Nehemiah Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game components
• Aim of the game
• Preparation
• Sequence of play
  • Card column
  • 1. Send a worker to work
  • 2. Activate a worker standing on a work card
  • Replace column
  • General comments
  • Examples (with one column)
• End of round
• Game end
• Two-player game
• Variant: "Construction leaders"
  • Rule changes
  • The "construction leaders" variant for 2 players
  • Exceptional game situation
• Work cards - descriptions
• Construction leader cards - descriptions

Game components

• 3 influence boards: walls, temple, and guards
• 72 work cards divided into 3 decks
• 8 gate cards
• 15 construction leader cards
• 30 wood cubes
• 36 gold coins
• 28 worker pawns (7 in each of 4 player colors)
• 44 influence cubes (11 in each of 4 player colors)
• 4 player screens
• 36 victory point tokens (in denominations 1, 3, 5, 10)
• 1 starting player marker
• 1 construction leader reminder token

Aim of the game

Players want to score as many victory points as possible by placing their influence tokens in the temple, as guards, and on the wall, and also by building gates.

Preparation

1. Place the 3 influence boards next to each other as shown in the illustration.
2. The wooden cubes and gold coins should be placed in easy reach.
3. Each player chooses a color and takes 6 workers (or 7 in a 3-player game) and all influence cubes of that color and 2 wood cubes and 4 gold coins. Players keep their gold, wood and workers hidden behind their screens.
4. Depending on the number of players, prepare 3 decks of work cards: for 2 or 4 players, all cards are used, but for 3 players, discard all cards marked with the 3-player icon. Divide the cards into 3 decks, 1 for each round of the game (I, II, III), and shuffle each deck separately.
5. Deal the cards from deck I into columns below the boards as illustrated. Each column should have 4 cards. A 3-player game has 4 columns, and a 2- or 4-player game has 5 columns.
6. Place the gate cards face down near the boards, in the following order from top to bottom: 2 cards worth 2 victory points, 3 cards worth 3 victory points, and 3 cards worth 4 victory points.

The player who most recently read the Bible is the first player and receives the starting player marker. (Or players can decide by any other mutually agreeable method.) Let us begin rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem!

Sequence of play

This section describes the game for 3 or 4 players. Changes for 2 players appear later.

A player's turn consists of choosing 1 of these 2 possible actions:

1. send a worker to work;
2. activate a worker standing on a work card.

Players take turns in clockwise order.

Card column

A "card column" always means 4 cards in a column, one above the other. The first card of a column is immediately below the boards, and the last card is farthest from the boards.

1. Send a worker to work

The player takes an available worker from behind their screen and chooses a column. The worker goes onto the first unoccupied card (closest to the boards) in that column. (Therefore a column with all 4 cards occupied cannot be chosen.) If all columns are occupied, then this action cannot be chosen.

(In each player's first turn, they must do this action since they have no workers on cards yet.)

Example: In the starting player's first turn, they can choose any column and place a worker on its first card. The next player can choose any of the other columns and place a worker on its first card, or choose the same column as the starting player and place a worker on its second card.

2. Activate a worker standing on a work card

The player activates one of their workers already standing on a work card. The selected worker is then laid down to indicate that it is exhausted. Then the player may perform the action shown on the card (the player is never forced to perform the card's action). Work card descriptions appear at the end of the instructions.

After activating the selected worker (and optionally performing the action on the worker's card), the player can activate other work cards which:

• are in the same column above the just-used card, and
• have an exhausted worker.

To use such a card, the player must pay 1 coin:

• If the exhausted worker belongs to another player, then the coin is paid to that player,
• If the exhausted worker is the player's own worker, then the coin is paid to the bank.

Such cards with exhausted workers above the selected card can be activated in any order.

