Monuments: Wonders of Antiquity
Monuments: Wonders of Antiquity Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 game board with monuments, a score track, and a story ladder.
- 4 sets of player pieces (in different colors): 1 player aid and 4 tokens (3 are historians, the last is a counter).
- 13 black markers (12 for marking the monuments, and 1 for counting at the end of the game).
- 120 cards:
- 108 monument cards (12 series/monuments of 9 cards, numbered and marked with a symbol).
- 12 "monument available" cards.
Example: The monument on the right has the following characteristics: Monument: Akropolis – Value: 7 – Symbol: Ship.
Setup (see further below for the 2-player game)
Place the game board in the center of the table. Place a marker on the leftmost space (the one showing the monument) of each of the 12 Monument tracks. The 13th marker is set aside: it will be used for the final scoring.
Take the 4 tokens of your color and place one as a counter on the "0" space of the score track. If there are 4 players, put one of your tokens back in the box.
If there are only 3 players, put back in the box the 9 Sémiramis Monument cards, its corresponding marker, and the 11 other cards marked with a crossed-out "III," for a total of 20 cards. These elements are not used in a 3-player game.
Shuffle the Monument cards and deal 5 face down to each player to form their starting hand. The rest of the Monument cards are stacked face down to form the Monument deck, and the top 3 cards are drawn and displayed face up next to the game board.
Each player receives a summary card of the game, which they place in front of them (the space in front of each player is called their display).
The 12 "Monument Available" cards are placed next to the game board, on their "2 monuments" side.
Note: experienced players may find these cards unnecessary. However, they make things easier for less experienced players.
Sequence of Play
The first player is chosen at random. Play then proceeds clockwise. On their turn, the active player chooses between 2 types of turn:
-
A Monument turn: they build or improve a monument, draw cards, and/or score points.
OR
-
A Story turn: they write a story.
1. Monument Turn — Perform 3 Actions
The active player may perform 3 of the available actions in any order, including the same action several times. At the end of their turn, the active player must make sure there are indeed 3 face-up Monument cards: if this is not the case, they draw the necessary number of cards from the Monument deck, then it becomes the next player's turn.
In addition to these 3 actions, they may buy a 4th action by discarding 2 cards from their hand bearing the same symbol (scroll, ship, or helmet). In this case, the cards used to buy this 4th action are permanently removed from the game.
a) Draw a Card (1 action per card drawn)
For 1 action, the active player may either take 1 of the 3 face-up Monument cards, or draw the top card of the Monument deck. There is no limit to the number of cards in hand.
The 3 face-up cards are only replenished at the end of the player's turn.
b) Build a Monument (1 action per monument)
For 1 action, the active player may build a monument using the cards in their hand: the cards played are placed in their display.
- If the active player is THE FIRST to build a given monument, they must play at least 2 Monument cards representing that monument (but may play more if they wish). They then flip the corresponding "Monument Available" card to its "1 monument" side.
- If the active player is THE SECOND to build a given monument, they must play at least 3 Monument cards representing that monument. The "Monument Available" card corresponding to that monument is removed from the game.
It is forbidden to build a monument that has already been built by 2 other players. A single player cannot build the same monument twice, but they may add cards to a monument they have already built.
Note: the order of the cards played to build a monument cannot be changed afterward; it is therefore advisable to place them in descending order of value.
c) Improve an Existing Monument (1 action per monument)
For 1 action, the active player may improve a monument in their display by adding one or more cards to it, without changing the order of the previously played cards. The added cards are placed on top of the others. Improving a monument costs 1 action, regardless of the number of cards played. It is forbidden to change the order of cards already placed previously.
Note: When you have built a monument, keep the cards you subsequently receive for that monument, so you can play as many of them as possible with a single action.
d) Score Victory Points (VP)
For 1 action, the active player may score VP by using 2 Monument cards from their hand bearing the same symbol. The cards may belong to different monuments and do not necessarily correspond to monuments already on display.
The symbol common to the two cards played is then compared with the symbols of the cards on display: for each card in the display bearing this symbol, the active player scores 1 VP (their score counter is moved by this amount). The two cards played are then permanently removed from the game.
Example: Player B plays 2 cards showing the Ship symbol (the Petra 1 card and the Pharos 1 card). They score two victory points since two cards in their display bear a ship symbol. They then discard the Petra 1 and Pharos 1 cards.
2. Story Turn — Write a Story
The active player may only write a story if:
- there is at least 1 monument with 2 or more cards in their opponents' displays, and
- they have at least one historian available.
Warning: unused historians at the end of the game cause you to lose points!
A story chronicles the monuments that exist at the moment it is written. To write their story, the active player takes the top card of each monument (made up of at least 2 Monument cards) from each of their opponents' displays: each card collected in this way corresponds to a page of their story. When composing a story, cards from one's own display are not taken. Nor is the card of a monument that consists of only a single card taken. Such a monument is in poor condition and cannot be recorded in a chronicle!
Example: player C's story contains the Akropolis 6 and Arthemision 1 cards. The Pharos 5 card cannot be taken since that monument consists of only a single card.
The player then places their historian on the space of the Story track corresponding to this number of pages written. If there is already another historian on this space, they place their historian on top of it.
A story must contain at least one card. If this is not possible, the player must choose a Monument turn instead.
