Learn Ada’s Dream
Learn the game in 5 short steps. Everything links to the full rules.
Build Ada’s machine
You are Ada Lovelace’s assistants, each building a section of Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Over about 18 turns each you draft dice, place them in the Mill of your Player board and fill the gaps with Gears. The most Prestige wins — mostly from your machine’s lines and from discs placed around the board. Start with Teach the Game.
Set up
Lay out the main board, fill the six Workshop spaces with three rolled dice each, and give everyone a Player board with 12 discs on its Gear spaces, £4, 1 Coal, 1 Brass, 1 Book and a hand of 4 from an eight-card deck. Follow the numbered Setup checklist; in your first game use the board as printed.
Draft a die
On a Workshop turn move one Workshop die a space clockwise; it pushes out an equal or lower die, which you keep. Gain the bonus where it lands, store it, perhaps play a Partner card it allows, and gain Research for your Assignments of its colour. See Workshop Turn.
Use a die for an action
On an Actions turn place a stored die in your Mill and take the action of its colour: Ada’s Study, Travel, Meetings or Institutions (grey: any). Most actions place a disc, which frees a Gear space. Research unlocks a bonus advanced action. See Actions Turn.
Publish or build, then score
End each turn by spending a Book to Publish or building a Gear. When someone places a ninth die, finish the round and score: lines of three dice and two Gears worked left to right and capped by Steam, Programs, Objectives, Universities, majorities, cards — and −2 per Gear not built. See End and Final Scoring.