Aristocracy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components and Setup
Gameplay Overview
Gameplay in Detail
Game End and Scoring

Components and Setup

1 Game Board - Place this in the center of the table, within easy reach of all players.

4 Player Aids - Give each player one, and return any left over to the box - they will not be used this game.

120 Player Markers - Give each player all the Player Markers of one color, and return any that are left over to the box. There is not intended to be a limit to these. If you run out during the game, use a suitable substitute. Please note that while there are several different models for these Player Markers, only the color of the marker matters, and not its shape.

14 Fish Tokens - Place 2 Fish Tokens on each harbour space depicted on the Game Board.

16 Town Connection Tiles - Separate these by color and place 2 face-up on each corresponding colored town space of the Game Board.

16 Region Dominance Tiles - Separate these by color and place 2 face-up next to each corresponding colored region. Place the 2 for the central blue region at the bottom of the Game Board.

8 Multi-Region Bonus Tiles - Place these in a face-up stack on the Compass.

5 Resource Bonus Tiles - Place these in a face-up stack on the Amulet.

111 Land Tokens - Shuffle these all together and place 1 face-down on each empty space of the map shown on the Game Board. Do not look at the face of these Tokens as they are being placed.

Land Tokens depict one of three kinds of thing: Building Tokens (Village, Church, Castle), Royalty Tokens (King, Queen), or Resource Tokens (Corn, Sheep, Wood).

The Game Board map shows Harbour Spaces, Town Spaces, Empty Spaces, the Coin Track, the Axe Handle Track, the Region Dominance spaces, the Multi-Region Bonus Space, the Resource Bonus Space, and the colored Regions (for example, the Purple Region).

Gameplay Overview

On your turn, you flip 3 Land Tokens face-up. Then you'll choose 1 of the face-up types of Land Token and perform a corresponding action with all the Land Tokens of that type. You'll score points based on the placement of your Player Markers and by collecting Land Tokens depicting Resources Corn, Sheep and Wood. Once a certain number of King and Queen Tokens have been removed, the player with the most points will be declared the winner!

Gameplay in Detail

The player who most recently made an unreasonable demand will take the first turn, then play will proceed clockwise around the table.

On your turn, perform the following steps in this order:

1. Select 3 face-down Land Tokens on the map and flip them face-up.

If there are no more face-down Tokens on the map, skip this step.

2. Select 1 face-up Land Token on the map.

It may be a Land Token which you just flipped or that was flipped face-up by any player during any previous turn. Perform an action based on what is depicted on the Land Token you selected:

Resources: Collect all Land Tokens depicting that Resource.

Remove every face-up Corn Token from the Game Board and place them face-up beside your Player Aid.
Remove every face-up Sheep Token from the Game Board and place them face-up beside your Player Aid.
Remove every face-up Wood Token from the Game Board and place them face-up beside your Player Aid.

Buildings: Place a Player Marker on all Land Tokens depicting that Building.

Place 1 of your Player Markers on every face-up Village Token on the Game Board that does not already have a Player Marker on it.
Place 1 of your Player Markers on every face-up Church Token on the Game Board that does not already have a Player Marker on it.
Place 1 of your Player Markers on every face-up Castle Token on the Game Board that does not already have a Player Marker on it.

Royalty: Place all Land Tokens depicting that Royalty on the appropriate track. Place an equal number of Player Markers on empty spaces of your choice.

Remove every face-up King Token from the map on the Game Board and place them on the coin track, with 1 on each space. For each you moved on the coin track this turn, you may place 1 of your Player Markers on any empty map space of the Game Board. A space is considered empty if it does not have a Land Token or Player Marker in it, and if it is not a town or harbour space.
Remove every face-up Queen Token from the map on the Game Board and place them on the axe handle track, with 1 on each space. For each you moved on the axe handle track this turn, you may place 1 of your Player Markers on any empty map space of the Game Board. A space is considered empty if it does not have a Land Token or Player Marker in it, and if it is not a town or harbour space.

3. When you place Player Markers on the Game Board, you might receive some additional Tokens or Tiles.

In all of these cases, you only receive the Token or Tile if there are still some available on the Game Board in the appropriate area.

For each of your Player Markers that you place next to a harbour space this turn, you remove 1 of the Fish Tokens from that harbour space and place it face-up beside your Player Aid.
When you have placed your 3rd or 5th Player Marker into a particular region on the map you take a Region Dominance Tile of the corresponding region color from the Game Board and place it face-down beside your Player Aid. You do not have to place all of the Player Markers needed in a single turn to reach this threshold, they may have accrued over several turns.
When you place a Player Marker that finishes an uninterrupted (contiguous) group of your Player Markers that now reaches from 1 town space to another you may take a Town Connection Tile from both of those town spaces and place them face-down beside your Player Aid. However, you may never take a second Town Connection Tile of the same color.
When you place a Player Marker which causes you to now have at least 1 Player Marker in each of the 8 regions of the map you may take a Multi-Region Bonus Tile from the Game Board and place it face-down beside your Player Aid. If your placement caused you to now have at least 2 Player Markers in each of the 8 regions of the map, you may also take a Multi-Region Bonus Tile. The same is true if you now have 3 Player Markers in each region, and so forth.

4. When you acquire your 9th Resource Token (any combination of corn, sheep, wood or fish resource tokens), you take a Resource Bonus Tile from the Game Board and place it face-down beside your Player Aid.

You may take another Resource Bonus Tile when you acquire your 18th Resource Token, and your 27th Resource Token, and so forth.

5. Check to see if the game is over. Consult the chart below:

Game End Trigger

Player Count	Trigger
2 Player Game	7 King Tokens on the coin track AND 7 Queen Tokens on the axe handle track
3 Player Game	8 King Tokens on the coin track AND 8 Queen Tokens on the axe handle track
4 Player Game	9 King Tokens on the coin track AND 9 Queen Tokens on the axe handle track

When there are enough King Tokens on the Coin Track and Queen Tokens on the Axe Handle Track, the game is over and you should proceed to "Game End and Scoring."

If the game is not over, your turn ends and the next player seated clockwise around the table starts their turn.

Game End and Scoring

Score 3 points per complete set of 1 of each Corn, Sheep, and Wood Tokens beside your Player Aid. You may use each of your Fish Tokens as wilds for this purpose - they may stand in for any of the 3 other types of Resources.

Then flip over all the face-down Tiles beside your Player Aid, and add the point values printed on them to your score.

The player with the highest total score wins! If there is a tie, the tied players count their Resource Tokens that were not part of a complete set, and the player with the most of these leftover Resource Tokens wins. If there is still a tie, the last player to stand up from sitting at the table wins.