Lords of Hellas: City of Steel
Lords of Hellas: City of Steel Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Troy board
- 3 Quest cards and quest tokens
- 1 Walls of Troy
- 2 Temple cards for 6-player games
- 1 Army board
- 15 Hoplites, 4 Priests
- 1 Control token, 1 Glory token, 1 colored ring
- 1 Hero (Hector)
- 1 Hero board (Hector)
- 3 Attribute tokens
- 2 Monsters (Satyr, Arachne)
- 2 Monster trays (Satyr, Arachne)
- 2 Monster reward artifact cards (Satyr, Arachne)
- 2 Event monster cards (2 Satyr, 2 Arachne)
- 6 Army Upgrade boards
- 12 Army Upgrade tokens
Setup
- To play with the City of Steel expansion, you must set up the Atlantis and Poseidon expansions first.
- Place the additional City of Steel board on the upper-right side of the main board, directly above the Atlantis board. (The manual shows this placement in a diagram.)
- During Step 3 of the Game Preparation, shuffle the additional Monster and Quest Cards into the Event Deck.
Troy Region Special Rules
- The player controlling the Troy Region can have up to 5 Combat Cards in their hand (instead of 4).
- When performing the Recruit Special Action, the player controlling the Troy Region may Recruit up to 1 Hoplite in each Region of the Troad they control (the Troad is the brown Land on the City of Steel board).
- Each Hoplite in the Troy Region is treated as Fortified (they receive +1 Army Strength when defending).
- Any rule referring to a City or Sparta also applies to Troy.
New Sea Trails
The Sea Trails of the City of Steel board lead to the corresponding Regions of the main board and of the Atlantis board. These Sea Trails work both ways.
Hero: Hector
Hero board (Hector)
- Special Ability: Your Fortified Hoplites receive an additional +1 Army Strength.
- Starting Bonus: Hector starts with 2 Leadership.
Quest Cards
Each Quest card has a Reward. The manual's card images partly overlap, so some printed text is not legible at print resolution; those parts are marked below.
Rescue of Andromeda (Troy)
- Glory track, as printed: "Glory Token"; "Glory Token" with 1 Glory icon; "Glory Token" with 2 Glory icons. (The manual does not explain the track's tier mechanics; the printed tiers are transcribed as shown.)
- Reward: Take control of any Neutral Region with a Population Strength of 3 or less and Recruit 2 Hoplites there.
Kidnapping Briseis (Lesbos)
- Reward: Keep this card. Discard during a Battle to add +3 to your Army Strength if your Hero is in the same Region.
The Power of Tyndareus (Laconia)
- Tiers: "2" with an icon (not identifiable at print resolution), Discard 1 card; "3" with an icon, Discard 1 card; "4" with an icon, Discard 1 card. (The tier icons and part of the 4-tier text are covered by the overlapping cards in the manual's image.)
- Reward: Take control of Laconia. Any enemy Hoplites present must withdraw.
Monsters
Each Monster has a tray, a reward artifact card, and event monster cards.
Satyr
Monster tray (Satyr)
- Special Attack: The Hunt ends immediately. Satyr's controller may place the Hero in any Region.
- Region Attack: Kill 1 Hoplite. Remove any Control Token from this Region.
- Passive: Players cannot place Control tokens in the Region Satyr is in.
- Reward: Pan Flute
Reward artifact card: Pan Flute
- Move any 1 chosen Hero as if they had a Speed Attribute of 1.
Event monster cards (2 Satyr)
- Ability text: During the Monster Phase, the controlling player may move any Hero instead of moving Satyr. (Printed on the Satyr event card; partly covered in the manual's image.)
- Evolve: an icon (not identifiable at print resolution) with text not legible in the manual's image.
Arachne
Monster tray (Arachne)
- Special Attack: This Hunt ends immediately. Place the Hero on this Tray. The Hero is out of the game. After the next Build Monument Special Action, the Hero is returned into play in this Region.
