El mundo de Águila Roja

El mundo de Águila Roja Rulebook

Table of Contents

Factions

El Pueblo (The People): Led by Gonzalo, Margarita, Satur and other famous protagonists of the series in their effort to make sure the common people have a say in the town. This faction makes use of the relationships between the characters and teamwork, and is always backed by the hero of the series, Águila Roja.

Casa Real (The Royal House): El Rey, Juan and the whole court and royal army are at your disposal to make clear who holds power in the Spanish realms. Fill your coffers by collecting taxes and protect your possessions thanks to your loyal soldiers. Victory is only a matter of influence and money.

Conspiradores (The Conspirators): Lucrecia, Nuño, the hooded members of the lodge and, of course, Hernán, the commissioner, will use all their influence and brute force to win. They make no sacrifices, so whoever stands in their way will know that their days are numbered.

El Clero (The Clergy): Cardinal Mendoza and his retinue of clerics have as much or more influence than the Royal House itself, and more so in these times. They can manipulate the common people and, in turn, maintain close relations with the nobles. Their thirst for power has no limits, and they will win by working in the shadows.

Object of the Game

The game is won by obtaining victory points. The first player who, at the end of one of their turns, has at least 25 victory points begins the tiebreak. From that moment on, the player who begins and ends a turn with more victory points than their opponent wins the game. Additionally, at the moment a player runs out of cards in their deck, that player loses the game.

The Card Wins

There is one rule above all others: if the text of a card contradicts the rules, the card wins. So, although the rules say that you can play only one location each turn, if an effect says "you may play one additional location this turn", you may do so.

Possible and Impossible

Another basic rule is that if an effect says that something cannot happen, it does not matter if another effect says that the same thing can or must happen: the "cannot" always wins. So, if one effect says "this character cannot be discarded" and another says "discard this character", the character could not be discarded.

Parts of a Card

Value: The amount of maravedíes you must spend to play this card.

Strength: The number of wounds needed to discard it, and the number of wounds it causes when it fights other characters. Each wound placed on it subtracts one point from this figure and, when it reaches zero, the character is discarded.

Victory: The victory points you obtain when this character challenges your rival and is not intercepted.

Faction: The shield shows which faction the card belongs to. If it has no shield, the card is generic.

Effects: This box lists the various abilities the card produces. Some cards also contain, in italics, quotes from the series.

Title: Each card has a title that is different from every other card's. You may not include more than three copies of a card with the same title in your deck, nor more than one copy if the card is unique.

Type: This shows the type of card and whether it is unique. If it is a character, its profession also appears. In the case of unique characters, their name also appears just before the profession.

Collection information: Here you will find the name of the illustrator, the collection code (the first collection is AR1), the rarity of the card (C for common, I for uncommon and R for rare), and the number the card occupies in this collection together with the total number of cards. For example, AR1-R-106/154 means that it is card number 106 of the 154 total cards of El Mundo de Águila Roja, and that its rarity is rare.

Card Types

Characters: The protagonists of the action. Play them by spending maravedíes equal to their value to place them in the village. Once there, they can challenge, travel or intercept, and to do any of these they must be put into action, which is mandatory (turn the card 90°). Note that if at any moment a character has as many wounds as its strength or more, you must discard it.

Events: You must also spend maravedíes equal to their value to play them, but in this case they simply produce their effect (do what the text says) and are discarded immediately. There is one exception: permanent events, which stay in the village and produce certain effects.

Locations: Characters enter the table in the village and return to it at the start of your turn, but during your turn you may travel with them to the locations you have played. Locations stay on the table and, to travel to them, you must put into action an exact number of characters, shown in the upper left corner. Locations have effects that normally trigger when you travel to them. Under the title of a location you will also find the kind of location it is (monastery, barracks, etc.).

Treasury cards (arcas): The treasury card is not part of the deck of 40 cards; instead, the game starts with it. You may only include in your deck cards of the faction of your treasury, and generic cards. Place on your treasury the maravedíes you gain.

