Gùgōng Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Material and Setup
• Game Overview
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: The Morning Phase
  • Phase 2: The Day Phase
    • 1. Exchanging Gifts
    • 2. Perform Actions
• Gift Card Actions
• Location Actions
  • 1. Travel
    • List of Travel Tokens
  • 2. The Great Wall
  • 3. Jade
  • 4. Intrigue
  • 5. The Palace of Heavenly Purity
  • 6. Decrees
    • List of Decrees
  • 7. The Grand Canal
• Double Servant
  • Phase 3: The Night Phase
• End of the Game
• Tips
• Expert Variant
• Bonus Travel Tokens
• Solo Variant
  • Setup (Solo)
  • Gameplay (Solo)
  • Card and Location Actions (Solo)
  • Special Automa Cards
  • Final Scoring (Solo)
• Credits

Game Material and Setup

1 Game Board. Place the Game Board in the middle of your playing table. Place it on the side corresponding to the number of players, as depicted on the lower left corner of the board. The Game Board depicts the Forbidden City and its surroundings. It shows the 7 available actions of the game, where you will exchange your Gift Cards, highlighted by 7 location frames. The board's locations include Travel, Great Wall, Jade, Palace of Heavenly Purity, Intrigue, Decrees and the Grand Canal.

3 Destiny Dice. Roll the 3 dice and place them on the indicated spaces. These determine which Gift Cards will grant you extra Servants and maybe even Victory Points at the end of each round.

1 Day Tracker. Place it on the first space of the Day Track. It will indicate the current round.

32 Travel Tokens. Shuffle all the Travel Tokens and randomly place 1 faceup on each city on the Travel location. Stack the remaining tokens on 2 facedown draw piles of equal size on the indicated locations. Players will move their Travellers from city to city to receive the benefit indicated on each individual token. For the first game, consider removing the 6 Bonus Travel Tokens before shuffling.

1 Traveller (per player). Place all players' Travellers next to the board. The Traveller will be used to visit Travel locations.

1 Envoy (per player). Place all players' Envoys on the starting location of the Palace of Heavenly Purity Track. Only if your Envoy reaches the Palace will you be able to win the game.

3 Grand Canal Ships (per player). Place these next to your Player Board. They will be used to trade at Harbours along the Grand Canal.

1 Next Start Player Medal. Place the Medal on the appropriate space, next to the card location of the Intrigue Track. Every round, 1 player can obtain this token to become the start player in the next round.

1 Intrigue Marker (per player). Place all players' Intrigue Markers on the starting location of the Intrigue Track, with the starting player's marker at the bottom and continuing in turn order (clockwise). This marker will be used to indicate your level of influence in the Forbidden City. It resolves all ties in the game and delivers Intrigue Benefits.

1 VP Marker (per player). Place it on the "0" spot of the Victory Points (VP) Track. This is used to track your score in the game.

1 Start Player Marker. This indicates which player is the start player for the current round. At the beginning of the game, randomly determine a start player through your preferred method. Player order will continue clockwise from the start player.

All the per-player components are present 5 times in each of the 5 different player colours.

38 Gift Cards. Randomly place the 7 Gift Cards marked with the appropriate symbol faceup on the 7 Gift Card locations. Shuffle the cards marked with the draw-pile symbol, and place them facedown near the Game Board as a draw pile. Each player receives a set of 4 Gift Cards, as determined by the number of segments of the fan icon that are filled in. The starting player receives the "Player 1" cards, the player to his/her left receives the "Player 2" cards, and so on. Return any remaining Gift Cards to the game box.

20 Jades. Place 1 Jade on each of the indicated spots and place the remaining ones in a general Jade supply on the square of the Jade location. You'll be able to collect Jade in the game to score Victory Points at the end of the game.

15 Decree Tiles. Sort the Decree Tiles by their level (1, 2 and 3 shown on their backs). Shuffle them separately and then draw 2 tiles from each stack, placing them face up on the appropriate spaces on the Game Board. Return the unused tiles to the game box; you won't need them this game. These tiles represent special advantages and Victory Points you can obtain during or at the end of the game.

1 Player Board (per player). Each player places the Player Board of their chosen colour in front of them. This is where players will store their Gift Cards, Servants and Double Servant. It's also a player aid, showing the course of each round, the result of exchanging Travel Tokens, the claimed Harbour rewards and the end of game scoring.

12 Servants (per player). Players start the game with 6 Servants (cubes) on their Player Board, and 6 are placed next to their Player Board as a general supply. The Servants on your Player Board are called the Servant Pool and represent the available Servants with which to perform actions. At the beginning and end of every round, players will receive a number of Servants from their general supply back into their Servant Pool.

1 Double Servant (per player). Place the Double Servant token on your Player Board on the appropriate space. This token counts as 2 Servants and can be obtained through the Grand Canal action.

Game Overview

"Gùgōng" is played in 4 rounds, representing 4 Days. Each Day consists of 3 Phases:

1. The Morning Phase, where players prepare the game for the coming Day.
2. The Day Phase, where players perform multiple actions.
3. The Night Phase, where players check if they have successfully matched cards in their discard pile with the Destiny Dice.

At the end of the 4th Day, players receive additional VP for the completion of the Great Wall, the level 3 Decrees, their arrival order in the Palace and their collection of Jade. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game is declared the most influential Chinese Family and wins the game. But watch out! Players who don't manage to get their Envoy into the Palace of Heavenly Purity by the end of the game won't be eligible to win.

Gameplay

Phase 1: The Morning Phase

Note: the Morning Phase is skipped altogether in the first round of the game. You've already executed it in the setup of the game.

