Vinci
Vinci Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 game board depicting Europe, divided into many provinces
- 150 wooden tokens in 6 colors, representing population
- 6 large wooden tokens in 6 colors for marking the scores of each player
- 33 brown wooden tokens representing neutral civilizations which cover the board at the beginning of the game. These markers will also be used to represent fortresses
- 52 small counters used to indicate the provinces of a civilization in decline
- 52 civilization tiles (larger counters) which show the different abilities of a civilization
- 1 cloth bag from which to draw civilization tiles at random
- 6 game summary charts showing the various civilization abilities
- 1 summary of the game rules with an example of play
- 1 booklet of rules
The Basics of Vinci
The main object is to score as many victory points as possible. The more provinces controlled by a player's population, the more points the player receives.
A civilization begins with a specific number of population tokens. It will never receive more (unless noted by a Civilization Tile, see below). The tokens allow the player to expand into new provinces. To take over a new province, a varying number of tokens is needed depending on the terrain of the province (mountains and forests offer natural defense and therefore require more tokens) the number of defenders already there and the skills of the attacking and defending civilizations. At the end of each turn, the player counts the number of points scored, and then redistributes the tokens of their empire freely among the conquered provinces in order to shore up its defenses. On later turns, the player does the same thing, except that the civilization now has fewer tokens available in order to conquer new provinces and defend against encroaching empires.
When a player decides that their civilization has become too weak, the player can declare the civilization as being in decline. The player then chooses a new civilization which will enter play on the next turn. The provinces still held by the civilization in decline continue to score points for the player, until the provinces are conquered by other players.
At the beginning of each turn, there is an important choice to make: is it worth trying to expand the current empire, or should you choose a new one?
The game continues until a player has scored the required number of points for victory, which depends on the number of players:
| Number of players | Victory points |
|---|---|
| 6 | 100 |
| 5 | 100 |
| 4 | 120 |
| 3 | 150 |
Each new civilization has 2 special abilities (there are 26 different possibilities) which give the civilization various advantages (some civilizations score points more easily, and some are more stable).
Over the course of the game, each player will control several civilizations, each from its formation through its decline.
Setting Up
- Each player chooses a color and places the large token of this color on the 10 space of the scoring track around the edge of the board.
- A brown token is placed in every province on the game board, except the gray mountain provinces and in the dark blue water zones. These tokens represent the early inhabitants of Europe and are not controlled by any players. These indigenous peoples will defend the provinces that they occupy against the arrival of the players' civilizations.
- The civilization tiles are placed in the bag. Twelve of these tiles are then drawn at random in pairs. The first pair is placed on the spaces marked "I" on the top of the board, the second pair is placed on "II", and so forth. Each of these pairs of tiles represents the special abilities of one of six civilizations ready to enter the game.
- The starting player is chosen at random (players will then take their turns in clockwise order).
- The starting player chooses his first civilization from among the six available on the board. If he chooses the civilization placed furthest to the left (the first one drawn, occupying space I), it costs him nothing and earns him nothing. On the other hand, if he chooses the second civilization from the left, space II, he must pay 2 victory points (moving his large token back 2 spaces on the victory point track). In the same way, he will have to pay 4 if he chooses the third, 6 for the fourth, and so on. A token of any color is placed on each civilization he has thus passed over. If, later on, a player chooses one of these civilizations, he will receive 2 victory points for each token placed on the one he chooses.
- Once a player has chosen his civilization, he takes its two civilization tiles, shifts the remaining tiles to the left, and draws two new tiles at random to place in the sixth position. In this way, there are again six civilizations available for the next player to choose from.
- When a player has chosen his civilization, he receives a number of tokens of his color. This number equals the total of the red numbers shown on the civilization tiles he received, increased by 8, 6, 4, or 3 tokens depending on whether the game is played with 3, 4, 5, or 6 players.
Example: In a five-player game, this civilization will receive 13 tokens: 5 for "Astronomy" + 4 for "Mountaineering" + 4 because there are five players. In a four-player game, it would receive 15.
Once all players have chosen their starting civilization, the game may begin. The effects of the civilization tiles on the game are explained further on. It is simplest to become familiar with them as they appear during play.
A Civilization Enters Play
A civilization can only enter play from a province on the edge of the board. From there, it extends its empire by conquering provinces adjacent to one another.
The starting province may be a land province in contact with the edge of the board, or a land province that can be reached from the edge of the board by crossing only a single sea zone (dark blue zone). Thus, one could start in Scotland or Ireland, but not in France or northern Italy.
