Copyright 1991 by William H. Timmins and copyright 1995 by Derek Hohls.
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Kingdoms II is a card game which simulates four kingdoms or nations at war. It uses two tarot decks. The goal of the game is to eliminate all of the opposing sides' cards/forces. Note: The tarot meanings used in the game are sometimes a bit forced or simply wrong. In some cases the meanings of cards are flipped on their head. Why? This is a game - not a simulation or a fortune-telling exercise.
Kingdoms II is based on the game called Kingdoms which was developed for 2 players. This is a 4 player version, allowing for either 4 individuals to compete, or for partnership play.
Each of the suits of the Minor Arcana represent a different force in your kingdom.
The Major Arcana represent random Events which can happen in your kingdom. The full list of Events and their meanings appears further on.
Divide up the Minor Arcana according to the suits, so that you have four piles. The Major Arcana make up a fifth pile. Shuffle each pile.
Deal out four cards from each of the Minor Arcana piles to each player. He/she should examine each pile, and place the cards within a pile in an order of choice. The basis for this order will depend on the card values and tactics to be adopted, and should hopefully (!) be more evident after a game or two.
Once all the piles are in order, they placed in front of each player, starting with Swords on the left, and then Wands, Coins and Cups. The top card of each pile should now be turned over and placed in front of the pile. You should end up with the following pattern.
____ ____ ____ ____
| | | | | | | |
| d | | d | | d | | d |
|____| |____| |____| |____|
____ ____ ____ ____
| | | | | | | |
| u | | u | | u | | u |
|____| |____| |____| |____|
_____ _____ _____ _____
Swords| d | | u | | u | | d |
|_____| |_____| |_____| |_____|
_____ _____ _____ _____
Wands | d | | u | | u | | d |
|_____| |_____| |_____| |_____|
_____ _____ _____ _____
Coins | d | | u | | u | | d |
|_____| |_____| |_____| |_____|
_____ _____ _____ _____
Cups | d | | u | | u | | d |
|_____| |_____| |_____| |_____|
____ ____ ____ ____
| | | | | | | |
| u | | u | | u | | u |
|____| |____| |____| |____|
____ ____ ____ ____
| | | | | | | |
| d | | d | | d | | d |
|____| |____| |____| |____|
Swords Wands Coins Cups
The face up (u) card is the active, or rank 1 card. The face down (d) card is the top of the reserve, or rank 2, cards. (It is possible to later get rank 3 cards, which are placed behind rank 2 cards, and are called support cards). The active cards are the ones that are primarily used to attack or affect the opposing forces.
The player to the left of the dealer has the first turn.
A player's turn consists of three parts:
At the beginning of a turn, a player may reorganize his ranks. He can do one of the following actions for each file/force:
Essentially, the forces in a kingdom can be grouped into two types: Army and Faith forces are used to attack and conquer other kingdoms' forces; Wealth and Agriculture forces are used for growth and healing within the kingdom.
However, after the move is made the opposing player can make a countermove while the force is still in enemy territory. After the countermove, the first player withdraws the force (if it still exists) and the second player gets his turn.
Destroyed forces are placed in a discard pile.
Forces must be used in the order shown below i.e. . Not all forces have to be used in a turn.
Armies can attack and destroy opposing forces (of any type). The strength of an army is usually equal to the face value of the card - but may be reduced in some circumstances.
In order to attack, the army must be of a higher value than the opposing force. After attacking a card of a lower value, that card is removed and put on the discard pile.
If another army card is attacked, the opposing army is destroyed but damages the attacker. (The destroyed card is laid across the attacker's card.) The effective strength of the army is then its normal value minus the value of the destroyed army.
If an army attacks a non-army card it's effective defensive strength is normal minus half rounded up of the other card's value if it is counterattacked. For example, army strength 10 attacking money strength 3 would be at effective strength 8 if counterattacked. However, once the army is withdrawn it is at full strength again.
