Expo 1906
Expo 1906 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Credits
Designers: Remo Conzadori, Nestore Mangone Artwork: Erebus (Giorgio De Michele) Proofreading: Dave Thorby
Authors wish to thank Stefania Aggazio, Valentina Bria, Luigi Maiolino, Battista Aversa and Giuseppe Zaccaro for their support during development and playtesting.
If you have comments, questions or suggestions, please write us at:
Gotha Games Ltd Unit 201 Room2Spare Great Weston Trade Park Weston Super Mare BS22 8NA UNITED KINGDOM
Or contact us via email at [email protected]
Note: none of us has English as his first language; we made every effort to produce a solid rulebook in plain English and we hope that some inevitable grammar errors will be forgiven.
Components
- 1 Game Board
- 4 personal Lab Boards
- 20 player tokens (4 colors)
- 13 Technology tiles
- 30 Project tiles
- 96 Resource tiles
- 20 Scrap tiles
- 16 Jury tiles
- 4 play order / +30VP tiles
- 24 Action Cards (4 decks)
- 5 enhanced Action Cards
- 6 Bonus VP chits
Game Board
The board presents the following areas:
1. Funding track Your token position on this track indicates how much funds you have available for spending. Money is used to obtain resources, purchase technologies and projects.
2. Prestige track Your token position on this track indicates how many victory points (VP) you currently have. The winner is the player who has the most victory point at the end of the game.
3. Academy Available Projects and Technologies are placed in this area. During the game you will acquire Projects that you intend to display at the Expo and Technologies that will speed up your completion of those Projects.
4. Train Station Resource tiles are placed in this area. Each box can accommodate one resource and the total number of resources placed depends on the number of players as indicated on the board. Resources are necessary to complete Projects.
5. The Jury The Jury committee will evaluate inventions exhibited during the Universal Exposition. At the end of the game it indicates a preference between Steam or Electricity powered projects.
The table of the Jury has 12 spaces, 2 are filled at the beginning of the game. The players can influence the Jury by putting tiles in these spaces.
Note: the term Steam is used to indicate steam power as well as any system that converts heat or thermal energy to mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work.
6. Patents Office Track The Patents Office is used to track players' progress in publishing inventions and is split into six key advancement lines:
- Materials Engineering: Steel or Copper
- Labour Process: Manual or Automated
- Scientific Methodology: Scientific or Empirical
During the game players will compete to be the recognised leaders in their chosen resource lines with the double goal of scoring more VPs with completed projects as well as scoring bonus VPs at the game end.
Laboratory Board
Each player is equipped with a laboratory board (Lab). Here players will place Projects, Technologies and Resources in the attempt to complete more and better Projects than their opponents.
Initially each laboratory is occupied by Scrap tiles representing leftovers from previous unsuccessful Projects and players will have either to remove them or build their Projects around them.
Tiles
There are five different types of tiles in the game: Resources, Projects, Technologies, Scrap and Jury tiles.
Resources The resources in the game are Steel bars, Copper bars, Human labour, Automated machines, Empirical research, Scientific research, Steam and Electrical power. Each tile comes with two types of resources with two sides offering 2 resources of that type and two sides offering 1 resource of that type.
Projects Projects come in five different shapes: L-shape, T-shape, S-shape, I-shape and square-shape. Each project always requires four different types of resources to be completed in different quantities and mix. When completed, a Project provides the VPs printed on it.
Technologies There are two different types of Technology tiles: Resource technologies that offer a discount on the number of resources of the indicated types necessary to complete a project and Improvement technologies that enhance the effect of players' actions during the game.
Scrap Scrap tiles are placed on the player's laboratory board at the beginning of a game and can only be removed with a Laboratory action.
Jury Jury tiles are randomly drawn or chosen by the active player at the end of a game round. A Jury tile could be either Steam or Electricity.
