[Music] Hi, my name is Paul Grogan. Welcome to the first video in my how-to-play
series for Rococo Deluxe Edition, designed by Matthias Cramer, louis and Stefan Malz, and published by Eagle-Gryphon Games who sponsored this video. It's 18th century France and King Louis XV
is hosting the final Grand Ball of the season, where important Luminaries dress up in
extravagant gowns and fancy frock coats. You are the owner of a
distinguished tailoring business creating the requested garments to rent or sell, or funding some of the many
decorations and firework displays. The game plays over the course of 7 rounds, during which players will take turns to
play an employee card from their hand and perform one of 6 possible tasks, such as acquiring resources, tailoring a garment, hiring a new employee, or funding some of the many decorations. However, not all employees can perform all tasks, so you must plan carefully how you direct them. After 7 rounds the Grand Ball will
end with a brilliant fireworks display and the scores will be added up. Garments that you have rented out to the
guests at the ball will grant you prestige, along with the decorations that you have
funded and certain employee bonuses. Whoever has collected the most
prestige at the end of the game wins. Place the game board in the
middle of the play area. The board is 2-sided, use the side that
corresponds to the number of players in the game. Place the Queen's Favor
token in the indicated space. Sort the employee cards into levels 1 through 6. Shuffle the level 6 cards
and place them face down, then shuffle the level 5 cards
and place them face down on top. Do the same for the level 4 cards, then
the level 3 cards, the level 2 cards, and finally the level one cards. This forms the new employees draw deck. Place all of the resource tiles in the
resource bag give it a shake to mix them up and then place it near the resource display. Do something similar with the garment tiles, placing them in the garment bag and
placing it near the garment design display. Each player chooses a colour and
takes the items in that colour, a player board, 5 start employee cards which are placed
face down to the left of the player board, 20 trademark tokens, and one prestige counter placed on
the zero space of the score track. Each player also gets a resource tile rack. Place the coins next to
the board to form the bank. Place the thread and lace tokens
in a general supply nearby. Each player starts the game with 15 Livre, one lace token, and one thread token. The player who last used the needle and thread is
the start player and gets the start player token. And with setup complete you're
now ready to play the game. The game is played over 7 rounds and
each round is divided into 4 phases. In phase one you prepare for a new round by
adding new employee cards, resources and garments. In phase 2 each player chooses 3 cards from
their employee supply to use in that round. And in phase 3 players then take turns to play employee cards from
their hand and perform actions. This continues until all players have
played all of their cards from their hand. In phase 4 players collect income, giving
them the much needed funds for the next round. The first thing to do is to
determine the new start player. Skip this in round one, but in future rounds if a player acquired
the Queen's Favor in the previous round, they return the token to its space on the
board and take the start player token. If no one acquired the Queen's Favor in the
previous round the start player does not change. Next, if there are employee cards remaining in the 'Hire New Employees' display from the previous round, remove them from the game. This is indicated by the red arrows. Then draw 4 new employee cards from
the top of the new employee draw deck and place them face up in the display. Look at the resource display and fill in
any empty spaces with new resource tiles, drawn randomly from the resource bag. If the resource bag is ever empty, place all of the discarded resource tiles
back into the bag and then keep drawing. And finally, check the garment display. If there are any garment tiles
remaining in the 2 rightmost spaces discard them to the garment discard area, then shift all other remaining garment
tiles to the right to fill in any gaps. And then fill each remaining
empty space from right to left with a new garment tile
drawn randomly from the bag. Place it showing the design pattern. If the garment bag is ever empty return all garment tiles in the garment discard area to the bag and then keep drawing. In this phase each player simultaneously
and secretly selects 3 employee cards from among all of the cards
currently in their employee supply, which is the face down stack on the
left side of their player board. In the first round of the game this means
choosing 3 cards from your possible 5. In later rounds however you may have fewer
than 3 cards in your employee supply. And in this case you must first take all
of your remaining cards into your hand, then move all of your discarded employee
cards back to your employee supply. And then from your supply select as many cards as
you need to bring your hand up to exactly 3 cards. Note that you only make a new
employee supply from your discards when your employee supply is empty
and you need to select a card. So if you have 3 cards left you just draw those 3. You don't move your discards back to
your supply until you need to draw again. Beginning with the start player and going
in clockwise order, players take turns. On your turn you must play one
employee card from your hand, placing it face up onto your discard
stack to the right of your player board. You then perform one main action
from the 6 that are available. And in addition, if the card you
play has a bonus action on it, you perform this after the main action. This phase continues until all players
have played all of the cards in their hand. Employees come in 3 training levels as
indicated by the colour of the frame and thimble on the cards. Bronze cards are Apprentices, Silver cards a journeyman, and gold cards are Masters. Not all of the 6 main actions may be
performed by all of the employees, and I'll cover this in detail when
i go through the different actions. All actions are optional,
including the main action. So you could play a card and only
