Full Lost Knowledge Manual

32 Pages·2016·6.68 MB·English

Contents
1: Game Setup

1.1 Distribution of Cards, Pieces and Placards

1.2 Randomizing the Board

1.3 Deciding Who Goes First
1.4 Distributing Artifact Tokens
1.5 Placing Starting Positions
2: Game Play Basics
2.1 The Turn Sequence
Welcome to Lost Knowledge
2.2 Winning the Game
3: Game Concepts
Lost Knowledge is a board game and gaming system that allows you to 3.1 An Overview
explore and battle for the earth as it may have been 40,000 years ago, 3.2 Terrain Types
when ancients wielded magic and mysterious technology, great beasts 3.3 Anatomy of a Triangle
roamed the earth and alien beings hovered in the sky and stars. 3.4 Elementals
3.5 Harvesting Wands
Lost Knowledge (or LKN for short) is a complex game. But, once you 3.6 The Bank and Upkeep
get a feel for the basics, it is pretty easy to pick up the details. We recom- 3.7 Artifact Tokens
mend going through the step by step process of setting up the game, then 3.8 Knowledge Cards
skimming through the rules once you are familiar with the game’s phys-
4: Game Pieces
ical nature. Its not necessary to understand everything before you start 4.1 Buildings
to play - cards and pieces you gain during game play will prompt you to 4.2 Standard Units
explore all you can do. 4.3 War Units
5: Game Rules
5.1 Movement
5.2 Combat
5.3 Ascendance
5.4 Gold
5.5 Sacrifice
5.6 Scuttling
5.7 Diplomacy and Trading
5.8 The Spoils of War
6: Optional and Draft Rules
7: The Glossary
Here is how to play!
Part 1: Game Setup
(1.2) Randomizing the Board
There are a five steps to setting up the game:
Ө The board triangles should be placed face down on the table and
mixed up thoroughly.
1) Distribution of Cards and Pieces to Players
Ө Still face down, the triangles are placed in their appropriate forma-
2) Board Randomization
tion (see the image below)
3) Distribute Artifact Tokens on the Board *** Note: by mutual agreement, alternate board shapes may be used.
4) Determine Player Order
Ө Each tile is flipped over, game board revealed.
5) Place Starting Settlements
(1.1) Distribution of Pieces
Ө Each player chooses a color, for their game pieces (buildings and
standard units) and placard.
Ө Each player takes 12 harvesting wands and places them on the
Stock area of their placard
Ө The Knowledge Cards are well shuffled and cut.
Ө Deal seven knowledge cards to each player, face down.
Ө Each player reviews their initial hand of Knowledge Cards.
Each side of the game board’s official shape is made of 9 triangles, with the
corner triangles shared in each side. The center is a pyramid of 5 triangles at
its base. Try other shapes, if you would like. The world of LKN is meant to be
malleable to your interests, or even table dimensions!
(1.4) Distributing Artifact Tokens (1.5) Placing Starting Settlements
Ө Once the board has been revealed, place all artifact tokens face With the board now fully set up, each player chooses a triangle for their
down on the table and mix them up thoroughly. starting position:
Ө Tokens are then distributed upon the board, still face down:
Ө Start with the first player in the Play Order.
Ө A token is placed in the center circle of each triangle (this is known
Ө This player places one settlement and one temple in their starting
as the Settlement Token)
triangle, collecting both Artifact Tokens in this triangle, and posi-
Ө A token is placed on any of each triangle’s border chits (this is tioning harvesting wands from their buildings as they see fit.
known as the Exploration Token).
Ө This player also places an Explorer in any triangle adjacent to their
starting Settlement, collecting that triangle’s Exploration Token.
