Teach the Game

A script to teach Wendake at the table — how you win, the boards, a year, the end, every way to score and what each resource is for.

How you win

“Each of us leads a Native tribe around the Great Lakes during the Seven Years’ War. Over seven years — seven rounds, one to two hours — we farm, hunt, fish, trade, hold ceremonies and send warriors out. We score on four tracks: Economic, Military, Ritual and Mask. The tracks are paired, and at the end each pair only scores its lower track. The most balanced tribe wins.”

What you need, and how you get it:

• Points on all four tracks — Trade scores Economic, Military scores Military, Ritual scores Ritual, the Mask Ceremony scores Mask.
• A good action grid — every action comes from the 3 × 3 grid of tiles on your Action board. Each year you use three tiles in a straight line, and between years you swap weak tiles for stronger Advanced Action tiles.
• Natives on the map — Warriors claim land, then Women and Hunters work it. They feed your resources and earn Turtle tiles.

The loop: pick three tiles in a line → do their actions → reshape the grid for next year. Keep an eye on the weaker track of each pair.

The boards

• 2 Score Tracks — four tracks in two random pairs.

• 3 Progress tiles — three rows, bought with the Trade action.

• 4 Mask deck — Mask cards and their face-up discard pile.

• 10 Score markers — your Tribe disks at the start of each track.

• 12 Restore area — where Mask disks wait between ceremonies.

• 13 Advanced Action tiles — six on offer, Level 2 from Year 4.

• 14 Turtle tiles — taken with the Military action, scored at the end.

• 15 Round Track — Years 1 to 7.

• The map — territories with Productive Areas (fields for Women, forests for Hunters), Lakes for Canoes and one Home territory per tribe. The map

• The Ceremonial Mask board — Turn Order area, Ceremonial Mask area, Turtle spaces, Round Track.

• Your Action board — the 3 × 3 grid, the Sages (Action markers) and the Long House (injured and unused Natives).

• 8 Long House — Natives that are not in play yet, or were injured.
• 9 Action grid — Sacred Fire in the middle, eight tiles around it.
• 11 Sages — your four Action markers.

A year

Seven years; each has two parts. Full rules

1. Individual turns — in turn order, each player places one Action marker per turn, four turns each:
   • three times take an action: put the marker on a grid tile and use its actions top to bottom. The three tiles must end up in one row, column or diagonal;
   • once change turn order: put the marker on the leftmost free space of the Turn Order area.
2. Restore — new turn order; flip the tiles you used (Action side ↔ Ritual side), slide the grid down one row, swap one tile for an Advanced tile in turn order and deal the three new tiles into the top row; take your Mask cards back; refresh Progress tiles; next year.

[Allies] With New Allies, the turn-order space you choose comes with a Turn card and often an Alliance action (New Allies).

How the game ends

After the Restore of Year 7. Reveal your Turtle tiles and add their points to the tracks they show. Each pair of tracks scores only its lower marker; add the two pairs, plus 1 if your Swap token is unused. Each track stops at 25. Tie: the lower Turn Order marker wins. Scoring

Ways to score

Source	Track	How and when
Trade — buy a Progress tile	Economic + the tile’s track	1, 2 or 3 points on each, by tile level
Trade — buy Economic points	Economic	1 per different Resource spent, up to 5
Military action	Military	1 per territory where you have the most Guards (ties score nothing)
Ritual action	Ritual	your smallest group in your Home: Warriors, Women or Hunters
Mask Ceremony	Mask	1–5 by the combination of Mask cards you play
Turtle tiles	as printed	revealed at the end: 1 or 2 points each
Progress tile powers	any	some move points or buy points with Resources
Unused Swap token	total	+1 at the end
[Allies] Alliance track, Rifles	flag tracks, total	see New Allies
[Promo] the 4-point Action tile	total	+4 at the end (Promo Tiles)

Nothing is ever lost from a track; the only “loss” is points above 25 (35 with New Allies), which do not count.

What each resource is for

Resource	Why you need it	How you get it	How you use it
Leather	every Progress tile costs Leather	Tan Pelts turns all your Beavers into Leather	Progress tiles, Economic points, [Allies] Rifles
Fish	every Progress tile costs Fish	Fishing: 1 per Canoe in play	Progress tiles, Economic points
Corn, Beans, Pumpkins	Progress tiles need different Vegetables	Harvest: 1 per field with your Woman	Progress tiles, Economic points
Beavers	not a resource — only becomes Leather	Hunting: 1 per forest with your Hunter	Tan Pelts
Canoes	more Fish, more Exchanges, Turtle tiles	Canoe action (5 at most)	count during Fishing, Trade and Military
Warriors	claim Productive Areas, hold territories	start in Home; Ritual brings back the injured	Guards score Military; Outposts become Women or Hunters
Women / Hunters	produce, and earn Turtle tiles	replace your Outposts on the map	Harvest / Hunting; Ritual counts them at Home
Mask cards	combinations score Mask points	one per Mask Ceremony (deck or discard)	played once per year, back to hand at Restore
Progress tiles	points now, a power every year	Trade, Level 1–3	flip to use the power once per year

Teaching tips

• Start with the paired tracks — “only your weaker track in each pair counts” explains every later choice.
• Show the grid rule on a real board: first tile anywhere, the next two in the same line. Then show how the bottom row falls off at the end of the year.
• Teach Guards vs Outposts with pieces on the map; it is the rule most players get wrong (The map).
• For a first game use the identical Tribe-card side and the suggested track pairs.

Rehearse an Outpost transfer

Move a Warrior onto a Productive Area as an Outpost, then finish the Move action. Before beginning another action, return that Outpost to Home and replace it with the Woman or Hunter shown by the area.

Ask: ‘Can the returned Warrior spend the movement I had left?’ No: you cannot interrupt a Move action with a transfer and then move that Warrior again. Transfer between actions, and resolve the actions on a tile from top to bottom.