We're hiring Apprentices and laying down Marble,
that's right, It's Architects of the West Kingdom
from Renegade Game Studios.
(upbeat tones)
This wondrous worker placement game
pits one to five architects against one another
in a bidding, buying, and building bonanza
in an effort to end the game with the most Victory Points.
By gathering resources, hiring Apprentices,
and contributing to the construction of the Cathedral,
players race to become the most
prolific architect in the West Kingdom.
Setup begins with the game board placed center.
Nearby, create a supply of the main resources of the game.
Clay, Wood, Stone, Gold, Marble,
Silver, Debt Cards, and Multiplier Cards.
These are used when you run out of the supply tokens.
Next, shuffle the Black Market Cards,
and place them on the left Black Market space
with the smaller reward side face up.
Shuffle the Building Cards,
and place them to the left of the Workshop.
Shuffle the Apprentice Cards,
deal eight onto the spaces next to the Workshop,
then place the remaining deck nearby.
Shuffle the Rewards Cards and place two cards per player,
plus one, facedown next to the Cathedral.
For example, in a four player game,
you would place nine Reward Cards, 'cause math.
Finally, place four Silver from the supply in the Tax Stand.
Each player now receives a player board,
and 20 Workers of their matching color.
They also take the two Player Markers of their color
and place them on the number seven space
of the Virtue Track on the left of the board,
and the other goes just below the Cathedral.
From the Building Card deck, deal four cards to each player.
Everyone looks at their options, chooses one card to keep,
and then passes the remaining the remaining cards
to the left and repeats the process.
They do this one more time,
and then the last remaining card in each draft pile
goes to the bottom of the Building Deck.
The three chosen cards by each player
become their starting hand.
Randomly select a first player
and give that person three Silver to start.
The next player, in clockwise order,
receives four Silver, the next player gets five, et cetera.
Once the cash is doled out, we're ready to play.
Gameplay occurs in turns, during which,
a player takes a Worker from their personal board,
and places it on a workable space on the game board,
they then take the action, or actions listed,
and play proceeds to the next player.
That's it!
Wonderfully simply.
That being said, there's some intricate mechanics
involved in taking actions.
Let's look at the workable locations.
First off, at the Quarry, or the Forest,
a player may place a Worker on the circled spot
to gain one corresponding resource, Stone, or Wood.
On subsequent turns, if the active player
puts another Worker on that same spot
the harvest grows as every Worker of that player's color
on that space generates an additional resource.
The same rule applies for the Silversmith,
where a player gains one Silver, plus one Silver
per Worker of their color on that space.
As you can see, getting lots of Workers on a space
over multiple turns means increasing rewards.
The Mines are a slight variation on this,
a player has two options when placing,
they may either take one Clay,
plus one per Worker on the space,
or they may take one Gold for every
two Workers they have on the space.
Obviously, this second options isn't available
the first time a Worker is placed there,
'cause there's only one.
Those four locations are the main spots
to get the resources of the game.
The other locations open up the options quite a bit.
Over at the Workshop a player
has two options when placing a Worker.
First, they may spend four Silver
to recruit an Apprentice from the available
face up Apprentice cards on the board.
The stipulation is that they may take a card
in a row depending on the number
of Workers at the Workshop.
When first placing, they may only hire an Apprentice
from the leftmost space of either row.
If they put more Workers on the Workshop on subsequent turns
they can access Apprentices further down the rows.
Additionally, a player may skip a column in this count
by placing a Silver on each
Apprentice card they intend to bypass.
In this way, it's possible to recruit Apprentices
further down the line with less Workers.
After an apprentice is hired,
they go in front of the player and provide bonuses
and benefits depending on their text.
If they had any coins on them,
the player takes those as well.
Slide the other Apprentice Cards down the line,
and add a new card from the deck.
One thing to note about the four Silver cost,
two of those Silver are colored in red,
this means they are taxes.
Instead of paying the Silver
cost back to the general supply,
those Silver are placed in the Tax Stand.
This rule applies any time a red Silver is listed in a cost,
more on taxes in a sec.
The other option at the Workshop
is to draw a Building Card, plus one Building Card
for every two Workers on the location.
The Building Cards are added to
a player's hand up to a limit of six.
Building Cards have a building cost to place them,
a Victory Point bonus for the endgame,
a requirement of Apprentice types
a player needs to have hired before they can build,
and an ability, either an instantaneous effect when built,
or an endgame reward, or both.
At the Tax Stand, a player may place a Worker
to take all the Silver in the Tax Stand box, sweet deal,
except they also lose two Virtue.
Over on the left side of the board,
the player moves their Player Marker down
two spaces on the Virtue Track.
As players take actions in the game
they make lose, or gain Virtue.
