"GOLD! The excitement is huge and many come to acquire the precious metal for themselves. At the end, all will settle their accounts."
The Goldmines is a Mini Expansion that can be bought by itself, or as part of Big Box 4. When bought separately the expansion also comes with a tile from the expansion Corn Circles 2.
Tiles[]
The expansion includes 8 new tiles, each of which is printed with a picture of a shining gold bar. The expansion (when bought separately) also comes with one tile for the mini expansion Corn Circles 2. The tile in this expansion depicts a corn circle with the pitchfork, signifying the farmer.
The Gold[]
The expansion comes with 16 small gold bars, made from wood similar to the meeples. These bars are set to the side at the beginning of the game. When a gold tile is drawn, the player lays it as usual, then takes two gold bars. One is placed on the tile just laid with the gold symbol, the other placed on a tile of the players choosing immediately adjacent (including diagonally) to the just-laid gold tile. These gold bars are not feature specific, but laid on the tile in general.
The gold is collected as follows: When a feature is scored that includes a tile with gold bars on it, the player scoring the feature collects all the gold bars on the tiles of that feature. For cloisters, this includes the cloister tile itself as well as all 8 adjacent tiles. When players tie on a feature or when multiple features are scored together, gold is distributed to the involved players one bar at a time, beginning with the active player. Players place their collected gold bars in their play area to be scored at the end of the game.
The rules detail the following tun order for gold bar tiles:
- Place gold tile
- Place gold bars
- Place follower
- Score
- Take gold bars
In this fashion it is possible to lay a gold tile to complete a feature, lay the gold, and immediately score it.
Scoring[]
At the end of the game, all as yet unclaimed gold bars are removed from the board and are not credited to any player. Farmers may not claim gold, either by placing a barn in game, or in the final scoring. After the final scoring, players score points for each gold bar in their possession. How many points each gold bar is worth for a player varies based on how many gold bars the player has. Players with 1 - 3 gold bars score 1 point for each bar; players with 4 - 6 bars score 2 points per bar, players with 7 - 9 bars score 3 points per bar, and players with 10 or more bars score 4 points per bar.