Santa Maria: American Kingdoms
Santa Maria: American Kingdoms Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
General Rules Changes: Contents, Set-Up & Rules
Extension Tile 1: Scholar/Harbour
Place Extension Tile 1 next to the top left corner of the common board.
Shuffle the special shipping order tiles and place them in a separate stack (they have different back and front sides than the normal shipping tiles). Draw one tile and place it face up below Extension Tile 1 – the new harbour space.
Shuffle the 3 new scholar tiles together with the ones from the base game. Draw 4 random scholars, place 3 of them above the indicated spaces on the main board and the 4th above the Extension tile. Instead of 3 (base game), there will now be 4 scholars to choose from. See "Scholar Tiles & Bishop Tiles" below for a detailed description of the new scholar tiles. Note: "Guidance" may only be used with Module A.
Extension Tile 2: Bishop/Missionary Station
Place Extension Tile 2 in such way that it covers all 3 bishop spaces and the rightmost missionary station on the common board.
Shuffle the 3 new bishop tiles together with the ones from the base game, draw 3 random tiles and place them above the indicated spaces. See "Scholar Tiles & Bishop Tiles" below for a detailed description of the new bishop tiles.
Special Expansion Tiles in the Display
Shuffle the 6 special expansion tiles (size: 3 x 1 spaces) and place them face down next to the other expansion tiles. Draw 2 tiles from the stack and place them face up in the display together with the 5 triple and 5 double expansion tiles. You should now have a total of 12 expansion tiles in the display.
Cacao Storage and Cacao Colony
Each player takes a cacao storage tile and places it next to their colony board with the full side face up (any leftover tiles are returned to the box).
New cacao colony. Note: Do not use this colony when playing with Module D: The Mayan City.
- Playing with standard rules for set-up: Shuffle the Cacao Town Hall with the four other ones and deal one random town hall to each player. Each player takes the corresponding colony board and places it with the A-side facing up. Then the town hall tiles are discarded.
- Playing with advanced rules for set-up: Make 5 sets (instead of 4) consisting of 1 town hall and 1 random scholar tile. Important: The player with the cacao colony takes one extra cacao storage tile, but flips this to its empty side (this player has now one full and one empty cacao storage).
Special Shipping Orders
When you perform a shipping action, you may choose to fulfil the special shipping order that is lying below the new harbour instead of a normal shipping order. When you do, pay the resources shown (possibly including coins or cacao), flip over the shipping tile and place it in any dock in your harbour except the one(s) where you have the most shipping tiles. If all your docks have the same number of tiles, you may place the tile in any dock. Then, draw a new tile from the deck of special orders and place it order-side up next to the new harbour.
Illustration caption: "The player fulfills a special shipping order, and must place it outside either the coins dock or the point dock."
Special Expansion Tiles
Each time you choose the action "Expand Your Colony", you may buy one special expansion tile instead of a normal expansion tile. A special expansion tile costs 4 coins. At the end of round 1 and 2, discard any leftover special expansion tiles and draw two new tiles from the deck.
Cacao
Your cacao storage can only hold one cacao at a time. To pay cacao, flip the cacao storage from its full side to its empty side. If you gain cacao, flip the tile back to its full side. If you gain cacao when your storage is full, nothing happens. You are not compensated (i.e. you do not receive a coin).
Cacao may be used in one of two ways:
- On your turn, you may pay cacao to change the value of your chosen die (blue or white) into ANY value.
- Some special shipping orders require cacao for fulfilment.
Gold may be used to replace cacao – both for shipping and for changing a die value.
Illustration caption: "The player spends cacao by flipping the tile to its empty side, and changes the blue die from a 2 to a 6."
Cacao may be gained in the following ways:
- Activate a cacao building (with dice or coins).
- Place a monk on the new missionary station to receive 1 cacao, 1 wood and 1 grain.
Changes to Bishop Scoring
At end of the game, do NOT subtract 2 happiness points per monk on a bishop space.
