The Two Heirs
The Two Heirs Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 54 building tiles (6 sets of 9 tiles)
- 6 military unit tokens (small shields): a) 4 regular units, b) 2 elite units with a yellow border
- 1 large royal shield
- 1 scoring pad
- 1 rulebook
- 1 solo rulebook
Tile description
In the top right corner of each tile is one of 6 set symbols: Wandering (Putování), Dominion (Dominium), Trade & Church (Obchod & církev), Warfare (Válčení), Crafts (Řemesla), Guard (Stráž).
Front – building and terrain:
- Type of building
- Type of tile / resource
- Building cost
- Building effect
- Road section (only on some tiles)
- Set symbol
Type of tile / resource: Green = wood, Grey = stone, Yellow = grain.
Back – terrain.
Setup
Sit opposite each other. Divide the building tiles by the symbols in the top right corner into 6 sets of 9 tiles. For every game choose 3 sets of tiles. Return the remaining sets to the box; they will not be needed in this game.
For your first game we recommend the following sets: Wandering, Dominion and Trade & Church. Shuffle all 3 sets (27 tiles) together and place them face down in a pile near the play area. This pile is the shared supply of building tiles.
Each player chooses a colour (blue or white) and takes 3 unit tokens of that colour.
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PREPARE THE ROYAL RESERVE. Flip the royal shield like a coin and place it on the edge of the play area. The colour of the crown determines the starting player. Take the 6 top tiles from the shared supply and lay them face up in a circle; start laying them to the right of the royal shield and continue clockwise. These tiles form the royal reserve. Place the 4 regular unit tokens (2 of each colour) in the middle of the circle.
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PREPARE THE STARTING LANDSCAPE. Take the top tile from the shared supply and place it face down in the middle of the play area. Place both elite unit tokens (shields with a yellow border, cross symbol facing down) face up on it.
Note: The start of the game is the only moment when 2 unit tokens can be on one tile. Once the paths of the two brothers part, there can never again be more than one unit on a tile.
(Illustration captions: 1. The royal reserve at the start of the game. The white player will start, because the royal shield shows a white crown. 2. The starting landscape.)
Overview and goal of the game
Your goal is to have more points than your opponent at the end of the game. Players place building and terrain tiles on the shared play area and so gradually create a new landscape. Buildings bring points at the end of the game. Players can move their units across the landscape, which lets them gather resources and widen their building options. As soon as the last tile is taken from the shared supply, the players play one last turn, after which the game ends (see Final turn and end of the game).
Course of the game
The player whose colour matches the crown on the royal shield goes first. Players alternate turns until the end of the game is triggered.
On your turn, perform the following actions in any order:
- A. Take 1 building tile into your hand (mandatory)
- B. Play 1 or more building tiles from your hand (optional)
- C. Move 1 or more of your units (optional)
Note: Action A can be performed only once per turn. Actions B and C can be performed at any time during the turn and repeatedly. However, each unit may move only once per turn.
Royal protocol
The royal protocol determines which tiles from the royal reserve are available to you. The royal reserve has 7 positions: 6 with tiles and 1 with the royal shield. You can reach as many building tiles as your influence on the king, which equals 1 plus the number of your units currently in the royal reserve. This value tells you how many building tiles you have access to, counted clockwise from the royal shield.
Any tile within your reach can be used in two different ways: you can take it into your hand (action A), or you can leave it in the royal reserve and use it as a source of resources for playing a tile from your hand (action B).
At the start of the game both players reach 3 tiles (1 + 2 units in the royal reserve). Moving your unit out of the royal reserve reduces your reach (see action C; the minimum reach is 1 tile). It is therefore possible that you and your opponent have different reach.
Action A: Take 1 building tile into your hand
You must take 1 tile from the royal reserve into your hand on your turn. You may only take a tile within your reach, which is determined by the royal protocol. You can choose whether to do this action at the start of your turn, between other actions, or at the end of your turn.
When you take a tile, 1 of the 7 positions in the royal reserve is vacated. Move the royal shield onto the vacated position and flip it to its other side, so that the crown in your opponent's colour is showing. This emphasises that you have already taken a tile and therefore cannot perform this action again this turn. At the same time, it changes which tiles will be available to you for the rest of this turn, and to your opponent on their next turn, until they take a tile themselves.
