CrunchyColeslaw: Initial page

2026-10-16T04:37:49Z

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Each round, coloured dice are rolled around the '''Action Wheel'''. On your turn you take one: it gives you '''Resources of its colour equal to its value''', and '''7 − its value Action Points''' for the Action it was sitting in front of. High dice mean plenty of Resources and a weak Action; low dice mean the reverse. Between and around your Actions you spend Resources on free '''Tasks''': fulfilling Contracts, placing Crests, building Cathedrals and using Helpers. The player with the most VP after four rounds wins.

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== Overview ==

The game lasts exactly '''4 rounds''', and in each round every player takes '''3 turns''': 12 turns each in all.

Points come from five places:

* '''Contracts''' fulfilled from your Storehouse.
* '''Cathedrals''' you contribute to.
* The '''King track''', scored at the end of every round.
* The round's '''Fair''', scored in its Town for everyone with a House or their Merchant there.
* '''Final scoring''': Houses × Pillars on the map, Completed Buildings, and leftover Resources.

Three things are worth understanding before your first game:

* '''Houses × Pillars is a multiplication.''' Five Houses and five Pillars on the map score 25 at the end; three and seven score only 21. Build both.
* '''The Storehouse has four spaces, and a full Storehouse blocks you from taking any tile.''' That includes the Bonus tile that comes with a die. Place Characters, fulfil Contracts and use Helpers to keep room free.
* '''Corruption drags every King marker down''' at the start of each pass. The King track scores every round, and its red part costs VP, so a marker left alone drifts into the negatives.

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== Your turn ==

# '''Tasks''', if you like (see below). They are free and can be done at any point in your turn.
# '''Choose a die.''' Before you take it you may pay '''2 Gold per step''' to turn it up or down one value, as often as you can pay; 6 and 1 wrap round to each other. A turned die moves to its new segment, and it gives that segment's Action, Resources and Bonus tile.
# '''Take the die.''' It goes on your player board.
# '''Take the Bonus tile''' from that Action's space, if you want it and have room in your Storehouse.
# '''Gain Resources''': the die's value, in the Resource of its colour.
# '''Perform the Action''' with '''7 − the die's value''' AP, plus the Bonus AP marker you have on that Action (see ''Completed Buildings''). Choose the Action's options in any order, as many times as your AP allow, with Tasks anywhere in between. '''Unspent AP are lost.'''

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; background:#f8f9fa; text-align:center; width:auto;"
! Die colour !! Resource
|-
| Yellow || Gold
|-
| Pink || Food
|-
| Light grey || Wool
|-
| Dark grey || Stone
|-
| Blue || Iron
|}

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== The Actions ==

=== Architect ===

* '''1 AP:''' move your Architect along one road.
* '''1 AP:''' raise a Pillar from your supply at the Cathedral in the Architect's Town. The Cathedral must not be Unavailable, and you may have only one Pillar at each Cathedral.
* '''1 AP:''' take a Bonus tile from the Architect's Town.

=== Merchant ===

* '''1 AP:''' move your Merchant along one road.
* '''1 AP:''' build a House from your supply in the Merchant's Town, and take the Building Bonus printed beside its space, if there is one. You may have only one House in each Town.
* '''1 AP:''' take a Bonus tile from the Merchant's Town.

=== Character ===

* '''1 AP:''' take a Character from the offer into your Storehouse.
* '''1 AP:''' discard all five Characters in the offer and draw five new ones.
* '''1 / 2 / 3 AP:''' place a Character from your Storehouse on floor 1 / 2 / 3 of a Building, and take its printed bonus at once. A Building holds one type of Character only, and a type goes in one Building only.

=== Contract ===

* '''3 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 1 AP:''' take a Contract from the offer; the price is printed under its space. The offer is not refilled until the end of your turn.
* '''1 AP:''' exchange one Resource for another. The first exchange of your turn also gives you '''one Resource of your choice'''.

=== King ===

* '''Each AP''' moves your King marker one space up the track, up to +15. A marker landing on an occupied space goes on top.

=== Joker ===

* Choose any of the other five Actions and spend all your AP on it, with that Action's Bonus AP marker. Only the Joker space's Bonus tile may be taken.

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== Tasks ==

Free, at any time during your turn, as often as you can pay, '''including before you take your die''' (publisher FAQ), for example a Helper to make room in your Storehouse for the Bonus tile you want:

* '''2 Gold → 1''' Food, Wool, Stone or Iron.
* '''Fulfil a Contract''' from your Storehouse: pay its Resources, and it covers the leftmost open Contract space on your board. You score the tile's VP plus the space's VP (0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 12), the Pillar standing on the space goes to your supply, and you take any extra reward the tile prints.
* '''Place a Crest''' from your Storehouse under a Building, paying the Food printed there (6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2), and take the bonus printed below it at once. You may never hold two Crests of one family, Storehouse included.
* '''Contribute to a Cathedral''' where you have a Pillar: pay the Stone on its Construction Cost tile and take the top Cathedral tile. You score the Cost tile's VP plus the Cathedral tile's VP. Once per Cathedral per player.
* '''Use a Helper''' from your Storehouse. A Helper must be finished before another one is started, and before you go back to your die's Action. At least one of its AP must be spent.

