Kingdom of Aer: Kingmaker
Kingdom of Aer: Kingmaker Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Players start with their 3 Royalty cards face up on the table as part of their court. The remaining 11 cards become their hands: 4 attack nomination cards (one for each other house), and 7 character cards. Deal each player one inheritance card, which they look at and place face down in front of them. Players may choose to reveal their inheritance card anytime during the game.
How to Play
In KOA Kingmaker, cards are played simultaneously. At the beginning of the round, each player must play 1 card (either an attack nomination card or a character card) from their hand face down on the table. While players are deliberating, any player may change their mind and exchange their card. However, cards can no longer be exchanged as soon as the last card is placed on the table. The cards are flipped over and resolved based on the order of resolution.
Each attack nomination card counts as one attempt to attack the house designated on the card. The house with the most attack nomination cards played against them is hit and must discard one of their royalty to the center pile. In the event of a tie, all tied houses are hit and each must discard a royal.
How to Play (Continued)
When a player discards their last royal, they are out of the game. The player(s) who scored the last hit on that player places the attack nomination card for that house sideways under their court. It is now worth 3 points at the end of the game.
Otherwise, attack nomination cards are returned to your hand at the end of the round. Character cards are discarded at the end of the round, unless otherwise stated in their description.
Order of Resolution
- Jester joins court
- Count attacks
- Seer removes attacks
- Attacks 'Hit' players
- Marshals counters 'Hits'
- Thief Steals. Gold buys
- Add Banners. Fanatic burns
Character Card Descriptions
Jester
Joins your court and becomes an additional member of your royalty. Instead of discarding a royal, you may choose to discard the Jester.
Seer
Removes all attack nominations against you and protects your royalty from being hit this round. The next house(s) with the highest attack nominations against them are now hit instead.
Marshals
If you are hit this round the Marshals block the hit, keeping your royals safe. The Marshals also counter-attack by hitting all players that nominated you. This could be in addition to a hit they received in a tie.
Gold
Allows you to buy back one of your character cards from the discard pile to your hand. Gold cannot buy back Royalty as they are specialty characters.
*A Jester or a Banner bought back with gold comes back to your hand and not to your court.
Thief
Steals all Gold played this round. Stolen Gold is discarded and the Thief may return one of their own character cards from the discard pile and place it in their hand. One thief can block multiple Gold cards and one Gold can feed multiple Thieves. A Thief that has blocked multiple Gold cards can only return one character card in this way.
Banner
Display this card in your court and keep it there until the Fanatic forces you to discard it. Your attack nominations count for two instead of one. This count is for nominations and not for the amount of hits delivered.
Fanatic
Discard all Banners on the table including your own.
Winning
Play continues until there are two houses remaining, then the game ends after that round. Each player adds up the point values on the cards in their court and in their hand.
Attack nomination cards are worth zero points in your hand at the end of the game, but are worth 3 points in your court for each house you eliminated.
Some cards, like the Jester, will have a different point value depending on if the card is in your court or in your hand. The crown icon and the number 2 in the top left corners means the Jester is worth 2 points in your court. The card hand icon and the number 6 in the bottom right corner means the Jester is worth 6 points in your hand.
The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, players reveal or refer to their inheritance cards and the player with the lower number wins.