RULEBOOK

INTRODUCTION
The game is set 43 Years before the events in Hidden Leaders. The Emperor is still alive and reigns
over Oshra with an iron fist. But now his daughter has started a rebellion against him. In addition to
Lemron calling to arms, Leaders of the most powerful Houses are gathering their Armies as well. They
want to extend their influence in the power vacuum of a civil war. Will you be victorious in battle and
emerge as the most powerful dynasty of Oshra?

You represent Leaders of powerful Houses and move 3 Armies across the board. You recruit
Units, conquer Fortresses, and defeat your opponents to achieve the most victory points at the
end of the game.

GOAL OF THE GAME

The players try to conquer and keep control of the most valuable locations called Fortresses. Their
value may change according to different player actions such as upgrading or conquering them. After
completing three Years (=rounds) the game ends and each player adds up the value of all Fortresses
that they control to determine their victory points. The player with the most victory points wins the
game. In case of players having the same amount of victory points, the tied player who is the starting
player or is closest to the starting player in turn order wins the game.

COMPONENTS

2 double-sided boards 72 Battle cards 15 Army meeples (3 per player) 1 starting 30 Strategy cards
with 4 maps, one for each player count (values 3, 4, 5 and 6 +1 bonus Champion meeple player marker (a set of 6 Strategy cards
(2, 3, 4, and 5 players) in three colors) per player)
for the yellow player

75 player tokens 15 neutral tokens 15 Army dials (3 per player) 1 battle AND Year 5 Leader sheets
(15 per player) +1 bonus dial for the tracker board (Asymmetric Player Powers)
yellow player
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Setup 4
Basic Concepts 6
Maps, Locations and Streets 6
Fortresses 7
Armies 7
Gameplay 8
The Strategy Phase 8
Strategy cards 9
Move All 11
Move 2 11
Conquer 11
Ambush 12
Upgrade 12
Ritual 13
The Battle Phase 14
Battle cards 14
Initiating Battles 15
Fighting Battles 16
Initiative 16
Playing cards 17
Battle Outcomes: Draw, Retreat, Chase and Destroy 18
Resolving Battles with multiple players 20
Conquer Phase 22
Recovery and Recruitment Phase 22
End of the game 23
Asymetric Player Powers - Leaders 24
King Keralon 24
Lemron 25
Basil 26
Vymar 27
Pavyr 27
Game Variants 28
Team Mode 2 vs 2 28
2 vs 1 29
Glossary 30
 SETUP
1 The last player to have seen a castle is the starting player.

2 Each player chooses a Leader and 1 of their 2 asymmetric abilities. For details,
see page 24.

For your first game: Skip this step. Use the Leaders and their asymmetric powers once
you are familiar with the game.

3 Place one neutral token on each Fortress location (Roman numerals).

4 Each player selects one of the designated starting Fortresses (listed below)
and places one of their player tokens on this Fortress. (It now has a value of 2.)

a) 2 players: Starting Fortress III and V.

a) 3 players: Starting Fortresses II, VI, and VII.
a) 4 players: Starting Fortresses: I, III, VIII, and X

5 Take the 3 Army meeples and 3 Army dials of your color. Taking turns, players
place 1 of their Armies on their starting Fortress and/or on the locations adjacent
to their starting Fortress until there are no Armies left to place. Two locations that
are connected by a Street are considered adjacent.

6 Distribute a combined total of 12 Units among your 3 Armies as you see fit and
adjust the value on their respective Army dials. However, each Army must have
at least 1 Unit. How many Units an Army has is kept secret from the other players.

7 Take the set of 6 Strategy cards of your color into your hand. Their backside
shows the icon of your House, matching your chosen Leader.

8 Draw 10 Battle Cards from the Deck, then discard 3 cards face up to the
discard pile. You start the game with 7 Battle cards in hand. Keep them separate
from your Strategy cards.

9 The game begins with the first Year.

Note: Players may want to distribute the Units among their Armies in different ways. Some may
want to have one strong Army and two weaker Armies, others may want to have three Armies
with an equal number of Units. The decision is yours.

Also, note that the way Units are distributed is permanent. Armies cannot be combined or
exchange Units among them. They can only gain Units in the Recovery and Recruitment phase
(see page 22) or lose Units in battle.

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5
 BASIC CONCEPTS
MAPS, Locations and Streets
Each side of the board shows a map of Oshra.

There are different maps for 2 players, 3 players, 4 players,

and 5 players (indicated by icons in the top right corner of
the map). Maps consist of 3 different types of regions with
different colors and shapes: Forest (green), Wetlands (blue),
and Town (red). These region types determine which Battle
cards can be played during battle.

The spaces on the map are called Locations

Some of them have Fortresses on them, represented by tokens. The Locations have different shapes
according to the region they are in: Square ( ) for red/Town Locations, Diamond ( ) for green/
Forest Locations, and Circle ( ) for blue/Wetlands Locations. Some Locations show a Roman
numeral which is used when setting up the game (see page 4).

Streets are connections between Locations.

Armies must move across Streets. They must end their movement on Locations and cannot end their
movement on a Street. Two Locations that are connected by a Street are considered adjacent for
battles or movement.

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FORTRESSES
Locations with 1 or more neutral and/or player
tokens are called Fortresses.

