Winter
Winter Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 40 Location Cards
- 8 Instant Cards (Contact Cards in the 51st State)
- 4 Leader Cards
- 1 empty Location Card (to create a Location according to the player's imagination)
- Texas Faction Cards: Base Card, Faction Contacts Card, Agreements with other Players Card (only used in the New Era)
- 5 Faction Contacts Cards (for the 51st State; see the note below)
- 1 Frozen City double-sided board
- 1 Turn Die
- 16 Victory Points tokens
- 6 Incorporation tokens
- 5 Redevelopment tokens
- 2 Disabled Production tokens
- 7 Texas Faction tokens (only 4 Faction tokens are used while playing the 51st State)
Note: The Total number of Profits, e.g. Resources and Victory Points, is not limited in the game, so in the rare cases of lacking the sufficient amount of tokens provided with the game, players must find a way to substitute this deficiency.
For players combining Winter expansion with the 51st State we have specially prepared the new, easy-to-use Faction Contacts Cards (1 for each Faction, also for Texas). They can be used as a replacement for the Permanent Contact Cards from the base game. Winter Cards to be used in the combination with the 51st State are marked with "51" in the lower left corner. If you combine Winter expansion with the New Era, you won't need Faction Contacts Cards mentioned above. You should put them back in the box – they will not be used in the game.
Goal
Just as in the base game, the goal is to expand Faction's power, that is to gain the highest number of Victory Points.
However, when playing with Winter expansion, the game does not end with the turn in which one of the players manages to gather the certain number of Victory Points – instead it lasts exactly 6 turns. The player with the biggest number of Victory Points at the end of sixth round (after adding up the gathered points) wins the game.
Ties are resolved following the basic rules.
Playing with the 51st State [p. 3]
Game Setup
Choosing a Faction
The Texas Base Card should be added to the deck of Factions Base Cards before Faction Base Cards are dealt to players.
The Winter expansion allows up 5 players to play the 51st State.
Deck Preparation
Before starting the game, the Frozen City board should be placed in a place that is easily accessible to all players.
Please note that this board is double-sided – its proper side should be put face up depending on whether the Winter expansion is being combined with the 51st State or with the New Era.
Combine the cards from the 51st State base game with the cards found in the Winter expansion to create a single deck. Then, from this deck, remove all:
- Leader Cards,
- Conquest Instant Cards (red One-time Contact Cards from the 51st State among them),
- Cooperation Instant Cards (blue One-time Contact Cards from the 51st State among them).
Sort the removed cards into three piles, one each for Leaders, Conquest Instant Cards, and Cooperation Instant Cards. Each of these groups of cards should be shuffled separately and placed face down in the proper place on the Frozen City Board.
Preparing the Frozen City Decks
The Conquest Card Stack contains the following cards:
- 51st State: Thugs, Mutants, Punks, Mercenaries,
- Winter: Indians, Motorcycle Gang.
The Cooperation Card Stack contains the following cards:
- 51st State: Courier, Merchants, Pilgrims, Junk Train,
- Winter: Merchants, Missionaries.
The Leader Stack contains the following cards:
- 51st State: Tommy the Gun, Junky Joe, Uncle Hammer, Nitro Belle, Greedy Pete, Baby Swift, Borgo the Almighty, Mr. President,
- Winter: Jill Cage, Insane Max, Lady Gagazoline, Quick Jenny.
The Leader Cards should be separated into two piles of 6 random cards each.
The remaining Location Cards and Instant Cards should be shuffled to form the Draw deck and – as in the base game – each player should be dealt 4 random cards.
The Turn Sequence [51st State]
Phase I – Lookout
At the beginning of the Lookout Phase, before players start to take the cards, the top card of each stack on the Frozen City board should be face-up. These face-up cards are only available to the players during the Action phase of the current turn, which means each turn there will be one Conquest Card, one Cooperation Card and two Leader Cards available in the Frozen City. The way cards are acquired from the Frozen City is described in the Actions Execution Phase section (see below: Sending a Worker to the Frozen City).
When playing with Winter expansion there is no limit to the number of cards in player's hand.
