The Cathedral of Orléans Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Setup
• Building the Cathedral
• Goal of the Game
• Course of the Game
• Places and Their Actions
  • Cart
  • Ship
  • Rest stop
  • Market
• Fulfilling Orders and Receiving Rewards
  • Workshops
  • Hourglass tiles
  • Glassworks
  • Stained glass workshop
  • Fair square
• Rewards
• Bell Tower (End of Round)
  • End of the first and second rounds
• Declining an Action
• End of the Game
• Orders on Event Tiles

Game Contents

• 1 game board
• 3 bags (red, blue and black)
• 34 subject tokens: 6 knights, 6 fishermen, 6 farmers, 6 merchants, 10 monks
• 8 workshop tiles
• 10 stained glass tokens
• 4 backpack boards
• 8 cathedral sections
• 10 event tiles
• 4 master builder pawns
• 6 hourglass tiles
• 12 blueprint tokens
• 37 goods tokens (15 wood, 12 stone, 10 bread)

Preparing for the first game: Carefully punch out all components from the punchboards. Be especially careful with the cathedral sections.

Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table.
2. Shuffle the 8 workshop tiles face down and place 3 of them face up on the corresponding spaces of the game board. Return the remaining workshop tiles to the box.
3. Shuffle the 10 event tiles face down and place them as a face-down stack on the corresponding space of the game board.
4. Put all goods tokens into the black bag. Then draw them one at a time and place them face up on the road and river spaces of the game board.
5. Place 1 stained glass on the corresponding space between the cities of Bourges and Tours. Form a supply from the remaining stained glass tokens.
6. Take the 12 blueprint tokens, shuffle them face down, and lay them face down next to the game board.
7. Place the 8 cathedral sections next to the game board.
8. Shuffle the hourglass tiles and place 3 random tiles face down in a stack on the game board. Return the remaining tiles to the box. Then reveal the top tile of the stack.
9. Fill the red and blue bags with the corresponding tokens. Into the red bag put 6 knights (red), 3 farmers (white), 3 merchants (black) and 2 monks (yellow). Into the blue bag put 6 fishermen (blue), 3 farmers (white), 3 merchants (black) and 2 monks (yellow). Form a supply from the remaining monks.
10. Each player takes a backpack and a master builder of one colour. Then, in turn, players draw 1 random goods token each from the black bag and place it on one of the 5 free spaces of their backpack. Place the master builders in Orléans. Return the extra master builder pawns and backpack boards to the box.

The board has a Red zone (left) and a Blue zone (right).

Harder variant: To make the game harder, during setup put only one monk (instead of two) into each of the red and blue bags.

Building the Cathedral

On the inside of each cathedral section there is a number from 1 to 8. Start with section 1, connect it to section 2, and continue in order. All holes on the sections are also numbered. The hole number corresponds to the number of the section that must be inserted into it. For example, to connect sections 1 and 2, connect hole 1 (on section 2) with hole 2 (on section 1).

As soon as you have attached section 8 (the roof) to the cathedral, all players win.

Goal of the Game

The players must build the Cathedral of Orléans. To do so, you need to collect all sections of the cathedral: you receive them as rewards or by means of blueprint tokens. You have only 3 rounds to accomplish this. If you manage to build the cathedral, all players win.

Course of the Game

The youngest player starts. On your turn, draw 1 token from the red or blue bag of your choice. Important! Do not look into the bags during the game.

After drawing a token, place it on a free space showing the corresponding subject. Then carry out the action shown on the game board. For example, a merchant (black token) can only be placed on a space showing a merchant. Monks are not bound by this rule: they can be placed on any space.

The colour of the zone does not matter: tokens from the blue bag can be placed in the red zone and vice versa.

Some spaces show 2 subjects. This means you may place either one of them there, your choice. A space showing every subject accepts any subject.

When the action is done, the turn passes to the next player clockwise. They now draw a token and perform an action.

Important! You must place the token on an action space. If the space is already occupied, you cannot place another token on it. If you cannot place the token anywhere except the bell tower, place the token on its space and end the round.

Places and Their Actions

Cart

Allows movement along a road. Move your master builder along the road from the current city to a neighbouring one.

Ship

Allows movement along a river. Move your master builder along the river from the current city to a neighbouring one.

If a goods token or stained glass token lies on the path of the master builder, you may take it and put it into your backpack.

The backpack holds only 5 goods tokens and/or stained glass tokens. If a goods or stained glass token lies on your path and all backpack spaces are occupied, you may either pass it by, or send a good from your backpack to the black bag (or a stained glass to the supply) in order to pick up the new one.

