Minerva
Minerva Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
The player with the most victory points (VPs) at the end of the game wins. To gain VPs, players build military facilities to achieve glory, develop cultural facilities to enable cultural activities, and construct temples and lay out the city to make it worthy of those temples.
All of this requires gold and resources, and building impressive buildings won't do much good without inhabitants to occupy them. Players must also construct living quarters so that the other buildings can have an effect.
Components
Facility tiles
66 normal locations — Front and Back
8 starting locations — Front and Back
36 residential buildings — Front and Back
4 fountains — Front and Back
20 temples — Front and Back
The facility tiles have the following information on them:
- Name
- Facility category (Production, Trade, Cultural, Military, Special, Residential)
- Resource cost to buy (Used with 3+ players)
- Effect
6 Round tiles
Front and Back (same back as normal locations).
4 Order tiles
Front and Back. The front shows only an order number; the back shows an order number and VP value.
24 Culture tiles
Culture mark requirements and VP value. Culture tiles can represent theater, art or academics: 8 theatre tiles, 8 art tiles, 8 academic tiles.
16 Glory tiles
Game round and order, and VP value.
Coin tokens
Denoted in denarii:
- 60 '1' denarius
- 24 '3' denarii
- 12 '10' denarii
20 Assistant tokens
Resource tokens
- 27 grain (plus 3 extra)
- 27 stone (plus 3 extra)
- 27 wood (plus 3 extra)
- 27 ore (plus 3 extra)
27 Glory tokens
4 Summary sheets
1 Rulebook
Set-up
1. Adjust the components based on the number of players
a) Normal and starting locations
- In a 4-player game, use all of the tiles.
- In a 3-player game, remove all tiles with a 4+ mark.
- In a 2-player game, also remove all tiles with a 3+ mark.
b) Culture tiles
- In a 4-player game, use all of the tiles.
- In a 3-player game, remove one 2VP tile and one 4VP tile in each category.
- In a 2-player game, also remove one 6VP tile in each category.
c) Order tiles
- Remove the 4 order tile in a 3-player game and the 3 and 4 tiles in a 2-player game.
With fewer than four players, place the remaining fountains, residence buildings, and summary sheets back in the box.
2. Give each player the following:
- 1 Fountain tile
- 9 Residential buildings
- 1 Summary sheet
- 1 Grain token
The fountain tile is placed in front of the player, and each player's city will grow from this tile.
3. Lay out the playing area as follows:
a) Starting locations
Lay out the starting locations in the middle of the playing area. These tiles, together with the normal locations and temples, are called facility tiles.
b) Normal locations
Shuffle the normal location tiles face down, then create 6 piles, with each pile having the same number of tiles. Place one round tile face down on each pile, then shuffle each pile separately. Then stack all of the piles on top of one another to create a single normal location stack.
Draw tiles from this stack until you draw a round tile. Place the round tile to the side out of play, then line up the revealed normal locations next to the starting locations (creating the facilities tile area).
c) Temple tiles
Shuffle the temple tiles face down, then stack them in a single pile. Draw the top 5 tiles, then place them face up in the facilities tile area.
d) Culture tiles
Separate them into the three categories (theater, art, academics), then create three face-up stacks. Sort each stack by VP value, with the lowest valued VP tile on top and the highest on the bottom.
e) Glory tiles
Place the glory tiles next to the facilities tile area, arranged by round number and in order number (1st, 2nd, etc.).
4. Determine the starting player
Whoever was most recently in Rome is the starting player; in a tie, then the youngest player is the starting player. This player starts with 3 denarii. The other players start with 4, 5 and 6 denarii clockwise around the table.
5. Finish the set-up
Place the order tiles to the side.
Place the coin tokens in a pile to form the bank. The bank's supply of money is regarded as limitless, and players can always make change as needed. Should you run out of tokens, use something else as a substitute.
Sort the resource tokens, glory tokens, and assistant tokens in piles accessible to all.
About resources — Each player can hold at most 6 resources of each type. If a player ever has more than 6 of any type, they immediately discard down to 6; for each resource discarded this way, they gain 1 denarius.
Flow of the Game
This game consists of 6 rounds of play, followed by the endgame scoring.
Each round consists of these 4 steps:
- Conduct the main phase
- Gain assistants
- Gain glory
- Prepare for next round
In the 6th round, skip the "Gain assistants" and "Prepare for next round" steps.
During the game, a player can always sell their resources (even if it's not their turn). For each resource token they return to the supply, they gain 1 denarius.
1) Conduct the main phase
The main phase is played in turns. In the first round, the starting player goes first, then play continues clockwise around the table.
