Emberleaf
Emberleaf Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Learning the game
How to play video
If you prefer watching videos to reading rulebooks, you can find a video explaining how to play Emberleaf on the publisher's website: www.thecityofkings.com/emberleaf
Components
- 5 hero figures (1 of each color)
- 100 villager figures (20 of each color)
- 5 fellowship boards
- 1 game board
- 80 building tiles (50 general / 30 fellowship)
- 33 dangerous area tokens
- 120 resource tokens (35 wood, 35 food, 30 stone, 20 beehive)
- 1 building board
- 1 trophy board
- 6 trophy tokens
- 5 fellowship decks (decks A-E, 6 cards each)
- 47 hero cards
- 88 favour cards
- 64 solo cards (36 action, 5 building, 15 favour, 8 advanced favour)
- 5 reference cards
- 1 creature bag
- 25 favour discs (5 of each color)
- 5 score tokens (1 of each color)
- 5 100+ tokens (1 of each color)
- 1 tracker disc
Setup
Global setup
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Game board: Place the game board in the centre of the table.
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Building board: Place the building board to the right of the game board.
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General buildings: Sort the general building tiles into piles of matching types and place them on the corresponding spots on the building board. General buildings do not have icons on them.
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Trophy board: Place the trophy board below the building board. If playing with 1-3 players, use the side labelled 1-3; otherwise, use the 4+ side. The player count labels can be found at the very bottom of the board.
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Tracker: Place the tracker disc in the small clearing area of the war banner track towards the top of the trophy board.
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Trophies: Place the trophy tiles randomly on the trophy board.
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Favour cards: Shuffle the favour cards and place them in a face-down pile above the game board. Then, draw 5 favour cards and place them face-up in a line to the right of the pile.
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Hero cards: Shuffle the hero cards and place them in a face-down pile below the game board. Then, draw 5 hero cards and place them face-up in a line to the right of the pile.
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Dangerous areas: Place all the dangerous area tokens in the creature bag. Then, draw 9 dangerous area tokens from the bag and randomly place them green-side up on the 9 dangerous area spots on the game board. The locations are marked with a grey war banner.
There are six clearings on the game board, these are represented by the areas containing hexagons.
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Creature bag: Place the creature bag somewhere on the table where players can reach it.
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Resources: Place the wood, food, stone, and beehive resources in piles around the game board to form a general supply.
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Buildings on the board, by player count:
- 1-2 player buildings: If you are playing with one or two players, take three of each of the five general buildings and randomly place them on the 15 spaces within clearings that say 3+ or 4+.
- 3 player buildings: If you are playing with three players, take two of each of the five general buildings and randomly place them on the 10 spaces within clearings that say 4+.
- 4-5 player buildings: If you are playing with four or five players, do not place any buildings on the game board during setup.
Player setup
Each player should choose one of the five available colours: red, blue, black, white, or yellow.
- A. Fellowship board: Place a fellowship board in front of you.
- B. Fellowship buildings: Place one of each of the six fellowship buildings onto your fellowship board, in the matching spots. Fellowship buildings contain icons.
- C. Villagers: Take all 20 villager figures of your chosen colour and place them onto your fellowship board. You should place the rats on the leftmost platform, followed by the owls, rabbits, and the frogs go on the rightmost platform. There is a stone statue in the bottom left corner of each platform as a reminder.
- D. Beehive: Place one beehive in the storage area on your fellowship board.
- E. Fellowship deck: Choose one of the five fellowship decks, labelled A, B, C, D, and E, and take all six cards of your chosen deck.
- F. Hero figure: Place your hero figure by the campfire at Hawker's Crossing. This is the middle left clearing on the game board.
- G. Favour discs: Place one of your five favour discs by the campfires at each of the clearings, except the one where you placed your hero figure.
- H. Score token: Place your score token on the leaf on the scoring track.
- I. 100+ token: Place your 100+ token on the leaf on the scoring track. Hopefully, you will need this later!
- J. Reference card: Take one reference card and place it somewhere you can see it.
Game overview
There are no game rounds in Emberleaf. After selecting a starting player, players take turns performing actions until all six trophies have been awarded. At that point, the game will end.
You choose a starting player then the game begins, we recommend the bravest player goes first.
The starting player may now take their first turn as described on the next page. Turns proceed in clockwise order around the table until the game ends.
Hero cards
Your heroes will decide what you can do on your turn. You should familiarise yourself with the different parts of hero cards before continuing.
Name
Each hero has a name, these have no impact on gameplay but can be used to refer to specific cards.
Stats
Heroes may have stats shown in the top left corner of their card. While a hero is in play (on your fellowship board), its stats may increase the effectiveness of skills you activate.
