Tenka Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Number of Players
• 2. THE CARDS IN GENERAL
• 3. SETUP
• 4. YOUR COURT
• 5. HOW TO WIN
  • The Time Limit
• 6. ON YOUR TURN
• 7. BATTLE
  • The Attacker and Defender
  • The Battle Sequence
• Battle Example

Number of Players

TENKA is best played with four players, but can be played with three or even two. If more wish to play, you combine multiple decks, but be sure to remove extra copies of the special cards; only one of each of them may be included in the deck.

2. THE CARDS IN GENERAL

The deck consists of 72 cards as follows:

• 52 regular cards, in four suits of thirteen each: Provinces (gold), Knights (red), Priests (green), and Lords (blue).
• 20 special cards (purple), each one unique: Abbot, Cannon, Capital, Castle, Cavalry, Chamberlain, Empress, General, Heir, Hostage, Jester, Mercenary, Merchant, Minister, Monastery, Overthrow, Spy, Temple, Traitor, and Warrior Monks.

The cards can be played in either of two ways, at the discretion of the player:

1. PITCH: When you pitch a card, you play it, face-up, to the discard pile from either your hand or your court and follow its instructions.

2. PLACE: When you place a card, you play it from your hand, face-up, into your court, where it will have an ongoing effect as described in the card's instructions.

Cards are always played / discarded face-up. The discard pile may only be inspected by a player pitching a card to do so.

3. SETUP

1. Before you begin play, you should remove about half of the special cards from the deck (for a 2-4 player game), by selection or randomly (leaving the removed cards unknown adds another element of strategy to the game). Alternately, you can leave in more or all of them for increased chaos (or to fill out the deck enough for a credible 5-player game).

2. Shuffle the cards and deal eight to each player to form their hand.

3. Place the Player Aid sheet in the middle of the table where all of the players can see and reach it.

   • Place the remainder of the deck face-down on the space indicated. This becomes the draw pile.
   • Place the "Minimum Number of Provinces to Win" marker on the "5" space of the Provinces to Win track.

4. Each player examines their hand and secretly selects up to three regular cards from it to be their starting court.

   • You cannot select a special card to start in your court.
   • All players reveal their starting court cards simultaneously.

5. The player with the most intimidating scowl plays first. Play then proceeds clockwise.

4. YOUR COURT

The area of the table in front of you is your court, representing the resources you can call on to aid you in your bid to rule the realm. During the course of the game, cards can be placed into your court to give you an ongoing (continuous) benefit.

• Be aware of what other players have in their courts at all times.
• All courts are open to inspection at any time by any player.

5. HOW TO WIN

A player who begins their turn with five Province cards in their court, and with more provinces than each other player, wins the game.

Example #1: You place your fifth Province card during your turn. You haven't won; you need it there at the start of your turn.

Example #2: You begin your turn with five Province cards in your court, but since there is another player who also has five Province cards in his court, you still haven't won. You must also have more Province cards than each other player (and have them at the start of your turn).

The Time Limit

When the draw pile is exhausted, the number of provinces required to win the game is immediately reduced by one (to a minimum of '1'). Adjust the Provinces to Win marker on the track accordingly to reflect the Current Value.

• Remember that a player can only win the game at the start of his turn!
• SOCIAL CHAOS [Optional]: When the Provinces to Win marker is lowered, all players who have more Province cards in their Court than the new Current Value must immediately discard one of them.

6. ON YOUR TURN

On your turn, you will draw first, then pass or play. When your turn is complete, play passes clockwise (to your left) with the next player's turn.

1. Draw one card from the draw pile.

   • If the draw pile is ever exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile (and adjust the Provinces to Win marker as per Rule 5) when the next card must be drawn (i.e., wait until the last possible moment before reshuffling).

   If you have more Priest cards in your court than each other player at this time, you may draw an additional card.

2. You may then pass and end your turn, or play one card, choosing an action from the list below.

   If you have more Lord cards in your court than each other player at this time (before you play a card), you may play an additional card during your turn.

   a) PITCH: When you pitch a card, you play it to the discard pile and follow its instructions. You may pitch a card from your hand or from your court.

   b) PLACE: When you place a card, you play it from your hand into your court, where it will have an ongoing (continuous) effect as described in the card's instructions.

   c) BATTLE: You may discard any one card from your hand to start a battle against another player.

   • The Battle Rule below explains how battles are resolved.
   • Starting a battle counts as playing a card on your turn.

   Example: You commence your turn with more Lords in your court than every other player, thus you can make up to two plays this turn; even starting up to two battles!

7. BATTLE

In lieu of playing a card on your turn, you may force a player into battle, to weaken their position or to capture one of their Province cards.

The Attacker and Defender

The player who starts the battle is the attacker. The player who is the target of that battle is the defender.

The Battle Sequence

To resolve the battle, follow the Battle Sequence below:

1. Pay the Cost: The attacker announces that he is starting a battle and discards any one card from his hand. This represents the 'logistical cost' of waging a planned, offensive war.

