Trajan

To set up Trajan, place the main game board in the center. Each player receives a player board, a set of colored pawns (legionaries, commander, builder), and starting resources. Distribute military tokens across the provinces, place goods tokens in the ports, set up the Forum with action tiles, and arrange the Senate track. The Mancala-style action wheel is populated with colored cylinders, and Trajan's demands and objective cards are placed in their designated areas. Ensure all other game components, such as bonus tokens and scoring markers, are within reach.

The primary objective in Trajan is to accumulate the most victory points (VPs) by the end of the game. Players achieve this through a variety of strategic actions, including expanding their influence in provinces through military campaigns, engaging in trade to deliver goods, constructing buildings, and participating in the Senate. Fulfilling Trajan's demands, which change throughout the game, also provides significant victory points and is crucial for success.

A player's turn involves moving their pawns around a Mancala-style action wheel on their player board. The player chooses one of their six action spaces, picks up all the colored cylinders from it, and distributes them one by one into subsequent action spaces in a clockwise direction. The action performed is determined by the space where the last cylinder is placed. This action can be a military action (moving a commander or legionary), a port action (trading goods), a building action (constructing structures), a Forum action (collecting special tokens), or a Senate action (gaining influence). The color of the cylinders in the final space can also trigger additional bonus actions.

Scoring occurs in several ways. Players earn points by placing legionaries in provinces, with higher points for controlling more provinces. Delivering goods via ports yields points based on the number and type of goods traded. Building structures provides immediate and end-game points. Influencing the Senate grants points based on a player's position on the Senate track. Additionally, players score points for fulfilling Trajan's demands, which require specific combinations of collected tokens. At the end of each of the four periods, there is an interim scoring phase for provinces and Trajan's demands, and a final scoring at the end of the game.

The game of Trajan concludes after four periods. Each period ends when the time marker on the game board reaches the end of its track. After the fourth period's scoring, a final scoring phase takes place. During final scoring, players tally points from various sources, including remaining resources, completed objective cards, and any unfulfilled Trajan's demands (which can result in negative points). The player with the highest total victory points is declared the winner.