A Rusty Throne

A Rusty Throne Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

A Rusty Throne is a Print-and-Play game, consisting of the following components:

This rules document
A map of the Kingdom of Prydon, to be printed on A4 or Letter sized paper or card
18 Action Cards, used to control both the player's and the King's forces, and to determine the results of Battles
9 Hard Action Cards with a Skull icon, any number of which may be added to the deck to increase the game's difficulty.
Additionally, you will require 20 small cubes, pawns or other markers, in two colours, 10 of each, to represent the Forces under the control of you and the King.

The Map

The map shows a representation of the entire island Kingdom of Prydon, which is split into 9 Territories, numbered from 1 to 9. Each Territory borders several other Territories, and Forces may move from one Territory to adjacent ones during the game. If either you or the King have Forces in a Territory, that Territory is controlled by that side, gaining any benefits of symbols printed in it. If Forces from the other side move into a controlled Territory, a Battle will take place.

Certain Territories contain symbols, which provide bonuses to the side controlling them:

Castle represents the seat of a High Lord, where troops can be rallied by the force in controlling the Territory. If you control all four Territories with Castles on the map, you win the game, but if the King ever controls your Castle, you lose.
Wheat represent that a Territory produces a lot of food. Armies have to eat, so there is a limit on the number of Forces you may have in any one Territory, equal to the number of Wheat symbols in Territories you control. e.g. if you control Territories with a total of four Wheat symbols, you may have a maximum of four Forces in any Territory. If you ever have more Forces in a Territory than you control Wheat symbols, you must immediately remove the excess Forces.
Bugles are used in Battles to determine the victor, and the defender of a Territory with printed Bugles will gain that number of Bugles in Battles when attacked in that Territory, making them harder to defeat. See Battles for more information.
Likewise, Shields are also used in Battles, and the defender of a Territory with Shield symbols will benefit from that many extra Shields in Battles when they are attacked in that Territory, making the defenders harder to kill. See Battles for more information.

The numbers in each Territory are used for the King's Actions, to determine the order and priority with which each Territory will be selected. See King's Actions for more information.

Action Cards

Action Cards contain various symbols, because they are used in various ways.

Along the top are symbols for Bugles, Swords and Shields, with 0-3 of each, which are used in Battles. See Battles for more information.

In the centre of the card is the King's Action, which determines what the King will do in the turn the card is played. The various symbols used are explained under King's Action below. Some cards have two King's Actions, which happen one after the other.

The flags along the bottom represent the number of Command Points you will be able to use in the Player Action phase when this card is played.

The arrow at the bottom right shows the Priority of the card; Rising (pointing up) or Falling (pointing down), which is used in the King's Action and Battle phases to determine order Territories are selected, and to determine movement directions for the King's Forces.

Hard Action Cards are Action Cards marked with a Skull symbol above the Command flags. You may choose to include any number of these in the deck for a game to increase the difficulty. During the game they function identically to any other Action Card. Any Hard Action Cards not shuffled into the deck at the start of the game are put aside and not used.

Object of the Game

The goal of the game is to control all four Castles on the map. If you ever lose your home Castle, the game is over and you have lost.

Important Concepts

Each card contains a priority arrow, which determines the order Territories are cycled through for the King's Action, and to determine ties for the King's Movement when there are two equidistant options. An upwards arrow represents Rising Priority, starting at the lowest numbered territories and working upwards, and a downward arrow denotes Falling Priority, starting at the highest numbers and falling. Thus Rising Priority will cycle through Territories from 1 to 9, and Falling from 9 to 1.

If a card has two King's Actions, the first Action is completed in its entirety before the second is resolved.

The King always has a maximum Force limit of 5 Forces per Territory; if he ever has more than this in one Territory the excess are immediately removed. Your Force limit varies depending on the number of Wheat symbols in Territories you control, as explained in The Map above.

Any time the deck of Action Cards is empty, immediately shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. Likewise, whenever your hand of Action Cards is empty, immediately draw a new hand of 5 cards.

You do not draw new cards until you have played your whole hand, so every card you draw must get played at some point, though you will be able to discard some of them in Battles.

A Territory is considered Controlled if a one side has Forces in it. During the King's Actions any Territories with both sides' Forces will remain under your control, and during Player Actions they will remain under the King's Control, until Battles resolve the ownership of the Territories.

Setup

Place the Map on the table, with 2 cubes/pawns/counters (Forces) of one colour in Territory 1 for your starting Forces, and 2 Forces of the other colour in each of the Territories 3, 7 and 9, to represent the King's starting Forces.

