Winterborne
Winterborne Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 House Boards
- 4 Kingdom Boards
- 6 Province Boards
- 24 Settlements
- 12 Churches
- 24 Ally Cards
- 4 Scoring Tokens
- 13 Character Meeples: 4 Shaman (Blue), 4 Warriors (Red), 4 Explorers (Green), 1 Winterborne Power (White)
- 1 Season Board (front and back)
- 1 Season Marker
- 1st Player Marker
- 9 Resource Multipliers
- 30 Favor Tokens
- 25 Gold
- 25 Meat
- 25 Military
- 21 Spoils Tokens
- 30 Conquer Tiles
- 18 Core Cards
- 8 Solo Tokens (printed on the backs of Conquer tiles)
- 24 House Cards
- 18 Banner Cards
- 8 "Wylds" Cards
- 4 Winterborne Cards
Setting Up the Game
Sort all the resources and put them as a general supply in the middle of the game table. Place the favor tokens in the "Winter" section of the season board.
Player Setup
- Each player receives a house board, kingdom board, Winterborne power card, 6 house cards, 6 settlements, 3 churches, and 1 gold.
- Each player takes 1 shaman, 1 explorer and 1 warrior. Place your character meeples on their matching dark gray spaces on your kingdom board.
- Place 6 settlements and 3 churches on the noted spaces on the house board.
- Each player shuffles their 6 house cards (2 shaman, 2 explorer and 2 warrior) into a personal deck and draws a hand of 4 cards.
Set up your house board on the left and the kingdom board on the right. The house board is where you will store your settlements, churches and Winterborne power card. It is also a reference guide for all of the characters' special abilities and building costs. Place the settlements and the churches as shown in the rulebook diagram.
Kingdom Board Setup
Your kingdom board is where you track your characters' movement and expand your kingdom by conquering and building settlements and churches.
The starting locations for each of the three characters are marked on your kingdom board. Place the matching character on the matching location.
Your kingdom board is divided into 6 provinces, each with its own color: Fog Valley, Tomb Forest, Altar Isle, Bloodstone Gulch, Floating Isles, and The Black Heights. You start the game in control of 1 section from each province.
You neither control the other sections, nor are they considered provinces, until your warrior performs a conquer action and expands your kingdom with conquer tiles.
From here on, when the rules refer to a "province section" on your kingdom board, it includes the starting provinces and conquer tiles you control.
Main Board and Provinces Setup
- Lay out the province boards to form the main game board.
- Shuffle the 4 ally cards for each province and place the decks face up on the matching "Trade" sections on each province board.
- Place all 5 conquer tiles from each province in the "Conquer" sections on the matching province boards. Place the conquer tokens in a stack on the "Conquer" tile location.
- Shuffle the 18 spoils tiles face down and randomly place 3 face up on each province board. Be sure to place the spoils face up.
Assemble the main game board so that it matches the setup image. Each province board is prepared with four matching ally cards, three spoils, five conquer tiles and one exploration card.
Exploration Deck Setup
- Start with 18 core cards which are used for every game. The 18 core cards are 6 Treasure, 6 Provision and 6 Weapons.
- Use the chart on the season board to determine the number of banner sets and "The Wylds" cards to add to the core cards, based on the number of players. Select the banner sets to play and then choose "The Wylds" cards at random.
Banner sets are made up of 3 cards that share the same icon: Horn, Mask, Bag, Book, or Rune. The icon is located in the middle of the card on the left side, and signifies the set to which the banner card belongs. Depending on the number of players, select banner sets to add to the exploration deck. For the first game, we recommend choosing from Mask, Book or Rune. In future games, you may choose any combination of banner sets.
Depending on the number of players, you must randomly select a number of "The Wylds" cards to add to the exploration deck.
Combine the core cards, selected banner sets and "The Wylds" cards together and shuffle to form the exploration deck.
Season Board Setup
After completing the exploration deck, deal 1 card face up to each province board's "Exploration" section. Distribute the remainder of the exploration deck face down into the "Spring," "Summer," and "Autumn" sections of the season board, according to the small chart located in each season.
Place the remaining exploration cards face down in the "Winter" section of the season board. Place the season marker on the "Spring" space. Finally, choose a starting player, who takes the first player marker.
