Paper Tales: Beyond the Gates
Paper Tales: Beyond the Gates Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
This expansion introduces 20 new Units and 6 new Buildings, that you can include together or separately, in support of all player counts. It also provides all the components required for a new solo mode as well as a 6th and a 7th player.
Components
20 Unit cards, 30 Building cards, 7 Building tiles, 4 "50" tokens for players going beyond 50 Legend Points during the game.
Extra material for the 6th and 7th player: 22 Building cards, 2 Score tokens, and 2 Player's Aid cards.
Extra material for the solo mode: 20 Necropolis cards, 4 Lich King cards, and 1 Solo Aid card.
All cards from this expansion can be identified by the Beyond the Gates icon.
How to Integrate New Cards
New Units
Simply add these 20 new Unit cards to the draw pile during setup.
New Buildings
During setup, each player takes a Mine, a Tavern, a Temple, and a Town. Shuffle the 7 Building tiles facedown and randomly reveal 3 of them. Each player takes the 3 corresponding Building cards. That way, all the players start the game with the same set of 7 Buildings.
Solo Mode - Army of the Lich King
In this mode, a single player faces the powerful Lich King and his minions, awakened from his ancient Kingdom's Necropolis.
Setup
Place the Score Track on the table. Form the Gold and Age token pools and take 3 Gold from the Gold pool. Choose a color and take the corresponding Player's Aid card and Score token. Take the Solo Aid card and choose a second token of another color for representing the Lich King's score. Place the two Score tokens on the Score Track, on square 0. Take your Buildings for the game: either 5 with the normal rules, or 7 if you play with the new Buildings from this expansion. Form the draw pile with all Unit cards, by including or not the new Units from this expansion. Sort out the Necropolis cards into 5 distinct piles, by grouping cards showing an identical backside. Shuffle each pile and randomly draw one card from each, without looking at it. Display these 5 cards facedown in a line below the Score Track, in the following order: 1-2-3-4-5-END. Reveal the first card and put the Time token on it, instead of using the Turn Track on the Score Track board.
Note: the printed setup text carries lettered markers (a to j) that point to the setup diagram on the rulebook's third page. They are reference labels for that illustration and are omitted here.
Lich King Cards
You can raise the difficulty of the solo mode by adding from 1 to 4 Lich King cards. The more of these cards you play with, the more difficult the Lich King will be to defeat.
Select or randomly draw the cards that you want to include, and display them face up in sight. They provide the Lich King with the additional indicated abilities, for the duration of the game.
Object of the Game
The player's goal is to end the game with more Legend Points than the Lich King.
Gameflow
The solo game mode is still played in 4 turns with the same 6 turn phase structure:
- 1] Recruitment
- 2] Deployment
- 3] Wars
- 4] Income
- 5] Construction
- 6] Aging
The phases proceed as in a multiplayer game for the player, except for Recruitment and Wars phases that are modified. Facing the player, the Lich King deploys no Units and constructs no Buildings. He scores Legend Points through his Necropolis cards.
Anatomy of a Necropolis Card
- 1] Immediate Gain: the Lich King gains these LP once, whatever happens.
- 2] Quest Bonus: the Lich King can earn these LP each turn, every time that he meets the indicated requirement.
- 3] Strength: the military values of the Lich King's Black and Purple armies.
- 4] Turn icon: the turn on which the card can come into play.
1] Changes to the Recruitment Phase
The player drafts Units following the solo mode Unit Selection process. Cards not drafted are placed in the Netherworld pile. The Lich King gains Legend Points through his Necropolis cards.
Units Selection
Take 5 Unit cards from the draw pile, keep one of your choice, and place the 4 remaining cards into Netherworld. Take 4 new Unit cards from the draw pile, keep one of your choice, and place the 3 remaining ones into Netherworld. Take 3 Unit cards from the draw pile, keep one of your choice, and place the 2 remaining ones into Netherworld.
Shuffle the 9 cards placed in Netherworld without looking at them. Take the 2 first cards from this pile, keep one of your choice, and place the remaining one under the pile. Take one last card from top of Netherworld and keep it.
Netherworld
The cards that you do not recruit for your Kingdom go into a new Netherworld pile, distinct from both the draw pile and the discard pile. At the end of Recruitment phase, these cards give the Lich King opportunities to earn the Quest Bonuses of his Necropolis cards.
Example: Christine already picked a Colossus and a Woodcutter during this phase. She draws 3 cards and keeps a Time Master. The Adventurer and Miner go to the Netherworld pile. She then shuffles the Netherworld pile facedown, and draws the two first cards out of it.
Lich King's Gains
At the end of Recruitment phase, once you have recruited five Unit cards for your Kingdom, the Lich King gains Legend Points through his Necropolis cards.
Immediate Gain: the Lich King scores the Legend Points indicated on the top-left of current turn's Necropolis card. The card on which the Time token is.
Quest Bonus: for each already revealed Necropolis cards, the player checks how many of the 7 cards in Netherworld fulfill the Quest Bonus requirement stated on the bottom of the card. For each of these Units, the Lich King scores the indicated Quest Bonus.
For the triggering of Quest Bonuses, Units always have the strength indicated on their shield, and any specific condition linked to the production of a resource is regarded as met.
The more the game progresses, the more Quest Bonuses the Lich King can cumulate.
Example: When it is time for the Lich King to score on turn 2, he immediately gains 1LP. Then he scores his Quest Bonuses depending on Netherworld. First Necropolis card's Bonus earns him 1LP (1x 1LP). Second card's Bonus earns him 6LP (3x 2LP). So, the Lich King's score progresses from a total of 8LP (1 + 1 + 6) during this phase.
Once the Lich King has scored his Legend Points, all the cards in Netherworld are put into the discard pile, then the Recruitment phase ends.
Note: at any time during the RECRUITMENT phase, the player is allowed to look at the cards in Netherworld or in the discard pile.
3] Changes to the Wars Phase
You wage a war against each of the two Lich King's armies (Black and Purple), in order to earn Legend Points.
Reveal the next Necropolis card on the line, without moving the Time token. This turn, Black army's strength is obtained by adding the value indicated in the black shield on the current turn's Necropolis card (the one on which the time token is) and the value indicated in the black shield of next turn's Necropolis card (the one that you just revealed). Purple army's strength is calculated the same way, by adding the values indicated in the purple shields of these two cards.
Example: Christine plays the second turn's Wars phase. She reveals the 3rd Necropolis card and determines the strengths of the two Black and Purple armies. Black army totals up to 6 (2 + 4) and Purple army totals 8 (3 + 5).
You determine your own strength by following normal rules, then you wage one War against each of the Lich King's armies. You earn 3 Legend Points per War won.
The Lich King earns 1 Legend Point per War won by any of his armies against your Kingdom. In case of a tie during a War, your Kingdom and the opposing army both win this War.
Example: With a Forest Spirit and a Golem on the Front, the strength Christine Kingdom is 6. She wins only one War, tied with the Black army, so she scores 3 Legend Points. As the Lich King wins both Wars, he scores 2 Legend Points.
End of Turn
Move the Time token forward on the next Necropolis card, then start a new turn.
End of Game
The game ends at the end of turn 4, when you move the Time token forward on the last Necropolis card. You score the Legend Points earned by the Buildings that you have constructed in your Kingdom. The Lich King scores the Immediate Gain indicated on his End card. You win the game if you total more Legend Points than the Lich King. In case of a tie, the Lich King is the winner.