MIL (1049)
MIL (1049) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Historic Comment
Note: We've taken the liberty of using MIL as roman numbers to represent 1049 (for pronunciation's sake). The correct way would be MXLIX.
More information about Feudalism and about MIL at homoludicus.org.
Note: MIL is a very thematic and deep game. In the first play the quantity of actions and their interaction can be a bit overwhelming and increase the playing time. Because of this we recommend not to play a 5 player game on the first try.
Components
- game board
- 20 knight tiles
- 35 land tiles
- 60 family tokens (12 per color)
- 54 time tokens
- 1 King's Soldiers token
- 1 Archbishop token
- 1 Starting Player token
- 1 turn marker
- 20 knight tokens (4 per color)
- 20 castle tiles
- 23 bases
- cubes:
- green: food
- blue: fabric
- black: metal
- red: influence / single women
- yellow: gold
- more than 35 soldiers
- 1 die
- 5 individual boards
- 5 screens (1 per color)
Turn Summary
Each turn is divided into 5 phases:
- Actions:
- A) Harvest
- B) Recruit a soldier
- C) Family Growth
- D) Place a knight in a Power Sphere
- E) Pass
- Tributes
- Political Phase
- Power Spheres
- I) Monastery
- II) Court
- III) Market
- IV) War
- V) Curia
- VI) Crusades
- Winter
Setup
Individual Boards
Each player receives an individual board and places a knight without heir tile in space A and a knight with heir tile in space B along with their knight tile. On column A place 2 soldiers, 1 castle and one cereal land. On column B place 1 soldier and one cereal land.
Note: On the next plays, the players can change the initial lands, but we recommend one cereal and one fishing food land.
Every player receives his remaining knight tokens, his family tokens and a screen. Behind it place 2 of each resource. The resources are not visible to the other players during the game. Place the rest of resources near the board.
Each player places 3 single women (red cubes) and 1 Privilege (family marker) in his lineage zone.
The Board
Place the board on the side without black token markers printed on the first space of the Power Spheres. Use the other side for the advanced version.
Place a marker of each family on the scoring track and the turn marker on the first space on the turn track. When you gain victory points, move your marker along the scoring track.
Land Tiles
Take randomly "N" food lands (cereal, fish), "N" metal lands (mine, quarry) and "N" fabric lands (wool), being "N" the number of players. Shuffle them and divide them into two as equal as possible stacks on the spaces provided (if one stack is higher put it on the 6 defense spot).
The land tiles in the stacks must be placed with the bright side (fertile) upward. The unused tiles are discarded.
If you prefer a more cutthroat game, remove 2 food lands for 2-3 players, and 3 food lands for 4-5 players.
When a land is harvested, its owner receives the resources shown on the fertile side, the land is flipped over (showing the other side) and a white time token is taken from the board. The small circles on the lands show the resources of production or tributes on the other side.
Power Spheres and Start
Place as many white time tokens in each Power Sphere (except in Monastery (I) and Crusades (VI)) as the number of players (in a 2 player game, use 3 time tokens per Sphere). The rest of the squares on the power spheres are not available during the game.
Place the King's Soldiers token and the Archbishop token near the board.
Choose randomly the starting player; he receives the Starting Player token and you're ready to play.
1) Actions
Beginning with the starting player, and clockwise, each player performs an action until this phase is over. In order to perform an action the active player must specify which of his knights plays it (except if the player chooses to pass).
The action phase lasts for an indeterminate number of rounds and finishes as soon as one of these requirements is met:
- All knights have been placed in the Power Spheres.
- All spaces in the Power Spheres (except Monastery and Crusades) are occupied by knights or black time tokens.
A) Harvest
Take the upper left resources indicated on the face of one of that knight's lands from the reserve and flip it over. Then take a white time token from any Power Sphere and place it on the tile of the knight who performed this action.
Note: The same land can be harvested several times in this phase but only once per action.
B) Recruit a Soldier
Pay 1 fabric and 1 metal. If your knight owns 5 or more soldiers, you must pay 1 influence as well.
Place a soldier from the reserve in front of the knight who performed this action. Then take a white time token from any Power Sphere and place it on the tile of the knight who performed this action.
Example: a knight with 5 soldiers pays 1 metal, 1 fabric and 1 influence to recruit a soldier and takes a white time token from the board.
C) Family Growth
Roll the die and choose one of the visible results:
- Hourglass: Take a white time token from any Power Sphere and place it on the tile of the knight who performed this action. If there are no tokens, the other option must be chosen.
