Theocratia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Game Idea
  • Settings
  • Game Overview
• Setup
  • Board Setup
  • Players Setup
• Gameplay
  • Round Setup
  • Turn Sequence
    • Turn sequence example
  • Civ Development Phase
• Actions
  • 1. First Player Action
    • First Player Action example
  • 2. War/Convert
    • Attacking a building & Compensation
    • Converting
  • 3. Expand
    • Expand
  • 4. Factory
    • Factory
  • 5. Barrack
    • Barrack
• Pyramid Tokens
• Cards
  • Round Bonus Cards
    • Factory Round Bonus card
  • End Round Bonus Card
  • Civ Development Cards
    • Expansion Development card
• Power Cards
• Conversion Tiles
• Civ Chronicles
• End of the Game
  • Final Scoring
• Notes on the Rules and Icons Summary
• Solo Rules
  • Solo Bot
  • Setup
  • Standard Rules
  • High Difficulty Rules
  • Gameplay (Solo)
  • Bot Turn
  • Civ Development Phase (Solo)

Content

Civ colors: Magenta, Turquoise, Violet, Pink — Civ components:

• 16 Priests, in 4 colors, 4 per Civ
• 4 Fortresses, in 4 colors, 1 per Civ
• 8 Pyramids, in 4 colors, 2 per Civ
• 12 Barracks, in 4 colors, 3 per Civ
• 12 Factories, in 4 colors, 3 per Civ
• 20 Houses, in 4 colors, 5 per Civ
• 40 Warriors, in 4 colors, 10 per Civ
• 4 Civ Chronicles, in 4 colors, 1 per Civ

Player colors: Red, Brown, Blue, White — Player components:

• 16 Conversion tiles, 4 per player (1 Starting tile + 3 Unlockable)
• 4 Cosmo trackers, 1 per player
• 4 Malus trackers, 1 per player

Cards:

• 24 Power cards
• 5 Round Bonus cards
• 4 Civ Development cards
• 1 End Round Bonus card

Other components:

• 96 Crystals (15 per player + 20 Neutral (Green) + 16 Polluted (Black))
• 13 Pyramid tokens
• 2 First Player tokens (Current round and Next round)
• 12 D6 Dice, in the 4 Civ colors, 3 each
• 1 Dice bag
• 7 Plain Monsters
• 3 Desert Monsters
• 1 Game board
• 1 Temples board
• 1 Rulebook

Game Idea

Settings

Theocratia is set on an imaginary island where 4 Civs thrive and develop, explore the lands, build new structures and, more generically, forge their own fate.

Players (2 to 4) take on the roles of highly advanced aliens that manipulate the lives of these four civilizations, who view them as gods, in a wager to determine which alien/god will be the most worshiped.

The aliens aim to be adored by the most successful Civs. To achieve this, they influence the development of the Civs to their own advantage (i.e. if you are the Blue player, you want the 4 Civs to do their actions on the Blue hexes, showing the lakes).

The alien with the most Victory points (Victory point icon) at the end of the game wins the bet.

Important: As a player, you do not have any specific pieces, apart from your trackers and the 4 Conversion tiles. What's technically yours, are the hexes in your color on the Game board, so if the rules refer to a building of your own, it means a building that occupies one of the hexes in your color.

Game Overview

A standard game lasts 5 rounds, and in each round you will roll 9 dice, taking them from the bag: each number on the dice represents an Action that Civs can perform, as indicated on the Game board.

Then, in turn, you draft 2 dice (1 at a time) and assign the corresponding Actions to a Civ of your choice.

At the end of each round, once all players have taken their Actions, the 4 Civs will perform an additional Action, determined by their current Development card.

Setup

Board Setup

1. Place the Game board on the table.
2. Place the Temples board next to it. Place 1 Priest of each Civ on their starting space (below the 0) in every Temple track.
3. Put all the dice inside the provided bag and place it by the Game board.
4. Separate the Civ components by their color and place them in 4 distinct Civ areas, next to Game board, within everyone's reach. Assemble the Civ Chronicles (see Civ Chronicles, p.18) with only the first page visible, showing the number 0 in the bottom right corner. Flip and start at page 1 in a 3-player game. In a 2-player game, start at page 2.
5. Place the 4 Civ Fortresses on the Game board in the hexes that show their symbol.
6. Place 2 Barracks and 2 Factories on the Game board in the hexes showing their symbols, adjacent to their relative Fortress, to complete the Civs setup.

Note: It doesn't matter which Civs begin with a Barrack and which Civs begin with a Factory. We suggest you follow this order just to avoid any unnecessary cognitive load: the Magenta Civ on the leftmost space, with a Barrack, followed in clockwise order by the Turquoise Civ, with a Factory. The Violet Civ occupies the next space in clockwise order, and starts with a Barrack. Finally, the Pink Civ begins on the last remaining empty space with a Factory.

7. Now:
   • Give the 2 Civs beginning with a Barrack 1 Neutral crystal each, to be placed in their Civ area, along with 2 Warriors, to be placed in their Warriors supply, taking them from their Civ area.
   • Give the 2 Civs beginning with a Factory 2 Neutral crystals each and 1 Warrior, instead.
8. Place 1 Crystal of the corresponding color on each hex on the Game board, excluding those already occupied by the buildings placed so far, the desert hexes and the Volcano in the middle. Place them as follows: Red on the lava fields, Brown on the rocky areas, Blue on the lakes, White on the cloudy mountains, and Green on the plains hexes. Place the remaining Crystals in a shared reserve, by the Game board.
9. Place 4 Black (Polluted) crystals and 1 Warrior from each of the 4 Civ in each Round Spot on the Temples board.
10. Place the Plain Monsters and the Desert Monsters on the hexes showing their symbols - note that there is one Green hex where you do not place a Monster.
11. Place the Cosmo trackers on the space 0 of their corresponding Temple track.
12. Place the Malus trackers on the space 0 of their corresponding Malus track, blank side face up.
13. Shuffle the 4 Civ Development cards and place 1 next to each Civ area.
14. Shuffle the 5 Round Bonus cards and place 1 on each Round space in the Temples board, randomly.
15. Shuffle the 40 Power cards to form a face-down Power deck. Deal each player 1 to keep secret from other players and finally place the Power deck by the Game board, within easy reach, leaving some space next to it to create a discard pile.

