Explorers of the North Sea: Rocks of Ruin Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Placing Tokens
  • Placing Shipwreck Tokens
  • Placing Fortress Tokens
• Taking Actions
  • 1. Salvage a Shipwreck
  • 2. Build a Structure
  • 3. Raid a Fortress
• Using Shipwreck Tokens
• The Structures
• Drawing Tiles
• Scoring
  • Unraided Fortresses
  • New Captains

Components

• 5 Mills (in 5 colours)
• 5 Workshops (in 5 colours)
• 5 Barracks (in 5 colours)
• 1 Longship
• 7 Vikings
• 5 Outposts
• 24 Tiles
• 5 Dashboards
• 24 Shipwreck Tokens
• 5 Fortress Tokens
• 2 Captain Cards
• 1 Score Pad

Setup

Setup Explorers of the North Sea as described in the original rulebook, with the following changes and additions:

1. Place all Fortress Tokens (fortress gates faceup) and Shipwreck Tokens (shipwrecks faceup) behind the Starting Board. Be sure to shuffle them into separate piles.

2. Shuffle the 24 new Tiles in with the original 48 before dealing 3 to each player. If playing with 5 players, randomly return 2 Tiles to the box without looking at them. They won't be used.

3. After placing the remaining Tiles in a stack, turn over the top 3 Tiles faceup, next to the stack.

4. Give each player 1 Dashboard.

5. Shuffle the additional 2 Captain Cards in with the original 11 before dealing 2 to each player. Players still only choose 1 to keep. They should place this faceup on their Dashboard.

6. Each player should place their Mill, Workshop and Barracks onto the indicated spaces of their Dashboard. They should also place their Outposts onto the indicated space of their Dashboard.

Placing Tokens

Rocks of Ruin introduces 2 new types of tokens: Shipwrecks and Fortresses. As with Livestock, Settlement Tokens and Enemy Ships, each new Tile has an illustration indicating what should be placed.

Placing Shipwreck Tokens

When placing Shipwreck Tokens, take 1 at random from the supply, without turning it over. Place the Shipwreck Token over the illustration on the Tile.

Players are not permitted to know what is on the backside of each Shipwreck Token until it has been salvaged.

(Diagram in source: 1 Shipwreck Token is placed onto a Tile with a Shipwreck.)

Placing Fortress Tokens

When placing Fortress Tokens, take 1 at random from the supply, without turning it over. Place the Fortress Token over the illustration on the Tile.

Players are not permitted to know what is on the backside of each Fortress Token until it has been raided.

(Diagram in source: 1 Fortress Token is placed onto a Tile with a Fortress.)

Taking Actions

In addition to the standard actions, there are 3 new actions added in Rocks of Ruin. These are:

1. Salvage a Shipwreck
2. Build a Structure (Requires 1 Timber)
3. Raid a Fortress (Free action from moving Vikings or unloading Longship)

1. Salvage a Shipwreck

Salvaging Shipwrecks will reward players with either Timber, Provisions, Siege Weapons or Gold. As 1 action, players may salvage a Shipwreck where they have at least 1 Viking present on land.

When salvaging a Shipwreck, the following rules apply:

• Players must have at least 1 Viking present on the same piece of land as the Shipwreck.
• Once salvaged, Shipwreck Tokens should be turned faceup and placed onto the matching space on the current player's Dashboard.
• Once salvaged, Shipwreck Tokens are immediately available for use.

2. Build a Structure

There are 3 unique Structures available for players to build throughout the game: The Mill, Workshop and Barracks. As 1 action, players may discard 1 Timber to build a Structure where they have at least 1 Viking present on land.

When building a Structure, the following rules apply:

• Unlike Outposts, Structures are built on a land space of a single Tile.
• Each Tile can only be connected to 1 Outpost or 1 Structure of any player colour. Once a Tile has either 1 Outpost or 1 Structure touching it, no other Outpost or Structure may directly touch that Tile.
• Players must have at least 1 Viking present on the same piece of land, on the same Tile where they plan to build a Structure.
• Players are limited to building just 1 Mill, 1 Workshop and 1 Barracks. Once they are built, they cannot be moved or removed.
• Players must discard 1 available Timber from their Dashboard to build a Structure.
• Structures may be built on any land space. Even those with a Fortress or Settlement.

