Nucleum: Energy Research Institute
Nucleum: Energy Research Institute Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
8 new Experiments, each with:
- An Experiment board and its respective technology tiles
- An Effect tile
- 5 Starting Action tiles
- A Patron card
- An Experiment player aid
- A Baron's Patron card (for solo mode)
Shared components:
- 6 Patron cards for Experiments from the base game and Nucleum: Court of Progress expansion
- 1 Scoring pad
- Side board overlay
- Nucleum: Australia Special Shipping tile
- Nucleum: King's Court Alternative Starting tile
Experiment specific components:
- Marketeer (Experiment G): 1 Chaining Deal tile
- Chief Miner (Experiment H): 1 Player board extension (H), 4 additional Mines (1 in each player color), 4 additional Turbines (1 in each player color)
- Mistress of Espionage (Experiment J): 1 Presence marker, 12 Special Neutral Building tiles (J)
- Genius (Experiment K): 15 Technology point tokens, 1 additional Special Directive tile, 2 Special Action tiles
- Urbanist (Experiment L): 16 Building tiles (4 in each player color), 1 Chaining Park tile
- Master Bookkeeper (Experiment M): 2 Constant Potential tiles, 28 Special VP tokens (20x of value 1, 8x of value 5)
- Madame Governor (Experiment I): 2 Temporary Potential tiles, 4 Special Laboratories (1 in each player color)
- The Scholar (Experiment N): no special components
Setup
Place the side board overlay on its respective location in the endgame condition area.
The following replaces the 13th step (Experiment selection) of the base game's player setup:
- Randomly reveal a number of Experiment boards equal to the number of players + 1.
- We strongly recommend using the Expert Variant described under "Expert Variant" below for a balanced game play.
- Otherwise choose Experiment boards in reverse player order.
- Take the Experiment board, all respective technology tiles, the depicted Turbine Effect tile, all Starting Action tiles, and the Experiment player aid.
- If playing with the Nucleum: Court of Progress expansion, replace the Starting Action tiles with the Alternative Starting Action tiles showing the Court action as per the expansion rules. Otherwise, return these tiles to the box.
- For most Experiments, the tile with "Pay 1 Thaler to advance any income marker by 1" subsidize action must be replaced, any exceptions are explicitly noted in this rulebook.
- If playing with the Nucleum: Australia expansion, take the corresponding Special Shipping tile. Otherwise, return it to the box.
- If selecting one of the Experiments from this expansion, see the "New Experiments" section for possible unique setup steps.
- Finish your player board's setup as described in steps 13A-C of the base game's setup.
Experiments Difficulty Rating
The following table contains guidelines to compare Experiments and a level of experience needed to perform well with them.
| Experiment | Experience needed |
|---|---|
| Experiment A - Banker | ◆◆◆◇ |
| Experiment B - Captain of Industry | ◆◇◇◇ |
| Experiment C - Mistress Inventor | ◆◆◇◇ |
| Experiment D - Junior Minister | ◆◆◇◇ |
| Experiment E - Councillor | ◆◆◆◇ |
| Experiment F - Madame Engineer | ◆◆◇◇ |
| Experiment G - Marketeer | ◆◆◆◇ |
| Experiment H - Chief Miner | ◆◇◇◇ |
| Experiment I - Madame Governor | ◆◆◆◇ |
| Experiment J - Mistress of Espionage | ◆◆◆◆ |
| Experiment K - Genius | ◆◆◆◆ |
New Experiments
Marketeer (Experiment G)
Additional setup: When preparing the stacks of Silver and Gold Contracts (base game setup step 6C-6D), add one more Contract of each type. In other words, use 7/10/13 Silver and 11/13/17 Gold Contracts for a 2/3/4-player game. Remember, when playing with Nucleum: Australia, you must add 2 Contracts to each stack, therefore use 9/12/15 Silver and 13/15/19 Gold Contracts when Marketeer is used with that expansion.
Place the Chaining Deal tile face down below the Experiment Board.
Gameplay Changes: none.
