Manual — Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets

Ted Alspach
Secrets
Castles of Mad King Ludwig

béziergames
www.beziergames.com

Requires Castles of Mad King Ludwig base game

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Contents

4x Barbicans

350
3x 350 Room tiles

250
3x 250 Room tiles

150
3x 150 Room tiles

300
3x 300 Room tiles

400
3x 400 Room tiles

450
3x 450 Room tiles

600
3x 600 Room tiles

500
3x 500 Room tiles

100
3x 100 Room tiles

200
3x 200 Room tiles

9x Moats

40x Swan tokens

4x Small Secret Passages

4x Straight Secret Passages

4x Corner Secret Passages

Room Completion Rewards

Activity
5

Outdoor
Take 10000

Food
Take 1 extra turn

Utility
Take 2 Bonus cards, Keep 1 of them

Corridor
Place 3 Foyer Hallway or Stairs

Living
Re-score the completed room's points

Zzz Sleep
Choose 0, 1 or 2 rooms from the stack, place them face down on the Room stack

Downstairs
(only for 2nd, 4th, 6th)
Re-score the completed Room Completion Rewards

Moat Completion Reward
Moat
Choose 0 or 1 room from a stack and add it directly to your castle

4x Secrets Reference cards

Setup Changes

Use the regular Castles of Mad King Ludwig setup, making the changes listed here when you play with Secrets.

1
Give each player a starting Barbican. When playing with Barbicans and Moats, you won't use the Foyer tiles that come with the base game.

4
Place the Moats face down here.

5
Shuffle the new Favors in with the existing ones before drawing them for placement on the contract board.

6
Place the Swan tokens face down here.

2
Give each player 3 different Secret Passages: 1 Small, 1 Straight, and 1 Corner.

3
Create and shuffle the room stacks as follows for each player count:

100-300
Base Secrets Hallways Moats
3 2 5 5
4 3 7 7
6 3 9 9

350-600
Base Secrets Stairs
2 2 4
2 3 5
3 3 6

7
When turning over rooms, if any room tile has a Swan in the lower right corner of the tile, place 1 Swan token face up on that room.

If a room tile has two Swans, place 2 Swan tokens face up on that tile.

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What secrets are lurking in the shadows of King Ludwig's castle?
There are dozens of hidden Swans scattered throughout thirty new
rooms. Ludwig is particularly fond of these Swans, which provide
both much-needed cash at any time or can be collected for big bonuses
at the end of the game. Surrounding and protecting your castle are
new Moats, making every room inside it even more valuable. The
King has come up with more Favors, including one for creating Court-
yards. Finally, Secret Passages enhance connections and muffle sound
from Activity rooms.

You can only build rooms inside of a completed Moat, except for Outdoor rooms, which can be
built inside or outside of the Moat. Outdoor rooms are not allowed to have their fence edges
touch the stone edge of the Moat. No rooms may ever overlap any portion of a Moat or Barbican.

Secrets

The Secrets expansion consists of 4 parts and also 4 new Favors. You may play with almost any combi-
nation of expansion parts along with the base game. When playing with the Secrets expansion, set up
the game using the rules in the base Castles of Mad King Ludwig game and follow the additional setup
instructions shown to the left.

Barbicans and Moats: These constrain the size of your castle, while at the same time offering potentially
huge bonuses for each of the rooms in the castle.

Secret Passages: Secret Passages provide both flexibility for your castle layout, along with the ability to
double connection bonuses and allow connections without adjacency penalties.

New Rooms: The 30 new rooms add variety to the existing set of rooms in the game. In addition, the
Secrets rooms have Swan icons printed on them.

Swans (must play with New Rooms): When you purchase a room that has Swan icons on it, you collect
Swan tokens, which can be exchanged for cash during the game or points at the end of the game.

Favors: Three of these are specific to Secrets: Moats, Swans, and Rooms without Swans, while the fourth
(Courtyards) can be used with the base game.

The Greenhouse
overlaps the water, so it
cannot be placed here.

An Outdoor room that is connected to the Barbican drawbridge is considered connected to a
Corridor room. The Barbican is not complete until an Outdoor room is connected to the draw-
bridge (and the other entrances of the Barbican also have rooms connected to them). Rooms
outside the Moat can only be connected to rooms within the Moat via the Barbican's drawbridge.
If you complete a Moat by placing 3 Moat sections (creating a completely enclosed area in con-
junction with your Barbican), you receive the Moat Reward: you may pick up any stack of rooms
and look through it, choosing zero or one room to place immediately, at no cost to you. That
room is scored as if you had purchased it in the normal fashion. Then you shuffle the unselected
rooms and place them face down from where you picked them up.

