How to Play

Menara

1-4 players 10-60 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

In Menara, players collaborate to construct a towering temple using pillars and uniquely-shaped floor pieces. This cooperative building game demands precision and teamwork, as construction errors force you to add additional floors, making the structure increasingly precarious. Victory requires steady hands and careful planning to complete the seemingly impossible vertical challenge.

Published 2018

Get Ready

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

Punch out components

Before the first game, punch out all parts from the die-cut sheets and assemble the camp

Prepare the column bag

Put all 76 columns into the cloth bag

Stock the camp

Randomly draw six columns from the bag and place them in the camp

Sort construction plan cards

Separate cards by glyph color (blue, yellow, red) and shuffle each pile separately to form three draw piles

Create the quarry

Pile the 18 temple floors on top of one another in random order

Build the temple base

Take the 3 top temple floors and place them in the middle of the table so they touch each other at two points but don't overlap

Set difficulty with level cards

Lay out level cards in a row to determine required temple height

Distribute starting columns

Each player randomly draws columns from the bag based on player count and difficulty

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Determine first player

The player who last entered the top floor of a building begins, then play proceeds in turn order

Exchange columns (optional)

Take as many columns from the camp as you like, putting the same number of your columns back

Reveal a construction plan card

Choose freely from which of the three piles (blue/easy, yellow/medium, red/difficult) to draw

Build according to the card

Always place columns on color-matching bases without protruding beyond the outline

Place columns card types

Place one, two, three, or four columns on matching bases of any temple floors in the tower

Single floor card types

Choose one temple floor and place two or three columns on matching bases there

Move columns card types

Take one, two, or three columns out of the tower, move them to any higher level, and place on matching empty bases

Complete floor card types

Place as many columns on a single temple floor as necessary to occupy all bases, which always triggers a new temple floor placement

Move temple floor card types

Move a built-in temple floor one or more levels up or down, moving any columns on it as well

Handle unfulfilled cards

If you cannot completely fulfill a construction plan card, add it face down to the row of level cards

Place new temple floors

When you place a column on the last free base of a temple floor, immediately interrupt and place a new floor

Replenish columns

At the end of your turn, draw as many columns from the bag as you just placed

Winning

How to claim victory.

Temple collapse ends game

If any temple floors collapse or columns fall over and cannot be put back in their previous place, the game ends immediately in a loss

Game ending triggers

The game ends when a player cannot replenish columns to full number, the last construction plan card is used, or the last temple floor is placed

Win together

Players win if the temple's number of levels equals or exceeds the number of laid-out level cards

Lose together

If the temple does not have the required number of levels at the end of the game, all players lose, even if the temple has not collapsed

Levels count only on columns

Only temple floors sitting on columns count as levels; the temple base does not count as a level

Menara

Get Ready

On Your Turn

Winning

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