Im Zeichen des Kreuzes

Im Zeichen des Kreuzes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Objective of the Game

Step into the shoes of one of the five great Crusader leaders, surround yourself with trustworthy men, form a powerful army and liberate Jerusalem.

Game Materials

One game board.

The Mediterranean Sea is surrounded by three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. Land and water are divided into individual spaces. To move onto them, players must play the matching cards (Plains = green, Mountains = brown, Water = blue). There are also three straits that can be crossed by the reversible arrows: the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Messina and the Bosphorus. All three can be crossed to the other side without needing a Movement card for Water.

Map notes (from the board diagram):

The swords mark the continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. This matters for some event cards, for example the "Plague" card. Islands do not belong to any continent for the purposes of event cards; for example, they do not suffer the Plague.
Starting position of the Crusaders (marked in Europe).
The arrows show where the straits may be crossed.
Space for the various discards.
Starting position of the 2 Pirates and the 2 Muslim armies.
Symbol of a Christian City.
Symbol of a Muslim City.
The Objective: Jerusalem.

Components

1 Square Tower. Used to decide all combats. Before the game begins, assemble the tower by joining its three parts as shown in the figure.
1 Sorting Box. Has compartments for each player's miniature treasures and troops. Each player receives a set of 30 troops (cubes) in their colour.
- White treasures: value 1.
- Orange treasures: value 5.
- Green troops: Muslim troops.
- The other compartments hold the various troops belonging to each knight.
140 cards, divided between event cards and movement cards.
- Movement cards: Plains (green), Mountains (brown), Water (blue), and Jokers.
- Event cards.
5 Player cards. Each knight has his own.
- Troop slots for 10, 20 and 30 troops.
- Army Morale scale from 0 to 10.
  - At 5 and 4: the army may not attack Jerusalem.
  - At 3 and 2: the player may only draw 2 cards.
  - At 1 and 0: the player may only draw 1 card.
- Employing the Tower: spaces for the two purple blocks.

Reference Card

Reward from the Pope: 1st attack: 5 treasure. 2nd attack: 3 treasure. 3rd attack: 1 treasure.
Player Minimum Battle Commitment: Christian City: 2 troops. Muslim City: 3 troops. Pirate, Army or Event Card: 0 troops. Jerusalem: 5 troops.
Order of Play: each player executes all four phases before play proceeds to the next player.
1. Play Cards. The current player may play as many cards as he wishes, in any order.
  - Move a Pirate Ship 1 space for each "ship" symbol, and a Muslim Army 1 space for each "banner" symbol. The player may choose to move these before or after his own movement.
2. Actions in a City. A player whose movement ends in a city may choose only one action.
  - In an unplundered Christian City: enlist as many troops as desired (1 treasure = 2 troops), or Pray (morale increases by +2).
  - In any unplundered city: Plunder the City.
3. Optionally discard up to 2 cards.
4. Replenish Cards. The maximum hand size is 4 movement cards and 2 event cards. The number of cards the player may draw depends on the morale level, and is split between the Movement and Event decks.
  - Morale 4 or higher: 2 movement cards and 1 event card.
  - Morale 2 or 3: 1 movement card and 1 event card.
  - Morale 0 or 1: 1 movement card and 0 event cards.
  - A player must play any card which says "Play Immediately" and draw a replacement (the player chooses which deck).

Setup

Each player chooses a colour and takes the following:

The player card of the chosen knight. The colour of the Coat-of-Arms token matches the colour in the centre of that card.
Two purple cubes, which he places on his player card in the "Emptying the Tower" space.
His Coat-of-Arms token, which he places on the starting space shown on the map and on his player card.

Also:

Place the two pirate ships and the two Muslim armies on their starting positions, as marked on the board. (See section 2.)
Place the city tokens on their respective spaces on the board. Shuffle them face down first, so their values are random, then distribute them to the spaces without looking at the value of each one.
Jerusalem receives no city token. Instead, place the wooden Citadel piece there, together with 15 green cubes representing the defending army.
Shuffle the 140 cards and deal five to each player.
- Important: all cards marked "play immediately" are returned to the deck, which is then shuffled again.
- Each player may discard 3 cards of his choice and draw 3 new cards.
- When every player has done this, the deck is placed face down on the board.

