Guns & Steel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Component List
Card Description
Card Type
Game Setup
- 2-player setup
- The tech pyramid
Turn Overview
End of Game
Attack Rules
Purchase Rules
- Development Cards Costs
- Resource Conversion Chart
F.A.Q.
Card Effect Summary
Credits

Component List

45 Civilization Cards
10 Wonder Cards
5 Reference Cards
1 Rulebook

Card Description

Civilization Cards

Each Civilization card has 2 sides, the Development Card side and the Resource Card side. You may inspect both sides of cards in hand, and cards in front of you at any time, but can never flip a card unless instructed to do so.

When you Deplete a resource card, you flip it over to the development side and the effect will not be activated. When purchasing cards you can deplete resource cards to provide the indicated resources for payment; however resources depleted due to attacks cannot be used for payment. This will be explained under Purchase Rules.

When you are instructed to Replenish a resource card, choose a development card with the indicated resource on the top left corner, and flip it over to the resource side.

Development Card side: (front/face)

Whenever the term "front side / face side" is mentioned, it will be referring to the development card side.

Resource Card side: (back)

Whenever the term "back side" is mentioned, it will be referring to the resource card side.

Anatomy of a development card (front)

Card title.
Age icon. Also an indicator of the resource on the back side of this card.
Card type icon.
VP provided at end of game.
Military strength provided by this card, when it is showing the front side.
Response icon. See Attack Rules.
The listed cost of buying this card.
This card will not be used in 2 player games.
Card effect diagram & text.

Anatomy of a resource card (back)

Resource provided when you deplete it.
VP provided at end of game. (same as front)
"Resource" type icon.

Wonder Cards

The front side of wonder cards will list the requirement for gaining each wonder. The back side of a wonder card is a full colored version.

Wonder cards may be automatically gained for free at the end of your turn. Remember to check if you satisfy the requirements to do so.

When you gain a wonder and place it in front of you, flip it over to the full color side to celebrate the achievement of your nation.

Anatomy of a wonder card:

Card title
Age icon
"Wonder" type icon
Setup indicator
VP provided at end of game.
The requirement for gaining this card.

Card Type

Every development card has an effect that can be used when you play it on your turn. There are 4 types of cards.

Civil: Aid in resource production of your nation.
Tactic: Can help you play more attack cards, and activate other attack cards in your hand or in front of you.
Attack: Attack all players using the face up military strength total in front of you. You win if you have a larger strength than an opponent's total.
Response: When an opponent attacks you, cards with the response icon may be played from your hand to increase your military strength immediately.

Game Setup

Separate the civilization cards according to the age icon. Shuffle each age individually, and build a tech pyramid as shown with the Space age cards on the top, Earth, Oil, Gunpowder and Horse cards below in this order. Every card will be connected to 2 cards from a lower age, except for the bottom row.
Compare the wonder cards from the same age, check the indicator icon on the top right corner of the wonder cards. The indicated development card that is closer to the leftmost edge of each age row will decide which wonder is used in this game. Put the card to the left of the respective age row. The unused wonders will be put back into the box.
Each player takes a set of 5 starting civilization cards to their hand, consisting of "Reinforcement", "Agriculture", "Barter Trade", "Mining", and "Warrior". The starting resources are 3 Food and 2 Iron respectively. Each set will have a band of different color on the back.
Randomly determine the starting player, the turn order will be clockwise. The 3rd player places 1 resource card in front of him, then the 4th player places 1 resource card. The 1st & 2nd player do not have any starting resource cards.
You may now start playing!

2-player setup

Remove cards with the 2-player exclusion icon from each age before shuffling. Both players will not get to play starting resources.

Example: The Space age wonders are "International Space Station" / "Apollo Project" and have "Computer" / "Nuclear Submarine" icons on the upper right. Since "Nuclear Submarine" is closer to the left, "International Space Station" will be used in this game. Put "Apollo Project" back into the box.

The tech pyramid

The supply is laid out as five rows, from the top down:

Row	Cards
Space Age x3	Nuclear Submarine, Satellite, Computer
Earth Age x4	Fighter, Stock Exchange, Blitzkrieg, Tank
Oil Age x5	Flanking, Cannon, Overseas Trade, Musketeer, Steam Engine
Gunpowder Age x6	Irrigation, Engineering, Charge, Knight, Alchemy, Guild
Horse Age x7	Swordsman, Currency, Philosophy, Caravan, Ambush, Domestication, Ironworks

The wonder chosen for each age is placed to the left of that age's row.