Goal of the Game
Players will win by totalling more VPs at the end of the game than their opponents. VPs are acquired by completing Projects and by advancing on the Patents Office. To complete a Project, a player must spend money to purchase Resources and Projects and then place them in proper combinations in his Laboratory. To speed up the completion of a Project players can acquire Technologies, but this will require careful management of the available space in their Laboratory. VPs can also be scored by advancing towards the bottom of the Patents Office and by achieving certain bonus conditions.
Set Up
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Place the game board in the center of the table.
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Shuffle and organise the Resource tiles and the Jury tiles face down in stacks so to make easier during the game to draw these tiles. Place the required number of Resource tiles (3 in a solo game, 6 in a 2 players game, 9 in a 3 players game and 12 in a 4 players game), one tile face up on each box, in the Train Station area of the game board.
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Sort out the Project tiles by the different shapes, shuffle and organise them in separate piles and place one Project tile in each corresponding slot of the Academy area of the game board. In the same Academy area place all Technology tiles.
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Choose the play order randomly using the provided play order tiles and proceed clockwise.
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Starting with the first player, each one takes the laboratory board together with a deck of six action cards and five tokens of his chosen colour. Three tokens must be placed in the leftmost area of the Patents Office (step 1), one must be placed at the beginning of the Prestige track in the position corresponding to the zero value and the last remaining token must be placed on the Funding track: the first player is placed on the $3 position, the second player on the $4 position, the third player on the $5 position and the fourth player on the $6 position.
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Each player takes 5 scrap tiles and places them where indicated in his laboratory.
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Draw two Jury tiles and put them face up in the first two slots of the jury table.
Now the game is on and the first player can take his first turn in the first game round.
How to Play a Game Round
The game lasts at maximum ten rounds. Each player can play more turns in the same round. Players alternate in clockwise order with everyone taking one turn until the round is over.
The round ends when a player uses the card "Meeting room".
Player Turn
During his turn, the player must play one action card from his hand and put it face up in front of him. He completes the action shown (see list of available actions below) and then passes the turn to the player to his left.
Important! A player cannot play the same card that the player immediately to his right has played in his turn! It is not allowed to play the Meeting Room in any player's first turn of the round!
Available Actions
Train Station You can buy up to 3 Resource tiles from the Train Station area of the game board by paying $1 for the first tile, $2 for the second tile and $3 for the third tile. Acquired Resources are placed in front of you, visible to everyone else.
Academy You can purchase either one of the Project tiles or one Technology tile available in the Academy by spending $2. The acquired tile must be placed in front of you, visible to everyone else.
Laboratory You can place up to 3 tiles from your player area (Projects, Resources, Technologies) into your laboratory or remove up to 3 tiles from your laboratory (Projects, Resources, Technologies, Scrap). Mixed combinations are possible i.e. you can remove one tile from your lab and transfer 2 tiles from your player area into the lab. Removed tiles are discarded. Scrap tiles can only be removed.
Journal Advance your tokens on the Patents Office of 3 steps in total. Mixed combinations are possible i.e. you can advance one of your tokens 1 step on the Automated line and another token of yours by 2 steps on the Steel line.
Skyscraper Increase your funding by $4 on the funding track.
Meeting Room You trigger the termination of the current game round and choose two different actions to take among the followings:
- Reposition (move and rotate) up to 3 tiles (Projects, Resources, Technologies) in your lab. A tile cannot be repositioned if this causes a Complete Project to become incomplete.
- Increase by $1 your funding.
- Advance one of your tokens of one step on the Patents Office.
- Choose a jury tile and place it face up in the jury table.
After having completed the two chosen actions, a re-organisation phase takes place.
Projects and Resources
You acquire a Project by playing Academy and decreasing your funding by $2.
You acquire Resources by playing Train Station. Cost varies depending on how many tiles you buy.
When playing the action Laboratory you can place Project and Resource tiles on empty spaces in your lab.
Project tiles always occupy 4 spaces but come in different shapes and must be efficiently accommodated in the lab.