In the Morning Phase, players prepare the Game Board for the coming round. This is a 5-step process:

Step 1: Determine start player. If a player took the Next Start Player Medal in the previous round, they become the new start player for this round. The new start player receives the Start Player Marker and places the Next Start Player Medal back on the indicated location on the Game Board. If nobody took the Next Start Player Medal in the previous round, the start player doesn't change.

Step 2: Refill the map. Fill up all the empty city spaces (the ones without a Travel Token or a Traveller) on the map with Travel Tokens. If the draw piles are empty, shuffle the discard pile back into 2 new draw piles and refill from the new draw piles.

Step 3: Roll the Destiny Dice. Roll the 3 Destiny Dice and place them on the indicated spaces on the top edge of the Game Board.

Step 4: Execute Decree advantages. All players that have a Servant next to Decrees with the Morning symbol (level 1 Decrees) now receive the indicated advantages in player order.

Example: Both Lisa (White) and David (Lilac) have a Servant on the same "Morning" Decree. David places 1 Servant from his general supply onto 1 of his Ships on the Grand Canal. This completes his Ship and he chooses to take an extra hand card from the Gift Card draw pile. He moves 1 of the Ship's Servants to his Player Board to indicate that he took the Harbour reward and places the remaining Servants and his Ship back in his general supply. Lisa could do the same, but as she doesn't have that many Servants left in her general supply and no Ship to immediately complete, she decides to waive the advantage.

Step 5: Receive new Servants. Move the Day Tracker. All players may move the number of Servants indicated next to the Day Tracker from their general supply to their Servant Pool.

Phase 2: The Day Phase

In the Day Phase, players perform various actions by exchanging Gift Cards with the Officials working in the Forbidden City, represented by the 7 Card locations on the Game Board.

Beginning with the start player and going around the table in clockwise order, players will take turns exchanging Gift Cards and performing the appropriate actions. Play continues with each player exchanging a single card per turn. When a player runs out of hand cards, they must pass. Once all players have passed, the Day Phase ends and the Night Phase begins.

If you have at least 1 card left in your hand, you take these steps during each turn:

1. Exchanging Gifts

At the beginning of your turn, you MUST exchange 1 Gift Card from your hand with a Gift Card on the Game Board.

The value of a Gift Card. If your Gift Card has a higher value than the value of the card that you'd like to choose on the Game Board, you may freely exchange them.

If your Gift Card has a lower or equal value than the card you choose on the Game Board, you may exchange them, if you first:

• Remove 2 Servants from your Servant Pool to your general supply;
• OR discard any other Gift Card from your hand to the discard pile on your Player Board;
• OR exchange the Gift Card without performing any actions. Skip step 2 (Perform Actions), and if you still have at least 1 Gift Card in your hand, you will return to step 1 (Exchanging Gifts) in your next turn.

EXCEPTION: The Gift Cards with value 1 can be exchanged freely with the Gift Cards with value 9. (Why is that? Even though the value-1 Gift, the fruit bowl, has an apparently low value, some exotic fruit types are very hard to find in the common street market and Officials are sometimes tempted to do an impulsive exchange for them.)

Place the Gift Card that you took from the Game Board facedown onto your discard pile on your Player Board. The discarded cards will become your new hand cards for the next Day. You may look at your facedown pile at any time. Your opponents, however, may not ask which cards are in your discard pile.

2. Perform Actions

After your Gift Exchange, you MAY immediately perform:

• the action of the Gift Card that you placed on the Game Board (if applicable, some cards don't have a card action);
• OR the action of the location where you placed your Gift Card;
• OR both actions. If you perform both actions, the Gift Card action must be done first.

Example: Rafaël wants to buy some Jade, but has only 1 Servant left in his Servant Pool and furthermore, the Jade Official holds a value-8 Gift (a "Dunhuang Pipa", a type of Chinese lute), while Rafaël only has a value-2, value-3 and value-5 Gift Card in his hand. Rafaël sacrifices his value-2 Gift Card by placing it onto his discard pile (thus making it available to him again in the next round) and exchanges the value-8 card with his value-3 card (a set of Go stones). The value-8 card also gets added to his discard pile. Rafaël performs the card action, which allows him to take 2 Servants. This means he now has enough Servants to perform the location action as well. He buys 1 Jade and removes 3 Servants from his Servant Pool.

Gift Card Actions

After your Gift Exchange, you may perform the Gift Card's action, provided there's an action depicted on the card. Most of these actions refer to a location action: The Palace of Heavenly Purity, The Grand Canal, The Great Wall, Decree, or Intrigue.

Some Card actions give you other benefits:

• Immediately add 1 Servant from your general supply to your Servant Pool.
• Immediately add 2 Servants from your general supply to your Servant Pool.
• Exchange 1 card from your hand or discard pile with a card on the Game Board. If you used a card from your discard pile, place the new card into your discard pile as well.

If the Gift Card action and the location action are the same, do the same action twice.

Location Actions

7 Officials oversee the main functions of the Chinese State, represented by 7 Gift Card locations on the Game Board. When a player exchanges a Gift Card with 1 of these 7 Officials, (s)he may perform the action on this location.

Iconography:

• Return the indicated number of Servants from the Servant Pool on your Player Board to your general supply.
• Lose 1 Servant from your Ship by moving it to the appropriate space on your Player Board, where it stays for the rest of the game.
• Move the indicated number of Servants from your Servant Pool on your Player Board to the appropriate space on the Game Board or your Ship.
• Immediately score the indicated number of VP by moving your VP Marker on the VP Track.
• Score the indicated number of VP at the end of the game (see "End of the Game").

1. Travel

Exchange your Gift with the Revenue Official and send your Traveller to cities throughout China to collect taxes for the Longqing Emperor, which come in all shapes and sizes.

