by Seamo66

<div>Shopper and Market Crier in Gates of Loyang. Card art crops. </div>

by JTSleep

Yep. More meeples only determine who "wins" region if there are more players. It doesn´t multiply score.

by SolarJ

Ok so Castellion is finally here! If you're like me this game was an instant buy based on the pedigree of Shadi Torbey's Oniverse games. Some reviews have already covered the rules so I won't recount them in great detail but here's my thoughts.

The Premise

You are the 'newly appointed' commander of a shape-changing fortress the Castellion; set to defend against the terrifying Menace, an entity of many faces hell-bent on destroying the Oniverse . Before you are ready to challenge the threat of the Menace directly the School of Architects have some exams for you geared toward formation construction (Introductory level). Then, in lieu of the ultimate battle, a familiar looking Admiral has some cunning simulations to test your understanding of the defender factions who reside in the Castellion (Base level). Only then will you finally be ready to face the Assault: an 'invasion of the Menace that intends to reduce the Oniverse to naught but fire and blood' wherein the Castellion reveals its true powers of defence (Expert level).

I must say I was sucked into this theme quickly. Mastering the architect Exams taught the base formations and tile laying rules required to combat each of the three ordeals. These lessons had to be re-evaluated in the admirals Simulations where defender faction powers offered multiple ways to morph the Castellion, this time at the expense of discarding tiles. Mastery of both Exams and Simulations of course is not the full picture. When the Menace Assault beings, the ordeals represent his shape-shifted forms (the behemoth, earthworm, harpies and the horde) that are hidden face down and trigger much sooner than previous challenges. To your advantage the formations within the Castellion have powers themselves to limit, reveal or even nullify the Menace assault.

Spread of the card art

Exploring the Mechanics

Something I feel the Oniverse games do exceptionally well is to allow exploration of the game mechanics in a way that also makes thematic sense while also twisting slightly what was just learnt.

Onirim's 7+ expansions are both mechanically sound and thematic, for example the way the towers expansion allows more vision of pending cards depending on how tall they are when discarded. Coupled to this each expansion alters the techniques required to escape the labyrinth and often interact in strange exciting ways with each other.

Similarly Sylvion's level system echo's Castellion in that the full rules are introduced through graded levels of play. Then the expansions to the advanced level, while only 2, offer great variation on the tactics of hand management round by round that blends masterfully with the drafting/marshalling mechanic.

In this respect, Urbion was probably the weaker of the series for exploration of mechanics through theme. The game is presented as is, with a single expansion; one that is so balanced it hardly feels like an addition. That doesn't distract from the mechanics being sound and enjoyable, but the exploration is much more cerebral in working out good pairings and less about the theme of achieving harmony in the dream world.

Castellion formalises even further this exploration as theme, with the Exams and Simulations alluding to the challenge of the Menace the ultimate endpoint for your training; the tactics of one difficulty level bleeding into and adding to the next. The difference here however is that each challenge level has enough mechanical variation to feels like separate albeit similar games in their own right. Sure the choices are simpler in the Exams but some variations of the tier 3 Exam ordeals are much harder to complete than some of the Simulation ordeal combinations. By not having the defender powers of the Simulation level or the ability to discard traitor tiles, the Exams require more spacial forward planning. As a result it is possible to discover game is lost quite early as there is no way to destroy tiles already placed. Similarly the ordeals for both the Simulation and Exams are failed outright if all requirements are not met, but the Menace Assault ordeals are more lenient: as long as you still have a foundation (6 bottom tiles) after some forced discards you still win and progress to the next!

First Simulation Victory!

Each difficulty level also has an appendix: the 'Shadow of the Menace' that uses the Menace pawn, essentially offering two difficulty options to make it easier or make it harder. These appendix options are tailored to each the difficulty level for 6 in total, however you can translate them over between levels (although it warns this may not be balanced).

For example the Simulation level can be made easier or harder by the either 'The Premonition' - simply ignore one traitor tile (those that tick forward the time to face each ordeal), or 'The Prison' - where you have to build 8 tiles around the Menace pawn (separate to the Castellion) but if the prison incomplete after an ordeal you lose 6 tiles from the main play area, or if it is the last ordeal you lose the game.

Both simple additions that can easily be used in the Exam or Assault levels. However the prison appendix would really cripple chances of winning the Assault as you lose tiles rapidly enough as it is. For similar reasons it would put a lot of time pressure and more luck into finishing an Exam run.

