Amyitis
Amyitis Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Credits and Components
Game design by Cyril Demaegd. Illustrations by Arnaud Demaegd. Layout by Cyril Demaegd. Translation by Arnaud Demaegd & Patrick Korner. FAQ & forum: www.ystari.com.
The box contains:
- 1 Babylon board and 1 Mesopotamia board
- 20 Garden tiles
- approximately 135 cubes in 5 colors: blue, red, black, white, and gray (neutral cubes)
- 4 score markers in 4 colors: blue, red, black, and white
- 35 resource tokens of 5 different types: Barley, Dates, Salt, Palm, and Wine
- 14 camel tokens
- 30 silver coins (Talents)
- 56 cards (18 Craft cards, 4 Plant cards, 31 Court cards, 2 Amyitis cards, and 1 First player card)
- this booklet
Symbols
The rulebook and cards use the following pictograms, rendered here as words:
- A number of leaf shapes indicates the quality of a plant (1, 2, or 3).
- A round token symbol represents a token: a resource (any kind), a camel, or a talent.
- A framed symbol indicates a Court card — for example, a Caravaneer or a Banker.
- A player-color symbol indicates a Court card chosen by a player — shown on the Banker, the Caravaneer, the Palace, or a Gardener card.
Preparation
Hint: before your first game, read the Game Principles section below.
NB: In 3-player games, put the Craft and Court cards marked with a "4 players" symbol back into the box. In 2-player games, put the Craft and Court cards marked with a "3 players" symbol and a "4 players" symbol back into the box. These cards will not be used in the game. Other adjustments concerning the number of players are explained in the corresponding parts of the rules.
- Place the boards on the table as shown in the rulebook. Place a camel token on the "Babylon" square of the Mesopotamia board. Place the Amyitis card corresponding to the number of players next to the game boards.
- Arrange the talents, camels, neutral cubes, and resources by type and place them as general supplies near the board.
- Place the Plant card with a quality-2 figure on each side on the city of Khorsabad (either side up). Place the other three Plant cards randomly on the cities of Eshnunna, Ur, and Mari with the quality-1 side face up.
- Shuffle the Craft cards and place them in a face-down pile next to the game board. Sort the Court cards according to type and place them face up next to the game board. Take one resource token of each type (except Wine) from the general supply and place one of these tokens randomly on each level-2 Caravaneer card.
- Sort the Garden tiles according to quality. Place the quality-3 tile with value "10" on the fourth (topmost) floor of the Gardens. Place three quality-3 tiles randomly on the third floor. Place five quality-2 tiles randomly on the second floor. Place seven quality-1 tiles randomly on the first floor. Return all remaining tiles to the box; they will not be used.
- 2 players: do not use the three squares marked with an asterisk on the Babylon board. Place no tiles on these squares.
- Each player chooses a color and takes all cubes of the corresponding color, 4 talents, 1 camel, and 1 level-0 Caravaneer card, placing them all in his play area (the space before him on the table). The players put their markers on square 0 of the scoring track. The players decide who is going to start. That player takes the First player card.
NB: leave squares marked with an asterisk empty (no Garden tiles) in 2-player games.
Game Principles
Babylon board: this board represents the hanging gardens of Babylon. The gardens are divided into sixteen squares that will be planted with gardens (A) and areas that must be irrigated (B1). The gardens are on four (V-shaped) floors. The highest floors offer more prestige, but are also harder to irrigate (B2) and must be planted with plants of higher quality (C). The board also features fields (D) that enable the players to produce resources by recruiting peasants, three temples dedicated to Ishtar (E1), Marduk (E2), and Tammouz (E3) that yield bonuses to the most zealous priests, a "Pass" square (F), and a score track (G) to keep track of the players' prestige during the game.
