California Dreams: Gold Rush

...where you are in charge of 4 Prospector '49er' playing pieces. Each one starts in a different city. All must travel overland or by sea to California during the 1848-63 Gold Rush. 

You begin with a grubstake to buy supplies: food, clothing, equipment. Then try to avoid bad Fate Cards and use good ones while you dig and pan for gold to fulfill your "California Dreams!"

You also receive a large bonus vial filled with beautiful, huge, fluffy gold leaf that is carefully crafted and high quality. This is perfect for adding to your collection. Makes a great keepsake or gift to your loved ones!

Here's what else is in the game box:

Notice these features on the game board above: 

• Two overland maps (#1 and #2) at the bottom of the gameboard (above a key to all the symbols), 
• A map (#3) from New York City to San Francisco showing the two water routes (via Panama, and around Cape Horn),
• A map (#4) of Northern California (Mt. Shasta, Yreka, and other lucrative gold fields),
• A Bank (upper left corner) with areas for Loans, Grubstake money, gold dig chits and nuggets to be used, as well as a retirement track for any of your prospectors who quit the game early.
• A Key (at the bottom of the game board) describing feature on the maps (i.e, cities, supply centers, gold sites, dangerous passes, forts, trails, rivers, etc.).
• And in the middle, a place for Supply Cards and the Fate Deck, as well as a scoring track and quick explanation of the seven actions of which you can only make five each turn (year).

Place your prospectors one at a time in Nauvoo Illinois, St. Joe Mississippi, Fort Gibson/Fort Smith Arkansas, or Austin/ San Antonio Texas. Follow the main overland routes leading to the three arrows on the left of the map that take you directly to Yreka in Northern California, or 40-Mile Desert in Nevada, or Stockton just outside San Francisco and next to gold sites.

Use one or more of the 28 Supplies to move from circle to circle, using the number at the top of the card. There are 5 Clothing, 10 Food, and 7 Equipment cards.

Along the way, you may encounter one some of the 56 Fate Cards that you or another person plays on your prospector - some cards are good, some are bad, and some are just plain terrible!

Map-2 has four routes to move on from the 40 Mile Desert in Nevada.

All require moving through the Sierra Mountains with its four high passes (marked with a black X) where you must stop for one turn. Included is the dreaded Donner Pass at the top of the map.

Once your prospector gets over the Sierra Madre mountains, you can enter the gold sites in the gold circles.

Notice there is a fifth location where you can start one of your prospectors - San Francisco, close to the gold fields and offering abundant supply (5) needed to dig and pan for gold.

Again, Fate Cards are always waiting to help or hinder you.

Before you begin, each player places one of their four prospectors on any one of the six start circles, including New York City. You may not add a second piece to a circle until all six start circles have been filled with one prospector.

Traveling by water is a quicker way to reach San Francisco and the nearby gold sites. There are two routes: The Panama Route with a stopover in the Isthmus (two moves for a cost of $8), and the Cape Horn Route (four moves for $16).

Like the two overland maps and water route, ships you can charter to take you to California are historically accurate.

Also, like overland routes, there are 8 Fate Cards that may affect traveling via water.

There are two routes to the three gold fields of Northern California: One goes directly from the brown arrow connecting Fort Hood (Map 1); the other is via the northern most Pan for Gold circle (Map 2) leading into Shasta.

A discovery of gold (also in 1848) near Shasta brought California Gold Rush-era "Forty-Niners" up the Siskiyou Trail in search of riches. Most passed through Shasta and used Yreka as a base of operations and supply.

This is a closeup of Coloma, where gold was found at Sutter's Mill in 1948, along the American River. Also, Placerville, and Diamond Springs, two other mining sites, are in the gold circle. 

The circle is one of 15 gold circles on Map 2, with three more gold circles in North California. Each has a gold number (1, 2, or 3) that matches the number of small black circles to indicate how many gold sites can be found within.  

In this example, the first pioneer (black piece) lands on the circle, rolls the three golden dice and places a matching gold chit on each black circle. Each of the three sites can be dug by any miners. 

Based on the dice roll above, this circle will have:

One site with one gold that the pioneer can dig, 

A second site with 4, 3, 2, and 1 (a total of 10 nuggets that they  can mine as four actions),  

A third site with 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 (a total of 21 nuggets that they can gain over five action-turns before all the site's gold is exhausted.

