Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue! Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Separate the cards based on the back of the cards.
Shuffle the main deck (red backs). Place the cards in the middle of the table face down to form the draw pile. Flip over the top card and place it next to the draw pile to form the discard pile. If you flip over an Instant Action Card (lightning bolt icon), shuffle the card back into the deck and flip over another card.
Shuffle the rescue companions and place them face down around the draw and discard pile.
Take the king cards and place them face up around the rescue companions.
Give each player a random knight. Each player places their knight in a stand. The rest of the knights are returned to the box. If there are only two players, don’t use the black knight.
Place the die and turn guide cards where all of the players can reach them.
The player who most recently found a lost item, starts the game. Play moves clockwise/left throughout the game.

How to Play Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue!

On each turn you will take a number of actions. You will take the actions in the corresponding order.

Roll the Die
Play Instant Action Cards
Place Cards in Front of You
Take Additional Actions
Discard Cards

Roll the Die

To begin each of your turns you will roll the die. The number you roll on the die determines what action you will take.

If you roll a number (1-3), you will draw the corresponding number of cards from the main deck. You will add them to your hand.

Rolling a number on the die — The current player rolled a two on the die. They will draw two cards from the draw pile.

If the draw pile ever runs out of cards, you will shuffle the discard pile in order to form a new draw pile.

Should you roll the dragon on the die, you will take a series of actions.

First each player passes their knight to the player on their left.

Next you can choose one of your queens that are sleeping and wake them up (turn them face up).

Finally you will roll the die again. You will take the corresponding action. If you roll the dragon again, you will take the three additional actions again.

Rolling a dragon on the die — The current player rolled a dragon on the die. All of the players will pass their knight one player to the left. The player also gets to awaken one of their sleeping queens. Finally they will roll the die again and take the corresponding action.

Play Instant Action Cards

After you have drawn cards, you will look for any Instant Action cards that you drew. Instant Action cards are indicated by a lightning bolt symbol on them. You will play all of them at this time. If you have multiple Instant Action cards, you can choose in what order you want to use the cards. Should you have multiple of the same card, each card is treated as its own card so you will take the associated action multiple times.

Each Instant Action Card has its own special action. See the corresponding section below to see what each card does.

Wild Gnomes

When you draw a Wild Gnome card, you will roll the die. What you roll on the die determines what action you will take.

Should you roll a one, you will choose one of the face-down rescue companions and place it in front of you.

Rolling a one for the Wild Gnomes card — The player that played the Wild Gnomes card rolled a one on the die. They took one of the face down companion cards which turned out to be the Shrew-Driver. They will add the companion to the rest of their cards.

When you roll a two, you will choose a card from another player and add it to your realm. You can choose any card except for rescue companions or kings.

Rolling a two for a Wild Gnomes card — After playing a Wild Gnomes card, this player rolled a two. They ended up stealing a ten card from another player.

A three allows you to search through the discard pile for a queen card. You will take the queen card you have chosen and place it in your realm.

Rolling a three for the Wild Gnomes card — After playing a Wild Gnomes card, this player rolled a three. Therefore they get to take a queen card from the discard pile. They decide to take the Pancake Queen card.

Finally if you roll the dragon, choose two of the knights and swap their positions.

Rolling a dragon for the Wild Gnomes card — After playing the Wild Gnomes card, this player rolled a dragon on the die. They will choose two knights and swap their positions.

Switch Witches

The Switch Witch allows you to swap one card from your realm for a card in another player’s realm. You can swap a queen, number, or Spell Book card for one of these cards in another player’s realm. You don’t have to swap one card for the same type of card from the other player.

Switching queens after playing a Switch Witch — The current player has played a Switch Witch card. They decide to switch their Moon Queen card for another player’s Heart Queen card.

It is also possible to swap one of your rescue companions for another player’s rescue companion. Rescue companions have to be swapped for another rescue companion. You cannot swap for a rescue companion unless both you and the other player both have a rescue companion to swap.

Swapping rescue companions after playing a Switch Witch — The player that played the Switch Witch wants to swap one of their rescue companions. They decide to swap their Crane card for the First-Aid Kit that another player had.

If you can’t or don’t want to use a Switch Witch, you can choose not to use it. In this case, you will discard the card without taking the corresponding action.

Sleeping Willows

Whenever you draw a Sleeping Willow card, you have to put all of your queens to sleep. Take your queen cards and flip them so they are face down.

Should you not have any awake queens or you have the white knight, the effect of the Sleeping Willow passes to the player on your left. They will have to put all of their queens to sleep. If they have no queens to put to sleep, the action passes on to the player on their left. This continues until either a player has to put a queen(s) to sleep, or no one has any awake queens.

Passing the Sleeping Willows ability — The player that drew the Sleeping Willows card did not have an awake queens. Therefore the next player has to put all of their queens to sleep.

When a queen is asleep, they cannot rescue a king.

Place Cards in Front of You

After you deal with any Instant Action cards, you will play the rest of the cards from your hand in front of you. These include number cards, Spell Book cards, and/or queen cards. The face up cards in front of you are considered your “realm.”

Placing cards in front of you — This player drew a nine, four, and Spell Book card. They will place the cards face up in front of themselves to create their realm.

Take Additional Actions

After you place the cards from your hand in front of you, you have the opportunity to take a number of different actions. You can take any number of these actions, and you can do them in any order you want.