Refill the position previously occupied by the royal shield with the top tile from the shared supply, face up. If that was the last tile in the shared supply, at the end of your turn proceed to "Final turn and end of the game".
Hand limit: At the end of your turn you may have at most 3 building tiles in your hand. Surplus tiles that you cannot or do not want to play on your turn are removed from the game; return them to the box.
Action B: Play 1 or more tiles from your hand
You can play a building tile from your hand in 2 ways:
- B.1 Construct a building
- B.2 Extend the landscape with free terrain
B.1 Constructing a building
On your turn you may construct one or more buildings by playing building tiles from your hand face up onto the play area. You must have available all the resources required for the construction.
Place the new building on a free position in the play area so that it touches, by side or corner, another tile occupied by your unit. Always place the tile with its bottom side towards you. Your opponent will therefore see your buildings upside down, and vice versa. Any roads on tiles do not have to line up with roads on neighbouring tiles.
Resources
Resources correspond to tile colours (green = wood, grey = stone, yellow = grain). You can obtain the resources needed for construction in several ways, and you can use all of them at once or only some.
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Resources from the royal sources: The royal reserve provides you with resources according to the royal protocol. When you draw resources from here, you do not take the tiles into your hand but leave them in place. The king has promised you these resources and you may use them for construction until the end of your turn, regardless of whether you have already taken a building tile. Example 1 (see diagram): The white player has reach 3, so he has 1 stone, 1 grain and 1 wood available. The offer of resources from the royal sources can change during your turn after the royal shield is moved (see the course of action A above).
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Resources provided by your units on the play area: You also have access to the resources from tiles occupied by your units. Example: If you had units on a yellow and a green tile, you would at that moment get 1 grain and 1 wood.
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If you play with the Trade & Church set, you can also gain resources from some of the buildings you have constructed: farms, sawmills or quarries.
Note: Resources never run out, and you have them as long as you have access to them. You can lose access, for example, by moving units or by changes in the royal reserve. A resource from one tile can be used to construct several buildings in one turn (a tile provides exactly one resource per building).
Example 1: What resources are within the white player's reach? The royal shield shows a white crown. This means the white player will take a tile from the shared supply next. He can currently reach 3 tiles clockwise, because both white units are still in the royal reserve. The 4th, 5th and 6th tiles (marked X) are unavailable to him.
Example 2: The white player wants to build an inn that he has in hand (cost: 2 stone and 1 grain). He has reach 2, because he kept 1 unit in the royal reserve. The tiles in reach give him 1 stone and 1 wood. He also has 1 unit on a yellow building and 1 unit on grey free terrain. That means he also has 1 grain and 1 stone available. Finally, because he had already built a farm, he gets 1 additional grain. In total he can therefore spend 2 grain, 2 stone and 1 wood on construction. That means that if he wanted, he could also build a trading post at the same time (cost: 2 grain and 1 wood).
B.2 Extending the landscape with free terrain
On your turn you may extend the existing landscape by placing a building tile on the play area face down. In this case you do not pay the construction cost. A tile with free terrain must also be placed on a free position in the play area so that it touches, by side or corner, another tile occupied by your unit. Free terrain belongs to nobody, but you can obtain the corresponding resource from it if you have your unit on it.
Caution: Extending the landscape reduces the cost of 1 building constructed in the same turn by 1 resource of your choice.
Example 3: The white player would like to build a bakery, which he holds in hand (cost: 2 grain and 1 wood). However, he currently has within reach only 1 grain and 1 wood. He decides to play a grey tile from his hand as free terrain, which gives him a discount of 1 resource, so he can build the bakery.
Action C: Move 1 or more of your units
On your turn you may move each of your units once. You have the following options:
- Move to an adjacent tile on the play area that touches the current tile by side or corner, if it is not already occupied by another unit.
- Call a unit from the royal reserve onto the play area: you may move this unit onto a tile on which there is no unit and which touches, by side or corner, a tile already occupied by your own unit.
- Withdraw a unit from the play area into the royal reserve. However, you must not withdraw your elite unit; it may not leave the play area.
Whenever you move a unit, flip its token to the other side (so the cross is visible). This shows which of your units have already moved. At the end of your turn flip your unit tokens back (so the cross is covered). The rules on reach and resources apply to units regardless of which side of the token is showing.
Note: Calling and withdrawing units from and to the royal reserve changes your reach determined by the royal protocol. All actions can be freely combined and played in any order.
