Statecraft

Statecraft Rulebook

Table of Contents

Goal of the Game

In Statecraft you will lead a great world power in its fight for world hegemony, trying to control the resources of the different countries and put your men and women of trust in the main international organizations. But don't forget to protect your leader image safe and win as much popular support as you can. Statecraft is played over four rounds, followed by a final scoring round. In the end, the power with the most Power Points (PP) will be declared the winner of the game.

Basic Mechanics of the Game

Get as many majorities as possible by secretly planning your actions. Place trustworthy diplomats in high places who favor your interests in the voting, secure resources and benefits of the countries by placing friendly governments in them, topple rival governments by bribing their influences, or introduce new ones that provoke conflict in the country, and prepare spies to ensure the success of these operations.

Components

See Solo Components on page 16 for the solo-mode components.

1 Board (A)
4 Personal agendas (B)
4 Screen-walls (C)
40 Country cards (D)
7 UN voting cards (N)
24 Leader cards (F)
30 x 4 Power tokens (J)
25 Demonstrator tokens (H)
1 Phase token (I)
10 Conflict markers (O)
4 Resource indicators: crops, goods, hydrocarbons, metals (K)
1 Diplomacy bag (P)
7 Dice (M)
4 Popular support tokens (L)
1 Rulebook

Set Up

Place the board (A) on one side of the table. In A you can see a Victory Point track from 1 to 30. In this game we call them Power Points (PP). Place the green round token (I) on the first space of the phase marker on the board (A2). Place the resource markers (K) on their respective spaces on the main board (A3) in the following order: Crops (0), Goods (1-), Hydrocarbons (1+), Metals (2).
Place the white demonstrator tokens (H) (white), dice (M), and conflict markers (O) next to the board for easy access.
Each player chooses a power among: The European Union, China, Russia and the United States, and takes his personal agenda (B), the corresponding screen-wall (C), the six leader cards for their chosen power (F) and the 30 corresponding tokens of your colour (to use in your Agenda) (G). Return the accessories of the unselected powers to the game box.
Next, each player secretly shuffles the leader cards of the power they have chosen (F). Each player draws two leaders from their power at random and returns the rest to the game box. After reading the two leader cards carefully, they choose one of them and returns the unchosen one to the box.

In case of playing a first game, or for a slightly less complex experience, we recommend using the Mentor card (with a special symbol in the "target" area) and skipping the previous step.

Each player hides the leader's personality until the rest of the players have selected theirs. All players reveal their leader cards and read them to the rest. Each power places the popular support token of his colour (L) on the space of the popular support marker (A1) on the main board, and places it in the position indicated by the selected card of each leader (see "Initial Popular Support" F3 on the leader card).
Take the deck of country cards (D) to form a new deck of countries in play as follows: a) Search in the deck of countries for all the countries indicated in the leaders selected by the players, to form the deck of countries in play. So, you must search four countries per leader. b) Add one extra card per leader selected. To do it, keep drawing cards from the deck of countries (D) till you find any country card symbol (D7) matching the leader symbol; add this card to the deck of countries in play.

Process a) will add 4 cards per power, and process b) will add one extra card per power. Shuffle this new deck and create (on the table) a grid of countries, placing five countries per row, and forming as many rows as powers in play. Return all unused country cards to the box of the game.

Note: Each player's tokens have various uses. When they are on the country cards we will call them influences; when they are inside the bag of diplomacy or on top of international organizations they will be votes.

Country card anatomy (D1-D7):

Name of the country (D1)
Indicator of a Muslim country (D2)
Conflict threshold (CT) (D3)
Number of extra dice in case of conflict (D4)
Reward for controlling the country (D5)
Friendly government (D6)
Country symbols (D7)

UN voting card anatomy (E1-E3):

Name of the card (E1)
Effect to apply by the power with majority at the UN (E2)
Effect to apply by the losing powers in the UN (E3)

Leader card anatomy (F1-F7):

Name of the leader (F1)
Value of the leader (F2)
Initial Popular Support (F3)
Goal of the leader (F4)
Leader Ability (F5)
Initial countries (F6)
Leader symbol (F7)

Every leader card shows a leader ability, which must be applied only during the phase shown in the card.

General Concepts and Terminology

POWERS: In Statecraft, each player will take control of a great power. The base game includes the European Union, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation. Powers are represented by means of their boards-agendas, their base markets (within the agendas), their leaders and the corresponding coloured tokens.

