How to Play

The Red Cathedral

1-4 players 80-80 min 7.7 Board Game Geek Rating

Players lead construction teams building St. Basil's Cathedral for Ivan the Terrible in Moscow. The main mechanic involves using dice on a rondel to gather resources, then claiming cathedral sections and sending materials to complete them. Victory comes from accumulating the most prestige points through finished sections, towers, and decorations.

Published 2020

Get Ready

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

Place the main board

Position the board with the Resource Wheel (8 sections) in the center of the table

Choose player color

Each player selects a color and takes a player board (Basic or Advanced side)

Set score markers

Place each player's score marker on the 2 space (highlighted) of the score track

Distribute resource tokens

Shuffle Resource tokens and place 1 randomly face-up in each of the 8 areas of the main board

Prepare influence cards

Shuffle Influence cards for each of the 4 groups, choose 1 randomly from each group, and place face-up in the 4 spaces around the Resource Wheel

Position dice

Randomly choose a die, roll it, and place it in the section granting a Cross icon resource; repeat for all 5 dice, each moving 1 section clockwise from the previous one (maximum 3 dice per section)

Create general supply

Set out Materials (Wood, Brick, Stone, Gold, Green Gems, Purple Gems) and Rubles; materials are piece limited, rubles are not

Build the cathedral

Shuffle Building Plan cards for current player count and choose 1; shuffle Cathedral cards by type (Domes, Middles, Bases) and create layout per the Building Plan with costs face-up; each column is a "tower"

Place workshop tiles

Remove tiles marked 3+ when playing with 2 players; randomly place 1 tile face-up on each Cathedral card

Determine starting money

1st player receives 3 Rubles, 2nd player 4 Rubles, 3rd player 4 Rubles, 4th player 5 Rubles

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose one main action

Perform exactly one of three main actions: Claim a Cathedral Card, Build/Decorate the Cathedral, or Acquire Resources

Use anytime actions

Optionally perform either or both anytime actions at any point during your turn

Place your banner

Take any available Banner from your player board and place it on the lowest unclaimed Cathedral card in any tower

Collect workshop tile

Take the Workshop tile from the claimed card and place it face-up or face-down on any empty square space on your player board

Spend materials

Use 1-3 materials to build on claimed cards or add Ornamentations to any completed card

Build claimed cards

Move materials from inventory to claimed Cathedral cards needing those resources; each resource moved uses 1 of 3 movements

Complete a card

When all required resources are on a card, return them to supply, earn shown rubles and Recognition points, flip the card over

Apply penalty for incomplete cards below

When completing a card, owners of incomplete cards below in the same column lose Recognition equal to the number of completed cards above their incomplete card

Add ornamentations

Pay the resource cost shown on your player board; Crosses go on completed top cards, Arches on completed middle cards, Doors on completed bottom cards

Spend jewels for prestige

When building an Ornamentation, optionally spend 1-2 Jewels (counting toward the 3 material limit); 1 jewel earns 1 Prestige, both green and purple together earn 3 Prestige

Move a die

Choose 1 die and move it clockwise sections equal to its pip value

Perform three market actions

Complete Obtain Resources, Use Influence, and Activate Workshop Tile in any order

Obtain resources

Take resources shown on the Resource tile multiplied by dice count in that section (max 3x); store in Inventory with 1 piece per space; cannot freely discard resources

Use influence

Choose 1 of 2 actions on the Influence card assigned to the quadrant where the die stopped

Activate workshop tile

If you have a face-up Workshop tile for the die color moved, activate it; tiles showing a die earn that section's resource once regardless of dice count; White die has 2 slots but only 1 activates

Roll all dice

After market actions, roll all dice in the section where the chosen die stopped

Trade prestige for rubles

Move score marker back to the next Prestige crest to take 2 rubles (unlimited uses per turn)

Trade prestige for reroll

Once per turn, move score marker back to the next Prestige crest to roll all dice in 1 section of the Resource Wheel