Walls of York
Walls of York Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Building the King's Tower
If it's the first time you're playing Walls of York, you have to assemble the King's Tower: follow these instructions carefully.
Pay attention when removing all the Tower's components from the punchboards. On the inside of every Tower component there is a letter, identifying it for assembly.
- Take pieces A and B and insert in their upper slot component C, then insert component D in their middle slot.
- Fold the side walls of component E and insert component F in the upper slots at a right angle.
- Insert the block referred to in point 1 inside component E and slot it in the slits on the walls.
- Insert component G and slot it in the four inferior slits of the block referred to in point 3.
- Insert component H from above and component I from below so that the illustrations remain visible.
Once assembled, you can put the King's Tower back in the box without disassembling it.
Setup
Place the King's Tower (A), the 3 King's Dice (B), the Building Die (C), all the Wall Pieces (D), Coins (E), the King's Shield (F) and the Viking Tokens (G) in the middle of the table (as shown in the picture on the following page).
Every player takes 4 Frame Pieces (H) and creates a frame in front of him/her. Everyone also takes 4 different District Tiles (I). Every District Tile has a different colored gem in the middle. Each player must take one District Tile of each gem type (as shown in the picture).
Component Notes
Every Viking Token (G) has a Viking symbol on one side and an illustrated Viking standing on a broken 5-Coin on the other, to represent the Invasion.
To build your frame (H), match the 2 Borders with the same flowers. Every District Tile includes 16 lots divided by narrow streets. The lots can contain buildings, Coins and Viking symbols.
The assembling of the game board starts from the upper right corner: here the White Gem District has been placed first with the black arrow pointing upwards. In the upper left corner is then placed the Blue Gem District Tile with the black arrow pointing to the right. In the lower left corner is placed the Yellow Gem District Tile with the white arrow pointing to the left. The remaining District Tile is the Purple Gem, which must be placed in the right corner.
Player Boards Setup
Before starting the game, all players assemble their board together.
Every player's board should present the same District Tiles arrangement, so every board must be assembled following the same steps.
Alternately, every player picks up one District Tile type and chooses freely its arrangement in the four available spaces inside the frame. The direction of the gem's arrow indicates the Tile direction and the color of the arrow (black or white) indicates the Tile's side (front or back).
All the other players place the same type of District Tile in the same space, in the same direction and on the same side in their frames. The next player continues until all the boards are completed.
Overview
The game is divided into two different rounds, called Ages. During each Age the King will decree which buildings are to be included in the city. During every Age, players place the Wall Pieces on their board according to the result of the Building Die. They need to include the buildings indicated by the King's Dice and to keep out the dangerous Vikings. The players who manage to close the city earlier, as well as those who include the most Coins, will be rewarded.
How to Play
King's Decree
Before starting an Age, put the 3 King's Dice into the Tower randomly, putting each die in a different groove so as to get results in the three specific areas. If, by mistake, you put two dice in the same groove, insert them in the Tower again.
Dice indicate the buildings that you will have to include in your city during this Age.
At the beginning of the Age, the King decrees which buildings have to be included in your city. In this example, the decree requires 3 Churches, 2 Shafts and 2 Markets.
Building the City
The Age is divided into different construction turns, starting from a player of your choice. Turns follow one another clockwise until all players have closed their cities.
During your turn, roll the Building Die. If your city is not closed yet, you have to take the Wall Pieces resulting from the Building Die and put them on your board according to the resulting principles: see how on the following page.
Every time a Building Die is rolled, you have to place the Wall Pieces on your board only if you have not closed your city yet; otherwise you can collect the coins indicated on the Die if you have already closed your city (see page 6).
How to Place Wall Pieces
- Wall Pieces must be placed along the streets of the board according to the shape indicated by the Building Die. This shape can be both mirrored and rotated.
- Wall Pieces can be placed in any free street (not already occupied by another Wall Piece). It is not mandatory to place them contiguously with other already placed Wall Pieces.
- Wall Pieces can be placed on the external perimeter of the board.
- Wall Pieces cannot be placed outside the board.
- SPECIAL RULE: a player can choose to place a single Wall Piece rather than the Wall Pieces indicated by the Building Die.
- Players place their Wall Pieces simultaneously. Don't look at the other players' boards until you have placed your own Wall Pieces.
The turn ends when all players have placed their Wall Pieces. Now you can reroll the Building Die.
Note: although it is unlikely, if the Wall Pieces run out before the end of the Age, you can take already placed Wall Pieces from your city and place them anew according to the rules.
