Ankh: Gods of Egypt – Pharaoh Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• New Concepts
  • Pharaoh Cards
  • Pharaoh Figure
  • Priests
  • Political Cards
  • Palace Board
  • Sphinx
• Additional Setup Rules
• Special Rules
  • Summon Figure
  • Move Figures
  • Control Monument
    • Room Effects
  • Playing Political Cards
  • Merging Gods
• Special Clarifications
  • Scenarios
  • Pharaohs
    • Ramses
    • Xerxes
    • Amenhotep
    • Tutankhamun
    • Akhenaten

Components

• 31 figures: 1 Golden Pharaoh (neutral figure) and 3 Priests for each of the ten gods Anubis, Amun, Isis, Horus, Hathor, Bastet, Thoth, Seth, Ra and Osiris.
• 5 Sphinx tokens
• 4 Pharaoh tokens
• 1 Pharaoh Death token
• 5 Pharaoh cards
• 40 Political cards
• 5 reference cards
• 1 Palace Board

New Concepts

Pharaoh Cards

When playing with this expansion you choose 1 of the 5 available Pharaoh cards. Each card embodies a legendary Pharaoh and, like the scenarios, adds additional rules to the game. Any Pharaoh can be used in any of the scenarios to make the game more interesting and varied.

Note: if you are playing for the first time, we recommend using Amenhotep.

Pharaoh Figure

The Pharaoh is a neutral figure that is always on the board and affects the game in various ways depending on its Pharaoh card. The Pharaoh occupies spaces and moves in the same way as any other figure. The Pharaoh cannot be killed unless the rules state otherwise.

Priests

At the start of the game each player has 3 Priests in their pool. Use them to strengthen your influence in the different rooms of the Palace Board, gaining advantages for your god. As a rule, Priests cannot end up on the board. When you perform the Summon Figure action, you also summon 1 of your Priests into a room of the Palace Board. When you perform the Move Figures action, you may also move your Priests into adjacent rooms.

Note: this expansion also includes the Priest figures of the 5 gods from the Pantheon expansion.

Political Cards

Control of certain rooms of the Palace Board lets you gain Political cards. These cards allow special effects when performing various actions. When you play a Political card, place it on the table in the same way as a Battle card. When you return Battle cards to your hand, you also return your Political cards. You may have any number of Political cards.

Palace Board

Place the Palace Board next to the Central Dashboard. Each of the 4 rooms of the Palace Board represents one of the departments. Each room may hold any number of Priests, providing various advantages to your god. At the end of each Control Monument event, check, for each room in turn, which god has the most Priests there. The god with the most Priests in a room removes its Priests from that room and resolves the room's effects. One of these effects is choosing one of the available Political cards displayed in the lower part of the Palace Board.

Sphinx

A Sphinx is a special type of Monument that cannot be built in the normal way. The only way to place a Sphinx on the board is to gain control of the War Room and replace one of your controlled Monuments with a Sphinx.

A Sphinx counts as a Monument of any type (Obelisk, Temple or Pyramid) in all situations except when determining control of the majority of Monuments, where it counts as a Monument of a special type. This means that in each Conflict event you can gain the reward for controlling the majority of Sphinxes, and you can use your Sphinxes together with the Ankh powers Obelisk Attuned, Temple Attuned and Pyramid Attuned.

In addition, Sphinxes have special properties that depend on the ruling Pharaoh. At the bottom of each Pharaoh card is a unique "Sphinx Riddle" effect. If you control the War Room, you may also use the "Sphinx Riddle" effect to gain a reward directly tied to the number of Sphinxes you control.

You can gain control of an opponent's Sphinx only if no neutral Monuments remain on the board. If no Sphinxes remain in the general supply, a new one cannot be added to the board. However, if a Sphinx is destroyed, its token returns to the supply.

Additional Setup Rules

Use these steps in addition to the setup of the base game.

1. Place the Palace Board next to the Central Dashboard.
2. Shuffle the Political card deck and place it face down on the leftmost space of the Palace Board. Take 3 Political cards and place them face up on the spaces to the right of the deck.
3. Each player adds 2 Priests to their pool and places the third in the Chamber of Law on the Palace Board. It is most convenient to keep the Priest pool next to the Palace Board, separate from the Warriors, so that each player can see how many Priests are available to them.
4. Each player takes 1 reference card.
5. Place the 5 Sphinx tokens next to the War Room so that it is visible how many remain. Sphinxes count as part of the general supply.
6. Choose one of the Pharaohs together or at random. Following the instructions on their card, place the Pharaoh figure on the board, not forgetting any additional setup rules that are listed there.

Special Rules

Besides the special rules of each Pharaoh, this expansion changes the resolution of 2 of the 4 actions and 1 event.

Summon Figure

When you summon a figure onto the board, you also summon 1 Priest from your pool into ANY room of the Palace Board, if possible.

Move Figures

In addition to moving figures on the board, you may move each of your Priests in the Palace to an adjacent room. Note that not all rooms are adjacent to each other.

Control Monument

At the end of each Control Monument event, resolve the effects of the Palace Board. In each room where there is at least 1 Priest, determine which god controls the majority of Priests in that room. The rooms are resolved in order:

• 1 • Chamber of Law
• 2 • War Room
• 3 • Court of Civil Affairs
• 4 • Throne Room

You control a room if you have more of your Priests there than any of your opponents. In case of a tie, the contender with the lowest Devotion wins. The player who controls a room does the following:

• Returns all of their Priests from that room to their pool. The Priests of the other players (who do not control the room) remain in the room.
• Resolves the room's effect(s).

