Among Nobles Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• The Character Card
• Setup
  • Determining First Player
  • Distributing Ancestral Lords and Ladies
  • Player Tips
• Game Play
  • Difference Between 3, 4 and 5 Player Games
  • Activation Phase
  • Upkeep Phase
  • Generational Change
• Game End and Scoring
• Actions
  • Warfare
  • Piety
  • Commerce
  • Birth
  • Marriage
  • Intrigue
  • Hire
• Character Cards
  • Male Character Cards, Age I
  • Female Character Cards, Age I
  • Male Character Cards, Age II
  • Female Character Cards, Age II
  • Male Character Cards, Age III
  • Female Character Cards, Age III
• Provinces

Game Components

• 1 rule book.
• 60 character cards:
  • 6 ancestral ladies,
  • 6 ancestral lords,
  • 16 age I characters,
  • 16 age II characters,
  • 16 age III characters.
• 9 province cards.
• 5 game overviews.
• 1 first player card.
• 45 gold pieces.
• Prestige point tokens:
  • 50 of 1 prestige point,
  • 50 of 5 prestige points.
• Player tokens in each of the 5 player colours (black, white, orange, purple, grey):
  • 3 action tokens (disks),
  • 10 army tokens (cubes).

There is no limit on gold pieces, prestige point tokens and army tokens. In case you run out of any of these tokens, use any substitute you like; always assume that these tokens have unlimited availability.

While the amount of gold and armies in each player's supply is open information, players should keep their prestige point tokens face down to conceal the exact amount.

The Character Card

Male character cards have a brown background colour, while female character cards have a light background colour.

The colour in the upper and lower part of the character cards indicates the trait of the character. Traits are an indication of the strengths represented by that category of character cards, and the traits of a couple determine the possible traits of their children.

• Red: Commander. Strong on warfare actions and the first (top) action series.
• Blue: Devout. Strong on piety actions and the second action series.
• Yellow: Tradesman. Strong on commerce actions and the third action series.
• Green: Negotiator. Strong on intrigue actions with special abilities and the fourth (bottom) action series.

The power symbols at the top of the rule box indicate one-time benefits or permanent abilities:

• Nobility. A permanent ability for this character.
• Christening. A benefit to be claimed at the character's birth.
• Alliance. A benefit to be claimed when the character is claimed as a bride by an opponent.
• Legacy. An inheritance to be claimed when the character dies of old age at a generational change.
• Intrigue. Special rules for this character describes the effect of an intrigue action.

Each character card also shows: the name and portrait (no game effect), any armies carried by the character (shown as shields), the top-and-bottom trait colour, and one or more action series. Each action series is a horizontal row that may hold up to four action boxes, executed strictly left to right; the absence of an action box means that series simply has fewer actions. Flavour text on the card has no game effect.

Married couples are displayed with the wife to the right and partly below the husband, so that only the right-hand side of her card shows (her action series are still visible, joined to his).

Setup

1. Place the province cards in 3 rows with 3 cards in each. In a 3 player game, however, first remove Holland, Normandie and Wien (indicated by 4+ in the lower right corner) and place the remaining 6 province cards 2 by 3.
2. In a 3 player game, remove all the green character cards from the game.
3. Shuffle the 3 decks (I, II & III) of character cards separately. Set decks II & III aside.
4. Draw 7 character cards from deck I (5 cards in a 3 player game) and display them face up in a line next to the deck. These are the characters on display and represent the potential children.
5. Place the prestige point tokens and gold pieces in bank piles next to the province cards and display line.
6. Each player chooses a colour and takes all the army tokens of that colour and 3 action tokens (2 action tokens in a 5 player game). The army tokens are in a general bank supply and not immediately available for your use; they need to be moved to your own personal supply first.
7. Each player receives a game overview card.
8. Each player receives 1 gold and 2 armies from the bank. Place them in front of you; this is your supply.
9. Determine the first player as described below.
10. Distribute the ancestral lords and ladies as described below.
11. Each player places the lady's card under the lord's card so that only the right-hand side shows (action series are visible for both cards).

Determining First Player

All players present a closed fist. On the count of three all players show a number of fingers between zero and five. The first player is the player who presented the most fingers. If there is a tie, the first player is the player who presented the second-most fingers. If no first player could be determined because no player showed a unique number of fingers, start over. The first player receives the first player card.

Distributing Ancestral Lords and Ladies

Lay out the ancestral lord and ladies in married couples, as indicated on the ladies. Place rival couples together, thereby making 3 groups (as indicated by the designations A, B and C on the back of the cards). Each group has one character of each trait (colour). Each ancestral lord is rival to one other lord, this helps ensure the correct distribution of traits among the players from the start of the game.

