Nucleum
Nucleum Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
1 double-sided main board, 1 side board, 4 player boards, 1 VP flag token, 4 VP tokens (100/200), 50 action tiles (including 20 base action tiles with dots), 2 special action tiles (for Experiment B), 50 contract tiles (4 initial, 13 silver, 18 gold, 15 purple), 3 mining rubble tiles, 3 turbine rubble tiles, 5 urban rubble tiles, 10 neutral urban building tiles, 4 power plant standees, 46 achievement tokens, 65 thaler tokens, 8 milestone tiles, 4 nucleum tokens, 13 coal import wagon tiles, 1 coal power plant standee, 24 uranium cubes, 4 general player aids, 13 setup cards, 5 endgame condition markers, 1 first player marker. Per experiment (×4): 1 experiment board, 1 turbine effect tile, 1 experiment player aid, 5 starting action tiles, 8 technology tiles. Per player color (×4): 6 milestone markers, 18 worker meeples, 4 turbine tokens, 3 income markers, 12 urban building tiles (4 residences, 4 factories, 4 laboratories), 4 mine tiles (2× size 2, 2× size 3), 1 victory point marker.
Uranium, thaler, achievement tokens, and milestone markers are unlimited (substitute if needed). All other components are strictly limited.
Goal of the Game
You are an industrialist during the boom fueled by the Nucleum (a nuclear reactor) and its power-generating capabilities. Strive to earn VP by building and powering Urban Buildings, securing Contracts, and meeting milestones dictated by King Frederik Augustus.
Gameplay and Turn Structure
Gameplay is continuous—players take turns one after another with no rounds or phases, starting with the first player and moving clockwise. On your turn, you must do one of:
- A. Play an Action tile from your pool to the leftmost free slot at the top of your player board, then resolve one or both actions shown. You may complete one Contract before or after either action. (Not allowed if there are no free slots or no tiles in your pool.)
- B. Play an Action tile as a Railway to an empty railway space on the main board, placing a Worker on it. Then you (and possibly other players) resolve actions based on color matches. (Not allowed with no suitable tile or no available Worker.)
- C. Perform a Recharge to gain income and retrieve all Action tiles from the top of your player board (may trigger a King's Day Scoring).
Play continues until two (or three in a 2-player game) of the five endgame conditions are triggered.
Gaining Resources
Thaler and Achievement tokens are gained from and spent to the common supply; Workers from your personal supply. You may always spend 1 Worker to gain 1 Thaler (not vice versa); if you must gain a Worker with none in reserve, gain 1 Thaler instead. Uranium is typically gained when building a Mine—whenever you gain Uranium, either place it on one of your Mines or spend it to gain 1 Worker (you may always spend 1 Uranium for 1 Worker).
Whenever you gain an income advancement (Thaler, Workers, VP), move the corresponding Income marker right on your player board. If it is already on the last space, receive 1 VP instead per advancement you couldn't gain.
Elements of the Map
Cities have a color (green, white, orange, purple, and multicolored Praha) and contain urban sites (black squares, for Buildings), mining sites (black hexagons, for Mines storing 2–3 Uranium), turbine spaces (black circles), and power plants. Red sites indicate a higher construction cost. Nearly all power plants (except Riesa) have a space for a Nucleum and up to five Turbine spaces.
Between cities are links of up to three connected empty railway spaces. Placing Action tiles on them creates railways that transport Coal and Uranium and relay electricity. A link becomes a completed rail line when it has no empty railway spaces; a completed rail line is owned equally by every player with at least one railway in it (shown by their Worker). Completing a rail line of more than one railway grants an inauguration reward to participants.
A network is one or more cities connected by completed rail lines. A city belongs to your network if it is adjacent to your railway, connected to a completed rail line with at least one railway you own, or contains your building. Network size is the number of cities in the group. Networks matter when constructing Buildings, Mines, or Turbines.
There are two coal production areas (Ruhr and Silesia) outside the map, connected to cities via long-distance rails (usable only for importing coal; not owned and cannot create networks). Coal, Uranium, and electricity can be transported between cities using completed rail lines owned by any player.
