Coal Baron
Coal Baron – or Glück Auf in German, after a greeting German miners use when wishing one another luck – has players sending miners underground to dig tunnels and acquire coal, which comes in four levels of quality and is used to fulfill contracts.
The game lasts three rounds, and in each round players take turns placing their workers on action spaces; you can place on a space occupied by another player, but you need to place additional workers in order to do so. Each player has an individual elevator shaft, and will need to use workers to extract coal and bring it to the surface, while also competing for contracts and scrounging for cash in order to do everything else that needs to be done!
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 43 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Coal Baron and 970 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Mine for coals, complete and dispatch the most contracts over three shifts.
Setup
As part of setup, each player will pick 3 Order cards, each card taken one at a time in turn order
Shifts
Each shift comprises of placing workers.
Turn
Place a worker on your chosen action space. If there is already a man/men there, one extra man must be used. Two men replace one man, three men replace two men etc.
Workers that got replaced wait for the next shift in the Canteen.
Once you have run out of workers, you are skipped until the other players have all completed the Shift.
Action Spaces
There are 8 types of Spaces (+the Canteen, which can't be accessed voluntarily)
Lorry - [wagons or carts in English nations] Lorries do not refill - choose which lorries you need to buy to fulfil your chosen contracts.
Mining - Claim 6 or 10 movement spaces then lower your cart down to the appropriate level. Load your coals, raise your cart and load the coals onto your contract cards.
Delivery - When your contracts are complete, they can be shipped off via the delivery space with the correct icon.
Money - You only need money to buy the loaded lorries/wagons. Everything else is paid for with man hours.
Order - Choose which contracts you want to complete, to earn the stated points.
Finance - Withdraw money to pay for the lorries/carts.
Bank - Not needed men can go to the bank, where they'll receive $1.
Re-ordering - If the lorry/cart you want isn't available, you may get it by rearranging the next five cards of the draw pile. Same with the contract cards.
Scoring
Scoring takes place at the end of each shift.
You will earn the points on your delivered contract cards
Additional points - Delivering the most coals in each of the colours, delivering the most coals in each of the delivery types, the most empty lorries in each of the colours. [Lorries containing coals are not counted]
You will lose a point for uncompleted contracts and 2pts for each unbalanced minecart. [This is the difference between your purchased lit lorry/carts and your purchased unlit lorry/carts. Left over money is the tie breaker.
Lorry
Gain the depicted Tunnel Tile by paying the cost in Marks per Lorry and type of Lorry
Yellow Lorry costs 1 (2 if two)
Brown Lorry costs 2 (4 if two)
Grey Lorry costs 3 (6 if two)
Black Lorry costs 4 (8 if two)
After you've paid for it, each Lorry depicted gains 1 Coal of its same colour
Then it is added to the Pit on its colour level as well as the correct side (Left side has Lanterns in the ceiling, right does not)
Points may be lost if your lighted mine and your unlighted mine become too imbalanced.
Mining
Each mining space gives varying quantities of Mining Points, which can be spent as you desire, any not spent are lost
For 1 point, you can move your Pit Cage as far as you like in one direction
For 1 point, you can move a single Coal Cube from a Lorry next to your Pit Cage into your Pit Cage as long as it has space for it (There are 5 spaces)
For 1 point, if at the Surface you can move a single Coal Cube from your Pit Cage into an Order Request as long as the cube matches the requested colour OR you can spend 2 points to move 2 matching cubes to take the place of the required cube
For 1 point, if at Surface you can move a single Coal Cube from your Pit Cage into your Private Storage
For 1 point, you can move a single Coal Cube from your Private Storage onto an Order Request
Delivery
When placing a worker onto a Delivery space, take care to acknowledge the transport symbol with it
Any Orders that are complete (i.e. full of required Coal Cubes) AND match the related transport symbol can be turned in
You can only visit a Delivery space if you can actually deliver at least ONE Order to it
Gain the Victory Points the Order Request granted immediately
Return the cubes on it to the supply
Retain the Order Request facedown in a separate pile for end scoring
Money
Each space states a varying quantity of Marks, gain this many Marks
Order
Place your worker on an Order space to obtain the Order Request directly below it, then reveal a new Order for that space
There is no limit to the number of Outstanding Order Requests you can hold
There is also a special Order space, similar to the special Lorry space, in that you draw 5 blind Orders, keep 0 or 1, then return the rest to the top or below the draw deck
Bank
This space gives you 1 Mark and, as mentioned, does not bump other Workers, so always only requires 1 Worker
End of Shift
A Shift ends when all players have played all their Workers
Each End of Shift progressively increases scoring opportunities
In Shift End 1, 4 scoring opportunities are available
In Shift End 2, 8 scoring opportunities are available (the 4 from Shift End 1, plus 4 new ones)
In Shift End 3, 12 scoring opportunities are available (the 8 from Shift End 2, plus 4 new ones)
Scoring Opportunities 1 2 & 3
The player with Completed Orders which contain the most (& 2nd most) Yellow/Brown/Grey/Black Coal Cube spots gains points accordingly
Scoring Opportunities 2 & 3
The player with Completed Orders which contain the most (& 2nd most) Barrow/Carriage/Motorcar/Engine Vehicles gains points accordingly
Scoring Opportunities 3 ONLY
The player with the most (& 2nd most) Yellow/Brown/Grey/Black Empty Lorries in their Pits gains points accordingly
At any scoring opportunity, if there is a tie for 1st, all get 1st and no one gets 2nd. If there's a tie for 2nd, all get 2nd.
Game End
The Game ends after 3rd Shifts Scoring Opportunities
In addition, every 5 Marks gains you 1VP, and every 3 Coal Cubes (regardless of colour or location) gain 1 VP
Lose 1VP for each Incomplete Outstanding Order
Finally, check for Pit Balance or Imbalance, for both the light and dark side, check to see if you have the same quantity of tunnels (regardless of height)
Lose 2VP per excess tunnel tile that causes the imbalance e.g. if you have 7 tiles on one side and 9 tiles on the other, you are 2 tiles imbalanced and thus lose 4VP
The player with the most points, wins!
If tied, the player with the most Marks, wins!