Gods & Mortals Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Gods
  • Mortals
  • Divinity
  • Favor
  • Faction Strength
  • God Powers
  • Sacrifices
  • Action Cards
  • Game Structure
• Component List
• Setup
• Divinity Phase
  • Divinity Order
  • Abandoning
  • Calculating Faction Strength
  • Favoring
• Action Phase
  • Playing Action Cards
    • Mortals, Followers, and Rivals
    • Lands and Targeting
    • Exhausting and Refreshing
    • Creating and Removing
    • Sacrificing a Card
  • Draw a Card!
  • End of Action Phase
• Powers and Abilities
  • Common Powers
  • Unique Powers
  • Passive Abilities
• Scheming and Dealing
• Ending the Game
  • Reveal Secret Favor Cards
  • Final Scoring
• Common Powers
  • Recruit
  • Travel
  • Duel
  • Worship
  • Build
  • Unique Powers shown on the dashboards
• General Strategy Tips
  • Granting Favor
  • Temples
  • Farming Value
  • Divinity Phase
  • Friends and Enemies

Overview

Gods

In Gods & Mortals, two to four players take on the roles of ancient Greek gods. The gods are vying for the throne of Mount Olympus by manipulating the Mortals in the world below.

Mortals

The Mortals are split into four Factions — Trojans (yellow), Achaeans (blue), Minoans (red), and Amazons (green).

The gods do not own any particular Faction, but have a stake in their rise (or ruin!) by investing Divinity.

Divinity

Divinity represents each god's standing on Mount Olympus. At the end of the game, the god with the most Divinity is the winner.

It also acts as currency.

Gods spend Divinity to grant Favor to mortal Factions — but gods are fickle. A god may abandon a Faction and withdraw all Favor to cash out Divinity and get ahead of their opponents.

Favor

Favor represents a god's stake in a mortal Faction.

Gods can grant Favor by spending Divinity.

(Illustration caption: "Favor tracks".)

Faction Strength

The Strength of a Faction determines the Divinity cost of Favoring that Faction and how much Divinity can be gained when abandoning it.

Factions grow in Strength by entering new Lands. They lose Strength when their last Follower in a Land is bested in a duel, smitten by a lightning bolt, or eaten by a monster.

Each god has their own methods to increase and decrease Faction Strength by using their unique God Powers.

God Powers

Each god has a dashboard with four card slots, each containing two God Powers.

Gods play Action cards into these slots to use Powers, choosing between the top and the bottom Power.

Some Powers can be used freely, while others require Sacrifices.

In addition, each god also has a signature ability — a unique game-breaking Power which does not require a card to activate.

(Callout printed on the Artemis dashboard illustration: "If your card matches both the land and the faction, use that power without spending sacrifice tokens.")

Sacrifices

Some God Powers require spending one or more Sacrifice tokens to use.

These tokens are gained by exhausting a Temple and activating the Worship Power.

The more Favor a god grants to a Faction, the more Sacrifice tokens can be gained.

Action Cards

Each god has a hand of five Action cards.

Each Action card shows a Land and a Faction. These determine which location or Faction the Power can target.

For example, an "Amazons / Troy" card can be used to command Amazons (green-colored Faction) in any Land, or any Faction in Troy.

Game Structure

The game is played in rounds.

Each round consists of a Divinity Phase and an Action Phase.

During the Divinity Phase, gods manipulate their Favor in the mortal Factions by cashing out and investing Divinity.

During the Action Phase, gods take turns playing Action cards to use Powers and influence the Strength of mortal Factions.

Once each god has played four cards, the round ends and the next round begins.

At the end of the fifth round, gods calculate their total Divinity and the god with the most Divinity becomes the new lord of Mount Olympus.

