Design Iterations 31–36 · Between-era phase · Era 1 special rules · 2-player scaling · Component list
🔄 The Between-Era Phase — Exactly What Happens Round 31
After each era's final High Summer scoring, players enter the Between-Era Phase before packing away that era's components. This takes about 15-20 minutes and is the campaign's connective tissue.
1
Final Scoring & Campaign Chronicle
Complete the era's High Summer scoring (links + buildings + stored ice). Record each player's era score in the Chronicle Booklet. Tally running campaign totals. The player with the highest era score is the Era Champion.
~5 min
2
Historical Event Vote
Draw 3 Historical Event cards face-up from that era's sealed Event Deck. Players vote (each player 1 vote; Era Champion gets 2 votes). The winning Event card applies its rule modifier to the next era. Record the event name in the Chronicle Booklet. Discard remaining 2 cards.
Example — end of Era 2 vote: "Tudor's India Trade Opens" (adds Export Wharf in Era 3) vs. "The Great Hudson Famine" (+2 Famine cards in Era 3 Season Deck) vs. "Wyeth's Plow Invented" (all players start Era 3 with free L2 Pond upgrade).
~5 min
3
Heirloom Rule
The Era Champion names one Level 3 building they completed this era as their "Heirloom." In the next era, place that building tile pre-built on the board (in any valid location for that building type) before setup begins. Only one Heirloom per player at a time. If a player was Era Champion in Eras 2 AND 3, they have ONE Heirloom (the most recent).
~2 min
4
Unseal Next Era
Open the sealed envelope for the next era. Remove and add new components to the game box: new building tiles, new Customer tiles, new Specialist tray inserts, new card types. Read the next era's Scenario Sheet aloud (its special rules, map configuration, scoring goals). This is the "reveal" moment — discovering what changes.
~5 min
5
Reset & Setup Next Era
Clear the board per the Scenario Sheet map configuration. Place new Customer tiles per the configuration. Place Heirloom buildings. Shuffle the next era's Season Deck (era-specific). Deal 8 cards to each player from the era-specific Lake/Customer deck. Each player receives £17 starting money and resets income to level 0. Reset Specialist tray to this era's available tiers. Place Campaign VP tokens at each player's running total (they keep their VP for the Campaign track, but era VP is earned fresh).
~5 min
Key Decision: Soft Reset vs. Hard Reset
The Ice King uses a "soft reset" between eras. Unlike Pandemic Legacy (permanent board changes), all physical components reset. The Chronicle Booklet and Campaign VP track are the only persistence. The Heirloom building is the only carryover advantage. This means:
• The game is fully replayable (no permanent damage)
• Each era plays as a proper standalone
• Campaign advantage comes from cumulative VP totals, not compound board state
This is closer to Endeavor: Deep Sea's approach (scenario-driven escalation) than Pandemic Legacy (physical permanence). The advantage: no "lost" component regret; the disadvantage: slightly less emotional weight than true legacy.
📖 The Chronicle Booklet — Format
A 20-page booklet included in the box. Players fill it in during the campaign. Each era has 2 pages.
❄ THE ICE KING ❄ Campaign Chronicle
ERA 3 — THE ICE KING · 1830–1870
Date played:
Era Champion:
VP Scores:
HISTORICAL EVENT CHOSEN
Event name:
Effect on Era 4:
HEIRLOOM
Champion's Heirloom:
MOMENTS
Tudor Gamble fired?Y / N
Ice Famine events:
Notable moment:
CAMPAIGN RUNNING TOTAL
After 3 eras: ______ · ______ · ______ · ______
Chronicle Tracking Purpose
Running VP totals after each era determine campaign winner
Historical Event choices become the group's unique version of ice harvesting history
"Notable moments" section builds shared narrative memory — "remember when the Tudor Gamble failed and sent three blocks to the puddle in Era 3?"
