Hexemonia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Components
• Setup
• Tiles
  • Chora Tiles
  • Fortification Tiles
  • Polis Tiles
  • Myth Tiles
  • The Acropolis Tile: A Special Rule
• Turn Sequence
  • Step A) Draw 2 Tiles or Draw 1 Tile and Take 1 Resource
  • Step B) Play Any Number of Tiles
  • Step C) Choose One Action
  • Step D) Check Your Political Situation
  • Discard Excess Tiles
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Tile Special Abilities
  • Acropolis
  • Myth
  • Polis
  • Fortifications
  • Chora

Goal

Your goal is to make your own city-state prosper, by accumulating wealth, conquering neighboring lands, expanding your city, and obtaining the favor of the gods. The winner is the player with the most victory points at the end of the game.

Components

• 56 hexagonal tiles, including:
  • 5 Acropolis tiles (one for each city-state)
  • 51 Terrain tiles
• 140 wooden Resource cubes, including:
  • 60 white Citizen cubes
  • 50 yellow Gold cubes
  • 30 red Hoplite cubes
• 1 Philosopher pawn
• 6 Myth tokens
• 1 Last Player token
• 4 player reference tiles

The game includes a number of "3x" and "5x" tokens for each Resource. You may use these if a hex gets too crowded.

Setup

Sort the tiles: Depending on the number of players, take the tiles that will be used in the game. On the left of each tile is an icon showing the number of players:

• 2 players: Athens and Sparta Acropolis tiles and Terrain tiles with the '2' icon;
• 3 players: Athens, Sparta, and Olympia Acropolis tiles and Terrain tiles with the '2' or '3' icons;
• 4 players: Athens, Sparta, Delphi, and Delos Acropolis tiles and Terrain tiles with the '2', '3', or '4' icons.

Return all unused tiles to the box: they will not be used in the game.

Deal Acropolis Tiles: Shuffle the Acropolis tiles in the game and deal one to each player. After looking at the city on your tile, place it face down in front of you (so the "Acropolis" side is facing up). You must keep your city's identity secret until you use it for a special ability. Your Acropolis will give you a bonus for Active tiles of a given color at the end of the game (see Scoring).

Note: In a two-player game, you can place the Acropolis tiles face up, since both players can guess their opponent's identity.

Place two Citizens (white cubes) and one Gold (yellow cube) on each player's Acropolis.

Prepare the Stack of Fate: Shuffle the Terrain tiles and place them in a face down stack in the center of the table. This is the "Stack of Fate". Arrange the Resource cubes around the Stack of Fate—Citizens (white), Gold (yellow), and Hoplites (red)—along with the Philosopher pawn and the Myth tokens. Leave enough space next to the Stack of Fate for a discard pile, called the "Underworld". Turn over the top four tiles from the Stack of Fate and place them face up on the table, visible to all players. Then, deal two tiles from the Stack of Fate to each player to form their starting hands. You can look at your own tiles, but you must not show them to your opponents until you play them.

Choose Starting Player: The oldest player starts the game. The player to his right takes the Last Player token, which he will hold until the end of the game.

Example 1: Andrea, Barbara, and Corrado are playing (Athens, Sparta, and Olympia, respectively). On Corrado's turn, he uses the special action on a Temple tile in his city-state, which would add 1 Gold to the Temple because of the adjacent Spring. He also decides to reveal his Acropolis—its Sacred Nature (the lightning bolt) adds 1 Gold to the Temple's special action. For the rest of the game, Corrado must play with his Acropolis face up.

Tiles

Each turn, you can play as many tiles as you can pay for. But, you can only ever have one Polis tile of each type in your city-state (your city-state may have more than one Polis tile as long as they have different titles).

Tiles in your city-state can be Active or Inactive. A tile is Active if it has enough Resources on it to pay the tile's Cost. It is Inactive if it does not have the required Resources.

