Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Expansions
Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Expansions Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Playing with Expansions
- Expansions Setup
- Market
- Player Setup
- Expansions Round Overview
- Tile Scoring
- Tile Bonuses and Penalties
- Expansions Final Scoring
- 5 Players
- Towers
- Moats
- Secret Passages
- Swan Tokens
- Renovations
- Royal Decrees
- New Favors & Bonuses
- Bonus Cards
- Player Reference
- Room, Renovation, and Moat Scoring
- New Completion Rewards
- Swan Token Values
Components
- (45) Small Room Tiles (9 of each size: 100, 150, 200, 250, 300)
- (30) Large Room Tiles (6 of each size: 350, 400, 450, 500, 600)
- (8) 325 Tower Tiles
- (10) Moat Tiles
- (5) Barbican Tiles
- (15) Secret Passage Tiles (5 of each size)
- (60) Renovation Tiles (6 of each size)
- (11) King's Favors
- (13) Bonus Cards
- (5) Room Cards (Towers)
- (58) Royal Decree Cards
- (40) Swan Tokens
- (1) Player Swan
- (5) Player Aids
- (1) Foyer
- (1) Stairs Tile
- (2) Hallway Tiles
Playing with Expansions
This box contains a number of optional expansions for Castles of Mad King Ludwig. You can choose to play with any combination of expansions (except when playing with the 5 Players expansion, which requires the Towers expansion).
The following 3 sections (pages 4-9) outline changes to the game's setup, round sequence, and final scoring when introducing expansions. Each change is marked with an expansion icon corresponding to the expansion it is used in. If you are not using an expansion, you can ignore all changes marked with that expansion's icon.
First Time Setup
The first time you introduce expansions to your game, mix in all the new Bonus cards, King's Favors, and standard-size Room tiles with the components from the base game.
Most of these components do not require expansions, and can be used with the base game. Bonus cards and King's Favors that do require specific expansions can be discarded and replaced during play if you are not playing with the appropriate expansion (see pages 4-9).
Expansions Setup
-
Place the scoreboard at one end of the table.
NOTE: When using any expansion, flip the board to the expansions side (see setup image).
-
Shuffle the Bonus card deck and place it face down on the board.
-
Place the coins in a supply pile near the board where everyone can reach them.
- SWAN TOKENS: Place the Swan tokens in the lake on the scoreboard. Flip them face down and mix them up.
-
Flip the King's Favors face down and mix them up. Reveal 1 Favor per player and place them face up on the board. Return all unused Favors to the box.
- TOWERS: Instead of returning the unused Favors directly to the box, count out 24 of them in a face down pile on the board. Then return the rest.
-
Shuffle the Room cards. Count out 11 cards per player to create the Room deck and place it face down on the board. Return all unused cards to the box.
- TOWERS: Before counting out the Room deck, shuffle the 5 Tower Room cards in with the other Room cards.
- RENOVATIONS: Instead of counting out 11 cards per player, count out an adjusted total number of cards for your player count:
Players 2
Market
-
Determine how many Room tiles are available each round at your player count. Reveal that many Room cards from the top of the deck. For each card you reveal, take the top Room tile of the indicated size and place it face up under the market on the scoreboard (the Master Builder will arrange them later). When finished, place all revealed Room cards face up in the discard pile next to the Room deck.
- 5 PLAYERS: Reveal 8 Room tiles and place a 2nd Room under 15000.
- RENOVATIONS: Draw 1 Renovation tile of each size shown on the Room cards you drew. Place these face up below the Room tiles on the market. Renovations aren't assigned to prices on the track, so their position and order do not matter. There are no Renovation tiles for Towers.
NOTE: The setup image example illustrates a 5 player game.
Players Revealed Rooms Excluded Prices Revealed Renovations 2 5 1000 and 2000 5 3 6 1000 6 4 7 None
Player Setup
-
Give each player a Foyer, a matching player swan, a player aid, and 15000 in coins.
- MOATS: Give each player a Barbican tile. Each player places their Barbican so that the Foyer tile slots into it, choosing the 3-entrance side or the 4-entrance side now. If playing with the 3-entrance side of the Foyer, players may place it in any 90 degree orientation. If no entrance is connected to the outside drawbridge, the Moat for this castle may never be fully completed, so you always have at least one exterior entrance. When playing with Moats, all players must start with a Barbican, even if they do not intend to purchase any Moats.
- SECRET PASSAGES: Give each player a set of 3 Secret Passage tiles (1 of each size).
-
Randomly choose a player to be the Master Builder and give them the Master Builder token.
-
The Master Builder places their swan on "0" on the score track. The player to their left places their swan on "1," followed by the next player to the left on "2," etc, until each player has placed their swan.
-
ROYAL DECREES: Shuffle the Royal Decrees deck and deal 2 more cards than the number of players to the player on the right of the Master Builder. This player secretly chooses 1 Decree to keep, then passes the remaining Decrees to the player on their right (in reverse turn order). This continues until each player has chosen 1 Decree. The Master Builder will receive 3 Decrees to choose from; after they choose 1 to keep, they return all unselected Decrees to the bottom of the deck. All players then simultaneously reveal their Decrees and place them face up in front of themselves.
