Influentia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• List of Cards
  • Cities
  • Buildings with value 1
  • Buildings with value 2
  • Buildings with value 3
  • Special Cards
  • Resources
  • Control Cards
• Setup
• Summary and Objective
• Game Play
  • Playing a Trick
  • Winning a Trick
  • Obtaining a City Card and Activating Resource Card Effects
• End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Resource Card Effects
• Special City Cards
• Control Cards

Components

• 1 Board
• 50 Resource Cards (10 per resource)
• 48 City Cards (12 per City)
• 10 Reversible Control Cards
• 4 Corporation Tokens
• 4 Score Markers
• 10 Plague Tokens (rats)
• 1 Influence Marker
• 1 Priority Marker
• 1 Rulebook

List of Cards

Cities

Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Pisa.

Each City has 12 cards: 10 Buildings, 1 Exterminator and 1 Governor.

Buildings with value 1

• Virtual Travel Agency (1x City)
• Bar (2x City)
• Armoury (2x City)

Buildings with value 2

• Church (1x City)
• Greenhouse (1x City)
• Cyber Implant Clinic (1x City)

Buildings with value 3

• Market (1x City)
• Water Treatment Plant (1x City)

Special Cards

• Governor (1x City)
• Exterminator (1x City)

Resources

10x Energy, 10x Medication, 10x Hacking, 10x Robotics, 10x Technology.

Control Cards

Greenhouse (1x), Water Treatment Plant (1x), Market (1x), Bar (2x), Virtual Travel Agency (1x), Cyber Implant Clinic (1x), Church (1x), Armoury (2x).

Setup

Note: In 3 player games, before starting the setup, remove: One Bar Card from each City, One Bar Control Card and the 10 Medication Resource Cards (see Card List).

1. Place the Board in the centre of the table.
2. Each player chooses one Corporation and places the chosen Corporation Token in their play area (from now on we will call this your Influence Area). Players then place the corresponding Score Marker on square number 10 on the Score Track.
3. Sort the Control Cards according to their building type and place them face up on the side which shows "3x" to one side of the table.
4. Separate the cards of each City forming 4 Decks and momentarily remove the Exterminator Card from each of them. Shuffle each City Deck separately, take the first card from the top of each of them and place them face up next to the bottom of the board, in the Quarantine Zone, with a Plague Token on each of them.
5. Deal one card of each City face down to each player (each player will have 4 cards in total).
6. Place the corresponding Exterminator back in each City Deck, shuffle the Decks again and place them next to the top of the board. Turn over the first card of each City Deck and place it on top of the same Deck. These will be the available City Cards.
7. Players secretly look at their City Cards, choose 1 and place it simultaneously face down in their Influence Areas. They then pass the remaining cards to the player on their left. Each player performs this same operation with the cards they receive until they have accumulated 4 City Cards face down in their Influence Area. All players then turn over their 4 City Cards so that everyone can see them.
8. Place the Influence Marker randomly on one resource on the Influence Track and the Priority Marker on the "10>1" space.
9. Finally, shuffle the Resource Deck, hand out 6 Resource Cards to each player (their cards always remain hidden in their hand) and place the rest next to the board to form a Draw Deck.

Summary and Objective

Influentia is a card game based on classic trick taking card games. In each trick, players play one of their Resource Cards. The winner of the trick may choose one of the City Cards from among those available or the Resource Card that was just played by another player. The other players keep the cards they played as these will allow them to activate a variety of effects once they have two identical Symbols. After 3 rounds, the player who has won the most victory points wins the game.

Game Play

A game consists of 3 rounds and each round comprises several tricks. On each of these tricks, each player will play a face-up Resource Card and, after the trick is resolved, they will then draw another card from the Resource Deck in order to have a full hand of 6 cards. The round will end when, after resolving a trick, there are not enough cards left in the Resource Deck for all players to draw one.

