Achaia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
  • Components Overview
  • Game Components List
  • Component Notes
• Game Setup
• Introduction
  • General Rules
  • Preparation Phase
  • Intrigue Phase
  • Domination Phase
  • Settling of Power
• Game Turn
  • Preparation Phase
  • Intrigue Phase
    • Defending Against Intrigues
    • Character Usage
  • Domination Phase
  • Passing
  • Settling of Power
• Two-player Mode
  • Two-player Preparation Phase
  • Two-player Domination Phase
  • Two-player Settling of Power
  • Two-player Game Setup
• Advanced Play
  • New Order
  • Fate in Your Hands
  • Not All Is Lost
  • Hard Negotiation
• Intrigue Resolution Diagram
• Location Actions

Game Components

Components Overview

Troy. 12 Location tiles form the gameplay area called Troy. By placing dice on Troy Locations players fight for dominance and access to powerful actions associated with those Locations.

House of Orion tile. The time of Duke Orion's family, responsible for the great Army of the West is measured by thousands of years. Sadly, fate made his only son Sirius disappear without a trace many years ago. One day Zaan arrived at Orion's palace with a letter sealed by the powerful Order. The letter indicated that Sirius has been found and arrives together with Zaan to the Duke's palace. The truth is much more cruel though, because Zaan and Sirius are two clever crooks who want to manipulate the Grand Duke Orion thereby changing the political life of Troy.

Power track and power markers. Players place their respective power markers on the power track, to track their progress in the struggle for power in Troy.

First player token. After determining the starting player, he receives the first player token. It may change hands throughout the course of the game, most often ending up in the hands of the first player to pass in a Turn.

Game Components List

• Rulebook
• 14 board tiles: 12 Location tiles, Power track tile, House of Orion tile
• 103 cards: Action cards, Intrigue cards, Characters of Troy cards, Event cards, Street and Court Cousin cards
• 5 player screens
• 5 wooden score track markers
• 50 power tokens
• 58 gold tokens
• 8 Dice Limit tokens
• 4 Closed Location tokens
• 5 limit increase tokens
• 15 Usage tokens
• 25 dice (5 in each player color)
• 1 white die
• First player token

Component Notes

Gold coins. Gold is the main resource helpful in setup and execution of your Intrigues. Invaluable when deciding the fate of Troy.

Intrigue cards. The main tool for shifting influence in Troy. Intrigue will support your way to victory, and cut short opponents attempts to gain victory. They also help you to react to other players mischief.

Dice Limit tokens and Closed Location tokens. Access to Locations and the privileges they offer is limited. Dice Limit tokens and Closed Location tokens are used to represent that limitation. The Dice Limit in any Location can change as a consequence of the Actions of Duke Orion. Closed Location tiles are used to specify Locations inaccessible in the early stages of the game, and are removed as per instructions in the Preparation Phase.

Characters of Troy and Usage tokens. Bribery will give you the loyalty of various Characters in Troy, although short-lived as it will pass to anyone who is willing to pay more. Each time a player uses any of the Characters in Troy, a Usage token is placed to signify that Character's growing greed.

Power tokens. One of the main strategies leading to victory is the Domination of the largest area of Troy. Player power tokens are placed on a Location where that player has the most influence.

Event cards. Once per turn each player will have the chance to finish their Action with an Event. As these Events are often powerful, the number of possible Events per Turn is limited and will depend on the number of players.

Player color dice. Dice are placed on different tiles in Troy to represent players' influence in particular Locations. Dice values represent players' strength in the form of any allies, relatives, or even thugs. The greater the number, the higher the chance of dominating a Location.

Action card. Each player places an Action card in front of them with the Action side face up. Whenever a player finishes his Actions during the Intrigue Phase he may pass by turning over the card to its Pass side.

Street and Court Cousin cards. The support of a wealthy family is the best basis for victory in the struggle for power. Cousin cards will help players avoid many perils even if that means sacrificing the Cousins.

Locations of Troy. Tiles with Locations represent the most important areas of the Kingdom of Troy, which are of importance from the point of view of governance. Each of the families want to have the greatest impact on what happens there, with tangible benefits, of course. Therefore, to win the desired power over the Kingdom of Troy you will have to try very hard to quickly gain the largest area of influence in the kingdom for your family.

Cousins. As the son of the Grand Duke you cannot, of course, walk in the streets alone, neither can you walk with guards. Cousins armed with swords (after all everyone can walk around with a sword, that's their own business) accompany the invaluable person everywhere. There are two types of Cousins. One, street-cousins, are incidental, armed with swords. The second, court-cousins, are a lot more educated, familiar with etiquette and not armed with swords. They only have daggers and are also very insolent.

