Kilia
Kilia Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents and setup
- Place the council board in the middle of the table.
- Place all 82 coins within reach as a general supply.
- Place all 100 goods and the 10 5x tiles within reach as a general supply. (This supply is infinite. If you run out of a type of good, take a 5x tile, place 1 of your goods on top of it, and return 4 of the same good to the general supply.)
- Lay the 4 'smoked sprats' cards to the side for now.
- Sort the 4 starting contracts with the coloured backs and bell symbols from the 36 contract cards and lay them to the side. Shuffle the remaining 32 contract cards and lay them in a face-down pile to the right of the council board. Then deal 5 cards from the pile face up onto the spaces on the board.
- The 96 action cards show different goods on their reverse. Shuffle all these cards and lay them in a face-down pile to the right of the council board. Then deal 5 cards from the pile face up onto the spaces under the board.
- Whoever was last in a harbour city takes the coat of arms.
- This player chooses their player colour first and takes the player board in this colour. The player colour is shown by the wax seal on the board. Each player colour matches the colour of 1 of the goods (white, yellow, red, brown) and is relevant to certain elements of the game. The other players then make their choice in clockwise order.
Instructions for scoring
For a 2-player game, cover the second highest number on each scoring wheel on the council board with a scoring chip in an unused colour.
Once you have played the game a few times, you can decide at the start of the game if you want to cover 1 of the wheels with the additional scoring wheel. This allows you to increase or decrease the points available. Otherwise, put the additional scoring wheel back in the box.
Components
- 1 council board
- 82 coins (66 1s, 16 5s)
- 100 goods (25 each of salt, grain, brick, and wood)
- 10 5x tiles
- 4 'smoked sprats' cards
- 36 contract cards (including 4 starting contracts with coloured backs)
- 96 action cards (with 4 reverse design variations)
- 1 additional scoring wheel
- 4 player boards (in 4 different colours)
- 20 ships (5 in each of the 4 colours)
- 16 scoring chips (4 in each of the 4 colours)
- 1 Kiel coat of arms
- 1 scoring pad
Giving out player components
Now give every player the following components in their colour:
1 starting contract — Lay this face up above your player board as an active contract.
5 ships — Place the ship with the number 1 in your canal as shown. Place the remaining 4 ships next to your board for now.
4 scoring chips — Place the 4 chips on your player board where everyone can see them.
3 coins and 3 goods — Lastly, take 3 1-thaler coins and 1 good of each colour except for your own player colour. Place them in your personal supply. The ribbons on the seal on your player board show you which goods you should take.
You have now completed the setup and you're ready to begin playing!
The player board
Each player board has expansion zones, a personal supply, a market, a canal, and a knowledge track.
Structure of an action card
There are 3 separate sections on the front of every action card and a fourth section on the back.
Expansion (page 6) — You can use this card to expand the zone of this colour.
Warehouse (page 8) — You can also use this card to construct a new warehouse along the canal.
Abilities (page 7) — Or you can use this card to learn new abilities.
Merchant (page 5) — You can also lay this card face down on your market as a merchant. The colour on the back always matches the expansion colour.
How to play
Whoever has the city coat of arms begins the game and takes the first turn.
On your turn, select 1 of the 5 action cards from the face-up supply, lay it on your board, and perform the action shown. (We'll explain exactly how this works in a bit.)
Fill the supply back up from the action card deck at the end of your turn.
Then the next player in clockwise order takes their turn, selecting 1 card from the supply.
Once everyone has taken a turn, begin the council phase. At the end of the council phase, begin a new round. The player with the city coat again takes the first turn.
Continue these steps until at least 1 player has used all 4 of their scoring chips, triggering the final round.
You then play 1 final round, after which the game ends.
Taking your turn
On your turn, always take 1 action card from the supply below the council board.
When selecting your card, make sure to follow this rule, which applies throughout the game: You may take any action card for free as long as you have a corresponding number of keys to those shown on the board above the card.
The more keys you own, the greater choice of cards you will have. You only have 1 key at the start of the game, so you can only take the first card for free on your first turn.
If you want to take a card that requires more keys than you have, you have to spend some coins for it. The card's price is shown next to its key symbols on the council board. You have to pay the full price as shown for the card, no matter how many keys you are missing.