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== Your player board ==

=== Storehouse ===

Every tile you take goes into your Storehouse first: Bonus tiles, Characters and Contracts alike. It has '''four''' spaces. Taking a tile is always optional, but with no free space you cannot take one, and a tile can never be discarded. Tiles leave by being placed (Characters and Crests), fulfilled (Contracts) or used (Helpers, which leave the game).

=== Buildings and Completed Buildings ===

Your six Buildings have 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 and 1 rooms; the last one's room is already filled by a printed Character.

* When every room of a Building is filled, the '''House on its roof''' goes to your supply.
* A Building is '''Completed''' when every room is filled '''and''' a Crest is under it. You then take its '''Bonus AP marker''' (+3, +2, +2, +1, +1) and put it on the Action of that Building's Character type. From then on, '''every time you take that Action with a die''', including through the Joker, you get that many extra AP. It never adds to AP from Helpers, Characters or Contracts.

=== Houses and Pillars ===

You can only build Houses and raise Pillars '''from your supply'''. At the start you have 2 of each there, plus one House already in Tiletum. More reach your supply as you fill Buildings (roof Houses) and fulfil Contracts (Pillars).

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== The map ==

* '''House spaces''' are the small purple squares in each Town. Some carry a '''Building Bonus''' printed beside them: a number of VP (Wien 7, Firenze 7, Venezia 8), or a '''Building''' icon (Köln, Hamburg, Milano, Toulouse). A Building bonus lets you choose one of your Buildings and take the bonus of each Character in it, in any order.
* '''Bonus tile spaces''' are the red-framed squares, filled at setup and '''never refilled'''.
* '''Cathedrals''' stand in nine Towns, each with 2–4 Pillar spaces and a Construction Cost tile. One Cost tile reads '''Unavailable''': that Cathedral cannot be built at this table.
* Spaces marked '''3+''' or '''4''' are only used with that many players. On BGA they are faded out at a smaller table.

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== Round structure ==

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; background:#f8f9fa; text-align:center; width:auto;"
! Phase !! What happens
|-
| 1. Preparation || 8 / 11 / 14 dice (2 / 3 / 4 players) are drawn from the bag, rolled and sorted onto the Action Wheel.
|-
| 2. Actions || Three passes. At the start of each, the next '''Corruption''' token is revealed and '''every''' King marker moves down by its value (0, 1 or 2). Then each player takes one turn, in Turn Order.
|-
| 3. King phase || The highest King marker takes or discards the '''King Bonus tile''' (in round 4 it scores 4 VP instead). Then everyone scores the VP of their space, which may be negative. Turn Order is reset from the track, and markers in the red part go back to 0.
|-
| 4. Fair || Everyone with a '''House or their Merchant''' in the round's Fair Town scores its Fair tile: the board's value plus the tile's value, once for each time they meet its condition.
|-
| 5. Cleanup || The Bonus tiles taken from the Action spaces are replaced, and so is the King Bonus tile, except after round 3. The Corruption tokens are reshuffled, the dice go back into the bag, and the Action Wheel turns one step. There is no Cleanup after round 4.
|}

The Fair of round 1 is always in '''Tiletum'''; the Towns and Fair tiles for rounds 2–4 are drawn at setup and shown on the banner at the top of the board.

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== Game end and final scoring ==

After the Fair of round 4:

# '''Houses × Pillars''': your Houses on the map times your Pillars on the map.
# '''Completed Buildings''': 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 of them score 5 / 10 / 20 / 30 VP.
# '''Leftover Resources''': 1 VP for every 4, in any mix.

'''The player with the most VP wins.''' A tie goes to the player '''earlier in Turn Order'''.

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== Reference tables ==

=== King track ===

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; background:#f8f9fa; text-align:center; width:auto;"
! Space !! −10 !! −7 !! −5 !! −3 !! −2 !! −1 !! 0 !! +1 !! +2 !! +3 !! +4 !! +5 !! +6 !! +7 !! +9 !! +12 !! +15
|}

Each AP moves the marker one space, whatever the numbers either side of it.