Events. Events are information from your spies, the possession of which can be a very valuable bargaining chip in the politics of the realm. With the Events card you will be able to obtain information about Events that may happen soon or those that have already taken place. Maybe you will gain very valuable information about the fate of Achaia, which can disturb the balance in the policy of Troy.

Game Setup

In the two-player game setup as well as game play are slightly different. Throughout this manual you will find notes highlighting those differences. For two-player mode follow setup steps on page 14.

I. Place the Location tiles in order from 1 to 12, as per numbering in the top right corner of each Location tile.

II. Depending on the number of players place Dice Limit tokens on specified Locations, as per table below. The number shown on each token is the value printed on the token in the table.

Location	2	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
2 players	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×
3 players	Dice Limit token (1)	×	×	Dice Limit token (2)	Dice Limit token (1)	×	Dice Limit token (1)	Dice Limit token (1)
4 players	×	×	×

III. Place Closed Location tokens on tiles numbered 1, 2, 6, and 11. Those tiles will become available starting from turns II and III, as per turn number in top left corner of the tile.

IV. Place House of Orion tile and Power track tile next to Troy.

V. Prepare the Character card, Event card, Intrigue card and Cousin card decks.

• Separate the Character cards into three decks as per turn number on the back of the card. Shuffle each of the decks separately and place cards face down near Troy.
• Repeat the process for Event cards, creating three separate shuffled decks, and place them face down near Troy.
• Shuffle all the Intrigue cards and place them face down near Troy.
• Separate the Court Cousin and the Street Cousin cards, and place near Troy face up.

VI. Each player chooses a color and their respective set of starting game elements:

• 1 Player screen
• 5 Power dice
• 10 Power tokens
• 1 Power track marker
• 7 Gold coins, placed behind player screen

VII. Each player receives their starting hand:

• 3 Intrigue cards
• 1 Turn I Event card
• 1 Street Cousin card
• 1 Action card, placed face up in front of player screen

VIII. Players draw three Turn I Character cards and place them face up near the House of Orion tile.

IX. Each player starts with 5 Power points and places their respective Power track marker on number 5, on the Power track.

X. Players roll all their dice and add up the result. A player may choose to re-roll all their dice once.

XI. The player with the lowest total becomes the starting player and receives the first player token. To settle a tie the player who most recently finished a fantasy novel will become the first player.

XII. Starting from the first player and following clockwise each player places one of their rolled dice onto any available Location until each player is left with two dice which are then placed in front of their player screen to form the dice reserve.

IMPORTANT: When placing dice players must respect Location dice capacity.

Introduction

Seizing control over Achaia is not an easy feat. To allow you to build foundations stronger than those of a house of cards the game turn is broken down into three Phases: Preparation, Intrigue and Domination. Here is a brief introduction to all the game Phases.

General Rules

• Player order always starts with the player holding the first player token and follows clockwise. This is the main order rule unless stated otherwise.
• Intrigue, Character and Event cards may overrule this rulebook. If any of the cards specify an Action that is contrary to this rulebook, follow the text on the card.
• There is no hand limit.
• Throughout the course of the game player dice will either end up in Troy or the player reserve. Whenever an Intrigue card refers to any die its effect can target either dice on any Location or in player reserves. Intrigue cards referring to Troy cannot affect dice in player reserves.
• Whenever the "Steal" Intrigue card is played on a player who has less than 4 gold, that player must reveal all of their gold. The targeting player may now choose either to steal the remaining gold or forfeit the steal and reward himself with one power point on the power track instead. The rule stands even if the targeted player has no gold.
• Any Character cards discarded during the Intrigue Phase are not replaced. The only time Characters are added to the game is during the Preparation Phase in Turn II and III.
• At any stage of the game a player may sacrifice 1 Power point to receive 5 gold coins from the bank.

Preparation Phase

As your fight for power progresses, your influence will increase, and new Locations and new Characters will become available. During the Preparation Phase players will take steps reflecting those changes, by adding more dice to Troy, opening previously locked Locations and replacing Characters with those respective of the current turn.

Intrigue Phase

This Phase is your political battleground. During the Intrigue Phase you will play Intrigues on other players as well as defend against their mischief. Your main goal will be to gather influence in Locations most suitable to your strategy and move other players' dice to meddle with their plans. When in need of help, Characters will offer their services for gold. If you feel short of options, you can pass early to get the first player token and benefit when the player order reaches you again.

