Euphrates & Tigris: Contest of Kings
Euphrates & Tigris: Contest of Kings Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Materials
- 16 leaders in 4 dynasties: Bow, Lion, Bull, Vase
- 193 civilization cards: Population, Market, Temple, Agriculture, Treasure — 40x, 40x, 65x, 40x, 8x
- 4 catastrophe cards
- 3 ship cards
Treasure cards can be exchanged during the game for Temple cards. When the text refers to a "Treasure card*" with an asterisk, this means: a Treasure card, or a card that has replaced a Treasure card.
Setup
Each player chooses a dynasty (symbol) and places the 4 leaders of that symbol, in the 4 colors black (King), green (Merchant), red (Priest), and blue (Farmer), in front of themselves. Each player also takes 1 catastrophe card; the rest are removed from the game. The 3 ship cards are set aside for later.
The 8 Treasure cards are picked out from the civilization cards and laid out in a row on the table so that there is exactly one card's width of space between each of them, and enough space below each card for up to 8 more cards. The Treasure cards* are each the start — the 1st card — of a kingdom.
(In the 8 columns running downward, leave room for up to 8 cards!)
The remaining 185 civilization cards are shuffled thoroughly. Each player receives 8 cards as their hand. The rest of the cards are placed face down in several draw piles, distributed so that all players can reach them easily. In a 2-player game, 30 cards are randomly removed from the deck and taken out of the game.
Game Goal
The players' goal is to develop their dynasty in the areas of Population (black — the King is responsible), Market (green — Merchant), Temple (red — Priest), and Agriculture (blue — Farmer). To do this, each player places the leaders of their dynasty into kingdoms and expands them, builds ships, resolves conflicts, and earns victory points in the 4 areas. The winner is the player who manages to develop their dynasty as evenly as possible, without falling too far behind in any one area.
Kingdoms
All cards connected horizontally and vertically count as 1 kingdom. Horizontal connections can only occur through the cards lying between the Treasure cards! Several players' leaders may be present within one kingdom, but never two leaders of the same color (e.g. never 2 Priests)!
Game Flow
A starting player is determined randomly. Starting with this player, the others follow in clockwise order. The player whose turn it is may carry out up to 2 actions, in any order. They may choose from the following options, and may also choose the same action twice:
- Place or move one of their own leaders
- Play a civilization card (from hand into a kingdom)
- Play a catastrophe card
1. Place or move one of your own leaders
A player may place any of their leaders on any unoccupied civilization card. This applies both when placing a leader from outside the game and when moving a leader from one kingdom to another. The leader's color does not need to match the color of the card, and leaders may also be placed on Treasure cards*. The leader shows that its owner may collect victory points in the leader's color within that kingdom.
2. Play a civilization card
Civilization cards are used to enlarge kingdoms and to collect victory points (see below). There are 2 ways to do this:
a. The card is placed in a column beneath a Treasure card*. The player may choose the column freely. The first card of a column is placed directly beneath the Treasure card*. Every further card in that column is always placed directly beneath the card most recently played there. As soon as a column holds 8 cards, no further card may be added to it. (Cards can, however, be removed again.)
b. The card is placed between two Treasure cards*, connecting two kingdoms. This is only allowed if at least 3 cards have already been placed beneath each of the two neighboring Treasure cards*.
Collecting Victory Points
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Whenever a player places a card into the column of a kingdom, and a leader of the same color as that card is already present in that kingdom, the owner of that leader (normally the player who played the card) receives 1 civilization card of the same color as a victory point and lays it face up in front of themselves. The player must take this card from their hand. If they have no card of that color in hand, or do not wish to play one, this option is simply not used. The victory point cards form a stack in which only the top card is visible at any time. Players may not look through their own stack, either.
Note: players may agree that they will instead lay out their victory point cards in 4 open stacks, separated by color, visible to everyone.
Example: The Lion player placed their Merchant on the red card during their 1st action. In their 2nd action, they play a green card beneath it. For this they receive 1 green victory point. They take a green card from their hand and place it in front of themselves.
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The black leader (King), in addition to their normal function (collecting black victory points), also acts as a kind of wild card for cases where no leader of the color of the played card is present in the kingdom. In this case, the owner of the King may lay a victory point card of the played color from their hand in front of themselves.
