The game of Tournay, is set after the 881 Norman invasion which left the city in ruins. The people have returned to their homes and are starting to rebuild. Players are constructing new buildings, managing the citizens, and vying to once again make Tournay a prestigious city.
Goal of the Game
Players are trying to build the most renowned district in Tournay by gaining Prestige Points. These are earned from Prestige buildings, combating event cards, and from regular buildings and people in their district. The player with the most Prestige Points at the end of the game is the winner.
Components / Set-Up
The game includes the base game and one expansion that can be used after players are more familiar with Tournay. The components are beautiful, I love the artwork. Fans of Troyes will see some resemblance to that game.
The base game comes with 90 activity cards. There are 30 of each color, 10 for each level I-III. The expansion comes with an additional 18 activity cards. There are 6 of each color for levels I & II.The cards are made of a linen finish, which is my favorite kind for a card game.
They have a nice feel but players will need to pay close attention to the icons.
The cards are sorted by color and level into 9 decks of 10 cards each. Each of the 9 decks should be shuffled and placed in descending level order below the appropriately colored slot of the game board.
The game board is double sided. One side is the score track, not used until the game is over. The other side is the supply side for the extra citizens available for purchase during the game. It is placed above the activity cards with the supply side showing. Three of each citizen color are placed in the designated spots. Thirty-three wooden citizen meeples are used to perform actions. There are 11 red for military, 11 white for religious, and 11 yellow civilians.
15 Event cards are also included. These cards are made into a deck and placed above the board next to the first black spot. The top 3 cards of the Event deck are revealed and formed into an event queue by placing them above the other three black slots.
There player is given one of the 4 plaza cards in the player colors (white, blue, orange, and green) and one of the four wooden scoring tokens in their player color. They also take two citizens for each class and place them, standing on their plaza card. They also take 6 deniers.
Currency used in the game is called Deniers and comes in denominations of 1 and 5 coins and then 10 in a card. There are also 20 double-sided damage and gray citizen tokens. 6 cardboard Player aides are included as well. These tokens and cards are all placed in a general supply.
The starting player is given the start player marker. They keep this the entire game, as it is used to determine when the game ends.
Activity Cards
There are four types of Activity Cards in the decks: Buildings, Characters, Prestige Buildings, and Town Criers.
Buildings (House Symbol): Players construct these in their districts. They can be activated with citizens of the same color in order to benefit from the buildings effect. For example the Farm House gives a player 1 denier per empty space in their district.
Characters (Person Symbol): Players place these in their districts, and they interact with the card situated in the same row and column, as indicated by the four arrows around the edge of the card. You never place a citizen on a character card to activate it. One example of a Character card is the Bishop. When a white building in the same row / column as the Bishop is activated the player may gather their citizens lying near the Plaza card.
Prestige buildings: (Castle Symbol): These are the Level III Cards, which can provide prestige pints at the end of the game. Each prestige building built causes a scoring for all players at the end of the game. For example the Cloth Hall earns player Prestige Points per visible yellow card of Level I or Level II in their district (both building and characters).
Town Criers: there is one of these in each of the 9 decks. These cards announce events. When such a card is drawn, the events in the queue are activated.
Players take turns in clockwise order. There are two phases that must be played in order:
- play a card from your hand (optional)
- perform an action with citizens (mandatory)
Phase 1: Play a card from your hand
You may play one card from your hand in order to build it in your district. In the upper-left hand corner of the card a construction cost is shown. This cost must be paid in order to play the card. The card must be placed orthogonally adjacent to a card already placed. The first card placed is an exception to this rule. Each district cannot extend more than 3 rows or 3 columns.
It is possible to place a card on a card occupied by a token. If it is damage marker or a gray citizen, it is returned to the supply. If it is one of your citizens, it is laid next to your Plaza card.
When building Prestige buildings, you may not build two with the same name. You can place two Level I or Level II cards with the same name.
Phase Two: Perform an action with citizens (mandatory)
- Draw a Card
- Activate one building in your district
- Combat an Event Card
- Earn deniers
- Gather you citizens to your plaza.
1. Draw a Card
With a single citizen you can draw a Level I card of the same color as the citizen. Two citizens of the same color permit you to draw Level II card of the citizens' color. Three a Level III card of the citizens' color. The citizens used to draw the card are laid down, beside the Plaza card from which they came.
When you draw a card you may take the first face-up card from the deck, if there is one, or take the first two face-down cards from the deck, look at them, then choose one and put the other face-up on top of the deck.
You may choose this second option when a card is already face-up on top of the deck. First, place the face-up card, face-down on the bottom of the deck. If there are only two cards in the deck, regardless if one is face-up), draw them both, keep one, and put the other back face-up. If there is only one card, you may take it.
1. Place the Town Crier card under the deck from which it was drawn, at a 90 degree angle. This shows that there will be no more town criers found in that deck the rest of the game.
2. Place a 1-denier coin from the supply on one empty circle on each of the Event cards in the queue. If all the circles are already full do not add coins to that card.
3. All players are affected by all cards in the Event queue. Each effect is applied once for each coin on the card (regardless of whether a coin could be added to the card in the previous step).