Resource tiles occupy only one space in the lab. Each resource tile is divided diagonally offering two different types of resources alongside two sides each. When in contact with a Project, a Resource tile provides the adjacent resource type to the Project. Properly rotated a Resource tile can provide two different resource types to one project or the same type of resource to two different projects.
The resource tile in the picture provides 2 empirical research resources to the Cellophane project but not copper. The copper resource in fact is not adjacent to it.
After rotation, the resource tile now provides the 2 empirical research resources as well as the copper resource to the Cellophane project.
A project is considered completed when there are a sufficient number of resources of the required type adjacent to it. Only lateral adjacency counts. Diagonal connections are not valid.
Example
To invent Cellophane you will need to place in contact with this Project 2 empirical research, 2 automated labour, 1 copper and 2 Steam power resources. By properly rotating tile A the player was able to provide 1 copper and 2 empirical research resources. Tile B provides the 2 required automation resources while the remaining Electricity resource serves the Telephone project that he has just started. Tile C provides the 2 needed Steam resources. Cellophane has been invented and will be on display at the Expo. The remaining scientific research resource on tile C is useless at the moment. The Telephone project will need more resources placed in the lab before it can be completed.
Technologies
You acquire a Technology by playing Academy and decreasing your funding by $2. You can choose any of the still available Technology tiles in the Academy.
When playing the action Laboratory you can place Technology tiles on empty spaces in your lab. The Technology will give its benefit only after being placed in your lab. Technology tiles occupy 4 spaces in the lab.
There are two different types of Technology tiles:
- Resource technologies that offer two resources of two different types to all projects connected to them or, in case of Combustion Engines and Batteries, four resources of one type all to projects connected to them.
- Improvement technologies that enhance the effect of players' actions during the game. When placed in the lab, such technology allows you to immediately replace the corresponding Action card with its Improved version. If the relevant action card is in your hand, replace the card in your hand, if the Action card had already been played, replace the corresponding card on the table. The old card is discarded.
Example
The Combustion Engines technology provides 4 steam resources to any project in contact with it - in this case to the Cellophane and Laparoscope projects which are now fully satisfied in terms of Steam resources. The Train Station Improvement technology provides the Improved Train Station card. It is irrelevant if this technology is in contact with a Project or not.
The Cellophane project is almost complete – it only needs 2 automation resources. The Laparoscope project will take more time instead – it still needs 1 empirical research, 2 automated labour and 2 copper resources before being completed.
Note that Combustion Engines provides 4 steam resources to each project adjacent to it. This may seem excessive as no project requires 4 resources of one single type, but is justified by a future expansion which makes full use of this technology.
Improved Action Cards
Improved Train Station You can buy up to 3 Resource tiles from the Train Station area of the game board by paying $1 for the first tile, $1 for the second tile and $2 for the third tile.
Improved Academy You can purchase one Project tile or one Technology tile by spending $2. When you play this action you receive a free resource tile from the Train Station.
Improved Laboratory You can place/remove up to 4 tiles into your laboratory.
Improved Journal Advance your tokens on the Patents Office of 4 steps in total. Pay $1 less when jumping between technologies.
Improved Skyscraper Increase your funding by $6.
Patents Office
The Patents Office represents the progress in publishing articles and patents on the official gazette!
There are 6 of the 8 resources of the game represented on the track:
- Materials Engineering: Steel or Copper
- Labour Process: Manual or Automated
- Scientific Methodology: Empirical or Scientific
Tokens at the beginning of the game are in the common box on the left of the Patents Office (step 1). From here, tokens are moved along the track through the Journal or the Meeting Room actions.
Movement Rules
Each rightward token movement costs 1 movement point. Journal provides 3 movement points (4 with the Improved Journal action) and Meeting Room (optionally) provides 1 movement point. When advancing along a tree line and reaching a slot where another token is placed, the newly arrived one is placed at the bottom of the stack. Backward movement is not permitted. Movement between adjacent technology lines is only possible in some places as highlighted on the board and usually require one movement point as well as spending the indicated amount of money. This is the only way players can jump from one branch line to another. Players can make multiple jumps between technology lines if they have enough money and movement points to cover the costs.