Phase II – Production
In this phase, in addition to the production from the Base Card, Agreements, Spoils and Locations, each player receives an additional Profit indicated by Turn Die. Those will be:
- 1st turn – Range 1 Incorporation token
- 2nd turn – Universal Resource
- 3rd turn – Card from the Draw Deck
- 4th turn – Redevelopment token
- 5th turn – Worker
- 6th turn – 2 Workers
Note! Victory Points from Agreements and Spoils are placed on the Base Card, while the Victory Points produced by Location Cards (e.g., Steel Eagle, Engineers' Guild) should be placed on these cards – and the standard "three slots rule" applies there. This means that when 3 Victory Points tokens are lying on the card, the card ceases to produce the Victory Points. (Margin label on the printed page: "3 tokens max".)
Phase III – Actions Execution
The Winter expansion introduces a new type of Action to perform – "Sending a Worker to the Frozen City" – and changes the scoring of the Changing the Leader Action.
Sending a Worker to the Frozen City
A player may spend a Worker to get one of the available (face-up) cards in the Frozen City. In order to do so, the player discards one of their Workers and takes the chosen card into his hand. This kind of Action may be performed more than once per turn, each time discarding one of the player's Workers.
If there are no cards available (face-up) in the Frozen City, this Action cannot be executed.
Changing the Leader
The Changing the Leader Action is performed in the normal way, but its execution does not bring a player any Victory Points.
A detailed description of the new Leaders is presented in a further section of this rulebook (see: New types of cards on page 8).
Phase IV – Victory Points Count
A game played with the Winter expansion lasts exactly 6 turns. The player who has the greatest number of Victory Points at the end of the last turn, wins.
Ties are resolved under the existing basic rules.
Phase V – Cleanup
Any remaining face-up cards on the Frozen City board should be moved to the Discard pile.
Playing with The New Era [p. 5]
Game Setup
Choosing a Faction
The Texas Base Card should be added to the deck of Factions Base Cards before Faction Base Cards are dealt to players. The Winter expansion allows up 6 players to play.
Deck Preparation
Before starting the game, the Frozen City board should be placed in a place that is easily accessible to all players.
Please note that this board is double-sided – its proper side should be put face up depending on whether the Winter expansion is being combined with the 51st State or with the New Era.
Combine the cards from The New Era base game with the cards found in the Winter expansion to create a single deck. Then, from this deck, remove all:
- Leader Cards,
- Conquest Instant Cards,
- Cooperation Instant Cards.
Sort the removed cards into three piles, one each for Leaders, Conquest Instant Cards, and Cooperation Instant Cards. Each of these groups of cards should be shuffled separately and placed face down in the proper place on the Frozen City Board.
Preparing the Frozen City Stacks
The Conquest Card Stack contains the following cards:
- The New Era: Machine Guns, Raiders, Freelancers, Mercenaries,
- Winter: Indians, Motorcycle Gang.
The Cooperation Card Stack contains the following cards:
- The New Era: 2x Truck, Trading Post, Tunnels,
- Winter: Merchants, Missionaries.
The Leader Stack contains the following cards:
- Winter: Jill Cage, Insane Max, Lady Gagazoline, Quick Jenny.
The remaining Location Cards and Instant Cards should be shuffled and – as in the base game – each player should get 4 random cards. The rest of the Cards should be placed face down in the centre of the playing area forming the Draw deck.
The Turn Sequence [The New Era]
Phase I – Lookout
At the beginning of the Lookout Phase, before players start to take the cards, the top card of each stack on the Frozen City board should be face up. These face-up cards are only available to the players during the Action phase of the current turn, which means that each of the first four turns there will be one Conquest card, one Cooperation Card and one Leader Card available in the Frozen City, while in the fifth and sixth turn there will be only one Conquest card, one Cooperation Card and no Leader Card available. The way the cards are acquired from the Frozen City is described in the Actions Execution Phase section (Page 7).
