Solo: the Cardinalbot

The official Tiletum solo mode by Dávid Turczi with Jeremy Avery: setup, the Decree cards, how the Cardinalbot takes dice and resolves each Action, its Tasks, scoring and the Challenge cards.

You play the multiplayer rules against the Cardinalbot, an automated Spanish Cardinal. It drafts dice from the same Action Wheel, chases the same Fairs and scores like a player, but decides by Decree cards. You win only with more points than it — a tie goes to the Cardinalbot.

Components

• 13 Decree cards — each lists up to four die choices in priority order, some with a condition, and a die-colour priority at the bottom.
• 8 Challenge cards — rule changes that make the Cardinalbot stronger.
• The Cardinalbot’s board — on the back of a player board: five two-Room Buildings, two unfulfilled Contract spaces, three reserved Food spaces, a Storehouse for inactive Crests and its die spaces.

Every card is pictured in Cards & Components.

Setup

1. Set up a 2-player game; the Cardinalbot uses its own board.
2. Give it a colour and all that colour’s pieces.
3. Put its Bonus Action Point markers on its five Buildings, left to right +1, +1, +2, +2, +3 (the reverse of yours).
4. Its markers go on +3 of the King track, the first Turn Order space and 10 on the score track. It is first player and takes 1 of each of the five Resources; you take the second player’s Resources (1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 3 ).
5. Choose the difficulty with the Challenge cards (below).
6. Set two unused dice aside: the Cardinalbot dice, never mixed with the ten in play.
7. All 7 of its Pillars and all 7 of its Houses are available from the start (one House is in Tiletum, as for you).
8. Lay out in a row under its board: the Decree cards of the four Fair tiles in play, in Fair order, then Everlasting Fame, then Worldly Riches.
9. Draw an unused Town tile and put its Merchant in that Town; its Architect goes to the Town with the unavailable-Cathedral cost tile.
10. A Merchant in an unused colour is the Cardinalbot pawn: put it on the leftmost Decree card.

Difficulty

You may also pick the cards yourself.

Flow of play

• Preparation and Action phases: as usual.
• King phase: as usual for both of you, but the Cardinalbot resets to +3, not 0, when below it; it wins every tie for position; if it is highest it takes the King track Bonus tile and resolves it at once (Bonus tiles), or 4 in round 4.
• Fair phase: the Cardinalbot scores every Fair even without a House or Merchant in the Town. It counts face-down fulfilled Contracts, its placed Crests (not inactive ones), its Pillars and Houses, its Cathedral tiles; for Characters on floors 2 and 3 it counts its top row.
• Cleanup: as usual; then remove the leftmost Decree card (the Fair just scored) and put the pawn on the new leftmost card.

The Cardinalbot’s turn

1. Put the pawn back on the leftmost Decree card. If the Cardinalbot is first player, reveal a Corruption token as usual.
2. Roll both Cardinalbot dice and move the pawn right by the difference (0 = stay on the leftmost card; it stops on the last card).
3. Resolve the Decree under the pawn, top to bottom: the first option whose condition is met and that has a matching die is chosen. If none works, move to the next card right and try again.
   • Several matching dice: use the colour priority at the bottom of the card.
   • Blue and light grey are shown together: take whichever of Iron or Wool it needs more for its Contracts; otherwise ties go to the Resource it has fewer of, then random.
   • A named Action also matches a die on the Joker Action; it prefers the Joker if that gives equal or more AP.
4. It takes the die’s Resources and the Action’s Bonus tile, resolving the tile at once.
5. It resolves the Action of that die. A Joker die with no Action named (Worldly Riches, “highest die”) becomes a King Action if it is lower than you on the King track; otherwise a Merchant Action if it has built at least as many Pillars as Houses, else an Architect Action.
6. Then it does every Task it can:
   • Crests: while it has an inactive Crest and 3 Food (making up shortfalls at 2 each), it places the Crest under a Building — one with two Characters if possible, leftmost first — and scores 5 .
   • Cathedrals: where it has a Pillar and enough Stone (or 2 per missing Stone), it builds, the most valuable first.
   • Contracts: up to twice, it fulfils a Contract it can pay for, the cheaper first, scoring the tile’s points +5 and ignoring other rewards; the tile goes face down on its pile. For “any” Resources it pays Gold, then Food if it has 4 or more, then the more plentiful of Wool or Iron — never Stone; 2 can replace a missing Wool or Iron.

