After the Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
  • Player Setup
  • Game Board Setup
• Playing a Season
  • Phase 1: Actions
  • Action Spaces
  • Player Board Worker Placement Actions
    • Building Castle Pieces
  • Phase 2: Combat
    • Preparation Steps
    • Invader Cards
    • Siege Cards
    • Combat Steps
    • Combat Example
  • Phase 3: Flags
  • Phase 4: Income / Turn Order
  • Phase 5: Harvest / Feast
  • Phase 6: Refresh the Board
  • Advance the Season Tracker by 1
• End of Game / Final Scoring
• Variants
  • Easy Mode
  • Hard Mode
  • No Reports
  • Destructive Damage & Crippling Wounds
• Glossary
• Credits

Objective

In After the Empire, players will make use of Buildings and the help of Refugees to gain unique benefits while upgrading their Castle, hiring Mercenaries, and recruiting Soldiers to defend their realm. To fund these endeavors, players will gain Gold from loyal subjects, selling goods, and taxing their neighbors. The player with the most Gold at the end of the final season will be declared the winner!

Components

• 16 Plastic Stands (for Flame Tokens)
• 16 Flame Tokens
• 4 Siege Tokens
• 4 Player Boards
• 4 Reference Cards
• 4 +50/100 Gold Tokens
• 1 Game Board
• 1 Season Tracker
• 1 Threat Tracker
• 4 Gold Trackers (1 per player)
• 20 Workers (5 per player)
• 4 Villagers
• 4 Player Order Markers (1 per player)
• 20 (3) Swordsmen Invader Tokens
• 10 (3) Archer Invader Tokens
• 16 Farm Tiles
• 16 Protect Tokens
• 40 (1) Swordsmen Invader Tokens
• 30 (1) Archer Invader Tokens
• 24 Wound/Damage Tokens
• 4 Wood Gates
• 12 Wood Walls
• 16 Wood Turrets
• 16 Stone Turrets
• 4 Stone Gates
• 12 Stone Walls
• 25 Mercenary Cubes
• 50 Soldier Cubes
• 8 Move 1 Tokens
• 4 Move 3 Tokens
• 10 1 Gold Flags
• 4 2 Gold Flags
• 1 3 Gold Flag
• 60 Food Cubes
• 80 Wood Cubes
• 100 Stone Cubes
• 20 Iron Cubes
• 11 Siege Cards
• 32 Invaders Cards
• 25 Refugee Cards (5 Starting Refugee Cards)
• 32 Building Cards (4 Starting Building Cards)
• 17 Secret Objective Cards

Setup

Player Setup

1. Each player takes 1 Player Board, 1 Barracks (Starting Building) Card, 1 Reference Card, and all Workers and Discs in their desired player color. Each player places 3 Workers in their Great Hall. Shuffle the Secret Objective cards and give one face down to each player.
2. Place 1 Wood Gate on any of the four sides of your Castle (your choice). Place 1 Wood Cube in it.
3. Place 3 Wood Walls on the remaining three sides of your Castle. Place 2 Wood Cubes on each of them.
4. Place 2 Soldiers inside your Castle.
5. Place 1 Farm tile on its level 1 side outside each Wall of your Castle.
6. Place 4 Food Cubes next to your Granary.
7. Place 3 Wood, 2 Stone, and 1 Iron next to your stockpile.

Look for these boxes throughout the rulebook. Red boxes contain notes about gameplay. Blue boxes contain strategy tips from the designers - Evan and Ryan.

Game Board Setup

1. Place the board in the middle of the table. Lay out the 5 starting Refugee Cards next to the board. Beginning with whoever has most recently visited a castle and continuing clockwise, each player chooses a starting Refugee Card. For your first game, distribute these randomly.

   The player whose starting Refugee has the lowest Initiative takes the first space on the player order track using their Player Order Marker. They are followed by the player with the second lowest number, and so on.

2. The First Player sets their Gold Tracker at 5, the Second Player at 6, the Third Player at 7, and the Fourth Player at 8.

3. Place the Threat Tracker on the space above the 0 Gold space. Place Flag Tokens in their corresponding spaces above the Season Track.

