Feudo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introductory Notes
• Aim of the Game
• Preparing to Play
  • The Map
  • The Plague and the Convent
  • The Coats-of-Arms
  • The Castles, the Tokens and the Playing Cards
• Duration of Game
• Game Turn
  • 1) Diplomacy Phase
  • 2) Strategy Phase
  • 3) Plague Phase
  • 4) Movement Phase
    • General rules about moving tokens
    • The Central Hill and the Convent
    • Sequence of movements
    • Discarding the Trading Cards
  • 5) Attack Phase
    • General rules for attacking
    • Battle In Open Field and Villages
    • City Attacks
• The Force of the Desperate
• The King and the Cowards
• The King's Help
• Victory
• Optional Rules
  • Longer game
  • Virulent plague
  • Only Strategy and Tactics
• Glossary
  • Trading cards
  • Plague cards
  • Castle
  • Milady
  • Order of Play
  • Victory points
• A Game Turn Example

Introductory Notes

In these rules, some words are underlined. These words are listed in the glossary, with additional information.

On a separate page, an example of a playing turn and a reference sheet are provided. These will be useful for understanding how the game works.

Aim of the Game

Each player assumes the role of a Baron in 1265 England trying to obtain the Manor of Evesham from King Henry III. By beating enemies and conquering Cities each player can obtain the Victory Points required to win the game.

Preparing to Play

The Map

Bring the 4 square mapboards together at random, in any direction, so as to form a single large map with an open space in the middle. Each mapboard must share one edge each with two other mapboards and the lines for the Hill spaces must line up. This will represent the map of the Manor.

On the map are 5 types of territories: Hill, Wood, Mountains, Village, City.

The Plague and the Convent

Place the blue Plague token on the Village closest to the city of Evesham.

In the empty center of the map, place the white token, with the drawing of the Convent and the 4 cardinal points.

The Coats-of-Arms

Each player chooses a color then takes the corresponding 5 Coats-of-Arms and places one on the "0" space of the Victory Chart.

The Castles, the Tokens and the Playing Cards

Take one Coat-of-Arms from each player, shuffle them and randomly reveal one at a time - this will determine player order.

In the established order each player places their Coat-of-Arms on a hill space on the outer edge of the map. This represents his/her Castle, the territory from which his/her tokens will enter the map during the game.

The Coat-of-Arms cannot be placed in a territory on a mapboard that has the Coat-of-Arms of another player. (Note: For Castle placement only, corner spaces where mapboards are conjoined are considered separate territories, but for movement, these spaces are considered one territory.)

Each player sits behind his/her Castle and arranges his/her 10 character tokens. The tokens must be positioned with the red number side up. The number printed on each token represents movement capacity, strength and value in Victory Points when eliminated. On some tokens, 1 or 2 small Coats-of-Arms are depicted so you can tell similar units from one another.

Each player takes the 10 Army Cards corresponding to his/her tokens, and 5 Trading Cards: one worth 4 shillings, one worth 2 shillings and three without shillings.

Duration of Game

A "Basic Game" lasts 10 turns. To play a "Basic Game", shuffle the 20 blue Plague Cards and prepare a deck of 10 cards, eliminating the others. For other types of game, see the optional rules.

Game Turn

1) Diplomacy Phase

The player with the least number of Victory Points establishes the Order of Play, i.e. who is to move and attack first, second and, if necessary, third and fourth. If there is a tie for least Victory Points, randomly pick a Coat-of-Arms from those tied to establish which player will decide the order of play. In the first turn only, the player who decides the order of play is the one who has placed his/her Castle last.

2) Strategy Phase

Each player chooses from among his/her cards, 3 Army Cards and 1 Trading Card, without showing them to the other players. These 4 cards must be held in the hand, while the other cards must be set aside, face down.

The 4 chosen cards will be revealed when played during the Movement Phase.

3) Plague Phase

Turn over the top Plague Card and move the Plague Counter as indicated. At this point, and only at this point, some tokens can catch the plague, depending on what is written on the plague card.

The blue Plague Token may move, depending on what is specified on the Plague Card, according to the cardinal points indicated on the Convent token, from the Village where it is to another Village. Once there, any tokens in that Village and in territories adjacent to that Village are afflicted with the Plague.

Each Village is considered to be "in-line", both horizontally and vertically, with 3 other Villages.

If the Plague Token moves off the board, it appears on the other side, in the "same line" as the village from which it left and continues in the direction indicated. (Illustrated with East-West Movement and North-South Movement diagrams.)