Example: Erik wants to take the third card but he only has 2 keys. He will still have to pay 3 coins for it.
In any case, take the card and lay it either as an
- expansion in 1 of the 4 expansion zones below your player board, or as a
- merchant on the market in the middle of your player board.
Before taking the first card in your turn, you may pay 5 coins to exchange all 5 action cards from the supply. Shuffle the discarded cards into the pile afterwards. You may not exchange the cards after you took a card from the supply!
You can also fulfil contracts and place scoring chips during your turn. See 'Other important rules' (page 8) for an explanation of these and other mechanics.
Only fill the action card supply back up from the deck at the end of your turn.
Then the next player in clockwise order takes their turn.
Merchants
When you want to lay an action card on your market to act as a merchant, lay it face down on 1 of the 6 market spaces.
You have to start placing merchants in the lowest row, but as soon as you have 2 neighbouring merchants in a row, you may place a subsequent merchant in the market space directly above.
In other words, you must build your business on a strong foundation.
Example: Anika has already placed a merchant on the middle and right-hand spaces in the bottom row in previous turns. It's always possible to add merchants to the bottom row. A new merchant will need to be built on a stable foundation. Anika can add a merchant in a space above 2 other merchants.
Each time you place a merchant, you may either place them on an empty market space or on top of an existing merchant.
Whenever you place a merchant on an empty space, immediately take the bonus shown on that space. This bonus is available only once. If you place a merchant on top of an existing merchant, you do not receive the bonus under them again.
Any good -> Take any 1 good from the general supply and add it to your personal supply.
3 coins -> Immediately take 3 1-thaler coins from the general supply.
smoked sprats -> Take 1 'smoked sprats' card and lay it in front of you. See 'Kiel's smoked sprats' (page 10) for an explanation of this card.
New contract -> Choose a new contract from the supply. See 'Castle' (page 6) to see which contracts you can choose from.
You can activate a merchant that is in your market to purchase expansions or contracts. See 'Activate a merchant' (page 9) for a detailed explanation.
Expansions
You can expand a zone on your player board by sliding an action card with a matching colour under it. Slide the card under your board so that just the top section with the symbol remains visible. Everyone should be able to see how many cards are in each of your expansion zones at all times.
Example: Erik takes a yellow card with an anchor symbol and slides it under the warehouse zone.
These zones are:
- Castle
- University
- Shipyard
- Warehouse
Each expansion costs you goods. Each zone has a particular good associated with it.
The first expansion in a zone, which you perform by sliding a card under that zone, costs you 1 of the associated good. The second expansion will cost 2 goods, and so on.
Pay the goods from your personal supply by placing them back into the general supply.
- Castle -> bag (goods)
- University -> brick
- Shipyard -> wood
- Warehouse -> grain
Example: Erik slides a second card under the warehouse zone and has to pay 2 grain for the expansion.
You can also pay for an expansion fully or partly by activating merchants (page 9).
You can expand each zone a total of 4 times. This means that you can achieve a total of 5 symbols from each zone, including the starting symbol on your player board.
Every expansion that you complete in a zone also immediately gains you an improvement. The kind of improvement depends on the zone you expanded.
It may be that you can't gain an improvement because either there are none that apply or you cannot afford one. You can still complete the expansion in this case, but you'll have to do without the improvement.
Castle
Expanding the castle gains you influence. This increases your choice of cards and gives you new contracts.
You may only take a card from the supply for free if you have at least as many keys as depicted next to the card. This applies to both action cards and contracts.
Immediately after expanding the castle, you may take a new contract from the supply. The same rules apply to selecting a contract as for the action cards. You may also pay coins for a contract that you don't have enough keys for.
Lay the new contract face up on top of your player board as an active contract.
Example: Anika expands the castle for the first time. She now has 2 keys and from now on she can take the first or second card in a supply for free. She takes the second contract card from the supply.
See 'Fulfil contracts' (page 9) to learn how to fulfil a contract and what rewards this brings.
University
Expanding your university unlocks new knowledge and abilities that give you a permanent advantage in the game.
Abilities are depicted on the bottom section of the action cards.
Immediately after expanding the university, you can gain a new ability. Take a second action card from the supply, following the usual rules. (Remember that you only refill the supply at the end of your turn.) You may also pay coins in this instance for a card that you don't have enough keys for.
