Pantheon Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component list
• Game Setup
• Goal
• Flow of the Game
  • 1. Preparation phase
  • 2. Turn phase
    • I. The player makes a movement
    • II. The player buys something
    • III. The player gains 1 gods tile
    • IV. The player draws 3 cards
  • End of the Turn phase
  • 3. End of epoch
• Scoring
• Game end
• Bonus and loot tiles
  • Reserve
  • Half god
  • Gods tile
  • Column
  • Sacrifice tile
  • Draw cards
  • Money card
  • Steps
• The Nations
  • Gallia
  • Germania / Graecia
  • Aegytus
  • Persia
  • Iberia
  • Roma
  • Cartago
• Gods of Pantheon
  • The gods and their benefits
    • Surparit — immediately: gods tile
    • Plaesiris — immediately: half gods
    • Taksator — immediately: special money card
    • Depraccus — permanently: 2 cards
    • Vinthrad — permanently: +1 step
    • Gaiviles — permanently: jump
    • Stonkus — permanently: Money
    • Gadicea — permanently: +1 card
    • Pietalte — permanently: scoring
    • Traitera — one time: +1 action

Component list

1 board                                               21 round half god tiles
48 columns in 4 player colors                         4 square 50/100 points markers
48 feet in 4 player colors                            6 square bonus tiles
4 score markers in 4 player colors                    75 action cards (16 movement, 44 sacrifice, 15x 1$)
1 big foot                                            7 special money cards (2x 2$, 2x 3$, 2x 4$, 1x 5$)
1 temple                                              8 nation cards
8 round nation tiles                                  1 bag
32 square sacrifice tiles                             4 player aids
40 hex-shaped loot tiles
40 rectangular gods tiles

Game Setup

1. Lay out the board. The big foot and the 50/100 points markers are placed next to the board. The 48 columns and 48 feet in player colors form the general reserve and are placed next to the board. Shuffle the 6 bonus tiles and place them in a face down stack next to the board.

2. Put the 40 hex-shaped loot tiles in the bag next to the board.

3. Shuffle the 40 gods tiles and place them in a face down stack next to the board.

4. The 21 half god tiles are sorted into 2 groups. First, shuffle the 4, 5, 6 tiles together and place them in a face down stack next to the board. Then shuffle the 1, 2, 3 tiles together and place them in a face down stack on top of the first stack.

   Attention! Important distinction: Gods / Half-gods.

5. Place the 8 round nation tiles face up next to the board.

6. Shuffle the 8 nation cards and place them face down next to nation tiles.

7. Sort the 32 sacrifice tiles in to 1/2 and 3/4 groups of each kind (priest, dancer, temple, offering) and place them next to the board.

8. Sort the 7 money cards worth 2 to 5 in ascending order and place them next to the board (this forms the 'specialty money card stack').

9. Shuffle the 75 action cards (movement, sacrifice, 1-money) and place them in a draw pile face down next to the board. Turn up 4 cards und place them face up next to the draw pile. This is the card display. Leave room for a card discard pile.

10. Each player gets in his player color:

    • 1 score marker and places it on space 0 of the victory point track.
    • 3 columns and 4 feet, forming his personal reserve.
    • Additionally: 5 cards from the face down draw pile.
    • 1 bonus tile from the face down stack (see variant pg. 4).
    • 1 player aid.

11. If one of the players is a half god, this player will be the starting player. In the unlikely cause that there are more than one or no half gods present, the youngest player will be the starting player. He takes the temple and starts the game.

Goal

The players score Victory Points by collecting the favors of gods and half gods of the Pantheon and building Columns (why build monuments when nothing more than columns will stand the test of time?). The player with the most VP wins the game.