Example 2: A Gymnasium Costs 1 Citizen, 1 Hoplite, and 1 Gold. If it has at least 1 Citizen, Hoplite, and Gold on it, it is Active. A Pasture with 1 Citizen, 1 Hoplite, and 1 Gold on it is also Active, since its Cost is only 1 Citizen. But, 1 of each Resource is not enough to make a Fleet Active, since its Cost is 1 Citizen, 1 Hoplite, and 2 Gold. Since a Spring has a Cost of 0, it is always Active.

The Terrain tiles are divided into four types: Chora (green), Fortification (red), Polis (blue), and Myth (purple). Each tile also has a symbol that identifies its Nature:

• Eye: Political
• Helmet: Military
• Amphora: Economic
• Lightning Bolt: Sacred

Chora Tiles

All Chora tiles have a green title. To play a Chora tile from your hand, you must move the Gold, Hoplites, and Citizens listed on the right side of the tile from other tiles in your city-state to the new tile.

Fortification Tiles

All Fortification tiles have a red title. To play a Fortification tile from your hand, you must move the Gold, Hoplites, and Citizens listed on the right side of the tile from other tiles in your city-state to the new tile. Most Fortification tiles also have a red shield in the bottom corner. If the Fortification tile is Active, it will help defend all adjacent tiles, adding the value in the shield to the Citizens and Hoplites on that tile (see War). You may only use one Fortification tile during each attack.

Polis Tiles

All Polis tiles have a blue title. To play a Polis tile from your hand, you must move the Gold, Hoplites, and Citizens listed on the right side of the tile from other tiles in your city-state to the new tile. You can only have one of each type of Polis tile in your city-state at a time.

Myth Tiles

All Myth tiles have a purple title. When you play a Myth tile from your hand, you do not place any Resources on it or add it to your city-state. Instead, place the tile face up in front of you and place the matching Myth token on a tile in your city-state. The location of the Myth token shows where the power of that Myth tile will take effect. The Myth tile is Active as long as the matching Myth token is on an Active tile.

Important: You cannot have more than three Myth tiles in front of you at a time.

The Acropolis Tile: A Special Rule

The Acropolis is the center of your city-state. It can never be conquered or taken away from you for the entire game. Your Acropolis tile is immune to Uprising (since it has no limit for Gold, Hoplites, or Citizens—see Check Your Political Situation). For scoring purposes only, your Acropolis is treated as a Myth tile (see Scoring).

Turn Sequence

The game is played in turns, with play passing to the left. On your turn, you must perform these steps in order:

A. Draw two tiles or draw 1 tile and take 1 Resource B. Play any number of tiles C. Choose one action: Production, Strategy, Special, or War D. Check your Political Situation and discard excess tiles

At the end of your turn, you cannot have more than four tiles in your hand.

Step A) Draw 2 Tiles or Draw 1 Tile and Take 1 Resource

First, you must take one of the four face-up tiles on the table. Then, turn over the top tile from the Stack of Fate and replace the tile you have taken. You may then either take another face-up tile (including the one you just turned over) and replace it or take any one Resource from the supply and place it on your Acropolis. Any tiles you draw are added to your hand.

Note: Every time you take a tile, you must immediately replace it from the top of the Stack of Fate: There will always be four face-up tiles on the table.

Step B) Play Any Number of Tiles

At this point, you may play any number of tiles from your hand (you can even choose to play no tiles at all), adding them to your city-state.

Playing Fortification, Polis, or Chora Tiles

When you play one of these tiles, you must add it to your city-state so that it touches at least two other tiles (unless it is your first tile, in which case it only has to touch your Acropolis). If you play a Polis tile, it must also be placed adjacent to your Acropolis or another Polis tile.

You must complete a ring of tiles around your Acropolis before you can place any tiles in a second ring. You must complete this second ring before you can begin a third ring (and so on). Then, you must move exactly enough Resources (Gold, Hoplites, and/or Citizens, as indicated on the right side of the tile) to make that tile Active. These Resources can come from any other tile (or tiles) in your city-state.

