Setup the cards, tokens, and boards at the center of your playing area as shown in the diagram below.
Place the two Main Boards as shown such that [Bar] is at the top left corner.
This board represents the world in which you will be playing in.
Setting up Monger Cards
First separate "5) Monger Cards" by their card backs into 3 different piles. Then shuffle each pile face down. Finally discard the top card of each pile.
Place "Round 3-4" cards face down on top of "Round 5" pile. Then place "Round 1-2" cards face down on top of the pile you have just created. You should end up with a single pile of cards. This pile will be used throughout the game and will be referred to as Monger Deck.
Place the discarded Monger Cards face up to the left of the Monger Deck.
Keep enough spaces to the right of the Monger Deck to lay 4 Monger Cards face up.
Setting up VIP Tiles
Shuffle "3) VIP Tiles" face down and create a single face down pile. This will be referred to as VIP Deck.
When discarding VIP Tiles during the game, place them face up to the left of the VIP Deck.
Keep enough spaces below the VIP Deck to lay 3 VIP Tiles face up.
Setting up Politics cards
Remove "Intelligent Spy" and "Dragon's Threat" from the game. These cards are not used in every game.
Shuffle "6) Politics Cards" face down and create a single face down pile. This will be referred to as Politics Deck.
When discarding Politics Cards during the game, place them face up to the left of the Politics Deck.
Setting up Agent Pawns
Place 1 "7) Pawns" of each color in Agent Area at the bottom of the Main Board.
Some Politics Card will use these Pawns.
All Pawns, including the ones in the Agent Area, will move back to their initial positions at the start of every round.
Setting up Unavailable Tokens
Place "11) Unavailable Tokens" on certain action spaces (for example, on the spaces marked 1 and 3) on the Main Board depending on the number of players.
No tokens are placed on the board when playing with 4 players. Place the tokens on action spaces with the 4 markers when playing with 3 players. When playing with 2 players, place tokens on action spaces with the 3 markers in addition to spaces with the 4 markers. Action spaces with Unavailable Tokens cannot be used during the game.
Put all remaining Unavailable Tokens back in the box.
Setting up Supporter and Influence Tokens
Separate "8) Supporter Tokens" and "9) Influence Tokens", and place them next to the board.
Setting up Concession Tokens
Place "12) Concession Tokens" on "Collection Witch/Demon/Dragon" and "Chairman's Office" area of the board with matching symbols.
Setting up Delivery and Round Indicators
Place "13) Delivery Indicators" on "0" spaces on the Delivery Demand Track.
Place "14) Round Indicator" on "1" space on Round Track.
After setting up the Main board, each player will setup their Player Board. Each player will receive the following. Put all unused boards, cards, and tokens back in the box.
1 "2) Player Board"
Choose one randomly.
If you are playing with 3 or fewer players, you should not choose "Angel/Reaper" boards.
1 "4) Member Card" that matches your Player Board
4 "7) Pawns" that matches your Player Board's color
6 "10) Possession Indicators" (1 of each tribute, 2 gold, and 1 debt)
4 "6) Politics Cards" (randomly drawn from the Politics Deck. Keep these cards hidden from other players.)
8 "Circular Tokens" (Supporter Tokens and Influence Tokens) shown on the left edge of the Player Board
Discard Pile. Players may look through the discard pile at any time during the game.
Exchanging Tokens. There are Supporter Tokens and Influence Tokens with a value of 3. You may exchange Supporter Tokens at any time as you feel necessary. You should always exchange three "1 Influence Token" with one "3 Influence Token".
Game Setup (Player Board)
Setup the cards, tokens, and a board in front of you as shown in the diagram below.
Choose a side of your Player Board. For your first play, use side .
The game is played over 5 rounds, and each round consists 3 phases. The game ends after completing all 5 rounds, and each player calculates their final score.
Preparation Phase
Main Phase
Cleanup Phase
At the end of the game, a player with most points (gold) wins the game.
Preparation Phase
During this phase, you will perform all of the following steps:
Retrieve all Pawns
Refresh Monger Cards
Refresh VIP Tiles (Increase Demands)
Place tokens on actions
Refill your hand
1) Retrieve all pawns
Pawns used in the previous round will either be on action spaces on the Main Board or on Politics Cards in play. Each player retrieves all pawns of their color and place 4 of them on their Player Board, and 1 in Agent Area of the Main Board.
2) Refresh Monger Cards
Draw 4 Monger Cards from the Monger Deck, and place them face up next to the deck. Discard all cards remaining from the previous round.
There are 8 Round 1-2 cards, 8 Round 3-4 cards, and 4 Round 5 cards. Since they are stacked on top of each other, you will be drawing cards matching the current round.
Setup Circular Tokens
Place gained "8) Supporter Tokens" and "9) Influence Tokens" next to your Player Board.
Some Player Board has "Special abilities" written on the left edge of the board.
Setup your hand of Politics Cards
Look at the 4 Politics Card you drew earlier. Choose 2 cards as your hand and discard the other 2 cards.
You may look at your hand at any time during the game. When you play a card in your play area during the game, place it near your Monger Cards.