Note on the board diagram: Normandy is the starting place of Robert II (black Coat-of-Arms token).

Game Flow

The player who controls Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the Crusade, begins. The other players take their turns in clockwise order. The game is played in turns, and each turn has four phases:

Use of cards.
Action in a city.
Discarding two cards.
Drawing cards from the deck.

Each player must go through all the phases before passing the turn to the next player.

Phase 1: Use of Cards

In this phase the player may use the cards he holds, in any number (1, 2, 3, ... or all 5).

Movement Cards

To move his Coat-of-Arms token to an adjacent space, the player must play a card of the matching type (plains, mountains or sea). The Joker may be used for any of the three. All spaces that share a common border are considered adjacent, even if they touch only at a corner.

Example in the rulebook: the yellow player uses a Sea card for his first move, then a Joker for his second sea move, and finally a Mountain card to enter the last region. Ending a movement on a Sea space is valid; a player does not have to end on land.

Some movement cards show a ship or a banner. When a player plays such a card, he must move a pirate ship (ship symbol) or an army (banner) one space.
- Pirates and armies may be moved before or after the player's own Coat-of-Arms movement, at the player's choice.
- Pirates move only onto sea spaces.
- The Muslim army moves only onto land spaces (plains and mountains). It may cross straits and continents.
The player may choose when to end his movement. He does not have to spend all the cards he holds if he does not want to.
When a Coat-of-Arms token moves onto a space containing pirates or a Muslim army, combat takes place automatically. This applies even if the token is only passing through on the way to a further space. The movement may continue only after the combat has been resolved.
- If the player is defeated, his movement is interrupted. His token must be placed on an adjacent space chosen by the player seated to the right of the defeated player.

Event Cards

The effect of an event card is described on the card itself.

Examples shown in the rulebook:

Holy Lance (LANZA SAGRADA): "You have found the Holy Lance. You automatically win your next combat (but not against Jerusalem)." Used during a combat. Cards with the cross symbol may be used only once during the game and are then discarded.
Alejo I: "You receive 3 troops but may not attack Constantinople during the game." Keep this card face up in front of you until the end of the game. Used on your own turn, if Constantinople has not yet been plundered.

Notes printed on the page:

The event cards that indicate Muslim attacks on the players, marked with Keborgia and Arslan I, apply only if the player is in Asia or Africa (see page 2).
Similarly, a player cannot be attacked by Muslims if he is in Europe, on a sea space, or on the islands of Crete or Famagusta.

Phase 2: Actions in a City

When a player ends his movement on a space with a city token, he may choose ONE of the following actions.

Diagram caption: Pray increases the army's morale by +2. Each treasure buys two troops.

In a Christian city (still with its red token and not yet plundered):

Enlist troops (Alistamiento de tropas). For each treasure (value 1), two troops of the same colour may be taken. Players may exchange up to 5 treasures for troops each time.
- Treasure spent this way returns to the "Bank", and the recruited troops are placed on the player card.
- If a player has no more troops available in the box, recruiting is not possible until troops are available again.
Pray (Rezar). Increases the army's morale by 2 points, but morale never rises above 10.
Plunder (Saquear, Christian cities only). The player's army attacks the city (see Combat Resolution below). The army must attack with at least 2 troops. Irrespective of the outcome, attacking a Christian city lowers army morale by 3 points (-3), whether the attack is won or lost.
- If the player wins, he takes the red token representing the city and places it on his player card in the corresponding place.
- He also obtains from the Bank the number of treasures shown on the front of that token, and places them on his card.

In a Muslim city:

Plunder (Saquear, the only possible action). The player's army must attack the city (see Combat Resolution below).
- If it wins, it takes the green token representing the city and places it on its player card in the corresponding place.
- It also obtains from the Bank the number of treasures shown on the front of the green token.
- Conquering a Muslim city increases the army's morale automatically by +2.
After a city has been taken, its token goes to a player card, and no action may be carried out in that city by any player for the rest of the game.
With 2 to 4 players, each player may plunder at most 3 Muslim cities. With 5 players, at most 2 cities. (There are 11 Muslim cities in total.)