Ascending to 10 or above on the Virtue Track
means a player can no longer access
the Black Market locations.
Descending to four or below means
they can no longer use the Cathedral location.
However, at a certain point,
they also become immune to taxation.
Additionally, depending on their placement in the endgame,
a player may gain or lose Victory Points,
so make those moral choices wisely.
Let's talk about that Black Market.
Each of the three market spaces can only hold one Worker,
no other Workers can be placed once a Worker is present.
Each space is paired with an action below it,
pay a Silver and lose a Virtue
to take the listed goods from the small market.
Pay two Silver and lose a Virtue
to take an Apprentice for free,
or draw five Building cards and keep one,
discarding the other four
to the bottom of the Building Deck.
Pay three Silver and lose a Virtue
to take the listed goods from the large market.
Once all three Black Market spaces have been filled,
a Black Market reset occurs, more on that shortly.
At the King's Storehouse, a player may take one action
for each Worker they have placed there.
One action is to pay two resources,
it can be Clay, Wood, or Stone in exchange for a Virtue.
They may pay this in any combination or resources.
The other action option is to pay three resources,
either Stone, or Wood in exchange for a Marble.
Players make take the same action
multiple times if they choose.
Over at the Guildhall, a player may put a Worker
in the topmost, leftmost spot to permanently
lock them there for the game.
When placing Workers here, depending on the number
of players in the game, they proceed to the next row
once they reach the player count listed.
Once the last row is filled
to the limit the endgame is triggered.
Each player gets one more turn,
and then it's time to count up those Victory Points.
Once they place that Worker though,
the player may take one of two possible actions.
Construct a Building, or advance work on the Cathedral.
Constructing the Building allows the player
to pay the cost on a Building Card in their hand and,
provided they have the required Apprentice types,
add it to their play area.
They then gain any instant bonuses listed
and will gain the Victory Points at the end of the game.
Advancing work on the Cathedral
allows a player to spend resources
furthering the grandeur of the greatest building in town.
When using this action,
the player takes the following steps:
Pay the resources listed on the next row,
discard one Building Card from their hand,
move their Player Marker up one level,
reveal the top Reward Card and again its benefit.
Note that because spots are limited,
a player may need to wait until other Player's Markers
have advanced ahead before being able to access a new level.
In the end game, player's will also score Victory Points
based on their placement on this track.
At the Town Centre, a player may place a Worker
to pay a Silver and round up all the Workers
of one color at one location.
Some locations, like the Guildhall,
the Black Market, and the Prison
are immune from being gathered in this way.
When gathering Workers of their own color,
a player may simply add them back to their board.
When gathering opponents Workers,
they corral them into their capture area on their board.
Also depending on the number of players in the game,
some restrictions apply to this location,
check the rule book for those details.
Lastly, the Guardhouse allows a player
to take a number of actions equal to
their Workers on the location.
These actions include:
gaining one Silver for each captured Worker
and turning them into the Prison,
releasing all of the active player's Workers
from Prison back to their board,
paying five Silver, or taking a Debt Card
and losing a Virtue to release your Workers
from an opponents capture area back to your board,
or pay six silver to pay a Debt.
Debt Cards, when acquired, start on their unpaid side
and penalize the player by two Victory Points
if they still have them at the end of the game.
Paying the Debt flips the card,
allowing the player to gain a Virtue and lose the penalty.
And that's the locations, phew.
Let's cover the Black Market reset real fast.
If the Black Market spaces are all filled,
or if a Worker is placed on the leftmost space
of these two Guildhall rows,
a Black Market reset is triggered
and the following steps should be taken:
All workers in the Black Market go to Prison,
the top card in the Black Market left space
is flipped over to the right space
providing new resources options,
all players with three or more Workers
in Prison lose one Virtue,
the player or players with the most Workers
in Prison take a Debt Card.
Players place Workers and take actions
until the Guildhall is filled according to the player limit.
If a player ever has no Workers to place,
their turn is spent returning one Worker
from a location back to their personal board.
Once the endgame is triggered,
everyone gets one more turn,
and then it's time to score points.
Points for all constructed buildings an their bonuses,
points for the Cathedral level attained by the player,
points from the Virtue Track,
lost points from unpaid Debts,
one Victory Point for each Marble
or Gold still in their inventory,
one point for each set of 10 Silver still remaining,
and a loss of one point for every
two Workers still in Prison.
Total them points and the player with the most VP wins.
Tiebreaker goes to the player with the most Silver.
And that's Architects of the West Kingdom,
I'm Becca Scott,
and I got this dress on my birthday, isn't it cool?
Wee! (laughing)
You can watch me and my friends play this game
and other awesome games on Game the Game
right here, on Geek & Sundry.
We'll see you there.
(upbeat music)
(cheerful tones)