Chief Miner (Experiment H)
Additional setup: Take the player board extension, an additional Mine, and an additional Turbine in your color. Place the extension below your player board and the additional Mine and Turbine on their dedicated spaces of the extension.
Gameplay Changes: After you unlock a technology with the player board extension, you may build the additional Mine and Turbine as per normal rules.
Madame Governor (Experiment I)
Additional setup: Replace your Level 3 Laboratory in your player color with the Special Laboratory provided in this expansion. Place both Temporary Potential tiles face down below the Experiment board. (See "Potential Tiles" below for more details on Potential tiles.)
Gameplay Changes: The level 3 Special Laboratory also counts as a Government Building.
Mistress of Espionage (Experiment J)
Additional setup: Return all Urban Buildings in your color to the game box and place the 12 Special Neutral Buildings provided in this expansion on your player board.
Place your Presence marker in any city on the map that has at least one unoccupied urban site. If playing with the Nucleum: Court of Progress, starting tile with the Court action replaces the starting tile with the Develop action.
Gameplay Changes: The Mistress of Espionage does not have their own Urban Buildings. Placing a Special Neutral Building on the map does not create or extend any Mistress of Espionage's network(s). However, the Mistress of Espionage can place Mines, Turbines, and Railways on the map as per normal rules.
For the Mistress of Espionage, all energized Neutral Buildings count toward the requirements of Contracts (together with their own Mines, Turbines, etc). Neutral Buildings that have not yet been energized do NOT affect the Mistress of Espionage in any way.
The Mistress of Espionage is allowed to energize Special Neutral Buildings on the map (according to normal rules) as well as Buildings still present on their player board, under the following conditions:
- Buildings on their player board are considered to be present in the City where the Mistress of Espionage's Presence marker is located.
- This City must have at least one unoccupied urban site.
Upon energizing a Building on their player board, the Mistress of Espionage gains all the depicted benefits, then flips that Building to its energized side.
The Mistress of Espionage is allowed, at any time during their turn, to pay 4 Thaler to move their Presence marker to any City.
Important: The Mistress of Espionage's Presence marker influences only the way they can energize their Buildings on the player board, but it does not influence any other actions the Mistress of Espionage is performing.
The Mistress of Espionage is allowed to build both energized and not energized Special Neutral Buildings from their player board, following normal rules.
At the end of the game, the Mistress of Espionage gains VP for all built and energized neutral Buildings. Ignore the VP remainders on the Player board, they are not applicable to Mistress of Espionage.
Other players may energize Special Neutral Buildings as if they were regular Neutral Buildings, gaining all the instant benefits. Points will be granted to the Mistress of Espionage at the end of the game as usual.
NOTE: Mistress of Espionage is recommended to be played in games with more than 2 players.
Genius (Experiment K)
Additional setup: Place the Technology point tokens in the general supply.
Gameplay Changes: The Genius's board contains 16 Technologies instead of the regular 8. Additionally, the Genius uses Technology point tokens to track their available Technology points.
When the Genius gains a Technology as a reward (usually via completing Contracts or energizing Laboratories), they gain Technology points equal to the level of that Technology instead of immediately unlocking a Technology or gaining VP. The Technology point tokens are limited, if you cannot gain more, any excess is wasted. Once per turn at any time, the Genius may spend Technology points to unlock 1 Technology. To do so, they must spend a number of Technology points equal to the level of the unlocked Technology.
The endgame condition "At least one player has unlocked all of their 8 Technologies" cannot be triggered by the Genius. Instead, they must unlock all of their 16 Technologies to trigger that endgame condition.
When playing with Nucleum: Court of Progress, and the agenda that scores for Technologies is in play, the Genius scores 1 VP per every 2 unlocked Technologies (instead of 1 VP per unlocked Technology).
Urbanist (Experiment L)
Additional setup: Return your Level 2 and Level 3 Residences and Factories and replace them with Urbanist Parks. Place the Chaining Park tile face down below the Experiment board.
Gameplay Changes: Parks grant different rewards and endgame VP for energizing them than their regular counterparts.