- Region Attack: Kill 1 Hoplite in each Region of this Land.
- Reward: Arachne's Thread
Reward artifact card: Arachne's Thread
- Choose a Hero in a Region neighboring your own Hero's Region. Lay down that Hero's miniature. The next time they perform a Hero Movement action, that Hero stands up instead of moving.
Event monster cards (2 Arachne)
- Evolve: an icon (not identifiable at print resolution); "This Wound has to be dealt last."
Army Upgrade
This module is printed in the same manual. It does not alter the rules in a significant way and can be used in any game, even with expansions marked with the red warning-symbol icon.
Army Upgrade Boards
The manual shows six Army Upgrade boards, with their printed options as legible in the manual's image:
- Board 1 (gold). Upper level: Population Strength in all Regions is decreased by 1 for you. Lower options: When any opponent enters a Region you control and none of your Hoplites are there, that opponent removes your Control token, but does not automatically replace it with their own. This Region becomes neutral Region again. / Your Hoplites cannot be killed by the Region Attack of any Monster.
- Board 2 (red). Upper level: After a Battle, kill an additional Hoplite of your opponent. Lower options: Your opponent cannot withdraw from a Battle against you. When you win a Battle, kill all opponent's Hoplites in that Battle. / You can Kill any 2 of your Hoplites in the same Region as a Monster to deal 1 Wound to that Monster.
- Board 3 (red, lion emblem), Board 4 (purple, seahorse emblem), Board 5 (bronze, crab emblem), Board 6 (blue, helmet emblem). The manual's images of these boards show the board name and emblem only; no upgrade option text is printed on them in this manual, so their options are not transcribed here.
Setup
- Before selecting their Hero, players must choose the color of their Army: it will affect their available Army Upgrades during the game. For example, one Army might be better at claiming Neutral Regions, while another might help you slay Monsters.
- Starting with the first player, the players choose their color by selecting 1 of the 6 Army Upgrades boards in counterclockwise order. Each player also receives two Army Upgrade tokens.
- When all players have chosen their Army color (and Upgrade boards), they choose their Hero according to the standard rules.
Upgrading an Army
- An Army may be upgraded twice during a single game.
- Armies may be upgraded at two different moments. Both upgrades may be done using the same way (for instance, they could be done during two different Blessing Drafts).
- 1) During Blessing Draft: The player may choose to upgrade their Army instead of picking a Blessing card. They place an Upgrade token on the chosen Upgrade level.
- 2) After any player performs the Build Monument Special Action: After the performing player gains their Priests, all players count the Cities they control (Sparta and Troy count as 2 Cities each). The player controlling the most Cities may Upgrade their Army and place an Upgrade token on the chosen Upgrade level.
- In case of a tie, all players with the most Cities may Upgrade their Army.
- If the player with the most Cities has already taken their two available Upgrades (and placed their two Upgrade tokens), then the next player with the most Cities may Upgrade their Army.
- After this step, the "Build Monument" sequence proceeds normally.
- When upgrading their Army, players must always choose the upper level of the Upgrade first. For their second Upgrade, they can choose any 1 of the lower options on the Upgrade board.
- A player can never have more than 2 Army Upgrades. There is no possibility to gain the third (and final) Upgrade during a single game.
- When choosing an Upgrade, players place one of their Army Upgrade tokens on the chosen option on the Army Upgrade board.
Component Notes
- Temple cards (2, for 6-player games). The manual shows the Temple card faces as a numbered grid (1 to 8, with some slots marked Draft and one named Oracle of Delphi) and gives no rules text for them beyond the printed entry "Add 1 more Priest to your Priest Pool, start a Blessing Draft." The slot that entry belongs to is not legible at print resolution.
- Army board. The manual lists 1 Army board among the components and shows the standard Priests, Special Actions and Leadership/Strength/Speed track layout; its text is the base game's board and is not transcribed as an expansion rule here.
- Board illustrations. The Troy board, the Setup placement diagram and the Walls of Troy are illustrations and are not transcribed.