Orichalcum Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Overview
• Setup
  • Island Difficulty Level
• Game Flow
• On a Player's Turn
  • 1. Select an Action Card (mandatory)
  • 2. Place their Terrain Tile (mandatory)
    • On a Player's First Turn - The Metropolis Tile
    • Creatures
    • Reaching a Port
    • Drawing the Attention of a Titan
    • Titans Favors
    • Multiple Titans
  • 3. Resolve their Action Card (optional)
    • Produce Orichalque
    • Recruit Hoplites
    • Capture Creatures
      • Result of a Fight
    • Construct
      • Building
      • Temple
      • Orichalque medallion
  • 4. Perform an Additional Action (optional)
  • 5. Discard an Action Card (ONLY WITH 2 PLAYERS)
• End of a Round
• End of Game and Victory

Game Components

• 1 Construction board
• 4 Island boards, with a different level of difficulty on each side
• 17 Victory tokens, with a Temple on one side and an Orichalque medallion on the other
• 17 Temple tiles
• 4 Titan tiles, with an Active side and an Inactive side
• 12 Action cards
• 65 Terrain tiles: 25 single circles, 23 double circles and 17 triple circles
• 4 Metropolis tiles
• 20 Creature pawns, with their plastic bases
• 26 Building tokens (Front / Back)
• 4 combat dice
• 30 Hoplites
• 30 Orichalque nuggets
• 1 Initiative pawn, with its plastic base
• 1 Creatures bag
• 1 Buildings bag
• 1 Actions board

Overview

The first player to have both reached 5 Victory points and pacified their island wins the game!

Orichalque is a race… against your opponents. Whoever will be first to have collected 5 Victory points above their board and eliminated all the Creatures on their island will be the winner! There are three ways to earn victory points: draw the attention of Titans, erect Temples and forge precious Orichalque medallions - that legendary metal that only the Atlantes know how to extract.

You start each of your turns by selecting an Action card among the ones still available at the center of the table. This choice comes with two consequences: it determines both which Terrain tile you will place on your island, and which action you will be allowed to perform this turn.

Terrain tiles represent the exploration of your island. The types of Terrains determine your ability to construct Buildings and Temples, so their placement can be crucial. Moreover, creating groups of Terrains of a same type allows for drawing the attention of a Titan… and profiting of their powerful Favor. Some Terrains, Volcanoes, come into play with hostile mythological creatures. Capturing them will earn you their loot, able to tilt the game balance in your way. This comes with the cost of having to confront them in fights, with an uncertain outcome. Not to mention that you can not win for as long as there remains any single Creature on your island.

The 4 existing actions will be of precious help for achieving victory. Capturing Creatures will be needed to get rid of them on your island. Recruiting Hoplites will increase both your power during fights and your choices for selecting your Action card. Constructing will either earn you victory points through forging Orichalque medallions and erecting Temples, or help you develop the abilities of your civilization through the buildings that you construct. Lastly, Producing Orichalque will be needed if your plans for victory include forging some precious Orichalque medallions!

Board reference (right of the Island board): Hoplites stock, Orichalque stock, Creatures stock.

Setup

Each player randomly picks an Island board and places it in front of them, on the side of their choice. They take a Metropolis tile, that they will have to place on their island at the start of their first turn. They also receive 1 Hoplite and 1 Orichalque nugget, that they place in their stocks, on their board.

Shuffle the Terrain tiles into 3 distinct face down piles, depending on their size: 1, 2 or 3 circles. Assemble all Creature pawns on their bases, then put them into the Creatures bag. Place this bag on a side of the play area.

Place the Actions board at the center of the table. Shuffle the Action cards into a face down pile, next to the Actions board. Reveal cards from this pile to fill the Actions board spots, from left to right, depending on the number of players in the game: 5 with two or three players, 6 with four players. On each of these Action cards, now reveal a Terrain tile from the matching size. For each Volcano circle on these revealed tiles, draw a Creature pawn from the bag and place it on the Volcano.

