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This is an AutoGeneratedTextVersion of KingdomsoftheMiddleSea
A game for the piecepack by Phillip Lerche
Version 1.1, March 15, 2003
2-4 Players, 60-120 minutes
Author and copyright by Phillip Lerche
This was an entry for the Changing Landscapes competition. Some changes have been made to the original submission that address gameplay balance. Please let me know if you experience problems with the balance of this game.
Each player takes on the management of an independent kingdom that has its capital on one of the four continents surrounding the Middle Sea. Using military power, economic might, and religious influence, players vie to increase the size of their kingdoms. Players must also guard against unrest, which could cause rebellion or even civil war to break out.
With several paths to victory, players may choose peaceful economic expansion, military invasion, religious unrest or a combination of all three to defeat their rivals.
Each player takes the null tile, die, coins and pawn of one suit. If two or three players are playing, then the extra null tiles, pawns, coins and dice are set aside.
The null tiles are the players' Capitals. Each player takes his or her Capital and places it face-up, with space to place five tiles around it. The suits on the Capitals serve only to identify the players' pawns and coins, and have no other game function. Capitals provide resources during the game, and always have a defense value equal to 10. If any player's Capital or king is defeated, the game ends. However, a king or Capital may only be attacked if the Capital is the only part of a kingdom that a player has control over.
The Capital and the five spaces surrounding it are referred to as a continent. In a 4-player game, the continents are north, south, east, and west, separated by the Middle Sea. In a 2-player game, two continents are formed (north and south, or east and west); in a 3-player game, one continent is left out.
Players place the coins and die of the suit that matches their Capital in front of them (and behind the Capital) forming the reserve. Contents of the players' reserves are visible at all times and consist of a player's coins, die and resources.
The remaining twenty tiles are sorted by suit in ascending numerical order (ace=1) and placed face-up in four stacks, with the ace tile uppermost (the five tiles will be at the bottom of the stacks). These stacks are placed in the center of the play area (the Middle Sea) for convenience, but they do not affect movement or conflicts in any way during the game.
The coins represent leaders. Leaders are valued from 0 to 5 (null=0, ace=1). Each player places the 1-value leader number-side-up in his or her Capital at the start of the game. The leader in the Capital is referred to as the king. A king must always be present face-up in the Capital during play. The remaining leaders can be used to perform various functions during the game, such as providing economic production and attacking or defending in conflicts. Face-up leaders that are referred to as active, and are available to perform an action. After performing an action, leaders are turned over so that they are suit-side up. If a leader is suit-side up it is inactive. A leader in a city, whether active or inactive, governs that city. Leaders in the reserve are available to enter play and always do so in the active state.
The tile stacks represent cities that can be added to the continents during the course of the game. Cities are valued 1-5 (ace=1). Cities have four possible types, depending on the suit. Arms indicate garrison cities, suns are market cities, moons are temple cities, and crowns are mining cities. Garrisons are used in overt military conflicts and to put down rebellions. Temples are used to initiate covert missionary attacks and may also be used to suppress rebellions. Mines produce gold resources, and markets produce goods resources. The value on a city represents its level of production if it is a mine or a market. The value of temples and garrisons represents the attack value in conflicts initiated by players' leaders. The city value is also the defensive value of the city. Additionally, the city value indicates the cost to connect the city to a kingdom's network of roads.
Cities adjacent to the Middle Sea are coastal cities where ports may be constructed. Cities with a leader are referred to as governed cities. A city is considered to be controlled by a player if that player has built a trade route (road or port) in the city, or if it is governed by one of that player's leaders. A controlled city that is in the same continent as the player's Capital is referred to as a home city. If a player controls a city that is in an opponent's continent, that city is referred to as a provincial city. If a city is not governed and does not have a trade route connected to it, then it is not controlled by anyone, no matter where it is situated. All cities that are under a player's control, whether home or provincial, including the Capital, form that player's kingdom.
The pawns are used to represent player dominance. Dominance determines the order in which players take their turn during the phases of each round.
