Meeples & Monsters: The Four Towers and Solo Expansion
Meeples & Monsters: The Four Towers and Solo Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Four Towers
Setup
To use the Four Towers mini-expansion simply set up the game as normal but insert the following step in the original Set Up (Base Game Rulebook page 4).
9a. Shuffle all 20 Tower Room tiles and randomly place 5 into 4 stacks face down on the Tower Locations indicated on the board (the third dark squares in each district indicated on the City board). Flip the top Room tile of each stack face up.
Completing a Tower Room
Tower Rooms are completed in much the same way as Locations are activated. They are also affected by overrun effects in exactly the same way as Locations. Units are assigned as required to complete the task in that Room. The key difference is that once a Tower Room is completed by a player, that player adds that tile to their play area (just like defeated Monsters), receiving either an immediate reward, end of game VP, or sometimes both. The next tile in that Tower stack is then flipped over and revealed. This continues as long as there are Rooms to reveal in the Tower.
Tower Rooms that give an immediate effect: Rescue Lady Birch, Turn Undead, Curse of Fungal Decay (examples).
Tower Rooms that give end of game VP (and in some cases an immediate effect): Recover the Rod of Ruin, Face the Darkness, Battle Corruption.
The Tower Rooms that give end of game VP award them on the basis of the number of Rooms from each set that have been completed by an individual player. These sets each have different iconography.
Example: A Player that collects 3 parts of the Rod of Ruin gains 9 VP, while a player that completes 1 Room of Face the Darkness gains 2 VP.
Unlike the base game, some specific Tower Rooms will require and allow you to assign Corruption meeples. Note these are still not considered Units, and can only be assigned as dictated by the Tower Room.
Tower Room Iconography Examples
- Rescue Sir Purple: Assign each of the required Units to this Room to gain a Paladin from the supply.
- Curse of Fungal Decay: Assign a Unit (in this case a Cleric) and any number of Corruption meeples to this Room. The Unit is returned to the supply and you immediately gain VP equal to the number of Corruption meeples assigned. You also draw 2 Quests and then discard a Quest.
- Repel the Horde: Assign a Unit (in this case a Warrior) to this Tower Room and also assign units to a Monstrous Monster in the same turn to immediately gain an additional 2VP from defeating the Monster.
- Recover the Rod of Ruin: Assign the Unit required (in this case a Cleric) and any other Unit. At the end of the game gain VP based on how many Rod of Ruin Rooms you have completed. There are 4 Rod of Ruin Tower Rooms.
- Face the Darkness: Assign a Unit (in this case a Warrior) and a Corruption meeple. The Warrior is returned to the supply. Draw 2 Quests and then discard a Quest. At the end of the game gain VP based on how many Face the Darkness Rooms you have completed. There are 4 Face the Darkness Tower Rooms.
NOTE: The Face the Darkness Room that requires you to assign a Knight, does not require that Knight to be returned to the supply. This is intentional. Knights are made from hardier wood!
- Battle Corruption: Assign a Unit (in this case a Mage) and a Corruption meeple. Immediately discard a Quest (if you have one). At the end of the game gain VP based on how many Battle Corruption Rooms you have completed. There are 3 Battle Corruption Tower Rooms.
Solo Play
In the solo game you will be playing against an automated opponent known as the Royal Guard. Your turns will be played as normal. After each of your turns, the "Royal Guard" player takes a turn using the following rules. This continues until the game ends as normal. At which point, you will count up your VP and add any end of game VP to the Royal Guard's total. High score wins! You will need to understand how to play with the Four Towers mini-expansion in order to play in solo mode.
Setup
Set Up the Royal Guard Player:
- Place the Royal Guard board on the table.
- Build the Royal Guard meeple bag (3 Corruption, 3 Peasants, 1 Mage, 1 Warrior, 1 Cleric, and 1 Knight).
- Allocate the Royal Guard a Player marker, and put a marker at the start of the score track on the Final Encounter scoreboard.
- Go through the Quest deck and take out the Hunt for the Meeples of Doom, Sawdust to Sawdust, Bane of the Worldly Terrors Quests. Randomly draw 1 and place it on the Royal Guard board in the "Prey" spot. This indicates the Royal Guard's Prey type. Remove the other 2 Quests from the game.
IMPORTANT CONCEPT: PREY
Monsters come in three types; Humanoid, Monstrous, and Undead. Whichever icon is listed on the Quest in the Royal Guard's Prey space becomes the Prey of the Royal Guard for the duration of the game. This will matter during the Royal Guard's turn.
