Khôra: Rise of an Empire

To set up Khôra: Rise of an Empire, each player receives a city board with a randomly assigned city tile, matching wooden markers, achievement tokens, a victory point token, and seven action tiles in their player color. Wooden markers are placed on the bottom spaces of their respective tracks on the city board with a single die underneath, and a triangle marker is placed at the bottom space of the city tile. A central board is placed in the play area with knowledge tokens set on knowledge spaces—major knowledge tokens on spaces with a laurel symbol and minor ones elsewhere. Drachma and philosophy tokens form supplies near the board. The event deck is prepared by placing the Growing Populations card and Conquest of the Persians card face down, with seven randomly drawn events on top. Each player receives five politics cards, keeping one secretly and passing the rest until a starting hand is built, and resolves starting text on their city board before selecting a start player.

Players take on the role of leaders of ancient Greek city-states, balancing military might, economic growth, philosophical development, and cultural achievements. Every decision helps grow your city in an effort to outpace opponents and gain the most victory points by the end of nine rounds.

The game is played over nine rounds, each broken into seven distinct phases: Event Announcement, Tax Phase, Dice Phase, Action Phase, Progress Phase, Event Resolution, and Achievement Phase. Players roll assigned dice during the dice phase and use them alongside action tiles to perform actions like philosophy, legislation, culture, trade, military, and development. Action tiles are resolved in value order, and players manage citizens, drachmas, troops, and philosophy tokens to fulfill card requirements and track updates.

Final scoring takes place after the ninth round. Players add any scoring effects from unlocked developments on their city board and end-of-game politics cards to their points on the score track. Additional points are granted by multiplying the player's final glory level by the number of major knowledge tokens they collected.

The game officially ends after the completion of the ninth round, which features the Conquest of the Persians event, leading directly into final scoring and the determination of the winner based on victory points and tie-breaking drachmas.