A Round and the Supply Path

Restock the supply path, pick a cutting area and travel to the forest clearing.

The year

The game lasts 2 years of 4 seasons: 8 rounds. Spring, summer and fall are played the same way; winter has its own phases. After the second winter comes the final sale.

The season marker moves down the year track on the right of the board. The phase marker shows the current wood work phase.

Order of a round

1. Fill the supply path.
2. Mark wood and reveal food (from the second round).
3. Select a cutting area (from the second round).
4. Travel the supply path to the forest clearing.
5. Play the seven wood work phases.
6. Determine player order for the next round.

Fill the supply path

The supply path has 20 locations, then the forest clearing (A–D).

Location	What goes there	4 players	3 players	2 players
4	Bearers	10	8	6
6	Fodder	2	2	1
10	Woodcutters	16	12	8
16	Sawyers (free + one at $1)	4 + 1	3 + 1	2 + 1

The other 13 locations each get one equipment token, shuffled face down and then placed face up:

Players	Tokens
3–4	2 wagons, 2 rafts, 2 saws, 1 sledge, 1 dollar coin, 2 food, 3 random craftwork tokens
2	1 wagon, 2 rafts, 1 saw, 1 sledge, 1 dollar coin, 2 food, 3 random craftwork tokens, 2 X tokens

With 2 players, a location with an X token cannot be used.

Then refill the face-up task cards to one per player.

Mark wood and reveal food

Skip this in the first round: the setup puts the first wood out.

From the second round on, reveal placement cards: 3 with 4 players, 2 with 3 players, 1 with 2 players. Each card shows wood and food to add to the numbered cutting areas. Then add 1 firewood to every cutting area that has no wood.

Select a cutting area

From the second round on, everyone secretly picks one of their six cutting area tokens (numbers 1–6 on the back) and reveals it at the same time. Put your token, foreman side up, in that area. Several players may pick the same area.

Food: if you are alone in your area, take all its food to your food storage. If several players share an area, they split its food evenly and the rest stays there. With 2 players and 1 food, nobody gets it.

Who cuts first in a shared area is decided at the forest clearing; see Woodcutting.

Travel the supply path

In starting-player order, each player moves their foreman forward from location 0 to any later location and takes what it offers. Turns go round until everyone reaches the clearing.

Rules for moving

• Always move forward; you may skip locations, but never go back to one.
• You must move; you cannot pass.
• One foreman per location, except locations 4, 8, 10, 13, 16 and 19 (room for 4) and location 6 (room for 2).
• Only move to a location whose action you will take.

Locations

Location	Action
Token locations	Take the token.
4 · Bearers	Buy any number for $1 each.
6 · Fodder	Buy 1 fodder for $1 (at most 1 per player). See wagons.
8 · Planned Work	Plan one Planned Work card.
10 · Woodcutters	Buy woodcutters for $1 each, at most one per wood piece in your cutting area.
13 · Tasks	Take one face-up task card for $1.
16 · Sawyers	Take one sawyer for free. You may also hire the single $1 sawyer, if nobody has.
19 · Market	Buy and sell.

Market

Buy and sell as much as you like:

Buy or sell	Price
Buy 1 saw	$1 (you may own at most 4 saws)
Buy 1 food	$1
Sell 2 identical craftwork tokens	$2
Sell 3 identical craftwork tokens	$4
Sell 4 identical craftwork tokens	$6

A joker counts as any craftwork token. The Craftwork Planned Work raises these prices.

Tasks

At location 13, pay $1 and take one face-up task card. You may take only one task per round. Fill it with wood in the Tasks phase; it pays at game end.

Planned Work

At location 8, plan one face-up Planned Work card for a later season. You have three pairs of numbered tokens (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3):

1. Pick the pair whose number is how many seasons ahead you want it: 1 = next season, 2 = in two seasons, 3 = in three seasons. Winter counts as a season.
2. Pay $1 for every token already on that card, yours included. The first token on a card is free.
3. Put one token on the card and the other on that season of the year track.

• One plan per round. Each pair is used once, so at most 3 plans per game, and tokens never come off.
• Several players may plan the same card, and you may plan one card more than once.
• The coloured season circles at the bottom of a card show when it can be carried out; not every card works in winter.
• A plan only works in the season it was planned for. If you are not ready then, it is lost.

The ten cards are listed under Planned Work cards.

Where acquisitions go

What	Where on your sawmill board
Fodder	Fodder storage, on value 3.
Food token	Swap it for a food cube in food storage.
Craftwork token	Face down in the craftwork area; you may look at your own.
Dollar coin token	Swap it for $1 from the bank.
Other equipment	Equipment area. At most 4 saws; everything else is unlimited.
Workers	Worker area.

The forest clearing

After location 20, foremen enter the clearing on A, B, C, D in arrival order and wait for everyone.

• Clearing order (A first) is the turn order in the wood work phases. It matters most when players share a cutting area.
• The reverse of it is the next round’s starting-player order: D starts.

Determine player order

After the wood work, the last player in the clearing takes position 1 on the starting-player track, the second-to-last position 2, and so on. Foremen go back to location 0.

Before the next round

1. Return all woodcutters, bearers and sawyers to their supply path locations.
2. Put your mill worker back in your worker area and your cutting area token beside your sawmill.
3. Return unclaimed tokens on the path to the supply. Unclaimed craftwork tokens leave the game. Equipment you own stays with you.
4. Move the phase marker back to woodcutting and the season marker to the next season.