Overview

Lowlands is a farming game set on the North Sea coast. Players raise sheep, build farm expansions, and contribute to a communal dike that protects everyone from floods. The tension lies in balancing self-interest (building your farm) against communal good (strengthening the dike). The value of sheep and dike contributions shifts over the game. The player with the most VP wins.

Components

• 1 Main board, 1 Farmyard board (sunny/rainy), 1 Income board
• 2 Sheep Market boards
• 46 Farm Expansion tiles, 16 Facilities
• 30 Buildings (12 Action, 12 Sheep, 6 Storm Surge)
• 30 Dike Breach tokens, 13 Dike segments
• 85 Sheep tokens, 6 three-sheep tokens
• 36 Flood pieces, 66 Resource cards (22 each: wood, clay, stone)
• 53 Coins (27x1, 14x5, 12x10)
• 64 Fences, 5 Progress tokens, 12 Flood cards per player
• Per player: 1 Dike Point marker, 3 Farmers, 4 Building markers
• 1 First Player marker, 1 Scorepad

Setup

1. Place main board centrally. Shuffle flood cards to form flood deck.
2. Each player places dike point marker on 0. Randomly place progress tokens on first 5 dike track spaces.
3. Place value marker on middle of value track.
4. Shuffle resource cards; draw 4 face-up to the resource display.
5. Set up sheep market board matching player count.
6. Each player takes a farmyard board, farmers, building markers, and starting resources.

Turn Structure

The game plays over several rounds. Each round:

1. Place Farmers: Players take turns placing one farmer at a time on action spaces (main board or own farm).
2. Resolve Actions: Resolve the actions where farmers were placed.
3. Flood Phase: Reveal flood cards; compare dike strength to flood level.
4. End of Round: Advance phase marker, refill displays.

Actions

Players place farmers on action spaces to:

Action	Effect
Collect resources	Take wood, clay, or stone cards
Buy sheep	Purchase sheep from the market
Build fences	Enclose pastures on your farm
Build farm expansions	Pay resources to add tiles to your farm
Contribute to dike	Add dike segments to the communal dike; move your dike marker forward
Sell sheep	Sell sheep for coins
Use buildings	Activate special building effects

Dike Contribution

Building dike segments moves your dike point marker forward. The dike’s total strength is compared against flood cards each round.

Farm Building

Farm expansion tiles cost resources and provide VP, ongoing abilities, or special actions.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

VP Sources:

• Sheep in pastures (value depends on value track position)
• Dike points (value depends on value track position)
• Coins (1 VP per coin)
• Resource cards (1 VP per 2 cards)
• Farm expansion tiles (VP shown on tile)

Value Track: As more is invested in the dike, sheep values decrease and dike values increase (and vice versa). This creates the central tension.

Winner: Most total VP.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Flood: If dike strength is insufficient when flood cards are revealed, dike breach tokens are placed — causing penalties.
• Value Track: Shifts based on how much collective effort goes into the dike vs. farming. More dike work = dike points worth more, sheep worth less.
• First game: Remove the flood card showing “6” for a gentler introduction.
• Sheep breeding: Pairs of sheep in enclosed pastures produce offspring.
• Storm Surge buildings: Provide bonuses that help during flood phases.

Player Reference

Core Tension: Farm vs. Dike — invest in sheep for VP or invest in dike for VP. The value track determines which is worth more.

VP Summary: | Source | VP | |——–|—–| | Sheep | Depends on value track | | Dike points | Depends on value track | | Coins | 1 per coin | | Resource cards | 1 per 2 cards | | Farm tiles | As printed |