TIP: Once you are familiar with Royal Decrees, you may remove specific Decrees from the deck before starting the game.
-
Deal each player 3 Bonus cards face down. Each player chooses 2 cards to keep and puts the 3rd on the bottom of the Bonus Card deck. Players should keep their Bonus cards secret but may look at them at any time.
Expansions Round Overview
Each round has the following steps:
Step 1: Draw New Rooms
The Master Builder fills each empty space under the market by revealing Room cards from the deck. (Skip this step in the first round.)
- RENOVATIONS: The Master Builder also draws new Renovation tiles to replace ones that have been bought (page 20).
- SWAN TOKENS: Place a random Swan token face up on each revealed Room or Renovation tile with a Swan icon on it (page 17).
Step 2: Price Rooms
The Master Builder sets the price of each Room tile by rearranging them however they like under the market.
Step 3: Buy Rooms
Starting to the left of the Master Builder and going in clockwise order, each player takes a turn to buy a Room or collect 5000 in coins.
- SWAN TOKENS: At any time on your turn, you may trade up to 5 Swan tokens you've collected for coins (page 17).
- MOATS: Instead of buying a Room, you may buy a Moat tile for 5000 in coins (page 11).
- RENOVATIONS: Instead of buying a Room, you may buy a face up Renovation tile for 5000 in coins (page 18).
- SECRET PASSAGES: When buying a Room or Renovation, you may also place any number of Secret Passages connecting it to already placed Rooms (page 15).
Step 4: Add Coins
Add a 1000 coin to each Room tile left on the market.
Step 5: Pass Master Builder
The Master Builder token passes to the next player to the left and a new round begins.
Tile Scoring
When placing a new Room, Renovation, Moat, Stair, or Hallway tile, take the following steps to score and gain completion rewards:
- New Tile VPs: Gain the VP value in the top left of the tile.
- New Tile Bonus/Penalty: If the tile has a bonus or penalty in the center, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
- Other Tile Bonuses/Penalties: If the tile activates bonuses or penalties on other tiles in your castle, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
- Completion Rewards: If placing the tile completes 1 or more Rooms (by connecting all entrances) or completes your Moat (by placing your 3rd Moat tile; see page 11), gain completion rewards for each Room or Moat completed.
Tile Bonuses and Penalties
- Connection Bonus: Gain VPs for each connected Room of any of the indicated types. Rooms are connected if they share an entrance.
- Adjacency Penalty: Lose VPs for each adjacent Room of any of the indicated types. Rooms are adjacent if any part of one Room touches any part of the other.
- Secret Passage Multiplier (Secrets Expansion): If 2 Rooms are connected by a Secret Passage, double all connection bonuses between them (page 15-16).
- Moat Bonus (Moats Expansion): Gain VPs for each Room of the indicated type anywhere in your castle (page 11).
- Downstairs Bonus: Gain VPs for each Room of the indicated type anywhere in your castle.
Expansions Final Scoring
When playing with multiple expansions, final scoring is resolved in the following order:
- Depleted Stacks
- Sets of Swan Tokens (page 17)
- Royal Decrees (page 23)
- King's Favors
- Bonus Cards
- Tower Favors (page 10)
- Leftover Coins
NOTE: Some Royal Decrees activate during different steps of final scoring. See clarifications for specific Decrees on pages 23-27.
5 Players
This expansion provides extra components to add a 5th player to the game. The back of the base game scoreboard includes room card and room tile counts for 5 players.
When playing with a 5th player, you must also use the Towers expansion (see below). All other expansions are optional with 5 players.
5 Player Market
When the Master Builder sets prices in a 5 player game, they always choose 2 Room tiles to place under the 15000 space, and 1 Room tile to place under each other space.
| Players | Revealed Rooms |
|---|---|
| 5 | 8 |
Towers
NOTE: When playing with 5 players, you must use Towers. They are optional at all other player counts.
Towers are drawn from the Room deck and priced by the Master Builder in the same way as other Room tiles.
Each Tower has a Room type and may have a normal bonus or penalty based on its type. When buying, placing, and scoring a Tower, follow all special rules for that type of Room from the base game.
When you complete a Tower, you gain the completion reward for its Room type, AND you gain a Tower completion reward.
Tower Completion Reward
- Secretly look at 3 King's Favors from the face down pile. Choose 1 and place it face down in front of you to score at the end of the game. Discard the other 2 face down to the Favor discard stack on the board (do not return them to the pile). You may look at your face down Favors at any time.
Tower Final Scoring
Towers score end-game bonuses as follows:
- Towers count as Rooms for all scoring, including King's Favors, Bonus cards, Royal Decrees, and empty stack bonuses.
- After scoring Bonus cards, each player reveals all their face down King's Favors and scores VPs for each of them.
- Only the player that owns a completed Tower scores VPs for the King's Favor they obtained, but the amount of VPs they score is determined normally, based on their rank in the indicated category. A player must still have at least 1 qualifying item to score any VPs from a Favor on a Tower.
