Mythotopia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview of Mythotopia
• Game Board
• Terrain Effects
• Card Types
• Resources
• Setting up the game
  • Player cards and pieces
  • Province cards
  • Improvement cards
  • Victory Point cards
  • First player and Starting hands
  • Starting Victory Points
• Victory Points
  • Province Victory Points
  • Victory Point counters
  • Fixed Victory Point cards
  • Variable Victory Point cards
• Playing the Game
  • Action: Invade a province
  • Action: Place armies
  • Action: Remove armies
  • Action: Place ships
  • Action: Remove ships
  • Action: End a war
  • Action: Buy armies and ships
  • Action: Draft one Improvement card
  • Action: Play cards into your Reserve
  • Action: Discard cards
  • Action: Remove one or two cards from your deck
  • Action: Perform the action on a card
  • Action: Patronage
  • Action: Pass
  • Action: End the game
• The Cards
• Mythotopia Rules Summary
  • Set up
  • General rules
  • Actions

Components

Player Tokens

• Towns — x18 each (x14 each for the two extra colors)

• Cities — x4 each

• Armies — x14 each

• Ships — x5 each

• Citadel — x1 each

• Victory Point marker — x1 each

• Road — x9

• Castle — x9

• Dragon — x5

• Runestone — x5

• Mercenary — x2

• Victory Point counters — x28 (value 1), x26 (value 2), x3 (value 3)

• Reserve cards — x4

• One Game Board

• Player Starting cards — x5 per player

• Province cards — x40

• Action Reminder cards — x4

• Improvement cards — x29

• Variable Victory Point cards — x10

• Fixed Victory Point cards — x3

Overview of Mythotopia

The game draws heavily on the mechanics used in A Few Acres of Snow, which in turn took its inspiration from Donald X Vaccarino's 'Dominion', which is another way of saying that this is a deck-building game with a board.

You start the game with a random assortment of provinces, each of which has an associated card. To these you add five Starting cards to make your draw deck. When it is your turn you perform two actions, after which you refill your hand to five cards.

There are a number of actions available to you. To increase the size of your empire you can invade other provinces, which may be neutral or controlled by another player. To do this you will need to place armies on the board and have enough food to feed them. For those of a more peaceable nature there are a number of things which can be built. Castles will help protect your lands, roads will allow you to substitute one card for another, and cities will increase your ability to hold cards in reserve. A number of Improvement cards are available which you can draft to support the strategy you have decided to follow.

There will be seven Victory Point cards on display, three of which are fixed, the remaining four drawn randomly. Each of these will have a number of Victory Point counters on them. When you fulfil the condition on a card you take a counter, thus scoring points. When four Victory Point cards have been exhausted the game will be close to ending, as this allows a player to choose the 'End the game' action. As the conditions change from game to game so too must the path you attempt to take to victory.

If you are familiar with 'A Few Acres of Snow' you may find that you can play the game just by reading the rules summary at the end of this rule book.

Game Board

The game board depicts the land of Mythotopia, divided into provinces. Around the edge of the board runs the Victory Point track. Each province shows its Neutral military strength (in a circle), a resource symbol or army symbol, and — for some provinces — terrain features such as hills, mountains, or rugged terrain. Sea areas run through parts of the board and can only ever hold Ship counters.

Terrain Effects

Hills - To invade across a hill border you must pay one additional food. To build a road across a hill border you must pay one additional stone.

Mountains - You cannot invade across a mountain border. You cannot build a road across a mountain border.

Rugged Terrain - The defender increases his Military Strength by one (no effect if the province is neutral).

Sea area - Only Ship counters can be placed in a sea area.

Card Types

As the game progresses players will end up with a mix of Starting cards, Province cards and Improvement cards in their deck. These cards may have symbols on representing resources, armies or ships. Many will have text towards the bottom, indicating a special power. If the power is marked 'Action' then using the power on the card constitutes an action. If the power is marked 'Free action' then using the power does not count as one of your two actions. If the power is marked 'Reserve' then it has a permanent effect if placed in your reserve. If the card is marked 'Benefit' then it can be used in conjunction with another action to augment that action in some manner.

In ALL circumstances a card can only ever be used for one type of symbol on it or for the text described on it or to perform an action in the associated province (if it is a Province card). E.g. If you played a Build card for the action on it then you could not also use the Stone symbol on the same card to help meet the build costs.

Province cards - There is one Province card for each province on the board. Each card has either a resource symbol or an army symbol, which will match the symbol shown in the province on the board.

Starting cards - Each player starts with five Starting cards. Resources are indicated in circles while armies and ships are indicated in squares. Any actions, free actions and benefits will appear towards the bottom of the card.