4. Place one of each player's Workers on space 3 and 6 on the Season Track. Fill the Flag spaces above the Season Track with Flag Tokens of the indicated values (excess Flags are placed in a common supply near the board).

5. Place the Season Tracker on Season 1 of the Season Track.

6. Separately shuffle the Secret Objective, Refugee, Invader, Building, and Siege Cards into their own decks and place them face down on their respective places on the board. When you shuffle the Invader and Siege decks, randomly rotate the cards as the orientation of the cards matters during the Combat Phase.

7. Place 2 cards from the Refugee deck face up in their corresponding spaces.

8. Place 3 cards from the Building deck face up in their corresponding spaces.

9. Place 1 Invader Card face up in the leftmost space of the four Invader spaces.

10. Place the top card from the Siege deck face down in its corresponding space.

11. Place all Food, Soldier, Mercenary, Wood, Stone, Iron, Protect, Invader, Wound/Damage, and Move Tokens in a supply accessible to everyone off to the side.

This setup is for the normal game. See "Variants" for variants to play the game in either Easy or Hard mode.

Playing a Season

Phase 1: Actions

The First Player in turn order places one of their Workers from the Great Hall on an available Action Space on the game board, their own cards, or Player Board. Then, they immediately resolve that action by paying any cost involved and resolving the effect. The next player in turn order then places one of their Workers and performs an action. This continues until players have placed all of their available Workers.

If an action on the game board has multiple spaces, more than one player may send a Worker there (the same player may send multiple Workers to the same location on subsequent turns provided there is an available space). The number of open spaces is dependent on the number of players. In a 3 player game, the 3-player Action Space is available. And in a 4 player game, the 4-player Action Space is available.

Some Building and Refugee Cards have an action symbol. These are free actions that can be activated by players at any time during one of their turns without using a Worker. Each free action can only be activated once per Season, and they do NOT count as your action. In addition, all actions must be activated during the Action Phase unless otherwise stated on the card.

Action Spaces

TAX — Gain 4 Gold and 1 Mercenary or gain 5 Food.

MERCENARY CAMP — At the Mercenary Camp, players can choose an Action Space on the left side to spend 5 Gold to gain 3 Soldiers or spend 3 Gold to gain 5 Mercenaries. Or players can choose an Action Space on the right to spend 4 Gold to gain 2 Soldiers or spend 2 Gold to gain 3 Mercenaries.

Soldiers must be fed each Season, but can gain benefits from your Buildings. Mercenaries leave at the end of each Season, but are great for surviving a single Siege.

Make sure to acquire Buildings and/or Refugees that provide Food or maintain Farms otherwise your Soldiers will end up eating your wealth!

TRAVELING MERCHANT — (When placing a Worker you may choose to buy or to sell)

• BUY: Spend 4 Gold to gain 1 Iron and 6 Wood, or Spend 3 Gold to gain 2 Stone and 3 Food.
• SELL: Spend 1 Iron to gain 4 Gold and 3 Food or Spend 2 Food to gain 3 Gold and 2 Iron.

SCOUT — Take a Move 3 Token, Protect 1 Farm, and immediately draw two Secret Objective Cards. Discard one and add the other face down to your play area. Secret Objectives provide players with hidden goals that they try and accomplish throughout the game. Players may always look at their own Secret Objectives. During final scoring, you will gain Gold for each fulfilled Secret Objective Card.

Discarded cards are placed face up on the bottom of their respective decks.

MINE — Gain 2 Iron.

QUARRY — Gain 3 Stone.

WOODMILL — Gain 5 Wood.

BUILDINGS — Spend the resources indicated on the top left of the Building Card to place it into your play area. Buildings give you access to a variety of powerful abilities.

REFUGEES — Spend the resource cost indicated on the top left of the Refugee Card to place it into your play area. Refugees give you access to powerful abilities that can be activated once per Season or provide a passive benefit.

Buildings and Refugees add Gold to a player's score at the end of the game. Any Damaged Buildings or Wounded Refugees do NOT provide any end game scoring.

Player Board Worker Placement Actions

INFIRMARY — Heal up to 4 Wounded Soldiers. Whenever a Soldier is healed return them to your Player Board.

