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• Strategy Guide

The rules for Border Reivers are reproduced here to allow you to evaluate the game before buying it.

The Aim of the Game

The aim of Border Reivers is to beat all your opponents by either: having 40 gold at the start of your turn, or by conquering all of your opponents.

Contents

The game contains:

• A rulebook
• 50 subterfuge cards in 10 different designs
• 12 city pieces (large coloured wooden discs) in four different colours
• 16 town pieces (small coloured wooden discs) in four different colours
• 40 army pieces (coloured wooden octagonal prisms) in four different colours
• 4 mountain ranges pieces (card design and plastic stand) to block movement
• 12 castle pieces (white wooden cylinders) for defence
• 12 tower pieces (white wooden cubes) for defence
• 1 green 10-sided die for reinforcements and 2 six-sided dice for combat
• 4 hills tiles (2 with coastline) with 3 and 2 faces and a mine symbol ()
• 8 forest tiles (4 with coastline) with 4 and 3 faces
• 60 plains tiles (24 with coastline) with 2 and 1 faces
• A scoreboard to keep track of players' wealth

Basic Set-up Rules

The first few times you play it is recommended that you follow the basic rules which simplify the set-up phase of the game, allowing you to get started much quicker. The advanced set-up rules will be explain later, and are recommended once you've played the game a couple of times.

Set-up Phase

In the basic game the Set-up Phase consists of choosing one of the three board layouts shown in the rulebook (not reproduced here), depending on the number of players playing.

Lay out the tiles on your playing surface as shown in the diagram. The majority of the tiles are plains tiles with their 2 face showing. Each player's starting territory is a plains tile with the 1 face showing, and in addition, there is one forest tiles with the 4 face showing per player. The numbers on the visible face of each tile represent the cost to move an army into a tile, smaller numbers allow quicker movement, while large numbers provide a measure of defence as enemy armies will take longer to pass through. Each game also has a single hills tile with the 3 face showing - it's the one with the mine symbol (). The mine can be mined to provide an additional source of income for one player at a time. Construct the mountain ranges by slotting the mountain range card pieces into the plastic card stands and then place them on the borders shown in the diagram.

The cards are placed in a single deck face down. Cards provide players with secret strategies to undermine their opponents, or to further strengthen their own position. Players do not have any cards at the start of the game, they can gamble for one of their choice during the reinforcements phase of the game.

Each player chooses a colour, and takes the armies, towns and cities of that colour, they place a single army piece of their colour in the 0 section of the scoreboard to show their current wealth in gold. Players roll the ten-sided die to determine a starting player, and then each player in turn places a city (large disc) and five armies (octagonal prisms) of their colour in the start position shown on the map layouts in the rulebook.

Turn Phases

Each player takes it in turn to complete all of the following phases before passing control on to the player on their left.

1. First cards phase: play cards featuring the text 'At the beginning of your turn'
2. Reinforcements phase: gamble gold for extra armies and cards
3. Actions phase: move armies, cultivate land, settle new towns and cities and build fortifications for defence
4. Combat phase: fight battles with any opponent's armies in the same territory as your armies or settlements
5. Taxation phase: gain gold from your towns and cities and the mine, if you control it
6. Second cards phase: play cards featuring the text 'At the end of your turn'

1. First Cards Phase

If you have any cards featuring the text At the beginning of your turn you may play them now, or you may wait until this phase of a subsequent turn. Once a card has been played it is returned to the deck, unless the card text says otherwise. Note that during the first turn, players start without any cards, so this phase will be skipped.

2. Reinforcements Phase

You may choose to spend gold to strengthen your position with cards and/or armies. For each city you control you declare how much gold you wish to spend on trying to get a card and how much for an army in that city. For each piece of gold you wish to spend you must move your marker on the scoreboard one point towards 0, once you reach 0 you cannot spend any further. For each city you control, roll the green 10-sided die twice.

If the first roll is less than or equal to the amount you spend on armies in that city then you can place an army in the tile the city is in. The new armies do get a full action phase this turn like any previously existing army.

If the second roll is less than or equal to the amount you spent on cards in that city you may choose a card from the deck to put in your hand (hidden from the other players). Building cards must be played immediately in the city in which they were gained, other cards may be played when the conditions described on the card are satisfied. Note that if a card states At the beginning of your turn it cannot be played until the First Cards Phase of your next turn.

