Queen's Architect
Queen's Architect Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 1 game board – double-sided for 4 or 2&3 players
- 1 set in each player color consisting of:
- 3 figures
- 1 carriage
- 8 building markers
- 1 tavern board
- 1 action star
- 6 quitting time tiles with guild icons
- 28 demand tiles (9 villages, 10 monasteries, 9 towns)
- 12 appreciation tokens – with values from 4 – 9
- 54 craftsmen – of 6 guilds (colors): Glazier, Lumberjack, Brick-layer, Blacksmith, Tailor, Stonemason
- 1 marker – used for the price scale on the billboard
- 28 bonds
- 50 coins – 30x worth 1 taler and 20x worth 3 talers
- 1 rules booklet
Set-up – Example for 4 players
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Unfold the game board in the center of the playing area.
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Mix the 12 appreciation tokens face down. Randomly allocate one token to each space on the appreciation track, face up. Return the remaining tokens to the game box; they will not be used during this game session.
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In a player color of their choice, each player takes their set of 1 action star, 3 figures, 1 carriage, 8 building markers, 6 quitting time tiles (with the back showing the player color), 1 tavern board and 2 bonds.
All players place their carriage on the capital in the center of the game board.
One figure is placed on the bottom space of the moneychanger track on their tavern board.
Each player stacks their quitting time tiles in random order on the entrance of their tavern.
One figure is placed as architect on the top "construction" space of their action star.
Each player keeps their 8 building markers and 2 bonds next to their tavern board.
Place each player's last figure on the starting space of the appreciation track on the game board.
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Put the price marker (black marker) on the leftmost space of the price scale.
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Mix the demand tiles face down. Randomly pick a matching demand tile for each demand space on the game board and place it face up on that space. Again, return any remaining tiles to the game box.
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Sort out the 18 starting craftsmen from the craftsmen tiles (identified by the exclamation mark (!) on the back), mix them and stack them aside, face down. Next, mix the remaining craftsmen tiles, and stack them on the draw pile space at the bottom of the billboard, face down.
Reveal 6 tiles from the starting craftsmen stack, and place one on each craftsmen space of the billboard. Pay attention to their orientation as the guild icon must be at "12 o'clock".
Depending on the number of players, more starting craftsmen are now revealed and placed next to the game board, face up:
Number of players 2 3 4 Additional craftsmen 4 6 8 Stack any remaining craftsmen tiles face down on top of the draw pile.
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Keep the coins and bonds next to the game board as a general supply.
The Craftsmen Tiles
Before the game begins, each player hires two craftsmen — but let's have a close look at the craftsmen tiles first.
Each craftsman tile shows: the guild icon, the start position (left of the guild icon), the character portrait, the day laborer icon, the drop out arrow, the rotating direction, the current performance number, and the appreciation points for repairs.
The game features 6 different guilds of craftsmen: Lumberjack, blacksmith, glazier, stonemason, bricklayer and tailor. Each guild consists of 3 different characters with different statistics and portraits.
When hiring a craftsman, that tile is attached to the player's action star.
The current performance of a craftsman is indicated by the number next to the hammer icon on a player's action star. The performance of the craftsmen determines how much appreciation and how many coins a player gains when constructing a building.
Example: The craftsman's current performance is 3.
After a craftsman has done his work (through the "construct" or "day laborer" action) rotate his tile clockwise by one position.
Example: The lumberjack is rotated clockwise. His performance drops to zero.
When a craftsman is working and the drop out arrow points to the hammer icon of the action star, that craftsman renders his services for the last time. After his work is done, he calls it a day. Put the tile back into the game box.
Example: The lumberjack renders his services for the last time and is put back into the game box subsequently.
Choose Starting Craftsmen and Earn Coins
Randomly determine a first player. The first player begins and chooses one of the starting craftsmen on display next to the game board. Then, they attach that tile to any free notch of their action star with the start position pointing to the hammer icon.
Example: Dennis picks the tailoress and attaches the tile with its start position to his action star.
Now the player gets the chance to earn some coins. For each rotation of one position clockwise, the player receives 1 taler.
Hint: It's not a bad idea to have some coins in the pocket at the start of the game in order to be somewhat more flexible when choosing actions.
Then, the next player in clockwise direction picks their starting craftsman, etc. After all players have taken one tile, a second cycle like the first one starts in reverse player order. (The player sitting to the right of the first player chooses a tile first, then the next player in counterclockwise direction, etc.)
Example: Dennis decides to rotate the tailoress clockwise by three positions and gains 3 talers.
Now the game is ready to start.
Object of the Game
The players assume the roles of architects who travel through the lands with their band of craftsmen and construct new buildings in villages, monasteries and towns by order of her Majesty, the Queen. It is essential to have an adequate bunch of craftsmen and keep track of their performances.
High-performance craftsmen will earn you coins and ensure the Queen's appreciation.
It is your ambition to gain as much appreciation as needed for the Queen to allow you to construct her new palace.
Sequence of Play
The game Queen's Architect is played over a series of game rounds.
The active player advances the architect clockwise on their action star by 1-3 spaces and performs the action shown where they stop.