Turn Overview

There are 4 phases in each turn:

Resource Phase
Development Phase
Purchase Phase
End of Turn Phase

Beginning with the starting player, each player will get a turn to perform each phase in the following order, and then the next clockwise player gets a turn.

1. Resource Phase

You must play a resource card (the back side) in front of you if you can. Choose a card from your hand and place it face down, so it will be showing the resource side. You can deplete this card later for effects or purchases.

2. Development Phase

You must play a development card (the front side) in front of you if you can. Choose a card from your hand and place it face up, so it will be showing the development side. You may activate the effect now, and must apply all effects if you can when you activate it. If you don't, then the effect cannot be used until you play it from your hand again.

a. Civil Cards: Aid in resource production of your nation. The resources gained by these effects will retain until the end of the turn.

b. Tactic Cards: Can help you play more attack cards, and activate other attack cards in your hand or in front of you.

c. Attack Cards: Attack all players using the visible military strength total in front of you. Cards on the resource side do not provide military strength; you cannot flip them over unless instructed to do so.

Compare your strength with the total of each opponent* separately. You win if you have a larger strength, the defeated players will suffer the penalty effects listed.

*Your opponents will have an opportunity to make some responses. Please refer to Attack Rules for detailed rules on attacks.

3. Purchase Phase

You may buy one civilization card from the supply.

a. Deplete resource cards* to pay the required cost for a civilization card. The effects will not be activated when you flip them to the development side. You can also convert resources into other types using the Resource Conversion Chart.

*This is the only time during your turn that you may choose to deplete cards.

b. Put the bought card in front of you. The military strength will be added to your total, but the effect will not be activated.

See Purchase Rules for detailed rules on card purchase.

4. End of Turn Phase

a. If you only have 0 or 1 card left in hand:

i. Check if you satisfy the requirements of any wonder cards. If you do, you must choose and take one, and put it in front of you.
ii. You must retrieve all face up development cards to your hand.
iii. You may choose to retrieve any amount of the face down resource cards to your hand.
iv. Wonder cards cannot be retrieved to your hand.

b. If you have 2 or more cards in your hand, do nothing above.

c. If resources gained by effects or depleting cards are not used for purchase, they will be lost and cannot be kept to your next turn.

d. Next player's turn.

Example: At the end of your turn, you have no cards in hand. First you check if you meet the requirements of any wonder cards. You have 2 unused Horse resource cards, and 3 visible tactic cards in front of you (Reinforcement, Charge, Flanking). Thus you are eligible for "Hanging Gardens" and "Himeji-jō", and you must choose one to take. Since "Himeji-jō" is worth more points, you take that wonder card, flip it to the full color side and put it in front of you. Then you retrieve all face up cards to your hand, and choose to leave all resource cards in front of you. The next player's turn begins.

End of Game

Whenever a player gains the last wonder card or buys the last Space age civilization card, the game ends immediately at the end of the turn.

Tally all points gained from wonder cards & civilization cards you have in hand and in front of you. The player with the most points win.

In case of a tie, the player with the most cards will win (including wonders).

Attack Rules

During the development phase, you can play an attack or tactic card to attack your opponents to steal their wonders or to deplete their resources.

When you do so, you will be making an attack with your visible military strength total on all face up cards in front of you.

Your opponents will have 2 options, and can do both if needed:

Your opponents may choose to play any amount of cards with the response icon from their hand immediately, even if they already have a larger military than you, and also if they will lose even with the extra cards played.
Your opponents may choose to deplete and flip open any covered attack/tactic cards that was a face down resource card. This includes attack cards without the response icon.

All cards played or flipped by opponents will not be activated.

Your opponents should make their decision clockwise in player order, starting from the player to your left.

When all players have made their response, compare your total military strength to each opponent separately.

You must attack everyone, and cannot choose to spare any opponent.

You win if you have a higher total, and the losers will suffer the consequences listed on the attack card you played this turn. Nothing will happen to you if you lose to an opponent.

