Реликвиум (Reliquium) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About the Game
• Components
  • Game Components
  • Overview of Components
• Setup
• Game Process
  • Faction Initiative
  • Peace Phase
  • Actions
  • March
  • Melee Combat
  • Recruiting Units
  • Ranged Combat
  • Building a Castle
  • Summoning a Creature
  • Strengthening Aura
  • Special Abilities
• War Phase
  • Support Stage
  • Attack Stage
  • Battle
    • Determining Army Strength
    • Battle Steps
    • Determining the Winner
    • Losses
    • Movements
    • Ending the Battle
• Playing with Fewer Players
• Additional Rules
  • Single March
  • Militia
  • Allies

About the Game

In Reliquium, each player leads one of the four sides of the conflict: the Legion of Chaos, the Alliance of Nature, the Order of Light or the Brotherhood of the Mountains, and strives to bring their faction to the summit of power. The path to victory runs through the capture of new lands, whose resources grant additional abilities; skilful management of an army made up of warriors, defenders and mages (three classes, each with its own strengths and weaknesses); and the correct use of the legendary creatures unique to each faction.

The one who first manages to raise nine castles wins.

Components

Game Components

• Rulebook
• Game board
• 4 faction boards
• 4 action markers
• 36 plastic unit miniatures:
  • 12 warriors (3 for each faction)
  • 12 defenders (3 for each faction)
  • 12 mages (3 for each faction)
• 72 cardboard tokens:
  • 36 castle tokens (9 for each faction)
  • 12 melee combat tokens (3 for each faction)
  • 12 ranged combat tokens (3 for each faction)
  • 12 creature tokens (3 for each faction)

Overview of Components

Game board. The world map of Sigillum, covering 31 regions: 28 lands and 3 water areas. Lands come in 3 types of terrain: plains, mountains and forests. Rivers have no gameplay function; they serve only as a visual border between lands of the same type.

Faction boards. Cards describing the unique abilities of the legendary creatures, as well as the ownership tracks showing each faction's level of power.

Action markers. Moving across the free spaces of the ownership track, the marker shows which actions are available to the player.

Units. Warriors, defenders and mages are the combat strength of the factions. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Castle tokens. Used to expand faction holdings. When a player builds a castle, its token is moved from the faction board to the game board.

Melee combat tokens. Mark the regions onto which an attack is planned.

Ranged combat tokens. Mark the regions whose units can support the attackers or defenders with a ranged attack in melee combat.

Creature tokens. Mark the places where legendary creatures are summoned. The shape of the token indicates the class of combat units that the summoned creature strengthens.

Setup

Having chosen a suitable surface on which to place all the game components, carry out the following steps:

1. Lay out the game board in the centre of the chosen surface.
2. Determine the sides of the conflict. Each player in turn, using a die or by agreement, chooses one of the four factions: the Legion of Chaos, the Alliance of Nature, the Order of Light or the Brotherhood of the Mountains.
3. Take the inheritance of the chosen faction according to its colour: the faction board, 9 castle tokens, 3 melee combat tokens, 3 ranged combat tokens, 3 creature tokens, 9 plastic unit miniatures and 1 action marker.
4. Set up the 3 starting lands of the faction, placing in each one a castle token (plains, mountain or forest) and a unit miniature. Factions have different starting sets of units.
5. If fewer than 4 players are taking part, set up the neutral lands (see p. 11, "Playing with fewer players").
6. Place the faction board next to the game board.
7. Place the remaining 6 unit miniatures beside the faction board. This is the army reserve.
8. Place the remaining 6 castle tokens on the ownership track so that one last division of each of the 3 segments remains uncovered. Make sure tokens of different castle types lie on different segments.
9. Place the action marker on the first free division of the ownership track (the plains holdings segment).
10. Place the melee combat tokens, ranged combat tokens and creature tokens in front of the faction board.
11. Choose the additional rules that will apply in the current game (see p. 11, "Additional rules").