Then slide this second card under the knowledge zone so that only the bottom section with your new ability is visible.
Example: Erik expands his university using the second action card from the supply. The second card space stays empty for now. Erik then chooses the fourth card for his new ability. Because he doesn't have enough keys for it, he has to pay 5 coins.
You can use this ability as soon as it becomes relevant.
Note that you should never have 2 completely identical abilities.
It can often happen, with the university in particular, that you cannot gain a new ability because you already have all of the available abilities or cannot afford any of them.
There are 3 different abilities:
Exchange: You can pay the 2 goods shown on the card completely interchangeably from your personal supply. That means that this ability allows you to, for example, spend a salt from your personal supply in the place of a wood. When you do this, you must follow these rules:
- You may only use this ability to directly pay for an expansion or fulfil a contract.
- You may only exchange goods that you have in your personal supply this way. You cannot exchange goods that your merchants deliver from the market.
- This exchange is not meant as a physical swap. That means that you cannot place any exchanged good back into your personal supply.
Extra action: Every time you expand the zone shown, you may play another action card. When you do this, you must follow these rules:
- You must finish your current action before starting the next one.
- Then select another action card from the supply and use it to perform a full action.
- You can perform multiple extra actions in 1 turn. But always remember, you only refill the action card supply at the end of your turn. So, your choice of cards will become more limited and probably more expensive each time.
Special ability: University extra action. You can use this ability immediately after selecting it. This enables you to gain up to 4 extra actions in every expansion zone.
Points: This ability only comes into play at the end of the game. You score 1 point for every 1 of the good shown. You can use goods from your personal supply for this, returning them to the general supply, or activate your merchants. As usual, you need to pay the merchants to activate them. (Activate a merchant, page 9)
Shipyard
You can build a bigger ship in the shipyard so that you can carry more goods.
Every time you expand your shipyard, immediately swap your current ship for the next largest one.
Remove your old ship from the canal and put your new ship in its place. The new ship needs to face the same direction and be in the same position as the old one.
Example: Anika's old ship is on the right of the canal. She places her new ship on the right. The bow is pointing left.
Note: Expanding the shipyard does not allow you to take a second action card (unlike with other expansions).
Most of the ships have 1 window.
When your ship is sailing, you receive the goods that you can see through the ship's window.
Ship 2 is an exception because it has 2 separate windows. This means that you have to choose 1 of the 2 windows at each warehouse.
See 'The council phase' (page 11) for more information.
Warehouse
Expanding this zone allows you to construct new warehouses along the canal and collect goods in them. You can see the warehouses in the middle section of the action cards.
After expanding the warehouse zone, you may immediately build a new warehouse. You also take a second action card from the supply, following the usual rules. (Remember that you only refill the supply at the end of your turn.) You may also pay coins in this instance for a card that you don't have enough keys for.
Then slide the card underneath your board to line up with any empty space along the canal.
It's your choice how you orient the warehouse in that space.
Example: Erik expands his warehouse zone with the first action card from the supply. He takes the second action card from the supply to build a warehouse. He already has 2 keys, so he can take both cards for free. He slides the new warehouse under 1 of the empty canal spaces.
When your ship sets sail, it can now collect goods from this warehouse. See 'The council phase' (page 11) for more information.
Other important rules
On top of your standard card action per turn, you may also:
Exchange goods 3:1 — Whenever you want to purchase an expansion or fulfil contract on your turn, you may exchange 3 identical goods from your personal supply for any 1 other type of good from the general supply.
Example: Anika wants to use the third action card to expand her shipyard. She pays 2 wood and 3 brick.
You may only do this to directly pay for something. You cannot place the good back in your personal supply.
You cannot combine this exchange with the ability Exchange (page 7).
Activate a merchant
You can activate a merchant from your market by placing a coin from your supply on the card. The merchant then provides 1 of the good shown on their card.
You can activate each merchant on the lowest row of your market once per turn. You can activate merchants in the middle row twice per turn, and the merchant at the top 3 times per turn. You can also activate your merchants for separate actions/contracts. Each time you activate a merchant, place 1 coin on their card.
Note: Merchants deliver their goods directly. So, you can never pay a merchant to put a good in your personal supply.