A sea zone can never be occupied or controlled. It serves only as a crossing zone, and only for civilizations just entering play or for those possessing the Astronomy civilization tile. It is impassable for any other civilization.
The player must use tokens to conquer the province through which he enters play (see the expansion rule, below).
So that all players can easily know the particular characteristics of each civilization in play, the civilization tiles corresponding to it must be placed in the starting province, or in any other province of the empire that civilization has built up.
Expanding an Empire
When a new civilization enters play, the player has all of his tokens available for conquest. At the beginning of each following turn, he must leave 1 token in each controlled province and take all the other tokens into his hand (it is possible to empty a province completely, in which case it no longer belongs to the empire). Only these tokens will be available for new conquests. Thus, the more an empire expands, the fewer tokens the player has available to expand further.
An empire expands from one province into another adjacent province. Any conquered province may immediately serve as a starting point for a new conquest.
To conquer a new province, a certain number of tokens must be left there: 3 for a forest province (dark green) or a mountain province (gray), 2 for all other provinces. To this base amount, 1 token must be added for each opposing token or brown token present in that province. In addition, if the province from which the attack originates is a mountain province, the conquest costs 1 token less.
Cost of conquering a province = 2 tokens (3 if forest or mountain) + 1 token per defender − 1 token if the attack comes from a mountain.
Special case: Because of certain combinations of modifiers, it can happen that an attack costs no tokens at all. The province thus conquered is left empty. For it to be joined to the empire of the civilization that conquered it, the player concerned must place a token there at the end of his turn, during reorganization (see the reorganization rules below).
In each conquered province, the defender loses 1 token, which can no longer be used with his current civilization. This token is removed from the game. At the end of the attacker's turn, any surviving tokens must be taken back by their owner and placed elsewhere in his empire.
If the defender no longer has a province, he may, at the beginning of his turn, start again from the edge of the board, as when a new civilization enters play, using the tokens he was unable to place elsewhere. He may also declare his empire to be in decline. In this case, he must remove all the tokens from any previous empire he had "in decline," and he will begin the following turn with no tokens on the board.
He may also decide to keep his civilization without an empire (without a province) and re-enter the game with 0 or 1 token. This solution can be useful in order to continue benefiting from the victory points of a very large empire in decline, or during the last turn of a game.
The attacker does not lose any tokens.
Example: A new empire equipped with 13 red tokens lands in the south of Spain. This first move costs it 5 tokens (3 for the forest + 2 for the two defenders). It then conquers the Pyrenees for 3 tokens (mountain, no defenders). From there, it moves back down into Spain for 2 more tokens (2 for a normal province, +1 for the defender, −1 because it comes from a mountain). One last move into France costs it another 2 tokens (2 for the province, +1 for the defender, −1 because it comes down from a mountain). It has 1 token left over, unusable. The yellow defender loses 3 tokens, 1 per conquered province, and is able to place 1 elsewhere. The red player then distributes his 13 tokens among the 4 provinces of his empire.
Cohesion of an Empire
At the end of a player's turn, his empire must be all of one piece. The provinces that make it up must be adjacent to one another. Any provinces that are not adjacent to the rest of the empire must be emptied of their tokens. Since this rule only applies at the end of the player's turn, he may always restore his empire's cohesion during the course of his turn. Indeed, an empire may have been split apart by an opponent's conquests, but this does not prevent the player from using his turn to reconquer the lost provinces in order to restore his empire's cohesion. If it is not possible to restore cohesion, it is preferable to empty certain provinces at the beginning of the turn and use the tokens thus recovered for other conquests.
This cohesion rule does not apply to empires in decline. An empire in decline may be split into several parts.
Reorganizing an Empire
Once he has finished his conquests, the player may freely distribute all of his tokens among the various provinces of his empire, in order to ensure its defense.
Careful! A province belongs to an empire only if at least 1 token of that empire's color is present there.
Victory Points
At the end of his turn, each player scores victory points at the rate of 1 point per province making up his empire, except for mountain provinces, which score nothing. His marker is advanced the corresponding number of spaces on the victory point track that runs around the edge of the board.
Certain civilization tiles grant higher victory point values to certain provinces.
Decline of an Empire
At the beginning of any of his turns, a player may abandon the civilization he controls and declare his empire to be in decline. He must remove his civilization's tiles from the board, unless it is specified that they remain active during the empire's decline (a broken column shown on the tile itself).
He may then choose a new civilization, but he must wait until the beginning of his next turn to enter play with it. During this full waiting turn, he may not make any new conquests.