As expected, there are lots of Fate Cards (18) that you or your opponent can play while you are digging or panning for gold!

The Bank controls the "economic engine" of the game. It's located at the top of the left corner of the game board, adjacent to Map 4. It has five functional sections:

• A place to put four Loan Chits that can be used as a $10 cash loan any one time during the game to give you extra money to move and buy supply cards. (You must pay back the loan at 20% interest at the end of the game - $12 or 6 gold nuggets).

• A green area to store 24 Money Chits used to give you a grubstake (the money you will begin the game with). Before being paid, each player rolls three dice, takes the highest die, multiplies by two and takes that amount in chits to afford to buy supplies.
• The Gold Dig Chit section where the Bank stores 54 gold chits marked 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 that are placed on a black-dot site when a prospector lands in a Gold Circle and rolls the dice to determine how many digs can be made.
• A Gold Nuggets space, where the Bank stores 65 gold chits that are awarded for successful digs or panning. The nuggets are in 1 and 2, 5, 10, and 20 and 50 denominations and also can be used to make "change" for Supply Card purchases.

• Beneath the Bank are five retirement circles (5, 4, 3, 2, and 1). Each is the amount of gold the Bank will pay (in order) to the first five prospectors who retire. 

Three Fate Cards have permanent effects. Two are played any time after 1850, and one is played any time after 1853. 

When played, they should be turned face up at the top (in the middle) of the game board over the Timeline to remind all players that they are now in effect and will stay in effect.

Playing CALIFORNIA DREAMS: GOLD RUSH is fun, fierce, and fast! The Rules are only two pages and explain everything you need to know about how to play Fate Cards, move prospectors on land and on water, dig for gold, buy Supplies, take out a loan, and retire.

After getting your grubstake and placing all four of your prospectors in starting cities, each player (starting with the one who has the least money) chooses and pays for up to five total actions in order from the list of seven below:

1 - Play one Fate Card on self or opponent. Only one Fate Card can be played per turn as ONE ACTION. COST: 0. Remove Fate Card from the game after it is played.

2 - Move 0 - 4 prospectors on Land (0-4 circles). COST: Supply Cards have a number in the upper right corner of each card. That is up to how many circles you may move one or more prospectors. Playing one or more Supply Cards to move one or more prospectors is a total of ONE ACTION ONLY.                                                                                                  

3 -Move one prospector by Water (1-4 circles), as ONE ACTION. COST: $4 per circle moved or one Supply Card. Travel from New York to San Francisco via two water routes: Isthmus of Panama, or around Cape Horn. 

4 - Dig for Gold. COST: One Supply Card or two gold per prospector at a gold site allows you to pan or dig for gold, up to the allowable digs for the year (1-4), if you have a prospector on that Gold Circle. EACH dig equals ONE ACTION.

Note: You may mine the same site on your next turns or pay to move to and mine another gold site within the circle or move to another circle. Once Gold Nugget Chits are depleted, they are removed from the map. Exceptions are the 1-3-5 fields in North California, where no dice roll is needed. They are worth 1, 3 and 5 Gold Digs.

5 - Buy Supplies. COST: Based on the number of purchases. Supply Cards may be used by any of a player’s prospectors. ALL purchases combined equal ONE ACTION, the only “buying” allowed per turn

Note: A player may purchase up to a number of Supply Cards based on the total value of all Red Supply Circles on which all of their prospectors are located. Payment is in gold (or cash). Also, Supply prices double in 1851.

6 - Take Out a Loan: COST: 20% Interest. Player may borrow $10 from the Bank at any one time at 20% interest (e.g., $10 for $12) as ONE ACTION. Take a Loan Chit and $10-worth of Green Money Chits and place them in front of you.

7 - Retire prospector from the Game. COST: 0. Only one prospector may retire per turn, equal to ONE ACTION and gets a 1-5 gold bonus. At the end of 1863, everyone retires after their final turn. Your California Dreams are over.

• Total all your gold (plus retirement bonuses).
• Sell any leftover Supply Cards in your hand for gold at one-half (rounded down) their 1 - 4 movement value.
• Exchange any remaining Money ($) Chits at the rate of $2 for one gold (rounded down).
• Pay off Bank Loan for $12, in any combination of $ or gold, at $2 = one gold; or deduct six gold from your score.

PLAYER WITH THE MOST GOLD WINS! – If a tie, player who started with the least money wins.