Example: The Lion player's King has been sitting for some time in a kingdom in which there is no Merchant. In their 1st and 2nd actions, the Lion player each plays a green card into the kingdom. For this they receive 2 green victory points. They take 2 green cards from their hand and place them in front of themselves.
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If a player places a card between 2 Treasure cards*, the two kingdoms are joined into one larger kingdom. In this new kingdom, so-called external conflicts can arise, and these are resolved immediately (see "External Conflict" below). The player may not lay a victory point card for the card played between 2 Treasure cards*.
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If the new, larger kingdom contains a green leader (Merchant), and the new kingdom contains at least 2 Treasure cards, the Merchant's owner may move all but 1 of the Treasure cards onto their victory points, provided they can replace each one with a red card from their hand. This may only be done after any external conflicts have been resolved. Note: the King cannot be used as a wild card here!
Example: The Lion player plays the black card between the two Treasure cards. Since their Merchant is now in this new kingdom, they may replace 1 Treasure card with 1 red card from their hand and lay the Treasure card on their victory point stack. Treasure cards are wild cards for scoring.
3. Play a catastrophe card
With the catastrophe card, each player may remove 1 civilization card, once per game. This card leaves the game together with the catastrophe card. Any civilization card may be removed, including one that had connected 2 kingdoms. The following may not be removed: cards with a leader on them, Treasure cards*, and ship cards. If the catastrophe card creates gaps in the columns, the cards are shifted up to close the gap.
Example: The player plays their catastrophe card and removes the blue card. Both cards leave the game. Once again, 2 separate kingdoms have formed.
Conflicts
Two kinds of conflict can arise in the game: the internal conflict and the external conflict. Both are described below.
The Internal Conflict (Leaders of the Same Color)
If a player places their leader into a kingdom in which a leader of the same color is already present, an internal conflict occurs.
To decide the conflict, only red cards (Temple cards) are played. Each red card has a value of 1. In addition, a player receives a bonus of value 1 if their leader is sitting on a red card (a Temple or Treasure card).
The attacker (the player whose turn it is) chooses any number of red cards from their hand and lays them face up in front of themselves (anywhere from 0 up to all the red cards they have). Then the defender (the player who owns the leader that was already in the kingdom) may likewise lay out any number of red cards from their hand. The totals are then compared. The player with the higher value wins; in the event of a tie, the defender wins. The loser of the conflict must take their leader back. The winner of the conflict receives 1 red card as a reward, which they place on their victory point stack. This card is taken from among the cards laid out by the players to resolve the conflict. All other cards played go to a discard pile. If no card at all was played, the winner may instead take the card from their hand. If this is not possible, the victory point is forfeited.
Example: (A) The Bow player places their Merchant into the kingdom, which immediately triggers an internal conflict with the Lion player's Merchant. The Lion player already has a lead of value 1, since their Merchant is sitting on a red card. (B) The Bow player, as attacker, lays out 3 red cards in front of themselves. It now stands 3:1. (C) The Lion player, as defender, has only 1 red card in hand and does not play it. (D) The Bow player has won the conflict and may place 1 of the played red cards on their victory point stack. (E) The Lion player has lost the conflict and must take their Merchant back.
The External Conflict (2 Kingdoms Are Joined)
When 2 kingdoms are joined, the connecting card is initially placed face down. It is then checked whether leaders of the same color are present in the new kingdom. If so, external conflicts occur. If there are several such conflicts, the player whose turn it is decides the order in which they are resolved. They may also choose to resolve first a conflict in which they themselves are not involved. The attacker is always the player whose turn it is, or — for a conflict they are not party to — whichever of the two involved players sits closer to them in clockwise order.
To decide the conflict, the players involved may lay out cards in the color of the respective leaders. Each card has a value of 1. In addition, all cards of the leader's color already present in the previous kingdoms also have a value of 1. The attacker begins: they choose any number of cards of the leader's color from their hand and lay them face up in front of themselves. The defender may then likewise lay out any number of cards of that color from their hand. The totals are then compared as in the internal conflict.
The loser of the conflict must take their leader back. The winner of the conflict receives one of the played cards as a reward and places it on their victory point stack. All other cards played go to a discard pile.
Next, all cards of the leader's color remaining in the loser's former kingdom are removed from that kingdom (exception: Treasure cards* and cards with a leader on them) and placed on the winner's victory point stack. If this creates gaps in the columns, the cards are shifted up to close them. If this causes the one kingdom to fall apart again, further conflicts may thereby be cancelled. Otherwise, the next conflict is now resolved, and so on, until there are no more same-colored leaders left in the joined kingdom.