Army symbol / Ship symbol

Victory Point cards - There are three Fixed Victory Point cards and ten Variable Victory Point cards. The fixed ones are always used while only four of the variable ones will be in play (drawn randomly). Each card will have a number of Victory Point counters placed on it, as indicated on the card in question. These are available for players to claim when they meet the condition on the card.

Improvement cards - There are twenty-nine different Improvement cards. Sixteen of these will be available to be drafted during the game. Some cards will have multiple uses, such as Portal, which can either be used for the benefit described or for the food resource.

Resources

There are three resources in Mythotopia, which are food, stone, and gold. These always appear in a circle. Food is necessary when invading a province. Stone is used to build cities, roads and castles. Gold is used to draft Improvement cards and buy additional armies and ships.

When you are required to spend resources you must play cards from your hand and/or Reserve with those resource symbols marked on them. The cards you play are placed on your discard pile.

Setting up the game

Player cards and pieces

Each player selects a set of Player counters and the matching deck of Starting cards. Players also take one Reserve card and one Action Reminder card each.

If there are only two players then make sure one player plays red while the other player plays blue (there are four extra Town counters in these sets). If there are more than two players, then these extra counters should be returned to the box.

Players start the game with all of their Town and City counters in their Available stock. They also start with six Army counters and two Ship counters in their Available stock. The remaining Army and Ship counters should be placed to one side where they can easily be drawn from during the game but at the same time not accidentally mixed up with your Available stock. This area will be referred to as the 'pool'.

The Citadel counter is only used if the Citadel Victory Point card is in play.

Players should place their City counters on their Reserve card, in the spaces indicated. The highest visible number indicates how many cards you can have in your Reserve.

Place the Road, Castle and Mercenary pieces by the side of the board.

Province cards

Shuffle the Province cards. Depending on how many players there are, a specific number should be dealt to each player, as follows:

Two players – eleven cards per player. Three players – eight cards per player. Four players – six cards per player.

The remaining Province cards are placed by the side of the board, face-down for the moment. You may need to draw more cards from this deck if the Here be Dragons and/or Runestones cards come into play during the set-up of the game. Eventually, once the game has started, this deck should be turned face-up, to make it easier to find when you need to claim a Province card.

Optional rule - Once you know the game you can add a little more decision making by allowing players to choose their starting provinces from an increased number of cards. With four players deal out seven cards per player, with three players deal out nine cards per player. Do not use this rule with two players. Players now place Town counters on the provinces they have been dealt, so that everyone can see clearly who has the potential to start where. Once Victory Point and Improvement cards have been drawn (and any dragons and/or runestones placed) players should secretly and simultaneously choose two Province cards to discard. Players reveal the cards they have chosen not to use, removing their Town counters from those provinces. The discarded cards should be placed back with the remaining Province cards. If citadels are in play then players would now select where they wish to place theirs, as per the standard rules.

Each player looks at his Province cards and places one of his Town counters in each province he has a card for. It is best to place the counter so that it covers the Neutral Military Strength value (indicated in the circle).

Improvement cards

Shuffle the Improvement cards. Draw the top sixteen cards and place face-up on display close to the Game board so that each card can be clearly seen. Place the remaining cards to one side, face-down.

Victory Point cards

Place the three Fixed Victory Point cards face-up on display by the side of the Game board.

Shuffle the Variable Victory Point cards. Draw four cards and place face-up on display next to the Fixed Victory Point cards. Place the remaining cards to one side, they will not be used in this game.

Place Victory Point counters on the Fixed and Variable Victory Point cards as indicated by the card.

The number of players will affect the number of counters to be placed on the Fixed Victory Point cards.

With two players place six '2VP' counters on each card. With three or four players place seven counters on each card.

The unused Victory Point counters should be placed by the side of the board, as they may still come into play as the result of the 'Scribe' Improvement card.

Some Variable Victory Point cards also require the placement of counters on the board, as explained below:

CITADEL - If the Citadel Victory Point card is drawn then all players simultaneously and secretly select one Province card to place their Citadel counter in. Players reveal the card they selected. They then replace the Town counter in the selected province with their Citadel counter.

A citadel combines the attributes of a city and a castle, i.e it increases your Reserve size by one and increases the defence strength of the province by two. You should use the reverse side of your Reserve card.

HERE BE DRAGONS - If the Here be Dragons card is drawn then draw the top five Province cards from those still in the deck and place one Dragon counter in each province drawn. Place cards back at the bottom of the deck afterwards.

RUNESTONES - If the Runestones card is drawn then draw the top five Province cards from those still in the deck and place one Runestone counter in each province drawn. Place the Province cards back at the bottom of the deck afterwards.

