Learn Wildcatters
Learn the game in 5 short steps. Everything links to the full rules.
Build an oil empire
Supply oil to the world’s areas and win the most Victory Points. Choose Area cards to build rigs, discover fields, and move barrels through a shared rail and tanker network; the player with the most points after seven or eight rounds wins.
Build rigs and refineries
An Area card opens one colored area for your turn and gives you workers or shares. Workers build rigs, refineries, trains, and tankers; once four rigs of any colors stand in an area, a company can discover oil there.
Turn rigs into oil
Drilling costs eight workers and converts a rig into a pumpjack carrying three barrels. Other companies with rigs there may pay to join the discovery. A discovered field also opens an auction for its Wildcatter disks.
Move oil through the network
Transport one barrel from each of your pumpjacks in the selected area. Other companies may move oil too. Trains connect areas to harbors and tankers carry oil between harbors; refinery owners pay shares for incoming barrels.
Turn deliveries into points
A full refinery sends oil to its continent. Own oil can score there or be cashed in for shares. At game end, score continent majorities, workers, refineries, Wildcatter disks, cards, and chips, then subtract loans and unpaid shares.