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To resolve the conflict, the involved players may play cards in the colors of the
leaders involved in the conflict. Each card played has the value 1. In addition,
each card in the leader color, that lies in each kingdom to be connected, adds value
1 to that player’s conflict value. As with internal conflicts, first the attacker chooses
any number of cards in the leader color from his hand and places them face up in
his play area. Then, the defender chooses any number of cards in the same color from
his hand and places them in his play area. Now the values are compared as before.
The loser of a conflict must remove his leader from the kingdom. The winner of
the conflict gets one of the played cards (if there are no cards, he may play a card
from his hand as with internal conflicts) as a reward and places it on his victory point
stack. All other played cards are discarded.
Now all cards in the leader color from the former kingdom of the loser
(exceptions: treasure cards* and cards with a leader on them) are removed from the
kingdom and placed on the victory point stack of the winner. Fill ensuing gaps in
the columns by shifting remaining cards upward. It can happen that a kingdom is so
disintegrated that further conflicts disappear. Otherwise, the other conflicts are
resolved in the order chosen by the active player until all are resolved.
Example:
attacker
kingdom 1
defender
kingdom 2 (A) The vase player places a card face
down between kingdom 1 and kingdom 2,
connecting them. This causes 2 external
conflicts - in the colors green and red.
The vase player, as the active player,
decides that the green conflict will be
resolved first. As the vase player is not
involved in this conflict, another player
will be the attacker. The lion player is
closer in clockwise order to the vase player
than the steer player, the lion player is
the attacker and the steer player is the
defender.
(B) The lion player starts the conflict
with an advantage of 3:1, as there are 3
green cards in kingdom 1 and there is
only 1 green card in kingdom 2. He plays
2 green cards from his hand, bringing
his advantage to 5:1.
(C) The steer player starts with just value
1, for the 1 green card in kingdom 2,
where his trader is. He plays 4 green
cards from his hand.
He, thus, ties the conflict at 5:5, and,
as the defender, wins the conflict.
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Kingdom 1 becomes
two kingdoms.
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(D) First, the steer player (winner)
may take 1 of the played green
cards and place it on his victory
point stack. He discards the others.
Next, all 3 green cards from
kingdom 1 (the loser’s kingdom) are
victory
removed and placed on the steer
point stack
player’s victory point stack.
(E) He slides the blue and the black cards upward to
fill the gap. The lion player removes his trader. As the
original kingdom 1 now disintigrates into two
kingdoms, and the new kingdom has only 1 treasure
card, the steer player may not use his trader to trade
a red card in his hand for a treasure card.
Next, the red conflict is resolved. Note that the treasure cards are red and count as red cards
when resolving a conflict. After this is resolved, the player turns over the connecting card, in this
case a green card, and the game continues as normal. Had the red bowman been standing on
one of the cards in the leftmost column of the example, there would no longer be a red conflict.
CARD RESUPPLY
At the end of a player’s complete turn (not after one action or a conflict), all
players may draw cards from the supply to fill their hands to 8 cards!
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLORS
As has already been somewhat described, all 4 colors have special characteristics.
• Black: the leader can function as a joker, when a card of another color is played and
no leader of that color is in the kingdom.
• Green: this leader can swap red cards with treasure cards after kingdoms are connected.
• Red: red cards are used to resolve internal conflicts.
• Blue: when a player uses »place a civilization card« and creates in a column a
string of at least 4 cards of the same color (treasure card* may not be included!), the
player may build a ship. If the created string is of blue cards, he may choose any of
the 3 ship cards (that have not already been used). If the created string is any other
color (red, green, or black), the player must choose the corresponding card (e.g. the
blue-green ship, when the string contains at least 4 green cards).
To build a ship: the player removes the last 4 cards in the string, placing them on
the discard stack. He then places the chosen ship card in their place. If there are
leaders on any of the removed cards, he returns them to the players whose dynasty
they represent. The effect of a ship: for each leader a player has at the end of his
turn in a kingdom with a ship of a matching color, the player earns 1 victory point.
To earn the point, the player must place a card of this color from his hand on his
victory point stack. In this way, a player may earn several extra victory points in a turn.
If he cannot or will not play such a card, he does not get the victory point.
Note: the king may not use his joker power here!
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Example:
The steer player places
the 4th blue card in a
string and now may
replace the 4 blue cards
with any ship card (as
the string is blue). He
chooses the blue-black
ship card.
Now, at the end of his turn, the
player with a king in this kingdom
may place 1 additional black card
from his hand on his victory point
stack. As soon as a farmer arrives in
this kingdom, the player of the
dynasty represented by the farmer
may place 1 blue card from his hand
on his victory point stack.
Note: any normal civilization card may be placed below the ship
card. Ship cards do not have any effect on external conflicts and
leaders may not be placed on ship cards!