(Diagram caption in source: In this example from the Explorers rulebook, Outposts can still not be placed on any edges of the 3 Tiles connected to the Outpost. However, a Mill, Workshop or Barracks could be built on the land spaces with a green tick, as these Tiles are not directly connected to the Red Outpost.)

3. Raid a Fortress

Fortresses work in a similar way to Settlements. However, their rewards vary. Raiding a Fortress may also result in some Vikings dying gloriously in battle. Raiding a Fortress is a free action. This automatically happens once a player moves or unloads 5 Vikings onto a land space containing a Fortress Token.

When raiding a Fortress, the following rules apply:

• Once a player moves or unloads their 5th Viking onto the land space of a Fortress, it is automatically raided.
• Once raided, the Fortress Token should be turned faceup and placed onto the current player's Captain Card.
• If the Fortress Token shows 1 or more Viking death symbols, the current player must lose the indicated number of Vikings from those involved in the raid. As with attacking Enemy Ships, these dead Vikings should be placed onto the current player's Captain Card.

Using Shipwreck Tokens

Any time players salvage a Shipwreck, they should place the Shipwreck Token faceup on their Dashboard. Once salvaged, players may use any number of Timber, Provisions and Siege Weapons as they have available on their turn. Items should be removed from the game once used.

• Timber is required when building a Structure. To build a Mill, Workshop, or Barracks, players must discard 1 Timber from their Dashboard and spend 1 Action.
• Provisions immediately grant players with 2 additional actions when discarded.
• Siege Weapons may be discarded when raiding a Settlement or Fortress to use 1 less Viking than required in the raid. Players may only use 1 Siege Weapon per raid.
• Gold is stored until the end of the game. Players will score 3 VP for each Gold they have on their Dashboard.

The Structures

Once built, the Mill, Workshop and Barracks unlock new abilities for the rest of the game.

• The Mill adds a new location for players to deliver Livestock to. Just like the Mainland, players may now unload Livestock to their Mill. They may also deliver Livestock across land to their Mill. If a player builds their Mill on a land space where there is already a Livestock piece present, it is automatically delivered and can be placed on the current player's Captain Card. The Mill also counts as 1 influence for Island Control at the game's end.
• The Workshop allows players to construct all future Outposts with a single Viking (rather than the normal 2). The location of the Workshop does not affect its ability. The Workshop also counts as 1 influence for Island Control at the game's end.
• The Barracks allows players to transport 1 additional Viking across land when taking the Move Vikings action. This means they may move up to 3 Vikings, or 2 Vikings and 1 Livestock for a single action. The location of the Workshop does not affect its ability. The Barracks also counts as 2 influence for Island Control at the game's end.

Source note: the Barracks paragraph says "The location of the Workshop does not affect its ability" as printed; this is transcribed unchanged and most likely refers to the Barracks.

Drawing Tiles

When drawing a new Tile at the end of each turn, players now have a choice to make:

• Take 1 of the available faceup Tiles, or
• Take 1 Tile from the top of the stack

Any time a faceup Tile is taken, the top Tile from the stack should be turned over to replace the 1 that was taken.

In the final stages of the game, the stack will eventually be depleted. When this happens, players must take 1 of the available faceup Tiles.

Scoring

Players should use the supplied score pad to calculate their scores.

In addition to the scoring methods in Explorers, there are 2 new areas to consider:

1. Salvaged Gold = 3 VP each
2. Raided Fortresses = 4-6 VP each (as shown on the backside of each Fortress Token)

The 3 new Structures also count towards influence for Island Control. Influence is calculated as follows:

• Each Mill = 1 influence
• Each Workshop = 1 influence
• Each Barracks = 2 influence

Unraided Fortresses

Important Rule: Any completed Islands with an unraided Fortress do not score points for Island Control. You must remove the enemy Fortresses in order to control the Island! However, this does not apply to unraided Settlements (just Fortresses).

New Captains

There are also 2 new Captains with unique end-game scoring bonuses:

• Berserker: Gain 1 additional VP for each Viking Death. For example, if you had 4 Vikings die you would score them as usual, plus score another 4 VP.
• Adventurer: Gain 1 additional VP for each Shipwreck Token still on your Dashboard. For example, if you have 5 Shipwreck Tokens on your Dashboard (including any Gold), you would score 5 VP.