When a token is hit by the Plague it becomes Plague Stricken and the token must be turned over showing the side with the black number, which is lower than the red number. They can recover (return to full strength, flipping back to the red number) only if they manage to reach the Convent (during the Movement Phase). If the Baron is Plague Stricken, he recovers at the beginning of the next turn, before the next Plague Card is revealed, regardless of where he is on the board.

If a token is hit by the Plague while it is still Plague Stricken it is eliminated.

Tokens in the Castles, in the Cities, or in the Convent are safe and cannot catch the Plague.

4) Movement Phase

General rules about moving tokens

A token may be moved by either playing an Army Card or by spending Shillings from a Trading Card (see sequence of movements).

Revealing an Army Card allows you to move the corresponding token (Note: some Army Tokens have Coats-of-Arms to differentiate them from the same type of units in each Army). If the token is in the Castle, i.e. out of play, the Army Card allows it to be brought into play in the territory where your Castle is. This does not use up a movement point but any territory it moves to beyond the Castle space costs movement points. Each token can move a number of territories up to or equal to the number (red or black) printed on that token, unless there is fog, or an indication on the Plague Card for the turn (see Glossary).

A token can never pass over; the blue Plague Token, the Mountains, the Central Hill (where the Convent is), the Cities that are still free, or the Castles, tokens and Cities controlled by other players.

A token can pass over its own tokens, but cannot end the turn in the same territory as another token. Exception: A player can have 2 tokens (maximum) in the same territory only if one of the 2 tokens is the Baron or Milady.

Other movement restrictions:

• the First Knight must always be alone
• only the Baron, the Mercenaries and the Infantrymen can move through or stay in Villages and Cities they control
• only 1 token can remain in each Wood
• any token that enters a Wood must stop there

The Central Hill and the Convent

Only a Plague Stricken token can enter the Central Hill. Here it will recover in the Convent and return to full strength.

As soon as a Plague Stricken token enters the Central Hill, it gets placed underneath the Convent token.

At the start of each turn, all the tokens in the Convent recover and are turned over, again showing the side with the red number.

When inside the Convent, a token cannot attack or be attacked, it is safe from the Plague and can remain in the Convent for as long as it wants.

There is no limit to the number of tokens (friendly or enemy) that can remain in the Convent.

A token can enter or leave the Convent from any territory that borders on the Central Hill. (Illustrated: territories you can enter and leave the Central Hill from.)

Sequence of movements

The 3 Army Cards and 1 Trading Card that players chose during the Strategy Phase will now be revealed.

Following the order of play established during the Diplomacy Phase, players, in turn, reveal their first Army Card, then they show a second Army Card, then their third Army Card and, finally, they show their Trading Card.

Every time an Army Card is shown, the corresponding token can either be moved or not. When the Army Card of a personage is shown that is not yet on the map, it can either not enter the map (not move) or enter via the Castle and move at least 1 space. When the Trading Card is revealed, if it has a value of 2 or 4 shillings, you can use each shilling to move 1 Army token in play to an adjacent territory (a sort of forced march). So if the 4 shilling card is played, you could move up to 4 Armies 1 space each, 1 Army 3 spaces and 1 other Army 1 space, 2 Armies 2 spaces, etc. You are not required to use all the shillings.

Mercenaries must be paid to move so when an Army Card for a Mercenary is shown, and its corresponding token moved, a Trading Card with shillings must be revealed later in the turn, when Trading Cards are supposed to be revealed. After paying for any Mercenaries, any extra shillings on the Trading Card can be used for other Mercenaries or additional Army movements. If a Trading Card without shillings is selected, the Mercenaries cannot be moved.

If an Army token is eliminated, the corresponding Army Card must be discarded at the end of the turn.

Discarding the Trading Cards

After all the movements are finished, the players regain possession of the 3 revealed Army Cards, so they can be used on future turns. However, the Trading Card shown must be discarded face down and will not be available for the next few turns. So as not to confuse them with the others, we suggest placing them underneath the map. So during the 1st turn the players have all 5 Trading Cards at their disposal from which to choose, in the 2nd turn, they only have 4, in the 3rd turn only 3, in the 4th turn only 2 and in the 5th turn only 1. After the 5th turn, all the trading cards will have been played and set aside. At the beginning of the 6th turn, each player retrieves their 5 Trading Cards and the same procedure repeats until the tenth and final turn.

5) Attack Phase

General rules for attacking

After all movements for the turn have been completed, the attacks are made. The first to attack is the player who moved first, then the player who moved second and so on.

To attack, the player must be next to the target and attacking is optional. When a player is next to several targets, he/she chooses which, if any, will be attacked.