Mesopotamia: this board represents Mesopotamia and the cities that trade with Babylon. By paying camels, the players move the Caravan (H) clockwise from one city to the next. Upon arriving in a city, they spend their resources to acquire upgrades (I) or plants (J) for the gardens. High-quality plants (K) are more expensive, but they grant players access to the top floors of the gardens, where the most prestige may be earned.
Recruitment: during the game, players will recruit characters to assist them. They spend talents to hire peasants (L) who harvest the fields, priests (M) who pray in the temples, engineers (N) who irrigate the gardens, and merchants (O) who supply camels.
Player supply: a player's supply consists of the set of cubes of his chosen color. Cubes can be used to irrigate, harvest the fields, and place priests in the temples. As the game progresses, players accumulate camels, resources, and talents. Finally, each player may own (if he chooses to acquire them) three types of Court cards representing the player's level in several domains:
- The Banker (P): indicates the player's income at the start of the turn.
- The Caravaneer (Q): indicates the player's bonus when moving the Caravan and the number of resource tokens he is allowed to keep at the end of each round. NB: all the players start the game with a level-0 Caravaneer card, but without any Banker or Palace cards.
- The Palace (R): represents the impressiveness of the player's palace (by earning him prestige).
During the game, the players can progress in each domain by acquiring cards with higher values (S). They may also hire Gardeners (T) to improve the quality of their plants. However, Court cards are in limited supply, meaning that not all players will be able to acquire the same advantages.
Playing the Game
Game Turn
The game is divided into rounds. Each round is divided into three phases:
- I) Setup
- II) Players' actions
- III) End of the round
I) Setup
1. Crafts. The first player takes all of the Craft cards, shuffles them, and lays them out in groups of three, face up, according to the number of players:
- 2 players: 2 groups of three cards
- 3 players: 3 groups of three cards
- 4 players: 4 groups of three cards
He sets any remaining cards aside temporarily; they will not be used during this round.
Example: in a 3-player game, form 3 groups of three cards.
2. Income. Each player takes talents from the general supply (and possibly scores prestige points) corresponding to the number(s) shown on his Banker card. A player with no Banker card gets no income.
Example: a player who has a Banker card showing "2 talents and 2 prestige points" gets those amounts during the income phase.
II) Players' Actions
Each player, in clockwise order, may perform an action on his turn. The players continue taking turns and performing actions until everyone has passed.
Possible actions:
- A) Pass
- B) Recruit
- C) Move the Caravan
A) Pass
The player places a cube on the "Pass" square, and may not choose to perform another action this round. From now on, each time it is his turn to perform an action (that is, each time it is his turn and at least one other player has not passed yet), the player takes one talent from the supply.
Example: White, Black, Blue, and Red play in this order. White and Black have already passed. Blue recruits. Red passes and places a cube in the passing area. White, and then Black, each take a talent from the supply. Blue passes. Phase II ends. Red receives no talent.
B) Recruit
The player selects one of the Craft cards in one of the card groups, and pays (to the general supply) talents equal to the number of cards in that group which have already been turned face down:
- the player chooses the first card in a group for no cost,
- the player chooses the second card in a group for 1 talent, and
- the player chooses the third card in a group for 2 talents.
The player then flips the chosen card upside-down (so that the "Talent" face is now face up) and carries out the corresponding action.
Example: if a player wants to recruit the remaining priest (the purple card) in the second group, he must pay 2 talents. The peasant (the yellow card) in the third group will cost 1 talent.
The four Craft actions are:
1. Peasant. The player adds one cube from his supply to one of the two fields and takes a resource token from the general supply of the type corresponding to the space he placed the cube on. The player adds the token to his supply.
Available fields: the fields have two rows that are filled from left to right. The only spaces available for the player to place a peasant on are the leftmost empty ones. The cubes remain in a row until the row is full.
Full row: when all spaces in a row are full, the player with the most cubes in the row receives a Gardener card, as long as one is left in the supply. If players are tied, no one gains the card. In any case, the row is emptied and each player's cubes are returned to his supply.