The player with the token farthest right in each track line is the recognised leader in that resource type. In case more tokens are in the same space, the token on the top of the stack is the leader.
Being the leader in one resource provides additional VPs. Each time a player completes a Project, he scores one additional VP for each type of resource of that project where he is the leader.
Example
Green player has completed the Cellophane project using Empirical research, Automated labour, Copper and Steam power resources. In the Patents Office he is the leader in Automated labour and Copper. He scores 3VP for the project plus 1VP for his leadership in Automated labour and 1VP for his leadership in Copper. A total of 5VP.
The first player who manages to bring a token to the very last slot of a track line (step 10) can choose one Bonus VP disc to be placed there.
At the end of the game, players score additional VPs depending on the final position of each player token on the Patents Office. Tokens in steps from 8 to 9 provide 1 VP each. Token in the last step of the Patents Office provide as many VPs as indicated on the VP Bonus chit.
Example
At the end of a four player game we have the situation shown in the image.
The Green player will get the bonus points due to both the "Paris 1900" chit and the "Liege 1905" chit. Note that the green player chose not to move one of his tokens from its starting position in step 1.
The Blue player will get the points due to the "Milan 1906" chit. Unfortunately his other tokens will not earn him any point.
The Red player will get the bonus point due to the "Milan 1906" chit and one more point for the token in the "8" position of the track. The blue token in the "Milan 1906" space does not prevent the Red player from earning the bonus points.
The Yellow player, instead, will only earn one bonus point thanks to the token in step 9 of the track. Clearly he chose not to concentrate on the Patents Office.
Re-organisation Phase
This is done at the end of each round after a player has played a Meeting Room card:
If the player using the Meeting Room did not choose a Jury tile then draw one tile randomly and put it face up on the Jury table of the game board.
Any Project tile left in the Academy area NOT using the power system indicated in the Jury tile just drawn (or just chosen by the player playing the Meeting Room action card) is placed at the bottom of the corresponding stack. Afterwards every empty slot in the Academy area is filled with the corresponding Project shape at the top of the stack. If there are no projects of one type left the corresponding slot in the Academy Area is left empty.
Now discard any Resource tile left in the Train Station area on the game board, draw and place in this area the required number of new Resource tiles, according to the number of players, one tile face up on each box. If you run out of Resource tiles, shuffle the discarded ones and form a new stack.
Each player takes back in his hand the complete deck of his Action cards.
After the re-organisation is complete, a new round begins and the next player to play takes his turn.
Example
The Red player just played the Meeting Room action card choosing to get $1 funding and to move one of his tokens on the Patents Office. Since he did not select a Jury tile, one is drawn randomly now. A Steam tile is drawn and placed in an empty box of the Jury part of the board.
There are still three project tiles in the Academy. The square-shape "Cruise Ship" (Steam based), the I-shape "Electrocardiograph" (Electricity based) and the L-shape "Synthetic Rubber" (Electricity based). Since the Jury tile just selected is Steam, the "Electrocardiograph" and the "Synthetic Rubber" projects are placed at the bottom of their corresponding stacks (red lines). The "Cruise Ship", being a Steam based project, remains in the Academy.
Then the empty slots in the Academy (all except the square-shape) are filled with a project of the corresponding shape (blue lines).
If there are still resource tiles in the Train Station, then these are discarded and the Train Station is filled again with new resource tiles. Finally, all the players get back their set of Action Cards. Now a new round begins: it is the turn of the player next to the Red player.
End of the Game and Scoring
During the Game
When completing a Project, the player immediately gains the VP points indicated on the Project tile plus 1 VP for each type of resource included in the project where he is the leader. The scored VPs are added to those already indicated in the Prestige track of the game board.