Note: if, at any point during the game, you need to draw a Power card and the Power deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to create a new Power deck where to draw from.

16. Place the End Round Bonus card and the Next round First player token by the 1st Player Action, on the appropriate spaces and the Pyramid tokens next to the Game board, face up.

Note: In a 3-player game, remove one copy of any duplicate token.

Players Setup

17. Have each player choose 1 color among the 4 available and sit down at the table in the same order (Red, Brown, Blue, White). Give each player their own Starting Conversion Tile to keep, and place all the other ones by the Temple tracks marked spaces, one tile per player each.
18. The last person to have been a god is the first player (or you can just chose randomly), and they take the Current round First Player token. Then, beginning with the first player and following the colors order:
    • The 1st player moves their Cosmo tracker on the space 2 of their own Temple track.
    • The 2nd and 3rd player move their Cosmo tracker on space 3.
    • The 4th player starts with 4 Cosmo.
19. Starting from the last player and going backwards, each player chooses one of the Civs (not already picked by someone else) and places 1 House on the hex in their own color adjacent to that Civ Fortress. In a 3-player game, place 1 House of the unchosen Civ on the hex belonging to the unchosen player color, adjacent to its Civ Fortress. In a 2-player game, one unchosen Civ builds 1 House on the hex of one of the two unchosen player colors, adjacent to its Civ Fortress. The last remaining Civ does the same, but on the hex of the last remaining unchosen player color.
20. Collect the Crystal that was in the hex you just built on and place it in the chosen Civ area. Other players do the same.
21. Only in your first games. Move the Priest of the chosen Civ from the starting space to the space 0 on your Temple track. Other players do the same.

Now the game can begin!

In this setup example, Blue is the first player (18): they begin the game with 2 Cosmo, White and Red begin the game with 3, while Brown begins with 4. At (19), Brown chooses the Magenta Civ, Red picks the Violet one, White picks the Pink Civ, and finally Blue goes with Turquoise, the only remaining Civ. Each player places 1 House of their chosen Civ on their own hex adjacent to that Civ Fortress, also taking the Crystal that was there, and placing it in the same Civ area, as shown on (20). Finally, they move the Priest of the chosen Civ on their own Temple track 1 step forward (21): those people began to worship those who favored them.

Playing areas on the board (setup diagram caption): Actions table; Civ Action rows (1 per Civ); Civ selection and Warriors supply area (Warriors supply: supply of 5 Warriors per Civ).

Gameplay

The game plays in 5 rounds (4, if there are only two players, as reminded on the Vth Round Spot of the Temples board). In each round there are 2 turns (3 if there are only two players) and 1 Civ Development Phase.

Important: Round Setup changes according to the number of players. If there are only 2 players, the game is shorter but you take 1 extra turn per round.

Round Setup

• At the beginning of each round, place back the End Round Bonus card and the Next round First player token on the Game board (in the first round, this is step 16 of the Setup).
• Take the 4 Black crystals on the current round space and place 1 of them on each Civ area (skip this step in the first round).
• Each Civ trains 1 Warrior, taking it from the current round space and place it in their own Warriors supply. If a Civ already has 5 Warriors in its supply, return the Warrior to their Civ area instead (skip this step in the first round).
• Then, according to the number of players:

4 Players:

• Take 9 dice from the bag and roll them.
• Place the dice on the corresponding spots in the Actions table according to their value. If there are more than 3 dice showing the same number, turn the excess dice to the next number from 1 to 6. If there are more choices, move the dice with repeated colors first.
• To ease this process, roll the dice in small groups.

3 Players:

• Take 7 dice from the bag and roll them.
• Place the dice on the corresponding spots in the Actions table according to their value. If there are more than 3 dice showing the same number, turn the excess dice to the next number from 1 to 6. If there are more choices, move the dice with repeated colors first.
• To ease this process, roll the dice in small groups.
• Roll 1 die from the bag and place it on the leftmost space of its corresponding Civ Action row.
• Regardless of the number, on the turns I, III and V, this Civ will immediately Expand into the empty hex of the unchosen player color that is closest to its Fortress and adjacent to one of its existing buildings.
• Take 1 more die from the bag (draw until it is of a different color from the previous one) and place it on its corresponding Civ Action row, on the leftmost space.

2 Players:

• Take 7 dice from the bag and roll them.

• Place the dice on the corresponding spots in the Actions table according to their value. If there are more than 3 dice showing the same number, turn the excess dice to the next number from 1 to 6. If there are more choices, move the dice with repeated colors first.

• To ease this process, roll the dice in small groups.

• Roll 1 die from the bag and place it on the leftmost space of its corresponding Civ Action row.

• Regardless of the number, this Civ will immediately Expand into the empty hex of one of the unchosen player colors that is closest to its Fortress and adjacent to one of its existing buildings (alternate the colors each round).

• Take 1 more die from the bag (draw until it is of a different color from the previous one) and place it on its corresponding Civ Action row, on the leftmost space.

• Draw 1 extra die from the bag and place it on the End Round Bonus card to specify which Civ it will affect. You don't need to roll this die, only the color matters.

Changing exceeding dice: In this 3 players example, out of the seven rolled dice, four show the 6 value. Since there are only three spaces per Action, one has to be turned into a 1, and because there are two Magenta dice, it is one of those two that is changed.

The Temples board displays reminders to help you remember in which rounds, in games with fewer than 4 players, a Civ expands into a hex of an unchosen player color. To help you further, after the Setup, you can place the Conversion tiles belonging to the unchosen player color(s) on top of the Round bonus cards.

Turn Sequence

Starting from the first player and proceeding in clockwise order, everyone resolves the following sequence:

• Draft any one of the available dice from the Actions table and assign it to any Civ, placing it on the leftmost free spot on the chosen Civ Action row.
• If the color of the chosen die matches the Civ (when placed on the row with the same color), immediately gain the bonus you just covered:
  • 2 Cosmo, for the leftmost space;
  • 1 Cosmo and 1 Worship, for the space in the middle;
  • 1 Worship for the rightmost space.
  • Move the Cosmo tracker and/or the corresponding Civ Priest accordingly on your Temple track.
• Use the chosen Civ to take the Action corresponding to the die you drafted.