You can steal multiple wonders from different players in a single attack, and they get to choose which wonder to hand over to you if a player has more than one wonder.

Example:

You play "Nuclear Submarine" (with "Fighter" also in front of you) and attack with a total of 7 military strength.

Gandhi only has 3 military strength ("Ambush", "Swordsman", "Warrior"), but decides to do nothing and loses.
Napoleon plays 2 response cards "Knight" and "Charge" from his hand, raises his total to 6 ("Satellite", "Knight", "Charge", "Reinforcement") but still loses.
Elizabeth plays "Blitzkrieg" from her hand, depletes an Earth resource and reveals the "Tank" card to use its military strength, raises her total to 7 ("Blitzkrieg", "Tank", "Flanking") and successfully stops your attack.

Gandhi has "Taj Mahal" and gives it to you. Napoleon has "Great Pyramids" and "Eiffel Tower", and chooses to give "Great Pyramids" to you. You did not defeat Elizabeth, thus she keeps her "Angkor Wat".

Purchase Rules

In the purchase phase, you can buy one new card from the supply. Use the resources gained in the development phase, and deplete resource cards in front of you to gain the indicated resources to pay the cost.

Only when you choose to deplete resource cards during the purchase phase, you will gain the indicated resource. When resource cards are depleted by card effects, you will not gain the indicated resource.

Development Cards Costs

The cost to buy each development card will change depending on how many other unbought cards are under it:

If a development card does not touch any card under itself, you can purchase it at the listed cost.
If a development card touches one or two cards under itself, then you must pay 1 extra resource of any kind for every connected card under it.

Example: For the "Cannon" card, every red arrow marks a connected card under it. Thus in addition to the listed cost of "2 Gunpowder" you must pay 3 extra resources of any kind in order to purchase the "Cannon" card. The card to the bottom left of "Cannon" has already been bought, so the "Currency" card is not connected.

At the start of your turn, you have 2 Food, 1 Iron, 1 Gunpowder. First you play 1 Horse as a resource card, then you play a "Barter Trade" and deplete 1 Food to gain 1 Gunpowder. Now you can pay 2 Gunpowder and 3 extra resources. Deplete all your resource cards to pay the cost, and place the "Cannon" card in front of you.

Example: In the previous example, if "Charge" is also bought by someone, then you may buy "Cannon" for the original cost of 2 Gunpowder, even if all horse age cards are still there.

Example: You wish to buy the "Computer" card. All Earth age development cards have been bought, so there are no touching cards under it. You can buy "Computer" at the original price of 1 Horse, 1 Gunpowder, 2 Oil.

Before your turn starts, you have 1 Food, 1 Horse, 1 Oil resource cards in front of you. First you play an Oil resource card, then you play "Ironworks" to gain 2 Iron. Next, you deplete all resource cards, and convert 2 Iron + 1 Food into 1 Earth, to use in place of Gunpowder. Thus you can now pay the cost of 1 Horse, 1 Gunpowder, 2 Oil to buy "Computer".

Resource Conversion Chart

You may only convert from left to right. You can freely convert any resource gained in your turn.

2 Food -> 1 Iron
2 Iron -> 1 Horse
2 Horse -> 1 Gunpowder
2 Gunpowder -> 1 Oil
Any 3 resource -> 1 Earth

Earth is a wildcard resource that can be used in place of one of the above 5 basic resources.

1 Space will provide 2 Earths, and can be used in place of any 2 basic resources.

F.A.Q.

Q1. Can "Mining", "Agriculture", "Currency" flip themselves?

A1. Yes. All card effects can target themselves if they are one of the indicated resources.

Q2. What happens if I start my turn with 1 or 0 cards?

A2. In the first phase, you must play 1 card as a resource if you can, so if there is only 1 card in your hand, you must play it as a resource.

If you have 0 cards at the start of the turn, then you just skip the first two phases.

You can still purchase one card in the 3rd phase if you want, then go on to the end of turn phase.

Q3. When I am attacking, can I reveal a covered card to use its military strength?

A3. No. The option of revealing covered attack/tactic cards is only available to defending players. In this game you should never flip any cards unless instructed to do so.

Q4. Can I down-convert 1 gunpowder into 2 horses?

