Actions, Production and Perfumes

How board actions, the Sundial, production, travel and perfume scoring work.

Turn order and time

The seating order alternates clockwise. Each turn is either a board action or a production turn. The Sundial starts at 5 Action Points. Spending Action Points rotates it and reduces the remaining time available for actions; the dial also indicates Production Points and coach legs. When the Action Points are exhausted, or production is used, reset the dial and advance the day marker. The action that spends the last points resolves before Sunday procedures. In a three-player game skip the marked invalid days; two players use the board reverse.

A player may spend one Originality token after a turn for an extra turn, at most two turns in a row. Board spaces are limited, and the same action type cannot be repeated on consecutive turns. The six flower types are separate market action types; the four cities and four noble couples are separate types, while the four Versailles spaces count as one action type.

Action spaces and costs

Move your Perfumer to an unoccupied action slot and pay the number shown in its worker symbol by rotating your Sundial clockwise. You cannot take a slot occupied by another Perfumer or pay more Action Points than the dial allows. Once spent, the points are not refunded. The action cost varies by space, so read it from the board before moving.

The action-type restriction applies across turns even if the next turn is an extra turn purchased with an Originality token. Different flower benches, cities, noble couples and Apprenticeship action types are separate types as described in the rulebook; all Versailles spaces are the same type.

The board actions

Flowers Market: pay 1 Action Point to place your Perfumer on a free flower type space. You may also move either or both shared workers, paying 1 Action Point per worker moved. Take one flower from the Perfumer’s basket and one from each worker’s basket; an empty basket gives nothing.

Apprenticeship: choose an available tile, pay its Action Point cost and resources, and add it to your curriculum. It raises your Experience and may grant a permanent benefit. You cannot take a duplicate tile.

Travel: visit a city using the board action and its printed cost. A city tile requires the matching Letter of Reference level at the moment you reach the city. Take the top tile; you do not choose from the stack. When you acquire a City tile, it adds Experience while it remains face up. You may claim its one-off benefit later during your turn, then flip it; its Experience is removed, and the reverse contributes its printed end-game points.

Court life: visit a noble couple and resolve the Nobleman before the Dame. Couple A provides a level-1 Letter of Reference; B exchanges level 1 for 2; C exchanges 2 for 3; D exchanges 3 for 4. You may have only one Letter at a time; a Nobleman does nothing if you already have an equal or higher level or lack the required level for an exchange. You may then give the Dame her preferred gift: A wants Bergamot, Jasmine or Lavender Scent; B wants Narcissus, Orange or Rose Scent; C wants an Originality token; D wants a finished perfume. Gifts are optional. Each gift can place an Influence token, subject to your eight-token supply; if empty, you may move one from another Dame. A gift also lets you inspect that Dame’s hidden Final Bonus tile. The player with the relative majority controls the Dame’s favour; ties return it to the Dame. You can keep at most two favours.

Versailles: move to a free presentation space, pay 1 Action Point and present one eligible perfume. Dame C’s favour or the one-off effect of a Firenze City tile can let you present a second perfume in that action. Score each scent combination separately. After presenting, turn the perfume down to show it has been presented; Sunday resets presented perfumes.

Scoring a perfume at Versailles

For each base/complement pair, find the King column and Court row on the Preference Matrix. If all of that intersection’s cells are already occupied, that pair scores nothing and you place no cube. Otherwise take the Originality token at the intersection if present, place a blue cube in one empty sub-cell and score:

The Court preference marker can move once before or after the complete perfume presentation, not between the pairs of a complex perfume. On an ordinary Sunday, place the current intersection cube, take any Originality token there, then move the Court to the next row with the highest total and the King to the next column with the lowest total. Move cyclically and do not stay in place. The final-Sunday reset has different marker movement; see Game End and Scoring.

Production and travel

You need at least one Production Point and one flower to produce. Return your Perfumer to your personal board, spend some or all available Production Points using your methods, optionally store flower baskets on method inputs, and travel the number of coach legs shown by the chosen dial position. Then discard unstored flowers, reset the dial and advance the day. Each method may be used repeatedly if you can pay:

Store leftover flower baskets only on an available matching method input. A stored basket may remain there for a later production, or you may discard it back to the general supply at any time. Any flowers left unstored after production are discarded. Travel is part of production: without at least one Production Point and one Flower, you cannot produce or move the Coach.

Move the Coach in one direction by at least one leg, up to the number shown on the selected Sundial position; you do not have to use every leg. Ignore opponents’ Coaches. When you pass a city, you may stop there. At that moment, a Letter of Reference at the city’s printed level or higher lets you take any City tile in that city’s pile; shuffle the remaining tiles into a new face-up pile. Without the required Letter, you may still stop, but take no City tile. A Letter gained later cannot claim that missed tile retroactively. Unlike the board’s Perfumer travel action, Coach travel lets you choose from the pile rather than taking only its top tile.

Creating and presenting perfumes

A perfume can be created at any point in your turn. Choose an available Recipe whose level is no higher than your current Experience. Spend one scent matching its base, then immediately fill each complementary slot with distinct scents different from the base and one another. Recipes cannot remain incomplete. You cannot keep two identical scent combinations. If all three perfume slots are full, discard one finished perfume and all its Recipe/scents to free a slot.

To present a perfume, inspect the Preference Matrix intersection for each base/complementary combination. If every sub-cell there is already occupied, that combination earns no points of any kind. Otherwise place a cube (two for two complements) and score the remaining empty sub-cells as Originality, take an available token if the rule permits, and award matching Court/King/perfection points. The Court marker moves before or after the entire perfume, not between its combinations. King-preference points are awarded only for the first combination of a perfume with two complementary scents. On Sundays add the current marker intersection cube, then move the Court to an eligible next row with the highest total and the King to an eligible next column with the lowest total. Neither may stay put.

Dames and influence

Influence tokens are placed through Court-life actions and qualifying gifts. The player with the relative majority controls a Dame and receives her favour; a tie gives control to nobody and returns the tile to the Dame. You can hold at most two favour tiles, even if you control more majorities. At game end, each Dame majority is worth 5 points. A perfume may be donated to Dame D for Influence as described by the rulebook. The publisher’s BGG answer clarifies that making perfumes and donating them are separate blocks of activity; do not alternate making one and donating one repeatedly in the same action (thread).