Mesopotamia: Cradle of Civilization
Mesopotamia: Cradle of Civilization Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Material
Every Mesopotamia game contains:
- 41 Hexagon fields (during the play they form the gaming area)
- 18 cards
- 4 Mana tracks
- 4 cylinders (for the Mana track, 1 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 4 bars (for the Mana track, 1 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 20 huts (5 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 12 Holy place markers (3 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 16 Sacrifice markers (4 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 32 Native figures (8 each in blue, red, yellow, green)
- 20 raw material "lumber"
- 20 raw material "stone"
- 1 illustrated Short rule folding sheet (on the back is the starting structure)
- 1 temple figure
- 1 rule booklet
If one of the above parts should be missing or damaged, we ask for apology. Please turn yourself for a spare part to us. Write to:
Phalanx Games b.v. Attn.: Customer service Post office bus 60230 1320 AG Almere The Netherlands E-Mail: [email protected]
The Hexagon Fields
Mesopotamia has 41 hexagon fields. The front shows the respective kind of area of the field - either a plain, a forest, a quarry or a volcano. Additionally there is a special hexagon field, the temple place (here the temple figure is placed). All fields have "teeth" on their edges which you simply plug together with neighbouring fields, which prevents the fields from slipping around during the play.
The field types are: Plain, Forest, Quarry, Volcano, Temple place, and the plain reverse side (used for the face-down draw piles).
The Cards
Mesopotamia contains 18 cards. During the play a player can draw a card from the deck, and attain support from the divinity Baal. The cards have a name and a description of the Action, which the player can use.
The Mana Track
Each player receives a Mana track (with values from 0 to 8), 1 cylinder and 1 bar. The cylinder shows the current Mana of a player, and the bar its maximal possible held value.
The Player Figures
Each player has 8 player figures (called Natives). They move over the Hexagon fields, picking up and carrying lumber or stone, stealing resources from the other players or their raw materials, bringing sacrifice markers to the temple, "discovering" new land, giving birth to descendants or ensuring that huts or holy places are built.
The Sacrifice Marker
The sacrifice markers are carried by the natives to the temple. This costs Mana.
The Holy Place Marker
Holy places are built to gain more Mana.
The Raw Materials: Lumber and Stone
Lumber and stone are raw materials. The natives can pick up lumber and stones during their movement. These are needed for huts and/or to establish holy places and to receive the Mana.
The Illustrated Short Rule Folding Sheet
The short rule folding sheet can be placed beside the game board, beside the players, so inexperienced players can make a quick start to play Mesopotamia. A start setup for a game of 2, 3 or 4 players is on the back of the illustrated folding sheet.
Game Preparation
Each player selects a colour and takes the game stones and markers in this colour as well as a Mana track, which is received together with a cylinder and a bar. Each player begins with 0 Mana as current quantity and 3 Mana as maximum quantity on the scale.
The players take the start setup (at the back of the folding sheet) in hand and build the hexagon fields and figures (differently for 2, 3 or 4 players). The remaining hexagon fields are now thoroughly mixed and laid out with the backside up (in several piles).
Note: In the 2- and 3-player game, some plain fields are removed completely from the play (see the setup list)!
At the beginning all player figures and huts as well as sacrifice and holy place markers form the supply for the players. Each player puts his sacrifice markers covered in front of himself. The cards are thoroughly shuffled and laid out with the back up.
Note: In the 2-player game some cards are completely removed from the play (see the setup list)!
Finally the lumber and stones are sorted and put beside the game board as a supply.
Game Flow
The oldest player begins the turn. Then the players do their turns in clockwise direction during the game. Each player does the following 3 phases successively, before the next player takes his turn:
- Movement of the natives
- Action(s) accomplishment
- Receive Mana
As soon as a player has all his own sacrifice markers brought to the temple place, he wins and the play ends.
Movement of the Natives
In phase I of the game turn a player moves his natives (his player figures). In total the player has 5 movement points during the turn, which he can distribute arbitrarily to any of his natives (that is, a native can use all 5 points of movement or 5 natives may use 1 point each). During the move the natives can pick up goods from the fields - entering a neighbouring field always costs 1 point of movement. There is no restriction on how many native figures there may be on a field. A player does not need to spend all his movement points during his turn (if he wants, he may for example only spend 3), but he cannot save them for later turns.
