How to Play: Minecraft: Heroes of the Village

Game Objective

Work together to defend the village from advancing Illagers by exploring the world, gathering blocks, fighting mobs, and constructing three buildings before the Illagers reach the village.

Setup Instructions

Game Components

  • Wooden Blocks: 25 blocks (6 wood, 6 sand, 6 stone, 3 redstone, 4 darkness)
  • World Tiles: 32 tiles (18 world tiles, player, pet, starting, and “Illagers Path” tiles)
  • Mob Tokens: 12 tokens used when fighting mobs
  • Dice: One black Fight die and one white Illagers die
  • Cards: 16 cards (4 inventory cards, 6 player character cards, 6 special ability cards)
  • Color Bases: 4 for players, plus building and Illagers bases
  • Pouch: For drawing blocks

Setup Steps

  1. Choose your player and pet tiles. (Two sets. Make sure the set that goes in the base and the set that attaches to the crafting board match.)
    • Wolf: When fighting mobs, add +1 to the roll.
    • Cat: When collecting blocks, Block, you’re protected from the first Darkness Block you draw. If you draw a second Darkness Block in the same turn, that one applies normally.
    • Fox: When collecting blocks, keep one additional block of any material that doesn’t match the tile’s Collecting symbol, except for Redstone.
    • Panda: When fighting mobs, you are protected from the first illager symbol you roll on the Fight die; any subsequent such symbol does take effect.
    • Horse: When exploring the world, you may lay out two World Tiles instead of one, adding the blocks from both tiles into the pouch.
    • Llama: You gain one extra Inventory slot, which can be used for any material—including Redstone.
  2. Setup the board.
    • Place the plus-sign starting tile.
    • Attach the Illager path.
    • Place the Illager figure on spot 9 or 11.
    • Divide the world tiles into three stacks of six (block side up)
  3. Insert one of each block (wood, sand, stone, darkness) into the pouch.
  4. Take three building cards from the nine available (based on desired difficulty); return the rest to the box.
  5. Place the three Darkness blocks on spaces 5, 6, and 7 of the Illagers Path.

Game Play

Turn Structure

Each player performs 2 actions per turn:

  • Explore the World: Draw a world tile, place blocks into the pouch, then lay the tile next to your current location.
  • Collect Blocks: If on a gather icon tile, draw three blocks from the pouch.
    • If the blocks do not match the collecting symbol → They are returned to the pouch.
    • If the blocks do match the collecting symbol → They are added to the player’s inventory.
    • If redstone is drawn from the pouch → It is kept in the player’s redstone inventory slot.
    • If darkness is drawn from the pouch →
      • The darkness block is returned to the pouch.
      • Place a mob token on the collecting symbol of that tile, blocking it until the mob is defeated.
      • Only one mob token is placed, even if multiple darkness blocks are drawn in the same turn.
  • Fight Mobs: Roll the fight die three times to fight a mob on a world space.
    • The number on the die cooresponds to the number on the mob token. Roll an equal or higher number to defeat it.
    • If you roll an arrow, move the illager piece back on square.
    • If you roll an illager, move the illager forward one square.
    • If you defeat the mob, draw three tiles from the bag. In this case, a darkness block is a wild.
  • Build: Use required blocks to construct village buildings from your building cards.
    • Buildings do not need to be built in any order.

NOTE: Moving your piece to a different world space does not take an action.

Illager Movement

  • If you draw a darkness, add a mob token to the world spot. You cannot mine there until the mob is defeated.
  • At the end of each turn, roll the Illagers die. Depending on the outcome, Illagers advance along the path toward the village.
  • When a the Illager arrives at a darkness block, add it to the bag.

Victory and Defeat Conditions

  • Win: Build all three village structures before Illagers reach the village.
  • Lose: If Illagers get to the village (reach the final space), the village falls, and all players lose.