KNIGHTS & CASTLES
INTRODUCTION
Card game for 2-6 players.
END OF THE GAME
The game ends when the last card is drawn from the deck.
VICTORY
Have the most gold in your treasury when the game ends.
GOLD
Use change to represent gold.
1 cent = 1 gold.
THE DECK
Players share a common deck of all the card types mixed together.
The deck has one of each type of card in the card list except for certain Resource cards.
CARD TYPES
There are 6 types of cards in the deck:
Disaster cards
Resource cards
Advance cards
Invasion cards
Leader cards
Event cards
DICE
Six sided dice (D6) are required to play.
SETUP
Each player starts with a hand of seven cards.
Players start with 0 gold.
Determine turn order: Roll high on 1D6.
TURN SEQUENCE
Players take turns.
Each turn has 7 Phases:
1. Draw Phase
2. Tax Phase
3. Build Phase
4. Research Phase
5. Event Phase
6. Trade Phase
7. End Phase
DRAW PHASE
Draw 1 card.
You may draw additional cards for 5 gold each.
TAX PHASE
Gain gold from each of your resource cards that have a revenue value.
BUILD PHASE
In this phase you may build (put into play) Resource and Leader cards.
You do not have to build if you do not want to.
You may put any village cards in your hand into play under your control.
Cards in play are placed face up on the table.
Cards in play stay in play until they are destroyed by the action of another card.
Other non-village resource cards have support requirements.
Towns, Mines, and Castles require 1 supporting village each.
A village can only support one other resource card.
1 town can support 1 city.
A castle can support up to 2 Knights.
A city can support up to 2 Ships, and one Leader.
Any number of resource cards may be built as long as they are supported.
If a resource is ever unsupported in this phase it is immediately
discarded unless its owner pays 1 gold.
RESEARCH PHASE
Advances represent improvements in science and technology.
Advance cards require no support.
Advance cards cost 5 gold to put into play.
The player with the advance gets the benefit of the card for the rest of the game.
If another player has an advance you want, pay 10 gold at any time to also
gain the benefit of the advance for the rest of the game.
EVENT PHASE
You may play one Event, Disaster, or Invasion card.
Non-advance event cards are discarded at the end of the phase.
You target yourself for good events.
Target one of your opponents for bad events.
Most bad events such as disasters and invasions cause the target
opponent to lose 1D6 Defense points (DP) worth of resource cards.
Each resource card has 1 or more DPs.
The target player must discard resource cards in play with enough
combined DPs to cover the loss.
You may discard one of your Knight cards in play as an act of war:
Treat the discarded knight card as an invasion card.
TRADE PHASE
Players may trade gold, cards, and favors.
END PHASE
Max hand is 7 cards.
Discard excess cards.
RESOURCE CARD LIST
Card Name: # Revenue DP Support:
Village 30 0 1 none
Town 9 1 2 village
Mine 6 2 1 village
Castle 9 0 3 village
City 6 3 3 town
Knights 9 0 3 castle
Ships 6 1 3 city
Trade Route 4 4 1 ship
# = number of that card in the deck.
Revenue = amount of gold this resource produces per turn in tax phase.
DP = Defense Points
Support = Resource type required to support this card.
LEADER CARD LIST
Card Name: Revenue DP
Bishop 2 0
Prince 2 1
Duke 1 2
Artist 1 0
Inventor 1 1
ADVANCE CARD LIST
Card Name Notes
Crop Rotation In tax phase gain 1 gold per 2 villages you control
Cartography Ships get Revenue +1
Printing Press Draw 1 extra card per turn
Gun Powder Knights and ships get +1 DP
Masonry Castles and cities get +1 DP
Irrigation Every 2 villages can support 3 resources
Scholastics When drawing a card, draw 2 cards and discard one
INVASION CARD LIST
Card Name:
Mongols
Vikings
Saracens
Moors
Celts
All Invaders loot and pillage 1D6 worth of DP.
DISASTER CARD LIST
Card Name:
Plague
Pestilence
Famine
Epidemic
Volcanic Eruption
All disasters cause a loss of 1D6 DP.
EVENT CARDS
Card Name Notes
Caravan Gain 1D6 gold
Storm at Sea Discard 1 Ships card
Untimely End Discard 1 Leader card
Crusades Discard 1 Knights card
Mined Out Discard 1 Mine card
FEEDBACK
by Brian Peterson.
The game is great, it beats the pants off of most of the games you'd
have to pay $20-$30 for here in the U.S. It moves along quickly and
plays very well. My 9-year old son at first really didn't want to
play some "stupid paper game". Why heck that would require an
imagination and some basic math/money skills. Once he started playing
though he was absolutely hooked. If was fun to see. He helped come up
with new rules and loved being the banker (handing out the gold and
making change). He even plays solo on occasion now when I'm not
around. Here are a couple of game notes and variations we would like
to make public. Frequently one player gets off to a good start and
then totally dominates the game while his opponent plays only to
postpone their inevitable doom. The other game note is that until you
are able to generate revenue and get a few good resources (i.e. towns
& cities) there is not much to do except hope & pray until you draw a
good resource. In order to combat the above issues and spice up the
game me and my son came up with a few K&C variations:
· If a player collects less revenue than his opponent during a
turn then he is entitled to draw one extra card. This actually
produced an unexpected strategy element to the game… When do you
build? Is it better to hold off building and draw an extra card or
build and begin collecting the extra revenue? It also frequently
makes for an entertaining cat & mouse style game and can be a nail-
biter when you get close to the end.
· Do not allow players to purchase extra cards (once an
opponent gets rich and starts buying up extra cards each turn it is
nearly impossible to catch up).
· Knights are allowed to attack an opponent regardless of
whether they have been played on the game board or are still in your
hand. No castle is required for them to attack, just to defend your
kingdom. The purpose of this variation is to keep a player from
twiddling their thumbs until they get a castle (which requires a town
by-the-way). It makes the game slightly more combative and less
defensive.
NOTE: The above variations are for a two-player game only.
LINKS
Cardset by Eric (Blackwatch)
Wiki Discussion & Adds