As mentioned in the introduction, everything in Magistrate revolves around the 3 scoring areas — People, Military, and Agents. Each of these 3 areas are scored separately and at semi-random times. Players are able to somewhat predict when the scoring rounds are about to happen and can even directly influence the timing.
If you look closely at the full game board, you will see the “Judges’ Home” location (pictured above and to the left) with space for 3 of the Judge Pawns. Each Judge is a different color, representing the 3 different scoring areas. They travel along the dirt path around the outer edge of the map, in the direction of the arrows, until they come back around to the Judges’ Home. When a Judge Pawn reaches (or passes) the Home location once more, a scoring round for that area — as determined by the Judge’s color — takes place.
Since the King ordered the Judges to complete their travels around the kingdom, it is natural that the Judges will move along the path at a rather brisk pace. They want to get Home in order to give their reports. To make this happen, at the end of each round, the top 4* cards on the draw deck are flipped over one-at-a-time, and the shown influence is carried out. Each card will move 1, 2 or all 3 Judges forward 1 location, or may move 1 Judge forward 2 locations. As the game progresses, each Judge has his own timing on when he gets back to Home. (*this number is subject to change as testing continues)
As an added element, players are able to play cards from their hands to influence the Judges — even have them move backwards on the path. The details of that action will be given in the up-coming post specifically about the People.
The way scoring works is similar, yet specific, between each of the areas. Each has a single “major” score — a thing that earns straight-up VPs. For example (and these will make more sense when each of the area details is posted): People earn 1 VP for each level Popularity, Military earn 1 VP for each Fort on the map, and Agents earn 1 VP for each Agent on the Agent Ops Board.
Each area also has ways to put “Evidence” cubes in a player’s Home province. These cubes mark certain actions completed by the player. For every 4* cubes of the matching color found in a player’s Home province, the player gets another VP. Cubes used to score a VP are returned to the central stockpile, making this way of earning VPs a one-time thing. (*this number is still being tested as well)
To add-in a little hidden surprise scoring, players have the option to place a card from their hand face-down on the board near their Home Province as “Secret Evidence.” When the next scoring round occurs, those cards are revealed and the cubes shown on them are added to the player’s Home as additional evidence before scoring takes place.
When at least 7 scoring rounds have been completed, a few additional VPs are awarded for strong performance, and the player with the most VPs is declared the winner.
———-
PREV: 1. Introduction: Paranoia, Power, People, Armies and Agents
Leave a Reply