The Coil
The Coil Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In The Coil, your troops are represented by dice which you will deploy to defend your homeland or conquer regions immediately to your east and west. Claiming those regions will help you collect victory points. However, the amount that each region will score you is kept hidden from other players until the end of the game. Victory points will also be awarded to players for collecting valuable resources and fulfilling a secret objective. After four rounds, the player with the most victory points will take the throne as Emperor of The Coil.
Components
- 5 Nation Cards
- 70 Homeland Cards
- 9 Strategy Cards
- 35 Unit Dice + 1 Northern Die
Card Anatomy: Nation Cards
- Nation's name and dice color.
- Tactic cards: gained during SETUP.
- Unit dice: gained each MUSTER phase.
- Initiative: for breaking ties.
- Reserves area: for dice ready to be deployed.
- Special ability: including its timing and effect.
Card Anatomy: Homeland Cards
- Tactic: used in BATTLE phase.
- Region resource symbol(s): checked at END OF GAME.
- Unit deployment area.
- Starting arrow.
Card Anatomy: Strategy Cards
- Region areas: for regions claimed in VICTORY phase.
- Population area: for your remaining dice.
- Secret objective: for gaining points.
- Score modifiers: for gaining points.
Setup
Note: New terms are highlighted in red in the rules. Note: The following rules are for 3/4/5 players. Differences for two-player games outlined on page X.
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Place the four-sided northern die in the center of the table between all players. Set it so the "1" value is at its top.
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Each player must choose a nation card and places it in front of them. Read the special ability of the nation to the other players. The players to your immediate left and right are known as your western and eastern bordered nations, respectively.
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Take 14 x homeland cards for your nation, shuffle, and place them face-down to the left of your nation card to form your homeland deck. Leave space to the right as a discard area.
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All homeland cards used by any player are placed face-up in the discard area of the nation from which they came. If your homeland deck is ever empty, shuffle the cards in your discard area to form a new homeland deck.
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Shuffle the strategy cards and deal one face-down to each player placing it below your nation card. Place the remaining cards in a deck within reach of all players. You may look at your own strategy card at any time.
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Take the 7 x unit dice of your nation's color, and place them on your strategy card to form your population.
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Finally, draw a number of cards from your homeland deck equal to the starting hand size on your nation card. In your hand, these cards are called . You are now ready to begin the game.
(Page 6 of the rulebook contains only a placeholder: "SETUP IMAGE (in progress)".)
Gameplay
There are 4 rounds in the game consisting of 5 phases:
EXPANSION → MUSTER → ESCALATION → BATTLE → CONQUEST
All phases other than ESCALATION and BATTLE can be played simultaneously.
Note: Using the abilities of some nations will interrupt the flow of these phases.
1) The Expansion Phase
Players flip the top card from their homeland deck and place it above their nation card. Orient each card such that the starting arrow points up. A card placed on the table in this way is known as a region. All regions together form The Coil.
2) The Muster Phase
Players take from their population the number of unit dice shown on their nation card, roll them, and place them on their nation card. Any dice there from a previous round are placed next to the new dice. Dice in this area are called your reserves.
3) The Escalation Phase
Players take turns, starting with the player with the greatest total value (the number of pips shown on the topmost sides) on the dice in their reserves and proceeding clockwise. Ties go to the player with the highest initiative on their nation card.
On your turn, perform any combination of the actions below equal to the value of the northern die:
- Recruit - Take a unit die from your population, roll it, and add it to your reserves.
- Scout - Draw the top card from any homeland deck and add it to your hand. Flip the top card from the same deck and add it to The Coil next to the other regions of that type.
- Strategize - Draw and look at the top card of the strategy deck and place it face-down on the old strategy card. At game end, choose one to score.
4) The Battle Phase
Determine player turn order in the same way as in the ESCALATION PHASE.
On your turn, deploy one or more of your dice, moving them one at a time (without changing their values) from your reserves to the lowest available slot in the deployment area of any region in The Coil. The first die deployed to a region must be placed on the starting arrow and may be of any value.
If an opponent's die is already in the region, you may overcome that die by deploying to the slot directly above if the value of your die is exactly 1 greater. (a 6 die can be overcome by a 1 die)
Note: You may not overcome one of your own dice. If there are no more slots in the area then you cannot deploy a die.