When you perform this action, you may either:

A. Move your Traveller once, collect 1 Travel Token and (you may) immediately receive its benefits.

B. Remove 2 Servants from your Servant Pool to move your Traveller twice: First move your Traveller 1 step, collect 1 Travel Token and (you may) immediately receive its benefits. Then repeat this action.

The first time you choose this action (A or B), place your Traveller on any space on the map with a Travel Token (this counts as your first Traveller movement). From then on, whenever you move your Traveller, it moves from the city where it currently resides to the next city that still contains a Travel Token, following the indicated roads on the map, and ignoring the presence of other Travellers and empty spaces. This means that your Traveller can jump over empty cities and cities occupied by other Travellers.

Keep any collected Travel Tokens facedown above your Player Board on an available space.

At any time during the game, you may exchange the Travel Tokens above your Player Board for certain benefits:

• Exchange 2 Travel Tokens to receive 1 Servant from your general supply and immediately place it in the Servant Pool on your Player Board.
• Exchange 4 Travel Tokens to immediately receive 2 VP.
• Exchange 6 Travel Tokens to immediately receive 1 Jade from the Jade supply.

Important: Whenever you would place a Travel Token above your board and do not have an available space, you must immediately exchange Travel Tokens for Servants, VP or Jade so that you have room to place the new token.

Exchanged Travel Tokens are placed in a discard pile near the Game Board. Don't add them to the draw piles on the Game Board.

List of Travel Tokens

• Receive 1 Servant and place it in your Servant Pool.
• Receive 2 Servants and place them in your Servant Pool.
• Move your Envoy up 1 space on the Palace Track.
• Move your Intrigue Marker up 1 space on the Intrigue Track.
• Discard a Gift Card of value 7 or higher from your hand onto your discard pile and receive 1 Jade from the Jade supply.
• Immediately receive 2 VP.
• Exchange 1 card from your hand or discard pile with a card on the Game Board. If you used a card from your discard pile, place the new card into your discard pile as well.
• Take 1 of your discarded Gift Cards back into your hand.
• Take 1 Servant from your general supply and place it on 1 of your Ships on the Grand Canal (or place a new Ship and add the Servant, according to the normal rules of this action). If this is the 3rd Servant on this Ship, you may claim the reward of the Harbour immediately.
• Place 1 Servant from your general supply on the Great Wall. If this completes the Great Wall, score it as usual (see "Great Wall Scoring").
• Return 3 Servants from your Servant Pool to your general supply and receive 1 Jade in exchange.
• This Travel Token counts as 2 tiles when exchanging Travel Tokens into Servants, VP or Jade. Important: Keep this token face up on your Player Board until you exchange it for its benefit.

2. The Great Wall

Exchange your Gift with the Public Works Official and participate in the renovation of sections of the Great Wall of China. This will allow you to take part in the Intrigue Benefits and potentially gain VP and advance your Envoy.

When you perform this action, you may either:

A. Place 1 Servant from your Servant Pool onto the Great Wall.

B. Remove 1 Servant from your Servant Pool, to place up to 2 other Servants from your pool onto the wall.

When a section of the Great Wall is completed, immediately execute the Great Wall Scoring and Intrigue Benefits. Depending on the number of players, a section is complete when there are at least 4/5/6/7 Servants on the Great Wall if you play with 1-2/3/4/5 players respectively.

Great Wall Scoring. The player with the MOST Servants on the Great Wall receives 3 VP and moves their Envoy 1 step on the Palace Track. In case of a tie, use the Intrigue Track as tie-breaker (see "Intrigue"). Then, the same player returns all of their Servants from the wall to their general supply. Fill up empty spaces by moving any remaining Servants to the left. Next, players may receive Intrigue Benefits.

Intrigue Benefits. All players present on the completed wall before it was scored MAY choose to take 1 of the Intrigue Benefits. Players do this one by one, starting with the player whose marker is lowest on the Intrigue Track. In case of a tie, the bottom marker is considered the lowest one. To take a benefit, lower your Intrigue Marker as many steps on the Intrigue Track as indicated. The available benefits are:

• Lower your Intrigue Marker 1 step to gain 1 Servant in your Servant Pool.
• Lower your Intrigue Marker 3 steps to gain 2 Servants in your Servant Pool.
• Lower your Intrigue Marker 5 steps to choose 1 Destiny Die and turn it to the side of your choice. It can happen that the same die gets turned by more than 1 player when the Intrigue Benefits are executed.
• Lower your Intrigue Marker 7 steps to gain 1 Jade from the Jade supply.

Example: It's a 4-player game. David (Lilac) has 3 Servants on the wall. Lisa (White) and Sebastian (Orange) both have 1, and Anna (Red) has none. Lisa exchanges gifts with the Public Works Official and removes 1 Servant from her Servant Pool back into her general supply and places 2 more Servants on the wall. This section of the Great Wall is now complete, so the Great Wall Scoring and Intrigue Benefits are executed. Lisa and David both have 3 Servants, and they both have reached the 12th step on the Intrigue Track. But because Lisa's marker sits on top of David's, the tie is broken in Lisa's favour. She receives 3 VP and moves her Envoy up 1 step on the Palace Track. Her 3 Servants are removed from the wall, back to her general supply. Finally, Lisa, David and Sebastian may choose to take 1 of the Intrigue Benefits. Anna didn't have any Servants on the completed wall and is not allowed to receive Intrigue Benefits. Sebastian's marker is lowest on the Intrigue Track and goes first. He lowers his marker just 1 step to gain a Servant in his Servant Pool. David decides to keep his Intrigue Marker where it is. Lisa decides to take a Jade from the Jade supply and moves her marker back 7 steps.

3. Jade

Exchange your Gift with the Jade Official to be introduced to the Jade market vendors and buy Jade.

When you perform this action, choose 1 of the houses and remove the indicated number of Servants from your Servant Pool to gain 1 Jade from that house. Jade generates VP at the end of the game (see "End of the Game").

