Troyes

Setup: prepare the red event deck for 6, 5 or 4 rounds with four, three or two players. Start with 5 deniers, 4 influence and the prescribed citizens. Deal one secret character each, or two each with two players. Place initial citizens in alternating snake order; with two players, place neutrals first as diagrammed.

Round sequence: reveal that round’s three activity cards in the first three rounds, receive 10 deniers and pay salaries of 1 per citizen in the Bishopric and 2 in the Palace; City Hall is free. If unable to pay all salaries, pay what you can and lose 2 VP, or nothing if you have no VP. Roll dice for citizens in the principal buildings, resolve new and existing events, take actions in turn, then recover expelled citizens and pass the start player left.

Event phase: add a red event and the event color it requests, then resolve the queue. Starting with the first player, counter the highest remaining black die using dice from your own district, optionally mixing colors; red values double, and you may counter additional black dice at the same time. You cannot buy dice here. Gain 1 influence per black die defeated; inability to counter loses 2 VP and discards that black die.

Action dice: normally group 1–3 dice of one color, buying across districts if desired. Your own dice are free. For a total group of 1, 2 or 3 dice, each external die costs 2, 4 or 6 deniers respectively, paid to its owner or the bank for neutral dice. Owners cannot refuse. Used dice return to the supply.

Activities and agriculture: an activity requires your tradesman; initially pay its hiring cost and place a citizen. Divide the dice total by the card’s divisor, rounding down, for the number of activations; a new hire must activate at least once. Delayed effects place cubes, with at most one modifying a later action. Agriculture pays half your yellow dice total, rounded down, without a tradesman.

Cathedral and event actions: each white die places a cathedral cube at its own value, with lower levels of that value occupied first. Each cube gives 1 VP and the indicated influence. An event action uses its required color/divisor to cover banners, gaining 1 influence per cube; filling the card distributes rewards and ownership by contribution. Marauding stays in play and can be countered again.

Citizens and influence: placing a citizen in a principal building uses exactly one die of that building’s color; its value selects the location, shifting or expelling as required. A color with an expelled citizen already lying there cannot be expelled again that round. Before an action or black die, spend 1 influence to reroll your die, 2 to recruit a citizen or 4 to invert 1–3 of your dice; influence is capped at 20.

Passing and round end: while dice remain, pass and place 2 deniers in your district, adding 1 on each later turn. You cannot resume actions that round. When everyone passes or all city dice are gone, collect district money, return unused dice and recover lying expelled citizens to personal supplies.

Final scoring: finish the round in which the last red event enters play. Add earned VP, participation on unresolved events, tradesman-space VP and every secret character’s scoring for all players. Lose 2 VP for each cathedral level containing none of your cubes. Most VP wins; money and influence score only when a character or other explicit rule rewards them.