Thingstead
Thingstead Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 2 Player boards
- 36 Influence cards
- 7 Elder cards
- 20 Clan cards (5 for each Clan)
- 2 Player pawns
- 54 Followers (27 in each color)
- 4 Clan tracks
- 1 Thingstead ring
- 4 Clan discs
Setup
- Shuffle the 7 Elder Cards and place them face-up around the Thingstead ring.
- Give each player the Player board in their color, and 3 Followers in their color. This is their Follower Supply.
- Place the remaining Followers where they can be easily reached. This is the General Supply.
- Place both player pawns on the No. 8 Elder card.
- Set up the row of Clan cards.
- Separate the Clan cards by symbol.
- Shuffle them and place them in a face-down stack, with one stack for each symbol.
- Flip the top card of each stack face-up.
- Place the Clan tracks next to their corresponding decks and place the Clan discs on the middle space.
- Shuffle and deal 5 Influence cards to each player. A player may look at these cards, but they are hidden from their opponent.
- Place the rest of the Influence cards in a face-down draw deck. Then flip over 3 cards and form a face-up row next to the deck.
You are now ready to begin playing!
Gameplay
Players take turns completing one action at a time. The eldest player goes first. Available actions are:
- A. Play a card to the Thingstead to influence an Elder, OR
- B. Play a card to a Clan to gain Followers and special powers.
After a player plays their card, they draw another one from the face-up row of 3 cards, or from the top of the draw deck. Then it is the opposing player's turn.
The game continues until one of the following conditions is fulfilled:
- One player has locked 3 Elders, or
- The draw deck is empty and both players are out of cards.
Playing a card to the Thingstead
A player selects an Influence card from their hand and plays it to the center of the Thingstead. This card will allow them to do two things, in either order:
- Move: The player moves their pawn around the circle of Elders to get the best placement. They may also position their pawn in order to hinder their opponent.
- Influence: The player places Followers onto the Elders, which will be determined by the played card and their position relative to their opponent. Placing Followers will enable a player to gain Influence over the Elders and secure points.
The actions may be taken in any order, but must be completed at once. You cannot partially move, deploy Influence and then move again. Nor can you deploy Influence, move and then employ the rest of the Influence.
However, before you take any action, you should align the -2 penalty space on the ring with your opponent's pawn. (This will help you calculate how many Followers you may place later.)
Influence card: shows a Clan symbol, movement, and the number of Followers to place on the corresponding Elders. Elder card: shows the number of Followers needed to lock the Elder, its victory points (runestones) and Allied Clans.
Movement
The player may move their pawn up to the number of spaces indicated on the movement icon on the card. A player may choose not to move. They may move either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the Elders. Each Elder card counts as one space, even if it is locked (see Locking an elder).
Influence
To influence an Elder, the Clan symbol of your card MUST match one of the Clan symbols on the Elder your pawn is visiting. If it does not match, you cannot influence the Elder or their neighbors. If it does, you can influence the Elder you are visiting and possibly their neighbors.
The card will show how many Followers you can add to the Elder cards. Followers must come from your Follower supply, not the General supply!
When you are about to place Followers on an Elder card, first align the middle section of the Influence card base (the one with the Owl and Crow decorations) with the Elder card your pawn is on.
Remember: The Clan symbol only has to match the Elder your pawn is on to be able to place Followers!
The position of your rival may change the amount of Followers that you will be able to place. The Thingstead ring will help you take this into account. The red numbers on it are penalties, and the green numbers are bonuses. When you are placing Followers, the -2 space must always be aligned with your rival's pawn.
So, for example, if you are influencing an Elder card that is adjacent to your opponent's pawn, you place one less Follower there. If you are placing Influence on an Elder card that is directly opposite your opponent's pawn, you can place one extra Follower.
All Followers on an Elder card must be the same color. So, when you are influencing an Elder, there are two possible situations:
- The card has your Followers or no Followers, OR
- The card has your rival's Followers.
In case 1, you simply add Followers equal to the number that you Influence. (As always, be sure to factor in any effects from the position of your opponent.) If you do not have enough Followers, then you choose onto which Elder cards, or their neighbors, you want to place your Followers.