Note: Volcanic fields can never be entered!
Important: The temple place is a holy place. At this field no raw materials may be carried through. But the natives may however carry them into the temple place and put them down! Without raw materials they may also go through the temple place field.
During the movement natives can do the following activities:
Carry a resource: Each native can at any time during the movement pick up 1 lumber or 1 stone and carry it. He can also unload the raw material at any time or exchange it, however in all cases he can maximally carry 1 good! The laid down raw materials remain in the fields and may be picked up later from the field by another native. Picking up and dropping raw materials do not cost any movement points. Lumber or stones are put on the native figure.
Steal raw materials: A player who has more natives on a field than another player may remove one raw material (lumber or stone) per own free native. In addition he may simply take the raw material from the other figure and place it on one of his own on the field. This does not cost movement points and may be done at any time during the movement. Each native can remove exactly one raw material per turn.
Example: On a field are 4 natives of Michael and 2 of Peter. Michael can remove the raw material from both of the figures of Peter.
Note: Other natives cannot remove Sacrifice markers.
Building of temples: When a native unloads a stone at the temple place (this does not cost a movement point and can be done at any time during the movement), the maximal possible Mana of a player rises by 1. In addition to that the player receives one Mana point. The cylinder and the bar on the scale are shifted one case to the right. The unloaded stones on the temple field are put back to the supply; they can later return into the game. Should the maximally possible Mana already be reached, the player receives nevertheless one Mana point.
Sacrifices: When you bring a sacrifice marker to the temple place, a native takes one of his own covered sacrifice markers (this does not cost points of movement), carries it to the Temple place and turns it over (picking up, carrying and placement must not happen within the same turn). The player must pay the number of Mana points indicated by the number on the transported marker. The cylinder is moved down on the scale by that number (moved to the left). Subsequently, the sacrifice marker is put down beside the temple. Each player forms a small pile with his markers, so the players can have an overview of who is the leader. The native that brought the marker is appointed a priest and is immediately put into the players' supply. If a player does not have the number of required Mana points available, he cannot drop the sacrifice marker and the native is pushed back to the field from which he entered the temple place!
Importantly: If a native has taken up a sacrifice marker, he can only drop it on the Temple place and nowhere else. Neither can he also carry a stone nor a lumber. A sacrifice marker cannot be removed by another player's native.
Discover: A native can put a new field at the edge of the current fields. This field immediately becomes a newly discovered country. The top hexagon field is drawn from one of the covered piles and is placed where the native is (then it is placed on the placed field):
Volcano may be put at any arbitrary other "edge place," and then immediately another field is drawn and the native is put on this field (this procedure can theoretically be repeated).
A Forest will get as much new lumber on arbitrary forest fields as there are participating players (2 with 2 players, 3 with 3, 4 with 4). The player always puts 1 lumber each on a different forest field of his choice (including the just-discovered forest field). If there are not sufficiently many forest fields available, the remaining lumber is put on the just-discovered field.
A Quarry will get as many new stones on arbitrary quarry fields as there are participating players (2 with 2 players, 3 with 3, 4 with 4). The player always puts 1 stone each on a different quarry field of his choice (including the just-discovered quarry field). If there are not sufficiently many quarry fields available, the remaining stones are put on the just-discovered field.
A Plain is simply only placed out.
Importantly: A player may in his turn discover a maximum of 3 fields! Volcanic fields do not count!
Conduct Actions
In phase II of the turn the player selects one of the following actions. Actions A, B and C may however be conducted several times per turn, if their conditions are fulfilled.
A) Build huts: On each Plain field you may place a maximum of 2 Huts (including different players). If a player has 2 natives with 1 lumber raw material on a plain field and there is still room for another hut (see also B), 1 hut can be built. The lumber is removed and put back to his supply and replaced by a hut in his own colour.
Importantly: Under the hut you may immediately put a covered sacrifice marker of your own if there is still one available. The owner of the sacrifice marker may always examine its value; the other players may not do so. Thus the sacrifice markers enter the play...
Note: If there are several free hut-building sites (also on one plain field) with 2 natives and 1 lumber, then this action can be conducted several times.