Game Process

A game of Reliquium consists of rounds, each of which includes two phases:

1. Peace phase. In order of faction initiative, the players in turn move their action marker along the ownership track, performing the actions provided by the divisions it passes: moving units, issuing combat orders, recruiting units, raising castles and summoning legendary creatures onto the battlefield.
2. War phase. Units that were given melee and ranged combat orders advance into battle to capture new lands, or perish in the fury of war.

After the war phase ends, a new round begins.

As soon as one of the players has uncovered all the divisions of the ownership track, having built 9 castles, he is declared the winner.

Faction Initiative

"Some are inclined to aggression, others merely watch from the side."

Faction initiative determines the order of play. The Legion of Chaos has the highest initiative, followed by the Alliance of Nature, then the Order of Light and finally the Brotherhood of the Mountains. The starting lands of the factions are arranged so that turn order runs clockwise.

Peace Phase

"Peace is only preparation for war."

In this phase the players take turns performing the actions provided by the ownership track of their faction. The track consists of three segments: plains, mountains and forests, each of which offers different actions.

1. Perform one of the two possible actions provided by the division of the ownership track on which the action marker stands.

A player may also pass without performing any action, either by choice or when no action is possible.

2. Move the action marker to the nearest free division of the ownership track to the right. If there are no free divisions left, move the marker to the start of the track, onto the first free division.
3. Pass the turn to the next player clockwise. If a player has moved the marker to the start of the track, he will be skipped until the other players have finished the peace phase and performed all the actions available to them.

After performing the action provided by the last free division of the ownership track, move the action marker to the first free division. From then on the player always passes his turn until the others finish the peace phase.

When all the players have moved their action markers to the start of the ownership tracks, the war phase begins.

Actions

"All that is needed on long campaigns and drawn-out offensives is provisions and a flask of fire-water."

If the marker is on the plains segment, the player may march or issue a melee combat order.

If the marker is on the mountains segment, the player may recruit a new unit or issue a ranged combat order.

If the marker is on the forests segment, the player may build a castle or summon a legendary creature.

March

With a march, the player moves his units from one region to another.

1. Declare the region with the faction's units from which you plan to march.
2. Declare the region to which you plan to march.
3. Move any number of units from the first region to the second, observing the following rules:
   • A march cannot be made into a region that contains a castle or at least one unit of another player. Under no circumstances may units of different factions be in the same region.
   • Either all the units in the declared region may march, or only some of them.
   • Units move only to one neighbouring region.
   • For movement there is no difference between lands and water areas.
   • Units may march even if the declared regions are attacking or defending regions.
   • After the march, no region may contain more than the unit limit.

The unit limit is the maximum number of units that may be in one region. The limit is always three.

Example of a march: The Legion of Chaos marches from the Boundless Expanse, moving two warrior units into the Wasteland and leaving its mage unit in place. Seeing a gathering of units on its borders, the Brotherhood of the Mountains marches from the Ancestral Thickets into the Saxum Ridge, reinforcing the army there with a warrior unit.

Melee Combat

With melee combat the player plans an attack on enemy lands. The battle itself takes place in the war phase.

1. Declare your region from which the attack is planned. This is the attacking region.
2. Declare the neighbouring enemy region to be attacked. This is the defending region.
3. Place a melee combat token on the border between the declared regions, observing the following rules:
   • Melee combat tokens are ranked by strength from 1 to 3. A token with a higher value may not be placed if a token with a lower value is available to the player.
   • The swords depicted on the token must point towards the defending region.
   • The attacking region must be controlled by the player, i.e. it must contain a castle or at least one unit of the faction.
   • It is impossible to attack your own region, a land with a castle of a neutral faction when there are no enemy units in it, or an unoccupied region where there are no units or castles.
   • From one region you may attack several regions.
   • A token cannot be placed on a border where a token (your own or an enemy's) already lies. On the border between two neighbouring regions only one melee or ranged combat token may lie.
   • A melee combat token cannot be placed in place of one that was previously placed and removed.