Example: (A) The Vase player plays the green card between kingdoms 1 and 2, joining them. This immediately causes 2 external conflicts — in the colors green and red. The Vase player decides that the green conflict, in which they themselves are not involved, is resolved first. Since the Lion player sits clockwise before the Bull player, the Lion player becomes the attacker and the Bull player becomes the defender. (B) The Lion player already has a value of 3, since kingdom 1, where their Merchant sits, contains 3 green cards. They lay out 2 more green cards in front of themselves. It now stands 5:1. (C) The Bull player initially has a value of 1, since kingdom 2, where their Merchant sits, contains 1 green card. They lay out 4 green cards from their hand. This makes it 5:5 — meaning they win the conflict. (D) First, the winner may place 1 green card from among the played cards onto their victory point stack. Then the 3 green cards from the old kingdom 1 (where the loser's Merchant sat) are placed on the winner's victory point stack. (E) The blue and black cards are shifted up. The Lion player must take their Merchant back. Since old kingdom 1 has now fallen apart into 2 kingdoms again, the Bull player may not exchange the Treasure card using their Merchant.
Kingdom 1 splits into 2 parts.
Now the red conflict still has to be resolved. Once this conflict is settled, the connecting card is turned face up and the game continues normally.
Note: if no player plays any cards, the conflict is decided by the cards already lying in the kingdoms. In this case, the winner may play a matching victory point card from their hand.
Drawing Cards
At the end of a player's entire turn (not directly after a conflict), all players may refill their hand of cards back up to 8!
The Properties of the Colors
As already partly described, all 4 colors have special properties.
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Black: The leader can act as a wild card when a card of another color is played and no matching leader is present in the kingdom.
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Green: The leader can exchange Treasure cards after kingdoms are joined.
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Red: Red cards are needed to resolve internal conflicts.
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Blue: As soon as, through the action "Play a civilization card," at least 4 cards of the same color come to lie directly beneath one another in a column, the player who played that card may build a ship. If the cards are blue, they may freely choose among the 3 ship cards (as long as it has not already been used). For any other color, they must choose the matching ship card, if it is still available (e.g. the blue-green ship, if at least 4 green cards are present). Building a ship works as follows: the last 4 cards of that color are removed from the display and placed on a discard pile. The ship card is placed in their spot. If leaders were sitting on those cards, they return to their owners.
The effect of a ship: for each leader belonging to a player that is, at the end of that player's turn, in a kingdom containing a matching-colored ship, that player receives 1 victory point card. To do so, they must place a matching-colored card from their hand onto their victory point stack. If they have no matching card, this option is simply not used. This allows a player to earn extra victory points every turn.
Note: the King cannot be used as a wild card here!
Example: The Bull player has just placed the 4th blue card and may replace the 4 blue cards with a ship card. They decide on the blue-black ship card. Now, the owner of a King in this kingdom may always place 1 additional black card on their victory point stack at the end of their turn, provided they have such a card in hand. As soon as a Farmer enters this kingdom, its owner may likewise place 1 blue card on their victory point stack after their turn, every round.
Note: cards can be placed normally beneath a ship card. Ship cards do not count in an external conflict, and leaders may not be placed on ship cards!
End of the Game
The game ends when there are no longer enough civilization cards to refill every player's hand back up to 8 at the end of a turn. The game also ends when, at the end of a turn, only 1 Treasure card remains in the display.
Winner
All players now take their victory point stack and lay the cards out in front of themselves, side by side, separated by color. The Treasure cards are wild cards and may be assigned to any color a player likes. For each player, only the color in which they have collected the fewest cards counts. These numbers are then compared. Whoever has the highest number here wins the game. If there is a tie in the weakest color, the second-weakest colors are compared next, and so on…
Example:
| Player | Green | Red | Blue | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| Lion | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Bull | 4 | 9 | 5 | 6 |
| Vase | 9 | 7 | 8 | 3 |
The Bow player wins. Their weakest color (green) is represented 5 times. They are followed by the Lion player, then the Bull player, then the Vase player.
© 2005 Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH. The publisher and author thank the following playtesters for their intensive testing work: Iain Adams, Martin Higham, Ross Inglis, Kevin Jacklin, Dieter Hornung, Christof Tisch, Alex Weiß, Hannes Wildner.