Place the Construction board next to the Actions board. Shuffle all the Building tokens into the Buildings bag and place it right aside. Reveal one Building token on each of the 4 spots of the Construction board. Put 1 Orichalque nugget on each Mine and 1 Hoplite on each Training Camp revealed that way. Place the Victory tokens and the Temple tiles on the matching corners of the Construction board.

Display the 4 Titan tiles, active side up next to the Actions board. All remaining Orichalque nuggets and Hoplites form a general supply. Place the 4 combat dice aside.

The first player is randomly determined. They take the Initiative pawn and the player directly on their right is granted 1 Hoplite from the general supply, for them to add to their Hoplites stock.

Island Difficulty Level

Each board proposes two different islands, depending on its side, based on the number of skull icons shown on the lower right corner. The single-skull side is easier and ideal for your first plays. The double-skull face offers a higher challenge. We recommend that you play several games of Orichalque before opting for it. These two difficulty levels also allow for re-balancing games between players of different levels, as some participants can choose to play with the single-skull side while others opt for the double-skull side.

Game Flow

A game splits into an undefined amount of successive rounds. During a given round, players go through their turn one after the other, going clockwise and starting with the one holding the Initiative pawn. The active player goes through their whole turn, before the next player goes through theirs. And so on until all players have played their turn. Further rounds are played until a player both totals 5 Victory Points AND has captured all Creatures on their island. That player instantly wins the game!

On a Player's Turn

On their turn to play, a player goes through the following phases, in that order:

1. Select an Action card (mandatory)
2. Place their Terrain tile (mandatory)
3. Resolve their Action card (optional)
4. Perform an additional action (optional)
5. Discard an Action card (ONLY WITH 2 PLAYERS)

Once all the phases have been fulfilled, turn goes to the next player. When all players have played their turn, the current round ends and players start a new one.

1. Select an Action Card (mandatory)

The player picks the Action card of their choice, among the ones that are still available on the Actions board. The two leftmost Action cards can be picked for free. The next ones cost either 1 or 2 Hoplites, as indicated on the Actions board. To be allowed to pick such card, the player must be able to spend that required amount of Hoplites, by taking them off their stock to put them back into the general supply. The player takes the card that they pick in front of them, with everything that this card carries: the Terrain tile, plus any Creature pawn placed on it. They then fill the space that they just created on the Actions board by sliding one step to the left each of the cards standing to the right of the one they picked. This makes those cards now cheaper for the next players to pick!

By selecting an Action card, a player chooses one Terrain tile that they will put into play during phase 2, AND an action to perform on phase 3.

Example: Bruno picks the card placed in third position. He spends 1 Hoplite that he puts back into the general supply, then he takes the card in front of him. He gets at the same time everything that had been placed on that Action card: the Terrain tile, plus the Creature pawn placed on top of it. He then slides the cards to the left, so that the emptied space is filled.

2. Place their Terrain Tile (mandatory)

During that phase, the player must place the Terrain tile that they just got with their card. They have to respect the 3 following rules:

1. The Terrain tile must entirely fit into the island.
2. It can not be laid on top of any already occupied circle, whether it is by another Terrain tile, a Building token, a Creature pawn or a Temple.
3. It must be adjacent to at least one other Terrain tile, or to their Metropolis tile (see the box below).

If it is impossible for the player to place their tile according to all of these rules, they put the Terrain tile at the bottom of the corresponding pile and directly move on to the next phase.

Example: Johannes has to place a double circle Terrain tile. He has several valid choices, indicated in green.

On a Player's First Turn - The Metropolis Tile

At the start of the game, islands are empty and players must first of all install their Metropolis. These tiles will be each player's starting point. They also provide players with their first Training Camp for recruiting Hoplites and their first Mine for producing Orichalque nuggets.

At the very start of their first turn, even before placing their first Terrain tile, the active player must place their Metropolis tile on their board. It must be laid on any one of the 3 ports on the island, that feature icons and are pointed towards by an arrow. The player immediately earns from the supply the resources (Hoplites or Orichalque nuggets) depicted on the port on which they chose to start the game.

