Medieval Manor

Medieval Manor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Victory

The game ends the end of the turn in which any player accumulates 15 or more Victory Tokens (VT). The winner is the player with the most VT at the end of the game. Note: Some cards do not score until the game ends. If tied at the end, the player with the most Upgrades wins. If still tied, the player with the most Gold wins.

The Decks

There are 2 common decks: The Land Deck and the Play deck.

The Map

Use the Land cards to make a Map. As part of the Map, these cards are also referred to as Spaces. For a 2-3 player game use the 12 basic lands to make a 3x4 grid. For 4+ players also use the extra lands to make a 4x4 grid.

The Basic Lands: River, Fertile Fields, Good Fields, Poor Fields, Woods, Pasture, Hills, Road, Village, Market, Church, Castle

The Extra Lands: Irrigated Fields, Hunting Grounds, Mountains, Forest.

For purposes of play card placement treat the Irrigated Fields like other Fields, Treat the Mountains as Hills, and the Forest and Hunting Grounds as Woods. The Road and River must be placed on a Map edge.

Setting Up the Map

The owner of the game decides how the map is set up.

The Play Deck

There are 3 types of cards: Bounty Cards, Upgrade Cards, and Hardship Cards.

Goods and Peasant Tokens

There are 6 Types of Tokens:

Peasants = White = P
Victory = Purple = V (also VT or VP)
Crops = Green = C
Animals = Red = A
Gold = Yellow = G
Resources = Blue = R
Manor = 1 Pawn held by the current Lord

Crops and Animals are collectively called Food. Gold and Resources are collectively called Money. Food and Money are collectively called Goods.

Setup

Shuffle the deck. Each player starts with: 2 Peasants, 4 Crops, and 3 randomly dealt Non-Hardship Cards. Pick one player to be the starting Lord of the Manor.

Turn Sequence

Each turn has 6 Phases:

Draw Phase
Trade Phase
Work Phase
Upgrade Phase
Feeding Phase
End Phase

Draw Phase

Each player is dealt X+1 cards from the top of the deck. X = Number of Peasants they have.
- Players may next pay 3 Goods to draw 3 cards AND immediately discard 2 (including Hardship cards).
  - Lastly, players may discard 2 cards to draw 1 replacement card.

If the deck ever runs out, shuffle the discard and draw from it.

Hardship Cards

Hardship cards take effect immediately in Draw Phase as soon as they are dealt (except when discarded as a result of paying 3 goods) and are then REMOVED from the game.

Trade Phase

Players always keep their hands face up visible to all. Players may inspect each others hands. Players may freely make deals and trade Tokens and Cards with each other.

Work Phase

Each player gets a number of actions equal to the number of Peasants they control. Players take turns using 1 action at a time starting with the lord of the Manor and going clockwise. There are 2 things you can do with an action:

Take 1 of your hand cards and place it on the map on a Land card allowed by the card text. You cannot place a play card in a space that is already occupied by a card.
Discard 2 cards from your hand to gain 1 Good of any type.

Bounty Cards

As soon as you play a Bounty card in Work phase you reap its benefits: Gain the tokens described in its card text.

Certain spaces will provide additional tokens if you are gaining tokens of the same type. For example: The Wheat card gives you 4 Crops. If the wheat card was placed on a Fertile Field (+1C), you would gain a total of 5 Crops. If placed on a Poor Field (-1) you would get 3 Crops.

Played Bounty cards are discarded at the end of Work Phase.

Some Bounty cards allow you to do a conversion where you may turn any Number of one kind of token into another type of token. This conversion can only be done exactly when the card is played.

Any time a card is played on the Castle, that player becomes the New Lord of the Manor.

Upgrade Cards

To play an Upgrade card you must pay 3+X Money Tokens. X = The number of Upgrade cards you already own.

At the End of Work phase remove upgrade cards you just purchased from the board and place them Face-up next to you in their own separate section where they remain in play.

Upgrade cards provide a bonus every turn they are in play in Upgrade Phase.

Upgrade Phase

Each of you upgrade cards in play produces a Token (or card) and may be used to make a conversion according to its text.

For Example: The Cathedral Upgrade would give you 1 Victory Token. The Mine Upgrade would give you a simple gain of 1 Gold Token and would allow you to (multiple times if you want to and can) discard 1 card from your hand to gain 1 Gold Token.

