Table of Contents
Rules of Play
Game Overview
1 ... Game Overview
1 ... Game Components
1 ... Game Setup
2 ... Playing the Game
2 ... Moving Workers
2 ... Activating Locations
2 ... Location Benefits
4 ... Technologies
4 ... Game End
45 Worker Miniatures
Versailles is an innovative family game for 2-5 players,
who will take on the roles of architects and interior designers,
working together to create the magnificent palace for King
Louis XIV, and compete for the favor of the great monarch
himself.
Each turn, a player will move one or more of their workers from
one location to another and activate all of their workers gathered
there. This will provide them with resources, allow them to
build puzzle-like palace pieces, design impressive decorations
for the interiors and the gardens of the palace and learn new
skills, before His Majesty arrives to asses who of his servants
has done the best.
Game Components
The wooden miniatures (meeples) represent the player workers. Each player
starts the game with a number of workers in their player color set up in
different locations on the board.
5 Activation Markers
The activation markers are used to track the last location the player moved
their workers into.
30 Decoration Tokens
The Decoration Tokens represent the six types of Decorations used
to construct the Palace Tiles. These tokens are limited to the number
provided with the game. If the stock runs out of a certain type of
decoration, it is no longer available for purchase.
20 Technology/Scoring Markers
Before your first game, carefully remove all the cardboard
elements from the punch-boards and divide all the wooden
components according to their types and colors.
The Technology/Scoring Markers are used to track player advancement in
three types of technologies available in the Alchemist Guild location of the
game board. The Scoring Markers are used to track the score of players.
Game Board
The board represents both the central Construction Yard and all of the
locations used by the players to gather resources, gain Decorations and
Palace Tiles required to build Versailles.
Architects’
Guild
King’s Favor
Marble Quarry
Gold Mine
10 Double Movement Tokens
The Double Movement Tokens are used to indicate how many special
movements are available for player workers. Each Double Movement
Token has an active side and an exhausted side.
90 Resource Cubes
The wooden cubes represent resources in the game Gold (yellow), Marble
(white) and Wood (brown). Each small cube represent s 1 resource of a given
type. Each large cube represents 5 resources of a given type. The resources are
unlimited. In the unlikely event of running out of a certain type of resource, use
any kind of replacements or track their numbers using pen and paper.
Game Setup
General Setup
•
40 Palace Tiles
The Palace Tiles represent interior and exterior locations of the palace.
Alchemists’
Guild
Construction
Yard
Lumber Mill
Workshop
The King Pawn
The King Pawn represents King Louis XIV coming to inspect the work
done by the builders.
Palace Tiles back
Palace Tiles front
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•
Place the game board in the middle of the table. Place the
Wood (brown cubes) on the Lumber Mill, the Marble
(white cubes) on the Marble Quarry and the Gold
(yellow cubes) on the Gold Mine.
Shuffle the Palace Tiles and create a face-down stack.
Reveal five Palace Tiles and place them on the dedicated
spaces of the Architects’ Guild location of the board.
Stack the rest of the Palace Tiles face down near the
board within easy reach of all players.
•
Divide the Decoration Tiles according to their type and
stack them next to the Workshop location of the board.
Example: Anna and Marcus are setting up a two player game. They both place two
workers on the King’s Favor location. As Anna is the first player, she places an additional
worker on the King’s Favor location and one worker each on: Marble Quarry, Gold
Mine, Architects’ Guild and Workshop. Marcus one worker each on: Marble Quarry,
Gold Mine, Architects’ Guild, Workshop and Lumber Mill.
Playing the Game
•
•
Determine the player order – first player is the last person
to have visited Versailles or Paris. You may also determine
the order randomly, by mixing the Scoring Markers and
drawing one blind from a closed fist.
Finally, place the King Pawn on the starting position of the
King’s Track.
Player Setup
•
•
•
•
•
Each player takes all workers, Technology Markers, the
Activation Marker and the Scoring Marker in their chosen
color.
