Game

• setup
  • builds a map – pay attention as starting location choice is critical
  • place 1 city, 1 ship, 1 nomad
• turn
  • everyone place a card face down, reveal it simultaneously
  • go round in turn order doing an action for each piece on the board that matches your card
• end of turn
  • Decline – dicard a card for each trophy won during the round
  • Decline buy back – cost shown on Trophy Board – limit of 1 buy back per round
  • if you’re out of cards pick up your dicard pile, advance first player token

During Play

• limit of 5 wood, 5 stone per player
• Get a trophy for placing all units of a particular type
  • Triggers a 1 card Decline at end of round from each player
• As your unit types join/leave the game add/remove their corresponding card to/from your hand

Gain Points From

• Area control (most units in an area – draws are lost)
  • Plains – 1VP
  • Sea – 2VP
  • Forest – 3VP
  • Mountain – 4VP (includes glacier in area)
• Each Active card (not reserve/decline)
  • Score for number of pieces in play
• 1VP for each 2GP
• Trophies

Tips

• Keep enough money to buy cards out of decline – 2 trophies in 1 round can wipe a player out of the game
  • Starting position tips
  • spread out
  • aim for wood/stone
  • avoid neighbours (avoid being fenced in)
  • look for areas to monopolise that others won’t get to easily (on edges surrounded by cliffs/glaciers)
• Early on quick expansion: nomads to cities to spawn nomads
  • has risk of no money to buy cards out of decline
• City spawning nomad is the main way to add pieces to the board (only other way is temple converting enemy)
• Leave spawned nomads by their spawning city to immediately convert to Merchant/Mountaineer
• Mountaineer not that useful – only needed for traversing ice/ice mining – only converts out to a city
• To spread out across water:
  • coastal city -> spawn nomad -> convert to ship -> travel away -> create coastal city/temple
• To spread out across land:
  • coastal city -> spawn nomad -> convert to merchant -> travel away -> convert to ship -> optional travel away -> create coastal city/temple
• Get a merchant in a nest of cities for big trade income
• Get multiple ships in water with many coastal cities for big trade income
• Early focus should be on getting cities out
• Early game strategy, quick expansion, get 5 ships out:
  • turns 1, 2, 3: city spawn, nomads produce, boat to city
  • turns 4,5: city spawn, nomads produce, nomad to city
  • turns 6,7,8: city spawn, nomads produce, nomad to city, nomad to ship, ships trade
  • turns 9,10: city spawn, nomads produce, nomad to city, nomads to ship

Game

• start of each game, and after passing each round, choose a bonus scroll
• unused scrolls get 1 coin added at the start of each round
• Get income from hand palm up symbol (most are covered by buildings)
• Play actions until you can’t then pass – passing order becomes play order of next round
  • transform and build (indirectly adjacent – i.e. connected with shipping or other faction ability)
  • upgrade a structure
    • when building or upgrading: other players directly adjacent tiles (includes bridges) trigger purple power income equal to their tile value. Owner has to lose vp equal to their purple power income minus one (e.g. gain 4 purple power, lose 3 VP)
    • trading house upgrade cost is cheaper if directly adjacent to another player
  • advance shipping track
  • upgrade spade exchange rate
  • send a priest to priest track
    • priest track can grant purple power
  • purple power market
  • use and yellow/orange hex action
• Free action
  • spend purple power for a priest, worker or coin
  • downgrade a priest to worker and/or worker to coin

During Play

• get a town for 4 directly adjacent structures with a value of at least 7
  • town can be build with just 3 tiles if one of them is the sanctuary
  • town gives a key to lock in top spot of a priest track
  • bridges can be used for directly connecting over water
    • this is their only use
    • they’re only available from the purple power market
• get a favour tile for building a temple or sanctuary
• end of each round gives a bonus powered by the priest track

Gain Points From

• each round has a bonus scoring option
• bonus for forming a town
• advancing the shipping track
• advancing the spade exchange rate track
• end game bonus for largest count of connected tiles (indirectly adjacent)
• end game bonus for ranking on priest tracks

Tips

• at start of game digest your factions dig track and the good spots on the board to start in – starting areas are important
  • you want neighbouring tiles that are cheap to convert
  • you want other players nearby for purple power bonuses and cheaper upgrades
  • edges can be dangerous as you can be fenced in
  • overpopulation can be dangerous as you can be fenced in
• at start of game digest which rounds give which scoring bonuses, in particular:
  • 5 points for towns
  • 5 points for stronghold/sanctuary
  • 3 points for trading house
• at start of game digest which rounds give which end of round priest track bonuses, in particluar:
  • 1 coin for each brown
  • 1 worker for 2 red/2 silver
• Purple power is important
  • sacrifice 1 purple power in bowl 2, to move a purple power from bowl 2 to 3
  • reduce purple power early on to use the market asap
  • with fewer purple power tokens they move around the bowls quicker
  • the purple power market is powerful
  • being first in the player order gives first access to the purple power market
• focus on getting quantity of buildings out early on – uncovered buildings are income, this is the engine
• stronghold upgrade early can be worthwhile depending on the faction
• target the priest track in the second half of the game – many points live there
• some favour tiles have added value early on:
  • give points for building or points at end of round for buildings
  • action space to advance priest track
  • reduce town power requirement to 6 (lot’s of points in towns, can be a strategy to try to build many)
  • extra income (power, worker, coin)

Game

• roll 2 dice (3 if you’re the lead player)
• using number on dice to do 2 actions
  • buy a tile from the corresponding market into your holding area
  • place a tile from your holding area onto a corresponding slot on your board
  • sell corresponding goods from your crate area (gain 1 silver and each worth 4 at the end)
  • without needing corresponding: gain 2 workers (can be used to +/- 1 from your action dice)
• Free action during your turn (max once per round)
  • spend 2 silver to buy a tile from the black market in the middle

During Play

When playing tiles onto your board you gain bonuses:

• mines – give you silver at the end of each round – target these early on
• tiles for extra actions from:
  • have an extra action (pretend you have another dice of any number) – castle
  • have an extra action using the white dice number – white castle
  • gain extra tiles from market – carpenter, church, market
  • place a tile on your board – town hall
• monastries
  • keep an eye on which bonuses are on offer
• farms
  • keep an eye on which animals have been/gone
• ships
  • get you goods and advance up the shipping (turn order) track
• other tiles
  • get 2 silver – bank
  • get 4 workers – boarding house
  • get 4 VP – watchtower
  • sell 2 type of good – warehouse

Gain Points From

• completing areas – the earlier the era for more points
• being the first/second to complete all areas of a colour gets bonus chit
• being the first/second to link the 3 castles around the edges of the board gets a bonus chit
• sold goods are worth 4 points each
• building a farmland of similar animals adds up (1 point per matching animal, each time you add/expand the farm)

Tips

• mines have their own colour on the board
• don’t mix up yellow monastry and beige building
• roll the white dice too if you’re first player
• In a 4 player game the goods don’t stay in the market area for long
• at the start of each era read the power ups on offer from the monastry tiles in the market
  some are really good (1 silver for 2 workers)
• some work well with others (2 workers for 1 building)
• get some for bonus scoring at the end
• 2 of the same building types (beige) can’t be in the same area as eachother (e.g. 2 banks)
  Inns expand an area by a bonus 1 – best used within bigger areas for bigger bonuses
• Look for shipping opportunities to get goods that stack so that 1 selling action gets multiple tiles scoring
• Look to sell goods that match covered bonus tiles on the trade route (sell a stack to cover multiple bonus tiles – they unstack)
• Try to place tiles in a way that there are a range of numbers and colours connecting to keep options open