Flow of the Game

The game runs over 6 epochs. Each epoch, 1 nation will be played. Each epoch consists of 3 phases:

1. Preparation phase – rise of the nation
2. Turn phase – peak of the nation
3. End of epoch phase – decline of the nation

1. Preparation phase

• The starting player turns face up the top nation card. This is the active nation for this epoch.
• He puts the corresponding nation tile on the leftmost free place of the epoch track.
• From the face down gods tile pile he then turns god tiles face up, 1 more than the number of players and places them on the board.
• Another player draws loot tiles from the bag, 1 more than the number of players. He places them randomly on the board on the hexes with the symbol of the active nation (each nation has 5 hexes).
  • With 2 players, don't use the hexes with numbers 3 and 4 on them.
  • With 3 players, don't use the hexes with number 4 on them.
• Each nation has one characteristic trait, execute it now (corresponding to the active nation).
• Put the temple on the starting hex of the active nation.
• These preparations take place at the start of each epoch.
• Clarification: The bonus tiles take effect after the preparation of the first nation is finished.

(The nations characteristic traits, the loot and bonus tiles are explained in detail under Bonus and Loot Tiles and The Nations below. The benefits of the gods are explained under Gods of Pantheon below.)

Example of the preparation of the 1st epoch in a 3 player game:

1. The starting player turns the nation card "Gallia" face up.
2. He takes the nation tile "Gallia" and puts it on the 1st space of the epoch track.
3. He turns 4 gods tiles (3 players + 1) face up and places them on the board.
4. Another player draws now 4 loot tiles (3 players + 1) from the bag and places them on the hexes with the "Gallia" symbol. The hex with the number 4 is not used with 3 players.
5. Now the characteristic trait of the nation is executed.
6. As the last action, the starting player puts the temple on the starting hex of "Gallia".

Variant: Instead of giving out the bonus tiles at random in the game setup, the players can decide to choose between them. This is done after the preparation of the 1st epoch is completed. The bonus tiles are placed face up instead of face down. In reversed player order, beginning with the player who is in last place and then counterclockwise, each player chooses and takes one bonus tile.

2. Turn phase

Starting with the starting player each player now takes a turn in clockwise order. In his turn, each player must take exactly one of the following actions:

I. The player makes a movement or II. The player buys something or III. The player gains 1 gods tile or IV. The player draws 3 cards

When a player has done one of these actions, his turn ends and the next player starts his turn.

I. The player makes a movement

• The player who chooses this action takes the big foot. This gives him 1 step.
• The player plays movement cards. Each movement card gives him 2 steps.
• He may now take steps up to the total sum.

Example: It is Red's turn. He takes the big foot. He plays 1 move card additionally. He may execute 3 steps.

Executing the movement:

• For each step a player has, he may place a foot or a column on the board.
• Feet or columns must be taken from the player personal reserve.
• Feet may be placed on all hexes (including water hexes), but not on column hexes.
• Columns may only be placed on column hexes.
• The player must place his first foot next to the temple or next to already placed own feet or columns.
• Columns must always be placed next to his own feet. All feet and columns a player places must be connected to the temple.

Example: It is Red's turn. He has 3 steps to do. He places the first foot next to the temple and the second foot next to the first one. Then he places a column on the column hex next to the second foot, leaving him with no more steps available to use.

• If a player places a foot on a hex with a loot tile, he takes the loot tile.
• If a player places a foot or a column on a hex already containing a foot or column of another player, he has to spend 1 additional step.
• Only 2 feet or columns may be placed on each hex. They must belong to different players.
• As the last action, the player puts the played movement cards on the discard pile and, if appliable, activates the loot tile bonus. So the movement of the player ends, but not his turn!

Attention! After the player has finished his movement action, all other players may also do a movement action. They play movement cards but don't get the bonus step from the big foot.

Example: Red has chosen the action movement (see example above). After he has ended his movement, Green plays one movement card and places 2 feet. Now it's Yellow's turn. He plays 3 movement cards, meaning he can take up to 6 steps. He places 2 feet from the temple, then a column, costing 2 steps, because there is already another column in the same hex. Then he places 1 foot on the loot tile and takes it. He abandons the sixth step. Then he activates the bonus of the loot tile.

• If a player can't or won't do a movement, he draws a card from the draw pile.
• When all players have finished their movement or drawn a card, the player places the big foot back on the board. Only now his turn ends and the next player in clockwise order takes his turn.

More examples for movement: a player may start additionally from the temple, may branch off with his route or extend his route on different ends.

Example: Green chooses the movement action. He takes the big foot and plays 2 movement cards. He may take up to 5 steps. He places 1 column to the right of the 2 feet placed in a former movement action. Then he places 2 feet and 1 column to the left of the temple. That costs him only 4 steps, because the shown yellow wooden pawns are not there yet. Now it's Yellow's turn. He plays 3 movement cards, so he may take up to 6 steps. He places 2 feet and 1 column to the left of the temple. This costs him 5 steps, because of the green foot and column already there. Red only has 1 movement card on his hand. He can't reach a column or loot hex. He decides to not take a movement and draws a card instead. [New placed feet and columns are red bordered on the image]

The placed columns stay on the board for the entire game (see End of epoch, below). Players may add columns from earlier epochs to their routes. But to do this, the column must be connected with the current temple.

Example: Yellow chooses the movement action. He plays 2 movement cards, totaled up with the big foot he may take up to 5 steps. He places 2 feet from the temple and connects the column built in an earlier epoch with the temple. Now he can use this column in his route, and places 2 more feet and 1 column behind it. [New placed feet and columns are red bordered on the image]

Clarification: A movement action only ends when all players made their movement or have drawn a card.

II. The player buys something

To buy something, the player plays money cards. With these money cards he may do one or more purchases (from the same or different types):

• The player buys a sacrifice tile. There are 4 kinds and each player may only have 1 tile of each kind. Each kind is available in levels from 1 to 4. The player may buy the sacrifice tile in the level he wants. The price is shown in the down right corner of the tile.

  Example: The player buys the 1 dancer tile. This costs him 1 money. The player buys the 3 dancer tile. This costs him 6 money.

• The player may upgrade 1 of his sacrifice tiles. If he upgrades a level 1 to a 2 or a 3 to a 4, he just flips the tile. In all other cases, he puts the tile back into the box and takes the tile with the next higher level. The cost of the upgrade is the difference between their prices.

  Example: The player already owns a temple 1-tile and wants to upgrade it to a 3-tile. He pays 5 money, puts the 1-tile back in the box and takes the 3-tile.

• The player may buy feet and columns in his color from the general reserve and place them in his personal reserve. Each foot and each column costs 1 money.

• The player may also place feet and columns from his personal reserve on the board, including just purchased feet and columns. Placing a foot or a column costs 1 money, or 2 money if the hex is already occupied. The placement works just like movement, only that money cards are used and not movement cards. The differences to the movement action are:

  • The big foot is not used.
  • The other players are not allowed to play.

• After buying, the player puts all his played money cards on the discard pile.

• There is no change given for purchases.

Example for a purchase: Green plays these money cards. The 8 money are spent as following:

• He buys a sacrifice tile "dancer" level 1 and a sacrifice tile "priest" level 2 (= 4 money).
• He buys 1 foot and 1 column from the general reserve & places them in his personal reserve (= 2 money).
• He places the column immediately on the column hex already containing the yellow column (= 2 money). [All other feet and column on the image were placed on the board earlier]
• Now he puts the played money cards on the discard pile.

III. The player gains 1 gods tile

The player may gain one gods tile from the face up tiles on the board. To do so, he must make a sacrifice.

• Making a sacrifice means that the player has to use sacrifice cards and/or sacrifice tiles.
• There are sacrifice cards in the same types as the sacrifice tiles: offerings, priest, dancer, temple.

How does this work in detail?

• On each gods tile, in the upper left corner, there are one or more numbers.
• Each number refers to how many sacrifice cards and/or sacrifice tiles of one kind a player needs. You will need as much different kinds as there are numbers to gain the gods tile.

