The Colonists: Feudal Lords Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Idea
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Playing Purchases
  • Trading Goods
    • Stewards Meeting at a Place
    • Trading in the Production Phase
  • Special Ambassadors
• Developing the New Land
  • Building in the New Land
  • No Special Abilities in the New Land
  • Limited Building Tiles
• Supplying the New Land
  • Joint Supply Phase
  • Autarky
• End of the Game
  • Ranks

Game Idea

This is a cooperative scenario for two players. Together you must populate the New Land by building, on a neutral Community board, a kind of "pyramid" of residences. By the end it consists of 12 Estates, 6 Apartments and 2 Community Halls. Along the way you must also expand the storage of the New Land and make your communities self-sufficient.

SOLO: If you do not mind taking on the roles of both players, the scenario can also be played alone.

Setup

Set up the game as described in the base game's rules, noting the following changes:

1. Place a third Community board with the side showing only 12 building spots facing up. From now on this Community board is called the New Land.
2. Place 3 Storage Sheds, 3 Storage Houses and 3 Storage Halls next to the New Land. It is advisable also to set out 18 Farms, 8 Flats and 2 Houses, so that you do not accidentally build them yourselves, especially the Farms.
3. Take the 12 starting Places, including the Diplomat but without the Laborer, and shuffle them. (Translator's note: the German text calls this starting place "Tagelöhner" (day labourer) and uses "Lohnarbeiter" for the Special Ambassador; both are rendered as Laborer, which is the transcriber's judgment.) Lay them out face up around the first Market in the prescribed order (see illustration: positions 1 to 12), and lay out the second Market accordingly. You may not choose the location of the starting Places freely.

You begin the game with the usual goods and buildings. The New Land begins empty. (So there are no goods, buildings or figures on it.)

Note: The two pre-printed Farms on the New Land have no significance for this scenario.

Colonies are used. The Colonies in play are determined randomly as usual. (Certain Colonies, such as the Alchemist or the Trader Colony, can considerably lower the difficulty of this scenario.)

Gameplay

All rules of the base game remain in force and are supplemented by the rules for cooperative play and for the New Land. (If you have played the "Ante Portas" expansion before, you will recognise most of the rules.)

Important! This means above all that there is still a starting player and a fixed turn order, and that both players have their own Community board and Steward. You also still have access only to your own goods. Special abilities always apply only to the player who earned them.

Playing Purchases

You may keep purchases that you play as normal, or give them to your fellow player. The cost of a purchase is always borne by whoever plays the card. (Giving away or trading hand cards is not allowed.)

• For immediate purchases, this means your fellow player receives all promised buildings (for Building Contracts) or goods. You cannot keep part of them yourself; you either give everything or nothing.
• Permanent or limited purchases are first placed in a shared display, where they belong to no player. You may take them at any time and keep them for the rest of the game (or, for limited cards, until they are discarded).

Example: Anna plays the Hand Saw (No. 112) and gives up 5 Wood. The 3 Planks in total she gives to Bernd.

Example: Bernd plays the Apprentice (No. 234) and places him first in the middle, together with the paid goods. The 2 Dollars from the Apprentice are only received when Anna or Bernd takes the card.

Trading Goods

There are two (recurring) times in the game when you may trade goods with each other:

• when your Stewards are on the same Place, or
• during the Production Phase at the end of each year.

Trading means that you hand over any number of your goods to your fellow player. Goods you receive in a trade must immediately be placed in your Storage or Warehouse. Goods you hand over to your fellow player may come from your Storage, your Warehouse or a Buffer. Dollars and Tools may also be traded with each other. The trade does not need to be two-sided: your fellow player need not give you anything in return. Do agree before trading, though. You are playing together!

Stewards Meeting at a Place

Unlike the base game, no Fee is due when your Stewards meet at a Place. In this scenario the Fee has any significance only when a special ability requires it.

Instead, whenever your Stewards are on the same Place, you may trade any number of goods exactly once, immediately before or after the action. Under no circumstances may you trade both before and after the action.