At the start of the game each player rolls a die. The player with the highest roll (null=0,ace=1) gains dominance. Re-roll to break ties. The player to the left of the dominant player gains 2nd dominance, followed by the next player to the left gaining 3rd dominance, and so forth. The pawns are lined up in dominance order from first to last.
The dice represent the level of unrest in the kingdoms. At the start of the game, each player sets his or her die to zero. Unrest decreases if a kingdom expands (through trade route development or conquest) and increases if a kingdom shrinks (through rebellion or invasion). The unrest value may never be lower than zero. If the unrest level in a kingdom ever reaches 5, every city in that kingdom erupts in rebellion and civil war breaks out. The player of that kingdom loses the game, the game ends immediately, and game-end scoring is triggered.
Diagram below showing setup for a 4-player game: The squares marked [s] are the four stacks of city tiles. The top city tile on each stack is the ace tile of that suit. Once fully expanded, each continent consists of a maximum of two rows of three tiles each. The null tiles [0] are the Capitals of the kingdoms. The Capital of a kingdom is always situated in the middle of the row nearest to the player. The cities in the row furthest from the player, [c], are adjacent to the Middle Sea and are coastal cities. Players place their leaders, resources and unrest dice between themselves and their Capitals in their reserves [R].
R
. 0 .
c c c
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
. c ~ s ~ s ~ c .
R 0 c ~ S E A ~ c 0 R
. c ~ s ~ s ~ c .
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
c c c
. 0 .
R
Pennies (or tokens) and matches (or small rods) are resources. Place the pennies to one side within reach of all players. This represents gold resources held by the bank. Place the matches next to the gold. The matches are used to represent goods resources held by the bank and are also used as roads and ports. Players start the game with 4 goods and 4 gold. If a resource pile at the bank is ever depleted, simply add more of that resource.
The game may be won in several ways:
The game is conducted in a series of rounds. Each round consists of five phases:
During each phase each player carries out actions in order of player dominance before moving on to the next phase.
During this phase, players who control more cities than their control value risk rebellion unless they are able to pay to increase their control (see below).
Each player calculates his or her control total -- The control value = king value - unrest value. A player controls a city if the city is governed by one of the player's leaders or if the player has built a road or port in the city. If a player controls more cities than his or her control value, then 1 goods + 1 gold must be paid to the bank to retain control of each extra city above the control total.
If the player cannot pay, or chooses not to, then he or she must select a number of cities that will rebel. The number of cities in rebellion equals the actual number of cities controlled minus the calculated control total. Note that Capitals never count as cities.
Rules for rebellions: Leaders present in rebelling cities are immediately made inactive. If rebellions are not stopped, the player loses control of the city or cities and also has to increase the level of unrest in his or her kingdom by one. (The unrest level increases by exactly one, no matter how many cities are lost to rebellion.) If control of a city is lost to rebellion, then the player removes any trade routes (roads and/or ports) connected to the city (they are placed back in the bank's goods resource pile) and moves any inactive leaders to his or her reserve.
Rebellions can be put down by military or missionary action against the rebelling city. In order to succeed in putting down a rebellion, the player must attack the city with an attack total higher than the city's defense value. An attack to put down a rebellion is initiated by one active leader in a garrison or temple city the player controls that is not in rebellion, and succeeds if the attack total is greater than the defense value. The attack total equals the leader's value plus the city value of the temple or garrison. The defense value equals the value of the city in rebellion. A leader used to put down a rebellion is made inactive.