BARRACKS (Starting Building Card) — Activate and spend 1 Iron to gain 1 new Soldier and/or spend 1 Food to heal 1 Wounded Soldier.

GRANARY — Sow 3 times then Protect 1 Farm.

• SOW: Upgrade a Farm tile by 1 level (from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 2).
• PROTECT: Place a Protection token on any of your Farms. Protected Farms cannot be razed during combat. Protection tokens are discarded at the end of the Season.

STOCKPILE — Spend any amount of the indicated resources to build Castle Pieces, repair Castle Pieces, heal Wounded Refugees, and rebuild Damaged Buildings. Any time you construct a Castle piece, it comes with full health (all spaces are filled with Wood for Wood Defenses and Stone for Stone Defenses).

Stone Turrets are special in that they can never be destroyed! If a Stone Turret takes Damage when it has no cubes, it becomes Inoperable (mark this with a Flame Token). Inoperable Turrets do not fire during Archery nor do they produce Gold during Income. Repairing a Stone Turret costs 2 Stone (this removes the Flame Token). Up to two additional Stone may be spent to repair a Stone Turret like any other Castle Piece.

Building Castle Pieces

• Wood Walls/Gate cost 3 Wood
• Stone Walls/Gate cost 2 Wood and 4 Stone
• Wood Turrets cost 4 Wood
• Stone Turrets cost 3 Wood, 4 Stone, and 1 Iron

Gates are Walls that have one less health. Otherwise, they function identically. You may build up to 3 Walls and 1 Gate.

When replacing a Wood Piece with a Stone piece, do not pay any Wood (even if the Wood Piece has no Wood Cubes left in it).

When replacing a Wood piece with a Stone Piece, any Wood Cubes on that piece are returned to your stockpile. And you may continue Building with the returned Wood!

REPAIRING CASTLE PIECES: Fill the empty spaces on your Castle Pieces with the matching resources from your stockpile. i.e. Stone Cubes for Stone Pieces and Wood Cubes for Wood Pieces.

HEALING A WOUNDED REFUGEE: Spend 2 Food to heal a Wounded Refugee. Remove 1 Wound Token.

REBUILDING A DAMAGED BUILDING: Spend 1 Iron to rebuild a Damaged Building. Remove 1 Damage Token.

Buildings and Refugees not only provide valuable in-game abilities, but can also be a huge source of end-game Gold. Make sure your most valuable cards have been healed or rebuilt before the end of the game.

Phase 2: Combat

Combat begins with Preparation and then moves on to actual Combat. During Preparation, the invading hordes will gather around the players' Castles. During Combat, the assembled Invaders assault the Castles. Each player goes through the following steps simultaneously.

Preparation Steps

1. Place your Soldiers and Mercenaries on your Walls and/or inside the Castle. There is no limit to how many Troops you can place in any individual section.

   The term Troops refers to both Soldiers and Mercenaries.

2. Reveal Invader Cards (detailed below) from left to right. Each player evaluates their Gold level and places Invader Tokens from each card according to the direction indicated and in the type/amount indicated by the highest Gold tier for which they qualify. The orientation of the cards is important! Do NOT rotate them after revealing.

3. Reveal the Siege Card. Siege Cards can also add Invaders to either "All" players or just to the Gold "Leader." First, resolve the Siege effect by immediately dealing Siege Damage (Catapults, Mangonels, Trebuchets) or bestowing a special ability on the Invaders from the indicated side (Ladders & Siege Towers). Indicate the direction of the Siege with a Siege Token.

   In the case of a tie for Leader, all tied players receive the additional Invaders.

4. Next, add additional Invaders as indicated by the Siege Card.

5. Invaders raze the Farms of the spaces they are in. Level 2 Farms are flipped to level 1, and level 1 Farms are marked as Razed with a Flame Token. Note: Farms with a Protection Token are not razed.

6. You may move a number of Troops up to the value of Move Tokens you possess. Troops may move between walls or to/from the interior of the Castle. Move Tokens do not carry over from Season to Season.

   All unused Move Tokens are discarded at the end of Combat.

