Kings of Wa September 2008; this version (1.3): December 2013 www.lajosbrons.net/papercut papercut@lajosbrons.net 2 players or 3 players with expansion approx. 240 min introductory notes (September 2008) Francis Tresham's Civilization / Advanced Civilization is one of my favorite games, but it has one major flaw : it needs lots of players. Five or six is probably the minimum, but ten or more make it really shine. However, I have very limited opportunities to play long games with big groups of gamers, so I wanted a civilization game that offers a somewhat similar experience for a much smaller number of players. Now, what would be easier than to adapt the basic game system of Civilization / Advanced Civilization, which is in my opinion still by far the best game in the genre, to a smaller map? It seems like an obvious option, and it seems rather easy. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. A smaller map, or using just a part of the original map, does not result in a very enjoyable game. Hence, I started to think about what parts of the game would have to be changed to make it work for 2 or 3 players. Of course, the trading system is the most obvious candidate, but aside from that, such a game would also need an alternative, considerably smaller map, and therefore, an alternative or a more specific location. Choosing a location was easy considering my current interest in the history of Japan, but this choice resulted in more necessary changes. The effects of the smaller distances, for example. And much more importantly, the fact that many developments / advances did not come from Japan originally, but were imported knowledge. These imports were the result of refugees from the mainland (Korea mainly) and of trade. In other words, there were quite a few parts of the game that had to be replaced, changed, or at least tinkered with, and still the tinkering is not done completely. Especially the advances are difficult to get right, but the latest prototype seemed to work relatively well. There are still problems with the prices and other properties of the advances, but the only way to solve those is by further playtesting. Consequently, if you construct and play this game, be aware that you are testing a prototype. And please send me your suggestions for improvement. Some people have already done so, and I owe them my gratitude. I especially want to thank Don Walsh and Frank Forte for playtesting and for their thoughtful comments. Historical notes will (perhaps) be added later. For now, it may be useful to know that the relevant time period is (part of) the Joumon to Heian era (ca. -12000 to 1000 CE), and that for most of this period, Japan (called Wa 倭 by the Chinese) was divided into a large number of tribal kingdoms, slowly decreasing in number. Known problems: Price and other characteristics of civilization / advance cards may still need some tweaking. Much more playtesting is required to get these balanced well. Some disasters may be too strong or too weak. This version of the rules is based on the Civproject version of the rules of Advanced Civilization: www.civproject.net The standard game is for 2 players. Some notes about the 3-player version can be found at the end of these rules. the game in brief Occupancy of areas on the board is indicated with tokens, which represent population, and cities. At the start of the game, each civilization begins with a single token in its starting area. Each turn, each player increases his/her population by adding one token to each area containing a single token and two tokens to each area containing two or more tokens. Each player may then move his/her tokens to new areas by land or by sea into other land areas. Players generally move their tokens into areas of the board that are Kings of Wa papercut games p. 1
fertile and defensible. This movement represents the expansion of tribes. After movement, conflict is resolved in land areas containing surplus population. As population of the board reaches its limit, conflict becomes more common as border wars help to establish the boundaries of each kingdom. The scope of expansion is often limited by the loss of tokens in contested areas. After conflict is resolved, cities may be constructed in areas that contain enough tokens. City construction is a more productive way of absorbing population pressures than is territorial expansion, for while cities require an agricultural hinterland, they are better able to resist attack and generate revenue through taxes that may be used to establish a central fund for the benefit of the whole state. The transfer of tokens from stock into treasury represents the payment of taxes. Players must strive to maintain a balance between rural and urban populations. Each turn, players collect one trade card for each city they have on the board. Most trade cards are commodities, but some are calamities that may affect one or more players. Trade cards are then exchanged between players and with foreign nations during the trading session, allowing players to build up sets of commodity cards. Once all calamities are resolved, these commodity card sets and tokens in treasury may be exchanged for civilization cards. Cities are thus essential to provide the wealth needed to advance a kingdom, but others with a more energetic outlook will surpass a kingdom that fails to augment this wealth by trade. Wealth from trade can be utilized to advance various aspects of a kingdom, which in turn aids its further progress. Civilization cards confer special abilities and immunities upon their holders, and also provide players with the bulk of the points they need to win the game. Furthermore, the players are not just competing with each other, but also with the game itself that provides a third or fourth neutral