Fredericus
Fredericus Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents (Contenuto)
- One board depicting Castel del Monte (A: tower; B: guard post; C: courtyard).
- 4 bet tokens.
- 8 raptors: the peregrine falcons (tall markers) and the goshawks (short markers).
- A deck of 118 cards:
- 8 imperial seals;
- 24 trees;
- 24 sky portions;
- 4 falconers;
- 32 mythological creatures (8 different creatures, in four copies each);
- 24 objective cards (3 for each mythological creature);
- 1 "Fredericus" card;
- 1 "starting player" card.
Object of the Game (Scopo del gioco)
Capture, with your own raptors, the mythological creatures requested by Frederick II.
Setup (Preparazione)
Each player chooses a colour and takes the corresponding bet token, raptors and falconer. Keep your falconer in front of you to show your colour. In a two-player game, each player also takes a second bet token.
Remove from the game any bet tokens, raptors and falconers that are not distributed. Place the remaining raptors of the same colour on opposite guard posts, as in the example in the figure.
The owner of the game chooses who starts, or the players draw lots: the starting player keeps the "starting player" card in front of them for the whole game.
Shuffle the objective cards and deal one to each player: each player looks at their own and keeps it secret. In a three-player game, discard 4 objectives face up; in a two-player game, discard 8 objectives face up. Take 4 more objectives and shuffle Fredericus into them; place the remaining objectives on top of them. Give this objective deck (mazzo obiettivi) to the player to the right of the starting player.
Take the following cards:
- In a four-player game: all of them.
- In a three-player game: remove from the game 3 trees, 3 sky portions, 2 imperial seals and 8 creatures (one copy of each).
- In a two-player game: remove from the game 6 trees, 6 sky portions, 4 imperial seals and 16 creatures (two copies of each).
Shuffle the cards and lay out a row of 11 for each tower (9 in a three-player game, 7 in a two-player game). For each tower, lay the cards so that the whole row remains visible, as in the figure.
Each player chooses a tower where they think their opponents' raptors will capture creatures, and places their bet token there. More than one bet token may be on the same tower.
Playing the Game (Il gioco)
Play proceeds clockwise. On their turn, each player seeks to take creatures and objectives, completing a hunt: they must carry out four actions. Exception: on the first turn, the starting player carries out only two actions, and the second player only three.
The possible actions are:
- move a card: move a card from one end of a row to the end of one of the two adjacent rows;
- move one of your own raptors from one guard post to an adjacent one; more than one raptor may stand on the same guard post;
- hood an opposing raptor (see below).
The actions may be performed in any order, and each action may be repeated several times. During a turn, the player may take creatures and objectives in two ways, using their raptors (but without using actions):
a) capture one or two creatures; b) flip a row of cards.
a) Capturing One or Two Creatures
On their turn, each player may capture at most one creature with each of their two raptors:
- High-flight hunt. The falcon on a guard post captures a creature at the end of the corresponding row, if there are two sky portions at the ends of the two adjacent rows;
- Low-flight hunt. The goshawk on a guard post captures a creature at the end of the corresponding row, if there are one sky portion and one tree at the ends of the two adjacent rows.
The player keeps the creatures they have captured face up in front of them. If the player captures a creature near a tower on which opponents' bet tokens sit, their owners recover the tokens and, in clockwise order, draw an objective each.
b) Flipping a Row of Cards
The player may flip a row of cards if they have one of their own raptors on the corresponding guard post and two imperial seals at the ends of the two adjacent rows. The player takes the row, gathers the cards, and reverses their order: the card that was at the end becomes the first card of the row, the one that was second becomes the second, and so on.
The player who flips the row draws an objective, discards one of the two seals used, and may carry out two additional actions. Each player, on their turn, may flip only one row.
Hooding Opposing Raptors
The player may carry out the action of hooding opposing raptors on a guard post if there are two trees at the ends of the two adjacent rows: move the raptors to the corresponding courtyard segment. A player may never have both of their raptors hooded. If two raptors of the same player are on one guard post, the player doing the hooding chooses which one to hood. A hooded raptor may not be moved or capture.
End of the Turn
At the end of the turn, the player (without using actions):
- unhoods their own hooded raptor (if they have one): returns the raptor to its guard post;
- places their own bet token on a tower (they may change its position if it is already in play). In a three- or four-player game, they may place the token in the centre of the courtyard, if there is not already one there. At the start of their next turn, the player recovers the token and draws an objective; if a capture occurs before then, they recover the token immediately, with no effect.
In addition, at the end of each of their turns, the player who manages the objective deck (mazzo obiettivi) draws an objective and discards it face up on the table.
End of the Game and Victory (Fine della partita e vittoria)
As soon as a player either captures the eighth creature or draws Fredericus, they announce it: nobody draws any more objectives and the game ends before the starting player's turn (so that everyone has played the same number of turns).
Each player calculates their score:
- each creature and each objective: 1 point;
- Fredericus: 2 points;
- 1 point for the first creature-objective pair, 2 points for the second, 3 points for the third, and so on.
The player with the most points wins. If several players are tied, the winner is the one among them who played last.
Example
The worked example in the rulebook is a diagram of captured cards with arrows marking the pairs and the printed subtotals 7, 6, 5 and 2, totalling 20.
Variant for a Shorter Game (Variante per una partita più breve)
If the last three cards of a row are three trees or three sky portions, the active player may move them to the beginning of that same row (next to the castle). Each player may do this only once per turn; one of their raptors must be on the corresponding guard post. This does not count as an action.