Era Champion tracking shows who dominated each historical period
Designed to be readable as a "history of your company" at campaign end
Booklet Contents
Pages 1-2: Campaign intro + rules overview
Pages 3-4: Era 1 record sheet
Pages 5-6: Era 2 record sheet
Pages 7-8: Era 3 record sheet
Pages 9-10: Era 4 record sheet
Pages 11-12: Era 5 record sheet (special: dual victory path)
Pages 13-14: Campaign Final Tally + Winner Certificate
Pages 15-20: Historical notes (actual ice harvesting history — readable between sessions)
The historical notes pages serve double duty: they're a reading companion between sessions, and they make the Chronicle a keepsake — something players might actually keep on a shelf after the campaign.
📜 Historical Event Cards — Examples per Era Round 33
3 drawn after each era, 1 chosen by vote. Each modifies the next era's rules. Players create their own version of ice harvesting history.
Era 2 → 3 Events (drawn at end of Era 2)
Era 2 → 3
Tudor's India Trade Opens
The Export Wharf Customer is immediately available in Era 3 without requiring a Historical Event unlock. All players start Era 3 connected to it (1 free route link to any port).
Tudor's 1833 Calcutta voyage: 100 of 180 tons survived a 4-month voyage. India became "enormously profitable."
Era 2 → 3
The Hudson River Famine
Add 2 Ice Famine cards to the Era 3 Season Deck (replacing 2 Good Winter cards). The warm winter hit early — prepare accordingly.
1860: First Hudson River ice famine due to warm winter. NYC scrambled for supply. Prices spiked.
Era 2 → 3
Wyeth's Plow Invented
All players begin Era 3 with a free Level 2 Pond upgrade (no cost, no card). The horse-drawn ice plow tripled efficiency overnight.
Nathaniel Wyeth's 1825 invention reduced costs from 30¢/ton to 10¢/ton. Every ice company immediately adopted it.
Era 3 → 4 Events
Era 3 → 4
Norway Enters the Market
In Era 4, all players unlock the Norwegian Export Strategy — they may declare it at era start. Also: one Norwegian lake tile is added to the lake discovery stack (when surveyed, it produces Standard ice regardless of season).
By 1870 Norway surpassed US exports; peak: 1 million tons per year to UK markets.
Era 3 → 4
Wenham Quality Recognized
Crystal ice delivered to any Premium Customer in Era 4 scores +1VP permanently (stacked on top of current VP values). Wenham's reputation made clear ice an international luxury.
Wenham Lake ice sent to Queen Victoria. International buyers paid premium for its exceptional clarity — readable newspaper through a block.
Era 3 → 4
The Wisconsin Ice Wars
In Era 4, Ice War demand tiles appear twice as often (4 instead of 2). Also: once per era, a player may spend 1 Steam Token to force an Ice War tile on any Customer (no drawn tile needed).
1900-01: rival Wisconsin companies deployed a steamship icebreaker to destroy a competitor's lake ice supply. The ice wars were literal.
Era 4 → 5 Events
Era 4 → 5
GE Monitor Top Announced
Customer Defection begins in Round 5 of Era 5 (not Round 1). Players have 4 grace rounds before the market starts collapsing. This bought the natural ice industry a decade of breathing room.
GE's Monitor Top refrigerator (1927) began consumer shift, but home refrigerator adoption was gradual. Natural ice persisted until ~1940s in rural areas.
Era 4 → 5
Last Great Famine of 1889
Era 5 Season Deck includes 3 Ice Famine cards (up from 1). The warmest winters of the century come early — and they don't stop. Hasten the end.
1889-90: warmest winter on record; Hudson harvests failed entirely. NYC ran on emergency reserve stocks. The industry never fully recovered its confidence.
Era 4 → 5
Refrigerator Railcars Standardized
Railroads cost £2 less in Era 5. The railway infrastructure for cold transport was so well established that natural ice companies could still reach distant customers cheaply — briefly extending their relevance.
By 1900, 1.3 million tons of ice were transported annually by refrigerator railcar. The infrastructure outlasted the natural ice trade by decades.
🏺 Era 1 — Special Rules for the Ancient World Round 32
Era 1 is a 3-position Season Wheel tutorial era. The mechanics are the same core as later eras but stripped to essentials. Different theme: Persia, China, Rome — yakhchāls, camel caravans, imperial courts.
