What Is It About?

Together with your fellow players, you are building the City of Elasund. In the process, you try to accommodate as many of your own buildings as possible. Buildings produce income in the form of gold and Influence Cards. On some buildings you can place one or two of your Victory Point Cubes. If you succeed to be the first one in securing 10 Victory Point Cubes on the game area, you win!

The City Wall and the Building Area of the City

Elasund can be played by two, three, and four players. The more players participate, the bigger the building area of the city will be. The size of the building area is determined by the position of the City Gate. Each player owns 9 parts of the City Wall. A player building a City Wall pays 2 gold if he/she builds it between the City Gate and the ocean. When all City Walls in this area are built, the next City Walls must be built in the red area between the two City Gates. But that costs 4 gold per City Wall. The builder of a City Wall obtains 1 Influence Card (or, starting with the 5th City Wall of his/her own, 2 Influence Cards). Each third City Wall of one’s own is decorated with a Watch Tower. Although you don’t obtain an Influence Card for a Watch Tower, you may place a Victory Point Cube on the roof of the Watch Tower.

You don’t start the game without means. Like your fellow players, you own 2 Worker’s Cottages, 3 Gold cards, and 1 Influence Card.

On his/her turn, a player performs the following actions in the order listed:

1. Determining the income for everyone by rolling the dice

2. Building once or twice

3. Placing a Building Permit or taking 2 gold

4. Performing a Bonus Action

1st Action: Determining the Income for Everyone by Rolling the Dice

When it’s your turn, you roll the dice. The ship is automatically placed on the number rolled and thus marks a row. In the image above, a “4” was rolled. For buildings in the marked row, their owners receive Gold cards and Influence Cards according to the type of building (there are also buildings you don’t get income for). In the image, only the blue player receives an Influence Card because his/her small cottage is in the same line with the ship.

Victory Points	Money	Blue Influence Cards	Red Influence Cards	Green Influence Cards	Cards in stack	Number of opponent’s cards

If the number of a row is rolled that has already been rolled during the previous turn, the ship has to be moved up or down by two rows. What happens when a “7” is rolled will be explained later in this instruction.

2nd Action: Building Once or Twice

You can put up one or two of the following buildings:

- Building (own or neutral)

- Part of the City Wall

- Part of the Church

You can also combine 2 different buildings (for example, 1 part of the City Wall and 1 part of the Church).

Building One’s Own Building or a Neutral One

Putting up a building costs between 1 and 5 gold and depends on the building type. 1-3 Building Permits must be placed in the area where you want to build, according to the building type. The costs and the required number of Building Permits are indicated on the lower left of each building. You learn everything worth knowing about a building by clicking on it with the right mouse key.

To build a building of your own, click on one of the two Worker’s Cottages.

To build a neutral building, click on the respective building. Once you have built a neutral building, it is marked as your building by a Victory Point Cube of your color.

If you select a building with a left-click, it sticks to your mouse cursor. Now you can move it to the desired building site.

Three important rules:
 

1. When putting up a building, you are allowed to use someone else’s Building Permits if your Building Permit(s) total(s) a higher value than the Building Permit(s) of each individual fellow player. But a player who uses someone else’s Building Permit has to compensate its owner for the value of the Building Permit in gold, even in case the other player’s Building Permit should not be required for building.

2. Smaller buildings can be built over by larger buildings.

3. The excavation pit for the Church in the 8th row must not be built on.

Worker’s Cottages cost nothing. A Worker’s Cottage that is built over can immediately be placed again on a free field, given that there’s still room on the game board. Placement on fields with Building Permits or with Commerce Points (Mills) is not allowed.

Building the Church

The Church is a building that consists of 9 pieces (levels). 7 gold have to be paid for building 1 Church level. The first level is placed on the excavation pit for the Church. That way, the position of the building area is determined. Each subsequent Church level is placed in a matching fashion. Since the Church in its entirety is the biggest building of all, each Church level displaces any building that is covering a field on which the Church level is placed. A Church level thus cannot be built over by another building.

