Pergola - How To Play

[Music] hi and welcome to watch it played my name is Rodney Smith and in this video we're going to learn the one to four player game pergola designed by mial goosi and pemik vek and published by Rebel Studio who helped sponsor this video you found the perfect place to set up a new garden and fill it with a variety of flowers plants and animals that will Thrive under your care as you compete to create the most impressive Arrangement so join me at the table and let's learn how to play to set up put this token holder in the center of the play area with the various game pieces arranged within it as you like or following the suggested layout found in the rule book nearby also set this Leaf board shuffling these Leaf tokens into three equal randomized Stacks that you'll Place onto the leaf board like this Within Reach of the players you'll also put this action board and the tool holder make sure the action board is flipped to the side that shows four uniquely colored tools along its left Edge the tokens within this area of the tray make up the four groups of colored tools and depending on your number of players you'll only use certain colors you'll find a reminder of this on the edge of the action board here only use the tools with a number showing on their colored Banner that match your number of players we'll assume we have two players in this video so we'll only use the green shovels and orange hose Shuffle each type separately and put them into their own Slots of the holder then draw four green shuels one at a time and place them above the four spaces of the action board filling them in from right to left so there's a tool above each one now find the pond board and these two sizes of dragonfly pieces every dragonfly has a symbol in its Center and you'll group these by their symbols if you have four players you'll stack the pieces with matching symbols on top of each other putting the larger dragonfly onto a stack of smaller ones but if you have two or three players as we do here you'll remove one green dragonfly from each of the stacks returning them back to the box and this means you'll end up with just one large dragonfly stacked on one smaller one then randomly put each stack onto its own bright circular water lily of this board with the Lily Pond complete you'll Now set it into the center of the token tray now have each player collect a garden pergola and Cascade board arranged like this along with a scoring board each person also receives a pot which is a handy place to store these other player components between games which include a frog birdhouse two water drops and four honey pots the honey pots have a full and and an empty side and you'll put all four of them onto this bench of your pergola ensuring that their empty sides are face up then add your birdhouse and frog anywhere within your garden putting your two water drops at the top of your Cascade in the area here the person who last worked in a garden is picked to take the first turn of the game or you might go with the most colorfully dressed or just pick someone randomly and that's the setup in pergola you and the other players will be growing plants and attracting insects to your Gardens which will allow you to score points in a variety of ways have the most points at the end of the game and you'll win starting with the first player and going in clockwise order around and around the table players will take turns and after every player has had 15 turns the game will end on your turn you'll perform four steps starting with picking a tool here you choose any one of the four tools by the action board and collect it along with the tokens it shows on its handle which you'll find in the tray for example this shows a blue Holly Hawk and a lavender Leaf set the tool near your garden board for now and then in any order assign your collected pieces to your garden board which is the second step of your turn known as enriching your garden we're going to learn how you place each of the different types of tokens and their various benefits later but for now just know I've placed these correctly then it's time for the third step of your turn where you'll look at the space of the action board below where you took your tool from and perform the action it shows there in this way the tool you take not only determines which tokens you'll collect and place but also the action you'll perform that turn we'll come back and learn the various actions later but after resolving your action you move to the fourth and final step of your turn known as cleanup here as the arrows remind us you'll slide any of the above tools over to the right as necessary to ensure any Gap is now above the far left action then you draw the next Green shovel tool from the holder and put it into that empty space the tool you collected that turn you'll then set into an open space for it within your personal pot there are 15 spaces here matching the 15 turns you'll take during the game so once all of these spaces have been filled the game is almost over either way after one player has finished their turn the next player in clockwise order takes their turn picking and resolving a tool and Performing the other steps of a turn in this way as turns go on eventually all of the green shovels will have been taken from this tray when that happens and you need to draw Replacements you'll take them from the next tool set which in our two-player game are these you'll also find this order shown on the action board based on these arrows so as we saw first green shovels are removed and once they're all gone in a two-player game you then begin removing the orange ho tools now if you had three players remember the purple rakes would