Example: Before his first turn, Bruno places his Metropolis tile on the port located in the North of their island. He immediately gains 1 Hoplite and 1 Orichalque, and stores them in his stocks.

Creatures

Volcano circles featured on the Terrain tiles always come with a Creature occupying them. When a player picks a tile with a Volcano, they have to place it on their island with its Creature on top of it. To get rid of it, they will have to fight and capture it later on.

One of the conditions for a player to win the game is to have pacified their whole island, in other words: having no Creature left on it at all. Moreover, Creatures make it impossible for a player to construct Buildings or Temples on any square surrounding them.

When a player lays their Terrain tile on their island, 2 particular cases can occur.

Reaching a Port

Each island features 3 Port circles, each indicated by an arrow. As soon as a player places a Terrain tile over a Port on their island, they earn from the general supply the resources (Hoplites or Orichalque) depicted on the Port that they just covered. Those bonuses can be earned only once per game, at the very moment the player lays a tile on the Port.

Example: By laying his Terrain tile over this port, Bruno immediately gains 2 Hoplites.

Drawing the Attention of a Titan

Whenever a player creates or expands an area of at least 3 circles of the same type, they draw the attention of the Titan that is directly linked to that type of Terrain.

• Theia is the Titan of the forests
• Themis is the Titan of the lagoons
• Cronos is the Titan of the deserts
• Hyperion is the Titan of the mountains

The player takes the corresponding Titan tile, from wherever it may currently be, and places it, Active face up on the leftmost available spot above their Island board. This tile counts as 1 Victory Point and provides the ability of using that Titan's Favor later on in the game (see the dedicated box below).

Example: By placing his tile this way, Johannes forms an area of 4 deserts. He immediately takes the Cronos Titan tile and places it above his board.

The attention that a Titan offers to a given player is ephemeral. It can move from a player to another through the course of the game. Each Titan tile goes to the player who most recently created or expanded an area of at least 3 circles of the corresponding type. This means that it is even possible to steal a Titan tile from another player while they actually possess a bigger area of that same type.

Titans Favors

Each Titan provides the player who drew their attention with a Favor, linked to one of the four game actions (see phase 3). Holding a Titan's tile opens the opportunity for the player to use the Favor indicated on the tile once, while they take the corresponding action. They then flip that Titan tile to its Inactive side, to indicate that the Favor has already been used and is no longer available. That Titan tile is still worth 1 Victory Point for the player holding it.

Using a Titan's Favor provides no additional action. The player must already be performing the corresponding action to be allowed to use a Favor. If a player creates or expands an area of at least 3 circles of the type linked to a Titan that they already hold, they flip it to its Active side. From now on they can re-use its Favor. Even when a player directly takes a Titan tile from an opponent, they get that tile on its Active side.

• Theia offers an additional construction.
• Themis doubles a recruitment of Hoplites.
• Cronos allows for automatically defeating a Creature.
• Hyperion doubles a production of Orichalque nuggets.

Example: Bruno has Hyperion's Favor Active, and he selected a Produce Orichalque action at the start of his turn. He triggers Hyperion's Favor to double the production of each of his Orichalque Mines. That earns him 4 Orichalque nuggets instead of 2. He then flips Hyperion to its Inactive side.

Multiple Titans

A player can not hold more than one Titan at any given time. If they are already holding a Titan tile when they get a new one, they take that new tile wherever it currently is, and must replace the previous Titan tile that they had with that new one. That previous Titan is then placed Active face up at the center of the table again.

Example: Johannes assembles 3 Forest circles, drawing the attention of Theia, the Forest Titan. He takes its tile in front of him. As he was already holding the Hyperion tile, he has to put Hyperion back, active face up at the center of the table.

Though it is impossible to hold more than one Titan tile at a time at the beginning of the game, the Oratory - one of the Buildings in the game - allows for bypassing this restriction.

Holding a Titan is worth 1 Victory point, but this can be ephemeral, as there is always the risk that an opponent takes it away from you. So, drawing the attention of a Titan can also be a good way to slow down a player that would be about to win the game.

