The official rules. Simple to learn, deep to master.
Every turn is three phases, in order:
Military buildings produce troops by level; industry produces resources.
Each King, army, ship, or plane moves once. Groups move together.
Spend Action Points: Build · Upgrade · Attack · Forward · Discover · Engage.
Action Points: a base of 2 each turn, plus one for every level of your Embassy. Forward lets one chosen unit or group move again; Upgrade always costs one action.
The former City piece is gone. Instead: the Castle defines Territory, and the structures inside that Territory are the City. The Castle governs; the City emerges.
L1 Walls · L2 Bridges · L3 University · L4 Trainyard · L5 Plane technology.
L1 Barracks · L2 Ships · L3 Harbor · L4 Embassy · L5 Airport.
Most institutions must be connected to the Castle by a continuous road to function — roads represent administration, not merely movement. Cutting a road isolates a building (inactive) without destroying it. Exceptions that work unconnected: Farm, Quarry, Lumberyard.
Rails connect Trainyard to Trainyard for instantaneous travel. Ships and Planes each take a Build Action; plane sorties cost two.
"Roads are not movement. Roads are civilization."
Combat should pressure civilization before destroying it. The order of pressure:
Infrastructure → Institutions → Military → Castle → King
Defenders return half damage unless modified. Destroyed buildings become Ruins — no benefit until repaired, but never removed. Troops do not recover; lost strength must be reproduced. Army strength is tracked in poker chips (10 strength each).
A player is eliminated when the King is defeated or can no longer govern. In tournaments the defeated player removes their custom pieces, the MapMaster replaces the territory with official pieces, and the battlefield remains intact.
"The battlefield itself remembers."