Example: Phillip's 4-value leader is placed as his king and his unrest die shows an unrest level of 2, giving a control total of 4-2=2. Therefore he may not control more than two cities without risk of rebellion. He in fact controls four cities in his kingdom. He has 2 goods and 1 gold in his reserve from the previous round, so he chooses to pay 1 gold and 1 goods to boost his control to 3. He cannot afford to pay any more, so he must choose one of his cities to rebel. He chooses his 2-value market city. His 1-leader is in the market city so he first makes the leader inactive. He can opt to lose control of the city and remove the road connection to his Capital, take his leader back to his reserve, and increase his kingdom's unrest level by one. Phillip doesn't want to lose control of the city, nor does he want his kingdom at an unrest level of 3, so he decides to put down the rebellion. He has a 2-leader in a 5-garrison, and a 5-leader in a 2-temple. He uses his 5-leader in the temple to attack the rebelling city. The attack total is 5+2=7, greater than the defense value of the rebelling city, which is 2. The rebellion is put down and there are no consequences in terms of unrest or relinquishing control. Phillip then makes his 5 leader inactive.
Each player calculates his or her dominance score by adding his or her king value to the values of all the temple cities the player controls minus the player's current unrest value. If no player controls a temple city, then the dominance order remains unchanged from the previous round and the production phase begins. The player with the highest dominance score gains first dominance, and the pawns are then placed in a row in the order of dominance scores. If there is a tie for first place then the player with the highest value temple city wins dominance. If there are ties for 2nd-4th dominance, then the player with first dominance decides the order. Dominance determines player order during each phase.
Example: Steve has a 4-king, 3-temple and unrest=0. His dominance score is 4+3-0=7. Phillip has a 4-king, 2-temple and unrest=2. His dominance score is 4+2-2=4. Andrew has a 4-king, 1-temple and 1 unrest. His dominance score is 4+1-1=4. Rita has a 4- king, 5-temple and unrest=2. Her dominance score is 4+5-2=7, which ties with Steve, but since she controls the highest-valued temple (5) she gains dominance. Philip and Andrew are tied for 3rd place. Since Rita gains first dominance, she also gets to decide the tie, and awards 3rd place to Phillip. Pawns are then lined up in order: Rita, Steve, Phillip, and Andrew.
Production comes from two areas, the Capital and the cities. The Capital produces goods and gold equal to the value of the king. Resources produced by the Capital are placed in a player's reserve.
Market (sun) and mining (crown) cities respectively produce goods or gold equal to the value of the city plus the value of the leader present. If a production city produces gold or goods, then the leader in that city is made inactive. Note that the king is never made inactive after the Capital produces. If a production city is not governed by an active leader, then no resources are produced.
Goods and gold produced by controlled cities must have a trade route to the Capital in order for the resources to reach the reserve. Trade routes are any combination of roads and ports that connect the production city to the Capital. All ports in a player's kingdom are considered to be connected via the Sea. If a route cannot be traced to the Capital, then a city does not produce resources.
Examples: (i) Rita has a 4-king so the Capital produces 4 goods and 4 gold at the Capital in her reserve. She has a 3-market city with no leader connected to her Capital by road, and a 2-market provincial city governed by a 5-leader with a port, and a port on one of her home cities. The 3-market has no leader, so it does not produce goods. The 2-market is connected to her Capital via 2 ports and a road, and produces 2+5=7 goods. Rita's 3-leader governs a 3-mine connected to her Capital. She gains 3+3=6 gold from the production of the mine. Rita's 5-leader and 3-leader are made inactive.
(ii) Phillip has a 3-king, a 5-market home city with a 0-leader connected to the Capital by road and a 4-mine provincial city with a 4-leader. He produces 3 goods and 3 gold from the Capital, and 5+0=5 goods from the market. The 5-leader is made inactive. His 4-mine was taken from an opponent in a military conquest last round and does not have a trade route connecting it to Phillip's Capital. Therefore, it does not produce resources for Phillip even though it has an active leader.
Players may take any number of the following four actions during the build phase. Actions can be carried out in any order a player wishes.
Example: A player may choose to explore for 1 new city on the player's continent, build a road to the new city, exchange 2 goods for 1 gold, then explore for second new city, build a port, and so on.
