Deities and Demigods - v1.0 rules (first play tonight)

Deities and Demigods

A game of epic adventure

by Seth Jaffee and Matthew Dunstan

2-4 players, 45-60 minutes, 10+

Components

7 board segments (each made up of 7 hexes, some water, some land)

4 sets of player pieces (1 player board, XX troops, XX boats, 6 devotion markers, 6 minimum devotion markers, 1 initiative marker, 1 starting city tile, 8 building markers)

32 Building markers (8 each in 4 player colors)

12 Quest tiles

XX Building cards (obtained by erecting buildings)

XX Artifact cards (Artifact cards are like weak buildings, require less devotion to build, and don't take up space in the cities)

1 Pantheon board (with space for deity cards, initiative track, and Underworld)

XX Deity cards (Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hades)

8 Starting Olympus cards (Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hades, 2x Hera)

XX Favor tokens (worth 1 VP each)

Setup

1. Shuffle the 8 starting Olympus cards to create the Olympus deck.

2. Place supply of deity cards on the pantheon board.

3. Randomly stack the turn order markers on the 6th space of the initiative track. This will determine order of play each round, with the marker farthest ahead on the track playing first, and the topmost marker in a stack playing before lower markers in that stack.

4. Give each player a player board and pieces of their chosen color. Devotion markers and minimum devotion markers go on the indicated starting spaces for each deity.

5. Place the 7 board tiles, random side up, in random orientation. Ensure that each city has at least 3 nodes that are not on the edge of the board.

6. Randomly draw a quest tile and place it on the quest space of each board - return the 5 unused quest tiles to the box.

7. In reverse turn order, each player should place their starting city tile adjacent to the board.

8. Place X troops/boats in the Underworld section of the Pantheon board, Y troops/boats on your starting city tile, and the rest into the supply section of your player board.

9. Shuffle the artifact and building cards separately and place them below the pantheon board. Deal out 3 cards from each deck into a face-up supply.

Gameplay

Deities and Demigods is played in a series of cycles through the Olympus deck, and each cycle consists of a number of rounds. To begin each round, reveal the top card of the Olympus deck. In turn order each player will have the opportunity to interact with the revealed card - either donating gold to increase devotion to that deity, or cashing in their devotion in order to access the action granted by that deity. After the last card of the Olympus deck is resolved, shuffle the discards and the next cycle begins. The game ends at the end of a cycle when any of the following triggers occurs:

• One player has placed all 8 of their building markers into play
• All 7 quests are complete
• Either the artifact deck or the building deck is empty

Using the actions granted by the deities, you will maneuver your armies and fleets in an effort to complete quests and control cities. At the end of the game, favor will be awarded for quests completed, cities controlled, and buildings/artifacts built. Deity cards collected will confer favor bonuses based on your performance in certain areas of the game. The winner will be the demigod with the most favor.

Turn Order

Whenever required, play order will be based on the initiative track. The player with the marker farthest along the initiative track will play first. When multiple markers are stacked in the same space on the track, the order of play is from top to bottom of the stack.

A Game Round

To begin each game round, reveal the top deity card from the Olympus deck. In turn order, each player may either…

1. Increase devotion to that deity, OR
2. Execute the action of that deity.

Increasing Devotion

When you choose to increase devotion to a deity, pay 1, 3, or 6 gold in order to increase your devotion track 1, 2, or 3 spaces.

Anytime such an increase would take you beyond level 4 devotion (the top of the track), instead gain 1 favor token from the supply.

Executing a Deity Action

Each deity provides an action based on your level of devotion (level 1/2/3/4) to that deity. After executing the action, reset your devotion to that deity to the minimum level:

Zeus: Advance 1/3/5/8 spaces on the initiative track.

Hermes: Collect 1/4/8/12 gold.

Ares: Spend 2/6/10/16 movement points:

• For 2 movement points, add a troop to the board in your home city or any node in which you have a building marker.
• For 1 movement point, move an army (any number of troops) from one hex node to the next along the hex edges. Armies must always be on land or coast nodes. Non-mountain nodes cost 1 movement, mountain nodes cost 1+1 per unit in the army.
• When moving into a node occupied by an opponent’s units, initiate a combat (see Combat, below)
• Armies may not enter a space containing an opposing building.