Component List

• Game board - 1
• God dashboards - 8
• Action cards - 40
• Secret Favor cards - 6
• God markers - 40
• Achaeans - 18
• Achaean Temples - 4
• Trojans - 18
• Trojan Temples - 4
• Minoans - 18
• Minoan Temples - 4
• Amazons - 18
• Amazon Temples - 4
• First player torch marker - 1
• Round marker - 1
• Sacrifice tokens - 30

Setup

1. Place the game board in front of everyone.

2. Shuffle the god dashboards and deal 2 to each player. Each player then selects one of those gods to play as, places that god's dashboard in front of them, then collects any god-specific components.

   For your first game, shuffle the Zeus, Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite dashboards and randomly deal one to each player.

3. Place the starting Mortals and Temples of each Faction on their starting locations as follows:

   • Knossos: Minoan Temple (red), 3 Minoans
   • Sparta: 2 Minoans, 2 Achaeans (blue)
   • Mycenae: Achaean Temple, 3 Achaeans
   • Pylos: 2 Achaeans, 2 Amazons (green)
   • Thrace: Amazon Temple, 3 Amazons
   • Colchis: 2 Amazons, 2 Trojans (yellow)
   • Troy: Trojan Temple, 3 Trojans
   • Lycia: 2 Trojans, 2 Minoans.

4. Return the remaining Mortals and Temples to the supply, within easy reach of all the gods.

5. Shuffle and deal 5 Action cards to each player.

6. Place the Sacrifice tokens within easy reach of all gods.

7. Place the rest of the cards face-down near the mat to form a draw pile. Leave space for the discard pile.

8. Shuffle and deal one Secret Favor card to each god. Each god may look at their card but must keep it secret from the other gods until final scoring. Return the rest of the Secret Favor cards to the box.

Divinity Phase

Each round starts with the Divinity Phase.

Divinity Order

In the Divinity Phase, gods act in the Divinity order (and not in the turn order!) — the god whose marker is furthest ahead (or on top, in case of a tie) on the Divinity track acts first.

The Divinity Phase is split into two separate steps: Abandoning step and Favoring step. All gods must complete the first step, before moving to the next.

During setup, the god markers are placed on the 14th space of the Divinity track in turn order, one under another. The turn order and the Divinity order are the same at the start of the game. But this will change as the game progresses.

Example: It is the third round of the game. Hera is currently ahead on the Divinity track (with 3 Divinity), and will act first, followed by Ares.

Abandoning

Skip the Abandoning step during the first round of the game. No Favor has been granted yet, so no Factions can be abandoned.

During this step, each god in the Divinity order may abandon one Faction.

If you are at level 5 of a Favor track (marked with an abandon icon), you must abandon that Faction, you have no choice. Otherwise you can choose to abandon any one of your Factions, or not abandon any of them.

Choosing to abandon in round two is almost always the right move!

When you abandon a Faction, remove all your Favor from that Faction by removing your god marker from the Favor track. Flip the marker to the abandoned side, to indicate that you have abandoned that Faction this round. You then gain Divinity equal to the level of Favor removed, multiplied by that Faction's Strength (See the examples →).

If you land on the same step of the Divinity track as another god, place your god marker on top of their god marker.

Example: Hera is favoring two Factions: Amazons and Trojans, with 2 Favor. She chooses to abandon the Amazons, flips her marker and removes it from the track. By abandoning the Amazons Hera gains 2 × 3 (Favor level multiplied by current Faction Strength) = 6 Divinity. The next god to act is Ares. He decides to abandon Achaeans (the blue Faction), gaining 2 × 5 = 10 Divinity, overtaking Hera on the Divinity track. This change in the Divinity order means that Ares will act before Hera in the next step (Favoring Factions).

Calculating Faction Strength

Each Faction is represented by Temples and Followers.

The Strength of a Faction is equal to the number of Lands with any of that Faction's Followers and/or Temples.

• Having more than one Follower, or both Followers and a Temple, in a Land does not add to Faction Strength.
• Presence of other Factions in a Land does not reduce any Faction's Strength.
• Since Temples cannot be removed, and each Land can (normally) only have a maximum of one Temple, Faction Strength cannot drop below the number of Temples that Faction has.