Example: Storm sets up the exploration deck for a 2-player game. She locates the core cards and sets them aside. Next, she consults the exploration deck chart located on the season board to determine that she needs to add 2 banner sets and 4 "The Wylds" cards. She chooses to play with the Mask and Bag banner sets and shuffles those six cards with core cards to form the exploration deck. The other banner sets are returned to the box. She then shuffles all "The Wylds" cards, and adds 4 to the exploration deck. The other "The Wylds" cards are returned to the box. From the newly formed exploration deck, she deals 1 card face up to each province's exploration section. Referring to the chart on the season board, she deals 3 cards face-down into the "Spring" section, 3 cards face down into the "Summer" section, and 4 cards face down into the "Autumn" section. Finally, she places the remaining exploration deck face down into the "Winter" section.
Card Types and Elements
House Cards
Each house has 6 house cards: 2 shaman, 2 warrior, and 2 explorer. Some cards may have multiple actions that are separated by divider lines. A player must choose only one action per card. For example, a card may offer either a shaman action, a 2-movement action, or a gain 1 gold action.
Exploration Cards
There are 5 types of exploration cards: Provisions, Treasures, Weapons, Banners, and "The Wylds." The explorer can acquire exploration cards into your deck. Exploration cards provide more powerful actions than your house cards. These powerful actions are noted on the left-hand side of each card and described in more detail at the bottom of the card.
- Reserve - Cards with the reserve icon can be played on the reserve area to the left of your house board. You can play cards from your reserve as though they are in your hand. Up to 3 cards are allowed in your reserve and they do not count towards your hand limit. During your turn, you may freely place and pick up cards in your reserve. Any card with the reserve icon may be placed in the reserve area.
- Banner Cards - These exploration cards add unique actions and scoring opportunities to each game. Each set of banner cards is themed.
- The Wylds Cards - When you acquire "The Wylds," the card goes directly into your reserve. "The Wylds" are locked into your reserve, and never go into your hand, deck, or discard. Each of "The Wylds" has a special action that may be used by choosing the Wylds action on a house card. The Lock icon means "The Wylds" cards are locked into the reserve area and count towards your reserve limit. The Wylds icon means that, when chosen on a card or spoils tile, you activate all of "The Wylds" cards in your reserve. Activate cards in any order you choose.
General Rules
- Whenever your personal deck is empty and you need to draw a card, reshuffle the discard pile and replenish your deck.
- When you explore, exploration cards go into your hand, and "The Wylds" go into your reserve.
- Characters must move the full number of spaces. If you play a 3, it must move 3 spaces.
- During play, any number of characters may be on the same space.
- You may move and take actions with the same character more than once per turn.
- If you are required to "Sack" a card or spoils tile, remove it from the game.
- You cannot have more than 12 resources at the end of your turn; return the excess to the general supply.
Turn Breakdown
- Play cards from your hand to move your explorer, shaman, or warrior character. After moving a character, it will perform one of its special actions.
- Play as many cards or spoils as you like until you choose to end your turn.
- Discard or keep any number of cards from your hand, then draw cards from your personal deck until you have 4 cards.
- End turn.
Play passes clockwise to the next player. This continues until the game end triggers.
Playing Cards
Some cards have multiple actions that may be selected, but only one action may be used per card. To play a card from your hand, simply place it face-up in front of you and announce the selected action. In most cases, you will be playing cards to move characters and perform their special actions.
In order to move a character, you must play a card or spoils that has one of the three character hex symbols: an explorer, shaman, or warrior. Then play a second card or spoils with a circle movement symbol to determine how far that character moves. Characters always move clockwise and only on dark gray spaces; never on a conquer tile or castle section. Moving from one dark gray space to the next, in clockwise order, is considered one movement.
After moving a character, you may perform one of the character's special actions. Some character actions are limited to the province sections that are currently adjacent to the character. In the beginning of the game, each gray tile is adjacent to only one province section. After performing the character's special action, you may continue moving characters until you no longer have cards or spoils.
Some cards offer a resource as an action. Simply play the card in front of you and announce the resource you take from the supply.
The Warrior
Conquer
After moving the warrior, you may conquer an adjacent empty section. Pay 1 gold and 1 military resource and choose a conquer tile from a province board that matches one of the two colors bordering the empty section. Place the conquer tile on top of the newly conquered section of your kingdom board.
After placing the conquer tile, you may select one of the available spoil tiles from the same province board. Spoils are kept face up in your supply.
Build
The warrior can build 2 types of buildings. You may only build 1 building on each province section on your kingdom board.