Ө When the first player is done, the next player commences with
Starting Position placement.
A typical starting setup. The Red player has chosen an
Island triangle as his/her starting position, harvesting a Solar elemen-
tal twice in this case. The Red Explorer has been placed in an
adjacent Jungle triangle. In their following turn Red may settle this
(1.4) Deciding Who Goes First
triangle, collecting its Settlement Token, then move on to the River
triangle if they so choose.
Ө The first player in the order of play should be decided using a ran-
domizing method (rock, paper scissors / coin flips / dice rolls, etc.)
Ө This player will go first in initial settlement placement AND will be
the first to play when game rounds commence.
Ө Subsequent order from this player should be clockwise around the
table.
The Turn Sequence in Detail:
Part 2: Game Play Basics
(1) Build Phase:
Now You Are Ready to Start!
Building and Card Play: In this phase of the turn, the active
Once all initial settlements, temples and explorers have been placed, play
player spends elementals in their bank to build buildings, play cards (im-
commences, starting again with the first player in the player order.
mediately following all effects the card presents), summon war units, etc.
This can be done in any sequence. It should be noted that for any elemen-
Lost Knowledge is a game of Turns and Rounds. In each player’s Turn, he
tal gains (i.e. building a temple to harvest a new elemental), the elemental
or she will run through the four phases of the Turn Sequence, then it is
drop is placed in the Spent area of the bank, and cannot be used until the
the next player’s Turn. When all the players have had their turns, that is
next turn.
the end of the Round, and the first player starts the next Round.
(2) Movement Phase:
Lost Knowledge will progress in this fashion indefinitely, until one player
Movement and Battle: Once all building and card play is com-
reached the requirements for Victory.
plete the active player may commence with unit movement and battle.
This can be done in any sequence, and includes both standard and war
unit movement, regular and beam weapon combat. If a harvesting unit
like a mystic is moved, don’t forget to also transfer its wand and corre-
sponding elemental drop to whatever new elemental it is harvesting.
(2.1) The Turn Sequence
(3) Scuttle Phase:
Scuttle and Sacrifice: After Movement and Battle is complete,
During their Turn, each player will progress through the Turn Sequence
players can scuttle any pieces, spells, wands and tokens that they wish.
in order, which is broken down into four Phases. It is vital that every-
Scuttling means removing them from play. This will effect different piec-
thing is done in order. Once a player has moved from one part of the se-
es in different ways, as some pieces (like wands) will need to be sacrificed
quence to the next, he/she cannot go back to a prior part of the sequence
rather than scuttled. See Scuttling for more info on this mechanism.
without permission from the other players.
(4) Draw Phase:
The Turn Sequence is as follows:
Draws and Discards: As the final phase of each turn, if the
active player has less than the maximum of Knowledge Cards in their
hand (typically 7), they may draw ONE new card from the deck. So, for
1 - Build Phase
example, if they have 5 cards when the Draw phase starts, they may draw
2 - Movement Phase
one more card, bringing their hand to 6. In addition, if they have one or
3 - Scuttle Phase more Academies, they may choose to use their Academy bonus (discard
4 - Draw Phase one card from your hand per academy and draw a new one).