The available stats are: Walk, Attack, Wood, Food, Stone.
Emberlings love working together, the more heroes you have in play, the more they will help each other!
Skills and skill triggers
Hero cards contain skills, which are activated by skill triggers. There are 5 types of skill triggers, represented by different colored boxes and icons:
- On-play — see place a card, below.
- Slide — see sliding cards, below.
- Drop-off — see sliding cards, below.
- Charge — see charge a card, below.
- Ongoing — see ongoing trigger, further below.
Turn overview
On your turn you will be placing, sliding and charging hero cards to walk around the forest, gather resources and home villagers.
A turn consists of five steps, once all five steps have been completed, the next player begins their turn.
1. Actions
On your turn you must perform one core action and may perform any number of optional actions.
The two core actions are:
- Place a card
- Sliding cards
The optional actions are:
- Charge a card
- Promise a favour
You may perform actions in any order, but you may only do one core action on your turn. You must finish an action before starting the next action.
2. Trophies
Check to see if anyone has earned a trophy. They are awarded for reaching the bottom of the war banner track on the trophy board and for filling clearings. If they have, players who have earned a trophy may take a trophy token and resolve any bonuses (see Bonuses, below). If multiple players have earned a trophy, then they are awarded in turn-order, starting with the current player.
It is possible for other players to earn trophies during your actions.
Trophies are limited, when the last trophy is taken, the game end triggers.
Designer notes: While resolving the five steps above, it is possible for a player to go back to a previous step. For example, a scoring bonus may unlock a free action. If this happens, finish resolving the current step, and then go back to the step which was unlocked and resolve it as normal. Your turn then continues from that step.
3. War banner track
If the tracker disc has reached the bottom of the war banner track, and is positioned on the Trophy + Refresh icons space, then:
- Return the tracker disc to the top of the war banner track.
- Return any dangerous area tokens still on the game board to the creature bag.
- Draw 9 dangerous area tokens from the bag and randomly place them orange-side up on the 9 dangerous area spots on the game board.
Dangerous areas are limited, if there are not enough dangerous area tokens to refill the game board, then return any dangerous areas to the creature bag. For the rest of the game, there will be no dangerous areas.
4. Score track
Around the game board is a score track and some spaces contain bonuses (see Bonuses, below). The first time any player moves onto a bonus space that no player has previously moved onto, all players receive the bonus in turn order, starting with the player who triggered it. If multiple bonus spaces are passed in a turn, resolve all bonuses in the order they were passed. Each bonus can only be triggered once.
5. Refresh cards
If a hero or favour card was taken during your turn, the available cards of that type must be refreshed.
- Discard the right most card to the discard pile.
- Slide any remaining cards to the right.
- Draw cards from the pile and place them face-up to the left of the remaining cards until there are five cards in the line.
Actions
You use actions to activate skills (see Skills, below) that enable you to walk around the forest, gather resources, clear dangerous areas, construct buildings, and home villagers to complete favours and earn leaves.
Place a card (core action)
Choose one hero card from your hand and place it on an empty space on your fellowship board. Then resolve any on-play skills the hero has or activate a fellowship skill. If the card has two on-play skills, resolve the top skill first.
A space is considered empty if there are no cards or tiles on it.
Your fellowship board starts with six empty spaces, labelled 1-6. During the game you are able to unlock two additional spaces (7 and 8) by building the fellowship buildings on those spaces.
Fellowship skill
Some spaces on your fellowship board contain skills. When you place a hero card onto a space containing a skill, you may choose to either:
- Resolve the on-play skills on the hero card.
- Resolve the fellowship skill shown on the space where you played the hero.
You may not resolve both.
Designer notes: Sometimes a hero card may not have an on-play ability, or it may simply be more beneficial for you to use the fellowship skill over the hero's skill. For example, using the fellowship skill to gain a stone which is then used to activate a charge ability on the played hero.
Sliding cards (core action)
Slide every card on your fellowship board one space to the left. As each card slides, resolve any slide skills it may have.
The cards in the leftmost column of your fellowship board will drop off the edge. For these cards you resolve both the slide and drop-off skills. If the card has two skills to resolve, resolve the top skill first.
Sliding order
Start by sliding the top card from the leftmost column of your fellowship board, followed by the bottom card. Move to the next column, working from left to right, sliding the top card then the bottom card. Ensure every card slides one space.
Dropping off
When a card drops off your fellowship board, resolve its slide and drop-off skills, then immediately return the card to your hand.
Your hero cards are always either on your fellowship board or in your hand.