Each player receives two Double Movement Tokens and
places them on their active side.
A game of Versailles is played in successive turns, starting with
the first player and continuing clockwise. During their turn, a player
moves one or more of their workers from one location of the board
to another and activates the new location to use its actions. This
continues until the Game End is reached.
Moving Workers
On their turn, a player must move at least one of their workers from
one location of the board to another. Workers move only following
the movement arrows printed on the board. A player may choose if
they want to perform a Regular Movement or a Double Movement,
according to the rules below.
Set up active workers according to the table below.
Remember not to mix the active workers with the workers
in the New Workers space of the King’s Favor location of
the board. Any unused workers are returned to the game
box.
5 Players
P1
P2
P3
King’s Marble Gold Architects’
Lumber
Workshop
Favor Quarry Mine
Guild
Mill
4 Players
Example: On her turn, Anna decides to move one of her workers from the
Marble Quarry. Following the movement arrows, she could move the worker
either to the Gold Mine or to the Construction Yard. However, since the Gold
Mine contains Anna’s Activation Marker, she cannot move a worker into
that location. Instead, she opts to flip one of her Double Movement Tokens to
its exhausted side and move one of her workers directly to the Lumber Mill.
Alternatively, using the Double Movement, she could have moved that worker
to the Architects’ Guild, or move both of her workers from the Marble Quarry
into the Construction Yard.
Regular Movement allows a player to move one
of their workers following a movement arrow. A
player is not allowed to skip any locations, move
more than one worker or move their worker
ignoring the direction of the movement arrow.
Activating Locations
After moving one or more workers into a location, the player
activates the location and may use its benefits. Using a location’s
benefit is always optional – a player may move a worker or
workers into a location even if they are unable or unwilling to
use its benefit.
Double Movement
Instead of Regular Movement, a player may use Double Movement.
To use Double Movement, a player must flip one Double Movement
Token to its exhausted side. If a player does not have any active Double
Movement Tokens, they cannot perform a Double Movement. When
performing a Double Movement, a player may:
•
•
Move two workers from the same location together to another
(one) location, following all other Regular Movement rules.
Move one worker skipping one location, following all other
Regular Movement rules.
P4
When activating a location, each worker may be used for a
single purpose in that location, be it building a Palace tile
(Construction Yard), taking a tile (Architects’ Guild), etc. For
example, a player may not use the same worker to build two
different Palace Tiles.
Location Benefits
Each location on the board provides a player with one or
more certain benefits. The benefits depend on the number of
workers belonging to the player performing the movement. As
a general rule, more workers in the activated location provide
greater benefits. Players ignore workers belonging to other
players in the active location.
Marble Quarry
P1
When a player activates the Marble Quarry,
they receive 1/2/3 marble if 1/2/3 or more of
their workers are present there.
P2
Lumber Mill
P5
2 Players 3 Players
Regardless of the type of movement used, a player may never
move a worker to a location containing an Activation Marker
in their player color. After performing any type of movement,
the player places the Activation Marker in the location they
activated. Players ignore Activation Markers belonging to
other players.
Regular Movement
Each player places two of their
workers in the New Workers
space in the King’s Favor
location of the board and their
Scoring Marker on the first
space of the Scoring Track.
Place one Technology Marker
belonging to each player on the
starting position of each of the
three Technology Tracks in the
Alchemists’ Guild location of
the board.
Activation Marker
P3
P1
When a player activates the Lumber Mill, they
receive 1/2/3 wood if 1/2/3 or more of their
workers are present there.
P2
Gold Mine
P4
When a player activates the Gold Mine, they
receive 0/1/2 gold if 1/2/3 or more of their
workers are present there.
P3
P1
P2
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Architects’ Guild
Workshop
The Architects’ Guild provides
the player with a number of
options when activated. A player
may use any of those options
depending on the number
of workers they have in the
location. The possible actions
can be performed in any order.
•
•
•
A player may take one
or more face up Palace Tiles
from the display. Taking a Palace
Tile requires one or two workers.