perform the bonus action if you want to, and even that is optional. And for the bonus actions, I'm not
going to explain all of them here, but they are all summarized
on page 12 of the rulebook, and there's a reference sheet included
in the game that has them all listed. The first action to explain
is claiming the Queen's Favor. This can only be performed
by Masters and Journeymen, as depicted by this icon here. When you perform this action take the
Queen's Favor token from the board and place it on your player board. You also gain 5 Livre from the bank. Having this token at the beginning of the next round means that you will become the new start player. This action can only be performed once per round. At the end of the game, if you have the
Queen's Favor tile in your possession, you will also receive 3 prestige
points during final scoring. The next action to explain is acquiring resources,
and this action may be performed by any employee. It's a great use for your Apprentices. When you perform this action you may purchase any one resource tile from a drawer of your choice in the resource display. The cost of doing this is determined by the number of resource tiles currently displayed in the selected drawer, as depicted here. If there are 3 or 4 tiles in
the drawer it costs 2 Livre. If there are 2 tiles in the
drawer it costs one Livre. And if only one tile remains
in the drawer the tile is free. Immediately after you take the
tile you must make a decision. You can either place the tile
in your resource tile rack, or you can discard the tile to receive the thread
and/or lace depleted on the bottom of the tile. And note that some tiles are better than others. This one for example, can be
discarded for a lace or a thread, whereas this one can be discarded for both. Resource tiles in your tile rack contain bales of
silk that can be used later to tailor a garment. The tiles are kept secret from the other players. Your opponents will know how many tiles
you have but not what is depicted on them. Thread and lace tokens are open information
and must be kept visible to all players. Action 3 is tailoring a garment, which can
only be performed by Masters and Journeymen. When you perform this action, choose one of the
garments from the design patterns on display and pay the cost shown below the design. You must also discard enough resources to match
all of those depicted on the design pattern tile, bales of silk, thread, and lace. You may discard multiple resource tiles
to meet the required amount of silk, however any excess bales of
silk on these tiles are lost. For example, to tailor this gown
requires one green bale of silk, one blue bale of silk, and some thread. You only have these resource tiles so you
discard them to give you what you need. The additional green bale
and pink bale are wasted. Any lace and thread used
is returned to the supply, and any resource tiles used are placed in
the discard area to the side of the board. Some design patterns depict a gold thimble. These garments can only be tailored if you
perform the action with a Master level employee. After you have paid the costs and have
discarded all of the required resources you must immediately decide whether to rent
the garment to a guest attending the ball, or to sell it. I'll explain selling the garment first
as that's the easiest to explain. You simply discard the garment tile to the
discard area and receive Livre from the bank, as depicted on the tile. To rent the garment out, flip
the tile over to the rental side and place it onto any empty guest space
of the board in one of the 5 halls. Some spaces depict a gold thimble. You can only place the tile on one of these
spaces if the garment was made by a Master tailor, regardless of whether or not the garment
tile shows a gold symbol on its design side. Also, some of the spaces show a bonus. And if you place a tile on one of these
spaces you gain that bonus immediately, which is either gain Livre, gain a thread, gain a lace, or take any resource tile from
any of the drawers for free. And if you take a resource tile, choose whether
to keep the tile or discard it as usual. Place one of your trademark tokens on the garment
to indicate that it was you that rented it out. At the end of the game you will gain
the prestige points shown on the tile. Which hall you choose to place the garment in
will be important for the end of game scoring, which I'll mention in detail later on. But essentially, the players with the most
and second most number of garments in each hall will gain extra prestige. The 4th action is hiring a new employee, and this action can only be performed by a Master. When you perform this action, choose one of the employee cards on
the board and add it to your hand. The cost to hire a new employee depends on
the number of cards currently in the display, as shown here. If there are 4 cards in the
display pay 5 Livre to the bank, if there are 3 cards pay 3 Livre, and if there are 2 cards pay one Livre. If there's only one card in
the display you pay nothing, as clearly nobody else wants them
so they agree to work for free. Because your new employee
goes directly into your hand you can use this card to perform
an action later in the same round. Note that the level 6 Apprentice
employees have a crown icon, and an employee bonus on a blue velvet background. These cards do not have a bonus action during
the game but will count for end of game scoring. Aaction 5 can be performed by any employee
and it is to depute that employee. When you perform this action the
employee that you have just played is sent off to work in the King's Court. First gain the amount of Livre indicated
in the bottom left of the card, and then you may use the bonus
action of the employee one last time before you remove the card from the game. Place it back in the box. Note however, that you must always
retain a staff of at least 4 employees, and your staff includes employees in your
hand, your discard pile, and your deck. The last action to explain
is funding a decoration, which can be performed by any employee. The decorations can be found
in 4 places on the board. There is one in each hall,
which represents a musician. There are decorations in the 2 kitchens, there are statue decorations, and there are the fireworks decorations. When you perform this action, choose one
