Roar: King of the Pride

Roar: King of the Pride Rulebook

Table of Contents

Summary of Play

In Roar: King of the Pride, you must guide the growth of your Breed of Lions, enlarging your Prides by rearing Cubs, expanding into new territories, and hunting the herds that make up your principle Food Supply. In the end, each Breed will be ranked on 4 categories: number of Male Lions, number of Female Lionesses, total Food Supply, and Territory Size. Score the most points across all 4 categories, and by completing your Secret Missions, and you will be known as the true King of the Pride!

Components

1 Game board
6 Player Reference cards
48 Secret Mission cards
2 Scoring cards
4 Key Word cards
15 Bonus tokens
25 Food tokens
1 First Player token
60 Baby/Cub tokens (40 Female and 20 Male)
1 custom Cub die (+, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3)
48 Male Lion meeples (8 x 6 colors)
120 Female Lioness meeples (20 x 6 colors)
9 Hut meeples

Game Setup

Set the Game board in the middle of the playing area. Find the Scoring card that matches the number of Players in the game and set it on the Score Card location of the Game board. Place the Cub die within reach of all Players.

Take the number of Humans (Hut meeples) listed on the chart below (based on the number of Players) and place them next to the Game board. Humans are nomadic in Roar, so they are represented by Huts on the board. Return any unused Humans to the box.

Number of Players	Number of Humans
3 Players	9 Humans
4 Players	8 Humans
5 Players	5 Humans
6 Players	6 Humans

Take all of the Baby/Cub tokens, mix them well, and lay them facedown (Male/Female side hidden) next to the board.

Each Player chooses a Breed to play, taking their Breed's Player Reference card, 2 Male Lion meeples, and 2 Female Lioness meeples of the same color. Players should place the rest of their Lions and Lionesses near the Game board as a supply. Each Breed has a special advantage that it can use during the game, as shown below:

Lion Breed	Ability
Senegal (Purple)	-1 to total Food needed during Starvation
Congo (Orange)	Move past Humans without losing 1 Lion
Barbary (Red)	Start Game with 2 Ancestral Strength
Katanga (Dark Blue)	Successful Roar regardless of Pride Size
Masai (Light Blue)	Move up to 3 territories during movement
Transvaal (Brown)	May add +1 cub Cub on successful Breeding roll

Players now compete for the right to place first by exhibiting their best roar! The Player with the most impressive roar takes the First Player token. That Player will be the first to place their Lion/Lioness meeples on the board, with the rest of the Players taking Turns in clockwise order. When it is your Turn to place, you can place your starting Male Lion meeples and Female Lioness meeples on any of the territories listed on your Player Reference card, in any combination you choose.

Each Player takes the number of Food tokens shown on their Player Reference card and on the chart below:

Lion Breed	Number of Food Tokens
Senegal (Purple)	1 Food token
Congo (Orange)	2 Food tokens
Barbary (Red)	3 Food tokens
Katanga (Dark Blue)	4 Food tokens
Masai (Light Blue)	5 Food tokens
Transvaal (Brown)	6 Food tokens

Shuffle the Secret Mission cards and deal 4 to each Player. Each Player examines their cards and chooses at least 1 they would like to keep. You can keep any number of Secret Mission cards (from 1 to 4), however, any Secret Mission cards you keep but are unable to complete will cost you points at the end of the game! Place your chosen Secret Mission cards facedown in front of you. Any discarded cards are set aside to be reshuffled and reused if the Draw pile is exhausted during the game.

What Is a Pride?

In the wild, a Pride is a group of Lions, typically led by 1 or 2 Male Lions, and including up to 7 Female Lionesses and numerous Cubs and Babies. A Pride of Lions works together as a group, sharing the proceeds of the hunt, defending against traveling outsiders, and expanding their dominion across the savannahs of Africa.

In Roar, a Pride is a group of Lions, Lionesses, Cubs, and Babies that all belong to the same Player on the same territory. There can only ever be 1 Pride on any given territory at a time.

