Rattus

Overview

Rattus is a strategy game for 2-4 players set in medieval Europe during the Black Death. Players place population cubes in 12 regions across the board while trying to avoid the plague. By taking class cards (King, Knight, Monk, Merchant, Peasant, Witch), players gain special abilities but also increase their vulnerability to the plague. The player with the most surviving population cubes when the rat supply is depleted or a player deploys all cubes wins.

Components

• 1 Game board depicting 12 European regions
• 80 Wooden population cubes (20 per player color)
• 49 Rat tokens (face-down, with plague events on front)
• 6 Class cards: Peasantry, Bourgeoisie (Merchant), Church (Monk), Chivalry (Knight), Magic (Witch), Royalty (King)
• 1 Plague piece

Setup

1. Each player chooses a color and receives 20 cubes.
2. Place starting rat tokens face-down in each region: 8 (2 players), 10 (3 players), or 12 (4 players) tokens distributed as indicated on the board (marked with purple circles).
3. Remove surplus rat tokens based on player count.
4. Place the Plague piece in a randomly determined region.
5. Place the 6 class cards face-up beside the board.
6. Players alternately place cubes on the board (4 cubes total per player, placed one at a time in any region).

Turn Structure

Each turn consists of three mandatory phases in order:

1. Take a Class Card (optional): Take one available class card from the supply or steal one from another player.
2. Place Population Cubes: Choose a region and place cubes there equal to the number of rat tokens currently in that region.
3. Move the Plague: Move the Plague piece to any adjacent region (mandatory), then resolve the plague.

Actions

Class Card Abilities

Class	Ability
King	Move cubes to the palace (safe from plague)
Monk	Relocate rat tokens between regions
Knight	Move the Plague piece up to two additional spaces
Peasant	Place one additional cube beyond the normal amount
Merchant	Move up to 3 of your cubes between adjacent regions
Witch	Examine and swap rat tokens

Plague Resolution

When the Plague moves to a region:

1. Add new rat tokens to neighboring regions based on tokens present.
2. Reveal rat tokens in the affected region one at a time.
3. Each token shows a limit value and symbols indicating which players lose cubes (class holders, majority holders, etc.).
4. Affected players remove cubes from the region.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

• The game ends when the rat token supply is depleted OR a player has placed all 20 of their cubes on the board.
• The player with the most surviving population cubes on the board wins.
• Tiebreaker: The tied player who would be next in turn order wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Class Card Vulnerability: Holding class cards makes you more susceptible to specific plague tokens. Some tokens target players who hold specific class cards.
• Stealing Class Cards: You may take a class card from another player instead of from the supply. The other player loses that ability.
• Only One Class Card Per Turn: You may take at most one class card per turn.
• Mandatory Plague Movement: You must move the Plague piece at least one region each turn.
• Empty Regions: You may place cubes in a region with zero rat tokens, but you place zero cubes (the region has no rats to indicate population capacity).

Player Reference

Turn Order: 1) Optionally take a class card -> 2) Place cubes in a region (= number of rat tokens there) -> 3) Move Plague and resolve

End Game Trigger: Rat supply empty OR player places all 20 cubes

Victory: Most cubes on the board