Example: In this example, the Trojans have a Faction Strength of 2 — one for Followers in Lycia and one for the Temple in Troy. Achaeans have a Strength of 5, and Minoans have a Strength of 4. (Sharing Lands with Achaeans does not affect this calculation.) The Amazons have a Strength of 3 — two for Followers in Thebes and Colchis, and one for the Followers and the Temple in Thrace.

Favoring

During this step, each god in the current Divinity order may grant a maximum of two Favors: either one "Small Favor" (moving up the track once) and one "Big Favor" (moving up the track twice), or two Small Favors.

Granting Favors costs Divinity. A Small Favor costs Divinity equal to that Faction's Strength. A Big Favor costs double.

All Factions have a Faction Strength of 3 at the start of the game.

When you grant Favor, move your god marker back on the Divinity track the number of spaces equal to the Divinity spent, then move your god marker up on that Faction's Favor track — once for a "Small Favor", twice for a "Big Favor".

• You are not allowed to land on the same Favor level as another god on any Faction's Favor track. But you can "jump over" a god who is right above you when granting a "Big Favor", as long as the spot two levels above is vacant.
• You cannot grant more than one Favor (Big or Small) to the same Faction in the same Divinity Phase.
• No more than two Factions at a time can have your Favor.
• You cannot both abandon and grant Favor to the same Faction in the same round (the marker is flipped to the abandoned side as a reminder).
• You cannot grant Favor to a Faction if you do not have enough Divinity (you cannot have negative Divinity).
• You cannot go above level 5 on a Favor track by granting a Favor.

Granting Favors is optional, but it is almost always a good idea to grant both a Big and Small Favor during each Divinity Phase.

In a rare case when during the first Divinity Phase (and only then!) a god is unable to grant a Favor, that god gains 3 Divinity instead.

At the end of Divinity Phase, reset all god markers to the side with the god icon facing up, and abandon icon facing down.

Example: Ares, now ahead of Hera in the Divinity order, would like to grant his Big Favor to the Trojans (with Faction Strength of only two, they are a lucrative investment). Unfortunately for Ares, Hera is already occupying the level 2 spot of the yellow Favor track, meaning that Ares can only grant Trojans a Small Favor. Ares spends 2 Divinity (current Strength of the Trojans), and moves his marker one level up the yellow Favor track. Ares then grants his Big Favor to Minoans by spending 8 more Divinity. This was his only option (assuming he wanted to grant both of his Favors), since he already Favors two Factions at this point, and cannot Favor a third.

Example: Now it's Hera's time to act. First Hera chooses to grant her Big Favor to Trojans, by spending 4 Divinity. The Achaeans have a very high Faction Strength and are a risky and expensive investment. Since Hera just abandoned the Amazons, she cannot grant them any Favors either. This leaves the Minoans as the only viable option for granting a Small Favor. Note that during the next Divinity Phase Ares will be forced to abandon Minoans (since he is at the level 5 of that Favor track), creating a weakness for Hera to exploit. Removing Minoans from as many Lands as possible and keeping their Faction Strength low will be a serious threat to Ares during the following Action Phase.

Action Phase

During this phase, starting with the god with the Torch and proceeding clockwise, gods take turns to play one Action card into one of the 4 slots on their dashboard.

Playing Action Cards

When you play your card into a slot, you may use either the upper or the lower god Power in that slot. You cannot play a card into a slot if there is already a card in it.

Each slot has two Powers. Most of the lower Powers require Sacrifice tokens to use. Their cost is depicted underneath the text box.

Each Action card has a Land (location) and a Faction (color). When you use a Power, you activate one Land and choose one Faction to be the Followers, using one of the two options:

• Activate the Land shown on your card and choose Mortals of any Faction in that Land as Followers.
• Choose Mortals of the Faction matching the color of your card as Followers and activate any one Land where that Faction is present.

