Lusitania Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Soldier Cards
  • Visitor Cards
  • Equipment Cards
  • Mars God Cards
  • Other
• Overview
• Setup
• Game Play
• TRADE cards
• RECRUIT: Soldier, Equipment or Visitor card
  • 1) Recruit a Soldier
  • 2) Obtain Equipment
  • 3) Recruit a Visitor
• DISMISS one card
• Free Action
• End of the Game
• Expansions
  • Laurus
  • Virtus

Components

Soldier Cards

• 20 Legionaries (5 of each colour / Province represented): Blue: Aquitania; Red: Britannia; Yellow: Hispania C. Tarraconensis; Green: Helvetia
• 6 Barbaric Mercenaries (white)
• 3 Cooks
• 3 Gunners

Visitor Cards

• 2 Auxilia
• 3 Senators
• 2 Cleopatra
• 3 Inspectors
• 5 Doctors

Equipment Cards

• 5 Shields
• 4 Swords
• 4 Axes
• 4 Spears
• 3 Horses
• 3 Bows and Arrows
• 3 Boulders

Mars God Cards

• 1 Julius Caesar
• 3 Commanders

Other

• Training Card

Overview

In this game, you either place cards from your hand into a row of 9 possible spaces in front of you, or exchange cards from your hand with those available in the Training Field display to best fulfil your goals. The cards placed in the row provide victory points and the first player to reach 21 points will be the winner.

Setup

1. Shuffle the Mars God Cards and deal one to each player making sure the Julius Caesar card is in play. They place the card face-up to the left side of their tableau leaving room for a maximum of 8 cards to be placed to the right of this initial card during the game. From now on this row of cards is called the player's army.
2. Place the Training card face-up in the middle of the playing area.
3. Shuffle together all the Soldier, Equipment and Visitor cards. Deal 3 face-down to each player.
4. Place the remaining deck near the Training card, being from now on called the draw deck.
5. Take 4 cards from the top of the draw deck and place them face-up beside the Training card. From now on this area is referred to as the training field.

(The layout diagram shows each player's army in front of them, the Training Field in the middle of the table, and the draw deck and discard piles beside it.)

Game Play

1. The game has an uncertain number of turns with the players taking their turns one after the other.
2. The player with the Julius Caesar card is the 1st player and after performing at least a mandatory action, turns continue in a clockwise direction.
3. During a turn a player must take one of the following three actions: TRADE cards, OR RECRUIT a Soldier, Equipment or Visitor card, OR DISMISS one card.
4. Additionally, either before or after your mandatory action you may be able to perform one free action per turn.
5. The game proceeds with the next player to the left taking their turn.

TRADE cards

This action allows you to take one card from the training field and swap it for one card in your hand.

1. Take one card from the training field.
2. Choose one card from your hand to place face-up into the training field.

Note: You always end your turn with a hand of 3 cards.

Important: whenever in the training field there are 3 of the same Equipment cards or 3 Soldier cards of the same banner colour (yellow, blue, green, red, white or black) these 3 cards are removed to the discard pile and another 3 cards are drawn from the deck. The Training card is a reminder of this rule.

RECRUIT: Soldier, Equipment or Visitor card

This action allows you to place one card from your hand into your army. During the game you will create your army, a row of cards in your tableau.

The imaginary slots for the leftmost card (what we call position 0) and for the rightmost card (position 8) are reserved for placement of the Visitor cards and Mars God cards during the game. The imaginary slots between positions I and VII are reserved for Soldier cards. Legionaries can occupy positions I-V, Barbaric Mercenaries, positions I-VI, the Cook, position VI and the Gunner, position VII.

Army row: 0, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, 8.

1) Recruit a Soldier

Take a Soldier card from your hand and place it into the army in front of you.

1. Place the Soldier card you are recruiting face-up in the army row respecting the numerical sequence from left to right, I-VII.
2. Take a card from the top of the draw deck into your hand.

Important Rules:

• A) The colour (Province) of a player's Legionaries is determined by the first Legionary card that the player recruits.
• B) Players cannot recruit a Legionary in a colour that another player has already placed on their army. That is, each player can only have one Province colour in their army: yellow, blue, green or red.
• C) Players can only recruit a maximum of two Barbaric Mercenaries cards for their army.
• D) Players cannot repeat card numbers, I-VII, in their army. So, for example, it is only possible to recruit either a Legionaries card V, or a Barbaric Mercenaries card V, not both.
• E) Once a Soldier card has been recruited, it remains in the player's army until the end of the game; it cannot be discarded.

2) Obtain Equipment

Take one Equipment card from your hand and add it to an existing Soldier card in your army.

1. Place the Equipment card under one of your Soldier cards, ensuring the card's VPs are visible.
2. Take a card from the top of the draw deck into your hand.

Each Soldier card (apart from the Cook) has one or more Equipment icons in their top left corner. Players must match the type of Equipment. Two Soldier cards (Legionaries II and the Gunners) allow for an option on one of the Equipment requirements.

In the example, the player can add in different turns either a sword or a spear (not both) and a shield.

3) Recruit a Visitor

Take one Visitor card from your hand and add it to either space 0 or space 8 of your army.