Example 4: It is the white player's turn. The royal shield is turned blue crown up, which means the white player has already taken a tile. Now he wants to build a lookout (cost: 1 grain, 1 wood and 1 stone), but he has no wood available. At first glance he has three options to get it: he could move a unit from the yellow building onto green free terrain, or withdraw this unit into the royal reserve and so increase his own reach, or finally call a unit from the royal reserve onto the green free terrain. On closer inspection, however, the first two options turn out to be infeasible. The white player would not be able to build the lookout in the chosen place, because he would not comply with the rule that a new tile must touch, by side or corner, the tile where his unit is. For this reason only one solution remains: he calls his unit from the royal reserve onto the green free terrain and then flips its token to the inactive side (cross up).
Final turn and end of the game
As soon as one of the players takes the last building tile from the shared supply, he finishes his turn as usual. Then both players may play one more, final turn, during which they will not refill missing tiles in the royal reserve. Empty positions in the royal reserve are ignored and are not counted when determining the players' reach. Then proceed to the final scoring.
Scoring
Count the points for the buildings you have constructed. These are the buildings facing their bottom side towards you. Each building is evaluated separately.
Buildings bring points based on the conditions stated on their tiles. Further points can be gained by clever placement of your own units. Finally, you can gain extra points for roads on the play area.
Placement of units
If you have your own unit on one of your buildings, you get twice as many points for it as usual. If your opponent occupies one of your buildings with his unit, it has no effect on scoring.
Roads
You can score points for a road only if it connects buildings on at least 2 tiles. Each road is scored separately.
Both players count how many of their buildings are connected to each other by each road. The player who has more buildings connected in this way subtracts from their number the number of the opponent's buildings on the same road. The difference is the points he gains. The other player gets no points for that road. If both have the same number, nobody gets points for the road.
Note: Free terrain is not considered part of roads and does not work as a connector of roads. A tile that contains 4 separate road sections does not connect them to each other. Instead it is considered the end of each of the 4 roads leading to it.
Example 5: Road A connects 3 buildings, all belonging to the white player, who thus gets 3 points (3 - 0 = 3). Road B also connects 3 buildings, of which 2 belong to the blue player and 1 to the white player. The blue player therefore receives 1 point for road B (2 - 1 = 1). On road C there are 2 white and 2 blue buildings, so nobody receives points for it. On road D there is only 1 building, so the blue player gets nothing for it.
Note: In your first game we recommend not using road scoring at all.
Winner
The player with more points wins. In case of a tie, the player who has more units in the royal reserve wins. If there is still a tie, both brothers will have to go to their father again and ask him for another piece of land!
Effects of the individual sets
Wandering (Putování)
Inn (Hostinec): You get 1 point for each tile in the same column or row as the inn (as stated on its tile), up to a maximum of 3 tiles in both directions. The inn itself is worth 1 point, which means you can get up to 7 points this way.
Marketplace (Tržiště): You get 1 point for each tile that touches the marketplace by a side. The marketplace itself is worth 1 point, which means you can get up to 5 points this way.
Pilgrimage site (Poutní místo): You get as many points as the number of tiles in the longest uninterrupted road connected to the pilgrimage site. It does not matter who owns the buildings on this road. The pilgrimage site itself is also considered a road, so you always get 1 victory point for it, even if no other road leads to it.
Note: The pilgrimage site does not connect roads. It is considered the end of each road leading to it.
Bandit stronghold (Lapkovská tvrz): You get 2 points for each opponent's building that touches the bandit stronghold by a side. The bandit stronghold itself is worth 2 points, which means you can get up to 10 points this way.
Dominion (Dominium)
Mill (Mlýn): You get 1 point for each yellow tile that is part of any formation of yellow tiles that touches the mill by a side, including the opponent's yellow tiles and yellow free terrains. The mill itself is worth 1 point.
Stonemason's (Kamenictví): You get 1 point for each grey tile that is part of a formation of grey tiles that touches the stonemason's by a side, including the opponent's grey tiles and grey free terrains. The stonemason's itself is worth 1 point.
Stable (Chlév): You get 1 point for each green tile that is part of a formation of green tiles that touches the stable by a side, including the opponent's green tiles and green free terrains. The stable itself is worth 1 point.
Bakery (Pekárna): You get 1 point for each of your buildings on yellow tiles. The bakery itself is worth 1 point.