player. construction & components Aside from these rules there are 4 different files and some additional components needed. The board is available either in 4xA4 (or 4x US letter) or in single sheet format. Please note that this is the two-player board. There are two expansion boards for the third player. All other files do already include components for the third player. The other files contain advance cards, trade cards, and markers. Markers are city markers, fleets, and buildings. There are city markers for three players plus neutral cities. There are 5 different decks of trade cards, and it may be useful to give these different colored card backs. You will have to provide tokens (population markers) yourself for the players (50 in each color) and in a third (or fourth) neutral color (25 should be more than enough). Most gamers will probably have sufficient wooden cubes in the right colors on hand (and that s what I prefer to use anyway because those are much easier to handle). The only other thing needed is a D6. game map The game map represents Japan and is divided into areas for purposes of population and movement. (The third-player extension map will cover part of Korea and the Ryukyus.) All areas in different colors green are land areas. These color differences are merely decorative and have no game purpose. Borders between two land areas are called land borders. A number enclosed in a colored circle indicates the population limit of a land area. These numbers indicate the maximum number of tokens that the area can accommodate. To ease identification, each value has its own color. All blue-colored territory indicates sea. All areas containing sea are called sea areas. Borders between two water areas are called sea borders. There are some darker blue areas on the east and west side of the map. These are open sea areas. Despite their separation into multiple areas on the map, for game purposes, the open sea areas count as two areas: the Sea of Japan on the western side and the Pacific on the eastern side. The boundary is roughly in the middle of the short ends of the map. All other sea areas are coastal areas. These also contain land, and are thus also land areas. Two areas sharing a border are considered adjacent to each other. If they share a land border, they are adjacent by land, and if they share a sea border they are adjacent by water. Borders are marked with thick white lines. Borders that look like sea borders, but that have a green dot with white outline act as land borders in the game. All areas containing tokens belonging to a specific kingdom are considered to be within that kingdom. Kings of Wa papercut games p. 2
An area can be within more than one kingdom. All areas adjacent to an area within a specific kingdom are considered to be adjacent to that kingdom. Two kingdoms are considered adjacent to each other if they have units in the same area, or in two different areas adjacent to each other. Trade card stacks marked A to D are used to hold the various trade cards during play. These letters represent levels of trade cards. The calamity target chart is used to randomly find target areas for calamities by rolling a D6 twice (or more if 6 rolled). The foreign trade area shows what is available for trade in China or Korea. player pieces A set of player pieces consists of 50 tokens (wooden cubes or small pieces of cardboard in either case you will have to provide these yourself), 9 cities, 1 capital, and 10 ships, all in the same color (red, blue, or green). The set of neutral pieces consists of 25 tokens (white, gray, or tan), and 10 cities (gray). Tokens are used to represent rural populations. When the term token is used, this does not include ships or cities. Cities (big square markers) are used to represent urban populations. Ships are rectangular, and are used to move tokens across water areas. Units is a term used to refer to tokens and cities, but not ships. All tokens, cities and ships not currently in play on the board are held in front of the player, on the left of their game phase chart. These are referred to as stock. When tokens, cities and ships are removed from the board they are placed in stock and may be returned to play at a later time. No playing piece is ever permanently removed from the game. When tokens are placed in the treasury on the right of the game phase chart they become a currency that may be used to purchase civilization cards and ships. It is important not to mix tokens in stock with tokens in treasury, as they serve separate functions. civilization cards Civilization cards (or advance cards) represent new technologies invented or imported during the game. There are six groups of civilization cards, each identified by its own color and kanji (Chinese character) in the top left corner. The groups are: crafts (yellow 工 ), government (red 政 ), learning (blue 学 ), religion (green 信 ), arts (pink 芸 ), and neutral (no symbol). The attributes of the various civilization cards are summarized on their cards. For example: Top middle: name of the card ( capital ). Below that the name / meaning of the card is represented with a single kanji. In the top right a number of circular symbols marks various characteristics. A white circle with red 功 means that that card is a special achievement (giving extra points). A white circle with a gray cube means popular support. A blue circle with a ship means an increase in shipping distance. Below that, all cards have either a white circle with 邦 or a black circle with 一, 二, 三, or 四 (1, 2, 3, 4). 邦 means that that advance was a Japanese invention (or is at least something independently developed by the players in the game). The black circles mean that those cards represent imported advances (from China and/or Kings of Wa papercut games p. 3