Mortals, Followers, and Rivals

For the duration of the Power, Mortals of the chosen Faction become Followers, and all other mortals become Rivals.

IMPORTANT: Unless the text of the Power explicitly says so, only one Rival faction can be affected by that power.

If a Power removes 3 Rivals, they must all belong to the same Faction.

"Temple" refers to Temples of the same Faction as Followers. Both Followers and Rivals still count as Mortals.

Any Mortal can be a Follower, or a Rival, regardless of who you Favor.

Lands and Targeting

Unless the text of the Power explicitly says otherwise, the Power only targets Mortals and Temples in the activated Land.

A "connected Land" is one of the three Lands connected to the activated Land by the dotted lines.

"Any Land" is any of the 10 Lands on the board.

Exhausting and Refreshing

Most Powers require you to exhaust one or more Mortals or Temples.

To exhaust a Mortal or a Temple, lay it down on its side. To refresh a Mortal or a Temple, stand it back up again.

• You cannot exhaust an already exhausted Mortal (nor refresh an un-exhausted one).
• God Powers usually cannot target exhausted Mortals.
• Exhausted Mortals and Temples are refreshed (stood back up) at the end of each round, or by using certain God Powers.

Creating and Removing

Some Powers let you create Mortals, or even Temples. To create a Mortal or a Temple, take it from the supply and place it upright (unless the Power says otherwise) in the activated Land (unless the Power says otherwise).

Important: Normally, you cannot create a Temple in a Land that already contains a Temple (of any Faction).

Removal is the opposite process — take a Mortal from the board and return it to the supply.

There are no Powers which can remove Temples.

Sacrificing a Card

Instead of playing your card to use the Power, you may play it face-down into any slot to collect one Sacrifice token.

Draw a Card!

Immediately after you use a Power or Sacrifice a card, draw a card, and the next god in the clockwise order gets to act.

No, seriously, draw a card! This is your personal reminder.

• If there are no cards left in the draw pile, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.
• If you ever discard one or more cards from your hand, immediately draw back up to your hand limit of 5.

End of Action Phase

After all the gods have played their four cards, if it is round V, the game ends (see Ending the Game →).

Otherwise, follow the steps below:

1. Refresh all exhausted Temples and Mortals.
2. Each god discards their 4 played (or Sacrificed) cards from their dashboard into the common discard pile, facing up.
3. Advance the round marker one step.
4. Pass the Torch to the next god clockwise.

Even though the cards in the discard pile are face-up, gods are not allowed to inspect the cards in the discard pile.

Cards remaining in hand at the end of the Action Phase are not discarded! To get rid of a card you have to play it (or sacrifice it).

Powers and Abilities

Common Powers

Each god has access to a set of five Common Powers, shared by all the gods. These are: Recruit, Travel, Duel, Worship and Build (See Pages 10-11).

Common Powers have no cost and can be used as long as you have the right card.

Unique Powers

Apart from Common Powers shared by all the gods, each god has access to three Unique Powers.

• All Unique Powers cost Sacrifice tokens to use. The cost is depicted on the bottom of the slot on your dashboard.
• Mastering your unique Powers and managing your Sacrifice token economy is how you get ahead in the Action Phase.

Passive Abilities

In addition to the three unique Powers, each god has a passive ability. Its effect and when it triggers is unique for each god. You can see your passive ability in the top left corner of your dashboard.

• Zeus gains extra Sacrifice tokens whenever any god Sacrifices a card.
• Athena can have multiple Temples built in the same Land.
• Hermes gains a Divinity bonus each time he spends a certain number of Sacrifice tokens.
• Ares spills mortal blood each time he is worshipped.
• Aphrodite creates an additional Follower, strengthening her favored Faction when worshipped.

Scheming and Dealing

Scheming, bargaining, and double-dealing are among the most distinctive traits of the Olympians in Greek myth. Unlike the more distant, orderly gods of some other pantheons, the Greek gods behave with all the pettiness, rivalry, and cunning of mortals.