A player may forfeit this action.
Subsequently that player's left-hand neighbor becomes the new active player. After all players have finished their turns, the next game round starts.
Note: The architect must be moved during each turn; a player is not allowed to leave him standing where he is.
Example: Lena advances her architect by 2 spaces and performs the action "hire".
The actions in detail: Day laborer, Hire, Gain confidence/Redeem bonds, Travel, Tavern, Construct.
Day Laborer
You send your craftsmen to do farm work as day laborers. You will earn coins at once, but not gain any appreciation. You collect a bonus in coins if your craftsmen are especially skilled farmworkers.
The player earns 1 taler for every 2 of their craftsmen, rounded up.
Example: Dennis assigns his 5 craftsmen to do farm work and receives 5:2 = 3 (rounded up) talers from the general supply.
If the player employs craftsmen showing the day laborer icon, they may decide for each of these to rotate that tile clockwise by one position in order to earn 2 talers as a bonus payment.
Example: Dennis decides to rotate one of his craftsmen showing the day laborer icon by one position clockwise. He receives an additional 2 talers.
Hire
You are looking at the billboard for new craftsmen whom you could put into your service. The more experience a craftsman has, the more expensive is his employment.
The player may put one craftsman from the billboard into their service.
A craftsman's hiring costs are shown on the left side. After the player has decided to hire one craftsman, they pay the indicated hiring costs to the general supply and take that tile. The corner of the new tile that was pointing at the hammer icon on the billboard is attached to any free notch of the player's action star.
Example: Lena pays 4 talers for the lumberjack and attaches him to her action star with the corner that was pointing at the hammer icon on the billboard.
A player may have more than one hired craftsmen of the same guild at the same time, but never 2 identical characters at the same time.
Example: Lena cannot hire the tailoress because she already has that same character in her employ.
If a player already has 6 craftsmen at their disposal, they may fire any one of them before hiring a new one. Remove the fired craftsman from the game.
If the player didn't hire the craftsman at the top of the billboard, move the price marker one position right on the price scale. Hiring that craftsman will now be 1 taler cheaper.
If the price marker was already in the rightmost position, remove this craftsman from the game and place the marker on the leftmost position.
Whenever a player hires the topmost craftsman, return the price marker to the leftmost position (6).
Finally, move the craftsmen below the empty space(s) up on the billboard to fill the empty space(s). Refill the lower one or two empty spaces with craftsmen from the stack. Orient these new craftsmen the same as during set-up.
Example: The craftsmen move up one position on the billboard, thus gaining experience. Refill the empty bottom space with a craftsman from the stack.
Travel
All over the kingdom the assistance of skilled architects and craftsmen is in demand. Offer your services at many different places, and your appreciation will increase even faster.
The player moves their carriage by the desired number of spaces and pays the appropriate number of talers to the general supply.
The players move their carriage along the streets in any direction they want.
| Number of moved spaces | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travel cost | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
Example: Dennis pays 6 talers to the general supply and moves his carriage 4 spaces to the next village.
Players may end their movement on or pass a space containing one or more other players' carriage(s).
Gain Confidence/Redeem Bonds
Travelling and hiring craftsmen is expensive and you will need lots of money. You will get money faster if you redeem the royal bonds at your local moneychanger. The more confidence the moneychanger gains in you, the more bonds he will redeem simultaneously.
The player must decide if they want to either increase the moneychanger's confidence or redeem his bonds.
Increase Confidence
The player advances their figure on the moneychanger track by one space.
Once the figure has reached the uppermost space, this option is no longer possible.
Example: Leo advances his figure by one space, onto space "2". The next time he redeems bonds he may redeem two pieces at once.
Redeem Bonds
The player may redeem a number of bonds up to the number shown next to their figure on the moneychanger track.
For each bond the player receives 2 talers from the general supply. Return the bonds to the general supply.
No matter how many bonds a player sells, their figure remains in the same location on the moneychanger track.
Example: Leo redeems 2 bonds. He receives 4 talers from the general supply.
Tavern
After a hard day's work, it's a good idea not to begrudge your craftsmen a little downtime. That way they can recover and recharge their batteries for the upcoming tasks. The more your craftsmen are allowed to relax at the tavern, the longer they will stay at your disposal and deliver a good job.
First, the player moves all quitting time tiles from the dormitory to the entrance.
Next, they move all quitting time tiles from the saloon to the dormitory.
Example: Dennis first moves his white quitting time tile from the dormitory to the entrance. Then he moves both the brown and black tile from the saloon to the dormitory.
Note: Skip this step when a player uses their "Tavern" action for the first time.
The player may now send any guild members of their choice from the entrance into the tavern.
After the player has decided on one or more guilds, they move the corresponding quitting time tile(s) from the entrance to the saloon. The player must pay an accommodation fee to the general supply depending on the number of tiles moved:
| Quitting time tiles | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation fee | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 21 |
Example: Dennis pays 3 talers and sends the glaziers and tailors to the saloon.
Finally, the player rotates counterclockwise by one position all of their craftsmen who belong to a guild that was just sent into the tavern.
