How To Play Formosa Formosa

Many people are excited about Formosa Formosa and want to buy it but I want to make sure that people only buy it if they will like it.

Right now the only way to get Formosa Formosa is directly from me but I hope to change that in the future with an online store. Feel free to PM me personally or through my FB page, IG account, or Twitter.

This information would be better shown in a short youtube video and there are plans to have a nice How To Play video posted in the future but that isn’t something I enjoy doing myself.

What is Formosa Formosa?

In some ways Formosa Formosa is a typical roll and write game (for example Yahtzee) and in some ways very, very different than almost every game you have played before.

Formosa Formosa uses the box as playable surfaces in the game. In addition, every round is started by one player throwing the cubes into the box type to determine what the choices are for everyone each round.

I certainly didn’t re-invent the wheel with this game. There will be many people that can name strategy games that use the ‘unusual’ mechanic of throwing to create your choices for the round. Sonora and Wreck Raiders are two examples that use the dexterity mechanic in a strategy game. But I would contend that there aren’t many games that combine a bit of dexterity into a light strategy game.

Who will want to play Formosa Formosa?

Formosa Formosa is designed to be strategic enough to interest gamers that want something to play with their casual or non gaming friends. But it isn’t fun for new gamers or children to lose every game because a serious gamer uses a better strategy so this game is designed such that every player can be competitive. Both luck and strategy will determine the winner though. In particular the choices you make when you don’t have good options will be very important.

How To Play

Setup the game boxes with two random public goal cards as shown near all players. Each player receives a player board, marker and random private goal card with the matching animal meeple.

Each player’s private goal card has a different start location and different objectives to complete to score end game points. Tina Turtle (made up name) needs to visit 3 temples in northern Taiwan, go hiking 3 times in western Taiwan and visit 3 waterfalls in southern Taiwan. Players must complete all objectives by the end of the game to score the points.

Private goal cards are usually kept hidden during games but it is easier to teach new players with the objectives visible to everyone.

Each round the active player chooses one cube of each color plus one additional cube of an activity that they want to do that round.

Tina Turtle was randomly chosen as the starting player. She is starting in eastern Taiwan as shown on her private goal card but wants to start working on her private objectives. She chose an extra red cube (temples) and threw the cubes toward the northern portion of the box.

Players should attempt to throw or drop the cubes so they bounce around a little. Sometimes people will their hand in the box and set them into the box so they can get what they want. Officially the rule is that their hand should be about 15 cm above the table.

One of the unique mechanics of Formosa Formosa is that the active player gets to influence the choices for everyone during their round by choosing which cubes are thrown and the direction that they throw the cubes. But every player will get an equal number of throws during the game.

Place the cubes onto the back of the box so everyone at the table can see their choices for the round.

The ‘bombs’ (black circles) have the highest priority. If any part of a cube is touching a black circle then it is assigned to that region.

The color triangles are the target for the players to throw towards and usually will have the most options each round.

Occasionally a cube will only be in the blue region and won’t be touching any of the color regions. Discard this cube for the round.

You MUST understand the following to play the game

After the cubes are placed on the back of the box all players can simultaneously write their choices for the round. Players DO NOT TAKE or DRAFT cubes!

Every round players usually get to choose and write two activities.

Tina Turtle wants to visit a temple in northern Taiwan but she is in eastern Taiwan. Players move AFTER they see the choices for the round. Tina Turtle chooses to move from East to North and marks one pollution.

Step 1 – Select one cube from the map – After moving Tina Turtle chooses the red cube and marks the zero under the red temple scoring track.

Step 2 – Select one Turn Action at the bottom of the player board – Tina Turtle then chooses the equal sign in the Turn Actions at the bottom. The equal sign allows players to duplicate their first choice and she marks a second temple.

Movement Fully Explained

Note 1 – Moving one region creates one pollution. If you move two regions then you create two pollution. Northern and southern Taiwan aren’t connected so moving between the two would create two pollution. Likewise moving from eastern Taiwan to western Taiwan (long mountain drive) and creates two pollution.

Note 2 – Move after the cubes are thrown each round. You want to see your choices before moving.

Note 3 – You cannot move in the middle of choosing cubes. For example, you cannot mark one temple in northern Taiwan and then take the ‘Not Equal’ turn action and move to western Taiwan and mark a waterfall. All marks during a round must be in the same region.

Turn Actions Further Explained

‘Equal’ – Mark your first choice of the round a second time. All 4 of the ‘Equal’ turn actions are the same. They aren’t restricted by the hike, waterfall, temple or beach clean up at the bottom.

‘Not Equal’ – Choose a different cube than your first cube that is in your region as your second mark. Check Max Marten below for an example.

The four choices at the bottom allow players to mark that activity as their second choice even if that cube isn’t in their region.

