Greedy Kingdoms Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Concept
• Components
• Resource Tokens
  • Resource Icons
  • Card Costs
  • Income
• Hero Cards
• Upgrade Cards
• Game Set-Up
• Game Flow
  • A Game Round
    • 1. Start of Turn and Income (Attacker only)
    • 2. Development (Attacker only)
    • 3. Battle
    • 4. Second Development (Attacker only)
    • 5. Check for Victory
  • Unique Hero Effects
• Full Round Example
• More Greediness! (for 3 & 4 Players)
  • Setup
  • Promote a Hero
  • Game Flow and Turn Order
  • Battle

Game Concept

You are the ruler of a kingdom. Compete with your opponent's Kingdom by playing the Heroes from your hand and acquiring Resources such as "Honor," "Gold," "Food," and "Land." Once you have enough Resources, construct a Royal Palace, a symbol of prestige. Win by building 2 Royal Palaces more quickly than your opponent.

A game by Hayato Kisaragi and Bruno Faidutti, for 2 players, ages 14 and up.

Components

• 18 Starting Hero Cards
• 9 Advanced Hero Cards
• 42 Upgrade Cards
• 17 Buildings
• 17 Citizens
• 8 Magic Items
• 3 Royal Palace Cards
• 48 Resource tokens
  • 12 Gold
  • 12 Food
  • 12 Land
  • 12 Honor
• 1 Rulebook

Resource Tokens

Resource tokens represent the various Resources you will need to develop your Kingdom. There are 4 types of Resources: Honor, Food, Land, and Gold.

Resource Icons

• Honor Resource token.
• Gold Resource token.
• Food Resource token.
• Land Resource token.
• Any Resource token (a wild icon that can represent any of the four Resource types).

Card Costs

The left banner (marked "-") on a Hero card shows the Cost you must pay if you want to collect Income after a successful attack by this Hero. Paying a Cost means returning the specified number of Resource tokens from your Kingdom to the bank.

Income

The right banner (marked "+") shows the Income you receive if this Hero successfully attacks your opponent. Receiving Income means taking the specified number of Resource tokens from the bank and adding them to your Kingdom.

Hero Cards

These cards represent the loyal subjects of your Kingdom, which you may send to attack your rival. There are Starting Heroes and Advanced Heroes.

A Hero card shows:

1. Cost
2. Income
3. Starting Hero Type Icon
4. Advanced Hero Type Icon
5. Card Name
6. Advanced Card Stats
7. Starting Card Stats

For example, the Starting Hero Knight upgrades to the Advanced Hero Master of Arms, and the Master of Arms in turn shows that it upgrades from the Knight.

Upgrade Cards

Upgrade cards produce various effects in your Kingdom and encourage its development. There are 3 types of Upgrade cards: Citizens, Buildings, and Magic Items.

An Upgrade card shows:

1. Cost
2. Income
3. Card Type Icon
4. Attack/Defend Icon
5. Card Title
6. Card Ability

For example:

• Farmer (Citizen Upgrade).
• Temple (Building Upgrade): At the beginning of your turn as the attacker, you receive 1 Honor from the bank.
• Mysterious Watch (Magic Item Upgrade): Use and discard after both players reveal their Heroes during a battle: Both players return their Heroes to their hands; then restart the Battle Step from the beginning.

Game Set-Up

1. Each player takes 1 set of 9 different Starting Heroes.
2. Randomly choose a player to be the first attacker. The first attacker takes 1 Food OR 1 Gold, placing it in front of them to begin their "Kingdom." The other player will be the first defender, and gets 1 Food AND 1 Gold.
3. Shuffle the 9 Advanced Hero cards and place them to the side in a face-down draw pile.
4. Sort the rest of the Resource tokens and place them in four separate piles next to the Advanced Hero Cards to form the "bank."
5. Place the 3 Royal Palaces in a pile.
6. Shuffle the other Upgrade cards to create the Upgrade deck. Turn over the top five cards from the deck and place them on the table near the Royal Palace cards to create the "Upgrade Market."