Important: You cannot use any Resources that you placed on a tile you played from your hand earlier that turn.

Playing Hint: To help tell Active tiles from Inactive ones, place the Resources used to make the tile Active on top of the Resource symbols on the tile. Move the Resources to the center of the tile to show that it is Inactive.

Playing a Myth Tile

When you play a Myth tile, you must place it face up in front of you. Then, take the matching Myth token and place it on any tile in your city-state that has the same Nature symbol as the Myth tile you just played.

Note: If there are no tiles in your city-state with the same Nature as the Myth tile, you cannot play that Myth tile. You cannot play a Myth token on your Acropolis (it is already protected by its own deity).

You cannot have more than three Myth tiles in front of you at a time. If you play a fourth Myth tile, you must immediately choose one to discard to the Underworld.

Step C) Choose One Action

Each turn, you must take one of these actions:

Production

All Active tiles in your city-state produce Resources. The number in the icon at the bottom of the tile shows the amount of Gold, Citizens, or Hoplites the tile produces. Place the resources directly on the tile.

Myth tiles that have the production symbol also produce Resources when you take this action, but only if the tile marked with the matching Myth token is Active. Place Resources produced by a Myth tile on the tile marked with the matching Myth token.

Strategy

You may freely move your Resources around your city-state. You cannot move Resources onto Myth tiles. After you move all of the Resource you want to move, you may also exchange two Citizens for one Hoplite, or vice versa, on each tile.

Special

You may use the special ability of one or more of the Active tiles in your city-state that have a "gear" symbol (i.e., tiles with at least the required number of Resources on them). You can execute your special actions in any order you choose. Myth tiles with the gear symbol may also be used during this action, but only if the tile marked with the matching Myth token is Active.

Note: Some special actions only affect "excess" Resources. The Resources that are "in excess" are those that exceed the number required to make their tile Active. A tile that does not have enough Resources to be active does not have any excess Resources.

War

You may declare war on another city-state and try to take possession of one of its tiles. You may declare war once on each of your opponents when you take this action. So, in a four-player game, you could take a total of three war actions: one against each opponent.

You can only attack a tile on the edge of a city-state (i.e., a tile that has at least one free hex side). Tiles completely surrounded by other tiles cannot be attacked until at least one of the blocking tiles has been removed.

You cannot attack a tile that would separate a city-state into two or more parts. In other words, if only one tile connects two parts of a city-state, that tile cannot be attacked.

You cannot attack another player's Acropolis.

Example 3: Sparta is an Acropolis, so it cannot be attacked, even though it has a free hex side. The Asty also has a free hex side, but if it was eliminated the city-state would be split into two parts, so it also cannot be attacked. The Walls tile is completely surrounded and cannot be attacked either. Any of the other tiles could be attacked.

Conquering a Tile: When you attack, take any number of Hoplites and Citizens from anywhere in your city-state that you want to commit to the attack. You must take enough Resources to exceed the total value of all Hoplites and Citizens on the tile you are attempting to conquer. When fighting over a tile, each Hoplite is equal to two Citizens.

Example: A tile with 2 Citizens on it could be conquered by 1 Citizen plus 1 Hoplite. A tile with 1 Hoplite on it could be conquered by 3 Citizens or 2 Hoplites or 1 Citizen plus 1 Hoplite.

Fortifications: If there is an Active Fortification tile adjacent to the tile you are attacking, the defender adds the value in the red shield on the Fortification as Hoplites to the defense of all adjacent tiles. Each tile can only benefit from one Fortification at a time: if a tile is adjacent to two or more Fortifications, consider only the Active tile with the highest defensive value.

Example: A Pasture with 1 Citizen on it is adjacent to an Active Phalanx tile. The Phalanx tile has a defensive value of 1 Hoplite. In order to conquer the Pasture, you will need at least 2 Citizens and 1 Hoplite (or 2 Hoplites, or 4 Citizens).