Fortresses can change their value and control throughout the

game. The top token of the stack determines who controls the
Fortress. If Fortresses have a neutral token on top, they are not
controlled by any player. If Fortresses have a player’s token on top,
they are controlled by that player.

A Fortress can gain or lose tokens in the following ways:

• 1 token is added when a Fortress is Conquered by an enemy Army.

• Up to 2 tokens are added to 2 individual Fortresses as part of the “Upgrade” Strategy card action.

• 1 token must be discarded from a Fortress you control when performing the “Ritual” Strategy card.

Locations without a token can never be Conquered or Upgraded.

ARMIES
Armies are represented by the Army meeples on the board.

Each player controls 3 Armies: 1 Archer meeple, 1 Infantry meeple, and 1 Cavalry meeple.

Archer meeple Infantry meeple Cavalry meeple

These Armies, although they are shaped differently, share the same ruleset and traits, but may have a
varying number of Units. They perform actions based on the Strategy cards played. At the beginning of
the game, players have to distribute a total of 12 Units across their 3 Armies and adjust the value on their
respective Army dials. These values are kept secret and are only shown to all players when initiating
a battle. Each Army can have a maximum of 15 Units. If an Army would be destroyed in battle, instead
reduce the Units to half its value (rounded down, to a minimum of 1). Place this Army’s meeple aside, it
will be put back on the board in the Recovery and Recruitment phase (see page 22).

Example: If an Army with 3 Units is destroyed, you need to reduce the value on the dial to 1.

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 GAMEPLAY
The game is played in a series of three Years (rounds), each of which is divided into
four phases:

The Strategy phase The game ends after 3 Years

have been played
The Battle phase

The Conquer phase

The Recovery and Recruitment phase (skipped in Year 3)

THE STRATEGY PHASE

The Strategy phase consists of 4 Seasons, during which players will simultaneously
choose 1 of their Strategy cards from their hand and place it face down in front of them.

The chosen Strategy cards are revealed and performed in turn order. After every player has played 4
Strategy cards, they take all cards back into their hand and continue with the Battle phase (see page 14).

Perform the following steps:

1 You secretly choose one of your (remaining) Strategy cards from your hand and place it face
down in front of you. This is done simultaneously with the other players.

2 Once you all have played your Strategy card, starting with the starting player and then going
clockwise you either:

a) Reveal your Strategy card and perform the printed actions (see page 9).
OR:
b) Keep the card face down and draw 5 Battle cards instead. If your hand exceeds 10
Battle cards (not including your Strategy cards) you must discard down to 10 Battle cards
after drawing.

3 Once all players have performed either option 2a or 2b, all players continue with the next
Season by selecting another Strategy card.

4 You repeat steps 1-3 a total of 4 times until all players have played 4 of their 6 available
Strategy cards. After this, the Battle phase starts and players resolve any imminent battles
(see page 14).

Please note, that there is no automatic passing of the “starting” player token. Instead, once a player uses the
“Ritual” action they can give the starting player token to any player (including themselves). The starting player
token is then locked for the remaining Season and can only be changed in the next Season. This may change
the starting player for the upcoming Season. In the current Season, continue players’ turns in clockwise order.

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STRATEGY CARDS
Strategy cards are one of the two types of cards in your hand, in addition to the Battle
cards. Keep them separate from each other. The 6 Strategy cards are a core part of the
game. In each of the 3 Years, all players, in turn order, play 4 of these 6 cards.

Each Strategy card has 1 or more actions shown on 1 or more Banners at the bottom of the card. When
performing the actions of your Strategy card, perform any number of actions shown on its Banner. If
more than 1 Banner with actions is present on the card, choose one Banner and perform any number
of the actions shown on the chosen Banner in any order.
Actions are optional and can be skipped by the player if they don’t want to perform them. Actions can
only be performed by the player who played the Strategy card and cannot be shared or performed
by players other than that player.

Actions overview:

Move all: Perform “Move 1” with each of your Armies.

Move 2: You may perform “Move 2” with one of your Armies OR perform “Move 1” with two
of your Armies.

Conquer AND Move 1: In any order, you may perform “Move 1” with 1 of your Armies and
conquer any Fortresses where one of your Armies is located.

Ambush OR Move: You choose to either Ambush adjacent Armies which immediately
initiates a battle at a chosen Location and gives your Units a +6 bonus OR perform “Move
1” with 1 of your Armies.

Upgrade AND Move 1: In any order, perform “Move 1” with 1 of your Armies AND Upgrade
up to 2 Fortresses you control by 1.

Ritual: Reduce the value of one of your Fortresses by 1 and copy another Strategy card.
The first player to do so in the current Season can also give the starting player token to
any player they like (including themselves).

Example: If a player performs the “Conquer AND Move 1” Strategy card, they can

either choose to first Conquer a Fortress and then Move 1 or vice versa..

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 Movements
As movements are part of each Strategy card and essential for navigating
across the map, they will be explained here first before diving into the
specific Strategy cards.

For all movements, the following rules apply:

• Movements are performed by playing Strategy cards or as part of the

Battle Outcome (see page 18).