Important! The Pride Size Rule limits how big a Pride can be. There can be a maximum of 2 Lions and 7 Lionesses in each Pride. A Pride can have an unlimited number of Babies and Cubs.

Playing the Game

The game is played over a number of Rounds called Years. During each Year, your Prides will grow and take actions. Human activity can also affect your Lions, and at the end of the Year, you must provide enough Food for your Prides, or else face starvation. Years continue until Human activity reaches a certain level (see Ending the Game), recorded on the Game End Track.

Phases of a Year

Each Year is divided into 6 Phases, which must be played in order. All Players take part in each Phase, as described below:

New First Player—The First Player token is passed clockwise. Note: Ignore this step for the first Turn.
Aging—Young Lions grow up: Cubs become adults, then Babies become Cubs. Note: It is important to resolve Cubs becoming adults before Babies becoming Cubs.
Human Activity—A Hut is added to the Game board. When no Huts remain in the supply, the Human Activity Phase changes so that a Hut is removed from the board. This removed Hut is added to the Game End Track (located alongside the bottom right corner of the Game board). Start from the top, filling the Track until you reach the appropriate Player count.
Ancestral Strength—Male Lions can leave the board to join the ancestors, increasing the strength of their Breed. Only Male Lions from the board may be sacrificed.
Player Turns—Each Player takes a Turn in order, choosing any 2 actions (even the same action twice).
Starvation—Any Pride that cannot find enough Food faces starvation. Each Player adds the total Food gathered from all territories they have at least 1 Female Lioness meeple on (only Lionesses hunt for Food). Compare the total number of territorial Food to the Food needed to feed all Lions and Lionesses. Each Lion requires 2 Food, while each Female only requires 1 Food. Babies and Cubs do not require Food. If a Player is short the required Food, they may spend their starting Food tokens as needed. If no Food tokens remain, the Player must eliminate a combination of Lions/Lionesses until their Food consumption is equal to their Food supply.


Lion	Requires 2 Food
Lioness	Requires 1 Food
Cubs and Babies	Requires 0 Food

Phase 1: New First Player

The First Player is the Player who earned the First Player token from having the best roar. After the first Year, the First Player token passes to the Player on their left at the beginning of each Year (unless the end of game has been triggered). That Player will be the First Player for the next Year. Continue playing 1 Year after another until the end of the game is reached.

Phase 2: Aging

Traditionally, Lions enter adulthood at the age of 3. The first year Babies are very vulnerable and stay close to the Pride. As they mature, the Cub defines its role in the Pride and will soon join the Pride or go search for new territory.

Each Year, all young Lions/Lionesses will grow 1 age level:

First, all Cubs become adults. Replace all Cub tokens with an adult of the matching meeple type (Lions for Male Cubs and Lionesses for Female Cubs).

Then, all Babies turn into Cubs. Flip all Baby tokens to the Cub side, revealing their sex.

During this Phase, it is possible that maturing Cubs will cause a territory to become overpopulated by a Pride that has grown too large, according to the Pride Size Rule (see What Is a Pride?). If you have an overpopulated Pride, you will have to move some of those Lions/Lionesses away immediately during this Phase. Mandatory movement due to overpopulation is completed in turn order and follows the same rules as a movement action (see Movement).

Note: It is possible that a Player will have Cubs and/or Babies on a territory with no adults. These young still age as normal. If any opponent enters a territory with unattended Babies/Cubs, all those young Babies/Cubs are removed from the board.

Example 1: A Pride of Senegal Lions is located on Nigeria which includes 1 Male Lion, 2 Male Cubs, and 2 Babies. The 2 Cubs age and are replaced by 2 adult Male Lions, then both Babies are flipped over to reveal 1 Male and 1 Female Cub. Since there are now 3 adult Male Lions in the Pride, at least 1 of them will have to leave Nigeria this Year.

