For the Crown (Second Edition): Variant – All the King's Men
For the Crown (Second Edition): Variant – All the King's Men Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
This variant pack requires that you own a copy of For the Crown. It provides extra copies of basic cards and unit counters from For the Crown so that you can play two new game variants: the extended game and the team game. The extra cards are not used when playing under the original rules (though the extra unit counters can be used if you run out).
This variant pack also adds three new alternative starter cards (see 11.1): Conscript, Watchman, and Advisor. Conscript can be used to replace a Peon in both players' starting Decks, while Watchman and Advisor can each be used to replace a Guard in both players' starting Decks. They can be used individually or in combination.
Finally, a new shield counter is also included. This counter is used in the team game variant, but can also be used in normal play to mark units that are temporarily immune to capture, e.g. as a result of playing the Armor or Wish cards.
To identify cards in this variant, a shield icon is located on the top left corner of each card.
Extended Game
The extended game is a variant that uses extra cards to reduce how often any single card can be played, increasing the time required to obtain expensive cards and making units more important relative to cards.
Recall that in a normal game, each player starts with 6 Peon and 4 Guard cards, and the Supply contains 10 stacks of variable cards.
For a slightly extended game, add 3 extra stacks of variable cards (for 13 total) and use 50% more of every starter and core card. This means each player starts with 9 Peon and 6 Guard cards in their Deck, and the Supply contains 6 Champion, 12 Clergy, 12 Tower, and 6 Consort.
For an even more extended game, add 6 extra stacks of variable cards (for 16 total) and use 100% more of every starter and core card. This means each player starts with 12 Peon and 8 Guard cards in their Deck, and the Supply contains 8 Champion, 16 Clergy, 16 Tower, and 8 Consort.
All other rules are as normal.
Team Game
The team game is a variant that allows four players to play in a single game, in two teams of two.
Set Up
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Each player sits at a different corner of the board. For this variant, we use the term wing when referring to the left or right edge of the board, and the term side when referring to an edge where someone would sit in a 2-player game; thus, each player is on one of two sides and also on one of two wings, with two players on each side and two on each wing. The two players on the same side are allies and share victory or defeat. Allies may look at each other's Hands.
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Each of the four players constructs a starting Deck as if they were one of the players in a normal game (see 3.0, step 1).
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Create two separate Supply areas, one on the left wing and the other on the right. Each Supply has the usual complement of core cards (4 Champion, 8 Clergy, 8 Tower, and 4 Consort) and 10 stacks of variable cards; choose different variable cards for each Supply.
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Place Kings on the board in their usual starting squares.
Notice that this set up involves twice the normal number of cards, but only the normal number of Kings (2 total; 1 for each side).
If playing with alternative starter cards (see 11.1), it will not be possible to give the same cards to all 4 players, but both players on a given wing should use the same alternative starter cards.
Sequence Of Play
Players take turns, with play passing in an hourglass-shaped pattern, starting diagonally. Thus, play alternates between the two sides.
For Example: If the northwest player takes the first turn, then the southeast player takes the second turn, followed by the northeast player, and finally the southwest player. This sequence repeats until the victory conditions are met.
Each turn follows the normal turn sequence, with each player using cards from his own Deck. However, players may only buy or gain cards from the Supply on their own wing.
For Example: Continuing the example above, players 1 and 4 will buy from the Supply on the left wing, while players 2 and 3 will buy from the Supply on the right wing.
Unit Control
Except for Sovereign-class units, each player trains and controls their own personal units, separate from their ally. Rotate each player's units to face them in order to keep track of who controls which unit (or use the included plastic tokens, if you prefer).
A player may not issue any orders to his ally's units, nor may he play any card that deploys, marches, attacks with, moves, swaps, morphs, or "chooses" any of his ally's units (that is, anything that would be considered issuing an order if it occurred during the Order Phase—even if it is not occurring during the Order Phase). Allied units do not count as your own units, nor do they count as enemy units (and thus they cannot normally be captured). They can still be affected by cards that do not care about a unit's owner and do not involve any of the aforementioned forbidden operations; e.g. you can capture an allied unit with the Portents card (from the Shock & Awe expansion).
