Conquest of Speros Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Notes
  • Location Cards
  • Artifact Cards
  • Objective Cards
  • General Cards
  • Player Aid Layout Key
• Setup
• Object of the Game
• Turn Structure
  • 1. Discard Step
  • 2. Ability Step
  • 3. Action Step
• Additional Notes
• Scoring
• Ancient Artifacts
• Mastery Objectives (Optional)
• Glossary

Components

• 80 Location cards: 20 of each terrain type: Forest (green), Mountain (red), Ocean (blue), Swamp (black)
• 17 Bonus Objective cards
• 18 Ancient Artifact cards
• 12 Mastery Objectives cards
• 4 Player Aid cards
• 4 General cards: 1 of each color: green, red, blue, and black
• 40 Minion Unit pieces: 10 small meeples of each color: green, red, blue, and black
• 4 General Unit pieces: 1 large meeple of each color: green, red, blue, and black

Card Notes

Location Cards

Each Location has one of four types: Forest, Mountain, Ocean and Swamp. Each type corresponds to one of the four colors for each race.

Bonus and Mastery Objective cards as well as some Generals will check for Locations of a specific type. The ability for Obliterate checks the color of the Location, for example.

Encampments: Place your Unit on one of these spaces. The number of Encampments can vary from one Location card to the next.

Discard Ability: Most (but not all) Locations also have a Discard Ability that can be found in the lower portion of the card.

Resource: Each Location also features one of three Resources: Crystal, Iron and Gold. Some Locations can have multiple Resources assigned to them.

Resource Victory Point Value: This value will tell you how many Victory Points you'll receive at the end of the game for capturing this card.

Artifact Cards

Excavate Ability: Each card has an ability that triggers when you assign a unit to it.

Capture Ability: When a player is able to achieve majority on an artifact, the friendly units on the card become locked on and the Capture ability becomes active (see below for timing restrictions for different Capture Abilities).

Encampment: Place your Unit on one of these spaces in order to trigger the Excavate ability. Every Artifact card features 5 Encampments.

Artifact cards also feature resources (see above).

Victory Points: Victory Point values on Artifact vary from card to card (and in rare cases can even be negative).

Capture Symbols:

• One-Time Use: This ability is triggered when you capture the Artifact and only happens once.
• Ongoing: This is a continuous effect that persists once the card has been captured.
• Reusable: Abilities with this symbol are not continuous, but can be used repeatedly once captured.

Objective Cards

There are two types of Objective Cards: Bonus and Mastery. Both work to earn you extra Victory Points at the end of the game, but differ slightly from one another.

3 Bonus Objective cards are handed out face-down to each player at the start of every game. Once the scoring phase at the end of the game begins, you will reveal your Bonus cards and choose one to earn extra points.

Mastery Objectives, on the other hand, are made public at the start of the game. The player who best meets the condition on a Mastery card will be awarded the points listed on it (in the case of a tie, the points will be divided evenly amongst the tied players, rounded down).

General Cards

Players choose a General at the start of the game. This will determine what color and race you will play as throughout the game.

Each General has 2 abilities on the front of the card. Players can choose to play one of those abilities during the course of the game. Once the General's ability has been used, the card is flipped to show that it has been used.

Player Aid Layout Key

• Green: Battlefield
• Red: Skirmish Area
• Blue: Deck/Discard Pile
• Purple: Base camp
• Yellow: Captured Area

Setup

1. Each player chooses a color then takes the eleven wooden unit pieces, the Base Camp card and the General card of their color. Place the units on the Base Camp Card. These Units begin the game undeployed.
2. Shuffle the seventeen Bonus Objective cards, and deal three to each player. Players may review their own Bonus Objectives at any time, but they are not revealed to other players. When scoring at the end of the game, each player chooses one of his or her Bonus Objectives to earn additional Victory Points.
3. Shuffle the Location cards to form a shared deck, and deal eight cards to each player to form those players' hands. Each player simultaneously puts one Location from his or her hand into the Skirmish Area: the central play area of unclaimed Locations.
4. Shuffle the Ancient Artifact deck and place a number of cards equal to the number of players to the Skirmish area. Place the left over cards in the box as they will not be used.
5. If playing with the optional Mastery Objectives, deal one fewer card than the number of players to the center of the table. The rest will not be used this game.
6. Randomly determine a starting player to take the first turn.

Object of the Game

The objective is to score the most Victory Points (VPs) by capturing Locations and strategically placing Units while moving and destroying opponents' Units.

Turn Structure

Starting with the first player and rotating clockwise, a player must complete the following 3 steps, in order, on their turn.

1. Discard Step

The player chooses one of his or her cards in hand and discards it to a shared discard pile next to the shared deck of Location cards.

2. Ability Step

If the discarded card has a written ability, the player may perform the instructions of that ability. If an ability instructs a player to perform an action which is currently impossible, he or she ignores the impossible aspect of the ability. Important: If a card ability ever contradicts the rules, the card takes precedence.

3. Action Step

Take one of the following four actions: Explore, Attack, Lead, or Plan. Several of these actions involve deploying Units. To deploy a Unit, a player moves it from his or her Base Camp into an unoccupied encampment (which appears as a circle).

A. Explore: Put a Location card from your hand into the Skirmish Area. If the Location's color does not match your Units' color, deploy one of your Minions to that Location. (If the Location's color does match your Units' color, do not deploy a Minion with this action.)