- Female: Place a single woman (a red cube) in your lineage space.
- Male: Take one of the following actions:
- If the knight who performed this action doesn't have an heir, the newborn child will be his heir: flip the knight tile over. If the father owns a land or a castle, there will be a marriage (see Marriages).
- If the knight who performed this action already has an heir, a new knight's tile is placed in the next available space of the individual board showing the non-heir side. Take the appropriate knight token and put it on the new knight tile. From this moment on, he will be treated as any other knight in the game.
You may reroll the die as many times as you wish if you choose "Female" or "Hourglass" but this action must be completed first. The action is finished when you get a son.
Recognize an illegitimate son: Instead of rolling the die, the player can have a male heir automatically if he recognizes an illegitimate son. For this to happen, you should discard a Privilege or pay 1 Gold.
NOTE: A family can have a maximum of 4 knights.
Time Goes On
If there are no visible white time tokens in the Power Spheres, players are not allowed to Harvest, Recruit a soldier or use Family Growth (actions A, B and C).
D) Place a Knight in a Power Sphere
Each Power Sphere has the same number of available spaces as the number of players, except for the Monastery and the Crusades, where there is no limit of placed knights.
At the beginning of each turn all these spaces are occupied by white time tokens that will be removed as the turn goes on. A knight token can be placed in any empty space at no cost. If the space is occupied by a time token (white or black), the player will have to pay 1 gold or discard 1 privilege (see Privileges).
Once a player places a Knight in a Power Sphere, he won't be able to Harvest, Recruit a soldier or use Family Growth (actions A, B or C) with any of his knights during this turn.
E) Pass
On any available space on the power spheres, flip a white time token over to its black side or place a black time token from the reserve.
NOTE: You may perform this action in any round of the turn, not just in the last ones.
Auctions
The highest bidder in all auctions is the player with the most cubes. In case of a tie, then by quality of their cubes. The order of quality, from highest to lowest, is the following one: gold, influence, metal, fabric, food.
Example: 3 Food is better than 2 gold. 1 Gold, 1 Influence and 1 food is better than 1 Gold and 2 Metal.
Marriages
When the heir of a knight with lands or castle is born, the active player arranges a party and marries him with the daughter of the player who offers the best dowry.
All players, including the active player, hide a number of resources in their hand. All offers are revealed at the same time.
The following options can happen:
- If the player who made the highest offer is not the active player:
- He gives the cubes of his offer to the active player as a dowry, who takes half of the offer (rounded up) and discards the rest.
- The player with the highest dowry removes a single woman from his lineage space and gets 2 victory points.
- The rest of the players keep their respective offers.
- If the player who made the highest offer is the active player:
- He puts his offer in the reserve and removes a single woman from his lineage space: his heir has been married to a distant relative, as well as the single woman that has been removed from his lineage space.
- If there is a tie, the heir falls in love and marries an "anonymous woman" and all players keep their offers.
After the marriage the next player in order takes his next action.
Note: If the player with the highest offer doesn't have any single woman in his lineage space, he pays the dowry all the same but doesn't get the victory points.
Getting Older
When a player harvests, recruits a soldier and chooses an hourglass with Family Growth, he obtains a white time token. These tokens represent the passage of time and a knight dies when he gets four of them.
Death
A knight dies when he receives his fourth time token or when he starves during the winter (see Winter).
When a knight dies the time tokens are returned to the reserve:
- If the deceased knight has an heir, he takes possession of his father's properties and maintains the bonds of vassalage. Flip over the knight tile.
- If he doesn't have an heir, his family loses 4 victory points:
- If he owns any lands, castles or soldiers, those are inherited by a distant relative. Keep the knight tile and the bonds of vassalage are maintained.
- If he has no properties, remove his tile and his knight token from the game. However, this knight's space can be used again with another Family Growth action. If it was a vassal, the bonds of vassalage are removed and the family marker is returned to its owner.
2) Tributes
Each player receives the resources indicated in the right lower part of his lands and each land provides its Lord 1 Food. All the cubes in this phase are taken from the reserve. Once all tributes have been received, the players flip all their land tiles.
Example: the player receives the tribute shown on the cereal land and flips it over. If the knight that owns the land is a vassal, his Lord would get 1 Food from the reserve.
