Orléans
Orléans Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Large Game Board
- 1 Small "Beneficial Deeds" Board
- 4 Player Boards
- 4 Followers Bags
- 4 Merchant Tokens
- 40 Trading Stations
- 28 Wooden Cubes
- 104 Character Tiles
- 90 Goods (24 Grain, 21 Cheese, 18 Wine, 15 Wool, 12 Brocade)
- 16 Technology Tiles
- 14 Citizen Tiles
- 47 Coins
- 20 Place Tiles
- 18 Hour Glass Tiles
- 2 Overview Cards
- 1 Start Player Token
Goal of the Game
You are trying to achieve dominance in various areas in medieval France. You will get goods, coins, and victory points via production, trade, development, and by committing to the common good.
Course of Play
The youngest player receives the Start Player Token. The game is played over 18 rounds, each comprised of 7 phases.
Phase 1 — Hour Glass
The Start Player draws the topmost Hour Glass Tile and turns it face up. The Hour Glass Tiles determine the length of the game—it ends at the end of the round in which the 18th tile is drawn. Each Hour Glass Tile also introduces an event affecting the current round (6 types; all resolved in Phase 6 except Pilgrimage).
Phase 2 — Census
Determine who has the most and least Farmers. The player furthest ahead on the Farmers Track receives 1 coin from the supply (no coin on a tie). The player furthest behind must pay 1 coin (no payment on a tie). (2-player: the player behind does not pay; the player ahead still receives a coin.)
Phase 3 — Followers
Draw Character Tiles from your Followers Bag and place them on your Market. You may draw a number equal to or lower than your marker on the Knights Track (starting at 4). You may not draw more tiles than fit in your Market. Unused Character Tiles remain on your Market, taking up space.
Phase 4 — Planning
Use Character Tiles from your Market to activate actions in Places. Each Place requires a certain set of Character Tiles; a Place is activated as soon as all its Action Spaces have a tile. You may leave tiles on your Market for later rounds, and you need not place all required tiles in the same Planning Phase—until all are placed, the action is not activated.
Phase 5 — Actions
Beginning with the Start Player and clockwise, each player may carry out 1 action or pass. If you pass, you cannot act again this round. After playing an action, remove the Followers used and return them to your bag (Technology Tiles remain on their spaces until the end of the game). You may carry out actions in any order and are not required to use activated actions. The Action Phase ends when all players have passed; unused activated actions remain activated for later rounds.
Phase 6 — Event
Resolve the event shown on this round's Hour Glass Tile (affects all players).
Phase 7 — Start Player
The current Start Player passes the Start Player Token to the player on their left.
The Actions / Places
Every Place represents a specific action. You can play an action only if it is activated (all spaces occupied). After playing, remove the Character Tiles used (but not Technology Tiles) and return them to your bag. Once your marker reaches the last space of a track, you may no longer take that action.
- Farm House: Take a Farmer Tile, put it in your bag, advance on the Farmers Track, and receive the depicted good.
- Village: Choose one of:
- Boatman: Take a Boatman, advance on the Boatmen Track, and receive the depicted coins. (The first player to reach the last space gets a Citizen Tile instead of coins.)
- Craftsman: Take a Craftsman, advance on the Craftsmen Track, and receive a Technology Tile (usable only after you pass).
- Trader: Take a Trader, advance on the Traders Track, and expand your city with a Place Tile.
- University: Take a Scholar, advance on the Scholars Track, and receive Development Points.
- Castle: Take a Knight, advance on the Knights Track (how many Followers you may draw in Phase 3). The 4th Knight doesn't increase the number (7) but may grant a Citizen Tile to the first player there.
- Monastery: Take a Monk Tile into your bag (no bonus). Monks can substitute for any other Character Tile, but not vice versa, and Monks can never be replaced by Technology Tiles.
- Ship: Move your Merchant Token along a Waterway to an adjacent town; take a Goods Tile on the way if available.
- Wagon: Like Ship, but move along a Road.
- Guildhall: Build a Trading Station in your Merchant Token's town if none exists there (each town can have only one; each player may build one Trading Station in Orléans).
- Scriptorium: Receive 1 Development Point.
- Town Hall: During Planning, place 1 or 2 Character Tiles in the Town Hall; when used, move them to free spaces on the "Beneficial Deeds" board for the depicted reward (1, 2, or 3 coins; Canalization gives 1 coin or 1 Development Point). Completing a Beneficial Deed (placing on its last space) earns that Deed's Citizen Tile. You must use the exact Character Tiles shown (no Monks), and they remain for the rest of the game. You may not place the Followers of your color in the Town Hall.
Technology: Place a Technology Tile on an Action Space to permanently replace the required Character Tile there. It stays until the end of the game. Constraints: the first Technology Tile must replace a Farmer; subsequent tiles may replace any Character Tile except Monks; no more than 1 per Place; not at a Place requiring a single tile; and it cannot be moved once placed.