First player and Starting hands

Randomly determine who will become the first player.

Each player now shuffles their Province cards in with their Starting cards to create their own draw deck, placing the deck in front of their position at the table.

Each player draws five cards from their draw deck. If there are four players playing then the fourth player draws one extra card (to compensate for the disadvantage of going last).

Starting Victory Points

You are now ready to start playing the game. However, it will help you to understand the rules concerning victory points, hence the following interlude.

Players should calculate their present victory point score, which will be the number of provinces they control multiplied by three and place their Victory Point token accordingly on the Victory Point track.

Victory Points

During the game it will be necessary to track your victory point score with your Victory Point token on the Victory Point track.

You can never go below twelve points on the track. If you reach the end of the Victory Point track then you are doing really well.

Province Victory Points

Each province that you control gives you three victory points. You control a province if you have a Town, City, or Citadel counter in it.

If you lose control of a province then you will also lose three victory points, while the player gaining control of it will gain three victory points.

Victory Point counters

During the course of the game you may be able to claim Victory Point counters from the Fixed and Variable Victory Point cards. Once a set of Victory Point counters on a card has run out you will no longer score points for performing that action or meeting the stated condition (unless you have the Scribe card).

In all circumstances, once you have gained a Victory Point counter you can never lose it. Thus, if a player takes a province from you containing one of your cities then you will lose the points for the province but retain the two points you earned for building the city.

Fixed Victory Point cards

When you build a city, road or castle you take one Victory Point counter from the matching Fixed Victory Point card, if available.

There are three Fixed Victory Point cards: City, Castle, and Roads, each holding six or seven Victory Point counters (depending on player count) that are claimed one at a time as the matching structure is built.

Variable Victory Point cards

Citadel – If you take control of a province that contains another player's citadel then you take the Victory Point counter from this card.

Defender of the Realm – if you successfully defend one of your provinces against an attack from another player (or players) then you take one Victory Point counter from the card.

Guilded City – When you build a city you can expend one gold to take one counter from this card.

Here be dragons – If you take control of a province that contains a Dragon counter then you take one counter from this card. The Dragon counter should be placed to one side.

Lord of the Isles – If you control all three provinces on the larger island then you take the '3' VP counter. If you control both provinces on the smaller island then take the '2' VP counter. You take the counter as soon as you meet this condition, which may occur during the set-up of the game.

Master of the Seas – If you have ship counters in three different sea areas then you take the '2VP' counter. If you have ship counters in all four sea areas then you take the other '2VP' counter.

Patronage – As an action you can spend two gold and take one counter from this card.

Roadside Inns – When you build a road you can expend one gold to take one counter from this card.

Runestones – If you take control of a province with a Runestone counter in it then you take one counter from this card. The Runestone counter should be placed to one side.

Spoils of War – If you take control of a province from another player then you take one counter from this card. You do not gain a counter for taking control of a neutral province.

Playing the Game

In player order each player performs two actions. After you have completed your two actions you draw cards from your draw deck to bring your hand back up to five cards. You retain any un-played cards in your hand.

The two actions you perform are independent of each other. You must resolve your first action before moving on to your second action. With the exceptions of 'End a War' and 'Draft Card' you can perform the same action twice.

If you have to draw a card either at the end of your turn or during your turn and your draw pile is exhausted then you shuffle your discard pile to make a new draw deck.

Note that an action may involve the play of more than one card.

The actions available to you are:

• Invade a province
• Place armies
• Remove armies
• Place ships
• Remove ships
• End a war
• Buy armies and ships
• Draft one Improvement card
• Place cards into your Reserve
• Discard cards
• Remove one or two cards from your deck
• Perform the action on a card
• Patronage
• Pass
• End the game

The order in which these actions are listed is incidental, it does not dictate the order in which actions must be performed.

These actions will now be described in more detail.

Action: Invade a province

This action allows you to invade a neutral province or one controlled by another player.

To perform this action you must play a number of cards as explained below:

• You must play one Province card, which must be adjacent to the province you intend to invade.
• If you wish to invade across one sea area then you must play one Ship card. If you wish to invade across two sea areas then you must play two Ship cards.
• You must play one or more cards with Army symbols on them. This determines how many Army counters you will place in the invaded province. You must have sufficient Army counters available to match the number of symbols played.
• You must play one card with a Food symbol on it. Note that the number of Army symbols you play does not determine the amount of food you have to expend, one invasion requires one food. If you are invading across a border marked with hills then you must expend two Food symbols.

Please remember that each card can only be used for a single purpose, which may be for one type of symbol, or its effect, or for the province marked on it. Thus, if there was a Food symbol on the Province card you played to indicate where you are invading from you could not use this to feed your army.