Shuffle the Action Cards (including as many Hard Action Cards as you wish to make the game more challenging and place them face down to form a deck, and draw a hand of 5 starting cards.

Turn Structure

Turns are structured as follows:

Player Card Phase
- Play Action Card
- King's Action
  - Resolve any Battles
- Player Actions
  - Resolve any Battles
- Discard used Action Card
King's Card Phase
- Play Action Card
- King's Action
  - Resolve any Battles
- Player Actions
  - Resolve any Battles
- Discard used Action Card

Phases

Each turn has two phases; the Player Card Phase and the King's Card Phase. In the Player Card Phase, you play a card from your hand which determines the King's Action and your Command Points, then in the King's Card Phase you draw a card from the top of the deck for the King, which again determines the King's Action and your Command Points.

Other than the source of the Action card, both Phases are resolved in the same way.

Play Action Card

At the start of the Player Card Phase, you must play an Action Card from your hand to the table (not to the discard pile).

At the start of the King's Card Phase, you must instead draw an Action Card from the top of the deck to the table.

In either case, this card will determine the King's Action, Command Points and Priority for the turn.

King's Action

You must now resolve the King's Action from the card played. If the card has more than one King's Action, resolve the top Action first, followed by the bottom Action.

The symbols for the King's Actions fall into three types: King's Rallying, King's Movement and Uncertain Orders.

King's Rallying

The Banner symbol represents King's Rallying, where the King calls his banners, raising new armies at Castles he Controls. To resolve King's Rallying, go through each Territory with a Castle Controlled by the King in Priority order (1 to 9 for Rising or 9 to 1 for Falling), and add a single extra King's Force at each. If you run out of Forces in the King's colour, as they are all on the Map already, nothing further happens.

Remember the King has a maximum Force limit of 5, so do not add a Force to a Territory if there are already 5 Forces in that Territory.

If both the King and you have Forces in the same Territory with a Castle, the King will not Rally Forces there.

King's Movement

King's Movement is represented by an arrow pointing towards a symbol. This means that the King's Forces will move towards the closest instance of that symbol, with the Helmet symbol representing your Forces; these three symbols can therefore be read respectively as:

Move towards closest Castle
Move towards closest Wheat
Move towards closest Player Forces

The procedure to resolve the King's Movement is as follows:

Work through all Territories on the map in Priority order; If Priority is Rising start at Territory 1 and work up to 9, and if Priority is Falling start at 9 and work down to 1.
If there are any King's Forces in the selected Territory, work out the closest Territory or Territories in terms of number of moves neccessary that matches the symbol on the card.
Work out which adjacent Territory/Territories the King's Forces would need to move to in order to take the shortest path to the goal(s).
If the target symbol is already in that Territory with the King's Forces, or if the Territory contains the both the King's and your Forces, they will not move.
If the Territory contains a Castle, one Force will remain in the Territory to defend the Castle, while the rest will move.
If there is a tie in terms of distance to take to get to the closest relevant symbol, or two or more equidistant symbols, the move taken will be determined by the Action Card's Priority - move to the highest numbered Territory of the evenly distant options if the priority is Rising, and the lowest number of those tied if the priority is Falling. The Arrow thus shows the direction of travel; Rising to higher options or Falling to lower ones.
Remember that the King can never have more than 5 units in any one Territory; if a move would cause him to go over this limit some Forces must remain behind and not Move - this could be some or all of them.
Once you have completed the move, move on to the next Territory in Priority order, until all Territories have been resolved.

Note that as Territories are worked through one at a time, this can result in some of the King's Forces moving more than once in a single action if they move into a Territory which has not yet been resolved - the King has a lot of resources at his disposal and can often move his forces quickly around the map as a result.

King's Movement Example

The map diagrams for this example are not reproduced here; see the source rules for the illustrations.

The King (Red) has Forces in four Territories (3, 4, 7 and 9). The following Action Card is played:

(Card shown in the source: Move towards closest Player Forces arrow, Falling Priority, with a Helmet symbol.)

The King's Action is therefore King's Movement towards closest Player Forces, with a Falling Priority.

The first Territory to consider is therefore 9, as it's the highest and Priority is Falling. From 9, the closest Player Forces are in 2 and 5, equidistant at 3 moves away each. The possible moves are therefore to 4 or 6, and with the Priority as Falling the correct move is to 4, as it's the lowest of the options. However, as 9 contains a Castle, one of the King's Forces must remain behind to defend it, so only one of the two Forces moves from 9 to 4.