Korea). The numbers 一, 二, 三, or 四 (1, 2, 3, 4) refer to game periods. These cards should be sorted by game period, then shuffled per game period, and then stacked with 一 on top and 四 on the bottom. Below that, still on the right, some cards have red or green diamonds. A red diamond means that that card is required to be in game for another advance; a grean diamond means that it makes another advance cheaper. On the left of the card, below the circle marking its group (government in case of the example) the price of that advance is shown. Below that a red or green diamond with another advance name may be printed. Red means required; green means that the advance is made cheaper by the mentioned advance. In case of the example, monarchy must be in game to make capital possible. Then there are three boxes with text. The first of these, with the black outline contains some historical information (but for most cards, this still needs some editing). The blue box shows the benefit to all kingdoms; the red box shows the benefit to the inventing (or importing) kingdom. Due to the small size of the game area (just Japan), all advances spread to all kingdoms. For that reason, there is only one card of every advance available in the game. This is an important difference with Civilization. trade cards There are two types of trade cards commodity cards and calamity cards. The term trade card is used in the rules to refer to both commodity and calamity cards. Rules that refer specifically to commodity or calamity cards apply only to that type of card. All trade cards have a capital letter A to D, or T in the top right and left showing in which holding stack they go (marked on the board with the same letters) in case of A to D. T cards are foreign trade cards. set-up Sort out the civilization cards in two stacks, those marked with 邦 in one stack, and those marked with a black circle in the other. Sort and shuffle the latter as instructed above. Sort out the trade cards by letter, shuffle them, and place them face down into their respective holding stacks. There are no fixed starting locations. With two players, best set-up mechanism is to let one player choose the two starting locations, and then to let the other player choose which of these two locations he/she takes. Depending on the chosen starting location, one is playing a different kingdom / tribe / etc. there will be some explanation about the different tribes in the historical notes later. Players place one token of their color in the starting area of their kingdom and the rest of their tokens and other player pieces in their stock as instructed above. game round and game phases Each game round is divided into a number of game phases: 1. taxation 2. expansion 3. neutral expansion 4. census 5. shipping lanes 6. movement 7. neutral movement 8. resolve conflict 9. city support 10. urbanization & secondary movement 11. production 12. calamities 13. trade 14. purchases 15. storage When all phases have been completed, the round is finished and a new round begins. The order of player activity during various phases is determined according to various criteria, as detailed in the rules applying to each phase, but in many cases the players can take their actions simultaneously. 1. taxation Every player must transfer two tokens from stock to treasury for every city he has on the board, but some advances may allow different taxation rates. Tax revolts occur when a player does not have sufficient tokens in his/her stock to pay the required taxes. After paying his/her entire stock in taxes, the cities that Kings of Wa papercut games p. 4
couldn t pay their full taxes revolt. Tax revolts are resolved only after the other player has paid his/her taxes. Cities for which the kingdom is unable to pay taxes becomes neutral. Cities adjacent to neutral areas revolt first. Otherwise use a D6 to determine which cities revolt. 2. expansion Each player adds one token to every area that contains one of his/her tokens and two tokens to every area that already contains two or more of his/her tokens. Tokens are never added to areas with cities. Tokens may be added to an area in excess of its population limit. If a player does not have sufficient tokens in stock to complete his/her population expansion, he divides what tokens he has in stock among the eligible areas as he wishes, but otherwise population expansion is automatic and may not be voluntarily curtailed. Population is increased in census order. 3. neutral expansion All areas that contain neutral tokens have tokens added up to the population limit of that area (such that the number of neutral tokens equals the population limit (+1 if rice farming); the presence of player tokens does not affect this). Next, roll a D6 to select an area by means of the calamity target chart on the board. If that region is empty place the maximum number (population limit) of neutral tokens in it. If it already has neutral tokens and no other tokens, replace the tokens with a neutral city. If there are one or more player tokens, place a number of neutral tokens equal to the population number minus 1 in that area. (If the area has a city, nothing happens.) 