Taking the top Palace Tile from the display additionally
requires spending one gold. Do not place new Palace Tiles
or slide the remaining down tiles after performing this
action. A player may keep a maximum of four tiles in front
of them at any given time. If a player takes a fifth Palace
Tile, they must immediately discard one of their Palace
Tiles.
A player may remove one or three Palace Tiles from the
display. Removing a single Palace Tile requires one worker.
Removing three Palace Tiles requires two workers. All
remaining Palace Tiles are immediately moved down after
this action is performed.
Activating the Workshop allows
the player to purchase one or more
Decorations. In order to buy a
Decoration Tile, a player must use
the depicted number of workers and
pay the resources shown next to the
Decoration Tile bought.
Example: Anna activates the Construction Yard with 2 workers to build the
depicted tile. Areas marked as 1,2 and 3 represent valid placements of her tile,
while areas marked 4 and 5 do not represent valid options for placement.
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Alchemists’ Guild
Activating the Alchemists’ Guild
allows the player to advance one or
more of their Technology Markers. A
player may advance multiple markers,
each time using the number of workers
and expending resources depicted
on the arrow leading to the space
the marker is moved into. A single
technology may be advanced multiple times during a single activation.
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Example: Anna activates the Alchemists’ Guild with three workers. She could advance
all of her technologies by moving her markers from the first to the second space of all
of the tracks. However, since she does not want to pay one gold, she opts to move one
marker two spaces on the Resource Gathering Upgrade track and another marker one
space on the Specialist Locations Upgrade track.
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A player may flip one of their exhausted Double Movement
Tokens to its active side. Flipping an exhausted Double
Movement Token requires one worker. This is the only
action that can be performed only once during a player
turn, regardless of the number of workers a player has in
the Architects’ Guild location.
King’s Favor
A player may activate the King’s
Favor location in order to recruit
new workers and refresh their
Double Movement Tokens:
After activating the Architects’ Guild and performing all of
the desired actions, slide down all Palace Tiles on the display
and refill any empty spaces with face up tiles from the stack.
If the Palace Tile stack runs out, create a new stack from the
previously removed Palace Tiles. If there are 7 or less such tiles,
the Game End is triggered immediately.
Example: Michael activates the Architects’ Guild with four workers. He
uses two of his workers to take the top tile (also spending one Gold) and one
of his workers to flip the exhausted Double Movement Token to its active side.
Although he has his second Double Movement Token exhausted, he cannot use
another worker to use this action a second time. Instead, he opts to also take the
bottom Palace Tile.
Construction Yard
Activating the Construction Yard
allows a player to place one or more
Palace Tiles on the grid in the middle
of the board. To place a Palace Tile, a
player must:
•
•
•
Activate the location with
a number of workers equal to or
higher than the number of workers
depicted on the tile placed. Each
Palace Tile depicts the number of workers used to place it on the
Construction Yard.
Pay the resources depicted on the tile, including any Decorations.
The resource cubes are returned to their respective locations. The
Decoration Tokens are permanently placed on the Palace Tile.
Place the tile adjacent to at least one tile already placed on the
grid or adjacent to a side of the Construction Yard. Any exterior
or interior parts of the tile must match any adjacent tiles and the
sides of the Construction Yard. A player may rotate the tile in
order to achieve this. If there is no legal way to place a tile on the
grid, the tile may not be placed during that activation.
After placing a tile, the active player scores a number of Victory Points
depicted on the tile. Mark this by moving the Scoring Marker on
the Scoring Track. A player may place multiple Palace Tiles during a
single activation.
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•
•
Recruiting a worker
requires two or three workers in
the King’s Favor location. The
newly recruited workers enter
play in the King’s Favor location
at the end of the active player’s
turn (they cannot be used immediately after recruitment
during the same activation). A player may recruit both
their workers during a single activation or start by
recruiting the more expensive worker first.
A player may use one worker to refresh one or both of
their Double Movement markers (if both markers are
exhausted, a single worker refreshes both of them).