Your play area. Place your played Politics Cards near your Monger cards. Place your obtained Monger Cards from left to right. You may not rearrange the order.
Starting the Game
After you finish with the setup, the most evil player takes the Parliament's Concession Token (yellow Concession Token) and places it on their Player Board. The player with the Parliament's Concession Token will be the start player of each round.
Then, each player resolves their "Special abilities" written on their Player Board.
List of players' special abilities
Example of updating Monger Cards at the start of Round 2: After drawing and placing 4 cards, you should see Round 3-4 cards on top of the deck.
3) Update VIP Tiles (Increase Demands)
Draw 3 VIP Tiles from the VIP Deck, and place them face up next to the deck. Discard all tiles remaining from the previous round.
On the 3rd and 5th round (when there is less than 1 tile remaining in the deck), shuffle all 7 tiles face down and create a new deck.
After placing 3 tiles face up, check Tribute icons on the top right of each tile and advance the corresponding Delivery Indicators on the Delivery Demand Track.
Example of updating VIP Tiles at the start of Round 2: The Tribute icon is on the top right of the tile. In this example, there are demands for 1 Liquor (green), 1 Potion (blue), and 1 Ruby (red). Now you will advance the corresponding Tribute Indicators on the Delivery Demand Track. In this example, you will advance all 3 Indicators by 1 space.
You will always be advancing 3 spaces each round. However, demand will never go above 10, and will never go below 0.
At this point, there is only 1 VIP Tile left in the deck. At the start of round 3, you will shuffle all 7 VIP Tiles, create a new deck, and then draw 3 tiles.
4) Place tokens on actions
There are 12 different types of actions on the Main Board. Locate the Supporter/Influence Token icons (Witch, Demon, Dragon, and Influence) to the left of [Bar], [Dorm], [Black Market], and [Bank]. Place the matching tokens on these icons.
For each icon, place as many tokens as there are action spaces without Unavailable Tokens on them.
At the start of round 2 through 5, if there are any remaining tokens from the previous round, simply replenish the token up to the number of available action spaces.
Tokens are shared between [Bank] and [Capital].
Example of placing tokens on actions: In the left example, you will place 3 Witch Tokens and 3 Demon Tokens on [Bar]. Place tokens on [Dorm], [Black Market], and [Bank] in a similar fashion. In the example to the right, you will place 4 Dragon Tokens and 4 Influence Tokens on the spaces underneath [Bank].
5) Refill your hand
Starting with the player holding Parliament's Concession token, each player will refill their hand of Politics Cards. Refill up to the number of 3 Influence Tokens you have.
If there is no card in the Politics Deck, shuffle all Politics Cards in the discard pile and create a new deck. If there are still not enough cards, then players will not draw any more cards.
Do not refill your hand on the first round.
How to Read Icons
Cards and tiles have various icons on them. This section will cover some of the common icons.
Tribute – Gold – Debt icons: Same icons as "10) Possession Indicators". These symbols indicate the numbers of tributes (Potion, Liquor, and Ruby) and gold/debts you will gain. The amount you will gain is written to the right of the symbol. However, if there is an arrow below the icon, then you will pay the goods indicated by the symbol instead of gaining them. In the example to the right, you will pay 1 each of all 3 Tributes to gain X or 3 gold.
Supporter – Influence icons: Same icons as "8) Supporter Tokens" and "9) Influence Tokens". Similar to Tributes described above, these symbols indicate the number of Supporters/Influences that you will gain.
Card – Tile icons: A Monger Card icon indicates that these cards are "5) Monger Card" or "4) Member Card". A Politics Card icon indicates that these cards are "6) Politics Card". A VIP Tile icon indicates that these tiles are "3) VIP Tiles".
Color icons: A blue icon indicates that this is a blue card, a green icon indicates that this is a green card, and a red icon indicates that this is a red card. A multi-color icon is a special symbol indicating that this card can be used as any of the 3 colors. Once chosen, it must remain as the chosen color for the rest of your turn.
Concession icons: Same icons as "12) Concession Tokens". Each symbol indicates different concessions (Potions, Liquors, Rubies, Parliament's). These are used when resolving "bonuses" (described later in the rulebook). An any-icon indicates any one Concession Token.
About Reference Values
Some time there is an icon instead of a number, such as a gold icon followed by a bracketed icon (for example a Witch Token, a 3 Influence Token, a Monger Card, or a Politics Card). This indicates that the amount you will gain or pay is equal to the number of tributes/tokens/cards written inside the brackets that you have. In the example to the right, you will gain gold for each 3 Influence Tokens you have.
Examples:
Gain Potion for each Witch Token you have.
Gain gold for each 3 Influence Token you have.
Gain gold for each Monger Cards in your play area.
Gain gold for each Politics Cards in your play area, +1 (never count the cards you have in your hand).
Gain gold for each blue cards in your play area (you can use multi-color cards as any color, but once chosen the color cannot be changed until your next turn).
Gain gold for each multi-color cards in your play area (including multi-color cards you have already chosen a color).
Main Phase
Main Phase 1: Player's Turn
During this phase, each player will take turn clockwise starting with a player holding Parliament's Concession token.
