Kaiju Incorporated
Kaiju Incorporated Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
117 Cards, 15 marker cubes (5 of each color), 1 rule book
Setup
Each player takes a Company card at random, a Research Progress/Kaiju Attack card, the set of 3 Start cards for her company's home city, and places these face-up in front of herself on the table as the start of her tableau. (Start cards have an extra row of text underneath the title in the player's color.) Put any unused Start cards back in the game box.
Each player also takes 3 marker cubes. Each player places 1 marker on the Eureka space of her Research Progress wheel, 1 on the Kaiju Attack space of her Kaiju Attack wheel, and 1 on the 5¥ space of her Bank Account track.
Shuffle the Building cards to form a face-down deck. Shuffle the New Product cards to form a face-down deck, with the 5 "Kaijuskin Handbag" cards on the bottom of the deck. Turn three New Product cards face-up beside the deck. Shuffle the Kaiju Attack cards to form a face-down deck, and turn 1 of these face-up beside the deck.
Select a starting player. Place the start player card in front of this player.
Pro-tip! As you build out your holdings, stack cards of the same suit on top of each other, showing only the bottom halves. This will make them easier to manage as the game progresses. And keep your YOUR TURN and RIVAL'S TURN cards in separate stacks, to avoid confusion.
Turn Sequence
At the beginning of the game turn, turn over a row of face-up Building cards equal to the number of players +1.
Each player in turn order takes 1 card from this row. This is the active player's "chosen card." The active player then takes 1 of 2 possible actions: Build or Take Income.
Build/Take Special Action: The active player pays the cost of the chosen card (by lowering her Bank Account track). If the chosen card is a Building card, she adds the card to her tableau. If the chosen card is a Special Action card (listed below), she enacts the text effect of the chosen card and then discards it.
Special Action cards:
- Hostile Takeover (Industrial): ?¥. You may purchase an Industrial Building from a Rival's tableau, by paying the Building's cost to the Rival. There must be room for the Building's cost in the Rival's bank account.
- Hostile Takeover (Construction): ?¥. You may purchase a Construction Building from a Rival's tableau, by paying the Building's cost to the Rival. There must be room for the Building's cost in the Rival's bank account.
- Hostile Takeover (Technology): ?¥. You may purchase a Technology Building from a Rival's tableau, by paying the Building's cost to the Rival. There must be room for the Building's cost in the Rival's bank account.
- Kaiju Mind Control: 4¥. You may pay 4¥ to reduce your Kaiju Attack track to zero and make your Rivals increase their Kaiju Attack tracks by 1.
- No-Bid Contract: 5¥. You may pay 5¥ to take 1 Building card at random from the face-down Buildings deck and add it to your tableau.
- Patent Lawsuit: 9¥. You may pay 9¥ to take 1 New Product card at random from the face-down New Products deck.
Take Income: The active player discards the chosen card, and takes income by increasing her Bank Account track, Research Progress track, and Kaiju Attack track, as needed. Discarding a card of a particular suit (Construction, Industrial, Technology) activates the active player's Your Turn Building cards in the same suit. It also activates all the other player's Rival's Turn cards in that suit (see Other Players).
- Money: For each 1¥ of income on the active player's Your Turn Building cards matching the suit of the chosen card, the active player increases her Bank Account track by 1, up to the maximum of 11¥. Money is spent to purchase new Building cards for your tableau.
- Research Progress: For each 1R of income on the active player's Your Turn Building cards matching the suit of the chosen card, she advances her Research Progress track by 1; each time the Research Progress wheel-track moves from the 4 space back onto, or past, the Eureka R space, the active player takes 1 of the face-up New Product cards, and reveals another New Product card face-up from the deck to replace it. Companies compete to make new lines of products related to the war against the Kaiju, and New Products score Victory points at the end of the game.
- Kaiju Attack: For each 1K on the active player's Your Turn Building cards matching the suit of the chosen card, the player must increase their Kaiju Attack track by 1. Each time the Kaiju Attack track moves from the 5 space back onto, or past, the Kaiju Attack K space, the player suffers the adverse effect on the current Kaiju Attack card, which is resolved immediately.
Other Players: In clockwise order around from the active player, the other players all take income from their Rival's Turn Buildings matching the suit of the chosen card, following the same income procedures outlined for the active player.
