Meridian Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Object of the Game
• The Garrisons
• Course of Play
  • Example
  • Caution
  • After a Turn
• End of the Game
  • Example of Scoring
• The Game for Two Players

Components

• A double-sided game board.
• 4 sets of 13 cards each, in 4 different colors. 10 of the cards in each set are numbered 1 to 10; 3 cards bear several numbers: 1-2-3, 4-5-6-7 and 8-9-10.
• 4 sets of 20 tower pieces in the 4 different colors. These pieces can be stacked together to form towers of different heights.

Setup

• Both sides of the game board show a number of islands with cities, spread over 10 "meridians" (vertical strips, numbered 1 to 10). On one side there are 5 cities per strip (for a game with 2 or 4 players); on the other side there are only 4 (for 3 players).
• Capitals are marked with a picture of a city in a yellow circle. Ordinary cities are marked only by a reddish-brown dot.
• Each player chooses a color and takes the corresponding cards and tower pieces.
• Each player shuffles his cards and places the top 2 of them face up in front of himself.

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to gain control of the islands by placing the most garrisons in the cities.

The Garrisons

A tower indicates the presence of a garrison. Players can build towers of different heights, but the height has no influence on the value of the garrison. All garrisons in an ordinary city are worth 1 point; those in capitals are worth 2 points.

Course of Play

• The game is played clockwise. The starting player is determined at random.
• The player whose turn it is chooses one of the two face-up cards. The number on the card indicates on which meridian a tower may be placed. For a card with several numbers, the player may choose a meridian with any one of the numbers on the card and place a tower there.
• Placing towers (and establishing garrisons) follows 4 rules:
  1. Towers may consist of one or more tower pieces, but the first tower placed on a meridian must consist of at least two tower pieces.
  2. All towers on the same meridian must have different heights.
  3. A lower tower may not be placed above a higher tower on the same meridian; consequently, a higher tower may also not be placed below a lower tower. "Above" means towards the top of the board, and "below" means towards the bottom of the board. The numbers of the meridians are located at the bottom of the board.
  4. A player may own only one tower per meridian (exception: two in a two-player game).
• With these 4 rules as the only restriction, towers may be placed in every free city of the chosen meridian. In addition, if the available spaces allow it, a tower of an opponent may be moved. A tower is moved by taking the place of that tower: the tower is moved upward if the newly placed tower is shorter, and downward if the new tower is longer. It may happen that the moved tower must in turn move another tower, and so on. A move may not be made if there is not enough free space; this is the case if the last tower on the board would be pushed off.

Example

Orange is to move and places a tower on the meridian shown. Since towers of 1, 3 and 4 tower pieces are already present, Orange must either place a tower of 2 pieces (fig. A) or a tower of at least 5 pieces (fig. B).

• Fig. A: Orange can place a tower of 2 pieces either by taking the free space (move 1), or by moving the grey tower downward (move 2). Move 3 (moving the brown tower upward) is not permitted, because the black tower would be pushed off the board. Move 4 may not be made, because a higher tower may not be placed below a lower tower.
• Fig. B: Orange can place a tower of 5 or more pieces in only one way: by moving the black tower (4 pieces) downward.
• Fig. C: Orange chooses a meridian on which an orange tower of 4 pieces has already been placed. This tower is removed from the board, and in its place a tower of 2 pieces is placed by moving the grey tower. The two remaining orange tower pieces are placed in the supply of the orange player, for later use.

Caution

If a meridian is chosen on which a tower of the same color already stands (this can happen because 13 cards are played on 10 meridians), this tower may be removed and its tower pieces kept in the supply. Alternatively, a new tower of a different height and/or at a different location may be placed.

After a Turn

• When a turn is finished, the chosen card is placed on an open discard pile (all played cards must remain visible), and a new card is turned face up from the face-down stack. The next player is then to move.
• Option not to play a tower: after a meridian has been chosen, it is possible to place no tower. The chosen card is then simply discarded.
• If not enough tower pieces remain (because they were already played in earlier turns), a card must be discarded without placing any tower pieces.

End of the Game

The game ends when all cards have been played. Then determine which player controls which island.

• An island is controlled by the player who has the most garrisons stationed on it. (Keep in mind that tower height does not influence the value of a garrison; garrisons in ordinary cities are worth 1 point, those in capitals 2 points.) If several players control garrisons with the same total value, none of them has control over that island.
• The player who controls an island receives one point for each city on that island. (Here a capital also yields only one point.)
• The player with the highest final total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most unused tower pieces wins.

Important: To simplify the counting of points, the towers should be removed from the islands once it has been determined who controls them. In case of a tie, all towers are removed; otherwise, one tower of the player who is in control must remain standing.

Example of Scoring

Fig. D shows an end-of-game situation in which it must be determined who the winner is.

• Island "A" has 3 cities and is therefore worth 3 points. However, nobody scores these points, since black and grey each have 1 garrison there, and each scores 1 point.
• Island "B" is also worth 3 points, and these go to the player who is the only one with a garrison on the island.
• Island "C" has 4 cities and is worth 4 points. These are not awarded: although the orange player has garrisons in two cities, the black player has a garrison in the capital, which counts double, so here too there is a tie.
• Island "D" is worth 5 points, which go to the grey player, who has garrisons in two cities, one of them in the capital that counts double, while black has 2 garrisons in ordinary cities.

The Game for Two Players

The only difference is that each player plays with two colors (and therefore with 40 tower pieces and 26 cards). Both colors may be used together, as if they were pieces and cards of the same color. Each player may place at most two towers on one meridian. If a meridian is chosen on which one or two towers already stand, additionally one of them may be removed, as in the game for more players.