Shogun: Tenno's Court Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Set Up
• Sequence of Play
• The Additional Steps in Detail
  • Lay Out Favor Cards
  • Plan Individual Actions and Bid for Turn Order
  • Perform Actions at the Tenno's Court
• End of the Game
• The Favor Cards

Game Components

• 1 Tenno's Court – in the lower area you see the entrance hall, where the court officials ask for permission to enter the audience hall in the upper area. The audience hall offers additional space for 3 favor cards. The card spaces show 4, 3 or 2 court officials.
• 5 Extra player boards – adding 3 new options to the player boards of the basic game. On the extra player boards are three spaces for placing cards, the action boxes.
• 35 Wooden court officials – 7 of each player color. Court officials are used at the Tenno's Court to obtain favor cards.
• 21 Favor cards – each card is a special favor which its owner can use only once. The number near the bottom edge of each favor card is for identification and other game purposes only. See the section "The favor cards" below for a detailed explanation of all favor cards.
• 15 dice tower cards – serving to convert armies into court officials.
• 1 rules leaflet

This expansion includes a new set each of province and chest cards. Please replace these two card sets of the basic game with these new sets, when playing with this expansion.

Set Up

Use the same set up procedure as in the basic game.

Place the Tenno's Court to the left or to the right of the main game board.

Additionally to their material of the basic game each player receives:

• 1 Extra player board
• 7 court officials in their player color, and
• 3 dice tower cards

The players place their extra player board next to their standard player board. Keep the court officials and dice tower cards in easy reach of all players. When playing with less than 5 players put any court officials and dice tower cards not needed back in the box.

When loading the dice tower initially the players take one court official from their own supply for each of their own army pieces falling into the tray of the tower. They place these court officials in the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court and return the army pieces to their own supply.

Example: During initial loading of the dice tower 2 green peasant armies, 2 blue armies of Jens, 2 red armies of Dirk and 2 purple army of Anika tumble down into the tray. Both Jens and Dirk put 2 of their court officials in the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court, Anika deploys one of her court officials there. They retrieve their army pieces from the tray and put them back into their supply.

Shuffle the favor cards and place the deck face down next to the game board.

Sequence of Play

The basic sequence of play is enhanced with 2 additional steps during spring, summer and fall rounds. The intermediate round (winter) remains unchanged.

The two additional steps are:

• Lay out favor cards
• Perform actions at the Tenno's Court

The players augment the step "Plan Individual Actions and Bid for Turn Order" with planning their actions on their extra player board.

The order of the steps for spring, summer and fall rounds, with the two new steps marked in bold, is:

1. Lay Out Action Cards
2. Lay Out Special Cards
3. Lay out favor cards
4. Plan individual actions both on player boards and extra player boards and bid for turn order
5. Determine Events
6. Determine Turn Order
7. Perform actions at the Tenno's Court
8. Perform Actions

The Additional Steps in Detail

Lay Out Favor Cards

Draw the top three cards from the deck of favor cards and place them face up on the card spaces in the audience hall of the Tenno's Court.

The highest numbered card must be placed on the space showing four court officials; the next lower numbered card must be placed on the space showing three court officials and finally the lowest numbered card on the last free space.

Example: The favor card #10 is placed on the space with 4 court officials, the #8 card on the space with 3 court officials and the #2 card on the remaining space with 2 court officials.

Plan Individual Actions and Bid for Turn Order

When planning their actions on their player boards, the players additionally plan their actions on their extra player boards secretly and simultaneously.

They must place 1 card on each space of their extra player board, if possible.

The 3 action boxes on the extra player boards allow the players to convert armies into court officials and deploy them at the Tenno's Court. 1, 2 and/or 3 armies can be converted by each player.

The three action boxes of the extra player boards are labelled "Convert 1 army", "Convert 2 armies" and "Convert 3 armies".

One court official is deployed for each converted army.

Important: Cards must be placed crosswise on the extra player boards ("tapped")!

Depending on which cards the players had placed on their extra player board they can perform different actions during the step "Perform actions at the Tenno's Court":

Province cards

If a player has placed a province card in one of the action boxes, they must immediately remove as many of their own armies from this province as demanded. They take the same number of their court officials from their own supply and deploy them at the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court. They return the armies to their supply.

At least 1 army must remain in the province concerned.

Example: Barbara has played the province card "Kai" on her extra player board. Since she had put this card in the action box "Convert 3 armies" she removes 3 of her armies from Kai and instead deploys 3 of her court officials at the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court. Only 1 of her armies remains in Kai.