Each ancestral lord and lady reminds its owner that they begin the game with 1 gold and 2 armies.

3 player game. The last player (seated to the right of the first player) chooses one of the three couples. (Since green cards are removed from the game, there are only 3 couples to choose from). The first player chooses freely from the remaining two couples. The last couple is given to the remaining player.

4 player game. The last player (seated to the right of the first player) chooses one of the six couples and gives the rival couple to the player across (second in player order). The first player chooses one of the remaining four possible couples and gives the rival couple to the remaining player, the player who is third in player order. The remaining ancestral couples are not used.

5 player game. The last player (seated to the right of the first player) chooses one of the six couples and gives the rival couple to the player who is third in player order. The first player chooses one of the remaining four couples and gives the rival couple to the player who is fourth in player order. The remaining player (seated to the left of the first player) picks any of the remaining two couples. The remaining ancestral couple is not used.

Example. Distributing ancestral lords and ladies in a five player game. Asger is first player, after him come Bo, Camilla, Daniel and Emil. Emil as the last player has first choice and can freely choose from all six couples. Emil chooses the green-blue combination of "Christian af Danmark" and "Benedicte af Danmark", one of the A couples. Camilla then receives the remaining A couple, the red-yellow combination "George, Earl of Cumberland" and "Arianne of Cumberland".

Now Asger gets to choose from one of the four B and C couples. He chooses the blue-red combination "Charlemagne" and "Hildegard de France" from the B couples. Daniel then receives the yellow-green combination "Alfonso de Aragón" and "Cyntia de Aragón", the remaining B couple.

Bo can now choose either of the C couples. He chooses the red-green pairing "Johann der Großmütige" and "Sigrid von Sachsen".

Player Tips

Money is important, especially in the beginning of the game. Money allows you to have sons, muster armies from the supply and marry, and also gives you flexibility with the hire actions. Make sure you have some way of earning money, and if you have a money shortage, consider carefully how you spend your money.

Sons are important; they give access to more actions and can ensure future generations.

Marriage is important; it gives longer action series and ensures future generations. It is not advisable to rely solely on the marriage action of the ancestral lord. Try to acquire a character card with a marriage action to ensure that future marriages are possible without the expensive solution of marrying through a hire action.

Marrying a bride with the same trait (colour) as the groom can be a strong strategy (since they are often strong in the same action series), but it can also backfire. Since any heir must be same colour, you'll have fewer character cards to choose from in birth actions, so consider carefully before engaging in such a marriage.

Keep an eye on the traits (colours) of the couples of the player before you. If you have couples with the same traits, you will be competing for the same character cards on the display line. It can be a setback to sit after a player who has a couple with the same traits as you. Take this into consideration when taking marriage actions.

Things you might forget the first time you play

• You only have one action in the very first activation phase.
• Sons cost 1 gold when you acquire the card.
• Immediately claim the armies that some newborns bring you.
• Pay 1 gold when you use a military action to move an army from your supply to a province.
• The player whose daughter is chosen as the bride in a marriage action gains 2 prestige points.
• You can only have three generation rows in play at the same time.

Game Play

The game is played over three ages: I, II and III.

Each age consists of several rounds with two phases: an activation phase with 3 actions per player followed by an upkeep phase. Each age lasts until the current deck of cards runs out. When the last card of a deck is put on display, a generational change occurs in the next upkeep phase. The game ends after the third and final generational change.

Difference Between 3, 4 and 5 Player Games

The game play is the same whether the game is played with 3, 4 or 5 players. The differences are:

• The number of action tokens: 3 tokens in a 3 or 4 player game, but only 2 in a 5 player game.
• The number of cards in the display line: 7 cards in a 4 or 5 player game, but only 5 in a 3 player game.
• In a 3 player game only 6 of the 9 provinces are used, see Setup.
• The distribution of ancestral lords and ladies, see Setup.
• In a 3 player game all the green cards are removed from the game. As a game variant, either all the red or all the blue character cards could be removed instead. Removing the yellow character cards is only advised for expert players.

Activation Phase

Activation. Starting with the first player and going clockwise around the table, each player in turn activates a character. If the chosen character is married, the couple is activated, not just the chosen character. Each player has 3 action tokens, enabling the activation of 3 characters/couples per activation phase. However, in the very first activation phase, each player has only 1 action token.

A player's turn consists of activating a character by placing an action token on the card and choosing one of the 4 action series. Each action series consists of up to 4 possible actions. The actions in the chosen series are executed in strict order from left to right. Any birth actions in the chosen series are mandatory for married couples and unavailable for unmarried characters; all other actions are optional.