Domination Phase

Your efforts to get control in key Locations of Troy are about to pay off. You will resolve them, one by one, deciding who is the dominating player, and performing Actions for each die placed on the Location tile.

Settling of Power

After the third and final turn Settling of Power will occur during which you will recount the power in dominated Locations, count collected Cousins and gold, and convert that to power points. The player with the highest score on the power point track will take control over Troy and thus win the game.

Game Turn

A game turn consists of the Preparation Phase (played only in turns II and III), the Intrigue Phase and the Domination Phase. Settling of Power is played once after the Domination Phase of turn III.

Preparation Phase

The Preparation Phase is only played in turn II and turn III and differs slightly depending on the turn:

• I. From the House of Orion tile remove any Usage tokens.
• II. Remove any Character cards next to the House of Orion tile, remove also any Usage tokens on them.
• III. Players draw 3 Characters from the corresponding turn deck and place them next to the House of Orion tile.
• IV. Each player draws one Event card from the corresponding turn deck.
• V. Each player turns their Action card face up to signify they are active during the Intrigue Phase.
• VI. New Locations become available. Remove Closed Location tokens from tiles with the corresponding turn number:
  • Tile number 2 and 6 during the Preparation Phase in turn II.
  • Tile number 1 and 11 during the Preparation Phase in turn III.
• VII. Each player in order of play receives either 2 Intrigue cards or 3 gold pieces.
• VIII. Each player in order of play places one of their dice from their reserve onto an available Location in Troy.

TWO-PLAYER: Players one by one place their dice of both colors on available Location tiles. Players must ensure they don't place any of their colors consecutively.

Intrigue Phase

In player order, each player can choose to perform one of the following actions:

• Play Intrigue card and resolve its effect, OR
• Pay any one available Character and use their ability, OR
• Pass and play your Event card.

Each of the Intrigue cards has two effects. The player playing an Intrigue card picks one of the two listed effects and chooses on whom to play it. Intrigue cards can target either other players or the player playing the Intrigue card.

• TARGET ENEMY: modify or change the location of other players' dice, force a player to pay gold, or move their power token.
• TARGET SELF: modify or change the location of your dice, receive gold from the bank, or move your power token.

Defending Against Intrigues

Players can defend from Intrigue effects by playing:

• STREET COUSIN CARD: can be played to cancel an Intrigue card played against you.
• COURT COUSIN CARD: can be played to cancel any Intrigue, even if you are not the target.
• COUNTERACTION: can be played to cancel an Intrigue card played against you, and resolve the Counteraction effect.
• REACTION: can be played to cancel any Intrigue card played and resolve the reaction effect.

IMPORTANT: COUNTERACTION and REACTION effects cannot be canceled nor countered in any way.

You will soon discover that Intrigue cards give you a lot of possible combinations with counters and reactions. Should you have any doubts as to whether a cancellation, reaction or counteraction can be played refer to the Intrigue resolution diagram on last page of this rulebook.

Character Usage

Besides Duke Orion and Zaan from the House of Orion tile, each turn a new set of Characters will appear in Troy. Players may use any of the available Characters' ability by paying the Character with gold coins. To use the Character pay the basic cost plus the number of Character Usage tokens in gold. Remember, every single time a Character is used, a Usage token is placed on that Character.

For a Character that doesn't have any Usage tokens on, the Character Usage cost is equal to that Character's basic cost.

If the Character basic cost is not specified the usage cost is 0 gold coins and is only increased by the number of Usage tokens present on that Character.

If the Character's basic cost is 2 gold coins and there are three Usage tokens placed on that Character, then the usage cost is 5 gold coins.

IMPORTANT: You cannot defend against a Character Action unless the Action in question involves playing an Intrigue card. In that case you can defend against the Intrigue played as per standard rules.

Character card legend (printed on the card): 1. Turn number; 2. Character basic cost; 3. Card title; 4. Character's ability.

Domination Phase

After all players have passed, the Domination Phase begins. During this Phase all Location tiles containing player dice are resolved. PLAYERS CANNOT DEFEND AGAINST LOCATION ACTIONS IN ANY WAY.

Location tiles are resolved one by one in the order determined by their corresponding tile number, from tile number 1 to tile number 12.

