Windmill Valley – Board&Dice

1-4

14+

60-90min

Story

It’s the late 19th century, and more than 9000 windmills dot the landscape of the Netherlands, some of them purpose-built to dry the lowlands, called polders. In the polders between these windmills are fields filled with colorful tulips—the flower that once was a part of the turbulent history of the first financial bubble but is now simply a quintessential part of the Dutch landscape, especially on the famous Bloemen Route (or “Flower Route”).

About the game

In Windmill Valley, a game inspired by the Bloemen Route, you and up to three players take on the role of tulip farmers and entrepreneurs. You will build and enhance your windmills, look for new tulip bulbs on foreign trades or among local vendors to buy and plant, and try to get an edge with hired help and lucrative contracts. Let your blooming fields make your competitors green with envy!

How to play?

In Windmill Valley, players take turns until one of them reaches the end of the Calendar Track, triggering the end of the game.

During their turns, players will rotate the Action Weels on their Windmill Board, creating
a set of actions available to choose. Every time the large wheel completes a full rotation, players move their Calendar markers, which also advances the pace of the game.

Turn structure

On your turn, you must perform these steps in the following order:

Optionally change the water speed by opening or closing the Floodgate, effectively choosing the speed at which your Action Wheels will turn.
Adjust the Water Level.
Rotate the Action Wheels on your Windmill board a number of steps equal to the current water speed; and perform an action printed on one (or in some cases, both) of the interlocking spaces of your Action Wheels.

Mechanisms

End Game Bonuses
Market
Multi-Used Cards
Network and Route Building
Rondel
Variable Players Powers
Varieble Set-up
Solo/Solitaire Games

Available actions

Lower the Water Level – This action allows you to gain Guilder and/or Victory Points as a reward and then lower the Water Level. The number on the action icon is the action’s strength. Whenever you Lower the Water Level, first check the section over the marker’s current position and gain rewards for each point of your action’s strength.

Enhance the Wheels – This action allows you to install one of the Enhancements from the main board onto your Action Wheels, thus improving and changing the actions available to you. Take one available tile, pay the cost (if any), and place it on the chosen Wheel.

Gain a Farm Enhancement – This action allows you to take one of the three available Farm Enhancement cards and add it to your Farm board as either a Helper or a Contract.

Build a Windmill – This action allows you to take one of the Windmills from your Farm board and place it on the Mainboard to gain Victory Points and various rewards. The space must be connected to the Market via an uninterrupted path of Windmills of any color. After that receive all the rewards from any Fields adjacent to your newly placed Windmill.

Visit the Market – This action allows you to move your player marker on the Market area of the main board in order to gain various rewards. For each movement, you must move your marker one space clockwise on the Market. Then, choose one of the rewards from the area next to your marker, and gain it. For each other marker in the same area, you may gain the same reward again.

Plant Tulip Bulbs – This action allows you to plant Tulip Bulbs from your Storage into your Tulip Patches. Select any Tulip Bulb in your Storage, Plant it in the leftmost available Tulip Patch of any row on your Farm board, and receive all rewards covered by the tokens.

Conduct Foreign Trade – This action allows you to participate in foreign trade using the Tulip Bulbs from your Storage. Whenever you resolve this action, you can either place a Tulip Bulb onto the Foreign Trade card and gain the corresponding rewards, or remove all of the Tulip Bulbs present on the Foreign Trade card, keeping as many as you wish and returning the rest to the supply.