Reactivation. A player can only activate each of his characters and couples once each activation phase. However, if all male characters and couples have been activated, remaining action tokens can be used for reactivation, even if there are unactivated female characters.

When reactivating a character or couple, only the leftmost action in each series is available (absent actions do not count as available actions). A character or couple is reactivated by placing another action token on a card, choosing one of the 4 action series and executing only the first (leftmost) action in the chosen series.

Upkeep Phase

1. Determine province ownership. For each province the ownership is determined. If several players have armies in the same province, each player removes an army and returns it to their own personal supply. Continue this process until at most one player has armies left on this province. All other armies stay on the provinces. Empty provinces have no owner.
2. Receive income from provinces. All province owners receive income from their provinces. Players receive 1 gold for each commerce symbol and 1 prestige point for each piety symbol on their provinces.
3. Reset characters. Each player takes back their action tokens from the characters and couples.
4. Reset display line, if no cards were taken. If all 7 cards (5 in a 3 player game) still remain in the display line after the activation phase ended, discard all cards on the display line.
5. Generational change. If a generational change was triggered in the previous upkeep phase, each player carries out a generational change as described below. If this was the third generational change, the game ends.
6. Refill display line. Refill the display line to 7 cards (5 in a 3 player game), if necessary by using the next deck. Start by using deck I, then switch to deck II and then finally deck III. When the last card of a deck is put on display, a generational change occurs in the next upkeep phase, and the first player card is flipped over to indicate this. When the last card from deck III has been put on display, the game ends after the next upkeep phase.
7. Pass the first player card left. The next player clockwise is the first player in the new round.

Generational Change

A generational change occurs in the next upkeep phase after deck I, II or III has run out.

Each player removes the oldest generation (the top row of character cards). At the first generational change this means removing the ancestral lord and lady. At the second and third generational change all characters in the top row are removed from the game. You can only have three generations in play at one time. When the oldest generation dies of old age, there is room for a new third generation.

The game ends after the third and final generational change.

When character cards are removed, claim any inheritance stated on the removed character cards, marked by the legacy power symbol on the card.

In the unlikely case there is no male heir after a player's generation change, the player draws character cards from the deck until a male character is drawn. He becomes the player's new head of family and marries a daughter (if any) from the oldest possible generation. Shuffle the revealed cards into the deck again.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends after the third and final generational change. Players use their remaining gold to buy prestige points for 3 gold each. The player with most prestige points is the winner.

In case of a tie the player with most remaining gold wins. If there is still a tie the player who controls the most provinces wins. If there is still a tie, play another game to settle it.

Actions

Warfare

Cost: 1 gold. Move one of your armies from your personal supply to any province. Cost: 0 gold. Move one of your armies from one province to another.

Move one of your armies to any province. Provinces do not have to be adjacent; an army can move freely from any province to any other province. Also, it does not matter how many or which armies are present in the provinces that an army leaves and enters.

If a player has several warfare actions, he can move several armies into several (or the same) provinces, as long as he pays one gold for each army taken from the personal supply. If a player has no gold, he can only move armies between provinces.

Example. Daniel (orange player) executes an action series that gives him two warfare actions. He moves one army from Westfalen to Wien; this action has no cost. He places an army from his supply in Sachsen, thereby consolidating his position there; for this action he must pay one gold.

Piety

Gain 1 prestige point.

Commerce

Gain 1 gold.

Birth

Cost: 1 gold for a son. Cost: 0 gold for a daughter.

Take a character card of appropriate gender and trait from the display line and place it in the card row below the couple. The gender is given by the symbol of the birth action: either male, female, or either gender.

The child must have a trait inherited from the parents. Traits are indicated by the coloured areas in the top and bottom of character cards. In order to claim a son or daughter of a green trait, at least one parent must have a green trait, and so on.

This action is not available to unmarried characters. For couples, however, it is mandatory to claim sons and daughters, unless the cost cannot be paid, the display line is empty, the right traits are not available, or it would start a fourth generation row.

If the claimed character card has shield symbols in the upper right corner, take as many armies and add to your personal supply immediately.

Claim any benefits stated on the child's character card, marked by the christening power symbol in the card's rule box.

Organise your character cards in front of you like a genealogical tree. At the top is the oldest generation. Their children are placed in a row below them, and grandchildren are placed in a third row. At any time there can be only 3 generation rows. Once a child is placed in a generation, it is not important to remember who the parents were. The horizontal placement within a generation is unimportant for the game play, but for the feel of the game it might be nice to place children directly below their parents.

