Game Concepts #

Some of the game’s core concepts are described here for quick reference.

Prestige (0): Prestige is equivalent to victory points, and gaining Prestige is how you win the game. Completing Missions and Milestones is an effective way of gaining Prestige. (See pp. 11 and 42.)

Monarch Power (d): The game’s core resource. In essence, these cubes are action points that players may spend on various Actions. There are three types of Monarch Power: Administrative (a), Diplomatic (b), and Military (c) Power. A player cannot keep more than 10d of any one type on their Player Mat. (See p. 19.)

Ducats (D): The monetary currency of the game and a measure of a Realm’s wealth. Ducats are useful for building up your armed forces and many other things. (See ‘Economy’, p. 20.)

Realm: A Realm consists of all Provinces that have the same flag, Town (t), or DNPR token. An Area is considered part of a Realm if it contains any Provinces Owned by that Realm.

A Distant Realm is one whose Capital is on a Distant Continent (see p. 36).

Occupied Provinces are neither considered part of the Occupant’s Realm nor the Lawful Owner’s Realm (see p. 28).

PR: Each player governs a Player Realm (PR). (See p. 19.)

NPR: Non-Player Realms include all independent Realms that are not controlled by human players or bot players. A DNPR is an NPR whose Provinces are marked with DNPR tokens (æ). (See p. 35.)

Province: Provinces are one of the main sources of income and Manpower for PRs. (See (8) and (9) on page 4.)

Town (t): Towns are placed on the board to signify Ownership or Control of Provinces. (See p. 21.)

Vassal: Vassal Realms are subordinated to an Overlord Realm. They are not independent, and thus not considered NPRs, but are not considered part of their Overlord’s Realm either. PRs cannot be Vassals. Players place Vassal tokens (v) on all of their Vassals’ Provinces. (See p. 33.)

Core Province: A Realm’s Core Provinces are those whose shield is marked with their flag. Core tokens (F) and æ supercede flags. A F signifies that all Provinces in its Area are Core Provinces of the F owner. If a PR’s Province is not their Core Province, it can be Liberated. (See pp. 21 and 37.)

Influence (I): Players can spread their I around the board, to pave the way for Alliances, Royal Marriages, Subjugation, and more. (See p. 32.)

Alliance (A): Alliances can be very useful when the danger of War threatens. Alliances can be formed with both NPRs and other PRs. (See p. 32.)

Royal Marriages (M): Royal Marriages strengthen bonds and provide interesting diplomatic opportunities. (See p. 32.)

War: It is likely that players will fight Wars against NPRs or other PRs. They are complex affairs but can be effective tools if well-planned. (See pp. 22 and 36.)

Declaration of War (DoW): To start a War, you must Declare War on another Realm. Before doing this, you may want to have a Claim (G) or other Casus Belli (“justification for war”). (See p. 22.)

Military Units: Land Units are usually Recruited from your Available Manpower (m), and are used most efficiently when organized into Armies. You can spend Military Power to move your Armies around, fight Land Battles, and Siege Provinces. Ships can be used to fight Naval Battles, Protect Trade, transport Land Units, and more. (See p. 24.)

Military and Naval Capacity (MC/NC): These are measures for how many Units or Ships a Realm can muster in one specific Area or Sea Zone. A Realm’s MC in an Area is equal to the combined Tax Value of all their Provinces in and adjacent to that Area, while NC is equal to the number of Ports that a Realm Owns facing a particular Sea Zone. (See p. 22.)

Trade: If actively pursued, Trade can provide great wealth even for smaller Realms. Trade Income is collected through Merchants in the Trade Nodes spread around the board (see (14) and (16), p. 4). (See pp. 15 and 34.)

Actions and Action Cards: There are a number of Basic Actions that the players may perform. There are also Action Cards (one deck for each type of Monarch Power), which may be played as Actions. Most Actions have a d cost. Actions are named in Bold Italics. (See ‘Basic Actions’, p. 12, and ‘Action Cards’, p. 18.)

Leaders and Advisors: Each Action Card, and most Realm-specific Events, feature a character at the bottom of the card. Advisors (square portrait) can be appointed for Monarch Power bonuses, and Leaders (round portrait) can serve as Generals, Admirals, or Rulers. (See p. 19.)

