Message to the Czar Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Choosing the starting player
• Object of the Game
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Use a courier
  • 2. Deliver a letter (dispatch)
  • 3. Move to the next village
  • Passing through (skipping a village)
• Final Exit
• Rubles
• End of the Game

Components

• 1 game board
• 60 courier tiles (3 x 4 different types per player)
• 6 "CLOSED" tiles
• 5 wooden letters, one in each colour
• 30 ruble tokens: 9 "njet" (meaning "no") counterfeit tokens, 3 blank tokens (to replace lost ones), 9 x 1 ruble, 6 x 2 rubles, 3 x 3 rubles
• 1 rulebook

The board shows the palace with its guards at the top, then the rows of houses for the Meadow, Mountains, Forest, Swamp and Village (from top to bottom). Each house is a terem (a house with rooms). A terem is full when it holds three couriers.

Setup

The 30 ruble tokens are thoroughly shuffled and placed face down in the palace.

Depending on the number of players, not all buildings are active; some are closed off with a "CLOSED" tile.

• 2 players: DATSCHA-DOMIZIL, KOSAKEN-CLUB, NIKOLAJ, KATHARINA, ROMAN HOF, MASL HOF.
• 3 players: DATSCHA-DOMIZIL, NIKOLAJ, KATHARINA, ROMAN HOF.
• 4 players: DATSCHA-DOMIZIL, ROMAN HOF.
• 5 players: all buildings are open.

Printed example of a starting layout for 4 players, showing the bottom-village buildings TAIGA-TAVERNE, BAIKAL-BAR, STROGANOW-STUBE, KOSAKEN-KLUB and DATSCHA-DOMIZIL with couriers placed. Translator's note: the printed example marks DATSCHA-DOMIZIL with a "CLOSED" tile, while the 4-player list above names DATSCHA-DOMIZIL as active. The list is transcribed as printed; the example is not used to override it.

Choosing the starting player

Each player takes the 12 couriers and the letter of their chosen colour. They shuffle the couriers face down and place them in front of themselves as a stack.

Each player then:

• Turns over their top courier and places it, with its letter, into an empty building in the bottom village (DORF), on the spot matching that courier's type (see below).
• Takes one more courier and places it beside the stack, turning over the next courier from the stack. This forms the player's reserve (zapas).

There are four courier types: Cossack, Diplomat, Lady and Officer. Each type must be placed only in its own room of the terem:

• Cossack: upper right corner
• Diplomat: lower right corner
• Lady: lower left corner
• Officer: upper left corner

Note that when a courier is moved, the direction of the arrow on the terem is followed. The arrow shows which courier must be moved next.

Object of the Game

The goal is to deliver your letter to the Tsar's palace before the others. You must travel the whole route, from the rural countryside to the palace grounds.

Playing the Game

The starting player takes the first turn, and play then passes clockwise. On your turn you must perform one of three actions:

1. Use a courier
2. Deliver a letter (dispatch)
3. Move to the next village

Separately, as soon as a player's letter has been delivered to the palace, that player begins the "RUBLES" action (see the last page).

1. Use a courier

Each player's personal courier is placed in the village and must be used in the bottom-most terem in the swamp terrain. You must do one of the following:

• Either use a courier from your reserve.
• Or take the top courier from your stack, which you must use immediately.

Note: if a player cannot use the courier they have just turned over, because the building is occupied, they leave that courier in their reserve (see the box on the right).

"No room" If a terem already holds 3 couriers, the terem counts as occupied, so a 4th courier cannot enter the building.

If at the end of a player's turn they have no face-up couriers left in their reserve, the player takes the top courier from their stack and places it face up in their reserve.

Rare case: if a player's stack runs out, they may, provided there are still unused couriers of an unused colour, continue the game with the 12 couriers of an additional colour. These are shuffled face down without looking and stacked in front of the player.

2. Deliver a letter (dispatch)

You send your dispatch within one village, from one courier to another. The courier must be yours.

You may also change terem.

Why? It is tactically useful to use a more favourable position of another courier, knowing the situation in your reserve.

Example: the Diplomat, played by Olga, passes the letter to the Officer who is at "NATASCHA".

