How to Play Kolkhoz

Your objective

Build the richest private holding.

Cards in your face-up Plot and face-down Cellar score their printed ranks. Earn rewards by completing fields and bank one Worker after each year. The highest score after Year 5 wins.

Plot

Face-up claimed rewards. Everyone can see their crops and ranks.

Cellar

Face-down banked Workers. Only their owner may inspect them.

The North

Cards sent North stay face-up, are removed from play, and no longer score.

Before Year 1

Set up the collective.

The deck separates into four reward piles and one Workers Deck. Give every player room for a face-up Plot and a face-down Cellar.

Wheat

Sunflower

Potato

Beet

1

Build the reward piles

For each crop, combine its Ace through 4 with one random hidden card of that crop ranked 5 through King. Shuffle each five-card pile separately.

2

Build the Workers Deck

Shuffle every remaining ordinary card together with the Saboteur. Place this deck within reach of the Central Planner.

3

Choose the Planner

Choose a first dealer and give them the Central Planner card. Place all four Medal cards beside the play area.

Choose the quota before dealing

With four players, a field needs 40 hours. With three players, it needs 32 hours. Nothing else about the deck or yearly structure changes.

The Five-Year Plan

One year at a glance.

Years 1–4 use five-card hands and four tricks. Year 5 uses four-card hands and three tricks. The same sequence—plan, play, assign, bank, requisition—drives every year.

1

Plan

Deal, reveal one reward per crop, choose trump, and make any allowed swaps.

2

Play a trick

Follow suit. Highest trump—or highest led crop—wins a Medal and leads next.

3

Assign the work

The winner assigns every card to any field whose crop appeared in the trick.

4

Complete fields

When a field reaches quota, the Brigadier who crossed it claims the reward.

5

Bank a Worker

After the last trick, put your remaining hand card face-down in your Cellar.

6

Resolve requisition

Failed fields determine how many eligible cards each Medal holder loses.

Year 2 · guided by Foreman Misha

Follow one decision through the whole year.

Wheat is trump. You have a valuable Beet King in hand and a Wheat 10 hidden in your Cellar. We will follow that swap through a trick, two possible assignments, banking, and the requisition it creates.

Chapter 1 · Your hand

Read the decision before you play.

Foreman Misha: “Opponents know you hold five cards. They do not know which five.”

Your five-card hand

Your Cellar One face-down Cellar card

Only you may inspect it

Wheat is trump

13 pointsExcellent to bank

Low trumpUseful in a trick

High trumpYour strongest Worker

1

Start with all five cards.

In Years 1–4, everyone receives five Workers. Your hand is private. Printed rank is both the card’s strength and its value as work or final score.

2

Separate “good now” from “good later.”

Because Wheat is trump, Wheat cards are powerful now. The Beet King is worth 13, but it is off-suit and risky to expose. That tension makes the yearly swap useful.

Chapter 2 · The yearly swap

Trade safety for leverage.

Foreman Misha: “Beginning in Year 2, inspect your own holdings and make one optional swap.”

Owner’s private view

Hand

Cellar Wheat 10 privately inspected in the Cellar

Confirm the exchange

To your hand Wheat 10 moves into hand

Into the Cellar Beet King moves into the Cellar

Public information after the swap

Cellar The Beet King is now hidden face-down

You know this is the Beet King. Opponents do not.

1

Inspect only your own holdings.

You may exchange one hand card with one card in your own Plot or Cellar. You may inspect your Cellar before choosing. Here, it contains the Wheat 10 banked last year.

2

Swap the Beet King for the Wheat 10.

The Wheat 10 joins your hand and can be played normally. The Beet King takes its place in the Cellar and stays face-down.

3

Remember what became private.

Everyone sees that your Cellar still contains one card, but only you know it is the Beet King. That information will matter during requisition.

Chapter 3 · Play a trick

Follow the lead—or use trump.

Foreman Misha: “Legal cards come first. Strategy begins after you know what you are allowed to play.”

Beet ledWheat is trump

Lead

Second

You

Fourth

Check the led crop against your hand

Wheat 10 is legal because you hold no Beet

No Beet in hand → every card is legal.

Wheat 10 winsTrump beats every nontrump

★Medal

You are the
Brigadier

1

Beet 8 leads the trick.

Every later player must play Beet if able. The other two opponents follow with Beet 9 and Beet 6.

2

You have no Beet.

Because the Beet King is in your Cellar, your hand contains no Beet. You may play any card. Choose the Wheat 10 you just retrieved.

3

The Wheat 10 is trump.

It beats all three Beet cards, even the Beet 9. You take a Medal, become Brigadier, assign all four cards, and lead the next trick.

Chapter 4 · Assign the work

The trick opens jobs—not lanes.

Foreman Misha: “Any card may go to any job whose crop appeared in the trick.”

Wheat is legalWheat 10 appeared

Beet is legalThree Beet cards appeared

Legal choice A · split the trick

Wheat+10

Beet+23

Legal choice B · send every card to Wheat

Wheat7 + 33 = 40

40 · Quota met

Wheat · 40 hours

Your Plot Wheat King reward claimed into the Plot

Face-up · worth 13

1

Wheat and Beet are the legal jobs.