Example of melee combat: The Legion of Chaos plans an attack from the Wasteland into the Saxum Ridge, placing a melee combat token on the border between the two regions. The Brotherhood of the Mountains had wanted to attack from the Saxum Ridge into the Wasteland, but the Legion occupied the border first, so the Brotherhood must attack the Wasteland from the Howling Wilds instead.

Recruiting Units

Recruiting new units increases the combat potential of the army.

1. Declare your region with a castle in which you intend to recruit a new unit.
2. Move a unit miniature from the army reserve into the declared region, observing the following rules:
   • The player may recruit a unit of any class.
   • A unit cannot be recruited into a region where there is no castle of the faction.
   • A unit cannot be recruited if the army reserve is empty.
   • The recruited unit must not exceed the unit limit.

Ranged Combat

With ranged combat the player plans distant support for attacking or defending units.

1. Declare your region from which the ranged support is planned. This is the supporting region.
2. Declare your region whose units need distant support. This is the supported region.
3. Place a ranged combat token on the border between the declared regions, observing the following rules:
   • Ranged combat tokens are ranked by the number of supporting units, from 1 to 3. A token with a higher value may not be placed if a token with a lower value is available to the player.
   • The arrows depicted on the token must point towards the supported region.
   • The declared regions must be controlled by the player, i.e. they must contain his castles or units.
   • Support cannot be given to a region whose units are not planning an attack and are not themselves being attacked. That is, on the border of the supported region there must lie at least one melee combat token, your own or an enemy's.
   • Support can be given from a region whose units are planning an attack or are themselves under attack.
   • From one region support can be given to several regions.
   • A token cannot be placed on a border where a token (your own or an enemy's) already lies. On the border between two neighbouring regions only one melee or ranged combat token may lie.
   • A ranged combat token cannot be placed in place of one that was previously placed and removed.

Example of ranged combat: The Legion of Chaos plans ranged support for the units of the Wasteland, from the Boundless Expanse. The Brotherhood of the Mountains first reinforced the units of the Saxum Ridge from the Valley of Volcanoes, intending to do the same from the Howling Wilds. Remembering the special ability of Armus, which can remove a melee combat token of the Legion from the field, it decided to concentrate on ranged support for its own attack from the Howling Wilds, placing a ranged combat token of value 2 in the direction of the Howling Wilds.

Building a Castle

With the construction of castles the player expands his holdings.

Depending on the resources produced (food, metal and wood), castles are divided into plains, mountain and forest castles. They lie on the corresponding segments of the ownership track and may be built only on the matching types of terrain.

1. Declare the region in which you intend to build a castle.
2. Move a castle token from the ownership track of the faction board into the declared region, observing the following rules:
   • The declared land must contain at least one of your own units.
   • Only one castle may be built in each land.
   • A castle cannot be built on a water area.
   • A castle cannot be built in a land whose terrain type does not match the resource the castle produces.
   • On each segment of the ownership track the rightmost token is always taken, i.e. construction proceeds from right to left. When castles are destroyed, their tokens return to the free divisions in the opposite order, from left to right.
3. Declare yourself the winner if you have built the ninth castle, i.e. no tokens remain on the ownership track.

Summoning a Creature

Legendary creatures strengthen units with an aura of presence. In addition, they possess special abilities that can change the course of the war.

1. Declare the legendary creature and the place of its summoning, at the junction of three regions. Each creature is of such gigantic size that it is present at once in the three regions over which its strengthening aura spreads. These are the regions of the creature's presence.
2. Place the creature token at the summoning place, observing the following rules:
   • At least one of the three regions of the creature's presence must be controlled by the player.
   • A token cannot be placed on the edge of the game board.
   • A token cannot be placed where your own or an enemy creature token already lies.
   • A creature token cannot be placed in place of one that was previously placed.
3. If you intend to use the special ability of the summoned creature, declare it and carry out its effect.

