Imhotep - The Duel - General game info
Imhotep-Duel
2 players, 20-45 minutes, 10 years and older
AuthorPhil Walker-Harding
IllustratorClaus Stephan
Published byKosmos
Online since 2019-04-20
Developed byMatthias (9M9K9)
Boardgamegeek255674
Yucata.de owns a license for the online version of this game. A big "thank you" to the copyright owners (publisher and/or author and illustrator) who make it possible to have this game for free online here!
Note: This online implementation uses slightly changed rules!
Imhotep - The Duel
Imhotep - The Duel - Rules
If you are reading these rules for the first time, ignore the text along the right hand side. These rules serve as a summary to help you quickly familiarize yourself with the game.

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Imhotep - The Duel

GAME'S HISTORY

The challenge of the greatest master builder continues. In „Imhotep - The Duel“ you will become part of the most famous king's family. In place of Nofretete and Echnaton you will build four monuments. Use your people to unload the best tokens from the ships to the construction locations. The one who builds the most prestigious monuments will win this duel!

Aim

Each turn you choose one of the following 3 options:
1
Place a meeple
1
Unload a ship
1
Play an action token
With the unloading of the ships (depending on the positions of your meeples) you will get tokens for the 4 different buildings. At the end of the game the buildings get scored. The owner of the most points will win.
Game Components
60
Tokens
  • 12
    Obelisk tokens
    12
    Temple tokens (having 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols, each 3 times)
    12
    Pyramid tokens (6 light and 6 dark ones)
    12
    Tomb tokens (showing the numbers 1–12) ...
    12
    Action tokens (4 action possibilities, each 3 times)
8
Locations (1 per player and location)
8
Meeples (4 in each of the 2 player colors: black and white)
6
Ships (each having 3 token spaces)
1
Harbour area (containing 1 reserve space, 9 harbour spaces and 6 ship ports)
Set up
  • Place the harbour (including the 6 ships) area between the players.
  • Each player gets the 4 meeples of the player's color and the 4 building locations.
  • Shuffle the 60 tokens. 3 are put aside as a hidden reserve talon at the harbour area. Each of the 6 ships get 3 tokens on their empty spaces.
  • Place the harbour area between the players.
  • Adjust the 6 ships to the ports of the harbour.
  • Each player chooses a color (black or white). He takes the 4 meeples in the chosen color. Furthermore, each player receives one of the four different locations (obelisk, temple, pyramid, tomb). Each location has two sides A and B. In the first game you should use the A sides of all the locations.
    If you are more advanced you can use the B sides or a mixture of A and B sides. It is only important that both players use the same sides of each location!
  • Shuffle all the 60 tokens and put them into a talon.
  • Take tokens randomly from the talon to fill the 3 empty space on each of the 6 ships. Fill the ship spaces always in the same order.
  • Finally, put 3 tokens as a hidden reserve talon onto the harbour area.
The 9 spaces on the harbour area are arranged in a 3 by 3 grid. This grid has 3 ports on the right and the bottom side. Hence, each port has a designated row or column consisting of 3 spaces, respectively.
Game Play
You move alternately until the game end is triggered. The younger player has the first move.
At Yucata the first player is chosen randomly.
Each turn you have to choose one of the following 3 options:

  • Place 1 meeple
    • Place 1 meeple onto an empty harbour space.
    • Take one of your meeples, which is not in game yet, and place it onto an empty harbour space. (Each harbour space can only contain a single meeple.) If all your meeples are already on the harbour area, you cannot choose this action.

    Unload 1 ship
    • Unload 1 ship, if there are at least 2 meeples to take the tokens. This procedure always goes from the outermost ship space to the innermost. The token on the innermost space gets removed from the game if there is no third meeple in this row or column, respectively. The meeples return to the player (depending on color). You place the token depending on its type in the appropriate location.
      Subsequently, the ship gets refilled or removed from the game.
    • You unload 1 ship, providing its row or column contains at least 2 meeples (the colors of the meeples are not important). You can even unload a ship, where neither of the meeples belongs to you.
      If there are fewer than 2 meeples in a row or column of the harbour area, you cannot choose this action.
      Each meeple, in the row or column you have chosen (and only these meeples), now unloads 1 token from the ship.
      Token delivery is governed by the following rule:
      • The meeple closest to the ship unloads the token which is on the outermost space on the ship. The owner (indicated by color) of the meeple gets the token and the meeple back.
        This is repeated until all meeples of the selected row or column have unloaded one token.
      If there is an empty space in that row or column of the harbour it is ignored. As a consequence one of the tokens does not get unloaded to a player. This token gets removed from the game.
      Example: In case of unloading the ship, shown above, the tokens get distributed as follows. First, the black player gets the tomb token (5). Second, the white player places the light pyramid token into his area. Third, the obelisk token is removed from the game.
      Finally, the ship gets refilled with 3 new tokens.
      At Yucata the tokens get refilled after you finish your turn.

