Keythedral

About this board game

Keythedral is a strategic board game for 2–5 players, with sessions lasting about 90 minutes, in which players gather resources and build a grand cathedral in five stages.

Each player begins with five cottages, and every cottage houses a worker. On each turn, workers try to move into fields adjacent to their cottages, collecting the resources needed for construction. Early stages call for simpler materials, while later stages demand increasingly specialized supplies.

The building effort also depends on essential provisions. Throughout the game, builders require food and water, and fortunate players may receive wine as well. Timing your resource collection is important, because the requirements for the next stage remain uncertain until the previous stage has been completed.

As more workers enter the surrounding fields, available spaces become crowded and some workers may be left idle. Players can respond by fencing off fields, keeping opponents’ workers out and protecting access to valuable land. Yet no boundary is entirely secure: for two barrels of wine, workers can be persuaded to remove any one fence that a player dislikes.

• Gather building materials from fields beside your cottages.
• Provide food and water for the builders, with wine offering additional leverage.
• Adapt to changing construction requirements across five stages.
• Use fences to restrict opponents, while watching for wine-powered interference.

Keythedral combines resource management, worker positioning, uncertainty, and direct competition. Keep your workers productive, secure the materials required at the right moment, and guide construction from its simple beginnings toward completion. Released in 2002, it is Richard Breese’s fourth game in the Key series.