Those are the only crops that appeared. The crop printed on an individual card does not restrict where that card can go.

2

You may split the trick.

Assign the Wheat 10 to Wheat and the three Beet cards to Beet. Cards are assigned one at a time and may be divided between legal jobs.

3

Or send all four cards to Wheat.

Wheat appeared, so even the Beet cards may work Wheat. The field already had 7 hours; this trick adds 33 and reaches the four-player quota of 40.

4

The crossing Brigadier claims the reward.

Because your assignment crosses 40, take the visible Wheat King into your Plot. The field remains open for later assignments and could still be poisoned by the Saboteur.

Chapter 5 · The leftover card

What survives becomes your score.

Foreman Misha: “Only four tricks are played. Your fifth Worker slips into the Cellar.”

Last card in hand Potato Jack, value 11

Potato Jack · value 11

Your Cellar Potato Jack banked face-down

Banked face-down · scores if it survives

Plan your tricks so a valuable card remains unplayed—but remember that its crop may later make it eligible for requisition.

0

SaboteurEvery crop · zero hours

Rank 0 · every crop

The Saboteur

It is always considered able to follow the led crop.
It is trump in every suit: it beats nontrumps, but every ordinary trump beats it.
If it leads, there is no ordinary lead crop; every player may play any card.
It makes all four fields legal assignment targets and contributes 0 hours.
A field containing it fails requisition even after reaching quota and paying a reward.

Chapter 6 · After the final trick

Resolve requisition.

Foreman Misha: “The King you hid is safe from opponents—not from a failed Beet job.”

1

Who is inspected?

Every player holding at least one Medal is inspected.

2

What is eligible?

Every Plot or Cellar card matching any failed crop, including claimed rewards.

3

What is taken?

The player’s highest eligible cards, one card for each failed field.

End-of-year field check

Wheat40 · complete

Sunflower42 · complete

Potato40 · complete

Beet31 · failed

N = 1one failed field

Who is inspected?

★1 Medal You won a trick You are inspected

Your Plot Wheat King in the Plot

Your Cellar

Pool cards matching failed Beet

Not eligible Wheat did not fail

Eligible · rank 13 Beet failed

Not eligible Potato did not fail

Your Cellar King removed

North

General case · Wheat and Sunflower fail

N = 2take the two highest eligible cards

North · 13 Wheat 10

North · 10 Sunflower 9

Keep · 9 Wheat 6

Keep · 6

1

Count failed fields.

Beet finishes below quota, while Wheat, Sunflower, and Potato complete. One field failed, so N = 1.

2

Identify inspected players.

You hold a Medal because you won the worked trick. Every player holding one or more Medals is inspected; the number of Medals does not change N.

3

Build your own eligible pool.

Check your Plot and Cellar for cards matching any failed crop. The Wheat King and Potato Jack are safe. The hidden Beet King from your swap is eligible.

4

Send the highest N cards North.

N is 1, so your highest eligible card—the Beet King—leaves your Cellar for the North. It is out of play and no longer scores.

5

When two fields fail, take two cards.

If Wheat and Sunflower fail, pool both crops together and take the highest two eligible cards overall. They do not need to come from different crops. The owner chooses between equal ranks tied at the cutoff.

Hero of Labor

If one player wins every trick that year, they are the Hero. The Hero is exempt and every other player is inspected, whether or not those players hold Medals.

The final year

Year 5: Famine

Flip the Planner card to its Famine side. Deal four cards to every player and play only three tricks—but do not assume the year has no trump.

5

Year 5: Famine

Deal 4 each · reveal a Worker for trump · play 3 tricks

Deal four cards to every player.
Reveal one reward for each crop.
Reveal the top remaining Worker and immediately send it North.
That Worker’s crop is trump for Year 5.
If the revealed Worker is the Saboteur, Year 5 has no trump.
Players may make their normal Year 2–5 swap, then play three tricks.

Round by round

The whole plan.

Return all Medals after requisition, send unclaimed rewards North, reshuffle every assigned and undealt Worker, and pass the Planner left.

Year 1

First sowing

Deal 5 · 4 tricks · Planner chooses trump · no swap.

Year 2

Swaps begin

Deal 5 · 4 tricks · chosen trump · one optional swap.

Year 3

Mid-plan

Deal 5 · 4 tricks · chosen trump · one optional swap.

Year 4

Last full year

Deal 5 · 4 tricks · chosen trump · one optional swap.

Year 5

Famine

Deal 4 · reveal Worker for trump · 3 tricks · one optional swap.

After Year 5

Count every surviving card.

Add the printed ranks of every card in your Plot and Cellar, including claimed rewards. The Saboteur is worth zero.

1. Highest score

The greatest total rank wins.

2. Most cards

If scores tie, the player with more surviving cards wins.

3. Shared victory

If score and card count both tie, those players share the victory.

Read the complete rules