For the Crown
For the Crown Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
[0.0] USING THESE RULES
New gaming terms, when they are initially defined, appear in dark red lettering for quick referencing.
The instructions for this game are organized into major "Rules" sections as shown in large green CAPS font, and represented by the number to the left of the decimal point (e.g., Rule 4.0 is the fourth Rule). These Rules generally explain the game's components, procedures for play, the game's core systems and mechanics, how to set it up, and how to win.
With each Rule, there can be "Cases" that further explain a general concept or basic procedure. Cases might also restrict the application of a Rule by denoting exceptions to it. Cases (and Subcases) are an extension of a Rule shown in the way that they are numbered. For example, Rule 4.1 is the first Case of the fourth Rule; and Rule 4.1.2 is the second Subcase of the first Case of the fourth Rule. Important information is in red text.
References to examples of a Rule or Case are in blue text and this font.
Text in shaded boxes, like this, provides the voice of the game's designer, who is addressing you to explain an idea or concept that is not, itself, a Rule or a Case.
[1.0] INTRODUCTION
For the Crown is a two-player deck-building game where players improve the cards in the decks that they draw from. Each side trains and controls opposing armies and uses them to stake their claim to the throne.
Civil war has broken out over the succession, and the people of a once-peaceful nation must choose sides and rush to war.
[2.0] GLOSSARY
The following are terms found throughout the game.
General Terms
- Barracks: An off-Board space where Trained units wait before their Deployment onto the Board.
- Board: The 8x8 grid of squares on the game map.
- Class: The 6 different Classes for units are: Foot, Heavy, Holy, Horse, Regal, and Sovereign. These are indicated in bold on a card. Some units have more than one Class.
- Deck: Cards ready to be Drawn into your Hand.
- File: A column on the Board (labeled a - h).
- Gold: The game's "currency", used to Buy cards from the Supply (see 9.0). Gold received from a card's effect is indicated by a number on a yellow circle.
- Rank: A row on the Board (labeled 1 - 8).
- Stock: An off-Board area for unused units.
- Supply: A set of cards available to Buy (see 9.0).
Movement Terms
- Backward: Towards the owner.
- Diagonally: Any of the 4 directions in which the corners of each square touch.
- Forward: Towards the owner's opponent.
- Leaping: To Move (like the Knight) directly to a destination square, ignoring all the intervening squares; thus, the move cannot be blocked.
- Left & Right: From the owner's perspective.
- Riding: To Move (like the Bishop) an unlimited distance in a single direction, until the path is blocked or the player chooses to stop.
- Sideways: Left or Right.
- Straight: Any of the 4 orthogonal directions (i.e., Left, Right, Forward or Backward).
Card Terms
- Adjacent: Squares (and units) whose sides or corners touch.
- Attack: To Move a unit (by its normal rules) into the square of an opposing unit, thereby Capturing it (see 7.0).
- Buy: To Gain a card by spending Gold (see 9.0).
- Capture: To remove a unit from play, returning it to the Stock.
- Deploy: To place a unit from your Barracks onto the Board (see 7.0).
- Discard: To place a card, face up, in its owner's Discard pile.
- Draw: To take the top card of your Deck and place it in your Hand.
- Gain: To take a card from the Supply and place it into your Discard pile.
- Hand: Cards you are currently holding. Does not include cards already played this turn.
- March: To Move a unit (by its normal rules) into an empty square (without Capturing; see 7.0).
- Morph: To change one unit Type into another. Replace the unit's current piece with one from the Stock of the new Type (and same color).
- Move: To change the position of a unit currently on the Board. This term is used when a card ignores a unit's normal movement rules.
[3.0] GAME EQUIPMENT
Parts Inventory
- One 8½" x 16½" map
- 108 3/4" square game units
- 100 deck-building cards
- 1 Rules booklet
- 1 Player Aid sheet
The Game Map: The 8½" x 16½" map game map shows the 8x8 grid of squares making up the Board, as well as each player's Barracks, Deck, and Discard pile.
The Units: The game pieces represent the fifteen different army Types. These pieces are referred to as units. Each unit has a blue side and a yellow side, used to indicate its owner.
Sample Units: The booklet's sample-unit diagram labels a unit name and an icon. (The diagram itself is not reproduced here.)
Cards: Each card has two effects with certain instructions printed directly on it.
Sample Card: The booklet's sample-card diagram labels the card cost, name, card effect, icon, type, piece movement diagram, special instructions, class, and Gold generated. (The diagram itself is not reproduced here.)
[4.0] SETTING UP THE GAME
- Separate the cards, face-up, into stacks by name. Each player takes 6 Peon and 4 Guard cards, turns them face-down, shuffles them, and places them in the Deck space on his side of the map. From it, each player Draws 5 cards to form his first Hand.
- Select the Champion, Clergy, Tower, and Consort card stacks (the "core cards"), and 10 additional stacks of other cards (the "variable cards"), of both players' choice or at random, to be used during play (for 14 total stacks). Place them to one side where both players can easily reach and read them to form the Supply. The remaining cards aren't used this game; put them away.
For your first game, along with the core cards, I suggest you use the following stacks: Armor, Bureaucracy, Evangelism, Heir, Legend, Patronage, Quartermaster, Refiner, Stables, and Versatility.
- Each player places a King unit of his color on his first Rank, File E.
Players will acquire more units during the game by using Training Actions (8.0) to add units to their Barracks and then using Orders to Deploy them to the Board (7.0).
- Set aside remaining units to form the Stock.
[5.0] SEQUENCE OF PLAY
Players alternate turns until one player is left with no Sovereign units on the Board (11.0).