3) Political Phase
The player with the highest number of knights in each Power Sphere (Court, Market, War and Curia) receives some benefits from the powerful people who rule in them. If there is a tie regarding a Sphere, the player with the knight furthest to the left is the winner of that benefit.
- Court: The winner receives the Starting Player token, 1 Influence and 2 victory points.
- Market: The winner receives 1 Gold and 1 victory point.
- War: The winner receives the King's Soldiers (which can be placed in front of any knight) and 1 victory point. The King's Soldiers work exactly as any other soldier in the game and have the same value.
- Curia: The winner gains control of the Archbishop (which can be placed in front of any knight) and 2 victory points. The Archbishop provides immunity to vassalage attempts and wars against the knight he is visiting, due to the Truce of God.
Example: Red achieves majority on this sphere.
4) Power Spheres
The actions with more than one space are resolved from left to right.
Monastery
Each knight in the Monastery must perform the following action:
- Take the Veil: Remove 1 single woman from the lineage space. You can discard 2 Privileges to remove another woman and you can repeat this as many times as you want, discarding 2 Privileges for each woman.
Example: on a Monastery action the player removes one of his single women. If he pays 4 Privileges he can remove 3 single women instead of only one.
Court
Each knight in the Court can perform one of the following actions:
-
Take 2 Influences.
-
Try to turn into a vassal another player's knight (the target) only if the following requirements are met:
- The target is not already a vassal.
- The active knight is not a vassal of the target's family.
- The active knight owns more soldiers than the number of elements (soldiers, lands and castles added together) that the target owns.
- The target is not protected by the Archbishop.
The target offers the amount he wishes of visible Gold and/or Influence to avoid the vassalage. Then the active knight can:
- Take half of the total amount of resources (rounded up) and discard the rest. The target receives 2 victory points for his resistance.
- Refuse the offer and raise it: the knight will have to raise the target's offer in quality and/or quantity (but including at least the same number of gold cubes). The target must accept half of the total amount of resources (rounded up) and discard the rest. In this case the vassalage attempt is successful.
- Offer a fief: if the active knight is not a vassal and the target owns less than 2 lands, the knight can give him one of his lands as a fief. In this case the vassalage attempt is successful.
If the vassalage attempt is successful, the target knight recovers his offer, becomes a vassal of the active player and the active player is his Lord.
- The new Lord places a family token on the tile of his vassal and gains 2 victory points (he also gains 4 victory points for each land under the target's control before the vassalage).
- The new vassal gains 4 victory points if he has received a fief.
Example: Left's knight can try to turn Right's knight into a vassal. He controls more soldiers (5) than the number of defensive elements (4) of the other knight.
Example: This knight is a red player's vassal. He won't be able to attack or try to turn into vassal any red player's knights.
Market
Each knight in the Market can perform one of the following actions:
-
Trade: He can exchange up to 4 of his resources according to the following rate:
- 1 Food → 1 Fabric
- 2 Food → 1 Metal
- 1 Fabric + 1 Food → 2 Metal
- 1 Influence + 1 Metal + 1 Fabric + 1 Food → 3 Gold
Example: a player decides to exchange 4 resources this way: 1 Food + 1 Fabric → 2 Metal, and 2 Food → 1 Metal.
Note: You cannot trade the cubes that you have obtained by trade in the same action.
-
Build a Castle: The active player starts an auction to build a castle. Players may offer all kinds of resources except influence.
The lowest valid offer amounts to 1 Food, 1 Fabric and 1 Metal, but the active player may add as many resources as he chooses. The resulting number of cubes will be the starting bid.
Proceeding in turn order, all players, including the ones without knights on the Market, may pass or equal the starting bid and raise the previous bid in quantity or quality (without altering the starting bid).
Once all players have made their bids, the turn goes back to the active player and he can make one last offer before the auction finishes.
The player with the highest bid pays the resources and gains 4 victory points. He also obtains a castle that can be placed in front of one of his knights or one of his vassals without one. The rest of the players recover their bids.
Note: If the active player doesn't win the auction, he can perform the trade action instead.
Note: A player without a free castle space cannot bid on the castle.
War
Each knight in the War can perform one of the following actions:
-
Attack a free land. The player may choose the land on top of either of the two stacks. A free land is conquered when the strength of the attacking knight is higher than the land's defenses (defense in the gameboard plus the land's own defense). If the knight conquers it, he can put the land in front of any of his knights or vassals, or discard it.