Example 2: If there was only 1 Male Cub on the previous example, then a Male Lion would not have to migrate, because there would only be 2 adult Male Lions and 1 Male Cub.

Remember: The Pride Size Rule only applies to adult Lions and Lionesses.

Warning: During this Phase, a Player may run out of Lion or Lioness meeples in the supply, according to the Supply Rule.

Supply Rule

If you do not have sufficient components, the Cub is lost, because no Lion/Lioness meeple is available for them to grow into.

Phase 3: Human Activity

Humans can have a greater impact on the wellbeing of a pride than any other factor. In Roar, Human activity is represented by the use of the Hut meeples.

During this Phase, the last Player in the Turn order (clockwise from the First Player) decides where the Hut meeple is placed. A Hut must be added to the Game board as long as Huts are available. When all Huts have been added to the board, the last Player will choose which Hut to remove from the board before adding that Hut to the Game End Track alongside the lower right side of the Game board.

Adding a Hut

If there are any Huts available to add to the board, you must add 1 Hut to any territory that has a Herd Value of 6, or to any territory that is adjacent to an existing Hut.

Note: Herd value refers to the white number on top of the antelope image in each territory.

If you add a Hut to a territory with a Pride, all Babies and Cubs in that Pride are removed immediately. All adult Lions/Lionesses in that Pride must move out of that territory immediately.

Example: It is the third Year, and Humans have already been placed on Gabon and Mauritania. Gabriel decides to add a Human to Algeria, which is far away from his Transvaal Lions.

Removing a Hut

Once all of the Huts have been placed on the Game board, you must instead remove 1 Hut of your choice. Place that Hut on the Game End Track (on the lower right side of the Game board), on the top empty circle.

If you place a Hut on the circle of the Game End Track marked with the number of Players in the game, the game will end that Year (see Ending the Game).

Example: Since all 8 Humans have already been placed in a 4-Player game, Tanya must remove 1 this Year. She removes the Hut on Libya to open that territory for her Barbary Lions to expand onto.

Phase 4: Ancestral Strength

The strength of a Breed is built up over generations. In this Phase, each Player in Turn order may increase the strength of their Lions by removing Male Lions from the board.

In order to increase your Breed's Ancestral Strength, you must remove 1 of your adult Male Lions from the Game board. You may sacrifice more than 1 Lion if you choose; however, you are limited to the number of Lions you have on the board. Permanently add any sacrificed Lion(s) to your Ancestral Strength Track. The total number of Lions on your Track determines the strength of your Male Lions on the board during a conflict with another Pride (see Attack and Roar).

Be careful! Once you add a Male Lion meeple to your Ancestral Strength, that meeple is never available to be used in play for the rest of the game! Make sure you keep enough Lions available to expand your Prides.

Note: Every Breed except the Barbary Lion (red) begins the game with 1 Lion already on their Ancestral Strength Track (the Barbary Lion starts with 2). These Lions are printed on the Game board—do not place a Lion meeple on your Track to represent your starting Lions.

Phase 5: Player Turns

Do not waste your time just sitting around and talking game, use your 2 actions wisely to become King of the Pride.

In this Phase, each Player takes a Turn, starting with the First Player and going clockwise. On your Turn, you MUST take 2 actions from the following list. You can take your actions in any order you choose, and you may repeat the same action.

Draw 2 Secret Mission cards
Movement
Breed
Roar
Attack

Completing Secret Missions

Each Secret Mission card shows a specific task that you must complete before the end of the game. If you fulfill the requirements, at any time, immediately place your Secret Mission card face up in front of you. At the end of the game, add the points shown on the card(s) to your score.

Secret Missions can be:

Enter the Territory: If you move at least 1 Lion or Lioness onto the territory shown on the card, you have completed this Secret Mission.
Own Territories: You must have a Pride on the territories shown on the card to complete this Secret Mission.
Place a Hut: If you place a Hut on the territory listed during Phase 2 of any Year, you have completed this Secret Mission.
Own the Least: You must have the least of the resource shown on the card compared to all other Players (not tied for the least) in order to complete this Secret Mission.
Be Surrounded: If all of your Lions are on 1 territory, and every adjacent territory has a Pride that belongs to another Player, you have completed this Secret Mission.