After everyone has taken their turn, repeat this sequence a second time (3 times, in a 2-player game).

Now, pass the Current round First Player token to the entitled player (see First Player Action, p.8) and carry on with the Civ Development Phase.

Important: On a Civ Action row, you cannot place a die adjacent to another die having the same number (a Civ can not perform the same action twice in a row). You can always discard a Power card to ignore this restriction (see Power Cards, p.18).

Turn sequence example

In a 3-player game, White and Red are the last two players of the round. There are two Violet dice showing 3 and one Magenta die showing 1 remaining in the Actions table. White takes one of the Violet dice (A).

With that die, they activate the Violet Civ (B), gaining 2 Cosmo for matching the die with its Civ. They gain 2 Cosmo (C), moving their Cosmo tracker accordingly, and resolve the Expand action for the Violet Civ, finally ending their turn.

Red is the next player, and they take the other Violet 3.

Unfortunately for them, the Violet Civ was just activated with the other 3 die, so Red can't use this last remaining one to gain some extra bonuses.

Even though they may choose to discard a Power Card to ignore this restriction, they prefer not to, and activate the Pink Civ instead (D).

Civ Development Phase

After everyone has completed their 2nd turn (3rd, in a 2-player game), the player that has the End Round Bonus Card resolves its effect (see End Round Bonus Card, p.17), and then, starting from the leftmost Civ (usually Magenta), apply the effect of the assigned Civ Development card (see Civ Development Cards, p. 17), giving the Worship points to the eligible players.

Finally, slide each Civ Development card from right to left, moving the leftmost card to the rightmost Civ.

Important: Always slide the Civ Development Cards following the same direction.

Slide Civ Development Cards: In this example: before the end of a round (A), as they slide, after they have been resolved (B), and once moved (C).

Actions

Each die number corresponds to an Action that a Civ can perform. You can spend 2 Cosmo to change the face of a die. Each 2 Cosmo you spend, change the die +/- 1. You are physically changing its face, so the "same number restriction" will apply, eventually.

Important: You can't change a 6 die, nor into a 6.

1. First Player Action

When you choose a 1, place the die on the space of a Civ row as usual. However, this will not affect the Civ itself in any way, except for any bonus you may benefit from if the die and Civ colors match.

Then, take the Next round First player token from the Game board or from the player having it.

If no one else has already taken the End Round Bonus card, you may pick it (along with the die on it), draw the top Power card from the Power deck otherwise. Gain 1 Cosmo, moving your Cosmo tracker accordingly.

Important: The Next round First player token will always be taken over by the last player of the round who picked a 1. Whoever has it at the end of the round, takes the Current round First Player token before the Civ Development Phase happens, immediately becoming the 1st player.

First Player Action example

Red picks a Pink 1 die, and places it on the Pink Civ row (A), gaining 1 Cosmo and 1 Worship from the Pink Civ, and moving their Cosmo tracker and Pink Priest accordingly (B).

They take the Next round First Player token from Blue, who used the same action on their turn, and draw a Power card (Blue also decided to take the End Round Bonus card along with its die, previously) (C).

Red concludes their turn by gaining 1 Cosmo more, thanks to the Action itself (D).

Since Red played last for this round and no one can take the Next round First Player token from them, before the next Civ Development Phase they will also take the Current round First Player token, and go first in choosing the die and Civ to activate (E).

2. War/Convert

To make a War, spend the required amount of Warriors (Warrior icon) from the chosen Civ Warriors supply and attack 1 target on the Game board. The number of Warriors required depends on the target. Spend:

• 1 Warrior to attack a Monster;
• 2 Warriors to attack a House;
• 3 Warriors to attack an upgraded building (Factory or Barrack).

Remove the target from the Game board (returning it to its Civ area if it's a building).

Warriors to spend to attack (or Convert):

• 1 x Warrior: attack a Monster (Plain or Desert)
• 2 x Warriors: attack a House
• 3 x Warriors: attack a Factory or Barrack

Important:

• You can never target a Fortress or a Pyramid.
• If there are not enough Warriors in the Civ supply, that Civ can not make War or Convert.
• A Civ can not attack (or Convert) its own buildings.
• You can not attack a building of your own (on an hex in your color), regardless of the Civ it belongs to.

To conclude your attack, move the Warriors you just used from the Civ supply and place them on their Civ Chronicles (see p. 18), filling any remaining empty spaces on the current page. When all spaces on a page are filled, turn to the next page and clear it (return the Warriors to the Civ area and the Crystal to the shared reserve). If you still have Warriors to place, place them on the new page's spaces.

If you attacked and removed a Monster, draw 1 Power card.

Finally, gain 1 Worship from the chosen Civ Priest. Each player who owns a Barrack in the same Civ will also gain 1 Worship from it.

If in the Round Bonus card War/Holiday is active, gain 1 additional Worship from the Civ.

If you have a Conversion tile (see Conversion tiles, p. 18), you can Convert a building instead of destroying it. All the rules of War attacking apply, but instead of removing a building, you put your Conversion tile under it.

Important: You can not Convert Monsters, nor the Volcano in the middle of the Game board.

Compensation (happens also when building a Pyramid, p.13):

• If the targeted building belongs to another player, that player gains 1 Worship from the attacked Civ.
• If the targeted building is an upgraded building (Barrack or Factory), the attacked player also draws a Power card.
• If the targeted building is Converted (and not destroyed), the attacked player also get their highest level Conversion tile, unlocking it and claiming it for free (see Conversion tiles, p.18).

Important: if you attack or Convert a neutral building, no Compensation happens.

Attacking a building & Compensation

Red uses a Violet 2 die to make War using the Turquoise Civ (A). They want to attack one of the Magenta buildings, but since Turquoise has 2 Warriors in the supply, the only valid targets are the Houses. They target the one belonging to Brown.

Red goes ahead and attacks it, returning the House to Magenta's Civ area (B).

