BASICS

REQUIREMENTS

• 4 players. Supports 3 or 2 players (see Less Than 4 Players).
• A normal deck of 52 playing cards and 2 jokers.
• Simple bookkeeping equipment.

BASIC IDEA

The game is about four warring emperors and their city related war tactics.

• The purpose of the game is to conquer 6 cities, thus and become the One True Emperor.
• The game is played in seasons (rounds), and each season consists of 15 actions.
• During an action, each player plays one hand card to determine the who gets the winning initiative.
• The winner must then conquer a city (or retake a conquered city), if possible by the Cycle of Power (see below).
• When the season ends, another one is played, until one (or more) players have conquered at least 6 cities.

CIRCLE OF POWER

The dynamics of the battlefield are set by the Circle of Power:

• The circle dynamic consists of four main city types (J, Q, K, A), where each type dominates one in battle but loses to another (and ignores any other) forming a symmetrical circle: J < Q < K < A < J. (So K always wins over Q, and Q wins J, and J wins A, ...)
• In addition to the main city types, there's a Joker's city: The joker city can be attacked by any black city and it can conquer any red city regardless of the number. (Two jokers won't interact.)

During the game, each of the 4 emperors always has one city card, and so there are always 4 city cards determining the battle dynamics. After each action, one of the 4 city cards gets changed to the next one from the deck.

DECK, LAYOUT & STARTUP

The deck is divided into two parts:

• BATTLE DECK (36 cards): Cards from 2 to 10.
  • Each player is dealt 3 cards face down as hand cards.
• CITY DECK (18 cards): Face cards (J, Q, K), aces (A) and 2 jokers.
  • Each player is dealt one city card face up, and the topmost card of the deck is then turned face up.
  • One joker is placed face up and sideways on the bottom of the city deck, the other is shuffled into it (face down).

Behind the city card, each emperor has a place for the line of victories, where the trophies from battles are collected (face up).

PLAYING

WINNING THE ACTION

Before each action, the topmost card of the city deck is turned face up - this is the next available city card.

Each player then fights for the winning initiative by playing one hand card face up (pointing towards his/her city card) and drawing a new hand card from the battle deck in clockwise order.

• The highest number gets the winning initiative - if many of the same number, the last one wins.
• A card of the player's trump suit (see below) is always higher than a card of a regular suit.

The player who won the last initiative starts the next one - the player on the dealer's left starts the first battle of the season.

TRUMP SUIT

Each player has his/her own trump suit: it's always the suit of his/her own city card.

• With joker as the role card, the player’s trump suit is the suit of the next available city card (on top of the role deck).
• In the last turn of the season, a joker player does not have any trump suit (because there is no next card).

PLAYING AN ACTION

After the initiative has been won, the winner must make an action:

-  If the player can attack another city (according to the Circle of Power), he/she must choose which city to take over and how:

• 1. CONQUERING A CITY:
  • The winner takes the loser's city card face up into his/her own line of victories (as a trophy of victory).
  • The loser then takes the next available city card as his/her new city card.
• 2. RETAKING A CONQUERED CITY:
  • Alternatively, the winner can retake an already conquered city.
  • The winner discards (= puts face down behind the city deck) one victory from the loser's line of victories. (If there's none, the loser gets no penalty.)
  • The winner then discards his/her own city card and takes the loser's city card in its place, while the loser gets the next available city card.

-  If there's no attacking chances, the emperor just regroups his army. Depending on the situation, this might cause a rebellion in the city:

• 3. REGROUPING:  Regrouping is done by discarding the winner's own city card and taking the next available city card in its place.
• + REBELLION:  If the regrouping was politically reasonable - ie. the city was under threat from another city (by the Circle of Power) - the city will not rebel. Otherwise the city rebels, and the player loses a trophy from his/her line of victories (if there's none, then there's no rebellion either).

ENDING

END OF THE BATTLE DECK

When the battle deck runs out the first time (after 6 actions), it's reshuffled and dealt again. After this, the deck is no longer reshuffled, and the players will play until they run out of all their hand cards (9 actions).

ENDING OF THE SEASON

After all the 15 actions have been played (and the players have no more hand cards), the season ends. The remaining city cards are discarded, and the points are counted for each player from their line of victories.

Each player’s victories from the season (if any) are added cumulatively to the player's total score. The game ends after the season, when one or more players have at least 6 conquered cities cumulatively. The winner is the one with most (otherwise it's a draw).

