Darien Apocalypse Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• General set up
  • Player set up
• 1. Release the Horsemen
  • Effects of the Horsemen, Shadows and Calamities
• 2. Player actions
  • General
  • Action: Embark
  • Action: Sail Ships
  • Action: Move Scots
  • Action: Build or Enhance
    • How to build
    • How to enhance
  • Tracking scores
  • Action: Trade
  • Action: Pray
  • Action: Company Business
  • Using buildings
• 3. Ending the turn
• Ending the game
• Scoring
• The solo game
• The short game
• Making the challenge greater
• The co-operative game
• Buildings Grid
• Guardian buildings
• Clarifications

General set up

Shuffle the Terrain tiles face-down, and place one tile face-down into each hex on the map.

Place each ship in the appropriate Scotland space of each world. Each ship should show the 8-capacity side.

Shuffle the Apocalypse cards, and place the deck face-down on the space in the centre of the map.

Place the Enhancement Array beside the map. Place each Enhancement disc in its space on the Array.

Place the Horsemen and Shadows in the centre space of the map and place the Turn marker on space '1' of the Turn track.

Place the silver and shares beside the map to form a bank.

During play, if any of these items needs to be 'removed', 'spent', 'used' or similar, it is placed back in the starting position above. E.g. when a Shadow is 'removed', it is placed back in the centre space of the map.

Player set up

Place the Horsemen Score marker on the '0' space of the Apocalypse track. Shuffle the Calamity tokens face-down and place one on each marked space of the Apocalypse track. The two unused tokens are returned to the box (unseen).

Randomly draw one leader token each. Take the player equipment of that colour.

Choose the 1st player randomly.

Each player places their Leader token beside the Action board. This token shows a quantity of silver, which is placed into Company Storage (on the Action board). The special ability will be used during the course of the game.

Company Storage is used to store the following: Scots that have been enlisted (during the Company Business action); goods that have been transported back from the Caribbean but have not yet been sold; all silver and shares acquired by the Company.

Each player takes their Building Array. Place the nineteen Company buildings onto it.

Buildings begin as 'basic buildings', and should be placed showing the non-underlined script.

When a building is upgraded, it becomes 'enhanced', and is flipped so that the underlined script is shown.

Some buildings are printed with a white script. These buildings are considered 'open' and can be used by all players, not just the owner.

Place the Day of Prayer token beside the Action board, and the Score marker on the '0' space of the Apocalypse track.

Each player now takes the Scots and shares shown in the table below. Place them in Company Storage.

	1st Player	2nd Player	3rd Player	4th Player
Scots	6	7	8	9
Shares	1	2	3	4

Note: The 2nd player will be to the left of the 1st player, and so on.

Each player takes their Action board. Place the eight Action tokens, twelve Scots and twelve goods cubes beside the board (in what is known as the 'supply').

During play, if any of these items needs to be 'removed', 'spent', 'used' or similar, it is placed back in the supply. E.g. when a Scot is 'removed', it is placed back beside the Action board.

Although players may carry out actions in all worlds, they are 'Governor' of the world closest to themselves.

1. Release the Horsemen

The 1st player turns over the top Apocalypse card and places it face-up beside the Action board.

The 1st player will go first throughout the current turn, with play passing to the left (clockwise). In the next turn, the player to the left of the 1st player will become the new '1st player', and so on.

1. Take the coloured Horseman shown at the top of the card and place it on the compass of that world.

2. Place the matching Shadow of that Horseman on the appropriate space of that world. If there is already a Shadow on that space, ignore this step.

3. If the Horseman is placed in a world containing a matching Calamity token, then a Calamity now takes place.

   Calamity	Calamity effect on that world
   Pestilence	If the ship is in the Caribbean, place it in Scotland. All Scots and goods on board are removed.
   Death	In turn order each player removes one Company Scot.
   War	In turn order each player reduces one Company building. They may either remove a basic building or change an enhanced building back into a basic building (by removing the enhancement disc and flipping the building to show the non-underlined script).
   Famine	In turn order each player flips one face-up Terrain tile face down. A player may not flip a tile occupied by a Scot or building.

