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Orléans
#35BGG8.1RATING
Updated Sep 6
2–5
PLAYERS
90
MINUTES
3
BEST WITH
3.0
HEAVY
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS10
Beneficial Deeds rewards are earned per follower sentdesigner
- CONTEXT
- The Beneficial Deeds board looks graphically similar to the player board and Place Tiles, where a space must be completely filled before it pays out.
- RULING
- "You get the reward for each character" — quoting the German rulebook, "...und erhält für jede entsendete Figur die jeweils angegebene Belohnung...". A space does not need to be filled first; every follower sent to the Beneficial Deeds board immediately earns the reward shown on the space it occupies.
Phase 4 "Planning" is played simultaneouslydesigner
- CONTEXT
- Phase 5 explicitly proceeds clockwise from the start player, but Phase 4 gives no turn order, and a player's placement can depend on what the others do.
- RULING
- "You may play simultaneously. If a players decision depends on what actions other players will perform, then he may wait, if the other players are prior in order."
A Place filled during the Bathhouse action is activated immediatelydesigner
- CONTEXT
- The Bathhouse lets the owner place freshly drawn followers onto Places. Players were unsure whether a Place completed this way waits until the next round to become usable.
- RULING
- "immediate activation is correct" — if the Bathhouse action fills a Place, that Place is activated at once and may be used as a later action in the same round.
The Horse Wagon may pick up a good while movingdesigner
- RULING
- "Yes, the merchant may pickup 1 good (if available)" when the Horse Wagon moves the merchant along a road to an adjacent city.
Farmer income counts farmers recruited, including dead and donated onesdesigner
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook's first sentence refers to the "number of Farmers", which can diverge from a player's position on the Farmers Track once farmers are lost to torture or the plague, or sent to the Beneficial Deeds board.
- RULING
- "It's specified in the rules: 'The player whose marker is furthest ahead on the Farmers Track receives 1 coin ...' The number of farmers should be interpretet as number of farmers recruitet (and include all the dead or those who were sent to beneficial deeds)." The Farmers Track position governs; farmers no longer in a player's possession still count.
Beneficial Deeds building spaces may be filled in any orderdesigner
- RULING
- Yes — the building spaces on the Beneficial Deeds board can be filled in any order; there is no required sequence.
The Taxes event charges per completed set of three goodsdesigner
- CONTEXT
- The Taxes event asks each player to pay 1 coin per three goods, and the rulebook does not say whether partial sets are charged.
- RULING
- "per 3 goods means per completed set of 3 goods" — round down. 0 coins for 0–2 goods, 1 coin for 3–5 goods, 2 coins for 6–8 goods, and so on.
AUTHOR: juanco (relaying Reiner Stockhausen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(7 replies)DATE: 2014-11-27A Technology Tile may only be placed on an empty spacedesigner
- CONTEXT
- A player asked what happens to a follower already queued on an action space when a Technology Tile is placed there.
- RULING
- "When you place a technology tile (after you have passed) the space must be empty as it's not intended to have several tiles on one space." A Technology Tile cannot displace or stack with a follower already occupying the space.
Followers may be taken one at a time, from the bag or from the boarddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Several threads disputed whether a player must commit up front to how many followers to draw versus how many to retrieve from Action Spaces, or whether the choice can be made one follower at a time.
- RULING
- "I don't see, that you MUST take all character tiles at the same time. As it's not explicitly forbidden I would not disagree, if someone takes characters one after another (from bag OR from the board), although I never saw people play this way."
AUTHOR: JYoder (Jeremy Yoder, relaying Reiner Stockhausen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.comDATE: 2015-11-26Followers left in the market do not reduce your drawdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Orléans and Altiplano use similar bag-building systems, and players moving between the two assumed the draw rule was shared.
- RULING
- "everything is correct. Altiplano and Orléans are actually different in this regard." In Orléans a follower left in your market from a previous round does not count against your draw — you still draw your full Knight Track amount if you have market space. Only a follower pulled back from an Action Space into your market reduces that round's draw.
AUTHOR: JoeAubrey (relaying Reiner Stockhausen, designer, via dlp games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 thumbs)DATE: 2019-02-06
Q&A6
Followers stranded on an action whose supply has run outcommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- When the supply of a particular follower type is exhausted, what happens to the Character Tiles already sitting on the corresponding Action Space?
- ANSWER
- They stay there. Quoting the rulebook, page 21: "When you run out of a particular tile, you can no longer play an action that provides that tile." The action can no longer be taken, the tiles already placed cannot be returned to the bag, and a Character Tile can never be moved from one Action Space to another — the only way to recover one is to decline a draw during Phase 3 and move it to your market instead.
Taking an action once your marker is on the last space of a trackcommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- Once a player's marker reaches the final space of a track, may they still take the corresponding action to gain something else from it?
- ANSWER
- No. The rulebook states at the start of the Actions/Places section: "once your marker moves onto the last space of a track, you may no longer take the corresponding action."
What the Gunpowder Tower doescommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- Does the Gunpowder Tower extend the market, or does it send followers to the Beneficial Deeds board?
- ANSWER
- Both. It extends the market by two spaces, and the followers occupying those spaces may either be sent to the Beneficial Deeds board or be used normally for actions. Leaving followers on the Gunpowder Tower between rounds is also permitted, as with any other Place.
Gunpowder Tower and Town Hall are separate actionscommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- Can the Gunpowder Tower be resolved as part of the same action as the Town Hall, sending followers from both to the Beneficial Deeds board at once?
- ANSWER
- No. They are two different Places, so each is a separate action.
The roads at the edges of the boardcommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- The faded roads that continue off one edge of the board and reappear on the opposite edge — can a merchant travel along them?
- ANSWER
- No. They are artwork only; the board does not wrap around.
Pilgrimage and placing followers on the Monasterycommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- During the Pilgrimage event, monks cannot be recruited. Does that also prevent placing followers onto the Monastery in preparation for a later round?
- ANSWER
- No. The restriction is on recruiting — that is, taking the monk. Followers may still be placed on the Monastery; the action simply cannot be resolved for a monk while Pilgrimage is in effect.
EDGE CASES1
The coin supply is a real limit, not an accounting conveniencecommunity high-engagementlinked official source
- SITUATION
- Players disagreed over whether coins are a limited resource, and what to do if the supply runs dry mid-event.
- RULING
- Coins are limited, and the supply is not reduced for games with fewer than five players, so a shortage realistically only occurs at four or five players. The limit was introduced in the second edition of the rules to cope with the component count rather than as a design goal — a dlp games editor stated on unknowns.de that "Eigentlich sollte Geld unbegrenzt sein, es wurde jedoch in der zweiten Fassung der Spielregel eine Regelung geschaffen, um der Materialknappheit zu begegnen" [translated from German] → "Money should actually be unlimited, but a rule was created in the second version of the rules to address the shortage of components." The 5th Player Box and later expansions add further coins for this reason. The rulebook does not specify a payment order when coins run out mid-event.
AUTHOR: Happymrdave, with a quoted statement from a dlp games editorSOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(28 replies)DATE: 2015-12-12
Last researched: 2026-08-09
CATEGORIES
Medieval·Religious·Travel
MECHANICS
ContractsDeck, Bag, and Pool BuildingEnd Game BonusesEventsKill StealPoint to Point MovementSimultaneous Action SelectionTech Trees / Tech TracksTurn Order: Progressive
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