Designer notes: When performing a slide action it can be tempting to physically slide all of your cards and then attempt to resolve them. However, some slide actions will be longer than others and this can cause you to forget where you were. It is highly recommended that you physically slide one card, fully resolve it, and then move the next card.
Example: Sliding cards Sara has 4 cards on her fellowship board and has decided to perform a slide action. She works through the 8 spaces on her fellowship board (numbered 1-8, top row 1/3/5/7, bottom row 2/4/6/8).
- Empty: Nothing happens.
- Bim: Sara slides Bim one space to the left, removing him from her fellowship board. Bim has both a slide and a drop-off skill. Sara resolves the slide skill first, because it is at the top, then she resolves the drop-off skill. She then returns Bim to her hand.
- Milo: Sara slides Milo one space to the left. Milo has a slide skill and Sara resolves it.
- Empty: Nothing happens.
- Sprig: Sara slides Sprig one space to the left. Sprig has a drop-off skill but this hero has not dropped off so she does nothing.
- Empty: Nothing happens.
- Fellowship building: Nothing happens, fellowship building tiles do not slide.
- Amara: Sara slides Amara one space to the left. Amara has no slide or drop-off skills and does nothing.
Charge a card (optional action)
Some hero cards contain charge skills. These have a number on the lefthand side which tells you how many charges the skill has. They require you to spend resources in order to activate them.
To perform a charge skill you must first check how many resource tokens are on the card. If the number of resources on the card is equal to the number of charges, then you cannot perform the skill. If the number of resources on the card is less than the number of charges, then you may perform the charge skill. Follow the skill's instructions and place the spent resource on the card.
You must have the required resources in order to activate the skill. The number of resources on the card serve as a reminder of how many times the skill has been used.
When the hero card drops off your fellowship board and returns to your hand, the resources on the card are returned to the general supply. You will then be able to re-use the charge skill next time you play the hero.
Promise a favour (optional action)
During setup, you placed five favour discs around the game board. If your hero is currently located in a clearing containing a favour disc of your colour, then you may perform a promise a favour action to choose a favour card. The favour disc is then removed from the game.
When you take a favour card, you choose from the available face-up cards and place your selected card next to your fellowship board. These are public information, if another player asks which cards you have, you must tell them. At the end of the game you will gain leaves if you have completed the favour.
You do not refresh the available favour cards until the end of your turn. You always choose from the remaining available cards.
Skills
Stat checks
Some skills contain stat checks, which allow you to control how well you perform a skill.
To perform a stat check, look at the required stat on the skill and count how many times that stat appears on your fellowship board. This includes any hero cards currently on your fellowship board.
If you are performing a slide action and the hero card containing the skill you are using has dropped off your fellowship board, its stats still count for its own skills, but it will go back to your hand immediately after you use it so won't be available for other heroes.
Example: Single stat check Frank has performed the place a card action and is now resolving Zorr's on-play skill. Zorr attacks for 1 damage per attack stat Frank has on his fellowship board. Frank counts his attack stats. Frank only has Zorr in play, which has 1 attack stat. Frank has homed 2 owls, revealing an additional attack stat. In total, Frank has 2 attack stats and therefore Zorr does 2 damage.
Example: Multiple stat check Sara has performed a slide action and is now resolving Koren's slide skill. Koren gathers 1 wood for every 2 wood stats Sara has on her fellowship board. Sara counts her wood stats. She has 4 heroes in play. Koren has 0 wood stats, Talon and Lark have 1 wood stat each, and Cirial has 2 wood stats, giving Sara 4 wood stats in total. The second space on the top row of her fellowship board contains 1 wood stat. As this space has not been covered, it counts towards her total. If a hero was on this space then the icon would not be visible and would not count. Sara has previously built a market fellowship building revealing 2 more wood stats. In total, Sara has 7 wood stats and therefore Koren gathers 3 wood. When performing a stat check you always round down.
Walk
The walk skill allows you to move your hero between the six areas (clearings) on the board, which are connected by pathways.
Heroes move along pathways between clearings, and moving along one pathway requires one move.
The walk skill specifies a number or stat check that indicates how many moves you can make when using the skill. For example, "Walk 2" allows you to move along two pathways.
Dangerous area tokens
When moving along a pathway with dangerous area tokens, each token adds an additional move required to move along that pathway. For example, a pathway with 2 dangerous area tokens requires walk 3 to cross.
You may not stop on a dangerous area token. Pathways without dangerous area tokens do not require additional moves.
Campfires
There are campfires at every clearing. Place your hero figure by the campfire to indicate which clearing your hero is in.