Failed Simulation run with 'The Prison' appendix - so close!

The fact that each level has tweaks to tune the difficulty just supports my feeling that while they are presented as difficulty levels they can also be played on their own merits; mainly because they need slightly separate but distinct tactics to manage them.

Currently I've played when though 5 Exams and passed twice, 3 Simulations and passed once and 2 Assaults and lost dismally both times at the second ordeal. I played with the appendix to make it harder on most of the Exam and Simulation games but I'm not quite ready to do that on the Assault yet. As a solo game there is plenty of scope for challenge here.

The only expansion that comes with the game is the Pantry that is meant to be used only for Assault level. It consists of six tiles of which a certain number needs to be in the Castellion before each ordeal (2,4,6) otherwise you lose! To make it worse these don't count toward formations and can still be discarded by effects this is even more to achieve. Wow, not ready for that yet.

I'll mention 2 player but cannot comment on how well it plays yet. Each takes turns to build their own Castellion and can contribute/donate tiles to each other at the cost of destroying a tile. The players choose who will face each ordeal, but this has to alternate each time unless more tiles are discarded. This to me sounds great!

Tiles vs Cards

I can instantly see the appeal of the tiles from the building mechanic, and handling that single tile deliberating, spinning through fingers feels just right. My only gripe is a curse at my own dexterity, I can't shuffle tiles! While I can quickly mahjong it up and mix up a pile after a game before stacking them, I'm not at a stage where I can lazily shuffle tiles while thinking. Of course I could just leave a messy pile to draw from but that doesn't seem right. That said it feels so good not to have to sleeve anything. There is in fact no need to sleeve any of the cards in this game as they are handled so infrequently. Overall I think tiles for this game was the right choice.

The Box and Art

Of course we can't talk about the Oniverse without the art of Elise Plessis. The first delight for many Oniverse fans is her whimsical dreamy style that for me really binds the series together. Castellion is no exception.

Lifting Castellion's lid reveals a small red defender (the pyro) peaking through a lone Castellion window. Lifting this fold-over opens more windows now showing three Castellion defenders before finally lifting this fold-over to reveal the inner workings of the the Castellion - emblazoned over the front cover of the 'Book of Rules'. ( NB: It seems in my version the windows were folded in the wrong order from the factory showing 3 windows but only one dweller, then one window alone; a minor irk quickly fixed).

Opening the Box!

Behind the book of rules this is a thick stack of punch boards holding the 90 tiles for the game (72 defender tiles, 12 safe defender tiles and 6 pantry tiles) . Behind those is an insert tray with 27 cards (24 ordeal cards with 2 player aids and one 'champion of the oniverse' card - used for 2 player games) and the Menace pawn.

The insert is smooth yellow plastic rather than the felt covered plastic of previous Oniverse box versions. The purple/brown plastic Menace pawn sits sweetly with angry eyes, daring you to face his challenge. The Menace is actually the same type of material as the Ravage pawn but this time his white eyes have been indented. (The Onirim Incubus pawn was a type of plaster/resin).

The Insert

Once the tiles are punched out they stand upright in the four corners of the tray. This took me a moment to work out as I did my usual trick of putting all the punch boards underneath the insert, which won't work for this number of tiles on end. The tiles allow the manual to fit flat to the fold-overs to preserve the box opening effect, but because the outer cover of the rule book is not thick card (unlike Onirim and Sylvion box versions) there is a tendency for the manual to bow slightly in the middle between the stacked tiles. The extra space also allows the cards to move out of the insert more easily in transit.

I love how varied the art is again to previous games. There are lots of bright yellows, reds, blues and greens. The defenders are all new dream world residents with simple but varied poses. The ordeals have detailed art that also reflects both theme and information relating to the tiers. I love how the Exams have a teacher pointing to an easel with pencil drawing of the Menace avatars, while the Simulations have an Icubus Admiral waving a puppet show of the same at you. Then you have the full-on red bordered meany Menace ordeals in their nasty glory. The iconography is also very strong, with the components being language independent and easily read (as with all the Oniverse).

While think Sylvion's art is a bit stronger, if just because there is more of it with more variety in the denizens of the forest (and my daughter loves the Ravage), you won't find me seeing Castellion as any less of a game and the art is still great.

