12 Alternate Start Tiles
Preparation
Set aside the river's spring and lake tiles. Shuffle the remaining
river tiles and stack them facedown. Add the lake tile to the
bottom of the stack, and place the spring tile faceup as the
starting tile.
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Each player draws a tile from the River stack, then places that river
tile at the open end of the river. As always, tiles must be placed so
that their edges match the edges of tiles already in play. You cannot
make a river turn twice in a row in the same direction (an immediate
U-turn), as this risks that the following tile will be impossible to
place. Players must draw and place all river tiles before they can
draw normal tiles.
Like any other tile, you may place a meeple on other features of a
river tile you just placed. Meeples cannot be placed on the river
itself.
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If we can get copies of the River II tiles that were originally released
in 2005 and later bundled with the Court, King and Robber expansion in
2008 . . .
The combined 24 river tiles will include: 2 source spring tiles, 3 lake
end tiles, 1 T fork tile, 10 straight river tiles, and 8 river turn
tiles.
If we eliminate one of the springs and the
Lake Volcano tiles we could then divide the
remaining tiles into 4 stacks:
- The River 1 start tile.
- The combined 18 river course tiles.
- The fork tile.
- And 2 River termination tiles.
Then...
- The River 1 spring tile is placed on the board as the game's Start Tile.
- Each player randomly draws and places the first 6 River course
tiles.
- If the 6th tile was a river curve tile, the
player decides if the fork tile should be placed before
or after placing the curved tile, then all of the players
decide which direction the fork tile will be placed in,
any tie vote will be decided by the current player.
- Else, the straight tile is placed and the vote and
placement of the fork tile happens.
- The next player has the choice to decide if the fork tile was
their turn, if so they can place a farmer on it, or place the
fork and do nothing then draw the next tile for their turn.
- Each player randomly draws and places the remaining course tiles
on the river fork of their choice.
- And finially the two River Lake tiles are placed.
Hopefully, having approximately 7 river tiles on each of the three legs
of the fork will divide the map into three separate farm areas.
Expansion 3: The Princess and the Dragon
One additional change when also playing with The Princess and the
Dragon could be not to remove the Lake
Volcano tile. The fourth stack would now contain all 3 of the
lake tiles.
Instead of the final two Lake tiles being placed randomly, after all 18
of the river course tiles have been laid, turn all 3 of the lake tiles
over and let the next two players decide which lake tile they want to
place to terminate whichever fork path they choose.
The Rules for Princess and Dragon state that you may not place a meeple on a Volcano Tile, because no meeple may share a tile with the Dragon!
When playing with The River II, if you place the last river tile (the lake with the volcano), you cannot place a meeple on that tile, so, immediately after placing it, take another turn by drawing a normal tile.
This is not the procedure for placing a standard Volcano Tile, it is a special rule for placing the River II Lake Volcano Tile when also playing The Princess and the Dragon Expansion!
Assuming that all 3 River Lake Tiles are available to the first
player after the 18th River Course Tile is placed, there are two
ways this could go:
- The first player chooses one of the River Forks to be terminated
with the Volcano Lake Tile and also places one of the other two
River Lake Tiles on the second fork with a meeple if they
want.
- The first player places one of the other two Non-Volcano River Lake
Tiles on the fork they choose with a meeple if they want, then the
next player decides on playing the Volcano Lake Tile with an
extra turn, or just playing the other Non-Volcano Lake Tile.
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, 1 river fork tile
, and 3 lakes tiles