Example: Walk Frank uses walk 2 and is positioned at clearing 1, he can: Move to clearing 2 for one walk, but can't go any further. He cannot reach clearing 3 as there are too many dangerous areas in the way. As both pathways are cleared of dangerous areas, he can move to clearing 4 by moving through clearing 5, or he can stop at clearing 5. Finally Frank could move to clearing 6 for two walk.
Gather
The gather skill allows you to take resources and place them in your storage area.
The gather skill specifies a resource type and a number or stat check that indicates how many of the specified resources you can take when using the skill. For example, "Gather 2 wood" allows you to take two wood from the supply and to place it in your storage area.
Storage area
Your fellowship board contains a storage area that can hold 8 resources. You can unlock an additional 4 spaces by building the boat house fellowship building.
When you gain resources, you must immediately place them in your storage area. If you do not have room in your storage area, you may return resources already in your storage area to the supply. You can choose which combination of resources to keep, or you can choose not to keep any if you prefer to keep your current resources.
Example: Storing resources Sara already has 6 food and uses gather 4 wood. She can:
- Take no wood
- Take 1 wood
- Take 2 wood
- Discard 1 food and take 3 wood
- Discard 2 food and take 4 wood.
Attack
The attack skill allows you to clear dangerous areas for rewards.
Heroes attack along pathways between clearings. You can attempt to clear a dangerous area token that is on a pathway connected to your current location. If a pathway contains two dangerous area tokens, you must attack the one closest to your location.
The attack skill specifies a number or stat check that indicates how much damage you can do when using the skill.
Clearing dangerous areas
Dangerous areas must always be cleared in a single attack. To clear a dangerous area, your damage must be at least equal to the health of the dangerous area, which is shown in the heart icon on the token.
When you use an attack skill, you may only attack one dangerous area. You cannot split your damage across multiple dangerous areas.
Rewards
If you successfully clear a dangerous area token:
- Take the token and place it by your fellowship board. Tokens contain war banners which can contribute towards completing favours.
- Move your score token along the score track by the number of spaces shown on the blue leaf on the token.
- Move the tracker on the war banner track down one row, the track is shared between all players. You choose which space on the row to place the tracker.
- If the space shows a resource, immediately take that resource and place it in your storage area.
- If you reached the last row, you will earn a trophy during the trophy step of your turn.
- If the tracker was already on the last row, you get nothing.
Build
The build skill allows you to place a building in an empty space in the clearing where you are currently located.
The build skill specifies a number that indicates how many buildings you may build when using the skill. For each building you build, you must complete all four steps before starting your next build.
1. Choose a building
You can build any general building from the building board, or a fellowship building from your fellowship board.
- General buildings: The cost of general buildings is shown on the building board, next to each building type.
- Fellowship buildings: The cost of fellowship buildings is shown on the bottom of each fellowship building tile.
Buildings are limited and once all buildings of a specific type have been built, you may no longer build any more of that building.
2. Pay for the building
With your building selected, you must pay the resource cost using resources from your storage area. Return the required resources to the supply.
If you do not have the resources, you cannot build the chosen building.
3. Place the building
Place the building you have paid for in any empty space in your current clearing. If there are no empty spaces in your current clearing, you cannot build a building. If the empty space shows a resource icon, place the building tile and then immediately add that resource to your storage area.
Fellowship buildings
When you remove a fellowship building from your fellowship board, you will unlock a bonus. The bonuses are explained in full under Bonuses, below.
4. Home a villager
You can home a villager to gain leaves and unlock a bonus.
4.1 Place the villager
At the top of your fellowship board, there are four villager tracks: rats, owls, rabbits, and frogs.
Choose one of the tracks and take the leftmost figure from that track. Then place the chosen villager figure on the building you just built. This villager is now considered homed.
4.2 Update your score
When you home a villager on a building, you gain one leaf for each unique type of building in the neighbourhood where you homed the villager.
Building types: There are five building types: boat houses, markets, houses, windmills, and town halls. General and fellowship buildings of the same type are considered the same.
Neighbourhood: Neighbourhoods are groups of buildings connected by at least one edge where you have homed a villager. A neighbourhood may contain just one building or multiple buildings. There is no limit to how many neighbourhoods you can have.
4.3 Resolve villager bonus
A bonus is shown under each villager figure on your fellowship board. After you have updated your score, resolve the bonus you just revealed while homing your villager. The bonuses are explained in full under Bonuses, below.
Example: Neighbourhoods A game board shows four separate neighbourhoods: White has a neighbourhood of 1. Red has a neighbourhood of 1. Red has a second neighbourhood of 1. White has a neighbourhood of 4.
Example: Scoring villagers Sara is playing white.
- Sara builds her fellowship house tile and homes a frog on it. This connects a market where she has previously homed a frog with another house and a boat house. This neighbourhood contains three unique building types and gains her three leaves.