Move Tokens allow you to adapt your defenses based on where the enemies show up. Having some on hand can be the difference between an easy victory or getting sacked.

Invader Cards

Each Invader Card has several amounts of Gold listed on it. If a player has Gold equal to or greater than one of the listed amounts, they take the indicated number of Swordsmen and/or Archers and place them on their Player Board. The Threat Tracker represents the minimum threat for ALL players each Season. If your Gold Tracker is below the Threat Tracker, Invaders attack you as though your Gold was at the value indicated by the Threat Tracker. Invaders are placed in the field indicated by the red border on the Invader Card. If a player meets more than one of the Gold levels, they ONLY use the highest amount. The tiers are NOT cumulative.

When players receive Invaders, they attack based on a player's relative position to the board. For example, if the displayed Archer card were in play, Archers would be placed North of your Player Board. For a player sitting across the table from you, those same Archers would be placed on the bottom of their Player Board.

The red border is at the North edge of the board. If you are facing the board they will come from the top of your Castle. If you are on the opposite side they will come from the bottom of your Castle. (Always from the north.)

Mercenaries leave you after each Season. Soldiers are yours forever. Make sure to position your units so that mercenaries take the brunt of the damage to avoid having to spend resources healing your Soldiers.

Siege Cards

Siege Cards follow the same rules as Invader Cards for the purpose of determining which players are attacked.

Some Siege Cards will deal damage, while others will affect the movement of the Invaders.

The Siege Cards with the damage symbol begin dealing damage from the field indicated by the red border. Each point of damage removes a single cube from the Turret, Wall, or Gate. Siege Cards deal damage, one at a time, to pieces in the following priority:

1. The Wooden Turret with the least cubes. If there are no Wooden Turrets, then the Stone Turret with the least cubes. In the case of a tie for least cubes, the player decides which is targeted first.
2. The other Turret on the attacked side (if applicable).
3. The Wall, if present, until destroyed. Any extra damage is ignored.

Once a target has been determined, all damage from the Siege Card is assigned to that target until the target is destroyed. If there is damage remaining after a target has been destroyed, move down the list to find the next target.

A Castle Piece is destroyed when there are no cubes on it and it takes damage. Any destroyed Castle Piece is removed from play (except the Stone Turret). If a Wall is destroyed, any Troops on it are moved back into the Castle. Any time a cube is removed from a Wall, Gate, or Turret, it is returned to your stockpile.

Exception: Whenever Stone Turrets are destroyed, place a Flame Token in the Turret marking it inoperable. You may repair the Stone Turret for 2 Stone, removing the Flame Token. You may use 2 more Stone to fully replenish its health. These pieces never need to be fully rebuilt.

The Ladder and Siege Tower Cards allow the indicated number of Invaders to move past your Walls and directly into your Castle during the Movement Phase. The Invaders who bypass the Wall come from the side indicated on the Siege card.

Use a Siege Token to indicate which direction the Siege Card is coming from. This reminder is especially helpful for remembering to execute Ladder and Siege Tower effects as they do not happen until the movement phase.

Surge: Each Siege Card says Leader, All, or None in the top left corner. If it says Leader, whichever player has the most Gold places additional Swordsmen Invaders equal to the current Season number in the field indicated by the red border. If the card says All, then each player does so. If the card says None, then no player does so.

The Invaders get stronger as time goes on. Make sure you are constantly improving your defenses!

Example: It's the 4th Season and the Blue player has 17 Gold. They are attacked by 1 Fighting Band, 1 of the Hordesmen, and The Infernal Army at the first tier. They are attacked by the other Hordesman at the second tier for surpassing the 16 Gold threshold.

The Invader Tokens noted on the cards are placed in the fields indicated by the red borders.

This player is also attacked by a Mangonel coming from the left (indicated by the placement of a Siege Token) and as the player is the Leader in Gold they are also hit by the Surge effect of the Mangonel Siege Card. They place 4 additional swordsmen Invaders in the western field because it is the 4th Season of the game.

You run the risk of being attacked by more and/or stronger Invaders every time you increase your Gold by 2. Difficulty spikes at 10, 20, and 30 are larger than normal. Note the swords and flaming coins on the Gold track to remind you of these increases.

