Pax Renaissance (First Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• A. Summary of Pax Renaissance
  • A1. Introduction
  • A2. Flow of Play Overview
  • A3. Objective of the Game
• B. Components
  • B1. Game Contents
  • B2. Player Cards
  • B3. Empires
  • B4. Tableau Cards
  • B5. Map Cards
  • B6. Comet & Victory Cards
• C. Setup
  • C1. Forming the Map
  • C2. Players
  • C3. Player Tableaus
  • C4. Starting Tokens
  • C5. Preparing the East & West Decks
  • C6. The Market, Empire Stack, & Victory Cards
  • C7. Starting Florins
• D. Sequence of Play
  • D1. Action Phase
  • D2. Refresh Market Phase
• E. Actions
  • E1. Purchase Market Card
  • E2. Play Hand Card & Place Agents
  • E3. Sell Card
  • E4. Perform Ops (East or West)
  • E5. Perform Trade Fair (East or West)
  • E6. Victory Action
• F. Tableau Ops
  • F1. Inquisitor (Religious Op)
  • F2. Commerce (Economic Op)
  • F3. Behead (Political Op)
  • F4. Tax (Political Op)
  • F5. Repress (Political Op)
  • F6. Vote (Political Op)
  • F7. Corsair (Military Op)
  • F8. Siege (Military Op)
  • F9. Campaign (Military Op)
• G. Trade Fairs
  • G1. Profits
  • G2. Voyage
  • G3. Voyage Profit Dispersal
  • G4. Levies
  • G5. Voyage End
  • G6. Bankruptcy Variant (optional)
• H. Trade Shifts
  • H1. Trade Shift One-shot Effects
• I. Coronations
  • I1. Cruciform Orientation
  • I2. Old Maid Queens
• J. Civil Wars
  • J1. Conspiracy One-shot
  • J2. Peasant Revolt One-shot
• K. Religious Wars
  • K1. Crusade, Reformation, or Jihad One-shot
  • K2. Crusade, Reformation, or Jihad Effects
• L. Victory
  • L1. Purchase & Discard the Comet Card
  • L2. Game End
  • L3. Holy Victory (Torquemada)
  • L4. Imperial Victory (Charles V)
  • L5. Globalization Victory (Columbus)
  • L6. Renaissance Victory (Leonardo)
• Glossary
• Reference Tables
  • Battle Table
  • Trade Fair Table

A. Summary of Pax Renaissance

A1. Introduction

As a Renaissance banker, you will finance kings or republics, sponsor voyages of discovery, join secret cabals, or unleash jihads and inquisitions. Your choices determine if Europe is elevated into the bright modern era or remains festering in dark feudalism. Four victories determine the future course of Western Civilization: will it be towards imperialism, towards trade globalization, towards enlightened art and science under the rule of Law, or towards religious totalitarianism?

• Terms. Capitalized Terms are defined in the glossary. Bold indicates the term is being defined.
• Time Scale. Each turn represents approximately two years in the time period from 1460 to 1530.
• Rules Layout. The rules are divided into two parts: sequential and alphabetical. The sequential rules are arranged in the order you meet them in a typical game: components (B), setup (C), sequence of play (D), actions (E), operations (F), trade fairs (G), one-shots (H - K), and victory (L). Although useful for learning to play, they are not comprehensive. The details on general rules are found alphabetically in the glossary, where they make for easily-found reference during a game and do not bog the sequential rules with unnecessary minutia.

A2. Flow of Play Overview

Each player takes a turn in clockwise fashion. On your turn, choose two actions (E1 - E6) and then perform a market refresh (D2).

• Actions. You may purchase a faceup market card to add to your Hand, play a card from your Hand into the row of faceup cards in front of you (your Tableau), sell a card for cash, enable the operations (Ops) of your cards in either the east or west side of your Tableau, discard a facedown market card to stimulate the economy with a trade fair, or declare victory. Note there is no "pass" action.
• Play Card. Upon card play, you may place the Agents depicted according to the Location listed. If you place an Agent on a Map Card City or Map Card Border, this must Repress (replace) any Token already present there.
• One-Shots. Upon card play, cards with the bomb icon allow you to perform the listed one-shot, which can realign trade, or weaken and seize an Empire. For details of one-shots, see coronations (I), conspiracies (J1), peasant revolts (J2), religious wars (K1), or trade shift (H1).
• Trade Fair. Convening a trade fair will Discard the facedown card in either the east or west Market. This starts a trade fair voyage (G2) which distributes profits (G3) and raises Levies (G4) as it follows the east or west Trade Route. If there is not much profit, the voyage will be short (G5).

A3. Objective of the Game

There will be two Comet cards, functionally identical, placed towards the end of each of the two draw decks. If you purchase one from the Market, you immediately choose one of the four victory cards (holy, imperial, globalization, or Renaissance) to become active. Once active, any player may spend an action (E6) on his turn to declare victory if he has met the listed conditions of that particular victory card. See Part L.

B. Components

B1. Game Contents

• 120 cards. 35 in the east draw deck, 57 in the west draw deck, 10 Empire, 10 Map, 4 Player, 4 Victory.
• 40 Cubes. 10 Pawns (8mm cubes) in each of four player colors (yellow, orange, green, blue).
• 15 Bishops. Five chess bishops in each of the three religious colors (white, black, red).
• 24 Cylinders. Ten white, seven black, and seven red cylinders represent Rooks.
• 24 Horsemen. Ten white, seven black, and seven red horsemen represent Knights.
• 37 Florin Disks. Thirty-three yellow disks worth 1 Florin each, and 4 red disks worth 5 Florins each.
• 3 Busted Disks. 1 white and 2 black disks, representing busted Emporia.
• Optional Expansion. A 60-card expansion is planned, see www.sierra-madre-games.eu.