• Movements allow players to move Armies from their current Location on the
map to an adjacent Location that is connected by a Street. The term “Move X”
refers to moving Armies across X Streets to a Location. You may distribute the
Movements across any number of your Armies.
Example: If you perform the “Move 2” Strategy card, you can move 1 Army to a Location 2
Streets away or move 2 Armies each to a Location 1 Street away from their current Location.

• Armies can move onto the same Location as other Armies of the same player.
They still are considered individual Armies that have separate Units. They
cannot merge into a bigger Army but you temporarily count all Units in a battle.

• Armies can never move onto the same Location as Armies of another player.

• For movements, the region type or color of the Location does not matter—you can
move across the regions as you wish. Yet, pay attention to the region type of these
Locations, as these will determine which Battle cards you can play (see page 14).

• Armies are allowed to move onto enemy and/or neutral Fortresses when there
are no enemy Armies present.

Example: The violet player decides to

move the Army in the middle with “Move
1 AND Conquer”. They can move 1 up
to and then Conquer the Fortress (1),
move 1 to the right to avoid a Battle with
the yellow Army (2) or move 1 down to
their other Army. However, they cannot
move their Army to the left because this
Location is occupied by a yellow Army.

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MOVE ALL
You may perform “Move 1” with each of your Armies.

Remember that you can perform these movements

in any order.

MOVE TWO
Banner 1: You may perform “Move 2”
with 1 of your Armies.

Banner 2: You may perform “Move 1”

with 2 of your Armies. Remember that you
can perform these movements in any order.

CONQUER
Immediately take control of all enemy or neutral
Fortresses where at least 1 of your Armies is located.
To do so, place one of your player tokens on top of
each of these Fortresses.

This permanently increases the value of these Fortresses by 1.

Then, draw 2 Battle cards from the Deck for each Fortress you
conquered this turn. After drawing, discard 1 Battle card for
each Fortress you conquered this turn chosen from your entire
hand (just as in a regular Conquer Phase, see page 22). If you
still have more than 10 Battle cards in hand after discarding,
discard down to the hand limit of 10 Battle cards.

In addition to the Conquer action, you may perform “Move 1”

with 1 of your Armies. Remember that you can perform this
movement before or after the Conquer action.

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 AMBUSH
Banner 1: You may choose 1 of your
Armies that is adjacent to an enemy
Army and immediately initiate 1 Battle.

It follows the regular rules for Battles and may

involve multiple Armies from multiple players.
At the start of the Battle, you get a temporary
bonus of +6 Units until the battle ends. Only
one battle can be triggered with this action. If
several battles are possible, you choose which
battle you wish to fight. +6

Banner 2: You may perform “Move 1”

with 1 of your Armies.

Remember that you can perform this

movement instead of the Ambush action. This
might be an option if you’re not able or willing
to initiate a battle.

UPGRADE
Upgrade up to 2 Fortresses you control by 1. To do
so, place one of your player tokens on top of those
Fortresses.

Remember, the number of tokens determines how many victory

points each Fortress is worth at game’s end. Those Fortresses
do not change control in any way. You can never upgrade a
Fortress by more than 1 with this action. If you control only one
Fortress, you can only upgrade that one Fortress by 1.

In addition to the Upgrade action, you may perform “Move 1”

with 1 of your Armies. Remember that you can perform this
movement before or after the Upgrade action.

Please note: If a player runs out of player tokens, they can replace their player tokens with neutral

tokens and put them on the bottom of the token stack, not changing control of the Fortress.

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RITUAL
This card is special as it lets you copy and perform 1
of your other Strategy cards. It can be a card that is
still in your hand or a card you have already played,
either face up or face down.

Follow these 3 steps in the following order:

1) Remove 1 token
Remove 1 token from the bottom of 1 of
your Fortresses.

This way, control of the Fortress does not change as the top
player token stays the same. If the last token is removed from
1 of your Fortresses, the Fortress is destroyed and cannot be
Conquered or Upgraded for the remainder of the game. If you
don’t control any Fortresses, you can perform this Strategy
card without removing any token.

2) Choose an action
Then, choose and perform 1 of your other 5
Strategy cards (Move 2, Move All, Conquer,
Ambush, or Upgrade).

Follow all the rules for the chosen card. Keep in mind that the
chosen Strategy card can be any Strategy card, no matter if it
currently is in your hand or already played.

3) Assign the starting player marker

If you are the first player who performed
the Ritual Strategy card this Season, take
the starting player marker and give it to
any player.

This player can be yourself, any other player, or the same

player as before. This may change the starting player for the
upcoming Season. In the current Season, continue players’
turns in clockwise order.

Any other player, after the first player to perform the Ritual
action in the same Season, cannot change the starting player.

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 THE BATTLE PHASE
During the Battle phase, any Armies that are adjacent to enemy Armies will
participate in a battle.

This may result in multiple Armies from multiple players participating in a single Battle. If there is more
than one battle, the starting player decides the order in which the battles are fought. Each battle is
resolved one at a time. If no Armies are adjacent to enemy Armies, the Battle phase is skipped without a
battle taking place.

BATTLE CARDS
Battle cards are one of the two types of cards in your hand, in addition to the Strategy cards. Keep
them separate from each other. Battle cards have a value printed in the upper left corner and are
used in 2 ways:

1 In the Recovery and Recruitment phase, they are revealed to determine how many
additional Units all players can distribute among their Armies.

