Matakana

Matakana is a game for 3 to 5 players of planting seeds, harvesting vegetables and selling them to customers at the bustling Matakana market.

Players will compete for sunshine, soil & gnomes (of course!) in a race to plant seeds and create the most bountiful garden. Those vegetables are then harvested and taken to the local market where players sell to the waiting customers.

A game of Matakana takes place over rounds of two distinct phases: Gardening & Harvesting.

GARDENING PHASE

In the Gardening phase, players will compete with each other to take a row of cards that will allow them to cultivate their garden. The cards that players collect are:

1) Gnome cards - allows players to collect gnomes which act as a currency of sorts when planting seeds

2) Soil cards - allows players to take soil tiles and lay them in their garden (soil tiles come in various shapes and sizes and you will need them before you can plant any seeds)

3) Sunshine cards - dictates which columns in your garden you are able to plant seeds in this round.

Depending on the draw of the cards some rows will be more lucrative than others and it will be up to the players to decide when is time to compete for those cards. Once players have collected their cards they will lay soil and plant seeds according to those cards.

HARVESTING PHASE

The second phase of the round involves rolling 3 regular dice to determine which column of your garden will harvest vegetables. The player rolling the dice choices a pair of dice from the roll and the sum of those dice is the column in the garden that all players can harvest. Players then take vegetable cards that match the seeds they have planted into their hand.

Players will now have an opportunity to openly trade with each other for vegetables that they do not have. Players will do this to sell a certain group of vegetables to waiting customers at the local market. The market is a 9x9 grid made up of 9 customers of varying colours. Each of these customers is wanting different combinations of vegetables and the players who can serve that customer with the vegetables that they are wanting will take that "Customer" and place it face up in front of them.

SCORING

Once the deck of Customers runs out the game will end and players will tally up their scores. Points are given for:

1) Creating full columns of seeds in their garden 2) Having the majority of Customers of a certain colour (with points available for those in 2nd and 3rd) 3) Having the most money at the end of the game

To do well in Matakana requires a player to do well in all areas of the game: creating a bountiful garden that harvests often, trading wisely with other players to ensure you have the vegetables that you need and finally, keeping an eye on what customers other players are serving so that you can maximize your scoring opportunities.

A game of Matakana takes approximately 60-90 minutes and players 3-5 players.