During a player's turn, they will use one of the Pawns on their Player Board. If they have no Pawns left, then their turn is skipped (In most cases, each player will have 4 turns during the Main Phase).
On your turn, you will perform all of the following steps:
Use Politics Cards in your play area (optional)
Place a Pawn on an action space (required)
1) Use Politics Cards in your play area (optional)
Politics Cards in your hand can be played in to your play area by using an action in [Assembly Hall] (P. 14). Politics Cards have no effect while they are in your hand.
Politics Cards in play have various abilities. These cards have the following 3 triggers:
[When played]
[When used during your turn]
[While in play]
As shown in the example above, you may use cards with [When used during your turn] triggers at this time.
If you have multiple Politics Cards in play with [When used during your turn] triggers, then you may use any or all of them in any order you like.
Please refer to [Assembly Hall] (P. 14) for more details.
2) Place a Pawn on an action space (required)
There are 12 actions you can choose from. They are [Bar], [Dorm], [Black Market], [Bank], [Capital], [Collection all], [Collection Witch], [Collection Demon], [Collection Dragon], [Assembly Hall], [Chairman's Office], and [Trade Port]. Pick up 1 Pawn from your Player Board and place it in any available action space on the Main Board. Then resolve its action.
You must perform this step on your turn. After you take an action, your turn ends and the game continues to the player to your left. You must perform step 1 and 2 in order.
When choosing an action, you must remember the following 4 rules.
Example of taking an action: You will resolve the chosen action as soon as you place your Pawn on an action space. Some action has multiple steps. In the example above, when you place your Pawn in [Bar], then you will perform action step 1 first, then perform action step 2. [E] indicates that the action is not resolved when a Pawn is placed, but instead resolved during the Cleanup phase. Details of each action will be described in the next section.
4 rules when choosing an action
You must place your Pawn in an open and available action space. (You may not place your Pawn on an action space occupied by another Pawn or marked as unavailable by an Unavailable Token.)
Example: You tried to place your Pawn (blue) on [Collection Witch] action space. However, the single action space is already occupied by another Pawn, so you may not take this action this round.
You may not choose the same action you've already chosen this round. [Collection All], [Collection Witch], [Collection Demon], and [Collection Dragon] are all considered as different actions.
Example: There is an open action space in [Bar]. However, since you've already taken the [Bar] action (you have already placed one of your blue Pawn), you may not take this action again this round.
If the action space has a number written in it, then you must pay that amount of gold to choose that action. If you do not have enough gold to pay, then you must gain a Debt instead of paying any gold.
Example: There is an open space in [Capital] so you may choose this action. If you choose this action, you must pay 1 gold as indicated by the number in the action space.
You must fill in the action spaces from the left. (However, you may skip [R] action spaces.)
Example: There are two open spaces in [Dorm]. Although there is a [1] space, since there is an open [2] space to the left of [1], you must use the [2] space and pay 2 gold.
Example: The left most open space in [Black Market] is [R]. On Round 2 and later, you must pay 2 or more gold if you place your pawn on [R] action space. Thus, you should skip that space and use the [1] space if it is available. Next player to use this action must place their pawn in [R] space.
About "R"
Whenever you see a symbol [R], it corresponds to the current round number.
Main Phase 2: Type of Actions
[Bar]
Step 1: Gain 1 Witch Token and 1 Demon Token from the Bar pile.
Step 2: Gain one Monger Card from the available Monger Cards. You must place the obtained Monger Card to the right of any existing Monger Cards in your play area.
Actions where you can gain tokens
When you take an action in [Bar], [Dorm], [Black Market], [Bank], or [Capital], you will gain Supporter tokens (Witch, Demon, Dragon) and/or Influence tokens in step 1. These tokens will become useful in [Collections] (P. 13), [Assembly Hall] (P. 14) and so on. Although these actions may not look attractive at first, collecting these tokens will be very useful in the long run.
[Dorm]
Step 1: Gain 1 Demon Token and 1 Dragon Token from the Dorm pile.
Step 2: Choose up to 2 tiles from the available VIP Tiles and resolve their abilities in any order you like. Then discard 1 of the chosen tiles.
Player who uses the 3rd action space will only be able to resolve one VIP Tile as there will only be one left.
How to Read Monger Cards
Monger Cards obtained in [Bar] can be used at [Black Market] to resolve its abilities. Let's take a look at a card.
(A) Name: Name of the card.
(B) Value: Monger Cards will give you gold (victory points) at the end of the game. This value indicates the amount of gold you will get at the end of the game.
(C) Abilities: These are the abilities that will resolve when used at [Black Market]. When resolving, you will pay the goods written above and gain goods written below. In the above example, when you use [Cook], you will pay 4 Liquors to gain 5 gold. If there are multiple tributes to pay, you must pay all of them to gain the rewards. For example, if you use [Member], then you must pay 1 each of Potion, Liquor, and Ruby.