When the last phase of a turn is complete, the player should declare their
turn over and return all spent elementals to the Bank column on their
placard. Now it is the next player’s turn.
(2.2) Winning the Game!
Before we get into more specifics, lets discuss the all important question
of how to win a game of Lost Knowledge. There are three distinct ways to
win a game, called the Modes of Victory:
Part 3: Game Concepts
There are several concepts in Lost Knowledge that one should familiarize
one’s self with to gain an understanding of the game.
War Victory: Destroy all the buildings of your opponent civiliza-
tions. You do not have to destroy all their units or production necessarily (3.1) An Overview
to win in this way - when a player loses all his/her buildings, they are (How Pieces, Cards, Elementals and Units interact)
vanquished and must remove all pieces from the game board (see Spoils
of War for more details on beating an opponent). Victory is immediate Essentially, everything in Lost Knowledge starts with the Earth itself.
when all opponents are vanquished (all opposing buildings are de-
stroyed). When a player begins to build a Lost Knowledge civilization, his/her
ancients are immediately able to harvest the land’s its elemental powers.
This is done with Harvesting wands, attached to buildings and some
units. Harvesting an elemental (there are nine types) allows a civilization
to pay for more buildings and units, increasing the depth and variety of
their elemental bounty, or instead to afford the magical research cost of
Knowledge Cards, which have wild game play effects and can move the
Gold Victory: The first player to collect 10 Gold wins via eco- ancients up along the Ascendance Tree. Knowledge cards can summon
nomic dominance. You must survive with all 10 Gold through each op- powerful War Units, used to do battle with other civilizations for control
ponent’s next turn to win in this way. This is an important point, because of the earth’s elemental resources, or exploring units, which allow civiliza-
if your palace is lost during one of your opponents’ next turns, you will tion expansion and the collection of vital Artifact Tokens. These tokens,
lose significant gold, and victory postponed. in turn, will augment one’s ability to employ their ancient knowledge and
to ascend toward victory. In addition to expanding, ascending and mak-
ing war, and ancient civilization can also vie for economic dominance,
measured with palaces and the gold they produce. Gold can be utilized as
a wild card elemental, or can be horded to try to win the game.
Ascendance Victory: The first player to Ascend, by placing one
token on each level of the Ascendance Tree wins via Ascendance. An
Ascendance victory is immediate.
(3.2) The Game Board - Terrain Types
Everything in Lost Knowledge starts with the Earth. LKN’s game board is
made up of 33 individual Triangle Zones. Each zone represents a particu-
lar terrain type, which grants specific combinations of elemental resourc-
es and augments or restricts the play of certain cards, units, etc.
Standard Terrains
Jungle (6 Triangles), Grants: [vine, celestial, earth]
Mountain (6 Triangles), Grants: [solar, celestial, earth]
Island (4 Triangles), Grants: [water, solar, vine]
Lake (3 Triangles), Grants: [water, solar, vine]
River (2 Triangles), Grants: [water, water, rainbow]
*** Rainbow can only be harvested by cities and palaces.
Rare Terrains
Desert (2 Triangles), Grants: [solar, earth, fire]
Tundra (2 Triangles), Grants: [water, celestial, frost]
Atol (1Triangle), Grants: [water, water, fire]
Holy Terrains
Ruin (2) [vine, holy] -
*** Holy elementals can only be harvested by card-play.
Bog (1) [frost, holy, water] -
*** Holy elementals can only be harvested by card-play.
Movement Restricting Terrains
Ocean (4) [no elementals] -
*** cannot be settled
*** movement restricted except flying and oceanic units.
Volcano (1) [no elementals] -
*** cannot be settled
*** movement restricted including flying and oceanic units.
(3.3) Anatomy of a Triangle (3.4) Elementals
Triangle zones each have several components, which must be understood Each triangle has one or more elementals in its corners to be harvested.
to play the game. Harvesting an elemental allows you to use its power as payment for the
play-costs of cards, or for buildings and standard units. There are nine
Ө Settlement Area: This is the circle in the center of the triangle, types of elementals in Lost Knowledge, each of which is particularly use-
which is where a civilization places a settlement. This circle can also ful for certain cards paths of knowledge.
contain a city or palace. It cannot contain other buildings or units.
Certain cards will allow the center circle to be used in other ways. Ө Standard Elementals (14 of each are available on the board)
Ө Border Chits: These dashes can contain either units or buildings Solar - primary elemental for the Alien Communion path
including temples, academies and forts. Each triangle has three chits,
Celestial - primary elemental for the Shamanic Inquiry path
so three buildings or units can occupy a single triangle at any time.
Earth - primary elemental for the Litho-Harmonics path
Ө Elemental Corners: The elemental symbols at the triangles’ cor- Vine - primary elemental for the Gaia Summoning path
ners are connected to buildings or units by Harvesting Wands, and Water - no path designation in the basic Lost Knowledge set
allow the elementals to be harvested.
Ө Rare Elementals (3 of each are available on the board)
Ө Borders: Each triangle will border three other triangles, and units
can move from one triangle to another across these borders. In Fire - needed to play powerful cards and upkeep powerful units