Playing a Trick

The starting player is chosen at random and starts the game with the first trick. Whoever wins the trick becomes the starting player of the next trick and so on. Each of the tricks is played as follows:

A. The starting player plays one of their Resource Cards face up on the table. The Resource of this card will determine the Initial Suit, and this can be the same or different from the resource indicated by the Influence Marker on the Influence Track (see Setup), which we will call the Influence Suit.

B. Then, the other players, taking it in turns clockwise, also play one of their Resource Cards face up. They are not required to play a card from the Initial Suit or the Influence Suit.

Winning a Trick

The Influence Suit beats all, including the Initial Suit. If there is more than one card of the Influence Suit, the card with the highest value of that suit wins if the Priority Marker is on the "10>1" space, or the card with the lowest value wins if the Priority Marker is on the "1>10" space.

If there is no card of the Influence Suit, then the card with the highest or lowest value of the Initial Suit wins the trick, also depending on the space in which the Priority Marker is.

Therefore, whenever a Resource Card other than the Influence Suit and the Initial Suit is played, the trick will be lost.

Example 1: Ivan begins the trick by playing the 8 of Energy (Initial Suit). Next, Valentina plays a 5 of Hacking (Influence Suit) and Marco the 1 of Robotics. Valentina has been the only person to play an Influence Suit Card and she wins the trick.

Example 2: Valentina won the previous trick and therefore starts the next one: she plays a 7 of Robotics (Initial Suit). Next, Marco plays a 2 of Energy and Ivan a 9 of Robotics. No one has played an Influence Suit Card (Hacking), but the Initial Suit (Robotics) has been played. The Priority Marker is on the "10>1" space, so Ivan wins the trick with his 9 of Robotics (the highest value card of the Initial Suit).

Obtaining a City Card and Activating Resource Card Effects

The winner of the trick may choose between:

• Choosing an available City Card (one of those visible on the City Decks) and adding it to their Influence Area.

OR

• Keeping one of the Resource Cards played by another player from the current trick and adding it to their Influence Area.

The Resource Card used to win the trick is always discarded face up next to the Draw Deck.

In the event that the winner of the trick chooses to keep the Resource Card that another player has just played, that player loses their Resource Card but they then choose an available City Card.

In this way, during each trick, one player always obtains a City Card, either the winner of the trick or one of the losers of the trick.

The player who has obtained the City Card places it in their Influence Area (unless it is an Exterminator; see Special City Cards) and immediately turns over the next City Card from the same deck. If that deck no longer has any cards, then no card is turned over.

Note: The City Cards in the Influence Area of each player are sorted by City, so that the value and type of each are always visible to the rest of the players.

All the players who have not obtained the City Card add the Resource Card that they have just played to their Influence Area. The Resource Cards that they accumulate during the game should always be placed so that the Symbols on the bottom of the cards, which represent their effects, are always visible to other players.

When a player collects 2 identical Symbols amongst the Resource Cards accumulated in their Influence Area, they must activate the corresponding effect and discard those 2 Resource Cards next to the Draw Deck. These effects are activated in turn order after a player has obtained the City Card, starting with the winner of the trick (who is the new starting player) and continuing clockwise.

Example: As winner of the trick, Valentina chooses the Milano Card and places it in her Influence Area, thus increasing her influence over Milano to 4. She subsequently turns over another card from the Milano Deck and discards the Resource Card which she used to win the trick. Ivan and Marco, who did not obtain a City Card, add the Resource Cards they played to their Influence Areas.

After Valentina places the Milano City Card in her Influence Area, Ivan is the only player who has collected 2 identical Symbols (Revolt) among the Resource Cards accumulated in his Influence Area, so he must discard those 2 cards and activate the corresponding effect.

Each player then draws a new Resource Card and a new trick is played, unless there are not enough cards in the Draw Deck for all players, in which case the round ends (see below).

End of the Round

The round ends as soon as there are not enough cards in the Draw Deck when drawing Resource Cards. At that time, each player discards all the Resource Cards from their hand, the accumulated ones remain in the Influence Area of each player, and the game moves on to the end-of-round scoring:

• Scoring for Cities: Each City is scored separately, so that each player adds up the value of the Buildings they own for each City in their Influence Area. Each City awards 5 victory points to the player who has the most influence over it and 3 victory points to the second.

