The Red Cathedral: Contractors

The construction of Saint Basil's Cathedral is progressing well. The time has come to recruit the best specialists from each trade and apply their skills and knowledge to transform this monument into something that will amaze even the Tsar himself. Contractors must be sent to the farthest reaches of Russia to stand out from the competition and achieve victory.

Contractors is the first expansion for The Red Cathedral, the successful game by Shei Santos and Isra Cendrero in which players build Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and compete to make the most memorable contribution and win the Tsar's favor. The expansion also features illustrations by Pedro Soto and Chema Román, two artists inspired by the work of Ivan Bilbin, the Russian artist known for the majestic depiction of Slavic folklore in his works. The Red Cathedral stands out among recent games for its original rondel mechanism, which has won the hearts of thousands of players around the world.

The expansion comes in a box containing almost as much content as the original game and takes the experience to another level. In Contractors, we find 10 new guilds that can be combined with those from the base game, six additional blueprint cards, and a new card for solo play. Many of these new guilds utilize the Contractors module, which, among other things, adds a new board with a map of Russia. We will send our contractors across Russia to recruit the talents of the country's finest specialists and craftsmen to assist in the construction of the cathedral.

As in the original game, each of these guilds contains three different cards, one of which can be included per guild in the game, meaning that Contractors offers 30 new and different ways to play The Red Cathedral. Other highlights include a black die that can be used alongside the existing five dice to gain resources, diamonds that serve as a form of resource wild, and contractors, which are Cossack meeples that incorporate a worker placement element into the game.

Age: 10+ years
Players: 1 to 4
Duration: 60 minutes