Creatures are summoned for one round, strengthening units in the war phase, after which their tokens are removed from the game board.

Strengthening Aura

Each faction holds in its hands part of the mystical manuscript Bestiary of Sigillum, describing the summoning of three powerful creatures of different classes.

The classification of creatures rests on a dominant attribute: agility, strength and intellect. Each class of creature, by its presence, strengthens the corresponding classes of units: warriors, defenders and mages. The aura adds one unit of strength to each unit of the same class in the creature's region of presence.

• Creatures strengthen only units of the same faction.

The pairing of creature attributes with unit classes is given in the table of creature classes in the Battle section below: Agility strengthens warriors, Strength strengthens defenders, and Intellect strengthens mages.

Special Abilities

In addition to its strengthening aura, each creature has a special ability. It may be used immediately after the creature token is placed.

All targets of special abilities must lie in one of the three regions of the summoned creature's presence, or on its border. The exceptions are the abilities of Fidei and Arboruus, for whom the region of presence is the final point of the units' movement.

After applying a special ability with a movement effect, no region may exceed the unit limit.

Examples of summoning creatures: The Brotherhood of the Mountains summons Armus at the junction of the Saxum Ridge, the Wasteland and the Howling Wilds, adding one unit of strength to the defenders. In addition, Armus uses its special ability to remove the melee combat token of the Legion of Chaos that initiated the attack on the Saxum Ridge.

The Alliance of Nature summons Arboruus at the junction of the Forest's Edge, the Sacrificial Forest and the Mossy Ridge, using its special ability to move three units into the Sacrificial Forest and strengthening a unit of mages.

The Order of Light summons Architectus at the junction of the Groves, the Cliff of Sorrow and the Dawn Pine Forest, using its special ability to build a castle in the Groves.

Note: the text of each creature's individual special ability is printed on the faction boards and creature cards, not in this rulebook. Those card texts were not transcribed here, as they were too small to read reliably in the source scan.

War Phase

"Sooner or later the peace is broken by the drums of war."

In this phase the factions enter battle, in two stages:

1. Support stage.
2. Attack stage.

Support Stage

Each faction has 3 ranged combat tokens, showing one, two or three arrows. Besides indicating the direction of support, the arrows determine how many units can give support to the indicated region.

In this stage the players, in order of faction initiative, distribute their units along the directions of ranged combat.

1. In each supporting region of the faction, send units to the borders of the neighbouring regions being supported, to take part in the battles that are taking shape there. To do so, move the unit miniatures up to the ranged combat tokens, observing the following rules:
   • All units located in the region may give ranged support, or only some of them.
   • The number of units in one direction of support must not exceed the number of arrows on the token lying in that direction, but may be less.
   • One unit may give ranged support to only one region.
   • The final placement of a unit must clearly show whether it takes part in ranged support or not. That is, there must be a gap between the units at the token and the units not taking part in support.
   • Supporting units must not leave the boundaries of the supporting region.
   • A player may choose not to move units up to a ranged combat token if only one token lies on the border of the region and its number of arrows is greater than or equal to the number of units in the region; in that case all these units take part in the support.
2. Remove from the board the unused ranged combat tokens, i.e. those to which no units were moved.
3. Having distributed all the units and removed the excess tokens, pass the turn to the next player clockwise.

When all the players have distributed their support units, the attack stage begins.

Examples of distributing support: The Brotherhood of the Mountains distributes support in the Saxum Ridge, moving one unit of warriors and one mage up to the ranged combat token directed from this region. The remaining warrior unit cannot take part in the support, since the token has 2 arrows; so only 2 units can be sent in this direction.

The Alliance of Nature distributes support in the Sacrificial Forest, sending two mage units to support the Mossy Ridge. The Alliance could have sent a warrior unit there too, but decided to use it to reinforce the Forest's Edge.

