One cannot win the struggle for dominance over the island without powerful allies. As every wise king knows, power is not measured in strength and gold alone ...
Having the support of the spiritual leaders of the country can be the decisive factor. Win the Druids over to your cause and harness the power of their mystical sacred sites for your benefit!
Components
- 1 Dolmen Board
- 6 new Scoring Tiles
- 9 Additional Gold Coins
- 10 Stone Tablets
- 5 "50/10 Victory Points" Tiles
- 36 Druid Tiles
Important: Do not put the landscape tiles from this expansion into the bag; keep them separate from the base game tiles!
Including the Journeyman Expansion
The Druids expansion can be played with the base game alone, or in combination with the base game and the Journeyman expansion. Rules changes due to including the Journeyman expansion are detailed in boxes like this.
Overview
The Druids expansion introduces a small change to the base game rules in that the Buy phase (phase 4) is split into two buy turns. In the first buy turn, you buy a tile from an opponent as usual.
In the second buy turn, you can buy a tile from the dolmen board. These so-called Druid tiles are just like regular landscape tiles, except almost all of them either show a stone tablet or scroll.
Stone tablets provide special effects that you can use until the end of the game; scrolls follow the normal base game rules.
Setup
Place the dolmen board next to the base game board. Shuffle the Druid tiles and place them in multiple face-down piles nearby. Fill the 5 spaces of the dolmen board (showing gold costs of Oto 4 gold above the spaces) with Druid tiles drawn from random stacks, placing the tiles face up on the spaces.
Set the stone tablets and "50/100 Victory Points" tiles aside for now. Shuffle the new scoring tiles with the base game ones.
Add the additional gold coins to the base game gold. You do not need to separate the gold afterwards.
The Buy Phase
Play the buy phase of each round as follows (also shown on the right "foot" of the dolmen board)-.
If one or more players have unlocked the "Two Buys" bonus tile, they may afterward buy a second tile from an opponent. This second buy is still part of the first buy turn.
Play a first buy turn by buying a tile from an opponent, as detailed in the base game rules.
At the end of the first buy turn, as usual, receive the remaining tiles in front of you by returning the gold you assigned to them to the general supply.
Then play a second buy turn, beginning with the start player once again. In the second buy turn, each player gets exactly one turn to either buy a Druid tile from the dolmen board or, alternatively, buy a landscape tile from the bag.
You are not required to buy a tile in any of the buy turns. Even if you do not buy a tile in the first buy turn, you can buy one in the second buy turn.
Buying a Druid Tile from the Dolmen Board
The tiles sold on the dolmen board have a specific cost, which is comprised of two values:
- a fixed cost printed in the top left corner of the Druid tiles on a stone icon (0-8 gold) as well as
- an additional cost based on the position of the Druid tile on the dolmen board (0-4 gold).
The illustrations above the five spaces of the dolmen board remind you of that. (The arrows that are also printed above the spaces mean nothing for this).
Example: The tile on the leftmost space costs 3+4=7 gold. The tile on the rightmost space is free of cost, because its fixed cost is 0 gold and the rightmost space does not have an additional cost.
Pay the cost of the tile (if any) by discarding gold to the general supply and place the tile behind your screen. Tiles gained in the buy phase are added to your clan territory in phase 5, as usual.
Stone Tablets on Druid Tiles
Whenever you add a Druid tile to your clan territory showing a stone tablet, take the corresponding stone tablet from the general supply and place it next to your screen.
The stone tablet is supposed to remind you of the special effect you gained, which you can use starting from the next round until the end of the game.
Finally, move the remaining tiles on the dolmen board to the right, as shown by the arrows. Draw a new Druid tile from a random stack and place it on the leftmost space (showing an additional cost of 4 gold).
Buying a Landscape Tile from the Bag
Instead of buying a Druid tile from the dolmen board, you can pay 5 gold (as shown on the left "foot" of the dolmen board) to draw two tiles from the bag.
If you do, keep one of the drawn tiles and return the other to the bag. (Buying Druid tiles from the stacks is strictly impossible).
End of the Round
At the end of each round, i.e., after phase 6, remove the tile from the rightmost space of the dolmen board (showing an additional cost ofO gold) from play. Move the other tiles to the right as usual and place a new tile on the leftmost space, drawn from a random stack.
All New Tiles
A. Druid Tiles with Stone Tablets
Select a scroll in your clan territory and score it exactly one additional time. Whether or not the scroll is in a completed area does not matter. Even if it is, score the scroll again as if it were in an uncompleted area.
If you have both of these stone tablets, you can choose the same scroll for both. (This way, you can score a scroll up to four times: twice if it is completed, and once per stone tablet).
When it is your turn in the first buy turn, you can immediately buy one of the tiles you are offering by returning the gold you assigned to that tile to the general supply.
Additionally, you can buy a tile from an opponent as usual. These stone tablets stack if you have both: If you do, you can buy up to two of the tiles you are offering, when it is your turn.
Whenever you decide to forgo buying from the dolmen board in the second buy turn in order to instead buy a landscape tile from the bag, you pay 2 gold less (i.e., only 3 gold) and you may draw three tiles to choose one from.
Return the other two to the bag. These stone tablets stack if you have both: If you do, this action costs you only 1 gold and you can choose one from four tiles.
Whenever you buy a tile from an opponent, you pay them 1 or 2 gold less. This does not apply when buying your own tiles nor during the second buy turn.
If you have multiple of these stone tablets, their effects stack and you pay even less (but not less than 0). Your opponent always gets at least the gold they assigned to their tile.
This is also true when buying a second tile thanks to the "Two Buys" bonus tile. With the "Bank Pays" effect, the bank pays only what you would have paid.
B. Druid Tiles with Scrolls
The scrolls follow the base game rules.
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1 VP per completed pasture or mountain or water area
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2 VPs per set of broch, farm, and lighthouse
Each building can be part of only one set.
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1 VP for every 2 tiles in your longest road. Only one continuous road counts. It does not need to originate at the castle.
Junctions from this road do not count. Each tile can only be counted once, even if the road passes through twice.
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1 VP per water area with lighthouse and ship. The water area does not need to be completed. Each such water area is only counted once, even if it contains multiple sets of lighthouses and ships.
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1 VP per 5 gold
This scroll scores your gold again, on top of the regular gold scoring at the end.
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1 VP per set of sheep and cattle Each animal can be part of only one set.
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3 or 4 VPs flat
These VPs can be doubled as usual.
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1 VP per row or column containing at least 3 adjacent tiles
C. The New Scoring Tiles
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1/2 VP for each open water edge in your clan territory (rounded down
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2 VPs for each cattle in the largest herd of your clan territory. A herd consists of all cattle within the same pasture area.
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5 VPs for the player with the most lighthouses, and 2 VPs for the player with the second most lighthouses.
Ties are resolved according to the usual rules (see similar scoring tiles in the base game).
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2 VPs for each tile in the longest diagonal of your clan territory. It does not matter whether the diagonal goes up X or down X. The diagonal may have gaps.
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2 VPs for each tile in your largest completed mountain area.
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Lake House: 3 VPs for each farm in your clan territory printed on a tile that is part of a completed water area.
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