Multiple Army Tokens of the same player can join forces in a single attack on the same target, but all participating Army Tokens must be adjacent to the target and each Army Token can only participate in 1 attack each turn.

To win an attack, it is necessary to have a greater force than that of the target. The force of each token is indicated by the number (red or black) printed on it.

Milady is the only token that does not attack and cannot be attacked.

If a player has an Army Token in the same territory as their Baron, they are considered to be a single entity: when they attack or defend, they do so together and their total force equals the value of both Army tokens.

There are two types of attack: Battle In Open Field and Villages and City Attacks.

Battle In Open Field and Villages

To win battles it is necessary to overcome the force that is being attacked plus any defense provided by the territory they are in. Hills offer no additional bonus but being in a Wood grants a +5 force bonus and being in a Village grants a +3 force bonus (these modifiers are only valid in defense).

The First Knight and the Knights cannot enter a Village space, but they can attack the tokens in a Village.

City Attacks

At the start of the game, all the Cities are "free" and can be conquered by the players. Any combination of tokens can attack a City, but it is necessary to have at least 1 Mercenary or 1 Infantryman among the attackers. No City can be attacked without at least one of these two tokens. Exception: when a player has no more Mercenaries nor Infantrymen, he/she can attack a City if his/her Baron takes part in the attack.

The First Knight and the Knights cannot move into or crossover a City, but they can attack the tokens in a City and assist in an attack on an unoccupied City.

Cities have a defensive value of 7 (from the city walls) plus the value of any tokens in it, so to conquer a City without tokens (free or enemy) players must attack it from an adjacent territory, or territories, with a force of at least 8. To conquer an enemy City with tokens inside, the attacking forces must always be greater than the total defending force. For example, a City containing 1 Infantryman can be conquered by attacking with a force of at least 10.

The victorious player places his/her Coat-of-Arms in a conquered City to show dominion.

In both types of attack, the greater force wins, and the loser's tokens are immediately eliminated from the game, before the outcome of other attacks. When a Baron is defeated in combat, he is only wounded and manages to escape. In this case, any tokens with the Baron are eliminated and his token must be removed from the map and cannot be moved in the following turn (he is recovering from his wounds). The turn after that, the Baron is once again allowed to move, starting from his Castle.

The elimination of enemies and the conquering or loss of Cities results in a change of Victory Points (see Glossary).

At the end of the Attack Phase, discard the Army Cards for all eliminated Army Tokens.

6) Advance Phase

After all attacks are resolved, the winning player in each battle can advance 1 Army Token who participated in the attack (if the Baron participated in the attack you can move him plus 1 Army Token) into the territory or City left empty by the defeated enemy. Only 1 token can advance into a Wood.

Only the tokens of the Baron, Mercenaries and Infantrymen can advance into a City or Village. Advance movements are made according to the order of play - but they are optional and free of cost.

The Force of the Desperate

As soon as a player has less than 4 Army Tokens (not including Milady), the red number and black number on the token of his/her Baron become 6 and 3 respectively. In this case therefore, the Baron can cross more territories and attack with greater strength.

The King and the Cowards

As soon as one of the players reaches or exceeds 12 Victory Points, the King intervenes (virtually) in the dispute. The Army Tokens still in the Castle when the King arrives are considered cowards: their dishonor is a loss of prestige, and consequently of Victory Points.

Immediately, for each Army Token still inside the Castle at that time, the players lose Victory Points equal to the total value of the forces of all of these tokens. This loss of points is only applied once during the game, on that occasion, and for all the players.

Example: When The King And The Cowards event was triggered the blue player still had an Infantryman (force 2) and a Knight (force 3) that had not yet moved onto the map. The blue player loses 5 Victory Points.

The King's Help

From the time the King intervenes until the end of the game, he will try to prevent the Barons from becoming too strong by helping the weakest Baron(s), meaning the player(s) with the least Victory Points. When the player(s) with the least Victory Points shows a Trading Card with 4 or 2 shillings, he/she gets an additional 2 shillings to spend, given to him/her by the King. This help from the King often permits a player who is behind in Victory Points to regain ground. If the player with the least Victory Points shows a trading card without shillings, he/she does not receive any help from the King.

Victory

After the last turn, the King declares the end of hostilities and assigns the Manor to the strongest Baron.

The player with the most Victory Points wins the game. In case of a draw, the tied players continue playing until only one player has the most Victory Points at the end of the turn. In this tiebreaker, the Plague Cards are not drawn and the blue Plague Token is taken off the map. Note: Be sure to refresh your Trading Cards for this tiebreaker.

