Kingsburg

To set up Kingsburg, place the main game board in the center with the building tracks, enemy tracks, and the influence track. Separate the resource tokens (wood, stone, gold) and place them in general supplies alongside the dice, which are divided by player colors. Shuffle the monster cards into a face-down deck and lay out the king's advisor cards. Each player receives a player board, scoring markers, and starting materials depending on the variant or player count. The game spans five years, each divided into specific phases including the king's aid, production, building construction, and winter combat.

The main objective of Kingsburg is to develop a remote province of the kingdom over the course of five years. Players act as governors trying to build up their provinces by gathering resources, constructing various buildings on their player boards, and training soldiers to defend against annual monster invasions. The player who amasses the greatest total of victory points through successful building, defeating invaders, and special bonuses wins the game.

Each of the five years consists of three production seasons (spring, summer, autumn) and one winter combat season. During production seasons, players roll a set of three dice secretly behind their screens. Players then take turns placing their dice onto the council member spaces on the board in descending order of dice totals to claim resources, military strength, or special actions. Afterwards, players can spend their gathered resources to build structures on their personal boards or save them. The year concludes with a winter phase where players fight off an escalating monster threat using their accumulated military strength.

Scoring in Kingsburg happens progressively and at game end. Players earn victory points directly from constructing advanced buildings on their player boards, defeating winter monsters, holding specific titles like defender of the realm, and through endgame bonuses. Additionally, each die value translated at game end can contribute minor points, and unspent resources or leftover influence tokens might factor into final tallies.

The game officially ends after the winter combat phase of the fifth and final year. Following the final battle against the toughest monster deck cards, players calculate their total victory points accumulated from buildings, military achievements, and bonuses. The player with the highest total score is crowned the winner and most successful governor of Kingsburg.