Structures

A structure represents a city or habitat where people live. In game terms, a structure has the following properties:

• Position. A structure occupies 1 square on the board.
• Ownership. A structure can be captured. Thereafter, it generates its output for its new owner.
• Generator. A structure generates mana, novices, and recruits.

Town among plains	Colony among barren land	Sanctum (of Making house) and 4 Sanctum entrances

Structures

Types of Structures

Sanctum

Town

Colony

Structure Rules

Plains Terrain and Square Dispel

Capturing Structures

Novice Production

Special Rules for Sanctum Entrances

Spells That Create, Destroy, and Capture Structures

Which spells create a colony?

What spell combos can create a town?

Which spells can destroy colonies?

Which spells, or spell combos, can destroy towns?

Which spells can capture structures?

Which spells cause structures to “move”?

Structures

Types of Structures. There are 3 types of structures in Sanctum.

Sanctum. A Sanctum is a player's “home fortress”. You win the game by capturing your opponent's Sanctum.

• The plural of “sanctum” is “sancta”.
• The red and blue players begin the game with 1 Sanctum each.
• Sancta are never unowned. (The only way you can lose your Sanctum is by having your opponent capture it, which ends the game.)
• A Sanctum can train its novices as mana.
• A Sanctum is not a spell target. It cannot be targeted by any square spells, structure spells, or terrain spells.

Town. A town is a permanent habitat.

• Every game begins with 4-6 neutral towns on the board.
• A town is a valid spell target for structure spells.
• Some spells can destroy friendly towns. No spells create towns directly.

Colony. A colony is a “vulnerable” habitat. Every colony always has the following helper spell:

Colony
When this spell expires, or is dispelled, the colony is destroyed.

• A colony is always created from a spell. It may be neutral or owned, depending on the spell.
• A colony is a valid spell target for structure spells.
• Every game begins with no colonies on the board.
• Some spells change a colony to a town, or a town to a colony.

Structure Rules

Plains Terrain and Square Dispel. A structure always has plains terrain. It is immune to all terrain-changes.

• When a structure is created, it dispels all spells in its square, and changes its square's terrain to plains.

Capturing Structures. At the start of a game, the only structure you own is your Sanctum. If you want more, you'll have to capture them.

• Each structure checks for ownership at the start of each turn.
• During this check, if a recruit group hostile to the structure's owner is in the structure's square, then that group's owner captures the structure.
• When you capture your opponent's Sanctum, you win the game!
• When you capture a town or colony:
  • Ownership. The structure changes its ownership to you.
  • Color. The structure is redrawn in your side's color.
  • Eliminate novices. All novices in the structure are eliminated.
  • Reset turn count. The structure's novice turn count is reset to its novice rate.
  • Choose mana. You immediately choose the structure's mana type for its 1 point of mana per turn.
    • Any mana type. You may choose any of the 6 mana types. You aren’t restricted to your house’s 2 mana types. This is the main way to “splash” 1 point of a 3^rd mana type into your deck, to gain access to a wider range of spells.
    • Unchangeable. Once you've chosen a structure's mana type, you cannot change your choice later. It is fixed for as long as you own this structure. (Of course, if you lose the structure and then recapture it, you'll get a new choice then.) Some spells temporarily change a structure's mana type.
    • Town mana display. Each town or colony displays its current mana production at the top of the town sidebar. (Click the structure on the board to open its sidebar.) This includes its own 1 point of mana, plus all mana produced by all active spells on this structure (only).

• Usually, you capture a structure by moving a recruit group into it. If your group survives all combats that turn, then it captures the structure at the start of the next turn.
• Some spells capture neutral towns immediately.
• Some spells cause a recruit group to leave the board temporarily. If the recruit group returns to the board in a hostile structure's square, it captures that structure!

Novice Production. Every turn, all owned structures update their novice production. Exception: Structures that were captured this turn skip this step, since they have already reset their novice turn counts.

• Turn count. Each structure shows a novice turn count, which is the number of turns remaining until this structure will produce its next novice.
• Decrement. At the start of each turn, each structure (that was not captured this turn) decrements its turn count by 1.
• Add novice. If this reduces the turn count to 0, and the structure is not full, then:
  • 1 novice of the structure owner's nation is added to that structure;
  • The structure's turn count is reset to its novice rate.

Special Rules for Sanctum Entrances. A Sanctum entrance is one of the 4 squares orthogonally adjacent to each Sanctum. (You are a powerful Mage, so your Sanctum is a vast, sprawling piece of real estate.)

• Not a structure. It doesn't count for any game effect that counts “structures”.
• No ownership. It cannot be captured. You just move through it.
• No production. It doesn't produce any novices or mana. It doesn't train recruits.
• Always plains. It always has plains terrain, and is immune to all terrain-changes.
• Untargetable. It is not a spell target. It cannot be targeted by any square spells, structure spells, or terrain spells.
• Uncolonizable. A colony cannot be created on a Sanctum entrance by any means.

In some regards, Sanctum entrances are just like normal squares.

• Monsters and computer-controlled groups can enter Sanctum entrances. They can return from off the board into them.
• Spells that pick “random” squares can pick Sanctum entrances. Exemplar: Bolt of Somersaults can teleport a group onto an enemy Sanctum entrance.

Spells That Create, Destroy, and Capture Structures

Which spells create a colony?

• Civilize, Found City: These spells create a neutral colony.
• Dracha, Encampment, Settlement: These spells create a colony owned by the recruit group's owner.
• (Ghost Town:) This spell changes a town to a colony. That's similar to creating a colony.

What spell combos can create a town? No spells create a town directly. There's only one spell combo that does it:

• Colony-creation spell + Auberol's Grace: Auberol's Grace changes a colony to a town. Creating the colony first is up to you.

Which spells can destroy colonies? In general, any spell or effect that dispels all spells on a structure will automatically destroy a colony (because that's what the Colony helper spell says will happen).

• Ancestral Home, Entropia, Gogar's Wrath, Maelstrom: These spells destroy a targeted colony.
• Earthquake: This spell destroys all colonies adjacent to its target square.
• Justicars: This spell destroys every colony that its recruit group enters.
• The Unmagicking: This spell destroys all colonies on the board.
• (Encampment:) This spell is a conjuration. When it expires, it automatically destroys its own colony.

Which spells, or spell combos, can destroy towns? Towns are much harder to destroy than colonies.

• Gogar's Wrath, Maelstrom: These spells destroy a friendly targeted town only. You can't cast them on neutral or enemy towns.
• Ghost Town + untargeted dispel: This combo first changes 1 or more enemy towns to colonies, then uses the colony-destroying spells to finish them off. Since Ghost Town itself prevents you from targeting the colonies further, you must use an untargeted dispel, which means Earthquake, Justicars, or The Unmagicking. All of those are very far from Ghost Town's mana path (and deliberately so).
• (Seelie Court + The Unmagicking): This combo casts Seelie Courts on 1 or more enemy towns, waits until they're all off the board, and then casts Unmagicking to strand them there. This does not actually destroy the towns. But it does deny their novices to your opponent, which is usually enough to win.

Which spells can capture structures?

• Change of Heart: Instantly captures a neutral town or colony.

Which spells cause structures to “move”? Note: Currently, structures never actually move. The game engine simulates “structure movement” by destroying the original one, and creating a new one.

• Ancestral Home: Whenever the owner trains recruits in this town, the town “moves”!
• Defensive Pact: When it executes, a random friendly town or colony “moves” to the target square!

v2.20.00 Last updated 2009/03/27