Closing thoughts

Castellion is another solid addition to the Oniverse with a departure from cards into tile management. It has some similarities to tetris/candy crush/bejewelled grid-based matching games but is a very different beast entirely, and one that is strong thematically for what are quite abstract mechanics. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to solo gamers out there. In brief comparison, it doesn't have as many variations to play as Onirim and there seems to be more replayability in the lower difficulty levels than Sylvion, but Castellion is very much its own game. Production values are again high (bar the thinner manual cover) and I'm sure I'll master tile shuffling given enough plays!

Your thoughts below!

by BC2014

I know the official rules are to count each tile, but as a house rule we decided to count each city segment.

by BC2014

Thanks. However we will continue playing the wrong way as we like that way too much! :D

I wonder does anyone else play these house rules?

by Kha Od Dro

But it looks like you can't play the basic game after you finish the season though.

by ReiXou

Khonnor wrote:

I believe someone already posted the english rules..

Where ?

by Khonnor

BC2014 wrote:

Thanks. However we will continue playing the wrong way as we like that way too much! :D

I wonder does anyone else play these house rules?

So, do you play if there are 2 blue and 1 red on a feature, red will also score points?

by bazik123

you have 4 'civilian' cards in the box that have no abilities, I am assuming that if you lost all your characters you'll have to finish the campaign with always playing those 4. notice these cards specifically say you do not destroy them when they are killed, just discards your hand and restart with a new 'citizen clone'.

see also: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1450584/civilian

by joakim589

Oh I bought Castellion but didn't got Mirrors Promo Cards. Too bad. (I also bought Sylvion and got promo cards for that).

by BC2014

Khonnor wrote:

BC2014 wrote:

Thanks. However we will continue playing the wrong way as we like that way too much! :D

I wonder does anyone else play these house rules?

So, do you play if there are 2 blue and 1 red on a feature, red will also score points?

No. Blue would score double points and red would be wiped out.

by Alexdm22

Hi EnergyQuoobs,

Yes. You can find all the minis on LudikCrafts Etsy shop! Check the instagram profile to review other miniatures and custom orders on @ludikcrafts

Best,

Àlex

by wolverine1977

Kha Od Dro wrote:

But it looks like you can't play the basic game after you finish the season though.

You can all the components to play the base game first are in the legacy box.....

by Dirksk

Can anyone tell me if the new release by TMG will be available for retail in Europe? I really want to play this game and nééd a copy ! Pre-orders open in North America, but can't find anything for Europe.

by rent13579

Clash of Cultures: Civilization
Solo Variant

Been under development for awhile but I think it is in a state that welcomes others to play and report. The rules may seem daunting at first but I assure you, it's only me trying to be a thorough as possible. Once you realize what the system is doing, it is very easy to carry everything out. It's simply a "Deck Building" mechanic to simulate the Automated Player's actions corresponding to her tech tree.

Please try and report any issues you find. Have fun!!!


:Set-Up:

Material Needed: A standard deck of 52 cards. (No Jokers) The Action Chart within these instructions.

Set-Up: Set up Clash of Cultures as a standard 2 player game. Decide your color and which will be the “Automated Player,” from here on out called Fortuna. Place both Player Boards so they face you. Remove all 12 Face Cards (J, Q & Ks) from the standard deck of cards. Shuffle and place face down near Fortuna’s board. This will now be referred to as the Suit Deck. From the remaining cards in the deck, remove one of each number from Ace to 9. The 10s will remain in the deck, which is now set aside. Shuffle these 9 cards and place them next to the Suit Deck. This deck of 9 numbers will be referred to as the Advancement Deck.

Draw an Objective and Action Card for you but only an Action Card for her. When you draw the Action Cards for her, do not look at them and simply place it near her board in a pile.

:Game Play:

Your Turn: First Player begins with you. You play normally.

Playing Fortuna: When it’s her turn to act, draw the top card of the Suit Deck and the Advancement Deck and consult the Action Table provided in these rules. (See Below) The suit of the face card will determine which column to refer to, while the rank on the Advancement Card will determine the row. The action written in the intersecting square is the action performed by Fortuna. (See detailed explanation of all Actions in the “Actions” Section below)

This will be repeated twice more for a total of 3 actions. The next turn begins.

After 3 turns of this, a Statue Phase occurs as usual. (See “Status Phase” below)

The game ends as per usual, during the 6th Status Phase. At which point, the scores are tallied. (See “End Game Scoring” below)


:Actions:

GENERAL RULE: If Fortuna can perform an action in 2 or more ways, roll a die to determine her choice in action.
[Examples: A settler is adjacent to 2 unexplored spaces… Roll a d2 and see which one she decides to move into. 3 of her cities qualify to be Increased in Size… Roll d3 to see which one gains the City Piece. 2 of your city pieces can equally be Culturally Influenced… Roll d2 to see which she targets.]