Optional Rules

Longer game

In this scenario, instead of the 10 turns of the "Basic Game", 15 or 20 turns are played, and a deck of 15 or 20 Plague Cards is prepared (Note: we highly recommend playing a 15 turn game).

At the start of the 11th and 16th turn, all the players regain possession of their 5 Trading Cards, to play them in the next turns according to the same rules as the "Basic Game".

To make the events less predictable, at the end of the 10th turn, all the Plague Cards are shuffled together and a new deck of Plague Cards is prepared for the remaining 5 or 10 turns and the extra cards are discarded. This method is recommended so more experienced players won't be able to determine what Plague Cards are yet to come.

Virulent plague

In this scenario, as soon as a token, except the Baron, is hit by the Plague it is immediately eliminated. If the Baron is hit by the Plague it is turned over for that turn. At the start of the next turn, his token is turned back over, again showing the side with the red number. This scenario is played without the Convent Token and its rules and the vocation event is ignored.

Only Strategy and Tactics

In this scenario, the players decide how many turns the game will last. The game is played without the Convent Token, the Plague Token, and without picking Plague Cards. Use the Plague Cards to keep track of turns played.

In all the scenarios of the Optional Rules, the same winning conditions apply as in the "Basic Game".

Glossary

Trading cards

The trading cards represent the income the Barons receive from the wool trade with France. Sometimes their ships return full of shillings (4 or 2 shilling card) and sometimes not (card without shillings).

The trading cards with shillings amount to just 2 out of 5 cards, but they are basic to the game. They permit additional and unexpected movements. It may be a good idea to play them straight away, to attack outright, but it is also possible to wait for the others to use theirs, before playing one's own shilling cards. See the Movement Phase.

Plague cards

The movement of the Plague Token is explained under Plague Phase, but there are some Plague Cards that have special rules. They are covered below:

Border. The blue Plague Token does not move. All the tokens in the Hill territories on the outer border of the map, except those in the corners where the mapboards are conjoined, are hit by the Plague.

Cross. The blue Plague Token does not move. All the tokens in the Hill territories around the Central Hill plus those where 2 mapboards are conjoined are hit by the Plague.

Lingering Plague. The blue Plague Token does not move. All the tokens in the Village with the Plague Token and territories adjacent to that Village are hit by the Plague.

Fog 1. The plague does not hit anyone. All the tokens in the Convent leave the battle and become friars (or nuns). The tokens are eliminated from the game. During this turn, tokens for Army Cards played can move 1 territory at most, until Trading Cards are played. If a Trading Card shows shillings, these may be spent to move Army Tokens as normal. Army Tokens can also Advance after a successful attack.

Castle

Army Tokens can move through their Castle, but once on the map, no token, except the Baron and Milady, can re-enter. A Baron can re-enter his Castle only when he's been defeated in a previous attack. Milady can re-enter her Castle only after she Charms an opponent's Baron as described below. A token in its Castle is safe from the Plague and cannot attack or be attacked.

Milady

Her token cannot cross or stop on a territory where there is an enemy token, unless it is another Milady.

Any token can cross or stop on a territory where there is an enemy Milady as long as there are no other tokens present.

Milady is a very important token. It can stop an entire enemy army, in the following way:

• during movement, the player whose turn it is shows the Army Card of his/her Milady
• Milady moves next to (or is already next to) an opponent's Baron
• Milady then declares she is charming the Baron

In this case, that Baron and all his tokens can no longer move in that turn (but they can still attack and Advance). Milady immediately returns to her Castle, from where she will be able to move again only after 1 full turn of rest.

The player of the charmed Baron, whose Army Tokens can no longer move that turn, must still show and discard their chosen Trading Card at the appropriate time (in effect the card is "forfeited").

The Baron is immune to Milady's charm only when he is in his Castle.

Each Milady can charm only 1 Baron per turn.

A Milady that catches the Plague, becomes Plague Stricken. A Plague Stricken Milady cannot charm the Barons, nor therefore stop their armies (she does not have the same charm...).

A Plague Stricken Milady can damage other types of tokens, in the following way:

• during movement, the player whose turn it is shows the Army Card of his/her Milady
• Milady moves next to (or is already next to) one or more enemy tokens
• Milady declares that she is infecting the tokens adjacent to her

In this case, all the adjacent enemy tokens are infected by Milady and become Plague Stricken.

The following are always immune from the Plague Stricken Milady: Barons, Miladies, already Plague Stricken tokens and tokens in Castles, Cities or the Convent.