- Settlement: Pay 1 gold and 1 meat resource, then place an unbuilt settlement from your house board on a province section adjacent to your warrior. Then gain 1 favor token from the season board and place it into your supply. When you build a settlement, you must start from the left of a settlement row. After building both settlements in the row, you unlock a church. You do not have to build a church once it is unlocked and you can continue building settlements from other rows.
- Church: You cannot build a church until you have built the 2 settlements in the same row. There is no cost to build a church. After moving your warrior, take the build action and place the church on an adjacent province. After building a church, immediately take the exploration card from the province board matching the province where you built the church.
The Shaman
Trade
The shaman may trade with one ally card from an adjacent province. To trade, pay the trade requirements on the ally card and receive the rewards. Then take the ally card from the province board and place it face down next to your play area. You may look at your own face down ally cards at any time. Each collected ally card provides end-game scoring opportunities. You may only trade with 1 ally per trade action.
Tax
Take 1 gold and 1 military from the supply.
Pray
Take 1 favor token from the supply.
Passive Income
You receive 1 gold each time the shaman passes over a settlement or church built on a conquer tile section. Buildings built on the starter province sections do not count. After moving, collect any gold coins earned and then perform your shaman's special action.
The Explorer
Explore
The current season determines the cost to explore. Pay the cost shown on the season board for the current season and take an exploration card from an adjacent province. When you take an exploration card it goes into your hand except the Wylds, which go into your reserve. Cards do not replenish on the province boards until the end of a player's turn. You may only take 1 card per explore action.
Raid
Take 2 meat from the supply.
Ending Your Turn
You may end your turn at any time. Most turns end when a player cannot take any more actions.
Reserve cards - You may place exploration cards from your hand with the reserve icon face-up into your reserve (maximum of 3 at any time).
Discard and draw - Place all the cards played this turn into the discard pile. You may keep or discard any cards in your hand. Draw cards from your personal deck until you have 4 cards in hand.
Replenish exploration cards on province boards - Draw cards from the current season deck to replenish any empty exploration spaces on province boards. Replenish from the 12 o'clock position first and then clockwise until all boards have been filled. If you empty a season deck, then move the season marker to the next season and continue replenishing exploration cards from the new season deck.
Seasons
There are 4 season decks: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The game begins in spring and ends after the third round of winter. The seasons change as each deck runs out of cards. Once all the cards have been depleted from the current season, you must move the season marker to the next season.
A round ends when each player has taken a turn. Rounds are not tracked until winter. The seasons can change at any time during a round as players explore and build churches, which depletes cards from the season decks.
Play continues clockwise until the end of autumn. Once the autumn deck runs out, the season marker will stay in autumn until the end of the current round (the last player to start the game takes a turn). Thus, each player will have the same number of turns before switching into winter. If the autumn deck is empty and you are continuing the round, replenish cards from the winter deck.
Entering Winter
At the end of the round when the autumn deck is depleted, the season marker is moved to the 1st round of winter. At the end of each round, move the season marker to the next round of winter. The game ends at the end of the 3rd round of winter.
Winterborne Powers
Only during winter can players use Winterborne powers. A player may activate only 1 power each round. Using a power requires favor tokens equal to the number of the current round of winter. Place the spent favor tokens on the current round on your Winterborne card, then choose which power to activate.
Each Winterborne card has two unique powers to choose from. You may use a power at any time during your turn.
For example: In round 2 of winter, a player would need 2 favor to activate one of their Winterborne powers.
Ending the Game
At the end of the 3rd round of winter, players score ally cards, buildings, exploration cards, banner cards, favor tokens, and resources. You may use either the provided score pad or flip the season board and use the score tokens to track your game.
The player with the highest score is the winner. In the case of a tie, the player with the most favor tokens (supply and Winterborne card) is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the most "The Wylds" cards is the winner. If still tied, share the victory.
Scoring Allies
Score the bottom of each ally card in your play area.
Scoring Buildings
Score each of the 6 provinces where you have at least 1 building. Multiply the number of buildings by the number of province sections in a province. Players may have province spoils that also count as province sections.
Buildings scoring example: Blue province scores 4 points, green province scores 2 points, purple province scores 8, and the yellow province scores 1 point.
Scoring Exploration Sets
There are 4 types of exploration cards that score as sets: "Provisions", "Treasures", "Weapons," and "The Wylds." Sort your exploration cards into sets from 1 to 4 cards (a "set" can consist of a single card). Each set can have no more than one card of each type. For each set of exploration cards, score the following points, depending on the number of types in a set: 1/3/6/10 points for 1/2/3/4 different types.