1. Place the Visitor card face-up on the first space to the left of the first Soldier card (space 0) or on the rightmost space of your army row.
2. Take a card from the top of the draw deck into your hand.

Note: your army may not have more than 2 Visitor and/or Mars God cards at the same time.

In the example, the leftmost space of the army is already occupied by a Commander card. But it could happen being not occupied or be filled out by Julius Caesar or a Visitor card.

DISMISS one card

Take one card from your hand and place it Musician side face-up beside your army. While this removes a useless card from your hand, it comes at a cost of -1/2 VP.

1. Place any card but Mars God from your hand beside your army row, Musician side face-up.
2. Take a card from the top of the draw deck into your hand.

Free Action

Once per turn, before or after your mandatory action, you may perform a free action by activating one Visitor card or one Mars God.

1. Remove a Visitor card (or Commander) from your army to the discard pile. Exceptions: Julius Caesar and Auxilia.
2. Benefit from the card effect; you cannot discard a Visitor card and forfeit its effect.
3. Julius Caesar and Auxilia are exceptions and cannot be removed to the discard pile (see their effects).

• Julius Caesar: remove all the Training Field cards to the discard pile and draw 4 new cards. After that give the Julius Caesar card to the player to your right. If that player already has 2 Visitor/Mars God cards in their army then the Julius Caesar card is passed on again. So, it is possible that the Julius Caesar card returns to the active player if all others have their 2 Visitor/Mars God card spaces (spaces 0 and 8 occupied).
• Commander: remove 1, 2 or 3 cards from your hand and place them on the discard pile, then take cards from the top of the draw deck to replenish your hand to 3 cards.
• Auxilia: you may move this card to a Soldier space, I - VII, in your Army. Even if this card remains in a Visitor card space at the end of the game, it will be worth 1 VP.
• Senator: randomly take 1 card from the hand of 1 of your opponents and before adding it to your hand choose 1 card from your hand to give to your opponent; repeat this process with all opponents.
• Inspector: take 1 card from your hand and place it in the discard pile. Then choose any card from the discard pile to add to your hand.
• Doctor: remove 1 or 2 face-up Musician cards from beside your army to the discard pile.
• Cleopatra: choose 1 Equipment card from an opponent's army and place it on the discard pile.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when one player reaches 21 Victory Points or more in their army.

Do not forget to subtract VPs due on any face-up Musician cards. Half a negative point may prevent a victory!

If the draw deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile and form a new deck.

In the rare event that the deck runs out a second time the game ends immediately when the last card on the deck is drawn and that player finishes their turn. The winner is the player with the most VPs in their army. If tied, the winner is the player who owns the Julius Caesar card, or is furthest to the left of the player with that card.

(Example army: 1VP + 4VP + 3VP + 5VP + 3VP + 2VP + 3VP = 21VP.)

Expansions

Lusitania XXI is a revised version of the original Lusitania game with added cards and effects. This edition is enriched further with two expansions, Laurus and Virtus, which can be played separately or together.

Note: you may play the expansions separately or shuffle both expansions together and deal a number of cards equal to the player count +1.

Laurus

Shuffle the Laurus cards. Deal a number of cards equal to the player count +1, face-up, into the playing area, visible to all.

If you are the first player to meet the objective on a Laurus card, take that card and place it next to your Army. Each Laurus card is worth 1 VP and counts immediately.

Objectives:

• To have added 3 specific Equipment cards: Boulder, Bow and Arrow, Horse, into your army.
• To have added 2 identical pairs of any Equipment cards into your army.
• To have added any 4 different Equipment cards into your army.
• To have spaces I, II, III and IV in your army occupied by either Soldier or Auxilia cards.
• To have spaces V, VI and VII in your army occupied by either Soldier or Auxilia cards.

Virtus

Shuffle the Virtus cards. Deal a number of cards equal to the player count +1, face-up, into the playing area, visible to all.

If you are the first player to meet the objective on Virtus cards 7, 8, or 9, take that card and place it next to your army, or, for Virtus cards 6 or 10, place it into your army. Each Virtus card grants a special benefit for the rest of the game.

• Objective: to have added 3 specific Equipment cards: Boulder, Axe, Horse into your army. Benefit: immediately place this card under any existing Equipment card in your army; you may recruit 1 additional matching Equipment card to that already recruited.
• Objective: to have added 3 specific Equipment cards: Sword, Axe, Bow into your army. Benefit: place this card beside your army; when performing a DISMISS action you may now dismiss 2 cards at a time, taking 2 new cards from the draw deck.
• Objective: to have added 3 specific Equipment cards: Sword, Spear, Shield into your army. Benefit: place this card beside your army, you may recruit a third Barbaric Mercenary.
• Objective: to have added 3 sequential spaces occupied by either Soldier or Mercenary cards in your army. Benefit: place this card beside your army, when performing a TRADE action you may trade 2 cards at a time.
• Objective: to have added both Cook and Gunner cards plus the respective Equipment. Benefit: immediately place this card under any existing Soldier or Equipment card in your army; from now on you may RECRUIT 2 additional Equipment cards which must be different from any demanded by this Soldier.