The strength of the active player is 3 for each of his soldiers and 1 for each unit of food (mercenaries) and/or influence (allies) he pays.
Example: this land has 8 defense. To be able to conquer it, a knight with 2 soldiers should discard 3 cubes of Food and/or Influence.
-
Attack a land owned by another player. To attack another player the following requirements need to be met:
- The attacking player must discard as many Influence as the target player has single women in his lineage space.
- A vassal may never attack his Lord's family or his Lord's vassals.
- The family of a Lord may never attack his vassals.
- It is not possible to attack a knight without lands.
- It is not possible to attack the knight with the Archbishop.
The attacker can attack any target's land but he has to say which one.
Example: before trying to attack any yellow knight the attacking player must pay 1 Influence.
The attack is resolved according to the following rules:
- If the attacker or the defender is a vassal, his Lord may choose to take part in the war if both of them agree.
- All players involved in the fight decide how many Food and/or Influence they want to use in the war and hide them in their hands.
- All players reveal their cubes at the same time and the values of attack and defense are added.
Example: after paying the influence required, the left knight will attack the fabric land of the right knight. Both sides have 12 initial strength, 4 soldiers on the left side, and 2 soldiers plus a castle on the right's.
If any land of the defender has a defense modifier, it is applied when attacking that knight. It provides defense to all that knight's lands.
The party with the highest number of strength points is the winner (in case of a tie, the defender is always the winner). Once finished, the involved players discard the cubes they have used.
If the defender wins, the attacker withdraws with no consequences.
If the attacker wins, the land is conquered and he places the tile in front of one of his knights, gives it to one of his vassals or discards it.
Note: If the winner has won against any player with the most single women, he gets an extra 2 victory points.
Note: If the attacker has asked for help from his Lord, it will be the Lord who decides the placement of the newly conquered land among the knights and vassals of the attacker.
Gaining and Losing Victory Points Due to War
Every time a knight receives a land his family receives 4 victory points. If that knight is a vassal, his Lord's family receives 4 victory points as well.
Every time a knight loses a land, his family loses 4 victory points. If that knight is a vassal, his Lord's family loses 4 victory points as well.
Curia
In this phase all players, including the ones without knights on the Curia, donate money to the Church in order to build a Cathedral.
All players offer a certain quantity of gold hidden in their hand, that will be simultaneously revealed.
The player or players with the highest offer get 6 victory points and discard their Gold. The rest of the players may choose whether to take their offer with no consequences or discard it and get a number of victory points equal to 6 minus the difference between the higher offer and their own offer (the player or players with the lowest offer get 2 victory points less than that).
Note: If all the players offer the same, everyone gains 6 victory points and discards his gold.
Note: A player offering zero gold is always the lowest offer and cannot gain nor lose victory points.
Once resolved, each knight in the Curia can perform one of the following actions:
- Get 1 privilege: Place a family token in your lineage space.
- Turn a single woman into an abbess: Remove a woman from your lineage space and keep the cube as influence.
Example: yellow player gets a Privilege and adds another family token to his lineage zone. Example: yellow player turns a woman into an abbess on the Curia action.
Crusades
Each knight in the Crusades receives 1 Influence and is protected against the winter.
5) Winter
Roll a die. If the result is a snowflake, these are hard times and food is not easily found. Any knight who has neither lands nor a castle dies, except for knights on the Crusades.
The King rewards those who help with the defence of the kingdom. All families with at least 1 soldier or a castle in front of each of their knights receive 1 Privilege.
Take all knight tokens from the board and refill all the spaces with white time tokens. The Archbishop and the King's soldiers return to their proper spaces.
Advance the turn marker 1 space on the track. The player with the Starting Player token starts the next turn.
Lineages
Lineage cubes represent single women of the family, who offer both advantages and disadvantages during the game:
- They can be married with the heir of another family knight (see Marriages).
- They can be elected Abbess of a Monastery and provide influence (see Curia).
- They offer protection for the family in case a player is attacked. The more lineage cubes a player owns, the more influence is required to attack him (see War).
However, every single woman in the lineage space at the end of the game counts as negative points. Therefore, you must find the way to change their status:
- Marrying them (see Marriages).
- Sending them to a monastery escorted by a knight in order to take the veil (see Monastery).
- Helping them in their way to become an Abbess, with the help of a knight on the Curia (see Curia).
Vassals
Each player is considered Lord of his vassals. Vassals will always be other players' knights (A, B, C or D) and vassalage is expressed by the presence of the Lord's family token on the vassal's knight tile.