Example: Activity Rooms (the Activity Room icon): Red has 4 Activity Rooms, Green has 4, Blue has 1.
| Player | Activity Rooms | VPs Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Red | 4 | Tied for 1st: 6 VPs |
| Green | 4 | 0 VPs |
| Blue | 1 | 0 VPs |
The red player has 1 completed Tower. At the end of the game, they reveal their face down Most Activity Rooms King's Favor. They count each player's Activity Rooms, and discover that they have 4, green has 4, and blue has 1. Because red is tied for 1st, they score 6 VP (splitting the VPs for 1st and 2nd). The other players score no VPs for this Favor.
Moats
Your Barbican
When playing with Moats, your Foyer becomes a Barbican. Your combined Foyer and Barbican tile count as 1 Room for all purposes.
Your Barbican is a 225 Corridor Room. Like a Foyer, it has 3 or 4 entrances that must be connected to complete it, one of which may be the drawbridge across your Moat (see "Drawbridge and Castle Gardens," page 14).
Buying Moats
Whenever you would buy a Room, you may choose to buy a Moat instead (similar to a Hallway or Stairs tile). Moats cost 5000 in coins each.
After buying a Moat, immediately reveal 1 Room card from the deck and place it directly on the discard pile. (Do not add any new rooms to the market when you do this.) If there are tiles on top of the Room deck (placed using a Sleeping Room completion bonus), instead of revealing a card, discard the top tile to the game box.
If you remove the final Room card in the deck after buying a Moat, the game will end at the end of the current round.
Placing Moats
When you buy a Moat, you immediately place it in your castle and score it, just like a Room. Moats follow all rules for placing Rooms, with the additional rules shown in the example.
-
You must connect each new Moat to your Barbican and/or another Moat you have placed.
-
Your Moat may not overlap any Rooms in your castle, and Rooms in your castle may not overlap your Moat.
NOTE: Depending on how you build your castle, it may not be possible to complete your Moat.
-
Your Moat may block entrances on new or already placed Rooms. Blocking a Room entrance with your Moat does not count towards completing that Room. If 1 or more of a Room's entrances are blocked by a Moat, it can't be completed.
Scoring Moats
After placing a Moat, score it the same way you would a Room. Each Moat has a VP value of 3 VPs, plus a bonus of 1 VP per Room in your castle that is not a Corridor Room or Outdoor Room.
TIP: Like Downstairs Rooms, Moats do not need to be connected or adjacent to other Rooms to score bonus VPs for them. Remember to score bonus VPs for your Moats every time you place a new Room (that isn't a Corridor or Outdoor Room).
Activity Room Penalty
Moat tiles do not activate Activity Room penalties when adjacent to them. The protruding section of the Barbican wall (including the Foyer) counts as a Corridor Room and receives the penalty when adjacent to an Activity Room with a Corridor Room penalty, but the wall against the water does not receive the penalty.
In this example, the Game Room received a -2 VP penalty for being adjacent to the Trophy Hall, but no penalty for being adjacent to the Moat or the moat wall of the Barbican tile. The Train Room would receive a -1 VP penalty for being adjacent to the Barbican and -1 VP penalty for being adjacent to the Trophy Hall.
Completing Your Moat
Your Moat is considered complete when you have surrounded your castle with 3 Moat tiles plus your Barbican. This can only be done if you have an entrance leading to the drawbridge from your Foyer.
When you complete your Moat, you gain the following completion reward:
- Secretly look through any 1 stack of Room tiles (except Stairs or Hallways). You may choose 1 Room from that stack and immediately place it in your castle at no cost. Then shuffle the remaining tiles in the stack and return them to their space on the scoreboard. Follow all normal rules for placing and scoring the Room. You may not look through a stack of Renovations.
- Once your Moat is complete, you may not buy any more Moat tiles. (This means you may never purchase more than 3 Moat tiles in a game.)
TIP: There are not enough Moat tiles in the stack for everyone to complete their Moat!
Moat Completion Example
Example: The red player purchases their 3rd Moat tile for 5000 and places it to complete their Moat. They score 3 VPs, plus a bonus 9 VPs for the Rooms in their castle.
As their completion reward, red decides to look through the 600 Room stack and chooses to place the Ballroom. They score 7 VPs, minus 2 VPs for the adjacent Corridor Room. They also score a bonus 1 VP from each of their 3 Moats, for a total of 8 VPs.
NOTE: Red does not earn a completion reward for the Ballroom, because one of its entrances is blocked by the Moat.
Drawbridge and Castle Gardens
The drawbridge across your moat counts as 1 of the entrances to your Barbican.
In order to complete your Barbican and earn its completion reward, you must connect a Room to the other end of your drawbridge (unless you blocked off the drawbridge entrance with a 3-sided Foyer). However, the only Rooms that can be placed on the "outside" of your Moat are Outdoor Rooms. Rooms placed this way are known as your castle gardens.
When placing an Outdoor Room in your castle gardens, you must respect the following rules:
- Each Outdoor Room in your gardens must connect to either your drawbridge or another Outdoor Room in your gardens.