TOKENS: The tokens of each player are a limited resource. If, at any point during the game, a power runs out of tokens, that power cannot perform actions (or can only perform them partially). In addition to the power tokens, there are also demonstrator tokens (white).

DEMONSTRATORS: Demonstrators are influences that do not belong to any power and do not compete for points during the game but can disrupt the dynamics of majorities of the countries.

COUNTRIES: Statecraft is a game of majorities, over 4 turns, each power places influence tokens (their own tokens) in the countries that make up the country grid. The countries grant their controlling power the effects shown at the bottom of their card. Muslim countries are distinguished by a crescent moon at the top of the card, as well as its green stripe.

LEADERS: Each player will have a leader card that will be used to set the game up with the initial countries (F6). It will also grant a goal to achieve (F4) which may increase or decrease the popular support for the power (not available on the Mentor card), a specific ability (F5) that applies only during the indicated phase, a leader value (F2) that will be used to determine the order of resolution in case of equality in Power Points (PP) and an initial popular support value (F3).

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: Unlike the influences on the country cards, those located in the International Organisations spaces are considered "votes". The votes are linked to the diplomatic bag, a cloth bag from which votes are drawn each round to assess the control of the organizations. While country influences remain throughout the rounds, votes are refreshed at the end of each round.

INITIATIVE: Several actions in the game must be performed in initiative order. Initiative is determined by the Power Points (PP) of each power. In the event of a tie (as at the start of the game), the power with the highest leader value (see leader cards) has the initiative.

CONFLICT THRESHOLD: It is an indicator of the stability of the countries in the game. The higher the threshold, the more difficult it is for the country to enter conflict (CT). The CT regulates a rule and an effect:

Rule: The conflict threshold is the highest number of influences that each faction (power or demonstrators) can have in the same country.
Effect: If at the end of a player's activation, the total number of influences (counting all factions) exceeds the CT of any country, place a Conflict marker (O). The country is "blocked" and no other action can be performed on it, neither can new influences be placed (Influence Action), nor can one influence be exchanged for another (Bribe Action).

See the illustration: Mexico has a CT = 5.

Friendly Government

If at any time during the game, a power has a simple majority (a faction with more influence tokens than any other faction present in the country, whether power or demonstrator), that power moves an already existing influence into the friendly government space. As we will see later, the friendly government determines who controls the country, allowing that power to gain its resources and roll an additional die during conflicts. If another power ties the number of influences, the friendly government would not change. To take over the friendly government, a player (or demonstrator) must surpass the number of influence tokens held by the current controlling faction.

Example as printed: Initially Europe (blue) had the majority in North Korea, placing 2 influences, one of them in the "friendly government" cell. After that China (yellow) placed one influence; at this point Russia would need 4 influences in total to take the friendly government.

Three important notes regarding the space of the friendly government:

At the start of the game each power always starts with four friendly governments depending on the chosen leader card.
Demonstrators can never govern (they can not occupy the Friendly Government space).
As we will see later, the influence located in the friendly government cannot be changed or modified unless it is the last influence of the player remaining in the country.

Example: China starts by controlling a country of CT 4, placing an influence there. Therefore, it places that influence in the friendly government space of the country. On its turn, the United States places two of its influences in that same country. Having surpassed China, the United States places one of those two influences in the friendly government space, removing China's influence from the space and placing it in the center of the card. If the United States had placed only one influence, the friendly government would not have changed (since it would be equal).

Next, Russia decides to place four of its influence tokens in the country (which is allowed, since the country has a Conflict Threshold (CT) of 4). After this, the number of current influence tokens on the country becomes 7 (4 from Russia, 1 from China and 2 from the United States), the country's CT 4 is exceeded, and it enters conflict as soon as Russia's action ends. Note that Russia's latest action does not change the friendly government (since despite outnumbering the other powers, its action has triggered a conflict). No actions may be taken in this country until the conflict is resolved.

Popular Support

This is a track (A1) that represents the popularity of the leader of each power among the masses. This support will be updated at the end of each round and will trigger an effect depending on the location of that marker within the Popular Support track (A1).

(The leader of the US started the game with "2" popular support. Meeting his goal, the marker moves forward to the "3" position; otherwise it decreases to the "1" position.)

The popular support marker has nine spaces, divided in the following way:

-2: Turn two of your influences into demonstrators in countries with friendly governments to your power (no conflict).
-1: Turn one of your influences into a demonstrator in a country with a friendly government (no conflict).
0: Nothing happens.
1: Nothing happens.
2: Place a new demonstrator in any country.
3: Introduce two demonstrators in a country, or two demonstrators, each one in a different country.
4: Take a bribe action in any country.
5: Take two bribe actions in a country, or two bribe actions, each one in a different country.
TOP: In future turns, during conflicts, demonstrators support the player located in this position, but only if there is a single player in that position. Additionally, the player may choose to perform any one of the previous actions listed on the marker.