decoration which hasn't yet been funded and pay the cost depicted on the space, and then place one of your trademark tokens on it. Funding a musician will earn you
prestige at the end of the game and help break ties when working
out the whole majorities. I'll explain this more later on. Funding a statue will also earn you prestige
at the end of the game, as shown here, which i'll also explain in final scoring. Funding a firework display, yes you guessed it, points at the end of the game,
which I'll explain later. Funding a kitchen decoration, however, will give
you the depicted points at the end of the game, but it will also increase your income. I'm explaining income in the next chapter. Each player may only fund one decoration
space in the left side of the kitchen, and one in the right side. The top right of the game
board is the 'All Halls Bonus'. As soon as you are represented
in each of the 5 halls you immediately place one of your trademark tokens in the most valuable empty
space for the 'All Halls Bonus'. You are represented in a hall as soon as you have at least one of your
trademark tokens on a garment, or on the musician decoration space. You'll receive the depicted prestige
points at the end of the game. Trademark tokens placed here are not decorations, and each player can only have one
token in this area of the board. After all players have played
all of their cards from their hand the game moves to the income phase. Each player always receives
a basic income of 5 Livre. Players with trademark tokens on the
decorations in the kitchen receive additional income as follows. If you have a token on the
left side of the kitchen you gain additional Livre equal to the
number of tokens you have on decorations, including ones in the kitchen. So here for example, if you are playing
purple you would gain an additional 4 Livre. If you have a token on the right side of the
kitchen you gain additional Livre equal to the number of tokens you have
on garments in the halls. That is the number of garments
that you've currently rented out. So here for example, as purple you
would gain an additional 3 Livre. Remember, each player can have at most
one token in each side of the kitchen, and also note that trademark tokens on
the all halls bonus are not decorations, so do not count for additional income. The game ends after 7 rounds, which is
when the new employee deck runs out. Now the Grand Ball comes to its glorious
conclusion and end game scoring can begin. All of the end game scoring
is shown on the board here, and I recommend that you follow these
steps in order so that you don't miss one. First all players gain one prestige point
for every 10 Livre they return to the bank. Any remaining Livre is kept as it
may be needed later as a tiebreaker. Next, if you have any employee
cards with end-of-game bonuses, whether they be in your hand, deck, or discard, score prestige for them as
shown on the reference sheet. And if you have the Queen's Favor token,
gain 3 prestige points at this time. Next, in each of the 5 halls, the players with the most and second
most garment rentals in that hall gain prestige as depicted next to the hall. The player with the most garments receives
the higher number of prestige points, and the player with the second most garments
receives the lower number of prestige points. Ties are broken in favor of the player with more
garments on Master Guest spaces in this hall. If still tied the tied player with
the musician decoration wins the tie. If there is no such player all tied
players receive the full rewards, which is the points for the first place, and no points are rewarded for second place. Note that in 2 player game, only the player who
wins the majority in each hall gains points, there is no prestige for second place. Determining the majority in fireworks is next. The player with the most fireworks
decorations gains 7 or 6 prestige, depending on the side of the board being used, and the player with the second
most gains 3 or 2 prestige. If there is a tie, the tied
player whose token is on the most expensive fireworks decoration wins the tie, which is the one furthest to the right. And note again, in a 2-player game only the player with the most firework
decorations gains prestige points, there is nothing for second place. Step 5 is my favorite part of the game. For each firework decoration a player has funded they may move one of their garments from the Royal
Hall to that decoration space on the balcony. This represents the Noble
stepping outside to admire the fireworks display at the end of the game. Those garments will be worth more
prestige later in the scoring. If you have funded more firework decorations
than you have garments in the Royal Hall just leave those empty,
they'll be worth no prestige. Next is the statues. For each of your trademark tokens on a
statue decoration you gain 2 prestige for each different colour
of garments on the board. There are 4 different colours of garments, so you can gain a maximum of
8 prestige points per statue. However, if you have funded more than one statue, you must use different sets of garments,
up to 4 colours for each statue. In other words you can't use the
same garment on more than one statue. And finally score prestige points
for all trademark tokens on garments, decorations, and the All Halls Bonus. Any garment in the fireworks display has
its prestige multiplied as indicated. The player with the most prestige wins the game. If there is a tie the tied player
with the most remaining Livre wins. I hope you found this video useful in
learning how to play Rococo Deluxe Edition. There is more included in the game
which i haven't covered in this video. If you're looking for rules on the
Jewelry Expansion, Fancy Dresses, Festivity Dresses, and the solo game, I've created another video just for those, which you can get to by clicking the
little i in the corner of the screen. Please remember to give this video a thumbs
up and leave a comment if you enjoyed it. And if you have any questions about
the game please feel free to ask me. Thank you to Eagle-Gryphon
Games for sponsoring this video, and to all of my Patreon supporters
that help fund the channel. Until next time take care and thanks for watching. [Music] Gaming Rules! is proudly
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