Codex Naturalis
You are tasked with continuing the work of illuminator monk Tybor Kwelein.
To this end, assemble the pages of Codex Naturalis, the secret manuscript which lists the species of the four kingdoms living in primary forests.
Place your cards according to the resources they bring you to meet the objectives and develop the richest manuscript.
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 12 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Codex Naturalis and 952 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
Set-Up
At the start of the game, each player will be given a starting card. This card has two sides and the player chooses which side of the card to play. This starter card is immediately placed in the centre of their board. Each player places a coloured token on their starting card to remind every what colour they are, and the first player also places a black token there.
Each player is then given three cards in their starting hand (two resource cards and one gold card which will be explained later).
Two common objectives are drawn which all players can complete throughout the game by satisfying the conditions in the centre of the card. The player is awarded points if they satisfy the conditions and the amount of points is indicated by the number on the top of the card. Note that all players may score points if they have satisfied the conditions. Then each player is given a choice of two secret objectives which behave similarly to the common objectives except they are unique to that player (and hidden from the other player). Points from objectives are scored at the end of the game.
How to Play
At any given time, the amount of visible symbols on your player board is the amount of resources that you have access to. You will use the coloured symbols to build better cards later in the game and the gold symbols are for scoring points!
Each turn a player will:
1. Place a card from their hand onto their game board. You will have noticed that some of the corners of cards are ‘cut out’ and may or may not contain a symbol. When placing a card you must place it so it covers a ‘cut out’ corner of a card already on your board thus covering up a corner on the card on the board. Be careful, this can reduce your resources if you cover up a symbol! (Tip: placing cards with less ‘cut out’ corners reduces your possible options for possible places to put down new cards later!)
2. Choose a new card to add to your hand. There are six possible choices here: one of two face up resource cards, one of two face up gold cards or try your luck and draw a resource or gold card off their respective deck. The resource cards give you access to more resources that you will need to be able to play the gold cards later. The gold cards require resources to play (indicated on the bottom of the card); they give you points indicated on the top of the card and give you access to the gold symbols. The gold symbols score points based off certain gold cards: e.g. 1 point per bottle.
End of game
The end of the game is triggered when a player reaches 20 points (or more) or if the two decks are empty. Players finish the round and then each have a last turn before the game ends.
Each player counts the points from the Objective cards (2 common objectives + the secret objective) and adds them to the points already scored on the Score track.
When counting the objective points, each Resource or Gold card in the play area may only be counted once for each objective. (But the same card can be used for multiple objectives.)
The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most Objective card points wins.