Note that during the first turn players have no gold, however it is still possible to get a card or army in cities where you choose not to spend any gold, since the ten-sided die has a zero face which always generates an army or a card as appropriate. By spending 9 gold on either a card or an army you will guarantee a reinforcement of that type. If you have no spare armies in your stock you cannot gain any more.

3. Actions Phase

Each army you control may do only one of the following actions:

Move

The army may move from its current tile into adjacent tiles across the edge border providing no mountain lies on the border - mountains block movement. Armies have a movement allowance of 4, where the cost of movement is the number shown on the tile the army moves into. Any unused movement allowance is wasted. Note that the tile's movement cost at the beginning of the turn counts for all armies, even if the army is moved after the tile is flipped, the movement cost remains as it was at the beginning of your turn. If your army enters a tile containing an opponent's army, town and/or city, that army must stop and fight a battle in the Combat Phase.

Cultivate

An army may cultivate a territory to allow faster movement throught the territory and to prepare for new towns and cities. To cultivate a territory, flip the tile from its highest numbered face to its lowest numbered face (e.g. flip a forest from 4 face showing to 3 face showing), or exchange a forest with its 3 face showing for a plains tile with its 2 face showing. A tile may only be cultivated once per turn, i.e. two armies cannot be used to cultivate a tile twice in a single turn. The cultivating army remains in the cultivated territory.

Build fortifications

An army may build fortifications to provide a defensive advantage in combat. Fortifications are neutral, if you leave the territory another player may move in to occupy it without a fight. An army may build a tower in a tile with no other fortification or settlement, or two armies may both expend their action replacing a tower with a castle (which gives a better defensive advantage) providing that tower was not built this turn. You may not build a fortification in the hills tiles which have the mine instead. The armies remain in the territory after building a fortification.

Settle

An army may use its action to replace itself with a town if it is in a plains tile with the 1 face showing (all plains have a white circle in the centre to denote that they may be settled) providing there is no settlement in the tile. If there is a fortification in the tile, that fortification is removed from the board. Two armies in a tile with a town can replace both themselves and the town with a city providing the town was not settled this turn. Again, the tile must have been showing its 1 face since the beginning of your turn, you cannot cultivate a tile with one army and settle a new town in the same turn. Armies that settle down are removed from the board and replaced by the settlement.

Mine

An army in the hills tile with the mine symbol () may mine instead of performing any other action and generate an additional 3 gold income during the Taxation Phase. Note that only a single army may mine per turn so the maximum income you may earn from the mine in a single turn is 3.

4. Combat Phase

If one or more of your armies ends their Actions Phase in the same tile as an army or settlement belonging to another player you must fight a battle.

Add up the number of armies each player has in the tile (cities count as an army during combat, towns do not), and both players roll a six-sided die.

Add the following bonus to your own die roll:

• If the tile contains a tower, and your armies were in the tile first, add +1
• If the tile contains a castle, and your armies were in the tile first, add +2
• If you have at least three times as many armies (including cities) in the tile as your opponent, add +3
• If you have at least twice times as many armies (including cities) in the tile as your opponent, but less than three times as many, add +2
• If you have more armies (including cities) in the tile than your opponent, but less than twice as many, add +1

If your die roll, modified by the bonuses above is 3 or less remove one of your armies from the tile, if it is 6 or more remove one of your opponent's armies from the tile. If either player has to lose an army, but have no armies left and a city in the tile, swap the city for a town. The die rolls are considered to be simultaneous, so the bonuses calculated at the beginning of the round count even if your opponent loses an army or kills one of yours before you roll.

After the die rolls have been performed and any losses removed from the tile, either player (attacker first) may retreat all of their remaining armies out of the tile. The attacker, if they choose to retreat, must move back into an adjacent tile they moved from (or through); while the defender may move into any tile that contains no enemy armies or settlements. Although cities count as an army during combat they may not retreat.

If both players choose to stay and fight another round, repeat the process above until the tile contains no armies or cities belonging to one of the players. The winner is not allowed to move their armies out of the territory after combat has been won.