B2. Player Cards

You start with one of the four Player Cards (C2) in your Tableau. The reverse side is a player aid.

B3. Empires

There are 10 two-sided empire cards, which form Empires in the empire stack. One side (crown) is the King, and the other side (scroll) is the Republic. An Empire in play is only ever either a King or Republic, depending on which side of the card is faceup. Whenever you acquire an Empire, whether through a one-shot (E2), vote (F6), or campaign (F9), place it into your Tableau with its King side up.

• Op and Prestige Icons. If present, these are as described in Part F and B4.

B4. Tableau Cards

The east and west tableau cards represent personalities who inhabited Europe from 1460 to 1530. The following card features are listed from top to bottom:

• Agents. This depicts a number of Agent Tokens, and their religious color. These Tokens are sometimes placed when you play the card into your Tableau (E2). If an Agent is a cube in four colors, the Pawn placed is a cube of your color.
• Chess Pieces. This icon indicates if the card is a King (B3), Queen, Knight, Rook, Pirate, Bishop, Pawn, or (expansion only) Vitruvean Man (i.e. polymath).
• Prestige. Some cards have an oval Prestige Icon in the upper right corner, relevant for victory.
• Operations (Ops) Row. The possible Ops a card can perform during an Ops action are in this row.
• Abilities. Some cards have an Ability listed. Unlike Ops, Abilities are active even if the east or west ops are not activated.
• One-Shot. A bomb icon indicates that the play of this card can trigger a one-shot like trade shift, coronation, conspiracy, peasant revolt, crusade, reformation, or jihad as indicated.
• Location. Agents are placed in the indicated Location, either set on a Map Card (Knights or Rooks), on the Borders of a Map Card (Pawns or Pirates), or on a Tableau Card with the listed Location (Bishops). See E2.2 for placement and glossary for details on Location.
• East/West. All cards are marked if they come from the eastern or western philosophy. East cards are found only in the east Market row, and west cards in the west Market row.

B5. Map Cards

There are ten two-sided Map Cards, which form a map of Europe and the Mediterranean with ten Empires. One side shows the starting medieval state, often with Cities of different Religions. The other side shows a Theocracy, marked with a large religious icon. Note that two Map Cards (Papal States and Mamluk) start in a Theocracy, and when flipped go to a different Theocracy.

• Name. The Empire name is in the center of the card. On the starting side, right after the name there is a small shadow symbol of a crucifix, cross, or crescent, indicating what Religion the other (Theocracy) side will be if it is flipped.
• Cities & Trade Routes. The Cities are Knight or Rook icons, and each is of a color indicating its Religion. One City on each map card named in all capital letters is the Capital. The white and black lines are Trade Routes, running from a start Emporium (marked by a star) to its end (marked by an arrowhead).
• Concessions. These are cubes placed in Borders, the gap between two Map Cards. Four Concessions, marked with a player emblem in Lisbon, Florence, Augsburg, and Alexandria, are starting concessions. Each player in the game starts with one of his cubes lying in the space between the Map cards indicated.
• Emporium. A City surrounded by a twenty-pointed star is called an Emporium. Two of them (Spice Islands and Trebizond) are white, and three of them (Tana, Novgorod, and Timbuktu) are black.

Important: Only one white and one black Emporium is in play at a time (i.e. not busted by a disk). Any Emporium covered by a disk is not in play, does not generate Levies, and cannot have Agents played in it. Any Tokens on an Emporium that becomes covered by a disk (due to a trade shift) are immediately Repressed.

B6. Comet & Victory Cards

There are four Comets, which are mixed into the last 12 cards of both draw decks during setup (C5). There are four victory cards which start inactive (facedown) in a public area. One is flipped to its active side each time someone buys a Comet. Thereafter, if any player spends a victory action (E6) and has met the conditions listed on an active victory card, the game ends and he is the winner.

C. Setup

C1. Forming the Map

Position the ten starting Map Cards in a 2 X 5 matrix. Each of these cards depicts one of the ten empires on the map: England, France, Holy Roman Empire (HRE), Hungary, and Byzantium to the north, and Portugal, Aragon, Papal States, Ottoman, and Mamluk to the south. Eight Map Cards start on their medieval (non-theocratic) side. The two exceptions are the Papal States and Mamluk, which start on their Catholic and Islamic Theocracies respectively, but depict an opposing Theocracy on their respective opposite sides.

• Leave a small amount of space (10mm) between each card. These gaps are called Borders and are used to place Concessions or Pirates.
• Busted Emporia. Place a black disk over Timbuktu and Novgorod, and a white disk over the Spice Islands. An Emporium (B5) is not in play and can hold no Tokens until and unless the disk covering it is moved to another Emporium through a trade shift one-shot (H1).

C2. Players

Each player randomly receives a Player Card. The player colors are also visible in the back color of the respective player shield. Up to four players can play:

• Fugger Bank: Orange cubes (starting Concession: Augsburg, between France/Holy Roman Empire).
• Medici Bank: Yellow cubes (starting Concession: Florence, between Aragon/Papal States).
• Cœur Bank: Blue cubes (starting Concession: Alexandria, between Ottoman/Mamluk).
• Marchionni Bank: Green cubes (starting Concession: Lisbon, between England/Portugal).

C3. Player Tableaus

To start his Tableau, each player places his Player Card in front of him. He will play east Tableau cards to the right of this card, and west Tableau cards to the left.

• Pawns. Each player receives the 10 cubes of his color and places them near his Player Card.
• Starting Concession. Place one of each player's cubes on the Map in the Border between the Map Cards indicated with the bank's shield (see side of box and the Player Card).