Scoring Banners
Each banner card scores separately and provides a special end game scoring bonus. See the Banner Card Sets section for how each card scores.
Scoring Favor and Resources
Each favor token in your supply and on your Winterborne card is worth 1 point. Every 3 resources is worth 1 point.
Solo Rules
In the solo game, you will play against the Balaur. To win the game, your final score must exceed the Balaur's score. Unless noted below, play the solo game exactly as you would the 2-player game.
Setup
Instead of placing the spoil tiles face up, place the spoil tiles face down. Find the 8 objective tiles printed on the back side of the conquer tiles and set them aside. Then, place 3 conquer tiles per province on the main game board and return any extras to the box.
The solo game requires you to use one of the unused player house boards and the 6 matching house cards. Flip over the house board to the Balaur side and slide it underneath the season board.
Next, shuffle the 6 house cards to form the Balaur deck and place it face-down near the Balaur's board. Lastly, choose your level of difficulty: 40 easy, 50 medium, 60 hard.
The difficulty you choose determines how many objective tiles you use each game. Randomly shuffle all of the objective tiles, and starting from the right side of the Balaur board, place 3/4/5 face-up tiles for an easy/medium/hard difficulty. Place the rest of the objective tiles back into the box.
Gameplay
Take your turn as normal and then complete the Balaur's turn: Draw the top card from the Balaur deck and then execute an action for the Balaur. Then the Balaur's turn is over.
Balaur Actions: Note the character hex of the card drawn and align it with a province hex at the bottom of the Balaur board. You must align cards from left to right, with only one card per province hex. Note: this means you will follow the path of green-yellow-blue-purple-red-black. Use the character hex to determine what action the Balaur takes, and the province hex to determine where that action is taken.
- Shaman: Take the top card of the ally deck and remove it from the game.
- Explorer: Take the exploration card and place it in the Balaur's score pile.
- Warrior: Take 1 conquer tile and remove it from the game. Then, choose a spoils from the same province and reveal it. If a character tile is revealed, the Balaur will take a bonus action at the next province hex on the Balaur board. Align the spoils tile with the province hex and perform the action. It's possible for the Balaur to chain multiple bonus actions if another warrior spoils is revealed. When revealing spoils, if you reveal anything other than a character tile, remove it from the game and end the Balaur's turn. If no spoils tokens are available, then the Balaur's turn immediately ends.
End of the Balaur's Turn
If there are spoils tiles on the Balaur board, remove them from the game. If the Balaur deck is empty, remove all of the cards from the Balaur board and shuffle them to create a new Balaur deck. Replenish exploration cards on province boards.
Objectives
Objectives are new ways for you to score bonus points at the end of the game. Each completed objective on the Balaur's board will earn you the victory points below the objective tile. The harder the difficulty the more objectives you will have. There is no limit to the number of completed objectives, but you can only score each objective once.
List of Objectives:
- A. 20 points in exploration sets - You must score at least 20 points in exploration sets.
- B. 20 points in buildings - You must score at least 20 points in building points.
- C. Build 6 settlements - You must build all 6 settlements.
- D. Conquer each province - You must have a conquer tile from each province.
- E. Ally from each province - You have an ally from each province in your score pile.
- F. 3 banner cards - You must have 3 banner cards in your score pile.
- G. 3 "The Wylds" - You must have 3 "The Wylds" in your reserve.
- H. Winterborne power - Use your Winterborne power in all three rounds of winter.
Scoring
At the end of the game, sort the Balaur's score pile into exploration sets. Then calculate the Balaur's final score by adding the three categories below:
- Exploration sets
- 1 point per banner card (ignore end game scoring bonuses)
- Balaur base difficulty: 40 easy, 50 medium, 60 hard.
Next, calculate your score as you would in a 2-4 player game. Then add any bonus points from completed objectives.
Ally Cards
- Yellow Ally - Trade a single resource of your choice for the resources shown. Scoring - 1 point for each "The Wylds" card you have in your reserve.
- Purple Ally - Trade a single resource for another resource. Scoring - 1 point for every 2 settlements you have built.
- Green Ally - Trade a favor token for a single resource shown on the card. Scoring - 1 point for every 3 cards in your personal deck at the end of the game. This includes the house cards and exploration cards you acquired during play. "The Wylds" do not count as they never go into your deck.
- Red Ally - Spend the required resources to the supply and perform a conquer action for free on any section with the conquer symbol. This section can be anywhere on your kingdom board regardless of where your warrior is located. Then take an available spoils tile from the same province. Scoring - 1 point.
