Architects of the West Kingdom

Overview

Architects of the West Kingdom is a worker-placement game set in the Carolingian Empire, circa 850 AD. Players are royal architects competing to impress the king by constructing buildings and advancing work on the Cathedral. The key mechanic: resources gained at a location scale with the number of your own workers already there (your 3rd worker at the Forest yields 3 Wood, not 1). A Virtue Track tracks your moral standing — high virtue earns VP and Cathedral access; low virtue opens Black Market access and Tax shortcuts but risks Debt penalties. The game ends when all Guildhall worker spaces are filled, triggering one final round. Most VP wins.

Components

1 Main Board
5 double-sided Player Boards (Side 1: Standard, Side 2: Variable)
100 Workers (20 per player, in 5 colors)
10 Player Markers (2 per player, in 5 colors)
40 Apprentice Cards
40 Building Cards
10 Black Market Cards
22 Debt Cards
11 Reward Cards
6 Multiplier Cards
Resources: 35 Clay, 40 Wood, 40 Stone, 30 Marble, 25 Gold, 50 Silver

Setup

Place Main Board in center.
Shuffle Black Market Cards; place on left Black Market space, “Small Market” side up.
Shuffle Reward Cards; place (2 × players + 1) cards facedown to the right of the Cathedral. Return excess to box.
Place all Debt Cards near the Guardhouse, “unpaid” side up.
Place Multiplier Cards and all resources in a supply near the board.
Place 4 Silver above the Tax Stand.
Shuffle Apprentice Cards; reveal 1 into each of the 8 Workshop spaces.
Shuffle Building Cards; place facedown by the Workshop.
Each player takes a Player Board (Side 1 unless using Variable Setup) and 20 Workers.
Each player places 1 marker below the Cathedral and 1 on space 7 of the Virtue Track.
Deal 4 Building Cards to each player. Draft: keep 1, pass left; keep 1, pass left; of the last 2 received, keep 1, discard 1 facedown under the pile. Each player starts with 3 Building Cards in hand (max hand size 6). Building Cards in hand are secret throughout the game.
Randomly choose start player. They receive 3 Silver; each subsequent player receives 1 more Silver than the player to their right (2nd player: 4 Silver, 3rd: 5 Silver, etc.).

Variable Setup: Use Side 2 of Player Boards for unique player abilities. Starting resources and Virtue differ per character (see Variable Setup section). Turn order is determined by Virtue (highest goes first). Players do not receive extra Silver based on turn order.

Turn Structure

Play proceeds clockwise. On your turn, place exactly 1 Worker from your Player Board to a location on the Main Board and resolve that location’s effects.

Special Rule — No Workers: If you start your turn with no Workers on your board, spend your entire turn returning any 1 Worker from the Main Board to your board (cannot come from Guildhall, Black Market, Prison, or an opposing player’s Board). You do not place that Worker until next turn.

The game ends once all Guildhall spaces are filled (number of spaces used scales with player count: 3+, 4+, and 5+ icons indicate additional columns). After the last Guildhall Worker is placed, every player (including that player) takes 1 final turn.

Actions

Location Types

Large open circle (most locations): No limit on workers or players at the same location. Town Centre can capture from these.
Small open circles (Black Market only): 1 Worker per space. Cannot be captured by Town Centre.
Worker outline (Guildhall): Fill left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Workers laid flat and remain for the rest of the game. Cannot be captured.
Prison: Workers can only be placed here via Guardhouse action, Black Market Reset, or card effects. Cannot be captured.

Resource Locations (Quarry, Forest, Mines, Silversmith)

Resources gained = number of your own Workers at the location after placing (opposing Workers are irrelevant).

Location	Resource
Quarry	Stone (1 per your worker there)
Forest	Wood (1 per your worker there)
Silversmith	Silver: 1 + 1 per your worker there (e.g., 4th worker = 5 Silver)
Mines	Choose either: Clay (1 + 1 per worker) or Gold (1 per 2 workers). Cannot split. First worker can only take Clay (need ≥2 workers for Gold). Example: 5th worker = 6 Clay or 2 Gold.

King’s Storehouse

Take 1 action per Worker you have there. Available actions:

Trade 2 Clay/Wood/Stone (any combo) → 1 Virtue
Trade 3 Wood/Stone (any combo) → 1 Marble

Certain Apprentices (Merchant, Trader, Patron) add further actions here.