When all Jades in the houses are gone, you can always gain 1 Jade from the Jade square for 5 Servants. The Jade supply is considered to be unlimited; use replacement components in the rare case that Jade is completely sold out.

4. Intrigue

Exchange your Gift with the Shady Official to climb up on the Intrigue Track, which indicates the hidden influence of your family in the Forbidden City. This track counts as a tie-breaker for all comparisons with your opponents in the game. Or you can gain 1 of the Intrigue Benefits whenever you help to complete a section of the Great Wall.

When you perform this action, you may either:

A. Advance your Intrigue Marker 1 step on the Intrigue Track. The first player to choose this option in the current round also takes the Next Start Player Medal and will become the start player in the next round.

B. Remove 1 Servant from your Servant Pool to advance your Intrigue Marker 3 steps on the Intrigue Track.

Whenever your Intrigue Marker lands on the same space as 1 or more markers of your opponents, place your Intrigue Marker on top of the other Intrigue Marker(s). The Intrigue Track is limited to 14 steps. Your marker can't progress any further.

Tie-breaker. Whenever a tie occurs in the game, the player whose marker is highest on the Intrigue Track will win the tie. When 2 or more Intrigue Markers are stacked on a space, each marker is considered to be ahead of any markers underneath it. Ties can, for instance, occur when resolving the Great Wall Scoring, when awarding the Destiny Dice Bonus or when determining the order in which Intrigue Benefits may be taken.

5. The Palace of Heavenly Purity

Exchange your Gift with the Censorate Official to progress towards the Palace of Heavenly Purity and obtain an audience with the Emperor before the end of the 4th Day.

When you perform this action, you may either:

A. Advance your Envoy 1 step on the Palace Track.

B. Remove 2 Servants from your Servant Pool to advance your Envoy 2 steps on the Palace Track AND move your Intrigue Marker forward 1 step on the Intrigue Track.

When you progress to the 8th and final step of the Palace Track, you've reached the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Place your Envoy on the location with the highest available VP, which you'll score at the end of the game. Once your Envoy has reached the Palace, any action that would cause you to move further up on the Palace Track gives you 1 VP instead for each additional step.

At the end of the game, only the players who have reached the Palace of Heavenly Purity are eligible to win the game. If you fail to get your Envoy into the Palace by the end of the 4th Day, your total end score will be 0.

Example: Anna exchanges Gifts with the Censorate Official. She decides to return 2 of her Servants to her general supply and advances her Envoy to the final step of the Palace Track. She also moves her Intrigue Marker up 1 step on the Intrigue Track. The locations with 7 and 5 VP are already taken, so she places her Envoy on the 3rd location, which will gain her 3 VP at the end of the game. In her next turn, she moves her Traveller to a city that allows her to move her Envoy 1 step forward. Since her Envoy has already reached the Palace of Heavenly Purity, she receives 1 VP instead.

6. Decrees

Exchange your Gift with the Decrees Official to gain special Decree advantages during the entire game and/or VP.

To obtain a Decree, return the number of Servants from your Servant Pool to your general supply as depicted on the Decree plus 1 extra Servant for each of your opponent's Servants already present on that Decree. Then, place an additional Servant onto the Decree.

• Score the Decree's VP immediately if applicable.
• Level 3 Decrees only gain you VP at the end of the game (see "List of Decrees").

From then on, you'll profit from the Decree's advantage for the rest of the game. Your Servant remains on the Decree to indicate this. You can obtain each Decree only once.

Example: Sebastian wants to obtain a Decree's advantage. He has 5 Servants in his Servant Pool. Although Anna and Lisa already have Servants on this Decree, Sebastian chooses the Decree that grants him 1 extra Servant each Morning Phase. He removes 3 Servants from his Servant Pool to his general supply (1 as indicated on the Decree and 1 for each opponent's Servant on the Decree). He then places 1 of his 2 remaining Servants on the Decree, where it stays for the rest of the game. He also scores 3 VP.

List of Decrees

Level 1:

• Immediately score 2 VP. In each Morning Phase, you may move your Intrigue Marker up 2 steps on the Intrigue Track.
• Immediately score 2 VP. In each Morning Phase, you may place 1 Servant from your general supply on 1 of your Ships (or place a new Ship to add the Servant, according to the normal rules of this action). If this is the 3rd Servant on this Ship, you may claim the reward of the Ship's Harbour immediately.
• Immediately score 3 VP. In each Morning Phase, you may add 1 Servant from your general supply to your Servant Pool.
• Immediately score 3 VP. In each Morning Phase, you may move your Envoy up 1 step on the Palace Track. If your Envoy is already in the Palace, score 1 VP instead.
• Immediately score 3 VP. In each Morning Phase, you may exchange a hand card or a card from your discard pile with a Gift Card on the Game Board. Note that this happens after the Destiny Dice are rolled.

Level 2:

• Immediately score 2 VP. Whenever you perform the Travel action and choose to move your Traveller twice, you may remove 1 Servant fewer to do so.
• Immediately score 2 VP. Whenever you perform the Jade action, you may remove 1 Servant fewer than indicated. This advantage does not apply to other locations where you can obtain Jade.
• Immediately score 3 VP. Whenever you perform the Great Wall action, you may place an extra Servant from your general supply on the wall. If this completes the Great Wall, score it as usual (see "Great Wall Scoring").
• Immediately score 3 VP. Whenever you exchange Gifts, you may now also exchange Gifts of the same value with an Official and perform the action.
• Immediately score 4 VP. Whenever you perform the Decrees action, you may remove 1 Servant fewer than indicated.

