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CLASH OF CULTURES - PRIMER
A shortened version of the rules.
Victory Points
- 1 VP per city piece of yours on the board. This does not include base settlements.
- 1 VP per every 2 Advances.
- 5 VP per Wonder.
- 2 VP per Objective card.
- Event cards, if applicable.
Resources
- Food - Gathered from Plains, Fished Seas and Irrigated Deserts. Used for Units, Buildings and Advances.
- Ore - Gathered from Mountains. Used for Buildings and Armies.
- Wood - Gathered from Forests. Used for Buildings and Ships.
- Ideas - Generated by advances, usually. Used for advances.
- Gold - Generated by trade, usually. May be used in place of any other normal Resource.
- Culture Tokens - Generated by advances, usually. Used for Wonders and Cultural Influence.
- Mood Tokens - Generated by advances, usually. Used for Wonders and Civic Improvement.
Actions (Summary)
Each turn you get three actions from the following:
- Research an Advance - requires 2 Food or Ideas.
- Found a City - requires a Settler on an empty space.
- Activate a City - Activating a city more than once will lower its happiness. Choose one:
- Build Units - build up to (size) units. Settler: Food+Food. Army: Food+Ore. Ship: Wood+Wood.
- Collect Resources - gather resources from own/surrounding hexes.
- Increase City Size - add a citypiece to a settlement. Food+Wood+Ore.
Move Units - move up to three groups of units one space.
Civic Improvement - spend Mood tokens to make a city happy, treating it as +1 size.
Cultural Influence - spend Culture tokens to attempt to take over a city-piece of an opponent's city.Actions (Expanded)
Each player can take three actions a turn, and any amount of free abilities. Anything which costs an action on a Card or an Advance has the term AAA: against it; anything that does not may be used at any time with the exception of military skills on Action Cards - these require the Tactics advance. Additionally, the following actions are always available:
- Research an Advance
An advance costs 2 Food, either or both of which may be replaced by Ideas instead. You must buy the top advance in a category - after that, you may buy any others unless they have prerequisites listed against them.
The three Government Advance trees are special - you must research their prerequisite to even access the tree, and you may only have Advances in one of the trees at any time. You may, upon buying an Advance in another Govenment tree, move all cubes over from one tree to another, placing one on the Advance you just bought.
If you buy a Culture or Mood Advance, you get a Culture or Mood token, and increase the position of your Culture or Mood marker one space. Each time either track reaches 3, 5 or 7, you draw an Event and resolve it immediately. These cards may force a variety of effects including Famines, Good Harvests, the spawning or attacking of Barbarians, or VP increases.
- Found a City
If you have a Settler on a non-barren space with no cities and no foreign units, you may discard that Settler and spend an action to found a City.
- Activate a City
Activating a City means using it to collect resources, or build troops or buildings. There are no limits to how often you can activate a city, but every time you activate a City beyond the first in a single turn its Mood will drop a step, from happy to neutral or from neutral to unhappy. A happy City counts as size+1 for gathering and building purposes; an angry City counts as size 1 for gathering and building purposes and may not Increase City Size. When you activate a City, choose one action:
- Build Units - You may build a number of units equal to city size. Note that you may never have more than 4 units on a space, not counting army units on board a ship.
Settler - 2 Food
Army - 1 Food, 1 Ore
Ship - 2 Wood. This is placed in the sea space the Port services.
- Collect Resources
You may collect a number of resources equal to the size of the city, from the hex the city is located on and any adjacent hexes. Each hex may only be used once per action, and you cannot collect from a hex if it has any city on it or any foreign unit.
Until you gain the Storage advance, your maximum Food is 2. The most you can have of any one Resource is 8.
- Increase City Size
To increase the size of a city, you must pay 1 Food, 1 Ore and 1 Wood. Each city-piece has a prerequisite Advance. A city cannot grow to a size larger than the total number of cities you have, and can only use each city-piece once.
Fortress (Tactics) - When defending the city, +1 die for combat and cancel one hit on the first combat round.
Academy (Writing) - Generate 2 Ideas immediately.
Temple (Myths) - Generate 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token immediately.
Port (Fishing) - City may Build ships. Once per Collect Resources action, an adjacent sea space generates a Gold or a Mood token instead of Food.
- Move Units
The Move action allows you to move up to three units or groups of units. A group is defined as up to four units moving from the same space to the same space. A battle occurs if your units move into a space with enemy units or cities and are resolved immediately.
Land Units are moved one space per Move action. They can be moved again by spending more actions on Moving, but with some caveats:
- Settlers cannot move into the same space as enemies unless they are with an Army.
- Units that have participated in a battle cannot be moved again that turn.
- Units that move into a Mountain cannot be moved again the same turn.