LESS THAN 4 PLAYERS

AUTO EMPERORS (THE DUMMIES)

With 2 or 3 players, the missing ones are replaced by auto emperors (dummies). They are like human players but with the following differences:

• The dummy’s hand cards are put in one face down pile, and the dummy always plays the topmost card of the pile.
  • When the battle deck runs out, the dummy's hand card pile is refilled by adding another 6 cards on top.
• The dummy always chooses to conquer (vs. retake a city) and chooses to not shuffle its city card if possible (see variations below).
• With multiple choices for victims, the dummy always chooses the first emperor counter-clockwise (on the right).
• With 1 dummy, its position is shifted one player counter-clockwise each season. Two dummies are always positioned opposite to each other.

The dealer’s job is passed one human player clockwise after each season.

VARIATIONS

LONELY TYRANT (a.k.a. CITIES OF DESTRUCTION)

This variation changes the long term dynamic from positive (winning) to negative (until others lose):

• The game can only be won by knocking all the other (human) players out and becoming the Lonely Tyrant. This is done by destroying the 5 holy cities of each player.
  • Whenever a player gets knocked out, it's replaced by an auto emperor (dummy) for the consequent seasons.
• Instead of conquering a city (option 1) and collecting trophies to a line of victory, the loser's city is destroyed and the loser's city card is collected into (the loser's) line of destruction face down.
• Unlike the trophies of victory, the destroyed cities will remain destroyed until the end. Consequently, a city cannot be "freed" (as it cannot be conquered), so the option number 2 is not available.

COLOURED CITIES (a.k.a. FULL GAME)

The main point of this variation is to introduce a strong colour division into the city cards. In addition, the variation combines the main features from Lonely Tyrant variation into the same game. (This is actually the original full game.)

• There are two ways to win the game: conquer 6 cities (= One True Emperor) or destroy the 5 holy cities of each emperor (= Lonely Tyrant).
• The line of victory becomes a line of history that contains both trophies of victory (face up) as well as destroyed cities (face down).
• The colour of the city card becomes meaningful - it determines the "nature" of the city:
  • The colour of the loser's city determines whether it gets destroyed (black) or conquered (red) when taken over. The destroyed cities (black) are collected face down in the line of history of the loser, while the trophies (red) are collected face up for the winner.
  • The colour of the attacker's city determines what kind of shuffling options there are afterwards:
    • If the attacker's city is red (or if the player is retaking a conquered city), the attacker must give his/her city card to the loser (as his/her new city card) and take the next available city card for him-/herself.
    • If it's black, the attacker can choose whether to give the city card to the loser or to keep it, in which case the loser takes the next available city card.
• The joker cities are always the same colour as the other party:
  • When attacked by a black city, the joker city is also black, and thus gets destroyed - likewise, attacked by a red city, it's red and is conquered instead.
  • After having attacked a red city, the joker is always given to the loser (like always with red cards). If attacks a black city, can choose (like always with black).

STRATEGY

Winning strikes

The game mechanics give rise to short winning strikes, where the same player gets to take over many (or at least a few) cities in a row.

• The success of this is based on choosing the loser and/or interaction type (1. conquer vs. 2. rearm) based on the suit of the new city card.
• So that, when the next action starts, the player has again a trump card to play, and can continue to ride this wave.
• Of course, this means occasionally giving up quality (not getting a trophy) in exchange for quantity, but it also means that other players do not get action turns that often.

Look ahead

It is very useful to evaluate which city types will be beneficial soon.

• This is a slower strategy and applies especially to the mid-end part of the round, but can guide you to great battle grounds.
• For example, if (almost) all kings are gone, while there are still jacks left, having a queen as the city card would be very nice, because 1) you are safe from kings, and 2) you have jacks to hunt for.

About jokers

Generally, if there are a lot of black cities, it’s not a good time to have a Joker's city: many enemies (and few victims).

Likewise, if there are a lot of red cities, it is a good time to go joker: more victims (and fewer enemies).

HISTORY

v3.1 (2021-12-12)

• Simplified the main game by separating destroying cities (black vs. red) into its own extension. Also changed the name with a new non-dirty storyline.

v3.0 (2016)

• Finally simplified the game to work. (Developing this game along with its siblings - Limbo and Royal Lines - has truly been an exploration into a dance of 'booleans': changing many different settings to their opposite (or another) fixed/stable setting, and observing the results.)

THANKS

FOR IDEAS, HELP WITH DEVELOPMENT & PLAYING

Emmi Viitala, Piia Tamminen, Ville Viitala, Johannes Aho, Mika Mathlin, Tomi Laine, Tuuli Vahtero, Akseli Leinonen, Matti Lehtinen and Ani Vihervaara among others.