also be in the tray so again you'd start by removing green shovels and then after they're all gone you'd instead start drawing the purple rakes and then after those you would then draw the orange hose with that we now know the steps of a turn and the overall flow of the game so next we need to go through each type of token you might receive during a turn see how they're placed and how they can earn you points just keep in mind you only earn points at the very end of the game but as I explained each type of piece I'll also set up examples like you might have at the end of the game so you can see how each type of piece scores to begin let's learn about Holly Hawks these come in three different colors blue yellow and red the first time you gain one of those colors place it anywhere in your garden if you gain another Holly Hawk of the same color later it must be added directly above your previously gained one if you gain a different color you place it separately and any new tokens in its color must be placed above it in this way at most you will have three columns of Hol Hawks one for each color and you will never have more than one color within each of these columns at the end of the game you'll score points for your Holly Hawks as shown on this section of your scoring board as it indicates you gain points based on the sets of differently colored Hol Hawks you have each set of three different colors is worth six points a set of two different colors is worth three points and a token that's not part of any set is worth one point so if I had these Holly Hawks at the end of the game the bottom two rows of three different colors are worth six points each this row of two different colors is worth three points and this is one point and so is this all right let's look at something else you can collect butterflies represented by these pieces when you gain a butterfly you add it to any one of your Holly Hawks that doesn't already have one on the space marked for it if you have several spaces to choose from pick any one you like and you don't have to fill these in in any particular order so I might put my next butterfly here the next one here and so on if you gain a butterfly but don't have any Hol Hawks or open space for it just set it somewhere on its own where it will just fly around when you gain a space for it later it won't automatically go there there's a special action you need to resolve to move it to another piece but we'll learn about that later looking at our scoring board here we see how butterflies are scored at the end of the game each is worth a certain number of points based on the height of the Holly Hawk it is resting on these two butterflies on the lowest level of Holly Hawks is worth one point each as it shows here these on the second and third level are worth two points each and any butterflies on the third or higher levels are worth three points each so when placing butterflies you'll want to put them on the highest spaces possible however once you've added pieces to your garden you will not be able to move them to other pieces later without using a special action so in other words if you later had higher spaces you can now move a butterfly too you couldn't just bump it up to a higher space without using a special action we'll learn about later here we have the symbols for Magnolias and these come in two types this symbol for a single branch and this for a double the first Magnolia token you gain can be put anywhere in your garden but each new Branch must be added above an open Pink Magnolia board already on your board so the next branch I get could go here or here if I get another one later this could go here here or here in other words all Magnolias you gain will be part of the same tree at the end of the game each Magnolia piece whether it's a single or double Branch scores a number of points based on its height pieces on any of the first three levels are worth one point each so here we have four pieces and each of these are worth one point any pieces on the four level are worth two points each and we have two of those here and any at a level of five or more are worth three points each so these three pieces are each worth three points all right next we're going to learn about collecting these ladybugs each Magnolia piece has a space for a ladybug and when you gain one you put it on any Magnolia piece in your garden that doesn't already have one on it these don't have to be added in any particular order you can pick any open space as you gain ladybugs and if you don't have an open space for a ladybug you've gained put it anywhere on your board where it will stay until we learn about the action that allows you to move it to an open ladybug space you might gain later at the end of the game this area helps you score your ladybugs it tells us that each one at the same level is worth a number of points based on how many other ladybugs are also at that level here it's saying if you only have one ladybug with within a level of your magnolia tree it is worth 1 point we see that here so this ladybug is worth one point then it shows if you have two ladybugs at the same level they are each worth two points so both of these are worth two points each for a total of four this is indicating that if you have three or more ladybugs all at the same level they are each worth three points so here each of these are worth three points for a total of 12 points in this way it doesn't matter how high or low your ladybugs are but instead you want as many as possible within the same roow together now it's time to learn about buttercups which come in small pink or large Blue pieces anytime you gain these add them to your pergola board above your beehive in any way