Playing an Action Tile
Place the tile on the leftmost empty slot at the top of your player board, then resolve both depicted actions in any order (any action may be skipped). A Special Directive tile (your black-background Starting Action tile with no railway tracks) instead performs exactly one of the 5 main actions (Urbanize/Industrialize/Develop/Contract/Energize) with a 1 Thaler discount.
Before, between, or after your actions, you may fulfill one Contract per turn (any on the right side of your player board, or one of the three Purple Contracts on the side board—Purple Contracts do not get replaced). Meet its requirements, gain its benefits, and flip it face down into your player area (freeing that Contract spot if from your board). Tiles at the top of your player board remain until you Recharge.
Placing a Railway Tile
- Place an Action tile on a link (adjacent to a city and/or railway), facing any direction, and place a Worker to mark ownership.
- Resolve any action(s) with a color match.
- Check if the rail line is completed; if so, gain the inauguration reward (if any), then flip the tile(s) face down.
You may never place a Special Directive tile as a railway. Placing on a red railway space costs 2 Thaler first.
Color matches: Each tile shows two actions and has two colored edges (multicolored = wildcard). An action creates a color match if it is adjacent to a city of the same color; is a wildcard adjacent to any city; is adjacent to Praha (matches every color); or is adjacent to another tile where both adjacent actions share a color (or one/both is a wildcard—the adjacent action on the other tile is also matched, even another player's). An action adjacent to an empty railway space never matches. (Think of the tiles as dominoes.) Placing a tile can resolve between 0 and 4 actions; other players resolve their matched actions after you, in clockwise order (lost if they can't at that time).
Completing a rail line of two or more spaces grants the inauguration reward (a VP income-track advancement) to all players with Workers in it; some links reward per railway you own, others once. Then flip all railways in the link face down. Tiles placed on the map remain there for the whole game.
Main Actions Explained
Urbanize: Place an Urban Building. Take a tile from your player board, paying the cost to the left of its row (2 Thaler first row, 3 second, etc.), and place it on an empty urban site within one of your networks. Building on red sites costs +2 Thaler. Regular sites must show the Building type's icon. Friendly placement restriction: if possible, place in a single-type space in the chosen city (red sites are exempt). The level-IV Building of each type is a Government building, placeable in a space showing its icon or a Government icon.
Industrialize: Place Mines and Turbines. Take one from your player board, paying its row cost (1 Worker first row, 2 second, etc.), onto a corresponding space within a network. Turbines go on power-plant turbine spaces (unlock ongoing abilities; buildable regardless of a Nucleum). Mines go on mining sites—when placed, gain Uranium equal to the number of Mines you have (including this one), +1 if the site shows the bonus. Red spaces cost +2 Thaler. Building a connected Turbine-Mine pair grants the reward on the connecting line.
Develop: Gain additional Action tiles. Buy one tile from the market, paying its Thaler cost (0–2); you may pay an extra 2 Thaler to buy a second. Then slide remaining tiles right and refill from the draw pile (if empty, refill from a reserve pile; if none, an endgame condition triggers).
Contract: Take one Silver or Gold Contract from the offer, place it on an empty Contract space on your player board, and receive that space's reward (Thaler, Worker, Uranium, or Achievement tokens; doubled if the tile shows the icon). If you have no empty Contract space, you can't take this action. Refill the offer with a Contract of the same color (or the other color, or leave empty). Purple Contracts cannot be taken with this action.
Energize: Power up Buildings. Select a power plant; transport coal and/or Uranium via completed rail lines; determine electricity produced; select a connected Urban Building (yours or Neutral, on its unenergized side) whose requirement is ≤ your electricity; receive Achievement tokens equal to the requirement plus the tile's printed benefits; flip the Building to its energized side. Electricity: 1 per coal, 2 per Uranium (limited by Turbines—1 by default plus 1 per Turbine present; pay 1 Thaler per other player's Turbine used), plus electricity from the used Action tile, your Turbines, and active Technologies. Importing coal flips a Coal Import Wagon (price rises toward a max of 3 Thaler). Transporting Uranium requires a Nucleum at the plant and Mines connected via completed rail lines; transported Uranium is spent. Energized Buildings in Praha score double at game end.