A4. No. You can only convert from left to right on the conversion chart; in other words you can only combine resources to upgrade into higher levels, never downgrading and splitting them.

Q5. Can I choose not to activate attack cards played using "Flanking", "Blitzkrieg", "Satellite"?

A5. No. When you activate the tactic card, you must apply all effects if you can. If you have played at least one attack card, you must choose one to activate.

Card Effect Summary

The effect text printed on the cards shown in the rulebook's setup diagram and examples. (The "Agriculture" and "Mining" texts are read off the printed cards, which the rulebook itself does not reprint.)

Starting cards (each player)

Card	Type	Effect
Reinforcement	Tactic (Response)	Play 1 attack or tactic card from your hand. The effect will not be activated.
Warrior	Attack (Response)	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and deplete 2 resource cards.
Barter Trade	Civil	Deplete 1 resource card, gain 1 Iron or 1 Horse or 1 Gunpowder.
Agriculture	Civil	Replenish 1 Food card to its resource side.
Mining	Civil	Replenish 1 Iron card to its resource side.

The five starting cards provide 3 Food and 2 Iron on their resource sides.

Horse Age

Card	Type	Effect
Swordsman	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and give you 1 wonder card.
Currency	Civil	Replenish any 1 card to it's resource side.
Philosophy	Civil	Activate 1 visible civil card in front of you.
Caravan	Civil	Deplete 1 resource card, gain 1 Earth.
Ambush	Tactic	Flip open an attack card, activate the effect.
Domestication	Civil	Replenish 1 Food & 1 Horse card to their resource side.
Ironworks	Civil	Gain 2 Iron or 1 Horse.

Gunpowder Age

Card	Type	Effect
Irrigation	Civil	Replenish 3 Food & 1 Horse card to their resource side.
Engineering	Civil	Gain 1 Earth.
Charge	Tactic	Activate 1 visible attack card in front of you.
Knight	Attack (Response)	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and deplete 2 resource cards.
Alchemy	Civil	Replenish 1 Iron & 1 Gunpowder card to their resource side.
Guild	Civil	Deplete any 2 resource cards, gain 1 Space.

Oil Age

Card	Type	Effect
Flanking	Tactic	Play 1 attack card from your hand. Activate the effect.
Cannon	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and give you 1 wonder card.
Overseas Trade	Civil	Replenish 1 Iron, 1 Gunpowder and 1 Oil card to their resource side.
Musketeer	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and deplete 2 resource cards.
Steam Engine	Civil	Replenish 1 Oil & any 1 card to their resource side.

Earth Age

Card	Type	Effect
Fighter	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and deplete 2 resource cards.
Stock Exchange	Civil	Gain 1 Space.
Blitzkrieg	Tactic	Play 2 attack cards from your hand. Choose 1 to activate.
Tank	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and give you 1 wonder card.

Space Age

Card	Type	Effect
Nuclear Submarine	Attack	Attack all opponents. The defeated players choose and give you 1 wonder card.
Satellite	Tactic	Play 1 tactic card & 2 attack cards from your hand. Choose 1 attack card to activate.
Computer	Civil	Play 2 civil cards from your hand, activate both.

Wonders shown in the rulebook

Wonder	Requirement
International Space Station	In a 4/3/2 player game, have 11/13/15 or more cards regardless of type or side in front of you.
Apollo Project	In a 4/3/2 player game, have 8/10/12 or more VPs on all cards regardless of side in front of you.
Manhattan Project	In a 4/3/2 player game, have 8/10/12 or more visible military strength in front of you.
Taj Mahal	In a 4/3/2 player game, have 5/6/7 or more visible civil cards in front of you.
Angkor Wat	Have 3 or more visible attack cards in front of you.
Himeji-jō	Have 3 or more visible tactic cards in front of you.
Hanging Gardens	Have 2 or more Horse cards showing the resource side in front of you.

Great Pyramids and Eiffel Tower are also among the 10 wonder cards.

Credits

Publisher: Moaideas Game Design
Game Designer: Jesse Li
Game Developer: AFONG, Desnet Amane
English Translation: Desnet Amane
Art Director: keykid
Graphics & Layout: keykid, Desnet Amane
Icon Design: Jesse Li
Development Illustration: YLAR
Wonder Illustration: mango