The Game of the mediaval City

Introduction:
Cathedral Game is based on the concept of a Mediaeval City surrounded by a wall.
The board divided up into a hundred squares represents the city enclosed by the wall.
The two sets of pieces, light colored (Bright) and dark colored (Brown) symbolizes the buildings and the two opposing forces struggling to gain power and hence dictate the way in which the city will develop.
Then there is the Cathedral the focal point of the city, the place of sanctuary which mediates in the struggle and helps to prevent one side from becoming too powerful and thus allows the city to develop in a more orderly manner.
There is still much to learn about cities and the forces which shaped them. Who knows what secrets lie hidden within this simple game waiting to be discovered.

Rules of play

1. The object of the game is to place all your buildings within the walls of the city while preventing your opponent from doing so.
2. A more consists of placing a building anywhere in the city so that it is lined up with squares.
3. If you are playing with the bright buildings you commence the game by placing the Cathedral anywhere within the city. Your opponent playing with the brown pieces makes the first and each alternate move.
4. If you completely enclose a part of the city with your buildings alone or with your buildings and the wall, this part of the city becomes your property and your opponent may not place any of his buildings within it. The buildings must meet wall to wall, a corner to corner contact is not acceptable. Your opponent may claim space in the same way. You may not use the Cathedral as part of the boundary to enclose the claim space.
   Neither you nor your opponent may claim space on your first move.
5. If you enclose and therefore isolate one and only one of your opponent's buildings or the Cathedral you may remove it and claim the space enclosed. The building must be removed immediately after the move during which it was enclosed otherwise it must remain where it is and the space is still available to your opponent.
   Your opponent's building may be replayed in later move but the Cathedral once removed is not replaced for the remainder of the game.
   If you enclose two or more buildings, one of which may be the Cathedral, then none of the buildings may be removed and the space is still available to your opponent.
6. The game ends when no further moves can be made by either player.
7. The winner is the player who succeeds in placing all his buildings within the city while preventing his opponent from doing so. If neither player succeeds in doing this then the player whose unplaced buildings would occupy the least number of squares is the winner otherwise the result is a draw.
8. If a series of games is played, the players alternate in making the first move. At the end of each game players are awarded points equal to the number of squares their unplaced buildings would cover. The winner of the series is the player with the smallest total of points.

Strategy

• Concentrate on claiming space in the early stages of the game.
• Play your largest buildings first.
• Be careful not to let any of your buildings into your own space while there is still unclaimed space available.
• Never give up until the last building is played.

Tournaments
Tournaments are always popular. In a tournament you have TWO games with each opponent and use different colored pieces for each game so that you make the first move in one game and you opponent make the first move in the other. Points are awarded to each player at the end of a game according to rule 9 and these points are accumulated as the tournament progresses. The winner is the player with the smallest total of points after everyone has played the stipulated number of different opponents.

When you have finished playing, you may have difficulty fitting all your buildings back onto the board. The most effective way to do this is to place the Cathedral somewhere in the center of the board and position the buildings around it remembering to begin with the largest and work your way down to the smallest.

Buy the Cathedral Game