For each Monument card collected in this way, the corresponding marker is moved one space to the right.
Tip: Don't play your historians too early: try to earn at least 3 points. But a single point is better than negative points!
Special case: in the very rare case where the marker is already on the last space of the track [18/12-6], and cannot be pushed further, the 2 players who built that monument immediately receive VP: 2 VP for the player holding the higher-value card and 1 VP for the other player.
Note: It is not possible to buy an additional action during a Story turn.
Clarification: cards used for a story are not removed from the game but set aside. This allows players to keep track of the value of monuments throughout the game.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends as soon as it is not possible to replace at least one of the 3 face-up Monument cards. This triggers the final VP count. (Keep an eye on the deck so you can make good use of all your historians before the end of the game.)
VP for Monuments
Each player receives VP for the monuments they have built.
Row by row (use the 13th marker as a guide), the VP awarded depend on the values shown at the top of the column where the marker is located:
- If only one player built that monument, they receive the VP value shown in bold.
- If 2 players built that monument, the primary builder receives the VP value shown on the left in parentheses, and the secondary builder receives the VP value shown on the right in parentheses.
The primary builder is the player whose monument has the most cards at the end of the game and, in case of a tie, the one with the highest-value card.
Note: You can use the extra marker to mark the monument currently being scored and move it down as you go.
Example: The monument table is as shown in the image to the right. Scoring proceeds as follows:
- For Akropolis (green), player C receives 6 points because they are the only builder.
- Player A is the primary builder of the Temple of Artemis (purple), because they have two cards of that monument against only one for player B. Player A receives 6 points and player B receives 3 points.
- Player A is the primary builder of the Pharos of Alexandria (1 card of value 8 against 1 card of value 5 for C) and therefore earns 8 points. Player C earns 4 points.
VP for Stories
Each player suffers a penalty of −12 VP for each unused historian.
Each player receives a number of VP equal to the total value of the spaces occupied by their historians (two stories of 4 and 5 pages together earn 9 points).
In addition, a bonus of 9 VP is awarded to the owner of the historian placed on the highest-value space. A bonus of 6 VP is awarded to the 2nd historian, and a bonus of 3 VP to the 3rd. A single player may therefore receive this bonus more than once. If several historians occupy the same space, the bonus is awarded to the one at the bottom of the stack (i.e., the oldest story).
Example for 3 players: Red scores 17 points (7 + 6 + 4) for their three stories, plus 3 bonus points for their third-place position, for a total of 20 points. Blue earns 21 points in total: 15 for their stories (9 + 4 + 2) and 6 bonus points for the second-highest story. Green scores 9 points for their first place, but only 3 points overall for their stories because of the −12 penalty for the unused historian (9 + 6 − 12).
Victory
The player with the most VP wins. In case of a tie, the winner is the player who built the most monuments, then the one who wrote the longest story.
Two-Player Game
Each player receives 2 historians of 2 different colors and must create 2 separate displays (represented, for example, by the 2 summary cards). The cards and marker of one monument (any one) are not used. All the rules of the game apply (each player receives only 5 cards during setup and has only 3 actions during a Monument Turn), but players use 2 different colors. All VP scored are specific to the color the player decides to use, as if each color were a different player.
Turns and the actions within a turn may benefit whichever color the player chooses, and the VP scored by each color are recorded separately. When one of a player's colors takes a Story Turn, cards are collected from the 2 displays of the opponent, but also from the display of the player's own other color.
At the end of the game, compare the lower of the 2 scores of each of the 2 players: the player whose lower score is higher wins.
Tips
- Pay attention to the value of cards, which is important for breaking ties at the end of the game. Try to protect your strong cards by covering them with weaker cards to prevent them from being collected by opposing historians.
- Try to play your monuments as quickly as possible, but if possible with more than the minimum of 2 cards required. You save actions by playing more cards at once. But be careful: it takes three cards to build second, and there is no third builder!
- "Useless" cards can be used to buy victory points or an additional action.
- Try to keep cards to play after the last historian, so you can score the most points during the monument count. But remember that the value of monuments grows with the number of times they are chronicled in a story!
Power Cards Expansion
By Stefan Risthaus
Contents: 3 power cards (to print).
Rule: During a Monument Turn, you may, for 1 action, acquire one of these cards, provided you hold the majority of the relevant symbol among the Monument cards already on display in front of you. At the start, power cards are taken from the bank; afterward they are taken from the player who holds them, without that player being able to oppose it.
The transfer is not automatic when a player becomes the majority holder: it is necessary not only to hold the majority but also to spend an action to acquire the token.
Gain upon acquisition: 2 victory points.
Special power: see each token.
Gain during final scoring: 3 victory points.
Variant: You may decide that a power card counts as a token for the "score victory points" action of the Monument Turn.
Naute
- At acquisition: 2 VP
- Special power: During a Monument Turn, you may exchange a card from your hand with one of the three face-up cards of the deck (usable once per turn).
- Final scoring: 3 VP
Scribe
- At acquisition: 2 VP
- Special power: When improving one of your monuments, you may rearrange the order of the previously placed and/or newly placed cards of that monument in your display.
- Final scoring: 3 VP
Hero
- At acquisition: 2 VP
- Special power: During a Monument Turn, you may draw an extra card by spending 1 VP, without it costing you an action (usable once per turn).
- Final scoring: 3 VP