Any city may be attacked except Crete. (The reason is to keep one Christian city near the Holy Land, so that reinforcements can be drawn from it for future assaults.)

Combat Resolution

Any of the following situations ALWAYS ends in combat:

A Muslim army or pirates on the same space as a player.
An event card played by someone that involves combat.
The battle for Jerusalem, which is described in a separate section (see section 7: The Battle for Jerusalem).

Combat is resolved in the following steps.

Confrontation (Enfrentamiento). The confrontation must be announced aloud, and any relevant event cards are played before the combat, if there are any. Regardless of what the cards say, the combat is resolved in the end.
Opposition of troops (Oposición de tropas). Determine how many troops take part:
- Pirates, armies and Muslim cities always bring 3 green troops to the combat.
- Christian cities always have 2 troops.
- Event cards may modify the number of troops.
Player's troops (Tropas del jugador). The player must commit at least:
- Against a Christian city (red): 2 troops.
- Against a Muslim city (green): 3 troops.
- Against pirates, armies and event cards: any number.
- Against Jerusalem: 5 troops.
Use of the combat tower (Uso de la torre de combate). Now take the troops of both armies and drop them at the same time through the entrance of the Combat Tower.

Example from the rulebook (caption under the tower picture): Yellow attacks the Muslim army (green troops), which defends with three troops, as section 2 indicates (it defends with all its troops). The yellow player decides to attack with 5 troops. To resolve the combat, the 8 troops (5 yellow and 3 green) are taken and dropped through the top of the Combat Tower. Two green and three yellow troops fall out, so the victory goes to the yellow player. Because two green troops fell, Yellow suffers two losses, which are sent to the box reserve. The one remaining yellow troop is returned to the Player Card, where it joins the rest of the troops Yellow still has in his army.

Combat results (Resultados del combate). The player examines how many troops, and which ones, have come out of the Combat Tower. According to the result:

a) The player's troops are fewer in number than the defenders' (green cubes). The battle is lost. The troops that remain are returned to the box reserve (NOT to the player card). The green troops are returned to their corresponding defensive garrison. Defenders never cause losses in case of a victory in combat. The only case in which green troops return to the reserve is when a player uses a purple "Emptying the Tower" cube.

b) The player's troops are equal to or exceed the defender's number. The battle is won. The player loses one troop for each green troop that came out of the Combat Tower, and these are sent to the box reserve. The player's remaining troops return to the Player Card to be used in future battles.

It may happen that other troops, belonging neither to the player nor to the defender, fall out of the Combat Tower. These troops are considered "prisoners", and they may be exchanged for troops of the player so that they join the rest of the army. To do so, the player changes the cubes for others of his own colour, if they are available.

The player may also be lucky when troops of his own colour that were already in the tower from an earlier combat fall out. It is all a matter of luck! Troops that remain in the tower stay there until they fall out through a combat or until someone uses the "Emptying the Tower" option.

NOTE: These prisoners join the player's army only when both of the following conditions are met:
- The player wins the battle (logically).
- The combat is resolved first. For the practical purposes of resolving the combat, only the troops of the player's colour and the green defending troops are counted. In case of defeat, troops lost by the player inside the tower may serve as prisoners for later players who use the tower. This is to the detriment of the player, who will then not have his full potential of 30 troops available in the box reserve.

Phase 3: Discards

The player decides how many cards he wants to discard. These cards go to the discard pile without being played.

Diagram captions: "Normal deck" and "Discard pile". "You may discard 3 cards (or more)."

Printed discrepancy: the Phase 3 heading on the Game Flow page lists "discarding two cards", the Reference Card says "optionally discard up to 2 cards", and this section says the player decides how many cards to discard, "always more than 2", with the diagram caption reading "3 cards (or more)". The rulebook as printed gives these three different counts; they are transcribed here as printed.

Phase 4: Drawing New Cards

The player may draw cards until he covers the cards he has discarded.

