The Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Preparation
Playing the Game
Advantage Cards
Erecting the Building
End of Round
End of a Passage
End of Game
Credits

Components

54 Advantage cards; 27 each in card decks A and B
6 Person markers; 3 each for Prior Philip (Blue) and Bishop Waleran (Red)
10 neutral seals
32 Gold coins; 14 x worth 1, 10 x worth 2, 8 x worth 5
2 personal seals; 1 each in Red and Blue
6 Building Cards; 3 each for Waleran's Castle and Philip's cathedral
22 Raw/building material markers; 11 each in Red and Blue
1 Power character marker

The Play Area is made up of the Card Display, the Seal Pile, the Bank, and each player's Supply and Camp.

Preparation

Before the first play, carefully remove all tiles from the frameworks.
Shuffle the two decks of advantage cards, A and B, and place them face down.
Each player receives in his color (Red: Bishop Waleran; Blue: Prior Philip):
- the 3 building cards, which should be placed face up to complete the picture of the building.
- 11 markers with the raw material side face up. The player takes 1 x wood, 1 x sand, and 1 x stone to form their camp. The remaining raw material markers should be placed on the other side of the building to form the supply.
- 3 Person markers
- 1 Personal seal
- 3 Neutral seals, 1 each of 0/5, 1/4, 2/3
- 3 gold coins
The 4 remaining neutral seals are stacked and laid out randomly beside the remaining gold coins.
Bishop Waleran (Red) receives the Power character marker and begins the game. It remains this way until Prior Philip takes the change of power card, in which case he takes the Power character marker (See Advantage Cards for Change of Power).

Playing the Game

The play is divided into 4 passages. In each passage, a card deck is played to the end. In the first passage, it is deck A, and in the second, deck B. Then in passages 3 and 4, decks A and B will be played again. There are 3 rounds in each passage. In each round the players try to receive those advantage cards that are the most suitable for that player to build their building. The Power character takes the 9 highest cards of the current pile and puts them face up into the center of the table. The cards are placed from left to right in three lines. Afterwards the starting player lays claim to 3 of these cards.

Claiming Cards

The Power character takes 3 person markers and selects a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. He marks the chosen 3 cards using his person markers. Afterward, the other player puts 3 person markers on another line of cards in the display.

If the first player chose a horizontal line, the second player may only put their markers in a vertical or diagonal line.
If the first player chose a vertical line, the second player may only put their markers in a horizontal or diagonal line.
If the first player chose a diagonal line, the second player may put their markers in a horizontal or vertical line, or in the other diagonal line not chosen.

After both players have placed their markers, exactly one card will have a marker from each player. This card will create a conflict. Only the winner of the conflict may use the contested advantage card. The other cards that were occupied by a single player will be used by that player without a conflict (see Advantage Cards — Evaluating Advantage Cards).

Conflict Resolution

The player with the Power character marker begins and must use any of his seals (neutral or personal). This player flips the selected seal into the air. The number that lies face up will be used. Afterwards, the other player flips one of his seals and keeps the result, with the following rules:

If the second player obtained the same or lower number, he may immediately flip another of his seals and add the number to the first result. If the result is still lower, he may flip another, etc.
If the second player obtained a higher number, the Power character may now flip another of his seals, etc.
The players alternate to try to obtain a higher sum until one player gives up. The other player is the winner.
If the sums are equal, the Power character wins.
A player may flip as many neutral seals as they possess. Once they flip their personal seal, the conflict is over for them. The other player may continue to flip seals.
If both players have used their personal seal, the conflict is over.

After the Conflict

The player that lost the conflict must take back his person marker from the contested card.
Both players place their person marker back in their camp.
The winner places all used neutral seals at the bottom of the seal pile.
The loser may keep one neutral seal. All other seals should be placed at the bottom of the seal pile.

Advantage Cards

The player with the Power character marker evaluates the advantage cards that have their person markers on them. The player may execute the cards in any order. However, the player should name the cards as they are being evaluated.