- Sara homes a rabbit on the red player's fellowship town hall using the home a villager bonus (see Bonuses, below). This connects her two neighbourhoods into one larger neighbourhood of six buildings containing four unique building types, gaining her four leaves.
Filling clearings
If you fill a clearing, you will receive a trophy during the trophy step. A clearing is considered full when every space within the clearing contains a building.
Skills continued — keywords
The rest of this section explains some remaining keywords used on skills.
Designer notes: Every hero card in Emberleaf is different and some contain unique skills. Always follow the cards as written. If you have a question about a card that is not answered, you can find the card clarifications page at www.thecityofkings.com/cards
Anywhere
- Attack anywhere: You can attack any dangerous area token regardless of your current location.
- Build anywhere: You can build in any clearing regardless of your current location.
Everyone
All players, starting with the current player and going in turn order may resolve this skill. Once all players have resolved the skill, the current player continues with their turn.
Gain
The gain keyword is used to refer to you getting something. Usually this is when a resource is added to your storage area.
Gaining a dangerous area refers to when you place a dangerous area token next to your fellowship board.
Reduce
Some skills include an optional reduction. For example, a build skill may let you optionally spend 1 beehive to reduce the cost of the build by 2 resources. This can be any 2 resources of your choice, they may be the same resource or different.
Spend
Take the required resources from your storage location and place them in the supply. If you do not have the resources, you cannot use the skill.
Charge trigger: Remember, if you are triggering a charge skill then the spent resources go on the hero card instead.
X
Some skills require you to spend X of a resource, X means you can choose any number you can afford.
Example: Using a X skill Sara activates a skill letting her spend X stone to gather that much wood and food. She can spend any number of stone to gather that much wood and food. She chooses to spend 3 stone and gains 3 wood and 3 food.
Skill clarifications
Double skills
Some skills contain two skills within one skill trigger. In these cases you may choose to do neither, one, or both of the skills. However, if you choose to resolve the first skill, you must always resolve it before resolving the second skill.
What is optional?
All beneficial consequences of skills are optional, and you can always do less than is stated. A few examples are as follows:
- If you activate walk 5, you can choose to walk fewer than 5 spaces.
- If you gather 5 resources, you can choose to keep any quantity of them you choose to.
- If you trigger a skill, you can always choose not to resolve it.
- If you build a building, you can choose not to home a villager on it.
- If you home a villager, you can choose not to take the bonus.
The only thing which is always required is spending the required resources for a skill that you have activated.
Ongoing trigger
Most skills are triggered when performing an action, ongoing skills are triggered when a condition is met.
If you meet the condition during a single action, then you may resolve the ongoing skill after the current action has completed.
Each ongoing skill can only be activated once per turn.
Example: Triggering ongoing skills To trigger an ongoing skill you must meet the requirements within a single action. Suppose an ongoing skill requires you to walk 4 and then allows you to build 1.
Scenario 1: You place a hero that allows you to walk 5 spaces. You walk five spaces, meaning you have walked four within one action and can now immediately build 1.
Scenario 2: You perform a slide. The first hero you slide allows you to walk 2 and you walk two spaces. The second hero you slide allows you to walk 2 and you walk two spaces. You have walked four spaces in total within one action and can now immediately build 1.
Scenario 3: You place a hero that allows you to walk 2 and you walk two spaces. You activate a charge skill and walk an additional two spaces, spending the required resources. You have walked four spaces, but you have not walked four spaces in a single action, therefore you do not trigger the ongoing skill.
Game end
The game end triggers once the sixth trophy has been awarded.
When the game end is triggered by someone taking the sixth trophy, play continues until everyone has had an equal number of turns.
- If the starting player triggers the game end, all other players will get one more turn.
- If the last player in turn order triggers the game end, the game ends immediately after they finish their turn.
- In a 5-player game, if the third player triggers the game end, players 4 and 5 will get one more turn before the game ends.
Once everyone has had an equal number of turns, proceed to final scoring.
Designer notes: The first trophy is often awarded mid-game, with the second trophy typically being awarded around 70% of the way through the game. The final four trophies can be awarded in quick succession. When only one or two trophies remain, be mindful that the game could end at any turn. To avoid surprises, ensure all new players are aware of how the game ends.
Final scoring
It is time to check on your promises and to see which favours you have completed.
Throughout the game you will have earned leaves for the following four things:
- Homing villagers
- Clearing dangerous areas
- Gaining trophies
- Unlocking bonuses
At the end of the game you will only earn leaves for:
- Completing favours
All players should now check all of their favour cards to see if they have been achieved, and add any final leaves they have earned to the score track. There are no penalties for failing a favour, you simply get no leaves for the card.