- The fenced edge of each Outdoor Room in your gardens may not touch your Moat (including on the water edge) or any other Room.
- If you complete your Moat, you must ensure you have at least 1 external entrance somewhere in your gardens. (If you do not complete your Moat, you may close off your gardens, as long as you have an external entrance elsewhere in your castle.)
- Outdoor Rooms in your gardens may not be connected to Rooms that are "inside" your Moat, except by your drawbridge.
- If your Foyer has 3 entrances, you may block off the Barbican's outside entrance by orienting the Foyer so that all 3 entrances face the interior of your castle. When doing so, you may not place any rooms in the castle gardens, and the Barbican is only considered complete when all 3 interior entrances are connected to entrances in other rooms.
- The back of each Foyer has 4 entrances instead of 3. Use this side if you would like to have 3 in-castle entrances as well as an outside entrance. This Barbican is only considered completed when all 4 entrances are connected to entrances in other rooms.
NOTE: Outdoor Rooms can always be built inside your castle.
Moats Final Scoring
Moats score end-game bonuses as follows:
- If the Moats stack is empty, each player scores a depleted stack bonus of 2 VPs for each Moat tile in their castle. Your Barbican tile does not score this bonus.
- Moats do not count as Rooms for King's Favors, Bonus cards, or Royal Decrees, unless otherwise specified on the component. Your Barbican still counts as a Room.
- Moats do count towards the total square footage of your castle. Each Moat tile is 1000 sq. ft., and your Barbican tile is 225 sq. ft.
- Moats walls can be used to enclose courtyards for the Courtyard Decree, Favor, and Bonus card.
Secret Passages
Each player has 3 Secret Passages they may place throughout the game. Once you have placed a Secret Passage, you may not move it. If you have no Secret Passages remaining, you may not place any more Secret Passages.
Placing Secret Passages
Whenever you place a Room, you may also place any number of your Secret Passages at no cost. Secret Passages follow all rules for placing Rooms, with the following additions:
-
You must place one end of your Secret Passage on top of an entrance to the Room you just placed, and the other end on top of an entrance to another Room you've already placed.
NOTE: You may not place Passages that are open-ended or blocked by walls.
-
A Secret Passage should overlap other tiles at its entrances, but may not overlap other tiles anywhere else along its length.
-
You may not place a Secret Passage that connects 2 Rooms that are otherwise connected by a normal entrance. However, the Short Passage tile can be used to replace a normal entrance (for the scoring bonus; see next section).
-
You may use a Secret Passage to satisfy the requirement that at least 1 entrance on your new Room connects to an already placed Room.
-
You may not connect a Secret Passage to another Secret Passage.
-
You may not place any part of a Secret Passage adjacent to the fenced edge of an Outdoor Room.
-
You may use a Secret Passage to connect a regular (upstairs) Room to a .
Scoring Secret Passages
Rooms with a Secret Passage between them count as connected and score double (x2) connection bonuses for each other.
However, Rooms with a Secret Passage between them only count as adjacent if they directly touch each other somewhere. This means you can use a Secret Passage to connect an Activity Room to another Room without activating its adjacency penalty (the Secret Passage muffles the sound from the adjacent Room).
Living Room Completion Rewards
When you complete and re-score a Living Room, you again score double connection bonuses for any Rooms connected by Secret Passages.
Secret Passages Final Scoring
Secret Passages score end-game bonuses as follows:
- Secret Passages are not counted as Rooms for King's Favors, Bonus cards, or Royal Decrees.
- Secret Passages do not count towards the square footage of your castle.
- Secret Passages can be used to enclose courtyards.
Secret Passage Examples
Example 1: The green player is placing the Fencing Room next to the Painting Room and is using the small Secret Passage to double the connection on the Painting Room. However, since the Fencing Room is still adjacent to the Painting Room, its penalty still occurs. So green scores 4 VPs for placing the Fencing Room, 6 VPs for the double connection bonus, and -1 VPs for the adjacency penalty for a total of 4 + 6 - 1 = 9 VPs.
Example 2: The orange player places the Library using 2 Secret Passages to connect it to the Fountains and the Tasso Room. The Library itself scores 2 VPs. The Secret Passage to the Fountains doubles the connection bonus on the Library, so orange scores another 6 points. The Secret Passage to the Tasso Room also doubles the connection bonus on the Tasso Room, so orange scores another 4 VPs. In total, orange scores 2 + 6 + 4 = 12 VPs.
Example 3: The blue player connects the Food Prep Room to the Forum, which would normally cause them to lose 2 VPs from the Forum's adjacency penalty. However, blue also places a Short Passage over the connection. Since the 2 Rooms are not touching anywhere else, they are no longer adjacent! This means blue scores double VPs for the Food Prep Room's connection bonus, but does NOT lose points for the Forum's adjacency penalty!
Swan Tokens
Rooms with Swan Icons
All 250-400 Rooms have a Swan icon in the bottom corner. Whenever the Master Builder draws a new Room or Renovation with a Swan icon on it, they must take a random Swan token from the pile and place it face up on the revealed Room tile.