Advantage for the player who starts building the Church:

The player receives 2 Church cards to choose from. He/she can accommodate the position of the building area of the Church in such a way that his/her own buildings are not in danger of being displaced by the Church. The non-selected card is deposited below the Church card stack – meaning that the player also knows which part of the Church is built last.

Info on the position of the building area of the Church:

As soon as the first Church level is built, the position of the building area is displayed when right-clicking the Church card stack.

3rd Action: Placing a Building Permit or Taking 2 Gold

You own 5 Building Permits with the values 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. The cost for placing a Building Permit is the amount of gold that corresponds to the number on the Building Permit (value of the Building Permit).

To place a Building Permit, click on one of the Building Permits available to you (they are in the lower part of the bar next to your own buildings). Now the Building Permit is sticking to your mouse cursor, and you move it to a free field in the row that is marked by the ship.

If all fields in the marked row are occupied, you will be requested to place the Building Permit in an adjacent row that still has free fields.

In case you want to place the Building Permit in a row of your choice, you have to pay 2 Influence Cards of the same color.

Please note: If you place the Building Permit in a row where you also can place a Building Permit without using Influence Cards, the program ignores your selection to avoid wasting the 2 Influence Cards.

You receive 2 gold if you forego placement of a Building Permit.

4th Action: Performing a Bonus Action

At the end of your turn, you are asked if you want to perform one of the following Bonus Actions.

a) Moving a Building Permit

You click on one of your Building Permits on the game area and drag it with the mouse cursor to another free field.

Cost: Two colored Influence Cards

b) Upgrading your own Building Permit

You substitute one of your Building Permits already placed on the game area with a Building Permit of a higher value from your supply. For this purpose, first click on a Building Permit on the lower left, then drag it to the field with the Building Permit you want to replace.

Cost: 2 colored Influence Cards and as many Gold cards as accounted for by the difference between the numbers on the removed Building Permit and its replacement.

c) Placing a Building Permit at will

With a mouse click, you select a Building Permit from your supply and drag it with the mouse to an empty field.

Cost: 3 Influence Cards of different colors and the number of Gold cards that correspond to the value of the Building Permit

d) Taking 2 gold

The player takes 2 Gold cards from the gold supply stack.

Cost: 3 colored Influence Cards

The Trade Fields

The margins of the fields by the Harbor – if 3 or four players are playing, also the margins of the fields near the City Gate – are marked with Trade symbols (Mills). This makes them trade fields.

A player who puts a building on a trade field obtains one Commerce Point at the Harbor and 2 Commerce Points near the City Gate. However, no Commerce Point is given for building a Church card on a trade field. Commerce Points are marked with the round Counter Cube on the Commerce Points bar.

If a player’s Counter Cube reaches a Victory Point field (fields 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) or passes it, one of his/her Victory Point Cubes is positioned there.

On the other hand: The Counter Cube of a player who has lost a building on a trade field is set back for the respective number of fields. If afterwards the Counter Cube is located below a Victory Point field where the player has a Victory Point Cube, the latter will be removed.

A “7” is Rolled - The Pirate comes!

When a player rolls a “7,” he/she moves the ship to any other row. Now the ship is black and symbolizes a Pirate. No income is generated in the marked row. Instead, each player (also the player who has moved his/her ship) has to discard one Influence Card or Gold card for each of his/her Victory Point Cubes. Such a card must also be paid for a Victory Point Cube on a Watch Tower if it is located in the marked row. A player who has no cards or not a sufficient number of cards either doesn’t discard cards at all or only as many as he/she owns.

The advantage of the Watch Towers:

The player who moved the Pirate may take one of the deposited cards for every Watch Tower (part of City Wall with Victory Point Cube) he/she owns. Afterwards, the player just continues his/her turn; a Building Permit would be placed in the row marked by the ship.

End of the Game

If it is a player’s turn, and he/she has accommodated all 10 Victory Point Cubes on the game area, he/she wins the game.