=== Fair board values ===

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; background:#f8f9fa; text-align:center; width:auto;"
! Round !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4
|-
| Added to the Fair tile || 2 || 5 || 3 || 1
|}

=== Player-count differences ===

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; background:#f8f9fa; text-align:center; width:auto;"
! !! 2p !! 3p !! 4p
|-
| Dice in the bag / rolled each round || 10 / 8 || 15 / 11 || 20 / 14
|-
| Tiles and spaces marked "3+" || removed || used || used
|-
| Tiles and spaces marked "4" || removed || removed || used
|-
| Starting Gold, in seat order || 1, 3 || 1, 3, 5 || 1, 3, 5, 6
|}

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== Prospect for Silver (expansion) ==

Turned on with the '''Prospect for Silver''' table option. It adds '''Silver''', '''Mines''', '''Prospectors''', three '''Underground maps''', a '''Technology''' board and a second disc on the Action Wheel.

* '''Silver''' is not a Resource: it cannot be bought with Gold, exchanged, or counted in the leftovers. You spend it on '''Technologies''', on hiring '''Prospectors''' and on Silver-cost Underground Cathedrals. At the end, '''2 Silver = 1 VP'''. Everyone but the first player starts with 1.
* '''The Prospector Wheel''' turns under the Action Wheel. One of its wedges covers two die values with the '''Prospector Action''', which you may take instead of the printed Action (not both), with that wedge's own Bonus tile. The other wedge gives a free '''movement point''' for a Prospector.
* '''The Prospector Action''': for each AP, move a Prospector one road, take an Underground Bonus tile in its Town, or place a '''Mine''', a '''Pillar''' or a '''House''' in its Town. A Mine pays 1 Silver and any Gold printed on its space. Underground Houses and Pillars count for everything a main-board one does.
* '''Hiring a Prospector''' is a Task: pay the map's printed start cost (0, 1 or 2 Silver) to put one on a map you are not on yet.
* '''Stone Tablets''' lie on Underground roads. The first Prospector to cross one gets its effect and covers it with an X.
* '''Technologies''' (a Task): advance your marker one tier on one of the three Technologies in play, paying 1, 2 or 3 Silver for tier I, II or III. Tiers are climbed one at a time, and every tier below your marker stays in effect. Each tier you reach scores its cost at the end (tier III scores 1 + 2 + 3).
* '''The King phase''': every Mine on a map pays 1 Silver; a marker at 0 or better unlocks one of your three locked Mines; the blue ribbons pay 1 Silver from +3 and 2 from +7.
* '''Final scoring''' follows the '''Scoring overlay''' face: '''Houses × (Pillars or Mines)''' or '''Pillars × (Houses or Mines)''', counting Mines only where you have more of them than the piece they stand in for; plus 1 VP per 2 Silver and your Technologies.

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== Solo mode: the Cardinalbot ==

A table for one player is a game against the '''Cardinalbot''', designed by Dávid Turczi with Jeremy Avery. It plays a full turn of its own in your turn order and keeps a board, Resources and VP like a player, but it chooses by a fixed script you can follow in the log.

* '''Its turn''': it rolls two dice and moves its pawn that many Decree cards right (the difference of the two). It reads that '''Decree''' top-down and takes a die for the first line it can meet; if none, it tries the next card. The colours along the card's bottom break ties between dice. The log says which card and line it followed, and which cards it passed.
* '''It ignores most bonuses.''' Bonus tiles other than Crests are removed without effect unless a '''Challenge''' says otherwise. It has no Storehouse limit, never changes a die's value, and keeps three Food it will not spend on Contracts.
* '''After its Action''' it activates Crests (3 Food, 5 VP each), builds Cathedrals it has a Pillar at, and fulfils up to two Contracts (their VP plus 5).
* '''The King track''': it never falls below '''+3 VP''' (+5 with ''Favor at the Court''), and on a tie it is first.
* '''The Fair''': it scores without a House or Merchant there. After each Fair its leftmost Decree is set aside.
* '''To win you must beat its score''': a tie is a loss. Solo games are unranked.
* '''Difficulty''' (table option): '''Priest''' 1 Challenge, '''Deacon''' 3, '''Bishop''' 5. Hover a Challenge card for what it changes.
* '''Cardinal of Silver''': with Prospect for Silver on, the bot uses its Silver Decrees and Challenges and takes Prospector Actions. After each of the first three King phases it spends Silver on '''King's Surprise''' cards and tucks them under its board, and the Technology Fair tile counts those cards for it. It scores '''1 VP per Silver'''. At Bishop it also starts on 30 VP with 1 Silver.

