Welcome to Imperials!
The game begins with a board generated by the game. Different maps can be chosen from the settings screen. The objective of the game is to flourish your civilization using the resources generated from these tiles. There are various types of hexagonal tiles in the game, which produce resource cards. These are indicated below with the resources produced by them.
To receive resource tiles from a tile on your turn, you must meet two conditions:
Thus, to receive the most resources, you must build settlements. Settlements may be villages or towns. A village produces one resource from any adjacent tile while towns produces two resources from adjacent tiles.
At the start of the game, you are allowed to place two villages and one road adjacent to each of them. The first player must start placing, after which each player takes turn to place a village. When all players have placed one village, they place one village in reverse back to the first player. On placing each village, the player must place a road adjacent to the village along the edge of two adjacent hexagonal tiles.
Before building further villages, the player must build a roads. This is because villages may be built only such that
The player may build roads adjacent to any settlement belonging to the player or adjacent to another road. However, the player may not build roads adjacent to their own road if another player's settlement lies between the place where the road is being built and the player's old road. To build a road, the player must provide one wood and one brick to the market. A player may have a maximum of 15 roads on the board at any time.
After building a road, the player may build a village in an adjacent valid vertex and start producing resources. To build a village, the player must proide one each of wood, brick, wool and wheat to the market. A player may have a maximum of 5 villages on the board at any time.
After building a road, the player may upgrade it to a town and start producing more resources (2 for each town). To build a town, the player must proide two wheat and three ore to the market. A player may have a maximum of 4 towns on the board at any time.
On the start of each turn, the current player must roll the dice. This will lead to production of resources for all players for their villages and towns. The current player may now build and trade resources with other players. While trading:
The current player may also trade with the market
A player wins by accumuating victory points. These are obtained by
A player may win only in their own turn after the dice is rolled. Even if they achieve the requisite number of victory points in another player's turn, they must wait until their turn before declaring victory.
Whenever 7 is rolled on the dice, the robber will steal resources from the players. Any player with more resources than the discard limit will have to discard half of their resources (rounded down if the player has an odd number of resources).
After the players have discarded resources, the current player must move the robber to a different tile. While the robber is placed on a tile, the settlements adjacent to this tile will not produce any resources even if the number on the tile is rolled.
After placing the robber, if any other player has a settlement adjacent to the tile on which the robber is placed, the current player must choose one of these players to steal one random resource card from.
During their turn, players may decide to purchase action cards from the market using their resources instead of building settlements or roads. To purchase an action card, the player must provide one each of wool, wheat and ore to the market. The player will then receive a random action card from the top of the deck. Players may play upto one action card every turn to activate the effect described on the card (victory points do not need to be played). An action card may not be played on the turn it is purchased.
There are five types of action cards that the player may receive:
The player holding the longest trade route of roads with a length of at least 5 will receive 2 extra victory points. This trade route must be uninterrupted by any road or settlement of another player. If another player builds a longer trade route, the two victory points will pass to that player.
Similarly, if a player uses 3 or more Warrior action cards, they will receive 2 extra victory points for controlling the strongest army. If any other player uses more Warrior cards, the two extra points will pass to that player.
This complexity mode provides higher depth of gameplay and is recommended for more experienced players. Read the Basic rules first before starting on this section.
In this mode, at the start of the game, the players place one village and one town on the board. Towns on wood, wool or ore tiles produce commodities along with resources.
Commodities are used to build town improvements. Upto five improvements may be built to towns, and you may build improvements only when you have at least one town on the board.
For the first improvement of any type,the player must provide one commodity of that type to the market. for the second improvement, the player must provide two commodities of that type to the market, and so on.
Improvements produce action cards for the player (which cannot be purchased). A third dice called the event dice is rolled along with the number dice. The event dice shows colors of the improvements. If the player has at least one and upto one less improvement than the roll of the red dice for the color of the event dice, they receive an action card from the market. For example, if the event dice rolls yellow and the red dice rolls 4, all players with 3 or more trade upgrades will receive an action card.
When any player builds 3 improvements of a type (e.g. Science), they build a strategic improvement. These grant special abilities as follows:
If a player builds 4 improvements of a type, they build a wonder of that type. A wonder carries two extra victory points. If any other player now builds 5 upgrades of that type, they get a great wonder, and these two extra points pass to that player (the points of the player that originally had built a wonder are reduced by 2). A great wonder's points may not be claimed by other players during the rest of the game, since it is not possible to build more than 5 improvements of one type.
On building a wonder or a great wonder, the player must place the wonder on one of their town. One town may only have one wonder at any time. As a result, the player cannot build wonders if they have no towns that have no wonders or great wonders.
Players may place warriors on the board similar to settlements. To build a warrior, the player must provide one each of wool and ore to the market.
After build a warrior, the player may activate it using one wheat.
Activated warriors may fight the dragon or perform an action. An action may be performed only if the warrior was not activated during the current turn. After the action is performed, the warrior is deactivated (and may be reactivated again in the same turn, but not perform another action). These actions are:
The player may increase the strength of a warrior by providing it with one wool and one ore.
On doing this, a regular warrior will be upgraded to a strong warrior. While fighting the dragon, the strength of the warrior is considered equal to two warriors (if activated). Strong warriors may also displace regular warriors of other players.
The player may further upgrade a strong warrior to a mighty warrior, which counts as three warriors and may displace strong or regular warriors of other players. However, the player must first build the barracks before this can be done. Mighty warriors cannot be upgraded further or displaced by another player's warriors.
The wealth of the Imperials attracts dragons from the mountains. If a player is not protected from the dragon, the dragon will destroy one of their towns and reduce it to a village!
If the event dice rolls black, the dragon moves towards the island by one step. The progress of the dragon is shown to the left. When the dragon reaches the island, the combined strength of the players' armies decides the fate of the island. The strength of the dragon is determined by the total number of towns on the board. If the total strength of the army is equal or greater than the strength of the dragon, the players will defeat the dragon. Regardless of the result of the dragon war, all warriors are deactivated after the war.
When the dragon is defeated, if one player has more active warriors than any other player, they receive an extra victory point for being the Dragonslayer. The dragon then moves back to the mountain.
If two or more players have an equal number of active warriors, they receive an action card from the market of any type of their choice.
If the combined strength of all the active warriors on the board is less than the dragon's strength, the player(s) with the fewest number of active knights must choose one town to demote to a village. If a player has no towns, they are not considered in the calculation of the players with the lowest number of active warriors.
Wonders protect towns against the dragon. A player may not demote a town with a wonder to a village. If a player has no towns without wonders, they are treated similarly as having no towns when calculating the players with the least number of active knights.
The player may build a fence for towns to keep out the robber. For each fence built, the discard limit of the player is increased by 2. Upto 3 fences may be built by any player, and a town can have only one fence at any time. If a town is destroyed by the dragon, the fence is also destroyed.
Players receive action cards as detailed in the improvements section. The color of each card corresponds to the improvement type for which it may be received.
Unlike the basic mode, players may use as many action cards as they desire during their turn. However, the player may not hold more than 4 action cards in their hand when it's not their turn. If the player has more than 4 action cards, they must discard one back to the market.