4. census Each player counts the number of tokens he has on the board. Cities and ships are not counted. The player with the highest number is first in census order. Roll a D6 to resolve ties. It is useful to give the player who is first in census order some marker; in a three player game, you would need a (smaller) marker for the second place in census order as well. 5. shipping lanes Because of smaller distances, shipping works very differently in Kings of Wa than in Civilization. There are no ships, but shipping lanes and players can relatively easily move over greater (or actually, smaller) distances. A kingdom s shipping lane is a chain of adjacent sea areas marked with a ship in the color of a kingdom. A kingdom can have multiple shipping lanes, but the maximum shipping distance and capacity are dependent on technology. The level of shipping technology for all players in the game is determined by the number of shipping symbols in the game (blue circle with a ship), which can be found on civilization cards and on the players game phase charts. Hence, in a twoplayer game, it starts at 2 and rises to 3 with the invention of weaving, going to a maximum of 6; in a 3 player game it starts at 3 and can go to a maximum of 7. Shipping zones are sea areas that contain a kingdom s ship marker. Hence, shipping lanes consist of adjacent shipping zones. Shipping zones can be built in coastal areas where a kingdom has population (tokens or city), or adjacent to previously built shipping zones (in the same or earlier turns). For each shipping zone built, the player puts a ship marker in that area, and moves two tokens from the treasury into the stock. No shipping zones can be built in open sea until navigation is invented. (The same sea area can be a shipping zone for multiple kingdoms (hence, have ship markers of different colors in them). The neutrals do not use ships.) Shipping zones may be abolished (move token into stock) or moved. Shipping zones can be moved to any sea area adjacent to any of the zones in a shipping chain that that shipping zone was part of. Moving a shipping zone costs 1 token (move from treasury into stock). After building shipping zones, for any shipping zone in excess of the shipping technology level, 1 token is moved from the treasury into the stock. (That includes shipping zones built in that turn.) 6. movement Players may move some, all, or none of their tokens. Cities may not be moved. Players move in descending census order. Kings of Wa papercut games p. 5
Tokens may be moved either across a single land border, or to a land area that is connected through a shipping lane. The maximum number of tokens that can be move through any shipping zone and the maximum number of shipping zones that the shipping lane consists of is equal to the shipping technology level. Any number of tokens, belonging to any number of players, may be moved into the same area. Tokens may be moved into an area containing a city. Tokens may be moved into an area in excess of the area's population limit, although this may result in the later elimination of excess tokens. 7. neutral movement Any neutral kingdom consisting of only one area that is not adjacent to another neutral kingdom area and that is occupied by neutral tokens only moves half of its tokens (rounded down) into the adjacent empty area with the highest population limit (roll D6 to resolve ties). (Neutrals do not move out of player-occupied areas.) 8. resolve conflict Conflict occurs when the tokens of two or more kingdoms occupy the same area and the total number of tokens in the area is greater than the population limit of the area. Areas containing a city can not hold any tokens (at the end of a game round). If the population limit of an area containing tokens belonging to two or more different civilizations is not exceeded, the tokens will co-exist without conflict. Conflicts may occur between tokens, between tokens and cities, and between tokens and cities defended by tokens. Tokens and cities eliminated as a result of conflict are returned to stock. conflicts between tokens All players involved in a conflict between tokens remove one token at a time alternately until only one player's tokens remain in the area or the population limit of the area is no longer exceeded. The players start to remove tokens in ascending order of the amount of tokens in the area in which the conflict occurs. If two or more players have an equal number of tokens in the area, they remove their tokens simultaneously. conflicts between tokens and cities Cities remain standing unless attacked by seven or more tokens belonging to the same kingdom. If fewer than seven tokens attack a city, they are simply removed without affecting the attacked city. If the required number of tokens attack a city, the defender replaces the city with six tokens and the resulting conflict between the attacking and defending tokens is resolved. If the defending player has fewer than six tokens in stock he replaces the attacked city with what tokens he has and combat is resolved normally. Players are entitled to resolve any other conflicts involving their tokens before resolving attacks on their cities, so that the maximum number of tokens may replace their cities. Two or more players may not combine to attack a city. If two players have tokens in an area containing a city belonging to a third player, they battle among themselves until only one player's tokens remain. If sufficient tokens survive, the survivor may then attack the city. between tokens and cities defended by tokens Conflict between tokens is resolved before attacks on cities. Tokens defending a city must be eliminated before the city is attacked. The city may only be attacked if a sufficient number of attacking tokens survive the initial conflict between tokens. When a city is attacked and eliminated by a player, the attacking player immediately draws, at random, one of the victim's trade cards and retains it for his/her own use. If the victim has no trade cards, no such draw occurs. In addition to drawing a trade card from the victim, a player who successfully attacks a city may transfer up to three tokens from his/her stock to his/her treasury, to reflect pillage of the destroyed city. The attacker may choose to transfer fewer than three tokens if he wishes. The number of tokens that may be pillaged may not exceed the number of tokens in the attacker's stock, and can never exceed three tokens per city. The victim's treasury and stock are unaffected by pillage. capital A capital is a special type of city. It has to be attacked by at least 8 tokens and is replaced by 7 tokens in that case. Kings of Wa papercut games p. 6
popular support Gray cube symbols in white circles on civilization cards (top right) represent the extent to which a kingdom s military actions are supported by the people. The kingdom involved in combat, that has the highest number of cards with one of these symbols, can add one token (from the stock or treasury) once in the resolve conflict phase in a contested area. castles After the invention of construction, players can build castles (in the purchases phase). Castles act as 1 token, but do not count for the population limit and can be built in urbanized areas as well. Castle markers are not player specific. If multiple kingdoms have tokens in the same area, put the castle marker on top of a token (or city) of the owning kingdom. A castle is only destroyed in battle (removed in place of a token) if the non-owning (siegeing) player decides it is. If at the end of battle, the owning kingdom has no more tokens in the area, the castle becomes the possession of the player (or neutral) with the largest number of tokens in that area. than nine cities on the board at any one time. To built a city in an area a number of tokens in that area is moved back into the stock and a city marker (large square marker) is placed in that area. The number of tokens required to build a city depends on the (printed) population limit of the area (modifiers on civilization / advance cards such as rice farming, do not affect this). 6 tokens in a (4) area; 8 in a (3) area; 10 in a (2) area; and 12 in a (1) area. After building cities, there is a secondary movement (sub-) phase in census order. Players can move tokens as normal, but may not move into empty areas, and contested areas (areas with tokens of different colors). (Reason for this secondary movement sub- phase is the smaller spatial scale of the game setting.) After city construction and secondary movement is completed, all surplus population is removed to stock. Areas containing a city may not also contain tokens after this phase, and areas not containing a city may not contain more tokens than allowed by their population limits. 9. city support After combat, each player must have two tokens on the board for every city in play. These tokens represent the agricultural support needed to maintain the urban populations. Players who do not have enough tokens on the board to support their cities must reduce their cities, one at a time, until there are enough tokens to support the remaining cities. Cities are reduced by replacing them with the maximum number of tokens allowed by the area's population limit. These added token(s) can immediately be used as support for other cities vulnerable to reduction. If, when attempting to reduce a city, players find that they do not have enough tokens in stock to meet the population limit, they replace their city with the tokens they have in stock. If other cities are still unsupported, they are eliminated. When city reduction is required as a result of calamities, the same procedure is followed. 10. urbanization & secondary movement A city may be built in any land area. Each land area may contain only one city. No player may have more 11. production Players draw a number of trade cards equal to the number of cities they have on the board. For the first two cities, they draw from the A deck, for the third and fourth from the B deck, for the fifth and sixth from the C deck, for the seventh and eighth from the D deck, and for the ninth from a deck of their choice. If a player has a capital on the board, he may draw one card from a higher deck than he would otherwise be entitled to. The player with the fewest number of cities on the board draws his/her trade cards first, followed by the player with the next fewest number of cities, and so on, until all players have drawn their trade cards. If there are insufficient cards in a deck then a player may draw cards from a lower deck (A instead of B, etc.). If there are insufficient cards in the A deck, then the player may move up to 5 tokens per card from his/her stock into his/her treasury instead. If a player draws a reshuffle card, then he reshuffles the whole deck including the discard pile, but initially excluding the reshuffle card. The reshuffle card is shuffled into the approximate bottom third (one or two cards Kings of Wa papercut games p. 7
less or more does not matter so no counting is necessary) of the deck. After that, that player draws a new card from the top of the deck. Trade cards (including calamities) need not be kept in secret if players wish so. Players should decide before the game whether they play with trade cards open or closed. Calamity cards, however, are always open and are revealed when drawn. Players may look through discard piles. Any player may purchase extra trade cards by "spending" tokens (see below) in the treasury immediately after all players have acquired their normal trade cards. Purchases are done in the same order and from the same stacks as normal acquisition of trade cards. The spent tokens are returned to stock. Players may never purchase more than two cards a turn, regardless of any civilization card they hold. Players may not purchase from an empty stack. Purchase prices for trade cards are as follows: 4 tokens for deck A, 6 tokens for deck B, 8 tokens for deck C, and 10 tokens for deck D. A player is not allowed to purchase cards from a deck that he did not draw from. 12. calamities After the production phase, calamity cards drawn are played. In most cases, a target area has to be selected by means of a D6 and the calamity target chart. Rolling a 5 and then a 3 selects the southern part of the smallest island (Shikoku). The order of the calamities is as follows: typhoon (deck A) Roll for target area. All tokens in the target area are lost. A city in the target area is reduced. If there is a shrine in the target area cities are unaffected, and 1 token remains (if there are no cities). If there are tokens by different kingdoms, then the one remaining token is one the tokens of the kingdom with the most tokens in that area. If there is a tie, take all tokens in your hand and drop one. That one remains. Put the card on the discard pile of deck A. earthquake (deck B) Roll for target area. All but 1 tokens in the target area and all adjacent areas are lost. Cities in the target area and adjacent areas are reduced. If there are tokens by different kingdoms in the area, then the one remaining token is one the tokens of the kingdom with the most tokens in that area. If there is a tie, take all tokens in your hand and drop one. That one remains. In all areas affected that have a shrine, two tokens remain. If there are tokens present owned by two kingdoms, than each keeps one. If there are tokens present owned by more than two kingdoms, then take all tokens in your hand and drop 2. Those 2 remain. In adjacent areas that have a shrine and city, that city is unaffected by the earthquake. Put the card on the discard pile of deck B. famine (deck B) The player who drew this cards loses 8 population (tokens) of his/her choice on the map (cities are worth 5 tokens). Other players lose 4. Some advances may lower these numbers. Put the card on the discard pile of deck B. disorder (deck C) This calamity only affects the player who drew the card. All but 5 cities of that player (his/her choice) are reduced. Put the card on the discard pile of deck C. The first D6 roll selects a larger part of Japan, the second selects the exact target area (6s are re-rolled, except in the three-player game). Rolling a 1 twice selects the northern part of the most northern island (Hokkaido). civil war (deck D) This calamity affects the largest kingdom. For each (player) kingdom, count the number of tokens on the map plus the number of cities times 5. That number is the kingdom size. The largest kingdom splits into three parts (two of Kings of Wa papercut games p. 8
which will rejoin). First the owning player selects a number of tokens (cities count for 5) equal to one third (rounded down) of the kingdom size. Then his/her opponent(s) selects a number of tokens equal to one third (rounded up). Of the three groups of tokens (1: selected by owning player, 2: selected by opponent, 3 not selected), the owning players chooses two groups to continue as his/her kingdom. The tokens in the third group become neutral (replace them with neutral tokens and cities). Put the card on the discard pile of deck D. 13. trade Players can trade any number of commodity cards with each other. Players can also trade with foreign countries. At the beginning of the trade phase, there should be three open cards from the T deck on the three spaces of the foreign trade section of the board. If that is not the case, draw cards from the T deck to fill the open spaces. If these are calamities, resolve these immediately (and draw a new card afterward until all three slots are filled). refugees (deck T calamity) During this game round, foreign advances (civilization cards) are 20 cheaper. Make a (mental) note of this and put the card on the discard pile of deck T. epidemic (deck T calamity) All players lose 8 population (tokens) of their choice (cities are worth 5 tokens). Areas do no depopulate. Put the card on the discard pile of deck T. In case of a reshuffle, calamities that occurred in the same game round are (like the reshuffle card itself) shuffled into the bottom third of the deck. There is no turn order in trading. Any two players can trade with each other at any time they wish during the trade phase. If a player wants to engage in foreign trade, he announces so by saying foreign trade. Upon that announcement trading is temporarily halted in order to let that player make his/her foreign trade (see below). If multiple players say foreign trade at approximately the same time, whoever said so first goes first. If the second (and third) still wants (want) to take part in foreign trade, they can do so, but he is (they are) allowed to cancel if the goods he wants (they want) is (are) no longer available. The first announcer, however, is not allowed to cancel his/her foreign trade. After foreign trade normal trading resumes with possible further interruptions for foreign trade. The trade phase ends when no one further trades can be made (i.e. no two players are willing to trade with each other, and no player wants to make a foreign trade). In case of foreign trade, a player exchanges one card for one of the cards available. (And after that the exchanged card becomes available to other players.) The card offered from the players hand must be of at least equal value, meaning that the lowest number mentioned at the bottom part of the card must be at least equal to the number mentioned at the same place of the desired card. (See also the card example in the next section.) At the end of the trade phase, cards of the A to D decks in the foreign trade area are moved to the discard stacks of the A to D decks. Additionally, the players may select one card of the T deck to discard if that decision is unanimous. Empty slots are refilled at the beginning of the trade phase of next game round. 14. purchases In the purchase phase, players can buy civilization cards (advances) and/or buildings (shrines, castles, and capitals) Each player has the option of acquiring one or more civilization cards by turning in commodity cards and treasury tokens. The cost of each civilization card is printed at the top left of the civilization card. The purchase cost is reduced by several factors specified below. Civilization cards are acquired in census order, except if the specific card is cheaper for one player. Then that player is allowed to buy it before another player gets a chance to do so. purchase cost reductions For each civilization card belonging to the same group (top left icon) owned by a player, that player has a discount of 5. If there is a civilization card mentioned with a green diamond on the left of the desired card, the player owning that civilization card has an additional discount of 5. If there is an icon of a different group of civilization cards shown below the card price, than Kings of Wa papercut games p. 9