Leave coins on top of activated merchants until the end of the round to show that they have already been activated.
Fulfil contracts
Before or after an action on your turn, you may also fulfil contracts. You may not, however, interrupt an action.
To fulfil a contract, take the required goods or coins shown on the top half of the card from your personal supply and return them to the general supply.
In return, you immediately receive the reward shown on the bottom half of the card.
Then lay your fulfilled contract face down in front of you. At the end of the game, you will score the points shown on the card.
You can fulfil multiple contracts within your turn. You must, however, have completely fulfilled a contract before you can start fulfilling the next one.
The symbols on the contracts translate to the following:
Any good: You can pay any 1 good (symbol at top of card) or take any 1 good from the general supply (symbol at bottom of card).
New contract: You may immediately take a new contract from the supply and lay it face up on top of your player board. As always, you may only take a contract card for free if you have enough keys to afford it.
Points: Each contract you fulfil scores you points at the end of the game. The number of points is always shown in the bottom right of the card. Collect all your fulfilled contracts together in a face-down pile. You may look at your own cards at any time.
Place scoring chips
Whenever you fulfil the conditions for an achievement depicted on the council board, immediately place 1 of your scoring chips on the space with that condition.
1 zone expanded 4 times: You have fully expanded 1 of the 4 expansion zones. That means that you have slid a fourth card under this zone.
You can fulfil this condition multiple times. If you fully expand another zone later in the game with 4 cards, you may place another scoring chip.
2 zones expanded 3 times: You have 2 separate zones with 3 cards each under them.
If you expand the other 2 zones, each with 3 cards, later in the game, you may place another scoring chip here as well.
4 zones expanded 2 times: You have 4 separate zones with 2 cards each under them.
You can only fulfil this condition once.
Note: Only the 4 expansion zones are relevant to these 3 conditions. Abilities and warehouses along the canal do not count towards them.
Full market: You have placed a merchant on all 6 of your market spaces.
You can, of course, only fulfil this condition once.
3 contracts fulfilled: If you have fulfilled 3 contracts, place a scoring chip on this space.
You can place subsequent scoring chips here after fulfilling your sixth and ninth contract.
15 coins: You must pay 15 coins to fulfil this condition. Pay the coins from your personal supply into the general supply.
It is not compulsory to fulfil this condition as soon as you have 15 coins.
You can, of course, fulfil this condition multiple times by paying the price again.
If any player has placed their fourth scoring chip, this triggers the final round.
Note: It is possible to complete more achievements after you've already placed all 4 of your scoring chips. In that case, simply take a good in your player colour from the general supply and place it on the achievement space instead of a scoring chip. This good is then treated as one of your scoring chips.
In the council phase (page 11) at the end of the round, place all your used scoring chips on the first empty point space. At the end of the game, you will receive the points depicted once for each scoring chip placed.
Kiel's smoked sprats
When you place a merchant on the sprat space in your market, you may draw 1 'smoked sprats' card. The smoking preserves them, so they won't go off! Lay the card in front of you to start with. You can play it in a later turn.
You can play this card in 1 of 2 ways:
Expansion: All 4 expansion zones are shown on the sprats card. Instead of choosing an action card from the supply, you can expand by playing your smoked sprats card and sliding it under 1 of the 4 expansion zones.
You still need to pay the required goods as if you had used an action card from the supply.
Improvements will often allow you to choose a second action card from the supply. If this happens, you still need enough keys or coins to afford the card. The advantage, however, is that you have more cards to choose from. This can be especially powerful if you can play multiple action cards in 1 turn.
Coins or goods: You can play the sprats card in addition to an action card to immediately receive 1 coin or any 1 good from the general supply. Return the smoked sprats card to the box immediately after.
The end of your turn: refilling the action card supply
Once you've finished taking actions for your current turn, slide all the action cards and contracts in their supplies to the left. This should fill up any empty spaces, starting from the leftmost space. Then fill the remaining empty spaces to the right with cards from the appropriate draw pile.
Begin by sliding all the cards to the left to fill up the empty spaces. Then fill any remaining empty spaces with new cards.
Your turn is then over and the next player in clockwise order takes their turn.
Once everyone has taken a turn, the round ends and the council phase begins (page 11).
The council phase
Each round is followed by a council phase, in which you receive new goods and prepare for the next round.