Gods are encouraged to make deals during the game and can trade sacrifices tokens (but not cards or divinity!). None of the agreements are binding.

Ending the Game

The game can end in one of the following ways:

• After the last Action Phase at the end of round V.
• Immediately, when any Faction builds four Temples.
• Immediately, when there is a Temple in every Land.

Reveal Secret Favor Cards

At the end of the game, all gods reveal their Secret Favor card and adjust their Favor as indicated by the card.

Each Secret Favor card increases your Favor by 1 in each of two different Factions.

(Illustration caption: "This Secret Favor card allows you to go up one step on the Amazons and Trojans Favor tracks before final scoring.")

Restrictions which must be followed during the Divinity Phase do not apply to Secret Favor cards:

• You can exceed 5 Favor, up to a maximum of 6.
• You can end up at the same Favor level as another god.
• You can have Favor in more than two Factions.

Final Scoring

All gods abandon each Faction in order from left to right, starting with the Achaeans and ending with the Trojans (see Abandoning Factions). The god with the most Divinity is declared the winner.

In the event of a tie, the god with the most Sacrifice tokens wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

During final scoring, leave the markers on the track when flipping them to the abandoned side. This keeps the final Favor levels visible and prevents tracking errors.

Common Powers

Each god (with one exception) has five Common Powers shared by all gods (four of them in the top row) and three Unique Powers.

Recruit

Exhaust a Temple. Create 3 Followers. Gain 1 Divinity.

• You must be able to exhaust a Temple of the same Faction as the Followers you want to create. (See the example →).
• Followers are created in the same Land as the Temple.
• You cannot create fewer than 3 Followers, so there must be at least 3 Followers left in the supply to use this Power.

It's often a good idea to Recruit Factions which match your Secret Favor card even if you are not currently favoring this Faction.

Recruit Example: Athena plays the Blue Knossos card into the first (Recruit/Bolster) slot of her dashboard and uses the Recruit Power. As a Common Power, Recruit costs no Sacrifices to use.

Option A: She can activate Achaeans (blue Faction) in Mycenae. She can do this because the blue Temple in Mycenae matches the Faction (color) of her card.

Option B: Alternatively she can choose to activate Minoans (red Faction) in Knossos, because Knossos is the Land on her card, even though her card does not match that Faction (color).

Athena chooses option B, exhausts the Minoan Temple and creates 3 un-exhausted Minoan (red) Followers in Knossos. Note that Followers created are Minoan (red), because that is the Faction she activated and that is the Faction of the Temple. In either case she then gains 1 Divinity and moves 1 space on the Divinity track for using the Recruit Power.

Travel

Exhaust and move 1 to 3 Followers to a connected Land.

• Followers can only travel from the activated Land.
• The destination must be one of three Lands connected to the activated Land by a dotted line. (See the example ↓).
• All Followers must move to the same destination.
• You cannot move Followers if they were already exhausted before using this Power.
• You cannot exhaust Followers and not move them.

Travel Example: Hermes can use any "Athens" Action card or any Minoan (red) Action card to activate Minoans in Athens, exhaust them and move them from Athens to either Mycenae, Knossos or Thebes. He cannot move them to either Troy, Lycia, or Sparta, since these Lands are not connected to Athens.

Travel Power is the most common way to increase (or decrease!) the Strength of a Faction. If Hermes moves all three Minoan Followers to Knossos, it will reduce the Strength of that Faction by one, since there is already a Temple in Knossos, but no Minoan presence will be left in Athens. However, if he chooses to move 1 or 2 Followers to either Mycenae or Thebes, it will increase the Strength of the Minoan Faction.

Duel

Exhaust and remove 1 Follower and 1 Rival.

• Duel removes two Mortals — one Follower and one Rival. When you remove a Mortal, simply return it to the supply.
• Both the Follower and the Rival must be removed from the activated Land.
• You cannot duel, unless there is at least one Follower and at least one un-exhausted Rival.

