Phil Walker-Harding

Imhotep
The Duel
For 2 players ages 10 and up
Play without reading the rules with the KOSMOS explanation app
Would you like the game explained to you without reading the rules? Then download the free "explanation
app"

GAME STORY
The competition of the master builders continues! "Imhotep, - the duel" has you assuming the roles of
Nefertiti and Akhenaten - one of the most famous Egyptian royal couples. Tactically place your playing
figures to offload the most valuable tiles from the six boats. Work on your four monuments to gather as many
victory points as possible and to decide who wins the duel!

GAME OBJECTIVE
On your turn, pick 1 of the following 3 actions:
- Place 1 player figure
- Offload 1 boat
- Play 1 action tile
Offloading the boats gives you (according to the position of the player figures) tiles for the four different
monuments. The monuments are scored at the end of the game. Whoever has the most victory points wins!

GAME MATERIALS
- 60 Shipping tiles
- 12 Obelisk tiles
- 12 Pyramid tiles (6 dark and 6 light)
- 12 Temple tiles (with 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols)
- 12 Tomb tiles (with the numbers 1-12)
- 12 Action tiles (4 different actions, 3 of each)
- 2 x 4 Location boards:
- 2 Obelisk boards
- 2 Temple boards
- 2 Pyramid boards
- 2 Tomb boards
- 2 x 4 Player figures (4 in each player colour: black and white)
- 6 Boat tiles (each with three loading bays)
- 1 Harbour board (with 1 reserve space, 9 harbour spaces and 6 mooring slots)

GAME PREPARATION
a) Place the harbour board in the middle of the table.
b) Place the 6 boat tiles in the 6 mooring slots of the harbour board.
c) You each choose a colour (black or white) and take the 4 player figures of your colour, as well as one of
each of the obelisk, temple, pyramid and tomb location boards, placing them in front of you. Each location
board has an A-side and a B-side. For your first game, you will use only the A-side of the boards.
[In future games, you can try playing with the B-sides. If you do, make sure that both players are using the
same sides of the location boards!]
d) Shuffle all 60 of the shipping tiles and place them face down in a pile, forming a supply.
e) Place 3 randomly drawn tiles face-up onto each of the 6 boats. Always start by placing a tile in loading
bay 1, then loading bay 2 and finally loading bay 3.
f) Also place 3 randomly drawn tiles onto the reserve space of the harbour board.
The 9 spaces on the harbour board make up a 3 x 3 grid, which has mooring slots on two of its sides to
accommodate a total of 6 boats. Each mooring slot belongs to a corresponding row or column, each made up
of 3 harbour spaces.

COURSE OF PLAY
You will take turns until the end of the game is triggered. The youngest player is the start player. When it's
your turn, you must choose one of the following 3 actions:

Place 1 player figure

Take 1 of the player figures from your supply and place it on an empty harbour space (only one player figure
may occupy a harbour space at any time). When all of your player figures have already been placed on the
harbour board, you cannot choose this action.

OR

Offload 1 boat
You offload 1 of the boats corresponding to a row or column which has at least 2 player figures of any
colour currently occupying its spaces (even if none of these player figures have your colour). When there is
no row or column with at least 2 player figures of any colour, you cannot choose this action. Every player
figure in the row or column you have chosen to offload (and only there!) offloads one tile from the boat
according to the following rule: the player figure closest to the boat offloads the tile furthest away from the
harbour. The owner of that player figure place their figure back in their supply and take the tile from the boat.
Keep repeating this process until every player figure in the row or column has offloaded 1 tile. If a harbour
space in this row or column is empty, it is ignored. This means it is possible that one of the tiles on the boat
will not be offloaded; this tile is then returned to the box. Subsequently, the boat is refilled with 3 randomly
chosen tiles. Has the supply run out and can the boat no longer be refilled? Then this boat is immediately
removed from the game.
Example: It's the black player's turn and they offload 1 boat. They can pick any boat to offload, because
every column and every row has at least two player figures currently occupying its spaces. This includes the
middle column, even though there are only two white player figures currently occupying its spaces. The black
player decides to offload the bottom row. This means they take the tomb tile with number 12 and the white
player takes the temple tile with 1 symbol on it. The dark pyramid tile is removed from the game.
The players place any tiles they may have acquired next to their location boards in the following manner:
- Obelisk tiles are placed on top of each other above the obelisk board.

- Temple tiles are placed face-down in a pile on your temple board.

- Pyramid tiles are placed above your pyramid board according to their colour. There is a slot for one light
and one dark pyramid. Each pyramid can be made up of at most 6 tiles (3 tiles on the bottom row, 2 tiles on
top of it and 1 tile at the very top).
- Tomb tiles are placed next to the tomb board according to their number.
- Action tiles are placed face-up next to your location boards.

OR

Play 1 action tile

If you have an action tile, you can play it and use its effect. The action tile is then removed from the game
and placed back in the box. You can play only 1 action tile per turn. This then constitutes your entire turn. An
overview of the effects of the action tiles:

Take 1 tile: Choose a tile from a boat of your choice (exception: you cannot take an action tile). Put the tile
of your choice on your respective location board. Then, take the top tile from the reserve space and place it
face-up on the empty loading bay of the boat.
Example: It's the black player's turn and they play a "take 1 tile" tile. Out of all of the tiles on the boats, they
take one of their choice - except for action tiles! They choose the temple tile with 4 symbols on it. The empty
loading bay is refilled with the top tile from the reserve space.

Place 2-3 figures: Take the action "place 1 player figure" 2 or 3 times. The same rules for this action as
described on page 4 still apply.