How to Play

Four rounds are played in a Statecraft game. Each round consists of the following phases:

Agenda phase
Agenda execution phase
Governance phase
Country grid resolution phase
Declarations phase
Maintenance phase

At the end of the maintenance phase, the round is finished and we move on to the next one. If we are playing the fourth round, we proceed to the bonus and scoring final phase (see End of the Game).

Agenda Phase

During this phase, we will plan actions to be resolved during this turn.

Each player takes 5 of his tokens (G) from his reserve, to this number we will add tokens not used in the "Spy" space of the personal agenda in previous turn. Note that in the first turn of the game there will be no tokens in the "Spy" space, so the game will start with five tokens to plan in each agenda. It is advisable not to hide this information from the rest of the players, so that they know the differences while planning their agendas when they play.

Next, all players, simultaneously and secretly, place the tokens from the previous step distributed in the Debate, Influence, Bribe and Spy spaces of their personal agenda. To do this they must use the screens provided in the game, so that the rest of the players cannot see what is being planned. There is no limitation on the number of tokens that can be placed on each square.

Once all the powers in play have planned their agendas, the screen-walls are removed and the agenda execution phase begins.

Agenda Execution Phase

The actions programmed during the agenda phase are now resolved. First, the "Debate" action is carried out, followed by the "Influence" action, and finally the "Bribe" action (the "Spy" action will be used in case of conflicts).

DEBATE: All players place all the tokens assigned to the Debate space in the diplomatic bag; this action can be done simultaneously. From this point on these tokens are converted into votes.

INFLUENCE: Starting with the power with the most initiative (with the highest PP) and proceeding in descending order, each power distributes all the tokens programmed in the Influence box of its agenda among all the countries on the grid following these rules:

Influences cannot be placed in countries in conflict.
The highest number of influences from each faction that can be in a single country cannot exceed the CT at any time.

Example: one country has a CT 4. At the time of placing influences in the country, there are two influences from another player, a demonstrator and one of your own. You can place up to three more influences, because placing more than one would exceed the country's CT of 4.

If the total number of influences (from players and demonstrators) exceeds the country's conflict threshold, that country enters conflict, so a conflict marker (O) is placed on it.

In the previous example, when placing our second influence, there would be a total of five influences so the country would enter conflict at the end of the current power's action. The player may still place more influences, but cannot exceed the conflict threshold of CT 4.

Important: Countries in conflict are resolved in the resolution of the country grid phase.

BRIBE: This action is resolved in order of initiative, starting with the power that has the most PP. For each token placed on this action, the owner can either: convert a rival's influence into a demonstrator, or convert a demonstrator from the country grid into their own influence. The bribe action cannot be performed in countries that are in conflict.

Important: To convert a rival's influence into your own, two bribe actions are required: the first to convert the influence into a demonstrator, and the second to convert it from a demonstrator into your own influence. This can be done during the player's activation as long as they have enough bribe tokens planned.

IMPORTANT: Both influence and bribe actions can result in a change of the friendly government. Whenever one of these two actions is carried out, it is necessary to check if the friendly government has changed. However, if a conflict is triggered, the friendly government will not be changed, even if a player's number of influences exceeds that of the player who previously held the friendly government.

SPY: This action is activated when a power is involved in a conflict (see the Conflict section). If not used during the current round, all tokens placed in the Spy space are carried over and added to the next Agenda phase for planning additional actions.

Governance Phase

This phase contains two steps.

VOTING: At this point, the youngest player takes the diplomatic bag and draws the votes one by one. Each vote is assigned to the international organisation chosen by the token's owner, placing the token on that organisation.

The voting step ends immediately when the third, and final, neutral (demonstrator) token is drawn from the diplomacy bag. If the first or second neutral token is drawn, nothing special happens; simply place those tokens in the designated area on the game board.

Example: The first vote drawn from the bag belongs to Russia. The Russian player chooses to place it in the Press organisation. Next, a European vote is drawn, and the corresponding player places it in the Davos W.E.F. The third token drawn is a demonstrator, which is placed aside in the designated area. The process continues in this manner until the third demonstrator token is drawn, which ends the voting phase immediately.

