How to play Rosovat
The goal: finish three epochs with the most gold by building castles in rows and columns rich with resources, and away from hazards.
Setting up
The board has 5 rows of 6 spaces. Two to four people play, and each player starts with 50 gold, three Rank 2 castles, two Rank 3 and one Rank 4. Rank 1 castles depend on the player count: 4 each for two players, 3 for three, 2 for four. At the start of each epoch, the tiles are shuffled face down and every player draws one secret starting tile.
Your turn
- Place a castle from your supply on any empty space.
- Draw a tile, look at it, and place it face-up on any empty space.
- Play your starting tile, the secret tile you drew at the start of the epoch.
The tiles
Scoring a row: a worked example
+2
Rank 2
+3
−2
Rank 1
+1
The row is worth 2 + 3 − 2 + 1 = 4. Your Rank 2 castle earns 4 × 2 = 8 gold. Your rival's Rank 1 castle earns 4 gold. Columns score the same way, so every castle counts twice.
Between epochs
Rank 1 castles return to you; ranks 2–4 are gone once used, so spend them wisely across all three epochs. All tiles are reshuffled. The richest player leads the next epoch.
Special tiles
Mountain: splits its row and column; each side scores separately.
Wyrm: cancels every resource in its row and column; hazards still bite.
Gold Mine: doubles every other tile in its row and column.
Wizard: castles orthogonally adjacent count one rank higher.