Miscellaneous
Large and small additions to Ortus Regni
Here you will find six unique smaller rule alterations that
can be incorporated into any game of Ortus Regni.
Legacy
Granting all players a number of Legacy points before
a game begins. These Legacy points are identical to the
Legacy rules used in the Wessex campaign variant.
Choose how many Legacy points you want to use; one,
two, or three work best. Give each Earl that number
of cubes of their color. Then use the Viking bag to
determine first player, as normal. Then starting with
the first player each Earl must spend 1 of their Legacy
points. Using the cubes to keep track of this during
Legacy placements. This goes around the table, 1 point
at a time, until all points are spent.
All Earls then make their 24 card Earl decks, aware of
what everyone has already built on the table with their
Legacy points.
Legacy points are spent in the following way:
1 point - 2 Towers
Note that these are indeed additional cards in play from
your complete Earl Card Set beyond the 24 cards that
you will make your Earl gameplay deck with. Also note
that you cannot “buy” the Cathedral prior to gameplay.
But importantly, an Earl may indeed start as King prior
to the game starting… once all Earls have spent all
their Legacy points, if an Earl has managed to place 2
more Banner cards down on the table, for the Kingship,
than any other Earl has then at the very start of the
game they immediately get the King Card (i.e. before
the first player even takes their turn) and all Banners
that were placed on the table in the Legacy phase for
Kingship go into their Earls’ discard piles.
State and Church
A new and immediate victory condition, if an Earl
possesses both the King card and the Cathedral at the
very start of their turn they immediately win the game.
This rule is also used in the Wessex campaign variant
and the Great Heathen Army non-player elimination
variant, but it adds a high-tension immediacy to
normal Ortus Regni games as well.
Mercenary Captains
1 point - a Banner card played out for Kingship
(i.e. on the table)
1 point - a Castle or a Property on the table
(excluding the Cathedral)
1 point - Placing a Lord (or Abbot) into a Castle or
Palace
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A simple augmentation to the Mercenary: Mercenaries
now have an unlimited Garrison. Any number of Army
cards can be slotted next to a Mercenary, i.e. placed in
its Garrison.
But keep in mind that while these new Mercenary
Captains are powerful they are still just as vulnerable to
Treachery or Intrigue as before, and this larger Garrison
force is thus equally vulnerable.
Resourceful Earls
The Clerisy rule affects the game in several ways. It can
be a subtle change or a dramatic one depending on the
strategies in play. Ultimately it means you can create
As an Action an Earl can discard 2 cards from their
many more Fiefs than normal, because previously you
Hand to select 1 card remaining in their tray… and
could only include up to 6 Castles in your Earl deck, and
place it in their Hand. Any cards an Earl left in their
now Churches and even the Cathedral can become Fiefs.
complete Earl card set, left in their tray, after making
their 24 card Earl deck are thus available - at a cost - to Keep in mind that the weakness of a Religious Fief means
that there is no real distinction between Sieging and
an Earl during the game.
Raiding; i.e. it almost never makes sense to Raid such a
Resourceful Earls are not truly able to modify their decks Fief. And the Monastery Special power is a step easier to
acquire, as well.
dramatically on the fly, but they might be able to grab
that precious single card, like a Banner or Allies perhaps,
that they need to continue the struggle. Note also that by Dishonored King
taking a Resourceful Earl action an Earl does increase
by 1 the number of cards they have in play; even though There is one way to lose the crown: in the chaos of
they decrease the number of cards in their Hand by 1.
Battle.
The Clerisy
Religious buildings as Fiefs.
• Churches and the Cathedral can be placed in your
Earldom as Fiefs, as if they were a Castle or Palace.
They can now anchor and create their own Fiefs, and
Lands and Market Towns can then be attached to
them.
• Churches and the Cathedral are still strength 1. So
they are weaker anchors for a Fief than a Castle (str.
2) or a Palace (str. 3). But they are a Fief and count as
such to keep you in the game if you have lost all your
Castles and your Palace.
• Churches and the Cathedral, when they are their
own Fief, only accept a Monk as a Lord - as an Abbot
or the Archbishop – but when they do have a Monk
Lord installed they grant the Monastery Special Action;
the ability to force and Earl to reveal their Hand to the
table.
• Churches and the Cathedral can still simply be
attached to a normal Fief, anchored by a Castle or
Palace. In which case they cannot accept a Monk Lord,
and play by the normal rules of Ortus Regni.
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If the King card is fielded into a battle and the Battle
Result card goes against the King then suddenly there
is a chance to remove the Kingship. The other Earl
in the battle has the immediate opportunity to play a
Treachery card on the King card. There is no counter
available in the chaos of a battle, no Allies card can be
played to save the King card here.
If a Battle Result has gone against the King card
and a Treachery card has been played the battle is
still resolved by the normal rules of Ortus Regni.
Immediately after the battle the King card is
withdrawn from its owner. And any Royal Army cards
that were attached are also discarded. The King card is
now available again to be claimed, by playing Banner
cards in the normal fashion.
Imagine that the King has not been killed necessarily,
but has been so humiliated, humbled, or shamed in the
battle that he no longer has the standing to maintain
his claim to the crown after the mayhem of this terrible
defeat.