Each player can construct a rampart playing one Rampart card from their hand to avoid the effects of one entire Event card of their choice, regardless of the number of coins on the card. The card is placed face-down in the district. It will all bring the player one prestige point at the end of the game. It is possible to construct multiple ramparts in order to defend against several event cards triggered by the same town crier. All Rampart cards are played in a single pile.
2. Activate a building in your district
You can put a citizen to work in an unoccupied building in your district. The citizen and the building must be the same color. If the citizen comes form another player's Plaza, lay it on its side beside its own plaza, and then place a gray citizen token form the supply on the activated card.
3. Combat an Event Card
You may work diplomatically against one of the events in the queue that has at least one denier on it. In order to combat and event card that makes you lose deniers, you must use 2 citizens of the color designated in the upper-left hand corner of the card. In order to combat the other types of Event cards, you must use one citizen of the color designated on the card and pay a ransom equal to the number of coins present on the card, plus 1 denier. In both cases, lay the used citizens beside the Plaza card from which they came. Return the coins on the card to the supply, and take the Event card into your hand. This can later be built as a Rampart. Replace the old even with a new one from the deck.
4. Earn deniers
You can use one or more of your citizens of the same color to earn 2 deniers per citizen. The citizens used must come from you own Plaza card. Lay the citizens down beside your Plaza card after this action.
5. Gather your citizen on your Plaza card
This allows you to move all your citizens, including those that were played on building cards, onto your Plaza. Citizens should be placed standing upright. Return any damage tokens and gray citizens in your district to the supply. You can even execute this action if you still have citizens on your Plaza card.
End of the Game
Two conditions must be met for the end of the game. The end of the game is triggered at the beginning of the start players turn if Condition 1 is met by at least 2 players or Condition 1 and 2 are met simultaneously.
- Condition 1: A player has constructed a district of 9 spaces with at least 2 visible prestige buildings
- Condition 2: one Town Crier card more than the number of players has been revealed and placed under the decks.
Next, each player earns the Prestige Points indicated just below the costs on all cards in their district. Covered cards also count for this. One Prestige Point is earned for each Rampart.Advanced Rules
Once players have learned the game and wish to play a longer more strategic game they may try these advanced rules. Players now start with only one citizen of each type on their Plaza but have 9 deniers. Three citizens more than the number of players are placed in each of the 3 supplies. There is also a new 6th action: Recruit a Citizen. Players can spend 5 deniers and recruit a citizen form the general supply. The citizen you use and the citizen that is recruited must be of the same color.
Lay the citizen you used beside your Plaza card. Stand the recruited citizens on your Plaza, it is available for use.
My Thoughts
Tournay was not a game that I loved the first time I played it, but it has grown on me to become one I enjoy playing, and whose mystery I seek to unlock. The mystery I refer to is the strategy needed to succeed in gathering Prestige Points. Tournay is a game that definitely rewards experience and thoughtful strategy. Knowing the cards, the combinations of buildings, and which Prestige Buildings would work best in your district is important. This knowledge can put new players at a disadvantage when playing with those more experienced with the game. So be cautious and kind to new players. I also think this lack of experience for new players can lead to some analysis paralysis issues. These will go away as one learns the game.
Another issue that can hurt game play, at least at first, is the icons. The Icons enable this game to be language independent but they can be confusing until you get used to them. I didn't find the player aide to be that helpful and we constantly passed the rule book back and forth to read the description of the individual cards. Unfortunately the Event cards and the Expansion cards are described inside the rulebook. Making a copy of the descriptions for each player would be helpful. As you play the game multiple times, and get to know the cards, this won't be an issue.The game is rather quick as well, rarely does a game last sixty minutes, at least not with two players. Since you are only to build a building and take one action, turns won't last very long and there will be very little downtime. It also leaves little time to plan. There is also a lot of luck involved in which cards you draw and when the Events will occur. There were three events that occurred in one game during the first few turns, leaving us behind before we even got a chance to start. It actually lead to an interesting end game, where both of us were holding back our last Prestige building to gain the most points before meeting the second end condition.
I know others have complained about the end of game scoring but I like it. You have some idea of where you stand when you look at others districts and compare them to your own. Yet, you don't know until the last person scores who the winner will be. It makes for an exciting end game where players carefully tally their score and wait with baited breath as others are scored.
I may sound like I didn't enjoy this game, but that is not the case. I think Tournay will be like a fine wine, getting better with age. I enjoyed building a district that maximizes my score, compliments each other, and protects against negative events. The events also add to the game play. Sometimes they are good, but most hurt you. Being prepared and defending yourself adds another layer. I hope that future expansion will offer greater diversity in the buildings and characters, and some new Prestige Buildings. For now, I'll play a few more times and hope to solve that mystery.
Quick Stats:
Designer:Sebastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban
Artist: Alexandre Roche
Players:2-4
Publishers: Heidelberger Spieleverlag, Pearl Games, Z-Man Games
Time: 60 minutes
Ages:12 & Up
Photo Credits: from www.boardgamegeek.com: W. Eric Martin, (W Eric Martin), Henk Rolleman (henk.rolleman), W. Eric Martin (W Eric Martin), sébastien dujardin (sebduj), fabrice vandenbogaerde (fabricefab), Roberto Méndez (Zoroastro), Paul & Marieke (ZaNaBoZa)
Thanks for the wonderful photos!
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