• I. Determining the dominating player: Add together the dice values of the same color. The player with the highest dice value on a tile dominates that Location. In the case of a draw, the Domination cannot be settled and step two is skipped.
• II. The dominating player places their Power token on this Location:
  • If there are no power tokens of their color present on this Location, the dominating player receives 1 point of power and moves his marker on the power track.
  • If there already is a Power token of their color present on the Location tile, the player doesn't receive any points of power. However this does strengthen their position, and might prove valuable during the Settling of Power.
• III. Players now may execute the tile Actions for each of their dice present on a tile. Actions are resolved in the order determined by the dice values, regardless of color. For any draws between dice, the order is determined by the first player.

Example (printed): The Red player (6) will be the first to resolve the Location Action, then the Yellow player (5). The second yellow die and blue die are of equal value therefore it's up to the first player to decide which player will resolve the Location Action first.

• IV. After resolving all Actions, move forward to the next tile with a player die and resolve its Domination and Location Actions by repeating steps 1 to 3.
• V. After all Locations have been resolved players must remove all Dice Limit tokens from Troy. Remove Dice Limit tokens in tile order, following the steps below:
  • For every Dice Limit token removed, a player die must be moved. This rule applies regardless of Location dice limit.
  • The owner of the highest value die must move it to any different available Troy Location.
  • For any draws between dice, the first player decides which die should be moved.
  • Steps are repeated until all Dice Limit tokens on all tiles are removed.

Example (printed): Two limit increase tokens have been removed from the Location tile. For the first token the Red player must move their die to another Location, since their 6 is a die of the highest value. Now the dice of the highest value belongs to the Yellow player and it is up to them to move their die to a different Location. They must move their die even though the number of dice present doesn't exceed dice capacity of this Location.

Passing

When a player runs out of actions to play or as a strategic decision, they may pass for the remainder of the turn by turning their Action card face down, to reveal the 'PASS' side. There are certain benefits from passing:

• The first player to pass in a turn will receive the first player token.
• Depending on the number of players, the passing player may reveal their Event card and resolve its effect.
• When the player order reaches a player who passed, they can take 2 gold coins from the bank.

The number of players determines how many Event cards can be played:

• 2 and 3 players: only first passing player can play their Event card.
• 4 players: the first and second passing players can play their Event card.
• 5 players: the first, second and third passing players can play their Event card.

Other player Event cards are discarded.

Settling of Power

After the turn III Domination Phase has been resolved Settling of Power begins. Additional points of power will be added as per steps listed below:

• I. LOCATION TILES DOMINANCE: In tile number order (from 1 to 12) players check the number of power tokens on each Location. The player with the highest number of power tokens on a tile will be awarded one additional point on the power track. In case of any draws dominance cannot be determined and no points are awarded.
• II. GATHERED WEALTH: Each player counts their gold coins and unused Cousin cards. Each Cousin card is worth 2 gold coins; add these to the total wealth of a player. For every 10 gold coins the player is awarded 1 additional power point on the power point track. Wealth converted into victory points is then returned to the bank and Cousin cards are returned to the reserves. Any gold left over (below 10) is kept behind the player screen.

After the Settling of Power has been counted the player with the highest score on the power track has seized control of Troy and wins the game. In the case of a draw between players, leftover gold is revealed. The player with the most leftover gold coins wins the game.

Two-player Mode

In the two-player mode each player controls two families, so plays with two colors. One of the colors will represent the player interest, the other will be the supporting color. Whenever the supporting color scores points on the power track, the representative color will move its power marker. Be advised that both colors and families are treated separately during Domination Phase and Settling of Power.

Changes in each of the Phases are listed below.

Two-player Preparation Phase

Preparation Phase is played in similar fashion to original game, with a minor change in step VIII of the Preparation Phase: each player in order of play places one of their reserve die from each of their controlled color onto an available Location in Troy.

Two-player Domination Phase

Players controlling two colors should note that these colors still compete with each other in the Domination Phase. The two colors under the player's control do not total when determining Location Domination. Instead they dominate separately as per standard rules. However power points scored by the supporting color will be awarded to the representative color and will move the player marker on the power track.

Example (printed): The player represented by the red marker on the power track controls green and red dice. The player controlling blue and yellow dice is represented by blue marker on the power track. Although the total sum of dice values under red player control is greater than that of blue, the Domination is counted separately for each color. In consequence the yellow dice (supporting blue player) wins the Domination and places a yellow power token on the Location tile. This means the blue player scores for dominance and moves their blue power marker up by one on the power track.

Two-player Settling of Power

Players do not add together power tokens of different colors to determine dominance during the Settling of Power. Power tokens of different colors compete against each other and are counted separately. This also means that draws between power tokens will result in no points scored, even if the drawing power tokens are under the control of the same player.