You now take a number of your Army counters from your Available stock equal to the number of Army symbols on the cards you played for that purpose. You then invade by placing all of them in one province that is adjacent to the Province card you played.

Note that you cannot take and place Army counters that are already on the board.

It is possible for more than one player to invade the same province.

You can still use a Province card that has been invaded by another player, you could even invade from it. You do not have to place sufficient armies in a province in one turn to be able to capture it.

MOUNTAINS – You cannot invade across a border marked with mountains.

Example: If the red player played the Palmain Province card then this would give him the option to invade Nusus, Diclesium, Iracund, or Blore (he already controls Scombroid). If he had a Ship card he would also have the option to invade Ictus, Kinabra or Aporia.

Example: The red player decides to invade Blore. He plays the Palmain card first, which will be the province he invades from. He then plays two cards with Army symbols on (which have three symbols on in total). Finally, he plays one card with a Food symbol on. He takes three of his Army counters and places them in Blore.

The number of Army counters placed must equal the number of Army symbols played, unless you only have one counter left and you played an Army card.

The number of Army counters in your available stock is a limiting factor on how many you can bring into play.

Action: Place armies

To place Army counters on the board you play one or more cards with Army symbols on. You then take a number of Army counters from your Available stock equal to the number of symbols you have played and place them in one province that you control or that you already have Army counters in.

If you place your armies in a province that you have invaded, i.e. you do not have control of it, then you must also expend one Food symbol. You do not pay an additional food if the original invasion was made across hills.

You do not pay food to place armies in a province that you control.

Note that you can use this action to add forces to an invasion you have already made in an earlier action. You can do this without having to play a Province card to invade from.

Example: The red player plays two cards, each of which has one Army symbol on, and places two Army counters in Blore. As he is invading he must also play one card with a Food symbol on it.

Action: Remove armies

Select one province that you have Army counters in. You can then take some or all of those counters and place them back in your Available stock. You cannot take armies from a province where there is a war, i.e. one that you have invaded or are defending. The only way to take Army counters from such a province is to end the war.

Note that removing Army counters from the board does not require the play of cards.

Action: Place ships

To place Ship counters on the board you play one or more cards with Ship symbols on. You then take a number of ships equal to the number of symbols you have played from your Available stock and place them in one sea area.

You can only place in sea areas where you have at least one adjacent controlled province (you need a port for your ships).

There is no limit to the number of ships that can be placed in a sea area. It is possible for multiple ships belonging to different players to occupy the same area.

Ships can never attack each other.

Action: Remove ships

Select one sea area and remove some or all of your Ship counters and return them to your Available stock.

Note that removing Ship counters from the board does not require the play of cards.

Action: End a war

You can only carry out this action if it is the FIRST action you perform. You cannot perform any free actions before performing this action. You cannot perform this action twice in your turn.

This action allows you to end a war in one province where you are involved. You can only end a war if there is a clear winner. You cannot end a war where there is a tied situation between the strongest forces.

When a war is ended in this manner a winner must be decided. The player who has the highest Military Strength wins the war. You cannot combine forces with another player, each Military Strength must be calculated separately.

Your Military Strength is calculated by adding the following:

• The number of Army counters you have in the province.
• The number of Ship counters you have in sea areas that border the province.
• A castle or citadel adds two to your Military Strength, but only if you are the defender.
• If there is a Rugged Terrain Defence bonus marked in the province then add one to your strength, but only if you are the defender.
• You gain three victory points while the defeated defender will lose three victory points. The tokens on the Victory Point track should be altered to reflect this change.
• Take a Victory Point counter, if available, if you captured a province with a citadel in.

Any military strength bonuses indicated on Improvement cards in your Reserve.

A neutral province has a Military Strength equal to the number in the circle (ignore any Rugged Terrain Defence bonus, this is already included in the neutral strength).

A neutral province with a dragon in it adds four points to its Military Strength.

If you win as the attacker, then:

• You place one of your Town counters in the area.
• Any town, city or citadel belonging to the defending player is removed and returned to the owning player. If the defender removed a Citadel or City counter then it is placed on the highest value empty space on his Reserve card.
• You find the Province card for the province and places it on your discard pile. If the province was already controlled then the defeated player must find the card in question and hand it to the you. If he had to take it from his hand then he draws a replacement card. If he had to take it from his draw deck then he shuffles the deck before placing it down again. If the province was neutral then the card should be found in the deck of Province cards.

Any Castle or Road counter in the province remain there.

If you do not have a Town counter to place then you do not place one in the province, nor do you score victory points. The defending player still loses control of the province (along with the victory points) and should place the card back with the other available Province cards. The Province becomes neutral.