Replace column

If a player exhausts a worker on the lowest card of a column, then the column is replaced. This happens regardless of the status of other workers and whether other cards are occupied. The player activates the selected card and can also activate earlier cards in the column and Construction Leaders (see below) as usual before replacing the column. All 4 cards in the column are discarded and 4 new cards are drawn from the current round's deck. All workers from that column return to their owners.

General comments

If a player has no standing (not exhausted) workers on any work cards, then the player must place a new worker. If all cards are occupied, so that a player has no place to put a worker, then the player must activate one of their workers. If all of a player's workers are placed (or there is no place to place a worker) and all of the player's workers are exhausted, then the player passes.

If a player has no remaining influence cubes but an action lets them place influence on a board, then the player may take some of their already placed influence from a different board. Gold and wood are unlimited; if the bank runs out, new pieces can be improvised.

Whenever victory points are taken, they are moved from the bank to behind the player's screen. Players can make change with their victory point tokens at any time as needed.

Examples (with one column)

• The red player can activate a card which gives one wood or a card to build the wall. In both cases, the player can not activate any additional cards, because none of the workers in the column are exhausted. After activating the card, that card's worker is laid on its side, exhausted.
• Here, the red player can activate his own worker to use a wall-building card. If he uses this card, then afterward he can pay the blue player 1 coin to receive 2 coins from the bank. The player can also pay 1 coin to the bank and use his own card to gain 1 wood. These additional paid actions can be done in any order.
• Here, the blue player can activate a card to gain 2 gold coins. If she does, then next she can give 1 gold to the red player to gain 1 wood. The blue player can not pay to activate the wall-building card because it is lower than the card she activated.
• Here, the green player can activate his worker to gain 1 wood. After that, he can pay 1 gold to the blue player to gain 2 gold and / or pay 1 gold to the red player to gain 1 wood. He can not pay the red player to use the wall-building card because the worker there is not exhausted. Then the column is replaced, because green activated the worker on the lowest card of the column.

End of round

If there are no cards in the deck when a column must be replaced, then play is interrupted to score victory points.

The players will have their influence cubes on the 3 boards: wall, temple and on guard. This is done by using specific work cards.

Players will receive victory points based on their amount of influence in the temple, on the wall, and on guard. Each of these areas has a scoring table showing points earned each round. This depends on the number of players (see illustration). The player with the most influence in an area receives the highest score, the player with the second most influence receives the second highest score, and so on.

A player with no influence in an area receives no points from that area.

In case of a tie, add up the points for the tying players and divide it by the number of tying players, rounding up. If all players tie in an area, no points are awarded there.

After awarding points for an area, the player (or players) with the highest amount of influence there remove one of their influence cubes from that area. Then the column replacement is completed with cards from the next round's deck, and the game continues.

Examples:

• In a 3-player game Lukasz has 3 influence cubes in the temple, Ola has 2, and Bartek has none. Lukasz receives 4 points, Ola receives 2, and Bartek gets nothing, since he has no influence there. Lukasz removes 1 of his cubes from the temple.
• In a 4-player game, Bartek has 3 influence, Ola has 2, and Lukasz and Samuel each have 1 in the guard area. Bartek receives 6 points, Ola receives 4, and Lukasz and Samuel each get 1 (dividing the 3rd and 4th place awards). One of Bartek's cubes is removed from the guard area.

Game end

After the third round, when there aren't enough cards to replace a column, the game is almost over. Each player will now get 1 or 2 additional turns, in such a way that all players have the same total number of turns in the game. (The last turn will be made by the player to the right of the player with the starting player marker.) I.e. after the cards run out, each player takes a turn as usual until the starting player is reached, and then all players each make one more turn as usual, and then the game is over. After the last turn is taken, final victory points are awarded for influence on the 3 boards.

In addition, each player gains points for their collected gate cards (according to the value shown on each card). Each player also sells sets of 3 wood and sets of 2 gold back to the bank to receive 1 point for each set.

Example: The game is over. Lukasz has 5 wood cubes and 5 gold coins, so he gets 1+2=3 points for them.