Module A: The Governor
The governor has come to inspect your colony. Using dice will make him walk through your colony, awarding bonus points and bonus actions. At the end of the game, you score points for having advanced your governor as far as possible.
Contents
- 4 Governors with plastic stands
- 2 Overview Cards (governor scoring side)
Set-Up
Each player places their governor into the plastic stand and places it on the top left space (the shipping space) on their colony board. With more than 2 players, each overview card is placed between two players.
Advancing the Governor
Each time you use a die, first check if the governor is currently located in the row/column corresponding to the chosen die. If it is, advance the governor immediately – before you activate the die:
- White die: move the governor one space to the right.
- Blue die: move the governor one space down.
- If the governor moves to an empty building space, immediately activate that building (before you begin activating other buildings with your die).
- If the governor lands on an empty road space with colonists, gain 1 point per colonist in that space.
- The governor cannot move to an occupied space.
Examples:
- A white die is used, the governor is moved to the right.
- A blue die is used, the governor is moved down (and activates the building).
- A white die is used, but the building to the right is blocked by a coin. The governor does not move. Also, the governor blocks its current building from being activated by the die.
Important: Your governor cannot be moved onto spaces occupied by dice or coins, and it cannot move out of the colony. If the governor cannot move, it remains in place and blocks its current location from being activated.
For all purposes, the governor blocks its current space. Its space cannot be activated with coins/dice, and you cannot place an expansion tile or road tile under it. If your governor reaches the bottom right corner, it cannot be moved further. It remains in place and blocks the corner space for further activation.
End Game Scoring
At the end of the game, you gain or lose points according to the position of your governor. Check the corresponding position on the overview card to see how many points you score/lose.
The overview card's scoring grid, as printed (rows read top to bottom):
| -12 | -11 | -10 | -9 | -8 | -6 |
| -11 | -9 | -8 | -7 | -5 | -4 |
| -10 | -8 | -6 | -3 | -2 | -1 |
| -9 | -7 | -3 | -1 | 1 | 3 |
| -8 | -5 |
Example: The player's governor is positioned at the 5-4 space on your colony board, so you score 1 point for the governor at game end.
Module B: The Specialists
Specialists arrive with other migrants, and they are eager to offer their services – at a price, of course.
Contents
- 18 Specialist Tokens (backside shown)
- 2 Overview Cards (Specialists side)
- Production specialists: 3 Farmers, 3 Foresters, 3 Soldiers
- Upgrade specialists: 9 tokens in 7 designs (one design ×3, six designs ×1)
Set-Up
At the beginning of the game, shuffle the 18 specialist tokens and place them in a facedown stack next to the common board.
At the beginning of each new round, place one random specialist face up on each of the six dice values along the lower border of the common board. At the end of the round, remove any remaining specialists before you place new ones.
Acquiring Specialists
When you choose a white die, after you have done any modifications to its value, you may take the specialist lying on the common board on the die number corresponding to the value of the die you took (after any adjustments). For this you must pay the price of one or more coins (as described below). If you cannot pay, you cannot take the specialist.
Production specialists are put next to your colony board. There are three types of production specialists: Foresters, Farmers and Soldiers. The first time you take a specialist of a given type, pay 1 coin and take 1 of the shown resource. The next time you take a specialist of the same type, pay 2 coins and take 2 of that resource. The third time, pay 3 coins to take 3. If you take a specialist, you must pay the full amount even if you do not want all the resources.
- Specialist farmer: Pay 1/2/3 coins to gain 1/2/3 grain
- Specialist forester: Pay 1/2/3 coins to gain 1/2/3 wood
- Specialist soldier: Pay 1/2/3 coins to advance your conquistador marker 1/2/3 spaces on the track.
Example: Alex takes a white "2" die and pays 1 coin to change it to a "3". He then chooses to take the specialist farmer lying on "3". This is the 2nd time he takes a farmer. He must therefore pay 2 coins and gains 2 grain.