All players whose Kaiju Attack tracks wrap back onto, or past, the Kaiju Attack K space suffer the effects of the same current Kaiju Attack card. If the Kaiju Attack card is triggered, a new face-up Kaiju Attack card is placed on top of it, becoming the current Kaiju Attack threat.
If a player cannot build on her turn, she must take income, even if she collects nothing by doing so. The active player may not pass.
Special Case: In the very unusual case that a player has no Buildings left that provide ¥ as income, she may choose to discard all remaining Building cards in her tableau, raise her Bank Account track to 11¥, and immediately purchase 1 Building that provides ¥ as income.
Turn End: After all players have taken a card and an action, discard the 1 remaining card on the display. The start player marker passes clockwise, and the next turn begins.
The most successful CEOs make sure both income and research are rolling in. No income, no growth. No research, no products!
Example of Play
It is Carmen's turn. There are 3 face-up cards still available after the previous player's turn: 1 Industrial card that costs 6¥, 1 Industrial card that costs 9¥, and 1 Technology card that costs 5¥.
Carmen only has 4¥ in her Bank Account track, and so she cannot afford to buy. She gets the most Your Turn income from her Construction Buildings, but because there is no Construction Building card available, she cannot take Construction income. So she discards the 9¥ Industrial card, and collects her Your Turn Industrial income: 2¥, 1R, and 1K from the Your Turn Industrial Building card in her tableau; she also has a Rival's Turn Industrial Building, but that does not pay off on her own income round.
The 1K makes her Kaiju Attack track advance back onto the K space, triggering the active Kaiju card. The Kaiju card (Queen Conga) calls for her to discard a Rival's Turn Construction Building, and she is forced to discard a card from her tableau back to the Building deck discard pile.
Meanwhile, David has 2 Rival's Turn Industrial Buildings that pay off when Carmen takes Industrial income, and he collects: 3¥, 2R, and 2K.
David's Kaiju Attack track also advances past the K space, and so the same Kaiju card that attacked Carmen attacks David, however he has no Rival's Turn Construction Buildings in his tableau, and so loses nothing.
The Kaiju card is replaced with a new Kaiju card. David's Research Progress track also advances past its Eureka R space, and so David takes 1 of the face-up New Product cards from the available row, and then adds a New Product card to the row from the deck.
Carmen's turn is finished, so it is now David's turn. The 3¥ he collected on Carmen's turn leaves him with 6¥ in his Bank Account track, so he buys the available 6¥ Industrial Building card, adds it to his tableau, and reduces his Bank Account track to 0. David's turn is now over.
Reshuffling
Whenever there are not enough Building cards in the deck to refill the card row, reshuffle the discard pile and place it face-down as a new draw deck. If the Kaiju deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discard pile and place it face-down as a new draw deck.
Game End
When a player takes a New Product card and a Kaijuskin Handbag card is turned up, the game-end has been triggered. Players finish the current turn, and then score the game.
Kaijuskin Handbag (4VP): "Warning: Monstersanto cannot be held responsible for any accidental digestion of handbag contents due to misuse of the product."
Winning
All players turn over their Research Progress/Kaiju Attack track cards and use the back side of this as a score track to tally their Victory points.
Most New Product cards provide variable amounts of Victory points for meeting a variety of conditions based on Building cards in the player's tableau.
Each player's Company card indicates a unique city; if a player has more Building cards from that city than any other single player, then that player gets a bonus of 5 VP. Players also get a VP bonus for the number of different cities represented in their tableaus, as indicated on their Company cards (0/1/3/6/10/14/17/19).
The player with the most VP wins. In the event of a tie, the tied player with the highest Bank Account at game end wins. If there is still a tie, then the tied player who went latest on the first turn of the game wins.
2 Player Variant
With 2 players, deal out a row of 5 Building cards each turn. Additionally, a 6th Building card is turned face-up on top of the deck. The 2 players alternate taking cards from the 5-card row for building or income, until each has taken 2 cards. The 5th card of the row is discarded. Then, both players have a Rival's Turn round of income for cards in the color of the 6th card that was turned face-up on the deck. Afterward, discard this 6th card, and the next turn begins. In all other respects, the rules are the same as in the base game.