Order of Play

The order of play is an important factor during the game. The player who moves first is at disadvantage because he/she reveals his/her moves before anyone else. The advantage, however, is that he/she attacks first. Deciding the order of play is an extra weapon in the hands of the player with the least Victory Points.

Victory points

You gain victory points by eliminating enemy tokens, equal to their value when killed. Adjust the Coat-of-Arms on the victory track accordingly.

When a Baron is defeated in combat, the victory points awarded are equal to his current value, even though the token of the Baron is not eliminated.

Also, for every city conquered or lost, the amount of victory points won or lost is equal to the distance (in territories) between one's Castle and the conquered or lost city. To determine the distance of a city from a Castle, the shortest path must be chosen, without taking into account the type of territories.

Example: The City the Yellow player just conquered is 8 spaces from his Castle, so he is awarded 8 Victory Points. Note: the Mountain space was used to calculate the shortest path to the City.

Victory points can also be lost due to THE KING AND THE COWARDS event.

A Game Turn Example

Turn the game box over. On the back of the box, part of a map is printed showing a number of tokens. Place the indicated tokens on top of their drawings and move them following the example:

Game between WHITE and BLUE players

Diplomacy Phase: WHITE has the least victory points, and therefore decides and declares that the order of the turn will be BLUE first and WHITE second.

Strategy Phase: Each player chooses 3 Army Cards and 1 Trading Card to be held in his/her hand, putting the others aside, face down. Blue chooses the Baron, Milady, Infantryman Geoffrey of Clinton and a Trading Card with no shillings. WHITE chooses the Baron, Mercenary Robert Dispenser, Knight Gilbert de Clare and the Trading Card with 2 shillings.

Plague Phase: The blue Plague Token moves 1 to the east, infecting the Infantryman John of Botley (his token must be turned over and is now worth 1, not 2).

Movement Phase:

• BLUE shows the Army Card of Baron William le Blund and moves it 1, onto the space with his Knight William le Mauduit.
• WHITE shows the Army Card of the Mercenary Robert Dispenser and moves it 2 spaces, placing it in the same space as his Baron Urse d'Abetot.
• BLUE shows the Army Card of the Infantryman Geoffrey of Clinton. The player fears the arrival of the Knight Gilbert de Clare alongside the City of Winterbourne and his looming attack. In this case, if he were in the City, his defensive force of 9 (2+7 for the city walls) would succumb against an attack by 10 (4+3+3). He therefore prefers to save the Infantryman and moves him 2 spaces, moving out of his City and into the Wood.
• WHITE in fact shows the card of the Knight Gilbert de Clare and moves him 1 space, alongside the enemy City of Winterbourne.
• BLUE shows the Army Card of Milady and moves her 2 spaces towards the enemy Baron.
• WHITE shows the Army Card of Baron Urse d'Abetot but does not move him.
• BLUE shows his Trading Card, which is without shillings, and therefore does not move any more.
• WHITE shows his Trading Card which is worth 2 shillings: 1 shilling is spent to pay for the movement made with the Army Card of the Mercenary Robert Dispenser and with the remaining shilling pays to move First Knight William de Beauchamp 1 territory north, to the Hill below Infantryman Robert of Roudiche.

Attack Phase:

• BLUE attacks the free City of Todenham, because he has more force (9>7 of the city walls) and has 1 Infantryman in the attack. He therefore conquers it and wins 4 Victory Points (the City is 4 territories away from his Castle).
• WHITE attacks the enemy City of Winterbourne, because he has more force (10>7 of the city walls) and has 1 Mercenary in the attack. He therefore conquers it and gains 5 Victory Points (the City is 5 territories away from his Castle). The BLUE player loses 8 Victory Points (since the City that was just lost is 8 territories away from his Castle). What is more, the WHITE player attacks with the First Knight William de Beauchamp, eliminating the Infantryman Robert of Roudiche and wins 2 Victory Points. Every time Victory Points are won or lost, the players move their Coats-of-Arms on the Victory Chart, forward or backward. The players can place one of their Coats-of-Arms on the conquered Cities.

Advance Phase:

• BLUE decides not to move forward with Baron William le Blund inside the conquered City, keeping him with his Knight William le Mauduit.
• WHITE decides to move the Mercenary Robert Dispenser inside the conquered City (free of charge).

At the end of the turn, the players put their stack of Army Cards together again, combining those played with those set aside, but since the BLUE player's Infantryman Robert of Roudiche perished in battle, the corresponding Army Card must be discarded. The played Trading Cards are also discarded.