Whenever you buy a Room with a Swan token, you gain the token and place it with your coins. Swan tokens you've collected are public information and must be kept face up.
Trading Swan Tokens for Coins
At any time on your turn, you may trade up to 5 Swan tokens you've collected for coins, using the table below. You may trade any combination of Swan tokens that are the same or different colors. The amount of coins you receive is based only on the total number of Swan tokens you trade.
| # of Tokens Traded | Coins Received |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1000 |
| 2 | 3000 |
| 3 | 6000 |
| 4 | 10000 |
| 5 | 15000 |
All Swan tokens you trade in are returned to the game box (they do not go back in the pile, and do not count for final scoring). You may not exchange more than 5 Swan tokens in a single turn.
Example: On the yellow player's turn, they trade in 1 green and 2 red Swan tokens to gain 6000 in coins.
Swan Tokens Final Scoring
At the start of final scoring, each player scores each set of unique Swan tokens they have. Each set scores VPs based on the number of unique Swan tokens in it. Swan tokens that you traded in during the game are not counted towards your sets.
| Unique Tokens | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPs | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
Example: At the end of the game, the blue player has collected 8 Swan tokens (3 blue, 2 red, 1 green, 1 yellow, and 1 purple). They group them into 3 sets of unique Swan tokens to score: 15 + 3 + 1 = 19.
Renovations
Buying & Placing Renovations
Whenever you would buy a Room, you may choose to buy a Renovation instead. Each Renovation costs 5000 in coins (regardless of size). Payment is made to the Master Builder as normal.
When you buy a Renovation, you must place it on top of a Room with the matching square footage that does not already have a Renovation on it. If you do not have a Room where you can place a Renovation, you may not purchase it.
Each Renovation has 2 Room types, which each independently trigger relevant bonuses and penalties on other Rooms in your castle. You may even score a connection bonus on a connected Room twice, if it awards VPs for both of the Renovation's types.
The edges of the original room never change, so if you renovate an Outdoor room, the top edge is still a fence and no rooms may be adjacent to it.
NOTE: When you place a Renovation, you do not lose (or gain) any VPs for the Room type, bonus, or penalty that was covered up. However, from now on, you will no longer score bonuses or penalties on the covered Room when placing other new Rooms (you will score bonuses on the Renovation tile instead).
Downstairs Renovations
You may renovate a Downstairs Room with a Renovation tile that does not have the Downstairs type, as long as it is the correct size. However, the renovated Room is still downstairs and can only be connected to other downstairs Rooms and Stairs.
Likewise, you may renovate a regular (upstairs) Room with a Renovation tile that does have the Downstairs type. The renovated Room is still upstairs and can only be connected to other upstairs Rooms and Stairs.
If you have an odd number of completed Downstairs Rooms, and you renovate a completed Downstairs Room, you can no longer count that Room towards earning your next Downstairs completion reward.
TIP: To remember if a renovated Room was originally a Downstairs Room, you can look at the color of its walls (Downstairs walls are darker).
Example: Although this Room has been renovated to an upstairs type, it is still downstairs, so it can't be directly connected to new upstairs Rooms.
Scoring Renovations
After placing a Renovation, score it the same way you would a standard Room:
- New Renovation VPs: Gain the VP value in the top left of the Renovation tile.
- New Renovation Bonus/Penalty: If the Renovation you placed has a bonus or penalty in the center, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
- Other Room Bonuses/Penalties: If the new Renovation activates bonuses and/or penalties on other Rooms in your castle, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
Example: The red player buys the Midnight Snackery and places it on the Guest Bedroom. Red scores 1 VP for the Snackery itself, plus 3 bonus VPs for connecting it to a Food Room (the Anteroom). They also score 3 bonus VPs for connecting a new Sleeping Room to the Anteroom. In total, red scores 1 + 3 + 3 = 7 VPs. Note that red does not lose any VPs they previously scored from the Guest Bedroom.
Game End with Renovations
When playing with Renovations, the game only ends when both the Room card deck runs out, and at least two room stacks (including Stairs, Hallways, and/or Moats) have been depleted. If the Room deck runs out before at least two stacks are depleted, shuffle the room cards and continue drawing them as usual. The game will end on the turn that at least 2 room stacks are depleted.
Completing Renovated Rooms
When you complete a Room with a Renovation on top of it, you gain the completion reward for both of the Renovation's types. You do not gain a completion reward for the covered Room.
When you place a Renovation on a Room that you've already completed, you gain both completion rewards for the Renovation immediately after you score it.
Example: The blue player buys the Undercroft and places it on top of the Sitting Room, which is already complete. After scoring VPs for the Undercroft, they immediately gain completion rewards for it. It counts as both an Activity Room and a Downstairs Room, so they gain 5 VPs, and since they already have 1 completed Downstairs Room, they gain another completion reward of their choice.
Drawing New Renovations
When the Master Builder draws new Rooms at the start of the round, they may also need to draw new Renovations to replace those that have been purchased. Do not place coins on Renovations that are left at the end of the round.