RESOLUTIONS: Voting ends immediately after the third neutral (white) token is drawn. The game then proceeds to the Resolution of Votes and Effects step, which is carried out in the following order: Davos Forum, IMF, Press, and finally the UN. Refer to ANNEX 1 for a detailed explanation of each organisation's effects.

How to solve an organisation card?

If any power has achieved a simple majority (that is, it has more votes than any other), one vote from that faction remains on the organisation and the rest of its votes are returned to its personal pool. All other votes (from non-winning powers) are returned to the diplomatic bag and will be available again in the next turn. The effect of the corresponding organisation is then applied according to the decision of the winning power. The retained vote will stay on the organisation for the next round.

If you have doubts about the effects of international organisations, take a look at ANNEX 1 of the rules for more information.

If no power has achieved a simple majority (that is, no power has more votes than any other): all votes on the organisation are returned to the diplomatic bag. These will be available again for the next turn. The effect of the organisation is not carried out.

IMPORTANT: The UN is an organisation with a special rule. Each turn, a UN Resolution card is revealed. The power with the majority applies the higher effect of the resolution, while the rest of the powers will carry out its lower effect. Presence in the vote is not required to be affected by the lower effect.

Example: in the UN there are three votes from China, two from Europe and one from the United States. Since China has the most votes, it wins the simple majority; one of its votes is left in the organisation, the other two Chinese votes are returned to China's personal pool. All votes from Europe and the United States are returned to the diplomatic bag. China then applies the majority effect of the resolution card "International Trade Sanctions", which allows it to trigger a change in the resource market as if it controlled the IMF this turn. Meanwhile, all other powers in play, regardless of whether they had votes in the UN or not, must apply the minority penalty stated on the card: -2 Power Points (PP).

Country Resolution Phase

Most of the PP are earned in this phase of the game.

In this phase, players determine control country by country, starting with the leftmost country in the first row and proceeding to the rightmost country in the last row, as illustrated.

In general, the majority control of a country is held by the power occupying the Friendly Government space. However, if demonstrators hold the majority of influence in a country, no power gains control, and no PP is awarded for that country. We can find the following three situations in every country:

There is no conflict in the country and a power has a friendly government. In this case, the power occupying the Friendly Government space receives the reward indicated at the bottom of the card (D5). Refer to Annex 2 for a full explanation of the symbols.
There is no conflict in the country but no power holds the friendly government. This occurs either when no power has placed influence in the country or when the demonstrators are the faction with the most influence. In this case, no power receives a reward, and we proceed to evaluate the next country.
There is conflict in the country (with or without a friendly government). The conflict must be resolved before determining the new majority. Once the winning power of the conflict is established (as long as the demonstrators do not win), that power receives the reward shown on the country card.

Note: Demonstrators also participate in conflicts; however, if they win, they never gain control of the friendly governments.

After resolving conflicts, each power collects the bonus from the base market of its agenda.

Example: If Europe (blue) controls Nigeria, it scores 2 Power Points (PP) for the hydrocarbons and 1 PP for the crops (as shown on the market track), totaling 3.

Conflict

If, during the country resolution phase, a country has the conflict marker, the conflict must be resolved before the country's bonus is awarded.

Each power with influence in the country in conflict must roll as many dice as the number of influences they have in that country, plus any additional dice indicated on the country's card. Countries grant extra dice based on their Conflict Threshold (CT). If a power controls the friendly government of the disputed country, it gains one extra die.

Additional dice per CT:

CT 2: three extra dice
CT 3: two extra dice
CT 4+: one extra die

The number of extra dice is clearly indicated on the country card.

Example: Nigeria has CT 3, so players must roll 2 extra dice.

All players roll their corresponding dice. Any player can roll the dice for the demonstrators. A roll of 5 or 6 is considered a success, while any other result is disregarded. Players can track the number of successes in their personal agenda. Once all the players have rolled their dice, each player, in order of initiative, must declare whether they wish to use one of their spies to re-roll selected dice from their initial roll. With a single spy, multiple dice can be re-rolled. The player can continue using spies (if available) until they are satisfied with their final result. Once the player has finished modifying their rolls, the next power in the conflict (in initiative order) takes its turn to decide if they will use spies. This phase concludes when all players either decline to use spies or have none available.

Don't forget that spies should have been planned in the agenda phase; if a player did not place any tokens in that space, they will not be able to use them now.

The faction (either a power or the demonstrators) with the most successful results in the conflict is considered the winner. In case two or more factions have the same number of successes, the winner will be the faction that controlled the friendly government. If the tie persists between two or more powers without control of the friendly government, the winner will be determined by the highest initiative value (including Power Points and/or leader value).