Sovereign units, including the starting Kings and any other Sovereigns acquired during play, are under shared control of both players on a side (no matter which of them, if either, trained the unit). Either ally may issue orders to them or play cards on them as if they owned the unit. However, if a player issues any order to a unit, his partner may not issue an order to the same unit on his following turn. When you issue an order to a Sovereign unit, rotate it to face you until your next turn as a reminder that your ally may not order it; the rest of the time, leave it at a neutral facing between you and your ally to show that either of you may order it.
For Example: Player 1 chooses to march his starting King to e2. Player 3 may not issue any order to that King during his next turn (though he could still play a Guard card to deploy a unit adjacent to it, or could issue an order to a different Sovereign unit if there were one in play). If player 1 does not order the King again on his following turn, then player 3 could issue it an order on the turn after that.
Units owned by either player on the opposite side are considered enemy units, and may be captured or targeted by cards following the normal rules.
Shield Counters
If a player moves an enemy unit with the last order of his turn, place a shield counter on the moved unit. Units with a shield counter cannot be captured.
At the start of a player's turn, remove all shield counters from all of the units he owns.
For Example: Player 1 plays False Orders and marches one of player 4's Pawns. Since this leaves player 1 with no more orders for the turn, he must place a shield counter on the Pawn he marched. This means that player 3 (who goes before player 4) will be unable to capture that unit on his turn.
If player 1 had used False Orders to march one of player 2's units instead, the shield counter would have been removed before player 3's turn, and so player 3 would be able to capture it normally.
This ensures that if a player would have had an opportunity to react to a hostile movement in a 2-player game, they will still have that opportunity before the moved unit is captured. Without this rule, it becomes too easy to capture enemy units with certain cards in ways that would not be possible in a 2-player game.
However, notice that only the moved unit is immune to capture; if moving the unit reveals an attack on a unit that was not moved, your partner can still capitalize on this.
Enemy Cards
Any card effect that targets an opponent's cards affects one opponent of your choice (not both).
For Example: Player 1 plays False Orders for its action effect, forcing the opposing player to reveal the top card of his Deck and giving player 1 the option to trash it. Since this effect affects enemy cards, player 1 chooses either player 2 or player 4 to reveal (and possibly trash) a card; the other opponent is unaffected.
Changed Card
If your copy of For the Crown was printed before All the King's Men was released, your Mourning cards say:
"Attack with your Regal unit. Units adjacent to the Captured unit may not perform Orders next turn."
When playing the Team Game, treat it as if it said:
"Attack with your Regal unit. Units adjacent to the Captured unit may not perform Orders until your next turn."
How To Win
You win at the end of any turn when the enemy side has no Sovereign units on the board.
An individual player is never eliminated from the game before it ends.
Two Games
Using the extra cards and counters in All the King's Men, it is also possible to play two normal games of For the Crown simultaneously if you use both the mounted and paper boards from the boxed version (or if you can scrounge up a second chessboard).
The two games will not be able to use any of the same variable cards or alternative starter cards, and if you choose to use the Heir card you will need extra pieces to substitute for Kings (unless you are using the Alternative Starting Sovereign variant, 11.2), but otherwise both games can set up and play exactly as normal.
Card Effects
The following describes the effects of the new alternative starter cards introduced in All the King's Men.
Advisor (Action): You earn another action and move all the cards currently in your Deck (not your Hand) to your Discard pile. This normally means that you will reshuffle the next time you need to draw a card (usually during your Housekeeping Phase).
Conscript (Action): You earn 1 gold and train a Pawn. The Pawn comes from the Stock and is placed in your Barracks. This does not count as a Training Action (for example, you cannot trash Conscript when you play Destiny) and playing this action does not cause Conscript to be trashed; it will be discarded during your Housekeeping Phase like normal actions.
Watchman (Order): You earn another order and place one of your units into your Barracks. This counts as issuing an order to that unit, so you will not be able to deploy it with another order on the same turn (though you could still deploy it with Executive Action, since that is not an order).
Putting a unit from the board back into your Barracks may seem counter-productive, and often it is, but it can be used to save a unit that otherwise could not avoid capture, or to "reset" a unit that has become trapped in a useless position so that you can try again.