B) Erect holy place: A holy place may only be erected on an empty vacant plain field. Put 2 natives with 1 stone raw material on an empty plain field. The stone is removed and put back to the supply and one Holy place marker of the player's own colour replaces it. A field is "empty" if there are also no natives of other players found on it.
Importantly: If a Holy place is on a field, nothing else may be built there any longer!
Note: If there are several empty, vacant plain fields each with 2 natives and 1 stone, then you can conduct this action several times.
C) Give birth to descendant: If you are on a field with your own hut and 2 natives, then you can let "descendants" be born here. You place a new native figure on the same field.
Importantly: It is not possible to give birth on a field where any of your sacrifice markers is found.
Exception: Sacrifice markers already carried by the natives do not prevent the action.
Note: If there are several own huts with 2 natives (also on one plain field), they can all give birth to descendants, if there are still native figures in the supply.
D) Draw 1 card: The player receives the support of the divinity Baal and the top card of the card deck is drawn. This card is kept hidden by the player - he may play it out at any arbitrary occasion in one of his following own turns.
A player may play any number of held cards. After playing a card, put it on a discard pile. If the card deck should be used up, the discard pile should be shuffled and form the new card deck.
Note: This Action may in each turn only be done once!
Reference to the card "Expulsion": A hut may only be moved to another Plain field - and then only if there are not already 2 huts on the target field.
Reference to the card "Teleport": This card can be used on both own and "opponent" natives to become "transferred".
Receive Mana Points
In phase III of his turn a player can get new Mana points. He receives Mana if in this play phase he has his own native figures on his own or opponents' Holy places. The player gets:
- 1 Mana point for every own Holy place where at least 1 own figure stands.
- 1 Mana point for every opponent's Holy place where at least 2 own figures stand.
The cylinder on the Mana track is moved the appropriate number of Mana points to the right - however only up to the maximum possible number of points at present.
As a reminder: You need Mana in order to bring sacrifice markers into the temple. For each sacrifice marker the player drops at the temple place, he pays the imprinted number of Mana - see Sacrifices, above.
Game End
Mesopotamia ends immediately if a player has brought all four of his own sacrifice markers to the temple place and dropped them there. This player is the winner and receives the special protection of the divinity Baal.
Variants
Cards at the Beginning
In contrast to the "normal" play, every player starts by drawing a card from the pile. Thus each player begins with a card, which he can already use on the first turn.
Do Not Shuffle the Cards
In the "normal" game, played cards are thrown on the discard pile, and when the draw pile is empty you shuffle it and form a new card deck. In this variant, played-out cards are instead put back into the box and out of the game, so each card can only be used once.
Note: This causes the players to draw cards more promptly.
Card Deck Reference
The rule booklet describes the 18 action cards only as "a name and a description of the Action"; the English text below reproduces the card names and effects from the English card paste-ups (BGG user pulla, 2008), with the original German card name noted in parentheses. Count is the number of copies of each card in the 18-card deck.
- Expulsion (Vertreibung, 2x) - You may move 1 people piece (but not any resource carried) or 1 hut (plus its offering marker) of an opponent up to 3 hexes.
- Fertility (Fruchtbarkeit, 2x) - If you choose the "Giving birth to new clan people" action, you receive 2 new people at one hut (instead of 1).
- Mana Theft (Mana-Raub, 2x) - You immediately take 1 Mana from any 1 opponent of your choice.
- Teleport (Teleport, 2x) - You may move 1 wood, 1 stone, or 1 people piece (together with any resource it bears) to any other hex tile (except the Temple Field).
- Holy Stone (Heiliger Stein, 2x) - Immediately move the cylinder on your Mana scale up to 2 boxes to the right (up to your maximum allowance).
- Land (Land, 2x) - During a discovery you may look at 4 hexagons, choose 1, and then put it on the table. Shuffle the other 3 back into the stack.
- Stamina (Ausdauer, 3x) - You may use 3 additional movement points during your movement.
- Priest (Priester, 3x) - You receive double the normal amount of Mana from one Holy Place of your choice for one turn.
Credits
Author: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede Production: Michael Bruinsma, Ulrich Blennemann Graphics: Franz Vohwinkel Layout: Lin Lütke Glanemann
Thanks to all test players, particularly Udo Schmitz and Willi Weber. Special thanks from the author to Andrea for all the support.
English translation of the rule booklet: Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson, Sweden (Globetrotter Games).