The order in which palaces are built only influences the number of houses needed to build them. The order has no influence on the end of the game as the game ends at the end of a game year, not during it.
End of a game year
The game year ends when an election has been held in each of the 7 areas. The 7 voting order cards for the current game year will have been set aside and there is a set of 7 new voting order cards face up along the bottom of the board. These show the voting order for the next game year.
Shuffle the 7 voting order cards that were used in the game year just ended and place them face down on the 7 empty spaces along the bottom of the board. These will be turned over one by one in the next game year as the areas conduct their elections.
Game end and victory
The game ends when at least one player has:
-at least 1 palace in each district or
-a total of 7 palaces in 5 districts or
-a total of 8 palaces in 4 districts.
The current game year is finished.
The winner is the player who has fulfilled one of the above three conditions.
If, at the end of the game, two or more players have fulfilled one of the winning conditions, the player among them who has built the most palaces is the winner. If there is still a tie for the winner, the player among those tied with the most houses on the board is the winner.
Notes for the game
The game material is limited. When a player has no more houses or palaces in his supply, he is out and cannot retrieve them from the board, except the houses by building a palace. Thus, a player should carefully plan his placement of houses so that he does not run out at a time when he needs to place them to build a palace. Also, players should carefully plan their palace placements to put them in position to win.
At the beginning, it may appear that the use of ballot markers is a bit random, but as the game progresses, players will begin to see patterns emerge from their opponents. By watching others carefully, players can place their ballot markers to their best advantage.
Control of the advisors is an important tactical element of the game. Because the advisors vote for the players that control them, they can be placed in areas voting later in this game year to strengthen a player’s chance to win an election. Because the voting order of the areas is chosen randomly for each game year, it is possible for an advisor to vote twice before his area votes and other players have an opportunity to take control of the advisor. Thus, wise players will look to take advantage of such situations when they occur.
Under some circumstances, a player may be able to win an election with just an advisor in an area. If no players place ballot markers in an area or the only ballot marker placed is a value 0 as a bluff, a single advisor can win the election with his single vote!
It may be good strategy later in the game to try to win an election in an area with a high palace cost. The winner can abstain from taking control of the advisor to move a house into or out of the area and, thus, make it possible for him to build an important palace. Also, in the later stages of the game, winning the election for the Quarantia with its possibility of two house moves can be extremely important to help a player build a
7
