The game is set on the island of Crete during the 14th Century. Settle the provinces of Crete with your people and your abbot. Build villages, bring your ships to harbor and increase your influence by building mighty forts.

Only he who shows the most skill in employing his castellan (Cretan tower guard) and other characters will gain the most victory points, finishing first in this competition for fame and glory.

Components

• 1 game board
• 26 fort cards
• 28 character cards
• 4 round wooden markers
• 4 abbots
• 8 ships
• 12 forts
• 16 villages
• 20 villagers
• 16 agriculture tiles
• 4 summary cards

Game Preparation

• Lay the game board out in the middle of the table. Place the 16 agriculture tiles face-up onto the 16 island provinces: Place the 2 wheat tiles onto the 2 yellow provinces (fields), the 8 olive and wine tiles randomly onto the 8 green provinces (hills), and the 6 thyme and cheese tiles randomly onto the 6 brown provinces (mountains).

• Give each player the 7 character cards in his color (king, architect, admiral, commander, castellan, abbot and farmer) as well as 1 marker, 2 ships, 3 forts, 4 villages and 5 villagers in the matching color.

• Each player's marker is placed onto the 'start' space of the scoring track around the edges of the board. Each player then takes his 7 character cards in hand.

• Shuffle the 26 fort cards. Lay the top 11 fort cards out in a face-down row along the bottom of the board, left to right, then turn the 2 left-most cards face-up. Place the remaining fort cards in a face-down pile near the game board.

• The youngest player begins.

Game Play

On a player's turn, he plays one character card out from his hand - that is, he places it face-up in front of himself and then carries out the associated action. The card remains on the table.

It is then the next player's turn to play out a card, etc. Only when a player plays the castellan card are all players allowed to take all of their cards back into their hands. Players may not play cards whose actions cannot be carried out.

The Character Cards

Admiral

When a player plays the admiral card, he may perform 1 of 2 actions: either add a ship from his supply to a harbor (the ocean area next to a province marked with a captain's wheel) of his choice or move one or both of his ships on the board to harbors of his choice.

Restriction: A player may not have both of his ships in a single harbor. No harbor may contain more than 2 ships. In the 2-player game, no harbor may contain more than 1 ship.

Commander

When a player plays the commander card, he may perform 1 of 2 actions: either add a villager from his supply to a province of his choice or move his villagers on the board.

Villagers move across the orange lines that separate the provinces - they may not move diagonally across a round fort space. The player has 4 movement points that he may use.

Restriction: If a province already contains 7 playing figures (abbots, villagers or villages), then no more villagers may be moved or placed there. It is permitted, however, to cross through such a province with one's abbot.

Once 7 playing figures (abbots, villagers or villages) are located within a province, the only way to increase one's influence in that province is by building a fort or moving a ship to the harbor.

Example: A player could move 1 villager a total of 4 spaces, or 1 villager 3 spaces and another 1 space, or 2 villagers each 2 spaces.

Abbot

When a player plays the abbot card, he may perform 1 of 2 actions: either take his abbot from his supply to a province of his choice or move his abbot on the board up to 3 provinces.

Restriction: If a province already contains 7 playing figures (abbots, villagers or villages), then no more abbots may be moved or placed there. When an abbot is in a province, he instils peace.

That is to say, the other players may not add villagers or villages to that province anymore. However, other players are still allowed to move their own abbots and villagers through such a province as well as move their own abbots into the province.

Once another player has moved his own abbot into the province, he is once again permitted to add villagers or villages.

Example: If the blue abbot is located in a province, then only blue villagers and villages may be added there. Any villagers or villages in other colors that were already there are permitted to remain.

Farmer

When a player plays the farmer card, he may (or must) harvest an agriculture tile and bring it to market.

To accomplish this, he needs a ship as well as 1 or more villagers. If a player has a ship in a province's harbor as well as a villager in that province, then he may harvest the agriculture tile on that province.

