Virgin Queen (Version 4.4)

Please report any problems or suggestions to jkoepp@gmail.com. Rules are not enforced.

Just the Basics

While there is no rules enforcement, this module provides many conveniences to speed up tasks and information tracking. Grab stacks of land/naval units and move them where you want them to go. Right-click cards in your hand and choose which way you're playing them. Other things are fixed in nature: non-key map spaces are interactive--right-click them to adjust their status (more on this below). If a piece provides a right-click action, use it--it's often linked to the operation of another feature and/or score adjustment. If any of the miscellaneous VP tokens are earned, dragging them from the palette and dropping directly into a power's Bonus VP box will adjust the score.

Scenarios

Choosing a Side

The power you choose gives you access to its hand of cards and treasures. For 2-3 player games, the player controlling Spain/France or England/Protestants must switch between player sides when needed.
Ottoman France
Spain Holy Roman Empire
England Protestant

Number of Players

The Campaign and Tournament Scenarios are set up for 6 player games. For games with fewer than 6 players, use the Player Aids toolbar menu (2-5 Player Adjustments submenu) to trigger the setup adjustments listed below:
2, 3, 4 player games Removes Ottoman and HRE home cards, removes War with Persia and War with Poland; adds German Intervention and The Sublime Porte to the deck. Removes Rudolf II royal and Ottoman/HRE artists, scientists, sea captains, and patronage VP awards. Places starting diplomatic influence on Ottomans and HRE.
5 player games Removes Ottoman home cards, removes War with Poland and The Sublime Porte; adds German Intervention to the deck. Removes Rudolf II royal and HRE artists, scientists, sea captain, and patronage VP awards. Places starting diplomatic influence on HRE.

In 2-5 player games where the Ottoman and/or HRE are activated major powers, the activating power should use the Retire/Change Sides button in the toolbar to join as Ottoman or Holy Roman Empire to view and play that power's cards. When finished with the activated major's impulse, change back to your normal side.

Control Markers

Hex control markers (HCMs) are built into the map itself. Right-clicking a non-key map space will let you do everything--set political control, change religious influence, add/remove unrest.

To quickly review the political and religious status of map spaces, use the Religious/Political Control View button (next to the Hide All button) to toggle the visibility of everything except control markers.

Right-click actions:
Convert to Protestant Flips to Protestant religious side (only in religious struggle areas)
Convert to Catholic Flips to Catholic religious side (only in religious struggle areas)
Control Menu for placing an HCM matching current religious control of space (non-key spaces only)
Unrest Adds Unrest to the space (decreases Protestant space count if applicable)
Remove Unrest Removes Unrest from the space (increases Protestant space count if applicable)

Unrest

To place unrest in map spaces, right-click the map space or key marker. Adding unrest to a key will put a reminder in the game log to mark the owner's power card accordingly--click an empty key box on the power card to toggle unrest on/off.

Protestant Space Tracking

The Protestant Spaces marker moves automatically as the Protestant space count changes. If the count is incorrect, manually move the marker to the correct value. Handle unrest by right-clicking a map space or key and using the Unrest/Remove Unrest actions.

The core presence rule is not enforced--remember that every religious struggle area needs a minimum of 1 Protestant and 1 Catholic space at all times.

NOTE: Unlike previous versions of the module, keys no longer need to match religious states when being exchanged between the map and power cards--removing a key from the map while on its Protestant religious side will decrease the count by 1.

VP Tracking

A power's VP score is adjusted automatically by the following: If a power's VP total needs adjustment, drag it to the correct box on the VP track. Deleting mistakenly-placed VP tokens in a power's Bonus VP Box will not adjust its VP total. Revealing the HRE's secret religious preference does not update its VP total. Several VP tokens (piracy, weddings, Dutch Revolt, etc) already in a power's Bonus VP box can be right-clicked in place and "upgraded" from their 1 VP to 2 VP versions.

Card/Treasure Play

Cards and Treasures are on the Cards display, accessed via the main toolbar. Use the toolbar menus on the Cards display to deal cards and treasures to each power. IMPORTANT: At the start of Turn 2, use the toolbar button to give the Ottoman the Selim II card before dealing cards (ignore if the event has already been played).

Each power's Home Card(s) start in its hand. During Spring Deployment when both your Home Cards are available, right-click the one you don't want to use this turn and choose Discard for Turn to send it to your Power Card facedown. Playing a home card for CP or as an Event will place it on the Power Card and trigger a message. Home Cards are automatically returned to your hand face-up by advancing the Turn.

