Game Objective

Set at the close of the 19th century, Nucleum: Court of Progress places you in an era of nuclear revolution where European monarchies struggle to remain relevant. As an entrepreneur, your goal is to navigate the clashing ideologies of parliaments and secure influence within the halls of power. You must manage your resources and place Worker meeples into various Political Parties to gain immediate benefits and score additional points during King’s Day Scoring and the final tally.

Setup

Follow these steps to integrate the expansion into the base game:

1. Tile Replacement: Remove 7 specific Action tiles (as indicated in the "Tiles to replace" frame of the manual) and replace them with 12 new Action tiles featuring the Court action. Additionally, replace the Starting Action tile of each Experiment with the corresponding Alternative Starting Action tile showing the Court action.
2. Contracts: Add 2 new Silver Contracts, 1 new Gold Contract, and 1 new Purple Contract to their respective stacks and shuffle.
3. Main Board: Perform the main board setup as described in the base game rules.
4. VP Flag: Place the VP Flag token under the "90" spot on the VP track (or "95" if using the Nucleum: Australia map).
5. Court Side Board: Place the Court side board opposite the base game's side board.
6. Agendas: Randomly select one side of each of the four Agenda tiles and place them on the Court side board.
7. Neutral Politicians:
   • Reveal a Setup card to determine which Party receives 2 Neutral Politicians (one marked with an arrow, one numbered 2) and the King marker (1-3: Capitalist Party; 4-6: Free Thinker Party; 7-9: Communist Party; 10-12: Royalist Party).
   • Repeat this process twice more to place Neutral Politician 3 and 4. If a selected Party is already full, move to the next one in order (Capitalist → Free Thinker → Communist → Royalist → Capitalist).
   • In every Party with Neutral Politicians, move a numbered Neutral Politician into the Party Leader space.
8. Player Setup: After standard player setup, each player adds 2 new Worker meeples of their color to their reserve (increasing the total to 18).
9. Experiment F: If a player chose Experiment F, give them 3 Special Action tiles to stack face down below the Experiment board.
10. Overlays: Place all side board overlays over the respective parts of the side board.

Game Flow

The game follows the base game's structure, with the addition of the Court action and modified scoring events:

• Turn Structure: Players perform actions using their Action tiles. If a player uses the Court action, they interact with the Court side board.
• King’s Day Scoring: This is triggered whenever a Milestone space becomes empty. After performing normal base game scoring, players perform Party Agenda scoring (detailed in the "Actions and How to Play" section).
• Endgame Trigger: In 2-player and solo games, the number of conditions to trigger the endgame remains unchanged. In 3- and 4-player games, the number of conditions that must be met is increased from 2 to 3.

Actions and How to Play

The Court Action

This action allows you to place one available Worker meeple into one of the four Parties. Once placed, the meeple is referred to as a Politician. If you have no available Worker meeples, you may convert 1 Uranium to get one; otherwise, you must forfeit the action.

Immediate Benefits:

• Capitalists: Gain 2 Thaler and 1 Thaler income step.
• Free Thinkers: Take any Action tile from the market for free.
• Communists: Gain 2 VP and 1 Worker income step.
• Royalists: Gain 2 Achievement tokens and 1 VP income step.

Leadership and Dominance:

• Party Leadership: If you have more Politicians in the selected Party than the current Leader (player or Neutral Politician), move one of your Politicians to the Leader space and move the previous Leader back into the Party.
• Dominance: If the selected Party now has more total Politicians (Neutral and players) than the current Dominant Party, move the King marker to the selected Party.

Experiment F: Chaining Tiles

Unlocked by Level 3 Technology, Chaining tiles allow you to perform the printed action and then immediately play a non-Chaining Action tile on top of it and resolve it.

• You cannot place Chaining tiles as a railway.
• Only one Chaining tile may be played per turn.
• The Chaining tile action must be fully performed before the tile on top is resolved.

King’s Day Scoring (Party Phase)

When triggered, Party Agendas are scored from top to bottom:

1. Party Leaders: Each Leader (if not a Neutral Politician) scores their Party’s Agenda.
2. Dominant Party: Each Member of the Dominant Party scores that Party’s Agenda. (The Leader of the Dominant Party scores it twice).
3. Removal: Each Party Leader returns 1 Politician to the reserve. Additionally, each player returns exactly 1 Politician from the Dominant Party to the reserve.
4. Neutral Movement: The highest-numbered Neutral Politician is removed from the board. The Neutral Politician marked with an arrow moves to the Party below (Royalists move to Capitalists).
5. Re-assignment: New Leaders and the Dominant Party are assigned based on who has the most Politicians in each Party.

End of Game and Scoring

Final Scoring: Perform Final Scoring following base game rules with the following addition: score Party Agendas as described in King’s Day Scoring, but without removing any Politicians from any Party.

Important Note: Politicians remaining on the Court side board do not count as Worker meeples in your personal supply and do not contribute to scoring leftover resources.

Victory/Defeat: The player with the most VP wins. If the Expert Variant was used, players must subtract their final bid amount of VP before determining the winner.

Tips for Winning

• Leverage the Dominant Party: Since Members of the Dominant Party score that Party's Agenda, positioning yourself there can provide a significant VP boost, especially if you are also the Leader to score the agenda twice.
• Strategic Experiment Choice: If using Experiment F, utilize Chaining tiles to execute multiple actions in a single turn, which can accelerate your engine and help fulfill Contracts or Milestones more efficiently.
• Manage Your Influence: Be mindful of the Neutral Politicians and the King marker movement during King's Day Scoring, as the removal of Politicians can shift Party Leadership and Dominance.