Micropolis
Micropolis Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Build the most attractive anthill and score as many victory points as you can.
The Anthill Tiles
Each Anthill tile can show, from top to bottom:
- Specialist icon — a small icon in the corner identifying which specialist (if any) is depicted on the tile.
- Specialist — one of six specialist ants: Queen, Nurse, Architect, Recruiting Sergeant, Sentry, or Barracks (see Specialists, Barracks and Fruits).
- Workers — worker ants living in the tile.
- Barracks — a barracks space for storing Soldiers, when present on the tile.
- Fruit — a fruit icon, when the tile holds a precious fruit.
- Gallery — the tunnel gallery that connects this tile to its neighbors.
Setup
- Each player takes a Foundation tile and places 5 Soldiers on it. The soldiers here form that player's army.
- Make a reserve with the rest of the Soldiers and the 2 Architect tokens.
- Shuffle all 61 Anthill tiles, and place them face-down to form a draw pile.
- Draw the first 7 Anthill tiles and line them up on the table, face up. The first tile is the one that is the furthest away from the draw pile.
- The youngest player is the first player. The first player takes the Red army token, places it in front of him, and becomes the Military leader.
Note: Throughout this document, male pronouns are used for the sake of simplicity and readability. In each instance, the rules are meant to include players of any gender.
How to Play
The game is played in clockwise order in a succession of rounds.
Starting with the Military leader, each player must perform the following actions on his turn:
- Choose a new Anthill tile
- Expand the anthill
1. Choose a New Anthill Tile
The active player chooses one of the Anthill tiles from the line.
The first Anthill tile of the line is free, but if he wants an Anthill tile further in the line, he must place one Soldier from his army on each Anthill tile in front of it in the line.
If there are Soldiers on the Anthill tile he takes, he adds them to his army.
NOTE: The number of Soldiers you can have in your army is limited to 10 soldiers.
Example: Matt chooses the 3rd Anthill tile in the line. In order to take it, he must place one Soldier from his army on the 1st tile of the line and another one on the 2nd tile of the line.
2. Expand the Anthill
In the first round, the first Anthill tile is simply connected to the Foundation tile.
For the rest of the game, players have to place new Anthill tiles directly to the right or directly to the left of the Anthill tiles that are already in play.
If a specialist or a barracks is on the Anthill tile, the player must apply its effect (see Specialists, Barracks and Fruits).
At the End of Each Round
When all players have played their turn, check the number of Anthill tiles that are left in the line.
- If there are more tiles than the number of players, play a new round.
- If there are fewer tiles than the number of players, refill the line and determine the new Military leader.
- Slide the remaining tiles towards the beginning of the line, and draw new tiles until there are 7 tiles in the line.
- If a player has as many or more Soldiers in his army than the current Military leader, he takes the Red army token and becomes the new Military leader. Soldiers in barracks do not count towards a player's army. In case of a tie, the current Military leader decides which of the tied players gets the Red army token.
Example of the end of a 4-player round: Since only 3 tiles are left in the line, players refill the line and determine the new Military leader.
End of the Game
The game ends when all players have completed their anthill.
Take a scoring sheet and add up the victory points following these steps:
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Population: 1 victory point for each ant (specialists and workers) in your anthill.
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Colony: 5 victory points for the player(s) with the most ants (specialists and workers) in one Gallery.
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Harvest: 0 to 25 victory points depending on the number of different fruits in each Gallery:
Fruits 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 2 5 10 15 20 25 -
Royal Gallery: Each Gallery with only one queen gives you as many victory points as the number of tiles over which that Gallery stretches.
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Red army: 5 victory points for the player(s) with the largest army.
REMINDER: Soldiers in barracks are not considered as members of the Red army.
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Barracks: 2-4-7-10 victory points for each full barracks of size 1-2-3-4.
The player with the most victory points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the largest army wins the game. In case of a second tie, players share the victory.
Example:
- John has 22 ant workers and 2 ant specialists in his anthill. He scores 24 victory points.
- With 8 ants in one of his Galleries, John is the player with the biggest colony and scores 5 victory points.