C4. Starting Tokens

Place one Token of the shape and color indicated in the capital of each Map Card. The capital has the name of the City all in capital letters (e.g. PARIS). Other Cities start empty. See the map on the previous page.

• Constantinople starts with three Tokens (two black Knights and a black Rook).

C5. Preparing the East & West Decks

Separate the tableau cards into two piles, one east and the other west.

• East Draw Deck. Take 12 random facedown east cards and shuffle the two east Comet cards into them. To the top of this 14-card deck add 4 additional random east cards for each player in the game (e.g. for a three-player game add 12 cards, so 26 in total). This forms the east draw deck.
• West Draw Deck. Do the same for a draw deck containing the west cards and the two west Comet cards, placed just below the east draw deck (see next page).

C6. The Market, Empire Stack, & Victory Cards

• Market. Deal 6 cards from the east draw deck to form a row of six faceup cards to the left of the draw deck, and then flip the furthest one from the deck facedown. Do the same for the west draw deck. These two facedown cards represent the east and west trade fairs (Part G).
• "Astrology" Setup Option. Draw decks faceup instead of facedown.
• Empire Stack. The ten Empires are placed in an open faceup public stack near the Market. Players are always free to inspect these cards at any time.
• Victory Cards. The four Victory cards are placed side by side on their inactive side in a public area.

C7. Starting Florins

Randomly determine a first player. If the Fugger Bank (orange) is in the game, this player is always the first player. The first player receives 3 Florins (3 yellow disks), the second player (clockwise) = 4 Florins, the third player (if any) = 5 Florins, and the fourth player (if any) = 6 Florins.

• The remaining Florin disks go into a pool called China.
• The first player now takes his turn.

D. Sequence of Play

D1. Action Phase

On your turn, you will perform 2 actions (Part E), chosen from the list below. They can be performed in any order. The first three can be performed twice in one player turn, and the others once:

1. Purchase Market Card (E1). By paying Florins to the Market, take a faceup card into your Hand.
2. Play Hand Card (E2). This plays a card from your Hand into your Tableau, and optionally introduces Agent Tokens (Bishops, Knights, Rooks, or Pawns) onto the Map or Tableau. If the card has the one-shot (bomb) icon and you trigger it, see Parts H, I, J, K.
3. Sell Card (E3). Discard one card from your Hand or Tableau and receive 2 Florins from China.
4. Perform Eastern Ops (E4). Each card in your eastern Tableau can perform one of its depicted Ops. This action can be performed only once per player turn.
5. Perform Western Ops (E4). As above but in your western Tableau.
6. Convene an Eastern Trade Fair (E5). By Discarding the facedown card in the east Market, you embark on a voyage following the black Trade Route. Along the way, the owners of Concessions get paid, and Empires raise Levies. This action can be performed only once per player turn. See Part G.
7. Convene a Western Trade Fair (E5). Same as Eastern, except the voyage follows the white Trade Route.
8. Victory Action (E6). This action wins the game if you meet the requirements per Part L.

D2. Refresh Market Phase

Starting with the leftmost card, move each card in the Market (along with any Florins on it) to the leftmost empty position in its market row. Then draw new cards to fill any remaining empty market positions so there are again 6 cards in each row. To do this, draw cards from the respective east or west draw deck and fill the rows up from the leftmost empty slot. Flip both cards in the zero cost column (i.e. the leftmost cards) to their facedown (trade fair) side. These cards may no longer be purchased, and their historical protagonists are deemed to have withered into obscurity without financial backing.

• If one deck (east or west) runs out, start drawing from the other instead. This will put west cards into the east Market or vice versa.
• Continue play clockwise with the next player and his action phase.

E. Actions

E1. Purchase Market Card

Purchase a card from the Market into your Hand.

• Hand Size. You can never buy a card going into your Hand if you already have two in your Hand. Note that purchased Comets and commenced Trade Fairs are Discarded and do not go into your Hand. If over your Hand Size you must Discard down.
• Cost. The purchase price of a card depends on its current column in the Market. The first faceup Market card costs 1 Florin, the next 2 Florins, then 3 Florins, etc. Pay this cost by placing 1 Florin on each card in the same row to the left of the card you are purchasing. To claim the facedown (zero cost) card, thus commencing a trade fair, see action E5.
• If a market spot is vacant, pay the card in this spot in the other market row. (This situation might occur if you purchase two cards in one round.)
• Take any Florins on the card you purchase (but you can't use them toward that purchase).
• If you place a Florin on a market card for any reason, you may not purchase that card this turn (but you can commence a trade fair per E5).
• If you purchase a Comet it is played immediately per L1.

Example: You purchase the fourth card from the left in the Market by spending 3 florins. Place the first florin on the far left card (see below), the second florin on the next card to the right, and the last florin on the next card to the right. Although there are 2 florins on the fourth card you are purchasing, you cannot use them towards this card's purchase. You now take the fourth card into your Hand and take the 2 florins on that card.

E2. Play Hand Card & Place Agents

Place an east card from your Hand to the furthest right side of your Tableau, or a west card to the furthest left of your Tableau (next to existing cards). If the played card has a bomb icon, you must first decide and announce if the listed one-shot occurs (1) or doesn't occur (2).

1. One-Shot Occurs. If the one-shot is a civil or religious war, you must deploy the card's Rook, Knight, and Pawn Agents as attackers in a Battle per Part J (conspiracies and peasant revolts) or Part K (crusades, reformations, and jihads). If they have survivors, they are victorious and cause a Regime Change. For the other one-shots (trade shift and coronation), there is no Battle and you deploy Agents per the bullets in E2.2 rather than as attackers. Bishops never fight, instead place them per E2.2 (first bullet).