      If there are no unused tokens left, you cannot refill the ship. In this case, remove the ship from the game.
      Each token unloaded to a player will be placed in the location according to its type:
      • Obelisk tokens are added on top of each other in the obelisk location.
      • Temple tokens are placed face down in the temple location.
      • Pyramid tokens are added to one of the two pyramids in the pyramid location according to their color (light or dark). Each of the two pyramids can contain up to 6 tokens. They are placed in three rows of 3, 2 and 1 token, respectively.
      • The tomb tokens are placed next to the matching number of the tomb location.
      • Action tokens get placed next to your meeples.
    OR

    Play 1 action token
    • Play one action token and follow its instructions.
    • If you already have an action token, you can decide to play it. The used token then gets removed from the game.
      In each turn you can only use one action token. This action is your whole move. Here an overview of the action tokens:
    • Take one token: Choose a token on any ship (this token cannot be another action token). Put the taken token to the place in the appropriate location in your area.
      Subsequently, you refill the empty space on the ship with one token from the reserve pile.
      Place 2 to 3 Meeples: Do the action „place 1 meeple“ 2 to 3 times. All rules of this action apply here as well.
      Place one meeple and unload 1 to 2 ships: First, you have to perform an action „place 1 meeple“ then you perform the action „unload 1 ship“ 1 or 2 times. Here you have to follow all the rules of the individual actions again.
      At Yucata the refill order of the ships is not the same as they were unloaded. Ships get refilled in rows from top to bottom and subsequently in columns from left to right.
      Swap 2 tokens and unload 1 ship: First, swap two tokens on the same ship. Afterwards, unload one ship according to the rules of unloading ships. The two actions of exchanging tokens and unloading the ship can involve two different ships.
Game End
 When the second-last ship gets removed from the game, the game end is triggered. The game ends immediately. Now, you perform the final scoring. Remember that a ship gets removed when it cannot be refilled. The last ship is never unloaded.
Scoring
 Each place (obelisk, temple, pyramid and tomb) scores in a different way. The A sides score as follows:
  • Obelisk: Each token gives 1 point. The single leader in obelisk tokens gets 6 points extra.
    Temple: Each symbol gives 1 point. Hence, each tokens gives 1 to 4 points according to the number of symbols.
    Pyramids: You score each of your two pyramids (light and dark) separately. Depending on the number of tokens (1/2/3/4/5/6) you will get 1/3/6/10/15/21 points for each pyramid.
    Tomb: Each group of 1/2/3/4/5(or more) connected tokens gives you 1/4/9/16/25 points. Each of the groups get scored. The groups are indicated by gaps created by missing tokens. The size of the gaps have no influence on scoring.
    Important:
    • A single token is a group of size 1.
    • The tokens with the numbers 12 and 1 are not connected!

    Action tokens: Unused action token provide 1 point each.

    Meeples on the harbour area: Each meeple still remaining on the harbour area gives 1 point.

The player with more points wins. In case of tie, the player who did not start the game wins.
Option B-Sides
The B sides provide a more challenging game. You can use all or individual place areas on B side. All rules beside the scoring of the places remain the same. Here, a list of the B side scoring:
  • Obelisk: The player who first obtains 5 obelisk tokens puts the fifth one face down to indicate a score of 12 points at the end of the game. The second time a player obtains 5 obelisk tokens, this player scores 6 points. If one player gets 10 or more obelisk tokens, this player will earn 12 + 6 = 18 points.
    Temple: The temple tokens are placed onto the corresponding space showing the same number of symbols. Each set (max. 3) of tokens with different numbers of symbols (max. 4) gives points. For 1/2/3/4 different symbols the player gets 1/4/9/16 points.
    Pyramids: This time only the smaller pyramid (the one with fewer tokens) scores. If the light and the dark pyramid have the same number of tokens only one gets scored. If the smaller pyramid consists of 0/1/2/3/4/5/6 tokens, you score -6/0/4/10/18/30/45 points.
    Tomb: Each group of connected tokens gives 4 points. This scoring is independent of the size of the individual groups. In the best case a player could get a lot of size 1 groups with small gaps in between.
    Important:
    • A single token is a group of size 1.
    • The tokens with the numbers 12 and 1 are not connected!
Hints for handling
You place a meeple into harbour by clicking on the meeple surrounded by a red rectangle at the harbour spaces.
You unload a ship by clicking on it.
You play an action token by clicking on the token in your area.
The placement of tokens and the scoring are done automatically. Similarly, the empty spaces on ships get automatically refilled when finishing your turn.
Above the harbour you can see the removed tokens and groups of 3 tokens indicating how many ships can be refilled.
As all images are only in German so far, you get an English text when opening the info dialogue.
Next to the scoring you will find an information symbol. This will show you the detailed scoring.
 
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