2 During a Battle, they are used to temporarily increase the Units of Armies by the value
shown on the card until the end of the battle.
a) You can add the value printed on the Battle card to the Units of any of your Armies
participating in the battle if their Location matches the region of the Battle card.
b) Players can also decide to play any Battle card from their hand face down to
add 1 Unit to an Army. Battle cards played face down do not have to match the
Army’s region.

Battle cards have 3 different colors (blue, green, and red)

that correspond to the colors of the regions on the map.

There are four cards for each color and values are available in equal numbers:
• 6 Battle points (illustrated as cavalry) • 4 battle points (illustrated as spear fighters)
• 5 battle points (illustrated as heavy infantry) • 3 battle points (illustrated as archers)

6 5 4 3

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INITIATING BATTLES
During the Battle phase the players determine which Armies participate in battles.
Armies participate in battles if they are adjacent to one or more enemy Armies. If
Armies are adjacent to several enemy Armies (of the same or different players) all
Armies participate in one big battle (see page 20).

In general, Armies never participate in battles if they are not connected to enemy Armies by a Street.
In addition, Armies can never participate in two different battles in the same Battle phase. After an
Army has fought one battle, it becomes inactive and is not considered for any further battles that
might follow in the current Battle phase. To indicate this, lay all Armies that already have participated
in a battle on their side. They are placed upright again after all battles have ended.

Example 1: Markus (yellow player) fights

against Roxi (purple player). Both of Markus’
Armies are participating in the battle as they
are adjacent to an enemy Army (see red
circle). Roxi’s 2nd Army cannot participate in
the battle, because it is not adjacent to an
enemy Army.

Example 2: At the start of the Battle phase, 3 Armies of the teal player, 2 Armies of the gray player,
and 1 Army of the orange player are located as shown. In this extreme example, there are two
battles: One battle happens between 2 teal Armies, 1 gray Army, and 1 orange Army. The second
battle happens between 1 teal and 1 gray Army. Battle 2 is independent of battle 1 because neither
Army from the smaller battle (gray and teal) is adjacent to an enemy Army that is participating in
the bigger battle.

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 Fighting battles
To perform a battle, follow these steps:

Reveal Units: Players who are participating in the current Battle reveal the Units
of all their participating Armies by showing their Army dials. Remember to hide this
information again after the battle!

Set Battle tracker: Set the total number of Units of each player by placing a player
token onto the respective space on the Battle tracker. If you have used the Ambush
action, temporarily add +6 to your Units by moving your player token forward by 6
spaces on the Battle track. Do not increase your Units on your dials.

Determine Initiative: The player with the fewest Units is the weaker player and gains
initiative. Initiative can change multiple times.

Playing cards: The Player who has initiative can perform the following 3 actions: Play
Battle cards, Yield, and/or Accept Draw.

Battle outcome: The defeated player deducts the difference between their and the
winning players’ Units from one of their Armies who participated in this battle, adjusting
its dial. Then, their Armies are moved to empty adjacent Locations if possible.

INITIATIVE
Initiative is a term used to describe that one specific player can take actions during a
battle for as long as they have initiative. At the start of the battle, the player with the
fewest Units gains initiative*.

Initiative may change any number of times

during a battle, but at any time only one
player can have initiative. If the weaker player
reaches the same or higher Units total as
their enemy, the initiative to play Battle cards
passes to their enemy.

*If both Armies start the battle with the same number
of Units, the player who is first in turn order (closest to
the starting player) has Initiative. If the player decides
not to play a card, the initiative passes to their
enemy. If this player also decides not to play a card,
the battle ends in a Draw.

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PLAYING CARDS
The player who has Initiative can perform the following 3 actions:

Play Battle cards: You may play Battle cards as long as you have Initiative. Add
the value printed on the Battle cards temporarily to your current Units, moving your
player marker forward on the Battle tracker. Do not increase your Units on your dials.
Remember that you can only play Battle cards face up that match the region type
(green, red, blue) of your fighting Armies’ Locations. Remember, you can also play
Battle cards of any region type face down, but they then only have a value of 1.

Yield: If you are not able or willing to play any more Battle cards, you need to Yield,
accepting defeat (see page 18, “Battle Outcomes”).

Accept Draw: When you receive initiative from your enemy and have the same
number of Units as all other players participating in battle (and only then!) you can
accept the outcome of the battle as a Draw (see page 18, “Battle Outcomes”).

Players play cards taking turns based on who has Initiative. The battle always ends either because
the player with Initiative accepts a Draw or because the weaker player accepts defeat by Yielding.

Please note that this explanation is for battles in which two players participate. If three or
more players participate in a battle, see page 20, “Battles with Multiple Players”.

Example:

Roxi (violet) and Lisa (orange) participate in a battle. Roxi has one Army

with 6 Units and can only play red Battle cards face up. Lisa has two Armies

with 5 Units each and can play both red and blue Battle cards face up in any

combination she likes. This is a very favorable position for Lisa.

With her two Armies of 5 Units each, Lisa has a total Units of 10. Roxi’s Army has

6 Units. Roxi must now play Battle cards or accept a costly defeat (-4 Units).

Roxi plays a red 3. Thus Roxi now has 9 Units. She still has 1 Unit less than Lisa,

so she still has initiative. Roxi decides to play another card.