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== Options and preferences ==

'''Table options'''

* '''Action space layout''': '''Printed''' (default) puts the six Actions where the board prints them, as the rulebook suggests for a first game; '''Random Action tiles''' shuffles the six Action tiles onto the spaces.
* '''Prospect for Silver''': the expansion, off by default. With it on, three more options appear: the '''Underground map sides''' (random, all A, or all B), the '''Technologies''' (three at random, or the rulebook's first-game set), and the '''Scoring overlay''' face (random, or either face).
* '''Cardinalbot difficulty''' (solo tables only): Priest, Deacon (default) or Bishop.

'''Your own preferences''' (in the game's options menu):

* '''Colour-blind support''': either shape badges on pieces, markers and dice, or the dice in five distinct colours (white, orange, pink, blue and black) that are easier to tell apart than the printed ones.
* '''Show how far a pawn can walk on hover.'''
* '''Ask before ending a turn with Action Points left''' (on by default).

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== Playing on BGA ==

* '''Hover anything for its popup.''' Every tile, die, marker and printed reminder on the board and the player boards explains itself, including the House spaces' bonuses and each Fair tile's score for this round.
* '''Choosing a die happens on the wheel.''' Click a die to lift it out: its segment lights up, and arrows show what 2 Gold would turn it into. The green check takes it and the grey cross puts it back.
* '''Most choices are clicks on the board''': a Town to walk to, a space to build on, a Room for a Character, a Crest space, a Cathedral to contribute to.
* '''Restart turn''' takes back everything you did this turn, until something hidden has been shown. A Character you take from the offer leaves its slot '''face down''', so you can still restart. Click the face-down tile, or ''Reveal new Characters'', to turn it up; you are warned first, because after that the turn can no longer be restarted. The end of your turn turns it up anyway.

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== Implementation notes ==

* '''Tasks before the die.''' Until you choose a die, the free Tasks are highlighted alongside the dice. A Helper used then opens its Action as usual, and when it is finished you go back to choosing your die. Two kinds of Helper wait for the die: the colour Helper, which you use while choosing it, and the +1/+2/+3 AP Helpers, which add to your die's Action.
* '''The King Action always moves your marker the full amount.''' The rules allow stopping short, but nothing is ever gained by it, so BGA moves the marker straight away and asks nothing. AP past the top of the track are lost.
* '''The replacement Character is face down until you reveal it''', rather than drawn at once, so that taking a Character does not end your chance to restart the turn. Revealing it costs nothing. The one difference from the table: to take the new tile with a second Character pick in the same Action, reveal it first.
* '''House spaces in a Town are interchangeable''', so only one free space per Town is offered. Underground, a Mine or a Pillar always goes on the topmost free space of its kind in the Town, so only that one is offered; Underground House spaces are offered one by one, because they can print different VP.
* '''Die Manipulation Technology I makes only a change of exactly 3 cheap.''' Changing your die by 3, to the opposite side of the wheel, costs 2 Gold instead of 6. Changes of 1 or 2 still cost 2 Gold a step, so a change of 2 costs 4 Gold (confirmed by the publisher).
* '''Resource Technology I spends your Gold first.''' Your Resource Bonus tile's Resource is used for a Gold cost only when your Gold runs short, and you are not asked: the Resource can do everything Gold can and more, so it is always the one worth keeping. It counts for every Gold cost: the 2 Gold exchange, changing a die's value, and Gold paid Underground.
* '''Resource Technology I and Contracts.''' For a Contract's "identical" Resources, the tile's Resource can make up Gold: with the Wool tile, 2 Gold + 2 Wool pay "4 identical" as 4 Gold. It works one way only: Gold never pays for a Wool the Contract names.
* '''A "+1 AP on this Action" Technology tier counts at once.''' Bought during your die's own Action of that kind, it adds its AP to that Action straight away, as a Bonus AP marker does. It never adds to an Action from a Helper or a Character.
* '''Character Technology II counts at once too.''' Reached during your die's own Action, when you have a Bonus AP marker for that Action, the marker's +1 is added to the Action straight away.
* '''Joker Technology II counts at once too.''' Reached on a turn when you took your die as the Joker Action, you take its King Action with 1 AP straight away.
* '''Bonus Houses and Pillars can go Underground.''' An effect that places where your Merchant or Architect is may place in the Town where your Prospector stands instead; after a move-then-place tile, the pawn still moves. A Crest's "any Town" or "any Cathedral" reaches anywhere legal on any Underground map where you have a Prospector (confirmed by the publisher).
* '''Ending a turn with a free Prospector move''' unused asks you first, because the move is lost when the turn ends.
* '''Ties''' are broken by Turn Order, earlier winning, as the rulebook says.
* '''Solo readings.''' Where the solo rules leave a choice open, BGA follows the readings recorded in the project's RULES.md: for example, the Cardinalbot buys as many King's Surprise cards as its Silver allows, 1, 3 or 5 Silver for 1, 2 or 3.

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CrunchyColeslaw: Initial page