3. Resolve their Action Card (optional)

During this phase, the player can perform the action indicated on their Action card. They are never forced to, though. Once the player has performed their card action, that card is discarded face up next to the Action cards draw pile.

There are 4 different actions:

• Produce Orichalque
• Recruit Hoplites
• Capture Creatures
• Construct

Produce Orichalque

The player produces 1 Orichalque nugget for each Mine that they have on their island, including the one on their starting Metropolis tile. They take the Orichalque nuggets from the general supply and add them to their Orichalque stock.

Example: Bruno produces Orichalque. He has 3 Mines (counting the one from his Metropolis), so he gets 3 Orichalque nuggets from the supply.

Titan's Favor: Hyperion doubles the production of all Mines on the player's island.

Recruit Hoplites

The player recruits 1 Hoplite for each Training Camp that they have on their island, including the one on their starting Metropolis tile. They take the Hoplites from the general supply and add them to their Hoplites stock.

Example: Johannes recruits Hoplites. He has 2 Training Camps (counting the one from his Metropolis), so he gets 2 Hoplites from the supply.

Titan's Favor: Themis doubles the recruitment capacity of all Training Camps on the player's island.

Capture Creatures

The player fights the Creatures on their island, one after the other, in the order of their choice. Each time, they go through the following steps:

1. Target a Creature on their island.
2. Choose how many Hoplites to involve in that fight, by placing Hoplites from their stock onto the targeted Creature's circle. It is possible to involve 0 to 3 Hoplites in each fight.
3. Take 1 combat die, plus 1 additional die for each Hoplite involved in that fight. Hence, the maximum amount of dice that can be taken for a fight is 4.
4. The player rolls the combat dice that they took, and compares the result with the strength of the Creature that they are fighting. If the sum obtained on the dice is higher or equal to the strength of the Creature, they win the fight and capture that Creature. The player also wins if at least one of the rolled dice indicates a skull. In all other cases, the fight is lost.

Example: Bruno tries to capture Creatures on his island, starting with the Cyclops. As it has a strength of 10, he decides to involve 2 Hoplites in the fight, so that he's allowed to throw a total of 3 dice. He gets 5, skull, and 3. The total would not be high enough but the skull makes him win the fight. Bruno captures the Cyclops!

Titan's Favor: Cronos provides a skull result before rolling dice, ensuring automatic win in one fight.

Result of a Fight

In case of a victory… The player captures the Creature. They immediately gain the loot indicated on the Creature (see Creatures Loot on the corresponding player's aid). They then place that Creature in their Creatures stock. All Hoplites involved in the fight retire: they are put back into the general supply. The player has now the opportunity to start a new fight against another Creature on their island, if they want.

Example: As he just won the fight, Bruno captures the Cyclops and immediately earns the loot depicted on the Creature: 3 Orichalque nuggets. He places the Cyclops pawn in his Creatures stock. He is allowed to continue fighting, so he now targets the Hellhound to immediately start a further fight.

In case of a defeat… The ongoing Capture Creatures action immediately ends. So does phase 3 for that player. All Hoplites involved in that lost fight remain stuck on the Creature's circle. They will be counted again in any further fight against that Creature, within a further Capture Creatures action.

Example: As the Hellhound's strength is only 4, Bruno chooses to only involve 1 Hoplite, for a total of 2 dice. He gets 2 and 1, which means he loses the fight. That makes it impossible for him to continue fighting further Creatures. Bruno's phase 3 ends and he immediately moves to phase 4. His involved Hoplite remains on the Hellhound's circle.

Construct

The player constructs one element of their choice, among the three following ones: a Building, a Temple or an Orichalque medallion.

Building

The player picks one of the Buildings available on the Construction board and constructs it on their island. The Building token must be placed on a Terrain circle of the type indicated by the Construction board.

Empty volcanoes are wild, allowing for any available Building to be constructed on them. It is forbidden to construct a Building on a circle adjacent to a Creature.

Example: Johannes opts for a Building as his Construction. He can not construct on the circles surrounding the Gorgon. Neither can he construct on the deserts, because there is no corresponding available building left. He can either construct the Arch on the Mountain, or any of the 3 available Buildings on the Volcano.

