King’s Road Game Rules

Hey there! Let’s dive into the rules of the thrilling King’s Road game.

In this game, you and your friends will embark on an exciting journey to claim the kingdom’s prestigious title. It’s a contest full of surprises and strategic decisions. So, get ready to put your skills to the test!

To start with, each player gets their own set of cards. These cards represent noble houses, each with their unique strengths and abilities. They hold the key to your path to dominance.

Throughout the game, you’ll earn victory points by using your cards wisely. The more points you have, the closer you get to becoming the ruler of King’s Road. But remember, it’s not just about gathering points; you must also gain the kingdom’s favor.

To do this, you’ll have to secure majority control over different regions of the kingdom. Each region favors a particular noble house, and the more control you have, the more favor you’ll gain. It’s all about strategically positioning your cards on the board and outmaneuvering your opponents.

But watch out! Your opponents won’t just stand idle. They’ll try to snatch away the regions you control, challenging your authority. So, be ready to defend your position and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Planning your moves and anticipating your opponents’ actions is the key to victory. You’ll need to make tough decisions, weighing risks against rewards. Do you focus on expanding your control in one region, or do you spread your influence across multiple regions? The choice is yours!

Remember, King’s Road is not only about luck; it’s a game of skill and strategy. It’s about using your cards wisely, reading the game board, and outsmarting your opponents. So, embrace the challenge, trust your instincts, and may the best player claim the throne! Good luck!

You come from a distinguished family in this chaotic kingdom. I know that the King needs assistance to govern this vast land during these difficult times. The competition for power and influence within the various regions of the kingdom has already begun.

The Game Components

• 1 game board
• 55 cards
• 100 Influence markers
• 1 King marker
• Rulebook

Setting Up the Game

Start by placing the game board in the middle of the table. It shows the kingdom divided into eight regions. The board also has a scoring track around the edges, with numbers ranging from 0 to 40.

Next, each player selects a color and receives 20 influence markers and 11 cards that correspond to their chosen color.

Let’s get started by placing our Influence markers on the scoring track. Each of us will put one marker on the 0/40 space, and keep the rest in front of us on the table. Don’t forget to hold your deck of eleven cards in your hand.

Now, it’s time to place the big King marker in Zin Kai’s Deep, the Region with a number 1 on top of its banner. This will mark the starting point of our game.

And with that, we are all set to begin.

Before we start, I want to mention something about the Influence markers. They have a family crest on one side and are blank on the other. When placing them on the board, we recommend placing them crest-down. However, when we establish a Noble later on, we can turn them crest-up.

If any of us have color-blindness, we can agree to play with all the markers crest-up to make it easier.

Let’s Play the Game

King’s Road is a game about controlling areas. We all start with the same set of cards. Every round, we each pick three cards to use.

These cards let us place markers on the board and change the game in different ways. After each round, one area will score. The player with the most markers there gets points.

The player with the most points at the end wins the game!

How to Play

The game goes like this. Each round has four parts:

1. We choose three cards.
2. We use those cards.
3. We count our points.
4. The King moves.

1. Pick Your Cards

When we start a new round, we all have to choose three cards to play. The rest of our cards go face down on the table.

It’s important to always choose three cards, but if we don’t have enough Influence markers, we have to play as many cards as we have markers.

For example, if we only have two markers, we can only play two cards.

2. Time to Reveal!

Once we all choose our cards, we reveal them at the same time and see what happens.

There are two kinds of cards: Region cards and Special cards.

Region Cards

If you pick a Region card, you’re showing that you want to contribute Influence to that Region in the game.

Once a Region card is revealed, you must put one of your Influence markers on the matching Region on the board. At the end of the round, these cards go back into your deck.

Exceptional Cards

Knight

If I choose to play the Knight, I have to save it for the very end of the round. I can’t play it until all my other cards have been played.

But when I do reveal the Knight, I get to do something special. I can put an Influence marker on the Region card that was played right before the Knight.

This means that the Region will have two Influence markers instead of just one for that round. It’s like giving it an extra boost of power!

Once the round is over, I have to put the Knight back into my deck. But it’s definitely a card worth saving for those strategic moments.

Dragon

When the Dragon card is played, the number of Regions scored in the current round increases by one (see Scoring below).

Keep the card next to the game board as a reminder. The effects of the Dragon card add up over time.

If two players play Dragon cards in the same round, a total of three Regions will be scored that round. Remember, each player can only play the Dragon card once before it is removed from the game.

The Witch – A Powerful Card

Hey there! Let’s talk about the Witch card. It’s an important one, so pay attention!

When you choose to play the Witch card, you have to reveal it first. Once you do, you put your two remaining cards back into your deck. Simple enough, right?

But here’s where things get interesting. If you played the Witch card, you’ll get to re-select and reveal your three cards AFTER everyone else has finished resolving their cards. It’s like a little bonus round just for Witch players! And if there’s more than one Witch player, they all get to reveal their new three cards at the same time. Talk about a burst of power!

Remember, though, that you can only play the Witch card once per player. So make it count! And once it’s been used, you have to remove it from the game. It’s a limited resource, so use it wisely.

3. Scoring – Time to Adjust Those Scores

Now that everyone has resolved their three cards and placed their Influence markers on the board, it’s time for the scoring. Brace yourself!

In each round, the Region that has the King marker is the one that gets scored. That’s where all the action is happening, after all. Keep your eyes on the prize!

When I play a Dragon card, I have to score the next Region in order. This means I go around the board in a clockwise direction, starting with Zin Kai’s Deep (1), then Wizard’s Tower (6), Savage Hills (4), King’s Altar (7), Temple Ruins (3), Dark Tower (5), Dragon’s Lair (2), and finally King’s Castle (8).