An empire in decline stays in place and continues to earn victory points. It can no longer make conquests. The player leaves a single one of his tokens in each of the provinces that make it up, and places a decline marker there. During the turn in which he declares his empire in decline, as well as at the end of all his following turns, he scores the points corresponding to the provinces controlled by that empire, but he no longer benefits from any advantages that were granted by the civilization tiles he discarded when declaring the decline.
Once the player who declared his empire in decline re-enters the game with a new civilization and builds a new empire, he combines the victory points earned by his active empire with those earned by the remainder of his empire in decline.
A player may only have one empire in decline at a time. Should he end up with two, the oldest one is emptied of all its tokens.
A player's active empire and his empire in decline may not be in contact with one another. If this occurs, the tokens in the provinces of the empire in decline that are adjacent to the active empire must be removed from the board.
The effects of any civilization tiles remaining with the empire in decline cannot benefit the player's new civilization.
Special case: It can happen that, following opposing attacks, an active empire has no tokens left at all. It is then automatically placed in decline. The player of that empire must skip one full turn of play before re-entering with a new civilization. If he already had an earlier empire in decline, it is emptied of its tokens as soon as the active empire is reduced to zero tokens.
End of the Game
The game ends when a player has reached the required number of victory points: 100 points (space 100 on the victory point track) for a game with 5 or 6 players, 120 points for 4 players, and 150 points for 3 players.
When a player reaches the required total, the round is nevertheless played out to its end. The player who, at the end of that round, has scored the most victory points is declared the winner of the game.
If the players wish, it is entirely possible to change the length of a game by changing the number of victory points required.
Solitaire and Two-Player Game
Principle: In solitaire play, you play alone against three fictitious players; with two players, against two fictitious opponents. Their behavior is governed by rules and a few dice rolls. This variant requires a six-sided die. During a fictitious player's turn, the provinces adjacent to his empire are examined and given a preference rating. The fictitious empire conquers these provinces in order of preference. In case of a tie, a random draw is made. These ties occur often enough that the fictitious empires retain unpredictable behavior.
Start of the Game
Turn order is random. The game is played to 150 points.
Choosing a Civilization
A fictitious player always takes the first civilization on the list and receives eight tokens (instead of six for the "real" player or players).
First Conquest
A fictitious player chooses the province that will earn him the most (taking into account point losses if it touches his empire in decline). In case of a tie, the one that is easiest to take. Another random draw is made if there is a further tie. Variant: the difficulty can be increased by deciding that, in the event of a further tie, a fictitious player will attack a real player if possible.
Fictitious players are short-sighted and aim only for immediate gain. Each new province is chosen in the same way as the starting province: the one that earns the most (watch out for the empire in decline); ties are broken first by cost in tokens, then by a die roll. If the empire no longer has enough tokens for its preferred province, it chooses the next one, and so on. A fictitious empire keeps expanding as long as it has tokens to do so, and never empties a province.
Variant: the following formula may be used: cost − 2 × value, preferring the provinces for which this formula is smallest (thus an unoccupied mountain province will be preferred by a fictitious player over a farming province defended by 6 tokens: 3 − 2×0 is less than 8 − 2×2). This variant is more refined but requires some calculation.
Reorganization
A fictitious player distributes his tokens so as to have an even defense (taking mountains, forests, and forts into account). Surplus tokens are distributed by preference: border provinces if new empires have been announced, otherwise "front line" provinces (adjacent to an active empire); in case of a tie, the ones that earn the most. All ties are resolved by a die roll.
Cohesion
Fictitious empires are not subject to the cohesion rule.
Decline
A fictitious player considers decline if, at the beginning of his turn, his empire is worth fewer than 10 points AND he has only 0 to 5 tokens available for expansion. If both conditions are met, a die is rolled: decline occurs if the result is strictly greater than the number of tokens available for expansion; otherwise the empire remains.
Civilizations
Slavery: This is taken into account when evaluating the value of a province for a fictitious empire.
Ship Building: On its first turn, a fictitious empire settles near an ocean or a "large" sea, not an inland sea.
Field General: Decline is only considered if fewer than three tokens are available (instead of five). And 2 is subtracted from the result of the die roll.
Espionage: This possibility is taken into account when comparing the costs of provinces of equal value.
Fortification: A fictitious empire places its fort offensively: in the province that has the most adjacent opposing or neutral provinces (ties broken by the sum of the values of the neighboring provinces, then by a die roll).
Astronomy: All spaces reachable via Astronomy are considered during settlement and expansion.
Diplomacy: A fictitious empire always declares peace with a "real" player (a random draw is made if playing with two players).