A Lord may have more than one vassal, but each vassal may only have one Lord. The bonds of vassalage are inherited by the heirs.
The benefits of vassalage are many. The vassal improves the defense of his lands and the Lord:
- Gets 2 victory points for a successful vassal attempt (see Court).
- Gets 4 victory points for each land under the vassal's control (see Court).
- During the tribute phase, the Lord receives a food payment from his vassals' lands (see Tributes).
- A vassal may never attack the family of his Lord, or turn his Lord's knights into vassals. The Lord's knights may never attack his vassals. However, they may attack any other knight of his vassal's family (see War).
- On war, a Lord may help out his vassals with food and/or influence. However, a vassal may never assist his Lord in this way. That is also applied to attacks initiated by the vassal (see War).
- Once established, a vassalage relationship may never be broken. That will only happen if a knight dies with no heir, no land, no castle and no soldiers. If that happens, return the Lord's family token to its owner (see Death).
Privileges
A family token in the lineage space represents a Privilege.
The Privileges are gained by action of a knight on the Curia or at the end of the Winter phase, where the King gives a Privilege to the families that help defend the kingdom.
Privileges can be used to place a knight on a time token without paying Gold, to enable more than one woman to take the veil in the same action, or to recognize an illegitimate son.
End of Game
The game finishes when the fifth turn is over.
The final scoring is modified according to:
- +2 victory points for the player or players with the highest number of Fabric plus Metal added together.
- +2 victory points for the player or players with the highest number of Influence.
- +2 victory points for the player or players with the highest number of privileges.
- +1 victory point for each 2 Gold.
- -2 victory points for each single woman in the lineage space. The player or players with the highest number of single women receive -3 victory points for each woman instead.
The player with the highest number of victory points is the winner. In case of a tie, the number of castles, lands and vassals (in that order) will decide the winner.
2 Players
Use the same setup as usual with the following changes:
- Place the same white time tokens as in a 3 player game.
- On the Action phase, when someone passes he can place a family token on an empty space or on a space with a white time token on it. This family token has the same effects as a black time token.
- On the Political Phase, when the majorities are decided, the family token counts as another knight of that family, but only if there is at least one knight of that same family on that Power Sphere.
Advanced Game
Only for games with 3-5 players.
Time is Gold: Play with the reverse of the board. The black time tokens printed on the first space of the Power Spheres are covered with white time tokens. The printed tokens have the same function as a token placed there.
Pope Calls for Crusades: A knight on the crusades (and his Lord) cannot gain nor lose victory points when he gains or loses a land.
Note: A land conquered from a knight on the Crusades won't give victory points if put on one of his own vassals.
The King Claims: When you conquer a land from another player, you can offer it to the King. If you do so, you gain 3 victory points and discard the land.
Credits
Designer: Firmino Martínez
Edition: Pol Cors
Graphics and Illustrations: Pedro Soto
Rules: Maite Madinabeitia
Revised by: Alan Edwards and David Estall
(c) 2011 HomoLudicus Juegos, S.L.
Thanks to the testers José Luis Gama, Miguel Angel Ucha, Ignacio Abal, Jorge Abel, Jose Angel Garcia, José Alberto Rodríguez y Angel Sousa. And all the players from Tierra de Nadie, Zona Lúdica, Festival de Córdoba, Leiria Con y Homínidos: Fernando Liste, Pili Rivero, Andrés Montero, Enrique Montero, Jose Angel Sacarrera, Gonzalo Pazos, Eloy Muñoz, Manuel Suffo y Mari Ángeles, Julio Giménez, Antonio Becerra, David Jiménez, Carlos Guerrero, Juan Silva, José Martínez, Xavi Carrascosa, Miguel Garcia, Pili Pérez, Luis Alberto Fernández, Juan Diego Fito, Pedro Garcia, Angel Agueras, Francisco José González, Meritxell Casas, Genís Morera, Tania Álvarez, Guillermo Ortiz, José David Cazorla, Fran Moli, Cristian Cano, Iván Jimenez, Juan Miguel Soler, Selema, Jorge Valenzuela, Nerea Puíme.
Special mention to: Francisco Ronco, Francisco Javier Ruiz, José Merlo, Daniel Becerra, Esteban Fernández, Henrique Egea, Pablo Barreiro, Mariano Ianneli, Jesús Torres and Paulo Soledade.