(D) Bonus: After resolving its abilities, you may gain bonuses if you own the matching Concession Token written on the card. In the above example, if you have Liquor Concession Token, then you will gain 1 gold for each 3 Influence Tokens you possess. Some Monger Cards do not have any bonus. If you cannot or do not wish to resolve the abilities, then you may not claim any bonus. Refer to [Black Market] section for more details on abilities and bonuses.
(E) Icons: Indicates this card's properties. In the example above, [Cook] is a Monger Card and is a green card.
How to Read VIP Tiles
(A) Name: Name of the tile.
(B) Abilities: These are the abilities that will resolve when used at [Dorm]. Similar to Monger Cards, you will pay the goods written above and gain goods written below. If there is no arrow, then you do not have to pay anything to gain the rewards. If they are Tributes or Influence Tokens, then gain the matching rewards.
(C) Bonus: After resolving its abilities, you may gain bonuses if you own the matching Concession Token written on the card. If you have the matching Concession Token, you will immediately gain the bonus as all VIP tiles except [Angel party Leader] do not require any payment.
(D) Icons and Demands: Indicates this tile's properties. All tiles will have VIP Tile icon. Tribute mark on the right indicates which tribute to advance in the Delivery Demand Track during the Preparation phase.
About any color symbol: You may treat multi-color cards as any color during your turn, but once you decide on a color, you may not change its color until your next turn.
Example of using [Dorm]: You have the following board setup. You chose [Reapers party Leader] and [Demons party Leader] VIP tiles. You decided to resolve [Reapers party Leader] first. Its abilities allow you to flip the top tile from the VIP Deck and resolve its abilities and bonus. You flipped [Witches party Leader], so you will gain 1 Potion for each blue cards you have + 1. You decided to treat any two multi-color cards as blue cards, so you gain 3 Potions. Since you also have Potion Concession token, you will gain the bonus, which is to gain 1 gold for each 3 Influence Tokens you have.
After you resolve [Witches party Leader] tile, you have completed resolving the ability of [Reapers party Leader] tile. You will now gain 2 gold as a bonus, since it's bonus is to gain gold for each Politics Cards you have in play. After resolving the bonus, you must discard this tile.
Next, you will resolve [Demons party Leader] tile to gain Liquors. Since you've already assigned blue to any color cards, you cannot change them to green. Since you have 2 green cards, you gain 3 Liquors.
You will now have a choice to discard either [Witch party Leader] tile or [Demon party Leader] tile.
List of VIP tiles
Witches/Demons/Dragons party Leader: Gain 1 Potion / Liquor / Ruby for each blue / green / red cards you have in play + 1. If you have Concession Token (Potion, Liquor, or Ruby), then you will gain 1 gold for each 3 Influence Token you have as a bonus.
Mastermind: Gain 1 Influence Token. If you have 2 or more Concession Tokens (including Parliament's Concession Token), gain 1 gold for each 3 Influence Token you have as a bonus.
President: Gain gold equal to the difference between the highest number of debts a player possesses and the number of debts you possess, + 1. For example, if the highest number of debts a player possess is 4, and you have 1 debt, then you gain 4 gold. If you have the most debts, then you will gain 1 gold.
Angel party Leader: Pay 1 Potion for each Monger Cards you have in play (including [Member] card), and gain 1 Liquor and 1 Ruby for each Potion you paid. You may choose not to pay any Potion and therefore not gain any Liquor or Ruby. However, if you do decide to pay, you must pay for all the Monger Cards you have in play. You may not choose to pay fewer and gain fewer.
Reapers party Leader: Flip the top VIP Tile of the VIP Deck, and resolve its abilities and bonus. Additionally, if you have Parliament's Concession Token, then gain 1 gold for each Politics Cards you have in play. Finally, discard [Reapers party Leader] tile. The revealed VIP Tile may be chosen as one of the tile to discard at the end of [Dorm] action.
[Black Market]
Step 1: Gain 1 Witch Token and 1 Influence Token from the Black Market pile.
Step 2: Resolve all Monger Cards (including [Member] card) in your play area from left to right.
You will resolve the cards one at a time. You may choose not to resolve one of your Monger Card if you cannot or wish not to pay the cost. In that case, your [Black Market] action ends immediately and you may not continue to resolve the remaining cards.
In the example above, you will resolve [Member] → [Liquor Merchant] → [Trader] → [Cook] in that order. For [Member] card, you will gain 3 or X gold by paying 1 of each tributes. You will then continue to resolve [Liquor Merchant], but you choose not to pay 2 Liquors. Your action ends here, so you do not resolve the other 2 cards.
If you were to resolve all Monger cards, you will pay 2 Liquors to [Liquor Merchant] and gain 3 gold. Then you will pay 1 Liquor to [Trader] and gain 1 Influence Token. [Trader] has a bonus which lets you gain a gold for each 3 Influence token you possess, if you have Parliament's Concession Token (if you do not pay a Liquor to [Trader], then you cannot resolve the bonus). Finally, [Cook] is resolved in the same way. You will pay 4 Liquors and gain 5 gold. If you have Liquor Concession Token, then you will gain a gold as a bonus.
[Bank](there are 3 steps at Bank)
Step 1: Gain 1 Dragon Token and 1 Influence Token from the Bank pile.