The player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, wood owned is the tie-breaker. If there is still a tie, then gold owned is the second tie-breaker. If players tie in score, wood, and gold, then they remain tied.

Two-player game

The 2-player game is slightly different from the 3- and 4-player games. Each player gets workers in 2 colors, but only 1 color of influence cubes.

As in the normal game, each player chooses a color of screen, influence cubes and workers. Then each takes 6 workers (but not influence cubes) in an unused color and places these neutral workers near their screen.

Like the 4-player game, all cards are used and there are 5 columns of cards.

In a player's turn, the player chooses as usual whether to place a worker or activate an already placed worker.

1. If a player activates a worker, then the usual rules apply.
2. If a player places a worker (but only as part of this action!) then in addition the player places a worker of their other (neutral) color. a. The neutral worker is placed exhausted, lying down. b. It must be placed on the first unoccupied card in a column. c. The player chooses the column for the neutral worker, but it must be a different column from the column where the player's own worker was just placed. d. A neutral worker can never be placed on a column's 4th (last) card. e. The neutral worker must be placed, if possible. f. If the player can not place a neutral worker, then no neutral worker is placed.

To activate a work card with an exhausted neutral worker, a player pays 1 coin to the bank. All the other rules are the same as in the 3- and 4-player games.

Variant: "Construction leaders"

Rule changes

Game preparation: The shuffled deck of construction leader cards should be placed face down near the 3 round decks, along with the construction leader reminder token. Each player gets 3 wood cubes and 5 gold coins.

Auction for construction leaders: At the beginning of each round, players will be able to hire construction leaders. They will give one-time or ongoing bonuses to their owner in that round.

1. Draw and reveal construction leader cards until there are 1 more than the number of players.
2. The player starting that round begins the auction and chooses a leader card, pushing it forward from the other cards. In the first round, this will be the player with starting player marker. In later rounds it will be whichever player is about to take a turn in the new round. The chosen card is placed where everyone can see it.
3. All players take from behind their screens as many workers and wood and gold as they are willing to pay for that card, hiding their bid in their hands.
4. All players reveal their bids simultaneously. Whoever offered the largest sum of workers + wood + gold wins the auction. If there is a tie for the highest sum, then whoever offered the most workers wins the tie; if there is still a tie, then whoever offered the most wood. If the tie was unresolved, then the first tying player in clockwise order starting with the auction initiator wins the tie. A bid of 0 is legal and theoretically can win an auction.
5. The winning bidder pays their bid wood and gold to the bank. Their bid workers are placed in front of their screen, so those workers cannot be used in this round (see point 8 below about returning workers between rounds). The other players all return their bids to behind their screens. The won construction leader card goes face up in front of the new owner's screen, remaining there until used or until the end of the round.
6. The next player (in clockwise order after the one who started this auction) chooses the next construction leader card for auction, and the bidding process is repeated as before.
7. When all but one cards have been auctioned, players begin the new round. The unauctioned card is removed from the game. The new round is begun by the player who started the round's first auction. (I.e. in round I, the player with the starting player; in rounds II & III, the player sitting to the left of the player who did the last turn of the previous round.)
8. In Round II and III, players return their workers from the front of their screens to behind their screens and each player receives 1 wood cube and 1 gold coin from the bank. The construction leader reminder token can be placed on the construction leader deck to help remember to do this.

All construction leader cards are single-use and are discarded after use, except for certain cards with a symbol showing that they continue working until the end of the round. At the end of each round, players must discard all their construction leader cards. Descriptions of the construction leader cards appear at the end of the manual.

The "construction leaders" variant for 2 players

Players bid only with their own colored workers. Neutral workers can not be bid.

Exceptional game situation

In an exceptional situation - when players give away too many workers during the auctions - it can happen that every player must pass their turn because they have no available workers to place and all their placed workers are exhausted. In this case, discard the leftmost 2 columns of cards and deal out 2 new columns to replace them.