Then, Red moves the Warriors they just spent to the Turquoise Civ Chronicles, filling 2 empty spaces (C).

Finally, they gain 1 Worship from the Turquoise Civ. White also gain 1 Worship from the Turquoise Civ, because they own a Barrack of that Civ (D).

Since the House belonged to another player, Compensation happens and Brown gains 1 Worship from the Magenta Civ (E).

Converting

Let's assume Red wanted to Convert the other Magenta House instead:

Red uses a Violet 2 die to Convert using the Turquoise Civ (A). Just as if they were attacking, there must be at least 2 Warriors in the Turquoise Civ supply. There are, so Red places their Starting Conversion tiles under the building, covering the hex on the game board (B).

Then, Red moves the Warriors they just spent to the Turquoise Civ Chronicles, filling 2 empty spaces (C).

Finally, Red gains 1 Worship from Turquoise, and so does White, because they own a Turquoise Barrack (D).

No Compensation happens, as the Converted House was on a neutral hex.

3. Expand

When you choose the Expand Action, take a House from the chosen Civ available pieces and place it on a free hex in your own color that is also adjacent to another building of the same Civ. Then, move the Crystal from the hex to the Civ area you just used.

If you have a Conversion tile, you can use it to change another hex color to your own color, before placing the House. Still move the Crystal from the hex to the Civ area you are using.

If the current Round Bonus card Expansion is active, gain 1 additional Worship from the same Civ.

Important: If there is no hex in your color adjacent available and you do not have a Conversion tile, you can not take the Expand action.

Expand

Red picks a Pink 3 die, and uses it to Expand the Magenta Civ (A). Red could either build a Magenta House on their own hex (B), or they could change the color of any of the other hexes adjacent to the Magenta Fortress and/or House. They have a Conversion tile, so they decide to change the color of one of the hexes (Brown). They take the Brown crystal from the game board and place it on the Magenta Civ area, then cover the hex with their tile (D). Finally, they build a Magenta House, taking it from the Civ area (E).

4. Factory

Take a Factory from the chosen Civ available pieces and choose an existing House of the same Civ, in one of your hexes. Return the House to the Civ available pieces, and place the Factory in its place.

The Factory immediately produces 1 Crystal in your own color: take it from the reserve and place it on that Civ area.

All other Factories of the same Civ also produce their own Crystal, in the color of the hex they are on.

Furthermore, all other Factories on your hexes, regardless of the Civ, produce your own Crystal (i.e. for each of your Factory on the Game board, take your Crystal from the reserve and place it on the corresponding Civ area.)

If you do not have a House in the chosen Civ, you cannot take the Factory action.

If the Round Bonus card Factory is active, gain 1 additional Worship from the Civ you just used.

Important: If you do not have a House in a Civ, or if that Civ does not have any more available Factories to build in its Civ area, you can not perform this action using that Civ.

Factory

Red drafts a Violet 4 die to use the Factory action with the Turquoise Civ. They have a House in this Civ, so they can take the action (A).

First, Red returns the Turquoise House to the Civ available pieces, in that Civ area, then places 1 of the same Civ's available Factories in its place (B).

This Factory immediately produces 1 Red Crystal, that the player places in the Turquoise Civ area (C).

This action also activates all other Turquoise Factories, so Blue produces 1 Crystal in their own color for having a Turquoise Factory (D).

Finally, Red activates all the other Factories they have: 1 in the Pink Civ in this example, taking 1 Red crystal from the reserve and adding it to the Pink Civ area (E).

5. Barrack

Take a Barrack from the chosen Civ available pieces and choose an existing House of the same Civ, in one of your hexes. Return the House to its Civ area, and place the Barrack in its place.

The new Barrack and all other Barracks of the same Civ train a Warrior: take them from the Civ available pieces and add them to that Civ Warriors supply.

If the Round Bonus card Barrack is active, gain 1 Worship moving the appropriate Civ Priest on your Temple.

Important: If you do not have a House in a Civ, or if that Civ does not have any more available Barracks to build in its Civ area, you can not perform this action using that Civ.

Barrack

Red chooses a Pink 5 die to use the Barrack action with the Pink Civ (A), also gaining 2 Cosmo for matching the die with the Civ.

They remove the only House they have in the Pink Civ (B), and replace it with one of the available Barracks, taking the piece from the Pink Civ area (C).

Both the newly built Pink Barrack and the already existing one activate, training 1 Warrior each. Red takes 2 Warriors from Pink Civ available pieces and places in that Civ Warriors supply (D).

6. Pyramid

Pyramid action (icon: 3 adjacent buildings, then a 4 or 5 die):

You can either use a 4 or a 5 to build a Pyramid, provided you meet both the following conditions:

• You have a Factory or Barrack in the chosen Civ (the Pyramid will be built in its place);
• There is at least one group of 3 adjacent buildings, including yours, and belonging to the chosen Civ, that will be removed to build the Pyramid (Fortresses and other Pyramids are not valid targets).

If any of the two previous conditions is not satisfied, you can not build a Pyramid.

To build a Pyramid, take 1 from the chosen Civ available pieces and put it in place of your upgraded building. Then, remove the 2 other buildings that belong to the group of 3 adjacent buildings (checking if any Compensation happens), returning them to the Civ available pieces.

If the Civ has already built 2 Pyramids and no more are available, you can not take this action.

Once you have built a Pyramid, gain 1 Worship from the chosen Civ, moving its Civ Priest on your Temple, and flip the current Civ Chronicle page of the chosen Civ as if you had just filled it, revealing the next one. If there were any, return the Crystals to the shared supply and the Warriors to the Civ Area.

Then, choose 1 Pyramid token from the available ones and immediately get its bonus. Now flip it face-down and keep it in front of you as a reminder: you can not build more than 2 Pyramids during a game (3 Pyramids, in a 2-player game).

If the Round Bonus card Pyramid is active, gain 1 additional Worship from that Civ.

Whenever a Holiday is declared by a Civ that of whom you own a Pyramid (i.e. there's a Civ Pyramid on one of your hexes), you gain 1 Worship by that Civ (see Holidays, p.14).

At the end of the game, each Pyramid grants you the benefit to advance 1 Worship step for a Civ of your choice (see End of the game, p.19).

