Tilting at Windmills
Tilting at Windmills Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the Game
Defeat the most giants and gain the most victory points. Or force the opponent to break all his lances and achieve victory instantly.
Setup (Normal Mode)
Shuffle the movement cards, then both players draw 4 of them. Shuffle the windmill/giant cards and place them next to the playing board with the giant-side facing up. Players also draw 2 mission cards in their hands. Both players place 7 lance cards in front of them with the intact side facing up. The two playing boards must be put together on the table to form the bridge in the middle. The 'shield-side' is for normal, the 'lance-side' is for advanced gameplay (see below). The red and blue meeples are placed on the numbered fields of their playing board according to the double-digit numbers on the topmost giant card. The remaining movement cards form a face down deck next to the playing board.
Component List
- 30 Don Quixote movement cards
- 30 Sancho Panza movement cards
- 15 Windmill/Giant cards
- 11 Mission cards
- 14 Lance cards
- 2 The two playing boards
- 1 Don Quixote, (blue meeple)
- 1 Sancho Panza (red meeple)
Playing a Round
Players alternate playing cards on their side of the playing area. The movement cards of Don Quixote are placed under the path of the knight, while the cards of Sancho Panza are placed under the path of the sidekick. The meeple has to be moved ahead immediately as many spaces as the number shown on the card played. The player draws as many cards in the end as needed to replenish their hand to four movement cards again (always one in normal mode).
Meeples always move towards each other when movement cards are played. As soon as they step on adjacent/same fields or they pass each other, the round ends immediately.
Depending on where the meeting occurred, the player playing the last card takes the topmost windmill/giant card as follows:
- If the knight and the sidekick meet on the two ends of the bridge or on Sancho Panza's board, this means that Don Quixote has struck into the imaginary giant, the windmill. The player places the card in front of him with the giant-side facing up, and also turns over as many intact lance cards as the card shows. If he runs out of intact lance cards, the opponent immediately wins the game.
- If the two meeples meet on the knight's board, this means that the sidekick managed to stop Don Quixote in time. The player places the card in front of him with the windmill-side facing up (does not lose lances).
After a player wins the topmost windmill/giant card, meeples have to be returned according to the double-digit number shown on the next windmill/giant card. The previously played movement cards are discarded to a face-up deck next to the board.
If the draw deck is depleted, shuffle the discarded movement cards, and form a new draw deck.
Note: The giant-side of the windmill/giant cards worth more victory points, but the player loses lances as well. The giant-side victory points are indicated in the upper left corner. The windmill-side points can be found in the lower right corner on both sides.
Missions
During his turn, the player can play any or both mission cards from his hand if the conditions are met. This action is independent from playing a movement card. As a reward, he can flip broken lances to their intact sides, or gain victory points which will count at the end of the game at scoring. To fulfil the conditions of a mission card, the player has to acquire windmill/giant cards with certain values.
End of Game
The game can end two ways.
- As soon as the last windmill/giant card is acquired by a player, points have to be counted. The player with more points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with less cards wins. If there is still a tie, play a new game to decide.
- The player who breaks all his lances, loses the game immediately. A mission card cannot be played after the last move to avoid this.
Charge Mode
Players do not use mission cards. Instead of playing with all 15 windmill/giant cards, they only use 5 or 10 randomly picked cards. They can adjust the playing time by changing the number of cards at the beginning of the game.
Tactical Mode
After a few round of playing on the shield-sides of the playing boards, players can flip them to their lance-sides. This variant opens up new opportunities for the players. Certain fields have small signs next to them indicating actions. When a player stops a meeple on the corresponding field, he can choose to execute that action or not.
Sign actions cannot be executed if the meeple:
- starts his round on that field,
- just passes over the field,
- arrives there by stepping backwards,
- meets the other meeple with its move.
Other rules apply as described in normal mode.
Sign Symbols
Don Quixote's Board
- The player can play one more movement card from his hand.
- The player can move either meeple with 1 or 2 steps towards the other.
- The player can force his opponent to discard all his movement cards and draw 4 new. Discarded cards are placed on the discard pile.
- The player can flip back 1 broken lance to its intact side.
Sancho Panza's Board
- The player can look at his opponents movement cards in his hand but not the mission cards.
- The player can replace any number of movement cards from his hand by discarding them and drawing new ones.
- The player can move either meeple with 1 or 2 steps further away from the other.
- The player can flip back 2 broken lances to their intact sides.
Extreme Tactical Mode
Place four movement cards face-up in a row next to the draw deck. When a player needs to draw, he chooses from these cards instead of drawing from the deck. The picked up card has to be refilled from the deck.