Michael Strogoff Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Components
  • Cards
• 2. Preparing the Game
• 3. Summary of Game
• 4. The Couriers' Phase
  • 4.1 Ally's Help (Optional)
  • 4.2 Action (Obligatory)
    • A) Advance
    • B) Rest
    • C) Resolve Dangers

1. Components

• Board
• Action Die (White)
• Tartars' Die (Black)
• Black Meeple (Ivan Ogareff)
• 5 Character Boards
• 5 Character Meeples
• 5 Disks (Energy)
• 10 Disks (Resolution)
• Figure (Traitor's Phase)
• 154 Cards:
  • 24x Route "Russia"
  • 7x Route "Ural Mountains"
  • 32x Route "Siberia"
  • 8x Route "Tomsk"
  • 20x Route "Irkutsk"
  • 1x Route "Sangarra"
  • 56x Action
  • 6x Allies

Cards

Cards are the principal element of the game and represent all the aspects of the novel: the dangers of the voyage, the allies you encounter, the experience you acquire and even the movement of the traitor Ivan Ogareff.

A Route card shows, at top, an immediate danger icon (dark background) and/or a normal danger icon, and at bottom a penalty icon and an ability icon.

An Action card shows a danger icon, an ally portrait, and — at the bottom — the indications for Ivan Ogareff's turn.

• Immediate danger (see "Advance"): a danger icon on a dark background.
• Normal danger (see "Advance"): a danger icon on a light background.
• Penalty (see "Penalties"): shown at the bottom of a route card.
• Ability (see "Abilities"): shown at the bottom of a route card.

There are 8 different danger icons in the game. The following icons appear on route cards, and they represent dangers. These dangers can be resolved with objects found on action cards:

• Storms and cold
• Wild animals
• Tartar patrol
• Illness and wounds
• Russian diplomacy
• Lost the way
• Disguise and spies
• Vehicle damaged

2. Preparing the Game

1. Unfold the board. Place the "Resolution" disks on the inkpot and the properly shuffled action deck in the envelope area.
2. Shuffle the 6 ally cards and leave the deck face down next to the board book. Take the first card and place it in space "A".
3. Place the "Sangarra" card next to the board on the side with the closed curtains up if you are playing in solitaire mode, or on the portrait side if you are playing with other players.
4. Place the black piece (Ivan Ogareff) in the box which corresponds to the number of players playing the game.
5. Separate the route cards into 5 decks based on the card back: Russia, Ural Mountains, Siberia, Tomsk and Irkutsk. Shuffle each one and place them face down in the spaces on the board.
6. Place the black die representing the Tartars, with a strength value of "3" in space 9 of the journey, "Tomsk", which is the main camp in Siberia.
7. Each player receives 1 character board*, 1 meeple and 1 disk of their color. Place the energy disk on the 6 value of your character board and the meeple on the first space of the journey: "Moscow".
8. Each player receives 5 action cards that they will keep hidden and a "Russia" route card that will be placed face up at the right of their character board to show the start of their journey.
9. The player that wrote and sent a letter most recently starts the game and the rounds are played in clockwise order. Place the "Traitor's phase" figure to the right of the starting player to remind players whose turn it is to play the traitor before the players begin a new round.

*The character boards have two sides. On one of them the players start with the special ability to steal a card (see "Abilities") and on the other, there is no special ability. Each player can choose which side they want to play with. If you want the game to be simpler, choose the side with the ability and if you prefer it to be more complex, choose the side without the ability.

3. Summary of Game

The game is played in quick turns. Each player must fully play their turn and then the next player (in clockwise order) will have their turn. When all the players have taken their turns, it is the turn of the villain, Ivan Ogareff, who is symbolized in the game by the die cut figure that is always placed to the right of the starting player.

This process repeats until a player obtains victory by reaching square 12 on the journey, "Irkutsk" the capital of Siberia and defeats the traitor; or until Ivan Ogareff successfully completes his invasion of Russia thereby defeating all the players and leading the Tartars into Moscow.

Each full round consists of 2 phases:

• The Couriers' Phase. Each player chooses which action they want to carry out.
• The Traitor's Phase. In this phase the villain will advance, the Tartars move and other effects occur, such as the entrance or exit of allies who help the players, or the activation of abilities.

4. The Couriers' Phase

Each player, whether starting or in the clockwise progression, must perform these steps in this order:

4.1 Ally's Help (Optional)

During the game characters will enter and leave the scene of the adventure, and they can help the players with their abilities.

At the start of their turn, if they so desire, a player can discard an action card (or two cards if asking help from Captain Strogoff) from their hand and activate their ability. Only an action card that has a portrait of the one of the allies who is on the board can be discarded in order to activate their character's ability.

A player can only ask an ally for help once per turn. The abilities of the allies are explained in the "Allies" section.

4.2 Action (Obligatory)

After asking for help from one of the allies (or not), the player must choose one of the following 3 actions:

• A) Advance
• B) Rest
• C) Resolve dangers

A) Advance

During the game a player will take route cards that represent various dangers that are encountered along the journey. With these cards a line will be formed along the right side of their character board in which they will try not to repeat any danger icons. The initial cards for Russia only have one danger icon, while those for the Ural Mountains and Siberia have two: one immediate danger in a darker color and another normal danger.

