Imperium: Legends
203 questions players ask about Imperium: Legends. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-05.
Turn Structure and Card Resolution
- Is the Legends rulebook different from the Classics one, and do the same rules apply?
- Are the non-nation cards different between Classics and Legends?
- When do I resolve a card's text: when I play it, or later?
- Do I resolve card effects in the order printed, and how much must I resolve?
- Do I have to be able to do everything on a card to play it?
- If I cannot do one sentence of a card, are the other sentences still resolved?
- Can I pick a Choose option that I can only partly resolve?
- When does a played card go to my discard pile if its effect triggers another effect?
- Is the hand size of 5 enforced at all times?
Setup and Combining Boxes
- Can I mix Classics and Legends civilisations and common cards?
- Do I shuffle development cards or the nation deck during setup?
- Do the Unrest cards in my starting deck go to the common Unrest pile in setup?
- What do progress tokens in the market do?
- Is King Arthur's Court active from the start?
- Do I remove the 3+ and 4-player Unrest cards from the Qin bot's deck?
- Where does Emperor Qin Shi Huang go in the Qin bot's dynasty deck?
- Where do the set-aside land development cards go in the Atlantean bot setup?
- Does the solo bot start with resources?
Keywords and Terms
- What happens to cards garrisoned under a region that is recalled, abandoned, exiled, sunk or put into history?
- When can I garrison a card?
- Can I garrison an Empire card while Barbarian, or any card regardless of state?
- Why can't the Glory card be garrisoned?
- How do I get a garrisoned card back?
- Do garrisoned cards count for effects such as Exports?
- Can an effect that returns Unrest take a garrisoned Unrest card?
- Can an Arthurian Knight garrison itself under a region when played?
- For 'do X to Y' effects, such as garrison here to draw a scroll, must both parts be possible?
- Where do cards go when Atlanteans or Vikings would put them into history?
Reshuffling and Developing
- When my draw deck runs out, can I develop, and does the exhaust token stop me?
- Is developing mandatory when I cycle my deck?
- If I cycle during another player's turn, where does the exhaust token go and when is it removed?
- Does a develop effect on a card place an exhaust token or reshuffle my deck?
- When I take my accession card, what happens to the exhaust token?
- What are the clean-up steps?
- Can a nation go from Empire back to Barbarian?
- Do Atlanteans and Utopians skip parts of the reshuffle?
- Can the Egyptians develop while still Barbarian?
- When the Utopians' draw deck empties, when do I take Unrest and does it count toward my hand?
Break Through and the Market
- When I Break Through, can I take an unseen card from the deck instead of a market card?
- Does a Break Through for a visible market card give me the Unrest underneath?
- What refills a market slot when its small deck is empty?
- When I search the main deck for a suit, what happens to revealed cards I don't take?
- How does Break Through for an asterisk card work?
- What if the type I break through for is gone from the market and decks?
- What does the * symbol on a card's VP mean?
Solstice and Game End
- Does a Solstice effect trigger in the same Solstice that its card entered play?
- If I discard cards at Solstice, do I redraw before the next round?
- Do cards count for end-game scoring wherever they are?
- Is there a cap on what one variable-VP card scores?
- What happens when King of Kings is taken and the game ends?
- Do Arthurian quests in King Arthur's Court score?
Solo Bot: General Rules
- Do I resolve the card text on cards the bot plays?
- When the bot gains a card from me, where does it go?
- If the bot can't fill its row from its draw deck, where do cards come from?
- If a bot action says to discard 2 cards but only 1 remains, what happens?
- When does the bot move to the next icon on its chart?
- On a bot card with an 'Otherwise', is 'put this card into history' part of the Otherwise?
- What does the bot do with an Unrest card from its deck?
- Where does Unrest the bot gains from an effect go?
- When the bot picks the highest-VP market card, does it count Unrest cost and progress tokens?
- Can the bot play Empire cards while it is still Barbarian?
