How to Play

Lancaster

2-5 players 60-60 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

Players are ambitious noble families supporting King Henry V's conquest of France in 1413 England. Send knights to counties, castles, and French conflicts to gain influence. Compete by placing stronger knights to displace opponents' weaker ones from valuable locations. Develop your knighthood strategically while influencing parliament for beneficial laws. Victory goes to the player accumulating the most power points.

Published 2011

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place boards

Put the game board, parliament board, and 2 supply boards on the table

Stock supply boards

Put voting cubes, gold, and squires equally on supply boards

Select player color

Each player chooses a color and puts their player marker on 0 of the VP track

Place reserve knights

Put 7 knights of your color on any reserve area on the board

Take player components

Each player takes 1 castle board, 6 extension tiles, 1 screen, and 2 knights from their reserve (strength 1 and 2)

Receive starting resources

From supply, take 1 voting cube, 2 gold, 2 squires, and 2 voting tiles (yes and no)

Prepare law cards

Sort law cards by number on back, shuffle the 3 "0" laws and place face-up left to right on upper row of parliament board

Prepare noblemen tiles

Sort by letter on back, place each pile face-up in matching county

Set up castle

Place 2 knights in court area on player board, select 1 extension tile and place on castle covering same reward space, remaining 5 form personal supply on right

Prepare conflict area

Put 6 king's favor tiles face-up in conflict area

Remove conflict cards

Based on player count: 2/4 players remove cards 2 and 10; 3 players remove 9 and 10; 5 players remove 2 and 3

Reveal conflicts

Shuffle remaining conflict cards, place on board space, draw top 2 cards face-up in upper row

Determine start player

Pick start player and award start player marker, play proceeds clockwise

Hide resources

Keep gold and squires hidden behind player screen; all other information is public

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Move knights from court

Active player moves 1 knight from court to a knight space, playing clockwise until all players have placed all knights

Skip if necessary

Players may have different numbers of knights; skip turn if no knights remain in court

Place in county

Place on empty or occupied space; knight must match or exceed minimum strength of space

Place in castle

Place knight on empty space in own castle to earn reward later; 1 knight per space

Place in conflict

Place knight in topmost empty space of either conflict; each player can only occupy 1 space per conflict but can add strength to existing knight

Vote on new laws

Vote on 3 new laws (bottom row); current laws remain on top row

Cast votes

Vote on laws one by one starting with bottom left; all players place selected voting tile face-down, then put chosen number of voting cubes (0 or more) in hand and simultaneously reveal

Tally votes

Voting tile counts as 1 plus any voting cubes used; ties approve the law

Resolve approved laws

Approved laws slide into current law row from right, discarding leftmost law

Remove rejected laws

Rejected laws are removed from game

Return voting markers

All used and unused voting markers return to general supply (do not keep for next round)

Gain law rewards

After all 3 votes complete, players immediately gain rewards for laws in play from left to right

Score counties A-Z

Winning player either takes 1 nobleman OR takes reward shown on county OR pays 3 gold and takes both

Return pieces

Knight returns to court; squires return to general supply

Nobleman restriction

You cannot take the same nobleman more than once

Award start player

Player who wins Surrey awards start player marker to any player including themselves

Score in player order

Players receive rewards for knights and castle extensions in any order

Gain voting cubes

Receive 1 voting cube for each nobleman you have (except at end of round 5)

Determine winner

If England strength equals or exceeds France strength, England wins

Score England victory

Players gain VP rewards on card based on strength contributed for 1st/2nd/3rd place; ties go to player who entered fight last; knights return to court; discard conflict card

Score France victory

Top player gets 2nd place VPs, etc.; slide conflict card and knights to lower row

Second battle France victory

Score 2nd and 3rd place only; players must pay 1 gold per strength to retrieve knight, otherwise knight goes to reserve area

Reveal new conflicts

Draw 2 new conflict cards and place in upper row; flip all king's favor tokens face-up

Reveal new laws

Draw 3 new laws from top of draw pile, place left to right

Assign start player

Surrey winner assigns next start player; otherwise current start player keeps marker