The King has no forces in 8, so it is skipped, and the next Territory to consider is 7. Territory 7 has two adjacent Territories containing Player Forces, so the possible moves are to 2 or 5, and with a Falling Priority, this means the King's Forces will move to 2. As 7 has a Castle, one Force again remains behind, the other moves into 2.

With no King's Forces in 6 or 5, 4 is the next to consider. Again, the Forces in 2 and 5 are equidistant, with possible moves into 7 or 8 as equally short moves to get to the targets, so 7 is chosen as the lower option. The Forces in 4 therefore move to reinforce the castle in 7; note that this means one of the Forces has moved twice, from 9 to 4 to 7 - this is correct and allowable.

For the Forces in 3 the decision is easy, they must move on 5, leaving one Force behind to defend the Castle.

While there is now a King's Force in 2 attacking the Player's Forces, it will not move again, as it is already in Battle with them.

There are no King's forces in 1, so all King's Movement is now complete.

Final positions after King's Movement are shown in the source rules.

Uncertain Orders

Your spies in the King's Court are not always perfect, and can't always predict or influence the King's decisions in his madness; The Cards symbol represents Uncertain Orders.

When an Action Card with Uncertain Orders is played, you must deal the top card from the deck, and take the King's Action from that card instead of the one played. The Command Points and Priority from the card originally played remain in effect, only the King's Action is taken from the newly drawn card.

If the newly drawn card also shows Uncertain Orders, keep drawing until you get to a card that has a different King's Action. Any cards drawn for Uncertain Orders are immediately added to the discard pile.

Battle

Any Territories containing both your Forces and the King's Forces must fight a Battle for control of that Territory. Battles can take place after the King's Action and/or the Player's Action, whenever there are Territories to fight over.

The procedure for resolving Battles is as follows:

Work through all Battles in Priority order
- Play an Action Card for its Battle Effects
- Draw for the King's Battle Effects
- Add Territory Battle Effects to the Defender
- Compare Swords and Shields, and remove casualties
- Add Force numbers and Bugles to determine winner
- Loser withdraws
Resolve next Battle

Work through all Battles in Priority order

Battles are resolved one after the other, in Priority order determined by the Action Card played, so if Priority is Rising you will resolve Battles in lower numbered Territories first, or if Priority is Falling you will start with the highest numbered Territories.

Play an Action Card for its Battle Effects

Select an Action Card from your hand, and play it to the table. This card will not be used for its Actions, but to determine your tactics for the Battle using the Battle Effects along the top of the card; Bugles, Swords and Shields, which are used to determine the combat result:

Bugles are added to the surviving Forces to determine the winner.
Swords are used to kill enemy Forces.
Shields are used to block enemy Swords.

Whatever card you play will be discarded after the Battle, so will not be used for its King's Action or Command Points, so select carefully.

Draw for the King's Battle Effects

Once you have played your Battle card, draw the top card of the deck and place it next to your card, to determine the King's Battle Effects.

Add Territory Battle Effects to the Defender

Some Territories on the map, namely those with Castles, have Bugles and/or Shields printed in them - when defending these Territories against attackers, you or the King will gain the benefit of these extra symbols, in addition to those on the relevant Battle Card.

This benefit is only gained by the defender, not the attacking side who just moved in to start the Battle.

Compare Swords and Shields, and remove casualties

Take the number of Swords on the King's Battle Card and deduct the number of Shields you have played (including any defender territory bonus). This is the number of casualties your side will take. If this number is more than the number of Forces the King has in the Territory, reduce the number to the same number as the King's Forces - neither side can ever kill more Forces than they have Forces in the Battle.

Repeat the procedure with your Swords and the King's Shields to determine the number of casualties the King will take, again reducing if you end up dealing more Casualties than you have Forces.

Casualties for both sides are considered to be simultaneous.

Once you have done this, remove the correct number of Casualties for each side. Any excess casualties beyond the number of Forces available to be killed are lost.

Add Force numbers and Bugles to determine winner

If after removing casualties, only one side has Forces remaining, or both sides have been completely destroyed, the Battle is over. If at least one Force from each side remains, you must determine the winner of the Battle.

Add the remaining number of Forces you have in the Territory to the number of Bugles you have played, adding any territory defender Bonus. Do the same procedure for the King, and compare the two numbers; the higher total number of Forces plus Bugles wins the Battle. If the total numbers are drawn, the Defending side is considered to have won the Battle.

Loser withdraws

The winning Forces will remain in the Territory, but the losing Forces must withdraw to an adjacent Territory.