A player must never have more than 5 cards in hand.
If the army's morale is low (4 or 2), the player may draw only 2 or 1 cards respectively. Printed discrepancy: the Reference Card gives different draw limits by morale (see "Replenish Cards" above). Both are transcribed as printed.
If a player draws a card marked "Play Immediately", the card is played at once and then discarded. The player may then draw another card to replace it.
If the draw deck runs out, take the discard pile, shuffle it and use it as a new deck.
When the player has completed his 5 cards, the next player's turn begins, always in clockwise order.

End of the Game

The game ends when a player conquers Jerusalem (he is then the winner), or when the troop reserve runs out for the second time without Jerusalem having been taken.

If a card that must be used cannot be used for any reason, the game ends immediately. If this happens, the Saracens win against the Crusaders.

The Battle for Jerusalem

The morale of an army on Jerusalem's space that does not attack drops by -2 for each turn it remains there.
The morale required to attack Jerusalem must be greater than or equal to 6.
The battle for Jerusalem is not governed by the standard combat rules. This combat takes place over several turns.
With 5 players, one of them may attack Jerusalem only if he has already conquered at least 1 Muslim city. With 2 to 4 players, the number of Muslim cities conquered must be at least 2.
When a player decides to attack Jerusalem, the player to his right takes the role of "defender" of the city. This player decides how many troops defend the city in each turn.
In each turn, the defender of Jerusalem must defend with at least three green troops (if he still has 3). The Crusader player must use at least 5 troops in his attack.

The Battle for Jerusalem proceeds as follows:

Attackers and defenders secretly choose how many troops they will attack or defend with. Once decided, they reveal at the same time how many troops each chose.
The attacker takes all the troops (attackers and defenders) and drops them through the top of the Combat Tower, all together at the same time.
The results are determined in the normal way, as in a conventional combat (review section 6 of this manual).
If the attacker loses the combat, he must retreat. The defending player (called the Defender of Jerusalem) must take the attacker's Coat-of-Arms token and move it to an adjacent space that he considers appropriate. The army's morale automatically drops by -2.
- If the attack is one of the first three attacks Jerusalem suffers during the game (regardless of whether the earlier ones were made by other players), the defeated attacking player is entitled to receive the Pope's reward, even though he did not win the battle.
If the attacker wins the combat, he may choose between continuing the combat or halting hostilities. This pause does not count as a defeat, since the Crusader player has won at least one battle in the city. Regardless of the number of turns, the combat continues in this way. The Pope's reward is collected only once per victory.
If the attacker has 5 or fewer troops, he must abort hostilities.
If the defender has no more troops, Jerusalem is taken and the Crusader player wins the game. From then on the knight is given the title printed on the rulebook: ADVOCATUS SEPULCRI SANCTI (Defender of the Holy Sepulchre).

The Pope's Reward

Millions of people across Europe donated money to the Church to help pay for the Crusade that aims to liberate Jerusalem. As a result, the Pope offers the following rewards:

The first player to attack Jerusalem receives 5 treasures.
The second player to attack Jerusalem receives 3 treasures.
The third player to attack Jerusalem receives 1 treasure.

The Pope acknowledges that this is an arduous task, so he decides to offer the reward whether a battle is won or lost. Remember that a Crusader cannot attack the city if he has fewer than 5 troops or a morale level below 6.

Only one player may obtain several rewards, but never more than one per turn. After the third reward, the money runs out.

Emptying the Combat Tower

When a player decides to use one of his purple cubes, he may take the Combat Tower and shake it until all the troops it contains fall out. These troops ALWAYS join the reserve (they are never given to players).
The tower may be emptied only during the player's own turn, and never during a combat or between the combats of the Battle for Jerusalem.
Optionally, before the game begins, the players may agree to drop a set number of troops into the tower. The number is determined in that agreement.
If a player touches the Combat Tower, intentionally or not, and some troops fall as a result, he is penalised by removing one of his purple cubes, which is the cube that entitles him to empty the tower.
Cubes that fall between combats (without the hand of a player being involved) remain in the basin and count in the next combat.

NOTE: It is important to know roughly how many troops are inside the Combat Tower. If there are many green troops in the tower, they can act against the player in combat. The use of the purple emptying cubes is therefore very useful, and an empty tower may be vital before facing an important combat.