Once a home continent consists of 5 cities and a Capital, expansion by this method ends. However, players may choose to explore for new cities to replace ungoverned or uncontrolled cities in their home continents. If a city is replaced, then any roads or ports connecting to the old city are lost, and the old city is placed on the bottom of the appropriate stack (that is, the stack which matches its type). Until a city is governed or has a road or port connection to a Capital, it is not considered to be controlled by any player regardless of which continent it is part of.
This action costs 1 goods + 1 gold per value of the city the player is connecting to. 1 goods token is laid such that it forms a road between the two locations. Roads do not connect different continents. For example, to build a road to a 4-garrison costs 4 goods and 4 gold; to build a road to a 2-temple costs 2 goods and 2 gold.
Connecting a player's trade network by building a road to an uncontrolled city expands the number of cities a player controls, and the unrest level in that player's kingdom is decreased by one. A city that is not governed or connected to any player's trade routes is not considered to be under any player's control.
Ports consist of up to 5 piers. Each pier of a port costs 1 goods + 1 gold to build. Lay 1 goods token to represent each pier extending from the city into the sea. The defensive value of a port equals the number of piers built if it is the target of an attack.
Example: Rita decides to build a 4-port at her 3-market city, which is on the coast of her home continent. She pays 4 gold and 4 goods to the bank, and then lays 4 goods tokens as piers extending from her market into the sea.
Roads and ports form a player's trade route. Resources must be transported along trade routes to reach the Capital. During the leader phase leaders may only be moved along trade routes.
The leader phase consists of two parts. First, the king may be changed. To change a king, the player replaces the current king with a leader from his or her reserve. The player then pays the difference between values of the exchanged leaders in goods and gold.
Example: Early in the game Rita changes her 1-leader at the Capital for a 4-leader in her reserve. She pays 3 goods plus 3 gold to the bank. Later in the game she changes the 4-leader at her Capital for the 3-leader in her reserve. She pays 1 goods and 1 gold.
Second, the remaining leaders may each be used to perform an action. In ascending numerical order starting with the 0-leader (or the 1-leader if the 0-leader is the king), each leader may take one action. An action consists of any one of the following:
A player's king may never move or initiate an attack; therefore, the maximum number of actions taken by a single player in the leader phase is five.
An inactive leader in a city is turned over so that the value side is face-up.
Leaders can be moved to cities from the reserve, from one city to another, or from a city to the reserve. Leaders brought into play from the reserve start movement from the Capital. Leaders are always brought into play in the active state. No city may have more than one leader present at the end of any leader's movement; however, a leader can move through the Capital or a city with a leader present. Kings and inactive leaders may not move.
To move a leader to another city, it must be moved along a trade route (that is, via roads and ports that the player has built within the kingdom) and end either in an ungoverned controlled city or the Capital. In the latter case, the leader is placed back in the reserve.
Attacks against opponents can be made by military or missionary means. Military conflicts are used to destroy ports or conquer non-port cities in an opponent's kingdom, or to invade uncontrolled cities. Missionary conflicts are used to make leaders inactive and to incite rebellion in controlled cities that have inactive leaders or are ungoverned, or to return uncontrolled cities to the city stacks.
Players may always initiate attacks against cities, leaders, or ports they do not control in their home continent. Until players have built a port in a home city, they may not initiate any attacks against targets on the continents of other players.
Players may conduct no more than one military attack and one missionary attack against each opponent per leader phase. Any number of uncontrolled cities may be attacked per leader phase.
Resolving a military conflict: To initiate a military attack the player uses an active leader in a garrison (arms) city. The attacker names a city that is adjacent to any city in his or her kingdom that can be reached by a trade route from the attacking garrison. All opponent or uncontrolled coastal cities are adjacent to any home or provincial city that has a port.
A city or port can be attacked even if it contains an opponent's leader, or is not controlled by anyone. If an opponent controls only his or her Capital, then the Capital may be the target of a military attack; otherwise, only cities or ports can be the target of military attacks. If a city has a port, then the port must be the target of a military attack. Once the port has been destroyed, then the city itself can be attacked.