Master Bookkeeper (Experiment M)
Additional setup: Place all Special VP tokens in the general supply. Place both Constant Potential tiles face down below the Experiment Board. (See "Potential Tiles" below for more details on Potential tiles.)
Gameplay Changes: Whenever you advance any Income marker past the end of its track and gain VP as a result, do not mark the gained VP on the scoring track. Instead, take the Special VP tokens. These Special VP tokens are used for this purpose only and all other VP you gain are marked on the scoring track as per normal rules.
At the end of the game, during final scoring, add all the Special VP you have gained to your score. If you unlocked the M8 Technology, you will score additional VP based on the number of the Special VP you collected.
The Scholar (Experiment N)
Additional Setup: If playing with the Nucleum: Court of Progress, starting tile with the Court action replaces the starting tile with the Worker income Subsidize action.
New Concepts
Chaining Tiles (Marketeer and Urbanist)
These tiles can be gained through Technologies. They allow you to take the printed action and then optionally play a non-Chaining Action tile (see the following additional rules) immediately on top of this Chaining tile and resolve it.
Additional rules and clarifications:
- You may never place a Chaining tile as a Railway tile.
- You may never play more than 1 Chaining tile on the same turn (this rule includes the Shipping tile from the Nucleum: Australia expansion).
- You may play your Special Directive tile on top of a Chaining tile.
- You must fully perform the action depicted on the Chaining tile before placing and performing the actions of the Action tile played on top of it.
Chaining tiles count toward the number of the Action tiles you have for Contracts, Milestones, and Experiments' scoring Technologies.
Potential Tiles (Madame Governor and Master Bookkeeper)
These tiles can be gained through Technologies. They are placed on the leftmost spaces of your player board. Their purpose is to fill spaces for Action tiles, making it easier to take full advantage of well-advanced income markers during Recharge.
- Temporary Potential tiles are one-use only. You may place one or both of them during one of your Recharge turns, and remove the used one(s) from the game after resolving.
- Constant Potential tiles are placed immediately after being unlocked in the 2 leftmost Action tile spaces of your player board and remain on these spaces until the end of the game (they are not removed during the Recharge).
If all your Action tile spaces are filled, you may choose to play tiles on top of the Potential tiles to postpone their Recharge. If all your Action tile spaces have an Action tile played in them (either in the empty space or on top of the Potential tile), you cannot play any more tiles on your player board.
Potential tiles are not Action tiles, thus they do not count toward the number of the Action tiles for Contracts and Milestones.
Modified Endgame Conditions
In 3- and 4-player games the number of conditions to trigger the Endgame has increased from 2 to 3, while in 2-player and solo games the number of conditions remain unchanged. If you are combining this expansion with Nucleum: Australia, the same number of conditions apply.
Expert Variant
Players who are already well acquainted with Nucleum and its expansions are encouraged to try the following expert variant. Players no longer take Experiments in reverse player order. Instead, in player order, players hold an auction using VP to become the 1st/2nd/3rd to choose their Experiment. The auction is an open bidding process: each player may offer an amount of VP to be first to choose, and the amount they bid must be subsequently higher than the previous amount, or they may pass. The player who passes first chooses last, then the next player to pass must lose the amount of VP equal to their last bid and be 3rd, and so on. All players must mark down (anyway they choose to) the amount they bid and lose that number of VP at the end of the game, before tallying up VP and determining the winner.
NOTE: This Expert Variant is identical to the one described in Nucleum: Australia and Nucleum: Court of Progress.
EXAMPLE: Players A, B, C, D are bidding for priority of choosing Experiments, as follows: A-1, B-3, C-4, D-6, A-7, B-pass, C-8, D-10, A-pass, C-11, D-12, C-15, D-pass. C must lose 15VP and is the first to pick their Experiment, D must lose 12VP and is the second, A must lose 7VP and is third, and B is the last to choose and loses no VP. All these VP will be lost at the end of the game, before determining the winner.
Patron Cards
These cards have several uses and players may decide which of them they want to use. All of the uses are described in detail below.