2. Select the Target Player: The attacker names another player as the defender, the target of the attack. Note that the defender does not discard a card from his hand to participate in the battle. The attacker's "armies" are coming to him.

3. Determine the "Standing Army" Strengths: The attacker totals and announces his attack strength, which is equal to the number of Knights in his court; then the defender totals and announces his defense strength in the same manner, which is equal to the number of Knights in his court.

4. Call to Arms: Each player may pitch ONE Knight (from their hand or their court) to add two (+2) to the strength of either the attacker OR the defender, as they so declare upon pitching that Knight card. The attacker chooses whether to pitch a Knight first, then each player in clockwise order from the attacker, skipping the defender who always has the option to pitch last in a battle.

5. Determine the Victor: Compare the final total attack and defense strengths. If one side's total strength exceeds the other's, the player leading that side (i.e., the attacker or defender) is the victor and has won the battle; the player leading the other side is defeated. If the totals are the same, the battle is a stalemate. There is no victor (and no further effect).

6. Casualties for the Defeated Player: Subtract the smaller combat strength from the larger; the difference between the strengths is the number of casualties suffered by the defeated player. The defeated player must satisfy each casualty by discarding a card of his choice from his hand. If the player cannot satisfy all the casualties in this manner, then the victor of that battle may discard a card of his choice from the defeated player's court for each remaining casualty. If the defeated player has no more cards in his hand or his court, any remaining casualties are ignored.

7. Attacker's Spoils: If the attacker is victorious, he may take as spoils into his hand any one of the casualty cards just discarded. Instead of taking spoils, a victorious attacker may conquer one of the defeated defender's Provinces from his court; he immediately moves that Province card to his own court. Only the attacker receives spoils; if the defender is the victor, no spoils are received nor conquest occurs.

Battle Example

This sidebar appears on page 1 of the printed rules; it is placed here, after the Battle section it illustrates.

It is Bill's turn. He begins with five cards in his hand, plus the General, the Cannon, one Priest, two Knight and two Lord cards in his court.

After drawing his card, Bill places a Province card, giving him another play, and then another Province card, giving him yet another play!

He then discards a card from his hand (a Lord card, as it turns out) to initiate the battle. He becomes the attacker, naming Dave as the defender. Dave, who has four cards in his hand, also has one Knight, two Lord, the Abbot and four Province cards in his court – enough to win the game at the start of Dave's turn (since the deck has been reshuffled one time); thus, Bill decides to launch this battle in an effort to conquer or destroy one of Dave's Provinces and prevent him from winning.

Bill declares that he has an attack strength of 2 (one for each of the Knights in his court). Dave has a defense strength of only 1 for his lone courtly Knight.

During the Call to Arms, Bill pitches one Knight from his hand, and then pitches a second (this time from his court), thanks to the General's power. His attack strength is now 5 (2 for each pitched Knight, and 1 for the one Knight remaining in his court).

Going clockwise, Carol helps Dave and pitches a Knight from her court to help him, raising the total defense strength from 1 to 3.

While Carol doesn't want Dave to win, she doesn't want him to lose badly, as Dave is a bulwark of strength keeping the suddenly Province-rich Bill in check. She's being canny here, trying to keep Dave healthy in the game, with a 'good deed' owed to her, and propping up Dave as an ongoing threat to Bill until she is ready to make her move to win the game!

Dave is on Carol's left, but he answers the Call to Arms last since he is the defender. So the Call to Arms skips to Avalon, and she hesitates for a long moment. With a sly smile on her face, three Province cards in her court and another in her hand (along with two Knights in her hand to protect her upcoming play to win the game), Avalon declares that she will pass.

As the defender, Dave answers the Call to Arms last, but he has no Knights in his hand to pitch. He could raise his defense strength from 3 to 4 by pitching the Knight in his court, but he'd still lose against the attack strength of 5. Dave passes his option to pitch one Knight in the Call to Arms.

Bill, the attacker, is victorious, 5 to 3. Thus, Dave suffers two casualties for the 2 strength difference. Thanks to his Cannon, Bill selects Dave's first loss from Dave's court and discards one of his Province cards from there (chipping Dave down to three). Dave chooses his second casualty from his hand, discarding a Priest card from it.

Bill decides to forgo taking one of those cards as spoils and instead conquers one of Dave's remaining three Provinces. Bill moves a Province card from Dave's court to his own. Bill cannot also take as spoils either of the cards discarded by himself (from the Cannon) and Dave, because he seized a Province instead.

The battle ends with Bill having two cards in his hand and (among others) three Province cards in his court. Dave is left with three cards in hand and has been stripped down to only two Province cards (among others) in his court. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Note that had Dave won the battle, there would be no spoils or conquest (as he was the defender). Neither is there any reward for other players answering the Call to Arms to assist either side.