The person with the most leaves wins the game and will always be remembered as a hero of the Emberlings.
Score track bonuses
Score track bonuses are only unlocked during a player's turn. You cannot unlock further score track bonuses during final scoring.
Tie-breaker
In the case of a tie, the tied player who has homed the most villagers wins. If there is still a tie, the player who has the most dangerous area tokens wins. If there is still a tie, both players win the game.
Designer notes: For experienced players, favour cards can make up 50% of their final score. Try your best to get as many favour cards as possible, and never assume you have won or lost until the last card has been scored.
- 70-100 leaves is a great score for your first few games.
- 100-150 leaves is a great score once you have played several times.
- 216 leaves is the best recorded score from playtesting.
Good luck and have fun!
General Clarifications
The following clarifications address several keywords found on multiple favour cards.
"Most"
Some favour cards score leaves for having the most of something. To qualify, you must have more than all other players. In the event of a tie, no leaves are awarded.
"Have"
"Have" refers to something you gained during the game. This could include dangerous areas next to your fellowship board or resources in your storage area.
For buildings, "have" refers to any building on the game board with one of your villagers on it. It does not matter if another player also shares that building tile; in this case, both players "have" the building.
"Home"
"Home" refers to placing a villager onto a building and collecting the leaves and any associated bonuses. Similarly, villagers you have "homed" refers to villagers you have placed onto a building.
"Neighbourhoods"
Neighbourhoods are groups of buildings connected by at least one edge where you have homed a villager. A neighbourhood may consist of a single building or multiple buildings. There is no limit to the number of neighbourhoods you can have.
"Touches"
A building touches another building if it is physically touching it on the game board. A villager is touching another villager if both are on building tiles that are physically touching each other on the game board.
Bonuses: You can find descriptions of all trophies, score track bonuses, and fellowship board bonuses under Bonuses, below.
Solo
Today's the day. You take a deep breath and emerge from your hiding spot, ready to lead your people in rebuilding their home. You brush yourself down, gathering your thoughts. As you prepare to speak, a familiar sound reaches your ears... Your sister has beaten you to it again, her voice rallying the others. She intends to be the new hero of the Emberlings. With a mix of pride and frustration, you step forward, knowing a friendly rivalry will be the only way to decide who is best once and for all.
Overview
The solo game follows all the standard rules. The only new rules are for controlling and scoring your sister as explained below.
You are the starting player, and to win, you must gain more leaves than your sister.
Designer notes: When resolving actions for your sister, you will get to make decisions. Try and use her actions to benefit your strategy as much as possible.
Solo setup
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Global setup: Follow the global setup for a 2-player game.
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Player setup: Follow the player setup for you. Next, create your sister's play area.
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Favour cards: Choose a difficulty:
- Easy: 2 basic favour cards.
- Medium: 3 basic favour cards.
- Hard: 3 basic favour and 1 advanced favour card.
- Very Hard: 3 basic favour and 2 advanced favour cards.
- Ultimate: 3 basic favour and 3 advanced favour cards.
Shuffle the basic favour and advanced favour cards, and place the required amount for your chosen difficulty in a line face-up.
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Building cards: Shuffle the building cards. Place one card face-up and the other four cards face-down in a line below the favour cards.
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Action cards: Shuffle the action cards and place them in a face-down pile below the building cards.
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Choose a colour for your sister.
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Hero figure: Place her hero figure on Hawker's Crossing next to your own.
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Score token: Place her score token on the leaf on the scoring track.
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100+ token: Place her 100+ token on the leaf on the scoring track.
You will not need the rest of the coloured player pieces for your sister and can return them to the box.
Sister turns
Sister turns always start by checking how much stamina she has used, she then either performs an action or rests.
Stamina
Sister action cards are similar to hero cards, but instead of stats in the top left corner, they have stamina. Add up how much stamina your sister has used, by counting the stamina symbols on her face-up action cards.
If she has used less than 5 stamina she performs an action, otherwise she rests.
Actions (less than 5 stamina)
Draw 1 action card from the pile and place it face-up on the table, overlapping any other face-up action cards. Place it so you can easily count how much stamina your sister has used.
Resolve the two skills on the card starting with the top one.
Rest (at least 5 stamina)
When your sister rests she performs 3 steps:
- Move all face-up action cards to a discard pile.
- Turn over the leftmost face-down building card to be face-up.
- Add up all the numbers in reputation stars on her favour and building cards. She gains leaves equal to her current reputation.