Draw 2 Secret Mission cards

You may use an action to draw 2 Secret Mission cards from the deck. Look at your potential new cards, then decide if you want to keep 0-2 cards. You may discard 1 or both cards if you choose.

Remember: If you do not complete the requirements for your Secret Mission card, you will lose the points shown on the card at the end of the game. Be careful of taking on too many Secret Missions during the game!

Movement

You may use an action to move any or all of your Lion and/or Lioness meeples up to 2 territories each.

Remember: You must honor the Pride Size Rule after your movement is completed!

Reminder: The Pride Size Rule only takes effect where you end your movement. You may move through territories you own and ignore the Pride Size Rule.

When you move, you must also follow these rules:

You cannot move onto or through a territory occupied by a Human or another Player's Pride, but you may be able to sneak through such a territory (see Sneak) or fight for control of it (see Attack).
Babies and Cubs never move. Be careful! If you move all of the adults out of a territory with Babies and/or Cubs, they stay behind and will be vulnerable to other Lions. If any Lion or Lioness meeples ever move onto a territory occupied only by an opponent's Babies and/or Cubs, the Babies and Cubs are immediately removed from the board.

Movement Hint: If you lay each Lion and Lioness meeple on its side after moving, it will be easy to remember which meeples have already moved!

Important: You may not move or sneak into an attack. That is a separate action.

Note: If you are forced to leave a territory as a result of Aging or Human Activity (see Phase 1 and Phase 2 on pg. 6), your previous movement does not count as 1 of your 2 actions during your Player Turn.

Sneak

A Pride can try to move through a territory occupied by an opposing Pride or even a Human without attracting notice.

Moving Through an Opposing Pride: If your Pride has a smaller number of Lions and Lionesses than the number in your opponent's Pride, then you can sneak through your opponent's territory unnoticed. If the number of Lions and Lionesses in your Pride is the same size or larger than the number in your opponent's Pride, then you cannot sneak your entire Pride through your opponent's territory—you must sneak a smaller portion of your Pride or roar/attack instead (see Roar or Attack).

Moving Through a Human-Occupied Territory: If your Pride sneaks through a territory occupied by a Human, you must lose 1 Lion or Lioness meeple of your choice (unless you are the Congo Lion Breed).

The sneaking Pride moves through the unfriendly territory and onto any 1 adjacent empty territory or a territory you occupy.

Breed

You can use this action to add Lions to 1 of your Prides. Choose 1 Pride that includes at least 1 adult Lion and 1 adult Lioness. Then, roll the Cub die to see how many Babies you add to your Pride. Draw that number of tokens and add them to the territory occupied by your Pride.

Baby/Cub tokens are double-sided. 1 side shows a Baby Lion, and the other shows an "M" or an "F". The sex of the Lion is not shown on the Baby side of the token. When you Breed new Lions, always place the token so the Baby side is face up. The other Players will not know the sex of your new Lions until they grow into Cubs during the next Year (you can look at the sex of your own Babies at any time).

Note: Rolling a + on the Cub die earns you no new Cubs, but gives you a Bonus token from the supply. Spend your Bonus token to get +1 to any single action you perform during your turn. This means moving 1 extra territory during Movement, or adding 1 strength during Attacking or Roaring, or adding 1 Baby during your next successful breeding roll.

Breed Example: Gabriel decides to Breed with his Pride on East South Africa. He rolls the Cub die and gets a 2. In addition, since Gabriel's Lion Breed is the Transvaal Lion, and the Transvaal Lion's unique ability is to add +1 Cubs to his die roll, he draws 3 Baby tokens, looks at them, and places them onto the same territory as the Breeding pair, making sure to place the tokens with the Cub side face down.