To advance, a player reduces one energy point from the character board and advances their meeple to the next square on the journey. They then immediately take a card from the route deck for the area their meeple is in (Russia, Ural Mountains or Siberia) and place it to the right of any previously placed route card.

Immediate dangers

If the route card just picked up has an immediate danger icon (indicated by a dark background) the player can immediately discard an action card from their hand with the same symbol to resolve it and place a "Resolution" disk on top of it (see "Resolve dangers").

Penalties

Now the line of danger icons for all of the cards in your journey must be checked. If there are any repeated icons, the player will suffer a delay in their journey and activate the penalty icons for ALL the cards that make up their journey from left to right. There are 3 kinds of penalties:

• Choose 1 action card from your hand and discard it.
• Lose 1 energy point.
• Turn this card face down.

Whenever a route card makes a player lose energy or an action card and he is unable to fulfill the penalty, the card must be turned face down.

IMPORTANT: A player can only "Advance" if:

• They have at least 1 energy point.
• They have no route card face down. They must first be reestablished by using the "Rest" action.
• They don't have the any icon type repeated in his journey. They must first cover them using the "Resolve dangers" action.

The resolution disks on top of the danger icons (see "Resolve dangers") on cards that are turned over, are lost and returned to the reserve. When the card is face up again (see "Rest") they will have to be resolved again at some other time.

A player can only suffer the activation of a penalty during their "Advance" action. During the traitor's phase, a player can add a new card to the journey when blinded by the Tartars (see "Tartars") or run into the spy Sangarra (see "Sangarra"). In both cases, if the danger icons repeat, NO penalties are activated.

Advance and penalties example: The player advances and takes a Siberia card for their journey. (1) They play a card from their hand to cover the immediate danger. (2) This does not stop the wound icon on the new card from matching those on the Ural Mountain cards leading to the activation of all the penalties. (3) They lose 1 card from their hand, 2 energy points and must turn the Ural Mountain card face down, which means the resolution disk on the immediate danger of that card is discarded.

B) Rest

When performing this action, players can choose TWO of these benefits:

• Draw 2 action cards.
• Gain 1 energy point.
• Flip over a route card that was face down.

The effects of the two benefits are carried out one at a time, so if you choose "Draw 2 action cards" you can look at them before choosing what the second option will be. Also, the player can repeat the same action twice, so that with one "Rest" action, they can draw 4 cards, gain 2 energy points, or flip two route cards back over.

IMPORTANT: The limit for a player's hand is 7 cards, but there are abilities (see "Abilities") that can increase this limit. If at any time of their turn a player receives cards above their hand limit they must immediately discard the excess number of cards.

C) Resolve Dangers

With this action the player can place resolution disks to cover different danger icons on the route cards in order to eliminate repeated icons or to remove cards. Danger icons can be resolved using 3 different methods:

• Use 1 action card with the same icon as the route card. This can only be used to cover one icon present on the most recent route card (the one that is on the far right of your path). If this card has 2 icons, the matching icon's position is irrelevant. They are both recent.
• Use 2 actions cards from your hand that have the same icon (even though they do not match the danger icon). This method allows you to cover one danger icon on any card in your journey (including the most recent one).
• Subtract 1 energy point. This method allows you to cover one danger icon on any card in your journey (including the most recent one).

The icons covered with resolution disks no longer count when checking for repeated icons when you decide to advance in a later turn.

A player can resolve all the dangers they want until they can play no more cards or lose no more energy points.

When a card has all its danger icons resolved, the player removes it from their journey. If the most recent card is resolved, the one to its left will then be considered the most recent and can be resolved using a card with the matching danger icon.

It is better if you resolve the problems from the most recent card to the oldest card (from right to left), because that way you use the action cards one by one. However, there may be times when a player is unable to do that.

Abilities

Facing the dangers of being a Tsar's courier helps you become stronger and gain special abilities. At the end of an action in which the player resolved one or more dangers, they can choose ONE of the resolved route cards (the rest are discarded) and place it below their character board so that the lower part of the card remains visible to show the ability they have gained. The full list of abilities and their explanation is on the next page.

You can accumulate all the abilities you want and even have the same one multiple times, but remember that for each "Resolve dangers" action you take, you can only keep one of the resolved cards.

IMPORTANT: Even though you can resolve dangers and in doing so discard route cards outside of your turn (with the help of the ally "Pigassof", or the activation of the "Resolute" ability during the traitor's phase), you can only turn them into abilities during your turn through the use of the "Resolve dangers" action.

Resolve dangers example: (1) The player decides to resolve the most recent card, the one to the far right of their journey. To do so, they cover the disguise icon using 2 cards with the same icon (lost the way), since they have no action card with the matching icon. (2) The other icon (wounded) on this card can be covered with an action card and that way the card is eliminated. (3) The Tartars card is now the most recent. A card is played to eliminate the vehicle damaged icon but then the player has no card matching the Tartar patrol and decides to resolve it later. (4) Finally the player decides to cover the disguise icon of the card to the far left because they want the ability it has. To do so they use one energy point. The player completes their action with two resolved cards and decides to keep the second below their character board as an ability.