Imperial Settlers

To set up Imperial Settlers, each player selects one of the four unique factions (Romans, Barbarians, Egyptians, or Japanese) and takes their corresponding player board, starting hand of faction cards, and initial resources (workers, wood, stone, food, gold). Players also receive a set of common buildings and place their score marker on the '0' space of the score track. The common and faction decks are shuffled, and a market row of common cards is dealt face-up. Each player then builds two common buildings and one faction building from their starting hand, paying their costs.

The objective of Imperial Settlers is to accumulate the most victory points (VP) by the end of the fifth round. Players achieve this by strategically managing their resources, expanding their empire with new buildings, activating powerful abilities on their structures, and interacting with other players through raiding and making deals. The player with the highest total victory points at the end of the game is declared the winner.

A turn in Imperial Settlers consists of four phases: the Lookout phase, the Production phase, the Action phase, and the Cleanup phase. In the Lookout phase, players draw cards. The Production phase generates resources from buildings. The Action phase is where players perform most of their strategic moves, including playing cards from their hand to build new structures (either as buildings or foundations), activating production abilities on their buildings to gain resources, activating action abilities on their buildings for various effects, or raiding opponent buildings to gain resources and potentially destroy their structures. The Cleanup phase involves discarding excess cards and returning workers.

Victory points are primarily scored through buildings. Each building has a star icon indicating its base victory points. Some buildings also have abilities that grant additional points during the game or at the end. Raiding opponent buildings can also yield immediate victory points. Additionally, players can gain points by making deals, which involve discarding cards for immediate benefits. At the end of the game, any unspent resources are converted into victory points (typically 1 VP per 2 resources).

The game of Imperial Settlers is played over five rounds. After the fifth Cleanup phase, the game immediately ends. Players then proceed to a final scoring phase. During this phase, players add up the victory points from all their constructed buildings, any bonus points from specific building features, and points from any remaining resources. The player with the highest total victory points wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most unspent resources wins.