This will be shown in the following examples:

Example, showing a sacrifice, done only with sacrifice cards: Red plays 4 dancer cards and 1 temple card. This allows him to gain the shown gods tile.

Example, showing the same sacrifice, but using only sacrifice tiles: Yellow has a dancer tile level 4 and a temple tile level 2. This is enough to fulfill the conditions to gain the shown gods tile.

Example for combining sacrifice cards and tiles: Green uses his dancer tile level 2 and plays 2 dancer cards and 1 temple card. Again, this is enough to gain the shown gods tile.

• Granted, the player may use other kinds of sacrifice cards and tiles, not only dancers and temples!

Another example: Green would like to gain this gods tile. He needs 4 different kinds of sacrifices in the shown numbers.

• Played sacrifice cards are put on the discard pile.
• Played sacrifice tiles are kept by the player, they may be used again in each new turn.
• Each gods tile yields a benefit (see Gods of Pantheon below).
• The player receives immediately victory points for each gods tile he gains, depending on the epoch that is being played.

Example: The game is in the 2nd epoch. Red gains a gods tile and gets 2 points immediately.

• In each action "gaining a gods tile" a player is only allowed to gain 1 gods tile.

IV. The player draws 3 cards

The player takes 3 cards, one after another from the open card display and/or from the face down draw pile. If he takes an open card, the open spot will be immediately filled with the top card from draw pile, face up.

When the draw pile is emptied, the discard pile is shuffled and placed face down, forming the new draw pile. If a player is required to draw a card and a new draw pile can't be formed because the discard pile is empty, all players discard all cards, which are shuffled to form the new draw pile. Then, the player draws the card(s) he is required to.

End of the Turn phase

The players take turns in clockwise order, until the last loot tile or the last gods tile is taken from the board. After that action, the "2. Turn phase" ends (the active player ends his turn like usual). The active player gains 3 victory points and gives the temple to the player on the left, indicating this way the starting player for the next epoch.

Attention: If the last loot tile is taken in a movement action, all players who haven't moved yet may move or draw a cards as usual. Then the player with the big foot gets the 3 points.

3. End of epoch

• All players take their feet back from the board into their personal reserves.
• All columns stay on the board!
• Gods tiles, loot tiles and half god tiles not taken in this epoch are put back in the box.

Then, a new epoch starts with the phases 1 to 3.

Exception: After the 3rd epoch the first scoring occurs, after the 6th epoch the second scoring occurs, after which the game ends.

Scoring

Both scorings (after the end of the 3rd and 6th epoch) are done in the same way. First, the half gods are scored and then the columns on the board are scored.

Half gods: each player adds up the points on the half god tiles in his possession. Each player keeps his half gods after the first scoring.

Columns: each player receives points for columns of his own color placed in the board during the game. The points depends on the total sum of columns he has on the board:

Total sum of columns on the board	Points
1 – 3	1 per column
4 – 7	2 per column
8 – 11	3 per column
12	4 per column

Example of the 1st scoring for Red (only the red columns and point marker are pictured): Red already has 11 points at the beginning of the scoring (because of ending the epoch and gaining gods tiles). He has one half god with 3 and one with 2 points on it, and 5 columns placed on the board. He gets 5 points for the half gods (3 + 2 = 5). He gets 10 points for the 5 columns (each column is worth 2 points; 5 x 2 = 10). In total, he scores 15 points in this scoring.

Game end

After the second scoring, the game ends and the player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most half gods wins (count the half god tiles, not the point values). If still tied, the victory is shared.

Bonus and loot tiles

Clarification: Yellow tiles take effect immediately after a player gets them and are put back in the box.

Reserve

The player takes the shown number of columns and/or feet in his color from the general reserve to his personal reserve.

Half god

Preparation of epoch: For each loot tile showing a half god placed on the board, one half god tile from the face down pile is taken and put face up on the board.

When a player gets a loot tile, he immediately takes the highest half god tile and puts it in front of him, face down. When a player takes this starting bonus, he takes one half god tile from the face down draw stack and puts it in front of him, face down.

