Origo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Cards
• Ways to Score
• Game Board
• Score Board
• Setup
• Start of the Game
• Turn Structure
  • Expand
  • Attack
  • Migrate
  • Set Sail
• Creating States
• Attack
  • Example 1 – Attack
  • Example 2 – Expand
  • Example 3 – Migrate
  • Example 4 – Set Sail
• Chieftain Track
• Tribe Scoring
  • Clans
  • Fleet
  • States
• End of Game

Components

• 1 game board
• 5 tribe leaders
• 188 tribe shields: 46 red, 46 blue, 32 black, 32 green, 32 orange
• 98 cards
• 1 score board
• 12 "created state" markers (large)
• 1 action marker (small)
• 2 sets of condensed rules

Cards

The game uses five types of card. They allow a player to expand the tribe by placing shields on matching spaces on the board. Cards are also used for attacks.

• Row cards (26): Allow the player to place a shield on any free space in the row or rows shown on the card. (The card reads: "Place a shield on a free space in the row ...")
• Column cards (26): Allow the player to place a shield on any free space in the column or columns shown on the card. (The card reads: "Place a shield on a free space in the column ...")
• State cards (18): Allow the player to place a shield on any free space in the state shown on the card. (The card reads: "Place a shield on a free space in ...")
• Population growth cards (16): Allow the player to place a shield on any free space adjacent to a space where they already have a shield. (The card reads: "Place a shield on a free space adjacent to your shield.")
• Ship cards (12): Allow the player to place a shield on any free space at sea. (The card reads: "Place a shield on a free space at sea.")

Card rules:

• Shuffle the entire card set and deal 10 cards to each player.
• Look at your cards, but do not show them to the other players.
• Place the remaining cards face down beside the board as a draw pile.
• All played cards are placed face up in a discard pile.
• When the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile and use it as a new draw pile.

Ways to Score

1. Found states. The continent is divided into 12 states. If you place your tribe's shield on the last unoccupied space of a state, you have officially created it.
2. Form clans. If you have placed at least 3 of your shields on adjacent spaces, those shields form a clan. State borders do not affect clans, and shields at sea count too. In other words, for example, if you have two shields in Helvetia and one on an adjacent space in Dacia, those three shields form a clan. The bigger the clan, the better.
3. Set sail. The more shields you have at sea, the stronger your fleet.
4. Strengthen your tribe. The more shields you have in a state, the stronger your tribe is there.

Game Board

The continent is divided into 12 states. Spaces that lie next to each other are adjacent. Spaces that lie next to each other diagonally are not considered adjacent.

Score Board

The top of the score board holds the state track (the "created state" track), where the 12 "created state" markers are placed. Below it are the place for the current starting player, the place for the action marker, and the tracks for clan and fleet scoring. At the very bottom is the state scoring track.

Each player receives:

• 1 tribe leader
• tribe shields of one colour (each colour also has 2 extra shields):
  • 2 players: 44 shields each (red and blue)
  • 3 players: 30 shields each
  • 4 players: 25 shields each
  • 5 players: 22 shields each

Setup

• Place the game board and the score board side by side in the middle of the table.
• Place one "created state" marker on each space of the state track.
• Place the small white action marker on its space on the score board.
• Place two sets of condensed rules on the table so that players can consult them at any time.
• The chieftain track runs along the edge of the board. The youngest player places their tribe leader on the first of the five starting spaces. The player to their left places their leader on the second space, and so on. See "Chieftain Track" below.

Start of the Game

The youngest player starts the game, and the others play clockwise. Players take turns placing one of their shields on a free space on land or at sea. Only one shield may be on each space.

The game begins with each player taking a set number of shields from their supply and, on their turn, placing one shield on the board. The starting number of shields depends on the number of players:

• 2 players: 12 shields each
• 3 players: 8 shields each
• 4 players: 5 shields each
• 5 players: 4 shields each

During this phase, no more than 4 shields of one or several tribes may be placed in each large state with 8 spaces (Britain, Germany, the Baltic Countries, Gaul, Spain and Italy).

During this phase, no more than 2 shields of one or several tribes may be placed in each small state with 6 spaces (Belgium, Scandinavia, Poland, Helvetia, Dacia and Dalmatia).

When placing shields, remember to score points as described on page 2. Where to place shields is your choice: on land or at sea, next to each other or far apart. There are many ways to score points, so every game will play out differently.