Phase II – Production
In this phase, in addition to the production from the Base Card, Agreements, Spoils and Locations, each player receives an additional Profit indicated by Turn Die. Those will be:
- 1st turn – Range 1 Incorporation token
- 2nd turn – Universal Resource
- 3rd turn – Card from the Draw Deck
- 4th turn – Redevelopment token
- 5th turn – Worker
- 6th turn – 2 Workers
Note! Victory Points from Agreements and Spoils are placed on the Base Card, while the Victory Points produced by Location Cards (e.g., Steel Eagle, Engineers' Guild) should be placed on these cards – and the standard "three slots rule" applies there. This means that when 3 Victory Points tokens are lying on the card, the card ceases to produce the Victory Points. (Margin label on the printed page: "3 tokens max".)
Phase III – Actions Execution
The Winter expansion introduces new types of Actions to perform:
Sending a Worker to the Frozen City
A player may spend a Worker to get one of the available (face-up) cards in the Frozen City. In order to do so, the player discards one of their Workers and takes the chosen card into his hand. This kind of Action may be performed more than once per turn, each time discarding one of the player's Workers.
If there are no cards available (face-up) in the Frozen City, this Action cannot be executed.
Playing the Leader / Changing the Leader
The Winter expansion introduces a new kind of cards to The New Era: Leaders. Leaders have a Distance value of zero and thus a Leader can be played for free. It's best to place the Leader card next to the player's Base Card. Each player may have only one Leader in play at any given time. The Leader in play is worth 1 Victory Point.
In order to introduce a different Leader Card to the game, a player must spend one Weapons Resource token and move their current Leader to the Discard pile.
Performing the Changing the Leader Action brings no Victory Points.
When a Leader is first played, the player receives (one-time only) Resources tokens marked on the Leader Card and places them on the Leader Card.
Leader Cards have a Storage feature and thus these Resources are not discarded at the end of the turn (during Cleanup Phase) like other Resources in the game – they remain on the Leader Card as long as they are not used. When a Leader is replaced with a different one, Resources from the rejected Leader Card are transferred to the Base Card. If they are not used by the end of that turn, they are discarded. All the Leaders introduced in The Winter expansion reduce certain Location type's Distance during an Incorporation Action.
A detailed description of the new Leaders are presented later in this rulebook (see: New types of cards on page 8).
Phase IV – Victory Points Count
A game played with the Winter expansion lasts exactly 6 turns. The player who has the greatest number of Victory Points at the end of the last turn, wins.
Ties are resolved under the existing basic rules.
Keep in mind that The Winter expansion introduces the Leader Cards – in the Victory Points Count Phase a Leader is worth 1 Victory Point.
Phase V – Cleanup
Any remaining face-up cards on the Frozen City board should be moved to the Discard pile.
New Faction: Texas [p. 8]
Texas is not just a place, it's a state of mind – a living western movie. Cowboy style and philosophy of life is common to all the people scattered over the area of thousands of square miles, both the city dwellers and farmers. There are some common features that most Texans share: conservative beliefs, respect for the family, tradition and religion. Newcomers are greeted with a gun first, the questions are asked later.
Faction's special feature: Once per turn, the Texas player may re-use one of the Actions from their Faction Contacts Card that they have already used during this turn (Cooperation, Incorporation, Conquest or Redevelopment). The cost to re-use an Action is the same as the first use. To mark that an Action has been re-used, the player should place the right type of Resource on the proper field of their Faction Contacts Card, the one that is marked with the Action re-usage symbol.
Note! When combining Winter with the 51st State only 4 Faction tokens should be used. The 3 remaining tokens are only used in case of combining Winter with The New Era.
New Types of Cards [p. 8]
New Leaders
New Leaders, in contrast to those known from the 51st State, don't provide the possibility to acquire additional Victory Points. Their special ability is to decrease a certain Location type's Distance by 1 during an Incorporation Action (for the sake of Cooperation or Conquest Actions the basic Location's Distance still applies), for example, Lady Gagazoline decreases by 1 the Distance of "Fuel" type Locations. Thus, if a player has a Fuel type Location with a Distance 2 on his hand, he needs only Range 1 to Incorporate this Location.
On the other hand, if a player wants to incorporate a Fuel type Location with Distance 1, he incorporates it for free – it is still treated as a normal Incorporation Action, but it doesn't require the use of any Resources or Contact Cards.