In subsequent rounds, the player with the #1 order tile is the starting player, then play continues clockwise around the table. (The order tiles 2-4 do not affect playing order.)
On a player's turn, they do one of these actions:
a) Build a facility
The player buys a facility from the facility tile area, then places it in their own city. If no tiles remain, the player cannot choose this action.
b) Build a residence
The player builds one of their residential buildings, placing it in their own city, then carrying out the effect of some of the facilities in their city. If no residential buildings remain in their personal stack, they cannot choose this action.
c) Place an assistant token
The player uses one of their assistant tokens to activate a residential building in their city. If they have no assistants, they cannot choose this action.
d) Pass
The player passes their turn now and for the rest of the round.
The actions in detail
a) Build a facility
The player pays the resource cost on a tile in the facility tile area. If they cannot afford the cost (and only if they cannot afford it), they can instead pay 3 denarii per resource token they cannot pay.
Then the player places the facility in their city. The tile must be placed so that at least one side is completely adjacent to one other tile already in their city. Once placed, the tiles cannot be moved (except through the effect of a facility):
- The new tile must be placed next to an already existing tile.
- You can't cover another tile.
- The side must connect to another tile.
- The side must connect fully.
Facilities with the [when built] mark may apply their effect the turn they are built. (See "Build a residence".) The player can choose not to apply the effect, but the effect cannot be saved for later. Sometimes an effect cannot be applied, e.g., when a player must exchange something and has nothing to exchange; in this case, the facility can still be built, but nothing happens.
If the player builds a temple and tiles remain in the temple stack, draw a new temple tile and place it in the temple row so that five temples are always available.
b) Build a residence
The player takes a residential building from their personal stack and places it in their city, following the same building rules as above.
Then the player chooses a direction (up, down, left, right) and activates the effect of all facilities in that direction from the residence, starting with the facility tile closest to the residence and continuing until they reach another residence or a spot with no facility (such as the edge of their city). The tiles are activated one at a time. Effects with a [when built] mark or an [endgame] mark are not activated.
Facility effects
The facility tiles have several different effects, each depicted on the bottom of the tile:
- An icon means the player gains whatever the icon depicts.
- An arrow means the player can pay whatever is to the left of the arrow to gain whatever is to the right. The player can pay as many times as they like.
- A colon (:) means that if the player has whatever is to the left of the colon, the player gains whatever is on the right, without having to pay for it. This can happen multiple times.
- A slash (/) means the player chooses between whatever is on each side of the slash.
- A 3x3 grid means the effect affects all 8 surrounding tiles (but no others).
Cultural facility effects
If the player activates a cultural facility, they gain "cultural points" of the depicted category: Theater, Art, or Academic.
Cultural points are ephemeral and do not last beyond the current turn. During this turn, the player maintains a count of their cultural points in each category; after activating all of the other tile effects this turn, in each category they compare their points to the top tile of the appropriate cultural tile stack.
For each category, if the player has at least as many cultural points as depicted on this tile, they gain this tile, placing it in front of themselves. No matter how many cultural points they have, they cannot take a second tile in the same category.
At the end of the turn, the player loses all cultural points.
Example: The top tile of the three culture tile stacks are shown: the theater tile has 2 marks and is worth 4 VP; the art tile has 1 mark, worth 2 VP; the academics tile has 3 marks, 6 VP.
Trojanus builds a residential building and activates a line of his facilities. The theater gains him 2 "theater" cultural points, the statue gains him 2 "art" cultural points, and the library gains him 2 "academics" cultural points.
First, he checks the theater stack. The top tile shows 2 marks, so he gains that tile.
Then he checks the art stack. The top tile shows 1 mark, so he gains that tile. (The tile beneath also has only 1 mark, but he cannot gain more than 1 tile per category in a turn.)
Finally, the top academics tile shows 3 marks, so he cannot gain this tile.
Trojanus has 1 art point and 2 academics points left, but they are lost when his turn ends.
c) Place an assistant token
The player places one of their assistant tokens on any residence in their city that has no assistant token on it. He then chooses a direction (up, down, left, right) and activates the facilities in that direction as if he just built that residential building, starting with the facility tile closest to the residence.
d) Pass
The player places the lowest available turn order tile on the table before them.
On each subsequent turn in this same round, the player must pass; each time the player passes this way, they gain 1 denarius from the bank.
Once at least one player has passed in a round, for each action that a player who has not passed wants to take, that player must first pay 1 denarius to the bank. If the player cannot or will not pay, that player must pass.
Once all players have passed, the main phase ends.
2) Gain assistants
Skip this step in the 6th round.
This step is not performed in clockwise order; instead the player with the highest order tile goes first, then the player with the second highest order tile, etc.