Important: Compensation also happens when another player removes one of your buildings to construct a Pyramid.

Pyramid

Red chooses a Magenta 5 die to build a Pyramid using the Pink Civ (A).

They have a Barrack in this Civ color (B) that is also part of a group of 3 adjacent buildings that can be removed (C), so the two mandatory conditions are met.

Red removes the three Pink buildings, returning them back to the Pink Civ area, and builds one of the available Pink Pyramids in place of their own Barrack they just removed (D).

Now, Red gains 1 Worship from the Pink Civ, moves the Priest accordingly on their own Temple track (E), flips the current Pink Civ Chronicle page to reveal the next one, and takes one of the available Pyramid tokens: this token immediately lets Red gain 5 Cosmo, so they slide their Cosmo tracker up 5 spaces and flip the token to show that they have used it (F).

Finally, Brown gets 1 Worship from the Pink Civ as Compensation for their House that was removed to build the Pyramid (G).

7. Divination

Move your Malus tracker 1 step forward on your Malus track. Then, choose any action from 1 to 5, immediately change the number of the die to the chosen Action's one and resolve it following the rules as described so far.

If your Malus tracker is already on step -13, flip it and place it back on the space marked -1, starting over again from there.

At the end of the game, you lose the amount of points your Malus tracker is on and the amount of points on the face-up side of your Malus tracker (0 if blank, -13 if you exceeded the Malus track once).

Divination

Red picks a Violet 6 die (A).

They immediately move their Malus tracker one step forward on their Malus track (B) and, since they want to Expand using the Magenta Civ, they turn the face to a 3 and place the die on the Magenta row in the Civ selection area (C).

Now they perform the Expand action as described in its section and the game continues normally.

Holidays

During your turn, you can pick any die and decide not to perform the corresponding Action to declare Holiday instead.

First, make sure the die is in the same color of the Civ you want to declare Holiday. You can use a Power card to bypass this restriction (see Power cards, p.18).

Then, in order:

• Count all the buildings of that Civ on the Game board, excluding Pyramids. This is the Civ size (#, on the board).
• Spend as much Cosmo as the Civ size. If you do not have enough Cosmo, you can not declare Holiday for this Civ.
  • Note: Any Cosmo you get as a bonus when placing a die is obtained before the Action begins, and you can spend it, if needed.
• Spend as many Crystals as the Civ size, taking them from the chosen Civ area. If there are not enough Crystals, you can not declare Holiday for this Civ. If there are more Crystals available than needed, you are free to choose which ones to use.
• For each Crystal you spend to perform the Holiday, apply the following effects:
  • Green Crystal: No effect.
  • Your own color Crystal: No effect.
  • Another player color Crystal: 1 Worship to that player, from the Civ declaring Holiday.
  • Black Crystal: 1 step forward of your Malus tracker on your Malus track.
• Place the Crystals you just used on the Civ Chronicles, filling any remaining empty space on the current page. When you entirely fill the spaces on a page, turn it to reveal the next page and remove everything, returning the Crystals to the shared supply and the Warriors to the Civ Area. If you still have Crystals to place, place them on the new page's spaces.
• Gain as much Worship from the chosen Civ as the that Civ has on the Game board, plus the Fortress (i.e. number of Houses +1*).

Important: When a player uses a Civ to declare a Holiday, everyone owning a Pyramid in that Civ (including the player declaring it), gains 1 Worship from that Civ.

*Thematically, holidays are for common people and it's the common people adoring you when you declare one!

Declaring Holidays

In this example, Red wants to declare Holiday with the Violet Civ.

They pick a Turquoise 4 die and discard one Power card to ignore the same-color restriction that players have to comply with (A).

Then, they place the die on the Violet Civ row (B) and follow the Holiday resolution steps.

• Violet Civ size is 7: 3 Houses + 2 Factories + 1 Barrack + the Fortress, so Red spends 7 Cosmo, which they have, to declare Holiday (C).
• There are exactly 7 Crystals in the Violet Civ area, and Red must spend all of them: 2 Green Crystals + 1 Red + 1 Brown + 1 Blue + 2 Black (D). Therefore, both Brown and Blue get 1 Worship from the Violet Civ (moving the corresponding Priest on their Temple track) (E), and Red moves their Malus tracker 2 steps forward on its track (F).
• Red places these 7 Crystals they just spent on the empty spaces of the current Violet Civ Chronicles page, filling it with 4 of them. Then, they remove the Crystals (returning them to the shared reserve), turn the page and lay the remaining 3 Crystals on the newly uncovered empty spaces (G).
• Red gets 4 Worship from the Violet Civ (3 Houses + 1 Fortress) and moves its corresponding Priest accordingly on their Temple track (H).
• Finally, since the Violet Pyramid is on a White hex, White gets 1 Worship from the Violet Civ (I).

Pyramid Tokens

• Gain 5 Cosmo.
• Draw 2 Power cards.
• Move your Malus tracker 3 steps back.
• Gain 1 Worship from a Civ of your choice.
• Build a House with the Civ you have used to build the Pyramid (following the Expand Action rules).
• Build a Factory with the Civ you have used to build the Pyramid (without needing a House). Doesn't produce a Crystal.
• Upgrade one of your Houses into a Factory with the Civ you have used to build the Pyramid. That Factory immediately produces 1 Crystal in your color.
• Build a Barrack with the Civ you have used to build the Pyramid (without needing a House). Doesn't train a Warrior.
• Upgrade one of your Houses into a Barrack with the Civ you have used to build the Pyramid. That Barrack immediately trains 1 Warrior.
• Each Civ produces 1 Crystal in your color (even if you do not have any Factory in a specific Civ).

Important: You also gain a Pyramid token when the first Priest on your Temple track reaches the end of the track. However, after applying its effect, do not flip the Pyramid token. This will indicate that it was not obtained by building a Pyramid.

Important: You do not gain extra Pyramid tokens if any other Priest reaches the end of your Temple track later.

Cards

Round Bonus Cards

A Bonus Card will grant anyone in that round doing the corresponding Action 1 additional Worship.