Duel is often the least costly way of reducing the Strength of a Faction you want to harm. However, it's best to avoid removing Mortals from the Factions you Favor, or secretly Favor.

Example: Aphrodite is favoring the Achaeans (blue) and Ares is favoring the Minoans (red). Aphrodite plans to Duel. Aphrodite could use either Achaeans (blue), Minoan (red), or a Sparta card to Duel in Sparta, but that would hurt both her and Ares as it would remove both Mortals from the Land. She cannot Duel in Thebes to remove the lone Minoan, because all Mortals there are Exhausted. She cannot Duel in Athens, since there is only one Mortal there. She could duel in Pylos using an Achaean (blue) card, but instead she chooses to play a Green card in Pylos to make the Amazon Follower Duel the Minoan Rival for her, removing both Mortals and leaving the Achaean Follower alone, in relative safety.

Worship

Exhaust a Temple. Collect Sacrifice tokens based on Favor.

The number of Sacrifice tokens you collect depends on your Favor level towards this Faction and is indicated by the number of Sacrifice icons on the right side of each Favor track.

• At Favor level 0, collect two Sacrifice tokens.
• At Favor levels 1 to 4, collect three Sacrifice tokens.
• At Favor level 5, collect five Sacrifice tokens.
• If there are no available Temples, or the Worship Power is not available, you can still choose to Sacrifice a card (See Page 8) to get a single Sacrifice token, as plan B.

The Worship Power is how you collect most of your Sacrifice tokens to fuel your Powers. Most often this should be your very first Power each game, as it requires an available Temple to use.

Example: Zeus uses his Worship Power at the Trojan Temple to exhaust it and collect 3 Sacrifice tokens. Ares, who was also planning to use the Worship Power at the Trojan Temple, is now denied this option, since Zeus exhausted the only available Trojan Temple. Ares can either use the Worship Power at the remaining Temple at Knossos to collect 2 Sacrifice tokens (since he has no Favor in Minoan Faction (red)), or Sacrifice a card by playing it face-down into any available turn slot and collect 1 Sacrifice token.

Build

If there is no Temple, exhaust 3 Followers and create a Temple; you and any gods above you on that Favor track gain 3 Divinity.

When you build a Temple, gain 3 Divinity (move your Divinity marker that many spaces forward on the Divinity track). If any gods are above you on that Favor track when you build the Temple, each of those gods also gains 3 Divinity.

• There can only be one Temple (of any Faction) in a Land!
• There must be 3 unexhausted Followers in a Land without a Temple to build one.
• Each Faction starts with 1 Temple already on the board and can build up to 3 more. If a Faction builds their fourth Temple, the game ends immediately (see Page 8).
• If six temples are built (so that there are 10 temples on the board in total), the game ends (see Page 8).

Example: Zeus plans to Build a Temple. The three un-exhausted Followers required to Build a Temple can be found in Athens, Knossos and Lycia. He cannot Build the Achaean Temple in Knossos, because there is already a Temple there. He could build a Trojan Temple in Lycia (as long as he has either a Lycia, or Trojan (yellow) card), but since Ares is above him on the Trojan Faction track, it would hand Ares "free" Divinity as well. Zeus chooses to leave the Trojan Temple option for Ares, and builds a Minoan (red) Temple in Athens instead.

Unique Powers shown on the dashboards

The dashboard illustrations on pages 3 and 10 print the following Unique Powers, which are shown there by name without a separate rules page.

Athena (printed on her dashboard illustration; Build, in the bottom row, is one of the five Common Powers):

• Bolster: Exhaust 1 Follower. Create Followers until there are 3 Followers in total.
• Flank: Exhaust and move 2 Followers, each to a different connected Land.
• Council: Exhaust 1 Follower. Exhaust and move 1 to 2 Followers from a connected Land to this Land.

Callout printed on Athena's dashboard: "When using the Build Power, you may create a Temple even if there is already a rival Temple."

