Tyrants of the Underdark

To set up the game, first place the game board in the center of the table. For a two-player game, use only the center section; for a four-player game, use all three sections; for a three-player game, choose one of the side sections to use. Place white neutral troops on all spaces marked with crossed swords. Next, place the control tokens on all circular sites. The game comes with four market decks (Drow, Dragons, Elemental, and Demons); choose two for the game (Drow and Dragons are recommended for the first game), shuffle them together, and place them on the market board, revealing the top six cards as the market. Place the victory point tokens in their designated space. Place the House Guards and Priestesses of Lolth cards on their respective spaces. The Insane Outcasts cards are only used with the Demon deck, so they can be left in the box for now. Each player then chooses a Drow house, taking their player board, circular token, 40 troops, and 5 spies of that color. Each player also receives three Soldier cards and seven Noble cards, which they shuffle together to form their starting deck, then draw five cards as their starting hand. Randomly determine the first player and give them the first player marker. Finally, starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player places one of their troops on a black site on the board.

The objective of Tyrants of the Underdark is to end the game with the most victory points (VP). Victory points can be accumulated in several ways: by controlling territories on the game board, by having certain cards in your deck, and by promoting cards to your inner circle. Additionally, some card effects allow players to gain immediate victory points during their turn. The strategic interplay of these different scoring methods is key to achieving dominance in the Underdark.

Each player's turn consists of four phases. First is the Main Phase, where the bulk of the actions occur. In any order, you can: play cards from your hand for their immediate effects (starting cards provide either one power or one influence); deploy a troop by spending one power to a site where you have presence and an empty circle; assassinate an enemy troop by spending three power to remove an enemy troop from a site where you have presence, adding it to your trophy hall for end-game VP; return an enemy spy by spending three power to remove an enemy spy from a site where you have presence, returning it to the opponent's barracks; or recruit a card from the market by spending influence equal to its cost, adding it to your discard pile. Some cards offer choices, grant additional effects (indicated by an arrow), allow you to promote cards to your inner circle (for end-game VP), gain immediate VP, move enemy troops (from a site with your presence to any empty space), or devour cards (removing them from the game). After the Main Phase, you gain VP for any site control markers you have total control over. Then, discard all played cards and any remaining cards in your hand. Finally, draw five new cards to replenish your hand.

At the end of the game, victory points are calculated as follows: for each territory you control (meaning you have more of your color troops than any other single color), you gain VP equal to the number printed on that site. For each site where you have total control (meaning you are the only player with troops on that site), you gain an additional two VP. Each enemy troop in your trophy hall (from assassinations) is worth one VP. You then add up the VP from all cards in your deck, using the number in the rectangle on each card. Finally, you add up the VP from all cards in your inner circle, using the number in the circle on each card. Any site control markers you possess at this stage are not worth additional points.

The game concludes when one of two conditions is met: either a player places their last troop from their barracks onto the game board, or the market deck runs out of cards. Once either of these conditions is triggered, players continue taking turns in clockwise order until the round is completed, ensuring that every player has had an equal number of turns. After the final round, the game immediately proceeds to the end-game scoring phase. The player who has accumulated the most victory points from controlling territories, having troops in their trophy hall, and the value of cards in their deck and inner circle is declared the winner.