Upgrade specialists. When you take an upgrade specialist, you…
- …either pay 1 coin to put the tile on top of a built space in your colony board (i.e. covering up a road space or a building space),
- …or you pay 3 coins to put the tile on any empty space in your colony.
When you build on top of a built space, the terrain need not match (i.e. upgrading may change the terrain of a space). You are not allowed to place an upgrade specialist on a space occupied by a coin or a die.
Upgrade specialists are regarded as buildings (symbolized by the wagon). Thus, you activate it with dice and coins as any other building. This special building is also considered a road tile for all purposes.
Combining modules (with Module A): You take the specialist before you move the governor. Also, you cannot place an upgrade specialist on a space with a governor. When the governor moves onto an upgrade specialist it will be activated like any other building.
Module C: The Ambassadors
The ambassadors add another tactical aspect to the dice drafting. This module may also speed up the game slightly.
Contents
- Ambassador Tiles (2)
Set-Up
At the beginning of the game, players are not given a personal blue die. Also, reduce the number of white dice in the common pool to 2 white dice per player (i.e. 8 white dice in a 4 player game). After you have rolled the dice in the common pool, roll one additional white die and one blue die and place them on the ambassador tiles in the common pool. These dice are referred to as the ambassador dice.
Using The Ambassadors
On a player's turn, a player may take one of the ambassador dice instead of a normal die and use it just like a normal die (including using coins or cacao to change its value).
Important: Also take the ambassador tile and place it in front of you!
After you have used the die, each other player in a clockwise order around the table immediately gets to activate the same row/column on their own colony board, just as if they had just used the die themselves. They may not use coins to change to another row/column, and they do not leave a die on the last activated space. Note: All players may still perform free actions (selling/buying resources) and use any scholars they have.
At the beginning of a new round, return the ambassador tiles to the common pool. The ambassador dice are rerolled and placed back on their ambassador tiles.
Important: Each player is limited to taking at most 2 normal white dice from the common pool each round. Players will get their first and second personal blue dice when they pass the dice symbols on the religion track. The ambassador dice do not count towards a player's dice limit!
Tip: In order to reduce playing time, players may activate their row/column simultaneously. However, remember to move on the conquistador track and religion track in the correct turn order.
Combining modules (with Module A): If you also use Module A: your governor advances when you activate its row/column, even if the activation is caused by another player choosing the ambassador die.
Combining modules (with Module B): If you also use Module B: only the player who takes the white ambassador die may pay to buy a specialist in its corresponding column.
Module D: The Mayan City
The Mayan City is an asymmetrical role for one player. This role is slightly harder to play and to win with, so it should only be played by an experienced player.
Combining modules (with Module C): This module makes it possible to play with 5 players (4 colonists + 1 Mayan City player). If you do, you must also use module C ("The Ambassadors").
Important! When playing this module, no player may use the Cacao colony (when using the advanced rule for set-up, no colonist may use the cacao town hall).
See below and the end of this chapter for further rules when mixing this module with other modules.
Contents & Set-Up
- 1 City Board
- 15 Temple Tiles (5 of each size)
- 12 Building Tokens (6 of each type)
- 3 Road Tokens
- 3 High Priest Tokens
- 1 Overview Card
- 10 Storage Tiles
- 24 Action Cards
- 3 Player Markers (Religion Marker, Soldier Marker, Passing Marker)
- 1 blue die
City Board. Take the City board and place it in front of you. All other players are colonists and follow normal set-up and rules.
Temple Tiles. Sort the temple tiles by size. Shuffle the largest tiles and place one random tile with the resource side facing up on each of the five temple locations. Shuffle the remaining tiles and place them in two facedown stacks nearby.
Building Tokens. Sort the building tokens by type (background colour) and place them in a supply near the City board. Building tokens are of two types: timber and straw.
Road, High Priest and Overview. Place the road tokens, the high priest tokens and the overview card near the City board. The overview card is double-sided and gives information about your options when you play a "trade card" and when you withdraw from the round.