Roxi plays a red 4. Now Roxi has 13 Units. She now has 3 more Units than Lisa.

Initiative passes to Lisa.

Remember, because Lisa’s Armies are in the red and blue region, Lisa can play

red and blue cards. She plays a blue 2. Lisa now has 12 Units, so 1 less than Roxi.

She still has initiative and plays a red 3. Now she has 15 Units compared to Roxi’s

13 Units. Initiative passes to Roxi again.

Roxi decides to play a Battle card face down, adding 1 Unit. She is still weaker

than Lisa with 14 Units vs 15 Units.

Roxi decides to play no more cards and accepts her defeat by Yielding. Her

Army will only lose 1 Unit because of the difference.

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 battle OUTCOMES. DRAW, RETREAT, CHASE AND DESTROY

Once a battle ends there are two possible outcomes: Either the battle ends in a draw
or one player wins the battle and the other player(s) lose.

Draw: If both players participating in a battle have the same number of Units, the
player with Initiative has the option to Accept a Draw. All Armies participating in this
battle remain in their current Locations, no Units are lost, no one wins or is defeated
and no Chases or Retreats will be performed.

Defeat/Victory: If the weaker player chooses to stop playing cards or runs out of
cards, they need to Yield and lose the battle. Their Armies are thereby defeated. The
defeated player loses a number of Units equal to the difference in Units between
them and the winning player. If only 1 Army of the defeated player participated in
this battle, the defeated player simply adjusts its Units on its Army dial. If more than
1 Army of the defeated player participated in this battle, the defeated player has to
assign all losses to a single Army of their choice. If the difference exceeds that Army’s
Unit value, this Army is destroyed and any losses exceeding its number of Units are
then deducted from another defeated Army, and so on.

Destroy: If an Army’s Units drop to zero, it is immediately destroyed and removed from the map.
Also, if a defeated Army can’t retreat to an empty or self-controlled Location (see below), that
Army is destroyed regardless of its Units. The winning player immediately may perform a free
Upgrade action for each Army they have destroyed. With each of these Upgrade actions, they
may upgrade up to 2 of their Fortresses by 1 following all the Upgrade rules (see page 12).
Destroyed Armies are taken off the map. However, their Units are not reduced to zero, but to half
their Units (rounded down, to a minimum of 1). Destroyed Armies can be retrieved in the Recovery
and Recruitment phase (see page 22). In this phase, previously destroyed Armies may be placed
in self-controlled Locations with Fortresses.

Example: Lisa’s Army with 3 Units is destroyed in battle. She takes the Army off the map and
reduces the Units on its dial to 1.

After adjusting their Units, perform the following 2 steps for defeated Armies:

Retreat: All defeated Armies with 1 or more remaining Units must retreat to an adjacent Location.
The winning player decides to which Locations these Armies retreat. However, this player must
retreat all Armies if possible (The player may not cut off a retreating Army with another retreating
Army if preventable). The general movement rules still apply. Therefore, the Army cannot be moved
to Locations controlled by enemy Armies, but may be moved to Fortresses or Locations with other
Armies of the same player. If no valid movement is possible, Armies are destroyed (see above). If any
other (inactive) Army should happen to share the Location with an Army that has just retreated, it
must retreat as well, following the same rules.

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Chase: The winning player has the option to “chase” 1 defeated Army by moving 1 of their Armies, which
was adjacent to the defeated Army, to the Location where the defeated Army was. It does not matter if the
defeated Army has retreated or was destroyed.

Note: Every defeated Army can only be chased by one winning Army that is also adjacent to it.
A defeated Army can never be chased by two Armies at the same time or by an Army that is
not connected by a Street to the Location the defeated Army was at (in the case of multiplayer-
battles). Also, a winning Army can never chase more than one Army at the same time.

Example for chasing an Army: Andreas’ teal

Army is defeated by Alex’ 2 gray Armies. The
teal Army must retreat. Alex decides to move
the defeated Army up (as it is the only viable
Location) (1). Then, Alex decides to chase the
defeated Army with 1 of their Armies. They
pick the lower right Army and move it to the
Location previously occupied by Andreas’
teal Army (2).

Example for chasing with 2 Armies: Alex wins with 1 gray Army against Markus’ 2 yellow Armies. The
yellow Armies must retreat. Alex moves both of Markus’ Armies 1 Location away. Then he decides
to chase the Army on the left, moving his gray Army onto the Fortress, planning to occupy it in the
following Conquer phase.

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 RESOLVING BATTLES WITH MULTIPLE PLAYERS
If Armies of more than two players participate in the same battle, the battle rules still
apply and play out as follows:

• The player with the fewest Units always has Initiative and plays Battle cards until
they are no longer the weakest player or decide to Yield.

• If the weakest player reaches the same number of Units as the second weakest
player, Initiative is passed to that player, who is now the weakest.

• If the player who has Initiative decides to play no more cards and accept defeat
by Yielding, the losses are always calculated based on the Unit value of the currently
strongest player compared to the Yielding player’s Units. At this point, the player
leaves the battle and is involved again only in the Battle Outcomes step.