• Expansion: Each player building a House during the current round gains 1 extra Worship from the Expanding Civ. This includes also placing a House through End Round Bonus card or a Pyramid token.
• Factory: Each player building a Factory during the current round gains 1 extra Worship from that Civ. This includes also placing a Factory through a Pyramid token.
• Barrack: Each player building a Barrack during the current round gains 1 extra Worship from that Civ. This includes also placing a Barrack through a Pyramid token.
• Pyramid: Each player building a Pyramid during the current round gains 1 extra Worship from that Civ.
• Holiday/War: Each player declaring Holiday or War (or Converting) during the current round gains 1 extra Worship from that Civ.

Factory Round Bonus card

In this round the Factory Bonus card is active, and both Red and Brown used a 4 die to build a Factory. Red used the Magenta Civ, while Brown used the Pink Civ, so they move each one the corresponding Priest 1 step up on their own Temple tracks.

End Round Bonus Card

Before you apply the effects of the Civ Development cards, the player in posses of the End Round Bonus card takes an extra Expand action for the Civ indicated by the die on this card, solving as described in the Expand action paragraph (pp.10). If there is no adjacent valid hex, nor the player has a Conversion tile to use, they simply skip the action and the game continues.

Civ Development Cards

At the end of each round, after the players have played 2 dice (3, in a 2-player game) and you have eventually resolved the End Round Bonus card and passed the Current round First Player token, each Civ will Develop as indicated on the assigned card.

There are 2 Expansion cards, 1 Holiday card and 1 Blank card, for a total of 4.

The 2 Expansion cards work the same way, while the Blank card means the Civ does nothing.

Expansion:

When Expanding a Civ, resolve the following steps, in order:

• Look for the empty Green hex closest to the Civ Fortress to the Civ on a Green hex that is also adjacent to an already existing building of that same Civ. If there are no Green hexes available, look for the closest empty Yellow hex adjacent.
• In case of multiple eligible hexes, the first player ultimately picks one. On that hex, the Civ builds 1 House.
• If there are no Neutral empty hexes adjacent available, look for the closest House on a Green hex to the Fortress. If none, look for the closest House on a Yellow hex. In case of multiple eligible hexes, the first player ultimately picks one.
• Upgrade this House into either a Factory or a Barrack (returning the House to the Civ's available pieces) so that the number of these two upgraded buildings for this Civ on the Game board will be equal once upgraded. If the number is already even, the first player chooses which one to upgrade into.
• Finally, each player with at least 1 building (even in another Civ) on an hex adjacent to the hex where the Civ just Expanded, gains 1 Worship from this Civ.

If there is no valid target (i.e. there's no empty neutral adjacent hex, nor a House on a neutral hex), skip this Development phase.

Holiday:

Each Factory of this Civ produces a Crystal in the color of the hex it occupies: add those Crystals to the Civ area. Then, the Civ spends 1 Crystal per player color, if they have it: place those Crystals in the Civ Chronicles (see Civ Chronicles, p.18). All players whose Crystal was spent this way gain 1 Worship point from the Civ.

Expansion Development card

At the end of this round, the Magenta Civ Expands. There are one green hex (adjacent to the House) and one desert hex (adjacent to the Fortress) available, but since green hexes have priority, the new House is built there.

Red has a Barrack adjacent to this newly built House, so they gain 1 Worship from the Magenta Civ and move its Priest accordingly on their own Temple track.

Power Cards

Everyone begins with 1 Power card in their hand, and you can acquire more cards as a compensation when losing buildings or fighting Monsters (see War - Compensation, p.9 and Pyramid, p.13).

You can play a Power card during the appropriate turn phase to apply its effect.

You can also discard a Power card to either:

• Change the color of the die you chose, allowing you to benefit from the matching colors bonus or to declare a Holiday, or
• Ignore the "same number" restriction and allow a Civ to perform the same action twice in a row.

Power cards anatomy: Cost, if any. Pay it by sliding your Cosmo tracker as many spaces downwards. Required Action, if any. Some cards can only be played during Actions that correspond to the number(s) shown here. Effect.

Conversion Tiles

Conversion tiles allow you to Convert the terrain of a hex, and make it yours.

The only exception to this, are the 4 Starting Conversion tiles: they can only be used to convert Neutral hexes (Green and Yellow). You can tell the Starting tiles apart from the others because of the different borders, showing the color of the owner player, and because of the Green and Yellow hexes icons.

Each player begins the game with their own Starting Conversion tile, and you'll unlock up to 3 more. If you look at the Temples board, you'll see that the spaces 2, 5 and 7 are marked. As soon as any Civ Priest reaches one of these levels on your Temple track, it "unlocks" the corresponding Conversion tile for you to claim.

At any time, during your turn, you can claim any of your "unlocked" Conversion tiles, paying 2 Cosmo and sliding down your Cosmo tracker accordingly.

Keep the tile in front of you to use at the appropriate moment.

Civ Chronicles

Each Civ has its own Chronicles where their history is written, and the progress in the book reflects their prestige and success.

To assemble the Civ Chronicles stack the pages in order according to the bottom right corner number (0 to 7), with the 7 page on the bottom, so that when closed, at the beginning of the game, the visible page is the 0 one. By filling the empty spaces with Crystals and Warriors, the Civs' level of development will eventually increase (you turn page) and the values (as well as the values on the tables) will change. In a 3-player game, remove page 0. In a 2-player game, also remove page 1.

At the end of the game, the value of a Civ will depend on the number of page currently visible.

Anatomy of a page: Temple Multipliers; Spaces to fill with Civ Warriors or Crystals; Victory points (Victory point icon) for each multiplier (= Number of the page x Temple multiplier); Number of the page.

Number of Warriors and/or Crystals per Page:

• Page 0: 6 x Warrior / Crystal
• Page 1: 5 x Warrior / Crystal
• Pages 2 & 3: 4 x Warrior / Crystal
• Pages 4 & 5: 3 x Warrior / Crystal
• Page 6: 2 x Warrior / Crystal
• When you fill a page, return the Warriors to their Civ area and the Crystals to the shared reserve, then remove the page to reveal the next one.

End of the Game

After the 5th round (4th, in a 2-player game), the game ends and you carry on the Final Scoring phase.