The Order of Light divides its units in the Cliff of Sorrow: warriors support the Great Sea, and defenders support the Groves.

Attack Stage

Each faction has 3 melee combat tokens, showing one, two or three swords. Besides indicating the direction of the attack, the swords increase the final strength of the attacking army and determine the order in which battles are fought.

In this stage the players, in order of faction initiative, first conduct all the battles initiated by tokens with strength 3, then those with strength 2, and last those with strength 1.

Example of battle order: the diagram numbers six battles in the order in which they are fought.

1. Announce the upcoming battle, stating the number of swords on the token and the faction that initiated it.

   A battle takes place only between two armies, so the units of the opposing sides must be present in both the attacking region and the defending region.

   • If there are no units in the attacking region, simply remove the melee combat token from the board.
   • If there are no units in the defending region, the battle does not begin, and the attacking faction may immediately carry out the victory march into the defending region (see step 7 of the Battle section, p. 10).

2. Conduct the battle (see the Battle section, p. 9).

3. Pass the turn to the player whose melee combat token initiates the next battle.

When all the battles have been conducted, i.e. no melee combat tokens remain on the board, the war phase ends. Players remove from the game board all their ranged combat tokens and legendary creatures. A new round begins.

Battle

A battle is a comparison of the strength of the two armies taking part in it. The army with the higher strength wins.

Each battle consists of the following steps:

• Determining the strength of the armies.
• Determining the winner.
• Losses.
• Movements.
• Ending the battle.

Determining Army Strength

The final strength of an army consists of the following components:

• The base strength of the units taking part in the battle.
• The bonus from the auras of legendary creatures.
• The attack bonus.

The base strength of a unit depends on its role in the battle:

Role in battle	Warriors	Defenders	Mages
Attack: all units located in the attacking region	2	1	1
Defence: all units located in the defending region	1	2	1
Support: all units directed to support the attacking or defending region	1	1	2

The base strength of a unit is increased by the aura of a legendary creature of the same class, if the unit is located in that creature's region of presence:

Creature class	Warriors	Defenders	Mages
Agility	+1
Strength		+1
Intellect			+1

The attack bonus is the number of swords on the melee combat token that initiated the battle (see step 2 below).

Battle Steps

1. Add up the total strength of the attacking units and the units supporting the attack. To do so, determine in turn the strength of the units of each class, taking into account the creature auras, and then add the results together.
2. Increase the strength of the attacking army by the number of swords on the melee combat token that initiated the battle.
3. Add up the total strength of the defending units and the units supporting the defence. To do so, determine in turn the strength of the units of each class, taking into account the creature auras, and then add the results together.

Determining the Winner

4. Compare the values obtained. The faction whose army strength is greater is declared the winner of the battle, the other the loser. If the values are equal, the battle is a draw.

Losses

Each army loses one unit for every 10 units of strength of the opposing side (so the winning faction may also suffer losses). The losing faction loses one additional unit.

5. Move unit miniatures from the attacking and defending regions into the army reserve, in a number equal to the losses, observing the following rules:
   • The player whose faction takes the losses decides which units are removed from the game board.
   • Support units take no losses.

Movements

6. If the defending faction lost the battle and units remain in the defending region after the losses, they flee the battlefield. Move them into neighbouring regions, observing the following rules:
   • Flight follows the march rules, but the units do not have to go into one region.
   • If such a movement is partly or fully impossible, the units remaining in the defending region are considered destroyed and sent to the army reserve.
   • Fleeing units may take part in the subsequent battles of this round in the roles of attacking, defending and supporting units (if they can be moved up to a ranged combat token immediately after fleeing).
7. If the attacking faction won and units of the attacking faction remain in the attacking region, carry out the victory march: move any number of units from the attacking region into the defending region, observing the march rules. The player may decline the victory march, leaving all the units in the attacking region.
   • If the units make the victory march into a region with a castle, they destroy it, moving the castle token onto the ownership track of the losing faction. If the token returns onto a division of the track where the action marker stands, the marker is moved to the nearest free division to the right.
   • If, however, the player declines a march into a region where there is a castle, the castle is not destroyed, and the region remains under the control of the losing side.
8. In all other cases (victory of the defending faction, defeat of the attacker, or a draw) no movement takes place.

