Imperial Settlers: We Didn't Start The Fire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Formats of Play
  • Open
  • Standard
  • Building a Faction Deck
  • Playing with Other Expansions
    • Playing with Atlanteans/Aztecs
• New Rules and Card Types
  • Building Locations
  • Conquest
  • Defense Tokens
    • Japanese Faction
  • Fortresses
  • Siege
• Cards Clarifications
  • The Japanese
  • The Romans
  • The Barbarians
  • The Egyptians
• Single Player Game
  • Round Order
  • Conquering Virtual Player's Locations
  • Virtual Player Attack Phase
  • Conquest Order
  • Building a Virtual Player's Deck

Contents

55 cards: 10 Barbarian cards, 10 Roman cards, 10 Japanese cards, 10 Egyptian cards, 12 Common cards, 3 Conquest cards for virtual player.

Formats of Play

The following two formats describe rules for deck construction.

Open

You may mix any Common and Faction cards from any expansions with the corresponding cards from the Imperial Settlers base game. Have fun, but remember that a deck constructed this way might not ensure balanced play.

Standard

This is the only format allowed in tournaments. Common cards come only from the base game. To build your Faction deck, you may mix the Faction cards from the Imperial Settlers base game with the Faction cards from exactly 1 expansion.

Building a Faction Deck

For each card from the chosen expansion that you add, you need to remove from your deck a card from the base game. Your Faction deck must consist of exactly 30 cards, 3 of which come in 3 copies (a total of 9), 6 come in 2 copies (a total of 12), and the remaining 9 are single cards. Icons found in the bottom right corner of a card's artwork tell you how many copies of this card you need to have in your deck.

Editor's note: the copy-count icons in the source are three rows of one, two and three symbols, one row per copy count (1, 2 and 3 copies), as shown in the printed rules.

For example, if you wish to use an expansion card with the 3-copy icon, you must use all 3 copies of this card, and you need to remove from your deck one set of 3 copies of a base game card.

Playing with Other Expansions

If using the "We Didn't Start the Fire" expansion, you are playing against the faction(s) built using a different expansion, other players have to follow the new Location building rules. Siege and Conquest actions are available for every faction. All the new rules will be explained later.

Playing with Atlanteans/Aztecs

Atlanteans and Aztecs are relatively peaceful factions and are not recommended when playing with this expansion.

New Rules and Card Types

This expansion introduces Conquest – new action type letting you capture the other players' Faction Locations and using them for the greater glory of your Empire! Think twice about which order you will build your Locations in, keeping the most valuable ones far from your opponents and Produce as many Raze tokens as you can to counterattack successfully!

Building Locations

Faction Location placement in the appropriate row has a direct influence on the Conquest difficulty for other players (as described in paragraph below). As always, you place them to the left of the Faction board and in the appropriate row. But this time you always place the new Location on the left of the Location previously built in this row. More importantly, you cannot change the placement of any of your Locations during the game, unless specifically instructed to do so.

Example: You play the Roman Faction. You haven't built a Faction Location yet. You want to build the Administration. After paying the cost, you place it on the left of your Faction board. As the next action you want to build the Roman Fortress – this time you have to place it on the left of the Administration Location. When building the next Administration, you will place it on the left of the Roman Fortress and so on.

Conquest

Conquest is a new type of Action, enabling you to capture an opponent's Faction Locations. To Conquer a Faction Location, you have to:

1. Choose a Location you want to Conquer.
2. Pay the appropriate cost in Raze tokens, depending on the position of the target Location in the row. Conquering the left most Location needs spending 2 Raze tokens, next one cost 3 Raze tokens and so on.

Example: You have 3 Production Locations, starting from left to right: Pyramid, Caravan, Bast's altar. To Conquer your Pyramid, your opponent has to spend 2 Raze tokens, to Conquer Caravan – 3 Raze tokens and for Bast's altar – 4 Raze tokens.

Note: Your opponent has to spend an extra Raze token when trying to Conquer the Faction Location with the Defense token printed or placed on it (it doesn't affect the cost of the Locations placed further on the right).

Example: You have 3 Feature Locations, looking from left to right: Fortress, Bravest Ruffians, Temple. To Conquer a Location, your opponent has to spend accordingly: 2 Raze tokens, 4 Raze tokens, 4 Raze tokens.

3. Remove ALL the Goods from the Conquered Location.
4. Take the Conquered Location from the other player's Empire and place it in the appropriate row, topmost right space (just on the left of your Faction board).
5. If it is a Production/Feature Location, gain produced Goods/use the Feature ability if possible. Note: you don't receive the Building bonus, since the Conquest isn't a Building action.
6. The previous owner of the Conquered Location gains 1 Worker from the supply.

Defense Tokens

This expansion allows you to place Defense tokens on Faction Locations (unless they have a Defense token symbol printed on them). It protects the chosen Location – increasing by 1 the number of Raze tokens required to Conquer the protected Location.

Japanese Faction

Japanese Faction Locations with the Raze field still can be Razed regardless of the Empire they are in. But only the Japanese player can deploy Samurai on them. To Conquer a Location with Samurai you have to spend 1 extra Raze token. You cannot deploy a Samurai on a Location with a Defense token and vice versa.

Note: You can't Raze Faction Locations conquered by the Japanese Faction unless they have a Raze field.