Advance in (category): Fortuna will spend 1 Idea (or 1 Food, if she has no Ideas) and will gain the top most available advancement in the category specified. If Education, Warfare or Spiritualty is the specified category but she has all four advancements in it, then advance instead into the corresponding government. The first government she enters is the one she will remain in for the duration of the game. (It is possible for “Advance in Education/Government” to advance Theocracy, if Theocracy was the first government to receive an advancement.)


Advance (d3 d3): Fortuna will spend 1 Idea (or 1 Food, if she has no Ideas) and then roll 2d3. The die the lands physically further left, will be considered the first die. Landing further right, the second. Refer the results to the far left side of the Action Table. The advancement listed to its right is the category Fortuna advances in. She will gain the top most available advancement in the category. (If she rolls a category that has no available advancements, re-roll until one is found.)

MOOD and CULTURE Advancements: Fortuna will gain Mood and Culture tokens, move their Limit Tokens and trigger Events as per usual rules. (See “Event Cards” below)

IMPORTANT: If any advance adds the 2nd, 3rd or 4th cube to the category, then the corresponding Advancement Card needs to be taken from the deck of remaining cards and added to this round’s used Advancement Cards to later be shuffled into the Advancement Deck. Each cube added to a Government Advancement adds the 10 card to the Advancement deck. (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th)

[Example: The cards dictate that Fortuna is to “Advance in Education/Government.” She spends a Food (since she doesn’t have an Idea) and places a cube in the next available Education Advancement… Philosophy. You moves her Mood Limit Token up one, not resulting in an event, and you give her a Mood Token. Since this is the 4th advancement in the category, you go into the deck of cards and pull out the last remaining “4” in the deck and add it to the used Advancement Deck to be shuffled in during the Status Phase. (The other 3 would have already been added… the first at the beginning of the game and the 2nd and 3rd with Public Education and Free Education.)

The very next action dictates Fortuna to “Advance (d3 d3).” She spends a food and you roll 2d3 and get a “2” on the left die and a “1” on the right. This results in another “Advance in Education/Government.” Education Category is full. So, instead, a Government advancement is started… Democracy. The first cube enters Democracy and you go into the deck and add a “10” to the Advancement Deck.]


Build Army then Move: This action is in two parts: Build Army and Movement.

Build Army: Fortuna spends Ore equal to the number of cities she has on the board. For each Ore spent, an Infantry is made. For each of her cities with Markets, she rolls a d3. For each result of a 1 or 2, change an Infantry into a Calvary or Elephant respectively. Lastly, if any of her cities has a dock, Fortuna will spend 1 wood. If spent, a ship is also built. All these units make up her Built Unit Pool. (If Fortuna is unable to build units due to all of her figures of that type already on the board, then refund any resources spent for those units.)

Once Built Unit Pool is determined, they must be placed onto the board. Placing Units always follows the following rules:

- Ships are placed first then Army Units.

- Ship placement: A ship is placed at the dock with the most access to enemy ships. If no enemy ships are present, a ship is placed at the dock with the access to the most water spaces. (Water spaces on the edge of the map are all counted if Fortuna has the Navigation Advancement.) If an enemy has 2 or more ships blocking her dock (resting in the space of the dock) then the ship is instead placed in the city and is temporarily considered not built. Upon the next “Build Army” action, ships in cities are added to this new Built Unit Pool. If the total ships in the pool is equal or greater than the number of enemy ships blocking the dock (or totals 4), the ships are placed as a group and combat immediately occurs.

- Army Unit placement: One Army Unit is placed in each city until the pool of units has been exhausted. Units are placed, (Calvary first, Infantry second and Elephants last) one at a time, starting with the cities closest to enemy units/cities. (Cities with 4 units are skipped over. This may cause each available city to receive a Unit but not have exhausted the Built Units Pool. In this case, start again with the closest to enemy cities until exhausted.)

- Aggression Check: After all “Build Army” actions, even if no units were built, the city with the most units closest to an enemy makes an Aggression Check. Roll a d6. If the result is equal to or less than one more than the number of units in that city, then this army has become Aggressive… receiving an Angry Token to signify this.