3. Move to the next village

Couriers travel from the swamp to the forest, then to the mountains, and finally across the meadows to the palace.

The journey works as follows:

• If only the terem is full (that is, it holds 3 couriers), the player may move their courier.
• Only two of the three may move on: the arrow beneath a courier, shown on the terem, points to a second courier, which may change village (terrain) later. The third courier stays in its place in the terem.
• The active player decides which of the two couriers is played first, and also chooses two houses in the next village in which they will stop.
• The player must place the two couriers in different terems of the next village.
• If a courier is carrying a letter, it also carries the letter with it into the other terem.

Which order is more important to you? You may want to pass through a village (see the right-hand example).

Example. The arrow in BAIKAL-BAR shows the red Cossack pointing to the neighbouring green Diplomat carrying a letter. Both then leave the terem, while the Lady stays in the building. The red Cossack takes a place in the house WLADIMIR, and the Diplomat carrying the letter settles at IWAN (see the right-hand example).

Passing through (skipping a village)

When a courier arrives in a village whose terems already have all their permitted places filled, the courier goes on without stopping and takes up a place in a terem of the next terrain.

This happens when:

• its place in the terems is already taken, or
• the terem is completely full (that is, it holds 3 couriers).

If all permitted places in the terems of the next village are full, the courier takes an even bigger step, passing the occupied village (that is, it goes through the village).

Note: couriers that travel from one village on to another may pass freely. However, a courier that is to be introduced into the game, that is, settled into a terem in the first village (in the swamp terrain), must wait only if there is no room in it.

Example (continued). On their turn the red player prepares to leave the terem at IWAN. They decide that the Diplomat leaves first and sends it to KATHARINA.

The Cossack now finds no place in the terems of the mountain terrain (Gebirge). In ANASTASIA the terem is full; in NATASCHA and OLGA the places for the Cossack are taken; and in KATHARINA he is not allowed to enter, because the Diplomat that has just been placed there, according to the arrow, allows the Lady to be placed. Because the player lets two couriers leave the terem in the order described, their Cossack passes through the mountain terrain and stops in RACHMANIN HOF, a meadow terrain (Grasland).

Final Exit

You do not need to read the rules on this page until the first courier reaches the palace.

Couriers that set out from a terem on the meadows for the palace have done their work. They are placed under their player's stack. The third courier remains in its place in the terem, as usual.

Delivered messages are handed to the guard above each terem. A guard may accept several letters.

Couriers that move to the palace bypassing villages are also placed under the player's stack. The letter they carry is placed under the guard numbered 10.

Note: if a player hands their letter to the guard on their turn, they may immediately carry out the "RUBLES" action. On their following turns, the player may carry out only the "rubles" action.

Example: the red player, on their turn, leaves PAWL HOF. The Officer and the Cossack are placed under the stack of their player. Before this, the red Cossack hands its dispatch to the guard and begins the "rubles" action.

Rubles

Only those players who deliver a letter to the guard must pay him rubles. The guard allows entry to the palace only if he receives a specified amount of rubles: 6, 8 or 10.

The player reveals one or more ruble tokens, one at a time, and hands them to the guard in the palace. The player takes coins of value 1, 2 or 3 rubles until they have collected the required sum. However, bear in mind that you may stop at any time, or reveal the counterfeit "njet" coin, which ends your turn immediately.

As soon as the player encounters the counterfeit "njet" money, their turn ends at once. All ruble coins obtained in this turn are returned to the box and are no longer used.

When a player ends their turn without revealing counterfeit money, they take the coins from the palace and place them face up in front of themselves. Coins obtained earlier are not lost in the following turn.

Example: the red player has obtained 3 rubles on previous turns and collected 4 rubles in the current turn. They need only 1 more ruble to win. They must decide whether to take one more coin or not. If they draw "njet", they again lose 4 rubles!

End of the Game

After a player has collected the required number of rubles, they hand the letter to the Tsar and win. They are now permitted to bear the title "Courier of the Tsar."

If all the coins have been revealed before a player has collected the required number of rubles, the player who started first wins.