Imperial

Place the game board in the center of the table. Place the taller nation markers in the middle of the Rondel, and the shorter nation markers on the first place of the scoring track and the lowest space of the tax chart. Each of the six nations starts with two factories, placed on the square cities on the game board (brown squares get brown factories, blue squares get blue factories). Remaining factories are placed next to the board. Place the Swiss Bank tiles next to the board. Set aside the four Rondel cheat sheets for players to use. Each nation has nine bonds, sorted into ascending piles with the lowest value on top, and placed next to the appropriate nation's treasury. Sort the money and place it next to the game board as the bank. Distribute money and bonds to players based on player count: in a 2-player game, each player receives 35 million (three 5s and ten 2s); in a 3-player game, each player receives 24 million (two 5s and seven 2s); in a 4-6 player game, each player receives 13 million (one 5 and four 2s). For bonds, in a 2-player game, one player receives Austria, Germany, and France, and the other receives Italy, Great Britain, and Russia. In a 3-player game, one player gets Austria-Hungary and Great Britain, another gets Italy and Russia, and the third gets France and Germany. The remaining corridor cards are given to the player with the 2 million bond of that nation. If no bonds have been distributed for a nation, its flag card remains in the bank. After all initial bonds are distributed, each player will have 2 million remaining, with the rest in the nations' treasuries. Give the starting player token to the player with the Austria-Hungary flag, and the Investor marker to the player to their left.