Playing the game
The game consists of 6 rounds. Each round is divided into the following phases:
1.Place family members in the province spaces
2.Choose movement cards
3.Move prince and deploy family members
4.Scoring (only in Rounds 2, 4 and 6)
5.Round end
Always play the phases in this order. In a phase, the players perform the action appropriate to the phase in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player. Only when all players have finished does the next phase begin. The player with the most points after the final scoring at the end of the 6th round wins the game. The following provides a general overview of game play. The details are explained in the accompanying Rules Explanation.
Playing a round
1. Place family members in the province spaces
The province spaces a player chooses determine which movement cards he can take from the open display in Phase 2 and to which provinces he can deploy family members in Phase 3.
At the start of this phase, each player takes 5 of his family members from his play area in his hand. He can place only these 5 family members during this phase. Beginning with the starting player and then in clockwise order, each player places 1 family member in a province space of his choosing. This continues until each player has placed all 5 of his family members.
2. Choose movement cards
The player needs movement cards to move his prince in Phase 3.
The movement cards, together with the dragon cards (jokers), make up a player’s hand of cards. Return cards do not count as hand cards. A player may never have more than 5 cards (movement
and dragon cards) in his hand .
Beginning with the starting player, each player, in turn, must take either 1 of the 6 movement cards from the display or 1 dragon card, adding it to his hand. If a player already has 5 cards in his hand, this phase is over for him. The remaining players continue until all have exactly 5 cards in their hands.
3. Move prince and deploy family members
Beginning with the starting player, each player must first move his prince. The player can move his prince as far as he likes, but for each border the prince crosses, he must play an appropriate movement card from his hand. After moving his prince, the player can move from 0 to 3 family members from the corresponding province space into the district where the prince ended his movement.
4. Scoring
Scoring takes place at the end of the 2nd, 4th and 6th rounds.
When scoring, carry out the following steps, one after the other, for all 6 provinces:
1.In each district, determine which player (or players) has the majority of family members. The player with the most in each district moves 2 of his family members from the district into the city. The player with the second most family members moves 1 family member from the district into the city. For each of a player’s family members in a city, he takes a province tile in the matching color from the general supply, placing it in his play area.
2.Afterward, each player must decide how many family members to leave in the city and how many to return to the district. To do this, each player uses his return cards, placing the chosen number in a face down pile in his play area. The player then scores points for any family members he chose to leave in the city; after scoring, he removes these family members from the game and returns them to the box. For each family member in a cloister, a player earns 4 points.
5. Round end
At the end of each round, move the round maker 1 space forward, and pass the starting player figure 1 player to the left.
