New Kingdom: Sowers — Rules Manual

Introduction Overview
Two young sowers went out one day to sow. Their teacher, “The Sower,” had passed on everything the Master had taught him. They had to find the right soil for their seeds. On the path, their seeds would be snatched by birds. If they landed in rocky soil, the sun would burn them up. In thorny soil, they would lose their seeds in a tangle of weeds. They had to sow their seeds skillfully in the good soil to see an abundant harvest.
“Should we make a game of it, Priscilla?”
“You’re on, Aquila! I know where to find the best soil!”
New Kingdom: Sowers is a 1-2 player card game inspired by the biblical Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13:3-9. In this game, players take on the role of sowers, strategically scattering seed cards into 4 different zones called “soil types” on a central game mat.
Play all 10 of your black seed cards in ascending order from 1 to 10 in your good soil before your opponent to win.

Beware! You lose immediately if:
Objective:
1 2
• You cannot draw a card to start your turn,
• You cannot fulfill the requirements of any soil type to play a card, OR
• You must discard a black seed at the end of your turn.

---

Set-Up
1. Place the game board in the center of the playing area so the soil types are faceup.
2. Separate the cards by their card backs into a 20-card Priscilla deck and a 20-card Aquila deck. Each deck consists of 10 black seed cards and 10 yellow seed cards. (set aside the wild seed cards if this is your first game - see Variant: Wild Seeds on pg. 12)
3. Choose a deck, shuffle it, and place it face-down in front of you as a draw pile.
Components
• 1 Game Box with Rules
• 1 Game Board
• 4 Player Aid Cards
• 40 Seed Cards
• 2 Wild Seed Cards
4. Take 2 double-sided player aid cards (in order to see both sides simultaneously).
5. Choose a difficulty to determine your starting hand size:
Apprentice: Draw 5 cards
Sower: Draw 4 cards
Master: Draw 3 cards
6. You may determine the starting player however you wish. If you need an idea, the player who last planted a seed goes first.
7. Keep track of the first player as players will have an even number of turns.
3 4

---

On Your Turn
1. Draw 1 card from your deck.
2. Play a card from your hand into any of the 4 soil types.
3. Discard yellow Seed Cards from your hand to The Path until you have 7 cards remaining. (Do not take the Path action for cards discarded in this step)
You must take the following 3 actions in order each turn:
To legally play a card to a soil type, you must be able to play the correct type of card to the soil, and you must be able to complete the resulting action in its entirety.
Important Terms
• Draw a Card - This refers to a card which must come from your deck.
• Lay a Card - This refers to a card which must come from your hand.
• Pick up a Card - This refers to a card which must come from the game board.
• Discard a Card - This discarded card must be a yellow Seed Card from your hand.
Soil Types
Cards may be played to any of the 4 soil types on your turn. You must be able to meet the requirements and complete the action to play a card to a soil type.
5 6

---

Requirement(s): Play 1 yellow seed card facedown.
Action(s): Draw 1 card. Optionally, you may pick up 1 card from either The Rocky Soil or The Thorny Soil.

THE PATH
Requirement(s): Play 1 yellow Seed Card face up onto Rocky Soil in descending order (10-1). Cards may be played out of order. For instance, a yellow 2 can immediately follow a yellow 10.
Action(s): Draw 2 cards. Play 1 card onto 1 of the other 3 soil types.
Notes:
• You do not need to play cards sequentially, nor do you need to start with the number 10.
• If there are 4 cards on The Rocky Soil after your action discard them all onto The Path facedown. Do not take The Path action if you do this.

THE ROCKY SOIL
7 8
Notes:
• Any card played or discarded to The Path is removed from play for the rest of the game.
• You do not take Path actions when discarding cards due to exceeding your hand limit or the Rocky Soil limit at the end of your turn.

---

Requirement(s): Play 1 black seed card
face up in any order.
Action(s): Draw 3 cards. Place any 4
cards from your hand on the top or
bottom of your deck in any order. The
4 cards do not have to go to the same
place.