Step 2: Gain 5 gold and gain 1 Debt.
Step 3: Increase the demand of 1 tribute on the Delivery Demand Track by 1 space. Then decrease the demand of another tribute by 1 space.
Step 3 is only resolved by the first player who selects the [Bank] action that round. Refer to "Example of updating VIP tiles" (P. 5) for details on Delivery Demand Track. This action is one of the few ways to decrease the demand of a tribute.
Repaying your debts
You must repay your Debts by paying gold at the end of the game. The amount you have to repay is written below the Debt track on your Player Board.
Notice that the amount you have to repay jumps up significantly when your Debts increases from 3 to 4, and from 6 to 7.
If you ever collect more than 8 Debts, then you must immediately pay 10 gold and your Debts stays at 8. (if you have fewer than 10 gold, then pay as much as you can. Your gold amount will never go below 0.)
[Capital](tokens are shared between Capital and Bank)
Step 1: Gain 1 Dragon Token and 1 Influence Token from the Bank pile.
Step E: If you deliver all 3 tributes during "Cleanup phase (2) Deliver Tributes to VIP" (P. 16), then gain 1 Influence Token equal to the current round number. Then gain 1 gold for each 3 Influence token you have.
E is not resolved when you place your Pawn in the action space, but instead resolved during Cleanup phase. When you place your Pawn at [Capital], only resolve Step 1.
[Collection all]
All [Collection] actions are considered as separate actions. You may take any or all of these actions during a round.
Step 1: Gain 1 Potion for each Witch Token you have; Gain 1 Liquor for each Demon Token you have; and gain 1 Ruby for each Dragon Token you have.
Step 2: Discard 1 each of Witch Token, Demon Token, and Dragon Token you have. (return them to the supply)
Witches: Gain 1 Potion for each Witch Token you have, and gain Medicine Concession Token. (Editor's note: the printed name is "Medicine Concession Token"; it is the Potion Concession Token, the blue concession icon.)
Demon: Gain 1 Liquor for each Demon Token you have, and gain Liquor Concession Token.
Dragons: Gain 1 Ruby for each Dragon Token you have, and gain Ruby Concession Token.
If another player possesses the Concession Token, then you will take it from that player.
Step 2:
Witches: Discard 1 Witch Token you have.
Demon: Discard 1 Demon Token you have.
Dragons: Discard 1 Dragon Token you have.
Indicating the number of Tributes you possess
If you have more than 10 of any tributes, then flip the Tribute Indicator to show that you have +10 of that tribute. You may not possess more than 20 tributes of one type. You will cap at 19 and lose the remaining.
A word of advice for [Capital] and [Collection]
You can gain a large amount of Influence Tokens at [Capital]. If you think you can deliver all 3 tributes during "Cleanup phase (2) Delivery to VIP", then you should try to go for it. [Collection] actions are also very important, but notice that you will lose Supporter Tokens. Using it too many times when you have only few Supporter Tokens will make it difficult to gain tributes later.
[Assembly Hall](Only 1 step at [Assembly Hall])
You will play a Politics Card from your hand at [Assembly Hall]. Once in play, you can start using the abilities.
Step 1: Choose 1 Politics Card from your hand and play it in front of you. If that card has [When played] ability, then resolve it immediately. Additionally, if you have 5 or more 3 Influence Tokens (you have a total of 15 or more Influences), then you may play 1 additional Politics Card from your hand.
[Chairman's Office]
The amount of gold you will pay when you take this action is equal to "number of Concession token you possess + 1" (between 1 and 5).
You will gain Parliament's Concession Token from another player. Place it on your Player Board. (If you have it already, then ignore this effect. In a solo variant, you will gain it from the Main Board.)
Step E: If you have your Pawn here during "Cleanup phase (1) Resolve Chairman's Office" (P. 16), then you will move your Pawn to another available action (except Trade Port) and immediately resolve that action. You must follow the 4 rules (P.8) when choosing another action.
E is not resolved when you place your Pawn in the action space, but instead resolved during Cleanup phase. When you place your Pawn at [Chairman's Office], only take Parliament's Concession Token.
[Trade Port](Only 1 step at [Trade Port])
When you take this action, you must place all remaining Pawns on your Player Board onto the action space at [Trade Port].
This is a special action that you can choose even if another player has taken this action, or if you have previously taken this action due to some Politics Card's abilities.
Step 1: Gain 1 each of Potion, Liquor, Ruby, and gold, and gain any 1 Supporter Token from the supply. However, in order to gain a Potion, you must have a blue card in play; in order to gain a Liquor, you must have a green card in play; in order to gain a Ruby, you must have a red card in play. Cards can be either Monger Cards or Politics Cards.
Placing Pawns onto [Trade Port]
You may ignore the previously mentioned 4 rules (P.8) when choosing this action. Therefore there is no limit on the number of players that can take this action. There is no gold cost to take this action either. If you have used a [Private Trading Ship] Politics Card and have taken this action already this round, you may still take this action during the same round.
How to read Politics Cards
(A) Name: Name of this card.