Turn Structure

1. The game is played over a series of rounds.
2. The youngest player starts the game by placing one of their extra shields on the special space on the score board to show that they are the current starting player.
3. Players may expand, attack, migrate, or set sail. On their turn they may perform these actions in any order.

Expand

The player plays a card (row, column, state, population growth, or ship) to place one of their shields on a free space. A player may play 2 cards and expand twice if they have suitable cards and do not want to attack.

Attack

Once the game has reached the stage where states are created and the seas are filled, a player may use cards to attack another player's space, provided that space is part of a created state or a fully occupied sea area. A player may make two attacks if they have the necessary cards or do not want to expand. Details on attacks and created states are on page 6.

Reminder: if you have suitable cards, you may:

• expand and attack once each, or
• expand twice, or
• attack twice.

Migrate

The player moves one of their shields from land to a free, adjacent space (on land or at sea). A shield may jump over adjacent shields belonging to the player to reach the next free space. A player may migrate only once per turn. An example of migration is shown on page 8.

Note: instead of migrating, you may discard 2 of your cards and draw 2 cards from the deck. You first choose which 2 cards to discard, place them on the discard pile, and only then draw two new cards from the deck.

Set Sail

The player may move any number of their shields that are at sea. Each shield moves to a free, adjacent space (on land or at sea). A shield may jump over adjacent shields belonging to the player to reach the next free space. Each shield may set sail only once per turn. An example of sailing is shown on page 8.

The player decides for themselves whether to take all four actions. A player may take no action at all if, for example, they judge that any action would help the next player. If all players pass (decide to skip their turn) during a round, the game ends.

4. If at the end of a round a player has fewer than 10 cards, they draw from the deck until they again have 10. Played cards are placed face up in the discard pile.

Note: if an attack took place in the round and the attacked player defended with their cards, that player also draws cards from the deck.

5. Then the other players take their turns clockwise, carrying out steps 3 and 4.

Creating States

Over the course of the game, states are gradually filled with tribal shields.

If a player places a shield on the last free space in a state, they create that state.

After this, the player:

• takes the leftmost "created state" marker and places it on the state;
• moves their tribe leader along the chieftain track by as many steps as shown on the space just revealed on the state track;
• if the revealed creation space is red, then at the end of the round a tribe scoring takes place and all players receive points for their tribes.
  • If more states are created in the same round and another red creation space is revealed, then only one tribe scoring takes place at the end of this round, and the second takes place at the end of the next round. At the end of each round (including the last), there may be only one tribe scoring.
• If a state has a "created state" marker on it, it can no longer be created.

Attack

To get more room for their tribe, players may attack any adjacent spaces occupied by other players that are part of a fully occupied sea area or a created state. Remember that spaces lying diagonally are not considered adjacent to each other.

To attack, a player must have a card that allows them to place a shield on the space they want to attack. The more cards a player has for that space, the better their chances of success in the attack (see "Possible Attack Cards").

The attacking player takes the action marker from the score board and places it on the shield of the defending player on the space they are attacking.

The attacking player plays a card that allows them to attack.

The attacking player places one of their unused shields on the attacked space. If they wish (and are able to), they may play additional cards that fit the contested space.

The attacking player adds up their combat points (2 points for each card played plus 1 point for each of their shields on spaces adjacent to the attacked space). See "Attacker's Shields" on page 7.

The defending player adds up their combat points (1 point for each of their adjacent shields, including the shield under the action marker). See "Defender's Shields" on page 7.

• If the defender has the same number of combat points as the attacker (or more), the attacker loses, unless they can play another suitable card. Each card played gives 2 points.
• If the attacker has more points, the defender loses, unless they can play a suitable card. Each card played gives 2 points.

The battle continues until one side has no suitable cards left or no desire to play them.

If the attacker wins, the defending player removes their shield from the game (it is put in the box, not in the supply).

If the defender wins, the attacker removes their shield from the game.

The action marker is returned to its space on the score board, and all cards used in the battle are placed face up in the discard pile. (The attacking and defending players draw cards after the attacker has completed their turn.)

Example 1 – Attack

Poland is already created (it has a "created state" marker on it), so it may be attacked. It is the black player's turn and they want to attack space E7, which is occupied by orange. They place the action marker on E7. To attack, black must have one of the following cards:

Possible attack cards: the state card "Poland", column card 7, row card E, population growth card.

