Praga Caput Regni
Praga Caput Regni Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
Impress King Charles more than your rivals by earning the most points, gained throughout the game and during final scoring from your buildings, walls, upgrades, the great projects (Charles Bridge, the Hunger Wall, St. Vitus Cathedral), the University and technology tracks, plazas, seals, and remaining resources.
The Action Crane
The heart of the game is a rotating action crane (wheel). Six action tiles occupy slots that pass through three zones as the wheel turns:
- Red zone — recently chosen tiles. Taking one requires paying a gold cost.
- Green zone — neutral. Taken for free (you still get the wheel bonus).
- Blue zone — long-untouched tiles. Taking one scores bonus points.
Each action tile shows two actions (one inside the wheel, one outside); the position is irrelevant—pick the action you want and ignore the other. Every tile also grants a bonus from the wheel (taken immediately or delayed within your turn).
Setup (overview)
Assemble the board (action crane, player boards, Charles Bridge; the 3D Hunger Wall and Cathedral are optional—2D versions are printed on the board). Set the crane's wheel to the player-count icon and place the six action tiles in the first six slots (all in the red/green zones), plus the two turn-counting cubes. Seed the three hex-tile rows (upgrades, walls, buildings) with Era I tiles, load the Protective... (bridge, plaza, technology) stacks, and set up the Hunger Wall/Cathedral tiers and King's Road tiles. Each player takes a player board, an action board, and pieces in their color.
Your Turn
Starting player is whoever was most recently in Prague (or random); turns pass clockwise. On your turn:
- Choose one action tile from the crane (matching the action you want on your action board). Pay its red-zone cost, or score its blue-zone points, as applicable.
- Perform one action, and optionally one bought extra action.
- End your turn by rotating the crane and returning the tile to the start of the red zone.
You may also, once per turn, pay 1 gold or 1 stone to refresh a row (remove two hex tiles, replace from the stack)—even before choosing an action.
Buying an Extra Action
Once per turn you may pay two gold windows (or one gold window + one silver window) to perform an extra action of any of the six types, at any point in your turn.
The Six Actions
Manage Mines — either gain 1 gold and increase your gold mines by 1, or produce gold (gain gold equal to your gold mines plus all production bonuses left of your marker). Gold is tracked by turning your gold crane wheel and is capped at 9. Reaching marked spaces grants one-time effects and production tokens.
Manage Quarries — the same, for stone and your quarry track. Reaching the end of either the mine or quarry track lets you claim a seal (see below).
Upgrade an Action — take a hex tile from the upgrade row and place it on the matching action of your action board (in any of six orientations). Advance 1 space (Era I tile) or 2 spaces (Era II) on your Charles University track. Thereafter, whenever you perform that upgraded action you gain the upgrade's printed bonus (re-upgrading replaces, not stacks). Placement can trigger adjacency and corner bonuses.
Construct a Wall — take a hex tile from the wall row, immediately pay its cost, gain its rewards, and place it next to your action board (walls needn't be adjacent to each other). Wall tiles can grant a sideways move on the Hunger Wall, plus adjacency/corner bonuses.
Construct a Building — take a hex tile from the building row, pay its cost, gain its green-window rewards, and place it on a legal building site on the city board (not on roads, plazas, the river houses, countryside, or occupied hexes). Building on the Old Town side of the King's Road costs extra gold but scores points; the New Town side is free with no reward. Buildings can grant a sideways move on the Cathedral, corner bonuses, and plaza claims.
Construct the King's Road — advance your marker one space along the King's Road, resolving the space's two immediate effects (one may require spending an egg). Reaching space IV (Charles Bridge) and space V (on the bridge) each costs one egg and lets you place a bridge tile (plank), gaining covered bonuses; the space V tile matters in final scoring. Once on the bridge you can no longer take the King's Road action.
Choosing Hex Tiles
For upgrade/wall/building actions you pick a tile from that row, then deal a replacement. The rightmost tile is a special tile, available only if you have the special-tile bonus (from that action-tile slot); otherwise score the indicated points instead.
Great Projects and Tracks
Hunger Wall & St. Vitus Cathedral — two tiered grids. Wall tiles move you left on the Hunger Wall; building tiles move you right on the Cathedral. Moving up a row costs 2 silver windows; crossing between tiers costs additional gold and stone. Reaching the top tier of the Cathedral lets you claim one of the three final-scoring tiles placed at setup. Landing on squares with points/arrows triggers those effects.
Charles University track — advanced mainly by upgrading actions; determines how much your technology track is worth at game end. At the top, further advances score 2 points each.
Technology track — advancing onto marked spaces lets you draw 3 tiles from the matching stack and keep 1. You may gain up to four technologies: Levels I–II give permanent abilities (usable from your next turn), Levels III–IV give one-time effects (usable immediately or saved). Past level IV, further advances score 2 points each.
Seals — the five red spaces; claim one when you reach the end of a resource track, paying any depicted cost and placing a cube. Each seal can be claimed by only one player and affects final scoring.
Windows — silver windows move you up the Hunger Wall/Cathedral; gold windows (optionally with a silver) buy extra actions. You may keep at most 2 windows for your next turn—discard extras at end of turn.
Timing the Game
The crane's turn-counting mechanism advances a platform cube. Roughly midway, the game switches from Era I to Era II hex tiles (replace the three rows). When the platform cube reaches the end, 11 turns remain; the game ends when it moves onto the hourglass—each player having taken exactly 16 turns. Then perform final scoring.
Final Scoring
Add points for:
- Unresolved plazas — each player with a claim gets the lower-half reward.
- Academics — for each technology-track advance, score 0–3 points depending on your height on the Charles University track.
- Hunger Wall & Cathedral — score your row's value on each, plus your red/blue corner tokens multiplied by the column values (Hunger Wall rewards blue tokens, Cathedral rewards red).
- Walls — 4 points for exactly 3 walls, 10 for 4–5, 18 for 6 or more.
- Final-scoring abilities — resolve seals and any V-tiles claimed at Charles Bridge or the Cathedral.
- Leftover eggs — points based on how many eggs you have (e.g. 10 points for 4+).
Winning
The player with the most points wins. Ties are broken in favor of the player who started later in turn order.
Solo Variant
Set up as for two players; you are the starting player. After each of your turns, run the opponent by choosing the action tile farthest ahead (closest to the blue zone) and immediately returning it per the normal rules. Play for a high score—over 140 points is a good result.