BASICS

REQUIREMENTS

• 2 - 4 players.
• A normal deck of 52 playing cards, and preferably 2 jokers.
• Optionally simple bookkeeping equipment (pen & paper, or an abacus), if playing for many rounds with many players.

BASIC IDEA

Amish Lords is a rummy game, where Amish homesteads (players) build up their settlements to grow seasonal harvests (rewarded by the lords).

• The kings (the Amish Lords) are separated from the deck, and at the start of each season shuffled and laid out into a Line of Kings.
  • The line shows which kings are included (face up) and on which side: the topmost king rewards for house products, while bottom ones for land products.
  • The players try to collect cards of the matching king suit into their farms on the correct side (house vs. land). Each king rewards in his own way.
• The homesteads build farms in order to produce the harvests. Each farm has a house (1 face up on bottom) and 1-3 land cards (face down above).
  • Each card in a farm must always be either the same number or adjacent number and same suit as its neighbour card (on both sides): eg. ♧6 + ♥6 + ♥5 + ♤5.
• The players can have up to 6 hand cards and 1 table card (= caravan). Eventually the cards end up in the farms, or overflow to the global market place.
• Turns move clockwise and are played by performing a single action (1. pick/skip, 2. form/cancel a caravan, 3. build/expand a farm, 4. rebuild, 5. swindle, or 6. trade).
• When the deck runs out, the last moves are played out and the harvest prepared. The richest homestead (= with the most points) wins the season.

START UP

The deck is divided into the king deck (4 kings) and the remaining rural deck (48 cards) with 2 jokers (or fewer).

• KING DEALER: One of the players is chosen as the first king dealer and handles the Line of Kings:
  • LAND BARONS (face up on bottom): Two kings are put face up on the bottom. They reward for the face down cards (= land products).
  • SLEEPING LORD (face down): One king is put face down above the Land Barons. (He's not harvesting this round.)
  • BISHOP (face up on top): The last king is put face up on top to seal the deal. He rewards for the face up cards (= house products).
• RURAL DEALER: The player on the king dealer's left shuffles the rural deck, deals each player 3 hand cards, and puts 3 cards face up on the global market place (in the center) and leaves the deck next to them.
• TURNS: The player on his left starts the round, and from there on the turn moves clockwise. After the season, the dealing turns move clockwise, too.

FORMING FARMS

SETS (farms)

The homesteads try to build and expand farms (max. 4 per player) that can yield points after the season (see Counting Crops and Scoring further below).

• Each farm starts with 1 house card (face up) on the bottom and 1 land card (face down) on top, and can be expanded to 4 cards (1 up + 3 down).
• The cards in a set must always form a coherent sequence, where each is the same number or same suit and prev. / next number as its neighbour cards (on both sides). In number-suit space, the set can form any shape (eg. L-shape: ♦9 + ♤9 + ♧9 + ♧8), and can contain jokers (as land cards).
  • It's allowed to recheck the face down cards in one's own lands - others need not know about them.
• Normally each player handles their own farms, but swindling allows (malicious) interactions with foreign farms - but only with land cards (never house).

NUMBERS & JOKERS

The numbers form a linear sequence from 1 to 12, where aces (A) are 1, jacks (J) are 11 and queens (Q) 12.

• When the round ends and crops harvested, the face cards and aces are counted as if 2 cards (J, Q, A = x 2).
• Note that aces and queens are on the opposite ends: you can never jump over the king line (= 13) to connect them (not even with jokers).

Jokers can represent any number (from 1 to 12) and suit during gameplay but have a few limitations:

• Jokers are always worthless during the harvest (= as if 0 cards).
• In the farms, jokers can never be used as the house card (face up) but can be used as land cards (face down).
  • Note that jokers can never break coherence (= must be replaceable by a real card). For example, ♧5 + joker + ♧6 is invalid, while ♧5 + ♧6 + joker + ♦7 is fine.
• As caravans jokers can only be used for rebuilding (not for swindling nor trading). If found in the market, they can be bought by any card.

ACTIONS

BASIC ACTIONS

1. PICK / SKIP (--> 1 hand)

Pick a new hand card from the deck - only allowed with 5 or fewer hand cards (= max. 6 hand cards).

• You're also allowed to just skip the turn by saying so. (Mostly used near the end when there's no deck left.)

