Plot Counterplot

Number of players: 3-4

Time: 7 rounds (months)

Designer: Alan Parr

Setup:

The field of play is a set of allotments. The size and quality of each allotment means that each has a basic fertility level which is enhanced when a crop is grown in it.

The play:

1. In each round each player has a number of samples  of seeds to sow (between 4 and 10 - the same number for each player). Each player may sow the samples into one or more allotments -  e.g. 6 samples could be sown as six single samples into six different allotments; or as 3, 1, 2, etc. Each player has a free choice of how the samples are divided and which allotments they are sown in, but no player may sow into the same allotment on more than three occasions.
2. At the end of the the seven sowing months the plants ripen and their aggressive genes become rampant. In each allotment the most numerous plant takes over all others in the same plot. Its owner scores
   • a) the basic fertility of this allotment, plus
   • b) the total value of all crops sown into the allotment.

   Example: In a field with base fertility 8 and players A,B,C and D sowing 6,7,2,3 player B will score 8 + (6+7+2+3) = 26. The other players score 0.

3. A field where no one has overall control is devastated and no player scores any points.
4. If the same player's crop dominate two adjacent allotments the crop's aggressiveness is enhanced. The player's score is for each allotment is increased by 50%. Should a particularly dominant crop  control more than two adjacent allotments then multiple bonusses will be scored. E.g. in a string of three adjacent allotments the central allotment will receive a 50% bonus twice. Two allotments which score only t a corner are not considered adjacent.

Copyright 1999 by Alan Parr, all rights reserved.