In case 2, you remove your opponent's Followers instead of placing your own. Remove as many of your opponent's Followers as you have Influence. Then return them to their Follower supply (not the General supply).
It is possible that you have enough Influence to perform a combination of 1 and 2. In that case, remove as many opponent Followers as needed, until the Elder card is empty, then use your Followers to make up the rest of the Influence.
Example: The Red player places 0 Followers on the left Elder (0 from the card, -2 from the penalty), 1 Follower on the middle Elder (2 from the card, -1 from the penalty) and 1 Follower on the right Elder (2 from the card, and -1 from the Blue Follower they have to remove). All placed Followers must come from Red's Follower supply.
Locking an elder
If at the end of your turn you have equal or more Followers than the number on the Elder card, it can now be locked.
Flip the card over and place one of your Followers on it to indicate that it is yours. Your other Followers from the card are returned to the General supply.
Influence cards can no longer be played on that Elder card, and it will count towards your victory.
If a player locks 3 Elders, the game ends and you proceed to final scoring.
Playing a card to the clans
Select a card from your hand and play it face-down in front of a Clan card. The Clan symbol on the card you play does not have to match the Clan you place it in front of. This card will remain hidden until the end of the game and it might earn you a point for Influence over that Clan.
The more movement points you play in the Clan, the more likely you are to win points from it.
After playing the card, you will collect Followers from that Clan, and you also gain a special Clan Power.
Clan powers are grouped as: powers related to symbols and pawns; powers related to Elders and scoring; powers related to movement; powers related to Followers.
Collecting Followers
Playing a card to a Clan will gain you 4 Followers. For each additional card you play into the same Clan, you get one less. A second card will gain you 3 Followers, a third card would get you 2, and so on. With the fifth card you do not gain any Followers.
Example: The Red player plays a card face-down on the Pink Clan. First, they move the Clan disc on the track to their space. Because it is the second card they play on that Clan, they receive 3 Followers from the General supply and add them to their Player board.
Clan power
When you play a card to the Clan, you will also get a special power - possibly permanently!
- If the disc on the corresponding Clan track is on your opponent's space or on the middle one, move it to your space. While the disc is in your space, you have the Clan power indicated on the card.
- If the disc is already on your space, you permanently gain the Clan card. Take it and place it on your play area, next to your Player board. Now you have exclusive access to that power.
Then flip the top Clan card on that deck face-up, and return the Clan disc to the middle space of the Clan track.
You and your opponent will now start the tug-of-war game for this new card.
Example: The Red player plays a card on the Sky Blue Clan. Since the disc was already on their space, they permanently add that Clan card to their display. Now they have exclusive use of that card's powers for the rest of the game. They also receive Followers as usual.
Draw an influence card
After you have completed your actions, draw a card from the face-up row or blindly from the top of the draw deck, and add this card to your hand.
If a card is drawn from the face-up row, replace it with a card from the draw deck. If the draw deck is empty, the card is not replaced and players must choose from the face-up row on further turns.
Once there are no more cards left, players continue to play until their hands are empty.
After you have drawn a card, it is your opponent's turn.
Game End
The game ends when either:
- One player has locked 3 Elder cards; or
- The draw deck is empty and both players are out of cards.
To calculate the final score, players add up the points gained from influencing Elders and for each Clan they control.
Scoring Elders
First, each unlocked Elder is won by the player who has any Followers on them. The player is then awarded points for each Elder they have won. These are indicated by the runestone icons on the card. Players get one point for each runestone on the Elder cards they have won. (Example: an Elder card with 2 runestones is worth 2 victory points.)
Scoring Clans
Players then get one point for each Clan they have the most Influence over.
Flip over the face-down cards on both sides of the center row of Clan cards. Now add up the total number of movement points on their cards for each Clan, as long as the card has the matching Clan icon. If the card does not have the same icon as the Clan card, it is discarded.
The highest movement score gets 1 point for that Clan. In the case of a tie, the player with the Clan disc on their side wins the point. If the Clan disc is in the middle, no points are awarded.
