The King Commands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Box contents
• Starting the Game
  • Determine starting knight
  • Setting up the game
  • The draw deck and piles
• Turn Actions
  • 1. Draw 2 cards
  • 2. Crown or Crystal Ball (optional)
  • 3. Attack or discard
    • Discarding
    • Attacking
    • Normal attacks
    • Defense
• Excalibur
• Merlin's Crystal Ball
  • Draw 4 cards
  • Reclaim a card
  • Look at a hand
• King Arthur's Crown
  • Abdication
• Game End
  • Last chance
  • Discard hands and score

Box contents

114 cards:

• 56 Swords
• 16 Shields
• 8 Crowns
• 8 Crystal balls
• 8 Excaliburs
• 12 Bags of gold
• 6 Reference cards

This manual

Starting the Game

Determine starting knight

Remove the reference cards. Shuffle the deck and deal one card face up to each knight. Look at the scores found on the top right and bottom left of the cards (V = 5 points); the knight with the highest score starts the game. If two or more knights are tied with the highest score, keep dealing cards face up to them until only one knight remains.

Setting up the game

Shuffle the deck and deal each knight a hand of 6 cards. Each knight also receives a reference card that summarizes some of the rules.

The draw deck and piles

The remaining cards are placed in the middle of the table to become the draw deck. A discard pile will start forming next to the draw deck.

In front of each knight there should be room for a score pile, where the knights place cards face down as mentioned later in these rules. The score piles are counted at the end of the game to determine the winner. See the scoring section for further details. Cards placed here may not be played again. No one may look at or count the cards in the score piles during the game.

Turn Actions

Each knight in turn does two or three actions, then play continues clockwise around the table until no more cards remain in the draw deck.

1. Draw 2 cards

At the beginning of each knight's turn he must draw two cards from the deck and place them in his hand.

2. Crown or Crystal Ball (optional)

A knight may choose to play a crown or crystal ball (or neither) at this point. The knight performs one of the actions associated with the played card, which are described later in the rules and can be found on the reference cards.

3. Attack or discard

Each turn a knight must attack another knight or discard cards from his hand, unless he played a crown and abdicated. If a knight holds nothing but bags of gold he reveals them and the turn continues to the next knight.

Discarding

A knight may discard one to three swords, one shield, or one relic and then draw the number of cards from the draw deck as specified below. Relics have a green frame and are crowns, crystal balls and Excaliburs. A knight may not discard bags of gold.

• 1/2/3 swords = 2/4/6 cards
• 1 shield = 3 cards
• 1 relic = 5 cards

Attacking

A knight may attack another knight by playing a set of swords to perform a normal attack. The defending knight may, if he can and chooses to do so, defend himself by blocking or parrying the attack.

If the attack is successful the defending knight must give one bag of gold to the attacker, if he has one or more in his hand. The attacking knight then places all the swords he played and any bag of gold received into his score pile.

Normal attacks

• Poke. Attack using only 1 sword. This attack does not steal a bag of gold.
• Swing. A wide attack using 2 swords of different colors. May be blocked by a shield of either color.
• Thrust. Performed by using 2 swords of the same color. Can only be blocked by a shield of the same color.
• Power chop. A forceful attack using 3 swords of the same color. The defender must use 2 shields of the same color to block it.
• Combination. A combination requires 4 swords, one of each color. This attack cannot be blocked by a shield, only parried.
• Backstab. Take your time and circle around your opponent with 5 swords of the same color. This attack cannot be blocked or parried, even by Excalibur.

Defense

• Block. Blocking is usually done with shields (also see Excalibur). When a knight blocks an attack he takes all the attacker's swords used in the attack and all the shields used in the defense and places them into his score pile.
• Parry. Instead of using a shield to block an attack, the defending player may parry the attack with his sword. To perform a parry, the defending knight plays a matching set of swords as the ones played by the attacker. Each knight places his own swords into his score pile.

Excalibur

The sword, Excalibur, said to possess magical powers, was given to king Arthur by The Lady of the Lake.

The attacking knight may play an Excalibur as his attack. This attack may not be blocked by shields, it can only be parried by another Excalibur. Excalibur may also be used to block all normal attacks except Backstab.

Merlin's Crystal Ball

Merlin used his crystal ball to look into the future and give Arthur advice before making important decisions.

When a knight plays a crystal ball, he discards it to the top of the discard pile, then performs one of the following actions:

Draw 4 cards

Draw four cards from the deck and look at them. Choose two of them to keep and place the other two on top of the deck in any order. If there are not enough cards in the deck you still keep two and place the rest on the table.

Reclaim a card

Look through the discard pile and choose a card to place in your hand. Reveal this card to the other knights.

Look at a hand

Look at the cards of an opponent's hand without revealing them to anyone.

King Arthur's Crown

Each knight is sworn to obey the king and some of the loyalty to the crown still remains. The one who puts the crown on his head may still give the remaining knights a command.

When a knight plays a crown he speaks one of the following commands and does the associated action, as described below. A crown is placed on top of the discard pile unless the knight chooses to abdicate.

• Lay down your swords! ...Upon this command each knight places his sword down on the floor. Will they be quick enough to pick it up again? Your opponents must discard any two swords. Those who cannot skip their next turn.
• Attention! ...This command makes the knights stand at attention and thus they are unable to react for a short time. You get to play two turns in a row. This action may also be used during the last chance part of the game.
• Fear my mighty sword! ...This command strikes fear into the hearts of the knights and makes them tremble and unable to block. This action is considered an attack that cannot be parried or blocked (you do not play any other cards). Once the attack is resolved, you continue your turn as usual.
• Give me your aid! ...All the knights are forced to assist the bearer of the crown when commanded to do so. One knight must give you two of his cards, without revealing them to other knights. If the knight can only give one card he does that. The cards may not be bags of gold. If the knight has nothing but bags of gold he reveals them to all knights and the command ends.

Abdication

Instead of giving a command, the knight may choose to abdicate and places the crown into his score pile. The knight then skips the rest of his turn. The crown is worth three points as indicated by the card.

Game End

The knights gather one last time around a campfire in the evening, on their way back home. As all knights know, it is not the amount of gold that is important, it is who walks away with the best story. Let the bragging begin.

Last chance

When the last card is taken from the deck the knight whose turn it is completes it and then all knights (including the knight drawing the last card) receives one last chance, a turn where they draw no cards.

Discard hands and score

When all knights have taken their last chance turn, all cards remaining in the hands of each knight are discarded and the score piles are counted. Look at the top right corner of each card and count the scores. Excalibur cards have no points. The knight with the highest point total is the winner.