In this order, players can buy at most one assistant token, paying either money or glory. The price for an assistant token depends on how many assistant tokens that player already has, whether those tokens are on residences or still in reserve.
| Number of tokens the player has | Price for the next assistant |
|---|---|
| 0 | 5 denarii or 1 glory token |
| 1 | 5 denarii or 1 glory token |
| 2 | 10 denarii or 2 glory tokens |
| 3 | 10 denarii or 2 glory token |
| 4 | 15 denarii or 3 glory tokens |
Example: Trojanus has 1 assistant in reserve and 3 on his buildings. The next assistant will therefore cost 15 denarii or 3 glory tokens.
3) Gain glory
All players compare how many glory tokens they have. The player with the most glory tokens gains the glory tile for this round marked "1st". The player with the second-most glory tokens gains the tile marked "2nd", then the player with the third-most tokens gains the tile marked "3rd". (In rounds 1 and 2, there is no "3rd" tile.)
A player with no glory tokens cannot gain a glory tile. Return any glory tiles not gained to the box.
If players are tied, then the player with the lowest turn order tile wins the tie.
Example: It's round 5. Nerva has 3 glory tokens and order tile 1. Trojanus has 3 glory tokens and order tile 2. Hadrianus and Antonius Vius have no glory tokens.
Nerva and Trojanus have the same number of glory tokens, so they compare order tiles. Nerva has the lower tile, so she wins the tie, gaining the "1st" tile while Trojanus gains the "2nd" tile.
Hadrianus and Antonius Vius have no glory tokens, so no one gains the "3rd" tile. If they had 1 glory token each, Hadrianus would have gained the "3rd" tile since he had the lower order number.
4) Prepare for next round
Skip this step in the 6th round.
- All players return their glory chips to the bank.
- All players return their order tiles to the side of the board, first noting who starts the next round.
- At the end of round 5, turn all but the highest order tile (e.g., 1-3 in a 4-player game) face down.
- Draw tiles one at a time from the facilities stack, lining them up in the facilities tile area, until you draw a round tile, which is placed to the side out of play. (Any facilities from the previous round remain where they are.)
Game End and Scoring
The game ends after 6 rounds.
Each player totals their victory points:
- Culture tiles: The VP amount written on the tile.
- Glory tiles: The VP amount written on the tile.
- Temples: Each temple has a scoring condition for its VP; if you fulfilled this condition, you gain the VP.
- Money and resources: Every third coin/resource token is worth 1 VP.
- Order tiles: The VP amount written on the tile.
Whoever has the most VPs wins. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most combined culture and glory tiles wins. If the tie persists, the tied player with the most temples wins. If the tie still persists, the tied player with the lower order tile wins.
Facility Categories
These types, and some notes on effects, are listed here.
Production facilities
These facilities mainly give you resources.
- Fountain — The fountain gives you one resource of your choice.
Trade facilities
These facilities mainly give you money.
- Markets, Charcoal burner, Stone dealer, Blacksmith — For each resource you have of the depicted type, you gain 1 denarius (e.g., if you have 3 grain and use Markets, you gain 3 denarii). You do not pay this resource.
Cultural facilities
These are needed to gain culture tiles. Cultural facilities are divided into three categories: theater, art and academics.
- Garden — You gain one cultural point of your choice: theater, art or academics.
Military facilities
These facilities mainly give you glory tokens.
- Stall, Weaponry, Armory — If you pay the indicated resource, you gain a glory token. You can do this as many times you wish.
- Colosseum — If you pay two identical resources, you gain two glory tokens. If you do this multiple times, you do not have to pay the same paired resources each time.
Special facilities
These tiles have effects only when you build them.
- Trading post — Pay 2 denarii to gain a resource of your choice, e.g., pay 6 denarii to gain 1 wood and 2 stone.
- Triumphal arch — Gain the top tile of any culture tile stack of your choice.
- Dining Hall — Gain 2 resources of your choice, either the same type or different.
- Bathhouse — Choose 3 of the 8 surrounding tiles and apply their effects. If you activate cultural facilities, you may gain culture tiles after all three tiles have been activated. You cannot activate end-of-game effects or other special buildings.
- Aqueduct — Move any non-residential building in the 8 surrounding tiles to any other legal location in your city. All facility tiles in your city must still be connected after this move.
- Circus — Choose a residential building from 1 of the 8 surrounding tiles and remove it from the game. You cannot remove a residential building that has an assistant token on it.
Temples
These tiles give VPs at the end of the game.
Temples that have number of facilities as a condition
These tiles show an icon specifying an area, a facility category, and a number of VPs. The player gains this many VP for each facility of the specific category he has in the specified area.