Fortresses

Fortresses are unique Locations that allow players to build Fortifications, providing extra Victory Points. Fortresses are immune to all negative effects in the game apart from the Siege Action (e.g. Conquest action, Raze action, Garrison Location ability, Engineers Location ability, Temple of Ra Location ability). They are always placed in the bottom row (Action Locations). You can use the Fortress Action to gain a Fortification – mark it by placing a marker on the current Fortification level on the card (use any marker). Fortifications are not removed during the Cleanup phase.

Siege

This expansion introduces Siege – a new type of Action. You will find it on Fortress cards.

Important: Fortresses can have maximum of 5 Fortifications.

To execute a Siege action:

1. Choose a Fortress belonging to an opponent.
2. Spend 2 Raze tokens (a fixed cost).
3. Remove all Fortifications (remove the fortification marker from the card).

Example: You have 2 Fortresses in your Empire whose actions have been already used: one with Fortifications level 3, the other – level 2. The other player makes a Siege action and chooses one of your Fortresses (obviously the one with 3 Fortifications), he spends 2 Raze tokens and removes the Fortifications marker. The Fortress itself is still in the same place, with the Goods left on it to represent the cost of the build Fortification action. You will be able to build new Fortifications next round, starting from scratch.

Cards Clarifications

Production of 1/2 Wood for 3/6 enemy Locations – during the Production phase sum all the other players' Locations in your Empire to see how many Wood you Produce.

Move Location one space to the left – use this ability viewing the target Location from the owner perspective to see which direction the text refers to.

The Japanese

Trade route – If the Location with the Japanese card underneath it (representing deal) is Conquered, the Japanese card is discarded.

The Romans

Crossbow maker – You may use this Foundation to pay cost when performing building action. Nobody can Conquest this Foundation. If you place it on the furthest position Conquering cost of location on its right will be 3 Raze tokens, next one 4 Raze tokens and so on.

Editor's note: the cost symbol on this card is the sword-shaped Raze token icon, rendered here as Raze tokens.

The Barbarians

Mammoth Squad – The Defense token has no effect on this action activation cost.

The Egyptians

Scarabaeu's Fortress – If you have 2 Fortifications at the end of the round, you get one more Victory Point from Sphinx Feature ability.

Temple of Ra – If you use the Temple of Ra to take over enemy's Location and then you lose the Temple of Ra, the Location taken over by you becomes neutral until the end of the round and no one can activate it (even if it is Conquered by you or another player). Use a Worker from the general supply to indicate that.

Single Player Game

Following rules make possible to use Conquest mechanism in every solo game – against any Faction!

This expansion enhances the solo mode by simulating conflict between two Factions.

When preparing the single player game, apart from the usual steps:

• A) Choose a Faction for the virtual player and place its Faction deck in front of your Empire. Draw 3 cards from their deck and place them face up, one by one, on the left of the deck.
• B) Take all Conquest cards, shuffle them and create a face down stack in front of your Empire.

Round Order

The game lasts for 5 rounds divided into 5 phases each. The first 4 phases are the same as in standard multiplayer game with the 5th phase being the virtual player's attack, but this time beside usual attack he will try to Conquer your Locations.

Use the standard solo game rules with the following changes:

Conquering Virtual Player's Locations

You have a new type of Action available – Conquest of virtual player's Locations. To perform this action, you will have to spend a number of Raze tokens adequate to its position among the Locations on the left of the virtual player's deck. Conquering the furthest Location needs spending 2 Raze tokens, next one costs 3 Raze token and so on. When making a Conquest, follow all the rules included in this expansion. Additionally, after a successful Conquest, discard 1 card from the virtual player's Collection pile.

Note: You and virtual player do not receive a Worker after successful Conquest.

Virtual Player Attack Phase

Virtual player apart from the usual attack will try to Conquer your Locations.

But before virtual player will make a Conquest discard all face up cards placed on the left of the virtual player's deck (previously Conquered Locations included) to the discard pile (do not confuse it with the Collection pile!).

After making the standard attack please proceed as follows:

Conquest Order

1. Draw 1 Conquest card.
2. Check if in the row shown is at least one Faction Location.
3. a) If yes, take the Location furthest to the left, discard all the pieces from it and place it on the left of the virtual player's deck, next add 1 Common card from the deck to the virtual player collection pile. b) If not, Conquest is failed – no effect.
4. Shuffle the used Conquest card back into its deck.

Important: Defense tokens and Samurai do not affect virtual player's actions.

Important: Fortresses are immune to virtual player Conquests; if the Fortress is the Conquest target, treat it as a successful Siege action.

The number of Conquests per round differs depending on the difficulty level:

Round	Easy	Medium	Hard
Round 1	0 Conquests	1 Conquest	2 Conquests
Round 2	1 Conquest	1 Conquest	2 Conquests
Round 3	1 Conquest	2 Conquests	3 Conquests
Round 4	2 Conquests	2 Conquests	3 Conquests

In the 5th round virtual player doesn't Conquer our locations, but still performs normal attacks.

After all attacks and Conquests have been resolved, if there are less than 3 cards on the left of the virtual player's deck – replenish them up to 3, placing the cards on the left of the Conquered Locations.

Building a Virtual Player's Deck

Playing this expansion in the single player mode, you can create a Faction deck for the virtual player using the rules of any format and any expansion.