Since some cards repeat, a player may have several copies of the same card. All of them may be used to increase combat points.

The orange player also needs cards to strengthen the defence of their shield and space. The player who has more such cards has a greater chance of winning.

Attacker's shields: the black player has 2 shields (= 2 combat points) on spaces adjacent to E7: one on E8 in Dacia and one on F7 in Helvetia. Their shield on F8 does not count, because that space is diagonal to E7. Their shield on G7 does not count, because that space is not adjacent to E7.

Defender's shields: the orange player has 3 combat points: 1 point for the shield on the attacked space E7 (the shield is under the action marker), and 2 points for shields on adjacent spaces: one on D7 in Poland and one on E6 in Germany. Their shields on D6 and D8 do not count, because they are diagonal to the attacked space. Their shield on E5 does not count, because it is not adjacent to E7.

Example 2 – Expand

It is the green player's turn. They have two shields in the North Sea. Although other tribes are also present in that sea, it still has a few free spaces. Green plays a ship card to extend their tribe's presence in the North Sea and so increase the strength of their fleet. The player places a shield on B3.

Example 3 – Migrate

The blue player has shields on H6, H7, H8, H9 and I7. Red has shields on G6 and I8.

It is the blue player's turn. They want to strengthen their tribe in Italy, so they migrate there from Dalmatia. Blue moves the shield from H9 to H5, jumping over the adjacent shields on H8, H7 and H6. If the shield on H8 belonged to another player, blue would not be able to migrate.

Example 4 – Set Sail

It is the black player's turn. They want to strengthen their tribe in Gaul, so they send all their shields from the Mediterranean Sea and the Bay of Biscay to sail to Gaul.

First voyage – Mediterranean Sea: first, the black player moves two of their shields in the Mediterranean Sea. The shield on I3 must be moved first so that it does not stay isolated. Although the player cannot go straight to G3, because the green shield on H3 blocks the way, they can still reach G3 by a detour: jumping over their adjacent shields on I4, H4 and G4.

Second voyage – Mediterranean Sea: now the black player sends their shield from I4 to F4, jumping over the adjacent shields on H4 and G4.

Third voyage – Bay of Biscay: finally, they move their shield to F1 in the Bay of Biscay. By jumping over their shield on F2, they can land on F3 or G2, since both of these spaces are free and adjacent to their shield on F2.

Chieftain Track

When a player advances their leader along the track, they jump over the leaders of other tribes (but the spaces on which those leaders stand still count as steps).

For example, blue advances 3 steps along the track; black stands in front of blue, and red stands behind black. Blue stops on the space behind red.

Only one tribe leader may occupy each space. So if a player must end their movement on an occupied space, they move on to the next free space.

For example, the blue player must take 3 steps. Red stands on the third space ahead of blue, so blue moves on to the next free space. Since black stands behind red, blue moves to the space behind black.

Tribe Scoring

At the end of each round in which a state was created and a red creation space was revealed, a scoring takes place for every player. This means that every player who has not yet had a turn in this round receives their turn before the scoring.

If two red creation spaces are revealed in the same round, one scoring takes place at the end of that round, and the second at the end of the following round.

The four scoring tracks on the score board show the points awarded for:

• Track 1: creating states (the state track).
• Track 2: clans.
• Track 3: fleet.
• Track 4: states.

Only tracks 2, 3 and 4 are used in tribe scoring.

a. First, clans are scored. Place the action marker on the clan scoring track. b. After clan scoring, players advance their leaders along the track. c. The player with the most points advances their leader first. The player with the second-highest result advances their leader next, and so on. d. If several players have the same number of points, the current starting player advances their leader first (if they are one of these players). Then the other players advance their leaders clockwise. e. Next, fleet is scored. Place the action marker on the fleet scoring track and carry out steps b–d. f. Then states are scored. Place the action marker on the Britain space (BRI) of the state scoring track. Carry out steps b–d for Britain, and then for each of the remaining 11 states in the order shown on the track. g. Return the action marker to its space on the score board. h. The player whose leader marker stands furthest along the track decides who will be the starting player now. The player may choose themselves or any other player. i. If the starting player has changed, the former starting player hands over the shield lying on the starting player space to their predecessor, and the new starting player places one of their own shields there.