Level 3:

• At the end of the game, score 1 VP for every 3 VP you scored during the game, up to a maximum of 10 additional VP. Score this Decree before other level 3 Decrees. Also respect the order of the end scoring as explained in "End of the Game" and depicted on your Player Board.
• At the end of the game, score 8 VP.
• At the end of the game, score 2 extra VP for every Jade you own, up to a maximum of 10 VP.
• At the end of the game, score 2 VP for each of your Servants on the Decrees, including this one.
• At the end of the game, score 2 VP for each Servant next to the Harbour rewards on your Player Board.

7. The Grand Canal

Exchange your Gift with the Trade Official to send your Servants on a journey on the Grand Canal, to trade with people outside of Beijing. This will grant you all sorts of permanent rewards.

When you perform this action, you may either:

A. (Optionally) place 1 of your Servants on 1 of your Ships AND (optionally) move 1 of your Ships 1 step to the next free Harbour space.

B. Remove 1 Servant from your Servant Pool to place 2 other Servants from your pool on 1 or 2 of your Ships.

Servants are added on free spaces on your Ships on the Grand Canal and/or on 1 or 2 new Ships. Each Ship must carry at least 1 Servant. Each player has 3 available Ships, which can be used multiple times. Placing a new Ship on the Grand Canal is not considered as a movement.

When placing a new Ship on the Grand Canal, you must place it on a free Harbour, meaning the leftmost unoccupied one. In a 4-5 player game there are 2 Grand Canal routes with 2 starting Harbours. When placing a new Ship, choose 1 of the 2 routes and place your Ship on the first free Harbour space of that route. Ships can never be moved from 1 route to another.

You can only move your Ship if there's a free Harbour space left on this route. When moving your Ship, you must skip occupied Harbours and move to the next free Harbour. The Ship that you move may be different from the Ship that you just placed 1 Servant on.

You may claim a reward if your Ship carries 3 Servants and reached a Harbour with a reward that you'd like to receive. To do so, take 1 Servant from your Ship, place it next to the corresponding Harbour reward (if still available) on your Player Board, and immediately take that reward. Return your Ship next to your Player Board and the remaining 2 Servants to your general supply.

Available rewards:

• Harbour 1: Starting Harbour, no reward.
• Harbour 2: Immediately receive 4 VP.
• Harbour 3: Immediately take the topmost Gift Card from the draw pile and add it to your hand. For the rest of the game, you will have 1 extra Gift Card to play with.
• Harbour 4: Immediately add your Double Servant to the Servant Pool on your Player Board. This special Servant is now part of your Servant Pool and can be used in a variety of ways.
• Harbour 5: Immediately receive your choice of the benefits from Harbour 2, 3, or 4, i.e. 4 VP OR an extra Gift Card OR your Double Servant.

In order to claim a reward, you must have a free space next to it on your Player Board. You can take your Double Servant only once, an extra Gift Card twice and 4 VP three times.

Example: Sebastian places 2 Servants. He adds 1 Servant on 1 of his Ships in Harbour 2. He then adds a new Ship, which he can place on 2 allowed locations: Harbour 1 on the left route A or on Harbour 3 on the right route B. He chooses to place his Ship in Harbour 3 and places 1 Servant on it. In a subsequent turn, he does the action again and then adds 1 Servant to his Ship in Harbour 2. He then moves the same Ship to the Harbour 5, skipping the occupied Harbours 3 and 4. In Harbour 5, he claims an extra Gift Card as a reward and immediately adds it to his hand. He moves 1 of the Servants from his Ship to his Player Board, next to the Gift Card symbol. He then removes his Ship and its remaining Servants from the Grand Canal.

Double Servant

Each player has 1 available Double Servant on his Player Board at the beginning of the game, which they can bring into play by the Grand Canal action. Once unlocked, the Double Servant is treated and kept like all other Servants, but it can be used as either 1 or 2 Servants:

Gaining your Double Servant. Whenever you would gain 1 Servant from your general supply to your Servant Pool, you may take your Double Servant.

Removing your Double Servant from your Servant Pool. Whenever you need to remove 2 Servants from your Servant Pool to your general supply, you may remove your Double Servant instead of 2 Servants.

Great Wall and Grand Canal. Whenever you may place 1 Servant on the Great Wall or a Ship (Grand Canal), you may place your Double Servant, occupying 2 spaces and thus counting as 2 Servants. If you may place 2 Servants on the Great Wall or a Ship, it's even possible to place 1 normal Servant and your Double Servant, thus counting for 3 Servants in total.

Decrees and Harbour rewards. You are NOT allowed to use your Double Servant to place it by a Decree or a Harbour reward on your Player Board.

Example 1: David performs the Great Wall action and removes 1 Servant from his Servant Pool to place 2 Servants on the wall. He uses a normal Servant and his Double Servant to add to the wall, which is now completed. Anna and Lisa already had 2 Servants on the wall. But since David placed his Double Servant, his Servants count for a total of 3 and he receives the Great Wall Scoring.

Example 2: Sebastian decides to remove his Double Servant from his Servant Pool, counting as 2 Servants, to move his Traveller twice. He receives 2 Travel Tokens and receives their benefits. He places both Travel Tokens on his Player Board. For his next action, he would like to go up on the Palace Track. He has no Servants left in his pool, so he decides to exchange his 2 Travel Tokens for 1 Servant and recovers his Double Servant from his general supply. He then performs the Palace of Heavenly Purity action, removing his Double Servant from his Servant Pool again to go up 2 steps on the Palace Track and 1 step on the Intrigue Track.

Phase 3: The Night Phase

When all players have run out of Gift Cards in the Day Phase, the Night Phase starts. This is a 2-step process:

Step 1: Check Destiny Dice values. All players simultaneously check whether the value of each Gift Card in their discard pile matches the values of the Destiny Dice. For each match, you may gain 1 Servant from the general supply and place it in your Servant Pool. If 2 Destiny Dice have the same number, each matching card will yield 2 Servants.