Wine: in this game, Wine is a wild resource. A Wine token can replace any other resource (except for camels and talents).
Example: during his turn, Blue recruits a peasant. Blue chooses to add a cube to the bottom row and takes a Wine token from the supply. The row is full. Red, having a majority of cubes in the row, takes a "Gardener" card from the supply, adding it to his own supply. The players empty the bottom row. Had Blue chosen the top row, he would have taken a Barley token without emptying the row.
2. Priest. The player adds one cube from his supply to a temple.
Available spaces: each temple has a row divided into four spaces that is filled from left to right. Whenever a player adds a cube to a temple, he places it on the leftmost space and shifts any cubes already in the temple one space to the right. If a row is full when a shift occurs, then the rightmost cube is expelled from the temple and its owner gets it back (it goes back into that player's supply). The temples will yield bonuses to players with majorities during phase III (see below).
Example: during his turn, Black recruits a priest and chooses to assign him to the Ishtar temple. Black places a cube onto the leftmost space of that temple and pushes all of the cubes which were already there one space to the right. He expels the red cube which was in the rightmost space and returns it to its owner.
3. Engineer. The player places one of the cubes from his supply onto one of the available irrigation areas in the garden and scores 2 prestige points. This area is now irrigated; from now on, placing another cube onto it is not allowed.
Irrigation areas: irrigation areas are indicated by little blue wave symbols between two Garden tiles. On the higher floors, there are two wave symbols next to one another. They represent two distinct areas.
Available areas: the gardens are diamond-shaped. Two sides of that diamond are adjacent to the river (the blue line on the board). In order to place a cube onto an irrigation area, a player must be able to trace an unbroken line of irrigated areas, leading from the area in question back to the river. The path may be composed in whole or in part by irrigated areas belonging to other players. NB: non-irrigated areas along the edge of the river are always available.
Example: during his turn, White recruits an engineer. He can place the cube on any of the areas marked by a white X. These areas lead to the river either directly (green line) or by following an unbroken line of irrigated areas (yellow line). White scores 2 prestige points. Areas marked with a red X cannot be irrigated for now, since they cannot reach the river.
4. Merchant. The player takes a camel token from the general supply and adds it to his personal supply.
Example: during his turn, Red recruits a merchant. Red takes a camel from the general supply and adds it to his personal supply.
C) Move the Caravan
The Caravan moves in the clockwise direction. The player may move it by paying 1 camel per space he moves. Additionally, the player may have an extra movement bonus, depending on his Caravaneer level:
- Level 0 (+0): the player moves the Caravan a number of spaces equal to the number of camels he pays.
- Level 1 (+2): the player may move the Caravan up to 2 spaces more than the number of camels he pays.
- Level 2 (+4): the player may move the Caravan up to 4 spaces more than the number of camels he pays.
Movement: whenever a player chooses to move the Caravan, he must move it at least 1 space (the Caravan may not remain on the same space). Additionally, he must pay at least 1 camel to move the Caravan, regardless of his Caravaneer level.
Trade: the player must perform an action on the space where the Caravan ended its movement. Thus, the player may only move the Caravan if he can carry out at least one of the actions associated with the space he moved to.
Example: it is Red's turn. The player (who owns a level-1 Caravaneer card) moves the Caravan. He pays one camel and may move the Caravan 1, 2, or 3 spaces in the clockwise direction.
a) Selling in Babylon. The player sells resource tokens (of one or several types) to the supply to earn prestige points and place free irrigation (no additional points are scored for this irrigation). Placing the irrigation is mandatory. Players may not sell resource tokens in any cities other than Babylon.
- 1 resource → 3 prestige points plus one free irrigation
- 2 resources → 6 prestige points plus one free irrigation
b) Buying Court cards. The player buys a Court card of a type shown on the space where the Caravan's move ended. To do so, the player pays one token to the supply of the resource type asked for by the city in which the Caravan is located, and then chooses one of the two types of Court cards available in that city:
- If the player doesn't own any Court cards of the chosen type yet, then he takes the corresponding level-1 card.