Roar

You may only choose this action if you have an adult Male Lion on a territory adjacent to another Player's Pride and your combined Pride strength is higher (remember that each of your Male Lions has strength equal to their Ancestral Strength). The only exception is if the Player is the Katanga Lion Breed. Katanga Lions, regardless of Pride Size, always attract an opposing Female Lioness.

Your Lion's roar attracts a targeted opponent Female Lioness to join your Pride. Remove 1 Lioness meeple from the targeted opponent's Pride and add 1 of your own Lioness meeples to the Pride with the roaring Lion.

Only 1 of your Lions will roar each time you take this action.

Example: Carole-Ann uses an action to have her Male Lion on Chad roar, attracting the lone Female Lioness from the Congo Lion Pride on Sudan. The Congo Lioness meeple is removed from Sudan and placed in the opposing Player's supply, and 1 Lioness from Carole-Ann's Barbary Lioness meeple supply is added to her Pride on Chad.

Attack

You can use an action to have 1 of your Prides attack an opponent's Pride on an adjacent territory. You can only attack if your Pride's total strength (including Ancestral Strength for each Male) is greater than the defending Pride's strength (this does not include Ancestral Strength; instead, each Lion and Lioness counts as only 1 strength on defense).

The strength of an attacking Pride is determined by adding up the strength of all adult members of the Pride:

All Female Lionesses have a strength of 1 each.
Each Male Lion has a strength equal to the Breed's Ancestral Strength.

If the attacker has the higher total strength, the opposing Pride must immediately retreat to adjacent territories that do not contain another Player's Pride or a Hut. If there is nowhere for the Pride to go, the Pride is removed from the board.

Example: The herd-rich territory of Tanzania is too tempting for Keith to resist. He decides to attack Aaron's Transvaal Lion Pride there, using his Pride on Rwanda. Keith can attack because his Pride has a strength of 5 (1 for each of the 2 Lionesses, plus 3 for the Lion, since his Ancestral Strength is 3) and Aaron's Pride only has a strength of 4 (3 Lionesses, plus 1 Lion; Ancestral Strength doesn't help with defense). Since there is a Hut on Central DROC, and other Prides on Kenya, Zambia, and South DROC, Aaron must retreat his Pride into Mozambique. If that territory is also occupied, Aaron's Pride will be removed from the board and returned to his supply.

Ending Your Turn

After you complete your actions, the next Player in the Turn order takes their Turn. When all Players have taken 2 actions, move to Phase 6.

Phase 6: Starvation

Even the mighty Lion must have Food to eat. Lions feed by hunting the great herds that wander the land. Each territory has a Herd Value, which indicates how much Food the herds on that territory can provide for the Lions that live there.

After all Players have finished their Player Turn, everyone must check if their Lions have enough Food to eat. Each adult Male Lion requires a total of 2 Food each Year. Each adult Female Lioness requires 1 Food. Babies and Cubs are fed by the adults in the Pride, and do not require any Food to survive.

To calculate the Food needed to avoid starvation, each Player adds the total Food gathered from all territories they have at least 1 Female Lioness on. Only Female Lionesses hunt for Food. If more than 1 Female Lioness is on a territory, a Player only gains the Food hunted once.

Each player compares the total Food produced to the amount of Food needed to feed all Lions and Lionesses in their Prides. If a Player is short any of the required Food, they may spend their starting Food tokens as needed. If a Player has no Food tokens remaining, that Player must eliminate a combination of Lions/Lionesses until their Food consumption is equal to their Food gathered. The Senegal Lion Breed require 1 less Food to survive than their Lions' total Food required.

Food Tokens: All Players received a supply of Food tokens at the beginning of the game (based on Lion Breed). Once Food tokens are used, they are gone and cannot be replaced. Even if your Prides provide surplus Food beyond your total need, you cannot gain Food tokens. If you have any Food tokens left at the end of the game, they are added to your Food Supply for final scoring (see Ending the Game).