If you lost the Battle, you may chose which adjacent Territory to withdraw to, with a couple of caveats; you may never withdraw to a Territory containing the King's Forces, and all of your Forces must withdraw together to the same Territory.

Once you have withdrawn, double check your Force Limit, especially if you have withdrawn into a Territory with more of your Forces, or withdrawn from a Territory with a Wheat symbol. If you are over your Force Limit in any Territory, remove the excess as normal.

If the King loses the Battle, work out which Territories he could withdraw to (i.e. adjacent Territories not containing your Forces), and use the Priority arrow on the King's Battle Card to determine which one he will withdraw to; the highest numbered option for a Rising Priority or the lowest numbered option for a Falling Priority.

If there are no possible Territories to withdraw to, because all adjacent Territories contain enemy Forces, all losing Forces from the Battle cannot escape and are removed as casualties.

Resolve next Battle

Once a Battle has been resolved, discard both Battle Cards played, and move on to the next Battle in Priority order, if there are any. If not, Battle is complete, so move on to the next stage of the turn.

Battle Example

The map diagram for this example is not reproduced here; see the source rules for the illustration.

Your 4 (Yellow) Forces are attacking the King's 2 Forces who are defending the Castle in Territory 7.

You play a card from your hand with 2 Bugles and 1 Sword.

You draw a card from the deck for the King which has 3 Swords. As the King is defending a Territory containing Battle symbols, he gains a Shield and Bugle; his total is 3 Swords, 1 Shield and 1 Bugle.

Your Sword is blocked by the King's Shield, so you inflict no casualties on the King's Forces.

The King's 3 Swords would kill 3 of your Forces, but since he only has 2 Forces in the Territory, he can only kill a maximum of 2, so 2 of your Forces are removed as casualties.

You each have 2 Forces remaining in the Territory, so you must resolve the winner. Adding together Bugles to surviving Forces, you have a total of 4 and the King 3, so the King's Forces must withdraw.

Because you have Forces in Territories 2 and 5, the only available options for the King's Forces to withdraw to are 4 and 8. The Priority on the King's Battle Card is Rising, so his Forces withdraw to Territory 8. As this now means he has 6 Forces in the territory, he must remove one as he is over the Force limit for the Territory.

Player Actions

Once the King's Action and any subsequent Battles are resolved, you may take Player Actions, spending the Command points from the Action Card played to Rally and Move Forces. The number of Command Points you have available is equal to the number of Flags at the bottom of the card.

You may take multiple Player Actions to spend these Command Points. You do not always have to use all the Command Points available to you, but may never spend more than the number of Flags on the card, and may not store Command Points between turns.

There are two Player Actions available to you:

Rally Force - 2 Command Points
Move Forces - 1 Command Point

Rally Force

Spend 2 Command Points and add one Force at a single Territory you control containing a Castle. Always obey Force limits based on the Wheat symbols you control; you may never have more Forces in one Territory than the number of Wheat symbols in Territories you control.

If you already have all of your Force tokens on the Board, you may not Rally new Forces.

Move Forces

Spend 1 Command Point to move any number of your Forces from one Territory to a single adjacent Territory, again obeying the Force limits based on Wheat symbols at all times. You do not have to Move all Forces from a Territory, and all those that do move must end up in the same Territory.

If you move into a Territory with the King's Forces, a Battle will take place after you have completed all your Player Actions. You do not count as controlling this Territory while the King still has Forces there, so may not increase Wheat limits or Rally Forces there until after the Battle (if you win).

There is no limit to the number of times you may Move Forces, even the same Forces, during a turn, other than your available Command Points.

Post Player Action Battles

Once you have finished taking Player Actions, you must resolve any Battles which occur as a result of your moving into the Territories with the King's Forces. These are resolved in exactly the same manner as those after the King's Action, save that the King will now be the Defender and benefit from any Territory Battle Effects.

Discard used Action Card

Once the Player Actions and any resulting Battles are complete, discard the Action Card played.

King's Card Phase

After the Player Card Phase, when your Action card has been resolved in full, with King's Action, Player Actions and any Battles, the King gets to play an Action card of his own. Draw a card from the top of the deck, and repeat all the turn steps as if you had played the card; resolve the King's Action, any Battles, Player Actions, any further Battles and then discard the card.

Other than the source of the Action card, the King's Card Phase is resolved identically to the Player Card Phase.

Continue playing turns until you either win by controlling all four Castles, or lose by no longer controlling your Castle in Territory 1.

May the Flames of Heaven guide you to victory, my Lord.