Blacksmith Brothers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Game Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Allocation Phase
  • Resolution Phase
    • Event: Resources Dice Rolling
    • Event: Activation of Building Actions
  • Castle
  • Guild
  • Village
  • Mine
  • Cart Load
  • The Forge
  • Market
  • Noble's House
  • Skill Tokens
  • Event: Move the King Marker
  • Special Tokens
  • Event: Replacement of Order Cards
• End Game and Scoring
  • Royal Seals Penalty
  • Scoring Example

Game Overview

In Blacksmith Brothers, players will control their two blacksmith meeples of one color by placing them in certain places in the Kingdom of Hammer Stones (center board) to perform specific actions. In general, players must obtain mineral resources such as gold, silver, iron, copper and coal, transport them to their forges (individual board), in order to forge weapons and other items, which later will be sold to the Nobles of the Kingdom in exchange for prestige and improvements to his/her forge.

During the game, the king will activate some special event tokens that will modify the general rules of the game, helping or hindering all players in the search for prestige points and the much desired position of kingdom's blacksmith.

At the end of the game, the player who has obtained more prestige with the Nobles and the King, who has the more evolved forge and more valuable resources is the winner.

Game Components

• A - 1 main board
• B - 4 player boards
• C - 35 cards of weapons and items
• D - 58 resource crystals:
  • 8 gold crystal (golden)
  • 9 silver crystal (silver)
  • 10 iron crystal (orange)
  • 11 copper crystal (bronze)
  • 20 coal crystal (black)
• E - 8 meeples, 2 per player
• F - 28 wooden cubes, 7 per player
• G - 14 special tokens
• H - 25 skill tokens
• I - 25 royal seals
• J - 1 king marker
• K - 1 guild master card
• L - 2 resource dice
• M - 4 player aid cards
• N - 1 rulebook

Setup

Separate components according to the example below, which represents a game for four players. Follow the steps below for the game setup.

Steps of the Setup:

1. Place the central board in the middle of the table (A).
2. Each player receives an individual board (B), 2 meeples of the same color (E) and 7 cubes of the same color (F).
3. Shuffle the order cards and take randomly an equal amount to the number of players, putting them face up in the indicated spaces on the board and leaving the ones that are left as a face-down purchase pile (C).
4. Separate the special skill tokens (H) by type and put them near the central board.
5. Separate the royal seal tokens and leave them near the central board (I).
6. Separate the crystals by type (gold = gold, silver = silver, iron = orange, copper = bronze, and coal = black) and leave them near the central board (D).
7. Shuffle the special tokens and put seven of them, randomly, face down, in places listed in the main board (G), returning the ones not used to the game box.
8. The person who has a twin brother is the starting player (or his twin brother, after all, no one knows who is who). Otherwise, randomly choose the starting player. The starting player receives the Guild Master card.
9. Place the king marker in the castle (J).
10. All set, the game can start!

How to Play

Blacksmith Brothers is played over several rounds, where players will take turns to (a) allocate their blacksmith markers (the meeples) in certain places of the Kingdom of Hammer Stones, in order to perform different actions (b).

Each round consists of two phases:

• (a) ALLOCATION PHASE and
• (b) RESOLUTION PHASE.

Allocation Phase

During the allocation phase, players will alternate in turns to put their meeples in different places of the Kingdom, beginning with the starting player (the player with the Guild Master card).

Each player will place a meeple at a time, in other words, will allocate one of his/her meeples, following to the next player on your left, who will also put one of his/her meeples, repeating this process until everyone has allocated all two meeples.

During the allocation phase, the actions of the places are not yet performed. In this phase, players are only "reserving" the place to take action during the next phase of the round, the Resolution Phase.

The places that allow the allocation of meeples are those that have the symbol of a golden crown, and each place accepts a specific amount of meeples in each allocation phase, depending on the number of players.