Suggestion! Try to choose the buildings you want to include in your city at the beginning of the Age: to build without a plan is always risky for an architect!
In the following examples, a city under construction: the grey walls are already in place. Green lines represent all permitted placements corresponding to the result of the Building Die above. Red lines represent improper placements.
Closing the City
At the end of each turn any player can declare his/her city enclosed by:
- Choosing a row of consecutive Wall Pieces that form a closed perimeter.
- Making sure that within the selected perimeter there are at least all the buildings indicated by the King's Decree. If this is not the case, the player must continue building his/her own city.
- Excess Wall Pieces outside the city perimeter must be removed from the boards and returned to the reserve. Wall Pieces outside and inside the city perimeter need to be removed.
- All lots within the city perimeter need to have at least one free narrow street connecting them to the rest of the city.
Those who declare their city enclosed will no longer be able to place Wall Pieces during the current round. When the other players toss the Building Die to place the Wall Pieces, all those who have already closed their city immediately collect the Coins indicated on the face of the die (1, 2 or 3 Coins), taking them from the supply. This phase ends when all players have declared their city enclosed: calculate each city's score, after which the invasion will take place.
Here below, the example of an enclosed city which contains the buildings decreed by the King. In red are the Wall Pieces not used to form the perimeter, which must all be removed when closing. The lot at the lower left corner, completely surrounded by red walls, cannot be part of the city.
In the upper right corner there was another possible perimeter option: it is not chosen because it excludes 3 Coins from the city.
Within the perimeter there are 7 Coins and 3 Vikings. Therefore, the player receives the equivalent of 7 Coins and 3 Viking Tokens.
City Score
You will earn the number of Coins in the lots within your city. Also, take one Viking Token for each Viking symbol in your city. Keep the Viking Tokens in front of you with the Viking symbol facing upwards.
Invasion
The player with the most Viking Tokens at the end of an Age will be invaded!
- Take a Viking Token and flip it on the Invasion symbol side.
- Put all the other owned Viking Tokens in the supply.
Note: In case of a tie for the most Viking Tokens, all those who are tied are invaded.
The players who don't get invaded keep all of their Viking Tokens.
Every Age ends with an Invasion. Remove all of the Wall Pieces from the board and put them back in the supply. You are now ready to play the second Age.
At the end of the first Age, Cecilia enclosed the highest number of Vikings within her city walls. She, therefore, is Invaded: she takes an Invasion Token and puts all her Viking Tokens in her reserve.
Attention! Each invasion results in a penalty of 5 coins at the end of the game.
The Second Age
Play the second Age exactly like the first, following the phases King's Decree, Building the City, City Score and Invasion. The City Score is performed exactly like in the first Age, with one difference: the player with the least Viking Tokens receives the King's Shield. In case of a tie between multiple players, one player only receives the King's Shield and the other players receive 3 Coins directly.
At the end of the second Age, Cecilia, who was previously invaded, counts only one Viking within her city. Paul and John, instead, count 3 and 4 Vikings, respectively. Cecilia therefore receives the King's Shield, allowing her to earn 3 Coins. John will, instead, be invaded.
End of the Game
The game ends after the Invasion of the second Age. Every player loses 5 Coins for every Invasion Token they own. The player who received the King's Shield will win 3 Coins. The player with the most Coins wins the game.
Extra Optional Rules
Perfect Plan — When a player declares the closing of his city and doesn't need to remove even a Wall Piece (since the only Wall Pieces he/she placed are part of the chosen perimeter) he/she earns 2 Coins.
The Longest Walls — The player with the highest number of Wall Pieces in a straight consecutive line earns 3 Coins (in case of a tie all tied players earn 3 Coins).
More Builders — Every box of Walls of York allows 4 people to play, but if you have more than one game box more people can play! Use only one King's Tower and one set of Dice, join Walls, Coins and Viking Tokens; each player receives the necessary material to build his/her own board.
The Game in Short
- Prepare the Game Boards — Prepare the game boards: players must have a board assembled in the same way.
- Check the King's Decree — Roll the King's Dice into the Tower: they indicate the minimum number of each type of building to be included in your city.
- Roll the Building Die — Place the Wall Pieces on your board according to the layout indicated by the Building Die but, if you have already closed your city, you earn the indicated amount of Coins.
- Counting and Invasion — Take the corresponding number of Coins and Viking Tokens in your city. The player with the highest number of Vikings will be invaded.