Example (peasant revolt one-shot): You play the Flanders Guilds card, a Pawn Card located in France, and triggers its peasant revolt. The card's Pawn Agent is the only attacker, see J2. There are no Ruling Class to defend, so the revolt is victorious. The French Empire is still in the empire stack, so you claim it into your western tableau. This Regime Change allows you to place an additional Pawn, for a total of two Concessions, placed in two separate borders next to France.

2. No One-Shot. If you choose to ignore the one-shot, the placement of Agent Tokens is optional. You may place all, some, or none of them. If so, place the number and color indicated on the Map or Tableau per the following bullets.

• Place Bishop Agent. Place it directly on the Tableau card played. Alternately, you may place it on any Tableau card (even in an opponent's tableau) that has the same printed Location as the Tableau card being played. If you place it on a card with a Token, apply the Diet of Worms Rule or the Pacification Rule (F1).
• Place Knight & Rook Agents. Place these into your choice of Cities on the Map Card specified. If you choose a City occupied by a Token, you must Repress it, and pay 1 Florin for each Token repressed. A placed Agent can even Repress a Token of the same type and color in this manner. Important: The city icon (rook or knight) is irrelevant when placing a Token due to card play! Remember that Constantinople holds up to three Tokens.
• Place Pirate Rook Agents. Take a Rook of the specified color and place it as a Pirate into one of the Sea Borders surrounding the Map Card specified. A Sea Border is one that is crossed by an active or inactive Trade Route. If there is already a Token there (Concession or Pirate), it is killed for no cost.
• Place Pawn Agents. Place one cube of your color into your choice of Borders surrounding the Map Card specified. If it is already occupied by a Concession, you must pay 1 Florin to Repress it (see glossary). You cannot place a cube into a Border occupied by a Pirate. You can place a cube into a non-Sea Border.
• If you run out of Tokens, see Token Management (glossary).
• Strawman. You may always play an one-shot or an Op against your own cards or Tokens. This is called a strawman, and is sometimes useful to gain enough Repressed Tokens to perform a victorious Civil War, or to overthrow your own King to create a Republic.

Example (no one-shot): You play the Flanders Guilds card as in the previous example, but do not trigger the one-shot. Instead you place one of your Pawns in a Border as a concession. The east border is occupied by an enemy concession, and you don't want to spend a florin to Repress it. So instead you install your concession into an empty border. The west and south borders are open, but the south one is not on a Trade Route and is not likely to be profitable. So you choose to place your cube in the west border.

E3. Sell Card

Discard a card and receive 2 Florins from China. The card sold must come from your Hand or your Tableau. If the latter, Discard all Queens, Vassals, and Tokens on the sold card. See "Discard" in the glossary.

E4. Perform Ops (East or West)

If you choose to activate the east Ops as an action, you may perform one Op in each of the cards in your east Tableau. This is the same in the west. Each card can be used once, for only one of its Op icons (even if the card has more than one icon). See Part F for a list of the Ops.

• Order. You may perform your Ops in any order.

• Target of the Op. You may use an Op only against the targets depicted in the Op icon (see back of each Player Card). The target may be a Florin in the Market (commerce op), a Tableau card (behead or vote ops), a Token on a Tableau Card (inquisitor op), or a Token on the Map (repress, tax, or any of the three military ops).

• "The East" or "The West" Locations. See "Location" in the glossary.

• Target Location. For the Repress, tax, corsair, and siege ops, the target must be Token(s) on the Map Card matching the acting card's Location (see glossary). (Remember that the Location of a Concession is both Map Cards that it borders.) For the campaign op, the target must be Adjacent to the acting card's Location. For the behead op, the target must be a card with a Location matching the acting card's Location. For the inquisitor, commerce, and vote ops, the Location does not matter.

• Strawman Target. You may target your own Tableau cards or Tokens (e.g. Repress one's own Pawn to gain a florin, avoid taxes, and/or fuel a future civil war). If victorious, a strawman vote op (F6) against your own King creates a Republic.

Easily Missed Rule: Cards and Tokens are independent of each other. If you target a card, the card's Agent Tokens are unaffected. If you target Agent Tokens, the card that originally generated the Agents is unaffected. You do not keep track of which cards deployed which Tokens.

Example: You have two adjacent tableau cards with the commerce op in your west tableau, but one is silenced by a red Bishop (see below). You also have a bishop card allowing you the inquisitor op (F1) for red bishops. For an action, you activate your west tableau. First, you perform the unsilenced commerce op, then use the inquisitor op to move the bishop to the adjacent commerce card, and then perform the second commerce op on the now unsilenced card.

E5. Perform Trade Fair (East or West)

Use this action to Discard the facedown card in the east or west Market, which convenes the corresponding Trade Fair per Part G. Remember that you do not claim the Florins on the card, which instead go towards general profits (G1).

• You may never purchase a facedown card into your Hand.

E6. Victory Action

Use this action to declare victory per L2.

F. Tableau Ops

Ops (short for "Operations") are activated by action E4. There are four colors of Ops:

• Religious Op. This Op icon (inquisitor) is light blue and moves a Bishop of the indicated Religion. This is the only Op not silenced by the presence of a Bishop (F1).
• Economic Op. This Op icon (commerce) is light orange, and targets Florins in the Market.
• Political Ops. These Op icons are purple, and target the Ruling Class Tokens or cards as shown on the icon. They behead (F3), tax (F4), repress (F5), or elect (F6) their targets.
• Military Ops. These Op icons are dark red, and target the Ruling Class or Pirate tokens shown on the icon. They kill their targets, see corsair (F7), siege (F8), and campaign (F9).