After the effects of all the rooms have been resolved, place new cards from the Political deck on the empty spaces in the lower part of the Palace Board.

Room Effects

1 – Chamber of Law

Choose one of two options:

• First, choose one of the open Political cards and take it into your hand.

OR

• Remove 1 of your Political cards (played or not) from the game, so that each of your opponents immediately loses 1 Devotion.

2 – War Room

You may replace 1 of your Monuments on the board with a Sphinx (if one is available). Place your Ankh token next to the Sphinx to show your control over it. The replaced Monument is returned to the general supply.

Then resolve the "Sphinx Riddle" effect shown at the bottom of the ruling Pharaoh's card.

3 – Court of Civil Affairs

Choose and take into your hand 1 of the remaining open Political cards, and gain 2 Followers.

4 – Throne Room

Choose and take into your hand 1 of the remaining open Political cards, and move the Pharaoh figure up to 3 spaces. The Pharaoh may pass through spaces occupied by other figures and Monuments, Water spaces, rivers and Camel Caravans, but must end its movement on an empty space that is not a Water space.

Note: each time you receive a Political card through a room effect, do not place a new card in its place. Place the new Political cards only after the effects of all the rooms have been resolved. Do not discard unclaimed Political cards.

Playing Political Cards

Once per action, after moving the Action marker, you may play 1 Political card from your hand either before or after resolving that action, but before the event it triggers occurs. Thus, by performing 2 actions in a turn you may play up to 2 Political cards. If you have performed only 1 action, you may play only 1 Political card.

When you play a Political card, place it face up in front of you (next to your other Political cards and Battle cards) and apply the effect printed on it. A played Political card cannot be used again until it returns to your hand.

Each time you return Battle cards to your hand, whether with the Cycle of Ma'at card or in any other way, you also return to your hand all the Political cards you have played.

Important: Political cards are not secret. At any time during the game, any player may ask you to show everyone your Political cards.

Merging Gods

When gods merge, remove from the game the Priests and Political cards of the junior god (the lower-merging god). Both players use the Priests and Political cards of the senior god (the higher-merging god).

Since the single merged god performs only 1 action per turn, each of the two players may play only 1 Political card per turn.

Special Clarifications

Scenarios

Two Capitals. The Pharaoh may occupy spaces adjacent to cities, but when determining control of the cities it is not counted.

Dynastic Strife. In this scenario it is better not to use Xerxes. If you still want to do so, note that because of the constant loss of Devotion, the chances of all players being eliminated increase considerably. Victory is possible, but very difficult.

Great Restoration. In this scenario there is a supply of Sphinx tokens. When you replace a Monument with a Sphinx, return that Monument to the supply of its owner.

If the ruling Pharaoh is Ramses, do not confuse the Infantry tokens with the neutral Monuments.

Guardians of Kemet. Also resolve the effects of the Palace Board AFTER each "Struggle for the Guardians" event.

Pharaohs

Ramses

Infantry Blockade. Infantry cannot occupy Water spaces. Each space may hold only 1 Infantry. Figures and tokens cannot occupy spaces with Infantry. If Infantry is adjacent to a figure on a Water space, do not count that figure's strength in the Battles in which it takes part.

Leading the Way. Resolve this effect after all the other effects that occur at the end of a Conflict event. Having done so, remove the Pharaoh token from the game.

Placing Pharaoh tokens. During setup, as a reminder, place the Pharaoh tokens on the Event track in addition to the other tokens used in this scenario.

Infantry Review. You must place Infantry on the board while there are empty spaces in the region.

Xerxes

Placing the Pharaoh figure. Unlike the other Pharaohs, Xerxes is placed on the board by the first player, not the last.

Tyrant. Xerxes does not allow Devotion to be gained in the region, including Devotion from cards and other effects resolved after a Battle (for example the Miracle card or the Worshipful power).

Amenhotep

Sphinx Riddle. Place all discarded cards in the discard pile. Whenever you need to reveal or draw a card and the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile and form a new deck. If there are fewer cards left in the deck than you need to reveal, reveal all the remaining cards.

Adored. A Devotion bonus stacks with any other bonuses.

Tutankhamun

Resurrecting. Resolve this effect after all the other effects that occur at the end of a Conflict event.

Sphinx Riddle. Resolve this effect after Tutankhamun's death, counting that he has 3 Pharaoh tokens.

Chosen. In each Conflict event, first resolve the region with Tutankhamun, then all the other regions in the usual order (1, 2, 3 and so on), skipping Tutankhamun's region. This rule does not affect the placing of Conflict Order tokens.

Placing Pharaoh tokens. During setup, as a reminder, place the Pharaoh tokens on the Event track in addition to the other tokens used in this scenario.

Legacy of the Young King. After Tutankhamun's death, players may not summon or move Priests into the Throne Room.

Akhenaten

Great Unifier. You may keep your Priests and Warriors in one pool, since one counts as the other.

Note: if when performing the Summon Figure action you do not have enough Warriors or Priests in your pool, you may summon the figure either into the Palace or onto the board.

Sphinx Riddle. You may summon Apep only on a Water space adjacent to a Sphinx. Unut may be summoned only adjacent to a Sphinx.

They are drawn to him! You may summon Apep only on a Water space in the region with the Pharaoh. Unut may be summoned only into the region with the Pharaoh.