El Caballero

• Basic Game
• Setup
• Round Sequence
• Scoring

Back to Game Rules Index

Setup - Basic Game

• Each player chooses a color and takes:
• 8 Caballero cards (return 2 cards in each color to the box - these are for the expanded game)
• 1 Set of Power cards (numbered 1-13)
• Place the Castillos, the Ships, a Score sheet and a pencil on the table. Return 4 Ships and 4 Castillos to the box
  
• Place 5 caballeros at court
• Shuffle the Area cards and place them face-down on the table. Turn over area cards until you  find one without a gold or fish symbol on it. This is the starting card for the islands; place it in the middle of the table.
• Re-shuffle the area cards (minus the starting card) and place them face-down on the table. Draw the top 5 cards and place them face-up on the table. These are the area cards available to players in the first round.

Round Sequence - Basic Game

• Youngest player starts first round. Thereafter, the starting player is the player who played last in the previous round. The starting player draws area cards to replace those used during the round, replenishing the number available to 5
• Each player plays a power card that has not already been played this round
• Play proceeds from highest to lowest
• Each Turn, do the following in any order (Action - Cost in caballeros)
• Mandatory: Play 1 (or 2 with #9 priority card) area card - 0
• Optional:
• Supply: Add caballeros to the court (# shown on your power card) - 0
• Add or increase 1 or 2 caballero cards - 1 / caballero
• Buy 1 or 2 ships - 2 / ship
• Build 1 or 2 Castillos - 1 / Castillo
• Return caballero cards and ships to the court - 0
• Shift ships or Castillos shift, from one area to another and/or move ships from the court to an area - 1 / ship or Castillo

Scoring - Basic Game

• Score after Round 4 and Round 7 (end of game)
• Scoring the land regions:
• value = number of cards in the region plus 1 / Gold in region.
• the player with the most Caballeros in each region value x 2
• the second ranking player receives the value (in 3-4 player games only).
• if two or more players tie for first, they each receive the points for second rank
• if two or more players tie for second rank, they receive no points.
• Scoring the ships:
• value = # of water areas in the region + 1 / fish
• each ship bordering the region earns these points for the player owning the ship
• a player may have several ships in a region and receives the points for each ship.