Maravedí Cards

In addition to your deck of 40 cards and your treasury, in a game of El Mundo de Águila Roja you must use a separate maravedí deck of 15 cards. It must consist of one copy of Prosperidad (Prosperity), two of Abundancia (Abundance), five of Bienestar (Well-being), six of Subsistencia (Subsistence) and one of Hambruna (Famine).

Unique Cards

Some cards have the word único (unique) next to their type. This means three things. First, you may not put more than one unique card with the same title in your deck. Second, if at any moment you control two unique cards on the table that are not characters with the same title, you must choose one of the two and discard it. And third, if at any moment you control two unique characters with the same name (to the right of the word único), you must choose one of the two and discard it.

On Guard, In Action

Characters enter the table facing you, in an upright position. A character in this position is on guard (en guardia). To travel, challenge, intercept, or even to use some other cards, you must put it in action. To do so, turn it 90° to the right, leaving it in a horizontal position. You may only put into action characters that are on guard. At the start of your turn, return your characters to the village and put them on guard if they were not already.

Game Zones

Table: The table is common to both players and encompasses all the cards placed on it. Characters, locations and permanent events are on the table.

Maravedí deck: Shuffled at the start of the game, and its order may not be looked at or altered. The cards that are revealed are placed in a pile next to the maravedí deck and may be seen by any player.

Locations: Locations are on the table but are not part of the village. If there is a character at a location, it is not in the village but at that location. Each location is a part of the table, and only the characters of one player can travel from the village to that player's locations. If at any moment a location is discarded from the table, the characters in it return to the village (and are not put on guard).

Treasury (arcas): Here the treasury cards are placed and, on top of them, the maravedíes you gain.

Village: The village is also a common part of the table. Only characters in the village can challenge, be challenged, and intercept. Characters enter the table in the village when they are played.

Discard pile: All cards that are discarded go here. Anyone may look at the discard pile of any player.

Deck: Shuffled at the start of the game, and its order may not be looked at or altered. Draw cards from your deck when called for.

Hand: The hand is where you keep your cards. Your opponent may not see it.

Maravedíes

Maravedíes are the main resource of the game, essential for playing most cards. They are obtained mainly by turning over the cards of the maravedí deck. When a card of a maravedí deck is turned over, both players place into their treasuries the number of maravedíes shown on the card. Maravedíes can be spent (removed from the treasury) to play characters or events, or to use some effects. For example, to play a card of value 4 you must spend 4 maravedíes.

Emptying and placing: Emptying a treasury means removing all the maravedíes from it. This happens when a turn ends in which Famine is drawn. On the other hand, some cards say "place one maravedí from your opponent's treasury into yours"; this means the opponent loses it and you gain it, but if the rival has none, you do not obtain any.

Wounds

Characters that challenge each other each place on the other a number of wounds equal to their strength. Each wound a character has subtracts one point from its strength, so it will cause fewer wounds when it challenges or is challenged. If at any moment a character has as many wounds as its strength value, you must discard the character.

Representation: Use different markers to represent maravedíes and wounds. You may use coins, slips of paper, dice, etc.

Step by Step

In this game you make your moves one at a time, and resolve the effects produced by cards before playing other cards or taking other actions. Remember also that during your rival's turn, the only thing you can do is intercept.

Other Terms

"May" (puedes): Some effects contain the word "may". That means that you decide whether or not to carry them out. If an effect does not contain the word "may", you must carry it out whether you want to or not (whether it is triggered or you play it).

"In order to" (para): Some effects say to do something "in order to" achieve some other thing. For example, Nueva lección says "put into action a character on guard that you control in order to draw two cards". This means that if you want to draw the two cards, you must fulfil the condition of putting into action a character on guard that you control. If not, you will not draw them.