New Instant Cards
A new type of Instant Cards allows a player to draw the indicated number of cards from the Draw deck and choose one of them to take on his hand. The remaining cards are moved to the Discard pile.
Note: One-time Contact Cards from the 51st State are the Instant Cards.
News from the Front
News from the Front is a special type of Location Card. It is marked with a brown field where other Location Cards have their standard blue Agreement Field (it is just like the Defensive Locations from The New Era).
If a player starts a cooperation with News from the Front card, they pay the cost of connecting the card as an Agreement, taking the proper Action or discarding Cooperation tokens of a total Range that is equal to or greater than the Location's Distance.
However, unlike other Agreements, News from the Front card is not placed under the Base Card, but under a previously incorporated Location Card that produces Victory Points. Place News from the Front under the previously incorporated location so that it's brown field is clearly visible. From that moment onwards, the Location that News from the Front card is attached to has 2 additional slots for Victory Points.
Example: If a player has Striner's Factory with News from the Front attached, then he may put up to 5 Victory Points tokens on Striner's Factory.
If the Location that News from the Front is attached to is Redeveloped, then both cards are moved to the Discard pile.
If the Location that News from the Front card is attached to is Conquered by another player, the Location Card is turned face down and remains in play as Debris, and News from the Front is moved to the Discard pile. Victory Points accumulated on the Location Card are transferred to the Faction Base Card as usual.
Just as in the case of Base Cards, the rule of three cards under a Card also applies to Location Cards – up to three cards with brown Agreement field may be placed under a given Location Card.
Note! If News from the Front card is incorporated as a Location to the player's territory, the other players cannot cooperate with it.
New Symbols and Profits [p. 9–11]
Profits
- 1 and 2 VPs tokens
- 3 VPs tokens
- 5 VPs tokens
- 10 VPs tokens
- 15 VPs tokens
- 20 VPs tokens
(New Era.) If a card with the icon shown beside this note in the printed rulebook is incorporated as a Location, players who begin cooperating with the Location will receive a card from the Draw deck when contact is first made and during subsequent production phases. If such a Location is Conquered by another player, the defender receives a card from the Draw deck.
Symbols on the Cards
- Location incorporated by a player to his state
- Base Card
- An Agreement that provides a player with space for three additional Agreements or Spoils.
- A special kind of agreement – provides 2 additional slots for Victory Points tokens. If such a card is attached as an Agreement to a Location that generates Victory Points, then up to 5 Victory Points tokens may be placed on this Location (not just 3). (See above: New types of cards: News from the Front.)
- Choice – player draws the indicated number of cards from the Draw deck, chooses one, and puts it on his hand. The remaining cards are moved to the Discard pile.
- Choice – player chooses the Profits to receive: the ones shown on the left or the ones on the right.
- Location's Defense Distance – not used in the 51st State. While playing The Winter expansion combined with The New Era it is considered in the cases of Conquest or Cooperation with other player's Location's.
The Distinction Between a Token and an Action
- Contact tokens – Contact Action
- Redevelopment token – Redevelopment Action
- Disabled Production token – Disabling Production Action
Leaders
During an Incorporation Action, the distance of certain Location types is reduced by 1.
- Insane Max – decreases by 1 the Distance of "Weapons" type Locations during an Incorporation Action.
- Lady Gagazoline – decreases by 1 the Distance of "Fuel" type Locations during an Incorporation Action.
- Quick Jenny – decreases by 1 the Distance of "Scrap" type Locations during an Incorporation Action.
- Jill Cage – decreases by 1 the Distance of "Building Material" type Locations during an Incorporation Action.
Locations with Production
- Juggi's Crew – for every 2 Scrap tokens acquired during the Production Phase, the player receives 2 Victory Points. It does not matter whether these tokens originated from Production Locations, Agreements or Spoils. Unlike other Locations with Production Rule, this Location doesn't bring the produced Profits at the moment of this Card's Incorporation.
- Engineers' Guild – if a player has at least three Locations of the given type incorporated to his territory during Production Phase, he receives 2 Victory Points. This Location also produces Victory Points at the time of its Incorporation, but only if a player possess at least three incorporated Locations of the given type, including this card.
