How To Play: AuZtralia

Overview

Ready to wrangle koalas, build train tracks, and punch Cthulhu in the tentacles? Welcome to my guide for How To Play auztralia! Here you’ll find a quick rundown of the game rules (with fewer yawns than reading the manual) plus all the sneaky tips me and my friends actually use to win. Spoiler: it’s not just luck and sheep. Let’s get started and outsmart those Old Ones together!

What’s in the box

• 1 Game Board
• 4 Player Boards
• 4 Player Aid Cards
• 1 Commonwealth Deck (45 cards)
• 1 Old One Deck (41 cards)
• 1 Solo Deck (23 cards)
• 4 Personality Card Decks (18 each, 72 cards total)
• 80 Wooden Cubes (20 per player)
• 28 Rail Track Pieces (7 each per player)
• 16 Farm Tokens
• 16 Port Tokens
• 30 Old One Tiles
• 15 Old One Discs
• 18 Resource Tokens
• 30 Coal Tokens
• 25 Iron Tokens
• 22 Phosphor Tokens
• 50 Gold Tokens
• 1 Time Track Marker
• 1 Combat Marker
• 2 Six-Sided Dice
• Rulebook

How To Play AuZtralia: Rules Summary

Setup

1. Pick your player color and matching pieces. Don’t fight your friends for yellow, you’ll only look desperate.
2. Lay out the board and seed it with ports, rails, and those awful Old One tokens.
3. Give everyone their starting resources: gold, food, coal, iron, and a hope that you won’t lose in the first hour.
4. Shuffle the personality cards and casually pretend you know what they do.
5. Place the train, ship, farm, and military cubes on your player boards. They won’t stay there long if you’re anything like me.

Gameplay

1. Each turn, spend time to do an action: build rails, gather resources, hire people, recruit troops, or fight those pesky Old Ones.
2. After each player turn, tick up the time track. When you hit certain spots, those Cthulhu critters wake up. Sorry in advance.
3. Old Ones take their own turns and shuffle around the map, looking for your tasty farms. Defend everything like your mom’s apple pie is at stake.
4. When you run out of time or Old Ones trample enough, the game heads toward its dramatic finish.

Winning

1. Count up victory points from your farms, leftover resources, personalities, and Old Ones defeated.
2. Don’t forget: The Old Ones themselves score points for wrecking your dreams (and farms).
3. The player with the most points wins—unless the Old Ones outscore everyone, in which case, you all lose and Cthulhu laughs somewhere.

Special Rules & Conditions

1. Some hexes are more dangerous—watch for special icons and hope you have enough troops.
2. If your sanity ever drops too low, you go out in a blaze of glory (and lose points).
3. Player interaction is sneaky. You can’t directly attack each other, but you can totally let your best friend deal with Shoggoth alone.
4. When in doubt, check the rulebook or pretend it’s a friendly house rule night. No one will notice…probably.

Now you know the basics for How To Play auztralia! Bring your bravest face, because those Old Ones don’t play nice—even if you do.

Best AuZtralia Strategies

Master Your Resources and Rule AuZtralia

Balance Your Gold and Coal

Gold means life in AuZtralia. At first, you feel rich, but soon the outback eats all your coins. Therefore, use your gold wisely. Here’s how:

1. Always plan two moves ahead before spending.
2. Save gold for crucial moments, like hiring military units.
3. Never waste actions to grab small gold piles unless desperate.

Stockpile Food Like a Wombat

Food keeps your folks happy and alive. Transitioning to a stable food supply is the key.

1. Build farms early and protect them.
2. Grab resources before Old Ones gobble your fields.

Manage Wood and Iron for Expansion

Lastly, you have to build rails and units. Wood and iron help you survive. When friends ask How To Play auztralia, I say focus on these tips:

1. Prioritize upgrades that reduce costs.
2. Don’t over-commit—leave enough stock for building and fighting.

Unleash the Fury: Mastering Combat in AuZtralia

Time Your Attacks

1. Wait until other players weaken Old Ones before you swoop in for the easy win.

2. Strike at night for bonus drama and confusion—just don’t spill your drink.

Build a Balanced Army

1. Mix stronger units with cheap ones to absorb hits. Think meat shield, but with sheep sometimes.

2. Upgrade your trains! It’s not just for show—those upgrades save lives.

Use Action Points Wisely

1. Plan moves so you don’t run out of steam right before a big fight. Regret tastes worse than Vegemite.

Mess With Your Friends

1. If you can, lure monsters toward your rivals. In How To Play auztralia, sometimes defense is just creative offense.

Lay Down Those Rails Like a Wild Kangaroo

Building Efficient Networks

If you want to win, rail expansion is your mate. Every turn, you should look for new places to build track. If you mess up your rail plan, you will spend more time and money just fixing it. So, focus on these:

1. Connect cities to key resources quickly.
2. Always plan your next move before your mates steal your spot.
3. Don’t make tracks to nowhere unless you want to lose.

Why Rails Beat Roads

Rails cost less action points than moving by foot. Use them right and you’ll be everywhere at once, even before Cthulhu has his morning coffee.

1. Expand towards unexplored tiles for bonuses.
2. Link rails to farms for fast defense.
3. Prioritise routes that give you the fastest resource scooping.

Protect Your Path

Enemies love wrecking your rails. Place troops on the network and never let those tentacled jerks cut your supply lines.

1. Guard chokepoints to keep rails safe.
2. Repair broken rails before moving further.
3. Make sure you always have backup supplies just in case.

I learned this the hard way when my so-called friends left my network open and I spent the rest of the game stuck, yelling about How To Play auztralia the right way. Don’t be me!

The Last Stand: Survive, Thrive, and Laugh!

Well, that’s all the wisdom I’ve wrung from my very real adventures wrangling Old Ones and sheep in AuZtralia (pro tip: sheep do not make good monster bait). With these tips, you’ll outsmart the squidheads, feed your railroad addiction, and maybe even win a game or two. Most important of all: have fun! You’ll mess up, someone will run out of coal, and someone else will forget How To Play auztralia. That’s half the fun. So grab your mates, shuffle up, and may your coffee last longer than your sanity!

Want to know what we think of AuZtralia? Read our detailed review of AuZtralia here