Castellum: Maastricht Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Game Overview
  • Phase 1: Building Phase
    • Actions
  • Phase 2: Siege Phase
  • Phase 3: Angel Phase
  • Phase 4: Combat Phase
  • Bonus Reward Card
  • End of the Year
• Final Scoring

Contents

1 Game Board, 20 Workers, 20 Fortification Cards, 32 Troop Cards, 56 Enemy Cards, 28 Angel Cards, 4 Reward Cards, 1 First Player Card, 36 Wood Tokens, 36 Stone Tokens, 36 Gold Tokens, 54 Help Tokens.

Setup

1. Give the First Player Card to a random player.
2. Each player receives 1 Start Fortification Card, 5 Workers, 3 Wood, 3 Stone, 3 Gold.
3. Each player is assigned a section of the city wall and places 3 of their Workers on the 3 rightmost spaces. The space beneath their city wall is called the "Line" of a player. (Each vertical division of a Line is a "Column".)
4. Shuffle and place the pile of Angel Cards on the board.
5. Sort the Reward Cards by year and place them on the board with 1579 as the topmost card.
6. Shuffle and place the 6 drawing decks next to the board: the Troop Deck, the Fortification Deck and the Enemy Decks for 1579, 1632, 1673 and 1794.
7. Draw 4 Fortification Cards and 8 Troop Cards and place them face up next to the Game Board.

Game Overview

In Castellum, players try to defend Maastricht during 4 different years. Each year consists of 4 consecutive phases. After the end of the 4th year, the player with the most points wins.

Phase 1: Building Phase

At the beginning of the Building Phase each player receives resources and/or Angel Cards as shown on their Fortification Cards.

At the start of the game each player has 2 available Workers. From the second year onward, each player receives 1 additional Worker from his city wall and an extra column will be available for the player to put Fortifications and Troops in. This means that there will be 2 Workers and columns available in 1579, 3 in 1632, 4 in 1673 and 5 in 1794.

The starting player places 1 Worker on a free action space of his choice on the board and executes this action immediately. In clockwise order, each player does the same until all players have used all of their workers.

Fortification and Troop Cards can have the following special rules:

• Receive the indicated resource(s) or Angel Card at the beginning of each subsequent Building Phase.
• All your Troops of the indicated type receive 1 additional strength.
• Receive 1 point for each Fortification Card or for each Troop Card of the indicated type, during the Final Scoring.

Actions

Action Spaces have room for either 1 Worker or for an unlimited amount of Workers.

• Receive the indicated resources (Wood, Stone, Gold, or a resource of your choice). On the "Oude Brug" and "Markt" you take 1 or 2 resources of your choice, respectively.
• Each column in your Line gets a temporary boost of 1 strength this year. Indicate this with a Help Token in each column.
• Receive 1 Angel Card. You can own a maximum of 3 Angel Cards at any time. When you receive more Angel Cards, you can choose which one(s) you discard unused.
• Take a face up Fortification or Troop Card and pay its price. Put this Card in an available column in your Line. Each column can hold a maximum of 1 Fortification Card and 2 Troop Cards.

Phase 2: Siege Phase

Give each player the following amount of Enemy Cards: 2 in 1579, 3 in 1632, 4 in 1673 and 5 in 1794.

Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player puts 1 Enemy Card in a column of their choice, in their own Line or the Line of another player. Enemy Cards can be played in an available column, even if there are no Fortification or Troop Cards present in that column. However, each column can hold only 1 Enemy Card at a time.

The Siege Phase ends when all Enemy Cards have been played, which means all available columns will hold exactly 1 Enemy Card.

Enemy Cards may have the following special rules:

• All Enemy Cards of the indicated type in this Line receive 1 or 2 additional strength.
• The player must discard the indicated resource during the Combat Phase (if possible).

Phase 3: Angel Phase

Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, players take turns playing 1 Angel Card. The Angel Phase ends when no player wishes to play any more Angel Cards.

An Angel Card can be used in two ways:

1. You may either place the Angel Card below a column of your choice to temporarily give this column additional strength (indicated on the Card) until the end of the year.
2. Or you may use it for one of the following special effects:
   • Temporarily give 1 Enemy Card 2 additional strength in a Line of your choice, until the end of the year. Indicate this with a Help Token.
   • Switch 2 Enemy Cards. These Enemy Cards may be in different Lines.
   • Take an opponent's Troop Card or an unbought face-up Troop Card. Pay the cost of this Troop Card to its previous owner. Place the Troop Card in your own Line in an available space.
   • If you have a Troop Card in your Line, and you discard a stone, you may destroy 1 Enemy Card of your choice in your own Line. This Enemy Card counts as defeated for the Bonus Reward (Phase 4) and you score its points.
   • Receive 2 resources of your choice. This effect may be used at any time, even outside of the Angel Phase.
   • Cancel the special effect of an Angel Card that was just played. This effect may be used at any time, but cannot be used to cancel the additional strength granted by an Angel Card.

Phase 4: Combat Phase

For each column, count the total strength of the Fortification and Troop Cards. If the total strength is equal or greater than the strength of the Enemy Card in this column, you defeat the Enemy Card. Keep this Card for the Final Scoring.

Note that columns, Troop and Enemy Cards can receive additional strength by means of the "Dinghuis", Angel Cards or special rules of Troop and Enemy Cards. Place Help Tokens on columns and Troop Cards (red) or Enemy Cards (black) to indicate this.

Example (illustrated): a column with total strength 3 against an Enemy Card of strength 3 defeats it (3 = 3); strength 1 against an Enemy Card of strength 4 does not defeat it (1 < 4); strength 8 against an Enemy Card of strength 6 defeats it (8 > 6).

A column which has no Fortification or Troop Cards can never defeat an Enemy Card, not even with additional strength, unless this happens by the special effect of an Angel Card.

Bonus Reward Card

If the players jointly defeat at least the amount of Enemy Cards indicated on this year's Bonus Reward Card, they all receive a reward. The player who defeated the most Enemy Cards in this year, turns the Reward Card face up and rotates it in its desired direction. Each player receives the reward depicted on their side of the Card. When 2 or more players defeated the same amount of Enemy Cards, of those players the starting player, or the player closest to the starting player (in clockwise order) chooses.

The Reward Cards give the following benefits: extra resources, Angel Card(s) or additional strength (+1) during the next year.

At the end of the last year (1794), players can earn victory points: 1 point for each defeated pair of Enemy Cards of the indicated type in their collection of defeated Enemy Cards.

End of the Year

Place the unused and undefeated Enemy Cards, unbought Fortification and Troop Cards and the Reward Card of the finished year, back in the box.

Turn 4 new Fortification and 8 new Troop Cards face up. Take back all used Workers. Pass the First Player Card to the next player, in clockwise direction.

Final Scoring

• Count the number of victory points in your collection of defeated Enemy Cards.
• Receive 1 victory point for each set of 3 resources left in your supply.
• Receive 1 victory point for each special Fortification or Troop Card in your Line that has a victory-point scoring special rule (the Fortification and Troop Card types listed with the star symbol on the card).
• If the team of players earned the Reward Card of 1794, you receive 1 victory point per pair of Cards of the indicated type in your collection of defeated Enemy Cards.

The player who has the most victory points is the winner and is honoured by the people of Maastricht. In case of a tie, the involved players share victory.