For example: if you have a yellow 1,
black 2, yellow 3, and black 4 you may
place the black 2 and yellow 1 on top
of your deck and the yellow 3 and
black 4 on the bottom of your deck.
THE THORNY SOIL
Notes:
• You may have any number of black
seed cards in The Thorny Soil.
• The only way to get cards out of
the Thorny soil is with a Path action.
• If you cannot put 4 cards back
into the deck, you cannot take this
action.
9 10

---

End Game
The game ends when a player has played 10 black seed cards in ascending order (1-10) onto their Good Soil. If the first player completes the objective first, the second player may take 1 final turn. If this results in a tie, the player who has the most yellow seed cards remaining to draw from their deck is the winner.

THE GOOD SOIL
Requirement(s): Play black seed cards onto Good Soil in sequential ascending order, (1-10).
Notes:
• You can play any number of black Seed Cards onto Good Soil at once, provided they are played sequentially.

Variant - Wild Seeds
Wild Seeds may be played as either black or yellow seeds and may be any number 1-10 when played. When played to rocky soil they can be played on any number, but any number may also be played onto a Wild Seed in the Rocky Soil. Wild Seeds may be discarded as if they were yellow seeds.
• 1 Wild Seed may be added to each player’s deck in setup to create a 21 card seed deck for each player in multiplayer mode. In Solo mode you may use a Wild Seed but you may not mark off achievements if using your Wild Seed. Do not add a Wild Seed to your opponent’s deck in Solo mode.

---

SOLO MODE
• Place the game board in front of you.
• Shuffle one of the decks, and place it in front of you as a draw pile. The other deck is for an AI opponent.
• You may choose either character, but for the purposes of this example you will be playing as Priscila and your AI opponent will be Aquila. Wherever you read Aquila this is the AI player.
Set-Up
• Choose a difficulty to determine your starting hand size and starting player:

Apprentice: Draw 4 cards, and play starts with you.

Sower: Draw 3 cards, and play starts with you.

Master: Draw 3 cards, and play starts with Aquila.
• Separate Aquila’s Seed Cards into 2 decks: a yellow Seed Card deck and a black Seed Card deck.
◊ Order the black Seed Cards in Aquila’s deck sequentially from 1-10, with 1 being on top, and place it faceup.
◊ Shuffle the yellow Seed Cards, and place them in a facedown draw pile next to the faceup black Seed Cards.
13 14

---

• Play alternates between you and Aquila with you executing your turns as you would in a 2-player game.
• On Aquila’s turn, do the following:
◊ Move a card from their black seed deck onto the Good Soil. If they move their 10th black seed onto the good soil, you lose immediately.
◊ Flip a card from Aquila’s yellow seed deck onto the Rocky Soil.

IMPORTANT: They may break the rule of descending order, but you may not.

Gameplay
End Game
1. If Aquila runs out of black seed cards, they win.
2. If you complete the objective, you win.
3. In either case, do not finish the turn as you would in a 2-player game.

Solo Challenges
Win a game under the following conditions to earn an achievement on the achievement sheet.
1. Apprentice: Start the game with yellow Seed Cards 1, 2, 3, and 4 in your hand.
2. Apprentice: Start the game with black Seed Cards 10, 9, 8, and 7 in your hand.

15 16

---

3. Sower:
Start the game with black Seed Cards 10, 9, and 8 in your hand.

4. Sower:
Start the game with yellow Seed Cards 1, 2, and 3 in your hand.
5. Master:
Start the game with black Seed Cards 4, 5, and 6 in your hand.
6. Master:
Draw 3 cards to start. When picking up a card, you can only pick up the last card played to the Rocky Soil or Thorny Soil.
Multi-Player Challenges
Win a game under the following conditions to earn an achievement on the achievement sheet.
1. Apprentice:
You can only take the last card played when picking up cards from the Rocky or the Thorny Soil.
2. Apprentice:
You cannot split up your cards when returning them to the deck in the Thorny Soil.
3. Sower:
Play with both conditions above.
4. Master:
Play with all conditions above, and start with 3 cards in your hand.
17 18

---