   Note: It is possible that a Calamity does not affect every player.

4. In the same way, resolve all other Horsemen listed on the Apocalypse card.

If the world of the 1st player is shown on the Apocalypse card, then the 1st player may use the Day of Prayer token to turn further cards until that world is not shown. The Day of Prayer token is then turned face-down. During Scoring at the end of the game, an unused Day of Prayer token scores 5 points.

Effects of the Horsemen, Shadows and Calamities

1. A world containing a Horseman is 'in Chaos'. No actions may be taken there, nor can any of its buildings be used.

   Exception: The Governor's House can be used to protect against a Calamity, even if that world is in Chaos (as shown in the Buildings Grid).

   All other worlds are 'active'. Actions may be made there and buildings used.

2. Shadows have no effect if a world is in Chaos. However, if the world is active, then each Shadow will prevent one type of action from being taken there:

   Shadow	Action prevented in that world
   Pestilence	Sail Ships
   Death	Move Scots
   War	Build or Enhance
   Famine	Trade

Important! There may only ever be TWO Action tokens in any one Action box.

4. The turn ends when the 1st player has no more Action tokens in the Available actions box.

A player may carry out the chosen action in every one of the active worlds. E.g. A player chooses to Trade. North world is currently in Chaos, so he may Trade in East, West and South worlds.

A player may choose the order in which each active world is resolved. However, an action must be completed in one world before it can be begun in another.

Important! At any time, a player may exchange one or more of their available Action tokens, shares, Scots or goods for an equal number of silver. Scots and goods may not be exchanged if they are on board a ship.

Some actions refer to a 'pathway'. A pathway can be traced through any face-up Terrain tile, including those occupied by other players' Scots or buildings.

2. Player actions

General

The two numbers on an Apocalypse card show how many Action tokens can be placed in the Available actions box. The 1st player places the higher number of tokens, whilst the other players each place the lower number.

Action sequence:

1. The 1st player moves an Action token from the Available actions box to an Action box.

2. The 1st player carries out that action.

3. In play order, each of the other players chooses whether to carry out the same action (as above) or to 'pass'.

Remember, actions may only be made in active worlds.

Action: Embark

The player may move Scots from Company Storage onto any ships that are in Scotland.

A player may embark two Scots per action onto each 8-capacity ship, and three Scots per action onto each 12-capacity ship.

Action: Sail Ships

Only the 1st player may carry out this action.

If the ship begins the action in Scotland, then it may move to the Caribbean. Any Scots must remain on board the ship.

If the ship begins the action in the Caribbean, then it may move to Scotland. Any goods on board the ship are passed to the various owners, who then place them in their Company Storage.

Very occasionally Scots may be on board a ship that returns to Scotland. The owning player may either leave these on board the ship or return them to Company Storage.

Action: Move Scots

The player may move any number of Company Scots.

Each Scot can move along a pathway of Terrain tiles of any length. If the Scot begins its move on board the ship, then the first part of its move is to move onto the landing tile (shown by the small anchor symbol).

Note: The Harbour also counts as a landing tile. A world containing a Harbour may therefore have two landing tiles.

A Scot may not end its move on a tile containing another Scot or building (including Company Scots and buildings).

If a Scot moves onto a face-down tile, then that is the end of its move. That tile is immediately flipped face-up and the Scot placed on the tile.

When moving is completed in a world, the player may choose (immediately) to 'scout'. The player pays 1 silver and moves one Scot a second time.

Note: the Famine Calamity flips terrain tiles and thus tiles may become disconnected from each other. Any tile that is not connected by a pathway of tiles to a landing tile is 'in Chaos' (not active). No actions may be taken there, nor can a building sited there be used. Note: the Governor's House is again an exception to this rule as shown on the Buildings Grid.

Action: Build or Enhance

In each active world, a player may either build one Company building or enhance one Company building.