Example: Anna is at the Joiner and has Wood left over, which she could not convert into Planks for lack of storage space. Now Bernd takes his turn and moves to the Joiner, where Anna's Steward stands. He himself has no Wood, so he takes Wood from Anna before the action, in order to make Planks himself. Even if Anna could use more Planks, Bernd cannot give her any now, because he has already "traded" before the action.

If your Stewards are on different Places, you cannot trade goods with each other, not even against payment. Agree beforehand if you must trade during the year.

Trading in the Production Phase

During the Production Phase of each year, you may at any one moment trade with each other exactly once, by exchanging any number of goods. This can include goods that were only just generated. The important thing is that your trades are complete before you continue with the Production Phase or move on to the Sustenance Phase.

Example: Anna has the Industrialist Embassy at level II and wants to produce 2 Planks and 1 Brick at the end of the year. She has no Production Buildings of her own, because Bernd has specialised in them. So she lets Bernd's Forester's Houses and Hollows generate new goods, and Bernd gives her 5 Wood and 1 Clay from these. She uses them to make the 2 Planks and the 1 Brick. Even if Bernd could use Planks or Bricks well, Anna can no longer give him any, because the trade ended with the production of the goods. Had Anna had all the goods she needed herself and not needed any from Bernd, she could have given Bernd the freshly produced goods.

Special Ambassadors

You play together but are still individual players. Therefore the usual rules apply to the Special Ambassadors:

• Alchemist: If the Alchemist lands on a Place with your fellow player's Steward, you may use the Place action.
• Altruist: The Altruist's discount always applies only to the player who has developed the Colony to at least level II. It does not apply to buildings in the New Land.
• Laborer: If your fellow player hands over goods on the Place with the Laborer, you receive 1 good of each type handed over, as usual. This does not apply to goods handed over in the New Land.

Developing the New Land

At the end of each era you must be able to show certain buildings in the New Land, or you immediately lose the game:

Era	Buildings	Build cost
I	12 Farms¹	12 Tools, 12 Wood
II	12 Estates, 3 Storage Sheds	15 Tools, 42 Wood, 12 [orange icon]
III	6 Apartments², 3 Storage Houses	24 Tools, 6 Wood, 12 [dark-red icon], 21 Planks, 3 [orange icon]
IV	2 Community Halls³, 3 Storage Halls	23 Tools, 2 Wood, 4 [dark-red icon], 10 Planks, 17 [orange icon], 9 [grey stone icon]

¹ Remember that the two pre-printed Farms play no role. You must build 12 Farms in the New Land yourselves.

² For this you must build 6 Farms and convert them into Flats, before you can convert them into the required Apartments.

³ For this you must build 2 Farms, convert them into Flats and then into Houses, before you can convert them into the required Community Halls.

Note on the cost icons: The German text does not name the cost icons. Tools (blue) and Wood (green log) are confirmed by the German examples, and Planks (brown, stacked boards) is identified by appearance. The three icons marked [orange icon], [dark-red icon] and [grey stone icon] are not named in the German text, so they are given here by colour and shape rather than by resource name. Check them against the printed goods tokens before relying on them.

Building in the New Land

The New Land has its own Storage, consisting of the Basic Storage (with 3 storage spaces) and the storage facilities built in the New Land. To build buildings in the New Land, you must first transport the required goods into the Storage of the New Land. You can do this at any time during your own turn, or at any time during the Production Phase.

The transport costs are always 1 Dollar per 2 goods. The transport of Tools is always free.

Note: Goods cannot be transported back into your own Storage. If needed, you may use the Warehouse of the New Land under the usual rules.

Buildings for the New Land are always built at the corresponding Builders. There you can build both buildings for your own Community board and buildings for the New Land. If a Market offers a corresponding Builder action, you may also use it for the New Land.

Example: Anna needs Farms and would also like to build some in the New Land straight away. Since she and Bernd have not yet got round to building Storage Sheds in the New Land, she can build at most three Farms at once there. For that she would have to transport 3 Wood into the New Land, which would cost 2 Dollars. Dollars are scarce at first, so she prefers to save one Dollar and has only 2 Wood transported into the New Land, to build just 2 Farms there for now. She herself builds 4 Farms and pays for them with a further 4 Wood and 6 Tools in total.