If at the end of combat the tile contains an army belonging to one player and a town belonging to the other player, the player with the remaining army has two choices:

• Swap the town for one of theirs, or,
• Remove the town from the board, and steal 2 gold from its owner if it began the turn as a town, or 6 gold from its owner if it began the turn as a city. Update both score markers as appropriate. If the owner cannot pay the full amount add to the other player the amount they can pay and set their score marker to 0.

Regardless of your choice, if the town was originally a city, you must return any building cards built in that city to the deck.

5. Taxation Phase

You gain 3 gold for each city you control, 1 gold for each town you control and a further 1 gold for any city you control which has a Market building card. In addition, if in the hills tiles with the mine symbol () you have at least one army that has not moved or performed any other action this turn, you gain a further 3 gold. Move your marker on the scoreboard to reflect your new total.

6. Second Cards Phase

If you have any cards with the text At the end of your turn you may play them now, even if you received them this turn. Finally, pass control to the player on your left. The next player performs steps 1 - 6 as above, and play continues around the table.

Winning The Game

If at the start of their turn a player has 40 or more gold as shown on the scoreboard, that player wins the game. The game can also finish when all other players have either conceded defeat or had all their armies and cities destroyed.

The Cards

The are ten cards to choose from in Border Reivers, in this reference guide all ten are listed, including the text on each card. The rulebook contains further clarification or what you can and cannot do with them.

Ambush

At the beginning of your turn you may place an army in any territory containing an enemy army but no settlement or fortification.
If the army survives the resulting combat, remove the army from the board and return this card to your hand, otherwise return this card to the deck.

Guildhouses (Building)

You get a second roll for card reinforcements in the city where you build Guildhouses. You may split your spending any way between the rolls.
You may only have one building of each type in a city.

Insurrection

At the beginning of your turn, place an army in a territory containing an enemy settlement.
If the army survives the resulting combat, remove it from the board.

Market (Building)

The city you built this building in generates one extra income per turn.
You may only have one building of each type in a city.

Militia

When one of your settlements is attacked place an army in that territory.
If the army survives the resulting combat, remove the army from the board and return this card to your hand, otherwise return this card to the deck.

Reiving Party

At the end of your turn, place an army in a territory containing an enemy settlement.
When that settlement generates income, if that army is still on the board you gain the income instead of the settlement's owner then remove the army from the board and return this card to your hand.

Saboteurs

At the beginning of your turn, return a building card in play to the deck.

Siege Engines

Either: When attacking a fortification, reduce the level of fortification by one (castle to tower or tower to nothing).
Or:When an opponent plays Siege Engines against you, return their Siege Engines to the deck with no effect.

Spies

Either:At the beginning of your turn, reveal a card at random from an opponent's hand. You may return Spies to your hand or force the opponent to return the revealed card to the deck.
Or:When an opponent plays Spies against you, return their Spies card to the deck with no effect.

Training Camp (Building)

You get a second roll for army reinforcements in the city where you built the Training Camp. You may split your spending any way between the rolls.
You may only have one building of each type in a city.

Advanced Set-up Rules

It is recommended that once you've played the game a couple of times and know the value of forests and mines you use these advanced rules to set-up the game, which improve the re-playability of the game as the board layout changes every time you play.

Set-up Phase

Lay out the tiles as shown in the appropriate diagram for the basic game based on the number of players. However, at this stage place plains tiles (2 face showing) where the diagram shows a hills or forest tile. In addition, do not place the mountain ranges yet.

Each player rolls the ten-sided die to determine who starts the game. The player with the highest result gets to start, the order of play continues clockwise around the table. Each player in turn replaces a plains tile (2 face showing) with a forest tile (4 face showing). Once each player has placed a forest tile, each player places a mountain range on the border between any two tiles. No area of the board may be closed off by the positioning of mountains, nor may they be placed on a coastal edge.

Finally, the first player chooses a plains tile (2 face showing) to replace with a hills tile (3 face showing). Each player, starting with the second, then gets to choose a starting location (a plains tile with the 1 face showing) and places one of their cities and five of their armies on that tile. The first player will place last, and get no choice of location and then starts the first turn as in the basic rules.

Copyright

Border Reivers, the rules and all artwork are copyright Reiver Games © 2006. All rights reserved.

The Rulebook

In addition to the information published here, the rulebook features:

• Map layouts for the basic and advanced games
• A glossary of terms used throughout the rules
• More information about each card, clarifying when to use it
• A designers note, plus the number and signature for each copy