Everyone and bonuses
- Trophies: If your sister ever gains a trophy, you may choose which one she takes. She gains any leaves from the trophy, but does not get any other bonuses. You gain the everyone else bonus as normal. If you take a trophy, your sister gets nothing.
- Everyone: If you play a card that says everyone, only you resolve the skill.
- Score track bonuses: If your sister is the first player to move onto a score track bonus, it triggers but only you get the benefit.
Scoring
In addition to the leaves earned during the game, at the end of the game your sister gains leaves for favours and buildings. In the case of a tie she wins!
Favours
Sister's favour cards score based on what you have done. Add up how many points she has gained and add that many leaves to her score. For example, 3 points per unhomed villager refers to the number of unhomed villagers on your fellowship board. Likewise, 2 points per favour card refers to how many favour cards you have.
Buildings
Flip over any building cards which have not yet been revealed.
Throughout the game you have revealed building cards and your sister gains leaves for each building where you have homed a villager. The first revealed building is worth 5 leaves per building built, the second is worth 4, the third 3, and so on.
Example: Scoring buildings Frank has built 5 boat houses, 2 houses, 2 markets, 1 town hall, and 0 windmills. Sister's building cards came out in the order boat houses (5), houses (4), markets (3), town halls (2), windmills (1). Sister gains 10 leaves from houses, 20 leaves from boat houses, 3 leaves from town halls, 0 leaves from windmills, and 2 leaves from markets. In total she gains 35 leaves.
Solo skills
Your sister has her own special skills.
- Travel: Move sister's hero figure clockwise around the board by the number of spaces shown. Travelling ignores dangerous areas, travel 3 will move her 3 clearings around the board.
- Travel to you: Move sister's hero figure to your current location.
- Attack: Pick the highest scoring dangerous area in reach of your sister with a maximum health equal to or less than the number shown. If there is no token in range, move her figure clockwise around the board until she reaches a clearing with a valid target and then resolve the skill. If there isn't a valid target, she does nothing. Sister immediately gains the leaves shown on the token and it is then removed from the game. If the war banner tracker has reached the bottom of the track, resolve the trophy and war banner track steps as you would for a player. Move the tracker down one row on the war banner track. It does not matter which space on the new row you place it; she does not get the resource reward.
- Build: Take the mentioned building from the building board and place it in the clearing where sister is currently located. You may choose where it goes. If there is no space for the building, move her figure clockwise around the board until she reaches a clearing with a space and then resolve the skill. Sister does not gain leaves for placing buildings, nor does she home villagers. If the building placed fills the clearing, resolve the trophy step as you would for a player.
- Hero: Count along the face-up row of hero cards from left to right until you reach the card number shown. Then discard that card from the game. At the end of sister's turn, perform the refresh cards step as you would for a player.
- Favour: Count along the face-up row of favour cards from left to right until you reach the card number shown. Then discard that card from the game. At the end of sister's turn, perform the refresh cards step as you would for a player.
- Draw 1 card: Sister immediately draws an additional action card from the pile and resolves it as normal.
- Shuffle the deck: Shuffle the discard pile and the action card deck together to form a new pile.
Solo clarifications
Some favour cards score based on other players; here's how to handle them in solo mode.
- Card 096: Warchief — Compare your own war banners to your sister's.
- Card 115: Hall of Fame — For your sister, count all town halls on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your town halls as normal.
- Card 137: Something to sell — For your sister, count all markets on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your markets as normal.
- Card 138: Harbour Master — For your sister, count all boat houses on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your boat houses as normal.
- Card 139: Well-rested — For your sister, count all houses on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your houses as normal.
- Card 140: Wind warden — For your sister, count all windmills on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your windmills as normal.
- Card 142: Woodland wonders — Compare your own trophies to your sister's.
- Card 143: Community captain — For your sister, count all buildings on the game board that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your homed villagers as normal.
- Card 160: Edge Settler — For your sister, count all buildings in Watersedge that do not have a villager on them. For you, count your homed villagers as normal.
Designer notes: This section clarifies all solo-specific questions related to favour cards and explains how to score them against your sister. If you have a question about a card that is not answered, you can find the card clarifications page at www.thecityofkings.com/cards
Credits
- Game Design: Frank West, James Tomblin
- World Building: Frank West, Sara Jorge, James Tomblin
- Artwork: James Tomblin
- Art Direction: Frank West
- Graphic Design: Frank West, Alec Jackson
- Assistance Producer: Sara Jorge
- Writing: Frank West
Bonuses
Throughout the game you will be unlocking one-time and ongoing bonuses from your fellowship board, trophies, and the score track.
Trophies
For the purposes of these descriptions, 'you' refers to the player who gained the trophy. The six trophies, in order:
- You can home 1 villager. Everyone else gets 1 stone.