To calculate your score, check the first Temple multiplier below your Cosmo tracker. This is your starting score, and can range from 0 to 5 (remember that the maximum amount of Cosmo you may have is 10, therefore your Cosmo tracker will never surpass the x6 multiplier).

Then, for each Pyramid you own, get 1 Worship from a Civ of your choice by moving its corresponding Priest on your Temple track.

Now, remove the Priest farthest on your Temple track from the game, effectively ignoring the score for that Civ. In case of multiple Priests tied for this, you can choose which one to ignore.

For each remaining Priest, check the Number of the page at the top of the corresponding Civ Chronicles and multiply it by the last Temple track multiplier reached by the Priest.

You can use the table on the left side of the pages for assistance, by using the Priest to cover the corresponding multiplier. Just remember to remove them once you have tallied your score so that other players can do the same.

Finally, subtract the points indicated in the space where your Malus tracker is located.

Everyone else does the same, and the winner is the player with the most Victory points! In case of a tie, tied players share the victory.

Final Scoring

In this example, Blue is checking their final score, and since they concluded the game with 5 Cosmo remaining (A) and the first multiplier below it is x2, their starting score is 2. They do not have any Pyramids, and do not get any benefit from them.

Then, they ignore the Priest farthest on their Temple track. In this case, the Magenta and Pink ones are tied and Blue decides to ignore Pink (B), as the Magenta Civ reached page 6 on its Chronicles and will be worth more points.

Now, for each remaining Priest, they check how many points the corresponding Civ is worth, by multiplying the Number of each page times the Temple track multiplier reached by the corresponding Priest:

• Magenta Civ: 6 (Number of the page) x4 (multiplier on the Temple track) = 24 (C)
• Turquoise Civ: 7 (Number of the page) x2 (multiplier on the Temple track) = 14 (D)
• Violet Civ: 4 (Number of the page) x3 (multiplier on the Temple track) = 12 (E)

Blue scores 50 points from its Priests and adds them to their 2 starting score, for a total amount of 52.

Finally, they subtract 5 Malus points, as per their Malus track (F): they scored 47 Victory points.

Blue Temple track and Malus track at the end of the 5th round.

Blue scores: 2 + 24 + 14 + 12 - 5 = 47.

Notes on the Rules and Icons Summary

Colored areas: Inside the colored boxes, you will find different types of information. Here a brief summary:

• White box: Specifications and more details on the matter.
• Red box: Important things to remember and exceptions to standard rules.
• Green box: Examples.

Within the Examples (and in the Setup), these colored boxes represent the 4 Civ areas, where each Civ available pieces and produced Crystals are: Magenta Civ area, Turquoise Civ area, Violet Civ area, Pink Civ area.

Icons summary:

• Red, Brown, Blue, White player
• Any player
• Cosmo
• Worship
• Any Civ
• Fortress
• House
• Factory
• Barrack
• Pyramid
• Warrior
• War
• Build
• Convert / (Use a) Conversion tile
• Holiday
• Crystal
• Polluted crystal
• Any die
• Value 1 Die
• Value 6 Die
• Any Die value from 1 to 5
• Malus tracker
• Power card
• Power deck
• Power cards discard pile
• Unlock (a Conversion tile)
• Plain Monster
• Desert Monster
• (Neutral) Green hex/terrain
• (Neutral) Yellow hex/terrain
• 1st Player | 1st Round, on the Temples board

Solo Rules

Source: the official Mojito Studios "Theo SOLO Rules BGG Definitive" companion sheet, transcribed here as part of this rulebook.

Solo Bot

The Bot is a simple yet challenging opponent to compete against. It comes with three Aliens (or Gods, if you prefer), each with a slightly different deck. You can play against them at standard or high difficulty.

Content: 26 Bot cards and 1 Bot board (double-sided).

Bot cards anatomy:

• Arrow indicating which card the Bot resolves and from which side it takes a die (and Pyramid token, eventually). May be on the other side.
• Die the Bot takes with this card.
• Action the Bot performs with this card. May not correspond to the usual die associated with it.
• Worship points the Bot scores with this card.
• Indicates in which playstyle decks this card is included.
• Card number. Helpful when assembling the Bot's deck.

Setup

Board setup: Follow it as usual. However, at step 16, remove one copy of any duplicate Pyramid token and randomly place the remaining twelve in a face-up 3x4 grid beside the Civ selection area, as shown in the image. Each row corresponds to a Civ.

Players setup:

• The Bot counts as an extra player. Before you and the other players choose a color, prepare the Bot's deck according to the opponent you want to face. Assemble the deck by including all the cards that show the color you have chosen for the Bot in the bottom left corner, and removing those that don't. The deck must include all numbers from 1 to 20. Use the card numbers to assist you. The Bot will use pieces of this color and will be represented by that color's hexes on the Game board.
• Next, lay down the Bot board, showing the difficulty side you wish to face, then shuffle and place the Bot deck in the leftmost slot, face-down.
• Now, you and any other players, can choose one of the remaining colors and complete steps 17 and 18 of the setup, keeping in mind that the Bot will begin the game as the last player and ignoring its starting Cosmo, as it won't use it during the game.
• At step 19, draw a die from the bag to determine which Civ the Bot builds a house with. Return the die to the bag and proceed as usual, following the rules for the number of players in the game.

Opponent playstyles:

• Xevron (balanced)
• Ory (Holiday-focused)
• Noks (War-focused)

Standard Rules

• The Bot ignores Cosmo, Malus points and bonuses from Round Bonus cards and begins the game with all Conversion tiles available to use.
• The Bot ignores bonuses for matching the color of a die with the Civ, and ignores the consecutive number restriction on Civ Action rows.
• The Bot ignores the 3-slot limit in the Civ Action rows (i.e. it can use Civs that have already been activated 3 times during a round).
• When you take an action that affects the Bot, follow the normal rules (i.e. it benefits Compensation).
• The Bot doesn't have a hand of cards. Whenever it is required to draw a Power card, add it to the Discard pile instead.
• When choosing a Civ, unless specified, the Bot follows the usual clockwise order (i.e. Magenta, Turquoise, Violet, Pink).
• When choosing an hex or a Building, the Bot always chooses the closest one to the Fortress belonging to the Civ it is using for that action.
• When choosing a target during War or Conversion, the Bot looks for neutral ones (Green plains, then Yellow deserts) first, then for targets belonging to you.
• When performing Holidays, the Bot spends Crystals in the following order: its own colored Crystals, neutral (Green and colors not chosen by the players), player Crystals, and Black Crystals.
• If the Bot has already built 3 Pyramids (2, if you are not facing it alone) and another card with the same Action is revealed, immediately discard it and draw another Bot card.