you like when scoring buttercups at the end of the game you'll earn three points for each pair of small and large buttercups you have so if this was the end of the game I'd earn three points for this pair another for this pair and nothing for this unpaired Buttercup okay moving on we come to this symbol for gaining a lavender Leaf when you collect one add it anywhere within your garden and as soon as you have a pair of them put them side by side like this and then you have an immediate choice to make you must either add one of these lavender flowers to it which you collect from the tray or one of these small dragonflies dragonfly come in three sizes small medium and large but you may only attract a small dragonfly with a pair of lavender leaves we'll see why you might choose one of these over the other when you create a lavender Leaf pair but just be aware after you've created one pair the next Leaf you gain will start a new one and if it gets completed you'll make the choice of adding a lavender flour or a small dragonfly again and so on at the end of the game each lavender Leaf will earn you two points whether it's part of a pair or not so here I have seven leaves which are worth a total of 14 points we'll learn how lavender flowers can earn you points later but let's take a moment and see how dragonflies score at the end of the game each small one in your garden is worth one point so here I'd gain two points total from these we saw there are also medium and large-sized dragonflies which begin on the lily pads and we'll see how they enter your Garden later but at the end of the game as we see here each dragonfly you have will be worth a number of points based on its size five points for each large one three points for each medium one and as we already saw each small dragonfly is worth one point so here my dragonflies would give me five points three points another three points and each of these at one point each provide a total of 13 points next up let's talk about B's which you gain from this symbol when you collect a bee you place it on any empty bee space which you'll find on buttercups and lavender flowers there is room for one on small buttercups and two bees on larger ones and a total of three bees can be placed on lavender flowers if you have no space for a new bee you've just gained put it anywhere in your garden to fly around until it finds a place to land using an action we'll learn about soon at the end of the game you earn points for each piece a bee can land on if all of its B spaces are completely filled so a small Buttercup earns you two points a medium one earns you four points and filling a lavender flower earns you eight points so these bees score nothing at the end of the game since there is still an empty space on their piece but if this be was here as well then these would be worth eight points so when placing bees you might be able to earn more points from larger pieces but only if you completely fill them in but that's not all any bees taking up spaces on your buttercups are said to be producing honey and as soon as you have four bees anywhere within your pergola board you pick any one of your empty honey pots to flip over to their filled side as soon as you have a total of seven honey bees in this area you'll flip a second honey pot over and if you manage to get nine honey bees here you'll pick and flip over a third honey pot but no matter how many more bees you might gain you'll never flip all four over you'll find a reminder of this here on the board itself where it shows how many bees are required to fill your first second and third Honeypot filled honeypots will give you additional ways to score points at the end of the game and we'll go over each of them later with that we've covered most of the pieces you can gain and place in your garden from tools you might collect I'm going to save one type to explain later but remember the symbols on your chosen tools are just one of the benefits you'll gain during your turn turn after you also resolve the action of the space You took your tool from so in this example the player would now resolve this action but let's go through each of these and learn how they work starting with this action known as the insect flutter notice the two times indicator which means you actually perform two insect flutters with each one you move any ladybug be or butterfly from wherever it is on your boards to any other valid space for it we've already seen the valid space as each type of insect can be placed on so as an example we might use an insect flutter action to move a bee not currently on a space to the one here that said you can also move an insect already on a space to a different valid one and I'll point out we saw earlier that bees in this area help you fill honey pots but I should point out if you move bees out of this area to the point that you have fewer than the amount required for the pot you flipped it still stays on it's flipped and filled side you already collected that honey and don't suffer any negative effects that said if we wish to fill a second pot we will need to get a total of seven bees back here at some point either by gaining new ones to put onto our buttercups or by using future flutter actions to move bees back here here's another example to be aware of when resolving your two insect flutters although they must each use a different insect you resolve them one at a time so I could use my first flutter to move a bee to this butter cup I now have enough here to flip a honey pot then after I could move a different Bee from here back to this lavender flower refilling all of its spaces again I should also make it clear insect flutters only move bees ladybugs and butterflies as