Whenever a player is allowed a dice re-roll, they may only re-roll dice of one of the managed colors.

Two-player Game Setup

Follow the first five steps from the game setup on page 8 and continue with the following:

• VI. Each player chooses two colors: a representative color and a supporting color. Then both players take the following elements:
  • 1 Player screen in representative color
  • 1 Power track marker in representative color
  • 10 Dice (5 in representative color, 5 in supporting color)
  • 20 Power tokens (10 in representative color, 10 in supporting one)
  • 7 gold coins, placed behind player screen
• VII. Each player draws:
  • 6 Intrigue cards
  • 1 Turn I Event card
  • 1 Street Cousin card
  • 1 Action card
• VIII. Players draw three Turn I Character cards and place them face up near House of Orion tile.
• IX. Each player starts with 5 Power points and places their representative Power track marker on number 5 on the Power track.
• X. All players roll their dice and check the result. A single re-roll of all dice of one color for each player is allowed.
• XI. Players add rolled results from both colors. The player with the lowest total becomes the starting player and receives the first player token. To settle a tie the player who most recently finished a fantasy novel will become the first player.
• In player order, players place their dice on available Locations one at a time, remembering to alternate between the two controlled colors. Players continue to do so until each player is left with two dice of each color which are now placed in front of their player screen to form the dice reserve.

IMPORTANT: When placing dice players must respect Location dice capacity.

Advanced Play

Achaia allows for open modification of game mechanics. To make the game more attractive, we suggest trying out some of the advanced play modes listed below. These can be added in any combination and we hope will encourage you to further modify game play as per your gaming group preferences.

New Order

Players ignore the Location tile numbering entirely and before the game setup place Location tiles in random or collectively determine the order. Throughout the game this will now be the order in which all Location based game mechanics will be resolved.

Fate in Your Hands

During Game setup instead of rolling dice in step X follow the following rule:

Behind their player screen, players assign values to their five dice from a pool of 19 points. Should they wish players may in secret pay 1 gold coin per 1 point to add additional points to their pool. Once all players have assigned their points, the screens are revealed and gold used for additional points is returned to bank. At this stage no further changes to dice values can be made.

Two-player: Each player controlled color has a separate pool of 19 points. These points cannot be transferred between colors in any way, however players can still spend gold coins to increase the points pool for any of the controlled colors.

Not All Is Lost

During Game setup replace step XI with the below rule:

Players add the results of their three dice with lowest values. The player with the lowest total receives the first player token. To settle a tie the player who most recently finished a fantasy novel will become the first player.

Hard Negotiation

Players may support each other by exchanging gold coins, giving favors, performing Actions for another, settling pacts, negotiating freely using game resources or game mechanics. It is up to each player how true they are willing to remain to their word.

Intrigue Resolution Diagram

Printed as a flowchart on the last page of the rulebook. Transcribed as text.

1. Intrigue target. The Intrigue targets either SELF or ENEMY.
2. If SELF: Does any other player play a Court Cousin or Reaction card?
   • YES: Cancel Intrigue.
   • NO: Resolve Intrigue.
3. If ENEMY: Does any other player play a Court Cousin or Reaction card?
   • YES: Cancel Intrigue.
   • NO: Does the target use any Cousin cards, Reaction cards or Counteraction card?
     • NO: Resolve Intrigue.
     • YES: Does the target use a Counteraction card?
       • NO: Cancel Intrigue.
       • YES: Target takes control over Intrigue and plays its effect. (The flowchart returns to step 1, Intrigue target.)

Location Actions

The twelve Location tiles, numbered as printed in the top right corner of each tile. Availability is the turn in which a Closed Location token is removed (see Setup step III and Preparation Phase step VI). Base dice capacity is the printed value on the tile.

No.	Location	Availability	Base dice capacity	Action
1	King's Palace	Turn III	Not legible (closed-location icon printed in its place)	Pay 4 gold and put 1 of your power tokens in any Location of Troy
2	Royal Council	Turn II	Not legible (closed-location icon printed in its place)	Pay 4 gold and re-roll any two dice
3	Watchtower	Always open	2	Pay 2 gold and re-roll any one die
4	Temple	Always open	2	Search Intrigue discard pile to pick 1 card and add it to your hand
5	Prison

Note: the Location tiles 1, 2, 6 and 11 are shown with a closed-location icon where the base dice capacity badge would be, so their base dice capacity is not stated in the printed rulebook art and is not filled in here. Availability for tiles 2 and 6 is from Turn II and for tiles 1 and 11 from Turn III, as printed in the Preparation Phase.