Academic Society

In the 17th century, significant advancements were made in the field of science owing to the establishment of academic societies across Europe. As the leader of a faction within one such academic society, you must strive to earn prestige through your studies so that your faction can grow. Myriad matters compete for your attention as you endeavor to maintain your influence in each of the sciences. Contributing to the kingdom’s growth by completing royal commissions, presenting your findings at conferences, and taking sabbaticals to gather knowledge in foreign lands are just a few of the tasks laid before you. Will your quest for knowledge earn you prestige within your academic society and allow you to expand your faction? c Society, you’ll compete to earn the most Prestige through the game’s three primary systems.

The first system involves the society board’s action spaces. Each round, you’ll place your scholars on various action spaces and perform the corresponding main actions. Some action spaces allow you to perform a bonus action in addition to a main action; however, since there aren’t many of these special action spaces, you’ll have to anticipate what the other players will do and act accordingly.

The second system involves the management board’s influence track. At the end of the game, you’ll earn Prestige from the spaces occupied by your scholars on this track. You can also choose to remove your scholars from the influence track and use them to perform actions starting from the next round. Once removed, scholars cannot be returned to the influence track, forcing you to choose between earning extra Prestige at the end of the game or having more scholars on hand to perform actions with.

The third system involves the sabbatical tracks on your player board. Advancing your scholars along these tracks will earn you permanent bonuses. However, scholars assigned to a sabbatical track stay there for the rest of the game, which means you’ll have fewer scholars available to perform actions. Deciding if and when to assign your scholars to these tracks will require careful consideration.

As each of these systems involves your scholars, you’ll have to manage them wisely if you hope to emerge victorious.