After the Empire

During setup, each player selects a player board and collects their matching turn-order marker, gold tracker, workers, and basic components including farms, starting gold, and the Barracks card. Players construct their castle layout in the center of their board using wooden wall and gate pieces, populating it with health cubes and initial defending soldiers in the courtyard. The main game board is unfolded in the center of the table, populated with starting refugee cards, building decks, secret objectives, and invader/siege decks. Resource supplies of food, wood, stone, iron, wounded markers, and movement tokens are organized neatly around the main board, and round markers are placed on the season track.

Players act as lords of small fiefdoms trying to rebuild and protect their kingdoms after an empire's collapse. You must gather resources, expand your castle defenses, recruit soldiers and mercenaries, and survive increasingly brutal waves of barbarian invasions. The ultimate goal is to amass the most wealth and glory by the end of the seven rounds.

The game is played over seven rounds (seasons), each broken down into six distinct phases: 1) Actions, where workers are sent to gather resources, trade, scout, or recruit; 2) Combat, where you defend your castle against attacking invaders and siege engines; 3) Award Flags, where bonus points are distributed to the wealthiest players; 4) Income and Turn Order, where players collect gold based on active castle structures and reset player order; 5) Harvest and Feast, where farms produce food and soldiers must be fed to avoid penalties; and 6) Refresh, where boards are cleared and new cards are revealed for the next round.

At the end of the final round, players calculate their total score by combining their final gold track position, bonus points from award flags collected during the game, points from un-raised farms, the gold value of constructed buildings and recruited refugees, and any completed secret objective cards.

The game ends automatically after the seventh round is fully resolved. Once the final round's refresh phase or scoring is completed, all players tally their final scores, and the player with the highest total is declared the winner.