All factions involved in the conflict remove their tokens from the country and place them back in their personal pool. Only the winner retains one of their influence tokens. The victorious faction places one of their influence tokens in the friendly government space (note that only one power can win, so no other influence will remain in the country card other than the winner's). In the event of a victory by the demonstrators, they will never occupy the friendly government space. The effects and/or resources of the country are then resolved as usual. Once the conflict has been resolved, remove the conflict marker from the country.

Example of conflict resolution: In Nigeria, with a CT of 3, there are currently two Chinese influences and one demonstrator. During the agenda execution phase, the United States player places two influences in that country, placing a conflict marker.

During the country resolution phase, the conflict is resolved in the following way:

China (orange) rolls 5 dice (two for the influence it has, two for the extra dice on the card and one for controlling the friendly government). The results are 1, 2, 2, 5 and 5, so it gets two successful hits.

Someone else rolls the demonstrator's dice. There are three dice in total (one for the current influence and two for the extra dice on the card). The results are 5, 4 and 4, a single success.

Finally, the US player (pink) rolls his four dice (two for influences and two for the extra dice on the card). He rolls 4, 5, 5, and 6, resulting in three successful hits.

So far the United States is winning the conflict. We now proceed with the rounds to determine if the spies of the other factions will be used.

China goes first due to its highest initiative. They have two spies and decide to use one; the spy is removed from the "Spy" box in their agenda. They reroll the three unsuccessful dice, and the Chinese player now gets 1, 5, and 6, two more successes, giving a total of four hits.

The United States decides not to use one of their spies to reroll the dice, strategically reserving it for another open conflict where they are present during this round.

The conflict ends with the victory of China. The demonstrators and the influences of the United States are removed. China takes control of the country alone by placing one of its influences previously present in the country in the friendly government box; the rest of the Chinese influences are also removed. After resolving the conflict, only Chinese influences remain on the card.

IMPORTANT: Demonstrators do not reroll the dice as they do not have spies. No power may use its spies to reroll dice for the neutral faction.

Declaration Phase

In the declaration phase the achievement of the objectives of each of the leaders in play is verified, according to initiative order, and the popular support marker is updated. After this, the maintenance phase begins.

Each player determines if their leader's goal is met or not. If it is fulfilled, the support marker moves up one position; otherwise it moves down one position. Keep in mind that if the player controls the press, he would not move down the popular support marker, even if the leader's objective was not met.

Once all players have updated the popular support marker, each player, again in initiative order, executes the effect on the track corresponding to their current Popular Support position.

Maintenance Phase

In the Maintenance phase:

Check if you have played four rounds by counting the number of played UN voting cards. If you have played four rounds, then perform the "End of the Game" section for final scoring.
As far as round 4 is not reached:
- Introduce three demonstrator tokens in the diplomatic bag.
- Reveal a new UN voting card.

Remember that the unused power tokens that still remain in the "Spy" box can be used next turn (see Agenda Phase).

End of the Game

If any country remains in conflict, it is resolved. However, in this case, no country benefit is awarded.

The final PP of each player are determined by adding:

Those already obtained during the game
PP in the popular support marker track (-2 to 5) according to the power position
2 PP per country (in the grid) with a friendly government
1 PP per spy in the agenda (not used after the fourth and last round)
1 PP per every 2 votes left in the diplomatic bag

The power with the most PP is declared the leader of the new multipolar order. In case of a tie, as always, the winner will be the leader with the highest leader value.

Solo Mode

The bots in Statecraft have a distinct personality linked to each power's playstyle, geopolitical interests, and internal mechanics. Despite this, they are designed to maintain a simple and dynamic game flow, focusing on human turns rather than maintenance phases. To achieve this, we've created an icon system (image of the icons) that appears both on the bot's staff board and on the country cards. After your first two rounds, you'll likely pick up speed with their distribution and almost completely automate their actions.

Solo Components

6 Bot's personal cards, one per power. Each card shows: Power (A), Value of the leader (B), Primary symbol (C), Secondary symbols (D), Table of actions (E), Initiative (F), and Market priority (G).
6 "solo agenda cards". Each card shows: Action(s) (G) on the front, and Side bars (H) on the front and back. The side bars carry a colour on each edge, used in the Maintenance phase to chain cards.
A 6-sided die and a "1" token.
The symbols of the country cards are also used.