Being in the lead for Gold lets you compete to win Flags for additional end game Gold. You want these points! But you also want to survive the Invaders. Be careful not to take on more risk than you can handle.

Combat Steps

Each player with Invaders goes through the following Combat steps, then gets Sacked or Survives.

ARCHERY: The following occurs simultaneously:

• Each Troop on a Wall deals damage to Invaders in the adjacent field.
• Each Wood Turret deals 1 damage to Invaders in each adjacent field.
• Each Stone Turret deals 2 damage to Invaders in each adjacent field.
• Each Archery Invader deals 1 damage to Troops on the adjacent Wall.
• Killed Invaders are returned to the supply. Killed Mercenaries are returned to the supply. Wounded Soldiers are moved to the Infirmary.

1 damage kills 1 Invader or Mercenary. 1 damage wounds 1 Soldier.

Archery damage has no effect on Turrets or Walls.

MOVEMENT:

• Invaders in a field without an adjacent Wall move into the Castle.
• Troops in your Castle or on a Wall may move between walls or to/from the interior of the Castle. (This movement is free and does not require Move Tokens.)

MELEE:

• Each Invader outside the Castle deals 1 damage to the adjacent Wall. Remove 1 cube for each damage dealt and return it to your stockpile. (If a Wall with no cubes takes damage, it is Destroyed.)
• Inside the Castle, each Troop deals 1 damage to Invaders and each Invader deals 1 damage to Troops.
• Soldiers and Mercenaries on Walls do not participate in this phase.

Adjacency: Walls are considered adjacent to a single field on the same side of the Player Board as them. Turrets are considered adjacent to two fields as they occupy the corners of your Castle.

RETURN TO THE ARCHERY STEP AND REPEAT, UNLESS:

• No Invaders remain on your Player Board. In this case you have SURVIVED.
• Invaders are inside your Castle with none of your Soldiers or Mercenaries. Soldiers and Mercenaries on your Walls do not count. If so, you have been SACKED:
  • Return Mercenaries to the supply.
  • Damage any two of your Building/Refugee cards by placing a Damage/Wound token over the Gold value on those cards. This can be any combination of two Buildings, two Refugees, or one of each. These cards still provide their abilities, but are worth 0 Gold at the end of the game. You may not damage a Starting Building or wound a Starting Refugee.
  • Any leftover Invaders in your Castle are discarded back to the supply.
  • Any Soldiers on your Walls are Wounded. Any Mercenaries are discarded.
  • Move your Gold Tracker back from its current number to the one depicted in red.
  • Take 2 Mercenaries and place them in your Castle. Take 1 Villager Worker and place it in The Great Hall. They can be used in the next Season. (Villagers are neutral - grey - workers which provide you with 1 additional action the turn after you have been sacked.)

Ladders and Siege towers can alter Invader movement.

Being sacked can be punishing. Generally it is better to take risks early when you have less to lose rather than later when you have accumulated much wealth.

If you are sacked, look for ways to acquire Gold to get back in the competition. Selling resources at the Traveling Merchant, for example.

Combat Example

PREPARATION: (continues previous example)

• A - The Siege Card is a Mangonel and immediately does 2 damage on the western side. 2 damage destroys 1 Wood Turret.
• B - The Invaders raze the level 1 Farm in the northern field. A Flame Token indicates that Farm is razed and does not produce Food. They also raze the level 2 Farm in the west, turning it over to a level 1 Farm that will produce 1 Food instead of 2.

ARCHERY PHASE:

• A - The Troops on the north Wall deal 2 damage to Invaders. The Troops on the west Wall deal 4 damage to Invaders.
• B - The Wood Turret deals 1 damage to Invaders in each adjacent field.
• C - The Stone Turret deals 2 damage to Invaders in the northern field (there are no Invaders in the eastern field).
• D - Simultaneously, the Archery Invaders deal 3 damage to Troops on the northern Wall (killing both) and 1 damage to units on the western Wall.

MOVEMENT PHASE:

• A - Because all Walls are still intact, the Invaders stay in their respective fields.
• B - The player moves both units from the eastern Wall, and one unit from the western Wall, to the northern Wall.

