Contents
Welcome to the Kreta Game Rules!
Hey there! I’m excited to tell you all about the rules of the Kreta game. Get ready for a fun and thrilling journey! So, let’s dive in and discover how to play this exciting game.
Objective
The objective of Kreta is to score the most victory points by building and delivering houses on the Greek island of Crete. By managing resources and making strategic decisions, you’ll be able to outwit your opponents and become the champion of Kreta!
Game Setup
Before we begin, let’s set up the game. Each player selects a color and takes the respective player board, houses, and tokens. The game board is placed in the center, and the resource tiles are randomly arranged. The development cards and ship cards are shuffled and placed face-down, ready to draw.
Gameplay
Kreta is played over several rounds, and each round consists of three phases:
- Allocation phase: During this phase, players take turns placing their tokens on buildings to collect resources. You want to strategically choose the buildings that will provide you with the resources you need to construct houses.
- Construction phase: In this phase, players use the resources they collected to build houses on the building sites they own. Each house built will earn you victory points, so make sure to plan your constructions wisely!
- Delivery phase: This phase allows players to load houses onto ships and deliver them to the island of Crete. The more houses you deliver, the more points you’ll earn. However, keep an eye on your opponents, as they may try to interrupt your deliveries.
The game continues in this manner until the last house is built or the last ship departs. At that point, the game ends, and players tally up their victory points to determine the winner.
Conclusion
So, now that you know the rules of Kreta, are you ready to embark on this exciting adventure? Remember, success in Kreta requires careful planning, resource management, and strategic decision-making. So gather your friends, set up the game, and let the excitement begin! Good luck!
Welcome to the 14th Century, where the island of Crete becomes your playground. Your task: settle the provinces of Crete alongside your people and abbot. Together, you’ll construct villages, dock your ships, and solidify your power by constructing formidable forts.
Success in this competition for fame and glory rests upon your ability to masterfully utilize your castellan, the defender of Cretan towers, as well as other characters. The more victory points you earn, the closer you are to achieving victory and securing your place in history.
The Tools of the Trade
I have a list of items for you to play the game. Here’s what you’ll need:
1. A game board.
2. 26 fort cards.
3. 28 character cards.
4. 4 round wooden markers.
5. 4 abbots.
6. 8 ships.
7. 12 forts.
8. 16 villages.
9. 20 villagers.
10. 16 agriculture tiles.
11. 4 summary cards.
To get started, follow these steps:
1. Find a spot in the middle of the table to lay out the game board.
2. Take the 16 agriculture tiles and place them face-up on the 16 island provinces.
3. Put the 2 wheat tiles on the yellow provinces (fields).
4. Randomly distribute the 8 olive and wine tiles on the green provinces (hills).
5. Randomly place the 6 thyme and cheese tiles on the brown provinces (mountains).
Now you’re ready to begin the game!
Alright, let’s get started! Here’s what you need to do to set up and play the game:
First, gather all the players around the table. Each player will be given seven character cards in their chosen color. These cards represent different roles like king, architect, admiral, commander, castellan, abbot, and farmer. You’ll also receive one marker, two ships, three forts, four villages, and five villagers, all in your chosen color.
To keep track of your progress, place your marker on the ‘start’ space of the scoring track that runs along the edges of the game board. Now, take your seven character cards in your hand and get ready to play.
Next, shuffle the 26 fort cards. Lay out the top 11 cards face-down in a row along the bottom of the board, from left to right. Then, turn the two left-most cards face-up. Keep the rest of the fort cards in a face-down pile near the game board.
Alright, now we’re ready to start!
The youngest player goes first.
When it’s my turn to play, I pick a character card from my hand and put it in front of me, face-up. Then, I do what the card says. The card stays on the table.
Next, it’s your turn to play a card. We keep taking turns like this. But there’s something special about the castellan card. When someone plays it, all players can take their cards back into their hands. But only the castellan card lets us do this.
There’s a rule, though. We can only play cards that we can actually do the action for. If we can’t do the action, we can’t play the card.
The Character Cards
The Admiral Card
When I play the admiral card, I get to choose between two actions. I can either add one of my ships from my supply to any harbor on the board or I can move one or both of my ships to different harbors of my choice.
Restriction: I am not allowed to have both of my ships in the same harbor. And remember, no harbor can have more than two ships. In a game with only two players, each harbor can only have one ship.
The Commander Card
When I play the commander card, I have two choices. I can either add one of my villagers to any province I want, or I can move my villagers on the board.
My villagers can move along the orange lines that divide the provinces, but they can’t move diagonally across a round fort space. I have four movement points to use.
There’s a rule: If a province already has seven playing figures – like abbots, villagers, or villages – I can’t move or place any more villagers there. However, I can still move my abbot through that province.
If a province already has seven playing figures, the only way I can increase my influence there is by building a fort or moving a ship to the harbor.
For instance: I can move one villager a total of four spaces, or I can move one villager three spaces and another one space. I could also move two villagers, with each of them moving two spaces.