Players are allowed to look at their own half gods at any time.

Gods tile

The player take the top gods tile from the face down stack. He does not make a sacrifice. He puts it face up in front of him and gets immediately the gods benefit (see Gods of Pantheon below). Additionally, he gets points depending on the epoch the game is currently in.

Column

The player taking this bonus tile places after the preparation of the 1. epoch 1 own column from the general reserve on a column hex by his free choice. This column counts as it was placed during the game.

Sacrifice tile

The player upgrades one sacrifice tile 1 level or takes a new sacrifice tile from level 1. If a player is allowed to do this more than once, he may use it on 1 sacrifice tile or split it up on more tiles.

Draw cards

The player draws the shown number of cards from the face down draw pile.

Money card

The player immediately gets the top card of the specialty money card stack. When he plays this card later in the game, it will be placed in the discard pile with all the other cards.

Steps

The player places these tiles in front of him. In each movement action, he may use the shown steps additionally. The player may move without using movement cards, by just using the steps provided by the tiles. The bonus- and loot-tiles are available throughout the whole game. The tiles are cumulative. They may not be used in the buying action.

The Nations

Gallia

Each player, starting with the starting player, has to choose:

• draw 2 cards from the draw pile or
• turn a gods tile from the gods tile stack face up. To gain this tile, he only has to spend the sacrifice listed for the top number. He may use his sacrifice cards and sacrifice tiles. If he can't or won't take the gods tile, it is put back in the box.

Example: if Gadicea (a God) is turned up, the player would need 5 sacrifices of one kind to gain this gods tile.

Germania / Graecia

All players are adjusting their hand size to 7. Players that have more than 7 cards on hand have to discard, players with less than 7 cards drawing cards until they have 7 in hand. Discards are on choice, draws are from the draw pile only.

Aegytus

Player may, start with the starting player, trade feet for columns or vice versa (only own color). Players trade between their personal reserve and the general reserve.

Persia

The specialty money card stack is resorted descending. This new order stands until the game ends.

Iberia

Each player, starting with the starting player, takes a sacrifice tile level 1 or upgrades any one of his own sacrifice tiles by one level.

Roma

Each player, starting with the starting player, draws two cards from the draw pile (not from the card display).

Cartago

Each player, starting with the starting player, may immediately spend 2 money. This money may not be supplemented by money cards or gods tiles. All options under the Buying are available.

Clarification: The preparation phase including a nations special trait is completed with putting the temple in place. Therefore, it's not allowed to place feet with the money provided by Cartago, because the temple is not on the board when the money must be spent (placing feet must start next to the temple).

Gods of Pantheon

The players may gain gods tiles in 5 different ways:

• With one of the bonus tiles at the start of the game. The player takes the top gods tile from the face down stack.
• With a loot tile in the actions Movement or Buying. The player takes 1 gods tile for each loot tile from the face down stack.
• With the action 'Gaining 1 gods tile'. The player may take 1 face up gods tile per action.
• With the nation "Gallia" (see above).
• With the god "Surparit" (see below).

Each gods tile yields a defined benefit for the owning player.

A yellow gods tile provides the benefit immediately and one-time only. The player puts it back in the box after use.

A blue gods tile provides a permanently benefit. The player places it in front of him.

Additionally, each gods tile provides points depending on the epoch it is gained (epoch points).

The gods and their benefits

Surparit — immediately: gods tile

The player takes immediately another gods tile from the face down stack. If he draws Surparit again, he is not allowed to take another gods tile (no chain reaction). The player gets the epoch points for Surparit and for the drawn gods tile.

Plaesiris — immediately: half gods

If Plaesiris is drawn in the preparation of epoch phase, the top 2 half gods tiles from the face down half god stack are placed face up on the board.

When a player gains Plaesiris with the Gain 1 gods tile action, he takes the 2 highest half god tiles.

When a player gains Plaesiris with bonus or loot tiles or with the god Surparit, he takes the top 2 half god tiles from the face down half god stack.