Artemis (printed on her dashboard illustration):

• Guide: Exhaust and move 1 Follower and 1 to 3 Rivals to a connected Land.
• Scout: Exhaust 3 Followers. Create 1 Follower in every connected Land with no Followers.
• Hunt: Exhaust 1 Follower. Exhaust and remove 1 Rival in each of up to 3 connected Lands.

Callout printed on Artemis's dashboard: "If your card matches both the land and the faction, use that power without spending sacrifice tokens."

General Strategy Tips

Granting Favor

Buy low and sell high. If a Faction is down to one or two Lands, that is a bargain. Keep an eye on the fragility of that Faction's position as well, a Faction in 5 Lands with a single Follower in each is risky, while a Faction in two Lands with two Temples cannot get any worse and is all upside. You should aim to grant both your Big and Small Favor each round.

Temples

Building a Temple is an essential way to gain Divinity.

If there is a Temple that can be built, you generally should build it immediately before someone else does.

Do remember that you will be helping all gods above you on the Favor track for that Faction, which is fine as long as not all gods are above you or a god that you think is currently winning is above you. If it is not in your interest to build the Temple, you should probably prevent it, by dueling or moving the Followers away.

Because of this, you should keep a close eye on the turn order. If you are going to be the first player next round, you should try to 'set up' a Temple by making sure 3 Followers are in a Land without a Temple by the end of the round. Make sure you have a matching Action card to ensure you will be able to build the Temple on your first turn next round! If you will be the second in the turn order next round, you could also try to ensure that there are two Temples that are set up, so that you will also get to build a Temple.

In the Divinity Phase, pay very close attention to the set-up Temples. Try to make sure that you will be above the god that will be building the Temple on that Faction's Favor track.

Farming Value

In general, you will want to increase the value of the Factions you are favoring and decrease the value of those you are not. The Favor level you are on has a multiplier effect. So increasing or decreasing the Faction value has a much higher impact at higher levels of Favor. For example, if you are at Favor level 1 with the Trojans and you use a travel Power to increase them from value 3 to 4, your 'investment' in them has increased in value from 3 to 4. If you were at Favor level 4 and used the same Power, the change would be from 12 to 16! This cuts both ways, so being high on the Favor track also makes these investments prone to big losses. Focus your movement Powers on the Factions that you have the highest Favor in and your Duels and other removal on the Factions that your opponents have most Favor with.

Remember that there is often more than one way to achieve your ends. The Travel Power can be used to increase a Faction's value or set up a Temple, but it can also be used to decrease a Faction's value. Remember, the Factions do not really belong to anyone and you can target Followers of a Faction and send them to their doom.

Divinity Phase

The Divinity Phase is where half the game is played. Out-playing your opponents in this phase can hand the victory to any of the gods. There are many objectives you should be trying to hit simultaneously depending on the situation.

Firstly, you should be trying to get high in Favor tracks. This will net you more Sacrifices to use your God Powers with and multiply the Divinity value gain for the Factions you spread out on the map. It can also force gods to give you free Divinity if they build Temples when they are below you on the track, or discourage them from building Temples in the first place.

You should also be blocking positions on the Favor track and force your opponents to grant sub-optimal Favors.

During all this, keep value in mind. Obtain Favor in Factions that have good upside potential and low downside risk. Factions with lots of Followers in the Lands that they are present in are likely to stay in that Land and expand to others. Factions with a thin presence are vulnerable to removal that will bring the value of your investment down.

Friends and Enemies

At the end of the game, there can only be one winner. However, when playing with 3 or more gods, you can come out ahead by working with other gods.

You should ask yourself who your opponent is. It's fine to give yourself and another god a leg up as long as you are not helping whoever you think is most ahead (this can be hard to figure out). Giving someone extra Divinity when you build a Temple can be a good move, provided that god is not a threat to your position. Be aware that other gods are making the same calculations and try not to scare them into teaming up against you.