Then the player with the most matches also receives 3 VP and may advance their Envoy 1 step closer to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. In case of a tie, the player whose marker is furthest ahead on the Intrigue Track wins (see "Intrigue").

Example: The Destiny Dice show 3, 3 and 6. David has 1 value-6 Gift Card, Lisa has 2 value-3 Gift Cards, Anna has no matching cards and Sebastian has 1 value-3 and 2 value-6 Gift Cards. David receives 1 Servant, Lisa receives 4, Anna 0 and Sebastian 4. Lisa and Sebastian are tied for most matching values, but Sebastian is ahead on the Intrigue Track, so he receives 3 VP and advances his Envoy 1 step closer to the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

Step 2: Move all Ships. Move all the Ships on the Grand Canal 1 step forward, starting with the ships furthest ahead on the Grand Canal. If a Ship was docked in the 5th Harbour (the final step of the Grand Canal), it becomes lost at sea: return it and the Servants on the Ship to its owner's general supply. Then, players with full ships remaining on the Grand Canal may decide to claim a Harbour reward from their Ship's new location.

If this was the 4th day, the "End of the game" final scoring is performed. In all other cases, enjoy a new morning!

End of the Game

After 4 completed Days, proceed to the final scoring in this order:

1. If there are still Servants on the Great Wall, score it as usual (without Intrigue Benefits). The player with the most Servants on the Great Wall receives 3 VP and moves their Envoy 1 step on the Palace Track. Note: this can cause a player to ultimately reach the Palace of Heavenly Purity, making them eligible to win the game!
2. Players receive VP for the level 3 Decrees they own.
3. Players receive VP depending on their order of arrival in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
4. Players receive 1/3/6/10/15 VP for possessing 1/2/3/4/5 Jades. Each additional Jade beyond 5 is worth 2 VP.

Players who didn't manage to get their Envoy into the Palace of Heavenly Purity after the final scoring aren't eligible to win the game. Their VP Markers are removed from the VP Track.

Of the remaining players on the VP Track, the player with the most Victory Points is declared the most influential Chinese Family and wins the game. In case of a tie, the order of the Intrigue Markers is decisive (we are consistent).

Tips

1. The number of Servants is limited to 12 and 1 Double Servant. Once your general supply of Servants is empty, you won't be able to gain any more Servants. This can become tricky if you have a lot of Servants on the Great Wall, Decrees and your Ships. Plan carefully and try to balance your Servant income with your Servant investments on the board.
2. In your first game, you may find that it's pretty tough to gain enough Servants. Your basic income every round won't be enough for all the stuff you'd like to do. This makes the several "Servant engines" in the game important, i.e., converting 2 Travel Tokens into 1 Servant, converting Intrigue steps into Servants, Travel Tokens that give you extra Servants, cards that gain you extra Servants, Decrees that gain you extra Servants, matching your cards with the Destiny Dice…
3. Although it's perfectly possible to win the game without it, don't underestimate the power of the Double Servant. Try it, and you'll see…

Expert Variant

To spice up your game a little, once you've played Gùgōng a few times, you may change the setup of the game by shuffling together all Gift Cards marked with the faceup symbol, the draw-pile symbol and all unused player Gift Cards. Place all those cards near the Game Board in a facedown draw pile. Draw the topmost 7 cards and place them randomly on the 7 Gift Card locations on the Game Board.

Bonus Travel Tokens

These are special Bonus Travel Tokens that are best used with experienced players. Only add them to your game once you have played Gùgōng a couple of times.

• Place this Travel Token and 1 Servant from your Servant Pool next to your Player Board. For the rest of this Day Phase, all Gift Cards you play have an added value of +1. At the end of the Day Phase, place this token facedown above your Player Board as usual and return the Servant to your general supply.
• Place this Travel Token and 1 Servant from your Servant Pool next to any action field of your choice. For the rest of this Day Phase, you receive 1 VP each time any other player performs this action, and that player loses 1 VP. At the end of the Day Phase, place this token facedown above your Player Board as usual and return the Servant to your general supply.
• Place this Travel Token and 1 Servant from your Servant Pool next to any action field of your choice. For the rest of this Day Phase, each time any other player performs this action, you may "follow" and perform it too. At the end of the Day Phase, place this token facedown above your Player Board as usual and return the Servant to your general supply.

Please note that these Bonus Tokens are not immediately stored by your Player Board. As long as they aren't, they can NOT be exchanged for Travel Benefits, nor do they count towards your Travel Token limit.

Solo Variant

The Solo Automa allows a single player to play Gùgōng against an AI opponent (named "Meng") using a deck of Automa Cards and several adjustments to gameplay. These rules are designed to maintain a similar level of player interaction and challenge as in the multiplayer game, at multiple difficulty levels, without adding too much complexity or maintenance.

Meng will typically play like a normal player, with a few exceptions. As a master courtier, his gifts may always be exchanged for their full actions, regardless of their printed value. Moreover, his well-trained servants will often wait until the end of the Day to further his plans, adding a "Twilight" phase where he can further advance his manoeuvring (this allows Meng to fully use his servants without the need for careful planning). Finally, the Emperor has contacted Meng and asked for help with one of the Officials. Throughout the game, Meng will focus on this Official's action in particular.