Set Up the Game:
- Go through the Location tiles stack and remove from the game the Mage Academy, Colosseum, and Mage's Workshop. You won't be using these.
- Shuffle the 7 Royal Guard Orders, then place 1 face up in each of the 4 districts of the board in the building spot closest to the water fountain in the middle on the board. Remove the other 3 Royal Guard Orders from the game.
- Place the First player sword marker on the fountain in the center of the board, with the tip of the sword pointing to the Castle district. This indicates the favored district.
- Set up the rest of the game as a normal, 2-player game.
IMPORTANT CONCEPT: FAVORED DISTRICT
During the game, the sword in the middle of the board will always be pointing at one of the 4 districts on the board (Cathedral, University, Castle, Villages). That district is called the "favored district." This will matter during the Royal Guard's turn.
Gameplay
Starting with you, you and the Royal Guard are going to go back and forth taking turns until the game ends.
Your Turns
You can do all the things you can normally do in a Meeples & Monsters game. The only real change for you is that you won't be able to build in the building slots taken up by the Royal Guard Orders.
Royal Guard Turn
You will be responsible for figuring out what the Royal Guard does during each of their turns. You'll use the Royal Guard's bag, meeples, and board to figure that out. Here are the steps:
- Draw and Deploy: Draw 2 meeples from the Royal Guard bag and resolve them in the order drawn. Meeples resolve by performing the first empty action on the Royal Guard board that matches the meeple type. Some spots feature more than 1 meeple, if the drawn meeple matches ANY of the meeples listed, place the meeple there. That spot is no longer considered empty.
- Rotate the Sword: If you drew at least 2 Units (non-Corruption meeple), rotate the sword 1 district clockwise, changing the favored district.
- End the Royal Guard turn.
Turn 1 Royal Guard Example
During the first turn, the Royal Guard draws a Peasant, then a Cleric, so they get handled in order. The first empty spot with a Peasant says "Perform the Royal Guard Order in the favored district." The sword is currently pointing at the Castle district, and the Guard Order in that district is Battle and the Monster in this district in the 1 spot is currently Termite.
The Royal Guard scores 1VP for defeating this monster AND you put a Warrior (blue meeple) into their bag. Then the Termite is removed from the board and a new Monster is drawn to replace it.
Next, the Cleric resolves. This says "Complete the Tower Room in the favored district." The current Tower Room in the Castle district is Recover the Rod of Ruin.
When the Royal Guard gains Tower Rooms, you stack them face down next to the Royal Guard board, so you'll do that with Recover the Rod of Ruin here.
Lastly, since you laid down 2 non-Corruption meeples, rotate the sword 1 district so it points at the Villages district.
The Royal Guard's turn is now over and you get to take a turn!
Royal Guard Rewards, Actions, and the Dark Council
Rewards
Many actions will grant the Royal Guard a reward. Those rewards come in multiple types - here's some ground rules as to how they work.
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If the Royal Guard gains a Unit, it goes directly into their bag.
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Quests. Some Quests are scored instantly, others are scored at the end of the game. The ONLY thing the Royal Guard gets from Quests is VP.
- If the Royal Guard is told to "Draw and score a Quest" it means that they take a Quest card, reveal it, and gain VP based on the chart at the bottom of the Royal Guard board. Then the card is discarded.
- If the Royal Guard is told to "Draw and keep a Quest" just draw a Quest card without looking at it and make a face down pile next to the Royal Guard. These Quests will be scored at the end of the game for extra drama.
IMPORTANT: Any time any reward looks like "draw a Quest then discard a Quest" (say as a bonus from defeating a Monster) read it as "Draw and keep a Quest."
If the Royal Guard "Takes a Tower Room" they will:
- Score it immediately if it's one of these types of Rooms.
- Curse of the Rot Within: Royal Guard scores 1VP for each Corruption meeple on the Royal Guard board AND takes 1 Quest to put face down next to them - to be scored at the end of the game. Then discard the Room.
- Defeat the Minions: Royal Guard scores 2 VP, then discard this Room.
- Gain a Unit to their bag if it's one of these types of Rooms.
- Rescue Sir Purple: Royal guard adds a Paladin to their bag, then discard this Room.
- Keep the Room face down in a pile if it's one of these types of Rooms - they will score VP's for the Royal Guard at the end of the game.
- Face the Darkness: The Royal Guard takes 1 Quest and puts it face down next to them for end of game scoring, and keeps this Room face down in a pile next to them for end of game scoring.
