2 3
This game is played in 8 (with 4-5 players), 9 (with 3 players)
or 10 (with 2 players) rounds, each round consisting of fi ve
phases:
A. Draw new building cards
B. Supplies
C. Enter buildings and play population cards
D. Resolve buildings
E. End of the round
Set up
1
Place the infl uence score board somewhere on the table.
2
Each player chooses a colour and places a disc of this
colour on the starting space of each of the six
infl uence tracks on the scoring board. He keeps the
two remaining discs in front of himself.
3
Each player receives rat tokens with a total value of 10.
Place the remaining rat tokens as a face-up supply
on the table. The players keep their rat tokens face
down throughout the game, but are free to inspect the values of
their own rat tokens at any time. During the game players may
convert 3 (or 5) value 1 rats for a value 3 (or 5) rat at any time.
Note: Each time a player receives one rat he takes a value 1 rat. The same rule applies
to discarding rats.
Choosing building cards: In each game, only 30 building cards will be used, 5 from
each of the 6 classes. Before each game, you have to decide which building cards to use
in the game. This can either be decided upon collectively by the players, or you can
do it by some random method, either by selecting one random building per class and
including 5 copies of this building, or by shuffl ing together all the building cards for
each class separately and drawing 5 random cards from each class.
4
Shuffl e the population cards. Draw 5 cards without
looking at them and place them face down in a row on
the table. This row determines the number of Nuns that
will help the players at the end of the game, hereafter called the
«Nun-row».
5
Deal 5 population cards to each player. Place the
remaining population cards in a face-down deck
with
space for a discard pile next to it. This deck is the Population
card deck. Whenever the Population card deck is depleted, the
discard pile is shuffl ed into a new Population card deck.
6
Place the Joker cards and any special cards required by
building cards in play in separate, face-up decks.
7
Choose 30 building cards to be used in the game (see
Choosing building cards). Shuffl e these cards and
place this deck face-down on the table. This deck is the
Building card deck.
8
Take a number of cards (see following table) of the
Building card deck and place these unseen in a face
down deck. This deck is the Replacement deck.
Number of players: 2 3 4 5
Number of building cards to remove: 10 12 6 6
9
Choose a starting player and give him the Starting
player card.
Note: When playing Rattus Cartus for the fi rst time,
we recommend playing with the following set of
building cards: 5x Farm (Peasantry), 5x Marketplace
(Bourgeoisie), 5x Monastery (Church), 5x Castle
(Chivalry), 5x Palace (Royalty), 5x Fortune-teller’s Tent
(Magic).
Game sequence
A
Draw new building cards
B
Supplies
Draw new building cards from the building card deck.
In a four or fi ve player game, draw three building cards from the Building card deck, and
place them in a row. In a two or three player game, only two building cards are drawn.
If all the drawn building cards show the same Building, replace the last drawn card with
the top card from the Replacement deck (put the replaced card at the bottom of this deck).
If the new card is the same too, repeat this process until a different card is drawn.
Each player chooses and performs the supply action of one of the building cards drawn.
Each building card displays a supply action consisting of different combinations of the
following symbols:
draw the given
number of cards
discard one rat
look at one of the cards
in the «Nun-row»
4
Note: If all players agree, they can choose and perform
their supply actions in this phase simultaneously,
otherwise this phase is played in turn order, starting
with the current starting player.
1
5
Building
card deck
Population
card deck
«Nun-row»
Replacement
deck
8
7
6
Example: In phase A in a four-player game, these three
building cards are drawn. In phase B, each player may
choose to draw two cards and look at one card in the Nun-
row (Fortune-teller’s Tent), draw four cards (Monastery), or
discard two rats (Monastery).
C
Enter buildings and play population cards
Each player, starting with the starting player and proceeding clockwise around the table,
enters one of the available buildings by placing one of his discs on the fi rst available
space on the building card. Then he announces how many cards he’ll use in this building
(this can be zero) and places that number of cards face-down in front of him.
Note: A player may enter a building even if another
player has previously entered the same building.
Note: A player can choose the same or a different
building as he did in phase B.
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