If the defender wins the war then nothing changes.

All players involved in the war remove all Army counters and place them back in their Available stock. Any Ship counters remain in their sea areas.

There are no casualties for losing a war.

Example: The red player has a Military Strength of five in Blore. The neutral defence strength is only four. Red declares an end to the war. He removes all of his armies from the province and places one of his Town counters there. He finds the Blore card and places it on his discard pile. He also increases his victory point total by three.

Action: Buy armies and ships

• You may buy as many armies and ships as you wish.
• Each Army counter costs one gold.
• Each Ship counter costs two gold.
• When you buy a counter you take it from the pool and place it in your Available stock. The number of counters in the pool is a limit to what you can buy.

Action: Draft one Improvement card

You can draft one Improvement card from those on display by paying one gold. You take the card and place it on your discard pile.

No replacement card is drawn for the one just taken.

You can also choose to draft a card that you previously removed from your hand, which may be a Starting card or a Province card that you still control. Doing so still costs one gold.

You can only perform this action ONCE during your turn.

Action: Play cards into your Reserve

As an action you can place one or more cards below your Reserve card. This allows you to save them to use in ensuing turns.

The maximum number of cards you can have in your Reserve is two plus one for each city/citadel you have on the board. Your Reserve Card is designed to help show you how many cards you can have in it.

In later turns you can take as many cards as you like from your Reserve to use immediately, as if they were part of your hand. However, you cannot place them back in your hand.

If you lose a city/citadel and your Reserve is already at maximum then you are not immediately affected, all cards remain in place. The new limit will only come into force the next time you wish to place cards in your Reserve.

The only other way of removing cards from your Reserve other than playing them is to discard them, which involves the Discard action.

All cards in your Reserve must be visible to all players, you cannot hide cards here.

Action: Discard cards

You may discard as many cards as you wish, including cards in your Reserve. Place the cards on your discard pile.

Note that you do not draw replacement cards until the end of your turn.

Action: Remove one or two cards from your deck

You can place one or two cards back where they came from, thus thinning your deck. You can remove any card from your hand or Reserve, including Province cards. If you remove a Province card from play then you retain control of the province. If you remove a Starting card place it to one side. Improvement cards go back on the Improvement Card display.

You can regain previously discarded Starting and Province cards by using the 'Draft one Improvement card' action.

You cannot reduce your total deck size below seven cards.

Action: Perform the action on a card

The powers on some cards require the use of an action to perform, as indicated on the card. The text on these cards will be marked 'Action'. You will get a better idea of which cards require an action to play by reading the section on 'The Cards' later in these rules.

Action: Patronage

This action is only available if the Patronage Victory Point card is in play.

You can pay two gold to take one counter from this card.

Action: Pass

If you have nothing better to do then you can pass.

Action: End the game

The game will only end when one player performs this action.

Before choosing this action all players should double-check their victory points, just in case the total on the track is not correct. This should be done before the player carries out this action, given that it may make it illegal.

There are a number of restrictions limiting when this action can be taken, which are:

• Four or more of the seven Victory Point cards must be empty, i.e. have had all of the Victory Point counters on them claimed.
• This must be the first action you perform. You cannot perform any free actions beforehand.
• You MUST end up winning the game, i.e. have the most victory points. You cannot perform this action if you would end up tied with another player. As all existing wars are resolved when the game ends you will need to calculate the final victory point positions, as explained below.

When this action is taken all existing wars are resolved immediately. In the case of a tie the defender wins (which may grant a bonus victory point if the Defenders of the Realm Victory Point card is in play). All players should adjust their victory points accordingly.

By definition the player who took this action is declared the winner.

The Cards

Many of the cards will have text on them as well as symbols.

If the card text is headed:

• 'Action' then you must expend one of your two actions to perform the action described in the text.
• 'Free Action' then performing the action described does not count as one of your two actions. However, it does count as performing an action for the purposes of ending a war, i.e. you cannot perform a free action before taking an 'End a war' or 'End the game' action. Otherwise, you can perform a free action at any point during your turn (but not after drawing cards at the end of your turn).
• 'Benefit' then the card is played in conjunction with another action, augmenting it in some form or other. Playing such a card on its own is not possible, so never constitutes an action in itself.
• 'Reserve' then that card is only effective after it has been placed in your Reserve with a 'Reserve' action. The effect on the card will be permanent while in your Reserve. You can use the effect on the card in the same turn that you place it in your Reserve. The card is not discarded after use. It remains in your Reserve.