Barbicans and Moats

Each player starts with a Barbican tile instead of the Foyer from the base game. All players
start with a Barbican, even if some players state they will not purchase any Moats during the game.
Instead of purchasing a Room tile, Stairs or Hallway (or taking 5000), players may install a new
Moat section adjacent to one or two of their existing Moat sections (or next to their Barbican)
for 5000. When a Moat is purchased, discard the top Room card (or remove the room tile if one
or more is on top of the room deck and place it in the game box). Moats were traditionally used
to protect a castle, but in Ludwig's case, they just look so cool that you'll get bonus points for
placing them. When you purchase a Moat, you'll score 3 points for the Moat itself, and 1 point
for every room in your castle, except Corridor and Outdoor rooms. An additional Moat scores
an additional 3 points for the new Moat, and 1 additional point for every room in your castle.

When this Moat is placed, score 3 points for the Moat
itself. Then score 5 points for the 5 rooms currently in the
castle. From this point on, rooms (except Corridor and
Outdoor rooms) constructed in this castle score +1
additional points when placed.

The number of Moats is limited, and if the stack of Moat sections is depleted, it counts for a
depleted stack scoring at the end of the game. No player may purchase more than three Moat sec-
tions in a single game. There are not enough Moat sections for all players to complete their Moats.
A Moat section may not be placed if it will overlap a previously placed room.

Moats are counted as rooms for the "Rooms without Swans" Favor but are not counted for the
"Completed Rooms" Favor. The 1000 square ft size of each moat does count towards the total
square footage of your castle for the game end tiebreaker.

castle score 1 additional points when placed The number of Moats is limited and if the stack of Moat sections is depleted it counts for a depleted stack scoring at the end of the game No player may purchase more than three Moat sec tions in a single game There are not enough Moat sections for all players to complete their Moats A Moat section may not be placed if it will overlap a previously placed room Moats are counted as rooms for the Rooms without Swans Favor but are not counted for the Completed Rooms Favor The 1000 square ft size of each moat does count towards the total square footage of your castle for the game end tiebreaker

If the removal of a card from the Room deck when building a Moat results in depleting the Room
deck, the game will end at the end of the current turn.

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Secret Passages
Each player starts with 1 Small Secret Passage, 1 Straight Secret Passage, and 1 Corner Secret Passage.
Secret Passages can be used to connect any two rooms. This allows for all sorts of placements that
otherwise could not be done, and provides opportunities for additional scoring. Secret passages have
two entrances on them, one on either end. Secret Passages cannot connect to other Secret Passages, and
Secret Passages cannot be built unless both ends are connected to entrances.

Secret Passages can be played at any time on a player's turn, whenever they place a room (or collect
a token). They directly connect two rooms that are not directly connected otherwise, and provide double
conditional connection bonuses for those rooms. Any number of Secret Passages may be placed during
a player's turn, as long as they connect directly to the room being placed. If additional rooms are being
placed on a turn, Secret Passages may be placed along with those additional rooms.

A Secret Passage cannot be used to
connect two rooms which are connected
through a different set of entrances.

A Secret Passage cannot be placed between two rooms that are already connected. If a Secret Passage
is placed between an Activity Room that is adjacent to another room where a penalty is incurred, that
penalty is still in effect. However, if a Secret Passage is placed between an Activity Room and a room
which is not adjacent but would normally result in a penalty, you do not incur Activity Room condi-
tional penalties (the Secret Passages mute the sound).

When a Living room reward is scored (because all doors connect to other rooms), any rooms connected
to the Living room via Secret Passage are included in the re-scoring.

When the Library is completed, the Room Completion
Reward for the Living room results in 23 points: 2 for the
Library, 6 for connecting to the Sanctum, 6 for connecting
to the Parlor, 6 for connecting to the Fountains, and 3 for
connecting to the Small Yard.

Secret Passage entrances are placed on top of existing doors, but cannot be placed so that the Secret
Passage itself is overlapping any other portion of a room or Moat.
Secret Passages are not counted as rooms for the "Rooms without Swans" or the "Completed
Rooms" Favors. Secret Passages do not count towards the total square footage of your castle for
the game end tiebreaker.