- If the player already owns 1 or more Court cards of the chosen type, he takes the card that is one level higher than the highest card of the corresponding type he already owns; he covers any previous cards of that type with the new one. Only the new card remains in effect.
NB: when a player buys a level-2 Caravaneer card, he takes the resource token on it and adds it to his personal supply. When a player buys a Palace card, he immediately scores the prestige points indicated on it. Once the supply of a particular Court card is exhausted, that card type is unavailable for the rest of the game. Any players who have not yet progressed to that card's level will be unable to do so (or progress to higher levels) for the rest of the game.
Example: Red moves the Caravan into the city of Uruk. The player pays a Date (orange) token and may choose either a Caravaneer or a Banker Court card. Since Red does not own a Banker yet, he may choose either a level-1 Banker card or the level-2 Caravaneer card. Red chooses the latter option and covers his level-1 Caravaneer card with the level-2 card, adding the Palm token to his personal supply. Had the level-1 Banker card been unavailable, Red would have been forced to take the level-2 Caravaneer card. Red would then not be allowed to choose a Banker card for the rest of the game.
c) Buying plants. The player buys the plant shown on the space where the Caravan's move ended. To do so, the player pays one token to the supply of the resource type asked for by the city where the Caravan is located, plus one token of the resource type shown on the plant card (if any). Then, the plant is immediately planted in the garden (see Planting, below). The Plant card is then turned over.
Example: White moves the Caravan into the city of Mari. The player pays a Barley and a Palm token to the supply and plants a plant. Then, he turns the Plant card over.
Planting
The gardens have sixteen squares on four floors. The players "plant" the cards they bought on the Mesopotamia board on these squares. The act of "planting" consists of choosing and removing a Garden tile (the Plant card remains on the Mesopotamia board). To be allowed to plant, the player must satisfy several criteria:
Irrigation: to choose a square, at least one of its sides must be fully irrigated. This means that for squares whose sides feature two irrigation areas, both areas on at least one side must be filled for the square to be fully irrigated. NB: the plants on the lowest floor of the gardens are not considered to be irrigated by the river.
Plant quality: to choose a square, the quality of the plant to be planted must at least equal the level of the floor. For instance, placing a quality-1 plant on the third floor is not allowed. However, placing a quality-2 plant on the first floor is allowed. NB: as there are no quality-4 plants, planting on the fourth floor of the gardens only requires a quality of 3.
Gardeners: the player may use Gardener cards to improve the quality of the plants he plants. Each discarded Gardener improves the quality of a plant by 1. For example, a player may use one Gardener card to place a quality-2 plant on the third floor. Return Gardener cards used in this way to the supply. NB: a player may use two Gardener cards to place a quality-1 plant on the third or fourth floor.
Example: White plants a quality-2 plant. The plant can be planted on any of the squares marked with an A; to plant on B (third floor), the player would have to discard a Gardener card to meet the quality requirement. Planting on C (not fully irrigated) or on D (previously planted) is not allowed.
Planting: the player selects a legal square (i.e., one which meets all of the requirements listed above), takes the Garden tile on it, and immediately earns any prestige points and other bonuses indicated on the tile. From now on, no other plant may be planted on this square.
Example: White chooses to plant on the square above. The player takes the tile, places it in his play area, scores 4 prestige points, and takes 2 talents from the general supply. Black wins the irrigation bonus, since he has the most cubes around the newly-planted square. Black scores 2 prestige points.
Irrigation bonus: once the Garden tile has been removed, the player counts the irrigation cubes around the newly-planted square. The player with the most cubes scores prestige points equal to the quality of the plant which has just been planted (indicated by the number of symbols on the Plant card). In the case of a tie, no player scores. NB: Gardener cards used by the player do not affect the irrigation bonus. The bonus is dependent on the base quality of the plant.