Camp (Ležení): At any time during your turn, if you have already taken a tile from the royal reserve, you may flip the camp tile face down and at the same time flip the royal shield back to your colour. This means you can take another tile from the royal reserve this turn. If you do not use the camp's effect by the end of the game, it is worth 2 points. Each camp tile can be used only once per game.
Smithy (Kovárna): You get 1 point for each of your buildings on grey tiles. The smithy itself is worth 1 point.
Gamekeeper's lodge (Hájovna): You get 1 point for each of your buildings on green tiles. The gamekeeper's lodge itself is worth 1 point.
Trade & Church (Obchod a církev)
Farm (Farma): For each of your farms you have 1 extra grain available on your turn. For the farm to produce grain, you do not need to have it occupied by your unit.
Sawmill (Pila): For each of your sawmills you have 1 extra wood available on your turn. For the sawmill to produce wood, you do not need to have it occupied by your unit.
Quarry (Lom): For each of your quarries you have 1 extra stone available on your turn. For the quarry to produce stone, you do not need to have it occupied by your unit.
Note: If you have your farm, sawmill or quarry occupied by your unit, you get 2 extra resources of the corresponding kind (1 for the building and 1 for the unit).
Trading post (Obchodní stanice): You get 3 points for each of your buildings depicted on the trading post tile: farm, sawmill or quarry.
Cathedral (Katedrála): You get 5 points.
Warfare (Válčení)
Siege tower (Obléhací věž): If 2 of your siege towers touch 1 opponent's building by their sides, you may destroy that building. In that case flip its tile face down and from then on consider it free terrain. This effect takes place at the moment the second tower is placed. Destroying is not mandatory. One siege tower alone has no effect, and likewise brings no points.
Fortress (Pevnost): You get 1 point for each of your siege towers and fortresses anywhere on the play area, including this tile.
Guard (Stráž)
Lookout (Hláska): You get 1 point for each tile of the same colour as the lookout in the same column or row (as stated on its tile), including the opponent's buildings and free terrains. The lookout itself is worth 1 point.
Guardhouse (Strážnice): You get 2 points for each lookout (yours and your opponent's) that lies diagonally from your guardhouse, regardless of distance. The guardhouse itself is worth 2 points.
Crafts (Řemesla)
Basket-maker's workshop (Košíkářská dílna): You get 3 points for each pair of green and yellow tiles located at the positions shown on the basket-maker's workshop tile (touching by side or corner, as stated on the tile). The opponent's tiles and free terrains also count. If the stated condition is not met, this tile itself brings no points.
Potter's workshop (Hrnčířská dílna): You get 3 points for each pair of grey and yellow tiles located at the positions shown on the potter's workshop tile (touching by side or corner, as stated on the tile). The opponent's tiles and free terrains also count. If the stated condition is not met, this tile itself brings no points.
Cooper's workshop (Bednářská dílna): You get 3 points for each pair of green and grey tiles located at the positions shown on the cooper's workshop tile (touching by side or corner, as stated on the tile). The opponent's tiles and free terrains also count. If the stated condition is not met, this tile itself brings no points.
Guild house (Cechovní dům): Guild houses increase the point yield of the individual craft workshops (basket-maker's, potter's and cooper's). The respective building now brings 4 points for each pair (instead of 3). Guild houses themselves bring no points.
Symbol descriptions
- Victory point
- Any tile
- Any green tile
- Any grey or yellow tile
- Any tile connected by a road
- Any building on a green tile
- A specific building (e.g. potter's workshop)
- Owned by the opponent
- Owned by me
- Flip
- Tiles in the given direction
(The symbols themselves are pictographic and are not reproduced in text.)
Solo rules
Solo components
All components of the base game The Two Heirs, plus:
- 10 treasure tokens
- 1 scaffolding token
- 1 solo rules sheet
Overview and goal of the solo game
Your task is to get more points than your imaginary opponent Henry, whose turns are automated. You perform your turns as in the base 2-player game. After finishing your own turn, play Henry's turn according to the special rules below. Continue taking turns alternately until the end of the game is triggered.
Points are awarded as in the base game (including roads). Henry gets points by a modified mechanism.
Solo setup
Set up the solo game according to the base rules for 2 players with the following changes:
- Choose your colour; the other belongs to Henry.
- Place all of Henry's units outside the royal reserve on the edge of the play area face down (the crosses should be visible on the tokens).