(B) Number of cards: Indicates how many copies of this Politics Card is in the deck (shown as one to three card icons).
(C) Abilities: Politics Cards have 3 different triggers that will cause its abilities to resolve. Some Politics Cards have multiple triggers.
[When played]: The card will resolve when it is played in your play area by taking an action at [Assembly Hall] or as a result of another Politics Card.
[When used during your turn]: The card will resolve by activating it during your turn. You may use each card unlimited number of times.
[While in play]: The card will resolve as long as it is in your play area. Typically they will resolve at the end of a round or when you take a specific action.
(D) Icons: Indicates this card's properties. In the above example, [Witches party] is a Politics Card, a Political Party Card, and a blue card.
Card that uses Agent Pawns
Some Politics Card uses an Agent Pawn. These cards will resolve its abilities only when there is an available Agent Pawn of your color. If there is none available, then the ability will not resolve.
At the end of each round, an Agent Pawn is returned to the Agent Pawn Area of the Main Board. Therefore, these abilities can be resolved only once per round.
Example of Agent Pawn: If you use [Soulless Agent] during your turn, and then play [Private Trading Ship] in the same round, then [When played] ability will not be resolved since you do not have an available Agent Pawn.
Political Party Cards
Some Politics Card has a Political party icon on them. These Political Party Cards will allow you to gain 1/10th of gold you possess at the end of each round. However, you may only ever play 1 Political Party Card in your play area. If you play a second Political Party Card, then you must discard the existing Political Party Card in play.
Cleanup phase
During this phase, you will perform all of the following steps:
Resolve [Chairman's Office]
Deliver Tributes to VIP
Resolve Political Party cards
1) Resolve [Chairman's Office]
Check if there is a Pawn at [Chairman's Office]. If there is, the owner of that Pawn will move the Pawn to another available action space (except [Trade Port]) and immediately resolve that action. The player must follow the 4 rules (P.8) when choosing another action.
If there is no Pawn at [Chairman's Office], then the player holding Parliament's Concession token passes it to the player to their left.
2) Deliver Tributes to VIP
Check the Delivery Demand Track to see the amount of each Tribute the players must deliver this round. Each player will either deliver each tribute in full, or gain a Debt for each tribute they cannot or choose not to deliver (refusing to deliver). All players may resolve this step at the same time, or if you prefer, may resolve one at a time starting with the player holding Parliament's Concession token.
Finally, check if there is any Pawn at [Capital]. If the owner of that pawn delivered all 3 tributes, then they gain 1 Influence Token equal to the current round number. That player also gains 1 gold for each 3 Influence Token they have.
Examples of Delivering Tributes and Refusing to Deliver
In the above example, each player must deliver 4 Potions, 6 Liquors, and 2 Rubies. Players will either deliver and lose those tributes, or gain a Debt for each tribute they did not deliver. If a player does not have enough tributes to deliver, then they will automatically refuse to deliver and gain a Debt (maximum of 3). (If the Delivery Demand Track shows 0, then you will not have to deliver that tribute.)
Going back to the above example, you have 3 Potions, 9 Liquors, and 4 Rubies. You cannot deliver Potions since you do not have enough. You will not lose any Potion but instead gain a Debt. You have enough Liquors and Rubies to deliver, but you decided to hold on to your Liquors for a [Black Market] action next round. Therefore, you only lose 2 Rubies, and gain a second Debt.
3) Resolve Political Party cards
Advance the round marker as shown below. Then each player will resolve their Political Party Cards in play. (At the end of Round 5, you do not advance the round marker, but you will still resolve Political Party Cards.)
Example of Resolving a Political party card (Witches party): You have 32 gold and have a [Witches party] card in play. To use this card's ability, you must have the most (or equal to another player(s)) Monger Cards in play. You have 4 Monger Cards including [Member] card in play, and other 2 players have 2 and 4 cards in play. Since you satisfy the condition, you will gain 1/10th of the gold you have (rounded down), which is 3 gold.
End of a round
If this was Round 1~4, then start a new round starting with Preparation Phase. If this was Round 5, then proceed to end game scoring.
End of the Game and Scoring
After completing 5 rounds, perform the following 3 steps and determine the winner. Winner is the player with the most gold. In case of a tie for the most gold, then the player closest clockwise to the player holding Parliament's Concession Token wins. If one of the tied player is holding Parliament's Concession Token, then that player wins.
Repay Debts
Gain gold from Monger Cards
Gain gold from Politics Cards
1) Repay Debts
Each player must repay Debts by losing gold indicated below their Debt Indicator. In the example below, you will lose 18 gold.
You may have large Debts if you visited [Bank] too often or if you refused to deliver too many times during "Cleanup Phase (2) Deliver Tributes to VIP".
2) Gain gold from Monger Cards
Each player gains gold equal to the value of their Monger Cards in play (the value of [Member] card is 0). In the example below, you will gain 6 gold.
3) Gain gold from Politics Cards
Some Politics Cards with [While in play] triggers let the player gain gold at the end of the game. Resolve all applicable cards and gain gold.
