Game Objective

In Concordia: Solitaria, you compete against the opponent Contrarius for victory. The objective is to accumulate more victory points than Contrarius by the end of the game. You play cards from your hand and perform your actions, while Contrarius reacts to your moves. Contrarius has houses, colonists, and cards in their own display, but never plays cards; their actions are determined by the cards you play. During the game, Contrarius may score victory points immediately with some of their reactions, marking them on the victory point track. Contrarius's houses, colonists, and cards are scored in the usual Concordia manner at the end of the game.

Setup

To play Concordia: Solitaria, you will need the components from Concordia or Concordia Venus, plus the specific Solitaria components:

• 1 Game board, including the city tokens and bonus markers.
• 2 sets of wooden pieces: 15 houses, 3 land colonists and 3 sea colonists, and 1 scoring marker for each set. Choose one color for yourself and one for Contrarius.
• 1 Warehouse in your chosen color.
• Goods and sestertii (coins).
• The 4 Solitaria dice (Architect, Tribune/Colonist, Mercator, Senator/Consul).
• The 27 Solitaria cards (with the winged Concordia on the back) and the 5 special cards.

Follow the steps below for setup:

1. Set up the game board, including the city tokens and bonus markers, as usual in Concordia.
2. Prepare the goods and sestertii as a general supply.
3. The Solitaria personality cards from stacks I and II are shuffled separately. Stack I is then placed on top of stack II. This combined stack is placed next to the game board and the display area is filled with the first 7 cards from the stack. Place the Concordia card next to the stack.
4. Contrarius's Setup:
   • The 5 Contrarius Solitaria personality cards (scarlet red back) are placed face-up as a display next to the game board.
   • Take the first specialist personality card from the sale display area (from left to right, i.e., Bricklayer, Farmer, or Blacksmith) and place it as the sixth card next to Contrarius's other cards.
   • Refill the display area as usual.
   • Prepare Contrarius's 15 houses and 6 colonists next to their 6 personality cards.
   • Place Contrarius's scoring marker on 0 of the victory point track.
5. Your Setup:
   • Place 2 colonists on the game board as usual.
   • Take 6 goods (1x Brick, 1x Food, 1x Tool, 1x Wine, and 2x Cloth) and the remaining 4 colonists for your warehouse.
   • The 7 turquoise Solitaria personality cards are your hand cards.
   • Take 6 sestertii.

Game Flow

The game progresses in turns, where you and Contrarius perform actions. The original Concordia rules apply for the actions of the personality cards, with the addition of the new Prefect with Praefectus Magnus card.

In each turn:

1. You play a personality card from your hand, as usual in Concordia, and execute the card's action.
2. Then, Contrarius reacts to this action. Contrarius's reaction is indicated in the light-colored box marked with a 'C' (for Contrarius) on each personality card.

The game ends when you or Contrarius trigger the end-game conditions.

Actions and How to Play

You play personality cards from your hand to perform actions. Each card has an action that you execute and a reaction that Contrarius executes. The actions are the same as in Concordia, with some specificities for Solitaria mode.

Personality Cards and Their Actions/Reactions:

Prefect with Praefectus Magnus

• Action: Same as the Prefect action in Concordia, but with a double goods bonus (2 instead of 1).
  • If you choose to produce in 1 province: You receive the goods bonus 2 times.
  • If you choose to reactivate all bonus markers: You receive the coins.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius reacts depending on the action you chose:
  • If you choose to produce: Contrarius scores 1 victory point for each house in this province, with a minimum of 2 victory points.
  • If you choose to reactivate: Contrarius scores 2 victory points.

Prefect (Standard Card)

• Action: Same as the Prefect action in Concordia.
  • If you choose to produce in 1 province: You receive the goods bonus.
  • If you choose to reactivate all bonus markers: You receive the coins.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius reacts depending on the action you chose:
  • If you choose to produce: Contrarius scores 1 victory point for each house in this province, with a minimum of 1 victory point.
  • If you choose to reactivate: Contrarius scores 2 victory points.

Diplomat

• Action: Copy the action of a face-up card from Contrarius's card display. Flip the card face down after using it. Thus, you can copy each of Contrarius's cards only once during the game.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius reacts according to the reaction on the card you copied.