Collect a Rescue Companion

In order to collect rescue companions, you need to use your number cards in order to make a mathematical equation. Rescue companions work along with your queen cards in order to rescue a king.

To acquire a rescue companion you need to create a math equation with the cards in your realm. You can use as many number cards as you want to make your equation. You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division to create your equations.

Creating equations — Here are two possible equations you could make to take a rescue companion. The top equation is 2*3=6. The bottom equation is 2+3+4=9. Since these are both valid equations, you will be able to take a rescue companion.

There are two rules that you must follow when creating an equation.

You can use multiple operations in your equation, but they must all be the same. For example if you use addition, you can only use addition in your equation. You can create an equation such as 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. The equation 1 + 2 * 3 = 7 is not allowed.
You can only have operators (+ – * /) on one side of the equation. Basically you can’t create an equation such as 2 + 4 = 1 + 5.

Creating equations that are not allowed in Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue — Here are two attempts to create equations. The top player tried to create 1+5=2+4. This is not allowed because you can’t have an addition sign on both sides of the equation. The bottom player was trying to create the equation 2*3+1=7. This is not allowed because the player is trying to use both addition and multiplication in the same equation.

Once you have created an equation, discard all of the number cards used in it. You will then choose one of the face down rescue companions from the middle of the table. You will place the companion you choose in front of you. There is no limit to the number of rescue companions you can have in front of you. They do not count towards your realm card limit.

Gathering a rescue companion — This player created the equation 9-1=8. They will discard all three cards and then draw a rescue companion card.

If there are no face-down companions left, take all of the face-up creatures from the middle of the table and shuffle them. Then place them face down around the draw and discard piles.

Wake Up a Sleeping Queen

If one or more of your queen cards are sleeping (face down), you can try to wake them up. In order to wake up sleeping queens, you need to play a pair of matching numbers cards. You will discard the matching number cards and then turn all of your queen cards so they are awake (face up).

Waking a sleeping queen — This player wants to wake their sleeping queen (face down card). They discard two fives in order to wake it up. If they had other sleeping queens, they would also wake them up by discarding the two five cards.

You can also wake up one sleeping queen if you roll a dragon on the die at the beginning of your turn.

While queens are asleep, you can look at them to see what each face down card is.

Play a Spell Book

Whenever you have a Spell Book card, you can choose to play it in order to look through the discard pile. When looking through the discard pile, you can choose one number card and add it to your realm. After you take the number card, you will discard the Spell Book.

Playing a Spell Book card — This player decided to use their Spell Book card. They will discard the card and then take a number card from the discard pile. The player chose to take the nine card, and places it in their realm.

Before you use the card you can look through the discard pile to see if there is a card that you want. You don’t have to use a Spell Book on the turn you draw it. You can choose to save it and use it on another turn.

Rescue a King

In order to rescue a king you need to acquire a matching queen and rescue companion. Look for the symbols in the top left corners of the queen and rescue companion cards.

When you have a matching pair, you will discard the queen card to the top of the discard pile. Then take the rescue companion and place it face up next to the draw and discard piles.

After you have discarded the matching pair, choose one of the kings in the middle of the table and place it in front of you. Once you rescue a king, you will keep it for the rest of the game.

Rescuing a king card — This player has the Heart Queen and the First-Aid Kit which both have the red symbol in the top left corner. Since the symbols match, they will discard both cards. They then choose to rescue the Cookie King, and place it in front of themselves.

Discard Cards

After you have finished taking additional actions, you will count up how many cards you have left face up in front of you in your realm. You will count all face up cards in front of you except for rescue companions and rescued kings. If you have more than five cards in front of you, you will have to discard cards until you are down to five cards. You can choose which cards you want to discard. Any cards you discard are placed on top of the discard pile.

Discarding a card — This player has six cards in their realm at the end of their turn. They have to choose one of the cards to discard.

Knights

At the beginning of the game each player is given a knight. Throughout the game the knights will end up moving between the players. Whenever a dragon is rolled at the start of a turn, each player passes their knight one player to the left. Each knight has its own special ability which helps the player currently controlling it.

Black Knight: The black knight protects you from Switch Witches. You cannot use the black knight in two player games.

Blue Knight: Should you roll a one, you can choose to re-roll the die if you want to.

Green Knight: Normally you can only keep five cards in your realm. The green knight allows you to keep six cards in your realm at the end of your turn.

Purple Knight: When you draw a card(s) after rolling the die, you will take one additional card. For example you roll a two, you will draw three cards instead of two.

Red Knight: You can add or subtract one from any single number card in order to create a math equation.

Yellow Knight: When you have the yellow knight, you can’t be affected by Sleeping Willows.

Winning Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue!

The game ends immediately after a player rescues the corresponding number of kings. The number of kings that need to be rescued to win the game depends on the number of players.

2 players – 4 kings
3-4 players – 3 kings
5 players – 2 kings

Winning Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue — In this four player game, one of the players has rescued their third king. They have won the game.

The first player to rescue the corresponding number of kings wins Sleeping Queens 2 The Rescue!.

Components

40 number cards (four each of 1-10)
12 queen cards
10 king cards
6 Wild Gnome cards
5 Switch Witch cards
5 Sleeping Willow cards
4 Spell Book cards
10 rescue companions
2 turn guide cards
6 knights and stands
Custom die
Instructions

Year: 2022 | Publisher: Gamewright | Designer: Miranda Evarts | Artist: Jimmy Pickering

Genres: Card, Family, Set Collection

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-5 | Length of Game: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.