The rulebook illustrates the personal card of the China bot. Its table of actions is a grid of values under four action icons (Debate, Influence, Bribe and Spy). The personal cards for the other powers are not reproduced in the rulebook.

Solo Game Setup

Set up the game as usual. You may assign up to three powers to a non-human power (known as a "BOT"), though we recommend assigning only one.

For each bot-controlled power:

Take all its influence tokens as you normally would (a privacy screen is not needed).
Take its Personal Agenda and the bot's personal card. To simplify these rules, we will assume that only one power is controlled by the bot.
Place the solo agenda cards face down forming a deck and shuffle it along with a six-sided die.
Select the countries for each human player as you normally would. However, for the bot, randomly draw five country cards from its country deck. Shuffle all the country cards and set up the country grid just as you would in a standard game.
Shuffle the solo agenda deck and draw the top card, placing it face up next to the deck.
Place three votes from each power (including the bot) into the bag.

Solo Agenda Phase

The bot must place its tokens on its personal agenda according to the following rules:

a) First, check the face-up solo agenda card actions. Each turn, there will be a set of face-up solo agenda cards, as you will see later. In turn one, only one card will be face up. The bot takes as many influence tokens as indicated by those cards and places them in the corresponding section of its power board.

b) Second, place the remaining influence tokens according to the bot's personal card. Check whether the bot controls all countries in the country grid that contain any of the primary symbols (first row). If the bot does not control all of them, assign influence tokens according to the actions listed in that row. Any remaining influence tokens will be placed in the following rows (Secondary symbols) following a left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.

Example of the bot agenda phase (as printed): Based on the illustration in the rulebook, the bot needs to program five actions in total.

a) Because two cards have been revealed, the bot must program one Spy and one Bribe.

b) Referring to the primary symbol of the bot's personal card, the bot does not control all the countries containing that symbol: the bot controls D.R. Congo and Zambia but does not control Switzerland, so the bot places two tokens on the actions of the first row of symbols and moves them to the bot's personal agenda.

c) Finally, as there is still one token to program (the bot had to place five tokens and has only used four), check the first secondary row on the bot's card: it is a Bribe that goes straight to the agenda.

Solo Agenda Execution Phase

In each agenda execution phase, we will first select a country card at random from the country grid by rolling a six-sided die twice.

The first roll determines the row of countries:

For 2 players, there will be 2 rows. Rolling 1, 2, or 3 selects the first row, while 4, 5, or 6 selects the second row.
For 3 players, there will be 3 rows. Rolling 1 or 2 selects the first row, 3 or 4 selects the second row, and 5 or 6 selects the third row.
For 4 players, there will be 4 rows. Rolling 1 selects the first row, 2 the second, 3 the third, and 4 the fourth. If the roll is 5 or 6, it must be re-rolled.

The second roll determines the column (if a 6 is rolled, it must be re-rolled). Place the "1" token on the corresponding country.

Example: In a 2-player game, if the rolls are 2 and 3, we must place the token in Hong Kong, as shown in the illustration (first row, third column).

Next, the normal turn sequence will be followed according to the general rules. First, the bot will place any tokens it has in the "Debate" space into the diplomatic bag along with those of other players.

When the bot needs to perform Influence and Bribe actions, the following rules will apply:

INFLUENCE: The bot will place its influence tokens in up to three rounds:

First round: In this first round, only countries that have a symbol matching the bot's primary symbol are considered. Starting from the country marked with the "1" token, the bot will proceed through the country matrix from left to right and top to bottom. If the bot already controls the country (having the aligned government), skip that country. For each country, the bot checks if, with the remaining influence tokens, it can either take control of the aligned government by having a majority, or create a conflict. If either of these is possible, the bot will place the necessary influence tokens to achieve this.
Second round: If there are still influence tokens available, starting again from the "1" token, the process from the first round is repeated, this time checking all the countries in the grid (no matter the symbols).
Third round: If there are still influence tokens available, starting from the "1" token, place any remaining influence tokens in the first country that the bot does not control and it can influence.

Note: If the bot arrives at the last card, it starts again from the first card of the first row.

BRIBE: The bot bribes up to three rounds:

First round: In this first round, only countries that have a symbol matching the bot's primary symbol are considered. Starting from the country marked with the "1" token, the bot will proceed through the country matrix from left to right and top to bottom. If the bot already controls the country (having the aligned government), skip that country. For each country, check if with the remaining bribes the bot can take control of the aligned government by having a majority. If so, the bot will first bribe all the demonstrators it can, and then bribe all the rival tokens, until it takes control of the aligned government. If there are multiple rivals, the bot will start with the one who has the most influence. In case of a tie in influence, the rival with the most PP will be bribed first. If there is still a tie, the bot will bribe the rival with the most initiative.
Second round: If there are still bribe tokens available, starting again from the "1" token, the process from the first round is repeated, this time checking all the countries in the grid (no matter the symbols).
Third round: If there are still influence tokens available, starting from the "1" token, place any remaining influence tokens in the first country that the bot does not control and it can influence.