Automatic irrigation: once the Garden tile has been removed, the player checks to see if the newly-planted square is adjacent to one or more previously-planted plants. If so, he uses neutral (gray) cubes to irrigate any unoccupied irrigation areas between the plants. NB: expanding the irrigation network (by recruiting an engineer or by selling resources in Babylon) outwards from a neutral cube is allowed.
Example: the tile White removes is adjacent to another previously-planted plant. He places a neutral cube between the two plants.
III) End of the Turn
This phase begins once all players have passed in phase II. The following actions are carried out in order:
1. Procession. The player to the right of the first player takes one of the cubes from his personal supply and adds it to the temple of his choice (following the usual rules for priest placement). Then, the player adds one neutral cube to each of the other two temples (again following the usual rules for priest placement).
Example: during this round, Black went last. He chooses to add a cube to Marduk's temple (in the center), and adds a neutral (gray) cube to each of the other two temples.
2. Temples. Each player counts how many cubes he has in each temple. Players with the majority in a temple are rewarded. NB: do not count neutral cubes when determining majorities. Additionally, if a player is alone in a temple, he only receives the reward for first place — there is no second-place reward in this case.
- Ishtar: the first-place player takes either 1 camel or 1 talent from the supply. The second-place player takes whichever item was not taken by the first-place player.
- Marduk: the first-place player takes 2 prestige points. The second-place player takes 1 prestige point.
- Tammouz: the first-place player adds a cube to one of the two fields and takes the corresponding resource token from the supply (following the usual rules for peasant placement). The second-place player may exchange one of his resource tokens with one from the general supply. He may not choose a Wine (purple) token. NB: if the action of the first-place player fills one of the rows, the Gardener card is distributed and the row emptied as usual.
Draws in the temples: if players are tied for the majority in a temple, the tied player with the rightmost cube wins the tie.
- 2 players: the player with the majority receives the reward for first place. There is no second-place reward.
Example: in the temple of Ishtar (on the left), Blue and Red are tied with one cube each, but Red's cube is further to the right and, therefore, wins the draw. Red chooses to take a camel from the general supply; Blue takes a talent. In the temple of Marduk (in the center), Black has two cubes. White has only one cube and takes second place. Black scores 2 prestige points; White scores 1 prestige point. In the temple of Tammouz (on the right), White, Red, and Black have one cube each. However, Black's is furthest to the right, followed by Red. Black adds a cube to a field and receives the corresponding resource token; Red may then exchange one of his resource tokens with one from the general supply (except Wine). White receives nothing this turn.
3. Supply. All players adjust their resource token supply according to their Caravaneer level:
- Level 0 & 1: players may keep a maximum of 2 resource tokens.
- Level 2: players may keep a maximum of 4 resource tokens.
Players follow turn order when choosing which resource tokens to discard. Excess tokens are returned to the general supply. Players may keep unlimited quantities of camels and talents.
4. First player. The start player passes the First player card to the player to his left.
End of the Game
- 2 players: as soon as there are 3 or fewer Garden tiles left, the game ends at the end of the round.
- 3 & 4 players: as soon as there are 4 or fewer Garden tiles left, the game ends at the end of the round.
Amyitis' favor is granted depending on the number of Garden tiles the players own:
- 2 players: 5 or 6 tiles → 5 points; 7 or more tiles → 10 points
- 3 players: 4 or 5 tiles → 5 points; 6 or more tiles → 10 points
- 4 players: 3 or 4 tiles → 5 points; 5 or more tiles → 10 points
NB: these bonuses are shown on the Amyitis cards.
Finally, each player scores 1 prestige point for each resource token remaining in his supply (camels and talents are worth nothing).
The player with the most prestige points wins the game. In the event of a tie, all tied players for the most win.