The King Pawn
The King’s Favor location is subject to a special rule regarding
the King Pawn. Any time the location is activated or skipped
(which can be achieved by exhausting a Double Movement
Token), the King Pawn is moved one space on the King
Track, at the end of that player’s turn. Regardless of how many
workers activate or pass the location, the King Pawn is moved
one space only. When the King Pawn reaches the last space of
the track, the Game End is triggered immediately.
Technologies
•
Whenever the Marble Quarry is activated, the player may also
activate this location to gain Marble.
•
Whenever the Gold Mine is activated, the player may also
activate this location to gain Gold.
The Alchemists’ Guild features three technology tracks, which
allow players to take advantage of a certain special abilities.
•
Whenever the Construction Yard is activated, the player
may also activate this location.
Resource Gathering Upgrade
This technology allows the players to gain extra resources.
•
Every time a player receives any Wood, that player gains
one extra Wood.
Game End
The game ends when one of the following conditions are met:
•
•
•
Every time a player receives any Marble, that player gains
one extra Marble.
•
Example: Marcus activates the Lumber Mill with three workers to receive three Wood.
Anna has a Technology Marker on the second space of the Resource Gathering Upgrade
and a Technology Marker on the second space of the Resource Locations Upgrade, and
since she also has two of her workers in the activated location, she immediately receives
three wood as well. Michael also has his Technology Marker on the second space of
the Resource Locations Upgrade, but since he has no workers in the Lumber Mill, he
receives no Wood.
•
Every time a player receives any Gold, that player gains
one extra Gold. This means that activating the Gold Mine
with a single worker will allow the player to gain one Gold.
Resource Locations Upgrade
This technology provides the player with resources whenever
other players are using resource providing locations. To be
able to take advantage of any of the following technologies, a
player needs to have at least one worker in the relevant resource
producing location. The amount of the resources depends
on the number of workers belonging to the player using this
technology and not to the player who originally activated the
location.
•
Whenever the Lumber Mill is activated, the player may
also activate this location to gain Wood.
Specialist Locations Upgrade
This technology allows the player to activate the Architects’ Guild,
the Workshop and the Construction Yard whenever other players
are using those locations. To be able to take advantage of any of the
following technologies, a player needs to have at least one worker in
the relevant location. Any actions are performed after the activating
players’ turn. If multiple players are eligible to use the same location,
they may do so starting from the player sitting to the left of the player
who originally activated the location. Actions a player may perform
depend on the number of workers belonging to the player using this
technology and not to the player who originally activated the location.
•
Whenever the Architects’ Guild is activated, the player may also
activate this location.
There are no empty spaces on the grid of the Construction
Yard.
The King Pawn reaches the last space of the King Track.
The stack of the Palace Tiles is exhausted and there are
7 or less Palace Tiles available for creating a new stack.
Any of the above conditions end the game immediately. No
further actions may be performed by the triggering player, even
if the number of workers and/or resources would allow the
player to make further use of the activated location.
Game Scoring
After ending the game, each player adds extra Victory Points
to their current Victory Point total.
•
•
•
Every 3 Marble, every 3 Wood, every 2 Gold is worth 1
Victory Point.
Every Palace Tile possessed by a player is worth 1 Victory
Point.
Every Decoration is worth 3 Victory Points.
The player with the greatest number of Victory Points is the
winner. In case of a tie, all tied players share the victory.
Credits
A game by
NSKN Games
Game art
Odysseas Stamoglu,
Agnieszka Kopera
Game design
Game box art
Game development
English rules
•
Whenever the Workshop is activated, the player may also activate
this location.
Special Thanks
Andrei Novac
Loïc Muzy
Agnieszka Kopera,
Błażej Kubacki
Andrei Novac,
Błażej Kubacki
Daniele Tascini
For more information about Versailles please visit
www.nskn.net. If your copy of Versailles is missing any
components or if any game components are defective, please
contact our customer support at www.nskn.net.
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