this icon shows these actions do not move dragonflies and when resolving this action although you can do it two times you can also choose to perform just one or even no insect flutters you don't have to move an in if you don't want to but with that understood let's now learn this next action referred to as bird flight and leaves you'll find this same icon on this Leaf board as a reminder that taking this action allows you to collect the top Leaf from any of these three piles you are not allowed to examine any of the other tokens here except for the topmost ones of each stack but I'm going to show you some of the examples of what you'll find here leaves will either show a ladybug bee or butter fly on their own or paired with a single insect flutter these gain you the related insect to put in your garden in a valid space or just flying around if you don't have a space these do the same but also allow you to perform a single insect flutter with any insect it doesn't have to be the same type of insect that token provided you with so taking this Leaf adds a butterfly to my garden and then I might use this flutter to move the bee here to this space but you can skip the insect flutter if you want after resolving the leaf you then add it to your birdhouse leaves come in five different colors and at the end of the game as you're reminded of here you'll earn one point for each color of leaf you've managed to collect so if I had all these leaves at the end of the game I'd earn 1 2 3 four points for having four unique colors I'll also mention in the rare event that there are no leaves left on this board when you would need to gain one from this action you instead just collect either one bee butterfly or ladybug from the supply okay with that understood let's hop over to this action known as the frog jump when you perform this for the first time you'll move the frog in your garden to any water lily in the pond once here when you use a frog jump action in the future you must move your frog from the Lily it is on to an adjacent one which is any that shares aside with the one you are currently on so I could later jump from here to any one of these lies except for this one now when you land on a Lily that shows an insect you take that type of insect from the supply and add it to your garden into any valid space for it which could include flying around in your garden if you don't have a space for it yet water lies with a dragon fly are a little different you'll notice these show a symbol in their Center and to land on one of their spaces you must have four of the items that they show already ready in your garden in other words to land on this Lily you must already have four Buttercup pieces of any size in your garden here you need four lavender leaves to land on this Lily you must have four Holly Hawks of any color and this Lily requires four Magnolia pieces and they can be any combination of single or double branches and be aware you can use your first jump to land on one of these lies as long as you satisfy its requirements after entering a dragonfly Lily you collect the largest dragonfly piece that remains there and add it to your garden large and medium dragon flies are placed in any open area of your garden and as we learned at the end of the game medium ones will be worth three points and large ones are worth five over the course of the game you can have more than one type of dragonfly in your garden but each must have a unique requirement in its Center that means since I have this Buttercup dragonfly already I could not gain this one later if a lily has a dragonfly you already collected or none at all you can still jump to it but you don't collect anything this brings us to the last type of action we have to go over the water drip here you pick either of your water drops on the Cascade section of your board to move down a blue stream path to the next water drop symbol it shows at the start of the game you'll have three paths you can follow so I might move down to here or go this way to here or perhaps to here let's assume I went down the central stream arriving at this spot the droplet space you land on will be touching a rock and you now gain the insect showing on that rock to put into your garden so in this case a butterfly the next time I use the water drip action I can move either of these drops again but just be aware two drops can never share the same space so if I moved this drop I could not go down this path I'd have to go either here or to here now that said if I chose to move this drop instead going here and gaining a B for my garden the next time I use this action I could move this drop along the same path in order to gain a butterfly water drops can share the same path just not the same space if a water drop is moving from any one of these four spaces it will arrive at the bottom and you must place it onto any one Open Water droplet shown there after you will gain a butterfly ladybug or bee from the supply and then as we'll see you'll also score the bonus points shown by the droplet at the end of the game this bonus means every dragonfly in your garden at the end of the game no matter its size earns you one additional point this bonus means you gain two points for every honey pot you have flipped to its filled side at the end of the game and finally this bonus earns you one point for every set of butterfly ladybug and bee in your garden no matter where they are at the end of the game so if my board looked like this at the end of the game these three insects would count as one set these three would count as another and so on the quickest way to calculate how many sets you have is to figure out which insect you have the least of that that will be