2. FORM / CANCEL A CARAVAN ((1 hand  -->)  1 table  (-->  1 hand/market))

Put one of your hand cards on the table face up as your next caravan card.

• If you already had a caravan, you must either take the old caravan into hand or move it onto the global market place (face up on top of the line).
• Alternatively, you can skip forming a new caravan and just send the old caravan away (to the market) or pick it into your hand (if hand not full).
• Finally, it's allowed to place a joker as the caravan card. (But it cannot be used as the house to build a new farm, nor be used for swindling nor trading.)

3. BUILD / EXPAND A FARM (1 hand  -->  1 land    or    1 hand + 1 table  ->  1 farm)

You can place a fitting hand card onto an existing farm of yours (to expand its lands), or on your caravan card to form a new farm.

• The hand card is put face down on top of the farm overlapping the house card (face up) and any previous face down cards - no need to show anyone. Jokers can be used as land cards, but not as the house.
• As always the rules of coherence apply (and no cheating code): so the topmost card must fit the previous card in the set.
  • For example, combine a ♥4 caravan with a ♤4 hand card (face down), or any caravan with a joker, or expand a farm of ♦10 (up) + ♦J (down) with a ♧J.
• Each player can have up to 4 farms and each farm can contain up to 4 cards: 1 house (face up on bottom) and 1-3 land cards (face down on top).

CARAVAN INTERACTIONS

These use the caravan card and may result in gaining 1 card - the player can take it as a hand card (unless hand is full) or as the next caravan card.

4. REBUILD (1 table  -->  1 land (+ 1 removed land  -->  1 hand/table))

You can use your caravan to rebuild lands on your own farms by inserting a land card into any land spot, and optionally removing one land card.

• The caravan is put face down into the desired spot, and one land card optionally taken away (into hand or as the next caravan). It's allowed to use jokers.
• As always, the set must be coherent and have max. 3 land cards after the action. Rebuilding can be used for many purposes:
  • If you have a house of ♦J with a land of ♦10, you could add, say, ♤J and (to fit coherence, must) take the ♦10 away.
  • Or with a house of ♧6 and lands of ♥6 + ♤6, you could add ♤5 on top and optionally take the ♥6 away.
  • Or with a house of ♤2 and lands of ♧2 + ♧3, you could insert a ♥2 between the black 2's, and optionally take the ♧3 away.

5. SWINDLE (1 table  -->  1 hand/table)

You can use your caravan to swindle a land card from another player's farm into your hand.

• The caravan must be a real card (= not joker). The player touches with it the targeted land card in another player's farm (only 1 guess per turn).
• The defending player (checks the neighbouring cards and) must give the card away if it fits (by rules of coherence), or otherwise indicates that it doesn't fit.
• If the card fits, it replaces the targeted card, which the player takes into hand or puts as the next caravan. In any case the turn ends.
  • If there's only 1 land in the farm, the attacker can just replace it directly without asking - as the only other neighbour card is visible.

6. TRADE (1 table  -->  1 hand/table)

You can also use your caravan for trading: buying a card from the global market place.

• Any card in the market place can be bought by a caravan of the same number or same suit. For example, buy ♦3 with any 3 or diamond (♦).
• The player puts the caravan card on top of the market line and takes the shopped card in hand or puts it as the next caravan.
  • The cards in the market place should be organized so that each is visible (typically one line of cards).
• Any jokers in the market place can be bought by any card. However, you cannot use a joker caravan to buy cards (but can push it to the market).

ENDING

WHEN THE DECK RUNS OUT

After the last card has been picked, the last moves are played:

• LAST TURNS (x 2): The round is played for 2 more cycles, so each player gets two more turns (ending at the one who picked the last card).
  • Optionally the start of the 2nd cycle can be marked by removing the face down king from the line of kings.
• LAST LANDS: After the last turns, players can place any fitting hand cards as land cards (face down) on any farms, even many on one. (No turns needed.)
  • It's allowed to use the remaining caravan card as the house card to build one more farm (provided other conditions are met).

COUNTING CROPS

The points are counted from the farms of each homestead.

• Each king only rewards for the harvestable cards: cards of their suit on the correct side (house vs. land). The sleeping suit holds no points.
  • When counting the harvestable cards of a suit, any face cards or aces are counted as if 2 cards (J, Q, A = 2 cards), while jokers are skipped (joker = 0 cards).
• First the Bishop (on top) rewards for house products. The farms are then turned around and the Land Barons reward for land products (now face up).
  • In case of any accidental cheats (= incoherent sequence), that player is disqualified from winning the season. (Cheating is not in the spirit of the game.)