Dice tower cards

If a player has placed a dice tower card* in one of the action boxes they must immediately remove (carefully!) as many of their own armies from the tray of the dice tower as needed. They place the same number of court officials (from their own supply) and deploy them at the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court. They return the armies to their supply.

Example: Barbara had placed a dice tower card in her action box "Convert 2 armies". She removes 2 of her armies from the tray and instead places 2 of her court officials in the entrance hall of the Tenno's Court.

* A dice tower card on a player board (of the basic game) has the same effect as a chest card – this action is not performed. A dice tower card on the auction box [sic: the source prints "auction box"; the extra player board's action box is meant] is treated like a "0" chest card.

Chest cards

If a player does not want to convert armies into court officials or cannot do so, they place a chest card on that particular box of their extra player board. In this case, they do not perform any action. Any chests on the chest card are ignored.

Example: Barbara had placed a chest card in her third action box. She does not perform any action for this box.

If an action cannot be completed (for example there are not sufficient armies in the province/tray or the supply of court officials is running short) this action is not performed.

Perform Actions at the Tenno's Court

After having determined the new player order, players perform their actions at the Tenno's Court. These actions take place before the players perform any actions of the basic game.

Performing actions at the Tenno's Court consist of two steps:

1. Reveal cards and deploy court officials

In player order and one after the other, the players reveal their cards on their extra player board and perform the appropriate actions, as explained above.

The start player begins by revealing their card in the "Convert 3 armies" box first and then performs this action. Next they repeat this procedure for their "Convert 2 armies" box and finally for their "Convert 1 arm[y]" box. [Note: the source prints "Convert 1 arm"; corrected here to match the box label.]

Only after they have finished all these actions, the next player takes their turn, etc.

After all players have finished their actions of the extra player board, this step is complete and the game proceeds with step 2.

Example: Barbara has played one chest card, one dice tower card and one province card on her extra player board. She may deploy a total of 5 court officials at the entrance hall.

2. Take advantage of the Court's favor

The player who deployed the most court officials at the entrance hall may vie first for the Tenno's favor. The other players follow in descending order of the number of their court officials. In case of a tie the basic player order prevails among the tied players.

The active player moves all their court officials from the entrance hall to the audience hall. The player may now ask a favor of the Tenno. This means they may take one of the laid out favor cards but are not obliged to do so.

If the player takes a card, they must put back into their supply as many of their court officials as shown on the card's space. They must apply the card's favor immediately, if possible, and then remove the card from the game. When all favor cards on display have been taken, this step is complete.

After all players have performed their actions at the Tenno's Court any court officials still remaining in the audience hall are moved back to the entrance hall. Any remaining favor cards are removed from the Tenno's Court and from the game. The game now proceeds as usual.

Example: Because Barbara (yellow) has deployed the most court officials, she starts and moves all of her court officials from the entrance hall to the audience hall. She decides for the #8 card, taking it from the Tenno's Court. She must also remove three of her court officials for it, then she follows the instructions of the card. Next is Dirk (red). He has the second most court officials and moves them to the audience hall. He takes the #2 card, removes as many of his court figures as demanded and follows the instructions of the card. Jens and Anika have the same number of court officials in the entrance hall. However, Jens is higher up in player order as Anika, so it is his turn now to move his blue court officials to the audience hall. Unfortunately, he cannot take the #10 card because the number of his court officials is insufficient. Also Anika cannot take this favor card, but she moves her court officials to the audience hall nevertheless.

End of the Game

The game end and victory conditions of the basic game remain unchanged.

The Favor Cards

Generally, the effect of favor cards must be applied immediately. Cards #4, #10, #11, and #18 are exceptions to this rule!

• #1: The player may remove this round's event card. The event will be ignored. However, the player is not obliged to remove the event card.
• #2, #9, #16: The player receives as many chests as shown and adds them to their supply.
• #3, #8, #14: The player puts as many armies from their own supply as shown in the tray of the dice tower.
• #4: The player removes one revolt marker from any of their own provinces. If they do not control any such provinces currently, they may keep this card and parry the next revolt marker in one of their provinces. Discard the card after it has been used.
• #5, #15, #20: The player gains the amount of rice shown. They move their rice marker forward accordingly on the food track.
• #6, #13, #19: The player gains the number of victory points shown. They move their victory point marker forward accordingly on the victory point track.
• #7, #17, #21: The player constructs the building shown free of charge in one of their own provinces. The general rules for buildings still apply.
• #10, #11, #18: During this round only, the player cannot be attacked with the action "Battle/Move A/B" resp. "A" + "B". Remove the card from the game at the end of the round.
• #12: The player deploys 3 armies free of charge in one of their own provinces or one neutral province. In the latter case, the player receives this province card w/o any battle.