Game Flow

• Each round, one player is the attacker and their opponent is the defender, with players switching roles after every round.
• The goal of the game is to build 2 Royal Palaces. The first player to build their second palace wins the game!

A Game Round

1. Start of Turn and Income (Attacker only)

• Turn over cards from the Upgrade deck until there are five cards in the Upgrade Market (in addition to the Royal Palaces).
• The attacker gets the extra Income given by any "start of turn" effects on his or her Building Upgrades (note that the players won't receive any extra Income on their first turn since they don't have any Buildings yet!).

2. Development (Attacker only)

In this step, the attacker can either Obtain an Upgrade or Promote a Hero or Pass, following the steps for his or her choice, below:

Obtain an Upgrade

The attacker chooses 1 Upgrade from the Upgrade Market and pays its Cost to the bank:

• Citizen Upgrades have an instant effect, then they are removed from the game. If the Upgrade shows in Income, take those Resources from the bank, then follow any instructions on the card.
• Magic Item Upgrades are kept face-up in the player's Kingdom to be used later in the game. They are removed from the game when used. There is no additional Cost to use a Magic Item once it has been purchased.
• Building Upgrades are kept face-up in the player's Kingdom and have permanent effects (A Royal Palace is a Building upgrade that has no game effects, but you need them to win the game!).

Promote a Hero

The attacker pays any 2 Resource tokens of their choice to the bank, then draws the top card from the Advanced Hero deck.

The attacker adds the Advanced Hero card to their hand and removes the matching Starting Hero, which is placed face up in their Kingdom. That way, every player knows which Advanced Heroes their opponent owns.

Pass

The attacker may decide not to perform any development action.

3. Battle

Play Cards

The attacker chooses exactly 3 of their 9 Hero Cards (Starting or Advanced) and plays them, face down, in front of them. These are the attacking Heroes.

The defender also chooses exactly 3 of their Hero Cards (Starting or Advanced) and plays them, face down, in front of them. These are the defending Heroes.

Reveal the Cards

The attacker and the defender both reveal the cards they played.

Resolve the Attack

Each defending Hero blocks 1 attacking Hero if they both have the same Hero Type Icon (the symbol in the upper right corner). If a Hero is blocked, it has no further effect on the battle.

Advanced Heroes can be blocked by Starting Heroes with the matching icon, and vice versa.

The attacker may now use any or all of the unblocked Heroes. To use a Hero, the attacker must pay the full Cost (in the card Cost banner "-"). If the Cost is paid, the attacker receives the full Income from the Hero (in the Income "+" banner and, for the Cook, applies its other effect). The Income from 1 Hero can be used to pay another Hero's Cost.

Any Hero the attacker does not want to (or cannot) pay for is ignored and has no further effect on the battle.

The defender never has to pay for the defending Heroes, whether their block is successful or not.

Take Hero Cards Back in Hand

Both the attacker and the defender take all of their Hero Cards back into their hands.

4. Second Development (Attacker only)

The Attacker has a second Development step that follows all the same rules as Step 2.

5. Check for Victory

At the end of the round, if the attacker has not built a second Royal Palace, switch attacker and defender roles and the new attacker begins the next round. If the attacker has built a second Royal Palace, the game ends and they win the game.

Unique Hero Effects

Thief and Burglar: The Thief allows the attacker to steal 1 Resource of their choice from the defender. The Burglar similarly steals 2 Resources.

Cook and Court Cook: In addition to the Resources they receive, the Cook allows the player to place 1 of the Upgrades from the Market at the bottom of the deck and replace it with the top card from the deck. The Court Cook similarly allows the attacker to replace 2 Upgrades.

Full Round Example

In this example, Ludwig is the attacker and Ingrid is the defender.

Step 1: Start of Round and Income.

Earlier in the game, Ludwig purchased a Farm, so he starts his turn by receiving 1 Food from the bank.