Movement: Settlers move first, Ships move second (smallest & furthest from enemy fleets first), Aggressive Armies move next (smallest & furthest from enemy armies first) and Defensive Army Units move last.

NOTE: It is assumed Fortuna has all the first advancements in all categories, even if there is not cube in it. This includes “Tactics” and thus her units may always be allowed to “Move.”


-- Settler Movement: Each Settler will move according to the following priorities:

I - Found City: If Settler is not adjacent to a player's army and is in a non-barren space in a region not containing another player city.

II - Move to/towards closest non-barren space in a sector with no player city or other own settler.

III - Move to/towards closest unexplored space.

IV - Move to/towards friendly city closest to enemy cities.

TERRAIN: Settlers moving onto a Mountain spaces will move no further for the remainder of the turn.


-- Ship Movement: Each Ship will move according to the following priorities:

I - Move to merge fleets (Smaller into Larger/Further from Enemy into Closer)

II - If fleet is equal or larger in size, engage closest and largest enemy fleet in current water area

III - Move to closest unexplored space

IV - Move to closest water area with enemy ships (Req. Navigation)

V - Move to water space that establishes most "Trade Routes" with player. (Req. Navigation & Trade Routes)


-- Aggressive Army Movement: Each Aggressive Army will move according to the following priorities:

I - If adjacent to enemy of equal or lesser size, attack largest, of those, army. (See “Combat” below)

II – If adjacent to an Aggressive Army, merge armies. (Smaller into Larger/ Further from Enemy into Closer)

III - Move towards/to closest enemy city with equal to or less units than her army.

IV - Move towards/to closest unexplored space.

TERRAIN: Units/Armies moving onto a Mountain spaces will move no further for the remainder of the turn. Units/Armies that move into Forest spaces cannot battle for the remainder of the turn. Once a unit/army has battled, it will move no further for the remainder of the turn.

MOVE THROUGH CITIES: An Aggressive Army will try to avoid moving through its own cities. If it happens, keep track of how many units in the city are Aggressive vs how many are Defensive. (It’s recommended to stack the same number of Angry Tokens as there are Aggressive Units to keep track.) If passing into a city would cause the stacking limit to be more than 4, all figures are kept in the city but only 4 count towards battle in the city. In such battle, Aggressive Army units are used/removed before Defensive Units. If all 4 units are defeated and the city is captured, all other units are also defeated.


-- Defensive Army Unit Movement: Defensive Army Units are those in her cities that are not part of an aggressive army. At the end of every movement action simply rearrange the units among all of her cities to even out the number of units in all cities. Surplus units favor cities closest to enemy units/cities. These units just move directly from city to city, as needed. Calvary favor close to enemy, Elephants favor far from enemy.


Build Settler/Unit then Move: This action is in two parts: Build Settler/Unit and Movement.

Build Settler: Spend 1 Food and place a settler in city closest to unexplored/unsettled sectors. If all sectors are explored and settled, place in city closest to player’s city.

NOTE: If the sum of Fortuna’s cities and settlers already on the board total 5 or more, then instead perform “Build Unit”.”

Build Unit: Fortuna spends 1 Ore and builds an Infantry Unit. This unit is placed in the city closest to enemy units/cities. NO Aggressive Check is made after units built in this manner.

Movement: This works the same as the “Movement” section above. (See Above)


Build Wonder/Increase City Size: Fortuna must have the Engineering Advancement. Fortuna pays 3 Food, 3 Wood, 3 Ore and 3 Culture. If spent, build a random revealed wonder in the city furthest from a player’s units/cities. (The Great Lighthouse placement requirement still applies. If she doesn’t have any cities with Docks, she may not build the Great Lighthouse.) Fortuna gets no bonuses from Wonders except the 5VP at the end, if she maintained control.

If unable to pay or fails to meet requirements, instead, Fortuna pays 1 Wood and 1 Food (or 2 Wood, if she has no food) and Increases City Size with the building corresponding to the advancement category with the most advancements. If spent, her smallest city furthest from your units/cities Increases in Size. (Exception: Fortresses are built in cities closest to player’s units/cities.) (Refer to “Building Effects” below to see how each building works for her.)

NOTE: It is assumed Fortuna has all the first advancements in all categories, even if there is not cube in it. Thus she is able to Increase City Size with any city piece. Fortuna still adheres to City Size limits and no more than one city piece of each type per city.


Collect: [DEFAULT ACTION] This action is taken in place of any Main Action that cannot be fulfilled for whatever reason.