Each time the Master Builder draws a new Room card, they first reveal a matching Room tile, then check if there are fewer Renovations than the number of Room tiles that should be in the market. If there aren't enough Renovations available, the Master Builder reveals the top Renovation matching the card they just drew and places it with the other Renovations.
If there are no Renovations left in the matching stack, the Master Builder does not draw a new Renovation and moves on to the next Room card. If they draw a Room tile that was placed on the Room deck (by a Sleeping Room completion reward), they treat this the same as a Room card and draw a Renovation tile of the matching size.
There should never be more Renovations than Room tiles available, but there may be fewer Renovations than Room tiles (for example, because players purchased more Renovations than Rooms in the previous round). If the Master Builder does not draw enough Room cards to fully refill the Renovations, do not draw any additional Room cards. Instead, play the round with fewer than the allowed number of Renovations, then attempt to refill them again in the following round.
Drawing New Renovations Example: Yellow is the Master Builder in a 5 player game. In the previous round, green bought a Room from the market, blue bought a Stairs tile, red passed, and yellow and orange each bought a Renovation. This leaves 7 Rooms on the market and 6 Renovations in the pool.
In a 5 player game, there should be 8 Rooms on the market, so yellow draws 1 new Room card. It shows a 350 Room, so reveal the top 350 Room and place it in the empty space under the market. Since there are fewer than 8 Renovations, they also reveal the top 350 Renovation. Since the market is full, yellow does not need to draw any more Room cards, so there will only be 7 Renovations available this round.
Sleeping Rooms and Moats
When you earn a completion reward for a Sleeping Room or Moat, you may not look through or take Renovation tiles (you may take standard Rooms only).
Renovations Final Scoring
Renovations score end-game bonuses as follows:
- Renovations do not score depleted stack bonuses at the end of the game.
- When counting total Rooms, complete/incomplete Rooms, or Rooms of a certain size, count each renovated Room as 1 Room. When counting Rooms of specific types, count each renovated Room towards both of its types.
- When counting total square footage, count each renovated Room's square footage once. When counting square footage of a certain type of Room, count each renovated Room's square footage towards both of its types.
Renovations with Other Expansions
- TOWERS: When drawing new Renovations, if you draw a Tower Room card or there is a Tower on top of the Room deck, do not draw a new Renovation, and move on to the next Room card. Towers cannot be renovated.
- SWAN TOKENS: Whenever a Renovation tile with a Swan icon on it is revealed, place a random Swan token face up on it. With Renovations, it is possible to run out of Swan tokens during the game. If this happens, any further Rooms or Renovations with Swan icons that are revealed do not receive tokens.
- MOATS: When playing with Moats, gain 1 VP per moat for each type of Room shown on a Renovation (except Corridors and Outdoor Rooms). Renovations of any kind may be placed on Outdoor Rooms that are part of the Castle Gardens.
- SECRET PASSAGES: When you buy a Renovation, you may place any number of Secret Passages connecting the Room you renovate to other Rooms in your castle (as if you had placed a new Room). The Secret Passage score multiplier for connection bonuses applies to all Room types on renovated Rooms.
Example: The orange player places the Observatory next to their renovated Great Room and connects them with a Secret Passage. They score 3 VPs for the Observatory. Since the Great Room is both a Living Room AND an Activity Room, and the Observatory has a connection bonus of 2 VPs for both of those Room types, orange scores the Observatory's bonus twice. The Secret Passage doubles the bonus each time it is scored, so orange scores a total of 3 + 4 + 4 = 11 VPs. Since the Great Room and the Observatory aren't adjacent (and the Secret Passage muffles the sound between them), orange does not lose any points for the Great Room's adjacency penalty.
Royal Decrees
Each player drafts a Royal Decree that provides them with a unique bonus. Some Decrees take effect immediately when they are revealed at the start of the game; some may be used at specific times during the game; and some take effect during final scoring at the end of the game. Each Decree is detailed below.
Royal Decrees that deal with specific expansions are marked with an expansion icon (Moats, Swan Tokens, or Renovations). If any player draws a Decree specific to an expansion you are not currently using, they may immediately reveal it, discard it, and draw a new one to replace it.
TIP: Keep your Royal Decree face up during the game, and place it somewhere you'll easily see it during the game. This way you won't forget about your unique bonus and possibly miss out on taking advantage of it!
Double Decree Variant
Once you've become familiar with Royal Decrees, you can play with the Double Decree Variant.
During Setup, add Royal Decrees equal to the number of players to the already prepared amount (so you will have 2 decrees per player with 2 left over). Each player takes 1 decree until it gets to the Master Builder, who takes 2. Then the cards are passed to the left with each player taking 1 more decree. This way all players will have 2 decrees that are active during the game.
Start of Game
- When you reveal this Decree, gain 10000 extra starting coins.
- When you reveal this Decree, secretly look at the top 3 Decrees on the deck and choose 1 to keep. Discard this Decree and the other 2 you looked at to the bottom of the deck. (Card prompt: "After all players have revealed their Royal Decrees, Take 3, Keep 1.")