Marriage

Cost: 2 gold. The groom's family pays the expenses of the wedding feast.

Select one of your unmarried male characters (the groom) to send to the royal court to look for potential brides. Each opponent must, if they can, present at court one of their unmarried female characters as a potential bride. If no brides are presented, nothing happens, and the wedding cost of 2 gold is returned to the player.

The potential brides are normally selected by your opponents simultaneously, but if a player requests it, they are presented in player order beginning from the player whose turn it is. You have to choose one of the presented brides. When the bride is selected, the player who presented the bride gains 2 prestige points. Opponents who presented brides that were not chosen take their character cards back.

If the bride's card is marked by the alliance power symbol in the card rule box, the player who presented the bride claims the stated benefits in addition to the 2 prestige points the player of a chosen bride always receives.

Place the bride behind your groom so that only the right-hand side of the card is shown (her husband blocking her rule box and portrait). Her action series now join her husband's to give the couple longer action series, and her rule box text no longer applies. She is part of your family now, and no longer part of your opponent's family. Return any spent action token on her to its owner; this action token cannot be used later this turn. She can no longer have an action token, she can only be activated as part of the couple together with her husband.

Note, a female character might give actions to two players in the same round. If she is first activated as a daughter by one player, and then married to a male character who has not yet been activated, she can be activated again in the same round together with her husband.

Note, however, that if the character card that was activated to trigger the marriage action is the groom himself, he cannot take advantage of this new wife's actions this turn.

Intrigue

Some characters have an ability marked with an intrigue power symbol in the rule box on the card. This ability is only used when the character (or couple) executes an intrigue action. Act according to the text in the rule box. Multiple instances of intrigue actions triggers the rules once for each action.

Hire

Cost: 2 gold for a warfare, piety or marriage action.

The hire action grants the character the ability to execute an extra action for 2 gold. The 3 available actions for hire are: warfare, piety and marriage. Any additional cost associated with executing the action, for example the price of 2 gold for a marriage, must also be paid.

You cannot acquire commerce, birth or intrigue actions through a hire action.

Character Cards

Each of the 48 age I, II and III character cards carries its own printed ability, in addition to its action series. The ancestral lords and ladies used in Setup carry no printed ability beyond the starting reminder that each player begins the game with 1 gold and 2 armies.

Male Character Cards, Age I

Antoine le Bon. At his birth you gain a warfare action which is free of cost.

Fernando de Toledo. Add an army to your personal supply when he dies.

Baudouin de Bourgogne. You gain one prestige point for each province that contains at least one of your armies when he dies.

Christian II af Danmark. When he dies you gain prestige points equal to the number of individual character cards in his generation, including himself, i.e. all characters in the row that is removed at this generational change. Couples count as two cards in this case.

Charles le Victorieux. When he dies you gain an amount of gold equal to the amount of gold you have at this point. Whenever he is reactivated you gain 1 gold.

Christian IV af Danmark. For each intrigue action he executes he may spend up to 3 gold to gain up to 3 prestige points at a cost of 1 gold per prestige point.

Cosimo I de' Medici. Whenever he executes an intrigue action, either his own or one of his wife's, the couple may ignore traits for the remainder of the action series, allowing the couple to choose children with any trait they want; gender must still be respected.

Francesco Della Rovere. Whenever he executes an intrigue action you gain 1 prestige point and may execute a warfare action.

Female Character Cards, Age I

Jane Seymour of England. You gain 2 gold at her birth.

Mary I of England. You gain 2 gold and 2 additional prestige points when she is married off to an opponent.

Elisabeth d'Autriche. You gain 2 gold at her birth.

Isabel de Portugal. You gain 2 gold and 2 additional prestige points when she is married off to an opponent.

Anne of Cleves. You gain 2 gold at her birth.

Sibylle of Cleves. You gain 2 gold and 2 additional prestige points when she is married off to an opponent.

Eleonora Della Rovere. You gain 2 gold at her birth.

Isabella d'Este. You gain 2 gold and 2 additional prestige points when she is married off to an opponent.

Male Character Cards, Age II

Charles I of England. You gain an army each time he has a son.

Charles IX de France. With an intrigue action he can move an army without paying any gold cost, even if the army comes from your supply, but that army can only be moved into provinces with a piety symbol. Note, as he does not have any intrigue actions himself, he will need a skilled wife.

Sir Nicholas Carew. Once per turn you may use an intrigue action to activate him again after his activation. When married this means that he can acquire more than one child in the same turn.

