A journey in the lands of the Mighty Tatras. Clans of corrupt lords, vile beasts and mischievous spirits strive for domination.

Recruit the animals of the Tatras to your band. Battle, form alliances, develop industries and construct buildings. Beware of spirits, devils, demons, shamans and dragons. Reclaim and rebuild the Tatra mountains!

1. Objective

Control all areas by defeating their rulers in battle or by forming alliances. The game ends when any of the following conditions are met:

Score the points from your goal card. Add three points for every wooden cube, treasure and dragon tile left.

2. Game Flow

Every turn, draw a Tatra card. Then perform the effects on the Beasts and Spirits cards: flip industry tiles or discard cards.

Play your animal cards' actions in dawn, to day, to dusk, to night order. You can skip any of these phases. After playing all of your cards, go to the next round.

Cards that have the can be played on either dusk or dawn.

Components

3. Setup

Place the game board.

3.1 Cards Surrounding Board

  1. Place the stack of Tatra cards, face down, to the bottom left of the Tatra board. Leave space on the left to play Tatra cards.
  2. Place the stack of Beasts and Spirits face down, to the top left of the game board. Draw three cards, one card for each region (Western, Central and Eastern) and place them between the Tatra cards and the Beasts and Spirits stack, face up.
  3. Choose between a short, medium or long game. Place the corresponding goal card face up on the Goal space on your player board.
  4. Separate the animal cards in their five suits. Place the five decks (of each suit) face down to the top of the game board in the order of hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades and stars. Reveal the top card for each stack.
  5. Place the Discard Pile card.

3.2 Cards and tiles on Board

  1. Place a faction coin on each area (space) on the Tatra Board. Depending on your chosen game length, flip any 6 (short), 3 (medium) or no (long) coins to allied (white background) side; the other coins should be on the dark (enemy) side. Place the remaining coins stacked on each of the suits on the faction coin spaces (bottom left of game board).
  2. Place a building/industry for each disc:
  3. Place the remaining industry and building tiles on their respective spaces on the game board (bottom left). (to save time you can just keep them in the bag)
  4. Choose a starting area. Place a wooden cube on its coin.
  5. Place nine wooden cubes on the "Beasts & Spirits" track.
  6. Place the six hexagonal Battle/Alliance hex tiles at the side of the Battle & Alliance board.
  7. For each suit, place the six Battle (numbers in top left) and six Alliance tiles (stripe through battle value in top left) on their spaces at the right of the game board.
  8. Place the three treasure tiles (faded side up), the four cubes (red, white, blue, black) and three dragon tiles (faded side up) on their spaces.

3.3 Cards and Tiles in Hand

  1. Place the Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night tiles, and the Battle and Alliance overview cards within reach.
  2. Place the three bags with Battle bonus tiles (large), Alliance bonus tiles (large) and Battle/Alliance position tiles (small) within reach. You do not need them yet.
  3. Draw two experience bonus tiles from any of the two bags and place them on your experience bonus tile spaces.
  4. Draw any three animals cards from any allied suit(s) (coins with white side up). You may draw multiple cards from one stack. After drawing, flip the top card of all decks face up again.

4. Tatra, Beast & Spirits

At the start of every turn, draw and perform the action on the Tatra card, then go through all three Beasts and Spirits.

4.1 Tatra Cards

Draw a Tatra card. Perform the action. These actions are:

4.2 Beasts & Spirits

Perform the actions on the Beasts and Spirits' cards. They are each tied to a region (Western Tatras, Central Tatras or Eastern Tatras). First perform Western Tatras, then Central Tatras, then Eastern Tatras. Beast and Spirit cards can have positive (left) and/or negative (right) effects.

Either fulfill their demand every turn or move a cube from the Beasts & Spirits track to the card (any space), which represents their dissatisfaction. If all spaces on the card are filled during a turn, flip any allied coin in this region to its enemy side.

Tip: on your first games, choose for cubes to place on a card instead of cards to discard.

If there are no cubes left on the Beasts & Spirits track, the game ends. Go to 8. Scoring.

4.2.1 Draks, Smoks & King of Snakes

Draks and Smoks were dragons, often guarding treasure in caves and lakes. They are dangerous and powerful beings that couldn't be beaten in battle by humans.