This limit can be observed according to the number of meeple symbols that each place shows, followed by a number representing the number of players. (For example, in the mine, in games with 2 players, the limit is 2 meeples; in games with 3 players the limit is 3 meeples; in games with 4 players the limit is 4 meeples). In places with the infinite symbol there is no limit to the amount of meeples.

Players can place their meeples in places already containing their own meeple, once it has not exceeded the place's limit. (For example, if the player allocates two meeples in the mine, the two meeples perform the action together at the resolution phase).

When a meeple is in the same place as the King marker in the resolution phase, the player can collect a royal seal (besides the place's action).

Resolution Phase

After all players allocate their blacksmith meeples, the allocation phase ends and the Resolution Phase begins. During the Resolution Phase, the steps below must be followed in this specific order:

1. Resources dice rolling
2. Activation of the Building actions
3. Move the King Marker forward
4. Replacement of order cards

Event: Resources Dice Rolling

To execute this event the player who owns the Guild Master card, in other words, the initial player, must get the two resource dice and roll each once. With the results preserved, the dice must be placed at the reserved place for them in the center of the board (marked "L" in the setup illustration, pages 2-3).

Event: Activation of Building Actions

After the resource dice rolling, we start the central event of the game, which is the activation of the actions related to the places of the board.

At the activation of these place actions, each player will perform the action corresponding to where each of the player's meeples is. Unlike the allocation phase, at this phase each player will activate the place actions of all of his/her two blacksmith meeples, in other words, before moving on to the next player, who also will activate the place actions of his/her two meeples. This resolution begins with the starting player (the one who has the Guild Master card).

To activate the action, the player must remove his/her meeple from a place and put it back close to their individual board, thus available to be allocated in the next round on a new allocation phase.

The activation of meeples' order will be determined by the player who is running the actions, in other words, the player's turn. However, the action of each place (of each meeple) should be fully executed before starting the next action (his other meeple).

Each of the places may have a basic action (without cost), a complementary action (which is available from the beginning of the game and usually has a cost of royal seals), and special actions (which will be revealed during the game through the special tokens and which also have a cost of royal seals).

The main board has the following places available to players:

• (a) Castle
• (b) The Guild
• (c) The Forge
• (d) Cart Load
• (e) The Mine
• (f) Noble's House
• (g) Village
• (h) Market

Let's have a look at the basic actions and the complementary actions of each of the places (special actions are determined by special tokens that will be revealed during the game):

Castle

The King's Castle is the center of power in Hammer Stones and those seeking the king's goodness at the Castle receive financial support, the king's aid, which will be represented by a royal seal.

• Basic Action: None
• Complementary Action (cost 0): The player may collect 1 royal seal token

Guild

Center of craft decisions of blacksmiths, the Guild focuses the knowledge and political decisions exercised by those who venture in the art of forging.

• Basic Action: The player wins the guild master card (becoming the starting player)
• Complementary Action (cost 0): The player has the option of moving the king marker 1 more space forward on track.

Village

Meeting point of the main riders of the Kingdom, the Village is the ideal place for a Blacksmith to negotiate an order for his forge.

• Basic Action: The player can choose one of the order cards available to put in his forge (at the bottom of your individual board).
  • You can only have one order card at a time in the forge, unless you have the double work ability.
• Complementary Action (cost 1): The player can exchange an order card from his/her forge for another that is available in the Village, OR you can take the top order card of the order deck. This action can only be performed one time per turn by a player.

Mine

At the center of the kingdom lies the Mine, where blacksmiths seek for precious resources necessary for the production of their orders.

• Basic Action: The player will use the sum of the dice results to acquire resources according to the value of each resource type. Any remaining value is not used.
  • Resource values: GOLD = 6, SILVER = 5, IRON = 4, COPPER = 3, COAL = 2.
  • For example, the dice results are 3 and 5, which sum is 8. The player can take 1 gold and 1 coal, or one iron and one copper, or 4 coal, or 2 coppers, or 1 silver and 1 coal, or any resource combination in which the sum of the resources' values matches or is smaller than the sum of the dice values.

