Brian Boru: High King of Ireland

Set up Brian Boru by placing the main game board centrally. Each player selects a color and receives a matching set of influence discs, starting gold coins, a reference card, and town markers. Place victory point and reputation tracks around the board. Shuffle marriage cards, Viking cards, and regular action cards, placing them in their designated locations. Distribute starting cards and hand sizes based on the player count to prepare for the first round.

The main objective of Brian Boru: High King of Ireland is to unite the country under your banner. Players compete to gain the most victory points by controlling regions, successfully marrying into influential families, supporting or fighting Viking invasions, and gaining church influence over the course of multiple rounds.

A game round consists of four phases: Preparation, Draft, Action, and Upkeep. In Preparation, top cards are revealed. During Draft, players select and pass cards to build their hands. In the Action phase, players play tricks by following suit, with the highest card of the led color winning the trick and triggering primary abilities, while others get secondary effects. Finally, Upkeep resolves marriages, battles, church influence, and region claims.

Scoring happens during the upkeep phase of each round and at the end of the game. Players score victory points for successful marriages, majority control of regions on the map, reputation tokens, and remaining resources. End-of-game scoring evaluates final region majorities and accumulated bonuses to determine the winner.

The game concludes after a predetermined number of rounds based on player count, which is tracked by the marriage cards deck. Once the final round's upkeep and scoring are completed, final points are tallied, and the player with the highest total victory points is crowned High King of Ireland.