After I score King’s Castle (8), I go back and score Zin Kai’s Deep (1) again, and so on. It’s important to note that the King doesn’t travel along the road between Regions 3 and 1.

Here’s an example to help you understand. Let’s say the King marker is currently in the Dark Tower (Region 5). If two Dragon cards are played, I would need to score Dragon’s Lair (Region 2) and King’s Castle (Region 8) as well.

To score points, first I need to count the number of Influence markers that each player has in the Region where the King marker is currently located. The number of points awarded to each player is determined by the values listed on the banner in that Region.

Some Regions award points to the top three players, while others award points to the top four players. The values on the banner indicate how many points each place is worth.

The player who has the most Influence markers in the Region receives points equal to the highest number listed on the banner. This player’s Scoring marker is then moved forward on the scoring track by that number of spaces.

The player with the second-highest number of Influence markers in the Region receives points equal to the second-highest number listed on the banner, and so on. However, players must have at least one Influence marker in a Region to be eligible for scoring.

But here’s the catch – only a certain number of players can score in a Region. It’s one less than the total number of players in the game. Let’s say there are three players. In this case, points will only be awarded to the player with the highest value and the player with the second-highest value in the Region.

Unfortunately, the player with the third-highest value gets no points, even if they had Influence markers in the Region that’s being scored.

For this round, the King marker is in the Dark Tower area, which gives out 5-4-2-1 points. We have four players.

Now, let’s see who has the most Influence markers in the region. Jen has four, Phil has three, Chris has two, and Simon just has one.

Jen, with the most Influence markers, gets 5 points. Phil gets 4 points, and Chris gets 2 points. Unfortunately, Simon doesn’t get any points because in a game with four players, fourth place doesn’t receive any points.

Once a region is scored, everyone takes their Influence markers back, except for any Noble that’s left. These Influence markers will be used in future rounds.

Ties

If two or more players have the same number of Influence markers when a region is scored, they all get the lowest points value of their tied positions.

Example: Let’s say two players are tied for the most Influence in Dark Tower. In this case, both players would receive 4 points, which is the award for second place.

Now, let’s imagine a scenario where there is a tie among the lowest-placed players. In this situation, those players will not receive any points.

For instance: If three players tied for the most Influence in Dark Tower in a 4-player game, all of them would receive points for third place, which is 2 points. However, if it had been a 3-player game, none of them would earn any points because only two players can score in a Region in a 3-player game.

Nobles

When a single player has the most Influence in a Region during scoring, they leave one of their markers on the Region. It should be placed crest-up in the designated space below the banner.

Hey there! Let me break it down for you. This special marker represents a noble who governs a particular region in place of the king. Cool, right? When the region gets scored again in the future, this marker counts as one influence. Pretty nifty!

But here’s the catch: if there’s already a noble in that region, they get replaced by the new one. Out with the old, in with the new!

Now, if multiple players are tied for the most influence in a region, no new noble is added. In that case, if there’s an old noble already chillin’ in the region, they get to stay. Fair enough, I guess!

But wait, there’s more! When a region’s influence is scored, the player who has a noble in that region gets a bonus point. And guess what? They get another bonus point for each connected region. How cool is that? It’s all about those connections and bonus points, my friend!

In the game, Nobles can score points as long as their chain is uninterrupted along the road, going in any direction. Keep in mind that some Regions are connected to three other Regions by roads, while others are only connected to two.

For example, let’s say I have the Noble in Dark Tower, and I also have the Nobles in Temple Ruins and Dragon’s Lair. In this case, I would receive three bonus points.

4. The King’s Travels

After scoring is finished, the King marker is moved to the next Region in clockwise order along the road.

If more than one Region was scored due to playing one or more Dragon Cards, the King moves to the next Region after the last one that was scored.

King Marker

After the round is over, we all gather up our cards and put them back in our hands. The only cards we don’t add back are the Dragon and Witch cards we already played – those are taken out of the game.

The Game Ends

The game comes to an end when a round finishes and at least one player has scored 40 points or more.

If a player’s score goes over 40, they just keep moving their scoring marker along the track. Don’t forget to add 40 to their total score.

Now it’s time for the final scoring of Influence. In this round, we score all the Regions that were not scored before. We don’t create or score any more Nobles, but the ones already on the board still count towards the influence of their Region.

Example: The game is almost over because one player has scored more than 40 points. In the last round, Regions 7 and 3 were scored because a Dragon was played. Now, it’s time to score Influence markers in Regions 5, 2, 8, 1, 6, and 4 as well.

Once the final Scoring is done, the player with the most points wins. They have gained the most influence and favor with the King, and will be rewarded with power and prestige that come second only to the King himself!

If there is a tie, the player who ended the game with the most Nobles wins. If the tie persists, the players share the victory.

Variant – Permanent Nobles

If you’re an experienced player, you might want to try this variant that makes the Nobles permanent and gives them more strength.

Hey there! Let’s talk about playing the game with a little twist. You see, once a Noble is placed in a Region, it stays there until the game ends.

So, if a Region already has a Noble and it gets scored again, we can’t remove that Noble. But, another player can add a second Noble to the same Region. Just stack them on top of each other. It’s like a double dose of Nobles!

Remember, you can only have one Noble in each Region. If you already have the most Influence in a Region and you get it again, placing a Noble is no big deal. It doesn’t count.

And after a Region is scored, all the Nobles in that Region still get to score, just like usual.