Circle the Wagons is a two-player card drafting and town-building game. 15 territory cards are arranged in a circle. Players take turns drafting cards and placing them to build their frontier town. Three bonus scoring cards add unique objectives each game.
On your turn, pick any card from the circle. All cards before your pick (clockwise) are skipped and given to your opponent as free cards. Taking the first available card skips nothing; taking one further around the circle gives your opponent more free cards.
Place each drafted card (2×2 grid) onto your town. The card must overlap or be edge-adjacent to your existing town. Cards placed on top of existing cells replace them — this is how you shape your terrain.
Skipped cards go to your opponent's free queue. They must place all free cards before their next draft. Free cards follow the same placement rules.
Terrain: For each of the 6 terrain types, score points equal to your largest connected group of that terrain (4-connected, orthogonal only).
Bonuses: Three bonus cards are active each game. Most give points for icon patterns (e.g. Forts near Guns, Cows away from Snow). Some are interactive and compare both players' towns.
During drafting, click a card in the circle then confirm. During placement, hover to preview, press R to rotate 180°, click to place. Press Ctrl+Z or click Undo to take back a move.