, with two Fog tiles placed below the fog effect line. Collect three black discs and place them on the first spaces of the three work rate tracks. Create a general supply with all of the Game Ownerships, Steel bars, Rubble cubes, and Tea leaves.  

Any overlay cards that fit the number of players are placed on top of the Action areas assigned to them. Contract cards are then shuffled and placed in a deck face down. The top two cards are revealed and placed on the A space and the B space. The back of the card that is now on the top of the deck is used to determine which Weather marker is placed in position P2 of the weather track. The card is then revealed and placed in the C space.  

The Tea Estate cars are then shuffled thoroughly, and one is placed on each of the Estate spaces. For every space on the Estate cards, place the number of Rubble cubes equal to the number found beside the shovel. The Equipment cards are then shuffled and seven of them re randomly chosen to form the Engine shed beside the board. The supply bag is then filled with resources, depending on the Supply table.  

Shake the bag well and draw six cubes for a one player game or twelve cubes for a multiplayer game. The event cubes should then be placed in the bag. Four should be used in a single player game, and five should be used in a multiplayer game. Each player will then collect their game pieces, which consist of 20 owner markers and 3 workers.  

The last player that drank a cup of tea becomes the first player. They will collect the starting player marker. The game is then ready to begin. 

GAMEPLAY 

The game takes place over a number of rounds. Each round consists of the following five phases: restock contract cards, determine the weather, resfill the stockyard and process events, assign workers, and resolve actions. Once the end of game conditions have been met, the game will end along with the round.  

To begin a round, if any contract cards are in the A position at the Post Office, they are placed into the discard pile. All of the remaining cards are moved up a space, and any empty spaces are filled by the top of the Contract deck. This step is skipped during the first round. Adjusting the weather is also skipped during the first round. To complete this phase, each of the weather discs are progressed downward on the track, with the lowest one being discarded.  

After the weather has been determined, the players must restock the stockyard with cubes from the bag. If there are any event cubes drawn, then they must be processed before progressing to phase four of the game. During phase four, each player that has at least one Equipment may pay a fee of one Chai and place their worker in their supply. Beginning with the first player, everyone will place a worker from their supply onto any unoccupied action space. The players will continue to place workers, rotating around the group, until everyone has placed all of their workers.  

Once all workers are placed, any actions must be resolved in order from the Stockyard to Chaiwala. The players have to use any of their unused Contract cards, and the actions must be resolved in numerical order. After all actions have been complete, the players will check to see if any of the end of game conditions have been met. If they haven’t, then a new round will begin. If they have, then final scoring will begin.  

END OF GAME 

The game comes to an end after the end of the round where the final Track space of the railway has been placed. At this point, the players will tally their Victory Points to determine who is the winner! Players score points for Completed Contracts, Completed Track Spaces, Stations and Tea Estates. The player with the most points, wins the game!  

Ellie Phillips
Latest posts by Ellie Phillips (see all)
×