Taksator — immediately: special money card

The player immediately gets the top card of the specialty money card stack. If he plays this card later, he discards it as usual (it stays in the game and may by drawn again).

Depraccus — permanently: 2 cards

At the end of the preparation of a new epoch, after the temple has been placed, the player draws two cards from the draw pile.

Clarification: If a player gets Depraccus by the bonus tile at the start of the game, the preparation phase for the first epoch is already finished and so he is not allowed to draw two cards.

Vinthrad — permanently: +1 step

The player has one more step to use in each Movement action, both starting the action or following. Multiple copies of Vinthrad are cumulative. The player may move with the help of Vinthrad even without playing any movement cards. He may not use Vinthrad in the action Buying, to place feet or columns on the board.

The tiles shown to the right can be freely combined. Using them, movement without playing movement cards is possible. None of these tiles can be used with the action Buying.

Gaiviles — permanently: jump

The player may jump once during his movement action, both starting the action or following. That means, he can jump over a hex, occupied by another player. The active player is allowed to:

• jump away from the temple.
• diagonal jumping.
• jump onto an occupied hex (this costs 2 steps as usual).
• jump over a hex containing already 2 feet or 2 columns.
• but he is NOT allowed to jump over an empty hex!

Example: Yellow has one Gaiviles in front of him. He uses the benefit and jumps in his movement action over the green feet. Then he places a column. He jumps diagonal and direct away from the temple.

Multiple copies of Gaiviles allow more jumps, but not over more than 1 hex each time.

Example: Green has 2 Gaiviles in front of him. He may not jump over both yellow pieces (see picture to the left). But he may jump 2 times over one piece (see picture to the right).

Stonkus — permanently: Money

The player may use 1 or 2 additional money in each of his Buying actions. Multiple copies of Stonkus are cumulative. The player may take a Buying action using only Stonkus help and not playing any money cards. Stonkus benefit can't be used in a Movement action, only in Buying.

Gadicea — permanently: +1 card

The player may draw 1 more card with each of his Draw cards actions. Multiple copies of Gadicea are cumulative. Gadicea may only used with the action Draw cards and not on it's own.

Pietalte — permanently: scoring

The gods tile Pietalte may only be gained using sacrifice cards alone. Sacrifice tiles may not be used. The player must play 3 sacrifice cards of one kind, 2 of another kind and 1 of a third kind.

Pietalte will be used in scoring, aligned to an own sacrifice tile. The player gets points equal to the level of the sacrifice tile. Multiple copies of Pietalte may be aligned with the same sacrifice tile.

Example 1: Red has 1 Pietalte and the 2 shown sacrifice tiles in front of him. During scoring, Red scores 4 points.

Example 2: Red has 2 Pietalte and the 2 shown sacrifice tiles in front of him. He can align both Pietaltes with the same sacrifice tile and scores 8 points.

Traitera — one time: +1 action

The player may use the gods tile Traitera in his turn after he has finished his action to execute a second action immediately.

• He can choose the same action or another one.
• If he choose the same action as the first, he is allowed to use all gods, sacrifice, bonus and loot tiles used in the first action, again.

Example: The player performed a Buying action making use of Stonkus ability. He now uses Traitera and chooses the Buying action again. He may use Stonkus again.

• The player may use all gods and loot tiles he received in the first action with the second action.
• The player may use Traitera only if he possessed her at the beginning of his turn.
• The player may use multiple copies of Traitera in one turn (but only if he possessed all of them at the beginning of his turn).
• After using Traitera, the player put the Traitera tile back in the box. Each Traitera may only be used once each game.

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It's theoretically possible, that the face down gods tile stack is empty but gods tile must be turned up. In this case, the gods tile in the box are shuffled and a new face down gods tile stack is formed. If a player gains a gods tile and can't use it's benefit (for example, he gets Taksator and the specialty money card stack is already used up), he only gets the epoch points for this gods tile and no other compensation.