- Black Ally - Sack a spoils tile in your supply and take the resources shown. Scoring - 2 points.
- Blue Ally - Trade a single resource and receive a favor token. Scoring - 1 point.
Spoils
When you gain a spoils tile, place it in your supply. There is no limit to the number of spoils you may have. Some spoils are one time use actions and others are saved for end game scoring.
- The character hex and movement circle spoils are one time use actions. Combine these tiles with cards or spoils to move characters. Sack the tile after use.
- Some spoils are a one time use action to activate all of "The Wylds" cards in your reserve. Do not sack after use, instead return these tiles to the box. These tiles can never be gained through special actions that target sacked spoils.
- Province spoils are used for end game scoring and count as a province section under your control. You cannot build on these tiles.
Banner Card Sets
A Banner card set consists of 3 cards that have unique actions and end game scoring bonuses. Playing with different combinations of sets can change how the game plays. Below is a summary of how each set works.
- Horn - These banners have a special build action. Sack the card after performing the special action. There is no end game scoring for these banners.
- Mask - When choosing the movement action, move your character counter-clockwise around the kingdom board. At the end of the game, points are awarded for types of exploration cards you own.
- Bag - Discard this banner to take the special draw action and draw 1 card from the top of your personal deck. A. At the end of the game, score 1 point for each conquer icon showing on your kingdom board (unconquered sections). B. At the end of the game, score 2 points for each winter round you did not use your Winterborne power. C. At the end of the game, score 2 points for each of your unbuilt churches.
- Book - When choosing the movement action, you may choose one of the two numbers in the circle. A. At the end of the game, score 1 point for each black, blue and green conquer tile on your kingdom board. B. At the end of the game, score 1 point for each purple, yellow, and red conquer tile on your kingdom board. C. At the end of game, score 1 point per settlement built on the starter province sections on your kingdom board.
- Rune - At the end of the game, these banners count as either a "Provision", "Treasure" or "Weapon" when scoring exploration sets.
- Potion (Promotional Set) - Discard this banner to take the special castle action and move the indicated character to the center castle on your kingdom board. Later, if you want to move a character out of the castle, it costs 1 movement to move it onto any dark gray section. If your character has any remaining movement, it must continue moving as normal. At the end of the game, this card is worth 1 point for every banner card you own.
- Orb - At the end of the game, this card counts as a Wylds card when scoring exploration sets and yellow allies.
Mercenary Card
We suggest you add the mercenary card once you have played the base game and understand how the characters work and interact with each other. At setup, give each player a mercenary card to shuffle into their starting house deck.
Pay a gold to the supply to use this card as a shaman, explorer or warrior hex for this turn only; or take any resource from the supply.
Winterborne Power Cards
- Move a building from one province section to a different province section.
- Take any 2 resources from the supply (Gold, Military or Meat).
- Discard 1 card from your hand and draw 2 cards from your deck.
- Pay 1 less resource when you explore for each "The Wylds" card in your reserve.
- Swap an exploration card from your hand (provision, weapon, treasure, or banner) with an exploration card from any province board.
- Take a spoils tile from any province board.
- Remove one of your characters from the game and replace it with the white meeple. The white meeple can be moved with any character hex (and movement circle). Perform the action of the character hex played. You can only activate this Winterborne power once and the white meeple stays in play until the end of the game.
- Perform a trade action with your shaman. Choose an adjacent province and pay the trade requirements.
- Each round of winter has a power that can only be activated during the current round. Choose a special action for the character and perform that action without moving the character. You must pay resources for special actions that have a cost (e.g., build, trade, explore).
- Round 1. Perform any action with your shaman.
- Round 2. Perform any action with your explorer.
- Round 3. Perform any action with your warrior.
The Wylds Cards
Includes promo and KS add-on cards.
- Exchange 1 military for 2 meat from the supply.
- Swap the shaman with the explorer.
- Collect 1 coin from the supply.
- Move the explorer 1 space in any direction and take no action.
- Collect 1 meat from the supply.
- Move your shaman 2 spaces and take no action. The shaman does collect passive income.
- Collect 1 military from the supply.
- Move your warrior 3 spaces and take no action.
- Spend any resource and take a sacked spoils tile. Wyld spoils removed from the game cannot be gained using this action.
- Exchange 1 meat for 2 military from the supply.
- Return 1 meat and any resource to the supply and take 1 favor token from the supply.