How to Play Turf War

Trying to figure out how to best your neighborhood rival in a game of Turf War? This is the place to be! Whether you prefer a how-to-play video, a manual, a playthrough video, or step-by-step instructions, we’ve got you covered.

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Objective

Play cards to build up points in your Yard, and sway Neighbors for extra points. When the last Neighbor is swayed, the player with the most points wins.

Setup

Put a HOME, a GARAGE, a PIGGY BANK, and a 3×3 grid of DIRT (their YARD) in front of each player.

Give each player a RAKE, a TOOLBOX, and a WATERING CAN (the Tool cards marked with ★'s) as their starting hand.

Shuffle the STORE DECK, and put the top 5 cards face-up next to it (the STORE).

Shuffle the NEIGHBOR DECK, and put the top 5 cards face-up next to it (the unswayed Neighbors).

Each player starts with $0 in their PIGGY BANK.

The player who most recently did yardwork goes first.

Your Turn

1. Do Start Actions

First, do all Start actions in your YARD (with the yellow sun symbol), in any order.

Do the Start actions on cards in your YARD regardless of whether or not there are other cards on top of them.

2. Go Home or Away

Then, you may turn your HOME / AWAY card to either its HOME side or its AWAY side (you always choose which side you want face-up).

If you went from AWAY to HOME, pick up all cards from your GARAGE and put them into your hand.

You must go from AWAY to HOME in order to get cards out of your GARAGE. Don’t pick up any cards when you stay HOME multiple turns in a row.

3. Do Home / Away Actions

Next, do either or both actions from the face-up side of your HOME / AWAY card (no more than once each and in any order).

When you’re AWAY, you can work once to gain $5, and you may buy one card from the STORE.

When you’re HOME, you can play one card from your hand, and you may sway one Neighbor.

4. Do End Actions

Last, do all End actions in your YARD (with the purple moon symbol), in any order.

Do the End actions on cards in your YARD regardless of whether or not there are other cards on top of them.

Working

When you work, add $5 to your PIGGY BANK.

Buying Cards

First, select the card from the STORE that you want to buy, and pay its cost (in the card's upper right corner) from your PIGGY BANK.

Next, put that card facedown on top of your GARAGE.

Last, restock the STORE. (Reveal the top card of the STORE DECK and add it to the STORE.)

When a card leaves the STORE for any reason, restock.

When you reveal an Event while restocking, immediately follow that Event’s instructions.

If an action has you buy or trash multiple cards from the STORE at the same time, finish buying/trashing all of those cards before restocking.

Playing Cards

To play a card, put it face-up on top of a Pile (GRASS or DIRT) that has more PLACES (green plus signs) than cards on it. (Don't count the Pile as a card.)

You can play cards onto Piles in your rival’s yard, but only when that rival is AWAY.

You’ll usually need to turn a Pile to GRASS before you can play a card there, because GRASS has one PLACE and DIRT has zero PLACES.

A card takes up one PLACE when played onto a Pile, so, unless the card adds more PLACES, it may prevent other cards from being played there.

You can ignore PLACES when you’re playing a Pest card or a Tool card. Unlike other types of cards, Pests and Tools can be played on top of any other card or on top of DIRT.

Only check PLACES in a Pile when you’re playing a card there. If a PINWHEEL is played onto a GRASS and that GRASS is later turned to DIRT, the PINWHEEL remains on the Pile.

The owner of the YARD where the card was played immediately does any Play action on the card.

You always do the actions on cards in your YARD, even when another person played the card.

Last, pick up any Tools that you played and put them facedown on your GARAGE.

Non-Tool cards stay on the Pile where they were played.

Swaying Neighbors

To sway a Neighbor, first choose a Neighbor from the Unswayed Neighbors row.

You can't sway a Neighbor that's already been swayed by your rival.

If the Neighbor has CRITERIA (blue checkmark), your YARD must contain everything listed.

CRITERIA is checked only at this step. The Neighbor remains swayed even if the cards in your YARD later change.

If the Neighbor has a BRIBE (green dollar sign), do the BRIBE. (You must be able to complete the BRIBE in full.)

Last, put the Neighbor in front of you ("in your Sway").

Do not restock the Unswayed Neighbors row after swaying a Neighbor.

The Neighbor in your Sway aren't in your YARD.

Trashing Cards

To trash a card, put it on top of the TRASH pile face-up.

Cards in the TRASH aren't part of anyone's YARD or the STORE.

Game End & Scoring

When the last of the five Unswayed Neighbors from the row is swayed, the game is over. Add up VP (medallions) from your YARD and swayed Neighbors to determine your score.

The highest total VP wins.

In a tie, the person with the most Neighbors in their sway wins.

Multiplayer Variant

To play Turf War with 3 or more players, you’ll need two copies of Turf War. Shuffle the two Store Decks together.

Setup the game as normal, except set one card aside facedown from the top of the Neighbors deck for each player beyond the second. (Set one Neighbor aside facedown for a 3-player game. Set two aside for a 4-player game. Etc.)

When a Neighbor is swayed, restock the row with one of the set aside Neighbors, if any remain. (Do not use the full Neighbors Deck when restocking.)

When there are no Neighbors remaining in the row and no Neighbors set aside, the game is over. (A 3-player game should see 6 total Neighbors swayed. A 4-player game, 7 total Neighbors.)