Battle Casualties: All Citizens and Hoplites on the conquered tile are destroyed (return them to the supply). The attacker also loses the same number of Citizens and Hoplites (in any combination) and a number of Hoplites equal to the highest defensive value on an adjacent Fortification.

Example: After conquering the Pasture, the 1 Citizen there is destroyed. The attacker must also discard 1 Citizen and 1 Hoplite from those used to attack.

Spoils of War: When you successfully conquer an opponent's tile, place any surviving Citizens or Hoplites you used to attack on the tile, along with any Gold and/or Myth tokens that are there. Then, take the conquered tile and add it to your own city-state, following the normal placement rules (along with the resources on it).

If you conquer a tile with a Myth token on it, you also take the matching Myth tile from your defeated foe and place it face up in front of you. Remember: you cannot have more than three Myth tiles at a time. If this would be your fourth Myth tile, you must choose and discard one, placing it face up on the Underworld pile.

If you conquer a Polis tile that matches one you already have in your city-state (i.e., one that has the same title), you must place it face up on the Underworld pile. Place any Resources from the conquered tile on the matching Polis tile in your city-state.

Example 4: On Andrea's turn, she decides to attack Barbara's Quarry and Corrado's Amphitheater (she is always a warmonger). Barbara's Quarry has 3 Citizens on it (with 2 Gold), so Andrea needs at least 4 Citizens (or 2 Hoplites, or 2 Citizens and 1 Hoplite) to conquer it. The Quarry is also protected by two adjacent Fortifications: an Inactive Walls and an Active Phalanx. Since the Quarry can only benefit from one Fortification at a time, Barbara must choose one: she chooses the Phalanx because it is the only active one, even though it has a lower value than the Walls (the inactive Walls would not add any benefit at all). Andrea decides to play it safe, so she takes 4 Hoplites from her city-state. 3 of them are destroyed (2 for the defenders on the Quarry plus 1 for the value of the Phalanx) and return to the supply along with all 3 of Barbara's Citizens. The last Hoplite joins the 2 Gold on the tile and 1 Citizen taken from the supply ("change" for the attacking Hoplites that were destroyed: 4 Hoplites - 3 Citizens and 1 Hoplite for the Phalanx = 1 Hoplite and 1 Citizen). Andrea then takes the Quarry and all the Resources on it and adds it to her city-state, next to her Labyrinth and Amphitheater.

Example 5: Now Andrea turns her attention to Corrado's Amphitheater, which is defended only by 1 Citizen, and which has the Oracle Myth token on it. She takes 1 Hoplite from her city-state, discarding both her Hoplite and Corrado's Citizen and taking 1 Citizen as "change". Since she already has an Amphitheater in her city-state, she discards Corrado's tile to the Underworld, and places the surviving Citizen and the Oracle Myth token on her own Amphitheater. She also takes Corrado's Oracle Myth tile and places it in front of her.

Step D) Check Your Political Situation

Once you have completed your action for the turn, you must check the Political Situation in your city-state.

Important Rule For Two Players: The rules for Uprisings are an optional advanced rule for two-player games. If you are not using Uprisings in a two-player game, instead use this rule: The player with the Philosopher pawn at the end of the game scores three bonus victory points.

The Philosopher Pawn

Count the number of tiles in your city-state with the Political Nature symbol (the eye), whether they are Active or Inactive, including any Myth tiles you may have. If you have more Political Nature symbols than any other player, take the Philosopher pawn. If you have the Philosopher pawn, your city-state is immune to Uprisings.

Important: The Philosopher pawn can only go to the player who is taking his turn. If any other player has the most Political tiles, or if there is a tie for the most, the Philosopher pawn does not change hands (and no Uprisings occur). Similarly, if a player already has the Philosopher pawn, it cannot change hands (and no Uprisings occur).

Uprisings

If the Philosopher pawn changes ownership (or if it is taken for the first time in the game), each of the other players must check every tile in their own city-states, one-by-one to see if there is an Uprising. If there are excess Gold, Citizens, or Hoplites on a tile (i.e., there are more than the number indicated on the right side of the tile), there is an Uprising on that tile!