When gaining a card as a result of a Conversion, draw the top card of the deck and add it to your hand.

Note: The simple gain of an upgrade is automatic and occurs only once per turn, whereas Conversions are optional and can be done multiple times.

Feeding Phase

Discard one Food token for each Peasant you control minus 1. If you cannot feed all your peasants fully, discard one of them and lose 2 VT. You cannot lose your last remaining Peasant. If all of your Peasants are fed, you may discard 5 Food Tokens to Gain 1 Peasant Token.

End Phase

Max hand size is 3 cards. Discard excess cards.

Manure and Fodder

Bounty Crop cards placed orthogonally adjacent to a Compost, Cultivar, Manure or Pollination card get +1C. Bounty Animal cards orthogonally adjacent to a Fodder card get +1A.

These bonuses are not retroactive.

Land Deck Card List Notation

B = Basic Land
E = Extra Land
G = Gold
C = Crops
A = Animals
R = Resources

Land Deck Card List

Card Name	Type	Notes
River	B	G+1
Fertile Fields	B	C+1
Good Fields	B	-
Poor Fields	B	C-1
Pasture	B	A+1
Woods	B	-
Hills	B	-
Road	B	-
Village	B

Play Deck Card List Notation

B = Bounty
U = Upgrade
Rv = River
Fl = Fields
Pa = Pasture
Wo = Woods
Hi = Hills
Ro = Road
Vi = Village
Mk = Market
Ch = Church
Ca = Castle
P = Peasant
VP = Victory Point
R = Resources
G = Gold
C = Crops
A = Animals
H = Hardship
HS = Hand Size
D2X = Draw 2 extra cards next turn
C2L = This Upgrade costs 2 less to build
C2M = This Upgrade costs 2 more to build
FO = From Opponent
End = At the End of the Game this card is worth [symbol unreadable in the source capture]
NPM = No Player may [text cut off in the source capture]
TT = The Rest of This Turn
TP = This Player
AP = All Players

Play Deck Card List

Card Name	Type	Locations	Effect
Pilgrimage	B	Church	1VP also Convert P --> 2VP
Levy Troops	B	Castle	1VP also Convert P --> 2VP
Crafts Fair	B	ViCaMk	1R also Convert R --> VP
Feast Day	B	ViMkCaCh	1A also Convert A --> VP
Harvest	B	ViMkFl	1C also Convert C --> VP
Caravan	B	RoMk	1G also Convert G --> VP

FAQ

Q: Marriage/midwife - does the new peasant become available for placement once acquired?

A: Peasants are not placed per say, rather they increase the number of cards you draw and the number of cards you can play per turn. The new peasant immediately improves your abilities in these areas.

Q: Brickmaker - Is he an automatic 3 subsidy to all future upgrades, or do you have to play the brickmaker to get the 3 subsidy to another upgrade that phase? Same with Printing Press/Warehouse. Once bought, do you have to play them to get the benefit of the increased hand size for just that phase?

A: Brickmaker is 3 off for all upgrades you play for the rest of the game. The hand size increase of the PP & WH is also for the rest of the game. Note that all your upgrades are permanent acquistions that provide you benefits every turn.

Q: Feudal Dues - Steal 1 card from another player. We assume this means a card from the hand, not an already purchased upgrade?

A: Yes, from the hand.

Q: Peasant Rebellion - We assume this means there is a feeding phase but otherwise just an empty round?

A: Actually there is still a Work Phase. You cannot place cards, but you can still take the option where you discard 2 cards from your hand to gain 1 Good of any type.

Q: Fortress - Though expensive, it seems unfair that one player could buy this upgrade, then place it on the castle every turn first thing and lock up the Lord of the Manor for the whole game (an an easy VP per turn).

A: Upgrades are only placed once when they are first played, then they are kept next to their owner off board where they still have their effects but no longer interact directly with the map.

Variants

Remove some or all of the Hardship cards from the deck.
Increase/decrease the number of VP needed to win.
Players get more/less goodies in setup.
Increase/decrease max hand size.
Play without the map (all cards are always playable).
Players share a common hand (draw = number of peasants in play).
Keep out the Hardship cards as a separate deck. At the beginning of each Draw phase roll 2D6: On a roll of 11 a random player draws 1 Hardship card.