Experiment Identities
Each Patron Card belongs to the specific Experiment board. All the Experiment boards introduced in this expansion are already named after their corresponding Patron cards. Experiments from the base game also have their Patron card:
- Experiment A - Banker
- Experiment B - Captain of Industry
- Experiment C - Mistress Inventor
- Experiment D - Junior Minister
- Experiment E - Councillor (Requires the Nucleum: Court of Progress side board)
- Experiment F - Madame Engineer
Every Patron card has the occupation of each Patron associated with the specific Experiment, along with their description and image depicting them.
Setup Change
During setup, players must agree whether they want to use the Patron abilities described in the next section. Then, if players do not play with the Nucleum: Court of Progress expansion, return the Councilor's card back to the box (if they do not have Experiment F, also return the Madame Engineer's card). They must also agree on how they want to choose their Experiment boards as follows:
- Following the rules described in the beginning of this rulebook: In this case, when a player takes everything that belongs to an Experiment board of their choosing, they also take the appropriate Patron card with them.
- Following the Expert Variant: In this case, a player also takes the appropriate Patron card. You may also incorporate the following rule: shuffle and deal a number of Patron cards equal to the number of players (if playing without Experiments from the Nucleum: Court of Progress expansion, deal all base game Patrons in case of a 4-player game). Then proceed with the bidding as described in the Expert Variant. Only Experiments associated with revealed Patron cards may be chosen.
- Random: Deal everyone a random Patron card to determine their Experiment board. Take everything that belongs to that Experiment and continue with the setup as usual.
Patron Abilities
Apart from introducing Patron identities, each Patron card has an ability that requires a player to spend a specific number of VP. These abilities may be used at any point during a player's turn, but they may only be used once per game. Players may flip their Patron card to remember that they have used the ability. Patron abilities are as follows:
- Banker - Spend 6VP while performing the Energize action to use up to 3 of your Uranium that is not connected to the Power Plant you are using.
- Captain of the Industry - Spend 3VP while performing the Industrialize action to perform an extra Industrialize action.
- Mistress Inventor - Spend 5VP. From now on, treat this card as an energized Building for the sake of all scoring and Contracts (but it is not treated as if it were in a City). This counts as an Energizing the Building action, so all Technologies that trigger on that action and the 2nd Turbine effects are applied, if unlocked.
- Junior Minister - Spend 8VP to take an Action tile from the top of the stack and a Worker from the reserve. Place this tile immediately as a railway, resolving it normally. The tile must be placed on a double or a triple rail line.
- Councillor - Spend 4VP when removing Politicians during King's Day Scoring to protect 1 of your Politicians that is not a leader.
- Madame Engineer - Spend 4VP to retrieve an already used Chaining tile from the player board.
- Marketeer - Spend 3VP to take an unused gold Contract from the box and place it in your completed Contracts pile. Trigger all the Technologies for taking and completing a Contract, but not the Contract's reward (nor any of your Contract space's rewards).
- Chief Miner - Spend 5VP to unlock a Level 1 Technology.
- Madame Governor - Spend 3VP to take the cheapest Action tile.
- Mistress of Espionage - Spend 3VP to perform an Energize action for a Building on a player board following the Mistress of Espionage rules.
Appendix: Technologies
The "Appears on" column lists the Experiment boards on which each Technology is printed. Technologies shared by two Experiments show the code of each in brackets, as printed.