- Units that move into a Forest can be moved again the same turn, but not if this would result in a battle.
- Ships can move any distance between connected Sea spaces. If you have the Navigation advance your move may be used to move off the board and around it to the next Sea area.
Every ship may transport two Land units by having the units move onto the Ship, and then off it in a later action.
- Civic Improvement
By spending a number of Mood tokens equal to the size of a city, you may bump the mood of a city up one step from angry to neutral or neutral to happy. You may do this as many times for as many cities as you wish within one action, if you have the tokens to spare.
- Cultural Influence
By targeting an opponent's city that is of at least size 2 and within a number of hexes equal to your city's size, you may attempt to culturally influence that city. Roll a die - if it is 5 or 6, you are successful, and may choose a city-piece on that city to replace of one your own colour. This does not give you any advantages over the city - the piece still functions as normal, it just gives you a VP at the end of the game instead of your opponent.
Culture tokens may be spent to add 1 range per token or add 1 to the die result per token.
Status Phase and Ending The Game
After every 3 turns, the Status Phase occurs. In order, players play any completed Objective cards they have, receive a free Advance (and an Event, if applicable), gain an extra Objective and Action card, and may choose to raze a single size 1 city in exchange for a Gold.
After the above, the first player for the next turn is worked out by adding together everyone's Mood and Culture levels. The highest total is the first player.
After six Status Phases, the game ends.
Battles and Capturing
When two armies face off, they conduct battle in a series of combat rounds. Both players roll a number of dice equal to the number of units they're attacking with, plus any extra from advances or abilities from Action Cards, and the result is divided by 5 (rounded down) to equal the number of 'hits' they do. Both players then remove one Army unit per hit they took, and the attacking player can choose to retreat or continue to attack.
Players with the Tactics advance may play one Action card per combat round for its combat effect.
A city is captured if your Army units are alone in the city. When this happens:
- If the city was a Barbarian settlement, you may choose to raze it for 1 Gold.
- Exchange the owner's city-pieces with ones of your colour. Leave any Culturally Influenced pieces alone.
- If the city was happy or neutral, you receive gold equal to the size of the city, and the previous owner gets a free Settler in one of his cities.
- The city becomes angry.
Settlers cannot fight, and are defeated automatically if alone.
Wonders
Wonders are revealed by the Engineering and Monuments advances. Once revealed, a Wonder may be built by paying the cost and spending an action to activate a non-angry city. The Wonder is placed in that city, and the player gets the effects and Victory Points at the end of the game. If another player takes that city over, they take the Wonder from you.
Typical costs for a wonder might involve a large amount of all three basic Resources, and a number of Culture or Mood tokens.
Trades
During your turn, you may initiate Trades with other players. You may trade Resources, Action Cards, Objective Cards, and Mood or Culture tokens. Trade deals involving an immediate transaction of the above must be fulfilled... but verbal agreements of diplomacy or loans are not guaranteed by the game rules. Only the players' conscience and goals determine the validity of such agreements.
Advances
Thankfully, there's a handy player aid you'll be able to look at once the game is going, but for completeness' sake and to give people an idea of their power, here they all are. Notice how important Irrigation, Storage and Sanitation are - they tend to be priority picks for any civilization.
- AGRICULTURE - Enhances the collection of resources.
- Farming: Earned automatically. Cities may collect Food and Wood.
- Irrigation (Mood): Cities may collect Food from Deserts. Ignore 'Famine' event cards.
- Storage (Mood): Your maximum Food may go higher than 2.
- Husbandry (Mood): When collecting, pay 1 Food (free if you have the Roads advance) to collect from hexes up to 2 spaces away.
- CONSTRUCTION - Enhances movement and expansion.
- Mining: Earned automatically. Cities may Collect Ore.
- Engineering: Enables Sanitation and Roads. Reveal the top Wonder. AAA: Activate a non-angry city and build a Wonder.
- Sanitation (Mood): Requires Engineering. When increasing city size, pay 1 Food to gain 1 Settler. Ignore 'Plague' and 'Epidemic' event cards.
- Roads (Culture): Requires Engineering. When moving a land group to or from your cities, you may pay 1 Food to let them move 2 spaces and/or 1 Ore to ignore terrain penalties.
- MARITIME - All things ships.
- Fishing (Mood): Your cities may collect Food from one adjacent Sea space. Allows the building of Ports.
- Cartography: AAA: Get 1 Culture token and 1 Idea for each region with one of your Ships in it. Only usable once per turn. Enables Navigation.
- Warships: During Naval battles, or Land battles where your units disembark from a ship, cancel 1 hit in the first round.
- Navigation (Culture): Requires Cartography. Ships may move off the board and around to the first Sea space in the direction moved.