- Power Station – choose one of your incorporated Locations with the Production Rule (Open or Closed) and take the Profits normally produced by this Location during the Production Phase.
- Suppliers – choose one of your opponent's Locations with the Production Rule (Open or Closed) and take the Profits normally produced by this Location during the Production Phase.
If you want to receive Profits from a Location for which production depends on some conditions fulfillment, like in the case of previously mentioned Engineers' Guild, first check whether the player who owns this Location meets the production requirements. Thus, if the Engineers' Guild can provide him with 2 VPs (as he has 3 Scrap type Locations), you also receive 2 VPs when using Suppliers on the Engineers' Guild Location.
Locations with Feature
- Dark Visions – performing the Conquering a Location from hand Action, the player may decide not to place the conquered Location Card under his Base Card, but discard the Location card instead, instantly receiving the Profits shown in the Spoils field.
- Trophy Hall – at the moment of this Location's incorporation you may once transfer 2 chosen VP tokens from your Locations to your Base Card. Victory Points tokens may come from different Locations.
- Architect's Guild – you receive a Redevelopment token when performing a Perfect Redevelopment Action.
- Perfect Redevelopment – a Redevelopment is considered Perfect only when all Location type icons on discarded Location card match those on the Location Card introduced to the game.
- Dream City – you receive a Worker for executing an Action that results in acquisition of at least 2 Victory Points in the form of tokens.
Locations with Action
- True Patriots – incorporate a Location with which you had up to this moment an Agreement (the Location Card has been lying under your Base Card). This Action is regarded as a standard Incorporation Action, although it doesn't require any Resources or Contact Cards usage.
- Caravaneers – take the Profits produced by your signed Agreements. This includes the Profits produced by Agreements signed with your opponents' Locations. (New Era only.)
- Bulldozer – choose one of your incorporated Location Cards and discard it to receive the Profits shown on its red Spoils field. This Action doesn't require any Resources or Contact Cards and is not regarded as a Conquest Action.
- Saboteurs – choose one of your opponent's Locations with the Production Rule (Open or Closed) and disable its production. To mark this, place a Disabled Production token on this Location. Production at this Location is disabled until the end of the next turn's Production Phase. This means that the Location doesn't provide the normally produced Profits. At the end of the next Production Phase, instead of getting the Profits from this Location, the player takes the Disabled Production token off this Location Card.
The abilities of Power Station and Suppliers cards will not work on the Location with production disabled by the Saboteurs.
- Body Hunters – discard all of the Workers from all your Locations with the Action Rule (with the exception of Body Hunters Location where you execute this particular Action). As a result, you'll be able once again to execute the Actions of Sending a Worker to work in a Location and then Sending 2 Workers to work again in the Location – in the Locations where you have previously sent your Workers to work during this turn.
- News from the Front – transfer 1 Victory Point token from one of your Locations to your Base Card.
- Camino Real – choose one of the Agreements signed by one of your opponents and take the Profits. This normally takes place during the Production Phase. (New Era: You can also choose an Agreement an opponent has signed with another player's Location, even if it is one of your Locations!)
- The Mutt's Head – discard one card from your hand to draw 2 cards from the Draw deck.
Variants [p. 12]
Winter as an Extra Set of Cards
The Winter expansion may also be used as an additional set of cards for the 51st State or for The New Era, without the new Winter rules introduction to the game.
51st State + New Era + Winter
The Winter expansion may be combined with both the 51st State and The New Era at the same time. The game proceeds as if you were combining Winter with The New Era. There is only one exception: the Frozen City board should be placed with the 51st State side face up. Leader Cards, Conquest Instant Cards and Cooperation Instant Cards should be removed from the deck. Each of these groups of cards should be shuffled separately and the following face-down stacks of cards should be created:
- Leader Cards separated into two stacks of 6 random cards each,
- stack of 6 random Conquest Instant Cards,
- stack of 6 random Cooperation Instant Cards,
- The remaining unused Cooperation and Conquest Instant Cards will not be used in this game and thus they should be put back to the box without looking at them.
The combination of the 51st State, The New Era and Winter allows up to 6 players to enjoy the game.