- When you reveal this Decree, take 2 unused King's Favors from the box, secretly look at them, and place them face down on this card. At the start of final scoring, only you score VPs based on your rank on both Favors.
- When you reveal this Decree, take 1 Hallway and 1 Stairs and place them in your castle. If you complete 1 or more Corridor Rooms during this placement, you may gain the completion reward (once).
- When you reveal this Decree, secretly look at the top Room on any Room tile stack and place it face down on this card. At the start of final scoring, reveal this Room and score 2 VPs for each Room of the matching size AND 2 VPs for each Room of the matching type in your castle. Rooms that are the same size AND type score 4 VPs. You must choose a standard Room tile, not a Renovation, Moat, Stairs, or Hallway tile. The room on your card is not counted for this or any other Decree, your Bonus cards, Favors, or depleted stacks at the end of the game.
During the Game
-
Whenever any player discards Bonus cards (including at setup), you may look at the discarded cards and may exchange any 1 of your Bonus cards for 1 that was discarded. Do not reveal to other players which card you chose to keep. If you choose to exchange, the card you exchange is discarded to the bottom of the deck. You may use this even when you discard Bonus cards.
-
You may keep your coins hidden under this card throughout the game. You may look at your coins at any time and still spend them normally. You may alternatively hide your coins under your hand or somewhere else that isn't visible to other players.
-
Once per game, at any time, you may flip this Decree face down to look through the Room card discard pile, choose up to 3 cards, and place them on top of the Room deck in the order of your choice.
-
When you set prices as Master Builder, you may leave 1 space on the market empty, and may instead place 1 extra Room under a price of your choice. In a 5 player game, you may place a 3rd Room under the 15000 space, or leave only 1 Room under it and have no empty spaces.
-
When you set prices as Master Builder, you may move any number of coins on any number of Rooms to different Rooms of your choice. You may not increase the coins on any single Room above 5000. If a Room has 5000 or more already, you may reduce the number of coins on it but you may not add coins to it.
During the Game Continued
- When you earn a Corridor Room completion reward, you may take 1 Stairs and 1 Hallway tile (instead of choosing). You may not take 2 of a kind, even if 1 of them has been depleted.
- When you earn a Downstairs Room completion reward, gain 2 other completion rewards of your choice (instead of 1). They must be different rewards. You still only gain a completion reward for every 2nd Downstairs Room you complete.
- When you earn an Outdoor Room completion reward, gain 15000 in coins (instead of 10000).
- When you earn a Sleeping Room completion reward, you may take up to 3 Rooms from the Room tile stack you choose (instead of up to 2).
- When you complete any Room or Renovation, gain 1000 in coins (in addition to normal completion rewards). This does not include completing your Moat. When you complete a Tower or Renovation, you gain this bonus once (not once for each completion reward you get).
- When you earn a Moat completion reward, you may take the Moat completion reward action twice.
- At the end of your turn, if you have an odd number of VPs, gain 1 VP. If you take extra turns, check your VPs at the end of each turn you take.
- At the end of your turn, you may place exactly in coins on this card. At the start of final scoring, score 1 VP for every 1000 on this card. Coins on this card also count towards scoring Favors, Bonus cards, other Decrees, and end of game scoring. If you forget to place 1000 on your turn, you may not do so later.
NOTE: Royal Decrees that score "during final scoring" are scored during the Royal Decrees step (see page 31).
Final Scoring
- During final scoring, score 1 VP for each different size Room in your castle (including Hallways, Stairs, and your Foyer/Barbican). Do not count Moats.
- During final scoring, score 2 VPs for each different type of Room in your castle (up to 16 VPs). Do not count Moats.
- During final scoring, score 1 VP for each room on the longest path of Rooms you can walk through without entering the same Room twice.
- During final scoring, score 2 VPs for each courtyard in your castle. A courtyard is an empty area of any size that is completely enclosed by tiles, with at least 1 entrance. Moats and Secret Passages can be used to enclose courtyards.
- During final scoring, score 12 VPs if you do not have any Stairs or Hallways in your castle.
- When scoring leftover coins, score an extra 2 VPs for every 5000 in coins you have (in addition to scoring 1 VP for every 10000 you have).
- When scoring sets of Swan tokens, score each set using the VP values on this card (instead of those in the Swans expansion). This does not affect the amount of coins you get when trading in Swan tokens.
- Before scoring depleted stacks, remove from of Room tile stacks of your choice (not including Moats).
Example: Green has 3 contiguous Food Rooms and 4 contiguous Living Rooms. The Food Rooms score 1 set of 2 contiguous same-type rooms for 3 VPs, and the Living Rooms score 2 sets of 2 contiguous same-type rooms for 6 VPs.
New Favors & Bonuses
TIP: The Favors and Bonus Cards that are new to the Expansions set can be easily identified by the stone at the bottom (Favors) and bottom right (Bonus cards).
King's Favors and Bonus cards that deal with specific expansions are marked with an expansion icon (Towers, Moats, Swan Tokens, or Renovations). If any player draws a Favor or Bonus specific to an expansion you are not currently using, they may immediately reveal it, discard it, and draw a new one to replace it.