Step 2: Development

Thanks to his Farm, Ludwig now has 1 Food in addition to the 2 Honor and 1 Gold he had before. Now he has a choice:

1. He could spend the 1 Gold to purchase the Port in the Upgrade Market and add it to his Kingdom; or
2. He could spend two of his Resources to Promote 1 of his Heroes.

Ludwig decides that a stronger Hero would be more valuable, so he pays both of his Honor to the bank and draws the top card from the Advanced Heroes deck: it's the Master of Arms. Ludwig puts the Master of Arms into his hand, replacing his Knight, which he must place face up in front of him.

Step 3: Battle

Now it's time for Ludwig to attack Ingrid.

1. Ludwig secretly chooses 3 Heroes from his hand: his new Master of Arms, Traveler, and Bandit.
2. At the same time, Ingrid chooses 3 Heroes to defend: her Knight, Baron, and Cook.
3. Ingrid's Knight blocks Ludwig's Master of Arms, but the other attacking Heroes get past the defenders.
4. Ludwig decides to pay the Cost for his Traveler, receiving 1 Honor and 1 Land from the bank. He doesn't want to pay his Bandit's Cost, so it has no effect.
5. Now that the battle is over, all 6 Heroes return to their owner's hands.

Step 4: Development

Ludwig now has 1 Honor and 1 Land from the battle, and he gets to use them now.

He'd love to purchase a Royal Palace, but he doesn't have the Resources for it. Instead, he decides to purchase the Scholar from the Upgrade Market, paying his 1 Honor to the bank.

The Scholar has an instant effect, so Ludwig immediately receives 1 Gold from the bank and promotes a Starting Hero for free, then discards the Scholar from the game.

Since Ludwig doesn't have 2 Royal Palaces, the game isn't over yet.

Ingrid becomes the attacker now and gets her chance for revenge!

More Greediness! (for 3 & 4 Players)

If you have two sets of Greedy Kingdoms, you can play with 3 or 4 players with the following rule changes:

Setup

• Each player gets a set of Starting Heroes. The two sets of Advanced Heroes are shuffled together into one common deck.
• Only 1 Upgrade deck is used, removing the University.
• 5 Royal Palaces are used.

3 Players

With 3 players, the starting Resource allotment is:

• Player 1: 1 Food OR 1 Gold
• Player 2: 1 Food AND 1 Gold
• Player 3: 1 Food AND 1 Land

4 Players

With 4 players, the starting Resource allotment is:

• Player 1: 1 Gold
• Player 2: 1 Food AND 1 Gold
• Player 3: 1 Food AND 1 Land
• Player 4: 1 Gold AND 1 Land

Promote a Hero

When Promoting a Hero, if a player gets an Advanced Hero they already have, they draw again until they get one they don't already have. Discarded Heroes are then shuffled again with the remaining Advanced Heroes.

Game Flow and Turn Order

Game goes clockwise, each player in turn attacking the player to their left, until all players have had a turn. When all players but one have built their first Royal Palace, the game keeps going in the same clockwise order, but each player now attacks the player to their right.

Battle

Battle step takes place as follows:

1. Both attacker and defender play their Hero Cards, face down.
2. The attacker reveals their Hero Cards.
3. Each player not involved in the battle, in turn order, may bet 1 Resource of their choice on the side of the attacker or the defender.
4. The defender reveals their Hero Cards.
5. Resolve attack success.
   • Successful Attack: If none or only 1 attacking Hero is blocked, the attack is considered a success. Players who bid on the attacker get their bid Resource back, and win another Resource of the same type from the bank. Resources bid on the defender are lost to the bank.
   • Failed Attack: If 2 or 3 of the attacking Heroes are blocked, the attack is considered a failure. Players who bid on the defender get their bid Resource back, and win another Resource of the same type from the bank. Resources bid on the attacker are lost to the bank.
6. Attacks are resolved normally.