Strategy hint: Players should try to not to spend too many workers during the auctions. Otherwise a player will have limited options in the round.

Work cards - descriptions

Note: When a work card requires payment of several things (e.g. pay 2 gold to place 2 influence) a player using the card must pay the full cost and receive the full benefit; it is not possible to pay only partially (e.g. only 1 gold for 1 influence) for a partial benefit. The player must pay the card's entire cost for its full effect, or else pass.

• 1 wood / 2 wood - Take the indicated number of wood cubes from the bank and place the wood behind your screen.
• 2 gold / 3 gold - Take the indicated number of gold coins from the bank and put the gold behind your screen.
• Build a wall - Pay 1 or 2 of your wood cubes from behind your screen to the bank and then place that many (1 or 2) influence cubes onto the wall board.
• Build a gate - Pay 2 woods from behind your screen to the bank and take the top card from the gate deck. Gates give additional victory points at the end of the game.
• Guard training - Pay 1 or 2 pairs of wood + gold, then place that many (1 or 2) influence cubes onto the guard board.
• Temple sacrifice - Pay the indicated 1 or 2 gold, then place that many (1 or 2) influence cubes onto the temple board.
• Wood supply - Pay 1 gold to receive 3 wood cubes from the bank.
• Refresh workers - Stand 1 or 2 of your exhausted workers upright. They are ready to be activated again. You cannot refresh a worker whom you just exhausted in this turn.
• Use 1 or 2 occupied work cards - Use 1 or 2 occupied work cards. As usual, a gold coin must be paid to the bank or to the owner of the worker on the card to activate a card. This activation is special because:
  • The worker on the card can be exhausted or ready;
  • the activated card can be anywhere in any column.

Construction leader cards - descriptions

Construction leader cards are identified in the original by timing symbols and icons, which are not reproduced here; descriptions are listed as printed.

A card with this symbol has its effect applied immediately after the card is bought in auction:

• Put 1 influence cube on the wall and 1 influence cube on the temple. Draw 1 gate card.
• Spend any number of workers paired with wood or gold to gain 2 victory points for each such discarded pair. The spent workers go in front of your screen and return at the end of the round. Spent wood and gold goes to the bank.

A card with this symbol works until the end of the round. Its benefit applies only to the player who bought it in auction, even if an opponent uses a worker of the card's owner or directs the turn of the card's owner. The owner also benefits when using another player's worker or a neutral worker.

• Take 1 additional wood every time you use a card which gives you wood.
• Take 1 additional gold every time you use a card which gives you gold.

A card with this symbol is applied just before scoring at the end of the round.

• You can move 1 influence cube (of any player) from its board to a different board.

A card with this symbol can be used at any moment, even during another player's turn (before or after, but not during, an opponent's action), or immediately after a column is replaced.

• Play this card immediately after a column is replaced (and only then) to swap 2 cards in the new column.
• Place a new worker any time according to the usual placement rules.
• You receive 1 victory point for each column where you have an exhausted worker.

A card with this symbol can be used before or after doing your action in your turn.

• Swap any 2 workers on work cards. The workers remain in their states (exhausted or ready).
• Move one of your ready (standing) workers to any unoccupied card, even a card with unoccupied cards above it.

A card with this symbol is used instead of doing a normal action in your turn.

• You place 2 workers in accordance with the usual placement rules this turn. They can go to the same column or different columns.

• You activate 2 workers this turn.

• Activate an opponent's worker instead of your own worker. You receive all the benefits from the activated card, and you can activate earlier cards in the column according to the usual payment rules.

• This card works in an unusual way. Before another player's turn, you may declare that you will do that player's turn. Doing another player's turn, you can:

  • say on which card the player must place a worker, or
  • say which worker the player must activate.

  In case of activation, the worker's owner receives the card's benefit and also decides whether to pay money for activating earlier cards in the column.