The resources collected at the mine are placed directly in the player's baskets (right side of the individual board), to then be transported to the player's forge (central part of the individual board).

The resources will be placed in ascending order in the baskets of the players, that is, they should be placed from the lowest number to the highest. If all spaces are already occupied, the player cannot get resources through the mine.

If the space "3" is occupied at the beginning of a player's Resolution Phase, the sum of the results of the resource dice is reduced by 2.

If the space "6" is occupied at the beginning of a player's Resolution Phase, the sum of the results of the resource dice is reduced by 3. This reduction is not cumulative with the previous.

If the player's forge (central part) is already full, it cannot collect resources at the mine and loses 3 resources of his/her forge to the general stock (the choice of the starting player).

While the resources are in the player's baskets, they cannot be used to forge the orders and obtain prestige points at the end of the game.

If the player has allocated his/her two meeples in the mine, the sum of the results of the resource dice is doubled and he/she can collect the resources with this new value.

• Complementary Action (cost 1): The player can use royal seals to add "+3" to the sum of the results of the dice to collect resources at the mine. The actual amount of royal seals that can be used for this complementary action is limited to the number of players in the game. Example: in a 3-player game, each player can use up to 3 royal seals, adding +3 to the sum of the results of the dice for each royal seal spent.

Cart Load

Near the mine, several conveyors are preparing to load resources to the blacksmith's workplace, and they collaborate with the creation of the most beautiful and deadly weapons of the Kingdom.

• Basic Action: The player can transfer as many resources as he/she wants from their baskets (right of the individual board) to his/her workplace (central of the individual board). The resources will only be transported if there is enough space. Otherwise, the player may choose which resources to transfer until the limit of the workplace. The resources in the player's workplace can be used to forge order cards and also to be worth prestige points at the end of the game.
• Complementary Action (cost 1): The player can exchange up to 1 royal seal for one or more resources which together add up to the value of "4" and put directly into the workplace.

The Forge

Sacred place to the blacksmiths. The workplace is open day and night so the King's weapons are forged and ensure the Kingdom's safety.

• Basic Action: The player can pay with the resources indicated on an order card not forged (bottom of the individual board) with the resources that are already in his/her workplace (central part of the individual board).
  • In this way the player returns the resources spent to the general stock and places the order card on the top of his/her individual board (face down). This card can now be used to buy prestige points in the Noble's House.
• Complementary Action (cost 1): If the player pays 1 royal seal, he/she may re-roll the resource dice once. This action can only be executed once per turn and per player.

Market

While some seek resources in the mine, others prefer the market dynamics, which set its price according to the scarcity or abundance of the gold.

• Basic Action: None
• Complementary Action (cost 1): The player may use up to the maximum of 1 royal seal to acquire resources that will go directly to your workplace. The value of the royal seal is calculated as follows:
  • 12 LESS the amount of gold in the overall stock.
  • For example, if there are 3 gold crystals in stock, the royal seal is worth "9". If there are 6 gold crystals in the general stock, the royal seal is worth "6".
  • The calculated value of the seal will buy the resources by the value indicated in the mine. Thus, if the seal's value is "9", the player can buy 1 gold and 1 copper, which will go directly to his/her workplace (central part of the individual board), and those can already be used to forge order cards or to be worth prestige points at the end of the game.

Noble's House

Every self-respecting blacksmith who wants to take their works to be sold in the Noble's House, for only thus are they able to gain fame and prestige in the Kingdom. Besides that, the nobles usually invest in improvements to the forges of young blacksmiths.