Notes on Event Cards

All cards concerning a continent (for example "Plague") never affect sea spaces or islands (see the illustration on page 2).
The "El Cid" card can only be played on the five spaces marked in red on the map printed in the rulebook. The map shows the spaces in Spain and the surrounding area.
With the "Betrayal" card (Traición), a player may use 2 treasures so that 3 defending troops desert and join his own troops, if troops are available. Remove the 3 green troops from the board and add 3 troops to your forces.
If an event card offers treasure or troops that exceed the supply in the box, the player gains as many as are available.
- Example: the "Lisboa" card gives the player 5 troops, but only 4 remain in the reserve. The player takes the 4 existing troops and discards that card.
The "Quick March" card (Marcha rápida) doubles the effect of the player's movement cards. They need not be played in order, so a Mountain card counts as two, but the cards need not be adjacent in the movement sequence.
- Example: a player plays his "Quick March" card with one Plains card, one Mountain card and one Joker. He can move 6 spaces in total, since the Joker doubles its value and may be used as whichever terrain card suits. The movement is therefore arbitrary.
Event cards that make the Muslim army attack a player require that player to be on the continents of Africa or Asia (see page 2). A player cannot be attacked if he is in Europe, on Crete, on Famagusta or on any water space.
The "Saracen Offensive" card (Ofensiva Sarracena) requires placing 3 green troops only on the continent of Asia (Asia is shown in blue on the map on page 2). These troops may not be placed as the defence of Jerusalem.

Special Cases

If two players are on the same Christian city, neither of them may plunder it. They may still carry out their other actions normally.
If a player moves onto a space where there is a Muslim army and a city, he fights the army first. If he wins, he must then attack the city.
If pirates or a Muslim army move onto a space where there are several Crusader players, the player who moved the Saracens decides which Crusader player they attack.
If a player moves his army onto a space containing green troops, he must fight and defeat them before he can continue his movement.
If a player has several enemies on his own space (without a city), the enemies fight together, pooling their troops against the Crusader player's forces.
- Example: a player enters a space containing a Muslim army and two green troops from an earlier combat that he lost. The combined force of the two Muslim groups (3 + 2) is the total enemy the Crusader must fight. He cannot choose to fight each army separately.
At the first attack on Jerusalem, each individual green troop moves 3 spaces by the shortest route possible (including over sea spaces) towards the city, to reinforce its defences.

Succession of the Crusaders

If misfortune overtakes a Crusader knight and he loses all his troops and treasures, he still has the opportunity to abdicate and nominate a successor.

In game terms, the player discards all the event cards he holds and begins again under the same conditions as at the start of the game. His Coat-of-Arms token returns to its starting point and begins again.

Variants

The players may agree to use the following variations:

Choice of victory: the player who defeats pirates or the Muslim army chooses at which of the two points it will reappear.
Emptying the tower: each player has only one opportunity to empty the Combat Tower during the game. Only one purple cube is given to each player.
Historical list: the city tokens are not distributed randomly over the board. They have new defence values, according to the tables below.

Christian cities (Defenders, Treasure, and the Byzantine or Roman Empire):

Christian City	Defenders	Treasure	Empire
Athen	3	5	Byzantine
Barcelona	3	5	Roman
Budapest	2	4	Byzantine
Cagliari	2	3	Roman
Konstantinopel	4	6	Byzantine
Kreta	3	5	Byzantine
Lissabon	2

Muslim cities (Defenders, Treasure, and the Islamic ruler):

Muslim City	Defenders	Treasure	Islamic ruler
Alexandria	5	7	Fatimid Caliphate
Antiochia	4	7	Seljuq Empire
Edessa	3	5	Seljuq Empire
Famagusta	2	3	Seljuq Empire
Granada	3	5	Almoravids
Kairo	4	6	Fatimid Caliphate
Smyrna

With these variants, Crete can be taken and plundered. Throughout the Crusades, the city passed repeatedly from Muslim to Christian hands and back again. Cyprus (Famagusta) is even today divided between Christians and Muslims.