• The remaining players continue until there is exactly one player left who is then
declared the winner OR until all remaining players have the same number of Units
and the player with Initiative Accepts a Draw.

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Follow these steps to resolve a multiplayer battle:

• All players determine their total number of Units by adding up all their Armies that participate in the
battle, and place 1 of their player tokens onto the corresponding space on the Battle tracker.

• The player with the fewest Units is the weakest and has Initiative. If two or more players are tied for
the weakest player, the player prior in turn order has Initiative.

• If the player with Initiative has played Battles cards that they are no longer the weakest player,
Initiative immediately passes to the now weakest player. In case of a tie, the tied player prior in turn
order has Initiative.

• If the player with Initiative isn’t able or willing to play any more cards, this player has to Yield. They
immediately lose Units equal to the difference in Units between them and the strongest player (see
page 18, “Defeat/Victory” under “Battle Outcomes”). If an Army is destroyed, it counts as destroyed by
the strongest player. This player immediately may Upgrade up to 2 of their Fortresses by 1.

• If the defeated player still has Armies left that participated in this battle, all of them are now out of
the battle and will retreat once the battle has ended for all players.

• Then, the remaining players determine who is the new weakest player. This player now has Initiative.
In case of a tie, the tied player prior in turn order has Initiative.

• The remaining players continue until there is exactly one player left who is then declared the
winner OR until all remaining players have the same number of Units and the player with Initiative
Accepts a Draw.

• If there is a winner, all defeated Armies that have not been destroyed must retreat to an adjacent
Location. If the battle ends with a winner, the winning player decides to which Locations those
Armies retreat. However, this player must retreat all Armies if possible (The player may not cut off a
retreating Army with another retreating Army if preventable). The winning player may then decide to
Chase defeated Armies that are adjacent to their Armies.

• If the battle ends in a Draw, no one can chase defeated players and the defeated players can decide
for themselves to which Locations their Armies retreat. If an Army cannot retreat, it is destroyed. If the
outcome is a Draw, there is no winner, which means no Retreat or Chase actions are performed.

21
 THE CONQUER PHASE
In this phase, if you have Armies on Fortresses that are not controlled by you, you
perform the Conquer action, taking over control of these Fortresses.

To indicate this, place one of your player tokens on top of it. This permanently increases the value of
this Fortress by 1. Any previous player tokens remain on the Fortress – the tokens are never removed
when a Fortress changes control by being Conquered. For this reason, Fortresses that change control
several times increase in value because of the added player tokens.

For each Fortress you Conquered, draw 2 cards from the Deck and add them to
your hand. Then, you must discard 1 card from your hand for each Fortress you have
conquered. If you exceed your hand limit of 10 Battle cards, you also need to discard
down to 10 Battle cards.

Example: Alex has 7 Battle cards and Conquers 2 Fortresses. They draw 4 cards up to a total of 11
Battle cards, then discard 2 cards which leaves them with 9 Battle cards in hand. Tony, on the other
hand, has 9 Battle cards in hand and also Conquers 2 Fortresses. He draws 4 cards up to a total
of 13 Battle cards, then discards 2 cards because of the Conquered Fortresses and another 1 card
because he has exceeded his hand limit of 10 Battle cards.

THE RECOVERY AND RECRUITMENT PHASE

First, all players with destroyed Armies recover their Armies. To do so, they place all of
these Armies on any 1 of their Fortresses. If a player does not control any Fortresses,
no Army can be recovered.

Next, the starting player reveals a certain number of cards from the Deck according to
the current Year (see below). All players add Units, equal to the number on the revealed
card(s), to their Armies by freely distributing them across their Armies, marking their
new Units on their Army dials. The maximum number of Units an Army can have is 15.
Remember, how many Units an Army has is kept secret from the other players.

Year 1: 1 card Year 2: 2 cards Year 3: no cards

For example, the starting player reveals a 6 in the first Year. Every player then gains 6 Units that they
can distribute across their Armies. Markus decides to add 6 Units to 1 of his Armies while Lisa decides
to add 2 Units to each of her 3 Armies.

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 END OF THE GAME

After three Years have been completed, the game ends and players count the values of
all the Fortresses that they control. Those values are your victory points.

Example: Markus controls a total of 3 Fortresses with values 2, 4, and 5 adding up to a total of 11
victory points. Lisa controls a total of 4 Fortresses with values 1, 2, 2, and 3 adding up to a total of 8
points. Markus wins because he has more victory points than Lisa.

In case of a tie, the player who is closest to the starting player in turn order wins.

23
 ASYMMETRIC PLAYER POWERS
LEADERS
There are 4 Leaders that the players can choose from. Each Leader comes with
two asymmetric abilities which significantly change or add to the existing rules.
Players need to choose 1 of the 2 available asymmetric abilities. If at any point rules
contradict each other, the asymmetric abilities overrule the rules printed in this
rulebook. When you play the game for the first time, we recommend not to use any
leader abilities to learn the basics of the game.

KING KERALON
A: 4th Army
You command 4 Armies instead of 3.

At the beginning of the game, you place 4 Armies

instead of 3. (Therefore you are the only player who
has 4 Army meeples.) Use them just like you would
use 3 Armies. You still distribute 12 points across these
4 Armies. The “Move all’’ Strategy card allows you to
move all 4 Armies (which may add up to a total of 4
movements). If the 4th Army is destroyed, it may be
recovered just like any other Army.