Alchemist – As an action you can exchange one '1' Victory Point counter that you hold for a '2' Victory Point counter, or exchange a '2' Victory Point counter for a '3' Victory Point counter. The counter that you gain must be available in the stock of unused Victory Point counters, you cannot take one from a Victory Point card. If the counter is not available then you cannot perform the exchange.

Army – Use the card for one of the symbol types marked on it.

Build – As an action, this card allows you to build a city, road or castle. This requires the play of additional cards:

• The Province card for the province in which you wish to build.
• The amount of stone depending on what you are building. A city requires two stone. A road requires two stone if across a normal border, or three stone if across hills. A castle requires one stone.

You then take the corresponding counter and place it on the board in the appropriate province, as outlined below:

You can build a city where you have a town. You remove the Town counter from the province that corresponds to the Province card you played and return it to your Available stock. You then place one of your City counters in the province, taking it from your Reserve card.

You also take one Victory Point counter from the City Victory Point card (if available) and score those points. If there are no counters left then you can still build a city, you just will not score any points for doing so.

A city increases your Reserve capacity by one.

You cannot build a city where you already have a citadel.

If you build a castle then you take one of the Castle counters and place it in the province where you have performed the action. It does not replace the Town/City counter.

A castle adds two to the Military Strength of the defender. Building a castle also grants you a counter from the Castle Victory Point card (if still available). A castle remains on the board, even if control of the province changes hands.

You cannot build a castle where you already have a citadel.

A road can only be built between two provinces you control, one of which must correspond with the Province card you played.

You mark a road with one of the Road counters. It should be placed across the border joining the two provinces you control.

• If the road crosses over hills then you must pay one extra stone.
• You cannot build a road across mountains.
• You cannot build more than one road across the same border.

When you build a road you take a Victory Point counter from the Road Victory Point card (if still available) and score the points.

The benefits of having provinces connected by the same network of roads are:

• You can substitute one Province card for another for the purposes of invading another province and for building. Thus you could use one Province card to allow you to invade from or build in another province that is linked by Road counters to the card you played.
• Once per turn you can move some or all of your Army counters you have on your road network within that network. This is a free action. You cannot move counters into a province that you do not control.

Once a road is built it remains in play for the rest of the game. A road can only be used by a player if he controls the two provinces connected by it.

Cavalry – If this card is in your Reserve then you add one to your Military Strength when you are the invader.

Counsellor – You can discard one or more cards from your hand. You then draw replacements from your deck, including one for this card.

If you need to shuffle your discard pile you discard this card along with the other cards you discarded from your hand AFTER shuffling the discard pile. Thus there is no possibility that you could draw this card or any of the other cards you discarded.

You can discard cards from your Reserve at the same time but you do not draw replacements for these. This is a free action.

Diplomat – Play this card and expend one gold to stop a war in a province you are involved in. This counts as an action.

All Army and Mercenary counters in the province are removed and returned to their respective owners' Available stock. The defender effectively wins the war.

You can perform this as your first or second action. You do not claim a Victory Point counter if the Defender of the Realm card is in play.

Farming – If this card is in your Reserve then, once per turn you can play any one card from your hand/Reserve and have it count as one Food symbol.

General – This card can be used instead of a Province card for the purposes of invading and building, allowing you to perform the action in question in any province that you control.

Gold Mine – If this card is in your Reserve then, once per turn you can play any one card from your hand/Reserve and have it count as one Gold symbol.

Hero – A hero can be used to break a tie in your favour in a war that you are involved in. Playing the card in this way does not count as an action as it is being used to modify the 'End a war' action that you still need to take.

Levies – If this card is in your Reserve then, once per turn you can play any one card from your hand/Reserve and have it count as one Army symbol.

Limes – If this card is in your Reserve then you add one to your Military Strength when defending.

Market – Use the card for one of the symbols marked on it.

Marauders – Remove one Army counter of your choice from any province. It should be returned to the owning player's Available stock.

Mercenary – Pay one gold to be able to place one or two Mercenary counters in a province that you have invaded or that you control.

You must have at least one of your own Army counters in the chosen province. Make sure the counters are placed with your Army counters to make ownership clear.

Each Mercenary counter adds one to your Military Strength.

Mercenary counters can be removed from the board with a Remove Armies action, either alone or along with regular Army counters in the same province.

Merchant – Play with another card to change the resource symbol on it to one of your choice. You can only exchange gold, stone or food. You cannot change an Army or Ship symbol in this manner.

Militia – Take one Army counter from the pool and place it in your Available stock.

Mystic – Pay one gold to take one card of your choice from your discard pile and add it to your hand.

Philosopher – When you play this card you draw the top three cards from the Improvement card deck. You choose one to keep. The card you keep goes into your hand. The Philosopher card is then removed from the game.