Particularly, these cards are [Bewitching Supporter], [Powerful Supporter], [Cruel Supporter], [Careful Arrangements], and [Intelligent Spy] that copies one of the other 4 card's abilities in Round 5.
Solo Variant
You may play this game as a solitaire. Play it to beat your high score or to understand the rules.
Setup the game as if you're playing with 2 players. However, leave Parliament's Concession Token on the Main Board. The basic rules are the same, except for the followings. Try to aim for 50 or more points!
Using action spaces and resolving cards and tiles: You may choose any action, and you will always place your Pawn on the left most action space. However, your last Pawn must be placed on the right most action space. In this case, actions with only 1 available action spaces cannot be chosen. Finally, before you use your last pawn, you will discard the first face up Monger Card and VIP Tile.
Other player's Debts and Possessions: When you are comparing something with another player, treat the other player's amount as the current round number. For example, when you resolve [President] VIP Tile, the highest number of Debts is R (current round number). When you resolve [Dragons Political Party], the highest number of Dragon Token is R.
Changes to "Cleanup Phase (1) Resolve [Chairman's Office]": If you have not taken [Chairman's Office] action this round, then you must discard one of the Concession Token you have and return it to the Main Board. This can be prevented by discarding [Forged Concession Certificate] Politics Card. If you have taken [Chairman's Office] action this round, then you will move the Pawn and take another action. However, remember that this is also the last Pawn. Follow the additional restrictions mentioned above.
Target score for Solo Variant
100+ … Mastermind (very difficult to achieve)
90+ … Assembly Hall Chairman
80+ … President of the Bank of Pandemonium
70+ … Political Leader
60+ … Veteran Politician
Once you are familiar with the game, try to aim for Veteran Politician.
Special Monger Cards Reference
This section explains some Monger Cards with special abilities. For general explanations of Monger Cards, see How to read Monger Cards (P. 10).
BS-01 [Member]
You gain 1/5th of gold you possess (rounded down) with a minimum of 3. ([Member] cards count as Monger Card as well)
BA-09 [Trader]
You must return one of the 3 Concession Tokens (Potion, Liquor, or Ruby) to gain gold. If you cannot or choose not to return a Concession Token, then your [Black Market] action ends immediately.
BB-18 [Trader]
You gain 1 Influence Token instead of gold with this card. Bonus requires you to possess Parliament's Concession Token, similar to BA-08 [Jack of All Trades].
BC-19～23 [Wealthy Merchant]
Monger Cards that appear in Round 5 are all very powerful. (They become more powerful if you have a lot of cards of a single color.)
Politics Cards Reference 1/2
PN-24～26 [Bewitching/Powerful/Cruel Supporter]
[When played]
Gain 1 Witch/Demon/Dragon Token. Then increase 1 tribute (Potion/Liquor/Ruby) by 1 space, and decrease another tribute by 1 space on the Delivery Demand Track.
[While in play]
At the end of the game, gain 1 gold for each Witch/Demon/Dragon Token you have.
This card converts your Supporter Token to gold at the end of the game. It can also manipulate Delivery Demand Track.
PN-27 [Careful Arrangements]
[When played]
Discard 2 Supporter Tokens to gain 3 Influence Tokens.
[While in play]
At the end of the game, gain 1 gold for every 3 Influence Tokens you have.
This card converts your Influence Token to gold at the end of the game. It also converts your Supporter Tokens into Influence Tokens. Even if you have 15 Influence Tokens after you trigger this card's ability, you cannot play a second Politics Card unless you had 15 Influence Tokens before you played this card.
PN-28 [Deception of Interest]
[When used during your turn]
For the rest of your turn, treat as if you have all 4 Concession Tokens. Discard this card at the end of your turn.
Cards without [When played] abilities will have no effect when played at [Assembly Hall]. You may use its ability starting next turn.
PN-29 [Lobbyist]
[When played]
Choose 1 available VIP Tile and resolve its effect.
You may gain the bonus as long as you meet the requirements.
PN-30 [Cry of an Ancient Dragon]
[When played]
You may discard any number of Politics Cards from your hand.
[When used during your turn]
Choose 1 Politics Card in your hand and play it in front of you. You may immediately resolve the card's [When used during your turn] abilities. Then discard this card.
This card allows you to adjust your hand and change the timing in which you can use a card's abilities.
PN-31 [Head Hunting]
[When played]
Gain 1 available Monger Card. Place the gained Monger Card in your play area at the left most spot. (Place it to the left of [Member] card)
You may run out of available Monger Cards due to this card's effect. In that case, you will only gain Supporter Tokens when taking an action at [Bar].
PN-32 [Tactical Negotiator]
[When played]
Choose a Monger Card in your play area (except for [Wealthy Merchant] and [Member]). Resolve its effect without paying any tributes.
[When used during your turn]
Place your Agent Pawn on this card. Then gain any 1 tribute.
You must place your Agent Pawn on this card to use its ability. Since you only have 1 Agent Pawn, you will only be able to use this card's ability once per round. If you used you Agent Pawn somewhere else this round, then you cannot use this card in the same round.