F1. Inquisitor (Religious Op)

Use this Op to move a Bishop token of the color specified by the inquisitor icon either from one tableau card to an adjacent card in the same Tableau, or to another card (in any Tableau) that has the same Location as the one it currently sits on.

• Diet Of Worms Rule. If the destination card contains a Bishop (of any color), both Bishops are killed in an exchange.

• Pacification Rule. Otherwise, if the destination card moved to contains any Repressed Tokens, you may choose one to Kill. There is no cost.

• Move Restrictions. You cannot move a Bishop onto a Player Card. This often means that it cannot cross between east and west (because the east and west are separated by a Player Card in each Tableau).

• The East/West. If a Bishop starts on a card with a Location listed as "The East", it may move to any card on the right side of any Tableau. Conversely, it may move from any card on the right side of any Tableau to any card with a Location listed as "The East". Similar for "The West".

• Silenced Ops. The presence of any Bishop on a card prevents some of its Ops from being used. Only its light blue (religious) Ops can be used.

• Silenced Abilities. A Bishop also silences any listed Ability, e.g. ransom or Stadtwechsel.

Example: You have three reformist cards with the inquisitor icon in your Tableau. Each card so used allows you to move a red Bishop by either one card or to jump to another card sharing its current card's Location. If you use all three inquisitor ops on the same Bishop, you could move it three cards in either direction, or back and forth. You may optionally kill a Repressed Token on each Empire card moved to (if any). Each card moved to has its non-religious ops silenced until the Bishop moves on.

F2. Commerce (Economic Op)

Use this Op to take one Florin, either from any card in the east Market card row or the west Market card row as specified in the commerce icon.

F3. Behead (Political Op)

Use this Op to Discard one card in any Tableau. The Location of the beheaded card must share that of the beheading card. However, a card cannot behead itself.

• Assassin. If used to Discard an Empire, the card used to behead is itself killed.

Example: Your opponent is using his Qizibash card to siege all the eastern empires to the point that he can campaign all of them. To stop him, you use your "Grim" card to behead the Qizibash. The "Grim" is located in the Ottomans and the Qizibash is located in "The East". Therefore, the "Grim" is allowed to target the "Qizibash". (See the Location entry in the glossary.)

F4. Tax (Political Op)

Use this Op to target one Concession bordering the Location of the card used to tax. The target's owner must either pay a Florin to China or Repress the Concession, and then that owner must place a Levy within the taxing Empire. Taxation cannot occur if the target Empire is Saturated.

Example: You have the Holy Land Crusade in your tableau, allowing taxation of Mamluk Egypt. The city of Cairo is empty. You use the tax op and target the Cœur Concession, located between Mamluk and Ottoman. He pays 1 florin to place a rook in Cairo. Since the City icon for Cairo is a white Rook, the Levy is a white rook.

F5. Repress (Political Op)

Use this Op to remove one Token (Knight, Rook, or Pawn as depicted on the repress op icon) from the Map in the acting card's Location and place it as a Repressed Token on the corresponding empire card in play.

• Empire Not In Play. If the Empire for that Map Card is not in play (i.e. is still in the empire stack), then Kill the Repressed Token instead of storing it on a card.
• Profit. Using this Op to remove a Token from the Map gains you one Florin from China.

Example: You activate your west tableau, including Queen Isabella married to the King of Aragon. You use her "Alhambra Decree" repress op to remove a Concession in Aragon to become a serf on the Aragonese King. You earn 1 florin. Because her icon shows both a pawn and a rook, you could have removed a rook instead.

F6. Vote (Political Op)

Use this Op to cause a Regime Change in an Empire (which awards you a Concession). The Empire can be in any Tableau, but must be in an east or west Tableau as specified on the icon. It cannot be in the empire stack, and it cannot be a Vassal.

• Cost. Pay to China a number of Florins equal to the Empire's Repressed Tokens (Serfs, Knights, Rooks).
• Majority Rule. To perform this Op, you must have more Concessions than any other player in the Empire's Borders.

Easily Missed Rule: A successful vote against your own King flips it into a Republic.

Example: You have the French King (Louis XI the spider) with a vassal (The Papal States) containing three serfs. You have two concessions on the Papal States borders, while your opponent has one. You have the Sindicat Remenca card, allowing a western vote. As part of a western tableau action, you use this card to vote, paying 3 florins to flip the Pope to its republic side and move it to your leftmost tableau position. The Papal States retain the three serfs. You gain a Papal concession. All three Papal borders are occupied, so if you wish to add a concession you must Repress your opponent's concession to place your cube. This costs a florin and adds a serf to the Papal States.

F7. Corsair (Military Op)

Use this Op to move a Pirate Rook in a Sea Border of the card's Location to another Sea Border in the card's Location. This Pirate must be of the color specified by the corsair icon, and cannot move to a Border occupied by a Pirate of the same color.

• Sea Battle. Moving automatically kills any Concession or Heretical Pirate in the Border moved to. There is no cost.

Easily Missed Rule. The corsair op moves a Token on the Map, in a similar way that the inquisitor op (F1) moves a token in a Tableau. In both moves, only one Token is allowed in each Border/card. But there is a big difference. The corsair op can only be used in the Location printed on its card, while the inquisitor op can be used to move a token regardless where it is positioned in a Tableau.

F8. Siege (Military Op)

Use this Op to kill one Rook, Knight, or Pirate of any color in the acting card's Location.

Example: You have the Conquistador card located in Aragon with the siege op. In Aragon there is one white Knight and one black Rook, and a black Pirate in the border with Portugal. If you undertake a siege, you may kill any one of these Tokens.