It's almost always better to kill Archer Invaders first, because they shoot in Archery and fight in Melee.

MELEE PHASE:

• A - Invaders deal 5 damage to the northern Wall and 4 damage to the western Wall. The western Wall is destroyed and the Soldiers on that Wall fall back into the Castle.
• B - There are no Invaders in the Castle, so no melee damage is dealt between units.

Because there are still Invaders remaining and the player has not been Sacked, they return to the Archery Phase and begin the Combat cycle again.

ARCHERY PHASE:

• A - The Troops on the northern Wall deal 3 damage to Invaders.
• B - The Stone Turret deals 2 damage to Invaders in the north.
• C - The Wood Turret deals 1 damage to Invaders in the western field (there are no Invaders remaining in the northern field).
• D - There are no Archer Invaders left.

MOVEMENT PHASE:

• A - The Invaders in the western field move into the Castle.
• B - The player moves all their Troops into the Castle.

MELEE PHASE:

• A - There are no Invaders left outside to damage a Wall.
• B - The Invaders deal 3 damage to Troops inside the Castle. Simultaneously, the Soldiers and Mercenaries deal 5 melee damage, killing all 3 Invaders.

Congratulations! This player has not been Sacked and is eligible for a Flag.

Phase 3: Flags

The player with the most Gold at the end of Phase 2 who did NOT get Sacked is awarded a 1-Gold Flag during Seasons 1-2, a 2-Gold Flag during Seasons 3-6, and a 3-Gold Flag during Season 7. In the event of a tie, all tied players receive a 1 Gold Flag. Flags provide no immediate benefit, but do award Gold during final scoring and cannot be lost during the course of play.

Phase 4: Income / Turn Order

Each player gains 1 Gold per Castle Piece (Turret/Wall/Gate) on their Player Board and moves up on the Gold Track. (Stone Turrets with a Flame Token do not produce a Gold.)

Then set player order based on position on the Gold Track. The player with the least Gold becomes first in turn order, the player with the next highest amount of Gold becomes second, then third, and the player with the most Gold is last. In the event of a tie, players remain in the same relative order.

Example: This player gains 5 Gold during the Income Phase because they have 1 Stone Wall, 1 Stone Turret, 1 Stone Gate, 1 Wood Wall, and 1 Wood Turret for a total of 5 Castle Pieces.

Pay attention to your position in the turn order. Going earlier can ensure you get the perfect Building or Refugee to suit your strategy.

Phase 5: Harvest / Feast

HARVEST:

Level 1 Farms provide 1 Food while level 2 Farms provide 2 Food each. Razed Farm tiles (bearing a Flame Token) do NOT provide Food during the Harvest.

It is easier to protect your Farms than resow them once they have been destroyed. Running out of Food can quickly become costly.

FEAST:

• Spend 1 food for every Soldier you have, regardless of whether they are Wounded or not. Only Soldiers eat food. Mercenaries do not.
• Spend 1 Gold for each Soldier you were unable to feed.

Feeding Soldiers is mandatory. You spend Gold to feed them only once you have run out of Food.

Phase 6: Refresh the Board

If you are on Season 7, advance to final scoring. Otherwise:

1. Discard all revealed Invader and Siege Cards.

2. Reveal the top card of the Invader deck and place it into the leftmost space and then place more Invader Cards face down depending on the Season.

   Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
   Face-down Invaders	0	1	2	3	3	3	3

3. Place the top card of the Siege deck face down in the space.

4. Move the Threat Tracker up by 3 Gold (the spaces for the Threat Tracker are indicated with a marker symbol).

5. Discard any Building or Refugee Cards in the slots indicated with a discard symbol.

6. Slide any leftover Building or Refugee Cards toward the spaces with the slide symbol and fill any empty spaces with face-up cards from their respective decks.

7. Return your Workers to the Great Hall. Return Protection Tokens from your Farms to the general supply.

8. If you used a Villager Worker this Season, return it to the supply.

Discarded cards are placed face up on the bottom of their respective decks.

Advance the Season Tracker by 1

When you advance to Seasons 3 and 6, each player gains one of their additional Workers from the Season Track to be used for the rest of the game.

