The rules for the game are (for the most part) very simple:
- Randomly pull a tile from the bag and place it on the table. The new tile must be placed with at least 1 edge touching a tile that is currently on the table. Any sides of the new tile that touch a side on another tile must match, like putting together a puzzle. Tiles are only considered to touch on sides, not on corners.
- Optionally, if you have a meeple to spare, you may play the meeple on the tile that you just placed:
- A meeple placed on a part of a tile that is a city becomes a Knight.
- A meeple placed on a part of a tile that is a cloister (church) becomes a Monk.
- A meeple placed on a part of a tile that is a road becomes a Thief
- A meeple placed on the part of a tile that is grassland becomes a Farmer.
You cannot place a meeple anywhere that "connects" to any other meeple (even your own!), with the special exception of the Pig and Builder meeples. For example, if you lay down a tile that touches a city and another player already has a meeple in that city, you cannot play your meeple there.
It is important to remember that tiles only connect on sides, and not on the corners! So, it is possible through clever tile placement to end up with more than one meeple in a city or on a road.
- If the tile closes up a city, finishes a cloister, or ends a road that already has an end somewhere, the tile is scored and the meeple(s) on it are returned to their owners.
Note that in these rules, the scoring happens last. That means that if you have no meeples left to play, you cannot play a tile that scores,pick up the meeple that scored, and then play it on the tile that you just played!
Here is an example of a completed city. A city is considered complete when it is enclosed on all sides by a wall. Once the tile that finishes the city is placed, it is scored. The player with the most meeples in the city gets the points (or if there is a tie for most, all players that are tied get the points).
A city scores as follows:
- If the city consists of only 2 tiles (like the city in the upper right), it scores 2 points.
- Larger cities score 2 points per tile in the city, plus 2 points for every shield that is in the city.
- If you have the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, and your city contains a Cathedral tile (a tile that is fully covered in city and features a large church), every tile and shield in the city is worth 3 points instead of just 2).
- If you have the Traders and Builders expansion and the completed city shows any trade goods (in this case, a barrel of wine), then the person who placed the tile that closed the city gets one trade good for each symbol in the city, even if they have no meeples in the city that would allow them to score.
At the end of the game, any cities that are occupied but are not completed score 1 point for every tile in the city, plus 1 point for every shield in the city. Nobody gets any trade goods (if you are using that expansion). If you are using the Inns and Cathedrals expansion and your city is incomplete and contains the cathedral tile, it scores no points at all for being incomplete.
|