An army can defend (counterattack) against a force which is attacking another force within the kingdom, provided it has a higher strength than the opposing force's effective strength. It never takes damage from a counterattack. RESERVE armies can be used to defend, since it is assumed the enemy is in their territory. If the active army has been destroyed, the reserve army becomes the active one; if not, the reserve army is returned to the bottom of the reserve pile.
X side has a 12 army. Y side has a 5 active army and a 10 reserve army. X side attacks Y's army. Y's army is destroyed, but damages X's army to an effective value of 7 (10 minus half 5 rounded up is 7). Y's reserve army then destroys X's remaining forces, taking no damage. It then becomes the active army.
X side has 12 army. Y side has 10 army and 8 coin. X attacks Y's coin. Coin is destroyed, but X is at 8 for Y's counterattack, which destroys it. If Y had not counterattacked, X would have returned home with no damage.
Faith is used to convert forces in an opposing kingdom. If the faith card has a higher than the opposing force card, it can 'attack' that card and take it to its own kingdom (placing it at the bottom of the support pile). However, faith is at effectiveness minus 1/2 rounded down of the other side should a counterattack be launched. Even if a counterattack is successful, the orginal card being 'attacked' is still converted.
Faith can be used to defend, taking over the attacking card. If a damaged army is taken over, it is STILL damaged.
Wealth cards can be used up to draw new cards. Wealth/4, rounded up, (resulting in a value of 1-4) is the number of cards you can draw from any of the piles (except the Event pile). You then choose the card you want out of the choices presented and return the other cards i.e. wealth only returns one card, but you get better chances with higher wealth. The new card is placed behind the reserve card of the appropriate file. You cannot use wealth to draw more wealth cards.
If an army takes damage, it can be 'healed' at the beginning of that player's next turn (the damage stays until then, however!) if the damage is lower than the active agriculture card. If damage is higher, and consists of several cards, the lowest cards are healed up to the agriculture value. For example, if an army has a 4, 5, and 10 damage on it, the healing will eliminate the 4 and 5 first.
If there are no armies left, the active agriculture card can form a militia. The card is moved to the armies file, and it's force is 1/2 rounded up.
Agriculture cards can also be used to buy wealth cards. The same method used for wealth cards (described above) applies.
A player must draw an Event card (the Major Arcana pile) at the end of his turn. Before he does so, he must choose whether or not the random event will apply to him or another player of his choice. The Event cards are listed in detail below. All Random Event cards are placed in a discard pile when they no longer apply.
The game ends when all Random Event cards have been drawn.
There are 6 ranks of Event cards, with eight cards in each except the last rank, which has four.
If one of these cards is drawn, the active card in it's force is removed.
The cards are:
If one of these cards is drawn, it is placed behind the appropriate file. Every card in it's file is treated as worth +2 normal, all other cards are at +1. One of these cards can instead be used to destroy one Bad Omen card, regardless of when it is drawn.
The cards are:
If one of these cards is drawn, it is placed behind the appropriate file. Every card in it's file is treated as worth -2 normal, all other cards are at -1.
On the second move following the present one you can sacrifice any active card from files other than that of the influence to destroy the Bad Omen. <i.e. draw card, next move: can't do anything, next move: destroy card> Of course, you don't have to destroy the influence.
The cards are:
If one of these cards is drawn, a player may break/form an alliance with another.
The cards are:
If this card is drawn, a card is either lost or gained in the appropriate file. If the difference in the file between the opposing person's active card and your active card is odd, then chance becomes Disaster (as above). Otherwise, you can draw a card as in the Good Omen cards.
The cards are:
These cards, Strength and Temperance, may be used on any current active card. Strength increases the offensive capabilities of a card by 1/2 rounded up of it's value. Temperance increases the defensive capabilities of a card by 1/2 rounded up of it's value. (Note: Temperance increases the amount a card can withstand when attacked. Counterattacks are covered by Strength.)
It's harder to write rules for a game than to just explain them, but once you get going it's easy!. Email any suggestions or questions to the authors: wt0b+@andrew.cmu.edu or Derek Hohls (gamesza@yahoo.co.uk)