King's Favors
- Towers: Each player counts the number of Towers in their castle. Include both complete and incomplete Towers.
- Moats: Each player counts the number of Moat tiles around their castle. Do not count your Barbican tile.
- Swan Tokens: Each player counts the total number of Swan tokens they have (of any color). Swan tokens that were traded in during the game do not count.
- Renovations: Each player counts the number of Renovation tiles in their castle.
- Total Rooms: Each player counts all Rooms in their castle.
- Longest Path of Rooms: Each player counts the maximum number of Rooms they can walk through without entering the same Room twice.
- Rooms Without Swan Icons: Each player counts the number of Rooms without Swan icons in the bottom right corner in their castle. This includes Stairs, Hallways, and Moats. Swan icons appear on all 250-400 Rooms. Rooms of all other sizes are counted. This Favor can be used even if you are not using Swan tokens.
- Fewest VPs: Each player counts their current VPs, and players are ranked from fewest to most. Make sure to score this Favor at the correct time during final scoring. Public Favors should be scored from left to right on the track. Tower Favors should be scored in clockwise order, starting with the Master Builder.
- Unique Room Sizes: Each player counts the number of unique Room sizes that appear in their castle. Do not count Hallways, Stairs, or Foyers/Barbicans.
- Unique Types: Each player counts the number of unique Room types that appear in their castle and adds +1 if they have at least 1 Moat tile. Barbican tiles do not count as Moat tiles.
Figure caption: When aligned correctly, the Flute Room does not contact either purple Living Room, so it does not create a courtyard.
Bonus Cards
- Towers: Score 2 VPs for each Tower (325) in your castle.
- Moats: Score 3 VPs for each Moat tile around your castle (not your Barbican).
- Swan Tokens: Score 1 VP for each Swan token you have.
- Renovations: Score 2 VPs for each Renovation you have.
- 10 out of 11 Room Sizes: Score 8 VPs if you have 10 of the 11 different Room sizes in your castle. Having more than 1 of each size does not score extra VPs. This replaces the Rooms of Different Size Bonus from the base game.
- Courtyards: Score 1 VP for each courtyard in your castle. A courtyard is an empty area of any size that is completely enclosed by Room tiles with at least 1 entrance.
- 1st Place Favors: Score 4 VPs for each public Favor you rank 1st in (without tying).
- Master Builder: Score 7 VPs if you were the Master Builder in the last round. This can be achieved by speeding up or slowing down the game through clever use of Food Rooms, Sleeping Rooms, and holding off on Room purchases.
- Depleted Stack: Score 1 VP for each Room or Moat tile in your castle that belongs to a depleted stack. This is in addition to the 2 VPs you receive from normal empty stack bonuses.
- Swan Icon: Score 1 VP for each Room in your castle with a Swan icon (all 250-400 Rooms). This Bonus card can be used even if you are not using Swan tokens.
- Count the total square footage of your castle and score 1 VP for every 500 counted. This includes Moat tiles.
Player Reference
Tile Bonuses and Penalties
- Connection Bonus: Gain VPs for each connected Room of any of the indicated types. Rooms are connected if they share an entrance.
- Adjacency Penalty: Lose VPs for each adjacent Room of any of the indicated types. Rooms are adjacent if any part of one Room touches any part of the other.
- Secret Passage Multiplier (Secrets Expansion): If 2 Rooms are connected by a Secret Passage, double all connection bonuses between them.
- Moat Bonus (Moats Expansion): Gain VPs for each Room of the indicated type anywhere in your castle (page 11).
- Downstairs Bonus: Gain VPs for each Room of the indicated type anywhere in your castle.
Room, Renovation, and Moat Scoring
- New Tile VPs: Gain the VP value in the top left of the tile.
- New Tile Bonus/Penalty: If the tile has a bonus or penalty in the center, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
- Other Tile Bonuses/Penalties: If the tile activates bonuses or penalties on other tiles in your castle, gain or lose VPs as indicated.
- Completion Rewards: If placing the tile completes 1 or more Rooms (by connecting all entrances) or completes your Moat (by placing your 3rd Moat tile), gain completion rewards for each Room or Moat completed.
New Completion Rewards
Towers Completion Reward
- In addition to the reward for this Tower's Room type, secretly look at 3 King's Favors from the face down pile, choose 1, and place it face down in front of you to score at the end of the game.
Moat Completion Reward
- Secretly look through any 1 stack of Room tiles. You may choose 1 Room from that stack and immediately place it in your castle at no cost. Shuffle the remaining tiles in the stack.
Renovations Completion Reward
- When you complete a renovated Room or renovate an already completed Room, gain completion rewards for both of this Renovation's Room types.
Swan Token Values
| Swan Tokens | Trade-in Coin Value (set of any tokens) | End-game VP Value (set of unique tokens) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1000 | 1 |
| 2 | 3000 | 3 |
| 3 | 6000 | 6 |
| 4 | 10000 | 10 |
| 5 | 15000 | 15 |