How to build

Remove the Scot from the chosen Terrain tile, then place a basic building there (non-underlined script).

1. There may only ever be one of each type of building in a world.

2. A building can never be built adjacent to the building of another player.

3. It must be possible to build the building on that type of Terrain tile (as shown on the Building Array).

4. It must be possible to supply the necessary materials to that tile (wood, stone or both, as shown on the Building Array).

E.g. To build the Warehouse there would need to be a pathway to a source of wood and a source of stone.

Note: Materials are NOT a physical component in the game.

Materials may be supplied from:

1. The Terrain tile where the building is to be built.

2. Any Terrain tile occupied by a Company Scot.

3. Any Quarry, Mill or Camp owned by any player (i.e. from a suitable open building).

It costs 1 silver to use an open building belonging to another player. Pay the silver to that player.

How to enhance

To enhance a building, flip the basic building to its enhanced side (underlined script), place the appropriate Enhancement disc beneath it and pay the cost in shares (as shown on the Enhancement Array).

Tracking scores

Each building is worth points (as shown on the Buildings Grid). If a building is enhanced, then score the points for that building a second time.

As buildings are built or enhanced, adjust the score marker on the Apocalypse track.

In the same way, remember to move the score marker back down the track whenever a building or enhancement disc is removed.

Action: Trade

To trade in a world, the ship must be in the Caribbean. The player takes one goods cube for each of their basic buildings and two goods for each of their enhanced buildings in that world.

Each ship begins the game with a capacity of eight goods; this increases to twelve goods when a Harbour is built in that world (as explained on the Buildings Grid).

It may be that a ship already has goods on board. If the loading of all the new goods would exceed the ship's capacity, then the player returns surplus goods to the supply.

Action: Pray

A player may attempt to remove Shadows from active worlds by praying. This is the only action that takes place simultaneously in all the active worlds.

Count how many active worlds there are, then roll that number of dice. Each roll of '6' allows the player to select one Shadow and remove it.

To improve the chances of success, a player may place silver on the compass of one or more active worlds. This must be done before the dice are rolled. Each piece of silver adds one to the score of each dice applied to that world.

E.g. North and East worlds are active. There are three pieces of silver on the compass in North world. Two dice are rolled for a '2' and a '3'. Neither dice will have any effect in the East, but the '3' would count as a '6' in North world ('3' plus 3 silver), and allow the player to remove one Shadow from that world.

The player collects 1 share for each Shadow so removed.

Whenever one or more Shadows are removed, all silver from that world is removed. If no Shadow is removed in a world, then the silver remains on the compass.

Action: Company Business

During Company Business, goods can be sold, Scots enlisted and shares bought. All three activities use the same table:

Number of items	Value in silver
1	1 silver
2	3 silver
3	6 silver
4	10 silver

Each item after the 4th is worth an additional 5 silver.

E.g. A player sells six goods for 20 silver (10 + 5 + 5), enlists three Scots for 6 silver and buys four shares for 10 silver.

All such shares, Scots and silver are placed directly into Company Storage.

Note: If a player chooses to sell goods, then all of the goods in Company Storage must be sold.

Using buildings

This is not an action, but is something that happens throughout the turn. Buildings provide a wide range of benefits, as shown on the Buildings Grid. They can:

• Supply materials to build other buildings
• Provide extra silver, goods and shares
• Reduce the cost of scouting and of using open buildings
• Make it easier to succeed when praying
• Alleviate the effect of Shadows
• Protect against Calamities
• Increase the capacity of ships
• Reduce the Horsemen's score

A building can only be used if:

• its world is active
• its tile is active.

Note: The Governor's House is an exception to these rules.

Some enhanced buildings can be used 'trans-world' as shown on the Buildings Grid.

Company buildings can be used at no cost by the owner. Buildings belonging to other players may not be used by the player, unless they are open buildings (their title is written in white script). An open building can be used by any player (at a cost of 1 silver paid to the owner). As usual, the open building must be active.