Joachim II Hector. When he is using a hire action to execute a piety action (gaining 1 prestige point), the cost of the hire action is only 1 gold.

Felipe II de España. With an intrigue action you can remove one of your unmarried female characters from the game. She enters a convent, and you gain 2 gold and 2 prestige points.

Charles de Solier. His (and his wife's) marriage actions are free of cost.

Edward VI of England. When you place your action token on this character you may instead activate another character. As you do not place an action token on the other character, you may activate that character again later this turn, or you may activate a character even if it has an action token already.

Guidobaldo II Rovere. With an intrigue action you can remove one of your armies from the game to gain 2 gold and 2 prestige points. You can remove it from a province or from your supply. This army is returned to the general bank supply.

Female Character Cards, Age II

Anna Esterházy. You gain 3 gold at her birth.

Mary, Queen of Scots. She converts her own intrigue actions into warfare actions, as long as she is unmarried. Once she is married, her intrigue actions have the effect of the intrigue ability of her husband, if any.

Marguerite de Lorraine. You gain 3 gold at her birth.

Mariana de Austria. You can only present her as a potential bride during another player's marriage action if the groom has at least one piety action on his character card.

Anne d'Autriche. You gain 3 gold at her birth.

Maria de' Medici. Place 3 gold from the bank on her character card when she is born. When she is presented at court, this is her dowry: if she is selected as a bride, the gold goes to the groom's family, and you gain 3 prestige points. Return the gold to the bank at the end of the game if she is still unmarried.

Anne Boleyn. Every time she is presented as a potential bride during another player's marriage action you will instantly gain 2 prestige points. You may gain prestige points several times this way.

Leonor de Toledo. You effectively gain an extra action token this turn. This means you have an action after all other players have finished theirs.

Male Character Cards, Age III

Arthur, Duke of Wellington. When you execute an intrigue action, choose an opponent's army from any province and return it to its owner's supply.

August III Sas. When you execute an intrigue action you gain 1 prestige point for each married couple in your family. Note, as he does not have any intrigue actions himself, he will need a skilled wife.

Alasdair of Glengarry. When he is using a hire action, the cost of the hire action is only 1 gold.

Heinrich XIII von Reuß. You gain either 2 piety actions, 2 warfare actions or 2 marriage actions for each hire action you execute. You still pay any further costs associated with carrying out the actions.

Napoléon Bonaparte. You gain 1 prestige point each time you move an army into a province containing at least one army belonging to an opponent. You can gain multiple prestige points with the same army by moving it again using more than one warfare action.

Pyotr III Fyodorovich. You gain 1 prestige point each time you move an army into a province with a piety symbol. You can gain multiple prestige points with the same army by moving it again using more than one warfare action.

Ferdinand I der Gütige. When you execute an intrigue action you gain 1 prestige point for each unmarried female character in your family.

Henry VIII of England. With an intrigue action you may remove his wife from the game. You do not execute (the rest of) the wife's actions. You gain 3 gold and 3 prestige points. He may marry again during the same action series where he removes his wife from the game.

Female Character Cards, Age III

Catherine the Great. You gain 2 armies when she is married off to an opponent. Her warfare actions are free of cost.

Maria Leszczynska. You may reactivate another character in your family after her actions. You can only reactivate a character with an action token on it. You may reactivate a character that has already been reactivated.

Madame de Pompadour. At her birth you may activate an unmarried character in your family. As you do not place an action token on the other character, you may activate that character later this turn, or you may activate a character that has an action token already.

Henriette Marie de France. She may execute a birth action without being married. The child can have any trait (colour).

Charlotte von Mecklenburg. At her birth you may choose any two armies belonging to opponents and return them to their owner's supply. They can be from the same or from different provinces, and from the same or different opponents.

Mary, Baroness of Cathcart. After her actions you may execute a marriage action free of cost.

Ulla Tessin, née Sparre. When she is born, you will gain the following actions in order: commerce, piety, warfare and finally marriage. You can spend gold earned through the commerce action to pay for later actions.

Mary, Countess Howe. Every time she is presented as a potential bride during another player's marriage action you will instantly gain 2 prestige points. You may gain prestige points several times this way.

Provinces

There are 9 province cards, laid out in 3 rows of 3 during Setup. In a 3 player game, Holland, Normandie and Wien (marked 4+ in the lower right corner) are removed, leaving 6 provinces laid out 2 by 3.

Each province shows commerce and/or piety symbols. During the Upkeep phase, the player who controls a province (the player with the most armies there, ties leaving the province without an owner) receives 1 gold for each commerce symbol and 1 prestige point for each piety symbol on that province.