• Basic Action: In this place the player acquires prestige points using one or more of their forged order cards (those that are on the top of its individual board). The player cannot have two consecutive cubes in the same row.
  • Each order card has a value in the lower right corner that can be used to purchase a position of prestige points. To purchase the points, the player chooses a row in the prestige scroll and pays the amount equivalent, discarding cards already forged that will add or exceed the value of the line.
  • With this, the player must place a cube of their color in the leftmost clear space of the selected line, and the number that remains under its cube represents the amount of prestige points earned (the total score will be at the end of the game).
  • If you use more than one card, these values are added together; however, the number of cubes to be placed is always equal to the number of meeples of that player using the Noble's House. Thus, if the same player puts 2 meeples in this place, he/she can purchase 2 positions of prestige points, and may discard one or more cards to pay the sum of the value of the two positions.
  • After placing your cube on a prestige point space, the player will choose one of the ability tokens to put on their individual board, thereby gaining an improvement for his/her forge. At the end of the game, each LINE of the improvements of the individual player board that is filled with tokens will give 3 prestige points to the player. Similarly, each COLUMN that is filled with tokens will give 4 prestige points.
• Complementary Action (cost 1): If the player pays 1 royal seal, it can add +3 to the value of his/her forged order card(s) to acquire prestige points. The players can only use this complementary action 2 times per round, that is, you can only spend up to 2 royal seals to increase the acquisition value.
  • In the example below, the player is using two order cards already forged, adding up the value of 35 (23 + 12). With this the player can buy points in the line with a cost of 30 (the surplus is lost), and so put the cube on the score, which in this case is 5 points. The yellow player could not buy this line now, as it cannot have two cubes of the same color in a row. If the player spent two royal seals to increase the value to 41, they could get points on the line 40.

Skill Tokens

Whenever the player acquires a position of prestige points, he may choose a skill token to put in his/her workplace. These tokens represent forge improvements and each provides a specific and cumulative benefit, and ensures victory points as explained above. The benefits of each one are:

• Noble's Favorite: The player will have +1 on the card value offered when acquiring prestige points at the Noble's House.
• Royal Forge: The player gains +1 Royal Seal whenever he/she forges an order card.
• Extractor Master: The player will have a +2 bonus to the sum of the results of the dice when collecting resources at the Mine.
• Furnace: Each order card costs -1 coal crystal to be forged.
• Double Work: The player's workplace may have +1 order card not forged at the same time, and one blacksmith can forge all orders at once.

Event: Move the King Marker

After all places have been activated, the starting player will move the king marker one space forward on the Kingdom trail. In the first movement of the King in the game, he will leave the Castle moving toward the Guild, following this direction throughout the game. The spaces where the King marker must pass are marked with crown symbols. If during the move of the King he reaches a golden crown, the special token related to this place shall be revealed. From there, this special token will have effects in the game.

Special Tokens

Special tokens represent special situations that will change the dynamics of a Blacksmith Brothers game, sometimes subtly modifying the general rules, sometimes adding new rules to the game.

During the preparation of the game, 7 special tokens are placed face down at certain places of the board, and the remaining tokens will be returned to the game box (without anyone seeing their content), indicating that those won't be used in this game.

Whenever the King marker reaches a place with the golden crown, the special token on that place will be revealed and will have its effects applied.

We have two types of special tokens, depending on their use:

• (a) special constant tokens (green background)
• (b) special activation tokens (gray background)

Constant tokens are applied from the moment they are revealed, independently of having or not a meeple of any player in that place. Their effects are applied to all players.

On the other hand, the activation tokens only have effects applied to players that are activating the place where this special token is; in other words, to have effect, the player must have a meeple at the same place.

The special tokens have no printed names; they are identified below by their icons.

Constant tokens (green background):

• Dice icon "+2": The sum of the results of the dice is increased by +2 during the game.
• Dice icon "+1": The sum of the results of the dice is increased by +1 during the game.
• Dice icon "-1": The sum of the results of the dice is decreased by -1 during the match.
• Crown-to-meeple icon: In localities where the King marker is, it is only possible to allocate 1 meeple.
• Royal seal to Noble's House icon: The first royal seal will be worth +6 to acquire prestige points in the Noble's House.
• Mine reduction icon: The reduction in the sum of the results of the dice when collecting resources at the mine is not applied.
• Noble's House price icon ("20" to "5"): To acquire any prestige point position value "5", the cost will be 20. For example: all points of the 30 value line cost now only 20.

