How to Play

Heaven & Ale

2-4 players 60-90 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Manage a medieval monastery brewery to craft superior beer. Balance expanding your garden with harvesting resources while coordinating monks and your brewmaster to optimize barrel production. Success requires strategic timing between facility upgrades and resource collection. Compete against other monasteries to achieve the perfect brewing balance and create the finest ale.

Published 2017

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Sort resource tiles

Place face-down in 2 piles ["I" & "II"], then place 1 tile from "I" stack on each of the 15 resource spaces on the main board

Arrange shed tiles

Place in 5 stacks by the board sorted by type

Prepare monk tiles

Sort the 24 monk tiles by their back ["I" & "II"] then shuffle each stack

Place initial monks

Take the leftmost stack of monk tiles and place 1 on each of the 4 monk spaces on the board

Place scoring discs

Put 1 scoring disc from the reserve on each of the 6 scoring disc spaces

Set up barrels

Place 1 small barrel face-up on each barrel space, with a large barrel of matching type face-up on top

Distribute player components

Each player takes a player board, 5 privilege cards, 1 player figure, 25 ducats, a brewmaster, and 1 of each of the 5 resource markers

Position markers

Place brewmaster and resource markers on starting spots on left column of player board

Determine starting positions

Pick start player and place their figure on the 1st player space; counterclockwise, each other player places on a starting space and takes an immediate reward

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Move your figure

Move clockwise any number of spaces (stop at starting area) and take the action at that space; players can share spaces

Observe movement restriction

You cannot move to a space where you are unable to perform the action

Enter starting area

Place figure on any empty space there, gain the immediate reward, and skip remaining turns this round; if all other players are in starting area and 1st player space is open, last player must take it

Buy resource tiles

At resource spaces, buy at least 1 tile; pay $ shown for shady side placement or 2x $ for sunny side; never place on shed spots

Buy monk tiles

At monk spaces, buy at least 1 monk; pay $ shown on monk space for shady side or 2x $ for sunny side; never place on shed spots

Trigger shed procedure

If placing a tile encloses a shed spot, sum numbers on surrounding tiles (monks = 0), move brewmaster, then place shed tile from reward table and activate adjacent tiles (do not trigger monk tiles)

Take scoring disc from Space A

Place on x-tile scoring spot, pick a number and activate all resource tiles with that number; shady tiles give $ equal to tile number, sunny tiles move matching marker forward that many steps

Take scoring disc from Space B

Place on empty monk scoring spot, activate all adjacent resource tiles for that monk type (tiles can activate multiple times); if another monk is activated, move brewmaster 1 step forward

Take scoring disc from Space C

Place on empty resource tile scoring spot and activate all resources of that type on your board

Take scoring disc from Space A/B/C

Place on any tile scoring spot, activate tiles and take rewards

Collect barrels

At barrel spaces, take all remaining barrels whose goals you have achieved; take large barrels (4 VP) before small (2 VP); each player can only have 1 of each type

Complete privilege pairs

When completing a scoring pair, optionally place a privilege card to take immediate reward; if not placed now, cannot place later; return unplaced cards to box for $3 at any time

Resource marker limit

If a resource marker reaches the 20-production spot, it cannot move further; take $1 from reserve instead

End of round cleanup

Add 1 monk tile face-up to each monk space, add 1 resource tile to each resource space (use II when I runs out), refill scoring disc spaces; 2p/3p: put 2nd disc on B & C spaces; 3p: put 2nd disc on 1st A/B/C space