Rest stop

If all your backpack spaces are occupied, you may at any time on your turn declare a rest stop. During a rest stop, send all goods from your backpack to the black bag and the stained glass to the supply. For this you receive a blueprint token. This is an additional action; it does not replace the main action.

Market

This action allows you to deliver up to 2 goods and/or stained glass tokens from your backpack.

You may deliver tokens to other players or to workshop and hourglass tiles. If you deliver 2 tokens, you may deliver them to the same place or to two different places. For example, deliver 1 stone to a workshop and pass 1 stained glass to another player.

Important! To deliver a token to a workshop, your master builder must be on the tile of that workshop. In other cases, the location of the master builder does not matter for delivery.

Fulfilling Orders and Receiving Rewards

Workshops

There are 3 workshop tiles with order spaces on the game board. To fulfil an order, fill the spaces with the required goods and stained glass tokens. As soon as all spaces of a workshop are filled, the order is fulfilled: receive the indicated reward (see Rewards). Then return the goods tokens from the workshop to the black bag and the stained glass tokens to the supply. Flip the workshop tile face down.

Note: to deliver items to a workshop, your master builder must be in it.

Hourglass tiles

Goods and stained glass can also be delivered to hourglass tiles. As soon as all spaces of the hourglass are filled, receive the indicated reward (see Rewards). Then return the goods tokens from the hourglass tile to the black bag, the stained glass tokens to the supply, and remove the tile from the game. A new hourglass tile will be revealed at the end of the round.

Important! At the end of each round the current hourglass tile is discarded and a new one is revealed. Manage to fill all spaces on the tile before it leaves the game!

Glassworks

Only a monk can be sent here. Receive 1 stained glass from the supply.

Stained glass workshop

Only a monk can be sent here. Send 1 stained glass from your backpack to the supply to receive 1 blueprint token.

Fair square

Any subject can be sent here. Place the subject token on the fair square space to reveal the top event tile.

• If it shows stained glass or a monk, receive the corresponding token and put the event tile onto the discard pile. The stained glass you receive must be put into your backpack or given to another player; the monk token must be put into the bag shown.
• If it shows an order, place this tile on the corresponding space of the game board. When you fulfil the order, receive 1 blueprint as a reward and put the tile onto the discard pile.

If the order's condition is met immediately when the event tile is revealed, you are lucky: receive a blueprint token at once. In this case the blueprint is chosen by the player who revealed the event tile with the order. If the order is fulfilled later, the blueprint is chosen by the player on whose turn it happened.

Attention! There can be only one active order. If you reveal another event tile with an order, discard the previous one even if its order has not been fulfilled. Then place the new order tile on the corresponding space.

See more about orders in "Orders on Event Tiles" below.

Rewards

Order tiles (workshops, hourglasses and events) and blueprint tokens can give different rewards:

• Blueprint: Flip 1 blueprint token and receive the reward shown on it.
• Cathedral section: When you receive this reward for the first time, take cathedral section number 1. When you receive this reward later, take the cathedral section with the next number and attach it to those you already have.
• Stained glass: Receive a stained glass and put it into your backpack, or give it to another player, who puts it into their backpack.
• Monk: Put a monk from the supply into the bag shown (blue or red).

Bell Tower (End of Round)

Any subject can be sent here. Remember that the round ends immediately when a subject appears on the bell tower space. We advise sending a subject here as late as possible, or when no other options remain.

End of the first and second rounds

After the first and second rounds, do the following:

• Remove from the game the subject token that was sent to the bell tower. It does not return to the bag.
• The city is divided into two zones: red (left) and blue (right). Send all subjects from the red zone to the red bag, and those from the blue zone to the blue bag. Remember that peeking into the bags during the game is forbidden, so we advise memorising which tokens go into each bag.
• If you did not manage to fill all spaces on the current hourglass tile, remove it from the game. Return goods placed on the tile to the black bag and stained glass to the supply. You do not receive the reward for this order.
• Reveal a new hourglass tile for the next round.
• Fill all empty goods spaces on the game board with tokens from the black bag. If there are not enough tokens in the bag, some spaces will remain empty. If the stained glass space between Bourges and Tours is empty, place a stained glass from the supply there.

Declining an Action

You may place a subject on an action space but not carry out the action. In that case the subject simply occupies the space.

Exception: you cannot decline to carry out the actions of the fair square and the bell tower.

End of the Game

If you manage to connect all 8 cathedral sections before the end of the 3rd round, you win together! Congratulations! But if you did not finish the building in time, you lose together.

Orders on Event Tiles

• Receive a blueprint tile as soon as one of the master builders is in the indicated city.
• Receive a blueprint tile as soon as two master builders are in the same place.
• Receive a blueprint tile as soon as one of the players has 2 or more stained glass tokens in their backpack. The stained glass need not be sent to the supply.