The amount of resources collected is equal to the number of cities / 2 (rounded up.)

The type of resource collected is based on the Suit Card drawn. (See bottom of Action Chart)

If the collection is “Random,” roll Xd3 where X is the number of resources Fortuna is to collect. (# of cities/2) For each 1 rolled, Fortuna collects Food. Each 2 rolled, she gains Wood. All 3s give her Ore.

If after any collect, the collected resource is not maxed at 8… then a Mood Token is spent and 1 additional resource is gained. Mood Tokens spent on a Random Collect result in gaining 1 Gold.

NOTE: Fortune is assumed to have “Storage” and is not hindered by the 2 food limit rule.

If at any time a “Collect” action is taken and no resources are gained because she already has 8 of them, then she instead gains 1 Culture and 1 Mood.

If she is unable to collect the Culture and Mood, then she does nothing for this action.


Collect Gold: Fortuna receives Gold equal to # of cities/2 (round up). 1 more may be gained with Mood Token.


Collect Random x2: This action is the same as the “Collect" action above only Fortuna will receive twice as many resources (or roll twice as many dice.) The Mood Token additional one is also doubled.


Cultural Influence/+1 Culture&Mood: Fortuna attempts to Cultural Influence a city pieces. Fortuna will target own influenced cities before Influencing player city. Determine the "cheapest" target city piece. This would be one with least addition range cost from one of her cities. She will spend Culture to increase range, if needed and able. She will then spend Culture to increase roll result if and only if it would result in success.
(Her Conversion advancement does apply, if applicable. Your possible Government Advancements does prevent her from spending Culture, if applicable.)

If no Cultural Influence can be attempted (or the “only one success” rule has been satisfied), then Fortuna gains one Culture and one Mood.
If she can’t gain either, then she performs the default “Collect” action. (See above)


Increase City Size w (City Piece): Fortuna pays 1 Wood and 1 Food (or 2 Wood) and Increases City Size with the specified building. If spent, smallest city furthest from player’s units/cities Increases in Size. (Exception: Fortresses are built in cities closest to player’s units/cities.) (Refer to “Building Effects” below to see how each building works for her.)


Increase City Size / Collect Gold: Fortuna pays 1 Wood and 1 Food (or 2 Wood) and Increases City Size with the building corresponding to the advancement category with the most advancements. If spent, smallest city furthest from player’s units/cities Increases in Size. (Exception: Fortresses are built in cities closest to player’s units/cities.) (Refer to “Building Effects” below to see how each building works for her.)

NOTE: It is assumed Fortuna has all the first advancements in all categories, even if there is not cube in it. Thus she is able to Increase City Size with any city piece. Fortuna still adheres to City Size limits and no more than one city piece of each type per city.

If unable to Increase City Size, Fortuna will “Collect Gold.” (See “Collect Gold” above)

:Spending Gold:

Anytime an action requires Fortuna to spend resources she doesn’t have, she will look to use Gold to fill in any costs.


:Exploration:

When revealing new sectors, the direction you flip them will be the direction they stay unless adjustments are needed to adhere to rules 1 and 2 of tile placement.

When a new sector is revealed and requires the spawning of Barbarians or Pirates, Fortuna summons them as close to your cities (coastal cities in regards to pirates) as possible.


:Combat:

Fortuna only battles one round unless, after the first round, her army outnumbers the defending army.

ANY battle round, where her Army is equal to or less in size of the opposing army, she will use an Action Card in the battle. Draw the top card from her Action Card pile. If the Action Card cannot be used in the current battle, (it’s for defense and she’s attacking, for example) then return that card to the bottom of the pile and she doesn’t play an Action Card this round. (If the battle is with you, you must choose which Action Card you will use, if any, BEFORE revealing the card she is using.)


:City Capturing:

Fortuna Captures Barbarian City: If the city would be the only player city on the sector, it is captured. The Aggressive Army becomes Defensive. (Discard Angry Token) Gain Gold accordingly. Otherwise, city is razed. She gains Gold accordingly and her Aggressive Army remains Aggressive.

Fortuna Captures Player City: If Fortuna ever captures a player city, the Aggressive Army becomes Defensive. (Discard Angry Token) Gain Gold accordingly. The city becomes Neutral. You gain Settler, if applicable.

Player Captures Fortuna’s City: Fortuna receives a free Infantry Unit in the weakest city closest to the lost city and you gain gold as usual. The city becomes angry.