Portal – Play this when carrying out the 'Invade a province' action. It replaces the Province card you would normally have to play. You can now invade ANY province on the board. You pay the same food costs as if you had attacked across an open border.

Providence – Draw two cards from your draw deck. If you exhaust your draw deck then you shuffle your discard pile, excluding this card, to make a new deck. You then discard this card (i.e. you cannot end up drawing this card twice due to shuffling your cards).

Quarry – If this card is in your Reserve then, once per turn you can play any card from your hand/Reserve and have it count as one stone symbol.

Queen – If this card is in your Reserve then, your hand size is increased to six cards.

Ranger – If this card is in your reserve then you treat all hills as if they are open borders (i.e. they have no effect) and all mountain borders as if they are hill borders. This effect is for all situations, i.e. invading and building roads. You also increase your Military Strength by one when attacking or defending in rugged terrain.

Reserve Army – If you have this card in your Reserve then you cannot be attacked while you are engaged in a conflict with another player (either as the attacker or the defender) i.e. you can only be involved in one conflict with one other player at a time. This also means that you cannot make an attack against another province while engaged in a war somewhere else. You are still vulnerable to invasion if you have invaded a neutral province.

Ship – This card can be used for the symbols marked on it or to allow you to invade across one sea area. You could invade across two sea areas if you played two such cards.

Note that this card is not quite the same as the one in your Starting deck, as it also has a gold symbol marked on it.

Scribe – If this card is in your reserve then, whenever you are allowed to take a Victory Point counter from a card you have the option to take one from the unused stock instead. You can still take a counter even if there are none on the Victory Point card you were meant to take one from.

If you meet the first condition on the 'Master of the Seas' card then you can choose to take the Victory Point counter from the card or from the unused stock. However, you must also place one of your Town counters on the Victory Point card to indicate that you have met the condition (this stops you from meeting the condition more than once during the game). Similarly, if you meet the second condition you place a second Town counter on the card. If you do not have a spare Town counter then you cannot benefit from the power on the Scribe card.

In theory it is possible for you to claim the Victory Point counters from the 'Lord of the Isles' card more than once for each island. However, you can only claim a counter at the point where you meet the condition. If you then lose and regain control of an island you can claim a counter again.

Warehouse – If this card is in your reserve then, it increases the size of your Reserve by two. Also, once during your turn you can add a card to your Reserve as a free action. Note that you would need space in your Reserve to be able to place this card, you could not place it there if you were already at your limit.

Water Mill – You play this card in conjunction with another card. This doubles the resource on the other card, so if you played it with a Stone symbol you would have two stone instead of one. You cannot double the Army or Ship symbols on a card, only stone, food, and gold.

Mythotopia Rules Summary

Set up

Player pieces and other counters

Choose one set of counters, cards and token in one colour. If two players then only use red and blue. Place City counters on Reserve card (non-Citadel side). Place all of your Town counters, along with six Army and two Ship counters in your Available stock. Place remaining counters in the Pool. Place Road, Castle, Mercenary, Runestone and Dragon counters near Game board.

Province cards

Shuffle cards, deal out 11/8/6 per player for 2/3/4 players. (Check optional rules for 3/4 players). Place Town counters in provinces dealt to you (cover Neutral Military Strength value).

Improvement and Victory Point cards

Shuffle Improvement cards, draw 16 and place on display. Place Fixed Victory Point cards on display. Place 6 '2VP' counters if 2 players, 7 counters if 3 or 4 players. Shuffle Variable Victory Point cards, draw 4 and place on display. Place VP counters on cards as indicated. If Runestones card drawn then draw 5 Province cards and place one Runestone counter in each. If Here be Dragons card drawn then draw 5 Province cards and place one Dragon counter in each. If Citadels card drawn then players simultaneously select province to place Citadel counter in (remove Town counter). Use other side of Reserve card.

Victory Point Track

Place VP token on VP track. Each Province is worth 3VPs.

Player Starting Decks

Shuffle Starting cards in with Province cards to form draw deck. Draw hand of 5 cards (4th player draws 6 cards at beginning of game).

First player

Randomly determine who will be the 1st player.

General rules

Flow of game

Players take it in turn to perform two actions. Draw hand back to 5 cards after you have had your two actions. Retain un-played cards. Continue until one player selects the 'End the game' action.

When to shuffle deck

Shuffle your discard pile when you need to draw a card and your draw deck is exhausted. If shuffle required due to Providence or Counsellor card then discard card/s AFTER shuffling your deck.