You may use tactics from your hand at any time to adjust the values of the dice in your reserves. To use a tactic, reveal it, announce which dice you are changing, follow the card's instructions, and discard it to its nation's discard area.
Note: If a die's value would ever become greater than 6, that die instead becomes a 1 and vice versa. (e.g. 1 becomes 6)
Play as many dice or tactics cards as you wish and when you cannot or do not want to play any more cards then pass the turn to the player on your left.
If, on a player's first turn of any round, none of the dice in their reserves can be deployed (without the use of a tactic), they must reroll all of their dice until one of them can be deployed.
After each player has had at least one turn, when it is your turn again, you may, if you wish, take no action and say, "Stop". If you ever begin a turn with no dice in your reserves, you must stop.
The BATTLE PHASE immediately ends for all players when the first player stops.
5) The Conquest Phase
Each player claims all regions on which their die was the last one deployed and all their homeland regions on which no dice were deployed. Return all dice from all regions to their nations' populations.
Place your claimed regions face down in the appropriate area on your strategy card if possible, otherwise place it in your hand as a tactic.
Increase the northern die by 1 and begin a new round. The game ends once the 4th round is finished.
Note: Many regions are devoid of noteworthy features. These are known as basic regions. However, others have resources highly sought by the various peoples of the world. These may grant additional points to players that claim them and include: Arcane Technology, Mythstone, Food Caches.
End of Game
After the fourth round, all players with multiple strategy cards choose one to score and turns it face-up along with their claimed regions, discarding the other strategy cards.
Each player will score up to two victory points for each of the following eight categories:
- Western Border - Multiply the number of western bordered regions you have claimed by their score modifier listed on your strategy card. If you have (or are tied for) the highest total among all players, gain two victory points. If you have (or are tied for) the second highest total, gain one victory point.
- Homeland - Do the same as above with your homeland regions.
- Eastern Border - Do the same as above with your eastern bordered regions.
- Mythstone - Add up all your claimed regions with the Mythstone icon. If you have (or are tied for) the highest total among all players, gain two victory points. If you have (or are tied for) the second highest total, gain one victory point.
- Arcane Technology - Do the same as above for the Arcane Technologies resource.
- Food Caches - Do the same as above for the Food Caches resource.
- Reserves and Tactics - Add the number of dice still in your reserves and tactics still in your hand. If you have (or are tied for) the highest total among all players, gain two victory points. If you have (or are tied for) the second highest total, gain one victory point.
- Secret Objective - If you have fulfilled the secret objective in the center of your strategy card, gain two victory points.
Add together all your victory points. The player with the highest total is the winner! If tied, the player who has the nation with the highest initiative is the winner.
Two Player Game
A two-player game is setup in the same manner as a three-player game, except in step 2 of SETUP the players choose a third nation randomly placing its nation card and homeland deck between the two players.
The third nation does not have a strategy card or unit dice. In each EXPANSION PHASE, turn over the top card from its homeland deck, and in each ESCALATION PHASE, players may Scout from it.
The third nation will only collect its homeland regions that have no dice in each CONQUEST PHASE. This third nation will score zero points at the END OF THE GAME.
Reference
Homeland Resource Distribution
- Celestos: 3 Basic Regions, 6 Arcane Technology, 4 Mythstone, 4 Food Caches
- Dedran: 4 Basic Regions, 4 Arcane Technology, 5 Mythstone, 4 Food Caches
- Ignixior: 3 Basic Regions, 5 Arcane Technology, 6 Mythstone, 3 Food Caches
- Shakoom: 4 Basic Regions, 3 Arcane Technology, 4 Mythstone, 6 Food Caches
- Varg'ree: 5 Basic Regions, 4 Arcane Technology, 3 Mythstone, 5 Food Caches
Game Phases
- EXPANSION PHASE: Place new regions.
- MUSTER PHASE: Place unit dice into reserves.
- ESCALATION PHASE: Recruit and/or scout and/or strategize.
- BATTLE PHASE: Play tactics and deploy dice.
- CONQUEST PHASE: Claim regions.