Subsidize actions (small actions on tiles, not usable with a Special Directive): gain 2 Thaler or 1 Worker; advance an income marker; gain an Achievement token; etc.
Gaining Technologies
When you gain a Technology reward (via Contracts or energizing Laboratories), immediately either unlock a single Technology of level ≤ the reward's level (slide its tile into its slot on the Experiment board) or gain VP equal to the reward's level. Three types: Immediate (blue, one-time, resolve entirely or forfeit), Ongoing (brown, a trigger and a benefit/modifier applied whenever the condition is met), and Ultimate goal (purple, the 8th Technology scores end-game VP if its condition is met). Unlocking all 8 Technologies is an endgame condition.
Recharge
Recharging lets you gain income, place a Milestone marker, and retrieve all top-of-board Action tiles. In order:
- Gain income (Thaler, Workers, VP) from your income tracks—the highest value both left of the marker and under an Action tile (the top two tracks also grant VP as you advance).
- Place a Milestone marker on the Milestone track (gain rewards; if a Milestone space becomes empty, perform a King's Day Scoring).
- Discard all Achievement tokens you've collected.
- Retrieve all tiles from the top of your player board to your pool (face up).
Placing a Milestone marker: Determine your total Achievement-token value; choose an Achievement space with value ≤ that total (one marker per tier). If all eligible tiers are full or your total is zero, place on the "0" space and gain the bailout bonus (2 Thaler and 1 Worker; but −3 VP per "0" marker at game end). Placing in a segment with a Nucleum lets you place that Nucleum on a power plant for a bonus. Placing in the topmost segment gains a level-3 Technology; on the topmost space (40 tokens), immediately gain 9 VP.
King's Day Scoring (when the first, second, or third Milestone space becomes empty): the owner of the highest Milestone marker scores 6 VP; the second-highest scores 2 VP (ties share; you can score both, up to 8 VP; "0"-space markers are ineligible). Emptying the last Milestone space is an endgame condition.
Endgame Conditions & End of the Game
Endgame is triggered when two (three in a 2-player game) of these five conditions are met:
- The Action tile draw piles are empty.
- Both the Silver and Gold Contract draw stacks are empty.
- All players have recharged at least 3 times (no Milestone markers remain on the Milestone spaces).
- At least one player has unlocked all 8 Technologies (only the first player can meet this).
- At least one player has reached 70 VP (only the first to do so).
When a condition is met, the player who met it first moves the leftmost Endgame Condition marker onto that condition's space and scores 3 VP. After the end is triggered, continue until each player has taken an equal number of turns, then each plays one more turn, then proceed to Final Scoring.
Final Scoring
- Any leftover Achievement tokens may place a final Milestone marker (no King's Day Scoring, Nucleum placement, Technologies, or income; still one marker per tier).
- Milestones: For each Milestone marker, score 1 VP per time you meet its segment's Milestone tile condition, × its tier's multiplier. Each "0"-space marker: −3 VP.
- Ultimate Goal Technology: If you unlocked your 8th Technology, score it.
- Energized Buildings: Score the depicted VP for each (Praha doubles). Government Buildings score their indicated amount for all Buildings of the shown type in the same network (including others' and unenergized ones).
- Income track bonuses: Score 3/6/10 VP for each income track with its marker on one of the last three spaces.
- Leftover resources: 1 VP per 2 Uranium in your Mines, 2 Workers in your supply, and 5 Thaler in your player area (you may still convert first).
The player with the most VP wins; ties share the victory.
Appendix Notes
Praha does not count as a city of any color for fulfilling Contracts. Urban Buildings with 2 icons count for Contracts/Milestones requiring both, but count as only 1 Urban Building otherwise. Contracts are minimum requirements. The game includes Initial, Silver, Gold, and Purple Contracts (each granting VP, Technologies, Uranium, Workers, or Thaler for meeting a stated board condition), and each Experiment's eight Technologies (immediate, ongoing, and an ultimate-goal Technology). See the physical appendix for the complete list of Contracts and Technologies.