Dice and gold. Take 1 blue die, roll it, and place it next to your City board. Don't forget to also add 3 white dice to the common pool for the Mayan City player (2 dice if you use Module C).
Take a number of gold tokens equal to the number of players in the game and place them in the gold storage area in the middle of the City board (e.g. 3 tokens if you play with 2 colonist players and yourself).
Coins. Take 2 coins. You will be the starting player in the first round. The following players take 3/4/5/6 coins, as normal.
Storage. Take the 6 storage tiles shown to the left and place them in your play area as shown (full = face up; empty = face down). Put the remaining storage tiles aside for now. This means you start the game with 1 cacao, 1 grain and 1 wood. You also have the potential to store 1 gem, 1 sugar and 1 additional cacao. You may gain additional storage during the game.
Action cards. Shuffle all action cards and place them face down in a deck in your play area. Draw 5 cards as your starting hand. All cards show two actions, each action corresponds to a region in your City.
Player markers. Place your player markers on the common board: the religion marker on the first space of the religion track, the soldier marker on the first space of the conquistador track and the passing marker near the retiring spaces.
Rules for the Mayan City
Storage: You do not use resource tokens. Instead, you have storage tiles that can either be empty or full (meaning you have one item of that resource).
- If you pay a resource, flip a corresponding full storage tile to its empty side.
- If you gain a resource, flip an empty corresponding storage to its full side.
- If your storage is already full when you gain resources, the extra resources goes to waste without compensation (i.e. you do not receive a coin).
- Just like the other players, you may pay 1 cacao to change the value of a chosen die (blue or white) into any value.
- Unlike the colonist players, you may not sell resources as a free action (you may only sell when using a trade action card), and you may not use coins to activate buildings.
Gold and conquistador track: When you activate the soldier symbol, you advance your player marker on the conquistador track, just like the colonist players.
- If you pass a gold symbol, take a gold token from the supply and place it on your gold storage (above the middle temple). Note that you cannot use gold as a wild resource.
- When you pass a gold symbol you protect your gold from the players behind you on the conquistador track: If a colonist player passes a gold symbol that you have already passed, they do not gain a gold.
- Whenever a colonist player passes a gold symbol before you, or if they gain gold from other sources, they take the gold from your gold storage. If your storage is empty, they take the gold from the supply.
Example: You pass the 1st gold symbol on the track and add one gold from the supply to your storage area. Later, the red player passes the same gold symbol, but since you have already passed this symbol, the red player does not gain any gold. Later, red advances further on the track, passing the 2nd gold symbol. Now, the red player takes one gold token from your storage and places it in their own storage.
Religion track: When you activate the religion symbol, you advance your player marker on the religion track. Just like the colonist players, you may pay 1 grain to advance one extra space. Also, you gain one extra blue die when you pass a die symbol.
When you pass a monk symbol:
- Either draw one action card from the deck into your hand.
- Or turn any one storage tile to its full side.
The Mayan City Player's Turn
On your turn, you may perform one of 4 actions:
- A. Use a Die
- B. Play One Action Card
- C. Use a High Priest Token
- D. Withdraw from the Round
Each action is described below.
A. Use a Die
Take a white die from the common pool or use one of your personal blue dice. You may pay coins to change its value as normal (1 coin per pip up or down).
Place the die on the matching die symbol on your City board. Then, move the die along the road, activating all vacant buildings on the way. Finally place the die on the last building activated, blocking this building from further activation this round.
Important: When moving along the road, you must follow the curvature of the road, and you may not turn around or move backwards. When the road splits, you must choose which road to follow. Road tiles (see below) therefore provide more options. You do not have to follow the road to its end, you may decide to stop at any vacant building. Note that the white and blue dice are handled equally for activating buildings. If you do not have any vacant buildings, you cannot take the die.
Example: Helge activates a "4" die, and may either follow the road towards "3" or follow the road towards "5".