Draks are land specific, Smoks are water specific. These dragons guard treasures, are malevolent and can keep up to five cubes. When you defeat the dragon, gain treasure. You can tame a dragon by making sacrifices in that region.

Defeat dragons by having more battle value than the dragon can handle (18). Discard two cards. Tame dragons by flipping three farms in that dragon's region (to consumed).

When active, every turn either discard a card or add a cube to the beast's card. If all spaces have cubes, execute the effect on the bottom left.

4.2.2 Shamans, Spirits, Demons and Devils

These were often shape-shifters, controlling winds or leading travellers astray. Others stole, drowned victims or caused madness. They are often malicious, but can also be harmless or even helpful.

Either flip a coin in that area to enemy side , discard an animal card or place a cube on this card . If all spaces on a card have cubes, execute the effect on the bottom left.

Positive actions are on the left side of the card; if you flip that industry, you can move a cube back to the Beasts & Spirits track when there are cube(s) on the card.

5. Actions

You may choose from general actions:

Or one action for each animal card:

Play your animal cards' actions in dawn, to day, to dusk, to night order. You can skip any of these phases. After playing all of your cards, go to the next round.

Cards that have the can be played on either dusk or dawn.

5.1 Mobilize

Move your band to an adjacent area. Some paths require a tunnel or bridge to be constructed in order to move through them; ignore this if you only have birds (stars suit) cards.

At the end of this action your turn ends.

5.2 Battle/Alliance

In an enemy area (dark sided coins), you may choose to either Battle (see 6. Battle) or Negotiate to form an Alliance(see 7. Alliance). Any animal cards you have used for other actions this round cannot be used during this action.

Tip: try to reveal at least three Battle or Alliance tiles before deciding to Battle or Alliance; Battles often require thorough planning, good use of experience bonuses or powerful animals. Alliances often require plenty of industries and (lower) cards to discard. TO DO: ADD OVERVIEW OF TILES

At the end of this action your turn ends.

5.3 Recruit

Play any animal card. Draw an animal card of any of the animal cards held, played in front of you or from suit of allied ruler (white sided coins).

If required, flip the farm or fishery or discard an animal card. The newly recruited card cannot be used this turn. After drawing, flip the top card of every deck face up.

Voles and Roe Deer can draw the top card for free if it is their own species. So if you play Recruit with a Vole and another Vole card is face up, draw this, then draw another card, where drawing from the hearts deck would be face down.

The actions below (Scout, Negotiate, Develop and Construct) can only be performed by an animal with that action on its card.

5.4 Scout

Reveal a Battle tile of the suit of the Ruler of the current area. Place on the topmost open space to the right of the Battle/Alliance board. Draw a position tile from the bag and place it left of the Battle tile, with the Battle side face up.

When there is a connected tower and you use a Golden Eagle, Eagle Owl or Black Stork, reveal two tiles. VISUAL EXAMPLE

This only provides information, do not place the hex tiles on the Battle/Alliance board yet.

5.5 Negotiate

Reveal an Alliance tile of the suit of the Ruler of the current area. Place on the bottommost open space to the right of the Battle/Alliance board. Draw a position tile from the bag and place it left of the Alliance tile, with the Alliance side face up.

This only provides information, do not place the hex tiles on the Battle/Alliance board yet.

5.6 Develop Industry

To develop an industry in the current Area, use an animal with the ability to develop that industry:

Industries are useful for recruiting, pleasing the beasts and spirits and constructing buildings (see below).

5.7 Construct Building

To build a building in the current Area, use an animal with the ability to build that building:

Each building requires a lumber camp or quarry to be flipped. For wooden , flip a lumber camp from to . For stone construction, flip a quarry from to . Then place the construction on the Tatra board.

Tunnels, bridges and watch towers are built between areas. Strongholds are built in an area and require an empty space below the area coin on the Tatra board.

After you have played all your cards, start the next turn; take back the cards you played in front of you. Discarded cards stay on the discard pile.


Animal Cards

Overview all animal cards

6. Battle

When you are in an enemy area (coin with black background), you can choose to battle. Battle Tiles are used to resolve the battle with the ruler’s army.

You can reveal Battle Tiles through the Scout (5.4) action to have more information before going into negotiations.

6.1 Battle Procedure

When you are in an enemy area ruled by spades, draw the top battle tile from the stack at "Battle Tactics" and place it on the top space right of the Battle Board. Draw a position tile and place it Battle side up (here position 2). Place the hex (#1 for first unit) on any of these #2 positions (top, center or bottom for 2).

