You main objective in The Village Crone is to score 13 points first by completing Witch’s Schemes. To do so, you will be sending out your Familiars to harvest Ingredients you need to cast a variety of spells to achieve the objectives on your Witch’s Scheme cards.

There are 8 different spell types you can cast, each requiring a different mix of Ingredients and a special incantation. We have provided incantations for you, but you are permitted to make up your own if you are feeling particularly witchy while playing.

Pages 4 & 5 of the rule book go into detail about each spell, giving examples of how they work and how they affect the Villagers, and possibly your Familiars.

Let’s take a look at a specific spell-casting scenario:

The Witch’s Scheme card objectives are 1)Get the Farmer to the Mill, and 2) Transform the Farmer into a Frog. Getting the Farmer to the Mill can be done in several ways (Movement, Summoning, or Switching), but Transforming the Farmer requires the Transformation spell.

The Transformation Spell requires 1 Fire and 1 Flour to be combined along with the Incantation.

Once the Incantation is said and the Ingredients are discarded, the Frog token replaces the Farmer at the Mill.

You can now score that Witch’s Scheme card for 2 points, and get a new Witch’s Scheme card.

As long as you have the required ingredients, you can cast as many Spells as you wish on your turn and complete multiple Witch’s Scheme cards for points. You can cast Spells and use Movements in any order on your turn as well.

The different Spells manipulate the Villagers around in various ways and there are multiple uses for each spell. Transforming Villagers into Frogs breaks an existing Love Spell on those Villagers. Summoning a Villager who is in Love with another, brings BOTH Villagers to the summoned location. Stay alert and get creative with your Spells and you can truly master what it means to be The Village Crone.

We’ve recently discussed the importance of using your Familiars to gather the Ingredients you need to cast Spells in The Village Crone. Let’s take a closer look at the Ingredients and how you will be using them.

There are five types of Ingredients: Fire, Flour, Silver, Soil, and Eye of Newt.

Fire is created at the Forge, Flour at the Mill, Silver is found at the Lord’s Manor, and Soil is harvested at the Farm. Eye of Newt is a wild card and can be used in place of any of the other Ingredients to complete your Spells.

Three Eye of Newt cards are shuffled into each of the other Ingredient decks at the beginning of the game. These will be drawn at random during the Harvest phase, so you may or may not end up with one.

You receive Ingredients during the Harvest phase of a round. Remember, you only get Ingredients from locations in which you have a Familiar during the Harvest phase. If you do not have any Familiars in a location to receive Ingredients, you may take 3 Ingredients from the Tithe Barn as charity. There is also a rule that allows witches to trade Ingredients during the Move & Cast Spells phase, but the rate of trade is negotiated between players. You may be able to “buy” an Ingredient you need from another player, but it can cost you!

When you cast a Spell, you discard those Ingredients. If another player blocks your Spell with a Protection Spell, you still lose those Ingredients.

Don’t forget to consult your Book of Spells often to remember the Ingredients you will need to be collecting to cast the Spells on your Witch’s Scheme cards. And remember there are multiple ways to achieve some of your Schemes, so get creative and use your resources wisely!

Happy Casting!