In the very unlikely event that you draw another Bot card whose Action cannot be resolved, repeat this process until the Bot has a valid Action to resolve.

High Difficulty Rules

As above, but:

• Whenever the Bot is required to draw a Power card, it also gains 1 Worship point from the Civ involved in the Action or Compensation.
• During War or Conversion, the Bot targets you first, and then neutral hexes.
• When spending Crystals for a Holiday, order changes to: its own colored Crystals, neutral (Green and colors not chosen by the players), Black and player(s) Crystals.
• Whenever one of the Bot's Priests at the end of its Temple track would move up due to an Action or effect (regardless of the number of steps), the Priest in the lowest position moves up by 1 step instead. If multiple Priests are eligible, follow the usual clockwise order (Magenta, Turquoise, Violet, Pink).
• When the Bot builds a Pyramid, it also removes one of your Buildings adjacent to the Pyramid it just built.
• When scoring Holiday cards, the Bot also counts the Pyramids it has in that Civ.

Gameplay (Solo)

The amount of turns and rounds is the same as in the usual rules: 4 rounds, with 3 turns per player each round (5 rounds and 2 turns if you are not playing alone against the Bot).

Round setup is the same as in the usual rules, and rounds are carried over normally, with the following additions:

• Draw 2 cards from the Bot's deck and place them in the rightmost slots of the Bot board — (right arrow) and (left arrow).
• Play your turn normally, and when you are done, it's the Bot's turn — it goes last in the first round but it may take the First Player token later in the game. Alternate turns with the Bot as in a standard game.
• During the Bot's turn, draw a card from its deck and place it face up in the last remaining free slot of the Bot board. For this card, check the Arrow next to the dice icons and resolve one of the previously drawn cards accordingly. If the Arrow is on the left, resolve the left card; the other one if the Arrow is on the right.
• Once a card is resolved, remove it from the game and slide the other two to the right, so that the slot next to the Bot deck is free again. During its next turn, the Bot will resolve one of these two cards.
• Keep playing until you have taken the correct number of turns, based on the number of players.
• Before beginning the next round, reshuffle the two revealed Bot cards into its deck — do not include the ones that the Bot has already resolved!

Important: The Bot counts as a player, so Civs won't expand in its hexes during this phase.

Bot Turn

To complete the Bot's turn, resolve the chosen card from top to bottom.

• Check the dice icon and take the corresponding die from the Actions table. If there are multiple dice available, take the first one starting from the side indicated by the Arrow. If no die is available with the number shown, pick a 6 (following the Arrow indications). If no 6 is available, take the die with the closest number to the one on the card. In case of a tie, take the highest. Regardless, change the die to match the face indicated in the card you are resolving.
• Place the die in the Civ Selection area matching the Civ and occupying the first available space from the left.
• Resolve the Action according to what is shown:

Round Bonus / End Round Bonus card icon: The Bot takes the Next round First player token and the End Round Bonus card, which will be resolved as usual. If the End Round Bonus card is unavailable, discard the top Power card as if the Bot were drawing.

Build icon: If it's a Building, place the depicted one in the hex belonging to the Bot that is adjacent to an existing Building of the same Civ and that is the closest to the Fortress. If there is no hex available, the Bot Converts the first hex available following the General Rules.

• When Building a Factory or a Barrack, the Bot upgrades an existing House only if there is one available. If no House is available, the Bot builds the Factory or Barrack on the first eligible empty hex.
• When building a Pyramid, if there is already a Building on the board, upgrade that Building by following this order if there are multiple choices: Barrack, Factory, House.

If no Building is present, just place the Pyramid on the first eligible empty hex. Do not remove any other Building from the Game board.

Additionally, the Bot discards the first Pyramid token in the row of the Civ it just used, starting from left or right according to the Arrow.

War icon: The Bot makes War using the highest number of Warriors the Civ has in its supply (up to 3), targeting either a Building or a Monster depending on the number of Warriors it is using. To choose a target, the Bot looks for the closest one in clockwise order (or counter-clockwise, depending on the card), starting from the Fortress of the Civ it is using. See target priority in the other page. It changes according to the difficulty and player count.

Holiday icon: The Bot declares Holiday. First, count the Civ size as usual, then the Bot spends the required Crystals from that Civ area, adding them to that Civ's Chronicles. The Bot spends Crystals in the order specified by the difficulty level. This order also changes depending on the player count.

• If there are not enough Crystals, the Bot spends as many as possible — Holiday will happen regardless!

Scoring: Finally, the Bot scores the Worship points shown on the card it just resolved, moving the Priest of the Civ it just used up by the number of spaces indicated on the card. If the Action was a Holiday, the Worship points are equal to the Civ size (changes according to the difficulty).

Important: If you are not playing alone against the Bot, apply the following changes:

• When building a Pyramid at High difficulty, the Bot destroys all adjacent Buildings belonging to the players that are adjacent to the Pyramid, if any.
• During War or Conversion, if multiple players have a Building in the targeted Civ, the Bot targets the player with the highest Worship level from that Civ. If there's still a tie, roll a die to decide whoever is going to be targeted.
• When celebrating Holiday, if neutral (and black) are enough, it spends those. If it needs more, it takes all player Crystals, even if they exceed the amount needed.

Civ Development Phase (Solo)

During the Civ Development Phase, the Bot gains 1 Worship point from each Civ, excluding the one with the Blank Development Card, and ignores any Worship points it might gain from the resolution of those cards.

Once the game is over, the Bot scores normally. When ignoring the Priest farthest on its Temple track, in case of a tie, removes the one which would be worth less.