- You gain 5 leaves and 1 beehive. Everyone else gets 1 beehive.
- You gain 5 leaves and 2 stone. Everyone else gets 1 stone.
- You gain 5 leaves and 4 wood. Everyone else gets 1 wood.
- You gain 5 leaves and 4 food. Everyone else gets 1 food.
- You gain 8 leaves. Everyone else gets nothing.
Home a villager
When you unlock a bonus that allows you to home a villager, follow the "4. Home a villager" rules (see Skills — Build, above) with this amendment: instead of placing a villager on the building you just built, you can place the villager on any building on the game board where you do not currently have a villager.
Multiple players can home villagers in the same building. Buildings with multiple villagers count for all purposes for each player who has a villager on that building.
Score track
For the purposes of these descriptions, turn order always starts with the player who unlocked the bonus and then proceeds clockwise around the table. The score track bonus spaces:
- Space 6: Discard the face-up favour cards next to the pile. Then, draw 5 favour cards and place them face-up in a line to the right of the pile. In turn order, all players may take a favour card.
- Space 13: All players gain 1 stone for every 2 favour cards they have. If you have 5 favour cards you would gain 2 stone.
- Space 22: In turn order, all players may home 1 villager.
- Space 31: All players gain 1 beehive.
- Space 40: All players gain 2 leaves for every clearing where they have homed at least 1 villager.
- Space 84: In turn order, all players may trigger one on-play skill of a hero card currently on their fellowship board and resolve the skill. If these skills unlock any trophies or other bonuses, refer to the designer notes under Turn overview, above.
Designer notes: On your fellowship board, the second column spaces for hero cards contain a wood and a food stat. You do not need to unlock these stats, but to use them when resolving skills, the space must be empty, ensuring the icons are visible.
Fellowship board
Fellowship building unlocks
When you build a fellowship building, a permanent bonus is unlocked for the rest of the game.
- A: You gain 2 wood stats.
- B: You gain 2 attack stats.
- C: You gain 2 food stats.
- D: Your storage area is increased to 12 spaces.
- E: You can now place a hero card in this space, and gain access to the fellowship skill.
- F: You can now place a hero card in this space, and gain access to the fellowship skill.
Villager unlocks
When you home a villager, you may receive an instant or a permanent bonus. The 20 villager-unlock spaces:
- Take a hero card from the face-up row and add it to your hand.
- Gain 2 wood.
- Take a favour card from the face-up row and place it next to your fellowship board.
- Gain 1 wood for every favour card you have.
- Gain 1 leaf for every wood token you currently have in your storage area.
- Take a hero card from the face-up row and add it to your hand.
- You gain 1 attack stat.
- Gain 1 stone for each unique war banner you currently have.
- You gain 1 attack stat.
- Gain 3 leaves for each unique war banner you currently have.
- Take a hero card from the face-up row and add it to your hand.
- Gain 1 stone.
- Take a favour card from the face-up row and place it next to your fellowship board.
- Gain 1 beehive.
- Gain 2 leaves for every building in your largest neighbourhood (see Skills — Build, above).
- Take a hero card from the face-up row and add it to your hand.
- Gain 2 food.
- Home 1 villager.
- Gain 1 food for every clearing where you have homed at least 1 villager.
- Gain 1 leaf for every food token you currently have in your storage area.
Summary
Turn overview
1. Actions
Either: Place a card, or Slide all cards.
Optionally: Charge cards, Promise favours.
2. Trophies
3. War banner track
If the tracker disc has reached the bottom of the war banner track, then:
- Return the tracker disc to the top.
- Return any dangerous area tokens to the bag.
- Refill dangerous area spots, orange-side up.
4. Score track bonuses
5. Refresh cards
Build
- Choose a building (see Skills — Build, above)
- Pay for the building (see Skills — Build, above)
- Place the building (see Skills — Build, above)
If you fill a clearing, you will receive a trophy during the trophy step.
4. Home a villager
4.1 Place the villager 4.2 Update your score 4.3 Resolve villager bonus
Bonuses and trophies
You can find descriptions of all trophies, score track bonuses, and fellowship board bonuses under Bonuses and Fellowship board, above.
Game end
The game end triggers once the sixth trophy has been awarded. Play continues until everyone has had an equal number of turns.
Building types
The five building types: House, Boat house, Windmill, Market, Town hall.
Villager types
The four villager types: Rat, Owl, Rabbit, Frog.
Designer notes: Every card in Emberleaf is different and some contain unique skills. Always follow the cards as written. If you have a question about a card that is not answered, you can find the card clarifications page at www.thecityofkings.com/cards