A player may not use both the basic and enhanced building of the same type in the same action. E.g. A player could not use an enhanced Fort and a basic Fort to move the Horsemen Score marker back twice along the Apocalypse track.

3. Ending the turn

1. Advance the Horsemen score marker one space for each Shadow or Calamity on the map.

   If the Horsemen score marker reaches a Calamity marker on the Apocalypse track, the 1st player turns it face-up and places it in any world that does not already contain that type of Calamity. The Calamity takes place immediately (as shown on the chart in section 1).

2. Return all Action tokens to the supply (unless the player has the leader Paterson, who may store one unused Action token).

3. Remove all Horsemen. Shadows remain in place.

4. Advance the Turn marker one space.

5. Discard the current Apocalypse card. The player to the left of the 1st player becomes the new 1st player.

Ending the game

The game will end when either of the following occurs:

• the Horsemen Score marker reaches 100
• the twelfth turn is completed.

Scoring

Each player calculates their score.

First:

• Goods cubes and Scots in Company Storage are exchanged for 1 silver each. Shares may not be bought with this silver.

Then:

• Check that the Score marker on the Apocalypse track matches the value of the buildings on the map (as shown on the Building Array). Enhanced buildings are worth double the value of the equivalent basic building.
• A player must pay 1 silver to the bank when using another player's building (unless using the Arsenal).

To this total, add:

• 2 points for each Scot on the map
• 1 point for each share in Company Storage
• 1 point for every 5 silver in Company Storage
• 5 points for an unused Day of Prayer token.

Finally:

• Subtract 2 points for each face-down Terrain tile in the world of which they are Governor.

The winner is the player with the highest individual score.

Use the Judgements below to quantify your victory over the Horsemen....

Points more than the Horsemen total	Judgement
41 +	The wealth of a great trading nation awaits.
31 - 40	Scotland stands proud.
21 - 30	Even the Spanish must acknowledge you.
11 - 20	Fortune has favoured the brave.
1 - 10	A foothold is established.

or your defeat!

Points less than the Horsemen total	Judgement
1 - 10	There may be trouble ahead.
11 - 20	Much prayer is needed.
21 - 30	The Horsemen sense your fear.
31 - 40	Tremble in anticipation of great sorrow.
41 +	Share the fate of those who perished.

The solo game

There are just two players: yourself and the Horsemen. You must beat the Horsemen's total to win the game. Use the Judgement Table to challenge yourself further.

When drawing the Apocalypse card, use the higher number of Actions ('You get...') on Turns 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 and the lower number of actions ('Others get ...') on Turns 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12.

The solo player must pay 1 silver to the bank every time a building is used. If the Arsenal is built, payments can be ignored.

The short game

All the rules for the basic game are used; the game just lasts a shorter time.

Players	Setup
4 players	Start with the Turn marker on Turn 5 (for an 8-turn game).
3 players	Start with the Turn marker on Turn 4 (for a 9-turn game).
1 or 2 players	Start with the Turn marker on Turn 3 (for a 10-turn game).

Making the challenge greater

Level	Setup
Difficult	At the start of the game, return only one unused Calamity to the box; place the other in a world chosen at random.
Edge of the world	As above, but place both unused Calamities into two different worlds chosen at random.

The co-operative game

1. The players play as an Alliance. The Alliance wins if every player beats the Horsemen's total. Otherwise, the Horsemen win.

Buildings Grid

1. Buildings in pink boxes are open buildings (usable by other players at a cost of 1 silver).
2. A building may only be used in its own world unless its effect is 'trans-world'.
3. A goods cube (shown as a white cube icon in the grid) = goods cube of that player's Company.

Icons in the grid table are written out as words: 'wood' (logs), 'stone' (rocks), 'share' (beige Company icon in the cost column), 'Scot' (Company Scot icon), 'goods cube'. Terrain is identified by the coloured hexagon shown in the grid, e.g. 'yellow terrain', 'orange terrain', 'purple terrain', 'green terrain', 'teal terrain'.