- John has one Gallery with one fruit and another with two different fruits. He scores 2 + 5 = 7 victory points.
- The Gallery in which John's queen is located stretches over 5 Anthill tiles. He scores 5 victory points.
- With only one Soldier, John does not have the largest army and scores 0 victory points.
- John has 4 barracks with Soldiers. He scores 2 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 12 victory points.
John's total: 24 + 5 + 7 + 5 + 0 + 12 = 53 victory points.
Specialists, Barracks and Fruits
Queen
At the end of the game each queen gives you victory points equal to the number of Anthill tiles over which the Gallery she is in stretches.
CAUTION: This bonus is canceled if there is more than one queen in the same Gallery!
Nurse
The nurse takes care of the precious eggs from which the Soldiers hatch. When you add a nurse to your anthill, add as many Soldiers to your army as the number of eggs she is holding.
Architect
Take one Architect token from the reserve. On any of your subsequent turns you may discard your Architect token to take your Anthill tile for free this turn, regardless of its position in the line.
Recruiting Sergeant
The player in possession of the Red army token must discard one Soldier from his army (Soldiers in barracks are protected). Then, the player who just played the Recruiting sergeant adds one Soldier to his own army.
Sentry
You may rearrange the Soldiers in your army and your barracks. After you are finished rearranging your Soldiers, each of your barracks must be totally empty or totally full.
Barracks
You may immediately move Soldiers from your army to all of the available slots in the barracks on this tile. If you do not have enough Soldiers to fill all slots in this barracks, you may not move any Soldiers.
Soldiers in barracks are no longer part of your army and are protected from the Recruiting sergeant.
Fruits
Certain Galleries contain some precious fruits. There are six different types of fruits: cherry, lemon, grape, blackberry, fig, and pomegranate. The gift is a wild fruit.
Each Gallery will give you a bonus of 2-5-10-15-20 or 25 victory points for 1-2-3-4-5 or 6 different types of fruits in that Gallery.
In the same Gallery, each gift can count as a different fruit of your choice!
Expert Mode for 2 or 3 Players
After having played several games, or even during your first game(s) if you are an expert, you can use the following variant when playing with 2 or 3 players. In this variant, each player will build two different anthills.
Setup
Setup is the same with the following exceptions:
- Each player takes two Foundation tiles.
- Each player places 5 Soldiers on each of his Foundation tiles.
- The 1st player (determined in any way you choose) places the Red army token in front of one of his anthills and becomes the Military leader.
Playing the Game
The gameplay is the same with the following exceptions:
Round
In this expert mode, players play two rounds, after which the line is automatically refilled with new Anthill tiles from the draw pile.
Choose a New Anthill Tile
Soldiers that are spent when a player wants to take an Anthill tile further in the line must come from the army of the anthill in which this new tile will be placed.
Expand the Anthill
Players do not have to build each anthill at the same rate. It is quite possible to consecutively place multiple Anthill tiles in the same anthill. On the other hand, this means that once one of the two anthills is completed, you can only expand the remaining one.
NOTE: When a player plays a specialist, any Soldiers gained or moved must be in the anthill where the specialist is placed. If the specialist is Recruiting sergeant, this sergeant affects the anthill that possesses the Red Army token, even if it belongs to the same player.
Refill the Line and Determine the New Military Leader
When players have played two rounds, follow these steps to refill the line:
- Slide the remaining tiles towards the beginning of the line and draw new tiles until there are 7 tiles in the line.
- Determine the new Military leader: the Red Army token must be placed in front of the anthill that has the most Soldiers in its army, even if the new anthill belongs to the same player. In the event of a tie between the Military leader's anthill(s) and one or more anthills belonging to an opponent, the current Military leader must give the Red Army token to that opponent.
End of the Game
Victory points for each anthill are counted separately. Each player sums the victory points of his two anthills and the player with the highest total wins!
In case of a tie, the player with the largest army wins the game. In case of a second tie, players share the victory.
Thanks: A big THANK YOU to Cédric Lefebvre and Vincent Dutrait, for their friendship and their respective essential contributions.