Ephyran Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Card Description
  • Territory Half-Cards
• Playing a Turn
• Dionysus
• Reinforcements
• Magic Objects
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Reinforcement Card Details
  • Draw Reinforcements
  • Athena's and Ares's Reinforcements
  • Defense Reinforcements

Object of the Game

Each player embodies one of the gods and aims to build the most prestigious city of Ephyran possible.

The city must be made up of the 4 Territories of the gods (each Territory being divided into 4 zones), laid out in this order: Poseidon's lagoon (blue), Gaia's lands (brown), Aeolus's forest (green) and Hephaestus's mountain (red). To obtain as much prestige as possible, make sure to diversify the mythological creatures that populate your city, and add magic objects offered by the gods. You may also try to recover the few zones that already contain one of these objects...

Setup

Each player receives (or chooses) the card of the god they embody and places it in front of them.

Then deal one Dionysus card to each player (the others are set aside) and complete each player's hand with 4 cards from the draw pile.

The first player places the Athena token in front of them. The "magic object" tokens are placed face down near the play area.

See the printed setup diagram.

Card Description

Each card consists of two halves.

On each half-card there is either a zone of a Territory, or a Reinforcement.

You must therefore make the right choices as to which to play and which to sacrifice!

Territory Half-Cards

• Zone number: on each half-card the Territory zones are numbered from 1 to 4. You must own zone 1 of a Territory before you can build zone 2, then zone 3, and finally zone 4!
• Creature: on each half-card there is a mythological creature. Each different creature earns you one point of prestige for your city.
• Magic objects: some Territories already contain magic objects: Zeus's thunderbolt, Poseidon's trident or Athena's owl add prestige points to your city. (See page 08: Magic Objects.)

Playing a Turn

On their turn, each player may perform one of the following actions, as they choose:

• Add a Territory to your city (if possible), respecting the placement order, next to the Territories of the same type, beside your god. A reminder of the placement order is printed on the draw pile tray.

  Warning: only 1 copy of each Territory is allowed in a city!

• Play a Reinforcement card and apply its effect (see pages 06-07: Reinforcements).

• Exchange a Territory of your city that is not covered: discard it and immediately replace it with another one from your hand.

• Discard a card: if the player does not want or cannot play a card into their city with one of the other 3 actions, they must discard one card from their hand.

To end their turn, the active player draws a new card: either from the top of the draw pile or from the discard pile.

See the printed diagram of city construction.

Dionysus

Dionysus, god of festivals and madness, may take the appearance of any mythological creature and replace any Territory zone card.

A player may also take a Dionysus card from an opponent's city by replacing it with the corresponding Territory zone. Dionysus must then immediately be placed back in the player's own city (it cannot return to the hand!).

Several Dionysus cards may be played in the same city. However, for scoring, Dionysus counts as a creature and can therefore earn only 1 point per city (even if you have several). In addition, the presence of Dionysus in a Territory does not allow you to claim the CREATURE BONUS.

Reinforcements

There are four types:

• Draw Reinforcements: these improve your turn by changing the way you draw.
• Athena's Reinforcements: these allow a special action intended to help the god build their city.
• Ares's Reinforcements: these allow a special action intended to slow down or hinder the other gods in building their cities.
• Defense Reinforcements: Athena's Shield and Hecate's Magic have several effects:
  • They protect against, or prevent the activation of, another Reinforcement. These cards are played "on the fly", during the other players' turns. As soon as a Defense Reinforcement is used, the player immediately refills their hand from the draw pile only.
  • The red icons (top left) recall the effects that can be countered by Defense Reinforcements.
  • They also allow a Territory to be locked or unlocked. When satisfied with the composition of one of their Territories, a player may, on their turn, decide to lock part of their city. To do so, they place the Athena's Shield Reinforcement card after their Territory zones. Once a Territory is locked, no one (not even the owner) may modify it: it is protected against any attack (exchange, destruction, theft of a magic object...)!
  • Only the Hecate's Magic card can unlock a Territory. Any player may, on their turn, play it to break the protection in place. Once the Territory is unlocked, the Athena's Shield and Hecate's Magic Reinforcement cards are then discarded to Tartarus, like all other Reinforcement cards.

Warning: all Reinforcement cards played are discarded to Tartarus (see the setup diagram), not to the ordinary discard pile! Any cards affected by these Reinforcements are also placed in Tartarus. It is strictly FORBIDDEN to draw from Tartarus!

Magic Objects

Some Reinforcements allow a player either to gain or to steal an additional magic object, to increase the prestige of their city.

• When you must take a magic object: draw a magic object token face down. After checking its value, you must immediately place it (face down) on the Territory zone of your choice (covered or not). The two are now linked until the end of the game. A magic object cannot be moved.

  Details:

  • Only one magic object is allowed per Territory.
  • A magic object may be added to a Territory that is already magical.
  • A Territory that is destroyed or stolen goes with the magic object it contains!
  • If a Territory is exchanged with your own hand, the magic object is lost and is discarded permanently.

• When a magic object is stolen: the player who takes it may check its value before placing it (face down) in their own city.

Zeus's thunderbolt scores 3 points of prestige, Poseidon's trident 2 points and Athena's owl 1 point. Warning: Ares's helmet makes your city lose 1 point of prestige!

End of the Game

The game ends when the draw pile is empty (even if cards remain in the discard pile), or when a player places the 16th card of their city.

The current round is then completed so that all players have played the same number of cards, and then scoring begins.

Scoring

First, reveal the magic objects present in each city. Then score prestige points, Territory by Territory, starting with the Territory of your own god:

• Each different mythological creature scores 1 point of prestige.

  CREATURE BONUS: 4 different creatures in a Territory (Dionysus excluded) score 1 additional point of prestige (i.e. 5 points for the Territory).

• Add the prestige points of Territories that are already magical, and those of the magic objects that have been added to the zones of the Territory.

• The prestige points of your own god's Territory are doubled. (Example: if I have 5 points on Poseidon's lagoon and I embody Poseidon, I score 10 points.)

• CITY BONUS: the first player to complete their city scores 3 points of prestige. Each other player who also completes their city during that turn scores 1 additional point of prestige.

The winner is the player who has built the most prestigious city of EPHYRAN for Athena. In case of a tie, the players share the victory!

Reinforcement Card Details

Draw Reinforcements

• Castor & Pollux: the twinning of Castor and Pollux lets you draw 2 cards (instead of 1) and immediately replay one card from your hand of 6. It is, however, forbidden to play another Reinforcement.
• The Graeae: the Graeae let you draw 3 cards (one for each of the Graeae). However, their single eye means you may keep only one of them. The other cards are placed on the discard pile in the order of your choice.

Athena's and Ares's Reinforcements

• Territory Exchange (Athena): allows you to exchange a Territory zone of your city for another equivalent one:

  • either with that of an opponent;
  • or with your hand.

  This is the only way to change a Territory that is already covered!

• Take a Magic Object (Athena): allows you to take a magic object and add it (face down) to one of your Territories.

• Territory Destruction (Ares): forces an opponent to discard one of the Territory zones of their city. They must choose an uncovered zone.

• Theft of a Magic Object (Ares): allows you to steal a magic object from the opponent of your choice and add it (face down), after checking its value, to one of your Territories.

Defense Reinforcements

• Athena's Shield: allows you to counter and prevent the effects of Territory Exchange and Territory Destruction. It also allows you to lock a Territory.
• Hecate's Magic: allows you to counter and prevent the effects of Taking a Magic Object and Stealing a Magic Object. It also allows you to unlock a Territory by destroying Athena's Shield.