SCORING BY KINGS

Finally, each king rewards in his own way.

• KING OF DIAMONDS (♦K): Rewards 1p. per every 2 harvestable diamonds counted across your sets. (So each diamond is 0.5p., and the sum rounded down.)
• KING OF HEARTS (♥K): Rewards 1p. for each set with at least 1 harvestable heart. (Does not matter whether it's a face card / ace or a number card.)
• KING OF CLUBS (♧K): The player with the most harvestable clubs (in total) gets 2p. If shared by many, each sharer gets 1p. (If none has any clubs, no reward.)
• KING OF SPADES (♤K): Each player with at least 3 harvestable spades (in total) gets 2p.

The game is traditionally played until 2 seasonal wins: each season, the player(s) with the most points gets a seasonal win.

PLAYER VARIATIONS

UNITED HOMESTEADS / AMISH CHURCHES (recommended for 4 players)

With 4 players, you can also play in two teams of two players (= 2 against 2).

• The team members are positioned opposite to each other - so neighbours on both sides are opponents.
• The only change is that the points of the united homes are summed together for the team after counting points per player.
• By default, it's allowed to publicly communicate about common plans. Adjust to your liking.

EXTENSIONS

DEALER'S SEASONING

This extension simply opens up the mechanics of the King Deck a little bit.

• There are two base rules about the king deck:
  • The king deck always has 3 cards on bottom and 1 card on top.
  • There can either be 1 or 2 Sleeping Lords (turned face down), and they can be anywhere in the layout (as Land Barons or as Bishop).
• The king dealer chooses how to deal the setup (according to above rules). The players can also agree to leave out some variations.

Extra info (= statistical implications)

The simple system above unfolds 4 potential setups for the Line of Kings, and raises the number of king permutations from 12 to 34.

• TRADITIONAL (2 + 1): There is 1 Sleeping Lord on the bottom (face down) with 2 Land Barons (face up in-between) and 1 Bishop (face up on top).
  • There are 12 permutations (= 4 x 3) since each of the 4 kings can be on top, and for each any of the 3 other kings can be left out.
• FAT LANDS (3 + 0): There are 3 Land Barons (face up below), while the Bishop is sleeping (face down on top).
  • There are simply 4 permutations: Each of the 4 kings can be on top face down. The other 3 kings are always face up.
• DRY LANDS (1 + 1): There are 2 Sleeping Lords on the bottom (face down) with 1 Land Baron (face up in-between) and Bishop on the top (face up).
  • There are 12 permutations (= 4 x 3): Each of the 4 kings can be on top face up, and for each only one of the 3 other kings is harvesting.
• DRY HOUSES (2 + 0): There are 2 Sleeping Lords: one is on the bottom and one on the top (= Bishop sleeps). In between are 2 Land Barons (face up).
  • There are 6 permutations (= 4 x 3 / 2): Each of the 4 kings can appear together with any of the other 3 kings - but half of the permutations are symmetrical.
• Note. The Dry -variations can be clearer in terms of strategy (but yield fewer points), but on the other hand crueler (if you get very few cards of the worthy suits).

STRATEGY

FLOW OF CARDS

• DECK: The cards in the deck flow into the player's hands. The deck is the ultimate source: when it runs out, the season is about to end.
• HAND CARDS: When a player gains a new card it comes either as a hand card or alternatively as a table card.
• TABLE CARDS: Hand cards can flow down as a table card and be used for caravan actions. Unused caravans flow to the global market (or back in hand).
• GLOBAL CARDS: Any card in the global market place can be bought into hand by a fitting active caravan card. The market size never shrinks.
• SETS: The farms are where the players want the cards to end up - especially good cards in their own farms. The house card never changes, but the land cards might get replaced by swindling and rebuilding.