As you pass or end your movement on empty buildings, carry out their effect:
- Production: Flip an empty storage tile of the matching resource to its full side, or take the shown coins / happiness points.
- Religion: Advance your marker on the religion track (you may pay 1 grain to move one extra space).
- Soldier: Advance your marker one space on the conquistador track.
Building Temples. After you place the die on the last activated building, you MAY pay resources to complete a face-up temple tile in ONE of the regions adjacent to this building. Note: Buildings on paths 1 and 6 only border one region.
Pay the resources shown on the temple tile and flip it to its completed side. Immediately receive the reward as described below. After you have completed a temple tile, draw one new temple tile of the next (smaller) size, and place it face up as the next level (on top of the completed one). After you have completed the smallest tile in a temple (all 3 levels), this temple is now finished and no new tiles are added to it. Note: You may only complete one temple tile each time you use a die.
When you complete a temple tile, receive the following reward, depending on the region the temple is located:
- Take 2 coins.
- Draw 2 cards from the deck to your hand.
- Take any one storage tile from the supply and place it full-side-up in your play area.
- Place a road tile on an empty road space on your City board. The extra road segment increases your options when using dice (e.g. a road tile on road 2 lets you move a die from 1 to 3 or vice versa).
- 1 high priest token and place it in your play area. See action "C. Use a High Priest Token".
Example: Alex takes a "4" die, activating all vacant buildings on the way. He leaves the die on the last activated building. He may now choose to complete the temple tile in one of the adjacent regions. He chooses to complete the tile in the brown area, paying 1 wood, 1 gem and 1 cacao. He then flips over the temple tile and gains its reward of 2 coins. Finally he draws a new, small temple tile and puts it face up on top of the completed tile.
B. Play One Action Card
Each card shows two possible actions. As your main action, you may perform one action on one card. After performing the action (see next page), tuck the card under the City board next to its corresponding region so that only the chosen action is visible (see example).
Note: The chosen action must either be a trade action (beige), a festival action (green), or a build action (brown). Technology actions (blue) are played differently (see next page). There are no action cards for the gold temple region (in the middle).
Example: 3 cards tucked next to the trade region, only showing the trade action.
C. Use a High Priest Token
High Priest Tokens are acquired by upgrading the "gold temple".
To use a High Priest, place the token on a vacant building to activate it. You may also pay resources to upgrade a temple in a region adjacent to this building (as if you had used a die). The token remains on the building, blocking it from further activation this round.
Example: Alex places a high priest token on the building and gains a wood.
D. Withdraw From the Round
Withdraw from the round by placing your passing marker on a vacant retiring space, taking the associated action (see "Overview Card"):
The first 3 actions are the same as for the colonist players. 4th action: Instead of fulfilling a shipping order, flip any one of your storage tiles to its full side. 5th action: Instead of taking a road tile, pay resources to complete any one temple tile in your city.
Now score points for your temples (do not wait until all players have withdrawn):
In every region where you have played at least one card, multiply the number of played cards by the number of completed levels in the corresponding temple. Gain that many happiness points (take happiness tokens from the supply).
Example: You have completed 2 levels in the brown temple, and played 4 brown cards. Score 2x4 = 8 points for this region.
For the gold temple (the middle region), you score the number of completed temple levels multiplied by the number of gold tokens in your storage area.
Round End
After all players have withdrawn from the round, you score points for your relative position on the conquistador track as normal. Then, the conquistador track is reset.
Note: In a game with 5 players, you use the same scoring as for 4 players (i.e. the last two players on the track do not score).
Remove all dice from your City board and take back all high priest tokens. Reroll dice as normal. Temple tiles remain in place, and you keep your hand cards.
Draw 3 additional cards from the deck and take them into your hand. At the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd round, add gold tokens from the supply to your storage as you did at the beginning of the game (one gold per player, e.g. 3 in a 3 player game). If the supply is empty, the extra gold is forfeited.