There are 4 cards that uses Agent Pawns, which are PN-32 [Tactical Negotiator], PN-35 [Soulless Agent], PN-37 [Private Trading Ship], and PS-45 [Intelligent Spy].
PN-33 [Death Notices]
[When played]
Gain 1 Monger Card in the discard pile. Place this Monger Card in your play area at the right most spot.
[When used during your turn]
Choose a Monger Card in play (except [Member]) and gain gold equal to its value. Then discard this card and the chosen card.
PN-34 [Gold Collections]
[When played]
Discard 2 Supporter Tokens to gain 5 gold.
[While in play]
Gain 1 gold when you place your Pawn at [Bank].
PN-35 [Soulless Agent]
[When used during your turn]
For this turn only, use your Agent Pawn to take an action instead of your regular Pawn. (You may not choose [Trade Port]) You do not have to pay gold to take the chosen action. Then discard this card.
PN-36 [Forged Concession Certificate]
[When used during your turn]
Gain 2 Influence Tokens. Then discard this card.
[While in play]
When another player takes [Collection] action, you may prevent that player from taking your Concession Token. If you do so, then that player does not pay any Support Token for using [Collection] action. Then discard this card.
You can choose when to use [While in play] ability. When playing the Solo Variant, this card may come in handy when taking [Chairman's Office] action.
Politics Cards Reference 2/2
PN-37 [Private Trading Ship]
[When played]
Place your Agent Pawn at [Trade Port]. Then resolve [Trade Port] action. When you do this, you do not need to place all your remaining Pawns on [Trade Port].
[While in play]
When you take an action using your Pawn at [Trade Port] (not as an effect of this card), then gain any 1 Supporter Token.
Using this card's ability, you may be able to use [Trade Port] twice in 1 round. When resolving [Trade Port] action after you play this card, treat this card as "in play".
PP-38 [Forming a New Political Party]
[When played]
Discard all Politics Cards in your play area. Then gain 1 Debt.
[While in play]
Gain 1/10th of gold you possess (rounded down) at the end of each round.
This is a Political Party Card. You may only have 1 Political Party Card in play.
PS-45 [Intelligent Spy]
[When played]
Choose any Politics Card in play (even other player's) and place your Agent Pawn on the chosen card. This card gains all abilities of the chosen card (resolve [When played] ability too).
[While in play]
When your Agent Pawn is returned to the Main Board, put this card back in to your hand.
If the Politics Card with your Agent Pawn is discarded, then return your Agent Pawn to the Main Board and put this card back in to your hand.
PS-46 [Dragon's Threat]
[When played]
Gain 1 gold for each red card in play. Then, if this is Round 1~3, gain 1/5th of gold you possess (rounded down).
[Intelligent Spy] and [Dragon's Threat] is used only if a player chooses the corresponding Player Board.
PP-39～44 [Political Parties]
[When played]
Discard all Politics Cards in your play area.
[While in play]
Gain 1/10th of gold you possess (rounded down) at the end of each round if you meet the requirements.
[Requirements for each Political Party]
Witches party: If you have the most (or equal to another player) Monger Cards in play.
Demons party: If you have the most (or equal to another player) Politics Cards in play.
Dragons party: If you have the most (or equal to another player) Dragon Tokens.
Angels party: You have 1 Pawn at [Collection All] action space.
Reapers party: You have 1 Pawn at [Assembly Hall] action space.
Independent: You have 1 Pawn at [Bank] action space.
Words of Advice
1) For the first timer…
Gaining Supporter Tokens at [Bar], [Dorm], [Black Market], [Bank], and [Capital], then taking [Collection] action, and using Monger Cards at [Black Market] to gain gold is the basic flow of the game. If you take this approach, you may not be able to deliver all tributes to VIP, but don't worry about it too much. Use [Bar] and [Dorm] a lot to gain as many Supporters as you can.
2) If you want to deliver tributes…
You cannot simply win the game by delivering tributes to VIP. If you are going to deliver, try to take [Capital] action and deliver all 3 tributes.
By having a large amount of Influence Tokens, you can make [Assembly Hall] more powerful (if you have 15 or more Influence Tokens, then you can play 2 Politics Cards!) and will enhance the bonuses of Monger Cards and VIP Tiles. You will not be able to expend your tributes at [Black Market], but try to get bonuses by gaining Concession Tokens.
Also, try to collect cards of the same color to maximize the effect of [Wealthy Merchant] cards that will come into the game in Round 5.
3) If you don't like delivering tributes…
Refusing to deliver is part of the game. However, you shouldn't always refuse or else you will instantly be at 8 Debts and will lose a large amount of gold. Try to deliver in the earlier rounds while the cost is lower. Try to collect the same type of tributes so that you can deliver them in the later rounds.
4) If you're trying to get the highest score possible…
[Member] card is essential to getting a higher score in this game. This card lets you gain more gold the more you have. One way to play the game is to focus on getting more gold, and ignoring about gaining Debts or losing Supporter Tokens.
Use [Bank] wisely, and gain gold by taking [Collection] and [Black Market] actions. Of course, you will most likely not be able to deliver goods. It is up to you how much risk you are willing to take. Try using side of the Player Board too!!