Expanding the City: With a Trader, choose a Place Tile from stack I (first advance) or stack I or II (later advances), placed next to your Player Board as a new Place.
The Development Track
Some spaces show coins (receive them when you move onto or past) or hold a Citizen Tile (the first player to reach it takes it). Development Status Spaces set your Development Status (starting at 1). Your Development Status affects the "Income" event (coins equal to your status), the Hospital, and the victory-point value of your Citizen Tiles and Trading Stations at game end.
End of the Game and Scoring
The game ends after 18 rounds. First, the player who built the most Trading Stations receives the remaining Citizen Tile (no one on a tie). Then score victory points:
- Coins: 1 VP per coin.
- Goods: Brocade 5, Wool 4, Wine 3, Cheese 2, Grain 1 VP.
- Trading Stations and Citizen Tiles: each is worth VP equal to your Development Status. (Example: 5 Trading Stations + 2 Citizen Tiles at Development Status 4 = (5+2) × 4 = 28 VP.)
Most VP wins. Tie: the player further ahead on the Development Track wins; if still tied, multiple winners.
Additional Rule — Exclusion of Place Tiles (experienced players): Before the first round, in turn order, each player may exclude one Place Tile (category I or II) to the box. In a 2-player game, each player excludes 2 tiles.
The Events in Detail
- Pilgrimage (×3): You may not recruit Monks this round. (The only event triggered in Phase 5, not Phase 6.)
- Income (×3): Receive coins equal to your Development Status.
- Harvest (×3): Pay 1 food item (grain, cheese, or wine) to the Goods Market; if you cannot, pay 5 coins; if not, undergo torture.
- Taxes (×3): Pay 1 coin per 3 goods you have; if you cannot, undergo torture.
- Trading Day (×3): Receive 1 coin per Trading Station you built.
- Plague (×3): Lose 1 Character Tile: draw one from your bag and return it to the board (you cannot lose the Followers of your color—if you draw one, you lose nothing this round). Do not move back on the corresponding track.
Torture (Bankruptcy)
When you must pay something and cannot, replace every missing coin with an item from this list: a Trading Station, a Follower (draw randomly; redraw if it's your color), a Development Point (move one space left, but not onto/past a coin space), a Goods Tile, a Place Tile, or a Technology Tile. You may mix items. All items lost this way are removed from the game; only Development Points can be re-gained.
General Rules
- Running Out of Tiles: Character, Technology, and Goods Tiles are limited—you cannot gain an unavailable tile, and you cannot play an action that provides it. Some events (Harvest, Plague) return tiles to availability. If the supply temporarily lacks coins, players cannot receive coins then.
- Checking Your Followers: You may look into your bag anytime, then reshuffle.
- Empty Roads/Waterways: You may use them; you just receive no good.
- Marked Followers: Your color's Followers always stay with you (bag or board); they cannot be used for Beneficial Deeds, lost to Plague, or paid during Torture.
- Placed Character Tiles: You cannot move a Character Tile between Action Spaces. During Phase 3, for each Follower you decline to draw, you may move a Character Tile from an Action Space to your Market.
- Turn Order: Most phases play simultaneously; resolve planning and payments in turn order from the Start Player if needed.
The Place Tiles in Detail
- Hayrick, Cheese Factory, Winery, Wool Manufacturer, Tailor Shop: Receive the depicted good from the Goods Market (if available).
- Shipping Line: Receive 1 Development Point.
- Brewery: Receive 2 coins.
- Library: Receive 2 Development Points.
- Windmill: Receive 2 coins and 1 Development Point.
- Cellar: Receive 4 coins.
- Pharmacy: Activate with any Character Tile; spend up to 3 coins to advance one space per coin on the Development Track.
- Office: Receive 1 coin for each Trading Station you built.
- Bathhouse: Draw 3 Character Tiles from your bag, choose 2, and immediately place them on Action Spaces (not the Bathhouse); the third and the Bathhouse's Follower go back into your bag.
- Hospital: Receive coins equal to your current Development Status.
- School: Use Scholars in place of other Character Tiles (but not Monks).
- Horse Wagon: Move your Merchant Token along a Road to an adjacent town and collect one good if available.
- Herb Garden: Use Boatmen in place of Craftsmen, Traders, and Farmers.
- Sacristy: Protects you from a negative event (Harvest, Taxes, or Plague) if activated; during the Event Phase, return the activating Monk to your bag instead of suffering the event.
- Gunpowder Tower: Expands your Market by 2 spaces. During Phase 3 you may place 1 or 2 Character Tiles here; during Planning place them on Action Spaces, or during Actions send them to Beneficial Deeds (both in one action). Not your color's Followers.
- Laboratory: Receive a Technology Tile you may place on any Action Space (except Monk Spaces), following the usual Technology rules; it may go on the Laboratory itself.