Palatinus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• End of the Game
  • a) Effect of the Condottieri
  • b) Control of the Hill
• Victory
• Strategy Note

Components

• 7 territory tiles (A: hill, B: terrain, C: terrain with spring)
• 7 hill tokens
• 12 score discs
• 5 screens
• 5 markers
• 60 inhabitants of five peoples (condottieri, farmers, merchants)
• 1 bag
• these rules

Object of the Game

Each player commands one of the peoples settling around the Seven Hills of Rome. Using their inhabitants skilfully, they try to extend their dominion over terrain, population and water sources.

Setup

The owner of the game chooses who starts, or decides at random.

Shuffle the territory tiles face down. Place one face up in the centre of the table and put the "Palatinus" hill token (value 6) on its hill. The first player reveals a second tile and places it adjacent to the first, on one side of their choice. Each following player reveals another tile and places it adjacent to the tile with the "Palatinus" token and to at least one other tile. Continue until all tiles are placed, as in the example in the figure (in 4- or 5-player games, some players place more tiles than others). The seven joined tiles form the playing area: the territory on which Rome will rise.

Place the remaining hill tokens at random, face up, on the six other hills. Keep the score discs at hand.

Each player takes a screen and the marker of their colour (the marker is only used at the end of the game). Behind their screen, each player hides the inhabitants of their colour:

• 5 players: 3 merchants (1 with the wolf on one face), 3 farmers (2 with the wolf on one face), 1 condottiero.
• 4 players: 4 merchants (2 with the wolf), 3 farmers (2 with the wolf), 1 condottiero.
• 3 players: all of them.
• 2 players: all of them, plus 2 merchants (1 with the wolf) and 2 farmers (1 with the wolf) of another colour.

Remove from the game any unused screens, markers and inhabitants.

Figure: example of initial layout.

Playing the Game

Play proceeds clockwise, one turn at a time.

On their turn, the player must place one of their inhabitants on one of the unoccupied terrains. Inhabitants with the wolf must be played with the wolf showing. At any time, each player may review the face-down inhabitants they have already placed.

Condottieri cannot be placed during the last three turns of the game (the last four turns if playing with two or three players). In other words, a player cannot have a condottiero left to place when only three inhabitants remain behind their screen (four if playing with two or three players).

Example: in a game with 5 players, 7 turns are played, and you must place your condottiero on turn 1, 2, 3 or 4.

End of the Game

The game ends when all inhabitants have been placed. Inhabitants with the wolf showing are turned over. Players lay their screens on the table.

Following the alphabetical order of evaluation (A to G) shown on the hills, evaluate hill by hill to determine:

a) the effect of the condottieri; b) who controls the hill.

a) Effect of the Condottieri

For each condottiero present on the six terrains around the hill, consider all the adjacent merchants and farmers (regardless of colour), even if they are placed around hills other than the one being evaluated:

• if the number of merchants and the number of farmers is equal, the condottiero is put to flight (remove it from the game);
• if the numbers are not equal, the condottiero captures all the inhabitants of the group that is in the majority, gaining fame. Captured inhabitants go to the owner of the condottiero. (A condottiero may capture inhabitants of its own colour. If a condottiero is surrounded only by merchants or only by farmers, it captures them all!)

If more than one condottiero is around the hill, they are considered simultaneously. Adjacent condottieri have no effect on one another. If several condottieri capture the same inhabitant, one player takes the inhabitant and the other takes a score disc of value 1.

Example: after evaluating hills A and B, the players move to hill C. The green condottiero captures the two adjacent farmers (blue and green); at the same time, the yellow condottiero is put to flight.

b) Control of the Hill

Now determine who controls the hill. Starting from the terrain indicated by the arrow, players consider their own inhabitants around the hill. Each player calculates their influence on the hill, keeping the count on their screen with their marker:

• the merchant gains influence for all adjacent inhabitants: 1 for each other merchant, 2 for each farmer, 3 for each condottiero. A merchant also gains influence for pieces of its own colour;
• the farmer gains influence for the unoccupied terrains and the adjacent water sources: 2 per terrain, 2 per water source (occupied or not). A farmer also gains influence for a water source on its own terrain;
• the condottiero gains no influence.

Caution! The influence calculation involves only the inhabitants around the hill, but each of them considers all of its own adjacencies, even if it was placed around a hill other than the one being evaluated.

The player with the most influence controls the hill and takes the hill token. If two or more players are tied, each of them receives a score disc of value 2, and the hill token is not assigned (remove it from the game). If no player has influence on the hill, the hill token is not assigned.

Note: the influence count only serves to assign the tokens, and starts again from zero for each hill (influence points are not victory points!).

Example: after the effect of the condottieri, the players determine who controls hill C. Considering the terrains starting from the one indicated by the arrow, each player calculates their influence:

• the red farmer gives influence 4 (2 for the unoccupied terrain, 2 for the water source);
• the yellow farmer gives influence 8 (2 for the unoccupied terrain, 6 for the water sources);
• the red merchant gives influence 3 (1 for the merchant, 2 for the farmer).

Red has influence 4 + 3 = 7, and yellow has 8: yellow takes the token marked "3" from the hill.

Victory

After considering all seven hills, each player calculates their score by adding:

• the number of captured inhabitants;
• the values of the hill tokens and score discs.

The player with the most points wins. If several players are tied, the winner is the one among them with the most tokens, discs and captured inhabitants.

Example: two captured inhabitants = 2 points; score discs 2 and 1 plus hill tokens 5 and 4 = 12 points; total 14 points.

Strategy Note

Usually a single one of your inhabitants around a hill is not enough to secure its control. Do not spread your inhabitants too thin: the future empire of Rome depends on you!