Setup (Solo)

The board should be set up for a normal 2-player game, with these exceptions:

• Shuffle the 7 Gift Cards marked with the faceup symbol and randomly pick 1. Remember the number you picked, place the 7 Gift Cards randomly on the Game Board and place Meng's Double Servant next to the Card with the number you picked. During the entire game, Meng will focus on this action. (After playing a few times, you may wish to choose Meng's focus for a game yourself.)
• Only use the basic Travel Tokens, not the Bonus Travel Tokens.
• Choose the 2 sets of cards you'll be playing with this game. You have 3 options — Human: Player 4 cards / Meng: Player 5 cards; Human: Player 2 cards / Meng: Player 3 cards; Human: Player 1 cards / Meng: Player 2 cards.
• Shuffle Meng's cards and place them facedown next to his Player Board.
• Shuffle the Automa deck and place it facedown next to Meng's Player Board. These cards will determine where Meng exchanges gifts each turn.
  • For an easy game, use only 1 Special Automa Card instead of 2 (10 cards in total).
  • For a normal game, use all Automa Cards (11 in total).
  • For a hard game, use all Automa Cards and let Meng begin the game with a 5th random Gift Card with a faceup symbol.
• Use Servants of a third (neutral) player colour to track Meng's Harbour rewards. If Meng starts with 5 Gift Cards, indicate this by placing a neutral Servant in the appropriate Harbour Reward space of his Player Board.
• The human player begins the game as the starting player.

Gameplay (Solo)

Morning Phase. The Morning Phase proceeds as normal. Meng will receive the Start Player Marker if he has the Next Start Player Medal, takes Decree advantages for any Decrees he has claimed, and receives Servants as normal.

Day Phase. During the Day Phase, as long as Meng has any Gift Cards remaining, he will take his turn in the following steps:

1. Reveal the top card of the Automa deck and his top Gift Card. The top portion of the Automa card will indicate the Official (location) where Meng will exchange his Gift Card. The bottom of the Automa Card can be ignored for now.
2. Exchange the revealed Gift Card with the one in the location shown on the Automa card, placing the Gift Card that was taken into Meng's discard pile on his Player Board, as normal. The values of the cards are irrelevant. Meng will take the Card and location actions no matter what, and does not need to pay Servants or discard an additional Gift Card to do so.
3. Meng will take the card action on the played Gift Card or gain the bonus Servants, if depicted, and if he is able (see "Card and Location Actions (Solo)"). If the Card contains the "swap cards" benefit, don't apply this, but Meng gains 1 VP instead.
4. Meng will then do the action of the location where he placed his Gift Card, if he is able.
5. Stack the played Automa Cards faceup in a discard pile of cards played this Day. Whenever Meng needs to draw a card and the Automa Deck is empty, reshuffle the discarded cards from previous Days, but leave the Automa cards for the current Day set aside for use during the Twilight Phase.

When both players run out of Gift Cards, the Day Phase is over.

Twilight Phase. Before the Night Phase begins, Meng's Servants will take an extra opportunity to further Meng's actions during the Twilight Phase in the following steps:

1. Turn the discard pile of played Automa Cards of this Day facedown.
2. One at a time, reveal each Automa card and take the bottom (Twilight) action, provided that Meng has enough Servants available (or Travel tokens that he can exchange for Servants). These Twilight Phase actions generally "upgrade" Meng's Day actions as if he had chosen the location's "B" action (with slight changes), or will gain him a free Travel step. If Meng acquires a Harbour Bonus Gift Card during the Twilight Phase, it goes to his discard pile.

If Meng does not have enough Servants and/or Travel tokens to complete an Automa Card's Twilight action, he skips it and continues on to the next card, until all Cards of the Day are used up. Place the Automa Cards from the Day in a discard pile, together with the used Cards of previous Days. These will be reshuffled when needed.

Night Phase. The Night Phase rewards matching Gift Cards with the Destiny Dice and moves Ships as normal, with 1 exception: you do not count Meng's matching cards as normal. Regardless of his amount of matching Cards, Meng's discard pile of Gift Cards will be considered to have 1 matching number in Day 1, 2 matching numbers in Day 2, 3 matching numbers in Day 3 and 4 matching numbers in Day 4. These values determine the number of Servants Meng gains in this phase, and also apply when deciding whether Meng or the human player receives the Destiny Dice awards.

Card and Location Actions (Solo)

Meng's actions are decided by the Gift Card and Automa Card that he (randomly) selects. He will take both the Gift Card action (if there is one) and the location action, if possible. At locations with 2 available actions, he will take the simpler ("A") action, but during the Twilight Phase, he will perform the action at the bottom of the Automa Card (which is usually similar to the location's "B" action). He takes the actions as follows:

Travel. Day Phase: Meng moves his Traveller once, collecting the Travel token and receiving its benefits. He will start his Traveller in the lower-right-most space and move counter-clockwise around the perimeter of the map. In the unlikely case that all such tiles are taken, he will move to the nearest available token, then resume his normal movement on the following day. Twilight Phase: Remove 2 Servants from Meng's Servant Pool to move his Traveller an additional space. Resolve the Travel Token and place it on Meng's Player Board.

Travel tokens. Most of the Travel tokens will provide Meng their standard benefit. He will receive Servants and VP, move his Envoy and Intrigue markers, add Servants to Ships or the Great Wall, and may remove Servants to earn Jade as normal. Special cases: If Meng collects the Travel Token which recovers a discarded Gift Card, he recovers the top one of his discard pile, and adds it to his remaining Gift Cards to play this Day. If this happens in the Twilight Phase, Meng doesn't recover a Gift Card and gains 1 VP instead. If he collects the token which discards a Gift Card to receive Jade, he discards his top Gift Card (whether the value is 7+ or not) and takes the Jade. If this happens in the Twilight Phase, Meng doesn't take a Jade and gains 1 VP instead. If he collects the token which exchanges cards, he does not do so and gains 1 VP instead. Note: Do NOT use the Bonus Travel Tokens for the Solo mode.

Travel token exchange. Whenever Meng could complete an action, but has insufficient Servants, he must exchange Travel tokens for Servants if it would enable him to take the action. This applies during the Day and Twilight Phases. If he is ever able to exchange tokens for Jade, he must do so immediately.