A military conflict is fully resolved before the next leader is used to take an action. To succeed in a military attack, the attack total must exceed the defense total. The attacker declares his or her attack total first. The attack total equals the value of the leader attacking + garrison value + the number of mercenaries the player wishes to hire.
Then the defender declares the defense total. The defense total is the value of the city being attacked + the value of any active leader present (if the defender wishes to include the leader) + the number of mercenaries the defender wishes to hire. Mercenaries cost 1 goods + 1 gold per mercenary to add to the attack or defense total, and are only employed for one attack at a time, not the entire phase. If a port is the target of an attack, it defends with the number of piers + value of any leader present in the city (if the defender wishes to use it) + defending mercenaries. In the case of a city that is not controlled by anyone, there is no defending player and the defense total is the value of the city.
If the attacker wins and the target is a port, then the port is destroyed and the attacking leader remains in the attacking garrison. The defender remains in control of the city if a leader or road is present, even though the port was destroyed, although any defending leader used in the defense total must be made inactive.
If the attacker wins and the target is a city, then any defending leader present is removed to the defender's reserve. The defender also removes any roads connected to the city. The attacker then invades the city by moving the attacking leader into the city. The attacking leader is then made inactive. If the attacker gained control of a city, then the attacking kingdom's unrest is decreased by one. If the defending kingdom lost control of a city, then the defending kingdom's unrest is increased by one.
Resolving a missionary conflict: To initiate a missionary attack, the player uses an active leader in a temple(moon) city. The attacker names an opponent's active leader or city without an active leader as a target for the attack.
An opponent's leader or city can always be attacked if it is on the attacking player's home continent. To initiate attacks against targets on opponent's continents, the attacking player must control a port. A city can be attacked if it has an inactive leader, is ungoverned, or is not controlled by anyone. If a city has an active leader then the leader must be attacked and removed before the city can be attacked. Ports are not targets for missionary attacks, and do not add to the defense of a port city if the port city or a leader in a port city is attacked. If an opponent controls only his or her Capital, then the king may be the target of a missionary attack; otherwise, the target must be an active leader in a city controlled by an opponent, an ungoverned city controlled by an opponent, or a city that nobody controls.
A missionary conflict is fully resolved before the next leader is used to take an action. To succeed in a missionary attack, the attack total must be greater than the defense total. The attacker declares the attack total first, and then the defender declares the defense total. The attack total equals the leader value + the temple value + the number of zealots the attacker pays for. The defense total equals the value of any active leader present (if the defender wishes to include the leader) + defense value of the city being attacked + the number of zealots the defender pays for. If the city is uncontrolled, then the city defense value equals the defense total.
Attackers and defenders may employ zealots (religious mercenaries) by paying 1 gold + 1 goods per zealot. Zealots are only employed for one attack at a time, not the entire phase.
If the attacker wins an attack against an active leader, the defeated leader is made inactive. If the attacker wins an attack against a city, the city rebels (the defender follows the rules for rebellion from the control phase). If the attacker wins against an uncontrolled city, the city is placed at the bottom of the appropriate city stack. The attacking leader is then made inactive.
Once the last player has completed all leader actions in this phase, the round ends and conquest and trade victory conditions are checked. If no player has won, then a new round begins with the Control Phase.
Examples: (i) It is Rita's turn in the leader phase. She controls the five cities that are adjacent to her Capital, one of which has a port. She keeps her 5-leader as the king. Rita moves her 0-leader to her 5-mine. She chooses not to take actions with her 1- and 2-leaders. Her 3-leader is on her 3-garrison city, and she decides to launch a military attack. She targets the 3-pier port on Phillip's 4-market. He has a 2-leader in the 4-market city. Rita pays 1 gold and 1 goods to hire 1 mercenary.Her attack total is leader value + garrison value + mercenaries: 3+3+1=7. Phillip has 1 gold and 1 goods. He could pay for a mercenary, but it would not help avoid defeat. He could also include his leader, but that wouldn't help either. He declares his defense total as the port value: 3. The attack total is greater than the defense total, so Rita's attack succeeds. Since the city has a port, the port is destroyed. Rita did not expand her kingdom, so she does not decrease her kingdom's unrest, but since she destroyed Phillip's only port she has protected herself from attacks from his kingdom -- at least for this round. She then makes the 3-leader inactive. Phillip did not include his 2-leader in his defense, so it remains active. Rita does not take an action with her 4-leader, and ends her leader phase.