Resolving an Uprising

The owner of a tile that has an Uprising must separate the excess Resources from those required to make the tile Active. If there is only one type of excess Resource, you must discard half of the excess, rounding up (e.g., if you have five excess Citizens, you must discard three and keep two).

If there are more than one type of excess Resources, you must discard enough of each Resource type to make the amount of excess equal. So, if you have one Hoplite, two Gold, and three Citizens in excess, you would discard one Gold and two Citizens, keeping one of each Resource type.

Example 6: It's still Andrea's turn. Since she eliminated Corrado's Amphitheater with her War action, she now has the most Political tiles (Barbara has none). She takes the Philosopher pawn from Corrado. Even though Andrea has excess Resources on her Quarry and her Labyrinth, she doesn't have to worry about Uprisings since she has the Philosopher pawn. Barbara and Corrado, on the other hand, must check for Uprisings. Barbara's Phalanx has 2 Hoplites and 4 Gold, which is 3 excess Gold: she must discard 2 Gold from that tile (3 / 2 = 1.5, rounded up to 2), leaving 2 Hoplites and 1 Gold there. Corrado has 3 Citizens, 1 Hoplite, and 4 Gold on his Asty, which means that he has 1 excess Citizen and 3 excess Gold. He must discard 2 Gold (so he ends up with an equal number of excess Resources of each type). That leaves him with 3 Citizens, 1 Hoplite, and 2 Gold on the Asty.

Discard Excess Tiles

Finally, after all Uprisings (if any) have been resolved, your turn ends. If you have more than four tiles in your hand, you must discard down to four tiles (your choice) to the Underworld. The player to your left then starts the next turn.

End of the Game

The game ends when any player turns over the last tile from the Stack of Fate. That player finishes his complete turn normally. Then, each of the other players takes a final turn, ending with the player who holds the Last Player token. In this way, all players will have exactly the same number of turns in the game.

But, during this final round of play, you must skip Step A on your turn: do not draw any tiles or take Resources.

Scoring

Once the holder of the Last Player token completes his final turn, it's time to add up your score! You score victory points for the following:

• 1 point for each Active Chora or Fortification tile in your city-state
• 2 points for each active Polis tile in your city-state
• 8 points if you have Myth tiles with three different Natures. You may count your Acropolis, with its own god, as a Myth tile for this purpose.
• 1 point for each Gold on your Acropolis
• Bonus points awarded by your Acropolis for Active tiles of a given type

and,

• in a two-player game, 3 points for the Philosopher pawn (if the optional Uprisings rule is not in use)

The player with the most victory points is the winner!

If there is a tie, the tied player who has the most Active tiles with the same Nature as his Acropolis wins. If they are still tied, the tied player with the most Gold on his Acropolis is the winner.

Example 7: It's the end of the game, so let's see who the winner is!

Andrea's city-state (on the left) has these Active tiles: Labyrinth (1 point), Phalanx (1 point), Tavern (2 points), Agora (2 points), Gymnasium (2 points), and Amphitheatre (2 points). Andrea only has 1 Myth tile, so she can't make a set. She has 4 Gold on her Acropolis, worth 1 point each. She also has the Philosopher pawn, but that isn't worth any points in a 3-player game. Finally, Athens awards her 2 points for each active Polis tile—8 points in this case. Andrea scores a total of 22 points.

Barbara's city-state (in the middle) has these Active tiles: Walls (1 point), Phalanx (1 point), Village (1 point), Spring (1 point—it's Active even with no resources!), Port (1 point), 2 Pastures (1 point each), 1 Gymnasium (2 points), 1 Temple (2 points), and Tavern (2 points). Barbara also has 2 Myth tiles, which would combine with her Acropolis to make a set of 3 Myth tiles, but only if they had different Natures. Unfortunately, 2 of them have the same Nature, so Barbara doesn't score the points for a 3 Myth set. There's 3 Gold on her Acropolis, which is worth 3 points. The 2 Active Fortification tiles are worth 6 more points thanks to Sparta. Barbara also scores a total of 22 points.