Place the Ruler's location hex tile (right of the Battle board) face up. If there are any Alliance tiles on the track, remove them and their position tiles.

If a Stronghold is built in this area, do not draw position tiles. All enemy units are start the Ruler's location.

Draw and reveal the remaining Battle tiles in top to bottom order. Draw a Battle/Alliance position tile for each Battle tile and place with the battle side face up. After every tile reveal, place the unit (use hex tile #1 for the top unit, down to #4 for the bottom unit) and go through the Battle Overview card. Based on the movement options on the Battle tile:

Then move a unit of your own, all starting from the left origin tile. Your animals can only move according to (part of) their paths on their cards (this can be improved by the abilities on Battle bonus tiles). When you move into the enemy's location, all remaining enemy units move there as well and count as one unit which you have to defeat.

Play alternating turns starting with the enemy.

You have eight moves to defeat all enemies. If you succeed, you win the battle, see 6.2. If you do not succeed, you lose the battle, see 6.3.

A Dragon can be used to win any battle. Flip the tile to the dark side on using a dragon during battle.

6.2 Battle Win

Place or flip the coin on the area on the ally side (white background) of a suit you have on your hand. When you won a battle in a stronghold, remove the stronghold tile from the area. Take a Battle bonus tile from the bag. Place it on any of the four Battle/Alliance tile bonus spaces your player board. This bonus tile is now active for the remainder of the game.

If there are more than four tiles, you may place the tile on top of a current tile.

6.3 Battle Defeat

If you lose the battle or when the battle ends undecided, immediately move your band out of the Ruler's area to any adjacent area. If possible, place a stronghold tile for this area on one of the two spaces on the tatra map next to this area's faction coin.

6.4 Battle Action End

Place the four Battle tiles at the bottom of their stack in the order they appeared (last tile at the very bottom).

7. Alliance

When you are in an enemy area (coin with black background), you can choose to negotiate an alliance. Alliance Tiles are used to negotiate with the Area ruler’s government. Destroying farms and fisheries causes enemies to have less demands (one tile less).

You can reveal Alliance Tiles through the Negotiate (5.5) action to have more information before going into negotiations.

7.1 Alliance Procedure

When you are in an enemy area or spades, draw the top alliance tile from the stack at "Alliance Demands" and place it on the bottom space right of the Alliance Board. Draw a position tile and place it Alliance side up (here position 3). Place the hex (#1 for first demand) on the third position.

If there are any Battle tiles on the track, remove them and their position tiles. Draw and reveal the remaining Alliance tiles in bottom to top order. Draw the Battle/Alliance position tile for each Alliance tile and place with the alliance side face up. After all position tiles have been drawn, place the demand tiles on their positions, moving from the bottom to top on rows, and left to right on columns.

When the demand tiles are in place, use your animals cards' moves to move to the Ruler's government space. Your animals can only move according to (part of) their paths on their cards (may be improved by the abilities on Battle bonus tiles).You may only move to another demand tile. When you make it to another demand tile, immediately fulfill that demand.

If the demanded resource has to come from another allied Area, you need to discard a card for supplying each resource. It can be supplied by:

If you make it to the Rulers' marker, you formed an alliance, see 7.2. If you cannot move to another tile forward or cannot fulfull the demand you moved to, you lose the Alliance negotation, see 7.3.

Treasure can be used to fulfill any demand. Flip the tile to the dark side on using treasure during negotation. Treasure doesn't require a card to supply it.

7.2 Alliance Win

By making it to the ruler’s government, you form an alliance. Flip the coin on the area to the ally side (white background). Take an Alliance bonus tile from the bag. Place it on any of the four Battle/Alliance tile bonus spaces your player board. This bonus tile is now active for the remainder of the game.

If there are more than four tiles, you may place the tile on top of a current tile.

7.3 Alliance Defeat

If you fail to meet the demands, immediately move your band out of the Ruler's area to any adjacent area.

7.4 Alliance Action End

Place the four Alliance tiles at the bottom of their stack in the order they appeared (last tile at the very bottom).

8. Scoring

The game ends when any of the following conditions are met:

Score the points from your goal card. Add three points for every wooden cube, treasure and dragon tile left.

Please record the score of each game.



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