Level 1 Technologies
| Technology | Effect | Appears on |
|---|---|---|
| (G1) | Whenever you place a Mine, Turbine, Urban Building, or railway tile on a red space, gain 1 Achievement token. | Marketeer |
| (G2) | Whenever you take a Contract action, you may place the new Contract tile on a Contract space already containing exactly 1 Contract tile, gaining rewards according to normal rules. You may only fulfill visible Contract tiles. | Marketeer |
| (G3) (N3) | Take 1 Action tile from the market with an additional discount of 2 Thaler. | Marketeer, The Scholar |
| (H1) (I1) | The coal always costs only 1 Thaler. You must still flip/remove the Coal Import Wagon tiles as per regular rules, only the cost changes. | Chief Miner, Madame Governor |
| (H2) (K2) | After you perform an Industrialize action gain 1 Thaler. | Chief Miner, Genius |
| (H3) | Place your player board extension below your player board's Industrialize section. From this moment on, you may build your additional Mine and additional Turbine (each with a cost of 1 Worker) and once you build both immediately gain a Level 2 Technology. |
Level 2 Technologies
| Technology | Effect | Appears on |
|---|---|---|
| (G4) | Whenever you fulfill a Contract, take one Action tile from the market with an additional discount of 2 Thaler. | Marketeer |
| (G5) | Gain 1 Chaining Deal tile. | Marketeer |
| (G6) (I6) | Immediately gain 4 Thaler and 4 Achievement tokens. | Marketeer, Madame Governor |
| (H4) (I4) | Whenever you perform an Industrialize action, you may ignore all network requirements. | Chief Miner, Madame Governor |
| (H5) (K9) | Immediately perform an Urbanize action with a total discount of 3 Thaler and ignoring any network requirements. | Chief Miner, Genius |
| (H6) | Immediately perform an Energize action, then gain 4 Achievement tokens. | Chief Miner |
| (I5) | Immediately perform an Urbanize action building a Government Building with a discount of 4 Thaler ignoring any network requirements. |
Level 3 Technologies
| Technology | Effect | Appears on |
|---|---|---|
| (G7) | Whenever you fulfill a Contract, you may consider the requirement reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1. This does not apply to Purple Contracts. | Marketeer |
| (G8) | Have 7/9/11 fulfilled Contracts to score 4/10/21 VP. | Marketeer |
| (H7) | Whenever you place a Railway tile, gain 1 Worker or take 1 Action tile from the market with an additional discount of 2 Thaler. | Chief Miner |
| (H8) | Have a total of 5/7/9 Mines and Turbines on the map to score 4/10/21 VP. | Chief Miner |
| (I7) | All Railway tiles placed on the map also contribute to your network. | Madame Governor |
| (I8) | Score 4/10/21 VP if you have placed and energized 2/3/4 government Buildings in cities of different colors. (Praha does not count as a city of any color.) | Madame Governor |
| (J7) | Immediately perform 2 Urbanize actions ignoring any network requirements. |
Appendix: Turbine Effects
- Marketeer's 2nd turbine: Before you perform an Energize action, you may spend any number of Workers to gain an equal amount of Uranium (you must place that Uranium onto your Mines).
- Chief Miner's 2nd turbine: After you take an Energize action, gain 2 Thaler.
- Madame Governor's 2nd turbine: After you take an Energize action, gain 1 Uranium.
- Mistress of Espionage's 2nd turbine: Whenever you Energize, copy the effect of another player's 2nd built Turbine. You may choose a different effect each time you Energize. Genius's Technology Point counts as unlocking a level 1 Technology.
- Genius's 2nd turbine: After you take an Energize action, gain 1 Technology point.
- Urbanist's 2nd turbine: After you take an Energize action, gain 1 Thaler for every Building with a Park icon you have on the map.
- Master Bookkeeper's 2nd turbine: After you take an Energize action, advance any of your income markers by 1.
- The Scholar's 2nd turbine: Whenever you take an Energize action, produce 1 additional electricity.
Solo Mode
You and the Baron can use any Experiment, except the Mistress of Espionage. The Baron has a Patron card for every other Experiment board. Their effects and changes in rules are described in detail below.
Baron: Marketeer
Setup: Add one additional Contract to both of the Silver and Gold stacks (during step 6 of the main setup).
Ongoing: When resolving either a Development or a Contract action, instead of the original action do the following in order:
- Develop, taking only 1 Action tile.
- Perform a regular Contract action in its entirety.
- Score 2 VP.
The Baron is not limited to resolving 3 Contracts between Recharges.
Baron: Chief Miner
Setup: When setting up the map (step 9 of the main rules), additionally:
a. Place the Chief Miner's special Turbine on a non-red space in a City with a power plant and Nucleum. b. Place the Chief Miner's special Mine in the location that you would place the first Rubble tile (instead of the Rubble).
