Goal of the Game

Gain the highest score, usually by running out of cards first.

Starting the Game

Each player starts with 20 cards: 8 “Ground” cards (upper group) visible to both players, and 12 cards in your “Hand” (lower group) that your opponent can’t see.

In the playing area there is a Board with 16 squares, 4 Silos beneath it, and a Well to either side.

Playing the Game

On your turn you can play as many playable cards as you want, but playing at least ONE is mandatory. You can play cards from either the Grounds or the Hand, or from both in the same turn.

To play a card, simply click on it and the software will put it on the Board.
Cards numbered 1-4 can be played at any time during your turn. These are placed in the 16 squares on the Board.
Cards numbered 5-20 can only be played if the card four lower than it in the same colour is visible on the Board (or if you have a Tractor card, see below).
The cards are played in a numerical sequence in “step-four”:
1, 5, 9, 13, 17.
2, 6, 10, 14, 18.
3, 7, 11, 15, 19.
4, 8, 12, 16, 20.

Silos

Beneath the Board there are four “Silos”. Whenever you play a Ground card, you MUST immediately take a fully-visible card from one of the Silos.

Wells

There are two “Wells”, one on either side of the Board. A third will appear when one of the these two is emptied.
When you have finished playing cards from your Grounds and Hand, if you have fewer than 12 cars in your hand, you may draw cards from the Wells.

There are two ways to draw cards from the Wells:

1. When you have LESS than 12 cards in your Hand, you CAN draw from the Wells. If you choose this, you MUST draw as many cards as are needed to return to 12 cards in your Hand.
2. When you have LESS than 8 cards in your Hand, you MUST draw from the Wells as many cards as are needed to return to 8 cards in your Hand. AND, if you want, you can also return to 12, as described above.

Drawing from the Wells ends your turn. Cards drawn from the Wells cannot be played until your next turn.

Finishing your turn

If you have 12 or more cards in your Hand, you can choose not to play your remaining playable cards and select the "Pass" button to end your turn.
If you draw cards from the Wells, when you reach 12 cards in your Hand, your turn ends automatically.
If you had less than 8 cards in your hand, when you reach 8 cards you can choose to draw to 12 or to select the "Pass" button to end your turn.

Tractors

There are also 5 Jokers (the "Tractor" card) for each player. One Tractor is available at the start of the game. The others become available when a player plays their Ground cards: two when the 4th Ground card is played; and the last two when all the player's Ground cards are played.

If you pick up a Tractor card, it is included in your Hand.

The Tractors can be used in two ways:

1. in place of a card held by your opponent to enable you to play a card in your Hand.
2. discarding it (e.g. because you have no other cards to play).

When you pick up a Tractor you’ll see that the software gives you the opportunity to play cards that need a Joker to be played and then a confirmation message will be displayed.

Scoring

The player who plays the LAST card of the sequence (17, 18, 19 or 20) scores 10 points. This is called "finishing a stack".

A bonus of 30 points is given when a player finishes the 4th stack of a colour ("finishing the row").

If you play your last card and the Wells are empty, you score 10 points for each unfinished stack. This often means a victory, depending on the score previously accumulated.

If a player can’t make any moves, the game ends and the opponent scores 10 points for each unfinished stack.