Ending the Battle

9. The battle is over. Remove from the game board the melee combat token that initiated it.

Example of battle: The Alliance of Nature attacks from the Forest's Edge into the Groves. In the attack the Alliance has one warrior unit and one mage unit, and in support one warrior, one defender and one mage unit. The Alliance's Aquus creature strengthens the two warrior units. The army strength is: warriors 3+2, defenders 1, mages 1+2; the sword on the melee combat token adds 1 more, for a total of 10.

The Order of Light has two defender units in the defence and one more in support; the Architectus aura acts on all of them. The army strength is: warriors 1, defenders 3+3+2, for a total of 9.

The Alliance of Nature wins. The Order of Light loses one unit for having lost the battle, and one more because the strength of the opposing army was 10 units. Both of its units go to the army reserve; since there are no units left in the Groves, there is nowhere to retreat. The Alliance then makes a victory march from the Forest's Edge into the Groves, moving one warrior unit. The Order's castle is destroyed and its token returns to the forest segment of the faction board. The melee combat token is removed from the game board.

Playing with Fewer Players

If fewer than 4 players take part, the remaining factions are represented on the game board as neutral.

Place the castle tokens of these factions on their starting lands and on all the bordering lands. In this way the neutral side will have 5 or 6 castles.

Neutral factions take no part in the game, except that they limit the number of lands available for building the players' castles.

The rules for interacting with neutral lands are identical to those for unoccupied regions, except that castles cannot be built there.

Players may march their units into neutral lands if there are no enemy units there; or attack them if there are; or give support to their own units in neutral lands, and vice versa.

However, a castle cannot be built in a neutral land, since the castles of these factions cannot be destroyed and remain on the game board until the end of the game.

Additional Rules

In addition to the basic rules, the game has additional rules. They are introduced at the setup stage by a majority vote.

Single March

When marching with a single unit rather than a group, a player may move that unit twice, i.e. move it into a neighbouring region and then immediately into the next region, which borders the previous one.

The Single March rule increases the possibilities for expansion, and thus brings combat closer.

Militia

If, at the start of the war phase, the borders of a player's regions carry melee combat tokens of two other players, i.e. he is attacked by several factions at once, then until the end of the current round all of his castles become militia units with a constant strength equal to one.

• Creature auras do not affect militia.
• Militia units are not counted towards the unit limit, i.e. a region may contain 3 units and a militia castle.
• A militia unit may be sent to support. To do so, move the castle token up to a ranged combat token.
• Militia takes no losses. It is destroyed only in the case of a victory march into a region with militia.

When playing with three, the Militia rule allows more effective resistance to the collusion of two rivals.

Militia can also be used as a diplomatic tool: by initiating agreed battles that end in a draw, a player obtains militia units. But remember that a battle originally intended as a draw may in the end be won by one of the sides, for example by moving a unit into the battle region at the last moment with a creature's special ability. Treachery runs in the blood of some factions.

Allies

At any time, by mutual agreement, players may conclude a temporary pact. It allows ranged support for allied units, and the summoning of one's legendary creatures into the ally's territory, including the use of their special abilities on allied units as if they were one's own. However, the strengthening aura does not act on allied units.

Each time a player performs one of these actions, he must obtain the ally's consent.

The Allies rule broadens diplomatic possibilities. For example, a player may offer ranged support in exchange for the use of an allied legendary creature's special ability in his own interests. But remember that a ranged combat token placed in the peace phase does not always mean that units will be sent to support in the war phase. Treachery runs in the blood of some factions.

More additional rules, and scenarios with different starting and victory conditions, are available at www.intaglyph.ru.