Game end
The game ends when there are not enough civilization cards in the stacks to resupply
all players to 8 cards at the end of a player’s turn. The game also ends when there is
only 1 treasure card left at the end of a player’s turn.
The winner
All players take their victory point stacks and separate them by color. The treasure
cards are jokers, and each can be used as any color the player chooses. Each player
counts the cards only in the color that he has the fewest cards in. The players
compare these numbers.
The player with the highest such number is the winner. If players tie, those tied compare
their color with the second fewest, and so on, until a winner is determined. If they tie
with all colors, they rejoice in their shared victory.
Example:
Green 5
Red 7
Blue 6
Black 5
Green 6
Red 4
Blue 6
Black 6
Green 4
Red 9
Blue 5
Black 6
Green 9
Red 7
Blue 8
Black 3
The bowman player
wins! His least high
color his 5 cards. Next is
the lion player, then
the steer player, and,
finally, the vase player.
The publisher and author thank the following
for their contribution to with this game: Iain
Adams, Martin Higham, Ross Inglis, Kevin
Jacklin, Dieter Hornung, Christof Tisch, Alex
Weiß, and Hannes Wildner.
© 2005 Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH
Rio Grande Games
PO Box 45715
Rio Rancho, NM 87174
[email protected]
www.riograndegames.com
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Reiner Knizia
Contest of kings
Contents
•16 leaders in 4 dynasties
bowman
•193 civilization cards
population
market
40
40
•4 catastrophe cards
lion
steer
temple
65
•3 ship cards
vase
agriculture
treasure
40
8
During the game, treasure cards may be
replaced by temple cards. When “treasure
cards*” appears in the rules with the
asterisk, the reference means treasure
cards or those replaced by temple cards.
Preparation
Each player chooses a dynasty (symbol) and places the 4 leaders of his chosen symbol in
the 4 colors: black (king), green (trader), red (priest), and blue (farmer) in his play
area (on the table before himself). Each player also takes 1 catastrophe card. With fewer
than 4 players, the rest are returned to the box. Place the 3 ship card aside for later.
Separate the 8 treasure cards from the civilization cards and place them on the table in a
row as shown below. There should be space between each treasure card for a card, and
room below for 8 rows of cards. The treasure cards are, in each case, the beginning and
first card of a kingdom.
Leave room in each column for 8 cards!
Shuffle the remaining 185 civilization cards and deal 8 cards to each player as his
starting hand. Place the remaining cards face down in several stacks so each player can
easily reach one or more stacks. When playing with just two players, remove 30
civilization cards from the stacks and return them to the box.
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Goal
The goal of the players is to develop their dynasties in the areas of population (black king), market (green - traders), temple (red - priests), and agriculture (blue farmers). In addition, each player places leaders of his dynasty in kingdoms and
expands the kingdoms, builds ships, initiates conflicts, and scores victory points in the
4 areas. The winner will be the player who develops his dynasty most evenly, with no
areas far behind the others.
Kingdoms
In the game, cards connected horizontally or vertically are part of a single kingdom.
Horizontal connections can only exist between the treasure cards*! In a kingdom,
there can be several leaders (from the same or different players), but never of the
same color (e.g. never 2 priests)!
Playing the game
The players choose a starting player using any method they want. Players take turns in
clockwise order starting with the starting player. On his turn, a player (the active
player) may take up to 2 actions in any order he chooses. He can choose any of the
following and can even choose the same action twice:
1. place or move one of his leaders
2. place a civilization card (from his hand into a kingdom)
3. play a catastrophe card
king
1. place or move one of his leaders
trader
A player may place one of his leaders on any empty civilization card, whether
he is placing it from his play area or moving it from another card. The color of
priest
the leader need not match the color of the card where it is placed. A leader
may also be placed on a treasure card*. When a player has a leader in a
farmer
kingdom, he can collect victory points in the color of the leader.
2. place a civilization card
When a player places a civilization card, he increases the size of a
kingdom and victory points are scored (see page 3). There are 2
possibilities:
a. The card is placed in a column under a treasure card*.
The player can choose any column. Players place the first card in a column directly
under the treasure card*. Players place each further card in a column directly under
the previous card in the column. When a column has 8 cards, no further cards may
be placed in the column. Cards can still be removed, however.
b. The card is placed between two treasure cards*, connecting two kingdoms.
This is only allowed, when there are at least 3 cards under each of the two
adjacent treasure cards*.
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COLLECT VICTORY POINTS:
• Whenever a player places a card in the column of a kingdom, and the kingdom
has a leader of the same color as the card placed, the player whose dynasty is
represented by that leader (usually the player who placed the card) earns 1 victory
points in that color. To earn the victory point, the player must play a card of that
color from his hand face up in his play area. If he does not have such a card or
chooses not to play it, he does not earn the victory point. During the game, each
player will build a stack of victory point cards. In the stack, only the top-most card
is visable and the player may not examine the cards in his stack.