Great Wall. Day Phase: Meng places 1 Servant on the wall, if available. Twilight Phase: If Meng has at least 2 Servants in his Servant Pool, he removes 1 from his Servant Pool and places the second Servant on the Great Wall. Note that this may trigger a Great Wall Scoring, and this may add a Servant even if scoring has recently happened. Great Wall Scoring: After a Great Wall Scoring, Meng takes the Intrigue Benefit to gain 1 Jade (if his Intrigue Marker is at least up 7 steps on the Track) or a single Servant (if his Marker is at least up 1 step on the Intrigue Track, but less than 7, and has an available Servant in his general supply).

Jade. Day Phase: Meng removes Servants from his Servant Pool to buy the cheapest available Jade, provided he has enough of them. Twilight Phase: The Automa Cards that use the Jade location in the Day Phase allow Meng to take 1 free Travel step in the Twilight Phase.

Intrigue. Day Phase: Meng advances his Intrigue marker 1 step and takes the Next Start Player Medal, if available. Twilight Phase: Meng removes 1 Servant from his Servant Pool to advance 2 additional steps on the Intrigue track.

The Palace of Heavenly Purity. Day Phase: Meng advances his Envoy 1 step up the Palace track (or scores 1 VP if he is at the top). Twilight Phase: Meng removes 2 Servants from his Servant Pool to move his Envoy an additional step on the Palace track and move his Intrigue marker 1 step forward on the Intrigue track.

Decrees. Day Phase: Meng uses Servants to obtain Decrees at their normal cost. He will select 1 according to the following rules:

• When taking the Decree action on any particular Day, he will attempt to obtain a Decree at the same level as the current Day. He will try to obtain a Level 3 Decree on Days 3 and 4.
• When choosing between 2 available Decrees at the same level, he obtains the cheaper one (where the human player is not present yet). If both or any are unoccupied, he will obtain the bottom one.
• If Meng cannot afford or has already obtained the Decrees corresponding to the current Day number, he will then choose a lower-level Decree with the same criteria, then consider higher-level Decrees if those are not available. As long as there are any affordable Decrees that Meng has not already obtained, he always obtains one.

He immediately scores points for Level 1 and 2 Decrees, and gains their advantages, with the following notes: The Level 1 Decree which allows exchanging Gift Cards will not provide Meng the normal benefit, but he will score 1 VP in each Morning phase (during step 4) instead. The Level 2 Decree which reduces the cost of Traveling will affect the Twilight Phase Travel action, reducing its cost by 1. Twilight Phase: The Automa Card that uses the Decree location in the Day Phase allows Meng to take 1 free Travel step in the Twilight Phase.

The Grand Canal. Day Phase: Meng places 1 Servant on an existing Ship, if available, or starts a new Ship if not. Meng will not manually move his Ships, but they will advance during the Night Phase. Twilight Phase: If Meng has at least 2 Servants in his Servant Pool, he removes 1 from his Servant Pool to add the other Servant to his Ship or to begin a new Ship. Harbour Rewards: Meng's Ships will automatically claim a reward once they host 3 Servants (in any phase), regardless of his current Harbour. He will receive an additional card for his first and second reward (or only the first time if Meng started the game with 5 Gift Cards), and 4 VP for ALL subsequent rewards (with no limit). His Servants are all discarded back to his general supply. Place the Servants of the third player colour onto Meng's Player Board to indicate completed Harbour rewards (max. 3 Servants on the 4 VP reward, although Meng can receive this reward more than 3 times).

Special Automa Cards

Before the game started, the Emperor has privately contacted Meng and asked for his help aiding a randomly-chosen Official (location). Meng has 2 Special Automa Cards that let him focus on 1 location for the entire game. The location that corresponds to the Special Automa Cards is indicated by Meng's Double Servant during the game setup.

Note: Meng doesn't use his Double Servant like a normal player would, but the Special Automa Cards compensate for this disadvantage.

Day Phase: When a Special Automa Card is drawn, exchange Gift Cards as normal with the location that's indicated by Meng's Double Servant. But, when executing both the Card Action and the location action, Meng always chooses option "B" without paying its normal cost and by using Servants from his general supply if possible. This results in these actions:

• Travel: Meng's Traveller moves 2 steps for free.
• Great Wall: Meng places 2 Servants from his general supply on the Great Wall, without removing any other Servants from his Servant Pool. If there are not enough Servants available in his general supply, he uses Servants from his Servant Pool.
• Jade: Meng takes the cheapest Jade available, without removing any Servants.
• Intrigue: Meng progresses his Intrigue marker 3 steps, without removing any Servants.
• Palace of Heavenly Purity: Meng moves his Envoy 2 steps towards the Palace and moves his Intrigue marker 1 step forward on the Intrigue track, without removing any Servants.
• Decrees: Meng selects a Decree as normal (see "Decrees" action) and places 1 Servant from his general supply on this Decree. If his general supply is empty, Meng uses a Servant from his Servant Pool.
• Grand Canal: Meng places 2 Servants from his general supply onto an existing Ship, if available, or starts a new Ship if not. If there are not enough Servants available in his general supply he uses Servants from his Servant Pool.

Twilight Phase: The Special Automa Cards will allow Meng to do 1 free Travel step in the Twilight Phase.

Final Scoring (Solo)

The scoring at the end of the game is nearly identical to a standard game, with 1 exception: if Meng has not reached the Palace of Heavenly Purity, he won't score any Palace points, but he will still be eligible to win the game.

Credits

Game Design: Andreas Steding. Solo Rules: Steve Schlepphorst. Game Development: Rudy Seuntjens, Seb Van Deun, Rafaël Theunis, Kevin Govaerts. Artwork: Andreas Resch. Published by Game Brewer.