F9. Campaign (Military Op)

This Op is found on King cards only. As indicated by the battle icon, use it to create a Battle in a defending Map Card Adjacent to the King's Location (note this includes diagonals).

• Attackers. All Knights (of every color) in the King's Location are the attackers.
• Cost. This Op costs 1 Florin to China for each attacker. To make a campaign, all Knights must attack and all must be paid for.
• Defenders. All Ruling Class Tokens in the defending Map Card are the defenders.
• Repressed. Repressed Tokens in either Map Card do not participate in the Battle.
• Campaign Resolution. A Battle is fought (see last page). If victorious, the defending Empire suffers a Regime Change (see glossary) and is claimed as a Vassal (next bullet) of the attacking Empire.
• Claiming Vassals. Place the defeated Empire on its King side below the victorious King Card in your Tableau, to show his vassalage to your King (now called a Suzerain). Discard all Bishop Tokens, Queens, and Vassals of the defeated Empire. All Repressed Tokens remain repressed on the Vassal unless you choose to Emancipate them in the Regime Change (see glossary).
• Movement. This Op moves no Tokens among Map Cards. Thus a newly conquered Vassal Map Card contains only Emancipated Tokens (if any) and its Pirates and Concessions (if any).
• Strawman. If a Suzerain successfully campaigns against his own Vassal, or if a Vassal campaigns against another Vassal under the same Suzerain, there is no Regime Change (and thus no Republic is formed).

Example: You invade France using the Holy Roman Empire campaign op. The HRE has two knights (red and white, but their color does not matter in a campaign), so you must pay two florins. Note you are disallowed to invade with just one knight for economy. Since France has no Ruling Class, there are no defenders. The HRE wins, and you gain a French concession. You also claim the French Empire card, which was in your opponent's tableau. Because the HRE is a vassal of the Ottomans, France also becomes a vassal of the Ottomans. France had 2 Repressed Tokens: a rook and a serf of your color. You decide to emancipate both of them, placing the rook into Lyon and the pawn as a 2nd concession into the east border. Otherwise, France would have remained depopulated, because the attackers return to their posts.

G. Trade Fairs

If as an action (E5) you Discard the facedown card at the end of the east or west Market, you convene an east or west trade fair respectively. This creates profits (G1), traces a voyage (G2) along the black (east) or white (west) Trade Route, disperses profits (G3) to yourself (the initiator) and all those owning Concessions along the route (until profits run out), and finally raises Levies (G4) along the route. See last page.

G1. Profits

Take 1 Florin (if 2 player game) or 2 Florins (if 3 or 4 player game) from China, and add them to the market florins lying on either the east or west facedown card, as appropriate. Together, these Florins are called profits.

• Discard the facedown card out of the game, leaving an empty space behind.

G2. Voyage

To determine how profits and Levies are dispersed, trace a voyage starting either from the black Emporium and following the black route (if east) or from the white Emporium following the white route (if west).

• Embarkation. The starting Emporium must be the one that is not busted (C1).
• Emporium Profits. The player who convened the trade fair receives 1 Florin out of profits.

G3. Voyage Profit Dispersal

The voyage proceeds from one Map Card to the next, following the Trade Route.

• Concession. If any player has a Concession in the Sea Border between two Map Cards, he receives 1 Florin out of profits as the voyage passes.
• Piracy. If a pirate (of any color) sits in the Sea Border between these two Map Cards, as the voyage passes remove 1 Florin out of profits and into China.

G4. Levies

Each Map Card the voyage enters, starting with the one containing the Emporium, receives one Token, called a Levy. A Levy is placed upon one of the unoccupied Cities on the Map Card, and must be the color and shape indicated. The player who convened the trade fair chooses which City gets the Levy.

• Constantinople. The City of Constantinople is considered unoccupied if it holds less than three Tokens.
• Saturation. If all its Cities are occupied, that Map Card is saturated and can accept no more Levies.

G5. Voyage End

The voyage ends when it reaches its arrowhead, either in the Holy Roman Empire if white or Mamluk if black. However, if the profits run out before this, the last Concession or Pirate to take a profit marks the end of the voyage, and no Levies are raised beyond this point.

• Leftover Profits. If Florins are leftover, they remain in the empty space left by the trade fair card and will be placed on the new trade fair card during the market refresh phase (D2).

Example 1: You convene an eastern trade fair, which starts at Tana. There is a yellow concession between Byzantium and Hungary, and a blue one between Ottoman and Mamluk. If the trade fair has only 2 profits, then one goes to you (the initiator of the trade fair), and the second goes to Player Yellow. The voyage stops there, so Player Blue gets no profits, and only Byzantium raises a Levy. Both Trebizond and Caffa in Byzantium are empty. You choose the latter, which places a white Knight in Caffa.

Example 2: In the example above, suppose there were 3 profits instead of 2. This allows your voyage to go to the Ottomans, stopping at the border where the blue concession takes the last profit. This voyage potentially raises Levies in Hungary and the Ottomans as well as Byzantium. However, Hungary is saturated with 2 tokens. In the Ottomans, all the cities are filled except Constantinople with 2 black knights, and its black rook space free. You have no choice except to place its third token (a black rook).

G6. Bankruptcy Variant (optional)

If you convene a trade fair, you do not receive 1 Florin out of profits, contrary to G2. If you run out of cards, Florins, and Concessions, you are eliminated from the game, simulating that banks can and did fail.

