Cartography
Cartography Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 48 land tiles with one or more hills:
- 22 Open
- 6 River End
- 6 Double River End
- 6 Single River
- 6 Curved River
- 2 Triple River
- Castles: 40 orange castles, 40 blue castles, 40 black castles, 40 green castles
- 2 bags
Set To Play
Place six open land tiles and join them on the table to form a hexagon.
Decide the number of tiles in play. There may be up to 21 tiles each for 2 players, 14 tiles each for three players and 10 tiles each for 4 players. This determines both length of play and degree of challenge. Beginners can start with four tiles each to get familiar with the rules.
Take all the tiles and sort them by their design in six stacks, face-up.
Play
Players take turns to add a tile to the map, then place a castle and attempt to capture their opponents' castles. Choose a player to go first.
Step: Create Land
Choose a tile from any stack and place it on the map so that all adjacent edges match A. Corners do not need to match B. Skip this step if all the land tiles in play have been placed.
Step: Claim Land
Place a castle on any unoccupied hill on any land tile to claim the land. You may choose to pass.
The castle or castle group must have at least one unoccupied adjacent hill either at the time when you place the castle C, or after you place the castle and capture your opponent's castle at the end of your turn D & E.
Two hills separated by a river are not considered adjacent as the river creates a barrier between them.
A castle group is a continuous chain of same color castles on adjacent hills F & G.
To avoid the possibility of indefinite repetition, once all the land tiles in play have been placed, a castle may not be placed on a hill if it repeats a previous game state.
Step: Capture Castles
When a player places a castle on the only unoccupied adjacent hill H of another player's castle or castle group, he surrounds the opponent and captures them I. Captured castles are removed from the land J and count as points for the player who captured them.
In a three or four player game, a castle group may be surrounded by different player's castle. The last player surrounding the castle/castle group captures and scores the castles. If you run out of disks in a two or three player game, simply use the 4th disk color as a counter to represent 5 castles and the 3rd disk color to represent 10 castles.
End of Play
The game is over when all players pass consecutively. The winner has the highest number of their castles on the land plus the opponent's castles he has captured. In case of a draw, the player who went first wins.
Strategy & Tactics
The Chinese master of military strategy Sun Tzu taught about the nine grounds in his classic, the Art of War. Successful strategists will use the ground to their advantage. In Cartography, open adjacent hills are the most important type of ground you must master to defend and to capture.
Strategy: Keep Your Adjacent Hills Open
Having two open adjacent hills K, L to your castle or castle group protects them from being captured.
Example: The green castle group has two open adjacent hills. But when the blue castle is placed in one of the open adjacent hills M, the green castle group now has only one open adjacent hill left, leaving it vulnerable for capture N.
Strategy: Establish Strategic Hills
When you isolate an open adjacent hill with your castle or castle group, the hill becomes your strategic hill. A strategic hill must be surrounded by only one player's castle/castle group or the edge of the map.
A castle or castle group with two or more strategic hills cannot be captured.
Example: The blue castle group has two strategic hills O, P while the green castle group has one Q. The open adjacent hill shared by both player R, is not a strategic hill to either player. With only one strategic hill, the green group is vulnerable to capture. After the blue castle is placed in R, the green castle group is captured in the next turn when its last and only strategic hill Q is taken away by the blue castle. The blue castle group, on the other hand, is invincible with the protection of two strategic hills O, P.
Tactic: Create Open Adjacent Hills
There are two ways to create open adjacent hills:
- Add a land tile to the map adjacent to a castle or castle group. Adding an open land tile or a single river end tile gives one open adjacent hill S, adding a curved river tile gives two additional open adjacent hills T.
- Place a castle U with an adjacent hill and two or more open adjacent hills.
Tactic: Choosing Tiles
Choosing the right tile to place can be a simple yet powerful tactic. There are six kinds of tiles, some open up more possibilities for creating open hills, and some create closures.
Open: Open tiles add only one hill to the map but they are easy to place. They can often save a castle group if they need an extra open adjacent hill.
Single and Double River End: River end tiles can be tricky. It's difficult to play a river end and claim it at the same time. Your opponent will often claim it if you play it.
Straight and Curved River: River tiles can be used on their own or in conjunction with river ends. If you occupy a river end, you can very easily create two open adjacent hills and often even two strategic hills.
Triple River: The triple river tile is the only tile that can add three open adjacent hills at once. It is best used towards the end of the game to create and keep strategic hills.
Note: the lettered callouts (A to U) in the rules refer to the diagram printed on the last page of the rulebook, which is not reproduced here. The small "3" markers printed beside some callouts in the diagram are not transcribed.
Alternative Play
Players draw tiles placed face-down for a game of uncertainty and surprise.
Set to Play
After forming a hexagon using six open land tiles, shuffle the remaining land tiles face-down and place them aside.
Decide on the number of tiles to play. The number should be a multiple of two for a 2-player game, a multiple of 3 for a 3-player game and so on. Randomly select the desired number of tiles and remove the remaining tiles from the game. Each player then selects three tiles and keeps them hidden from other players in their hand.
Play
All rules remain the same except for the following:
Step: Create Land. Choose one land tile from your hand to play. Skip this step if you have no more tiles in your hand.
Step: Draw a Tile. Randomly draw a face-down land tile and add it to your hand. Skip this step when there are no more tiles to draw.