The only Type of Sovereign unit in the basic game is the King. Each player starts with one King, but may acquire more using Heir cards.
A Turn consists of one player completing all of the following Phases in order:
- Order Phase (7.0): Generally, one of your units may be issued one of these Orders:
- March: Move into an empty square.
- Attack: Capture an enemy unit.
- Deploy: Place that unit from your Barracks into your first Rank.
- Card: Play a card with an Order effect and follow its instructions.
- Action Phase (8.0): Generally, you may play one card with an Action effect and follow its instructions.
- Buy Phase (9.0): Generally, you may play any number of cards with Treasure effects and spend your Gold to Buy one card.
- Housekeeping Phase (10.0): Discard all cards played from, or remaining in, your Hand this turn; Draw 5 cards from your Deck to create a new Hand.
[6.0] THE CARDS
Timing: Cards cannot be "saved" between Turns; unplayed cards are Discarded during a player's Housekeeping Phase (10.0).
Importance: When conflicting, the text on the cards supersedes the text in the Rules.
Limitations: The two effects listed on each card are mutually exclusive. That is, only one effect per card can occur when it is played.
Example: You hold a Peon card in your Hand. You may use it either to Train a single Pawn or as Treasure for 1 Gold – but not both.
When an instruction on a card does not apply to you at the time of play, ignore only that instruction and follow the rest as normal.
Reshuffling: If you must Draw a card but your Deck is depleted (i.e., there are no cards left to Draw from it), shuffle your Discard pile to form a new Deck, and then Draw as usual.
Examination: You may freely count the cards in any stack and look through any face-up stack. You may see the cards in your Hand, but only count those in your opponent's Hand.
[7.0] ORDER PHASE
You receive one Order per turn, plus one for each played card effect stating "+1 Order." An individual unit can only receive one Order per turn (e.g., it cannot March and Attack in a single turn, nor March twice or Attack twice; but see the Charger). Unused Orders are lost at the end of this Phase. You may use your Order(s) for any of the following:
- March: Move one of your units to an empty square following the unit's movement rules (see 12.0).
- Attack: Move one of your units to a square occupied by an opposing unit, following your unit's movement rules (see 12.0). The opposing unit is Captured and returned to the Stock. You cannot Capture your own units (but see 13.0, False Orders).
- Deploy: Place a unit from your Barracks into any empty square in your first Rank. If you Deploy a Foot Class unit, you may place it in your first or second Rank.
- Card: Play a card from your Hand with an Order effect and follow its instructions. Leave it face up in front of you until the Housekeeping Phase.
Example: You play a Bureaucracy card during the Order Phase as your first Order. That card gives a +1 Order, and instructs you to March or Attack with one of your Foot units. After moving one of your Foot units to comply with the instructions, you may choose to perform a second Order (due to the card's "+1 Order"), which could be any Order except one involving that same Foot unit.
Unlike in Chess, you are not forced to move on your turn; Orders are optional.
Promotion
When one of your Foot units enters your eighth Rank by either Marching or Attacking, it is Promoted (similar to Chess). If it enters the eighth Rank by other means (i.e., it is placed there by a card effect), it is not Promoted at that time (but may Promote later, if it Marches or Attacks and remains on, or returns to, the eighth Rank).
When a unit is Promoted, its owner may Morph it into any Type of unit that can be Trained by any of the cards selected during Set Up (see 4.2). Exchange the Promoted unit for a unit of the chosen Type from the Stock.
Example: You March into the eighth Rank with a Foot unit. You notice Versatility was chosen in step 4.2; thus a Striker unit is available. Liking that unit Type, you Morph your unit to a Striker.
Unlike in Chess, you may promote to a King—but only if Heir was selected!
[8.0] ACTION PHASE
You receive one Action per turn, plus one for each played card effect stating "+1 Action." Each Action may be used to play a card from your Hand with an Action effect. Unused Actions are lost at the end of this Phase.
Training Actions
A Training Action is a special kind of Action. When you play a Training Action effect, you Trash the card you played and Train a unit of the Type indicated on the card (adding it to your Barracks, thereby allowing you to Deploy it later on).
A Training Action x2 effect works the same as a Training Action, except that you Train two units of the indicated Type instead of one.
[9.0] BUY PHASE
In this Phase, you may play any number of cards from your Hand with Treasure effects. When you are done playing cards, you may use the total Gold you generated this turn (including Gold generated during previous Phases) to Buy cards from the Supply (at the costs indicated on each card).
You receive one Buy per turn, plus one for each card effect you played this turn stating "+1 Buy." The sum of your purchases cannot exceed your Gold. Unused Buys and Gold are lost at the end of this Phase.
Example: You currently have 6 Gold and a "+1 Buy" in this Phase, so you may make up to two Buys whose total cost does not exceed 6 Gold. You could purchase one Tower card (6 Gold), or one Legend card (4 Gold) plus one Champion card (2 Gold), but not two Tower cards (12 Gold total) or three Champion cards (3 Buys).
Your newly purchased cards are placed in your Discard pile.
When a stack of cards in the Supply runs out, those cards are no longer available to Buy.
[10.0] HOUSEKEEPING
In this Phase, you must Discard all cards remaining (unplayed) in your Hand, and also all the cards you played this turn (except Trashed cards).
Afterward, Draw five cards from your Deck to create a new Hand (6.0).
[11.0] HOW TO WIN
How to Win: You win at the end of any turn when your opponent has no Sovereign units on the Board (normally because you Captured them all). Then the triumphal crown is yours!
Unlike in Chess, there is no "Check" or "Checkmate" in For the Crown. You are not restricted from leaving your Sovereign unit(s) in danger, but be careful when doing so!