owning at least one civilization card from that group gives an additional discount of 5. (Note: I m not sure yet whether these discounts are sufficient or whether they should be 10 instead. I think 5 is good, but feel free to change it to 10 if you think that works better.) purchase limitations If there is a civilization card mentioned with a red diamond on the left of the desired card, then that civilization card must be in the possession of one the players to enable purchase of the desired card. foreign advances Foreign advances cards are marked with a black dot with a number 一, 二, 三, or 四 on the right of the card. After a number of rounds, these become available one by one, one each game round. If they are not bought in the round they are available, they go out of the game. If the last foreign advance card is discarded in this way, the game ends. The purchase cost of civilization cards must be met by a combination of (sets of) commodity cards and tokens from the treasury (worth 1 each). If a player purchases civilization cards using more than one commodity card of the same type, the total value of the combination is increased according to the following formula: square the number of cards held, then multiply the result by the value of the commodity. These values are shown in boxes on the commodity cards. Different commodities, even of the same value, may not be combined in sets. more treasury tokens than required. No "change" is given if the value of commodity cards exceeds the purchase cost of the civilization card. Any excess is lost. Once acquired, civilization cards may not be discarded or traded. Player held civilization cards are available for others to view at all times and are not kept secret. buildings Buildings (shrines, castles, and capitals) can be purchased after certain civilization cards are bought in the same ways as civilization cards, but are put on the map upon purchase. A capital costs 20, castles cost 20 each, and shrines 10 each. (Feel free to change these purchase costs if you think other prices would be better.) Shrines are used for protection against calamities. Castles improve defense. Capitals are better cities. Obviously, a kingdom can have only one capital. The capital marker (which looks like a city marker except that the building shown is partially gold) is placed on top of a city marker (of the players choice). foreign advance check At the end of the purchase phase in which the trade routes civilization card is bought (either by the players or by the game see below), reveal the top card from the foreign advances deck. After that, at the end of each purchase phase reveal the next foreign advance card and discard the card from the previous round if that was not bought in this game round. The discarded card will not be available anymore. (And counts as points against all players.) No kingdom and that includes the neutrals gets the benefits from discarded advance cards. If at the end of the purchase phase the players together own 5 or more advances, and trade routes is not one of those, then the game (i.e. the combined neutrals) buys trade routes resulting in (more) negative points for the players (see scoring rules below) and in application of the above rule. For example, this ores card (deck B) has a value of 3 on its own (this is the value that is relevant for foreign trade). In a set of two, these together have a value of 12; three cards have a value of 27; etc. Tokens from treasury may be used to acquire civilization cards, but a player may not intentionally spend 15. storage After purchases players may retain up to 6 commodity cards in their hands for the next turn. Any excess commodity cards of the player's choice must be discarded to the appropriate decks. Kings of Wa papercut games p. 10
game end & winning The game ends after the purchase phase in which the last foreign advance was for sale. The point value of civilization cards is their purchase cost plus twenty if they are a special achievement (market with a white circle with red 功 in the top right corner). Cities on the board are worth 25 points. Tokens on the board: 5 points. Shrines and castles in areas with tokens (or a city) of only one color: 5 points to the kingdom of that color. Count points for the combined neutrals first. Add the sum value of the discarded foreign advances (civilization cards) (those not bought by players) (do not forget the bonus for special achievements) and trade routes if that was bought by the game (rather than a player). The total is the game score. Next count points for the player kingdoms. For each player, subtract the game score. The highest positive scoring player wins. (But is is not uncommon that the players score negative and that the game wins.) There are now 4 deep sea areas rather than 2: the North-Pacific (bottom right of picture), the South-Pacific (bottom left), the sea of Japan (top right), and the East-Chinese Sea (top left). And obviously, there are sea boundaries between the base map and expansion maps. Of course, the procedure for selecting starting locations needs some change as well. I d suggest to use the following, but feel free to use any other procedure. All players roll a D6 and based on those die rolls, the players are ranked first to third. The third player decides all three starting locations. The first and second players re-roll the D6 and the highest roller chooses his/her starting location first. The lower roller chooses second, and the third player takes the remaining starting location. I think it is generally advisable to choose one starting location in southern Korea, one in western Japan, and one in central Japan, by the way. The civil war calamity also needs a slight change. Perhaps the best option would be to divide the total number of revolting tokens by three and let all three players select one third. (Rounding in favor of the owning player.) three-player game There are no (non-obvious) rule changes in the threeplayer game. The only thing different is the game map, which is expanded with two additional map boards like this: Kings of Wa papercut games p. 11
civilization cards (advances) This section is merely intended to give additional explanation to the cards. If card characteristics mentioned below differ from a card, the card is right. pottery Crafts (yellow 工 ) : 50 Increases popular support. All kingdoms: Decreases effects of famine calamity. Primary target of famine: 2 tokens less; others: 1 token less. weaving Crafts (yellow 工 ) : 60 Increases shipping level. Owning kingdom: Player may trade in A deck trade cards for B deck trade cards. Discard two A deck trade cards for each B deck trade card drawn. metal working Crafts (yellow 工 ) : 70 Foreign advance: 一 Owning kingdom: Player removes tokens (population) in combat after opponents, disregarding their respective sizes. construction Crafts (yellow 工 ) : 100 All kingdoms: Allows building of castles. Owning kingdom: 1 free castle. (Build immediately.) burial mounds Religion (green 信 ) : 50 Bonus to monarchy. Shinto Religion (green 信 ) : 70 All kingdoms: Allows building of shrines. Owning kingdom: 2 free shrines. (Build immediately.) Buddhism Religion (green 信 ) : 100 Foreign advance: 二 Increases popular support. Bonus to tea. Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of civil war calamity. 12 secede instead of 20. With diarchy or Confucianism: 8. Confucianism Religion (green 信 ) : 100 Foreign advance: 三 Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of civil war calamity. 12 secede instead of 20. With Buddhism or diarchy: 8. monarchy government (red 政 ) : 80 Increases shipping level. Bonus from burial mounds. Bonus to military. Enables invention of capital. Owning kingdoms: Decreases city support. Only 1 token per city on the board required. law code government (red 政 ) : 90 Foreign advance: 三 Requires writing. All kingdoms: Allows variable tax rates: 3 or 1 cubes per city (or the normal 2) from the stock into the treasury. Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of disorder. One less city is reduced. diarchy government (red 政 ) : 100 Bonus to samurai. Bonus from military. All kingdoms: Decreases city support. Only 1 token per city on the board required. Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of civil war calamity. 12 secede instead of 20. With Buddhism or Confucianism: 8. capital government (red 政 ) : 90 Foreign advance: 四 Increases popular support. Requires monarchy. All kingdoms: Allows building of capital. (Or rebuilding after destruction or reduction.) Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of disorder. One less city is reduced. herbal medicine learning (blue 学 ) : 60 Foreign advance: 一 All kingdoms: Decreases effects of epidemic calamity. Lose 4 tokens less; or 6 less together with tea. writing learning (blue 学 ) : 80 Foreign advance: 二 Enables invention of law code and poetry. Owning kingdom: Player can keep 1 more trade card on hand after the storage phase. calendar learning (blue 学 ) : 90 Bonus from rice farming. All kingdoms: Enables foreign trade with two cards at the same time. The sum value of these two cards needs to equal or exceed the sum value of the cards ob- Kings of Wa papercut games p. 12
tained. Owning kingdom: Player can keep 1 more trade card on hand after the storage phase. navigation learning (blue 学 ) : 110 Foreign advance: 三 Increases shipping level. Bonus from trade routes. All kingdoms: Allows construction of shipping zones in open sea spaces. Owning kingdom: Player may trade in B deck trade cards for C deck trade cards. Discard two B deck trade cards for each C deck trade card drawn. sculpture arts (pink 芸 ) : 70 Bonus from any craft ( 工 ). painting arts (pink 芸 ) : 90 Foreign advance: 二 Bonus from any religion ( 信 ). poetry arts (pink 芸 ) : 110 Foreign advance: 四 Requires writing. Owning kingdom: Decreases effect of disorder. One less city is reduced. tea arts (pink 芸 ) : 120 Foreign advance: 四 Bonus from Buddhism. Owning kingdom: Decreases effects of epidemic calamity. Lose 4 tokens less, or 6 less together with herbal medicine. rice farming neutral : 50 Foreign advance: 一 Bonus to calendar. All kingdoms: Increases population limit in all areas by 1. Owning kingdom: Decreases effects of famine calamity. Primary target of famine: 2 tokens less; others: 1 token less. trade routes neutral : 60 Increases shipping level. Bonus to navigation. All kingdoms: In the round after this advance is bought, foreign advances start becoming available. military neutral : 80 Increases popular support. Bonus from monarchy. Bonus to diarchy. Owning kingdom: Player removes tokens (population) in combat after opponents, disregarding their respective sizes. samurai neutral : 120 Bonus from diarchy. Kings of Wa papercut games p. 13