Rebirth: Decline is considered at the end of every turn.
Heritage: In case of a tie during expansion, before the die roll, a fictitious empire chooses to protect its empire in decline by attacking a province adjacent to it that is occupied by an active opposing empire.
Revolutionaries: All provinces are considered during settlement.
Increasing the Difficulty
After a few games, the difficulty can be increased by strengthening the fictitious players. They can be given 15 victory points instead of 10 at the start of the game and/or their empires can be given 9 or more tokens, instead of 8.
Rules Summary Cards
The Rise and Decline of a Civilization — Rules Summary
Sequence of a Player's Turn
- Gathering of forces: Take back all of your tokens, except 1 per province controlled by the active empire. It is permitted to empty a province.
- Conquests: Take control of new provinces by placing tokens there (cost of conquering a province = 2 tokens (3 for a mountain or forest province) + 1 token per defender − 1 token if the attack comes from a mountain province. The defender loses 1 token per province lost.
- Distribution of forces: The defender removes his surviving tokens from the conquered provinces and places them in unconquered provinces of his empire. The attacker freely distributes all of his tokens among the provinces of his empire. At least 1 token is required to keep control of a province.
- Victory point tally: All controlled provinces adjacent to one another that make up the empire earn 1 victory point, except mountain provinces. Provinces not adjacent to the empire must be emptied of their tokens and earn no victory points. Civilization tiles may grant victory point bonuses. Unconquered provinces of a player's empire in decline earn victory points as if they were provinces of an active empire. The player's marker is moved the necessary number of spaces on the victory point track.
Decline of an Empire
- At the very start of the turn, declare the decline of the active empire and remove all the tokens from the player's previous empire in decline, if any.
- Leave one token of the player's color on each province of the empire declared in decline, and place a decline marker there.
- Remove the civilization tiles of the empire in decline from play, unless they may remain in place during decline.
- Count your points: 1 point per province of the empire in decline, except mountain provinces, plus the bonuses of any civilization tiles remaining with the empire.
- Choose a new civilization.
- Wait until the following turn to re-enter the game with this new civilization.
Civilization Tiles
All modifiers granted by these tiles are cumulative. Exception: the cost of a conquest can never be negative (but it can be zero).
Yellow tiles, and the indications of black numbers on a yellow circle, affect victory points. These are provinces that earn one or more extra victory points, or special abilities that allow more points to be obtained.
Pink tiles, and the indications of a white number on a blue square, signal an advantage when conquering new provinces or defending an empire.
Blue tiles group together special abilities.
The Agriculture, Livestock Breeding, Mining, and Port Building tiles remain active during an empire's decline if they are marked with a broken column.
Agriculture. Farming provinces (yellow) earn 1 extra victory point. Agriculture exists in two versions: valid or not valid during decline.
Mining. Mining provinces (marked with a pickaxe) earn 2 extra victory points. Mining exists in two versions: valid or not valid during decline.
Livestock Breeding. Livestock provinces (light green) earn 1 extra victory point. Livestock Breeding exists in two versions: valid or not valid during decline.
Currency. Every province earns 1 extra victory point (including mountains).
Port Building. Port provinces (marked with an anchor) earn 1 extra victory point. Port Building exists in two versions: valid or not valid during decline.
Slavery. Every opposing or neutral token eliminated this turn earns 1 victory point (including tokens of an empire in decline, but not forts).
Ship Building. Every conquest of a coastal province from the same coastline costs 1 token less. If the conquest comes from the sea (Astronomy), the advantage is the same.
Espionage. One conquest per turn, of the player's choice, costs only 2 tokens, regardless of the tokens present there. All modifiers are ignored (including other civilization tiles). The turn's other conquests are normal.
Mountaineering. Every conquest of a mountainous province (gray province) costs 1 token less. In addition, these provinces earn 1 extra victory point.
Militia. Every conquest of one of the empire's provinces by other players costs them 1 extra token.
Weapons. Every conquest of any province costs 1 token less.
Fortification. At the end of his turn, the player places a fort (brown token) in a province of his empire. Conquering a fortified province costs 1 token more; attacking from a fort costs 1 token less (a fort has the same effect as a mountain). Forts remain in place during decline, but disappear if the province is taken or abandoned. There can only be one fort per province. A fort may be placed on a mountain.
Field General. The empire receives 7 extra tokens at the beginning of its turn but loses 7 at the end of its turn (they may only be used for conquests, not for defense). These 7 tokens are removed before counting victory points.