King's Favors
There are four new King's Favors in Secrets:

The Swans Favor is based
on how many Swan
tokens you have at the end
of the game (of any type).

The Rooms without
Swans Favor is based on
how many rooms you have
in your castle that do not
have Swan icons, includ-
ing Corridors, but not
including Secret Passages.

The Courtyard Favor is based on how
many Courtyards you have in your
castle. A Courtyard is a completely
enclosed area with at least one en-
trance. A completed Moat creates at
least one Courtyard if there is at least
one door going into it. Water edges of
a Barbican/Moat cannot be used as
the edge of a Courtyard.

The Moats Favor is based on the
number of Moat sections you have
in your castle (the starting Barbican
tile counts as a Moat section, so if
you've built no additional Moats,
you'll still qualify for last place).

Solo Game with Secrets
There are no changes to the solo game when played with Secrets; you can purchase Moats, place
Secret Passages and acquire Swan tokens as in the normal game. However, the score targets are
slightly different: <60: Court Jester, 61-80: Servant to his Royal Majesty, 81-95: The Duke of
Castle Building, 96-110: The Supreme Prince Regent of Palaces, >110: King of Grand Castle
Construction.

About the Developer
Dale Yu has been involved with game development since 2001. Previous projects include Castles
of Mad King Ludwig, Dominion, Suburbia, and Subdivision. He was also involved with refining the
solo game for Agricola. He has co-designed a few games (Gib Gas, Start Frei and Flizz&Micz) as
well as two expansions for Agricola (The X-Deck and the Legen'Dairy Forest Deck). Since 2010,
he has also served as the editor-in-chief for the Opinionated Gamers blog. When he is not work-
ing, he is a physician in a Midwestern university town. He lives at home with his wife
(who never plays games) and his two teenaged boys (who serve as constant playtesters).

About the Designer
Ted Alspach lives in the sprawling Burg von Alspach Castle (located on the Alspach Estates)
with his wife, two kids, dog, and two cats somewhere in North America. He is the designer of
several games, including Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Suburbia, Ultimate Werewolf, One Night
Resistance, and many others.

well as two expansions for Agricola The X Deck and the Legen Dairy Forest Deck Since 2010 he has also served as the editor in chief for the Opinionated Gamers blog When he is not work ing he is a physician in a Midwestern university town He lives at home with his wife who never plays games and his two teenaged boys who serve as constant playtesters About the Designer Ted Alspach lives in the sprawling Burg von Alspach Castle located on the Alspach Estates with his wife two kids dog and two cats somewhere in North America He is the designer of several games including Castles of Mad King Ludwig Suburbia Ultimate Werewolf One Night Resistance and many others

Playtesters
Lots of players helped test Secrets secretly, including: Toni Alspach, Richard Bethany, Audrey
Cueto, Charlie Davis, Randy Farmer, Shelley Ganschaw, Doug Garrett, Braeden Jackson, Mark
Jackson, Chris Landon, Cynthia Landon, Shalise Landon, Dean Lizardo, Greg Schloesser, Ray
Wisneski, and Ryan Yu.

Swans
When a room with a Swan icon on it is placed below the contract board, take a Swan token from
the supply and place it face up (displaying the color of that particular Swan token) on that room.
If a room has two Swan icons, place two Swan tokens face up on that room. When a player
buys a room with one or more Swan tokens on it, he takes those Swan tokens and places them
to the side of his castle, face up so that all players may see which Swan tokens he has collected.
Swan tokens can be used in the following two ways:

1) On your turn, exchange any 1 Swan token for 1m, any 2 for 3m, any 3 for 6m, any 4 for 10m,
or any 5 for 15m. You may not exchange more than 5 Swans on any turn. Used Swans go back in
the box and are not counted towards the Swan Favor if it is in play.

2) Each set of unique Swan tokens at the end of the game is scored by the player who has them:
1 for 1pt, 2 for 3pts, 3 for 6pts, 4 for 10pts, 5 for 15pts. Swans counted for points at the end of
the game are counted towards the Swan Favor if it is in play.

15+3+1=19

béziergames

Castles of Mad King Ludwig Secrets rules are copyright 2015 by Ted Alspach and Bezier Games, Inc. All rights reserved.
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