- EDUCATION - The starting point for any advance-heavy build.
- Writing (Culture): Draw 1 Action and 1 Objective card if you have any Government advances, or the first time you buy one. Allows the building of Academies.
- Public Education (Mood): Get 1 Idea whenever you collect from a city with an Academy.
- Free Education (Mood): Get 1 Mood token whenever you use Gold or Ideas to research an advance.
- Philosophy (Mood): Get 1 Idea. Get 1 Idea when you research a Science advance. Enables Democracy.
- WARFARE - The starting point for any combat-heavy build.
- Tactics (Culture): You may move Army units, and use combat effects on Action Cards. Enables the building of Fortresses.
- Siegecraft: Pay resources to cancel an enemy's Fortress effects. 2 Wood will cancel the bonus die to combat, 2 Ore will cancel the nullification of the first hit.
- Steel Weapons: You must pay 2 Ore at the same time as researching this advance. Your Army units get an extra hit on the first round of combat versus Armies without this advance.
- Draft (Culture): Whenever you Build Units, you may pay for a single Army unit with a Mood token. Enables Autocracy.
- SPIRITUALITY - Aids in city expansion and happiness.
- Myths (Mood): Whenever a city would have its Mood reduced by an Event card, you may pay 1 Mood token instead. Enables the building of Temples.
- Rituals (Culture): When performing Civic Improvement, you may use Resources instead of Mood tokens.
- Priesthood: Once per turn, you may buy a Science advancement at no Food cost.
- State Religion (Mood): Once per turn, when increasing the size of a city with a Temple in it, you may ignore the Food cost. Enables Theocracy.
- ECONOMICS - Gold is Good.
- Bartering (Mood): AAA: Exchange up to 3 resources into a mix of Gold or Culture tokens.
- Trade Routes: At the start of your turn, you get 1 Food per Settler or Ship within two spaces of a non-angry city belonging to another player. Max 4, only 1 per city.
- Currency (Culture): Each Trade Route may produce Gold instead of Food. Enables Taxation.
- Taxation: Requires Currency. AAA: Pay 1 Mood token to get 1 Gold for each city you have. Only usable once per turn.
- CULTURE - Helps in the buildup of Culture tokens and Wonders.
- Art and Sculptures (Culture): Once per turn, you may pay a Culture token to make a Cultural Influence action at no action cost.
- Circus and Sports (Mood): When making a Civic Improvement action, your cities are considered one size smaller than they are for working out the cost. Minimum 1.
- Monuments (Culture): Reveal the top Wonder. Pick a Wonder - only you may build this, and may do so at no action cost once you have the resources.
- Drama and Music (Mood): Once per turn, exchange a Mood token into a Culture token or vice versa.
- SCIENCE - Makes other advances cheaper.
- Mathematics (Culture): Engineering and Roads can be bought at no Food cost.
- Astronomy (Culture): Cartography and Navigation can be bought at no Food cost.
- Chemistry (Culture): Enables Metallurgy. Metallurgy can be bought at no Food cost.
- Metallurgy (Culture): Steel Weapons can be bought at no Food or Ore cost. If you already have Steel Weapons, gain 2 Ore.
- DEMOCRACY - The Government for those who like Mood tokens and happy people. Requires Philosophy.
- Voting: Pay 1 Mood token to take a Civic Improvement action at no action cost.
- Separation of Power: Opponents cannot spend Culture tokens to boost their Cultural Influence rolls against your happy cities.
- Civil Liberties: Draft is weakened and requires 2 Mood tokens, not 1. AAA: Get 3 Mood Tokens.
- Economic Liberty: Your first collect action each turn has no action cost. Additional collect actions cost 2 Mood tokens.
- AUTOCRACY - The Government for those who like kicking someone's face in. Requires Draft.
- Nationalism: Whenever you perform a build action that includes an Army or Ship, gain a Mood or Culture token.
- Totalitarianism: Opponents cannot spend Culture tokens to boost their Cultural Influence rolls against your cities with Army units in them.
- Absolute Power: Once per turn, pay 2 Mood tokens to take an extra action.
- Forced Labour: Pay 1 Mood token to treat your angry cities as neutral for this turn.
- THEOCRACY - The Government for those who like spreading the word. Requires State Religion.
- Dogma: Whenever you build a Temple, you receive a free Theocracy advance. Your Ideas stock now has a limit of 2.
- Devotion: Opponents cannot spend Culture tokens to boost their Cultural Influence rolls against your cities with Temples in them.
- Conversion: Cultural Influence rolls succeed on a 4+. On a success, you gain a Culture token.
- Fanaticism: When fighting in a city with a Temple, regardless of whose it is, you gain +2 on your first roll. If you lose, you receive a free Army unit in one of your cities.