- Shuffle the treasure tokens face down and place them as a face-down pile (the sides with the chest should be visible) on the edge of the play area. Choose a difficulty level below and remove the corresponding number of treasure tokens from the game. Return them to the box without looking at them.
- Level 1: Poor Henry - remove 4 treasure tokens
- Level 2: Brave Henry - remove 2 treasure tokens
- Level 3: Relentless Henry - do not remove any treasure tokens
Solo course of the game
You always start the game. Your turn proceeds according to the basic rules for the 2-player game. Then play Henry's turn according to the following rules. It is divided into 2 phases:
1. Taking a building tile
You take a building tile for Henry from the royal reserve, clockwise from the royal shield. Henry always has unlimited reach in the royal reserve. Take:
a) The first tile of the same kind (colour) as the top tile of the shared supply. b) If there is no such tile in the royal reserve, or the shared supply is already empty, take the first tile clockwise from the royal shield.
As soon as you remove the tile, move the royal shield to the vacated position, flip it to the other side, and refill the royal reserve from the shared supply in the usual way.
2. Placing the selected building tile
Place that building tile face up on the play area according to the following rules:
a) Rotate it so that from your point of view it is upside down, which shows that it belongs to Henry. b) Place it so that it touches, by side or corner, the building you placed last. c) To determine the exact position where the tile goes, always start at the top edge of the last building you placed and proceed clockwise until you find the first permitted position.
The tile must either:
- A. Be connected to a road on your last building tile, or, if that is not possible,
- B. Block one of the roads on your last building tile, or, if that is not possible,
- C. Be placed on the first available free position, or, if that is not possible,
- D. Remove the tile being placed from the game without anything else.
Note: Henry ignores the construction cost of his building tiles. He always builds his buildings for free, if he can place them according to the options A to C.
Example: Placing Henry's building. It is Henry's turn. The top tile in the shared supply is green, so he takes a siege tower from the royal reserve. You must then try to place it next to your last placed building, which is the pilgrimage site. First you check option A. You could connect the siege tower to the road from the pilgrimage site at positions A1 or A2. But both of these positions are already occupied. Next you should try to block one of the roads on the pilgrimage site tile (B1 and B2). But since both of these positions are also occupied, only option C remains. Starting with position C1, you check all eight adjacent positions clockwise. The first free position is C6. This is where you finally place Henry's building.
(Diagram positions: A.1, A.2 are the road-connection positions; B.1, B.2 the road-blocking positions; C.1 to C.8 the eight surrounding positions, counted clockwise from the top edge.)
3. Placing a treasure token
Place a treasure token on Henry's newly built building, if there are still treasure tokens available. Flip the token face up and rotate it towards you.
4. Moving Henry's unit
Move one of Henry's units onto the newly placed building. Always use the unit that has a cross of the same colour as the terrain of the Henry's building just placed.
Note: To make it easier to remember which building you built last, you can place the scaffolding token on it. Do not forget to move it every time you build another building. Do not move it when you are building a building for Henry!
Note: If you have not yet built any building, Henry will place his buildings so that they touch the starting tile.
Treasures and how to get rid of them
Treasures are worth many points to Henry at the end of the game (see Scoring). Fortunately, you can remove Henry's treasures from the game if you manage to meet the conditions stated on the treasure token. If these conditions are already met at the moment you place the token, remove it from the game immediately.
The types of conditions are as follows:
- Vertical: Anywhere in the same column as the treasure there must be 2 tiles of the depicted kind/colour. The tile with the treasure does not count.
- Horizontal: Anywhere in the same row as the treasure there must be 2 tiles of the depicted kind/colour. The tile with the treasure does not count.
- Positional: Next to the tile with the treasure, 2 tiles of any kind/colour must be placed on the marked positions.
Note: If a condition shows brown tiles, they can be tiles of any kinds/colours.
Solo end of the game
The end of the game follows the same rules as in the two-player game.
Solo scoring
Count your points in the usual way. Henry scores points as follows:
- He gets points for buildings like a normal player. For his three buildings providing the most points, double their normal score. Henry's units on his buildings have no effect on scoring.
- Award points for roads in the usual way.
- For each treasure token that remained on the play area or in the pile, add 5 points to Henry.
If you have scored more points than Henry, you win and the crown is yours! If you scored fewer or equal points, you lose and spend the rest of your life as a wretched subject of Henry.