Solo Bot: Nation Charts
- On the Qin bot's barbarian side, when does a card go into history?
- On the Qin bot's Barbarian Other action, whose regions count, and can I defend?
- Do I need the Horizons-updated Qin bot to play solo with Legends?
- How do I resolve the Mauryan bot's 'Other' row?
- What does 'any' mean on the Atlantean bot's chart?
- When the Egyptian bot resolves Prosperity, whose regions count?
- What does 'per region played' mean on the Egyptian bot's chart?
- If the Olmec bot can't discard the top card for a Mask action, what does it do?
- How does the Arthurian bot resolve its sword card?
- Does the Arthurian bot's Knight symbol abandon a region when the market has none?
Arthurians
- How do Arthurian quests work?
- Where is King Arthur's Court, and which quest can be impending?
- Can Arthurians develop cards or become an Empire?
- Do Arthurians need an exhaust token to garrison a quest?
- Can Arthurians play Empire cards while Barbarian?
- How do I abandon King Arthur when Guennuvar free plays an Empire card?
- Can the Graal acquire an exiled card like Rollo the Walker, and do I take Unrest?
- When the Graal lets me take a card from history, do I choose?
- What happens when Percival finds the Graal?
- Peredur: must I return Unrest before the garrison option?
Utopians
- Do Utopians flip their state card, and can they play Barbarian or Empire cards?
- Once I trigger a Utopian exhaust ability, must I finish its effect?
- What does 'take' mean on the Utopians' power card?
- How does Shangri-la's passive work when I gain materials?
- Do two-sided Shangri-la cards count as two cards for the end-game card total?
- Where does Gates of Shangri-la's exhaust take its card from?
- How does Urban Development interact with the earlier Shangri-la?
- What happens when the bot's deck is empty and a Journey card acquires a region?
- Can a Utopian Solstice card resolve its flipped side or newly revealed card?
- Can Utopians use Lost Tomes to flip King of Kings?
Qin and Mauryans
- As Qin, do I place population or progress on market cards?
- What happens if Qin plays Legalism while Confucianism is in play (or the reverse)?
- Does Confucianism need two cards to discard?
- How is a Long Wall scored?
- Where does the return cost on Long Walls IV come from?
- Does the Qin power's exhaust apply to every card gained afterward?
- For King Wu of Qin, can I pay progress in stages?
- Can Duke Zhuang return Unrest from both hand and discard?
- How many population does the Nanda Dynasty card give the Mauryans?
- Does Grand Trunk Road count as two regions?
Atlanteans and Egyptians
- Does Atlantean Fleet's steal require sinking a card from discard?
- Does Atlantean Power A trigger before Myths and Legends resolves, and is it optional?
- Do flooded cards count for * cards scoring regions?
- Do dual-icon cards count toward Egypt's civilised bonuses?
- Do Egyptian tributary cards go into history when played as Barbarians?
- When Flood of the Nile abandons a water symbol on Lakes, is the reward gained per symbol?
- Is the Egyptian Legacy-Embalming-Code of Laws-Pyramids chain legal?
- Does Domestication trigger when Prosperity gains materials from a grain region?
- How many materials does Prosperity collect with Qanat exhausted, Lakes and Archipelago in play?
- Does Qanat turn every water icon into three bags, and how does it score?
Olmecs, Minoans and Other Cards
- What happens to Pottery's progress tokens if I abandon it?
- Do Minoan Pottery's tokens count at the final score?
- Does the Minoan Tributary place a card from hand on top of my deck?
- How do Olmecs get garrisoned cards back?
- On the Olmec nation card, does choosing to put a discard card into history also acquire?
- Does Obelisk's free-play of Unrest still cost something?
- How does Cacao's progress work with several players returning Unrest?
- Does the Religion card cause Unrest by itself?
- Does the Crete region have a pinned icon?
- How does Arthashastra's discard Unrest for draw or progress work?