Gaining and playing cards

Unless stated otherwise, any card you gain during the game is placed on your discard pile (exception for Philosopher card). Any cards that you play go on to your discard pile (exception for Philosopher card) You can only use a card for one element on it, which will either be one TYPE of symbol or the text or the Province named on it. When you are required to spend food, stone or gold you do so by playing cards with those symbols on.

Card Actions - text heading indicates manner of use:

Action - counts as one of your two actions to perform action on the card. Free action - does not count towards action limit. Cannot perform before 'End a war' or 'End game' actions. Reserve - must be in your Reserve to be effective. Benefit - card modifies another action.

Rules governing Player counters

Whenever you place counters on the board they must come from your Available stock. Whenever you remove counters from the board they go back to your Available stock. You generally cannot move counters directly from one province to another (roads are the exception). City counters on your Reserve card are part of your Available stock. They should be placed on the card to indicate the size of your Reserve.

Victory Points

Mark VP score with VP token on VP track. Should always show present total. Gain/lose 3VPs when you gain/lose control of a province. Take VP counter from Victory Point card if you meet the condition on the card. VP counters can never be lost. You can never go below 12VPs.

Terrain effects

Sea areas require Ship symbols to cross. Hills increase cost of invading/building by one food/stone. Mountains are impassable. Rugged terrain increases defenders Military Strength by one.

Actions

Invade a province

Play Province card adjacent to province you wish to invade (cannot invade across mountains). Play Ship card/s if target province is across one/two sea areas. Play one card with Food symbol on (two if invading over hills). Play one or more cards with Army symbols on. Then place Army counters equal to Army symbols played in invaded province.

Place armies

Play one or more cards with Army symbols on. Play one card with Food symbol on if adding armies to an invasion force (ignore effect of hills). Place Army counters equal to symbols played in one province that you control or already have Army counters in.

Remove Armies

No cards required. Remove some or all Army counters from one province that is NOT at war.

Place Ships

Play one or more cards with Ship symbol on. Place Ship counters equal to symbols in one sea area. You must control at least one province adjacent to that sea area.

Remove Ships

No cards required. Remove some or all Ship counters from one sea area.

End a War

MUST BE THE FIRST ACTION YOU PERFORM You can only end a war if there is a clear victor. You must be involved in the war. Total Military Strength for each side in the war (including a neutral defender) Each Army counter has a Military Strength of one. Each Ship in an adjacent sea area has a Military Strength of one. Apply any bonuses for cards in your Reserve (Cavalry, Limes, Pathfinder) Castle/Citadel has Military Strength of two for the defender. Rugged Terrain adds one to the Military Strength of defender.

Neutral province has a Military Strength equal to the value in the circle. This is adjusted upwards by 4 if there is a dragon there. Rugged Terrain does NOT add to Military Strength of a neutral province.

The player with the single highest Military Strength is the winner.

If you win as the invader then:

Remove Town/City/Citadel/Runestone/Dragon counter from province. Place one of your Town counters in province. You take the Province card. If card was in defender's hand then he draws a replacement card.

Adjust VP totals (including any VP counters gained). Any Castle or Road counters remain in place.

If you win as the defender nothing changes.

Finally, ALL Army counters are removed from the province.

Ship counters remain in place.

Buy armies and ships

Each Army counter costs one gold. Each Ship counter costs two gold. Move counter/s from pool to your Available stock. You may buy multiple counters.

Draft One Improvement Card

You can only perform this action ONCE per turn. Pay one gold. Select an Improvement card from the display or a card you previously removed from your deck.

Place cards into your Reserve

Place cards up to your limit into your Reserve. Limit is two plus one for each City/Citadel counter on the board. Cards must be visible. Retrieving cards is a free action, as long as they are used immediately. You can never take cards from your Reserve and add them back to your hand.

Discard cards

Discard one or more cards from your hand and/or Reserve.

Remove one or two cards from your deck

Select one or two cards from your hand and/or Reserve to remove from your deck. Place back where they came from. You cannot reduce your deck below seven cards.

Perform the action on a card

As described on the card.

Patronage

Only available if VP card on display. Pay two gold to take 1VP counter from card.

Pass

End the game

Must be your FIRST action. Four or more VP cards must be empty of VP counters. All outstanding wars are resolved (defender wins ties). Adjust and check VPs accordingly. You must end up the winner of the game or you cannot choose this action.

'Build' Action Card

Play the Province card where the action will be performed. Pay two stone to convert a town to a city. Pay one stone to place a castle (max. of one per province). Pay two stone to build road (three stone if over hills). Road counter placed across border between provinces you control (one of which must be the Province card you played). Take corresponding VP counter if available.

Provinces connected by a road network allow you to substitute one Province card for another and to move Army counters between them as a free action. You can only use a road if you control both provinces connected by it.