End of the Game and Final Scoring
The game ends in one of the following cases:
- After 10 rounds, when all the jury boxes are filled.
- When all branches of the Patents Office track have been completed (at least one token is placed on the last step 10 of each branch).
- When a player completes his fifth project.
Each player, except the one who finished the game, can now play his last action using one of the cards left in his hand with the exception of the Meeting Room. The restriction of not to play the same card that the player immediately to his right has played in his turn is waived in this final turn.
After all players have finished, each player scores:
- 2VP for each completed project using the power source with the most Jury tiles on the board. If the Jury table presents the same number of Steam and Electricity tiles than none scores points.
- 1VP for each token in the "8" and "9" positions of the Patents Office track.
- As many VPs as indicated on the VP Bonus chit if they managed to bring a token on the corresponding step 10 of the Patents Office.
The winner is the player with the most Prestige points (VP). In case of a tie the player who has more funding is the winner, otherwise the game is a draw.
Example
The game has ended and the Jury area of the board presents 7 Steam tiles and 5 Electricity tiles. The Patents office final situation is the one described in the example above. Before the bonus point distribution the Prestige standing is: Green 17 points, Blue 24 points, Red 21 points and Yellow 21 points.
Green and Red get 4 points each as they have two completed steam based projects, Blue has only one completed steam project and scores 2 points and Yellow scores a good 8 points for his four steam based projects.
Then the Patents Office tokens positions are scored.
The Green player gets 4 points for his token on the "Paris 1900" bonus chit (having two technology tiles on his Lab) and additional 3 points for his token on the "Liege 1905" chit. His final standing is 28 prestige points.
The Blue player gets 3 points for his token on the "Milan 1906" chit (having three different project shapes tiles on his Lab). His final standing is 29 Prestige points.
The Red player gets 5 points for his token on the "Milan 1906" chit (having all five different project shapes tiles on his Lab) and 1 more point for his token in the "8" position of the Copper branch of the Patents Office. His final standing is 31 Prestige points.
Finally, the Yellow player gets only 1 point for his token in the "9" position of the Steel branch of the Patents Office. His final standing is 30 Prestige points.
Therefore the winner of this close match is the Red player with 31 points.
| Current standing | Jury VPs | Patents office | Final score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 17 VP | +4 | +4 +3 | 28 VP |
| Blue | 24 VP | +2 | +3 | 29 VP |
| Red | 21 VP | +4 | +5 +1 | 31 VP |
| Yellow | 21 VP | +8 | +1 | 30 VP |
Let's Recap. How Do You Win?
You win by totalling more VPs than your opponents.
During the game you accumulate VPs by completing projects and being the leader in the corresponding branches of the Patents Office track at the time when your projects are completed.
At the end of the game you score additional VPs by having completed projects using the power source selected by the Jury and by having your tokens positioned at the rightmost positions of the Patents Office.
Miscellaneous Rules
Tiles cannot be placed on top of others and, once placed, tiles in the laboratory cannot be freely moved. You have to use the action Laboratory to remove tiles from your laboratory or, alternatively, the action Meeting Room to move or rotate tiles in the lab (but not Scrap tiles).
Removed resources tiles are discarded and may eventually re-enter the game if there are not enough tiles left to fill the Train Station area at the beginning of a game round. Removed project tiles are placed at the bottom of their corresponding stack, besides the Academy. Removed technology tiles go back in the Academy and may eventually be acquired again.
If you play the Laboratory action and discard an Improvement technology, you immediately replace the corresponding Action card with its basic version. If the relevant Action card is in your hand, replace the card in your hand, if the Action card had already been played, replace the corresponding card on the table. The Improvement technology goes back to the Academy area.
When you place, move, remove or rotate tiles you do it in sequence, tile by tile. If at the end of a movement, removal or rotation of a tile, a previously completed project would then become incomplete you cannot perform that movement, removal or rotation.