If a player also has a villager in an adjacent province, then he may harvest the agriculture tile on the adjacent province instead. If a player has villagers in multiple adjoining provinces, such that a 'chain' of villagers is formed leading back to his ship, then he may harvest the agriculture tile on any of the associated provinces.

The player places the harvested agriculture tile face-up in front of himself. The first tile of a type is worth 1 victory point. The 2nd, 3rd or 4th tiles of a type are worth 2, 3 or 4 points, respectively. These points are immediately recorded by moving the player's marker along the scoring track.

Example: A player who had previously harvested an olive tile harvests his second olive tile. He receives 2 victory points for the nearly-harvested tile.

Architect

When a player plays the architect card, he may build either a fort or a village. Forts are built on the round fort spaces located at the intersection points of multiple provinces.

Villages are built within a province of the player's choice. A player may only build a village if he has previously harvested an agriculture tile. Similarly, he may only build a second, third or fourth village if he has previously harvested 2, 3 or 4 agriculture tiles.

Restriction: If a province already contains 7 playing figures (abbots, villagers or villages), then no more villages may be built there. A village may also not be built in a province that contains another player's abbot, unless the building player's abbot is also in that province.

Important: While the abbots, villagers and ships are mobile and may be moved over the course of the game, forts and villages are fixed and may not be moved.

Hint: Since forts and villages are particularly powerful figures, it is recommended that players keep a building or two in reserve for the later stages of the game.

King

When a player plays the king card, he may perform the action associated with any character card he had previously played out (i.e. character cards currently on the table in front of him).

Example: A player played out the commander, admiral and farmer cards over his previous 3 turns.

He plays out the king card on his current turn and chooses to place it onto his commander card, allowing him to perform the commander's action a second time - he can either place a villager onto the board from his supply or use up to 4 movement points to move his villagers around the board.

Castellan

When a player plays the castellan card, he initiates scoring. The fort cards indicate which provinces will be scored over the course of the game. The fort card that is activated by a player playing a castellan card is always the leftmost one.

The provinces that surround the fort space indicated by the fort card are scored (see Scoring, below). After scoring has been completed, each player takes all character cards they've played thus far back into their hands.

The player who played the castellan card then turns over the next fort card in line. If he is happy with this card, he leaves it where it is. If he does not like it, he may place it on the bottom of the face-down pile and replace it with the top card from that pile.

He may not choose to discard this new fort card and redraw. The newly-drawn fort card is added to the space left when the previous card was removed, bringing the total of face-up fort cards back up to 2 (see Example - Fort Cards, below).

Example: A player plays the castellan card. The current left-most fort card is the number 2 card, meaning that the 1 brown and 2 green provinces surrounding the 2 fort space will be scored.

The number of victory points a province is worth is indicated by the number of small white hexes depicted within it.

Scoring

The total influence that each player has in a given province is determined by the playing piece(s) a player has in that province: Abbots and villagers within a province count as 1 influence point each, as do ships in a province's harbor as well as forts on neighboring fort spaces. Villages within a province count as 2 influence points each.

The player with the most influence in a province receives the full number of victory points the province is worth. Should multiple players be tied for first, they all receive the full number of victory points.

In a 3- or 4-player game, second place receives half the available victory points, rounded down. Should multiple players be tied for second, they all receive half the available victory points, rounded down. Second place points are not awarded when there is a tie for first place.

The number of victory points a province is worth depends on its type. Arid mountains (brown) are worth 2 victory points, olive-bearing hills (green) are worth 3 victory points and fertile plains (yellow) are worth 4 victory points.

Provinces with harbors are worth 2 extra victory points. The number of victory points a province is worth is indicated by the number of small white hexes depicted within it. Because only 11 fort cards will be active in any given game, it is entirely possible that some provinces will never be scored.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as all 11 scoring rounds have been initiated.The winner is the player with the most victory points.

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