Astronomy. Conquests may be made across one or more sea zones (dark blue). Two provinces of the active empire are considered adjacent if they are connected by one or more sea zones. Astronomy has no effect on an empire in decline. Note: coastal provinces (partly light blue) are not sea zones.
Barbarians. No special characteristic.
Specialization. The empire is considered to have two identical civilization tiles. Tokens: double the other tile's token count, plus 1.
Medicine. The empire receives 1 extra token at the beginning of every turn (including the first turn).
Rebirth. Decline is declared at the end of a normal turn of play, after victory points are counted (but points are only counted once). The player therefore does not skip a turn.
Messages. The empire disregards the cohesion rule for active empires.
Heritage. The active empire and the one in decline may be adjacent.
Diplomacy. At the beginning of his turn, a player chooses an opponent. Neither may attack the other until the following turn. This applies only to active empires. Empires in decline may be attacked normally.
Revolutionaries. The civilization may appear in any province (not only on the edge of the board). The first province must nevertheless be conquered normally.
Errata
Depending on which version of the game you have (in newer versions certain errors and inaccuracies have been corrected):
The Mining tile produces 2 extra victory points (VP) for each mining province. The tile and the rules are correct, but the rules summary is not.
The Medicine tile should not have a 1 in a yellow circle. It should instead have a +1 in a blue square, to indicate the extra token gained each turn (numbers in a yellow circle indicate a VP bonus).
The rules for the expansion of an empire are contradictory. On page 3, the rule says that a token must be left in each province of an empire at the beginning of the player's turn. But on page 4, the rule states that a province may be left empty. According to the game's creator, it is the second rule that is correct. You may leave one (or more) province empty at the beginning of your turn, in which case you no longer own it. You may not leave a province empty during reorganization at the end of your turn, unless you own more provinces than you have tokens (which can happen with the Field General tile).
It is always possible to have an attack that costs no tokens, in which case a token must be placed in the conquered province during reorganization (as indicated on page 4 of the rules).
Normally, the presence of the decline icon on a civilization tile indicates that the tile remains valid and on the board when the empire goes into decline. But this is not true for Heritage, Rebirth, and Fortification (forts remain on the board during decline, but no new ones may be built). These tiles are removed when an empire goes into decline. The Heritage tile is only useful for an active empire. An empire that does not have this tile cannot be adjacent to its empire in decline (or it incurs penalties), even if that empire in decline possessed it.
There were supposed to be 3 Barbarians tiles and one Specialization tile in the game, but due to an error there are two of each in the boxes. To play as Philippe Keyaerts (the game's creator) intended, mark one of the Specialization tiles to designate it as a Barbarians tile. Otherwise, if you draw 2 Specialization tiles for the same empire, replace one of them with a new tile.
Clarifications
If all the tokens are removed from all of a player's provinces, he re-enters the board as if he had a new empire.
You may attack across coastal borders (black lines) without having Astronomy. Astronomy is needed to attack across sea zones. Provinces separated by black lines are considered adjacent.
The +1 bonus for attacking from a mountain applies when attacking across coastal borders. It does not apply when attacking across sea zones using Astronomy.
If an active empire has Heritage and is adjacent to its empire in decline, it may attack it.
Diplomacy may be used against a player with no active empire on the board, to prevent him from attacking on his turn with his new empire.
If an empire has Specialization and a tile whose effects cannot be doubled (blue tiles except Medicine and Diplomacy), the empire has the normal effect of the other tile and double the token count, plus 1.
Players are not limited to 25 tokens. If a player needs more tokens, he uses another color or something else.
The Fortification tile allows an empire to build one fort per turn (not one fort per province per turn). An empire with Specialization and Fortification can build 2 forts per turn (not in the same province, since there can only be one fort per province).
When civilization tiles are removed from the board, they are returned to the bag.
When an empire goes into decline, a single token and a decline marker are left on each province it occupies. Forts remain in these provinces. In addition, civilization tiles without the decline symbol are removed, as well as Fortification and Heritage.
It is possible to enter, with your active empire, a province adjacent to another occupied by your empire in decline. But if the active empire does not have the Heritage tile, the province of the empire in decline is immediately emptied.
Game Aids
The following tables should simplify play. This is essential information (victory points and number of tokens) found in the rules booklet, but it can be hard to find and is not well presented there.
| Players | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victory points | 150 | 120 | 100 | 100 |
| Number of extra tokens | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
Cost of a Conquest
| Terrain | Cost |
|---|---|
| Normal terrain | 2 tokens + 1 per defending token − 1 if the attack comes from a mountain |
| Forest, mountain | 3 tokens + 1 per defending token − 1 if the attack comes from a mountain |