Events: There is one deck of Event Cards for each Age of the game. These are the Ages of Discovery (I), Reformation (II), Absolutism (III), and Revolutions (IV, Deluxe Ed. / Fate of Empires exp. only).

In each Round a certain number of Events will be played and take effect. The Event deck dictates the flow of time, and it often determines when the game will end. (See p. 39.)

Ideas: Ideas represent improvements in technology that have effects on what you can do in the game. (See p. 21.)

Stability (s): All PRs have a Stability value, which ranges from -3 to +3. Stability affects Income, Unrest, and Monarch Power Income. Stability may also impact certain Event effects. (See p. 20.)

Unrest (u): Unrest in your Provinces may cause loss of Ducats, Manpower, or Monarch Power, or cause these Provinces to be captured by Rebels. (See p. 37.)

Holy Roman Empire (HRE): The HRE is a confederation that includes a great number of German and North Italian states. While largely autonomous, they are nominally all subjects of one Emperor. Being the Emperor comes with certain benefits and responsibilities. As a measure of the Emperor’s power over the member states, the Emperor has an Imperial Authority (E) value. (See p. 43.)

Papal Curia: Catholic PRs may compete to control the most Cardinals (C) in the Papal Curia in order to gain certain bonuses. (See p. 45.)

Important Terms #

Adjacency: A Province, Unit, or token is considered adjacent to the Area in which it is located and all Areas that share a border with that Area. It is also considered adjacent to all Provinces in each of these Areas.

A Coastal Province (Port) is also considered adjacent to all other Ports facing the same Sea Zone(s), to all Areas with such Ports, and to all the Sea Zones it faces.

Areas/Sea Zones are considered adjacent to all other Areas and Sea Zones with which they share a border. Coastal Areas with Ports facing the same Sea Zone are adjacent to each other.

A Realm is adjacent to anything that its Provinces are adjacent to. Vassals do not provide adjacency for their Overlord.

Own: When the rules refer to Ownership of Provinces, they mean Provinces on which you have a t, and where there is no v, R, Enemy t, or Occupied token on the same Province.

Control/Occupy: Provinces are Controlled by their Lawful Owners, unless they are Occupied by Rebels or Enemies, in which case they are Controlled by the Occupant (see p. 28).

Friendly, Neutral, and Hostile: Armies, Units, Provinces, or Ports Controlled by you, your Vassal, or your Ally are referred to as Friendly. Friendly Areas are those that contain any Friendly Provinces.

Hostile refers to things Controlled by Rebels (Hostile to all PRs), or by Realms at War with you (including their Vassals and Active Allies). Hostile Realms, and their Units, are also called Enemies.

An Area containing any Hostile Units or Provinces is considered a Hostile Area (and thus not a Friendly Area). A Sea Zone is considered Hostile if it contains any Hostile Ships, or if it faces Hostile NPR Ports and contains no Ships from Realms at War with the Owner(s) of those Ports.

Neutral refers to things that are neither Friendly nor Hostile.

Opponent: This term refers to the other players in the game: humans and bots.

Deployed: Military Units and Ships on the board, or in an Army or Fleet, are considered to be Deployed.

You: Use of the word “you” in the rules always refers to the Active Player when used in the context of Actions and Events.

The Map Board #

The map board is the centerpiece of the game, and where the bulk of the action takes place. The large Main Map is divided into Areas (1) and Sea Zones (2), while the Distant Continents (3) look a bit different. The Distant Continents Board also holds the Prestige Track (4).

Areas (1) on the Main Map are separated from other Areas by a white border, and from Sea Zones by a dark blue coast line.

Mountain borders (5) are indicated with a pattern of black triangles on them. Some Areas include islands and have their borders shown as blue dashed lines (6) where they overlap Sea Zones.

Areas are, amongst other things, where you keep and move your Military Units (see ‘Movement’, p. 25).

The Religion of an Area is shown on its Religion slot. Some slots apply to more than one Area (7). The Religion of an Area may change during the game.