Poseidon: Spend 2/6/10/16 movement points:

• For 2 movement points, add a boat to the board in your home city or any city in which you have a building marker.
• For 1 movement point, move a fleet (any number of boats) from one hex node to the next along the hex edges. Fleets must always be on water or coast nodes.
• When moving into a node occupied by an opponent’s units, initiate a combat (see Combat, below)
• Fleets may not enter a space containing an opposing building.

Hades: Return 1/3/5/8 units (troops or boats) from the underworld to your supply.

Hephaestus: Build an artifact or building based on devotion level...

• Level 1: Build nothing.
• Level 2: Build an artifact.
• Level 3: Build a building at a city where you have a unit.
• Level 4: Build an artifact AND a building at a city where you have a unit.
• Each player may build at most 1 building in each city.
• When building a city, move 1 unit in that node to the underworld.

Hera: Starting with the first player, each player may choose one of the following:

• Add a deity card to the Olympus discard pile, paying the appropriate cost; or
• Earn the favor of a deity from the discard pile, paying the appropriate cost; or
• Gain 1 gold.

For each Hera card, only one player may choose to add a card to the deck, and only one player may choose to earn a deity’s favor. Any number of players may choose to gain 1 gold.

The cost to add a card to Olympus or to earn a deity’s favor is to move backward 4 spaces on the initiative track. You cannot go into negative on this track -- if you cannot move back 4 spaces, then you may not choose to add a card or earn favor.

Note: You may choose to execute a lower level effect than your current devotion level, but you still reset your devotion to the minimum after executing the action.

Artifacts and Buildings

Artifacts and buildings are cards that grant you immediate, single use, or permanent abilities. When executing a Hephaestus action you may choose an artifact if you have at least level 2 devotion, a building if you have at least level 3 devotion, or both if you have level 4 devotion.

In addition to game text, each artifact and building card has an icon on it which can be used in end-game bonus scoring.

Artifacts only require level 2 devotion to Hephaestus. Buildings on the other hand require level 3 devotion AND you must have a unit in a node adjacent to a city. When building a building, you replace a unit in a node adjacent to a city, moving that unit to the underworld. You may have at most 1 building marker in each city (including your home city) - you may not build in other players’ home cities.

Combat

You may move units into a space containing opposing units, but never into a space containing an opposing building. When you move into a space containing opponents’ units, a combat is initiated. The active player is considered the attacker, and the other payer is considered the defender.

1. Check and resolve attacker’s Beginning of Combat effects
2. Check and resolve attacker’s Beginning of Combat effects
3. Remove units from both the attacker and the defender, one-for-one, until one of the players has no pieces remaining.

That’s it! Combat is over and you may resume movement.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends at the end of a cycle when any of the following triggers occurs:

• One player has placed all 8 of their building markers into play
• All 7 quests are complete
• Either the artifact deck or the building deck is empty

Once the game end is triggered, add up your score from...

• Favor tokens collected during the game
• Quests completed (1/3/6/10/15/21/28 favor for 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 quests)
• Matching icons on artifact and building cards (5 favor per 3+ icons of a kind)
• Cities controlled (1 favor per building to the player controlling the most nodes)
• Deity cards in your tableau (see below)

Quest scoring:

Score 1/3/6/10/15/21/28 favor for 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 completed quests.

Artifact/building icons:

There are 6 icons that appear in the upper left corner of the artifact and building cards. For each icon, you may score a 5 favor bonus if you have 3 or more of that icon.

Control of cities:

Each city has a number of nodes adjacent to it. The player with units in more nodes than any other player controls the city and scores 1 favor for each building in that city.

In the case of a tie for controlling nodes, then the tied player with the most total units in those nodes controls the city. In case of further tie, all tied players split the available points evenly (round up).

Favor of the deities:

Each deity card in your tableau confers favor for a certain condition:

• Zeus: 4 favor - 1 favor per player ahead of you on the initiative track.
• Hermes: 1 favor for every 3 gold.
• Ares: 1 favor for each city controlled.
• Poseidon: 1 favor for each quest completed.
• Hephaestus: 1 favor for every 2 artifact/building cards.
• Hades: 5 favor - 1 favor per unit in the underworld.

The player with the most favor wins! In the case of a tie, the victory is shared.