If the player constructs a Training Camp or a Mine, they also take the resource placed on this building (Hoplite or Orichalque nugget) and add it to their stocks.

The circle covered by the Building is no longer considered as a Terrain. It is no longer possible to construct on that circle and it does not count anymore for drawing the attention of Titans.

Buildings abilities are detailed on the corresponding player's aid.

Temple

The player takes a Temple tile from the supply and places it on their island. The Temple tile must be fully placed on a diamond formed with 4 adjacent Terrains, all from a different type. Each empty Volcano is a wild that can count for any type of Terrain, so a temple can be placed on one or more of them. It is forbidden to construct a Temple on a circle adjacent to a Creature.

Example: Bruno wants to construct a Temple. The spot next to his Metropolis is not valid because of the Hydra, keeping him from constructing anything there. He then constructs his Temple above, covering the 2 Volcano circles, the Desert circle and the Mountain circle.

After constructing a Temple, the player takes a Victory token from the supply and places it, Temple face up on the leftmost available spot of their scoring area, above their board. This token is worth 1 Victory Point.

The circles covered by a Temple are no longer considered as Terrains. It is no longer possible to construct on those circles and they do not count anymore for drawing the attention of Titans.

Orichalque medallion

The player spends 5 Orichalque nuggets from their stock and forge an Orichalque medallion. They take 1 Victory token from the supply, that they place, medallion face up on the leftmost available spot of their scoring area, above their board. This token is worth 1 Victory point.

Titan's Favor: Theia allows the player to perform 1 additional construction of their choice: either a Building, a Temple or an Orichalque medallion.

4. Perform an Additional Action (optional)

Before ending their turn, the player can purchase one (and only one) additional action. The available actions are the same as explained on phase 3.

Costs for doing so are as follows:

• By spending 2 Hoplites, the player can: Capture Creatures, Construct, or Produce Orichalque.
• By spending 2 Orichalque nuggets, the player can: Capture Creatures, Construct, or Recruit Hoplites.
• By spending 2 captured Creatures, the player can: Capture Creatures, Construct, Produce Orichalque, or Recruit Hoplites. Spent Creatures are put back into the Creatures bag.

The player is allowed to perform the same action that they took on phase 3. They are allowed to purchase an additional action even if they renounced their action on phase 3.

5. Discard an Action Card (ONLY WITH 2 PLAYERS)

The active player must choose one card from the Actions board and place it into the discard pile. They put the Terrain tile back at the bottom of its corresponding pile. If it was holding a Creature, that pawn is put back into the Creatures bag.

End of a Round

Once all players have gone through their turn, the round ends. It is then time to prepare a new one.

Replenish the Actions board. Reveal a new Action card on each empty spot, from left to right, until there is the right amount: 5 cards with two or three players, 6 cards with four players. Whenever the Action cards draw pile is empty, shuffle all previously discarded cards into a new draw pile, then keep going.

Add the Terrain tiles. Reveal Terrain tiles of the matching size on each Action card that you just revealed. For each Volcano circle on these tiles, draw a Creature pawn from the bag and place it on the Volcano.

Replenish the Construction board. Reveal a new Building token from the bag on each empty spot of the Construction board. Do not forget to add 1 Hoplite on each Training Camp and 1 Orichalque nugget on each Mine that you reveal this way.

Assign the Initiative token. The player with the most Hoplites in their Hoplites stock takes the Initiative token (if they did not hold it already): they will go first during the next round. In case of a tie, the player currently holding the Initiative token decides who receives it. Whenever the current holder is involved in such a tie, that player can never choose to keep the token.

The player seated to the right of the one who just grabbed the initiative token earns 1 Hoplite from the general supply, to be added to their Hoplites stock.

A new round can then begin, starting with the player holding the Initiative token.

End of Game and Victory

The game ends as soon as a player meets the two following requirements:

• They have at least 5 victory points.
• There is no Creature left on their island.

That player immediately wins the game, without even having to go further into the current round. Their island is now ready to host the Atlantes Civilization, and they are celebrated as a hero!