Example: Dennis rotates his two glaziers and one tailor counterclockwise by one position each.
Note: If a craftsman is attached to the action star with his start position, then that tile is not rotated.
Construct
A lot of work is to be done all over the kingdom. Villages, monasteries and towns need your assistance to construct important buildings and establishments. Also small repairs have to be done. Offer your services and help develop the kingdom. The Queen will reward you with her appreciation and with coins.
The player must decide if they want to either construct a building or do repairs.
Construct a Building
If a player wants to construct a building at a certain location, they have to meet three conditions:
- Their carriage must be at that location where they want to construct a building.
- They must not yet have constructed a building at this location (i.e., no building marker of their player color is at this location).
- They must have at least one craftsman of each guild (color) at their service that the demand tile requires.
If the player meets these conditions, they are allowed to construct a building.
Example: Lena is allowed to construct a building in the monastery because she has no building there yet and the required craftsmen are in her service.
All craftsmen hired by the player contribute to the construction of the building, even those not required by the demand tile.
Then, the player gains appreciation points: to start, they add the current performance points of all of their craftsmen. This value is the initial appreciation point sum for the player.
Example: Lena gains 19 appreciation points.
The player places their building marker on the best unoccupied building site. If they are the first to construct a building at this location, they put it on the -0 site; if they are second on -2, third on -4 and fourth on -6.
These values reduce the player's initial appreciation point sum.
Example: Lena is the second player to construct a building here, so she puts her marker on the -2 site. She has to deduct this value from her appreciation point sum: 19 – 2 = 17 appreciation points total.
Depending on the type of location where the new building was constructed, the number of appreciation points a player may gain is limited:
| Type of location | Village | Monastery | Town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max. appreciation points | 10 | 15 | 20 |
Even if a player's total is higher than that maximum, they gain only the corresponding maximum number of appreciation points at that location.
Example: Lena's total is 17 appreciation points. Because she constructed her building in a monastery, she gains only the maximum of 15 appreciation points.
When constructing a building at a town, the player receives a bonus as shown on the demand tile: a one-off bonus of 1/2/3 appreciation points is added to the player's total this turn, up to the maximum for this location. The player receives 2/3/4 talers from the general supply. The player may perform the "Hire" action additionally at once. They do not move their architect figure on the action star.
The player uses their appreciation points to climb up the appreciation track. Each step up the track requires a number of appreciation points equal to the value of the appreciation token on the next step. The player may advance as many steps as they can afford, spending their appreciation points to do so.
Any surplus appreciation points are converted into bonds on a 1:1 basis.
Example: Lena has 15 appreciation points and can climb up two steps on the appreciation track. She collects 3 bonds for her three surplus appreciation points.
However, the player may abstain from climbing up one or more possible steps on the appreciation track and collect the appropriate number of bonds instead.
Instead of taking the second step, Lena could have collected 5 bonds (or not climb up at all and collect 15 bonds).
Note: If not enough bonds are available in the general supply, the player takes only as many as are available.
Finally, the player must rotate all of their craftsmen clockwise by one position (as shown by the arrow on each tile).
Important: If a craftsman's drop out arrow was attached to the hammer icon before rotating, then that tile is not rotated but removed from the game.
Do Repairs
A player may do repairs no matter where their carriage currently is, which kind of demand tile is at that location or whether they have constructed a building at that location.
The player may assign no more than 3 of their craftsmen to the repairs, and these craftsmen must be of different guilds (colors).
The appreciation points the player gains for each of these craftsmen are shown on the small scroll in the center of each craftsman's tile.
The player adds the points of all of their craftsmen assigned to repairs; this sum equals the appreciation points they gain for this job.
Example: Because Leo has craftsmen of two guilds only, he can assign only 2 of them to repairs. He gains 5 appreciation points.
The player spends these appreciation points the same way as explained above under "Construct a building". When doing repairs in a town, the player is not granted the bonus indicated by the demand tile.
Finally, the player must rotate all of their craftsmen who were assigned to the repairs clockwise by one position.
Important: If a craftsman's drop out arrow was attached to the hammer icon before rotating, then that tile is not rotated but removed from the game.
Example: Leo rotates the two craftsmen clockwise by one position each.
End of the Game
The game ends at the end of the game round during which at least one player has contributed to the construction of the Queen's palace.
A player is allowed to contribute to the construction of the palace if they meet these conditions:
- They must have reached the final space of the appreciation track (the space in front of the palace);
- Their carriage must be in the capital;
- Their architect must occupy the action space "Construct" on the player's action star; and
- The sum of the current performance points of their craftsmen must be at least 15.
Note: The craftsmen's tiles are not rotated after building the palace.
As soon as at least one player has contributed to the construction of the Queen's palace, that game round is completed and the game ends after the player to the right of the first player has finished their turn.
Winner of the Game
- If only one player has managed to contribute to the construction of the Queen's palace, that player wins the game.
- If more than one player has managed to contribute to the construction of the Queen's palace, among these players the player with the highest sum of performance points for their craftsmen is the winner. In case of a tie for the highest sum, the tied players share the victory.