BY NUMBERS

• It's unclear whether the kings (K) are actual lords or godly symbols for the seasons and seasonal demand - either way, they give out the points.
• Queens (Q) and especially Jacks (J) are the most precious numbers, because they are twice as worthy as number cards and next to each other.
• Aces (A) are also doubly worthy, but more difficult (as a lonely edge number: 1) - though a pile of aces with the unlocking 2 (and/or A) is powerful.
• The numbers 2 and 10 (and sometimes 3 and 9, or even 4 and 8) can be of special importance due to their proximity to the face cards / aces - and thus houses with those numbers can hide some real goodies in their lands. That said, houses with numbers 5, 6 and 7 are destined for mediocrity.
• To avoid internal competition for number space (between your own 4 farms), prefer leaving about 3 numbers distance between your houses (eg. 2, 5, 8, J).

BY SUITS (= KING PERSONALITIES)

The meaning of the suits comes directly from the kings and their ways of rewarding and position in the Line of Kings.

• The rewards of the black kings (♤K and ♧K) are on-off type: The player either gets the reward or then gets nothing. They are not generous, but nevertheless you don't want to miss out on their rewards.
• The rewards of the red kings (♥K and ♦K) are gradual: either based on sets (for hearts ♥) or all cards counted together (for diamonds ♦).
• With the "round" kings (♥K and ♤K) you want to have just enough, whereas the "unround" kings (♦K and ♧K) make you want to get as much as possible.
• Each king is approximately equally rewarding (in practice = inter-player-relatively) though their ways of rewarding differ greatly.
  • The diamond (♦) rewards are like putting money in the bank, and the most equally dispersed of all rewards.
  • The heart (♥) rewards are nice and easy bonuses, where face cards / aces make no difference: it's good to have one harvestable heart in every set.
  • The spade (♤) reward is relatively easy / flexible, but at times difficult (especially with 4 players). It's the most targeted suit for swindles (one swindle can cost 2p.).
  • The club (♧) reward is the only one about direct competition: only the one(s) with the most gets the prize. (Likewise targeted in swindles, but less than spades.)
• From the perspective of the kings, they give out points followingly:
  • The King of Clubs (♧K) is very sparing and conditional: he gives out 0p. (if none qualify), 2p. (if only 1 qualifies) or 2-4p. (if many qualify).
  • The King of Spades (♤K) only cares whether a player qualifies for the prize or not, rewarding 2 p. for each (= 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8p.).
  • The King of Hearts (♥K) rewards are farm based but limited to 12 hearts, so his wallet can give out 0 to 12p. (in steps of 1), and max. 4p. per player.
    • In the Suit Progress extension the max. points per player can extend as some homesteads can have up to 5 farms.
  • The King of Diamonds (♦K) is the only one whose reward does not depend on the player count: 0 - 7 points (= 9 half diamonds + 3 full ones).

COLLECTED WISDOMS

The most important strategical components can, perhaps, be broken down into the following principles:

• Always keep your intentions unknown, the best you can. When choosing a card for caravan actions, pay attention to timing: what others are up to.
• It's important to try to hold the "keys" to your most precious farms out of reach of others. At best you can "lock" a farm from changes altogether.
  • For example, a farm with 3 aces and a 2 on top can only be "unlocked" by the missing ace or the 2 that fits as the middle land card. Holding the keys, or knowing they are buried deep elsewhere, practically locks the set.
• It's useful to try to "take a peek" into someone else's farms, the earlier the better. Often one successful swindle (by you or someone else) can be enough to indirectly reveal what the other cards are / will be. And when the farmer tries to rebuild the damage away, you likewise see what he puts there.
• To really annoy another farmer, continue this up by systematically ruining all the lands of the vulnerable farm - typically starting from the topmost card downwards. Usually two adjacent swindles is enough to make things really uncomfortable, the third one really seals the deal.
• Learn to play to the small and large scale rhythms of the game. In small scale, see what others are up to before revealing your plans - in large scale align your plans to the lifecycle of the season (opening, mid game, end game), which can differ for each king line combo.
• Learn the game of each king in both of its variants: the Bishop and Land Baron roles. For example, with rewards for land spades (and clubs) players might often have one farm that contains most of the goodies. When they reward for house products, it's a very different dynamic.
• Ultimately learn the king combos, too. For example, spades and hearts as Land Barons leaves a lot of "space" in the lands - which in turn can make the gameplay very aggressive (= lots of swindles) as well as cautious.