Building	Materials needed to build	Where it can be built	Cost to enhance (shares)	Points: basic / enhanced	Effect of basic building	Effect of enhanced building
Camp	Wood OR stone	Orange terrain	1	3 / 6	During Build, supplies: 1 wood and 1 stone.	During Build, supplies: 2 wood OR 2 stone.
Quarry	Wood	Purple terrain	1	3 / 6	During Build, supplies: 2 stone.	During Build, supplies: 3 stone.
Mill	Stone	Green terrain	1	3 / 6	During Build, supplies: 2 wood.	During Build, supplies: 3 wood.

Transcriber notes on the Buildings Grid (the grid is an image-heavy table in the source PDF):

• The round building icons carry small printed names that are hard to read at print resolution. The Mill is named as in the rules text ("Quarry, Mill or Camp"). The second Warehouse row and the Church/Chapel names are read from the grid image; the materials, terrain, cost, points and effect columns are transcribed from the printed icons.
• Pink rows are open buildings (Camp, Quarry, Mill, Chapel), usable by all players at a cost of 1 silver.
• The Church's enhanced Trade icon is a brown Scot token, transcribed as 1 Scot. The basic Church's Trade icons are beige share tokens (the same token used in the cost column), transcribed as 2 shares.

Guardian buildings

The following buildings provide protection against a particular Shadow or Calamity. The effects of that Shadow or Calamity can be ignored by the player. The basic building provides protection for its own world, the enhanced building in every world.

If the Shadow of a Horseman is removed through prayer, then (after receiving one share) the matching Guardian buildings may be used to reduce the Horsemen's score. The Horsemen Score marker is moved back one space if using a basic building, and two spaces if using an enhanced building. The player then receives a further share for having reduced the Horsemen's score.

Building	Materials needed to build	Where it can be built	Cost to enhance (shares)	Points: basic / enhanced	Effect of basic building (in that world)	Effect of enhanced building (trans-world)
Harbour	Wood and stone	Must be adjacent to sea. Any terrain except teal.	2	4 / 8	Protects against Pestilence Shadow. Harbour can be used as a landing tile. Ship is flipped to show 12-capacity.	Protects against Pestilence Shadow trans-world.
Death guardian	2 wood	Any terrain except purple.	2	4 / 8	Protects against Death Shadow.	Protects against Death Shadow trans-world.
War guardian	2 stone	Any terrain except green.	2	4 / 8

Governor's House rules:

• Each Governor's House protects against the Calamity shown on that building (Pestilence, War, Death or Famine).
• May only be one Governor's House per world.
• May only be built by the Governor of that world.
• May only be one of each type of Governor's House anywhere on the map.

E.g. only one player may have the Governor's House that protects against War.

Transcriber note: the Guardian grid names the Death, War and Famine guardians by their Shadow only; the printed icon labels are too small to read reliably, so those rows are identified by the Shadow they protect against.

Clarifications

1. Whenever a building is built on a tile, the Scot that is there will be removed and placed back in the supply.

2. Silver and shares are never placed on the ship. They are always placed straight into Company Storage.

3. If a Harbour is removed, the Ship remains on its 12-capacity side.

4. Wood and stone are not physical components in the game. Players simply combine these (source them) from tiles or buildings during Build actions.

5. Because Action tokens can be exchanged for silver at any time, it is possible for the 1st player to end the turn 'early' by simply exchanging all remaining Action tokens instead of carrying out further actions.

6. When praying, each successful dice roll can remove one Shadow. It is possible that as many as three Shadows could be removed at the same time (from different worlds or the same world).

7. There is only one Enhancement disc for each type of building. Choosing which building to enhance and when can be of crucial importance.

8. When using the Farm building, silver is collected for each tile that is face up in that world and which does not have a building sited there.

9. A Ship's capacity for goods is not affected by any Scots on board the Ship.

10. A player may never remove another player's Scots or buildings.