Based on the game appearing in Gary Gygax's Saga of Old City, 1985.
© 2007 Trigee Enterprises Company & Matthew Breen. All rights reserved.
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Sequence of Play At the beginning of a hand, the dealer shuffles the plaques and deals seven to each player who has paid the ante - two plaques face-up, five plaques face-down. The deal is immediately followed by a round of betting, beginning with the player on the dealer's left. Once betting is concluded, the first player turns his third plaque. If his tableau increases in value, play passes to the next unyielded player with unturned plaques; if not, he continues turning plaques until either his tableau increases in value, or he has two unturned plaques remaining. Whether the tableau has increased in value or not, when a player has two unturned plaques remaining, he must either yield or initiate a betting round; following this, play passes to the next player. A player may initiate a round of betting at any time during his turn (before or after turning a plaque); it is only after turning the fifth plaque that betting or yielding is mandatory. If all but one player yields before the end of the hand, that player is the winner and collects the pot. If at least two players are still in play when all tableaux are either completed or yielded, the player with the most valuable tableau is the winner and collects the pot. The deal passes to the dealer's left for the next hand. Betting Round The player initiating a betting round must bet some amount or yield. In turn, each player must see the current bet, raise the current bet, or yield. A player who cannot see the current bet must yield. The betting round concludes when a complete circuit results in all players seeing or yielding with no raises. The Plaques There are five 'suits' of nine plaques each, plus five 'unique' plaques, for a total of fifty. The five suits each contain five Military plaques (denoted by a single priority icon) and four Civic plaques (denoted by two priority icons). The Military plaques are:
The Civic plaques are:
The five unique plaques comprise the Elf, the Dwarf, the Thief, and the two Dragons.
Special Properties of Plaques Coffer If a player's tableau contains a Coffer, he may consider a single plaque of another colour to be the colour of the Coffer for the purpose of calculating the value of his tableau. For example, if the player's tableau contains     , he may consider the Green Bow as a Red Bow, thus completing a Company in conjunction with the Red Spear and Red Sword.If the tableau contains multiple Coffers, each Coffer may affect a different plaque. Crown If a player's tableau contains two Crowns, he may consider all plaques the colour of one Crown to be the colour of the other Crown for the purpose of calculating the value of his tableau. For example, if the player's tableau contains       , he may consider all his Green plaques to be Red plaques (or vice versa), thus completing a Duke's Company.If the tableau contains three or more Crowns, multiple colours may be thus amalgamated. Elf If a player's tableau contains the Elf, any Sword, Bow, or Sigil plaques in his tableau may be considered to be any Military or Civic plaque of the same colour for the purpose of calculating the value of his tableau. (Note that emulating a Coffer or Crown for this purpose does not confer the special properties of the Coffer or Crown plaques.) For example, if the player's tableau contains   , he may consider his Red Bow and Red Spear to be a Red Coffer and Red Tower respectively, thus completing a Kingdom in conjunction with the Red Gate and Red Crown.Dwarf If a player's tableau contains the Dwarf and also any Gate or Tower plaque, no other player may use the Elf or Dragon plaques to emulate a plaque of a type that appears in the tableau with the Dwarf. For example, if the player's tableau contains       , no other player may use an Elf or Dragon plaque to emulate a Spear, Sword, Horse, or Gate plaque. The player whose tableau contains the Dwarf is not so restricted, and in this case might use his Dragon to emulate a Horse, completing Three of a Kind with the Blue Horse and White Horse.If a tableau contains a Dwarf but neither Gate nor Tower, the Dwarf has no effect. Thief If a player's tableau contains the Thief and also one or more Coffer plaques, no other players may consider plaques of the colour of the Coffer or Coffers when calculating the value of their tableaux. For example, one player's tableau contains    , which completes the Mage. However, if another player's tableau contains  , the first player cannot apply his Red tiles, and thus his tableau only ranks as Three of a Kind, with the Green, Blue, and White Sigils considered.Dragon A Dragon may be used to emulate any Military or Civic plaque of any colour for the purpose of calculating the value of his tableau. (Note that emulating a Coffer or Crown for this purpose does not confer the special properties of the Coffer or Crown plaques.) Combinations The possible scoring combinations appear below. A plaque which directly contributes to a combination is an 'active' plaque. For example, if a tableau contains  , the player has completed a Great Host; the Red Coffer permits him to consider the Blue Sigil as a Red Sigil. The active plaques are thus the Red Spear, Red Sword, Red Bow, Red Horse, and the (emulated) Red Sigil. The Green Gate and Red Coffer are not considered active, as they are not part of the Great Host.If two players' tableaux contain the same combination, first compare the highest-ranked active plaques. For example, and  both complete a Company, but the Green Horse with a value of 4 (according to its priority icon) ranks higher than the Red Bow with a value of 3; the Green tableau is superior. If the highest-ranked plaques are identical in value, compare the next-highest, and so on.An emulated plaque has the value of the plaque it is emulating, but is considered inferior to a true plaque of the same type; and  both complete a Company, and if the Dragon is emulating a Red Sigil, both highest-ranked plaques have a value of 5; however, the true Sigil ranks more highly than the emulated Sigil; and the Green tableau is superior.If the ranks of the active plaques are also identical, the tableaux may finally be distinguished by colour, with Red ranking the highest, followed by Blue, Green, Black, and White in descending order. A tableau is only considered to complete one combination at any time. For example,  is considered Three of a Kind, even though it also contains a Pair, because Three of a Kind is the combination of higher value. The Red and Green Spears are not active plaques in this tableau. |