Clans

A clan consists of three or more shields on adjacent spaces (land and/or sea). The shields do not have to be on spaces of the same state. They may lie across the territory of different countries. For example, you have 2 shields in Helvetia and 1 shield on an adjacent space in Dacia. These three shields make up a clan. The bigger the clan, the better.

• The largest clan takes first place (8 points).
• The second-largest clan takes second place (6 points).
• The third-largest clan takes third place (4 points).
• The fourth-largest clan takes fourth place (2 points).
• The fifth-largest clan takes fifth place (1 point).

If you have several clans, you may score for each of them.

If several players have clans of the same size, each of them scores for the next lower place.

If one player has more than one clan of the same size, they score for that place multiplied by the number of clans.

Example (3 players): orange is the current starting player, followed by green and then blue.

Orange has the largest clan. For first place they receive 8 points and advance their tribe leader 8 steps along the track.

Second place is shared between clans of different tribes (orange and green); both move to third place and score third-place points. Orange again advances their leader, this time 4 steps. Green then advances their leader 4 steps.

Since two players competed for second place, there is no third place, and fourth place is contested.

Fourth place is contested by two clans of one tribe (blue), so blue receives 2×2 points for fourth place. They advance their leader 4 steps.

Since two clans competed for fourth place, there is no fifth place, so the next place is sixth.

Blue, with 3 shields, takes this place. But no points are awarded for sixth place.

Fleet

The more shields you have at sea, the stronger your fleet.

Players count the number of shields at sea. Each shield is worth 1 point. The total is the player's fleet.

The player with the strongest fleet receives 2 additional points. If several players have the same number of occupied spaces at sea, each of them receives 1 point.

The player with the second-strongest fleet receives 1 additional point. If several players share the second-largest number of occupied spaces at sea, they receive no points.

Example (4 players): red is the current starting player, followed by green, blue and black.

Red receives 7 points for 7 of their shields at sea, plus 2 additional points for the strongest fleet. They advance their leader 9 steps along the track.

Green and blue each receive 2 points, since each has 2 shields at sea. Both claim the second-strongest fleet, so neither receives the additional points. Green advances their leader 2 steps, and blue then does the same.

Black receives 1 point for their shield in the Mediterranean Sea. They receive no additional points and advance their leader 1 step.

States

The more shields you have in a state, the stronger your tribe is there.

Points for each state are awarded separately, in the order shown on the board, i.e. from Britain to Dalmatia.

The player with the most shields in the current state receives the first point value shown on that state's space.

The player with the second-most shields in the current state receives the second point value shown on that state's space.

The player with the third-most shields in the current state receives the third point value shown on that state's space.

If all spaces in a created state belong to one player, that player gains dominance there. They receive the first point value shown on that state's space, plus 2 additional points.

Resolving ties: if several players claim a place, each of them receives the next lower point value. For example:

• If several players claim first place, each of them receives the second point value shown on that state's space.
• If several players claim second place, each of them receives the third point value shown on that state's space.
• If several players claim third place, they receive no points.

Example state 1 – Baltic Countries: red has 3 shields and green has 2. Red receives 4 points, since they have the most shields in the Baltic Countries. Green has the second-most shields in the Baltic Countries, so green receives 2 points.

Example state 2 – Scandinavia: green and blue each have 2 shields, and red has 1. In this 3-player game red is the current starting player, followed by green and blue. Green and blue have the same number of shields in Scandinavia. Since two players claim one place, each receives the second value (2 points). Green advances their leader first, followed by blue. Since two tribes claimed first place, there is no second place, so third place is resolved next, and red takes it. Red receives 1 point and advances their leader along the track.

Example state 3 – Belgium: blue has shields on all four spaces in Belgium. Blue gains dominance over Belgium. Since they have the most shields, they receive 2 points plus another 2 points for dominance. The player advances their leader 4 steps along the track.

End of Game

The game ends when:

• the last "created state" marker is placed on the board, or
• one player places their last shield on the board, or
• all players, one after another, pass on their turn.

All players who have not yet had a turn in this round may take their turn.

After the last round ends, the final tribe scoring takes place. If a player's leader passes the 100 mark, they simply continue along the track. For example, if they finish their move on 10, the player receives 110 points.

The winner is the player whose leader has travelled furthest along the track.