Workshop

Choose one action:

Hire an Apprentice:

Pay 4 Silver total. Of this, 2 Silver is Tax (placed above the Tax Stand); remaining 2 Silver goes to Supply.
You may hire from columns 1 through N, where N = number of your Workers at the Workshop.
To access a later column with fewer Workers: place 1 Silver on the leftmost skipped card (per skip). That Silver is collected by whoever later hires that card.
Hired Apprentices go faceup in front of you. Max 5 Apprentices (discard any time to make room). The vacated space is filled by shifting remaining cards left and revealing a new card on the right.
Some Apprentices have an immediate Virtue effect on hire (discarding does not reverse this).
You may hire duplicates.

Draw Building Cards:

Gain 1 + 1 per 2 Workers at the Workshop (round down). Example: 3 workers = 2 cards.
Hand limit: 6. Discard excess facedown under the pile at end of turn.

Town Centre

For each Worker you have at the Town Centre, spend 1 Silver to capture 1 group of same-colored Workers from 1 “large open circle” location. The first Silver is Tax (to Tax Stand space); all additional Silver goes to Supply.

2-3 players and solo: Captures may be from up to 2 different locations per turn.
4+ players: All captures must be from the same location.
You may capture your own Workers (they return to your supply immediately).
Captured opponent Workers go to the top-left section of your Player Board; later send them to Prison via Guardhouse for 1 Silver each.
You may make fewer captures than Workers allow.
Cannot capture from Guildhall, Black Market, Prison, or another player’s board.

Tax Stand

Take all Silver above the Tax Stand and add it to your supply. Lose 2 Virtue. Cannot use this location if there is no Tax Silver there.

Black Market

3 spaces (1 Worker per space, cannot be captured). Current card text drives the actions. Typical options:

Pay 1 Silver + lose 1 Virtue → gain 1 Marble + 1 Stone
Pay 2 Silver + lose 1 Virtue → either hire any faceup Apprentice (plus any Silver on that card), or draw 5 Building Cards and keep 1
Pay 3 Silver + lose 1 Virtue → gain 1 Gold + 1 Stone + 2 Wood

Restriction: Players with 10 or more Virtue cannot place Workers in the Black Market. (Drops below 10 → restriction lifts.)

Guardhouse

Take 1 action per Worker you have there (actions in any order, may repeat):

Send all captured Workers from your board to Prison → gain 1 Silver per Worker.
Release all your own Workers from Prison → return them to your board.
Release all your Workers from opponents’ boards: pay 5 Silver (2 Tax), or take 1 Debt + lose 1 Virtue. Requires at least 1 captured Worker on opponents’ boards.
Pay off 1 Debt: pay 6 Silver (3 Tax). Flip the Debt Card to “paid” side. Immediately gain 1 Virtue (plus any Debt Collector Apprentice bonuses). May pay multiple Debts per turn (resolve each separately).

Guildhall

Place a Worker (lay flat, fill left-to-right top-to-bottom) and do one of:

Construct a Building from your hand:

Check skill requirements (Carpentry, Tiling, Masonry icons): must have ≥1 hired Apprentice with a matching skill. Apprentices are NOT discarded.
Pay resource cost on the card. Resources return to Supply.
Immediate Virtue gain/loss takes effect.
Immediate card effects trigger now. End-game effects trigger before final scoring.
Place Building faceup above your Player Board.

Advance work on the Cathedral:

Pay resources shown at the level above your current marker position.
Discard 1 Building Card from hand facedown under the pile.
Move your Cathedral marker up 1 level.
Reveal the top Reward Card and gain its benefit (removed from game after). If no Reward Cards remain, gain 1 Virtue instead.
Restriction: Players with 4 or fewer Virtue cannot work on the Cathedral. (Rising above 4 → restriction lifts.)
Space limit: A Cathedral level can hold at most 1 marker per player. You cannot advance to a level that is occupied until those players advance further.

Cathedral VP at game end = VP shown in the yellow flag at your current level.

Virtue Track

Range: 0 to 14+. Start: 7.

Threshold	Effect
≥15	Each point gained above 14 destroys 1 unpaid Debt (returned to pile, no other effects)
≥10	Cannot place Workers in Black Market
≤3	Ignore 1 Tax per “avoid Tax” icon at your current level (check track)
≤4	Cannot advance work on Cathedral
<0	Each point below 0 forces taking 1 Debt Card (“unpaid” side up)

End-game VP from Virtue: the track shows VP values in yellow flags at the upper and lower levels.

Black Market Reset

Triggered when:

All 3 Black Market spaces are filled, OR
A Worker is placed on either left-most space on the bottom 2 rows of the Guildhall.

Resolve the triggering action first, then:

Move all Black Market Workers to Prison.
Flip the top Small Market Card (left pile) faceup onto the Large Market (right pile).
Any Reset-based Apprentice abilities trigger (in any order players choose).
All players with ≥3 Workers in Prison lose 1 Virtue.
The player(s) with the most Workers in Prison each take 1 Debt Card (“unpaid”).

If the Small Market pile is empty during reset: shuffle all Large Market Cards to form a new Small Market pile.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

After the final round, resolve all end-game Building effects, then score:

Item	VP
Buildings	VP shown on each card (including end-game bonuses)
Cathedral	VP from yellow flag at your current level
Gold	+1 VP each
Marble	+1 VP each
Silver	+1 VP per 10 Silver
Virtue Track position	+ or − VP per yellow flags on track
Unpaid Debt Cards	−2 VP each
Workers in Prison	−1 VP per pair (odd Worker has no effect)

Tiebreakers: Most Virtue → most Silver → shared victory.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

Opposing Workers don’t affect your resource yield at any location — only your own Workers count.
Tax reminder: Red coins = Tax, always placed above the Tax Stand. All other Silver goes to Supply. This applies at the Workshop (2 Tax), Town Centre (first Silver captured is Tax), and Guardhouse (2 Tax for releasing Workers from opponents’ boards; 3 Tax for paying off a Debt).
Building Cards are secret — opponents may not know what’s in your hand.
Hiring Apprentices from Black Market or card effects is not restricted by Workshop Worker count; only Workshop action itself requires the column restriction.
Maximum 5 Apprentices (discard any time; Virtue effects from hire are permanent).
Destroying Debt above Virtue 14 does NOT grant the +1 Virtue that paying off a Debt normally gives and does not trigger Debt Collector.
Final round: Players may still place Workers in the Guildhall during the final round; place them to the side of the Guildhall.
End-game Building effects are resolved after the final round but Apprentice abilities and board effects remain active during this time (e.g., gaining Virtue above 14 during end-game effects can still destroy Debts).
Solo Play: Uses a bot opponent (Constantine = Standard, Helena = Hard) driven by Scheme Cards. Bot does not use Silver/resources/Apprentices/Buildings. Scores differently: Workers in Guildhall (1 VP each for Constantine, 3 VP for Helena), Cathedral VP, Marble (1 VP each), Virtue VP, minus Debts and Prison pairs.

Player Reference

Apprentice abilities:

Miner: +1 Clay whenever collecting at Mines
Woodcutter: +1 Wood whenever collecting at Forest
Stonecutter: +1 Stone whenever collecting at Quarry
Jeweller: +1 Silver whenever collecting at Silversmith
Merchant: King’s Storehouse action: pay Silver (left) → gain resources
Trader: King’s Storehouse action: trade resources shown (left) → gain resources shown
Patron: King’s Storehouse action: pay resources (left) → gain Virtue
Conspirator: Spend 1 less Silver (not Tax) when making captures at Town Centre
Gatekeeper: During each Black Market Reset, release 2 of your Workers from Prison
Illusionist: Do not lose Virtue when taking Black Market actions
Pickpocket: Gain 1 Gold when stealing from the Tax Stand
Thief: Lose 1 less Virtue when stealing from the Tax Stand
Trickster: Pay 1 less Silver when taking Black Market actions
Swindler: When taking a Black Market action, gain additional resources shown
Squire: During Black Market Reset, if you have no Workers in Prison, gain reward shown
Debt Collector: When paying off a Debt, also gain additional resources shown
Acolyte: When advancing on Cathedral, also gain the reward shown
Labourer: Has all 3 skill types (Carpentry, Tiling, Masonry)

Variable Setup characters:

Ada: 0 in Prison, 0 Silver, 11 Virtue, 1 Gold, +1 Building Card (post-draft). May ignore 1 Tax on all actions.
Frederick: 0 in Prison, 4 Silver, 7 Virtue, 1 Stone. Does not discard a Building Card when advancing on Cathedral.
Caroline: 8 in Prison, 10 Silver, 3 Virtue, 1 Marble, 1 unpaid Debt. Gains 1 Building Card each time she acts at the Black Market.
Rudolf: 0 in Prison, 3 Silver, 9 Virtue, 1 Wood. Pays 1 less Silver (not Tax) when hiring Apprentices. May hire up to 6 Apprentices.
Therese: 4 in Prison, 5 Silver, 5 Virtue, +1 Building Card (post-draft). Treats Marble and Gold as the same resource.