Its first 3 Food sit on the reserved spaces: they are not spent on Contracts until the end of the game.

Reach and extending reach

For Architect and Merchant Actions its reach is as many spaces from that piece as it has AP (die AP plus any Bonus Action Point marker on that Action). To get beyond reach it extends reach by the fewest spaces needed, paying 1 per extra space — and it still gets there when it runs out of Gold. Extending costs no AP.

Architect action

1. Place a Pillar in the Architect’s Town (free).
2. Take the best Bonus tile within reach without moving (Bonus tiles).
3. Pick a Cathedral without its Pillar within reach: highest total (cost tile + Cathedral tile), then one you do not have, then lowest Stone cost, then closest. None in reach: extend to the closest. It ignores the unavailable Cathedral.
4. Move the Architect straight there.

Merchant action

1. If it cannot build a House where its Merchant is, it moves the Merchant to a Town with a free House space, up to as many spaces as its Gold, paying 1 Gold per space (still moving when the Gold runs out). Preference: the next Fair Town, a space with printed , a space with another reward, the closest.
2. Build a House there (free), scoring only printed .
3. Take the best Bonus tile within reach.
4. Move the Merchant to the best Town with a free House space within reach (same preferences), extending reach if needed.

Character action

For each AP, the first possible:

• Place a Character from its supply: under a matching one, or in the leftmost empty top-row Room. Printed bonuses are ignored. Each placement costs 1 AP — the 2 on its board marks the second row.
• Take a Character from the offer: never a type it already has two of; preferably a type it has one of (the leftmost on its board); among equals the higher printed reward (totalled). If nothing qualifies, it clears and refills the offer once, free.

When a Building has two Characters and a Crest, its Bonus Action Point marker goes onto the matching Action.

Contract action

Spending AP as printed under the Contract offer:

1. Take every Crest it does not have, right to left (they go inactive into its Storehouse).
2. Take every Contract it can pay for now, most first, and fulfil each at once.
3. Only if step 2 took nothing and it has a free Contract space: take the Contract it lacks the fewest Resources for (rightmost on a tie). It never holds more than two unfulfilled Contracts.
4. Each remaining AP: 1 of its most required Resource.

King action

Move its marker one space up per AP.

Most required resource

1. Stone, if it has a Pillar at a Cathedral it cannot yet afford.
2. Food, if it has an inactive Crest, a Building with two Characters and no Crest, and under 3 Food.
3. Iron or Wool, whichever its unfulfilled Contracts need more of.
4. Gold.

Bonus tiles

When it may choose, it takes the highest row:

Priority	Tile	Tie-break
1	Crests	one it lacks, then one you lack
2	Miscellaneous Helpers (dice colour, Building bonus, promos)	—
3	Resource and Helpers	most VP, most Resources, most “any”
4	Action Helpers	most AP
5	Bonus Contracts	fewest missing Resources

A new Crest goes inactive to its Storehouse; a Crest it already has leaves the game. Every other tile leaves the game with no effect unless a Challenge card says otherwise.

Final scoring

You score normally. The Cardinalbot scores:

1. Houses × Pillars on the map.
2. Completed Buildings as you do (0/0/5/10/20/30).
3. If it has unfulfilled Contracts, it turns all its Stone and Food (reserve included) into Gold and tries to fulfil them.
4. 1 per 4 leftover Resources.

Challenge cards

Card	Effect on the Cardinalbot
Very Special Friends	Miscellaneous Helper: +5 . Bonus Contract: kept as a normal Contract.
Resourceful Clergy	Resource and Helpers: it gains what they show (“any” = most required).
Whispers in the King’s Ear	Action Helper: one space up the King track.
Ecclesiastical Income	Action Helper: equal to its AP.
Visitors to the Curia	Placing a Character: its Resources and ; 1 per AP, move or build icon.
Deep Coffers	One extra Resource of the die’s colour with every die.
Favor at the Court	Resets to +5 instead of +3 (also at setup).
Ready for Action	Bonus Action Point markers +3, +2, +2, +1, +1 like yours, and a random inactive Crest at setup.

[Silver] The expansion adds the Cardinal of Silver rules, new Decrees, 4 Challenges and the King’s Surprise deck (Solo: Cardinal of Silver).