Place 1 figure and offload 1-2 x: First, take the action "place 1 player figure" and then take the action
"offload 1 boat" 1 or 2 times. The same rules for this action as described on page 4 still apply.

Swap 2 tiles and offload: Swap 2 tiles on the same boat. Then, offload a boat of your choice according to
the rules on page 4. The swapped tiles do not have to be on the boat you choose to offload.
Example: The black player plays their "swap 2 tiles and offload" tile. They swap two tiles on one boat and
then offload a boat of their choice.
END OF GAME
You keep taking turns until the penultimate boat is removed from the game, leaving only one loaded boat in
the game. Then, the game ends immediately and you check to see who has the most points. Remember that a
boat is removed from the game when, after offloading, there are no longer enough tiles to refill the boat. The
last boat can no longer be offloaded and neither player takes the tiles on it.

Scoring
Each location (obelisk, temple, pyramids, tomb) awards victory points in a different way.

Scoring when using the A-sides:

- Obelisk: Every obelisk tile is worth 1 point. If either player has more obelisk tiles than the other, they score
6 more points.

- Temple: Every circle symbol on the temple tiles you have collected is worth 1 point.

- Pyramids: Your light and dark pyramids are scored separately. The more tiles there are in a pyramid, the
more points it is worth. For 1/2/3/4/5/6 tiles in a pyramid, you score 1/3/6/10/15/21 points.

- Tomb: For each continuous group of 1/2/3/4/5 (or more) tiles, you score 1/4/9/16/25 points. You may score
each of your groups of tiles. Groups are formed by a gap between the tiles - meaning a tile is missing
between them.
Notes:
- A single tile also makes up a group.
- The tiles numbered 12 and 1 are not continuous!

- Each of your unused action tiles is worth 1 point.

- Each of your player figures left on the harbour board is worth 1 point.

Whoever has the most points, wins. In the event of a tie, whoever was not the start player wins.

Example: At the end of the game, the black player's location boards appear as pictured below. The 2 obelisk
tiles are worth 2 points. The black player does not have a majority of obelisk tiles and so does not score 6
additional points. The 3 temple tiles are worth 1, 4 and 2 points respectively, for a total of 7 points. The left
pyramid consists of 4 tiles and is therefore worth 10 points. The right pyramid consists of 6 tiles and is worth
21 points. In the tomb, the black player has a group of 6 continuous tiles, worth 25 points. They also have
another group of 1 “continuous tile”, worth 1 point. In addition, the black player still has two unused action
tiles, each worth 1 point. The player figure on the harbour is also worth 1 point. Altogether, the black player
has amassed 69 points.

B-sides variant
For an advanced level game, some or all of the location boards may be flipped to their B-sides. The rules of
the game remain the same - only the scoring for the locations is changed:
- Obelisk: Whoever gathers 5 obelisk tiles first places their fifth tile face-down and scores 12 points at the
end of the game. If the other player has also gathered 5 obelisk tiles by the end of the game, they score 6
points - if not, they score 0 points. If either of you has gathered 10 or more obelisk tiles by the end of the
game, they score 12 + 6 = 18 points.

- Pyramids: Only the smallest (=the one with fewer tiles) of your two pyramids is scored. If they are of equal
size, still only one of them is scored. If the smaller pyramid has 0/1/2/3/4/5/6 tiles, you score -
6/0/4/10/18/30/45 points.

- Temple: Temple tiles are now placed face-up on the corresponding temple spaces according to the amount
of symbols on them. They make up sets consisting of at most 4 tiles(with 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols on them).
Every set of 1/2/3/4 different tiles is worth 1/4/9/16 points.

- Tomb: Every group of continuous tiles is worth 4 points, regardless of the size of the group. This means it
is advantageous to have many single tiles with gaps between them. A single tile is also a group.

- Each of your unused action tiles is still worth 1 point.

- Each of your player figures left on the harbour board is still worth 1 point.

Example: At the end of the game, the black player's location boards appear as pictured below. Their fifth
obelisk tile is placed face-down, the black player was therefore the first player to gather 5 obelisk tiles and
they score 12 points. The sixth obelisk tile is worthless to them. The temple tiles are sorted into sets. The
complete set (1 x of each of the different tiles) is worth 16 points. The set consisting of the tiles 1, 2 and 4 is
worth 9 points and the single tile with 2 symbols on it is worth 1 point. The left pyramid consists of 0 tiles,
the right pyramid consists of 6 tiles. Because only the smaller pyramid counts and it has 0 tiles, the black
player is docked 6 points. The 3 continuous tiles (3, 4, 5) in the tomb make up one group, worth 4 points. The
single tomb tile (1) is also a group and therefore also worth 4 points. In addition, the black player still has
two unused action tiles, each worth 1 point. The player figure on the harbour board is also worth 1 point.
Altogether, the black player has amassed 43 points.

OWNERSHIP STATEMENT
Author: Phil Walker-Harding has had a passion for playing and designing board games since childhood. He
particularly likes games that bring together people of different ages and personalities. Phil is is especially
interested in theology, classic Hollywood films and the myths of ancient Egypt. He lives in Sydney, Australia
with his wife Meredith. Imhotep was nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2016.
Illustration: Claus Stephan
Graphics: Michaela Kienle
Editors: Ralph Querfurth, Kilian Vosse
Phil Walker-Harding and KOSMOS would like to thank all of the play testers and rulebook proofreaders.

© 2018 Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG

Pfizerstr. 5 –7
D-70184 Stuttgart
Tel.: +49 711 2191-0
Fax: +49 711 2191-199
[email protected]
kosmos.de

All rights reserved.

MADE IN GERMANY Art.-Nr.: 694272