  If the influence of a City is tied then the tie is resolved in favour of the player who owns the Governor of that City. If none of the tied players owns the Governor, they all score 5 or 3 victory points depending on whether they are tied in first or second place.

• Scoring for Governors: Apart from resolving possible ties in the scoring of the Cities that correspond to them, each Governor grants 2 victory points to the player who has it in their possession (see Special City Cards).

• Scoring for Control: Each player adds the victory points obtained by the Control Cards they have in their possession (see Control Cards).

Example: Scoring Milano: Valentina has 4 Influence Points, Marco as well and Ivan only 1. The tie between Valentina and Marco is won by Marco as he owns the Governor of that City. Marco gets 5 victory points for first place plus 2 victory points from the Governor, whilst Valentina gets 3 victory points for second place. Ivan does not get victory points in Milano. In Pisa there is also a draw between Marco and Ivan who both have 3 Influence Points (Valentina has no influence in Pisa): neither of them owns the Governor of Pisa, so they get 5 victory points each.

Once scoring is finished, all discard piles are shuffled along with the cards that would have been left over from the Draw Deck in order to form a new Resource Deck. Subsequently, 6 Resource Cards are dealt face down to each player. The Influence and Priority Markers remain as they were at the end of the previous round. The winner of the last trick starts the new round.

End of the Game

The game ends after completing the scoring of the third round. The player with the most points wins the game. In the case of a tie, the player with the most Governors in their Influence Area wins among the players who are tied. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Resource Card Effects

Politics: When a player accumulates 2 Politics Symbols, they can move the Influence Marker to a different Resource on the Influence Track and / or move the Priority Marker, from "10>1" to "1>10" or vice versa. In addition, they win 2 victory points regardless of whether they change the Influence or Priority or not.

Plague: When a player accumulates 2 Plague Symbols, they must place a Plague Token (Rat) on a Building or Governor of another player. The affected player loses that card, placing it along with the Plague Token on top of it, in the Quarantine Zone.

Revolt: When a player accumulates 2 Revolt Symbols, the rest of the players lose 1 victory point for each Building with value "3" they possess in their Influence Area.

Tax collection: When a player accumulates 2 Tax Collection Symbols, they win as many victory points as Buildings with value "1" they have in their Influence Area.

Exterminator: When a player accumulates 2 Exterminator Symbols, they may remove the Plague Token (Rat) from one of the cards in the Quarantine Zone and add that card to their Influence Area OR they may move the Influence Marker to a different Resource on the Influence Track and / or move the Priority Marker, from "10>1" to "1>10" or vice versa.

Special City Cards

Exterminator: The player who obtains this card must play it immediately and it allows them to remove the Plague Token (Rat) from one of the City Cards in the Quarantine Zone and add that card to their Influence Area (the chosen card does not have to match the City which is on the Exterminator Card) OR win 2 victory points. Once played, the Exterminator is removed from the game.

Governor: This card has no Influence value (it is zero), but awards 2 victory points to its holder at the time of scoring at the end of each round. In addition, it also breaks a possible tie in its corresponding City (see End of the Round).

Control Cards

The Control Cards are related to the different types of Buildings in the game and each one awards 3 or 5 victory points ("3x" or "4x" side) to its holder at the scoring stage at the end of each round. (Transcribed as printed; the rulebook says "5 victory points" for the side labelled "4x".)

A player obtains a Control Card as soon as they have 3 Cards of the type of Building indicated by that card in their Influence Area. If that player subsequently obtains a fourth card of the same type of Building, they flip the Control Card they already have so that it now shows the "4x" side. The same player cannot have more than one Control Card for each type of Building.

Control Cards may be lost (returned to the Reserve) or flipped again (from the "4x" to the "3x" side) as soon as their requirements are no longer met, which may occur when the Plague Effect is applied (see Resource Card Effects).

Note: Having more than 4 cards of the same Building receives no extra reward.