Begin by moving all scoring chips placed on achievement spaces onto the next most valuable empty space on the ship's wheel above it.
- The first space is always located in the middle of the ship's wheel. The subsequent spaces are ordered from left to right beneath it.
- At the end of the game, you will score the points depicted on this space.
- This means that you score more points the earlier you fulfil an achievement's conditions.
- Everyone who fulfils achievement conditions in the same round places their scoring chips on the same space and therefore scores the same number of points at the end of the game.
- If any player has placed their fourth scoring chip, this triggers the final round (page 12).
Example: Erik (red) and Anika (white) have both fulfilled this condition in the same round. No one has managed this achievement so far. Both players place their scoring chips on the middle space and, at the end of the game, they both score 7 points for it.
Next, clear all of the coins off the merchants in your market and return them to the general supply. This means that you can activate the merchants again on your next turn.
Lastly, your ships set sail. Push your ship along the track from one end of the canal to the other.
- Make sure that the ship is facing in the direction of its travel with the bow at the front.
- Your ship drops anchor briefly at each warehouse on the way. Place your ship each time so that the 2 star halves match up.
- Some goods should be visible through the windows in your ship tile. Take these goods from the general supply and add them to your personal supply. The same applies to coins. Remember the exception of ship 2, where you have to choose 1 of the 2 windows at each warehouse.
- You also take the goods shown in the first warehouse, where your ship begins its journey.
- Then your ship sails on to the next warehouse. Ignore any canal spaces where you don't have a warehouse yet.
- Once your ship arrives at the other end of the canal, firstly collect the visible goods from the warehouse there.
- Then turn the ship around so that the bow is facing down the canal again. (You will collect the new goods that you can see after turning the ship in the next round.)
- At the end of the next round, your ship will sail in the other direction. This means that your ship's windows will be in a different position next time and you will collect some different goods.
Note: In the last round, after triggering the end of the game, your ships do not set sail. This means that you do not collect any more goods or coins at the end of the last round.
End of the game and scoring
If at least 1 player has used all of their scoring chips at the end of a round, this triggers the final round. Play the current round to the end, including the council phase, then play exactly 1 final round and council phase.
The game is then over. Play the final round according to the normal rules, with the exception that your ships do not set sail at the end of the council phase.
Use the scoring pad provided to count your scores.
For each player, add up:
- Their points from achievements on the council board. Count up all the points that you have placed scoring chips (or a good in your colour) on. Then return all these chips (and goods) to the general supply. Record these points in the scoring pad's top row.
- Their points from expansions in their player colour. You score 3 points for every card under the expansion zone of your player colour. Record these points in the scoring pad's second row.
- Their points from fulfilled contracts. The point value for each contract is shown in the bottom right of the card. You only score points for fulfilled contracts. To make things clearer, return any unfulfilled contracts to the general supply before you begin scoring. Record these points in the scoring pad's third row.
- If they have access to the appropriate ability, their points for specific goods. You can score 1 point for every good in your personal supply of the type depicted on the ability card. You can also activate your merchants once more to provide goods. This costs 1 coin for each activation. Place any goods and coins that count towards this back into the general supply. Each good that you can deliver in this way scores you 1 point.
Now count up everyone's total points. Whoever scored the most points wins the game. In the case of a tie, the tying player with the most remaining goods and coins wins.
A little history to end with
Kilia is the Latin name of the city of Kiel, founded in the first half of the 13th century on the Baltic Sea. The name probably does not have Latin origins, but rather refers to the wedge shape of the fjord on which Kiel is situated (in German the word Keil = wedge).
At the end of the 18th century, Kiel had been a university city for over a hundred years and belonged to the Danish Unitary State. The Schleswig-Holstein Canal (later the Eider Canal) was built in 1784 and enabled a much shorter shipping route between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It connected the Kiel Fjord with the natural course of the lower Eider river, which lets out into the North Sea. Three warehouses were also erected along the waterway at this time in the settlements of Tönning, Rendsburg, and Holtenau.
Because this canal was designed with sailing vessels in mind, its prominence decreased with the introduction of steam ships in the second half of the 19th century. This led to part of the canal being integrated into a new, larger canal under Kaiser Wilhelm II, which is known today as the Kiel Canal.