:Building Effects:

REMEMBER: It is assumed Fortuna has all the first advancements in all categories, even if there is not cube in it. Thus she is able to Increase City Size with any city piece. Fortuna still adheres to City Size limits and no more than one city piece of each type per city.

The following are the effects buildings have on Fortuna’s cities.

Dock: Gain 1 Gold when built. Allows building of Ships

Academy: Gain 1 Idea when Built.

Fortress: Provides Protection as per usual. (+1 Die and 1 Block)

Temple: Gain 1 Culture and 1 Mood when built.

Market: Will gain 1 Gold when “Traded” with. (Place one of your advancement cubes on her Gold Token for the duration of the Trade Route, as a reminder.)

Obelisk: Can’t be converted, as per usual.

Apothecary: Revive defeated units. No cost. Revive closest to enemies first.


:Leader:

Fortuna’s leader stays in her Capital (first city) and will change only if killed and spawned in a new city. She does give two effects to the City and Army she’s with:

Resourceful: She gains a random resource (d3) after Increasing City Size in her city.

Brutal: In the first round of combat, reroll all “1” and “2” results in her army unless they trigger a “block” from Elephants. Must accept the re-roll.


:Advancement Effects:

The following are the effects of some Advancements have on Fortuna:

Engineering and Monument: Reveal a Wonder as per usual. Randomly decide which Wonder she “claims,” with Monument, placing one of her cubes on it to signify that you may no longer build it.

Warships: Gives her fleets 1 block.

Navigation: Allows her ships to travel around the board.

Siegecraft: Fortuna will always pay 1 Wood and/or 1 Ore to cancel your Fortress’s attack or block respectively, if able.

Steel Weapons: Does not require additional Ore. Does provide +1 “Hit.”

Trade Routes: Ships and Settlers that are within 2 spaces of your cities can be assumed to have established a “Trade Route” to trigger your Market’s effect. Fortuna does not gain resources from Trading.

Conversion: Does increase Cultural Influence chance to 4+.

Separation of Power/Totalitarianism/Devotion: These advancements simply prevent you from using Culture Tokens in Cultural Influence attempts. (Assume the criteria is always met, Happy/Army/Temple)


:Event Cards:

When Fortuna gains advancements that cause an Event to be drawn, she draws one as usual. Fortuna is only affected by the ICONS of a card never by the text. However, if applicable, the text still affects you.

[Example 1: Fortuna draws “A Splendid Year.” After Barbarians attack icon is resolved, the text states: You gain 3 Food. Then distribute another 3 Food among the other players as you see fit. Fortuna receives no resource but you would receive 3 food from this card as it affect you.]

[Example 2: You trigger and event and draw “Migration.” The Gold Mine is resolved. The text states: You must both: 1. Select another player who gets a Settler in a city of his choice. 2. Reduce the mood of one of your cities. Since you drew this, the only affect is that you reduce the mood of one of your cities. Fortuna would not receive a Settler.]

How Fortuna reacts to each Event Card Icon is as follows:

Add Barbarians: Fortuna will always place the new settlement as close to one of your cities as possible. The additional unit is added to the settlement closest to your weakest city. The type of unit is determined by a d3. (1 = Calvary, 2 = Elephant, 3 = Infantry)

Barbarians Attack: Resolve as usual. If possible, she will always have the Barbarians attack the stronger city.

Pirate Raid/Spawn: Resolve as usual. Fortuna will always prefer to lose Mood Tokens before resources. If resources must be lost, (avoiding Gold) she uses what is most abundant. When summoning Pirates, she will always place ships as close to your coastal cities as possible.

Gold Mine: She gains 2 Gold

Exhausted!: Fortuna will place the “X” on a space closest to one of your cities.


:Action Cards:

Below are Action Cards that require some explanation for this version of the game:

Spies: Draw from deck an equal amount of Objective Cards and Action Cards that you currently have. These represent “the other player’s hand.”

Tech Exchange: You may pick an advancement Fortuna has researched. She will simply perform a free “Advance (d3 d3)” action.

Negotiations: Fortuna will adhere to this rule. If the system dictates her to attack you, it is simply not performed.


:Status Phase:

Completed Objectives?: You check for any Objectives you’ve completed. Fortuna does not take part in this phase.

Free Advancement: You take your free advancement as usual. Fortuna will then perform a Free “Advance (d3 d3)” action. After this action, shuffle and recreate her Suit and Advancement decks for the next age.