Random words of wisdom:

• There are three reasons why you would want to use a turn to expand lands of a farm (instead of waiting until the end and expand for free).
  • It gives you hand card room: so you can pick new cards from deck, and in caravan interactions have the option to gain a hand card (instead of a table card).
  • It can be used to block incoming swindle attempts. Often an U shape works best.
  • To kick-start a new farm with a bad land card. Someone might steal it, but anyway you'll rebuild it away later - or you just lust for the house side rewards.
• When the season is about to end, be ready with your last actions and try to leave cards in hand that can be used for direct land expansions.
• It's important to learn to read and utilize the global market place, the caravans and their related rhythms in your strategical planning.
• Always align your small scale tactics and suit evaluation to your strategical planning. For example, say, ♧K is the Bishop and you're about to lose the open club battle, so then just forget about getting house clubs and start using clubs for attacks.
• Sometimes the visible situations (especially combined with some specific pieces of knowledge) can indirectly reveal some great secrets - eg. where a player keeps their stash of spades. It's good to pay attention when anyone does caravan interactions: 4. rebuilds, 5. swindles or 6. trades.
• You can sometimes save your land cards from swindling by expanding the lands (directly from hand) when a dangerous caravan shows up somewhere. Sometimes even the bluff of it (while using a joker) can be enough to discourage a perpetrator from trying (or tricking him to pick the joker).
• Sometimes jokers can be more of a drag than help: as hand cards they take up space, and as land cards they take up slots to gain points. The only way to get rid of a joker is by planting it in your lands and hoping someone else swindles it away.
• Sometimes you might buy another card through two trades: first using suit / number and then the other way. (It's slow but can at times be worth it.)
• Vary how you build your farms, in terms of goodies and badies. For example, never using bad cards in your lands makes others prefer attacking you.
• The gameplay can often resemble a solitaire, where each player works on his own homestead, but at times things can become very interactive.

HISTORY

v3 - Amish Lords (2023-12-17 -> 2024-02-13)

• v3.0 (2023-12-17 - Harvest Kings): After branching off as Scavengers (and Round Robbin') totally reorganized the gameplay (rummy) but keeping king deck.
• v3.1 (2023-12-18 - Amish Lords): After tests with 3 players, small refines to the gameplay rules and flow (and story theme).
• v3.2 (2023-12-24): Refining the flow and scoring. Added Amish Churches (for 4 players) variation and Double Hearts and Suit Progress extensions.
• v3.3 (2024-01-07): Refined the market place / table cards flow (to one global market), and made some actions more flexible.
• v3.4 (2024-01-10): Refined that players can only have 1 table card, some actions, and the ending.
• v3.5 (2024-02-13): Reorganized the turns flow and details all around (including actions, scoring, extensions and variations).

v2 - Four Kingdoms (2023-01-22)

• v2.0 (2023-01-22): After initial tests with more players, reorganized and greatly simplified the game throughout. The basic architecture is the same, but trick gameplay is much simpler and scoring layers more intuitive and easier to combine with handcard strategies.
• Note. After this branched the main gameplay to Scavengers. Also later retried king mechanics with Round Robbin' (but that part got simplified away).

v0.2 - v1.3 - Game of Kings (2022-12-29 -> 2023-01-21)

• v0.1 (2022-12-29 - 1st sketch): The initial idea flow (partly inspired by Alice in Borderland TV series, partly by the Limbo card game) worked into some sort of game.
• v0.2 (2022-12-30 - 2nd sketch): After a lot of explorations and analysis, made slight adjustments to allow better counter-play (and refined the theme and name).
• v1.0 (2023-01-06): First full version (after 2-player-tests). Reorganized scoring a bit, added 3 extensions (King's Secret, Mirrorland and Trinity) and refined theme.
• v1.1 (2023-01-06): Reorganized the game in relation to scoring while simplifying and balancing how scapegoating works.
• v1.2 (2023-01-19): Many small changes in the gameplay and scoring and extensions. (And renamed from Game of Kings to Four Kingdoms.)
• v1.3 (2023-01-21): Refined / Simplified how scapegoating (Outlaw's Refuge) works. Added King's Guard extension for 4 - 6 players (to balance out the red wins).

THANKS

INSPIRATION

The original inspiration comes from the Alice in Borderland (TV series) and the traditional visualizations of the four kings in a card deck.

SPECIAL THANKS (for many analyses, ideas and dev. sessions)

Johannes Aho, Ville Viitala

FOR IDEAS, HELP WITH DEVELOPMENT & PLAYING

Ville Viitala, Johannes Aho, Rosanna Viitala, Emmi Viitala