The Wise Leader
So, when I play the abbot card, I have a couple of choices. I can either take my abbot from my supply and place it in a province of my choosing, or I can move my abbot on the board, up to three provinces.
But, there’s a restriction. If a province already has seven playing figures, like abbots, villagers, or villages, then no more abbots can be moved or placed there. Once an abbot is in a province, it brings peace. That means other players can’t add villagers or villages to that province anymore. However, they can still move their own abbots and villagers through the province.
If another player moves their abbot into the province, they can add villagers and villages again.
Here’s the deal: If you have a blue abbot in a province, you can only put blue villagers and villages there. You can leave any villagers or villages of other colors that are already there.
Farmer
When you play the farmer card, you have the option (or sometimes the requirement) to gather an agriculture tile and take it to market.
To pull this off, you’ll need a ship and at least one villager. If you have a ship in a province’s harbor and a villager in that same province, you can harvest the agriculture tile located there.
If you also have a villager in a neighboring province, you can choose to harvest the agriculture tile from that province instead. And if you have villagers in multiple adjoining provinces, forming a “chain” that leads back to your ship, you can harvest an agriculture tile from any of those connected provinces.
When I harvest an agriculture tile, I place it face-up in front of me. The first tile of a particular type is worth 1 victory point. If I collect a second tile of the same type, it’s worth 2 points. The third tile is worth 3 points, and the fourth tile is worth 4 points. I make sure to record these points by moving my marker along the scoring track.
Let me give you an example to make it clearer. Suppose I have already harvested an olive tile. Now, if I harvest another olive tile, I will receive 2 victory points for that tile. It’s a nice way to earn some extra points!
Architect
When you play the architect card, you have the choice to build a fort or a village. Forts are built on the round fort spaces that are found at the intersection points of multiple provinces.
Villages, on the other hand, are built within a province of your choice. However, there’s a catch. You can only build a village if you have already harvested an agriculture tile. And if you want to build a second, third, or fourth village, you must have previously harvested 2, 3, or 4 agriculture tiles, respectively.
But there are some restrictions: If a province already has 7 playing figures (abbots, villagers, or villages) in it, you are not allowed to build any more villages there. Additionally, you cannot build a village in a province that already has another player’s abbot, unless your own abbot is also in that province.
Important: Okay, here’s the thing. You need to know that the abbots, villagers, and ships can be moved around during the game. But forts and villages? Nope, they are stuck in one place and can’t be moved. Got it? Good. Hint: Now, listen up. Forts and villages are seriously strong pieces in this game. So, I suggest you save a building or two for later in the game. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
King
When you play the king card, you can use the ability of any character card you have already played. This means you can use the abilities of the character cards that are currently in front of you.
For example: Let’s say you played the commander, admiral, and farmer cards on your last three turns.
Now, on your current turn, you play the king card and choose to place it on your commander card. This allows you to use the commander’s ability again. You can either place a villager on the board from your supply or use up to 4 movement points to move your villagers around.
Castellan
When you play the castellan card in the game, it’s time to score some points. Each fort card represents a province that will be scored during the game. The fort card on the leftmost side is always the one that is activated when the castellan card is played.
Now, let’s talk about scoring. The provinces surrounding the fort space indicated by the fort card are the ones that count. You’ll need to keep an eye on them. After scoring is done, you get to retrieve all the character cards you’ve played so far.
Now it’s time to turn over the next fort card. Do you like it? If you do, leave it where it is. But if you don’t like what you see, you can place it at the bottom of the face-down pile and take the top card from there instead. It’s up to you!
If I don’t want to, I can keep the new fort card I just drew instead of getting a different one. I’ll just put it in the spot where the old card used to be, so there are always two fort cards face-up on the table (like in the example below).
Example: I played the castellan card. The leftmost fort card is number 2, so I’ll score the brown province next to it and the two green provinces surrounding the 2 fort space.
#image.jpg
Inside each province, you’ll see small white hexes that represent the number of victory points it’s worth.
Scoring
The total influence you have in a province is calculated based on your game pieces: Each abbots and villagers that you have count for 1 influence point, as do ships in a province’s harbor and forts on neighboring fort spaces. If you have villages in a province, each village counts for 2 influence points.
If you have the most influence in a province, you get all the victory points it’s worth. If there’s a tie for first place, all tied players get the full number of victory points.
In a game with 3 or 4 players, the player who comes in second place gets half of the victory points that are available, but rounded down. If there is a tie for second place, all the players involved get half of the victory points, rounded down. However, if there is a tie for first place, no second place points are awarded.
The number of victory points that a province is worth depends on what type of province it is. Arid mountains, which are shown as brown on the map, are worth 2 victory points. Olive-bearing hills, which are shown as green, are worth 3 victory points. And fertile plains, which are shown as yellow, are worth 4 victory points.
Provinces with harbors are worth an extra 2 victory points. You can tell how many victory points a province is worth by looking at the number of small white hexes shown within it. However, because there are only 11 fort cards that will be used in each game, it’s possible that some provinces may never actually be scored.
Now, let’s talk about the end of the game.