Draw Cards: You receive your Objective and Action Cards and then one Action Card is drawn and placed at the bottom of Fortuna’s Action Card Pile.

Raze a City?: You may raze a city if you desire. Then you check if the number of Fortuna’s cities is less than the number of next age. If so, then she takes a no cost "Build Settler then Move" action. (No Army Unit can be built with this action and ONLY Settlers can “Move.”)

Determine First Player: Done normally. If Fortuna has won, roll a d6. Results of a 1 or 2 means she gives you first move. Otherwise, she will act first next age.

Change Leader: If Fortuna’s Leader has been killed, it will spawn in the strongest city. This is the city with the most units. (A Fortress counts as a unit for this count.)


:End Game Scoring:

End Scoring is exactly the same as the real game with three exceptions:

1) You do not score points for advancements in your Special Advancement Category.

2) Fortuna scores 12 points in Objectives

3) Fortuna scores 1 VP for each scoring category she wins (counted as Event VPs)

by rahdo

RobDaviau wrote:

In both cases to the original post, the answer is 'yes', you can remove the item(s) in question.

Okay, but what about [o]after coda is no longer represented by cubes? Can the faded by removed via grassroots? I assume no, but I also incorrectly assumed no to the cubes...[/o]

by rahdo

cableinggg wrote:

rahdo wrote:

Just want to double check that this applies to *everything* that might remove a cube, including for instance grassroots, which isn't called a 'treatment' in game...

This is how we have been playing:

No known treatment = cannot treat the cube, cannot remove a cube, do not pass GO and do not collect $200...

Turns out you and I were wrong, according to the designer in the thread Sarah linked to. Thanks Sarah! :)

by belial1134

rahdo wrote:

cableinggg wrote:

rahdo wrote:

Just want to double check that this applies to *everything* that might remove a cube, including for instance grassroots, which isn't called a 'treatment' in game...

This is how we have been playing:

No known treatment = cannot treat the cube, cannot remove a cube, do not pass GO and do not collect $200...

Turns out you and I were wrong, according to the designer in the thread Sarah linked to. Thanks Sarah! :)

Yeah, my wife and I ran into the same question and we assumed Remote Treatment wouldn't work. Wish we knew then :)

by alpas

rattkin wrote:

I'm also not sure why the French rulebook is the best one and treated as source while English isn't :) ? Shadi is from Belgium, so Dutch language. Z-Man is US publisher, so English language.

English rulebook clearly states that it is a translation (obviously from French one since there is no others).



Also, one can tell from the nature of introduced errors and some dubious phrases.

I have made a Russian translation of the rulebook, so had to make all things perfectly clear.

by jnk604

We started our first game on October 10th.

Start of the Game

Objectives: Discover cures to the 4 diseases.

Players & Characters

• Yong: Kira (Dispatcher)
• Min: Asian Sensation (Medic)
• Nam: South Virus (Researcher)

Major Events

• [Cured] Min Virus (Black)

Right before the turn we were about to cure Yong Disease (Red) with five red cards in hand, the 2nd epidemic occurs and Yong Disease (Red) can no longer be treated -_-

• [New Objectives] Discover cures to the 3 normal diseases
• [Cured] Nam Virus (Blue)

One of the blue disease cubes causes a chain reaction of outbreaks and we end up with 7 outbreaks (one more and we lose!!)

• [Eradicated] Min Virus (Black)
• [Cured] Princess Disease (Yellow)
• WIN

End of the Game

Result: WIN!
Win Bonus: At the start of the game of February, remove any one disease cube.

Whew! Such a close game! We found out after the game that the next card in the player deck was an Epidemic card. We were just one outbreak away from losing so there was a very good chance we would have lost if we had not cured the last disease on that turn. Our first game of Pandemic Legacy was amazing.

Diseases
• 2 Cured: Princess Disease (Yellow), Nam Virus (Blue)
• 1 Eradicated: Min Virus (Black)
• 1 Incurable: Yong Virus (Red)

Epidemics & Outbreaks
• 3 Epidemics
• 7 Outbreaks (So close!!)

Game End Upgrades
• Positive Mutation: Common Structure on Min Virus (Black) - no longer need to be in research station to Discover Cure for this diseases
• Character Upgrades: Local Connections on Asian Sensation (Medic) - once per turn, treat disease in a city connected to your city

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Original post from my Pandemic Legacy Blog:
http://pandemiclegacy.tumblr.com/ (Spoiler-free front-page)