The Advantage cards have the following functions:

Change of Power: The player places the Power character marker before himself, or keeps it if he already possesses it. It may happen that the Power character marker changes back and forth between players in a single round.
Income: The player receives the indicated number of gold coins.
Influence: The player may buy as many neutral seals as he can afford. Each seal costs 2 gold coins and comes from the top of the pile.
Raw Materials: The player puts the raw materials (two in the case of wool) from the supply into his camp. If there are not enough raw materials in the supply, the player takes as much as is in the supply.
Craftsman: The player converts the raw materials in his camp into the appropriate building material, by turning the marker over to its material side. With these materials, the player can build his building. The player may convert as many raw materials as he can afford. For each transformation, he must pay the shown amount of gold.
Market: The player may buy as many of the indicated raw materials from the supply and place them into his camp. The raw materials may be all the same or different. The player may also sell wool and place these cards back into the supply.
Text cards: There are person cards and 1x cards. The player carries out the effects of the card.

Notice that there are neutral advantage cards (brown frame) and the personal advantage cards (red or blue frames).

Neutral advantage cards can be used by both players. Among them there are 1x cards (symbol in the upper-left corner), which the players may use at any time during their turn (thus immediately or later in any round). Also, several of these cards may be played in combination. However these cards must be given back to the appropriate piles (A or B) if they are shuffled for a subsequent round and these cards are unused.

There are 5 personal advantage cards with red or blue edges called person cards. They can be used only by the appropriate player. If the other player occupied a person card with his marker, then he may not use the advantage. A player may occupy the opponent's person card to keep their opponent from securing a benefit from this advantage card.

For all advantage cards: the general supply of gold coins and seals can be found in the center of the table. The players take or return gold and/or seals to this supply. If the supply should become empty, the player gets nothing.

After the player has resolved his advantage cards, he may work on his building.

Erecting the Building

No advantage cards are needed to build. Each player should obey the following rules:

Before building, a player must convert raw materials into building materials (e.g. wool into cloth).
For each section (building cards I, II, and III), the player needs the 3 building materials indicated on the card.
The players may finish the sections in any order (e.g. first II, then III, and finally I).
The players may be working on all sections at any time in the game, but can only work on one section in each round.
The material is taken from the player's camp and placed on the appropriate field of the building map.
The following costs apply:
- Installing a single building material costs 2 gold.
- The installation of two building materials in the same round costs 6 gold.
- The installation of three building materials in the same round costs 12 gold.
As soon as a section has three building materials, it is completed. The player puts the markers back in the box and turns the building card over so the finished building part can be seen.
If the player completes a section (I, II or III) before his opponent, he receives the bonuses printed on the building card:
- For section I: the top 2 neutral seals of the pile.
- For section II: 10 gold from the supply.
- For section III: the player may convert 2 raw materials (stone, wood and/or sand) into the appropriate building materials. These raw materials may be the same or different.

Example: Prior Philip builds a masonry unit and a mortar unit in section II. Philip pays 6 gold. Since it has been completed, he receives a bonus of 10 gold.

End of Round

After the second player has evaluated his advantage cards and possibly worked on his building, both players take their person markers back from the display. Then, all cards in the display are collected and put in a discard pile. For each deck (A and B), a separate discard pile is formed. Used 1x cards are also placed on these discard piles. Afterwards, the next round begins with the power character laying out a new display of 9 cards.

End of a Passage

After three rounds, the play changes to the next passage and the other deck of advantage cards is used.

Before the second run of passage A and/or B, players should return all unused 1x cards to the pile of the next passage. All 27 advantage cards of this deck are shuffled, from which 9 cards are flipped to make the display for the first round of the new passage.

End of Game

The game can end in two ways:

Normally, the play ends by completion of a complete building (all 3 sections). The player who reaches this wins immediately, even if his opponent also finishes in the same round.
If, after the fourth passage (after both card decks have been played twice to the end), no player has finished his building, the game ends with the winner being the player who finished the most sections. If this is tied, the winner is the player who has installed the most building materials. If it is still undecided, the winner is the player with the most gold. If the amount of gold is identical, then Prior Philip wins, reconciling the fact that Bishop Waleran had the advantage of being start player at the beginning of the game.

Credits

Author: Stefan Feld

Editorial work: TM-Spiele

Illustrations: Michael Menzel

Graphics: Pohl & Rick