Sea Zones (2) are sections of oceans and seas which only Ships may occupy. Land Units can only cross Sea Zones using Naval Transport. Galleys can only exist in Sea Zones marked with a * or a †. See more about Naval Movement on p. 25.

Area and Sea Zone names are always written in small caps, e.g., SAXONY, JUTLAND, or BALTIC SEA, etc.

An Area may contain a number of different Provinces belonging to one or more Realms. Small Provinces (8) and Large Provinces (9) have a Tax Value of 1 and 2, respectively. Each Province is depicted as a shield with their Realm’s flag. The names of Capitals (10) are -underlined-.

The Provinces of Vassal Realms (11) display a small version of their Overlord’s flag at the bottom of their own flag.

Coastal Provinces are referred to as Ports (12). Ports also act as spaces that can be entered by Friendly Ships. Large Ports count as 2 Ports for all purposes.

Island Provinces (13) have blue Port symbols and can only be Sieged if you have any Ships in an adjacent Sea Zone.

The Provinces of the Major Powers (listed in the scenario booklets) in the game have golden frames and flags in saturated colors, while the remaining Realms have paler flags in silver frames.

Most Sea Zones are adjacent to 1–2 Maritime Trade Nodes (14) and contain 2–3 Trade Protection slots (15). Areas may contain Inland Trade Nodes (16). Gold Provinces (17) marked with a Gold icon interact with certain Events, as well as appearing on Gold Trade Cards. (See more under ‘Trade’ on p. 34.)

The Distant Continents (3) are shown in separate boxes, in a smaller scale than the Main Map board.

Provinces on the Distant Continents are called Distant Provinces (18); each of these is also a separate Area, connected to adjacent Areas by white lines.

Some sparsely populated Areas on the Distant Continents contain no Province. These Areas instead show a circled number, and are called Territories (19). Territories can be Colonized (see p. 14).

Coastal Provinces also have Ports on the Distant Continents but a number of these are grayed out and designated as Inactive Ports (20) until populated by a t/v/æ.

All Sea Zones on Distant Continents are connected via matching letters (21) to one or more Sea Zones on the Main Map or on other Distant Continents.

Overland connections (22) to other maps all name the Area to which they connect.

The Areas/Sea Zones on either side of such a connection are considered adjacent.

On the left edge of the Western Europe Board lies the Colonist Pool (23), used for placing Colonists (<).

In the heart of Europe lies the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), with its numerous member states. What lies on the yellow side of the dotted HRE border (24) is inside of the HRE; what lies on the red side of the border is outside of it. Some Areas within the HRE are designated as Elector Areas (25) and are marked with Imperial eagles.

Map Oddities #

• The unnamed “Areas” on the bottom edge of the Main Map are impassable deserts (26).
• The EAST AFRICAN COAST (27) Sea Zone is adjacent to the Indian Ocean N.
• Adal and Upper Egypt (18), on the AFRICA map, are facing the INDIAN OCEAN Sea Zone on the INDIA & ARABIA map.
• Hudson Bay, on the AMERICA map, faces the NORTHWESTERN ATLANTIC.
• For Ships to cross one of the G, H, or I (28) connections, in any direction, between the AMERICA and FAR EAST maps, you must pay an extra d of your choice.
• Perm (29) is not considered adjacent to POMORYE. VOLOGDA separates them.
• The ›Mamluks have a Province on the AFRICA map (18), and a Vassal on the INDIA & ARABIA map.
• ›Kazan has one Province in the KAZAN Area and one on the NORTHERN & CENTRAL ASIA map.
• The Maghreb N and Aleppo N are located in the impassable deserts (26) on the map. A Trade Node is considered adjacent to all named Areas that share a border with the desert it is in.
• The ›Dutch Core Provinces (30) (p. 3) are marked with the flag of the ›Netherlands “behind” the main Province flag.
• Roma (31) is flanked by a Cardinal’s biretta that indicates that you gain a C in the Roma slot of the Papal Curia (p. 46) by Controlling Roma or having an Alliance with the ›Papal States. The crucifix is a reminder that the State Religion of the ›Papal States will always remain Catholic.