Standard Game (Era 3+)
6-position Season Wheel
Ice House (Sawdust insulation)
Horse Teams + Stable
Gravel Roads + Ice Roads + Railroad
Specialist tray Tiers 1-4
Crystal/Standard/Aged ice states
Demand Event tiles (20)
Pioneer a Market action
12-card Season Deck
~70 Lake/Customer card deck
6 Customer tiles
Era 1 — Ancient Ice Pits
3-position Season Wheel: Deep Freeze → High Summer → Late Freeze
Yakhchāl instead of Ice House (uses Clay instead of Sawdust)
Camel/Cart Teams instead of Horse Teams (same mechanic)
Fee reduced to £0 (mutual storage cooperation — 2 players need each other more)
2-Player Feel
In 2 players, the game becomes more direct — you are always aware of your single opponent's position. The Ice Famine Crisis Pool is particularly tense: two players, secret contributions, both know what the other is likely to do. The shared network (£0 storage fee) makes the 2-player game more cooperative in texture while remaining competitive in scoring. Recommend: 2-player is the "chess mode" of The Ice King. Expert-level tension.
📦 Complete Component List Round 35
Physical components for the full box. Comparable to Brass: Birmingham in scale.
Total unique component types: ~45 types. Total individual pieces: ~900-1000. This is consistent with a medium-heavy euro like Brass: Birmingham (~600 pieces) to Wingspan (~700 pieces). The five sealed era envelopes hold scenario-specific components — this also serves as the discovery/reveal mechanic that makes campaign games feel special.
✅ Final Design Round — Remaining Questions Resolved Round 36
Q: How does the Pond Baron's "pay £1 to use my pond" work?
A: The Pond Baron's special ability means when another player plays a Lake Card with the Pond Baron's lake name (e.g., Wenham Lake) for a CUT action at the Pond Baron's Pond tile, they pay £1 to the Pond Baron. They use their own CUT action; they just pay for the right to harvest from the Pond Baron's premium infrastructure. Similar to: using another player's Iron Works in Brass.
Q: What happens to Heirloom building if Era Champion doesn't have a Level 3 building?
A: The Heirloom defaults to their highest-level building (Level 2 is fine). If they have no flipped buildings at all, no Heirloom is granted — they're considered a journeyman not yet worthy of legacy. Catch-up mechanic: the player in last place after any era gets a free Sawdust cube at start of next era.
Q: How does the modular lake discovery work in campaign play?
A: Lake Discovery tiles (12 tiles) are available from Era 2. Each era's Scenario Sheet specifies which Lake Discovery tiles are in the stack for that era. Eras 2-3 have smaller, closer lakes; Eras 4-5 add larger, more remote lakes. Discovered tiles persist until the end of that era, then are collected back. No permanent map changes.
Q: How does the Smear Campaign counter-mechanic work?
A: A player who has NOT pioneered a customer may spend 1 card to place a Smear Token on another player's Pioneered customer. For 1 round, the Smear suppresses the Pioneer bonus (+1VP becomes +0VP). The Smear Token is removed at end of round. Smearing is a once-per-era option per player — not spammable. Named for Tudor's documented 1844 smear campaign against John Gorrie's mechanical ice competitor.
Q: How does Era 5's shrinking deck work mechanically?
A: When Customer Defection closes a customer, IMMEDIATELY pull all cards of that customer type from the draw deck, discard pile, and players' hands (players choose which 1 card to discard if they have 2 of that type). The era ends when either: 3 Mechanical Refrigerators are built (Pivot victory), or only 1 natural Customer tile remains (Last Harvest victory), or the Season Deck runs out — whichever comes first.
Q: Can you SHIP directly from a Frozen Pond (without a Ice House)?
A: Yes, but you incur the Gravel Road melt cost without Ice House insulation benefits. Ice cut directly from a Pond can be SHIPped immediately — but without PACK into an Ice House first, you lose the insulation protection and each link degrades the ice. This is historically accurate: some harvesters shipped straight to customers to minimize handling.