B: Champion
You receive a +2 bonus on each face up
Battle card played in a battle in which the
Champion participates.

Replace 1 of your 3 Armies with the Champion Army

meeple. This special Army is your “Champion.” If the
Champion participates in a battle, add +2 Units to each
Battle card you play face up. Therefore, a 3 counts as 5
Units, a 4 as 6 Units, a 5 as 7 Units and a 6 as 8 Units. This
bonus only counts for cards that are played face up. Battle
cards you play face down (because they do not have the
right region type) still only have a value of 1. If more than
one of your Armies participate in the same battle, all of
your Armies profit from the Champion’s +2 bonus.

24
LEMRON
A: Move Fortresses
Move 1 of your Fortresses by one step when
using the “Ritual” action.

Whenever you perform the “Ritual” Strategy card, you

may also decide to move 1 of your Fortresses to an
adjacent Location. Move the entire stack of tokens
without changing its order or value.
The Fortress can be moved regardless of the presence
of Armies on Locations. Fortresses can be moved on top
of other Fortresses controlled by you, combining them
for the rest of the game. Fortresses cannot be moved
onto Locations where a neutral Fortress or a Fortress
controlled by another player is present.

B: Spread Power
Place tokens outside your Fortresses.

Whenever you perform the “Upgrade” Strategy card, you

may either upgrade one of your Fortresses by placing a
player token on top of it as usual OR you may build a new
Fortress with a value of 1 by placing your player token on
a Location without a Fortress where one of your Armies is
present. You can do this up to 2 times as usual, deciding
each time if you want to upgrade an existing Fortress or
build a new one. You can never use this ability to place a
player token on an enemy Fortress or on a Location where
none of your Armies is present. This ability may also be
performed when the “Upgrade” Strategy card is copied
with the “Ritual” Strategy card.

25
 BASIL

A: Undead Armies
Whenever 1 of your Armies would lose Units,
instead add that much Units.

Whenever you lose a battle and your Armies lose Units,

add that many Units to your Armies instead of losing
them. This way, your Armies grow in size with every battle
you lose. You can only add Units that you would be able
to lose. For example, to an Army with 2 Units you can only
add 2 Units, even if the actual difference in Units between
the defeated and winning Armies is higher. If your Armies
are destroyed or can’t retreat, you still take your Armies
off the board and don’t add Units but follow the rules for
destroyed Armies (see page 18).

With this ability, Armies can only be destroyed if they are

forced to retreat but there is no Location they can retreat
to. In this case the Army is taken off the map as detailed
in page 18, “Battle Outcome”.

B: Destroyer
Destroy 1 Army to win the game.

When you destroy 1 enemy Army the game immediately

ends and you win the game! An enemy Army is destroyed
when its Units are reduced to zero as a result of a battle
OR if there is no Location it can retreat to. If someone else
destroys an Army, this never counts for you, regardless
of whether you were part of this battle or not. This might
happen in a battle with multiple players, when the
weakest player accepts defeat and one of their Armies
gets destroyed and you are not the strongest player.

26
VYMAR
A: All Region Fighter
Your face down Battle cards count as +3 Units
instead of +1.
Whenever you play a Battle card face down (because
it does not have the right region type) you add 3 Units
instead of 1 Unit.

B: Fast Traveler
Add +1 movement when performing the
“Ritual” Strategy card.
Whenever you perform the “Ritual” Strategy card you
gain an additional +1 movement that you can add to the
card you copy. Thus you may use your “Ritual” card as:
• Move 3 • Move 2 and Conquer
• Move all AND Move 1 • Move 2 and Upgrade
• Ambush AND Move 1” OR “Move 2”

PAVYR
A: Reinforcements
Steal a Battle card from opponents.
Whenever you perform the “Ritual” Strategy card you
may also perform a Steal action up to once for each of
your Armies. To do so, announce a region type (green,
blue, red) and choose another player whose Armies are
adjacent to at least 1 of your Armies. The chosen player
has to give you one of their Battle cards of the chosen
region if they have any. Afterward, you have to discard
down to your hand limit of 10 Battle cards.

B: Fortress Armies
Your Fortresses add bonus Units in battles
Whenever one of your Armies participates in a battle,
each Fortress you control that is connected by a Street
to at least one enemy Army who participates in this
battle will grant you a number of bonus Units equal
to the Fortresses value. Add these bonus Units to your
Unitsfor this battle. You can also use Battle cards
matching the region type of the Fortresses.

27
 GAME VARIANTS
TEAM MODE TWO VS TWO
With four players, the game can be played in teams of two players. Team members
can’t sit next to each other and therefore can’t take turns after each other. The players in
a team are allied. However, they each control their own Armies, meaning you can only
move your own Armies, add Units to your own Armies, and play Battle cards of the region
type matching the Locations of your own Armies. However, at the end of the game, the
allied players add up the values of their Fortresses to determine their victory points.

Play the game taking turns in clockwise order as usual, with the following modifications:

Movement
Players can move their Armies to Locations where an allied Army is as if this Army was their own Army.

Conquer
You mark your own Fortresses as usual (which is relevant for recovering destroyed Armies in the
Recovery and Recruitment phase). Players can never Conquer Fortresses that belong to allied players.

