Player Board and Actions

Every place on the Orléans player board — Farm House, Village, University, Castle, Monastery, Ship, Wagon, Guildhall, Scriptorium and Town Hall — plus technology, place tiles, the development track and the Beneficial Deeds.

The player board

FAQ FAQ

1. Ship — move your merchant along a waterway.
2. Wagon — move your merchant along a road.
3. Guildhall — build a trading station.
4. Castle — recruit a knight.
5. Scriptorium — 1 development point.
6. Town Hall — send followers to the Beneficial Deeds.
7. Monastery — recruit a monk.
8. Farm House — recruit a farmer.
9. Village — recruit a boatman, craftsman or trader.
10. University — recruit a scholar.
11. Market — where drawn followers wait (Phase 3).

What each place needs

Read from the player board picture: each circle is one action space in a follower’s colour.

Place	Followers needed	Effect
Farm House		New farmer, goods
Village		New boatman, craftsman or trader
University		New scholar, development
Castle		New knight
Monastery		New monk
Ship		Merchant over water
Wagon		Merchant over road
Guildhall		Trading station
Scriptorium		1 development point
Town Hall	1 or 2 of any kind	Beneficial Deeds

A monk can stand on any space instead of the follower shown. Nothing replaces a monk.

Recruiting followers

Each recruiting place takes one follower of its kind from the supply into your bag, moves your cube one space along that track and pays the bonus printed on the new space. When your cube reaches the last space of a track you can no longer take that action, and if the supply is empty you cannot take it either.

Farm House

Take a farmer and the good printed above your new space on the farmers track. The track pays, in order: grain, grain, cheese, cheese, wine, wine, wool, brocade. Your farmers position also decides the census.

Village

Choose one of three:

Recruit	Track bonus
Boatman	2, 3, 4, 5 coins; the first player to reach the last space takes its citizen instead
Craftsman	A gear wheel, placed only after you pass (Technology)
Trader	A place tile: the first from stack I, later from I or II (Place tiles)

University

Take a scholar and the development points printed on the new space (2 to 6 along the track); move your cube that many spaces on the development track.

Castle

Take a knight. The knights track sets how many followers you draw: 4, then 5, 6 and 7. Your fourth knight does not raise the number, but the first player there takes the citizen; the fifth raises it to 8.

Monastery

Take a monk. No track bonus — the monk is the bonus: a wild follower for any action space.

Technology

A gear wheel permanently fills one action space, so that place needs one follower fewer forever. Gear wheels from the Village are placed after you pass.

• After your first step on the craftsmen track, gear wheels may only replace a farmer.
• From the second step on, they may replace any follower except a monk.
• With no step on the craftsmen track you cannot gain gear wheels at all — not from place tiles, nor from deeds.
• Never on a monk space, never on a place with a single space, at most one per place, never moved.

Moving and building

Ship and Wagon

Move your merchant to the next town — by waterway (blue) with the Ship, by road (brown) with the Wagon. If a good lies on that connection, take it (one, if several). Goods are worth points at the end and pay for events.

Guildhall

Build a trading station in the town where your merchant stands, if that town has no station yet — only one per town, except in Orléans, where every player may build one. Trading stations score at the end, and at game end the player with the most stations takes the citizen on the map (none on a tie).

Scriptorium

Gain 1 development point.

Town Hall and Beneficial Deeds

In planning, put 1 or 2 followers in the Town Hall (one is enough to activate it). When you use it, move those followers onto free spaces of matching colour on the Beneficial Deeds board. Each follower pays the reward under its space — 1, 2 or 3 coins, or at Canalisation 1 coin or 1 development point. Whoever fills the last space of a deed takes its citizen.

FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ

• Followers sent to a deed stay there for the rest of the game — a way to thin your bag.
• Only the exact follower shown may go on a space: no monks, no substitutes.
• Your four personal followers may never go to the Town Hall.

The eight base deeds are Peace Treaty, Astronomy, Canalisation, Defeating the Plague, Papal Conclave, Founding of the Boatmen’s Guild, Building of the City Wall and Building of the Cathedral.

Place tiles

Each trader adds a place tile beside your board: a new place to activate, or a lasting ability. The first must come from stack I ; later ones from I or II . Anyone may look through both stacks at any time. In the Big Box you play with 13 random tiles of each category. All 60 are explained on Cards & Components.

The development track

Development points move your cube along the development track. Passing or landing on a coin space pays those coins; the first player to reach a citizen space takes that citizen. Star spaces set your development status: it starts at 1 and rises to 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 as you reach each star. Your status drives Income events, some place tiles (Hospital), and the value of every trading station and citizen at the end.