Note: If the bot arrives at the last card, it starts again from the first card of the first row.

Solo Governance Phase

In this phase, the bot must decide where to place its vote when it is drawn from the bag. To do this, we define:

Vote Difference in an international organisation as the difference between the number of votes held by the rival with the most votes and the number of votes held by the bot (before placing the newly drawn vote).

Example: in the Davos Forum, USA has 3 votes, China has 3 votes, Europe (the bot) has 1 vote. In this case, the Vote Difference is 2 (USA's 3 votes minus the bot's 1 vote).

When the bot's vote is drawn from the diplomatic bag:

It will be placed in the first organisation (from left to right) where it can obtain a majority.
If it cannot obtain a majority in any organisation, the vote will be placed in the first organisation the bot does not control with the smallest Vote Difference.

Note: If there is a tie between two different organisations, the vote will be placed in the first organisation in the row.

Example as printed: The new vote must be placed in the Press, and this will make China obtain a majority. The difference in votes is "1" in Press (1 orange, 0 yellow) and "1" in UNO (1 orange/blue, 1 yellow). So the vote goes to the first organisation (Press).

Davos Forum: If the bot has the majority in the Davos Forum:

a) Remove the vote of the power that allows the bot to obtain the majority in that organisation. In case of a tie, as always, remove from left to right.

b) If a) is not possible, remove the vote of their rival from the first international organisation they do not control with the largest "vote difference" with the bot. (See the example printed in the rulebook.) In case of a tie with two or more rivals, remove the vote of the rival with the most PP (if the tie persists, the one with the highest initiative).

Example as printed: remove the orange disc on Press. This allows the bot to control the Press. The difference of votes with orange is 1 (2 orange - 1 yellow); the difference with blue is 0 (1 orange - 1 blue).

IMF: If the bot controls the IMF, first follow the first action on the bot's personal board. If that is not possible, follow the second action. If neither action is possible, do nothing.

(As printed: "If Russia controls IMF, increase first [...], if this is not possible [...]". The action icons are not reproduced in the text layer of the rulebook.)

Solo Country Resolution Phase

If in a conflict the bot has spies assigned to its agenda, the bot will decide whether to use a spy to reroll the dice that did not succeed. To do so:

If the bot is the first player to decide, meaning it was the first player to roll the dice: it will not use spies.
If the bot is not the first player: a) If the bot has the aligned government, it will use a spy if:
- The difference between the number of successes of the rival with the most successes and the number of successes of the bot is 2 or fewer, and
- The bot would reroll at least 2 dice. b) If the bot does NOT have the aligned government, it will use a spy if:
- The difference between the number of successes of the rival with the most successes and the number of successes of the bot is 1 or fewer, and
- The bot would reroll at least 2 dice.

Example 1: The bot (China) controls Mexico (has the aligned government). First the USA player rolls 4 dice and gets 2 successes. The bot rolls 2 dice and gets 0 successes. In that case the bot would reroll those 2 dice, because the difference of successes is 2 or fewer and the bot would reroll 2 dice.

Example 2: The bot (China) does not control Mexico (does not have the aligned government). First the USA player rolls 4 dice and gets 1 success. The bot rolls 2 dice and gets 1 success. In that case the bot would NOT reroll any dice, because the difference of successes is 1 or fewer BUT the bot would reroll only 1 die.

Other Actions of the Bot

Sometimes the bot needs to perform actions that are either available on the country cards or on the leader's popular support track. The Influence (flag) and Bribe (envelope) actions are done in the same way as in the solo agenda execution phase.

Place a demonstrator in a rival country (rival-country demonstrator icon): starting with the country with the "1" token:

a) Place the demonstrator in the first country where a rival has the aligned government, with a symbol matching the bot's primary symbol(s), and create a conflict or cause the rival to lose the aligned government.

b) If a) is not possible, place the demonstrator in the first country where a rival has the aligned government, with a symbol matching the bot's primary symbol(s).

c) If neither a) nor b) is possible, place the demonstrator in the first country where a rival has the aligned government, with a symbol matching any bot's secondary symbol, and create a conflict or cause the rival to lose the aligned government.

d) If neither a) nor b) nor c) is possible, place the demonstrator in the first country where the bot does not have the aligned government.

