The Colonists: The Imperial Post Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About This Scenario
• Setup
• Course of Play
• Board Template Reference
• Objectives
• Game End

About This Scenario

"The Imperial Post" is the first solo scenario for The Colonists, and it is all about the Envoy Colony. Your goal is to establish relations with it and fully develop the relationship over the course of four Eras, while also completing specific Objectives in each Era. Some basic rules are tweaked to make things more interesting.

Setup

1. You will need all Buildings, Storage Facilities, and Goods in sufficient supply.
2. Lay out an Embassy of levels I / II and III / IV of the Envoy Colony, as well as the appropriate Colony overview. You will need all four Stewards of your color. Leave any other Colony-related components in the game box.
3. Build the initial game board as described in the base game rules. The starting Places must be placed no further than two hexes away from the Market. You can use the provided template on pages 2 and 3. The light area is where you may place the starting tiles—according to the normal placement rules.
4. Do not place a second Market.
5. Remove the Era II Joiner and the Era III Builder: Customs Office from their respective piles. Place the Joiner on top of the shuffled pile of Era II Places and place the Builder: Customs Office below the pile of Era III Places. The Customs Office must be built in the fifth Year of Era II (see Objectives). The third Joiner will enter play at the start of Era III.
6. Turn your Community board to the side showing 30 Building spots. You start with the normal 2 Farms (and Farmers) and Goods (6 Tools, 1 Food, 3 Wood/Clay).
7. Place three neutral Stewards of another color ready at hand.

Course of Play

You play a full game, starting in Era I and going all the way through Era IV. Except for a few changes, the game plays as described in the base game rules.

Apart from the Envoy Colony, no other Colonies are in play. Your goal is to develop relations with the Envoy Colony all the way to level IV.

There is only a single Market for the entire duration of the game. No additional Markets are added. Over the course of the game, you will get all four Stewards in play (see Objectives). Remember you can always spend a turn to jump to the Market, even if you are already there.

Backtracking is no longer limited. You may ignore the rule at the bottom of page 9 of the base game rules. The rule about a Steward not being allowed to move to a Place with another one of your Stewards (except for Markets) remains intact.

At the end of every Year, place a neutral Steward on each new Place that you add to the game board. When you move to these Places, you must pay the Fee. The neutral Stewards always go to the most recently added Places, which they will sometimes "block" for two Years in a row (because you do not add new Places in the fifth Year of an Era). As soon as you activate the Customs Office, you can remove the neutral Stewards from play.

In Eras I and II, new Places must be placed no further than three hexes away from the Market—according to the normal placement rules. In the template, the eligible hexes are shaded light and medium dark. From Era III on, new Places must be placed within four hexes from the Market. Then all hexes in the template are available.

You may not remove working Merchants. They enjoy a life-time employment guarantee. You must still sustain them. If you cannot sustain a working Merchant at the end of a Year, you lose immediately. The same applies to the Citizen working in the Customs Office (see Objectives).

Board Template Reference

Pages 2 and 3 of the scenario are a board template. Its printed rule boxes are reproduced here.

Rules:

• Unlimited backtracking
• "Block" new Places
• Do not remove working Merchants!
• Do not remove the Customs Officer!

Start of an Era:

• Era I: No second Market
• Era II: No third Market; Joiner II ↔ Customs Office III
• Era III: No new Colony; Assembly Hall (#326)
• Era IV: See Era card

Objectives:

• Era I: Embassy level I
• Era II: Embassy level II; Active Customs Office
• Era III: Embassy level III; Active Boardinghouses
• Era IV: Embassy level IV; Active Stables; Self-sufficient

Objectives

In each Era, you must complete certain Objectives. If an Objective is not complete at the end of the Era, you lose immediately.

Era I

• You must establish relations with the Envoy Colony, i.e., build the Embassy.

Era II

• You must improve your relations with the Envoy Colony to level II.
• You must build and activate the Customs Office. It must remain active at all times. If you ever cannot sustain the Citizen working in it, you lose immediately. Once you activate the Customs Office, remove the neutral Stewards from play.

During the transition from Era II to Era III, you get the "Assembly Hall" improvement card (#326) into your hand. If this causes you to exceed the hand size limit, you must immediately discard a card from your hand. For a much more difficult game, do not take the "Assembly Hall".

Era III

• You must improve your relations with the Envoy Colony to level III.
• You must gain permanent access to all four of your Stewards, i.e., you must build and activate both Boardinghouses. The Stewards need not be in play, but they must be unlocked. Remember you may not remove working Merchants. You cannot use the "Apprentice" (#234) improvement card to circumvent the need for two Boardinghouses.

Era IV

• You must improve your relations with the Envoy Colony to level IV.
• You must have a Range of 4, i.e., you must build and activate the Stables. Remember you may not remove working Merchants.
• Your Community must be self-sufficient in the end, i.e., you must generate all the Sustenance Goods you need yourself. In other words, during the final Sustenance Phase of the game, you may not use stored or buffered Sustenance Goods to sustain your Citizens and Merchants. You may have to remove Citizens from Buildings if you do not generate enough Sustenance Goods. You lose immediately if you remove the Citizen in the Customs Office or any working Merchant.

Game End

The game ends after four Eras, unless you lose earlier. Score your Community using the normal rules. You win regardless of your score if you managed to complete all Objectives. If you score at least 300 Dollars while doing so, you are considered a master of this scenario.

Good luck and have fun!