Claim Kingdoms: Royal Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Overview
• 1. Play a Card
• 2. Activate Faction Power
• 3. Draw a New Card
• End of the Game
• Scoring
  • Controlling a War Map
  • Controlling a Faction
• Example
• Variant

Components

• 231 faction cards (7 cards of each of the 33 factions)
• 9 treasure cards
• 64 followers (15 followers + 1 scoring follower in each of the 4 player colors)
• 4 scoring tokens (1 in each of the 4 player colors)
• 5 double-sided war maps
• 4 reference sheets
• 1 scoring board

Game Setup

• Randomly place as many war maps as the number of players in the center of the play area. Make sure the war maps are connected to each other by at least one space. The war maps form the play area.

• Shuffle the treasure cards and place one face down on each ruin in the play area. The number of treasure cards is different for each war map. Return the unused treasure cards to the box.

• Place the scoring board next to the play area.

• Each player chooses a color and receives all the followers and the scoring token of that color. Place 1 follower next to the number 1 on the scoring board. Place the remaining 15 followers and the scoring token in front of you, in your personal supply.

• Select, according to the number of players, the factions that will be used in the game:

  • 2 players: 7 factions
  • 3 players: 8 factions
  • 4 players: 9 factions

  Tip: Select factions with different values.

• Shuffle the cards of the chosen factions to form the draw deck and place it next to the play area, face down. Return the cards of the factions not chosen to the box, as they will not be used in this game.

• Draw the top card of the deck and place it face up on a random space in the middle of the play area.

• Deal 1 card from the deck to each player. Each player takes it into their hand and keeps it hidden from the other players.

• Draw the first 3 cards of the deck and place them next to the draw deck, face up. These cards form the display.

Overview

The game is played in turns. Players take their turns clockwise, starting with the starting player, and each turn follows these steps:

1. PLAY A CARD
2. ACTIVATE FACTION POWER
3. DRAW A NEW CARD

1. Play a Card

Play the card from your hand into the play area so that one of its sides is orthogonally adjacent to at least one other placed card. Then place a follower of your color on top of the card you just played. You now control this card.

Note: You cannot place any card outside the war maps.

The war maps represent the kingdom. There are 10 different war maps, which in turn have special action spaces. The special action spaces can be activated several times (except ruins), and offer the following effects:

1. Catapult: Remove a follower from an adjacent card. Return it to its owner's personal supply.
2. Mill: Place an additional follower on top of this card.
3. Swamp: Lose 1 point.
4. Castle: Gain 1 point.
5. Off the map: Impassable area. You cannot play cards in this space.
6. Ruins: What treasures do these ancient columns hide? In each game you can activate only 1 treasure card. After a treasure is found and activated, the card is removed from the play area and returned to the box. The ruin will have no effect after the treasure has been found.
   • Specter: Move any card and its follower to any empty space. You must follow the placement rules.
   • Mercenary: Place an additional follower on top of a face-up card of your choice.
   • Treasure chest: Gain 2 points.
   • Trap: Lose 1 point.
7. Legend: War map number and points.

Note: When you play a card, you must activate the special action space.

2. Activate Faction Power

If you wish, you can activate the power of the faction you just played. If you choose not to use the power, it is lost. You will find a general description of the powers of all the factions on the reference sheets. The icons on the cards also show the power of each faction. If a power makes you gain points, move your follower on the scoring board's track that same number of spaces.

Note: You cannot have negative points on the scoring board.

3. Draw a New Card

Take a card from the display or draw the top card of the deck, and take it into your hand. If there are fewer than 3 cards in the display, draw a card from the deck and place it face up in the display.

Note: You can never have more than 1 card in your hand.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when:

• a player runs out of followers in their personal supply, or
• the draw deck and the display are empty, and no player has cards in hand, or
• the war maps are completely covered.

Once the game ends, proceed to scoring.

Scoring

The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most followers in their personal supply wins. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Players can gain points for:

• controlling a war map, and
• controlling a faction.

To mark all points gained, move your follower on the track of the scoring board. If you exceed 50 points, place your scoring token with the "50+" side up on the scoring board, and continue from the first space. If you exceed 100 points, place your scoring token with the "100+" side up and, in the same way, continue from the first space.

Controlling a War Map

War maps are scored individually. The number of points varies depending on the war map. The player with the most followers on the war map gains the points for first place. The second player with the most followers gains the points for second place.

In case of a tie for first place, all tied players gain the points for first place and the points for second place are awarded normally. If there is a tie for second place, all tied players gain the points.

Note: In a 2-player game, to score for second place, the second player must have a number of followers at most 3 fewer than the first place.

Points per war map:

War map	1st place	2nd place
Map 1	5	0
Map 2	5	2
Map 3	6	4
Map 4	6	2
Map 5	7	3
Map 6	7	2
Map 7	8	4
Map 8	8	3
Map 9	9

Controlling a Faction

A player controls a faction when they have the most followers of their color on top of the cards of that faction. In case of a tie for first place, all tied players control that faction and all gain the corresponding points. For each faction you control, you gain the number of points shown in the upper left corner of the card.

Points per faction:

Faction	Points	Faction	Points	Faction	Points
Unicorns	3	Undead	6	Doppelgangers	7
Cyclops	4	Orcs	6	Seers	7
Goblins	4	Phoenixes	6	Basilisks	7
Dwarves	5	Werewolves	6	Ghosts	7
Gnomes

Example

In this 4-player game, war maps 1, 5, 7 and 10 are used. The game is played with the following 9 factions: Unicorns, Elves, Shapeshifters, Dragons, Ice Beasts, Wizards, Poisoners, Rogues and Druids. The Blue player plays a Rogue on war map 10 and places their last follower on top of the card. They decide not to use the faction power. The game ends immediately, since the Blue player has no followers in their personal supply.

For scoring, we first check the war maps. The player with the most followers on the war map gains the points for first place. The second player with the most followers gains the points for second place. On war map 1, the Blue player gains 5 points with a majority of 11 followers. The 2 followers next to the Druid count double. On war map 5, the Green player gains 7 points for first place and the Blue player gains 3 points for second place. On war map 7, the Red player gains 8 points for first place and the Yellow player gains 4 points for second place. On war map 10, the Blue player gains 9 points for first place. The Green player and the Yellow player have tied for second place and both gain 3 points. After scoring the war maps, the result is: Yellow player: 17, Green player: 25, Red player: 26, Blue player: 34.

After the war maps, the factions are scored. In the table you can see how many followers each player has on each faction. The Druid's faction power is also counted for each player's followers. The additional followers obtained through the Druid are marked with a "*".

(The Blue player places their token with the "50 +" side on the scoring board, since they have more than 50 points.)

Faction	Points per faction	Yellow	Blue	Red	Green	Points go to
Unicorns	3	4	2	2		Yellow
Elves	5	2		1	2	Yellow and Green
Shapeshifters	6	4*	1	2*		Yellow
Dragons	7

The players score the war maps and the factions. The Blue player wins the game with 54 points. Second place is the Yellow player with 44 points, third the Green player with 43 points, and fourth the Red player with 34 points.

Variant

If you prefer, you can also play Claim Kingdoms Royal Edition without the war maps. In this case, the treasure cards are not used. The game is played with the following adjustments:

In setup, place one card in the center of the table to start the play area. Whenever you play a card, it must be orthogonally adjacent to at least one other placed card, creating an imaginary grid on the table. At the end of the game, points are gained only for controlling factions. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.