Mercator

• Action: Same as the Mercator action in Concordia. You build 1 house, the province produces, you receive 3 sestertii, and you can trade up to 2 types of goods.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius builds 1 house: Roll the black Mercator die to determine the goods type of the city where the house is built. Contrarius follows the "Where does Contrarius build?" rules to determine the exact city. Afterwards, the province where the house was built is activated for production. You receive goods if you have houses there. Contrarius never receives goods for their houses. If the province has already produced, all bonus markers are reactivated again, but only if there are at least 3 bonus markers with the coin side face up. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Architect

• Action: Same as the Architect action in Concordia. You move your colonists and build in adjacent cities.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Roll the blue Architect die to determine which of the first 5 personality cards in the display area Contrarius takes face up for their card display. Then, refill the display area as usual. If there are not enough cards in the display area, Contrarius takes the first card instead of the die result.

Senator and Consul

• Action: Same as the Senator and Consul action in Concordia.
  • Senator: Buy up to 2 cards (to your hand).
  • Consul: Buy 1 card without additional costs (to your hand).
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius builds 1 house: Roll the white Senator/Consul die to determine the goods type of the city where the house is built. Contrarius follows the "Where does Contrarius build?" rules to determine the exact city.

Tribune

• Action: Same as the Tribune action in Concordia. You take back all your cards. From the 4th card onwards, you receive 1 sestertii per card. You can also place 1 colonist.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius reacts in two ways:
  1. Contrarius builds 1 house in a city with the goods type that matches their best specialist (Weaver > Vintner > Blacksmith > Farmer > Bricklayer). Contrarius follows the "Where does Contrarius build?" rules to determine the exact city.
  2. Roll the red Tribune/Colonist die to determine if Contrarius places 1 new colonist or takes the card from position 1 of the card display area. If they build a sea colonist or land colonist, place it in the capital. If they take the card, place it face up in Contrarius's card display.

Colonist

• Action: Same as the Colonist action in Concordia. You can place colonists (each costs 5 sestertii plus 1 sestertii per colonist) or earn money.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius reacts depending on the action you chose:
  • If you choose to place colonists: Roll the red Tribune/Colonist die to determine if Contrarius places 1 new colonist or takes the card from position 1 of the card display area. If they build a sea colonist or land colonist, place it in the capital. If they take the card, place it face up in Contrarius's card display.
  • If you choose to earn money: Contrarius scores 2 victory points.

Specialists (Bricklayer, Farmer, Blacksmith, Vintner, Weaver)

• Action: Same as the Specialists action in Concordia. Produce goods in all your cities of the corresponding type.
• Contrarius's Reaction: Contrarius scores 3 victory points.

Where Does Contrarius Build?

When Contrarius builds a house, follow these rules to determine the city:

1. Roll the white Senator/Colonist die or the black Mercator die, depending on the card played. The die result determines the goods type of the city where Contrarius wants to build. If the result is "S", the goods type corresponds to the best specialist Contrarius possesses (Weaver > Vintner > Blacksmith > Farmer > Bricklayer).
2. To determine the exact city of this goods type where Contrarius builds, follow these rules:
   1. Contrarius can only build in cities they can reach with their colonists and in which they have not yet built a house. The number of possible movement steps is the usual number of colonists and the reachable line to the city must be empty.
   2. If several cities are still available, Contrarius chooses, if possible, an empty city (no houses). Only if no empty city is reachable, Contrarius builds a house where a house already exists.
   3. If several cities are still available, Contrarius chooses, if possible, a new province (new to Contrarius). Only if no new province is reachable, Contrarius builds in a province where they already have houses in other cities.
   4. If the city is not yet exactly determined, Contrarius builds in alphabetical order based on city names (i.e., AQUILEIA > SYRACUS).
3. Contrarius moves a colonist along the shortest path next to the city they built in. If there are multiple possible lines, you choose which colonist moves on which adjacent line.
4. If no city of the determined goods type is available, Contrarius tries to build in a city of the next lower goods type (cloth > wine > tool > food > brick). If no brick city is available, Contrarius builds in a cloth city.

Supplementary Rules for Contrarius's Reactions

It is possible that Contrarius cannot react according to the die result. In these cases, follow the following rules:

• Building houses: If Contrarius cannot build a house, they place a colonist instead. (Determine which colonist by rolling the red Tribune/Colonist die.)
• Placing a colonist: If Contrarius does not have a land colonist in their supply, they place a sea colonist and vice versa. If Contrarius has already placed all six colonists, they take the card in the first position of the display area.
• Taking a card: If the die result shows a card position that no longer has a card available, Contrarius takes the card in the first position. If no cards are available (very rare), Contrarius builds a house with the white Senator/Consul die.

End of Game and Scoring

End of Game

The game ends when you or Contrarius trigger one of the end-game conditions:

• Someone takes the last personality card from the display area.
• Someone builds their last house (the 15th house).