Players ALWAYS mark on Turn Action each round. There are 12 Turn Actions and they also function as a count down to the end of the game. There are 12 rounds in the game and each player is the active player (throw the cubes) and equal number of times.

(Special 5p game rule – Game is only 10 rounds and start by marking off an ‘Equal’ and ‘Not Equal’)

Max Martin has the same choices as Tina Turtle and can take his turn simultaneously. He also chooses to move to northern Taiwan and marks one pollution.

Step 1 – Select one cube from the map – He chooses the yellow cube and marks the zero on the beach cleanup track in the upper right.

Step 2 – Select one Turn Action at the bottom of the player board – For his second mark he chooses the ‘Not Equal’ at the bottom so he can choose the green cube and mark a hike in northern Taiwan. When choosing the ‘Not Equal’ turn action there must be a cube of that color in your region.

Round one is now finished and the player to the right of the active player becomes the new active player. There is a turn order reference chart in English and Chinese on the side of the box but it is a little difficult to see while playing the game.

Map bonuses

We still haven’t talked about islands, bonuses and buses yet. There are bonuses to the right of the activity tracks in each region and the beach cleanup track that allow players to make more than two marks in a round. After completing the first row players get the bonus immediately in the region that they are in. For example, if a player one mountain, one waterfall and one temple in northern Taiwan then they mark a waterfall for free immediately in northern Taiwan.

On turn two Max threw the cubes to the north and yellow, blue and white cubes landed in the north. All players can simultaneously choose from these options.

Players always do the first two steps each round. Step 3 and Step 4 below are only numbered to show how the bonuses are used in the game.

Step 1: Select one cube from the map. He selects the yellow cube with his first choice and mark a beach cleanup. This beach cleanup triggers the temple bonus as shown in Step 3 below but can be marked when you want.

Step 2: Select one Turn Action at the bottom of the player board. Max uses another ‘Not Equal’ turn action. In Step 1 he chose the yellow cube and in Step 2 he chooses a different cube in northern Taiwan and marks the blue cube.

Step 3: Mark bonuses that you have earned. In Step 1 Max triggered the temple bonus in the beach cleanup track and can mark one temple in northern Taiwan. I like to put a small check on the bonuses to show that I remembered to use them.

Step 4: The bonus from Step 3 combo’d to trigger another bonus. After marking the temple in Step 3 he completed the first row of activities in northern Taiwan. He gets a waterfall bonus immediately.

An Example of Visiting an Island (White Cube) (below)

On turn 2 Tina Turtle has the same choices (blue, yellow and white in northern Taiwan) as Max. If you recall she visited two temples on turn 1 and on turn 2 she will set up a combo with the islands and bonuses to finish the three temples on her private objective card.

Step 1: Select one cube from the map. Tina selects the white cube which lets her travel Matsu Island. Matsu is the island associated with northern Taiwan. She doesn’t need to move her player piece to the island. She marks two pollution in the pollution index and checks off that she has been there. She unlocks all three bonuses but the first bonus has to be used immediately. She marks her third temple which satisfies her private goal in the north.

Step 2: Select one Turn Action at the bottom of the player board. Each island can only be chosen once so she can’t choose the ‘Equal’ turn action. She chooses the mountain Turn Action at the bottom of the player sheet. The four activities at the bottom are just a free second mark and don’t require a cube to be in that region.

Step 3: Tina chooses to use one of the unlocked bonuses from Matsu this round. She uses the ‘Not Equal’ bonus and selects the blue cube and marks a waterfall in the north.

Step 4: By marking the blue cube she triggered the bonus for completing the first row of activities in the north. She marks the second waterfall in northern Taiwan.

Bus Bonuses

The last part of the gameplay to discuss is the bus bonus in the lower left. There are six locations on the board that you can earn a bus bonus. In addition, you can visit three islands or complete the first row of activities in each region to get a bus bonus.

Bus bonuses must be used immediately in the region you are in when you earn them. They are also one time use so mark them after using them. The bus bonus public goal card is a little more advanced so it might be better to use that with players that have played the game before.

The End of the Game

The game ends after 12 rounds (except in a 5p game – 10 rounds). Players can use the Turn Actions at the bottom to keep track of what round it is. You must use one Turn Action each round.

Scoring

There is a score chart in the bottom right.

First – Score the public goal objectives for the round. Ties are friendly. The maximum points are awarded if multiple players win an objective.

Second – Score points for your private goal if you finished all of the objectives.

Third – Score points for each region. You score points for the point value that you can see. So if you cross off the 0 and 1 in the north waterfalls then you have 4 points. Tina Turtle has 29 points in northern Taiwan, 16 points in western Taiwan, 18 points in southern Taiwan and 0 points in eastern Taiwan.

Lastly – Deduct your pollution.

Usually the winner will score 80-90 points. Sometimes scores can go over 100.

I plan on having a professionally made How To Play video done at some point but I hope this made it a little easier to learn the game.