Example [8 surrounding tiles, trade facility, 3VP]: For each trading facility in the 8 tiles surrounding the temple, the player gains 3 VP.
Icon specifying the area to consider:
- Temples that apply to the 8 surrounding tiles. For each facility in this area of the specified category, you gain the number of VP listed.
- Temples that apply to all tiles in all four orthogonal directions from the temple. For each facility of the specified category that lies in a straight line above, below, to the left, and to the right of this temple, you gain the number of VP listed. It doesn't matter if residential buildings or empty spaces are in these lines. The temple does not count itself when scoring.
Icon specifying the category to consider:
- [Production facility] Temples with this icon give points for production facilities within the specified area.
- [Trade facility] Temples with this icon give points for trade facilities within the specified area.
- [Cultural facility] Temples with this icon give points for cultural facilities within the specified area.
- [Military facility] Temples with this icon give points for military facilities within the specified area.
- [Special facility] Temples with this icon give points for special facilities within the specified area.
- [Temple] Temples with this icon give points for temples within the specified area. The temple does not count itself.
- [Residential building] Temples with this icon give points for residential buildings within the specified area.
- [Number of categories] Temples with this icon give points for the number of different types of buildings within the specified area (up to a maximum of 7 types). The 7 types are: Production facility, Trade facility, Cultural facility, Military facility, Special facility, Temple, Residential building.
Temples that have resources as a condition
These tiles give you the specified number of points for each of the specified resource you have at the end of the game. You do not discard the resources.
Residential buildings
These tiles allow you to activate the effect of all facilities in one direction from the residential tile. The tile itself has no effect.
Game Hints
-
The major ways to gain VP in this game are:
- Culture tiles, gained from activating cultural facilities
- Glory tiles, gained by activating military facilities and gaining glory tokens
- Temples, gained by being built
Try to plan when the game starts which route or routes you want to take.
-
You have 9 residential buildings and up to 5 assistants. Thus, in a normal game you can activate your facilities only 9-14 times. The timing of when to build a residential tile or use an assistant token is vital.
-
Money is extremely important. If you lack resources when building a facility, you can pay 3 denarii for each missing resource, which means that effectively 3 denarii is any resource of your choice. Thus, the effect of the Foundry is actually "any resource of your choice".
-
Keep at least 1 denarius (or 1 resource, which can always be sold for 1 denarius) for the end of the round. If you don't, you'll be forced to pass if someone else passes before you can take your next turn.
-
Glory tiles are awarded based on a comparison of glory tokens between players, so competition can be fierce. Don't lose your way, and be careful not to put too much energy into gaining them. It might not be worth it.
Playing Solitaire
This game can be played solitaire, with the player trying to score as many points as possible. Set-up and gameplay is similar to the 2-player game, with the following changes:
Set-up
- Step 1: Set up for a 2-player game, but place all the order tiles in the box.
- Step 2: No change.
- Step 3: Shuffle the starting locations face down, then draw them two at a time, lining them up as pairs. Stack the normal locations as in a 2-player game. Each time you draw normal locations, draw them one at a time, forming pairs as you draw. If you draw a round tile as the first tile in a pair, place it to the side and stop drawing; if you draw it as the second tile in a pair, place 3 denarii on it and form a pair with the lone facility tile.
- Step 4: No change.
- Step 5: No change.
Flow of the game
1) Conduct the main phase
a) Build a facility — Choose a pair of facilities, build one of them, then remove the other from the game. If you choose the pair with the round tile and select the round tile, you gain the 3 denarii, then place the round tile to the side; if you choose the other tile, return the 3 denarii to the bank.
Other than this, play as in a 2-player game.
2) Gain assistants
Play as in a 2-player game.
3) Gain glory
If you have as many glory tokens as the current round number, you gain the "1st" tile. If you don't have this many but have at least one glory token, you gain the "2nd" tile. Otherwise play as in a 2-player game.
4) Prepare the next round
Play as in a 2-player game.
Game end and scoring
Score as you would in a 2-player game.
You gain a title depending on how many points you've earned!
| Points | Title |
|---|---|
| 80 or more | Emperor Augustus |
| 70–79 | Consul |
| 60–69 | Legatus |
| 50–59 | Tribunus |
| 40–49 | Centurion |
| 30–39 | Immune |
| below 30 | Civilian |
To start, aim to score 40 points.
Credits
Thank you for buying this game. Any comments and questions can be sent to Pandasaurus Games.
Produced by: Pandasaurus Games
Game design: Hisashi Hayashi
Graphic design: Franz Vohwinkel
Rulebook writer: Hal99
English rulebook writer: Zimeon
Rulebook proofreader: Mandy Tong
Rulebook editor: W. Eric Martin