addition, Wall Pieces can be built along a triangle’s borders, spanning Frost - needed to play powerful cards and upkeep powerful units
from fort to fort.
Ө Wild Card Elementals (2 rainbow and 3 holy are available)
Rainbow - wild card of any standard elemental. Only harvested by a city
Holy - wild card of any rare elemental. Only harvested by card-play.
(3.5) Harvesting Wands Some Important rules about harvesting wands:
Ө Once a harvesting wand has been placed, it cannot be moved to a
To harvest an element, you need to use a harvesting wand. Each player
new elemental (except by special card play).
gets 12 harvesting wands when the game starts, and they are stored on the
Placard in its Stock area. Extra wands are stored in a common area. Ө Mystics can switch their harvesting wand(s) to new elementals
during the Movement phase only.
In most cases, harvesting wands are placed on the game board when you
Ө A building can only harvest any given elemental once (see the
build certain types of buildings (such as settlements, temples, cities) or
image below).
units (like mystics). See Buildings and Units for more information on
how individual pieces harvest. In addition, some knowledge cards will Ө Contrary to the above, Double or Triple (or more) harvesting of
allow you to place wands in various other ways. an elemental by a single building is sometimes permitted by specific
card play (stating “you may double harvest an elemental using this
Spanning with a wand from a building or unit to an elemental corner on card”).
a triangle allows you to harvest that elemental. Once you have placed
Ө Two different buildings may harvest a single elemental (i.e. a tem-
a wand to harvest, you track what elementals you have and can use by
ple and a settlement can both harvest the same elemental.
placing an Elemental Drop in your Bank’s corresponding row (newly
harvested elementals always go in the Spent column, to be used next Ө Certain cards will allow you to add extra wands to your stock (be-
turn). As long as a harvesting wand is maintained, you may keep and use yond the 10 you are initially allocated), but once all the wands in the
its Elemental Drop in your Bank each turn. If you lose the building or game have been used no further wands may be added.
unit which is harvesting (or the wand itself by some sorcery), the wand
is discarded back to your Stock and the Drop is discarded back to the
Typically,
common area.
you cannot double
harvest a single
A city, a elemental from
temple and a mystic one building. In
harvesting in a jungle example a City must
triangle. This configu- split its two native
ration of wands gives Wands between two
3 Celestial and 1 Vine Elementals. Certain
elemental to a player’s cards may allow you
bank. to double harvest,
however.
Note that several
buildings or units
can harvest a single
elemental.
(3.6) The Bank and Upkeep
In the example below, the Red player is in the middle of his/her Build phase,
and has two Water elementals still available to spend. One Vine elemental has
already been spent, and a second Vine elemental is unavailable because it is being
The Bank is an area on your Placard. It is used to track the elementals
used for Upkeep. At the end of this turn, all Spent elementals return to Bank, while
you are harvesting, as well as their status as Spent or Upkeep usage over Upkeep remains in Upkeep.
the course of your turn. In essence, it is an accounting system.
As long as you are harvesting an elemental with a wand, it should have a
corresponding Elemental Drop in the corresponding row. The column
that it is placed in details its status to pay costs at any given time.
Bank Column: This is where unused Drops are kept. At the start of your
turn, all harvested elementals should be in this column, unless they have
been designated for Upkeep. At the end of your turn, all Spent elementals
(but not Upkeep) are returned to the Bank column to be used again.
Spent Column: When you use a Drop to pay for a card, building or unit,
move it from the Bank column to the Spent column. It cannot be spent The above
again for the rest of your turn. Most cards will need very specific combi- Drops could have been
harvested on the Island
nations of elementals, while buildings can be bought with any elementals,
triangle depicted at left.
as long as you have enough. A City harvests one
Vine and one Water
elemental, and the Tem-
Upkeep Column: Some units and buildings require upkeep, such as pow- ples do the same.
erful war units or academies. When you build or summon one of these,
An Academy is shown
pay its upkeep cost by moving the corresponding elemental drop, from
on the upper left Chit,
either the Bank or Spent column, into the Upkeep Column. The drops which is using one of
in this column do not move back to the Bank column at the end of your the Vine elementals as
upkeep.
turn.
More rules on Upkeep are as follows:

The Bank - Ө Upkeep can come from spent drops, if you have it, or from un-
an area on each spent drops, if you don’t. What is important is that, as Upkeep, you
player’s Placard,
cannot use then NEXT turn (or in any subsequent turn, as long as the
which allows you to
track your available building, unit, etc. that needs the upkeep is in play).
elementals via Har-
vesting Drops. Ө If the unit that needs the upkeep drop is destroyed, you regain that

drop to your bank column immediately.
Moving a drop
from Bank to Spent
Ө If a harvesting wand associated with an upkeep drop is destroyed,
shows that it has
been used already the unit or building that needs that upkeep is also immediately
in a turn. At left, destroyed, unless you can immediately substitute another equivalent
a player spends an
drop to the upkeep area to make up for it.
Earth elemental.