Example as printed: the primary symbol of the bot is the blue symbol. The bot controls Palestine, so at the moment when executing Palestine, the bot must place a demonstrator in a Muslim country. Since there are no Muslim countries with the bot's primary symbol, a) and b) are not possible. But starting with the "1" token, we see that Libya is the first country matching c). Therefore, the bot will place the demonstrator in Libya, causing the blue player to lose the majority.

Place a demonstrator in a country with an allied government to the bot (raised-fist icon): we look at the countries where the bot maintains a friendly government, starting with the country marked with the "1" token:

a) Place the demonstrator in the first country with any symbol that coincides with the bot's secondary symbols that does not cause a conflict or make the bot lose the friendly government.

b) If a) is not possible, place the demonstrator in the first country that has any symbol coinciding with the bot's primary symbol and does not cause a conflict or make the bot lose the friendly government.

c) Place the demonstrator in the first country with any symbol matching the bot's secondary symbols.

Example as printed: the primary symbol of the bot must perform the raised-fist action on Cuba. Starting from the "1" token, we find Hong Kong. It has a secondary symbol, does not cause conflict nor cause the bot to lose the country, so these conditions meet step a). A demonstrator token must be placed on Hong Kong.

Solo Maintenance Phase

Once the regular maintenance phase has been completed, if there are still rounds left to play, draw a new solo agenda card and compare it with the last one already on the table.

If the left side band colour of the new card matches the right side band colour of the last card on the table, place the new card next to the ones already laid out.
If the colours do not match, discard all the solo agenda cards and leave only the newly drawn one on the table.

Example as printed: there are two cards on the table. In this case the left side bar colour of the newly drawn card (red) matches the right side bar colour of the one already on the table, so all three cards are kept.

Annex 1: International Organisations

Davos Forum: The player controlling this organisation may remove one vote from any other organisation. The eliminated vote returns to the pool of the power. The eliminated vote can be of any power (including the power controlling the Davos Forum).

IMF: The controlling player may swap two resource markers adjacent on the resource value marker (A3).

Press: The player who controls the press will move up one position on the Popular Support track (A1). If its marker couldn't go any higher, the power would earn 2 PP. In addition, during the entire current turn, this player will never move the Popular Support marker down for any reason (unless exceptionally indicated).

UN: The player controlling the UN plays the upper part of the current voting card (E2). The rest of the players will play the lower part (E3).

Annex 2: Symbols in the Cards and in the Popular Support Marker

Resource track symbols (on the cards, scored at the value of the resource market, A3):

Diamond (metals): Earn as many PP as the current value of "metals" in the resource track (A3).
Wheat (crops): Earn as many PP as the current value of "crops" in the resource track (A3).
Box (goods): Earn as many PP as the value of "goods" in the resource track (A3).
Canister (hydrocarbons): Earn as many PP as the value of "hydrocarbons" in the resource track (A3).

Influence and demonstrator symbols:

Flag: Place an influence of your power in any country which is not in conflict.
Flag variant with the Muslim-country mark: Place an influence of your power in any Muslim country which is not in conflict.
Hand: Place a demonstrator in any country which is not in conflict.
Hand variant with the Muslim-country mark: Place a demonstrator in any Muslim country which is not in conflict.
Raised fist: Place a demonstrator in any country where you have a friendly government.
Envelope with dollar sign: Bribe one rival influence or one demonstrator.
Spy figure: Place one of your tokens from your pool in the SPY space of your personal agenda.

Shield symbols (control-based PP; base markets are taken into account, but countries in conflict are not):

Shield with wheat (crops): Earn as many PP as crop symbols you control, regardless of their value on the resource market.
Shield with box (goods): Earn as many PP as goods symbols you control, regardless of their value on the resource market.
Shield with canister (hydrocarbons): Earn as many PP as hydrocarbon symbols you control, regardless of their value on the resource market.
Shield with diamond (metals): Earn as many PP as diamond symbols you control, regardless of their value on the resource market.

Other symbols:

Chart with question mark: You may swap two resource markers adjacent on the resource value marker (A3).
Thumb up: Increase in 1 your popular support marker.
Thumb down: Decrease in 1 your popular support marker.
Vote figure: Put one of your votes in the diplomatic bag.

Note: the rulebook prints these symbols as images. The icon names above are descriptive labels added for readability; the effect text is as printed.