Battle
In battle, allied players add up their Units as if they were the Armies of a single player. The team
with the lower Unit value has initiative. When a team has initiative, the allied players must agree on
who plays a Battle card next. They still can only play one card at a time. Every player can only play
Battle cards for the regions their Armies are in. Players cannot play Battle cards if their Armies do not
participate in the battle.
Players can never initiate a battle against their allies.

Scoring / End of Game

At the end of the game, the allied players add up the values of their Fortresses to determine their
victory points. The players always win or lose as a team.

Sharing information
The players on a team are not allowed to show each other the cards in their hand (both Strategy and
Battle cards). However, they may talk about them freely. Yet, this will also allow the other team to gain
insights into what they are planning to do. In general, all table talk is open and allowed, but keep in
mind that the other team is listening. The amount of details shared will depend on your strategies and
the attentiveness of the other team. It is not allowed that the teams leave the room to secretly discuss
their strategy unless you all agree on this before the game starts.

28
TWO VS ONE WIP
There is also an experimental Two vs One mode for three players which works like the
Two vs Two mode described above with the following modifications:

Setup
One team is formed by two allied players, the other team is formed by a single player. Both teams
play with 4 Armies in total. The two players play with 2 Armies each, and the single player plays with
4 Armies, using the yellow Leader’s power for the 4th Army meeple. The two players each distribute 7
Units across their individual Armies. The single player distributes 14 Units across their Armies.
The two players each draw 5 Battle cards and each discard 1, the single player draws the regular 10
Battle cards and discards 2.

Drawing cards
When drawing Battle cards, the two players each draw 3 Battle cards and keep 2, while the single
player draws 6 Battle cards and keeps 4.

29
 GLOSSARY

Action: Shown on Strategy cards as icons on Banners. Players may perform actions to Move across
the board, Ambush, Conquer, or Upgrade Fortresses.
Army: Armies are represented by meeples on the board. Each player controls 3 Armies and performs
actions with them. Each Army can have 1 to 15 Units. If an Army is destroyed in battle, reduce its Units
by half (rounded down, to a minimum of 1).
Army Dial: Dials to keep track of your Armies’ Units. Always keep your Units secret from the other
players. Only once a battle starts, players show each other the number of Units on the dials of all
participating Armies.
Banner: Part of a Strategy card. A single Banner may contain several (different) actions. It is also
possible that a Strategy card consists of 2 Banners. This is indicated by a gap in between the Banners.
Players can only perform the actions from 1 Banner.
Battle card: These cards show a number of Units players may temporarily add to their Armies
during battle or may permanently add to their Armies in the Recovery and Recruitment phase.
Battle cards form your hand, together with your Strategy cards, but keep them separate from each
other. Your hand limit of Battle cards is 10.
Fortress token: These tokens are used to indicate who controls a Fortress and how many victory points
a Fortress is worth. They are also used to temporarily track the Units during a battle on the Battle tracker.
Hand limit: Players have a hand limit of 10 Battle cards. If players ever exceed their limit of 10 Battle
cards after drawing cards they need to discard down to 10 Battle cards.
Leader: Players represent Leaders. They each have asymmetric abilities that change and contradict
this rulebook. Each Leader has 2 asymmetric abilities, which are shown on the A/B sides of the Player
boards. During setup, you choose 1 of these abilities to use during the game.
Location: The spaces on the map. These include spaces with and without Fortresses.
Region: Each map has 3 different types of regions: Forest (green), Wetland (blue) and Town (red). The
regions in which your Armies are located determine which Battle cards you can play during battle.
Season: Each Strategy phase consists of 4 Seasons. In each Season, every player plays 1 Strategy card.
Strategy card: The 6 cards used by the players to perform actions in the Strategy Phase. In each
Strategy phase, players play a total of 4 out of their 6 Strategy cards. Strategy cards form your hand,
together with your Battle cards, but keep them separate from each other.
Streets: Streets are the connections between Locations and are used by Armies to “Move”.
Unit: Units represent the strength of Armies and are set on the Armies’ dials. Each Army can have 1 to
15 Units. Units can be added to an Army in the Recovery and Recruitment phase or lost in battle.
Year: A game round. 1 Year consists of a Strategy phase, Battle phase, Recovery and Recruitment
phase, and Conquer phase. The game ends after completing 3 Years.

30
 Game Design
Raphael Stocker, Andreas Müller,
Markus Müller

Artist
Satoshi Matsuura, Luigi Sampieri

Graphic Design
Nacho Larrodera, Raphael
Stocker, Markus Müller

Content & Story

Andreas Müller

Copyright
2024 BFF Games GmbH

More information on
www.bff-games.com/yield

Contact
[email protected]
 SUMMARY

The Strategy phase The Conquer phase

The Battle phase The Recovery and Recruitment phase

(skipped in Year 3)

Actions overview: When not revealing your Strategy card:

Move all by 1 Draw 5

Move 1 by 2 or Move 2 by 1
For each conquered Fortress:

Conquer all and Move 1 Draw 2

Discard 1 (from entire hand)

+6 Ambush (+6) or Move 1

Upgrade 2 and Move 1

Downgrade 1
Copy another card
& move starting player