the most sets you created so if you have zero ladybugs that's the insect you have the least of and that means you have zero sets if you had five bees four butterflies and three ladybugs ladybugs are the insect you have the least of and you have three so that means you'd have three sets so your water drop on this bonus in that case would score you three points at the end of the game now remember water drops cannot be in the same space so if you get a second one to the bottom it must go by a different End Game bonus and you'll also gain an insect from here as well if you have both your water drops at the bottom each time you would need to resolve the water drip action again you instead just gain a butterfly ladybug or B for your garden all right we've covered a lot of pieces and placements and points but I did save one piece for us to go over right now so next let's learn about lanterns these come in four different different types and when you see a lantern on a tool you've taken you collect the matching type from the supply you then put it anywhere in your garden with the side showing an icon face up each Lantern provides you with a one-time bonus you can choose to perform any time it would apply during your turn after resolving its effect flip it face down to show it can't be used again you can even use a lantern on the same turn you gained it and even more than one Lantern during the same turn so let's go through these and see how they work after performing and resolving a water drip action you can then use this Lantern to perform a second water drip right away either on the same or a different water drop in a similar way after performing and resolving a frog jump action this lets you perform an extra frog jump afterwards if any effect causes you to collect a butterfly ladybug or bee you can resolve this Lantern to immediately collect and place a second insect of the same type so if I had just gained this ladybug flipping this Lantern would provide me with a second ladybug this Lantern is a bit different after gaining and placing the items on a chosen tool you can use this to ignore the action you would normally perform after and instead use one of the other three so normally I would perform a water drip action but I could flip this and instead resolve to insect flutters with that we've gone over all the ways you can gain place and use pieces in your garden and that means you also fully understand how to resolve anything that might happen during your turn turns will be taken in clockwise order around and around the table until each player has resolved 15 turns this means everyone's flower pots will be filled with the 15 tools they collected the tool holder will also be empty at that time as well now each person takes a sheet from this pad and Records their scores following all the scoring steps we previously learned about except for one we still have to go over the honey pots remember you only earn points from honey pots you have flipped to their filled side and also remember at most you'll only be able to flip three of the honey pots during the game but I'm going to flip all of them as I describe how they work this one earns you one point for every butterfly anywhere in your garden even if it's just flying around the same goes for this honey pot except you gain one point for every ladybug you have this honey pot gives you one point for each Lantern in your garden no matter which side they're flipped to and this gives you one point for every two leaves you've collected no matter what colors they are points you gain from your honey pots are totaled and placed here once everyone has totaled all of the points they've earned from the various ways you can score points the player with the most points wins wins and in the case of a tie the tied players share the victory I'll also point out the back of the rule book provides a handy summary of a player's turn and various effects and bonuses you might encounter if you need reminders I also thought I should point something out not specifically covered by the rules but perhaps worth considering the symbols showing on the topmost tools in the holder can be seen But players aren't meant to slow the game down by considering what tools will be coming out next when they refill the action board at the end of a turn these are truly meant to be random so if it helps you can also make a point of drawing the backmost tool instead or randomly drawing from within the middle another option is to Simply turn the holder around so the pieces are leaning towards the players and then draw from the side that you can't see now this is not a crucial consideration either way but it's something I thought I would mention in case you or your group of players think it could affect your group's gameplay also be aware there are rules included for solo play where you'll attempt to complete various achievements over the course of several games in an effort to enter the 1,000 Point Club by the end but those rules I'll leave for you to discover on your own otherwise that's everything you need to know to play pergola if you have any questions at all about anything you saw here feel free to put them in the comments below and I'll gladly answer them as soon as I get a chance you'll also find forums for discussion pictures other videos and lots more over on the games page at Board Game Geek and I'll put a link to that in the description below and if you found this video helpful please consider giving it a like subscribing and clicking that little bell icon so you get notification anytime we post a new video and if you'd like to support us directly you can join our patreon team which I'll have linked below but until next time thanks for watching