Note that you must complete one level of the "pyramid" before you begin building the next level. For example, you may only continue with the second level once the first consists of 12 Estates.

You do not need to place Colonists on the residences in the New Land. They are there and do important work, but you do not need to show this with figures.

Storage facilities you build in the New Land are always immediately functional, even if you do not yet have enough matching Colonists in the New Land.

No Special Abilities in the New Land

Any special abilities you acquire during the game through purchases and/or Colonies cannot be used in the New Land.

Limited Building Tiles

The existing building tiles count as limited in this scenario. This becomes a problem at most with Farms, of which you may need up to 18 for the New Land in the worst case. If you have built too many Farms on your own Community boards, so that the Farms are not enough for the New Land, you may raze Farms (or Estates) from your Community boards for the usual razing fee of 2 Tools, provided you have enough unemployed Farmers.

Note: The reference-card photo on page 11 of the German original prints the following: "Building over: +2 Tools on the building costs of the new building. Important! Remodelling a building does not count as building over."

Supplying the New Land

The Colonists in the New Land get to work in the background straight away and must all be supplied at the end of every year. Since Farmers supply themselves, supplying the New Land is usually relevant only from Era III on.

Example: In Era III Bernd converts 6 Farms in the New Land into Flats. From then on, 6 Food is due at the end of every year.

Era	Inhabitants	Food demand	Robes demand
I	12 Farmers	0	0
II	36 Farmers	0	0
III	36 Farmers, 18 Citizens	18	0
IV	36 Farmers, 18 Citizens, 4 Merchants	26	4

Sustenance demand at the end of each era.

Joint Supply Phase

Supplying your communities and the New Land is a shared matter. Your total Sustenance demand is always compared with your total Sustenance supply. (It is best to use a shared Balance card.)

• Your total Sustenance demand results from all workers in your two communities, plus the Colonists in the New Land. There are no transport fees for supplying the New Land.
• Your total Sustenance supply is the sum of all Sustenance goods produced in your two communities. If your supply does not cover the demand, you may together hand over Sustenance goods in stock to make up the difference (except at the end of the game, see "Autarky" below).

Important! If in the middle of a year you put new Citizens or Merchants to work in your communities, you must supply them yourself immediately. Your fellow player cannot pay these costs for you. (The Colonists in the New Land do not need to be supplied immediately.)

Autarky

In the last Sustenance Phase of the game, your communities must produce all required Sustenance goods themselves; that is, you may not fall back on Sustenance goods in stock. The basic rule of cooperative play remains: it is not necessary for everyone to be able to supply their own community alone. Rather, you must together supply both your communities and the New Land. (In other words, at the end of the game Food and Robes on the shared Balance card must each be at least at 0.)

If a Citizen or Merchant can work, they must work at the end!

You cannot get around the Autarky rule by simply dismissing people at the end. Unemployed Colonists are allowed only if there are no buildings in which they can work. (Note that the Laborer Colony could prove fatal to you because of this.) However, Citizens need not work at the expense of Farmers. You fill your Factories as you wish. The same applies to Merchants.

End of the Game

The game ends at the latest after the era up to which you want to play. You lose the game early if any of the following occurs:

• At the end of an era you have not built all the required buildings in the New Land.
• At the end of a year you cannot supply the Colonists in the New Land.
• At the end of the last era your communities are not self-sufficient.

If you make it to the end, you may declare yourselves winners of the scenario. How well you did is measured by the era up to which you played, and by what else you achieved beyond that.

Ranks

Rank	Title	Achievement
0	Duffers	You have lost the game early.
1	Beginner	You have completed Era I and built 12 Farms in the New Land. Your communities are together self-sufficient.
2	Advanced	You have completed Era II and built 12 Estates and 3 Storage Sheds in the New Land. Your communities are together self-sufficient.
3	Experienced	You have completed Era III and built 6 Apartments and 3 Storage Houses in the New Land. Your communities are together self-sufficient.
4	Jack-of-all-trades	You have completed Era IV and built 2 Community Halls and 3 Storage Halls in the New Land. Your communities are together self-sufficient.
5	Masters	In addition to rank 4, your two communities together are worth at least 400 Dollars. (The New Land does not count.)
6+	Legends