Ongoing: Whenever the Baron places a Railway tile, it takes the right-most Action tile from the offer (put that tile in the front of the Baron's queue). When the Baron performs an Energize action and is able to score Mines (using a power plant with a Nucleum), it scores 2 VP per each Mine it has on the map, even the ones outside of the network (instead of the usual 1 VP per connected Mines).
Baron: Madame Governor
Setup: The Baron does not use the Experiment specific Urban Building tiles. In step 2C of the Baron's Setup make sure that at least 1 of the 2 additional Action tiles has the Industrialize action.
Ongoing: When performing the Industrialize action, if it can't Industrialize in network, then it can do it outside of network (use the Logic card as a tiebreaker).
Recharge: The Baron places a milestone marker 8 steps above its previous marker (on 9, 20, and 40) scoring the 9 VP when placing on the 40.
Scoring: Government Buildings score 3/3/4 VP instead of 2/2/3 VP (for Residential/Factory/Laboratory).
Baron: Genius
Setup: Stack the Baron's Urban Buildings in the following order: I, IV, II, III (top to bottom). Randomly select one of the four Specialization cards and put it into play.
Recharge: Randomly select one of the remaining Specialization cards and add it to the cards already in play.
Ongoing: When performing the Urbanize action, the Baron prioritizes the type of Building it has the fewest of on the map. Use a Logic card as a tiebreaker, if needed.
Specialization Cards
Development
- Immediately: Shuffle the Experiment K special Action tiles with all the tiles ahead of the stopblock and create a new (face-up) queue.
- Ongoing: After the Baron performs the Develop action, remove the right-most tile in the offer from the game before refilling.
- Note: When resolving the [icon: tile with a + mark], treat it as a Subsidize action of [icon: Subsidize tile, pictured in the rulebook].
Industrialization
- Immediately: The Baron gains 2 Workers.
- Ongoing: The Baron does not spend Thaler for the Industrialize action.
Urbanization
- Ongoing: When the Baron performs the Urbanize action it gains additional rewards depending on the type of the site and Urban Building it placed.
- For a Residential Building it gains a Worker.
- For a Factory Building it gains a Thaler.
- For a Lab it gains 2 VP.
- For placing on a red space it gains +2 VP.
Contracts
- Ongoing: The Baron does not take Silver Contracts (unless they are the only ones left). Instead of scoring VP equal to the Technology level, the Baron gains 2 VP for each Technology level (it is also added to the Contract's VP value when choosing the Contract).
Baron: Urbanist
Setup: Shuffle the 4 Parks in the Baron's color and place them as a 4th stack next to the Baron's other Urban Buildings (do not remove any of its normal Urban Buildings). Shuffle the special Chaining Park tile with the Baron's starting Action tiles (this includes the 2 additional ones from the standard setup for the Baron), and set up the Baron's queue.
Ongoing: The Baron prefers to Urbanize on red spaces. When Urbanizing on a red space, the Baron scores 4VP.
NOTE: When the Baron resolves the Chaining Park tile, it builds the Park from the top of the stack. It does not cost a Thaler and it can be placed outside of network, prioritizing a red space. Use a Logic card as a tiebreaker. Otherwise, use the normal rules of Urbanize. After resolving the Chaining tile, the Baron resolves the next Action tile in its queue (similar to the explanation for the Special Shipping tile in the Nucleum: Australia rules). The Chaining Park tile can never be placed on the board as a railway, so resolving it is always a Regular turn.
Baron: Master Bookkeeper
Ongoing: When the Baron Recharges, it gets 1 additional Worker. Whenever the Baron resolves a Subsidize or Court action, it gains +1 VP, and moves the Flag token on the scoring track 1 VP back (lowering the endgame condition). If the Flag token moves to the same space as your VP marker, Baron gains 3 VP for meeting the endgame condition.
Baron: The Scholar
Ongoing: Immediately after resolving the Urbanize action, the Baron takes an Energize action targeting the Building placed that turn. It does not cost Thaler. If the Baron is unable to Energize that Building, it resolves a Development action instead, taking only 1 tile from the offer.