It is not mandatory to do the action chosen if it is not in the interest of the player (example: if you play Academy you are not obliged to purchase a Project or a Technology).
You cannot examine the Action Cards put in front of other players.
The Prestige track should be considered unlimited. If you score more VPs than indicated, the additional VPs are not lost. Use the +30VP chit on the pack of the player order tile as a reminder that you have reached the end track and track the additional points.
The Funding track instead is limited. You cannot have more than $12 funding. Any additional money is lost.
Two Players Game
In a two players game you place six tokens of the colours not chosen by the players on the leftmost part of the Patents Office (step 1), one token per branch. These are called Ghost tokens.
When the Journal action is played, before the player can move his tokens on the track, the following takes place:
- randomly draw two resource tiles from the stack of Resource tiles;
- advance the Ghost tokens corresponding to the indicated Resources by as many spaces on the track as the number of resources on the tiles (the Ghost tokens ignore any Steam or Electricity resource on the tiles);
- discard the resource tiles just drawn.
If a ghost token is the first to reach the rightmost space of a branch of the Patents Office (step 10), a bonus VP chit is drawn randomly and placed in that space.
Example
Bob has played the Journal action. He immediately draws two Resource tiles. The first one indicates 2 Manual labour and 1 Electricity; the second one indicates 2 Steam and 1 Steel resources. Bob moves the Ghost token on the Manual labour branch rightward by two spaces and then he moves the Ghost token on the Steel branch by one space.
Solo Game
In a solo game you use the same rules for Ghost tokens as in the two players game with the only difference that when the Journal action is played three resource tiles are drawn from the stack of Resource tiles.
Additionally in a solo game you form at the beginning of each round a Ghost deck by shuffling two decks of Action cards in colours different from your own and by removing one of the two Meeting Rooms in it. The Ghost deck will therefore have 11 cards in total: 2 each of Academy, Journal, Train Station, Laboratory, Skyscraper and 1 Meeting Room.
The player begins with 4 funding points and the game starts with the player drawing one card from the Ghost deck and proceeds with the player alternating the play of one of his Action Cards and the draw of one card from the Ghost deck. In accordance with the game rules, the player cannot play the same Action card just drawn from the Ghost deck. Similarly, if the same Action card just played from you is drawn from the Ghost deck, draw another card.
If the Meeting Room is drawn as the first card in a round, reshuffle the deck and draw again. At any time the Meeting Room is drawn from the Ghost deck the current game round is over and a re-organisation phase takes place (in this case a Jury tile is drawn randomly).
In a solo game you played well if you score more than 30VP.
Novice Players
In order to help inexperienced players, do this:
- Fresher: at the start of the game, put two randomly drawn resource tiles in place of two chosen Scrap tiles on the player's Lab (only three scrap tiles are used by this player);
- New Graduate: at the start of the game, put one randomly drawn resource tile in place of a chosen Scrap tile on the player's Lab (only four scrap tiles are used by this player);
- Scientist: normal play.
Bonus VP Chits
Tour Eiffel - Paris 1889 After scoring everything, you score additionally 1 VP for each 8 Prestige point accumulated rounded up (e.g. you have scored 22 VP, then you get additional 3 VP).
Ferris Wheel - Chicago 1893 You score 1 VP for each $2 you have in funding, rounded up (e.g. $5 provides 3 VP).
Paleis der Koloniën - Brussels 1897 You score 1 VP for each scrap tile removed and the corresponding square covered by another tile in the lab.
Paris Metro - Paris 1900 You score 2 VP for each technology tile in your lab. Max 6 VP are allowed with this bonus.
Palais de Beaux Arts - Liege 1905 You score 3 VP at the end of the game.
Simplon Tunnel - Milan 1906 You score 1 VP for each different shape of Projects placed in your lab. Projects do not need to be completed. (e.g. you have 1 T-project incomplete, 2 S-projects, one complete and one incomplete, 1 Square-project, you score 3 VP.)
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