Any Lion or Lioness that cannot eat is removed from the Game board and is returned to your supply. Players choose which of their Lion/Lioness meeples starve in Turn order.

Example: At the end of the Year, Tanya has Prides on Algeria and Tunisia. In order to feed all of her adult Lions, she would need 8 Food (in Algeria, she has 2 adult Lions, plus 2 adult Lionesses—the Cub(s) do not need any Food; in Tunisia, Tanya has 1 Male Lion). Algeria only has a Herd Value of 5, and Tunisia has a Herd Value of 1, so Tanya is 2 Food short. She has 3 choices: She could remove 1 Lion, she could remove 2 Lionesses, or she could use Food tokens to reduce or meet the need (if she has any remaining). Tanya determines her Lion is more valuable, and she has 1 Food token, so she uses 1 Food token and removes 1 Lioness from the board (returning the Lioness to her supply).

If a Player Is Eliminated from the Board

Survival in Africa can be a harsh contest, and sometimes a Breed will find itself completely wiped out. If all of your Lions (Adults, Cubs, and Babies) have been removed from the board, your Breed has nearly gone extinct. In the real world, of course, extinction is forever. But in Roar, you have a chance to come back from the brink.

After the Human Activity Phase, in the next Year, the eliminated Player chooses 1 empty territory or chooses 1 territory that is occupied by a Hut and places 2 adult Lion and 2 Lioness meeples of their color in that territory. If they choose a territory with a Hut, they must move the Hut to a different territory; however, they must still follow the Hut placement rules (see Human Activity). Continue play as normal.

Ending the Game

When a Hut is placed on the circle of the Game End Track that corresponds to the number of Players in the game, it means the game is almost over. Players should complete the remaining Phases for that Year and then proceed to Scoring.

The length of a game is determined by the number of Players in the game:

3 Players = 9 Huts placed, then 6 Huts removed = 15 Years
4 Players = 8 Huts placed, then 4 Huts removed = 12 Years
5 Players = 5 Huts placed, then 5 Huts removed = 10 Years
6 Players = 6 Huts placed, then 3 Huts removed = 9 Years

After the final Year is finished, it is time to find out which Breed reigns supreme!

How to Win

At the end of the last Year, each Player compares their Lion Breed to their opponents'. Each Player is compared on 4 categories:

Number of Lions—including Male adults, Male Babies, and Male Cubs.
Number of Lionesses—including Female adults, Female Babies, and Female Cubs.
Total Food Supply—including the Herd Value of all territories occupied by your Prides plus any Food tokens you have remaining.
Territory Size—the total number of territories occupied by your Prides.

In each category, rank all of the Players. The Scoring card shows how many points each Player receives for each category, based on rank (the Player ranked highest receives the most points, followed by the second ranked Player, and so on).

In the case of a tie, all tied Players score the rank they are tied on. The next Player to score, however, will skip down the number of ranks equal to the number of tied Players and score accordingly.

Example: In a 5-Player game, 3 Players are tied for 2nd place. The last Player scores the 5th rank scoring (they DO NOT score 3rd place).

If a Player has 0 in a category, they score nothing.

Add the value of any Secret Mission cards you were able to complete during the game to your score. Then, subtract the value of any Secret Missions you were unable to finish.

The final total is your total score. The Player with the highest total score is the King of the Pride!

In the case of a tie for 1st place, the Player with the highest Ancestral Strength is the winner. If any Players are still tied, they share the victory!

Scoring

Points per category (Lions, Lionesses, Food, Territories), by rank:

3-Player	1st	2nd	3rd
Lions / Lionesses / Food / Territories	6	3	1

4-Player	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Lions / Lionesses / Food / Territories	10	6	4	1

5-Player	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Lions / Lionesses / Food / Territories	13	10	5	2	1

6-Player	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Lions / Lionesses / Food / Territories	14	11	7	5	2	1