Variant: if the players agree, they may choose to play their victory points in 4
separate (by color) stacks, so that the points are visible to everyone.
Example: the lion player uses his first action
to place his trader on the red card.
For his second action, he places a
green card under it, adding it to
the same kingdom. Thus, he earns
1 green victory point. He takes a
green card from his hand and
places it face up in his play area.
kingdom
victory
point stack
• The black leader (king) may act as a joker in addition to his normal role as black
victory point collector. When there is no leader in the kingdom matching the color of
the card placed, the player whose dynasty is represented by the king in that kingdom
earns a victory point in that color if the player chooses to play the appropriate card
from his hand to his victory point stack.
kingdom
Example: the lion player’s king was placed
earlier in the kingdom and there is no
trader in the kingdom. As his first and
second actions, the lion player plays
green cards in the kingdom. Thus, he
earns 2 green victory points and places
2 green cards from his hand on his
victory point stack in his play area.
victory
point stack
• When a player places a card between 2 treasure cards*, so that he connects two
previously separate kingdoms, this may create a conflict that must be immediately
resolved (see page 5). No player earns victory points for a card so placed.
• If the new larger kingdom has a green leader (trader) and the new kingdom has
at least 2 treasure cards, the player whose dynasty is represented by the green
leader may take all but one of those treasure cards by placing a red card from his
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hand in its place. This happens after the resolution of any conflicts caused by
connection.
Note: the king cannot be used here as a joker!
Example:
The lion player plays a
black card between the
two treasure cards. As he
has his trader in the new
kingdom, he may play 1
red card from his hand to
take 1 treasure card from
the new kingdom (as there
are 2), placing it on his
victory point stack.
Treasure cards act as
jokers during scoring.
3. play a catastrophe card
victory
point stack
With his catastrophe card, each player can, once in the game, remove a civilization
card. He discards both cards - they are out of the game! A player can even remove a
civilization card that connects two kingdoms. A player may not remove cards with
leaders, treasure cards*, and ship cards. When a gap occurs in a column after
playing a catastrophe card, shift the cards below the gap upwards to fill the gap.
Example:
The player plays his
catastrophe card to
remove the blue card.
He discards both cards.
The large
kingdom is
separated into
2 separate
kingdoms.
Conflict
In the game, there are 2 kinds of conflicts: internal and external conflict. Both
kinds are described below:
INTERNAL CONFLICT (LIKE-COLORED LEADERS)
When a player places one of his leaders in a kingdom where there is already a leader of
the same color, he creates an interneal conflict.
To resolve the conflict, the players involved may play red cards (temple cards). Each
red card played has the value of 1. Additionally, a players gets a bonus value of 1 if
his leader stands on red cards (temple or treasure cards) in the kingdom.
First, the attacker (the active player) chooses any number of red cards from his hand
and places them face up in his play area (from 0 to as many cards that he has). Then,
the defender (the player whose dynasty is represented by the matching-colored leader
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that was already there) can play as many red cards from his hand as he wants. Now,
the values of played red cards and bonuses are compared. The player with the higher
value is the winner. In the case of a tie, the defender wins. The loser of the conflict
must remove his matching-colored leader, placing it in his play area. The winner of
the conflit takes as his reward 1 red card, placing it on his victory point stack. He
takes this card from the red cards played by the players in the conflict. All other cards
played to resolve the conflict are discarded. If neither player played red cards, he may
use a card from his hand. If he cannot or will not do so, he does not get the victory
point.
Example:
(A) The bowman player places his trader in the
kingdom, causing an immediate internal conflict
with the trader of the lion player. The lion
player begins with an advantage of 1, as his
trader stands on a red card.
attacker
defender
(B) The bowman player, as the
attacker plays 3 red cards in his
play area, giving him a 3:1 lead.
(C) The lion player, as the defender
has only 1 red card in his hand and
chooses not to play it.
(E) The lion
player loses the
conflict and
must remove his
trader from the
kingdom.
(D) The bowman
player wins the
conflict and may
place 1 red cards
he played on his
victory point stack.
Return to the
lion player.
EXTERNAL CONFLICT (2 KINGDOMS ARE CONNECTED)
When 2 kingdoms are connected, the player connecting the kingdoms first places the
connecting card face down. Next the kingdoms are checked to see if the new kingdom will
contain leaders of the same color. If this is the case, there is external conflict. If
there is more than one external conflict, the active player decides the order for resolving
them. The active player may even choose to resolve conflicts he is not involved in before
those he is. When the active player is not involved, the attacker is the player closest to the
active player in clockwise order around the table.
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