Now let's look at Corrado's city-state (to the right). His Active tiles are: Country (1 point), Necropolis (1 point), Pasture (1 point), Spring (1 point, even with no Resources), Temple (2 points), and Asty (2 points). Corrado does have a set of 3 Myth tiles—The Fates, the Muses, and his Acropolis all have different Natures—so he gets 8 points for his 3 Myth set. The 1 Gold on his Acropolis is worth 1 point. Finally, Olympia awards him 3 points for each Active Myth tile, but only the Asty (with the Muses token) is Active, while the Country (with the Fates token) is not. So, Corrado only scores 20 points.

Andrea and Barbara are tied for the lead with 22 points, so they check the tie-breaker to decide who is the winner. Andrea's Acropolis, Athens, has the Economic Nature (amphora). Andrea only has 1 Active tile with the Economic Nature: her Tavern. Barbara's Acropolis, Sparta, has the Military Nature (helmet), and she has 3 Active tiles with the Military Nature in her city-state. So, Barbara wins the game!

Note that if this were a two-player game between Andrea and Barbara without the optional Uprisings rule, Andrea would have earned 3 bonus points for holding the Philosopher pawn. That would have raised her total score to 25—higher than Barbara's 22—and Andrea would have won the game!

Tile Special Abilities

(The tile names appear only as pictures in the rulebook; the Acropolis entries are listed in the order printed. Per the scoring examples, Athens is the first (Polis), Sparta the second (Fortification), and Olympia the third (Myth).)

Acropolis

• At the end of the game, you earn two points for each Active Polis tile (blue) in your city-state.
• At the end of the game, you earn three points for each Active Fortification tile (red) in your city-state.
• At the end of the game, you earn three points for each Active Myth tile (purple) in your city-state.
• At the end of the game, you earn one point for each Active Chora tile (green) in your city-state.
• At the end of the game, you earn one point for each Active Chora tile (green) in your city-state.

Myth

• Hades: When you activate Hades with a special action, you may remove up to a maximum of three excess Citizens from a single opponent's tile of your choice.
• Oracle: When you activate the Oracle with a special action, you may examine the top four tiles on the Stack of Fate, then return them, face down, to the top of the stack in any order you choose.
• Fates: When you activate the Fates with a special action, draw one tile from the Stack of Fate and add it to your hand. Remember that you must discard down to four tiles at the end of your turn if you have more than four tiles.
• Pandora: When you activate Pandora with a special action, choose one of your opponents to discard a random tile from his hand.

Polis

• Agora: When you activate the Agora with a special action, move any two Resources of your choice in your city-state.
• Tavern: When you activate the Tavern with a special action, one opponent of your choice must take one Citizen from anywhere in his city-state and place it on your Tavern.
• Temple: When you activate the Temple with a special action, take one Gold from the supply for each tile with the Sacred Nature (lightning bolt) adjacent to the Temple, and place it on the Temple.

Fortifications

• Lighthouse: When you activate the Lighthouse with a special action, each of your opponents must take one Gold from anywhere in his city-state and place it on your Lighthouse.
• Labyrinth: When you activate the Labyrinth with a special action, one opponent of your choice must take one Hoplite from anywhere in his city-state and place it on your Labyrinth.

Chora

• Port: When you activate the Port with a special action, take one Gold from the supply for each tile with the Economic Nature (amphora) adjacent to the Port, and place it on the Port.
• Necropolis: When you activate the Necropolis with a special action, you may remove any number of Citizens from your own city-state and return them to the supply. For every two Citizens you remove, take one Gold from the supply and place it on your Necropolis.
• Spring: When you activate the Spring with a special action, take one Resource of your choice from the supply and place it on your Acropolis.