Activation tokens (gray background):

• Royal seal icon: The player who is at this place will win a royal seal.
• Royal seal "1 to -2" icon: The player who is at this place can discard 1 royal seal to get 2 royal seals of another player.
• Re-roll dice icon: The player who is at this place may re-roll 1 resource die once.
• Royal seal "2 to order card" icon: The player who is at this place can discard 2 royal seals to exchange his/her order card not forged with the card from another player.
• Royal seal "3 to remove meeple" icon: The player who is at this place may discard 3 royal seals to take out 1 meeple from another player that is in the board. This meeple will return to the game in the next round.
• Royal seal "2 to lock meeple" icon: The player who is at this place can discard 2 royal seals to lock 1 meeple (his/her or of another player) at the board. This meeple will be laid down in that place until the next resolution phase, when it will be able to activate that place.
• Meeple-removal icon: The last player to put his/her meeple at this place can remove a meeple that is already there, returning it to its player, who can allocate it in another place.

Event: Replacement of Order Cards

After the move of the King marker, draw new order cards to replace the ones collected in this turn and fill the spaces reserved for them on the board, if necessary.

End Game and Scoring

The game ends at the end of the round in which the king marker returns to the Castle, OR at the end of the round in which a player has completed all areas of improvements in his/her workplace (left part of the individual board).

The players score as follows:

1. The values under the cubes in the prestige scroll.
2. For each full line of improvement tokens in his/her workplace, the player earns 3 prestige points.
3. For each full column of improvement tokens in his/her workplace, the player earns 4 prestige points.
4. 1 prestige point for each multiple of 10 related to the value of resources in his/her workplace (central part of the individual board).
5. The player who finishes with the Guild Master card earns 2 prestige points.

After calculation, the player who has the highest number of prestige points is the winner, and his two blacksmith meeples will be placed in the castle. They will receive the homage of all the other players.

In case of a tie, the player with the most advanced workshop improvements (with higher improvement tokens) is the winner. If the tie persists, both are considered winners.

Royal Seals Penalty

If a player ends the game with Royal Seals, he/she will suffer a penalty in scoring prestige points, according to the following table (which is also printed on the main board).

• 1 royal seal = 0 PV
• 2 royal seals = -1 PV
• 3 royal seals = -2 PV
• 4 royal seals = -3 PV
• 5 royal seals = -4 PV
• 6 royal seals = -5 PV

Scoring Example

Green Player Score

• Prestige Scroll = 15 (6 + 5 + 4)
• Workshop Row = 0
• Workshop Column = 4 (1 column)
• Resources = 1 (2 gold + 1 coal)
• Guild Master = 2
• Royal Seals Penalty = 0 (1 seal)
• Total = 22 (15 + 0 + 4 + 1 + 2 - 0)

Yellow Player Score

• Scroll = 17 (5 + 5 + 3 + 1 + 3)
• Workshop Row = 6 (2 rows)
• Workshop Column = 4 (1 column)
• Resources = 2 (1 gold + 2 silver + 3 iron)
• Guild Master = 0
• Royal Seals Penalty = -3 (4 seals)
• Total = 26 (17 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 0 - 3)

Blue Player Score

• Scroll = 18 (7 + 4 + 5 + 2)
• Workshop Row = 6 (2 rows)
• Workshop Column = 0 (0 columns)
• Resources = 1 (1 gold + 1 silver)
• Master Guild = 0
• Royal Seals Penalty = -1 (2 seals)
• Total = 24 (18 + 6 + 0 + 1 + 0 - 1)