Deus

To set up Deus, first assemble the game board using hexagonal terrain tiles, with the number of tiles varying based on the player count (4 for 2 players, 6 for 3, 7 for 4). Place victory point tokens on barbarian villages, with the number of points equal to the number of adjacent regions. Each player receives a personal player board, two units of each resource type (wood, stone, clay, wheat, gold), five coins, five victory points, and five building cards. The remaining resources, coins, and victory points form general reserves, while the remaining building cards are shuffled into a draw pile. White temple tokens are placed in a general reserve, with one temple per terrain tile on the board.

The primary objective in Deus is to lead your civilization to prosperity and dominance by accumulating the most victory points. Players achieve this by strategically expanding their territory, conquering barbarian villages, and constructing various buildings and units. Success hinges on efficient resource management, clever card play to activate powerful effects, and tactical military engagements against both barbarians and rival civilizations. The player who best balances these aspects to maximize their point total will emerge as the victor.

During their turn, a player must choose one of two main actions: constructing a building/unit or making an offering to the gods. To construct, a player plays a building card from their hand, pays the resource cost indicated on the card, and places a corresponding building or unit on an unoccupied region of the board. The first building must be placed on a border region, and subsequent buildings must be adjacent to an already controlled region or in the same region. After placing, the card's effect is activated, along with the effects of all previously played cards of the same color. To make an offering, a player discards a chosen number of cards from their hand face-up into a discard pile, then activates the effect of the top card of the discard pile. They then draw new cards from the draw pile until they have five cards in hand, or up to a maximum of 10 cards if effects allow.

Victory points are primarily earned through several avenues. Conquering barbarian villages awards the victory points placed on them at setup. Constructing temples provides a maximum of 12 victory points per temple at the end of the game, provided their specific conditions are met. Additionally, certain building cards and offering effects grant immediate or end-game victory points. At the end of the game, players also receive two bonus victory points if they possess the most resources (normal resources and gold combined). The player who has accumulated the highest total of victory points from all sources is declared the winner.

The game concludes immediately when one of two conditions is met: either all white temple tokens from the general reserve have been built, or all barbarian villages on the board have been conquered (meaning no victory point tokens remain on them). Once either of these conditions is triggered, the current round of play is completed, ensuring every player has had an equal number of turns. After the current round finishes, one final additional round is played by all players. Following this final round, players proceed to the end-game scoring phase to determine the winner.