B. Attack: Deploy one of your Minions to any Location in the Skirmish Area.

C. Lead: Deploy your General to any Location in the Skirmish Area. If that Location has a remaining unoccupied encampment, you may also deploy one of your Minions to that Location.

D. Plan: Draw three cards (from the shared Location deck).

Additional Notes

If a player starts his or her turn with no cards in hand, that player draws two cards and skips the remainder of his or her turn.

If a player would end his or her turn with more than ten cards in hand, that player must discard cards in excess of ten as the turn ends.

When a player captures a Location, he or she moves that card from the Skirmish Area into his or her Captured Area. No player's Units are removed from the Location when it's captured. Players cannot perform the Attack or Lead actions on Locations in a player's Captured Area, Units in that zone may still be affected by card abilities. Note: Regardless of the Units moved onto or off its encampments, a captured Location cannot become uncaptured.

There are two ways for a player to capture a Location:

1. Achieve Majority: When a Location has no unoccupied spaces remaining, the player with the most Units deployed to that Location has achieved majority.

   Rule of Ties: In the event that all of a Location's encampments are occupied and there is a tie for majority, the tying player to have most recently placed a Unit to that Location captures the card.

2. Demonstrate Majority: A player demonstrates majority when he or she would achieve majority even if all of the Location's remaining unoccupied spaces were occupied by another player's Units.

   Example 1: Red places his or her General and a Minion on a three-space Location. Red may capture this card because even if another player deployed a Unit to the unoccupied space, Red would still have majority.

   Example 2: Red places a Unit on a four-space Location. On the next turn, Green places his or her General and a Minion to the same card. Green may not capture this card. Though Green currently holds majority, Red could play a Unit to the last space and capture that card with the Rule of Ties.

• If a player starts his or her turn with no Units in his or her Base Camp, the game immediately ends.
• When a player draws the last card from the shared Location deck, that player finishes his or her turn and then each other player takes one final turn.

Scoring

Each player adds up his or her total Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points wins the game! In the event of a tie, the player with the most captured lands of their own color wins. If there is still a tie then the game is a draw.

Victory Points are awarded as follows:

• Captured card is worth whatever value is written on the card;
• Resource sets*: 3 VP each;
• Deployed Minions on familiar terrain (a Location matching its color): 2 VP each;
• Deployed Minions on unfamiliar terrain: 1 VP each;
• Deployed Generals on familiar terrain: 3 VP;
• Deployed Generals on unfamiliar terrain: 2 VP;
• A player's selected Bonus Objectives can offer additional VP to turn the tides.

Units still on the Base Camp card at end of game are worth 0 VP, but a deployed Unit earns VP whether it's on an uncaptured Location or a captured Location, regardless of who captured it.

* A resource set is a collection of captured cards, each of which displaying a different one (or more) of the game's three resources: Crystal, Gold, and Iron. A player can collect any number of sets, but no card can count toward more than one set.

Ancient Artifacts

Treat Ancient Artifacts as Locations in every way, with the following exceptions:

• When a player captures an Ancient Artifact, all other players return their Units deployed to that card to their Base Camps, then that player places the Artifact into their Captured Area.
• If an ability specifically targets a Location it may not target an Artifact.
• Units on a captured Ancient Artifact are locked. They cannot be moved, destroyed, or obliterated. In addition, new units may not be added. Note: Some card abilities will allow for this rule to be "broken".
• Ancient Artifacts' abilities do not function the same way as normal Location abilities. Ancient Artifacts have Excavate and Capture abilities. When a player places their unit on an Ancient Artifact (for any reason), that player may benefit from the Excavate ability by following its instructions. They may only take this action once per turn even if they place multiple units on the Artifact. When a player captures an Ancient Artifact, that player may benefit from the capture ability by following its instructions. Some capture abilities are instantaneous while others are ongoing and last for the rest of the game.

Mastery Objectives (Optional)

Mastery Objectives are simply common objectives shared by all players. If the objective is met, the player who meets it gets the amount of victory points listed on the card. In the event of a tie, all tied players share the points (rounded down).

Glossary

• Ability: The text instructions on a card. See General Cards, Ancient Artifacts and Ability Step section.
• Action: On each of his or her turns, a player must perform one action: Explore, Attack, Lead, or Plan. See Action Step section.
• Ancient Artifact: Cards, like Locations, that players can capture, but with special Attack and Capture abilities. See Special Rules section.
• Base Camp: A player's gameplay area consisting of his or her undeployed Units.
• Bonus Objective: Cards dealt to each player and kept hidden to other players until scoring. Bonus Objective offer bonus Victory Points at the end of the game. See Setup and Scoring section.
• Battlefield: Consists of the Skirmish and Captured areas. Does not include Deck or Discard Pile.
• Captured Area: A player's gameplay area consisting of his or her captured cards and the Units remaining on them.
• Capture: Move a Location or Artifact from the Skirmish Area to a Captured Area. See Capturing Locations and Special Rules (Ancient Artifacts) sections.
• Deploy: Move a Unit from a Base Camp into an unoccupied encampment on a Location (or Artifact) in the Skirmish Area. See Action Step section.
• Excavate: Name of ability for placing a unit on an Ancient Artifact.
• Exile: To exile a Minion, remove it from a card, and return it to its player's Base Camp.