Mesa and village (mesa y villa): If a card refers to a "character on the table", it may be a character in the village or at a location. If it says "character in the village", it refers only to those in that zone (and therefore, not at a location). The village is part of the table, but the table is not part of the village; rather, it includes it.

Controller and owner: Some cards say "that you control", and others speak of the "owner". The owner of a card is the player who had it in their deck at the start of the game. The controller is generally also the owner, since you control the cards you play, but effects such as that of Cardinal Mendoza can make the controller of a card change.

Effects

Most cards produce effects. Non-permanent events produce their simple effects when played (when you play Amor imposible (Impossible Love), you search your deck for a card of Gonzalo or Margarita, reveal it, put it into your hand and shuffle your deck, and also put Amor imposible into your discard pile), while cards that stay on the table, that is, characters, locations and permanent events, produce effects depending on the type of effect. There are three types of effects:

Triggered effects: These are indicated by the word cuando ("when"), followed by the condition that triggers them. When this condition is met, the effect described is produced and what its text says is done. For example, the effect of the Palacio de la Marquesa has as its trigger that a character travels to it. When this happens, your rival discards a card from their hand. If several effects are triggered by the same condition, that is, at the same time, the player whose turn it is chooses the order in which they are produced.

Permanent effects: These do not have the word cuando and are simply working all the time. This is the case of Satur's "Relación con" effect, which increases his victory value by 3.

"Relación con" (related to): Some characters have among their effects "Relación con" followed by the name of a character. This text is only valid in the game if the character whose name is indicated in the relation is also on the table (whether you control it or your opponent does). If the character mentioned is not on the table, ignore completely the effects described in its "Relación con" ability. Its other effects work normally, of course.

Combining Effects

On many occasions, several effects are triggered at the same time. This happens above all when you travel with characters and both the location and some (or several) of the characters that travel have effects that say "when it travels". Whenever several effects are triggered at once, whoever's they are, the player whose turn it is decides the order in which they are carried out. Yet all of them must be carried out, even if one of them discards one of the characters or locations before its own effect takes place. If the trigger has been met, the effect will be resolved anyway. Examples:

You control two Comerciantes (when the Comerciante travels, you may draw a card) and a Monasterio (when two characters travel to the Monasterio, if you have at least four cards in hand, you gain two victory points). If you only have two cards in your hand and you travel with these two characters to the Monasterio, three effects will be triggered at once (the two of the Comerciantes and that of the Monasterio). You may choose to carry out first those of the Comerciantes (drawing one card and then another one more) and then that of the Monasterio, so as to have four cards in hand and gain two victory points.
You control the Herrero (when the Herrero travels, place one maravedí in your treasury) and the Arriero (when the Arriero travels, you may spend one maravedí to select a character you control, return it to the village and put it on guard). In addition, you have two locations, one to which you must travel with two characters and another to which you must travel with one, but you have no maravedíes. You may travel with both to the first of the locations and carry out the Herrero's effect first, to place a maravedí in your treasury and be able to spend it with the Arriero's effect (which you then carry out). With the Arriero you could return to the village and put the Herrero itself on guard, to travel with it afterwards to the other location. Furthermore, if those locations also have triggered abilities when you travel, you will take advantage of those too!

Building a Deck

In the trading card game El Mundo de Águila Roja, each player uses their own deck. It must have exactly 40 cards (not counting the treasury), with a maximum of three copies of a card with the same title, or one copy if the card is unique. Only cards of the same faction as the treasury card placed next to the deck may be included, together with generic cards (without a shield). In addition, each player takes a maravedí deck with the specific composition described above: one copy of Prosperidad (Prosperity), two of Abundancia (Abundance), five of Bienestar (Well-being), six of Subsistencia (Subsistence) and one of Hambruna (Famine). Maravedí cards may not be included in the main deck, and cards that are not maravedí cards may not be included in the maravedí deck. When a maravedí deck runs out, its cards are shuffled again so that maravedíes can continue to be gained in the turns to come.