The player with the most points is the winner! In the case of a tie, the player with the most Followers among the Elder cards wins.
Example: The Blue player has 3 movement points on the Pink Clan card, while the Red player has only 2.
Example of gameplay
The Red player goes first. They look at their hand of cards, and examine the Clan abilities. The Red player is interested in getting the power associated with the Orange Clan. So, they decide to 'Play a Card to a Clan' on their turn.
They place one of their cards face-down in front of the Orange Clan. They choose to place an Orange card, so it will count towards influencing that Clan at the end of the game. However, it may be of any color.
When placed, the Orange Clan disc moves one space closer to the Red player. If they play an additional card there, on another turn, they may earn that Clan card as a permanent bonus.
Since this was their first card played to that Clan, they will also gain 4 Followers. They take the Followers from the General supply and add them to the Follower supply on their Player board.
Lastly, they must take a card to replace the one they just played. They select one of the face-up Orange cards, so they can have a good selection of colors in their hand. They could have also drawn from the deck if they wished to instead.
Now it is the Blue player's turn. They want to start influencing the Elders, so, first they adjust the Thingstead ring to align the -2 penalty with the Red pawn.
They will get a bonus from being on the opposite side of the Thingstead ring, so they play a card with a high movement value to get there. They play a card with 3 movement points and use all of them to move their pawn. They also played the correct card, where the symbol on the card matches a symbol on the card they landed on. Now they align the base of the card they just played with their pawn's current location.
To calculate how many Followers they place, the Blue player adds the numbers on their card with the bonuses/penalties on the Thingstead ring. In this case, they can add 1 Follower to the Elder on their left, 3 in the middle position (2 from the card +1 from the ring) and 1 on the Elder to their right (1 from the ring), for a total of 5.
However, they only have 3 Followers in their supply, so they must choose where to place them. They decide to place 2 Followers on the middle Elder, and 1 Follower on the Elder to their left. The Blue player finishes their turn by discarding the card they played and drawing another card from the face-down deck.
The Red player then takes their next turn. They want to get more Followers into the Thingstead. First, they adjust the Thingstead ring by aligning the -2 penalty with the Blue pawn. Then they choose to play the card they drew in their last turn into the center of the Thingstead. This allows them to move two spaces. The symbol on the card must match at least one of the symbols on the Elder card their pawn lands on. Then they turn the Influence card so that its base aligns with their pawn's location.
The space to the right of them now has their opponent on it, subtracting 2 from that Elder. This means the Red player cannot add Followers there. The space they are on has a -1 penalty because it is neighboring the space occupied by the opponent's pawn, so the Red player can only add 1 Follower. Finally, the card they have played doesn't allow Followers to be added to the space on their left. This lets them add just 1 Follower - not that great! But the Red player has a little trick up their sleeve...
The Red player has the power they gained from the Orange Clan! This allows them to move their opponent one space in either direction when they Influence an Elder with the Orange symbol. So, they move their opponent counter-clockwise one space and adjust the Thingstead ring accordingly.
This gives them much better conditions. They calculate the Followers they can add again: 1 to the Elder on their right, 2 on the Elder their pawn is on, and 1 on the Elder to their left (from the ring bonus). They have enough Followers to fill all of these places, so they add them to the Thingstead. Note that in the Elder to their right, the Red player must remove a Blue Follower instead of adding one of their own. The Blue's removed Follower goes into their owner's Follower supply (not the General supply).
So, a successful turn for the Red player after all! They then finish their turn by drawing a face-up card from the card row. Blue will then take the next turn.
FAQs
Q: What if when we gain this power, we already have an Elder that needs just one more Follower? Does it lock automatically? A: It would lock automatically.
Q: What happens when my opponent takes this power while I have 6 cards in my hand? A: You do not redraw after taking your turn, so that your hand size goes back to 5.
Q: Do I add an extra Follower on any card with this symbol, or just on the one my pawn is on? A: Just the one your pawn is on. That is the Elder you are influencing.
Q: Do I have to place every Follower a card tells me to if I have them on my supply? A: You do not have to place all your Followers. You may place less than instructed.