H. Trade Shifts

H1. Trade Shift One-shot Effects

If you trigger a Trade Shift one-shot, move the busted disk (C1) (if any) covering the specified Emporium to cover (and deactivate) an uncovered Emporium of the same color. This deactivation Represses any Token that may be there. This reroutes the Trade Route for any future trade fair actions taken of that color.

• Spice Islands Route. You must have had at least one Discovery Prestige in your Tableau (not counting the card being played) before you can trigger this trade shift. If so, move the Spice Island white busted disk (if present) to cover the Trebizond Emporium. This move is permanent, and subsequent trade shifts for the Spice Islands have no effect.
• Kremlin Route. If you play this card, move the black busted disk covering Novgorod to the black emporium that is uncovered (either Timbuktu or Tana).
• Sonike Wangara Route. If you play this card, move the black busted disk covering Timbuktu to the black emporium that is uncovered (either Novgorod or Tana).

I. Coronations

All Queens have the coronation one-shot, which if triggered marries her to a King. The King must be an Empire listed on the coronation icon (Mamluk, Byzantium, Ottoman), and must still be in the empire stack (C5).

• A coronation is a Regime Change (see glossary), so you can claim a Concession in that Empire.

Easily Missed Rule: A coronation always produces a King. It cannot produce a Republic, which can only be formed from a strawman (E2.2) on a King already in your own Tableau.

I1. Cruciform Orientation

If you decide to perform a coronation one-shot, place the Queen card into your Tableau attached to the Empire that you received from the coronation. Place the King in landscape (lengthwise) with the Queen card underneath in portrait so that her Ops and Prestige (if any) are visible. The resulting configuration of the two cards is shaped like the "+" sign.

• Location. The King-Queen pair go into your east or west Tableau according to the Empire Location. A coronated Queen always has a Location in the Empire she is attached to.
• Tableau Ops. The coronated King-Queen pair are treated as two separate cards during an Eastern/Western Ops action (E4), so that each can perform an Op. But they are treated as one card for Bishop movement/silencing (F1).

I2. Old Maid Queens

If you play a Queen unmarried (i.e. do not trigger her coronation), store her card under your Player card. She is not part of your Tableau and may not perform Ops or Abilities, but add her prestige (if any) to your total at the end of the game (L2).

J. Civil Wars

There are two types of Civil War: conspiracies and peasant revolts. If you play a card with a "Conspiracy" or "Peasant Revolt" one-shot, you first specify if there is a Civil War or not.

• No Civil War. If no, there is no Battle. You may place the card's Agent Tokens per E2.2.
• Civil War. If yes, there is a Battle, see glossary or last page.

Important: In a Civil War or campaign, the color of the attackers and defenders is irrelevant!

• Succession. If the attackers have at least one survivor, the Civil War is victorious, causing a Regime Change (see glossary). See J1 or J2.

J1. Conspiracy One-shot

• Conspiracy Attackers. Place all of the Agents of the acting Card next to the Map Card specified. If there are any repressed Knights or Rooks (but not Serfs) in that Empire, place them next to the Map Card as well. Although they are not physically moved, bordering Pirates join the Battle as attackers as well.
• Conspiracy Defenders. All Ruling Class Tokens (i.e. Tokens in Cities) are defenders in the Battle.
• Theocratic Conspiracy. If your conspiracy in a Theocracy is victorious, you can decide to flip its face-down Map Card to its starting (medieval) side.

Example: You play the House of Borgia and declare that its conspiracy one-shot occurs. This card is located in "The West", and you announce the target is Aragon. The Agent for the Borgia card is a bishop, but he does not fight. Instead, the attackers consist of a repressed red knight on the Aragon empire card, and one Barbary pirate adjacent to Aragon. Aragon defends with one Ruling Class Rook. Two against one, so the conspiracy succeeds, with one survivor. You choose the knight to be the survivor, and set him in Valencia. The pirate dies. You claim the Aragon empire card from your opponent's tableau. France, a vassal of Aragon, gets returned to the empire stack. You place a concession adjacent to Aragon for the Regime Change. Finally, you place the Borgia Bishop on any tableau card in the west.

J2. Peasant Revolt One-shot

Peasant Revolts are the same as Conspiracies except:

• Peasant Revolt Attackers. Agents placed due to the one-shot and any Serfs on the empire card are automatically attackers. Any of your Concessions, or pirates of any color, in the location's Borders also join as attackers.
• Repressed Knights and Rooks do not participate.

Example: You play the Flanders guilds to launch a peasant revolt against the French vassal in your own tableau. The attackers are the Pawn shown on the card, plus (in the French Borders) a Pirate and a concession of yours. There are two Ruling Class defenders, so you win with one survivor. You choose a Pawn to survive, which you place as a concession. You get another concession for the Regime Change. Flip the French empire to its Republic side, and move it to become your leftmost tableau card.

K. Religious Wars

K1. Crusade, Reformation, or Jihad One-shot

If you play a card depicting a crusade, reformation, or jihad one-shot, you can trigger a Religious War in that Location. This creates a Battle (see glossary or last page for resolution).

• Religious War Attackers. Place all non-bishop Agents depicted on the acting card next to the Map Card specified. These Agents, plus all Knights, Rooks, and Pirates on or bordering the Map Card of the same color as the color of the Agents of the card being played, plus any Knights of the same color in Adjacent Empires (these Tokens do not move, but can inflict or be taken as casualties), are the attackers.
• Defenders. The Location's defenders are Heretics, i.e. all the Knights, Rooks, and Pirates of any other color.
• The Bloody Rule. The Religious War cannot be triggered if there are no Heretics to kill in the target Location (neither Heretic Ruling Class nor bordering Heretic Pirates).
• Repressed Tokens. Repressed Tokens do not fight in a religious war (and thus can't be used for the "bloody rule").