Start of the Game

Once both players have shuffled their main and harvest decks and have offered them to the opponent to shuffle or cut, a coin toss or die roll decides who chooses to take the first turn of the game. From then on, turns are taken alternately until a winner is determined, either by victory points or because one player has run out of cards in their deck.

Translator's note: the source says "mazos principales y de cosecha" without defining "de cosecha"; it is rendered here as "harvest deck" and is taken to mean the maravedí deck, the only other deck the rules describe.

Parts of a Turn

Opening (Planteamiento)

The first thing that happens in your turn is that you turn over the top card of your maravedí deck and each player places that same number of maravedíes into their treasury. Then you return all the characters you control to the village (those already there stay), and put on guard all your characters that are not already on guard. Then you draw a card from your deck.

Development (Desarrollo)

This is the part of the turn in which you play cards, travel and challenge. In it, you may carry out the following actions, as many times as you like or can, and in any order you wish. The only exception is that you may play only one location per turn.

Play a character: To play a character, spend maravedíes equal to its value and place it in the village.
Play an event: To play an event, spend maravedíes equal to its value and produce the effect it indicates (do what the card says), discarding it afterwards. If it is a permanent event, place it in the village next to your characters; do not discard it.
Play a location: You may not play more than one location per turn. To play it, place it on the table in your row of locations.
Travel: To travel to a location, you must select exactly the number of characters on guard indicated in the upper left corner of the location. Put them into action and those characters travel to that location (place them in a row below the location). You may not travel to a location in which there is already a character.
Challenge the rival: To challenge the rival, select a character on guard in your village and put it into action. If it is not intercepted*, you gain victory points equal to the victory points of that character.
Challenge a character: To challenge a character, select a character on guard in your village and put it into action. Now select a character of your opponent that is in the village (on guard or in action). If it is not intercepted*, each character places on the other a number of wounds equal to its strength, and the challenge ends. Characters that are challenged are not put into action. Remember that each wound subtracts one point from strength, so wounded characters cause fewer wounds in challenges.

* Intercepting: When you are in your rival's turn, you may intercept the challenges of their characters. If your opponent starts a challenge (against you or against one of your characters), you may put into action a character on guard that you control in the village, so that it intercepts. If you do, the challenge is considered made against that character instead of against you or the character that was challenged first. The character that made the challenge and the character that intercepted each place on the other a number of wounds equal to their respective strength, and the challenge ends.

Conclusion (Desenlace)

In this part of the turn, first the effects whose trigger is "when your turn ends" are produced, among them the effect of the Hambruna maravedí card. Next, the effects that say "this turn" end simultaneously and, if a tiebreak has been entered (see Object of the Game), it is checked whether the player whose turn it is was ahead in victory points both at the start of the turn and at its conclusion. If so, that player is proclaimed the winner and, if not, the game goes on.

Playing with 3 or More Players

These rules are written for games of one against one. But El Mundo de Águila Roja is also designed for games with more participants. There are two main variants.

Free-for-All (Todos contra todos)

In this mode, apply the following changes to the one-against-one rules. Turns are taken following the order from left to right. When you draw a card from the maravedí deck, it affects only you and the player on your left (including Famine). You may challenge and intercept any character of your rivals, and you may challenge whichever rival you prefer. If a card says "your rival", you must select one of them at the moment you play it or when its effect takes place.

Teams (Por parejas)

In this mode, the game is two against two. Each team has a single maravedí deck, although treasuries are individual, and maravedíes and cards may not be shared. However, it is understood that you control your own cards and those of your partner (for the purposes of "that you control" cards). The turn of both players of each team is shared, as are their victory points. You may challenge and intercept any character of your rivals, and you may challenge whichever member of the rival team you prefer. If a card says "your rival", you must select one of them at the moment you play it or when its effect takes place. Simply put, it is a matter of working as a team. The tiebreak begins when one of the teams reaches 40 victory points.