Royal Guard Actions
The Royal Guard is going to take all kinds of actions during the game. If the Royal Guard can't do an action because of the way the board is set up, they will look to do the same ability in a different place. To figure out which place, we use priority.
IMPORTANT IDEA: PRIORITY
If the Royal Guard can't do an action because of the way the board is set up, they will look to do the same action in a similar place. This is called priority and it resolves as such.
If the Royal Guard has to "perform a Royal Guard Order" or "take a Tower Room" action and the Royal Guard can't do it in the favored district, then:
- Do the action in the first district clockwise where it is possible. If the action isn't possible in any district, then the Royal Guard gains 1VP (and that's it!).
If the Royal Guard has to perform a "defeat a Monster" action, it'll often tell you which one (Most strength, Most VP). If it's not clear which Monster the Royal Guard should defeat, due to a tie or some other reason, then follow this order:
- The tied monster of its type in the favored district.
- First tied monster clockwise from the favored district.
- The Royal Guard's Prey Type (again clockwise from the favored district).
- The Monster closest to the 1 slot in the district with the tied Monsters.
Quest Score Chart
- Blue seal icon → 1
- Teal seal icon → 2
- Green flag seal icon → 3
Turn 2 Royal Guard Example
This turn the Royal Guard drew a Peasant then a Warrior. They get placed on the board and resolved in the order drawn. First, the Peasant which says "Defeat the Lowest VP Monster in the favored district", which is now the Villages.
Since there are no Monsters in the Villages district, you use the priority rules to see what happens. First, you check the next district clockwise. There are 2 Monsters in the Cathedral district, so the Royal Guard will be defeating one of them: Skeleton (strength 2) and Termite (strength 3).
Both Monsters are worth 1 VP, and neither are the Royal Guard's Prey Type (Humanoid), so the Guard will defeat the Monster in the 1 slot - in this case the Skeleton. As rewards, the Guard will score 1 VP, and take a single face down Quest and put it face down next to the Royal Guard board.
The Warrior then resolves by killing the lowest strength Monster of the Guard's Prey Type (Humanoid).
There are Two Backwoods Bandit's in play which are lowest strength Humanoid monsters out. One is in the University district, and the other in the Castle district. Since the University district is the closest clockwise from the favored district, that's the Monster the Guard will defeat, scoring the Guard 2 VP.
Lastly, since the Guard didn't draw any Corruption meeples, the sword is rotated 1 district clockwise and now points at the Cathedral district.
Dark Council
When the first and second Dark Council Arrives cards get revealed, the Royal Guard does NOT gain a Corruption meeple. Instead return all meeples on the Guard's board to the bag.
When the third Dark Council Arrives card is revealed, you will get 2 more turns as normal. The Royal Guard will take 1 turn after your last so that you and the Royal Guard will have an equal number of turns. Note: The Royal Guard will NOT attack the Dark Council, their final turns will be handled like all the previous turns.
End of the Game
When the game ends, you count up your VP as normal. The Royal Guard then scores any face down Quests they have (any that they got that were "Draw and keep" as the "Draw and score" Quests were already scored). The Royal Guard then scores any of the "set-collection type" Tower Rooms they have. The high score wins with ties going to the Royal Guard!
Too Easy or Too Hard? Try These Variants!
Beginner (Hired Help): Choose 1 of these units; Mage, Cleric, or Warrior and start the game with it at level 2, and add 1 corresponding Unit to your bag. For extra assistance, select 2 or 3 units. This may be combined with the Advanced mode below.
Advanced: Randomly select 1 of the "Rescue" Tower Rooms, and place the "rescued" Hero and their party (all of the meeples depicted on the Tower Room) in the Royal Guard's bag to start the game.
Playtesters
Nicolas Bongiu, Andrew Buck, Delaina Dancey, Ryan Dancey, Brianna Davies, Lacy Dove, Jakob Engelbrecht-Gollander, Simon Gjerløv-Christensen, John Goodenough, Adel Hadi, Lars Wagner Hansen, Tim Herring, Kyle Huibers, Flemming Borg Jensen, David Lepore, Damon Mair, Mike McDonald, Chris McPherson, Emma McPherson, Jack McPherson, Meghan McPherson, Mikel Milton, Stephen Milton, Kyle Nunn, Kaz Nyborg-Andersen, Daniel Skjold Pedersen, Luke Peterschmidt, BJ Shea, Taylor Shuss, Aaron Strowger, Todd Rowland, Jonathon "Shanks" Shanks, Johannes Sjolte, Jason Smith, Dorte Steiness, Thomas Steiness, Manolis Trahiotis, Josh Wood, John Zinser