Easily Missed Rule: Ruling Class and Pirate tokens do not "belong" to any player. Any player may use them for a religious war, holy victory, etc. regardless who caused them to be placed.

K2. Crusade, Reformation, or Jihad Effects

• Map Card Change. A victorious crusade flips the Map Card if the other side is Catholic. A victorious jihad flips the Map Card if the other side is Islamic. A victorious reformation flips the Map Card if the other side is Reformist. Transfer all Ruling Class to the same Cities on the other side.
• Regime Change. A victorious Religious War causes a Regime Change (see glossary).

Example: You play the Jesuits and start a crusade in Aragon. The attackers are a white rook in Aragon, a white knight in neighboring England, and a white pirate on Aragon's eastern Sea Border. In the battle the sole defender, a black Algerian rook, dies, and you choose the white Valencian rook as your casualty. The victorious crusade flips Aragon to its theocracy side. Because Aragon is already a kingdom in your tableau, this victory flips it to its republic side, and you can place a concession.

L. Victory

L1. Purchase & Discard the Comet Card

If you buy one of the four Comet cards, you must Discard it immediately and flip over one of the inactive victory cards of your choice to its active side.

• If a Comet reaches the zero cost row of the Market, like any other card it is flipped and no longer available for purchase. It is Discarded out of the game without effect if used to convene a trade fair (G1).

L2. Game End

The game ends if a player uses an action (E6) to declare victory in a particular activated victory card. He must fill the victory conditions listed in L3-L6 for that victory card.

• Patron Victory. The game also ends if both the east and west draw decks are emptied of cards during market refresh (D2). If so, the player with the most Patron Prestige wins.

L3. Holy Victory (Torquemada)

To win, you must have more Prestige in the supreme Religion than any of your opponents.

A Religion is supreme if it has:

(1) More Bishop Tokens of its color in play than both other Religions combined, and

(2) more Tokens (Knights, Rooks, and Pirates) of its color in play in its Theocracies than both other Religions combined. Count only unrepressed Tokens whose color match their Theocracies.

Example: The only Bishop in play is a black token on a Hungarian Tableau card. The only Theocracies are Mamluk (with one black rook), and Papal States (with one white knight). If the Ottoman Navy is played, placing a pirate rook in the Mamluk border, then Islam becomes supreme.

L4. Imperial Victory (Charles V)

To win, you must have at least two more empire cards on their King side (doesn't matter if Suzerains or Vassals) than any of your opponents. In a 2-player game, it must be three more.

L5. Globalization Victory (Columbus)

To win, you must have:

(1) Two more Concessions than any of your opponents and

(2) more Discovery Prestige than any of your opponents.

L6. Renaissance Victory (Leonardo)

To win, you must have:

(1) More Republics than any of your opponents and

(2) at least two more Law Prestige than any of your opponents.

Glossary

• ABILITY (B4) - A special rule listed on a card is effective as long as the card is unsilenced and in a tableau. Ability effects are cumulative.

• ADJACENT - Two empires are adjacent if their map cards share a Border, or if they are diagonal to each other on the map. Two tableau cards are adjacent if they are next to each other in a Tableau.

• AGENTS (E2.2) - Tokens placed on the Map or Tableau as the result of the play of a card. The Agents are chess Bishops, Knights, Rooks, or Pawns, as depicted in the corner of its card.

• BATTLE (See last page) - To resolve a campaign (F9), civil war (I), or religious war (J), each attacking Token kills one defending Token, but is itself killed in exchange. The attacking player chooses all casualties. The attacking Tokens are victorious if they have at least one survivor.

  • Ruling Class and Pirates. These Tokens never move as a result of a battle.
  • Bishops. These Tokens never fight in a Battle.
  • Placement of Victorious War Attackers. Any surviving Agents or Repressed Tokens used as attackers in a battle must be placed in the conquered map card (until it is saturated). Any remaining Repressed Tokens on the defending Empire may be Emancipated (see Regime Change). Knights and Rooks go into empty Cities (ignoring the city icon), and Pawns (cubes) go into empty Borders. If there is not enough room in Cities or Borders because of Saturation, place the excess on the Empire Card as Repressed Tokens.

Reference Tables

Battle Table

Used to resolve a Battle (campaign, civil war, or religious war) per the Battle rules in the glossary. Entries marked believers or heretics depend on whether the Token's religious color matches the acting card's Agent color (see Heretic).

	Campaign Op	Civil War: Conspiracy	Civil War: Peasant Revolt	Religious War (crusade, jihad, or reformation)
Number of Agent icons on card	-	attack (if knights or rooks)	attack (if knights, rooks, or cubes)	attack (if knights or rooks)
Knights on map	attack (cost = 1 florin each)	defense	defense	attack (believers); defense (heretics)
Rooks on map	-	defense	defense	attack (believers); defense (heretics)
Knights adjacent	(in target) defense	-	-	attack (believers)
Rooks adjacent	(in target) defense

Trade Fair Table

Action E5, see Part G.

	East Trade Route (from black emporium)	West Trade Route (from white emporium)
Profit Florins	Market Florins on East facedown card, plus 1 (2-player game) or 2 (3 or 4-player game).	Market Florins on West facedown card, plus 1 (2-player game) or 2 (3 or 4-player game).
Discard	East facedown card	West facedown card
As voyage proceeds, pay 1 florin to...	the initiator, then each concession owner and pirate.	the initiator, then each concession owner and pirate.
As voyage proceeds, place 1 Levy on...	a City in each unsaturated Empire.	a City in each unsaturated Empire.
Voyage ends in...	Mamluk (or when profits run out)	Holy Roman Empire (or when profits run out)