Then, return to Phase 1: Actions.

End of Game / Final Scoring

Each player gains Gold for the following:

• The amount listed on Building Cards.
• The amount listed on Refugee Cards.
• Total Gold value on all Flag Tokens.
• 1 Gold for each Active Farm (level 1 or level 2).
• Reveal any Secret Objectives and gain Gold if you meet the requirement. If a goal requires that you have the most of something, you are considered to have the most even if another Player has the same amount you do (you must have at least one of the required items).

Reminder: Damaged Buildings and Wounded Refugees do NOT provide Gold at the end of the game.

The player with the most Gold is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with the most Flag Tokens among the tied players wins.

A scoring chart is provided in the rulebook that you can copy to make your own scoring easier. (You may also download scoring charts from www.greyfoxgames.com.)

Scoring chart rows: Building Cards; Refugee Cards; Total Value of Flag Tokens; Active Farms; Secret Objectives; Total Gold Gained.

Variants

Easy Mode

If you are interested in focusing on Building your kingdom without too much threat from the Invaders, try this variant! Use the following chart instead of the standard one. The Invader Phase will use a maximum of 3 cards (1 face up, two face down).

Seasons	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Face-down Invaders	0	1	2	2	2	2	2

Hard Mode

This is for those of you who are experts at After the Empire and want a real challenge defending your kingdom from the Invaders. Use the following chart instead of the standard one. The Invader Phase will begin at a higher difficulty and increase to the maximum difficulty more quickly.

Seasons	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Face-down Invaders	1	2	3	3	3	3	3

No Reports

When placing Invader Cards, place the first (normally revealed) Invader Card face down so that all Invaders are unknown until the Combat Phase.

This mode can be combined with any of the Easy, Normal, or Hard game modes and serves to make each a little more difficult.

Destructive Damage & Crippling Wounds

Damaged Buildings and Wounded Refugees do not count toward Secret Objectives.

This mode makes the decision about which Building and Refugee Cards to Damage/Wound much more significant.

Glossary

• Rotate symbol — Rotate card 90 degrees to activate its effect.
• Worker symbol — Worker placement space.
• Immediate symbol — Gain immediately upon placing in your play area.
• Arrow (one-way) — Spend the item(s) on the left to gain the item(s) on the right.
• Arrow (two-way) — Spend item(s) on one side to gain the item(s) on the other side.
• Colon (:) — Perform the action on the left to perform the action on the right.
• Slash (/) — Or
• Iron
• Stone
• Wood
• Food
• Gold
• Heal
• Move Token
• Sow Farm
• Protect Token (for Farms)
• Soldier
• Mercenary

Credits

• Game Design: Evan Halbert and Ryan Mauk
• Lead Development: Joshua Lobkowicz
• Additional Development: Matthew Kunz
• Lead Graphic Design: Tyler Myatt
• Additional Graphics: Cole Monro-Chitty, Jason Harris, and Zoe Morgan-Montoya
• Artists: Yaroslav Radeckyi, David LaRocca, Ichisip, Jack Watson, Jason Park (interoo), Thomas O. Muir, Coolboys Entertainment, Baconstrap, Joms De Mesa, Ted Ottosson, EiraQueenofSnow, Patrick Hell, Maria Kornatko, and Gabrielle Lucas
• Rulebook Layout: Sarah Lafser
• Rulebook Editors: Travis D. Hill and Donny Behne
• Playtesters: Shane Myerscough, Steven Russel, Lucas Russel, Alex Schmidt, Matt Goldrick, Alex Goldsmith, Heather Galer, Alyssa Ohlman, Jared Macke, Allison Ditmore, Matt Frazier, Dave Burk, Chad Pearson, Eric Farthing, Sean Kilgore, Mark Jordan, David DeVoss, Tyson Gajewski, Ryan Diel, Jenna Halbert, Sara Finley, Thomas Hathaway, Tim Eisner, Ben Eisner, Kristen Zephyrus, Geoff Zephyrus, James Hampton, Brian Halbert, Jason Clor, Michael Quasney, Evan Burck, and Michael Hicks
• Special Thanks: Jenna Halbert and Sara Finley