Right-click and play cards for CP or Event/Combat/Response--they can be dragged to the Discard/Removed From Game piles, but the right-click actions add a message to the game log for everyone's benefit. Treasures are displayed in your hand in a row below event cards and can be right-clicked and expended, sending them to the Treasure Discards. To retrieve a specific card from the Discard Pile, right-click the pile and choose "Draw Specific Cards".

Treasures in the Spanish Treasures holding boxes on the map can be peeked at by Spain only. Treasures in the Portuguese Treasures holding box cannot be peeked at by anyone, but can be discarded at the end of the turn if unclaimed. Treasures on the map can be awarded to a player if claimed in piracy and the sea captain chooses to return home. Use the Draw buttons on the map to quickly fill the treasure holding boxes.

Map Adjustments and Trackers

Map overlays are activated by the play of the following two events: Union of Arras (changes the 7 yellow/orange spaces in Netherlands to exclusively Spanish home spaces) and Paris Is Worth a Mass (turns Paris into a split French/Huguenot space; see the January 2013 FAQ for this ruling).

On-map trackers have been added to assist with:

Awarding Card Draws and Random Discards

For live or non-ACTS play, the toolbar buttons in each power's hand give random draws and do random discards of cards/treasures. Some cards (Patron of Arts & Sciences, Taxis Family Couriers, Grand Tour, Sultana Safiye) allow giving a specific card to another player. Right-click the card you are giving and choose the recipient to send the card to that power's hand. These card options are only available in a player hand.

Certain events (Witchcraft, The Black Queen, Sir Edward Stafford) or a Gain Intelligence success allow a player to inspect another player's hand. Share the contents of your hand with a private message (in a live game) or use the camera button in your hand's toolbar to create an image to send to the opponent (for a PBEM game).

Forces

Units for each power are stored on the Forces map window. Land units can be Eliminated via right-click option to return them to the correct stack in the force pool. Naval units and naval leaders are in a separate piece layer that draws beneath land units (and prevents naval and land units from stacking together).

Leaders

Leaders can be captured and sent to the captor's Power Card via right-click, then ransomed back to their capital if previously captured. When a named leader dies due to Untimely Death, assassination, or a wedding table result, right-click and choose the type of death. When prompted, choose if the leader will be removed from the game permanently, or replaced by a Default leader and sent to the Turn Track. Players need to know and choose the correct option: see rule 5.1 on page 7.

Espionage

Each power's Informants (and Spain's Jesuits), Assassination Used marker, and Cipher Key are placed on its Power Card. Informants and Cipher Keys will trigger a message when moved to another power's Spying on You box.

Royal Weddings

Royals (and their associated royal cards) are removed from the game by using the Marries! right-click option after their wedding is resolved. Valois royals are sent to the French power card with this option instead of being moved to the Removed From Game display. The royal cards are on the Weddings/VP display and separated into male and female decks. Use these cards to show arranged marriages or view their marriage bonuses.

If a royal who is also a ruler dies (Husband Murdered marriage result for male royals, Dies in Childbirth/Assassination for Elizabeth), use the appropriate right-click option. The power card will be updated with an overlay to reflect the change in that power's Admin rating and Card bonus.

Patronage

Remove Artists and Scientists from the game after their attempts are resolved, unless the result returns them to the available pool. Italian artists/scientists can be right-clicked to mark which power patronized them. If they are in a Patronized box, an option to Cancel Progress appears (use if Index of Prohibited Books or Philosopher's Stone is played). Both types of VP awards and Science Bonuses can be sent to the Bonus VP box of the claiming power by right-click action. Manually dragging these tokens to a power's Bonus VP box will not adjust its VP total.

New World

Sea captains may use the Circumnavigates! action (returning them to their stack) when located in an eligible ocean zone on the World Map, but it's disabled on all captains after the second use to reinforce that only two circumnavigation VP awards are available. English sea captains with a Battle Rating of 1 can be Eliminated in Naval Combat and sent to the Turn Track, but only when located in a sea zone on the Europe Map.

Piracy markers are stacked on the Power Cards to enforce each power's limit of 3 attempts per turn.

Treasures stack with sea captains to make it easier to move a captain and his pirated loot together.

HRE Religious Preference (6 player game only)

During first turn Spring Deployment, the HRE player must choose one of the 3 tokens in their player hand to set his secret religious preference. Right-click the desired piece and choose "Select as Religious Preference"--the other two choices will be removed and the message window will note that the choice has been made. To reveal the chosen religious preference during the game, drag the piece onto the map.

Pieces Removed From Play

Any piece removed from play (sea captains, royals, leaders, artists, scientists) is placed in the Removed From Game map window found in the Player Aids menu.

End of Turn Effects

Advancing the Turn marker will do all of the following: