Board Game Posts

The following variants may be used individually or in combination.

Variant: Without investor card

This variation results in fewer changes in the control of governments.

Remove the investor card from game. Instead of using the investor card, each player can invest in a nation immediately after that nation takes its turn.

For example:

After China takes its turn, its owner can invest in China. Then all the other players can invest in China, starting with the player to the left of the owner of China and continuing clockwise around the table. After that India takes its turn. …

Know your Game

It's important for children to have a chance to familiarize themselves with the various game components before cooperative or competitive play begins.

We've found that the Zinger is so much fun to operate that just dispensing and reloading the tiles can be a game all on its own! Young children love the sliding motion required to make the Zinger work and they marvel at how tiles are magically produced-understanding the function of the device is a true learning experience for little ones! …

Q: Can factories also be destroyed by fleets?

A: Fleets cannot destroy a factory since they are not allowed to return from a sea region to a land region.

Q: When can nations use their military units to fight?

A: There are two possibilities:

1. Nations that have chosen the rondel space "Maneuver" are allowed to fight against foreign armies and/or fleets.

2. Inactive nations are allowed to fight against any foreign army or fleet that has just moved into a region in which the inactive nation has military units. This also applies if a "friendly" army moves into a home province. …

Game Components

• 1 rulebook
• 2 haunt books (Traitor's Tome and Secrets of Survival)
• 44 room tiles
• 1 Entrance Hall tile (3 rooms)
• 6 plastic character figures
• 6 two-sided character cards
• 30 plastic clips
• 8 dice
• 1 Turn/Damage Track
• 13 omen cards
• 22 item cards
• 45 event cards
• 291 tokens, including:
  • 12 large circular monster tokens (includes art)
  • 204 circular monster tokens
  • 14 square event and room tokens
  • 43 pentagonal item tokens
  • 18 triangular trait roll tokens

Object of the game

Explore the house and make your character stronger until the "haunt" scenario begins. After that, your goal is to complete your side's victory condition first, either as a traitor or a hero. …

Game Components

• A double-sided Battlefield board map
  (beach landings and countryside)
• Two punchboards featuring:
  • 44 double-sided Terrain hex pieces
  • 10 double-sided Victory Medals
  • 14 special forces badges
  • 4 double-sided bunker and bridge tiles
• 2 army bags of miniatures
  (Green Army and Blue-Gray Army) each containing:
  • 42 infantry figures
  • 24 armored vehicles
  • 6 artillery pieces
  • 18 man-made obstacles
  • 3 Cardholder sections
• One eck of 70 cards including: 60 command cards, 9 summary cards
• 8 Battle dice
• 1 rules and scenario booklet

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to be the first to win a set number of Victory Medals (usually 4 to 6, depending on the selected battle scenario's victory conditions). …

The standard 2-player game already works well. For players who like more competition and/or would like to play a more challenging version of the game, we suggest the following variant. In this variant, the players play against a neutral player and against each other.

The neutral player does not get any victory points, but he is present on the Doge track, he competes for the stage bonuses in phase II, and he places councilmen in the districts. We recommend playing by the standard rules a few times before trying out this variant. …

Game Components

• Game Board
• 13 Monuments
• 32 Buildings divived into 2 ages
• 4 two-side player boards
• 1 starting player marker
• 6 gears of various sizes
• 4 scoring counters
• 65 wooden blocks
• 13 crystal skulls
• 65 corn tokens of values 1 or 5
• 28 harvest tiles
• 21 starting wealth tiles
• 1 sheet with stickers
• 6 plastic fasteners
• 24 workers in 4 colors
• 28 markers in 4 colors

Setup

Place the assembled game board in the middle of the table. Lay the rest of the components on or around it as depicted.

Bank

Put all the wood, stone, gold, crystal skulls, and unused workers in a bank where everyone can reach them easily. The corn bank is placed in the middle of the Tzolk'in gear. …

Ports function as a special area between the land and sea area they connect. Only the player controlling the connected land area may use the connected Port and is considered the Port's "owner".

Using Ports

Port areas may only be occupied by Ship units. Multiple Ship units occupying a Port are considered an army and must be in compliance with supply limits. In addition to normal army restrictions, a Port may never contain more than three Ship units at one time. …

The Shelters

Dominion: Dark Ages introduces a new card type called "shelter", found on the three cards Hovel, Necropolis, and Overgrown Estate. One of each optionally replaces the three Estates in a starting player's deck. From testing I believe this is a straight upgrade that should always be used.

The shelters are not worth victory points, but all three help your deck. Hovel can be trashed from hand when you buy a victory card, which not only triggers off Duchy and Province but also Great Hall, Nobles, and the other multi-type victory cards. …

Optional 2- And 3-player Rules

When playing Dominant Species with only 2 or 3 players, the following rules may be used which allow for each player to control multiple animals. These rules conflict with some of those found elsewhere in these rules: where there is conflict, the rules in this column take precedence.

Multiple Animals

When assigning animals to the players during set up, as- sign all six animals. Thus in a 3-player game each player will be in control of two different animals; in a 2-player game, each player will control three different animals. …