At end of the game, you sell resources in your storage (not gold) for 1 coin each. You then score 1 point for every 3 coins you have.
Solo Play
Take 1 gold token to your storage at the beginning of the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd round. For conquistador scoring, use normal solo rules. When playing trading cards, you may only trade with the supply.
Combining modules (with Module B): You don't take Specialists.
Combining modules (with Module C): Whenever an ambassador die is taken by another player, you may simulate a die move as if you had taken the die, including playing a technology card and building temples at the last activated building.
Module D: Action Cards
All cards show two actions.
Build. Pay the indicated resource (wood or grain), and then take a building of the corresponding type and place it on a vacant building spot on your City board:
- Pay wood => Build a timber building
- Pay grain => Build a straw building
Example: Building token is placed.
Trade. First gain 1 coin. Then, you may trade with the supply and/or one or more of the other players. You may trade as many times as you like with each trade action.
Trade with the supply/deck (see Overview Card):
- Pay 1 coin to discard any number of cards from your hand and put them under the deck. Then draw the same number of cards from the top of the deck. If you are not happy with the new cards, you may pay another coin to discard and draw again.
- Pay 1 coin to gain 1 cocoa [sic].
- Pay 2 coins to take either 1 grain or 1 wood.
- Sell any resource for 1 coin.
Trade with other players. You may trade (in any combination) any number of resources (incl. gold) and coins if the players agree. Example: You agree to trade away 1 wood for 2 coins. You flip your wood storage to its empty side. The other player takes a wood token from the supply and gives you 2 coins.
Festival. Pay the indicated resource and gain the shown reward (points or coins).
Technology. Each technology action shows a die value. This card may only be played as an additional free action when you use a die with the shown value (the colour of the die does not matter). Immediately gain the bonus shown on the card and tuck it next to the technology region. The bonuses are: Soldier (advance on the conquistador track), Culture (advance on the religion track), gain one Gem or Sugar (provided you have available storage). You may carry out the effect before or after you use the die to activate buildings.
Note: You may play at most one technology card per activated die. If you spend coins to change the value of a die, it is the new die value that must match the card.
Scholar Tiles & Bishop Tiles
The new scholar tiles and new bishop tiles are described below. The Philosophy scholar tile is from the base game.
"Archery" (scholar)
When you activate a die with value 1 or 6, you may pay 1 coin and move the die diagonally (in the direction of the corresponding arrow shown) instead of the normal direction.
Note: If you use this tile together with "Taxation" (from the base game), count the colonists on the spaces along the diagonal line.
Combining modules (with Module A): When playing Module A, the governor must be in the diagonal line in order to be moved. The colour of the die decides whether it moves down (blue) or right (white).
Combining modules (with Module C): When playing Module C: If you take an ambassador die, you may move it diagonally while all other players must activate the row/column as normal (unless they also have this scholar). If another player takes the ambassador die, you may activate the diagonal line.
"Guidance" (scholar)
Tile is only used together with Module A. If your governor lands on a road space, you may pay one coin to move one extra space in the same direction. If the governor lands on another road space, you may pay another coin to move again.
Remember to score points whenever the governor moves on a road space with colonists.
"Meditation" (scholar)
When withdrawing from the round, you may perform the action on the chosen retiring space twice. Exception: If you choose the fifth retiring space, you first take one road tile and then perform the action on any other vacant retiring space (if any are available).
Bishop tile: conquistador bonus (name not printed in the source)
Gain the points you received for your position on the conquistador track in the third round one extra time.
Bishop tile: large expansion tiles (name not printed in the source)
Gain 2 points (max 12) for each large expansion tile (3 spaces) in your colony at game end.
Bishop tile: gems (name not printed in the source)
Gain 2 points (max 12) for each gem on your shipping tiles at game end.
Note on "Philosophy" (from base game)
If you have the scholar tile "Philosophy" and use a blue die to activate a column, the die is considered to be white for the purpose of advancing the governor.