(ii) Steve decides to take advantage of Rita's attack since he also has a port in a home city. His 5-leader is his king and he chooses not to exchange him. He decides not to use his 0-, 1-, and 2-leaders this phase. His 3-leader is in his 5-garrison and he uses the leader to attack Phillip's 4-market. Steve's attack total is 3+5=8 which is greater than Phillip's defense total of 4 (or 4+2=6 if Phillip includes his leader). Steve wins the attack and, since a city is the target, Phillip moves his 2-leader back to his Capital (reserve) and removes the road connection to the market city. Phillip also increases his kingdom's unrest by 1 because the number of cities he controls has decreased. Steve then occupies the 4-market with his 3-leader, which he makes inactive. Steve decreases his kingdom's unrest by 1 because he has increased his kingdom's size. Steve does not take an action with his 4-leader and ends his leader phase.
(iii) Phillip leaves his 3-leader as king. He decides not to do anything with his 0- and 1-leaders. Even though his 2-leader was removed from a city by another player he can still use it during his leader phase, since all leaders that start movement from the reserve enter play in the active state. He decides to leave the 2-leader in his reserve. He has a 4-leader in his 3-temple and initiates a missionary attack against Steve's 5-garrison, which no longer has a leader. He attacks with a value of 4+3=7, which is greater than Steve's defense value of 5+0=5. Steve's 5-garrison is in a state of rebellion! Steve has no way to put down the rebellion, so he withdraws the road to the garrison and increases his unrest by 1. Phillip then uses his 5-leader in his 1-garrison and attacks the 4-market with an attack total of 4+1=5. This is greater than the market's defense of 4, so Steve's leader is returned to his reserve and Steve's kingdom's unrest increases by one more. Phillip regains control of his market and places his 5-leader there and makes it inactive. He also decreases his kingdom's unrest by one. He controls the same number of cities he did at the start of the leader round, but his 4-market no longer has a trade connection to his Capital. He will lose out on production next round, since production occurs before the building phase and his 5-leader there is inactive. Phillip then ends his leader phase.
(iv) Andrew exchanges his 4-king with his 5-leader, paying 1 gold + 1 goods to the bank. The 4-leader is placed in his reserve. He decides not to take actions with his 0- or 1-leaders. He is tired of Rita's hold on the dominance of the game, and has a 2-leader in a 4-temple. He launches a missionary attack against Rita's 5-temple. Rita has nothing to add to the temple's defense value of 5, and Andrew's attack value of 2+4=6 is successful. Rita's 5-temple is in a state of rebellion! Rita has no resources left, and doesn't have an active leader available in a temple or garrison to put down the rebellion, so she removes her road connection to the city and increases her kingdom's unrest by 1. The 5-temple remains as part of Rita's continent, but now it is not controlled by any of the players. Andrew did not expand his kingdom, so his unrest is unchanged. Next he uses his 3-leader in his 1-temple and attacks the now uncontrolled 5-temple on Rita's continent. Uncontrolled cities are not part of a player's kingdom, and do not count against the attack limit. He pays 2 gold and 2 goods to hire 2 zealots. His attack score is 3+1+2=6 which is greater than the city's defense of 5. Since this is a missionary attack on an ungoverned city, it is removed from the continent and placed at the bottom of the relevant city stack in the center of the play area. Rita is not pleased! Andrew decides not to use his 4-leader and ends his leader phase with a distinct advantage in the dominance stakes going into the next round. No player meets a victory condition and a new control phase begins.
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